SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
12th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(31-08-2025)
WRITTEN DIVINE PROCLAMATION
«It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven» (Matt. 19:23), as we heard in today’s Gospel reading, my dear friends. This Sunday’s Gospel, then, gives us an opportunity to speak about wealth and money. First of all, we must point out that all the goods of the world, both spiritual and material, belong to the One who created them and provides for them. Therefore, economic goods—that is, wealth—also belong to Him, and are distributed according to divine will and for a pedagogical purpose. Thus, the wealthy have the opportunity to show charity, compassion, and responsible stewardship of their material possessions, while the poor are called to practice patience, patience, and hope in God.
According to Orthodox teaching, the rich man is not the sovereign and absolute master of his possessions, but a steward and manager of God’s gifts. As St. Basil the Great characteristically states, it is «steward of the things entrusted by God,» «having become a servant of the good God, steward of your fellow servants». Wealth, which comes from God, is intended to bring relief and prosperity to all of humanity, so that it may serve the common good and support social cohesion, by compensating for the shortcomings of both the rich and the poor. For this reason, material wealth, which is a temporary good, does not justify arrogance on the part of its possessor, much less deification.
Wealth is a neutral good; that is, it is neither good nor bad in and of itself, but depends on the use one makes of it. In any case, however, it is something transient, precarious, and trivial compared to the glory that is yet to be revealed. Its acquisition must be blameless, with man always seeking justice and exercising it within the bounds of morality and and human law. Its misuse leads to ruin, since it fosters the passions of avarice and greed, both of which stem from passionate attachment to material goods and cause one another.
«No servant can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. »You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” (Luke 16:13), Christ teaches. This is because love for God and attachment to spiritual goods on the one hand, and love for money and attachment to material goods on the other, are rooted in the same human desire. The more a person clings to money and, more generally, to material goods, the further he or she drifts away from God.
So, keeping all this in mind, let us imitate those who are rich in heaven and who have managed their wealth or their poverty well, and let usnot pursue temporary and material goods, but eternal ones, so that we may attain them through the Grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory and honor. Amen.
Hierodeacon Ierotheos Creticus Creticus
