Come to me all ye that labour

10th Sunday after Pentecost

1 Corinthians 4: 9-16; Matthew 17: 14-23

Throughout the Church’s year, we are constantly reminded of Christ’s healing mission. Repeated again and again for us are the many healings of Christ. Yet He came not only to heal the physically ill but also the spiritually ill. Many people suffer under the weight of psychological issues which can make their lives seem unbearable. Yet Christ shows that He is the way to peace and liberation from all that weighs upon our human condition.

Some turn to substances to mask the emptiness they feel, and others to other addictions which momentarily mask the hopelessness they feel. Yet we have a Lord who says: “Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28–30). This means, like the Psalm, the Lord truly is our Shepherd (Psalm 23), and we, His sheep, have to trust in His guidance. Letting go and trusting the Lord can be difficult at first, but as Christians, we are called not to worry, but to trust that the Lord will provide everything we need. He knows us, and

He knows what is for our benefit. This does not mean that we abrogate all personal responsibility; rather, we are co-workers in working out our salvation. Everyone is different, and everyone has a different path to take, guided by Christ’s Holy Orthodox Church.

Christ is our physician, and He is the remedy for all that ails us spiritually, for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). We can only come to the Father through Him. He is the ship upon which we sail towards our salvation. Through His Holy Mysteries we are healed and brought into communion with He who is the lover of mankind.

St. John Chrysostom puts it beautifully when he writes:

“The Church is a hospital, and not a courtroom, for souls. She does not condemn on behalf of sins, but grants remission of sins. Nothing is so joyous in our life as the thanksgiving that we experience in the Church. In the Church, the joyful sustain their joy. In the Church, those worried acquire merriment, and those saddened, joy. In the Church, the troubled find relief, and the heavy-laden, rest.

‘Come,’ says the Lord, ‘near me, all of you who labor and are heavy-laden (with trials and sins), and I will give you rest’” (Matthew 11:28).

What could be more desirable than to meet this voice? What is sweeter than this invitation? The Lord is calling you to the Church for a rich banquet. He transfers you from struggles to rest, and from tortures to relief. He relieves you from the burden of your sins. He heals worries with thanksgiving, and sadness with joy.

No one is truly free or joyful besides he who lives for Christ. Such a person overcomes all evil and does not fear anything!”

Unfortunately, many have not learnt from the pride of the Pharisees in our Lord and Saviour’s day, and they seek to turn the Holy Church into a theological boot camp where one’s worth is measured by how many long-winded prayers one utters, and the intention behind the words is not seen as important. For these people, being seen to be righteous is all that matters—they avoid getting their hands dirty and working with the complex mess of human fragility, which often means going places one would rather not.

This “getting one’s hands dirty” is what the great saints understood, for they realised that to be like Christ meant to minister to the little ones whom Christ called unto Himself. For Christ says: “Let the little children come unto me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). You see, it is the very people that many like to criticise that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to. Let us be humble and realise that God calls all, and the Church is not just for the “right” people—it is for everyone. If we turn away a little one from Christ’s Church, then we are effectively being a modern-day Pharisee.

In the days of old, the Pharisees’ spiritual arrogance blinded them to the law of love, expressed perfectly in the command to love God, and through this love of God, love our neighbour (Mark 12:30–31).

Saint Maximus the Confessor puts it this way:

“Do not do evil to your neighbor, do not upset him, do not slander him, do not belittle him, do not reproach him. Thus you will begin to do good to your brother little by little, by comforting him with words, being compassionate to him, or by giving him what he needs. Climbing from one step to another, you will reach the top of the ladder with God’s help. By helping your neighbor, little by little, you will reach the point where you will desire his benefit as your own and his success as your own. That is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is why we must avoid the trap of zealotry and be balanced in our faith. For if one goes too far and starts to see anyone with a contrary opinion as an enemy—even if what they say is wrong—then one becomes like the loveless Pharisees. This is why Christ pointed out the Pharisees' hypocrisy when He says:

“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens—hard to carry—and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’

…The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens, you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.

Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. These you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out! You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?

*Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that there may come upon you all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the righteous blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Amen, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation” (Matthew 23).*

What Christ is pointing out here is that if one falls into the trap of spiritual pride, then one cannot shine the light of Christ to the world. We are called to be icons of He who is the greatest source of love. How can a lightbulb without electricity shine? It cannot.

To shine the light of Christ to others, you must be communed to Christ and be one with Him through our baptism and the continual reception of the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist, and, when necessary, the Holy Mystery of Penance.

The Church has many wonderful rites and ceremonies designed to edify and teach mankind—yet when these ceremonies become rigid at the expense of showing men love, then we have a problem. Yes, the ceremonies are important, but we must not forget that we have a real mission: to bring others to Christ through showing our love. Our Churches should always be places where all are invited to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34).

Who invites a dinner guest over and serves them bitter food made with little care, expecting that they will come back for another dinner? No one in their right mind!

I mention all of the above because the world of the internet has become a toxic place where supposed Christians say the most dreadful things about those they are called to show the compassion of Christ to. How can one truly say, “I love the sinner and hate the sin”? By so doing, one is not being compassionate but judging, and not being prepared to accompany the other so that they can, through this accompaniment, see the truth of the Holy Gospel.

It reminds me of a story I read years ago about a young missionary Russian Orthodox priest in China, who would sit outside the Confucian and Buddhist temples telling the people that they would all go to hell. One day he turned to a wise missionary priest who had made many converts out of the Chinese people. He asked, “Father, why is it that your Church is packed with many converts? I have preached and preached and all the people do is walk away from me.”

The old priest thought for a moment and then said, “Son, do you talk to them and get to know what they believe and why they do the things they do?”The young priest thought for a moment and then said, “But they are wrong, someone needs to tell them to correct their ways. If I don’t, then they will go to hell.” The old priest then said to the young priest, “Exactly, you don’t show them the love of Christ—you mistake judgment for love. To truly convert them, you must listen to them and invite them to experience the love of Christ. By so doing, you are gently inviting them to come to the knowledge of the truth, which is the Gospel of Christ – the Gospel of love.”

From that day forward, the young priest changed his ways and approached the Chinese people with love, and this paid off. For once they saw that he was genuinely interested in them, they became genuinely interested in what he had to teach them. This is exactly how the great saints who converted many people approached their ministry—like the changed young priest. The moral of this story is expressed in an old saying: You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

How many people have the street preachers converted with their hellfire and brimstone signs?

Therefore, we are called to be people of joy, people of love, and people of hope. Let your every action towards others be guided by the love of Christ. People can be mistaken and sin, but our job as Christians is to gently lead them to the truth through showing them the love of Christ. If they refuse to listen, then pray that they may be guided by the All-Holy Spirit to the truth of the Gospel.

Therefore, seek not to judge but rather to be icons of Christ in this broken and divided world, that people may see that the Holy Church is not a courthouse but a hospital, where all may come and receive the medicines they need for their spiritual healing.