Dear all.
Gospel Reading
Yesterday’s gospel (Matthew 18:23 – 35) is an elaboration to the answer given by Christ as to forgiveness to the question posed by Peter as to: “how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?”. Christ then tells the parable of a king who calls a rendering to account of a servant who owes a myriad sum and who could not pay. That servant sought forbearance, however, the King gave forgiveness of the entire debt. A little what sought but a vast amount given.
This demonstrates how great God’s goodness is. The Creator has such love for his creature that he wipes clean the slate even when He’s not asked to. That is God’s mercy and that is God’s justice. God’s love for us is beyond compare, and because we are loved we should love in return.
However, there is a boundary to God’s goodness and love. This is neatly encapsulated in the second part of the parable when the servant who has been forgiven all, grabs a fellow-servant debtor to him for an infinitely smaller amount and exercises the full letter of the law against him – despite being asked to forbear from so doing. That is human justice – and the man had every right to insist upon his entitlements as he did.
But notice the impact upon the King – he recalls his love and forgiveness and punishes the wicked servant whom he had previously forgiven. In so doing we are told that we should not expect to continue to receive the gift of love and mercy from God unless we are prepared to extend in like terms, similar gifts to our fellow man.
And the wisdom in all this? – If we desire mercy we should give mercy; if we desire to be loved then we should extend love. We cannot expect to receive what we are not prepared to give. This is a great lesson to be incorporated into our daily life. As Proverbs reminds us: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight” (9:10)
Programme for the week
Programme this week is as follows:
- today, Monday, 3:30 PM: supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos;
- tomorrow, Tuesday, 5:30 PM Vespers; 6:45 PM adult education – the first epistle of St Paisios continued;
- Wednesday: the Dormition of the Theotokos from 7:30 AM;
- Saturday, Divine liturgy in English 9 AM to 10:15 AM.
Food store
Our food store needs the following: general groceries/female clothing/children and infants clothing/personal hygiene products (both male and female)/baby food/disposable nappies. When it comes to clothing May you please ensure that the clothing is clean, pressed, bagged and marked (size and gender). Remember if it is not good enough to be worn by you or your children is not good enough to be worn by others.
Flower roster
I ask people to consider putting their names down for the flower roster. There are still a number of spots available. Let us all take responsibility for beautifying our church. If you have a feast day, Memorial Day or any other commemorative day then a great way to celebrate it would be to beautify the church. The roster is located at the pangari.
Modern Greek
I attach hereto an invitation which is self-explanatory.
Thought of the week
It is by no accident that the invitation to Communion in the liturgy of St John Chrysostom states “with fear of God, with faith, and love, draw near.” As St Tikon of Zadonsk (+ 1783 CE) declares ” without living faith and the fear of God it is impossible to live in a Godly way.” One may also add that without fear of and faith in God it is also impossible to love those that hate us as well as those that love us.
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