The Spiritual Priest Cares for Everyone in Order to Save Him
The Spiritual Priest Cares for Everyone in Order to Save Him
The priest should be spiritual, because the work of the shepherd is summarized in the following phrase mentioned in the Didascalia: “Let the bishop care for everyone in order to save him.” And the bishop works through his priests, and the priests work through their deacons. Therefore, the work of the bishop, the priest, and the deacon is to care for everyone in order to save him. As long as the work is salvific, its bearer must be a spiritual person.
And the phrase “everyone” means all people: the old and the young. It includes those who attend church and those who do not, the religious and the non-religious. The priest is mistaken who thinks that his own people are only those who attend church. And the Sunday School teacher is mistaken who thinks that his own people are only those whose names are on the list. Rather, he should care for everyone: for the young men who enter amusement places. The priest cares for his enemy and his friend in order to save him; he cares for the committee members who trouble him in order to save them.
And the phrase everyone does not mean only the Orthodox, but all denominations, because they are his flock.
The work of pastoral care has an evangelistic aspect, namely preaching to non-believers so that they may believe. He cares for everyone. Our apostolic fathers used to go to pagan regions (to work in them), and they used to ordain bishops over lands in which there was not a single Christian person.
You enter into what you have not labored for. You enter into an established church and present believers to serve them. But the apostles used to go to lands with no churches, no faith, and no Christian people, and they felt that those pagans were their flock.
And if the bishop seeks the salvation of everyone, he must first know who they are.
What are their names, and where do they live? Thus there must be a complete survey of the area in which he works in order to know his flock. For the Lord Jesus says that He knows His sheep and calls them by their names (John 10). And we do not mean only to know their names, but also their circumstances and their problems, and the obstacles that stand between them and cleaving to God.
How beautiful it is for the shepherd to have a strong memory.
Many people feel that they have been lost in the midst of the crowd, and that their names have been forgotten among the multitude of names, and that each one of them finds no place in the memory of the priest to lay his head. Thus he feels lack of care from the priest. And if it happens that one of these strays and is taken by another religion or another denomination, perhaps then the priest remembers that this person was his son.
How often pastors protest against the intervention of strangers, while they themselves do nothing. And how often they blame others while they themselves do nothing.
Thus the priest must know the flock and study their condition. And if he cannot—and often cannot—let him use with him many helpers. How many unused energies exist in the church that find no one to utilize them! Then the devil uses them, or the denominations use them, or other types of worldly activities use them.
To save him:
Many pastors care for people, but not for the salvation of their souls. Some of them care about secondary matters, such as solving material or social or family problems, and they limit themselves to this situation without thinking about the salvation of these people’s souls.
Exactly like parents who care for their children: how the children go to school, how they learn, how their bodies grow and their health improves, how they eat and drink and dress… while they do not care at all for the salvation of their souls. The father becomes inflamed if his son becomes sick, but does not care whether his son walks in the way of God or not. The mother cares for the elegance of her daughter, and does not care whether she enters the Kingdom or not!
The salvation of the soul is the most important thing. It is the cornerstone of the shepherd’s work. All other works are merely means to reach this goal.
Perhaps the pastor cares greatly that people attend church, but this attendance is only a means for the salvation of the soul. For a person may attend church and his soul may not be saved! And many pastors care about the outward appearances of Christian life without entering into the depths of the heart and the extent of its union with God.
And unfortunately, some pastors think that the word “salvation” is limited to the Associations of Soul-Saving! And if one of the servants speaks about it, they accuse him with the severest accusations. And if they could, they would delete from the Scripture the verse: “Receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:9)… And rarely does one of them preach about the saying of Paul the Apostle to Timothy: “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:16). Salvation is the most important, first, and deepest thing we seek. And we seek it more than the Associations of Soul-Saving, which believe that their people have been saved and the matter is finished.
And the shepherd must do all these things with a kind of care—not merely as a duty or a job, but with a heart burning with zeal, as Paul the Apostle said: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” (2 Cor. 11:29). And as it was said of him when he entered Athens: “His spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols” (Acts 17:16). And as the Scripture said: “Zeal for Your house has consumed me” (Ps. 119:139). And also: “Horror has taken hold of me because of the wicked who forsake Your law” (Ps. 119:53).
We need shepherds who care. We feel that their pastoral work is mixed with emotion, strength, and concern. Their hearts burn from within for the sake of their flock.
They weep before God day and night for the repentance of their children. They strive and labor and seek. They give no sleep to their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids until they find a place for the Lord in the heart of everyone. And we feel in them care for visitation, care for preaching, and care for service in general, for the salvation of people’s souls.
They are not swept away by the routine of service, nor are they occupied by liturgical duties, but the salvation of the soul is everything to them.
Care, for the priest and the shepherd, carries the meaning of emotion in service, exertion, visitation, and not covering up shortcomings with excuses. There is a difference between the hired man and the son in service. The son works with his heart from his depths. But the hired man works formally and can excuse himself with excuses. The servant who cares in service does not despair quickly from the hardest of souls in stubbornness and distance from religion.
He cares for everyone in order to save him. And the one who cares for the salvation of a person’s soul does not rest until he sees him saved, exerting all means for that goal. As we say to the Lord in the Divine Liturgy: “You have bound me with all the remedies leading to life.” And people can distinguish between the spirit of care and mere formalities.
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