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 This week on Harmony of Thunder: In his sermon "On Refusal to Judge our Neighbor," St. Dorotheos of Gaza begins with some sayings of the church fathers ("If we remember the sayings of the holy fathers, brothers, and put them into practice all the time, it will be difficult for us to neglect ourselves") and then branches out, in order that we could carefully track the manner in which sin overtakes us. St. Dorotheos is an expert in the struggle against sin, and everyone who listens to this Harmony of Thunder will benefit from his insight.
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Harmony of Thunder, Program 25 :
St. Dorotheos of Gaza “On Refusal to Judge our Neighbor”
I have often said that sinning is a ten step process, and step one takes place in the mind. When you think sinful thoughts, eventually those thoughts become actions. I went into a donut shop one time with a co-worker who was trying to lose weight. “Oh, my,” she said as she looked at the racks of delicious donuts, “Those donuts are tempting me.” I disagreed with her. I said, “You were tempted when you decided to drive your car here, when you told me that this was the only coffee you would drink. You were tempted when we arrived, and you found a parking spot and got out of your car. You were tempted when you stood in line and considered that perhaps you wouldn’t get just coffee, but perhaps a donut would be nice. You were tempted when you got to the front of the line. You’re not being tempted to sin any more; you’re doing the actual sinning.”
She laughed and we both got our coffee - and nothing more - and left. Sometimes calling sin “sin” is the best defense.
Hi, welcome to Harmony of Thunder, where we explore and enjoy the rich tradition of Orthodox preaching. I’m your host, Fr. David Smith. Each week, Harmony of Thunder chooses a sermon from scripture or from the works of a saint and we spend our time together looking at the style, the illustrations, and the spiritual message of the preacher.
Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and of all the saints, bless your Holy Orthodox Church with great preachers and people who want to hear them. Amen.
This is the approach St. Dorotheos of Gaza takes in his sermon “On Refusal to Judge our Neighbor.” His opening point is not that judging our neighbor is a sin in itself, which it is, but that the sins of the mind lead to greater and more serious sins: “If we remember the sayings of the holy fathers, brothers, and put them into practice all the time, it will be difficult for us to neglect ourselves. For if, as they used to say, we do not despise little things and think they are of no consequence to us, we shall not fall into great and grievous things. I am always telling you that bad habits are formed in the soul by these very small things – when we say, ‘What does this or that matter,’ – and it is the first step to despising great things. You know how great a wrong it is to judge you neighbor. What is graver than this? What does God hate and turn away from so much as from this? As the fathers say, what is worse than judging rashly? Nevertheless, from things that appear negligible a man comes to such great evil.”
Now, in spite of the fact that the preacher tells us that the little things lead to the greater, we also have to understand that the smaller sins, like judging our neighbor, also carry consequences beyond the fact it leads to other sins. When St. Dorotheos teaches us about judging our neighbor, he divides the sin into three separate parts: “There are three distinct things here: running a man down; condemning him unjustly; and despising him. Running a man down is saying that so-and-so has told a lie, or got into a rage, or gone whoring or the like. A man has already committed calumny if he speaks about his brother’s sins as if with sympathy. Condemning a man is saying, ‘he is a wicked liar, or he is an angry man, or he is a fornicator’. For in this way one judges the condition of his soul and draws a conclusion about his whole life, saying it is of such a kind and condemns him as such. This is a very serious thing. For it is one thing to say, ‘He got mad’, and another thing to say, “he is bad-tempered’, and to reveal, as we said, the whole disposition of his life. It is serious to judge a man for each one of his sins.”
So we not only say that we must avoid judging in order to avoid the more serious sins, but we also realize that judging itself is a serious sin. I found my conscience pricked when he made his point about the different kinds of judging. When I know someone, I often notice habits that the person has, patterns in his behavior. Then, when I detect a noticeable pattern, I give the person a label – “he’s such an old lady,” or “she’s the biggest gossip in the place,” or “that man’s just stupid.” St. Dorotheos taught me that it’s a very different thing to say something like that, versus saying something like, “the other day he was very concerned about getting to something on time, and he became upset when he thought we would be late.” Of course, gossiping about a particular moment of weakness a person had is a sin in itself, because it’s a form of judging. But it is much worse, I’ve learned, to pronounce a person’s whole life as defective in some way based on a few experiences.
There is another way in which this sermon taught me about judging, although this time I’m sure that St. Dorotheos didn’t intend the lesson to be an actual part of the sermon. It comes from a long and very unique illustration in this sermon which I will quote in full: “A slave ship put in at a certain port where there lived a holy virgin who was in earnest about her spiritual life. When she learned about the arrival of the ship she was glad, for she wanted to buy a small serving maid for herself. She thought
to herself, ‘I will take her into my home and bring her up in my way of life so that she knows nothing of the evils of the world.’ So she sent and enquired of the master of the ship and found that he had two small girls who he thought would suit her. Whereupon she gladly paid the price and took one of the children into her house. The ship’s master went away. He had not gone very far when there met him the leader of a dancing troupe who saw the other small girl with him and wanted to buy her; the price was agreed and paid, and he took her away with him.”
Can you see, dear listener, where I would find myself judging another person here, in particular, the upstanding Christian woman in the story who was obviously a slave owner? But that was not the intent of St. Dorotheos, since slavery as a part of his culture was not particularly noticeable to him. For those of us living today, this is such a glaring issue, even though we all realize that there were times in history when slavery was practiced by otherwise good Christian people. St. Dorotheos speaks to the issue of judging, although in a way completely different than the way that I would find myself being a judge in this case: “Now take a look at God’s mystery; see what his judgment was. Which of us could give any judgment about this case? The holy virgin took one of the little ones to bring her up in the fear of God, to instruct her in every good work, to teach her all that belongs to the monastic state and all the sweetness of holy commandments of God. The other unfortunate child was taken for the dancing troupe, to be trained in the works of the devil. What effect would teaching her this orgiastic dancing have, but the ruin of her soul? What can we have to say about this frightful judgment? Here were two little girls taken away from their parents by violence. Neither knew where they came from; one is found in the hands of God and the other falls into the hands of the devil. Is it possible to say that what God asks from the one he asks also from the other? Surely not! Suppose they both fell into fornication of some other deadly sin; is it possible that they both face the same judgment or that their fall is the same?” And later he says: “How can he allow them to be examined by the same standard?”
I myself needed to ask the same question. Can I judge this unnamed virgin based on my sense of right and wrong? Especially keeping in mind the lofty quality of her intensions? Not at all. The two little girls from the story will grow into very different adults, just as the slave owner in the story and I myself have grown into two very different adults. And so the question remains: “Is is possible that they both face the same judgment?”
In fact, that should be our quote of the day: “Is is possible that they both face the same judgment?”
And of course, dear listener, we have to extend this illustration to all of us, as we are all so inclined to judge those around us. Who knows what dealings have gone on between God and that person who you have labeled defective in some way? Do you really want to be the one who elbows himself between that person and God, and pronounces the judgment that only God can pronounce? I don’t know about you, but I would have to say for myself: “Dear God keep me from that!”
This was a very unique experience for me. But slavery and cultural issues aside, I have to say that it’s a wonderful thing to have someone gain an unexpected, and even unintended (by me, the preacher) spiritual benefit from one of my sermons, as I have today from the sermon of St. Dorotheos.
Of course, there are also times when people get offended at something that I didn’t say, hadn’t considered, and didn’t imply at all, and that’s not such a wonderful thing.
Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, fill us all with your Holy Spirit that we may judge only ourselves and not judge one another, we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
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