Persistence and Diligence

(17th Sunday after Pentecost) (Matt. 15:21-28; Matt, 13:44-54)

If we had to “boil down” the thrust of the two readings today from the Gospel of St. Matthew into a key word for each, I’d suggest that these key words would be persistence and diligence. Persistence and diligence. (I hope you’re paying attention, because there’s going to be a quiz later.)

In the first passage, the Canaanite woman has a request she very much wants our Lord to grant – she wants Him to heal her daughter, who is ill. Here is our lesson in persistence: Although she does not initially receive a favorable response to her entreaties, either of our Lord or of His disciples, she persists. By the way, there are two levels of persistence here. She does not stop seeking what she desires – she persists in asking; but, more importantly, she does not lose faith, but rather persists in her knowledge that the Lord cis able to grant her request. It is her persistence above all in her faith that finally leads her to obtain the healing of her daughter.

In the second passage, our Lord tells us about the kingdom of heaven, and of how we should value it. The treasure in the field is the proclamation of the Kingdom of heaven in the world; and the pearl of great value is the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In each case, those who are wise, when they recognize that these treasures can be theirs, give up everything they have in order to obtain the desired treasure.

We have the same opportunity – indeed, as Orthodox Christians, we are already heirs of the kingdom. The pearl of great value, the knowledge of Christ, has already been entrusted to us – but do we truly regard these great riches as we should? For, if we did, we would know that we, also, are called to give up everything we have in order to obtain the reality of the rich inheritance that is ours. This means that we must lay aside all earthly cares; all our possessions; all of the power and prestige and influence we may have – anything that holds us and binds us to this life, to this world. We must let all these things go, and embrace the Orthodox life – through prayer, and fasting, through giving, and through the struggle to replace our passions with the godly virtues – and we must persist in this way of life. It is not enough to pray once, or fast once, or give once, or struggle only for a day, or an hour, or a moment. The Orthodox way of life is one in which we must persist, if we hope to be transformed, and take on more fully the likeness of Christ in us.

Having spoken of the riches of the kingdom, our Lord then speaks of the need for diligence, when He tells the parable of the kingdom as a net cast into the sea, which makes a great catch of fish. After the net is brought in, the fish are sorted, with those that are good being kept, but those that are not being cast out, thrown into the fire. Now, you may ask, what is the basis for distinguishing a good fish from a bad fish? The fathers tell us that this separation of the good from the bad speaks to us of the great and terrible Day of Judgment; and that it is not enough to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, not enough merely to say this – for, by our deeds, by the way we live our lives each day, we “say” much more than we express in words. And so we must be diligent to examine ourselves, and to see if what we do is consistent with what we say when we say we believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. This pearl of great value, our Lord Jesus, should transform us, and we should live in a way that models His life in our own. He is humble, patient, slow to become angry, quick to forgive, and, above all, filled with a love for God that cannot be contained, but instead is a river flowing with love for us, made in the image and likeness of God. Do we live like that? Are we humble, or are we given to pride? Are we patient, or do we want our own way, right away? Are we slow to become angry? Are we quick to forgive? Do we love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength? Do we love our neighbors as we love ourselves? We must be diligent. We must examine ourselves regularly, and when we find that we have not been faithful bearers of Christ in ourselves in the world, we must repent, and confess, and seek once more God’s help and grace to be less of who we were, and more like Him Who dwells in us. We must be diligent; and we must persist in this diligence.

Brothers and sisters, loved by God: Let us give thanks to God for His mercy and grace and love given to us, unworthy and sinful as we are. Let us give thanks that the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ has been entrusted to us; and let us so value this knowledge that we may persist in following the Orthodox way of life, and be diligent about examining ourselves as we do so; that we may be transformed more and more into His likeness – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.