St. Philaret, whose feast we celebrate today, lived in
the 8th century in what is now Turkey, in the village of
Amnia. He himself was wealthy and he married a wealthy
woman, Theoseba. Although they owned a great deal of
money and goods, they often ended up broke, because, for
the love of Christ, Philaret kept giving it all away to
the poor.
Once a man came and asked for a calf so he could start a
herd. Philaret gave it to him. The cow missed the calf
and it bellowed and bellowed. Theoseba began to yell at
her husband, “Don’t you feel sorry for that cow now that
you separated her from her calf?” The saint praised his
wife and agreed with her. He called the man back and
gave him the cow as well.
That year there was a famine and Philaret took a donkey
and went to borrow six bushels of grain from a friend.
When he returned home a poor man asked him for a little
wheat, so he told Theoseba to give him a bushel of
wheat. She replied, “First you must give a bushel of
wheat to me and our three children, then you can give
yours away.” Philarent gave the man the two bushels he
had left. Theoseba grew angry. Sarcastically, she told
him, “Oh, why not just give him half of all the wheat if
you really want to share.” So, he gave the man a third
bushel.” Even more angry now, Theoseba continued, “Why
not give him the bag also, and how’s he going to carry
it away with him. Just to spite me, you better give him
the donkey too.” Philaret blessed his wife and did just
that and man left with all the wheat loaded on the
donkey. She and their children began to cry, fearing
they would starve to death, but not long after that a
family friend sent 40 bushels to them and they had
plenty to eat.
The Byzantine empress Irene was looking for a bride for
her son, and she sent emissaries out into the country to
find a good candidate for the future emperor. One day
they came to Amnia and decided to visit Philaret’s home,
because, even though they were often on the edge of
bankruptcy, Philaret was a dignitary and enjoyed a great
reputation in the region. Theoseba was distraught
because they had very little to offer these important
guests, but all the neighbors pitched in with food and a
fine dinner was served. In the end, their granddaughter,
Maria was chosen to become the royal bride. This is
historically true. As a result, money and fame came to
Philaret, but just as before, he continued to give to
those in need. People were deeply impressed by his
humility and they called him a true disciple of Jesus
Christ. There are many more details about his life, and
even his wife was slowly converted to greater faith
during their marriage, but there’s not time to tell it
here.
What I want to talk about is focus. Obviously, the man
in today’s Gospel had a focus—it was on his wealth. He
couldn’t follow Christ by giving it up, not even for
eternal life. Philaret’s focus was on Christ, so he was
willing to give up his goods to those in need for the
sake of Christ. What you focus on is the lens you use to
see this world and then you decide how you want to live
in the world you see. One man chose to focus on himself
and the riches he possessed, while the other man chose
to focus on the Lord and the riches that come from
Christ. One man was distracted by his money, the other
man was attracted first of all to Christ, despite his
wealth.
We get distracted all the time by the people and the
things and events in our lives. We can easily lose our
focus. Sometimes it is hard to keep our focus where we
know it should be, and then live as we see life through
that lens. It is not easy to keep focused on Christ, to
walk in His way, to see our lives and this world as He
shows us, teaches us and guides us. Our thoughts and our
passions constantly tempt us to focus on ourselves as
the masters of our own lives, telling us to live for
ourselves, not for the Lord and for the people He has
put into our way. It’s difficult to resist that focus on
ourselves, and it’s so easy to be distracted by what is
not good for us and what is not helpful to us.
We may be living on automatic pilot so often, instead of
plotting the best flight plan for our lives and we can
end up flying more by our weaknesses than our strengths,
more into what superficially seems good or important,
and we neglect to take our plans from Christ. Is it a
surprise then that we often crash, even when we are not
intentionally doing something wrong? If we do not see
this world and live our lives according to the lens of
our faith, we have an outlook that will not lead us into
the arms of Christ, Who only desires our good. We will
land somewhere else.
Christmas is a great opportunity for celebration. It
comes in 25 more days. Twenty-five more days that we can
use to sharpen our focus on the Lord Who has given us
life. Twenty-five more days not to allow ourselves to be
distracted by the people and events of our lives, but
rather to take those people and events and see them
through the lens of our faith.
The days grow darker, let our faith grow brighter.
Spirits may sag; then let us lift up our hearts to the
Lord. We will be annoyed and angry perhaps; let the
peace of Jesus soothe our hearts and let us forgive
those who have wronged us. Material stuff and emotional
neediness may get in our way; let us take care to
nourish our souls and only seek consolation in Christ,
not in other people or things. We will be tempted; let
us be strong, and if we should fall, let’s repent, get
up and move on towards our goal. Every day until
December 25th let us get up and say “Blessed be the name
of the Lord! Thank you, Lord, for giving me this day and
help me to live in, so that all the day long I live
according to Your truth!” (I think we sing that
somewhere in the Liturgy.) To do this every day.
(My experience at the priests’ retreat.)
So, I will make that my focus to remember that time
every day this month. I pray we all will keep a sharp
focus these days on Jesus, so that we become, like
Theoseba gradually did, better followers of Christ. The
rich man fatally lost his focus and allowed distractions
to ruin his good desire. May it not ever be so for us.
Not ever.
Jesus is Wisdom. Let us be attentive!