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A Homily on the First Sunday of Great Lent
His Eminence Metropolitan Mina of Girga, Egypt, delivered at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Girga. Year unknown.
The gospel reading of today’s Liturgy, in which the Lord of Glory reveals and clarifies the manner in which the life of the believer must be on earth. The Church has well chosen to present to us, on the first Sunday of the Holy Fast, the selection that was read aloud in our hearing: this selection, in which the Lord Jesus says at its beginning: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20), as we have heard. And at the end of the selection, the Lord says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
The Lord Jesus, to whom be glory, teaches us in the gospel of today’s Liturgy, that we should not care about anything in this life more than we should, or more than our care about eternal life, because He taught us, saying: “What would it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what would man give in exchange for his soul” (Matthew 16:26)?
The Lord explains that the treasures that we lay up on earth are exposed to dangers. The first danger is theft and robbery, and the second danger is moths. The third danger is rust, [which] takes hold of the [substance] and corrodes it. And the grains that we lay up are eaten by moths. And gold is exposed to theft by thieves and robbers.
So these treasures, in which we place our trust, cannot save us from anything in this life, for they do not last forever. For man cannot take anything with him from the wealth of this world. Alexander the Great did well when he commanded, at his departure from this world, that his hands be exposed open outside his coffin, saying: “Let the whole world know that Alexander, who conquered the world, came out of the world empty-handed.” This is the life for which we fight — we cannot take anything from it.
So the Lord warns us that the treasures in which we trust in this life, we must leave behind, either willingly or unwillingly. This is what the Divine Revelation says on the mouth of Job the Righteous, when he says: “We know that we entered the world without anything, and we will leave it also without anything.” “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there” (Job 1:21a). And our teacher Paul the Apostle says: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Timothy 6:7). We have not heard, and we will not hear, that a person can take with him money, or palaces, or gold, or silver. Rather, all he takes with him is a piece of cloth, in which he is wrapped and shrouded and placed in his final resting place.
But there is another work that he must take with him, because the life of man does not end with his death. The life of the body ends with death, while another life begins that differs from this life, for which we must lay up [treasures], as Christ, to whom be glory, says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” and as our teacher Paul the Apostle says: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7b).
We do not take anything from the treasures we lay up, but what we offer here in this life on earth for the sake of the salvation of our souls is what we will find on the Last Day, as the Book taught us — the Revelator: “Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me, to give to every one according to his works” (Revelation 22:12), and as the Church says and repeats in every Liturgy: “[He will] give each one according to his deeds.” []
So here, life ends, but we begin a new life that differs [from it] in every respect. Here there is weeping, wailing, and worry, but there is eternal joy — the Lord “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).
So the Lord teaches us not to lay up treasures on this earth, but that we must lay up treasures for the kingdom of heaven. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
The Lord teaches us not to live lazily, or as we say in the fallah’s expression, [“good-for-nothing”], but the Lord teaches us not to depend on anything in this life, because the worldly life does not benefit man at all, but what benefits him is dependence on God. So the Lord teaches us, saying: “Consider the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns” (Matthew 6:26).
In the Coptic translation, it does not say “birds,” but “crows.” And the wisdom in this text is stronger in the Coptic translation, because all birds are able to gather grains from the earth, and they strive to provide for themselves and their children, but only the crow does not give to its children []. Perhaps you see this in your homes! But the crow is the only one that is unable to feed its children! How do its children live? As soon as the chick comes out of the egg, the little crow opens its beak, a thread comes out of its beak, it opens its beak and eats from it, until our Lord provides for it, without its father or mother feeding it, our Lord provides for it until it is able to fly, roam, and seek its own provision.
So God says: “Consider the crows of the air, they do not sow” — it does not even say “crows,” but “chicks.” The Coptic translation says: “Look at the chicks of the crows,” meaning the little chick, unable to provide for itself, and after it comes out of the egg, its father and mother leave it, and our Lord provides for it.
“Look at the chicks of the crows, they do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26). He gives them their due!
God, as we say in the general saying, provides for the birds in the nests, and provides for the fish in the sea, and it is impossible for Him to create a mouth and leave it without provision. But the fault — all the fault — is in us, that we depend on our wealth and desire to be rich without the will of God. “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 22:10).
“Seek first the kingdom of God,” and all these matters our Lord arranges in a particular way. God cannot abandon you or neglect you! History provides us good examples of those who cared for God, so God cared for them.
[In] one of these [examples], our Lord dried up the sea, and he [Elijah] stood in front of our Lord and said to Him, people were hungry - - and He dried up the land, and there was no bread or food; and the rich, the Book says, “the rich grow poor and go hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:11). And then he found no food, and he found no sustenance, and the land was dry, and God withheld the rain from the land, and then he shouted to Him and said to Him: “O Lord, there is no rain on the land. You commanded me to pray, and to stop the rain, and so the rain stopped, but what should I do?” He said to him: “Do not worry about it, Elijah.” “What will You do, O Lord?” He said to him: “I have commanded a poor, needy widow to support you.”
“A poor, needy widow will support me? The rich ‘grow in hunger’ and pain from the severity of their hunger, and a widow will support me?” He said to him: “Just go to a small village called Zarephath, Sidon, and you will find a woman there gathering sticks” (see 1 Kings 17:7-16). So the man of God went there and found her gathering some sticks, so he told her: “What are you doing?” [] She told him: “I am gathering sticks.” “For what?” She said: “I have a little bit of flour, I will make them into a cake for myself and a cake for” - - two small handfuls [of flour] - - “I will make them into a cake for myself and for my son and we will eat them and die.” Meaning there is no more [flour], and this is the last breath of life — a handful of flour. A handful.
He said to her: “Let me tell you, go make me a [cake] first.” “O man of God! I am telling you, a handful of flour, I will make it [into cakes] for myself and my boy and we will eat them and die. And you want me to make you one first?” He told her: “Just go! Depart and make for me a cake first, for thus says the Lord: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day [the Lord] sends rain on the land’ (1 Kings 17:14).” And so the woman, the poor widow, became very rich by the life of faith when she hosted the man of God.
God, who says “consider the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap,” or “the chicks of the crows of the air, for they neither sow nor reap,” He is the one who sustains us. He sustains completely!
A story in the history of the Church, which I recall telling previously: Anba Paula and his brother had a falling-out. While he was walking out, he saw a great, honorable man who had died and was being processed on their shoulders. So he asked: “What was this man?” [They] told him: “This was one of the noblemen of the city, an exceedingly great man.” “Then what happened?” “Then he died and you see the great scene of this funeral procession to his final resting place.” So he looked and said: “Oh! I am begrudging my brother over transient matters, while this rich man left this world empty-handed, not being able to hold onto anything from this life, of worldly wealth, with him, and he went to the hereafter while I do not know whether he offered or did not offer anything good.” So he went out without hesitation, and there he entered an abandoned tomb and began to worship God, saying to Him: “O Lord, guide me to the path in which I can be pleasing to You.” And the result was that the angel of God carried away the saint Anba Paula and took him to a spring of water that had a palm tree, and the great saint Anba Paula lived from the fruit of the palm tree all year long, and then every day the crow brought him half a loaf [of bread]. Every day it brought him half a loaf [of bread]. And when Anba Antonios visited him, and the time of dinner came, the crow brought down a full loaf [of bread], and they shared it together. Can you believe that until this time, in the monastery of Anba Paula, only a crow and its wife live. When they give birth, they leave the monastery and go to the monastery of Anba Antonios, because there are many palm trees there, and [the chicks] remain. And when a guest comes, ten or fifteen minutes before he arrives, the crow begins to make noise so the monks know that a visitor is coming. And this is so that God might uphold the continuous remembrance - - “the remembrance of the righteous shall abide forever” (Psalm 112:6) - - the remembrance of the crow that brought the bread to the saint Anba Paula.
So we can say that all these things - - the Book says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” What is it that will be added to me? He says, “seek first the kingdom of God,” and then “all these things will be added to you.” The things of the world will be added. What is it that will be added?
Long ago, when we were young, a person’s mother at home used to tell him — those days were not as they are now [] — “go, son, get a [bar of] soap from the shop [or] go get a measure of sugar.” The shopkeeper would be clever: after he would give him the measure of the product, whether he wanted a [bar of] soap or some tea or some sugar, he would give him a piece of candy or a couple of beans “on the house.” A snare cast by the shopkeeper so the boy, whenever he wanted anything, would come to him to buy it for the sake of those beans! But are the two beans, or the piece of candy that he gave to the boy, the original sale? Or are they “on the house?” On the house! He has already gotten the sale!
So the whole world — the world and all that is in it — seek first the original sale, which is the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and this whole world, which does not equal even two beans or some candy, He will give you! This whole world, in the eyes of God, is nothing!
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
I remember long ago, in the year [19]41, there was a man, God rest his soul, named Khay Habib Estafanous, in Samalot, and I suppose his wife may still be alive until this day. And I mentioned this in the book about Abouna Abdelmassih. See, it was myself and someone named Fr. Abdel-Salus al-Habashy, and the man invited us, saying: “Come.” “Why?” He said: “[My wife] is sick; pray for her so that God might heal her.” “Sure, alright.” And then he said: “This basket of bread here is our only one, and the baker refuses to come, and [my wife] is sick and cannot bake.” “What have we to do with the bread basket?” - - you know those from al-Minya bake wide bread that lasts one or two months, and when they come to eat of it, they pour a little water over it and eat it - - “what have we to do with [it]?” He said: “Pray! It is the blessing of Christ in the five loaves! Did not Christ bless the five loaves and the two fish?” “Yes he blessed!” He said: “Is not the Christ of the past the same as the one of today?” We said to him: “Yes, yesterday, today, and forever.” He said: “So pray for me that God will bless these loaves.”
We prayed for him — I myself was a young, novice monk, and I thought in my mind that this man was [deeply imaginative]. But the father who was with me was an elder and an ascetic, a man who had experience in life, who was praying deeply, but while I was praying with the father, in my mind the man was [deeply imaginative]. See what happened! We prayed and left. And those [loaves] in the basket were just enough to last a day, or a day and a half at most. We were absent for two months and then I and Abouna Abdel-Salus passed by again []. He said: “Come eat of the loaves you prayed over!” “What loaves? Do they still remain?” He said: “They remain and can last for even longer and longer []!”
“The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 22:10).
I was in a monastery named the Monastery of al-Fakhoury, near Esna, and I was spending the night there. And we had at most two or three measures of flour. And we had to celebrate Liturgy in the morning. And I found a group of visitors came to me, and we did not have but some lentils. They did not bring with them a sacrifice [i.e. a lamb or sheep] and they did not bring bread. So there was there with me Abouna Ghattas, who is now in Edfu [], and there was [a man] also named Ghattas with us, so I told him: “Ghattas, where will we get bread for these people? Will they eat without bread?” [] We said: “Let us cook the lentils, since there is water. But after we cook the lentils, then what? Will they drink the lentils [] without bread?” [] So I told him: “Listen, split the two measures of flour in half. Make half into three or four korbanat [offertory loaves] — enough for the morning’s offering — and the other half make into some thin, small pieces [of bread], put them in the oven, and we will break them and say: ‘We don’t have bread, just eat of these.’”
Believe me, perhaps three or four small pieces, each of which might equal a fourth of a korbana - - even less, not even a fifth! - - we flattened them like paper and put them in the oven and then pulled them out and I broke them and said: “May the blessing of the Lord which dwelt in the five loaves and the two fish bless these.” That day, we were six people, and we sat and ate until we were full and there were even leftovers!
“The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 22:10).
Christ says in the gospel of today’s Liturgy: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The fallahi expression is: “The foot steps where it wills.” [الرجل تدب محل ما تحب]. He who loves corruption chases after corruption. He who loves work chases after work. He who loves profit chases after profit. He who loves the Lord chases after the Lord. And every one’s foot goes, or steps, to where he loves.
As for you, what do you love? “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”
If your treasure [] is the earth, God is not present in your life. Christ says as much: “No one can serve God and mammon” (see Matthew 6:24b), in the gospel of today’s Liturgy. God and mammon. God and mammon cannot both occupy one’s heart. What? Does this mean that the Lord desires that we become beggars, poor, and needy? No! But the Lord wants us to depend on Him firstly! Not on money! Dependence on Him firstly!
The young rich man, when He told him, “go, sell all that you have” (Mark 10:21), the disciples told Him: “These are difficult words.” He told them: “Children, how hard it is for those who depend [on riches] to enter” (Mark 10:24) — how difficult it is for those who depend — those who depend on riches! Not the rich, but those who depend on their wealth!
He who depends on his wealth is a pagan. He who relies on his money worships idols. Wealth is not vice, but it is goodness and a blessing from God on the condition that it is according to God’s will.
Sometimes, when the love of money takes hold of one’s mind and heart, it makes him forget the Lord. How? The love of money, not wealth! Wealth is one thing, and the love of money is another. The wealth granted to me by God, of which I offer to the churches and the Lord and the poor and needy, is a blessing. Job was wealthy, and Abraham was wealthy. But the love of money is all evil. The Apostle says: “The love of money is a root of all evils, which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10).
“Have been led astray from the faith.” How were they led astray from the faith? The love of money teaches lying, teaches greed, teaches grasping, [] and teaches one to take what is not rightfully his, and to forget the Lord and place all of his concern in money, such that he is converted from a worshiper of God to a worshiper of money. Not on the condition that I prostrate to money — placing it in front of me and prostrating before it. But placing in my heart the love of money, and thinking to myself: is God or money in my heart? The saying goes: “The heart cannot accommodate two.” God and money do not agree. Light and darkness cannot coexist in one place.
If the love of money has dominion over you more than the love of God, then you are a worshiper of idols. But if the love of God predominates your feelings more than the love of money, if God gave you some portion of money, then it is a great blessing that you give and tell Him: “Of your own we have given you” (1 Chronicles 29:14b). “What you have given us, we have given you.”
Do you really grasp for the world and believe that the money you have is yours? Do you think it is yours? It is a blessing from God. “He makes poor and makes rich” (1 Samuel 2:7a). He “kills and gives life” (1 Samuel 2:6a). He sickens and heals (see Job 5:18). This is a gift offered to you by God! He has made you a steward over this entrustment. Are you a traitor or are you faithful? Determine your position. Are you a traitor or faithful to God in the entrustment He has given you?
A traitor does not give our Lord anything. Our Lord has given him, but he refuses to give our Lord of the gift He has given him. This is a traitor. But from the money God gave you, you give Him and say to Him: “From your money, we have given You.” So you will be found faithful in what God has given you. “There is no gift without increase save that which is [received] without thanksgiving” (Isaac the Syrian, Ascetical Homilies 2).
A gift that does not increase is devoid of thanksgiving. A gift that decreases is devoid of thanksgiving. A gift that increases has thanksgiving. What is thanksgiving? Does it mean eating, filling my stomach, and saying: “Thank You, Lord?” No. No! “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 7:21). But we offer thanks to God in deed. In deed. In good deeds! In kindness towards the poor and needy. Give God what is rightful[ly His], “give what is Caesar’s to Caesar, and what is God’s to God” (Matthew 22:21).
The Lord teaches us “seek first the kingdom of God.” Why? [] Firstly, one must seek the kingdom of God for a reason: he is a stranger on earth — a guest — and must inevitably leave the world. Has anyone taken anything with him? Has anyone taken a house? Has anyone taken a mansion? Has anyone taken money? So [he is] a stranger, and the stranger must leave. It is inevitable that he travels. Whether he wants to or not, he will leave. So he offers here what will profit him there, in the hereafter! He offers here what will benefit him in the afterlife. He will be surprised by the other life. If a man offers here, he will find there all that he offers here.
God says that He does not forget a cup of cold water (see Matthew 10:42). Meaning if you offer a cup of cold water to a thirsty man, it is counted for you with God. It is counted. What more if you offer more than a cup of water? So God teaches us to seek first His kingdom. This kingdom is inevitable. And the kingdom of heaven is an eternal kingdom that has no end.
We will be confronted with a truth in the end. There is no way around it. What is it? We will be confronted either with an eternal life or a miserable life. Either a life crowned with glory or a life full of torment. “Fire that cannot be quenched and worm that does not sleep” (see Mark 9:48).
When Paul the Apostle thought about and contemplated the eternal life — the life of eternal bliss — and saw and perceived, he said: “I counted everything as rubbish.” Why? “To gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). This whole world is rubbish, to gain Christ. Why are you saying this, Paul? He said: “I saw with my own eyes. I heard with my own ears.” What did you see with your own eyes? He said: “I know a man who was in the body, I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know.” What about him? He said: “He ascended to the third heaven.” What did he see? He said: “He saw what eyes did not see and what ears did not hear and what did not enter the heart of man what God has prepared for” whom? “For those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). For those who have taken eternity into account. For those who took the kingdom of God into account. What these planted here, they will reap there. What they offered here, they will [receive] there. So when Paul the Apostle felt and saw the glories and the thrones on which the saints were seated, and the spiritual, luminous, heavenly bliss in the eternal life, he said: “I counted all things as rubbish so that I might gain Christ.”
Christ teaches us in the gospel of today’s Liturgy to lay up for ourselves firstly treasures in heaven, where no corrupting agent can reach them, and He taught us that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. And He said: “If your eye is simple, your whole body will be full of light. And if your eye is evil, your whole body will be evil, dark” (see Matthew 6:22). Meaning if your heart is evil, then you have no goodness towards God. The evil heart cannot do good! It is entirely evil, from its beginning to its end. Because God says on the mouth of Isaiah: “There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21).
By the “good heart” He does not mean the eye. He means perception. There is sight and there is perception. Sight is [through] the eye, but perception is [through] the heart that God gave to man. “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways” (Proverbs 23:26), and “above all, guard your heart, for from it flow all the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
So the Lord teaches us that our gaze and our direction and our thinking and all our feelings must be towards the eternal life, knowing that we are strangers and will travel, and will inevitably reap what we offer here, because “God is not unjust to forget [your work and] labor of love” (Hebrews 6:10).
[Here, His Eminence congratulates his congregation on the beginning of Great Lent, urges them to arrive early to the Divine Liturgy every Sunday, and prays for them to receive blessings, good health, comfort, and healing, and to experience a holy and blessed Fast.]
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Original Arabic Recording: https://app.box.com/s/c7rdw3lxvsxmudmzkxjv9u619apiway4
His Eminence Metropolitan Mina of Girga, a contemporary Coptic Orthodox saint, was born in Nag-Hammadi, Egypt in May 1919, and entered the monastic life on April 30, 1939 at the monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi al-Natrun. On November 18, 1939, he was ordained to the priesthood and named Fr. Luka, and in 1943, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen and appointed the monastery's secretary. After completing his theological studies at the Clerical College, Fr. Luka was appointed the personal secretary of His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI. Shortly thereafter, his father of confession, Fr. Abdel-Messih al-Maqari — another modern Coptic Orthodox saint — predicted that Fr. Luka would be ordained to the episcopacy, and on August 7, 1960, this came to pass. His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI ordained Fr. Luka as Bishop Mina to oversee the diocese of Girga, Bahjoura, and Farshut; he would later receive the rank of Metropolitan. Metropolitan Mina was renowned for his great piety, deep love, consecration to the service of the Church, innumerable virtues, miracle-working, and life of incessant prayer and prolonged fasting. He received the eskeem — the highest honor in the monastic life, which required increased fasting, prostrations, and spiritual canons — and was said by those who knew him to have been among those who are spirit-borne. On November 7, 2003, Metropolitan Mina departed after a long struggle with illness, and was buried in the church of his teacher, Fr. Abdel-Messih al-Maqari, in Girga.
Cover Image: Metropolitan Mina of Girga, pictured on February 28, 1969 (Image Original).