PLEASURE AND PAIN

Transcript of a speech made by protopresbyter Constantine Strategopoulos, interpreting a passage of the Gospel according to St. Luke, Chapter 16, verses 19-31, in the context of the Sermon during Sunday’s Divine Liturgy on November 4th 2007.

This well-known parable of poor Lazarus and the rich man may seem to be totally comprehensible to our minds. But this deceptive simplicity entails the risk of interpreting this passage in a legalistic spirit.

Meaning that those who do good deeds are rewarded (by God) and those do bad deeds get punished. Although this figure holds true, God does not affect us in a legalistic way, but by loving us.

And you might say “Isn’t this what the parable said?”

There are some keys, very deep explanatory keys, whereby we can actually interpret this text without resulting in a judicial experience, which after all would destroy our relationship with God, since, instead of relating to Him through love, we would consider Him as an ostensible daily danger.

The key to this parable goes back in time. It actually refers to the first pages of the Holy Bible. On the pages of the Genesis, in the second chapter more precisely, there is the well-known text you are all familiar with, where God, in the garden of Eden, gave man the opportunity to taste all the fruits of the earth. He gave him this freedom, you see, but with one restriction: Not to taste one fruit!

This interpretive key says the following: Whatever you use, use it as a gift, not in a demanding way, not with a domineering attitude, not with protest; instead, use it with abstinence, with humbleness, and by praising the Lord.

Abstinence, in other words self-restraint, denotes another type of equanimity. It sets aside the dominant, the demanding, the egotistical “What I want, will be done!”. There is a balance. Keep this double balance in mind to understand what follows.

See what the text says about the rich man? “He feasted sumptuously every day... and was dressed in royal purple”. He used things in a demanding way, without the other element, that of abstinence, praise to God and gratitude. He displayed none of these qualities.

So a disease was already creeping into him, affecting the whole equilibrium of his existence, because this lack of balance is a disease. A condition where the body does not function, due to the further saturation of the senses, but neither does the soul. How could the soul function, if the body has fattened? This is the lack of balance.

Look at poor Lazarus; he also used food, those crumbs. He received some pleasure, tasting them, but in what manner? Without any protest, without saying anything, without any objections, without talking about the injustice of the situation. What little he was given, he received thankfully. So, one man was using things in a demanding, selfish way, whereas the other was using them with abstinence, while giving praise to God.

And here is the hidden key of this passage, where as you see further on, the rich man has suffered a distortion within him. It is not that he is punished by not being allowed to get close to Abraham, but that he is not able to get close to what Abraham is, because, as you see, he is still complaining. He is complaining that he has no water to cool his tongue, he is complaining because God does not send someone on earth to say the things that should be said, he is entirely given to this objection, to this protest. Here is a notion that has been incorporated in the theology of the Church Fathers through their interpretation of this text: the balance between the words "Pleasure and Pain".

When pleasure functions in a dominating, demanding and selfish way, not in a God-glorifying manner, not in a charismatic sense, not with a thankful disposition, then we enter a state of deep pain. And then we will experience the ascetic pain, the deprivation, the restraint, the repentance, the deep sorrow washed in tears which are the tears of repentance, whereby [heavenly] pleasure is eventually restored through pain.

God did not want it this way. He gave us simultaneously the pleasure of taste and the thankful approach to things and situations.

In this sense, hell is ours alone; it is a choice that we make, and it becomes even more intense as we come face to face with God's infinite Love for us, rather than a legalistic representation of Him.

The rich man and Lazarus.

The possessive, the dominant, the protesting, the lack of restraint, of praise to God, of thankfulness. Isn’t this what marks our life every day? Isn’t this what shatters our life every day?

This excerpt is not only contemporary, it is something we must face every single day of our lives.

The pleasure and the pain.

Not only a contemporary issue, but our daily experience!

Approach the concept, and you will not only benefit from it - you will become deeply thankful people and true children of God!