Positive work
In our spiritual life, we must care for positive, constructive work. But while we are building our lives and the lives of people, Satan tries to present negatives to us so that we become preoccupied with them and they hinder us from positive work. So what is the importance of positive work:
Positive work
Examples of positive work:
1- The Lord Jesus Christ in His ministry is the most wonderful example of positive work:
At the beginning of His ministry, there were many errors in Jewish society, which extended to include the priests, their leaders, the elders of the people, the scribes, and the Pharisees. But the Lord continued in His constructive, positive work. He never resisted any of these at all. Rather, He continued teaching and preaching everywhere: on the mountain, by the lake, in the streets, and among the fields, without paying attention to their negatives, despite their criticisms.
Suppose the Lord had been occupied, for example, with the problem of the tax collectors—how they collected taxes unjustly, stole them, and how to deal with the matter—would He have had time left for positive work? He left these and continued working…
But perhaps an objector says: Did not the Lord Jesus pour woes upon the scribes and Pharisees? Did He not speak about the priests as the wicked vinedressers?
The answer is that He did this only in the last week, while He was on His way to Golgotha, because He was about to establish new leadership for the people instead of these…
But throughout the whole length of His ministry, during all the three and a half years, it was purely positive work… And He gave us the rule of the proverb which says:
Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.
He endured the ظلم of the wicked and exerted His effort (so as not to cause them to stumble).
2- Following the example of the Lord, in our modern era, Professor Habib Girgis walked the same path.
He lived in a lost and weak era, to the extent that the Church did not find a person to teach religion in the Seminary, so the student Habib Girgis was chosen to teach his classmates! This era was confronted by its errors by three categories that loved reform:
(a) The quarrelers: They clashed with the men of the Church and raised lawsuits against them in the courts. The Church’s money and efforts were lost in this conflict, and this group did not reach the desired reform.
(b) The insulters: They filled the world with shouting and defamation, as Sergius and Girgis Faltāwos ‘Awad did. This group also did not reach anything…
(c) The weepers: They kept lamenting the Church, and their weeping did not lead to reform.
And when the groups of quarrelers, insulters, and lamenters failed, Habib Girgis adopted another approach, which was building. He held in his hands two precious stones: the Seminary and Sunday Schools. He laid a foundation and continued building.
The building rose, and the Church was filled with knowledge and spirit, and the work grew.
And Habib Girgis kept saying in his heart: “But Your people shall be by blessing, thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads, doing Your will.”
Habib Girgis authored books in theology, doctrine, spirituality, and Church history, and also in hymnology. He established curricula and books for religious education and Sunday Schools. He moved from town to town, preaching and teaching…
The method of Habib Girgis succeeded, produced results, and everyone loved him. On one occasion, he was preaching, and throughout the sermon Pope Cyril V was signing him with the cross in blessing. The metropolitans loved him and offered him all their capabilities.
Habib Girgis did not waste his time criticizing wrong situations; rather, he continued building, quietly, with fruitful positive work… and he succeeded.
3- A third example of positive work is the parable of “the wheat and the tares.”
The people said to the Lord, “Do you want us to go and gather up the tares?” But He answered them, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:28–30).
Thus, not only did the tares remain, but they were even left to grow!! Why? “Lest they uproot the wheat with the tares…” How deep is this wisdom…
4- Another example: light and darkness from the beginning of creation…
In the story of Genesis, we hear that “darkness was on the face of the deep,” and yet God did not say, “Let there be no darkness.” Rather, He said positively, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and the darkness remained, and “God divided the light from the darkness”…
My brothers, the tares will remain in the earth until the day of harvest. And darkness will remain in the world, with the presence of light…
And all the days of the earth will remain, as the Scripture says, “Cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). The Lord commanded us not to uproot the tares, and He also said to us, “Do not resist evil” (Matthew 5:39). He commanded us with wisdom. So what is it?
Lest you uproot the wheat!!
1- The first harm that befalls us in uprooting the tares is the dissipation of energies…
A person, in resisting evil and uprooting the tares, dissipates his energy, wastes his effort, wastes his time, and ruins his nerves… Why this ruin?! All these energies could have been used in building and positive work…
If Satan finds a person building, he does not mind opposing him with some negatives, so that he becomes occupied with them and leaves the building…
And if there are no negatives, Satan does not mind inventing them—through lies, rumors, and misunderstandings. How skillful Satan is at draining the energies of builders and turning them toward negatives!!
2- How easy it is, in uprooting the tares, for a person to lose his peace…
He loses his inner peace, loses his peace with people, and spends his entire life in conflict, quarrels, and wars. Inside him there is anger and rebellion against situations, and outside him a volcano that erupts and spews lava.
But the spiritual person is like a pure spring in which you see the image of God…
And the one who loses his inner peace cannot grant peace to others.
For one who lacks something cannot give it. The one who struggles with God for the sake of good is filled with peace and hope, but the one who struggles with people is often filled with distress, worry, and turmoil…
3- Just as he loses his peace in uprooting the tares, he may also lose his meekness:
He loses his cheerfulness, his smile, his calmness, and the goodness of his heart. Often, in uprooting the tares, he turns into a hard-hearted person who strikes, shatters, and destroys, without mercy, without gentleness, in anger, agitation, and rebellion, without meekness…
You look at him and see him as tares. Where is your wheat, brother?! You are miserable! While uprooting the tares, you uprooted the wheat also, and you became tares!!
Yes, we often find those who uproot the tares to be nervous people, with grim faces, harsh words, and severe judgments. The “gentle and quiet spirit” has departed from them, and the spirit of distress and anxiety has surprised them, with reddening of the eyes and the rushing of blood in all their veins…
It is strange that such a person may excuse himself by saying that he is defending the truth, while the truth is innocent of him, because the truth does not agree with him on these errors…
While uprooting the tares, or what he thinks are tares, he has uprooted from himself meekness, calmness, peace, goodness, cheerfulness, good treatment, and gentleness. And what else?
4- He may also lose love. Many times, disagreement over principles deviates and turns into a personal dispute. It moves from the mind to the heart.
Such a person may become rocky in emotions, fond of quarrels, boasting, “I am frank in defending the truth; I tell the one-eyed man, ‘You are one-eyed,’ to his eye!!” My brother, is it love to say this? To wound people’s feelings? Is frankness the loss of love toward others? But while uprooting the tares, he uprooted the wheat and became tares.
5- Often you see this person having also lost his humility:
We often see uprooters of tares reminding us of the parable of “the Pharisee and the tax collector,” where the Pharisee stood boasting, saying, “I thank You, O Lord, that I am not like the rest of men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers—or even like this tax collector”…
This poor reformer imagines that he is purer than others, more knowledgeable than them, and more aware of righteousness and reform. So he criticizes others and wounds them, in pride and arrogance…
He thinks that the zeal within him is not in anyone else. He thinks that he is the hero defending the truth and the brave one who dared to uproot the tares!!
Where is your wheat, brother? You appear like tares in their qualities, for tares also are devoid of love and humility, devoid of peace and meekness!!
6- This person may also lose his justice, and become an eye that sees nothing but faults, while not seeing what is in others.
How difficult it is for a person to turn into a critical eye that searches for faults and gives nothing about others except a black image! It does not see good, nor praise the virtues of others. An eye roaming the fields, searching for tares to uproot, not looking at the beautiful wheat in the field. It has become accustomed to seeing nothing but tares.
7- Such a person often falls into the sin of judgment…
And it may develop into defamation… and everything in his heart he pours into people’s ears and minds, thinking that this is the path of reform.
8- Thus, without realizing it, he becomes a stumbling block to others.
And his children become of his kind, and his loved ones and acquaintances of the same kind. As it was said about the tree in the Book of Genesis, “Its seed is in itself according to its kind,” “producing fruit according to its kind.”
Remove the plank from your eye
All those who left positive work and devoted themselves to uprooting the tares benefited in nothing. Most of them uprooted their wheat and became tares…
If there is in your heart, brother, any holy zeal to uproot the tares, uproot first the tares that are in you. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly… Remove from your heart harshness, pride, lack of love, and lack of meekness… then you will remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
My beloved brothers, our work is not to uproot the tares, but to grow as wheat. And when the great Harvester comes, He finds our ears full of wheat, gathering from them thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold, and His barns are filled with wheat…
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in Al-Keraza Magazine, Sixth Year – (Issue Thirty-One), 1-8-1975.
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