A Sermon on Man’s Mortality

By: Saint Cyprian, Bishop

Our obligation is to do God’s will, and not our own. We must remember this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any meaning on our lips. How unreasonable it is to pray that God’s will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world! Instead, we struggle and resist like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity. And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by Him whom we come against our will!  Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we would rather serve the devil here than reign with Christ. 

The world hates Christians, so why give your love to it instead of following Christ, who loves you and has redeemed you?  John is most urgent in his epistle when he tells us not to love the world by yielding to sensual desires. “Never give your love to the world,” he warns, “or to anything in it. A man cannot love the Father and love the world at the same time. All that the world offers is lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and earthly ambition. The world and it’s allurements will pass away, but the man who has done the will of God shall live for ever.” Our part, my dear brothers, is to be single-minded, firm in faith, and steadfast in courage, ready for God’s will, whatever it may be. Banish the fear of death and think of the eternal life that follows it. That will show people that we really live our faith. 

We ought never to forget, beloved, that we have renounced the world. We are living here now as aliens and only for a time.  When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to the paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it.  What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible?  Well, we look upon paradise as our country, and a great crowd of our loved ones awaits us there, a countless throng of parents, brothers, and children longs for us to join them. Assured though they are of their own salvation, they are still concerned about ours. What joy both for them and for us to see they are still concerned about ours. What joy both for them and for us to see one another and embrace!  O the delight of that heavenly kingdom where there is no fear of death!  O the supreme and endless bliss of everlasting life! 

There, is the glorious band of apostles, there, the exultant assembly of prophets, there, the innumerable host of martyrs, crowned for their glorious victory in combat and in death. There, in triumph, are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence. There, the merciful are rewarded, those who fulfilled the demands of justice by providing for the poor. In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure. 

My dear brothers, let all our longing to be join them as soon as we may. May God see our desire, may Christ see this resolve that springs from faith, for he will give the rewards of His love more abundantly to those who have longed for him more fervently.

From a Teaching by Saint Dorotheus, Abbot

The man who finds fault with himself accepts all things cheerfully; misfortune, loss, disgrace, dishonor and any other kind of adversity. He believes that he is deserving of all things and nothing can disturb him. No one could be more at peace than this man. 

But perhaps you will offer me objection: “Suppose my brother injures me, and on examining myself I find that I have not given him any cause. Why should I blame myself?”

 Certainly if anyone examines himself carefully and with fear of God, he will never find himself completely innocent. He will see that he has given some provocation by an action, a word or by his manner. If he does find that he is not guilty in any of these ways, certainly he must have injured that brother somehow at some other time.  Or perhaps he has been a source of annoyance to some other brother. For this reason he deserves to endure the injury because of many other sins that he has committed on the other occasions. 

Someone else asked why he should accuse himself when he was sitting peacefully and quietly when a brother came upon him with an unkind or insulting world. He cannot tolerate it, and so he thinks that his anger is justified.  If that brother had not approached him and said those words and upset him, he never would have sinned.

 This kind of thinking is surely ridiculous and has not rational basis. For that fact that he has said anything at all in this situation breaks the cover on the passionate anger within him, which is all the more exposed by his excessive anxiety. If he wished, he would do penance. He has became like a clean shiny grain of wheat that, when broken, is full of dirt inside.

 The man who thinks that he is quite and peaceful has within him a passion that he does not see. A brother comes up, utters some unkind word and immediately all the venom and mire that lie hidden within him are spewed out. If he wishes mercy, he must do penance, purify himself and strive to become perfect. He will see that he should have returned thanks to his brother instead of returning the injury, because his brother has proven to be an occasion of profit to him. It will not be long before he will no longer be bothered by these temptations. The more perfect he grows, the less these temptations will affect him. For the more the soul advances, the stronger and more powerful it becomes in bearing the difficulties that it meets.