“Be mindful, O Lord, of those who bear fruit and do good works in thy holy Churches, and who remember the poor.” — from the Anaphoras of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil.
So, what might a costly grace look like? The Department of Education of our Archdiocese set the above phrase, which every Orthodox priest prays every time he celebrates a Divine Liturgy, as the theme of our summer conferences. “Be mindful, O Lord, of those who bear fruit . . .” We ask the Lord to especially care for those who care for others. They are not the only ones for whom we ask the Lord to care, but the Church does have a special heart, and asks the Lord to have a special heart for those who bear fruit, most especially for those who themselves take care of the poor, the abandoned, the widow, and the orphan among us.
One example, but certainly not the only example, of costly grace is preserved in this prayer of the Church. “Be mindful, O Lord, of those . . . who remember the poor.” Any who work among the poor know the incredible amount of time and emotional energy that it takes to remember the poor. To minister the grace of our Lord in the ghettos, inner city neighborhoods, and distressed areas of our country is an incredibly costly grace. One cannot simply go in for a while and then leave, for ministry to the poor requires real in-depth relationships. There is pain and agony in ministry to the poor. Not all the poor make the right decisions, anymore than we do. But, in the inner city areas, the wrong decision can be, and often is, lethal. Those who work among the poor see life and death writ large both before their eyes and on their hearts. For every success that is lauded and broadcast to the world, there are the failures that tear your guts out as you watch girls descend into pregnancy, boys and girls into drug addiction, and way too many to an early grave.
St. John Chrysostom says:
When then you see a poor believer, think that you behold an altar: when you see such an one a beggar, not only insult him not, but even reverence him, and if you see another insulting him, prevent, repel it. For so shall you yourself be able both to have God propitious to you, and to obtain the promised good things, whereunto may we all attain, through the grace and love towards men of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom and with Whom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, honor, now and forever, and world without end. Amen.
So, then, let us join the Church in her prayer. “Be mindful, O Lord, of those . . . who remember the poor.” Let us look upon those “who remember the poor” as those who serve at an altar of service and whose priestly ministry (whether they be lay, monk, deacon, priest, or bishop) is expressed at the altar of the poor. We reverence God in our churches with prayer and gifts of gold and silver, but they reverence God in the streets with service and the gifts of human lives saved from the snares of the flesh, the world, and the devil. “Be mindful, O Lord, of those . . . who remember the poor.”
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