October: Day 24: Teaching 2: Venerable Arethas the Recluse of the Kiev Caves

October: Day 24: Teaching 2:
Venerable Arethas the Recluse of the Kiev Caves

(Modern Idolatry)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast of the today celebrated Venerable Arethas of the Caves, who once suffered from stinginess and made an idol out of his wealth until the grace of God placed him in the right relationship with earthly acquisitions, it will be appropriate, my beloved brethren, to talk with you about our idolatry - not of pagan deities, but of various passions and vices.

II. The ancient peoples, ignorant of the true God, worshiped false gods. Even the Jews, who knew the true God, sometimes joined them. Did they not worship the deities "Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, and Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites"? (IV Kings 23:13). Worshippers even sacrificed their own children to the latter.

These deities were the embodiment and deification of bodily lusts and the forces of nature; they represented the very essence of passion and led to universal impiety and moral depravity. People worshiped Moloch because the fear of their wicked hearts made them bloodthirsty and cruel. They idolized Baal-Peor (Numbers 25:3) because they corrupted themselves by sacrificing their chastity in his honor. They worshiped Mammon (Luke 16:13) because they loved gold more than God.

Undoubtedly, this doesn't apply to all the rich, but only to a few who have become madly addicted to it and have banished all human compassion from their hearts. There are also those rich who consider it their greatest pleasure to squander their wealth on works of philanthropy and on institutions that serve the glory of God. Honor, glory, and eternal blessedness for them; shame, disgrace, and eternal woe for the selfish rich.

a) Unfortunately, in our time there are many worshipers of Mammon, the god of riches, who are completely indifferent to the suffering of their fellow men. They don't care whether the gold is watered with widows' tears or stained with human blood, as long as they can take it and hide it in their bulging, overflowing coffers. Is this idolatry more harmless than any other? Doesn't the Holy Apostle Paul speak of "covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5)?

b) Are there not now worshippers of Baal, the god of sensuality and impurity, just as there were in the desert, where “the people became corrupt” at the time when Moses spoke with God on Mount Sinai (Ex. 32:7)?

Isn't another Moses needed to crush these sensual idols into the dust? Isn't this enough to anger God and prompt Him to deal with us as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah?

c) Don't we have a god of drunkenness, with all the terrible consequences of serving him? Foreign scholars and Russian writers unanimously tell us that there is no poverty more appalling and stinking filth than in the capital cities; and this despite our laws, despite the abundance of enormous wealth, despite the millions spent on our education, and despite the proliferation of all sorts of regulations! What is the main reason for all this? The main reason for this sad phenomenon, as anyone even slightly familiar with the poor class knows, is drunkenness.

Ask the faithful and experienced clergy of the poor parishes; ask the police, the authorities, the justice of the peace, the prison chaplain; ask the hospital doctors, the directors of the insane asylums; ask the schoolteachers in the poor districts, and they will all answer you with the same word – drunkenness. It is drunkenness that plunges thousands into poverty, that kills hundreds and thousands of people every year; that undermines countless lives; that disturbs the peace of thousands of families; that lights the flames of hell in many homes; that causes such mortality among children.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37–39).

Many of us have not understood these commandments properly, and very few have understood them at all, even though they are such holy and great commandments, which it is impossible to inherit the Kingdom of God without fulfilling. If any of us had understood their meaning, we would undoubtedly have adopted a rule that would make it impossible for us to lead a consciously sinful life! (See Farrar's Spiritual and Moral Conversations)

III. Pious and Christ-loving listeners! Not one of the wicked people could lead a life like his if he truly understood the meaning of the first commandment: “And God spoke all these words, saying: I am the Lord your God... you shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:1-3).

Christians, before we ask ourselves whether we love Jesus Christ, our Savior, or not, shouldn't we ask ourselves whether we believe in God? These words demand complete sincerity from us.

When we are told that the Lord God is jealous (Exodus 20:5), it means that for Him, divided service is no service, and that He cannot allow a person's heart to belong more to Moloch, Mammon, and Baal than to Him. He is on our path and above our bed. He knows every thought of our hearts. Just as the eyes of a portrait seem to follow us around the room, so the eye of the Lord follows us everywhere. In such cases, some may experience a feeling of fear, while others, on the contrary, feel reverence.

But for a righteous man, to know that God sees him and that His gaze always guides him is a great blessing. Many commit terrible sins; and although their entire life is woven from hypocrisy, despite all this, they grow fat and seem healthy. For others, on the contrary, the most trivial and forgivable mistake, in people's opinion, falls like a fiery spark on their tender conscience. What is the difference between these people? The wicked says, "There is no God," or, "God doesn't care." The righteous man knows that even if he becomes invisible, two witnesses (the two eyes of God) will still see his offense, and this will be worse than if the whole world knew about it. He himself will recognize his guilt, and it will torment him with hidden shame. God will know, and the mere thought that he has offended Him or become alien to Him will torment his heart. And therefore he never tries or desires to hide from God. His life is guided by the Holy Spirit. and the saving truth: "God sees me." This becomes for him the first and main incentive to virtue; if, despite human weakness, he is able to adhere not only literally but also spiritually to all the other commandments of the Lord, it is because, as a Christian, he has learned to confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and having come to the Father through the Son, he has learned the meaning of these words: "And God spoke all these words, saying: I am the Lord your God... you shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:1-3).

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.