October 2021 Letter

Dear brethren,

We learn from an article by the late Pope Shenouda, about “wheat and weeds (tares)”:

Your job is not to pull off the weeds (tares), but to grow like wheat, so that when the great reaper comes, he finds ears full of wheat, and he gathers them thirty, sixty and one hundred, and his barns are full of wheat.

Christ did not waste His time in resisting temporal errors…

He did not spend the period of His incarnation on earth battling with sinners and the problems of society and the church, but was interested in building by laying down new principles and preparing people who would believe in them and spread them everywhere.

Engaging in stripping the tares is a waste of energies…

Satan is ready to occupy you at all times with problems and to present you with countless mistakes in order to distract you by resisting and fighting them from working in building yourself and building the kingdom of God. In this conflict he wastes your time, efforts and nerves.

And in taking off the tares, you may lose your inner peace, and perhaps your peace with people, as well as, you live in conflict.

Thus, you lose your calm and serenity, and you may lose your meekness as well. Problems may bring you into an atmosphere of turmoil and endless disagreements that excite you and surround you with constant emotion.

And as you lose your meekness and calmness, you may also lose your smile, and people see you only solemn and not smiling. Also perhaps anger and sadness possess you and you do not try to get rid of them because you consider it wrath and holy sadness for the sake of God.

And all this may lead you to hardness of heart…

You may find yourself constantly condemning the wrong people, rebelling against their mistakes under the pretext of removing the weeds from them, and constantly shouting to the people, rebuke, reprimand, spit out threats and be dissatisfied with everything.

In all of this, you may lose your love for people, and lose your humility, and as you remove the weeds from people, you will have removed the wheat in you, and people look at you and see you as the weeds in everything.

Few are able to pull off the weeds and at the same time keep their wheat. Therefore, the Lord forbade His children to take off the weeds, so that they would not take off the wheat with him.

The Bible well said: “Do not resist evil”…

The best way to remove the weeds is to set a good example that will destroy them, and as the wise said: “instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”

May the blessing of St. Mary & St. Mercurius, all the martyrs and saints be with us all.

Belleville, October 1, 2021

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