In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Last Sunday, I spoke about the three groups of demons that Satan sends to the front lines to attack us, the demons of gluttony, of self-esteem, and of avarice. It is these three sins that cause the fall of Adam and Eve, and it’s these three same sins that Christ conquered in the wilderness after he fasted for forty days. Adam and Eve fell into the sin of gluttony when they desire to eat of the forbidden fruit, but Christ, the new Adam, refused to transform the stones into bread.
Adam and Eve fell into the sin of self-esteem when they tried to become equal to God. But Christ, the new Adam, although he was equal to God in his humility did not jump from the pinnacle of the temple to tempt God. Adam and Eve fell into the sin of avarice when they desired to gain knowledge apart from God and in cooperation with Satan. But Christ, the new Adam, rejected Satan and refused to cooperate with him to gain worldly things.
Instead, Christ put Satan to flight when he said, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve.” So Adam and Eve did not live the aesthetical life because they did not see God first and his kingdom and his righteousness. But Christ lived the aesthetical life because he first sought God, his kingdom, and his righteousness. So the aesthetical life, which is the life of self-denial, leads to the kingdom of heaven and the lazy life, which is the life of living for oneself, leads to the kingdom of Satan. In today’s gospel, we see these three same sins, the sins of gluttony, the sins of self-esteem and the sin of avarice, at work in the life of the rich man, which ultimately leads to his eternal death and his torment in Hades.
In the opening of the parable, we read that the rich man was clothed in purple and fine linen and that he feasted sumptuously every day. We have here a man who is following the example of the first Adam and who symbolizes the plague of the modern person today. I want you to picture the type of life this man lived. First, he feasted sumptuously every day.
Does that sound to you like a man who fasted? No. One who feasted sumptuously every day does not fast. He was a glutton.
His desire was the pleasure of his own body. I remember what St. John Clemakus said, “It is satisfaction in food that is the father of fornication and leads to all bodily sins.” That’s why it’s so important not only to keep the fasting seasons of the church, we have great Lent, the Apostles fast, the Dormition fast, the Nativity fast, which is coming up, but also to keep the Wednesday and the Friday fast throughout the entire year so that we are not ones that feasted sumptuously every day and so that you are constantly aware of the liturgical calendar of the church and the presence of God every day in everything. Second, the rich man was a man of great self-esteem and pride.
And his gate was a poor man named Lazarus, and all this poor man desired was to be fed from the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. But because the rich man cared only about himself, he could not see past his own stomach. He saw Lazarus every day lying at his gate, but he gave him no attention because he thought that he was better than Lazarus. The rich man was so absorbed with himself that he became insensitive to the needs of others.
At best, he couldn’t see the needs of Lazarus, and at worst, he purposely ignored them. Third, the rich man was clothed in purple and fine linen. He was a man of Averus. He sought after and desired earthly and material things.
His orientation was not the kingdom of heaven. It was not God first, but rather his own kingdom of his own creation. Rather than worshiping the Creator, he worshiped created things, earthly things. And what does Christ ask?
What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but at the end, he forfeits his soul. The rich man in today’s parable, he gave up his soul, and he gave up his eternal life, all in exchange for earthly and material things which eventually would fade away. Just to make it clear, having food and having material wealth is not a sin. This using it is the sin.
And we misuse it when we allow the demons of gluttony, self-esteem and Averus to take root in us. Because once these sins take root in us, we cannot see past ourselves anymore. Saint Maximus the Confessor said, “Food is not evil, but gluttony is. Childbearing is not evil, but fornication is.
Glory is not evil, but Averus is. Glory is not evil, but vain glory is. Indeed, there is no evil in existing things, but only in their misuse.“ So who are we in this parable? Are we the rich man who is clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasts it thumbtuously every day, or are we Lazarus, who had no clothing, no food, no earthly possessions?
We are most definitely not Lazarus. We have food, we have clothing, we have shelter, and even if we don’t have much, at least we have those things. And it seems that even with what little we have, we still over-indulge ourselves, and we do it constantly, brothers and sisters, listen to this, because it is the truth. Luxury kills the soul.
Self-indulgence kills the soul, and we see this in the parable today when the rich man finds himself in hell. My beloved family, the only way we can stop ourselves from over-indulging in anything is by fasting. And that is why the church gives us so many opportunities throughout the year to do that. To keep the fast is to live the ascetical life of the church, and I want you to think about it for a moment.
What do we call to do when we keep the fasting season in the days of the church? We are called to fast from certain types of food, some tourist ones. We are called to limit the amount that we eat. We are called to pray, to give alms, to help the poor, to repent, and not to judge.
All of these things that we are called to do when we fast directly help us in our ascetic struggle against the demons of gluttony, of self-esteem and of avarice. There is no way to fight them if you do not fast. Either we live like the rich man, or we live like Lazarus. I’d like to conclude by sharing with you a saint that we celebrate today, Saint Milutin, the king of Serbia.
I read this in Axarion. I listened to it rather yesterday, and the comparison between Saint Milutin and the rich man in today’s gospel in the parable I think is worthy of mention. Saint Milutin was the king of Serbia. His mother was Queen Helen, the queen of Serbia, who was also a saint in the church.
His older brother was king before him, but he abdicated. He left the throne in order to become a monk, and when he did, his brother Milutin, who we celebrate today, took over. So how did a king with power and treasures and glory become a saint, because he used his gifts to glorify God? Listen to this.
When he became king, he vowed to build a church for every year that he ruled. And he ruled for 42 years, and he built 42 churches within his own kingdom, but also in Constantinople, in Thessalonica, in Sofia, in Jerusalem, on Mount Sinai, on Mount Athos. For every year, he reigned, he built the church. He also found that many hospices for the poor next to the churches that he built.
And this rich and mighty king, Milutin, would also dress himself as a beggar, as a poor man, and go out at night into his kingdom, accompanied by two of his servants, to see how the poor people feared in his kingdom, to see how they lived and how they suffered, so that he would know how to take care of them. This rich king did not dress himself in fine clothing and in purple and in linen, but he dressed himself as a poor man to go and to see the people of his kingdom. Although he had much wealth at his command, he lived a life of simplicity. He fasted, he put others before him, especially the poor, and he gave of his wealth to build churches and to take care of the poor.
In order for us to save ourselves from the fate of the rich man and to follow on the footsteps of Saint Milutin, King of Serbia, we must turn away from a life of luxury, a life of self-indulgence, because they kill and live a life of simplicity. If we are to have any hope of salvation, we must live our life aesthetically. The lazy will not be saved, the lazy will not be saved, and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.