/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>759044

>Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

I have never heard such a perfect argument for blessing one's enemies, thanks

It would be nice if anyone else could post quotes from saints as well. Here's one more:

“When a man really considers his neighbor as himself, he will never tolerate having more than his neighbor. If he does have more, but refuses to share things generously until he himself becomes as poor as his neighbor, then he will find that he has not fulfilled the commandment of the master. He no longer wants to give to all who ask, and instead turns away from someone who asks of him while she still has a penny or a crust of bread. He has not treated his neighbor as he would like to be treated by him. In fact, even if a man had given food and drink and clothes to all the poor, even the least, and had done everything else for them, he has only to despise or neglect a single one and it will be reckoned as if he had passed by Christ and God and He was hungry and thirsty.”

— St. Simeon the New Theologian, The Practical and Theological Chapters

>>759453

Does that quote fall in the category of "everyone deserves hell"? Because, knowing the good Saint Simeon was not a Marxist, he's essentially saying that sin is so ingrained that even when we imagine ourselves having confessed all, and being without any outstanding guilt, we are still basically winnie the poohed. Right?

>>759456

If one tolerates having more than his neighbor, he still hasn't managed to fulfill the commandments of Christ and therefore he is condemned. Even if someone shuns a single person who is poorer than them, this someone is condemned. We don't work on a points system where doing more good works compensates for sins, and there is no greater sin than to shun a poor person, as this is the standard by which we will be judged according to the parable of the sheeps and the goats. So it's less "everyone is going to Hell" and more "if you shun any poor person at all, then you are far from the Kingdom, regardless of whatever else you may have done". If you shun a single poor person, then whatever progress you may think you made is for nothing.

Here's a couple more quotes from saints on this:

"Naked did you not drop from the womb? Shall you not return again naked to the earth? Where have the things you now possess come from? If you say they just spontaneously appeared, then you are an atheist, not acknowledging the Creator, nor showing any gratitude towards the one who gave them. But if you say that they are from God, declare to us the reason why you received them. Is God unjust, who divided to us the things of this life unequally? Why are you wealthy while that other man is poor? Is it, perhaps, in order that you may receive wages for kindheartedness and faithful stewardship, and in order that he may be honored with great prizes for his endurance? But, as for you, when you hoard all these things in the insatiable bosom of greed, do you suppose you do no wrong in cheating so many people? Who is a man of greed? Someone who does not rest content with what is sufficient. Who is a cheater? Someone who takes away what belongs to others. And are you not a man of greed? are you not a cheater? taking those things which you received for the sake of stewardship, and making them your very own? Now, someone who takes a man who is clothed and renders him naked would be termed a robber; but when someone fails to clothe the naked, while he is able to do this, is such a man deserving of any other appellation? The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry; the coat, which you guard in your locked storage-chests, belongs to the naked; the footwear mouldering in your closet belongs to those without shoes. The silver that you keep hidden in a safe place belongs to the one in need. Thus, however many are those whom you could have provided for, so many are those whom you wrong."

- St. Basil the Great, Homily on the saying of the Gospel According to Luke, “I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones,” and on greed

…

"The way to God lies through love of people. At the Last Judgment I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises, nor how many bows and prostrations I made. Instead I shall be asked did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners. That is all I shall be asked. About every poor, hungry and imprisoned person the Savior says 'I': 'I was hungry and thirsty, I was sick and in prison.' To think that he puts an equal sign between himself and anyone in need. . . . I always knew it, but now it has somehow penetrated to my sinews. It fills me with awe."

- St. Maria of Paris

>>759463

I see, this reminds me of A Christmas Carol by Dickens. I had a realization when I watched it this Christmas, that one of the things that struck the first blow that softened me to Christianity was the sign of peace, and seeing the whole congregation filled with light.

I will meditate upon it, but I don't know how I am even to begin to follow these saints.