August 16, 1998
Why
Monks and the Laity Need Each Other
Today's story is very instructive in answering the question,
"Why do we need monks?" It shows us just one of the many ways in which the laity
and the monastics relate to each other in matters of the spirit and why we should support
the monastic life.
BEGIN: The brothers said, "Why is it that the monks are
obliged to go around begging for the food and clothes they need, like those who are in the
world, although our Lord promised them, saying, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
its righteousness, and that of which ye have need shall be given to you’ (Matt.
6:23)?"
The old man said, "This saying is a proof of the wisdom and grace of God toward those
who are in the world, for in the majority of cases, the righteousness of the children of
this world consists of alms and compassion; but the children of light are righteous people
and monks who, in their persons, and in their bodies, and in their thoughts, serve our
Lord. And God has made the monks to have need of the children of this world because of His
love, so that they may care for each other, and may pray for each other; that is to say,
the children of the world must care for the monks and the monks must pray in love for
them.
"And as the children of the world make the monks associates with them in the
corporeal things of the world, the monks must make the children of the world to be
associates with them in the things of heaven, for our Lord spoke to the children of the
world, saying, ‘Make ye to yourselves friends of this mammon of iniquity so that when
they have become perfect they may receive you into their tabernacles which are
forever.’ (Luke 14:9)" END TEXT.
from E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers," (Seattle:
St. Nectarios Press, 1984), p.304
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