The Holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian
1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Matthew 13:36-43
Read Matthew 13:36-43
Today on the secular calendar we celebrate the anniversary of the confederation of the country of Canada. It is the 154th year of the establishment of this country. This year has seen a lot of turmoil and difficulty brought on by the Covid pandemic. The stress has also fuelled frustration and disappointment with cultural deficiencies and historical sins committed by those in positions of authority who were trusted to take care of the weak and vulnerable. This Canada Day is celebrated with mixed emotions.
As Christians, we mourn, but yet are grateful. We mourn for the failings of the past, the unnecessary violence of the present, but at the same time, we are grateful for the freedom and blessings we continue to receive. Freedom is a vital right because it creates the setting for human beings to live out their God-given free will. Freedom to worship, to live the Gospel, to share the Gospel, to show Christian love and to say no to vice and to that which obstructs my relationship with God—to say ‘yes’ but also to say ’no’ to the spiritual unhealthy things. This type of Christian life creates the potential for transformative change, which starts with the heart of the individual human being. If our hearts are not given over to Christ and transformed then we will continue to make the same mistakes of the past over and over again.
God respects free will so much that He permits wheat and the weeds to grow together in the same field. This gives us insight into the fact that we live in a fallen, broken and sinful world—paradise is coming, but only through Jesus’ Kingdom. Yes, we are called to ‘be the light of the world’, to make a difference, to change the world for the better and to foster and exemplify Christian love, but we can expect weeds to be planted by the enemy. This is not a call to judge who is a wheat or who is a weed, but rather a reminder that we need to avoid ourselves becoming a weed. Each one of us has a God-given potential for positive change and this is first done through repentance—change of self. This is an unpopular message because nowadays no one wants to change, but everyone expects societal perfection. Societal change can only happen when we embrace it individually.