Jesus frequently told us to make sure our intentions are good and pure, that we don’t do things out of vainglory or pride, nor to gain some power or authority over others. We should do what we do out of love, promoting the good of others and not just ourselves. It is imperative we have our priorities straight, and if we don’t, we will find ourselves straying far away from God and all that God wants for us. If we want fame, we might get it, but at the cost of our soul. If we want fortune, once again, we might get it, but we won’t be able to take it with us once we die. If we seek knowledge and understanding for its own sake, without considering the implications of what we learn and engaging that knowledge for the sake of self-reform as well as for the good of others, it is also useless. “Wealth and lineage and wisdom without someone conducting himself are of no profit at all.”[1] That is, as Jesus said, “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? “ (Mk. 8:36 RSV).
This is a challenge for all of us. Not only should we seek true, everlasting profit, the profit which is found only in union and communion with God, we must do what we can to attain it. Of course we cannot do it all by ourselves. We need help, which is what God offers us with grace. But we must also realize if we do not cooperate with that grace, if we do not engage it, seeking our perfection in and through it, we risk losing everything. Therefore, we should pick up our cross and follow Christ (cf. Mk. 8:34), knowing that only in this fashion, dying to our fallen self, we will be able to find ourselves coming back to life in the kingdom of God and receiving all the joy and true glory which can be had in it. We should, of course, not expect this to be instantaneous; putting ourselves on our own cross is usually a process, one begins in our temporal existence and continues on after death, though some, perhaps, might find they shall attain such perfection before they die, and so find themselves exalted by God in their death (like Mary, the Mother of God).
Thus, we are warned not to be overly attached to the world, not because the world is evil and is going to be destroyed, but because an improper attachment to it turns the good in it into an idol which, so long as we are attached to it in that fashion, we cut ourselves off from the grace we need to fulfill our potential and become perfect in regards our nature and personal character. Being unattached to the world should not be seen as being uncaring about it and what happens in it. Jesus shows us this. God so loved the world, God’s creation, that God took on a created nature, humanity, so that the world and all that is in it can be healed from the wounds of sin and brought into the kingdom of God. What such detachment means is that we should engage the world in accordance to its relative good and not be distracted by any relative good by turning it into an absolute good, thereby diverting us from the real absolute good, which is God. We should care for and work for the good of the world in and through our right relationship with God, not apart from it. When the structures of sin try to bring us back into their net, offering us all kinds of temporary treasures and blessings if we do so, we should remember what sin offers will not last and not only will prove unsatisfactory, but also tainted with various kinds of suffering. What it offers is the illusion of the absolute good, and where that illusion does not meet reality, we will suffer. What is real is what lasts, and what lasts is what becomes established in the kingdom of God. If we get caught up in the structures of sin, and the way of life they create, we will lose sight of God and instead seek all we want from the created order, including the fickle beings living in it. But, just as nothing we gain in this fashion will satisfy us, so we will never be able to satisfy others. Thus, to avoid that error, to avoid the never-ending quest to please society to justify our gains, we must stop thinking we can be and should make ourselves special in their eyes and instead live simply, embracing what is good and true, looking to God, not humanity, for our true needs:
Abba Macarius the Great said: ‘As much as a soul loves the glory of mankind, it is that far from the glory of God, because it does not have humility. Otherwise, it would not seek praise, which is perishable. No where there is no humility, neither is there God.’[2]
Of course, as we are relational creatures, we should form loving and just relationships with those around us. But, when we do so, we must keep in mind why we do it. We should not do it for the sake of gaining fame and fortune, for then our relationships are impure, as they are done out of selfish desire, and not love. We should embrace others for the good in them, realizing that good, like our good, comes from God, and so also embrace them in relation to our embrace of God and God’s absolute goodness. Then, we will be known by God, because we reached out to God, and being known by God will lead us to our own eternal life as Jesus indicated when he talked about the last judgment: those known by God will be elevated and praised by God for what they did to be make themselves known, while those who have cut themselves off from God, risk losing out, because they sold themselves short for some temporal, instead of eternal, glory.
[1] More Sayings of the Desert Fathers. An English Translation And Notes. Ed. John Wortley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019; repr. 2023), 107 [“Sayings Preserved in Arminian”: A46].
[2] More Sayings of the Desert Fathers,108 [“Sayings Preserved in Arminian”: A57].
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