Our Venerable Father Sisoes the Great (c. 429).
Romans 12:1-3. Matthew 10:37-11:1.
Read Romans 12:1-3
Perhaps you have heard the expression “my body, my choice” when speaking with pro-abortionist. Although this statement doesn’t hold water in the abortion debate (because what we are actually talking about is another little body that is not the mother’s body), it does very much relate to what St. Paul is saying today to the Romans: we can choose to offer our bodies and minds to the Lord or to the world.
Anyone who worships within a Byzantine Church will be struck very quickly by how “bodily” the experience of worship is. We make the sign of the cross often, we bow frequently (sometimes even to the floor during the Great Fast), we respond to the intercessory litanies through hearty singing. In other words, our bodies are not just “along for the ride” we are our bodies and we bring them to the Lord in all that we do. The world often tries to tell us that our faith is a private idea or “concept,” but it is only through offering the Lord all of ourselves – body, soul and mind— that we can live a truly authentic Christian life.
St. John Chrysostom writes: “The body is made a sacrifice when the eye looks at nothing evil, the tongue says nothing filthy, and the hand does nothing lawless. More than this, the hand must give alms; the mouth must bless the one who curses; and the ear must listen to the reading of Scripture.” (Homilies on Romans 20)