This sermon (Matt 5, 6 and 7) is the ethical law of the Bible. In this section he says “The eye is the lamp of the body”. He means that if you were “transparent” and had a loving look towards people (and he calls it a healthy look), a look that is free from any complexities or hatred or pride, then your whole entity would be good. After that, he moves on to talk about worshiping money as he says that “you can’t worship God and money”.
Money would become your slave if you used it for good. Do not make yourself a slave for money. Do not seek only money. Make use of it by giving it to the poor, make it their property, and let them take part of it. You are not the owner of this money, you are just a trustee, therefore give to those that need it. Then, he explains in more details and says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear”. The key word here is “worry”. He did not tell you not to eat or not to wear; he only meant that you should not make these your only concerns. Material shouldn’t become the center of your hearts and the content of your lives. He did clarify this after some lines when he said: “And why do you worry about clothes?” And he continues: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?” and clarifies “For the pagans run after all these things”, i.e. those who are not from the people of God. When Paul says “the love of money is the root of all evil” he means that the love of eating, drinking, clothes, houses, cars and all what man owns is the root of all evil. There is no love towards everything that’s materialistic because these things tie and enslave you. God created you free, and by getting liberated from all material you would become able to love him. According to this image we can say that if you were close to your wife, children, relatives and friends to the extent of slavery, you cannot be worshiping God. You have a freedom that allows you to worship only God, obey his orders, love what he loves and hate the thoughts and acts that he hates. He didn’t give you a freedom to do whatever you want. He only gave you the freedom of his worshiping and embracing it as if you are in the heavens from now. You are a heavenly person; you became heavenly through Jesus Christ. You eat from what he sustains you, not more. Food is not for pleasure but for your nutrition and growth. The same is applied on drinking. You should wear what is known to protect you from heat and cold without excessive beautifying. The beauty of clothes and houses is not forbidden, but in the midst of all of this stay moderate in order not to get drunk from this beauty and become far from God’s beauty. Do not brag about anything. Be proud only of the gifts that God put in your mind and heart; don’t give credit for yourself concerning any of these gifts. God gave you your gifts in order to invest them for his glory. You know the phrase of the angels in the nativity of the Savior: “Glory to God in the highest”. It is pride to give attribute to your qualities. You don’t own any of your qualities; you have inherited them from your Lord through Christ’s passion over you and the power of the Holy Spirit.
If people benefited from your gifts, don’t accept their praise but direct them into the fact that this is a gift from God. Everything is from God and to him. All of us, united though love, are for him. Thank the Lord constantly for his gifts, and let people also thank God if they inherited something from him. We are one group in the Church and our wealth is God. He who wears beautiful clothes is the same as that who wears rags. He who eats a little and fasts is better than the gluttonous. When someone is happy for earning money, his happiness should be because he is a mean to distribute this money. You are the human being of love as God is love. Always look towards the good and the bad through the eyes of love, forgiveness and compassion. Through this you shall become the human being of the New Testament.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “مِن العظة على الجبل” –Raiati no27- 03.07.2011
