DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Matthew 5:14-19
(5/11)
Gospel for Cyril & Methodios, Enlighteners of the Slavs
Light to Enlighten: St. Matthew 5:14-19, especially vs. 15: “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a
basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all
who are in the house.”
Today, we celebrate two brothers who brought the true Faith to the
Slavic peoples. Rightfully enough,
the present passage from St. Matthew focuses on Light - on Christ Jesus our
Lord, “the light of the world” (Jn.
8:12). By joining the Faithful to
Himself, the Lord Jesus makes the Church - as His Body (Mt. 5:14) - the Light
of the world. And Light is what
Saints Cyril and Methodios gave to the Slavic peoples,
both the Light of Gospel - joining them to Jesus Christ the Light, and the
Cyrillic alphabet - the illumination of a writing system used by the majority
of the Slavic peoples today. They
brought the Light to the Slavs, translating the Liturgy and Holy Scripture into
the earliest form of the present-day Slavic languages of Serbo-Croatian,
Slovak, Ukranian, Bulgarian, and Russian.
Notice how the Lord Jesus immediately involves
us in this meditation on the Light, startling us to see that we
are the light of the world! How,
you ask? By being set on the
hill, on
See how our Lord and Master is
deliberate, intentional, and purposive in this. He means for the Light to “shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in
heaven” (vs. 16). Therefore,
we are to follow His lead, do as He does, and let our light so shine that God
be glorified - not us, but God our Father.
Our care is to see how our light shines.
Our actions, our words, the witness we make
must never be allowed to “...destroy the Law or the Prophets” (Mt.
5:17). To begin with, the Psalmist
makes it clear that God’s “...law is a lamp unto my feet and a
light unto my paths” (Ps. 118:105).
Thus, the Lord God, Who is Light, gave the sacred law for His People - a
light to guide us in every age - Who Himself went before them in the wilderness
“...to show them the way...by a pillar of fire” (Ex. 13:21). Our task, joined as we are to Christ, is
“to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17) the Law even as the Prophets plead with us
to do.
The Law - but more so Christ Himself, the
Light and embodiment of the Law - can be either a blessing or a curse to us:
“...the blessing, if ye hearken to the commands of the Lord your
God...and the curse, if ye do not hearken to the commands...and ye wander from
the way...” (Deut. 11:27,28). Hence every detail of God’s
commands, either written or Incarnate as Light in the darkness (Jn. 1:5), must be given close attention; for “...till
heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle
will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Mt.
5:18). God will not withdraw His
Light, although we may turn away from Him and take ourselves into darkness.
Metropolitan Hierotheos
characterizes the sickness that falls on the deep place of our heart - on the nous - as ‘darkening.’ “The nous
as an image of God is ‘luminous.’ But when it withdraws from God and loses
its natural state, it is blackened, darkened.” If evil thoughts “find the nous unguarded, they enter the heart one by one, each in
its own time...and having thus darkened the nous, it
stimulates the body and provokes it to sinful actions.” Thus, we may be drawn away from the
Light and become darkness.
“If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is
that darkness!” (Mt.
6:23). The thought is chilling; may
God forbid!
Beloved, let none of us break “...one of
the least of these commandments, and teach men so...” that we never be
called “...east in the Kingdom of heaven...” (Mt. 5:19).
Come ye, take the light from the Light that
is never overtaken by night. Come, and glorify the Christ risen
from the dead!