Hello, my siblings in Christ, I am Bojan and I hope to share with you today some of my thoughts on what's the essence of being a Christian. Now, many people and many saints have had their opinions on what it means to be a Christian. Some have said that it is about doing the will of God at all times; others have said that it revolves around prayers, good deeds and simplicity; Saint Seraphim of Sarov has taught us that our ultimate goal is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God; Father Alexander Schmemann has taught us that thanksgiving is what our Christian life should be about. You will notice that none of these things contradict each other. I hope to present you with some of my thoughts on the subject, and I will base them on Christ's parable of the talents. You can read the parable in the Gospel of Matthew 25:14-30. I'll give you a brief outline.
In the parable, a master of a household gives three servants money which they're supposed
to multiply while he's away. Each servant receives a different amount. Upon the master's return, it turns out that the two servants doubled the money received, while the third one didn't, burying the money. The first two servants are praised, while the third servant is rebuked, especially for not simply leaving the money with the bankers, so that the master could get his money with interest. The servant loses all the money given to him and is imprisoned for his laziness. What can we learn from this?
In the end, our Christian life should be about getting the most out of the cards that have been dealt to you. We are dealt many cards - we can get cards of wealth or poverty, of health and disease, of war and peace, of happiness and tragedy, of charisma and complete lack of social tact. Some people get all the good cards, some get all the bad cards. Majority of us are somewhere in the middle. The goal of all these cards is to be of service to God and people. You will receive no praise from God if you get more rich, if you lose weight, if you get cured, if you improve your self-esteem. That is not what the cards are about.
The cards we're given should be about others, not ourselves. In the parable of the talents, the master rebukes his servant for burying the treasure given and says that he could have gone to the bankers to earn with interest. See, the servant did something on his own, by himself, for himself. Going to the bankers requires engaging with others. Our God is love. Love is active, not emotional. God does not want you to "love humanity." Humanity is abstract. God wants you to love the hundred or two hundred or whatever the number of people you actually interact with or happen to stumble upon. Our love is not abstract, it is not mere good wishes. Our love is that of lending financial aid, of comforting, of being there, of listening to someone who is lonely, love of being there for someone in their darkest hour.
You may think that you got all the bad cards, and that you cannot actively help out someone. In that case, there is a trump card that you can alway play, and that is a card that is especially powerful when all human means fail, and that is prayer. We should season all we do with prayer, but it stikes home especially when there is nothing else we can do but pray. Christianity must never be about going through the motions. Regardless of the circumstances of our lives, we can always be better Christians. Let us try to do just that, every day.
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