June: Day 14: Holy Prophet Elisha

June: Day 14:
Holy Prophet Elisha
 
(The Reasons Why Elders Should Be Respected)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. One day the Prophet Elisha, whose feast day is celebrated today, entered the city of Bethel, whose inhabitants were drowning in wickedness. Their wickedness had reached such a point that fathers did not teach their children piety. A crowd of children met the venerable elder and began to laugh at his external shortcomings, and at the fact that he had no hair on his head. The children shouted after him: "Go away, bald one!" The Prophet Elisha looked at them with sadness and saw that there was nothing good in their hearts; he condemned their deed, and God confirmed the judgment of His Prophet. Two she-bears came out of the forest and tore the children to pieces. Forty-two of them perished.

II. The wrath of God, which, according to the word of the Prophet Elisha, destroyed the children who insulted the holy elder, the prophet, gives us, brethren, today the opportunity to talk with you about the reasons for which we should show respect and reverence to elders and, in general, to people older than us in age.

The reasons why elders should be respected are as follows.

a) Very often old age is a reward for piety and obedience to the will of God (Gen. 15:15; Isaiah 65:20; Zech. 8:4). For the mere fact that the blessing of God has rested upon the elders, expressed in their long life, they deserve our deep respect. Rudeness, disrespect and mercilessness towards the elders in the Holy Scriptures are placed among such manifestations of moral ignorance as are characteristic only of barbarian peoples and impudent and godless scoffers (Deuteronomy 28:50; Isaiah 47:6; Lamentations of Jeremiah 5:12; Wisdom of Solomon 2:10).

b) Elders deserve our deep respect also because God gave them long life to fulfill some important goals in serving God, the Church or the fatherland. Thus, the Prophet Elijah had already asked for death, but God showed him a new service for the good of the people of Israel (3 Kings 19:4). Those who perform good deeds aimed at the glory of God should be especially respected.

c) The long life of God-fearing people deserves respect also because it is extremely useful for their children and for posterity in general (Wisdom 2:10): their living examples of strict piety have a wide scope, are passed on to the most distant posterity (grandchildren and great-grandchildren). Righteous Job, after he became even more righteous, having endured terrible trials in life, lived a long time, and how long? Double the number of previous years, so that he saw children of the fourth generation - great-grandchildren (Job 42:16); in total Righteous Job lived 210 years, and according to 70 interpreters more. And even the fewer in the subsequent generation or only in a certain locality zealots for the spiritual and divine, the more the heavenly Provider supports on earth such pillars of faith and piety, which for this alone deserve deep respect.

d) Then there is a direct command to respect the elder, whoever he may be. The Lord through Moses commands Israel regarding how to behave in relation to elders: “You shall rise up before the gray head, and honor the face of the aged, and you shall fear the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:32), that is, whoever and whatever the elder may be, be polite and respectful to him.

e) Finally, reason tells us that since the younger generations are indebted to the older ones for both spiritual and material blessings of life, for this very reason the younger must respect and thank the older. The Holy Apostle Paul states: "Do not boast over the branches; but if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Do not be arrogant, but fear" (Romans 11:18, 20). "You are leaves, you are young buds on the branch, the branch on the limb, the limb on the trunk, the trunk on the root of the great tree of society and the Church," says His Eminence Nikanor, Archbishop of Kherson, addressing the young generation regarding these words. "Do not boast, weak leaf! Do not be wise beyond your years, young bud!.. You live while still completely relying on someone else's life, you draw, for now, entirely someone else's life juices. Reflect on all your good deeds that you have managed to accomplish from the day of your birth to the present. Nothing, or some insignificant chance, and that was rather directed towards your peers than for the benefit of the older generation. Look at it from the other side: this older generation has been nurturing, preserving, clothing, and raising you with its labor until today. Do not boast, light leaf, on the branches, in the gusts of fantastic self-conceit, that you will be better than us, or that you are already better than us. Live through our experiences, and then throw a stone of condemnation at us. And remember, your children will throw a similar, or even heavier stone at you. If you are to boast, remember that you do not carry the root; rather, the root carries you; let it burrow in the soil, in the depths, in the compost; while you, blown by the zephyrs of youthful imagination and still undisillusioned hopes, stretch toward the sun. You will not fly far. If you are destined to live as a whole tree, you will grow as a branch or even a trunk, similar to us. However, if you detach from the root, you will decay, and that is all... 'Do not strive for high-mindedness, but fear.' (See 'Words, Speeches, Conversations' by Nikanor, Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa, Vol. V, pp. 107-11).

Look the other way around: this older generation has fed, cared for, clothed and educated you with its labor until today. Do not boast on the branch, light leaf, in fits of fantastic self-thinking that you will be better than us, or that you are already better than us. Live as long as we have, and then throw a stone of condemnation at us. And remember that your children will throw the same, or even a heavier stone at you. But if you boast, remember that it is not you who bear the root, but the root of you; let it scurry there in the earth, in the shadows, in the humus; "And you, blown by the zephyrs of youthful fantasy and hopes that have not yet been disappointed, strive towards the sun... You will not fly far. If you are destined for the life of a whole tree, then you will go into the formation of a branch or even a trunk, like us. But if you are torn away from the root, then you will rot, and that's all... 'Do not be arrogant, but fear.'" (See "Words, Speeches, Conversations" by Nikanor, Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa, Vol. V, pp. 107-11).

III. There are many elders whom, either out of duty as superiors or out of Christian love, young people must admonish or restrain from any unworthy actions. But young people should act as gently and respectfully as possible even in relation to such elders. The Apostle Paul writes to the young Bishop Timothy: "Do not reproach an elder, but exhort him as a father, and older women as a mother" (1 Tim. 5:1, 2). If even those young people who have authority over elders should treat them with filial respect, then should not others be more respectful to them? 

 

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