The Love of Christ and the Love of Money – Fr. Pimen Vlad

Listen to a warmhearted word from Father Pimen in which he presents the events at the beginning of Passion Week in which the contradiction between those who love Christ and those who love money is seen.

Enjoy!

Here we are, my dear ones, we meet again. We see that time passes, it does not stand still. We keep going and Lent is passing, and we are approaching the Holy Resurrection. If we look back, we each see how much we worked, more or less. According to how much each of us has worked, such will be the joy at the Holy Resurrection.

Soon is the Sunday of the Savior’s entry into Jerusalem. In the Gospel it is written that the Savior went to Bethany (a town not far from Jerusalem), where He raised Lazarus after 4 days. Lazarus, raised from the dead, prepared Him supper, and his sisters, Martha and Mary, gave their best to receive Him with love, with everything they could.

While He was at the table, Mary came with an alabaster with myrrh, a very precious myrrh at that time. In addition to washing the Savior’s feet with her tears of joy and wiping His feet with the hair of her head, she anointed His feet with myrrh. It was a tradition among the Jews, when a guest came, you had to wash his feet. It was a sign of respect, of honor for the guest. Mary, however, did more than that, showing her respect and love for the Savior.

The moment she poured the myrrh over His feet, the whole house and surroundings were filled with fragrance. And we can see who rejoiced and who didn’t. The 12 apostles rejoiced except one, Judas Iscariot. He was a lover of money and wanted to know why this waste of myrrh had occurred, when it could have been sold to get the money. And to appear good, [he said] it was to be given to the poor. He didn’t care much for giving to the poor. But he liked [money].

The Savior knowing that he had this struggle, specially entrusted him with the money bag for their livelihood, so that Judas would not think about them. By giving him the money to try to rid him of his passion. He could rest easy, knowing he had the money and not think about the money.

But the passion in him did not endure: Let us sell the myrrh, let us gather money for the poor! This was to appear well-intentioned. But the Savior said, “Why do you trouble the woman?… For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.” In this way the Savior prepared them for what was to come.

Many Jews had come there, not only for the Savior, but also for Lazarus, who was risen from the dead on the fourth day. This was heard about in the surrounding areas. There was no mass media like now, no TVs, the internet… Nevertheless by word of mouth the news was heard in the surroundings of Jerusalem, in Bethany, everywhere, that Lazarus who was dead for 4 days, was resurrected. They were coming to see him….

I stopped filming a bit because there is a very strong wind. There was a gust of wind and I thought it would knock over the tripod with the phone. Here at our place, there is a wind that in springtime is very strong. I tried to sit somewhere in the orchard to the side, to not be hit by the wind so much, so you could also see the apples trees, the pear trees in bloom. Let’s hope the wind isn’t too strong and that it doesn’t knock over the tripod so we can continue.

You see, there are people who are constantly thinking about evil, who turn everything into evil. Some came to rejoice in the resurrection of Lazarus, to see him, others came out of curiosity, to see if it was true, and others with evil thoughts – some of the higher-ups of that time: “What do we do with Lazarus, because he is living proof that he was resurrected?”

They could no longer stand the Savior because He had overthrown their whole world. They said, “Tooth for tooth, eye for eye,” everything was repaid and the Savior came and said no, have love, if he takes your coat, give him your shirt too, if he gives you a slap, turn the other cheek. He came with love, and they could not accept that. But it wasn’t just the teachings that they could not accept, there were also the miracles, the raising from the dead and so many others, and then they thought to hide it, to kill Lazarus again to cover the miracle worked. As if the Savior could not raise him again and again if needed.

Their mind was dark and they thought to cover up something good, something beautiful: raising someone from the dead. Their mind and heart were so dark that they thought only of evil and that their authority and wealth were falling apart.

They were under the Roman Empire but they were very satisfied because the rulers got along well with the Romans and from the taxes imposed by the Romans they also took their share and did not want to change that. Always those who side with the conquerors and betray, traitors, live well. Likewise with them, they thought that what the Savior taught, poverty, charity, love, and kindness meant that they had to give that up, so they were trying to cover up all those things. But of course they couldn’t go up against God. Now we move on.

The Savior afterwards left for Jerusalem, although everyone around Him warned Him that He was wanted by the Jews. The Savior entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, the humblest animal. The disciples placed their clothes on the donkey, the Savior got up on it and started for Jerusalem. But since He had risen Lazarus, worked miracles everywhere and many had seen His miracles, when it was found out that He was coming to Jerusalem, especially the simple people, who are more pure, more faithful, they came out to greet Him, and out of joy they were laying down their clothes on the road in His path, so that the donkey would step on them, and even the Savior’s shadow to pass over them, thus showing their love and piety.

They all sang, “Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” The elders of the city shuddered: “Who is this that everyone comes out to meet Him, sings to Him and raises Him to this level of honor?” Then the Savior said, “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” As it says in Holy Scripture, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” That is, the inanimate ones will speak if people do not cry out that the Son of God is coming.

With this honor He entered Jerusalem. But the Savior did not rejoice in this honor because He saw that many of those who were now crying out, “Hosanna, son of David!”  would soon cry out, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Even one of his disciples knew that he would betray Him. Understand?

That is how He entered Jerusalem, and in this way we enter Holy Week. The disciple who was a lover of money, seeing that he could not get money from the myrrh, and seeing that the Jews wish Him dead, decided to sell Him to get some money. The passion in him did not give him peace.

I see it nowadays… Someone even told me how many bad things he had done, stolen from his parents,  stole where he could, borrowed to gamble, until he destroyed his family. The love of money is very great, but gambling is love of money deviated into something else. You don’t gather your money, you play it in the hope that you will win more and actually end up losing everything.

And so Judas went and asked them what reward he would receive if he sold to them the Savior. The leaders offered him 30 pieces of silver. When he saw that, he, of course, agreed and sold the Savior. Can you imagine? The Savior of the world. For what? For money.

Such things still happen nowadays for money. So many people die innocently to enrich others. We see a continuous rush to quench a thirst that cannot be quenched, and they die with this thirst tormenting themselves because they are never happy. Those who chase after money all day and keep wanting to gather and gather, reach such a thirst and die in this way, tormenting themselves, not being fulfilled. No one says not to have what you need, but don’t make making money, gathering gold and silver a goal in life. No. Our goal must be to reach God, and here in this world, just to prepare and use those things.

I recommend that this Holy Week you go to church as often as possible. Almost every night there are evening services. You will listen to the Gospels there, everything that is happening in this Holy Week. Alright my dear ones? Afterwards you will see how the Savior was sold, this whole way of the Cross, how He was beaten, spat on, and tortured.

But before all this, on Holy Thursday, when it was the Last Supper, the last with the disciples, it was then that the Savior gave us what we have now, His body and blood, the Holy Liturgy. It was something special, when He said, “Take, eat, this is My body,” then He also gave them the wine and said, “Take, drink, this is My blood. Do this in remembrance of Me.” This means confessing often, partaking more often of the Body and Blood of the Lord in order to gain strength to go on because times are tough.

As we see, it is possible that we too will get to have a way of the cross. We see that it’s like everyone has gone mad. Everyone looks out only for himself and his interests. Some can’t get enough and want even more, that is, everything against what God told us, to love, to be better, to have love, to forgive more, not to harm others. All those things are upside down. In this way we force God to say: “That’s it, there’s no point in allowing you anymore because I don’t see anything good in you anymore!”

Let’s try, those of you who haven’t fasted before, to fast from now on, as much as is left of it. Go and confess, go with all your heart and repent, and if your confessor allows take Communion. Take Communion on Holy Thursday if possible, or Sunday for the Entrance into Jerusalem, and then at the Resurrection. Try as often as possible, because it is not known what times are coming. Now we have the Divine Liturgy, we have priests to hear confessions, we may not have these things in time.

Therefore, use them as much as you can to strengthen yourselves spiritually and bodily, to have an enlightened mind to be able to stay on the path towards God. This is what I wanted to tell you, in order to put you on this path of the Way of the Cross, so that through repentance and confession we can rejoice in the resurrection of the Savior.

May the Good God and the Mother of God help us to reach the Holy Resurrection with joy, benefit and peace. Lord help us!

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