What Is Your Responsibility?
What Is Your Responsibility?
Every person has a responsibility—or several responsibilities—that he must fulfill. It is enough to recall the words of Scripture: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).
Your Responsibility Toward Yourself
The first responsibility of a person is toward himself.
You are responsible for educating yourself, for training yourself spiritually, and for disciplining yourself against desires. You are responsible for carrying out God’s commandments and doing His will. For the Lord says: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). You are also responsible for walking in the Spirit and growing in the spiritual life.
Beware, in this responsibility, of excusing yourself by weakness, lack of ability, external pressures, or stumbling blocks. God did not accept excuses from our first parents, Adam and Eve, but judged them (Genesis 3:11–19).
In your responsibility toward yourself, remember the Lord’s words: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Responsibility Toward the Family
There is also responsibility toward the family.
Each spouse has a responsibility toward the other (Ephesians 5:22, 25), and together they are responsible for raising their children in the fear of God—a kind of upbringing that leads the child to love God and avoid sin, and if he falls, to rise quickly.
Parents receive their child from baptism pure and clean, and they are responsible for acting toward him as sponsors. The mother is the first teacher of faith for her child. Here we recall what the Apostle Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy the bishop: “When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice…” (2 Timothy 1:5).
Likewise, the father hears the Lord saying to him: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house…” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7).
How many fathers read the Scriptures and recount them to their children? Is this not a responsibility for which every father will be held accountable? Who, according to the commandment, speaks the word of God at home?
The problem is that families often relinquish their responsibility, relying entirely on the Church. As long as children attend Sunday School or youth meetings, parents feel their role has ended—without supervision or review of what the children have learned and understood.
I often ask Sunday School children and adolescents about the lesson they studied the previous week, and most answer, “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.” I used to tell mothers: if a child knew that his mother would ask him—after returning from Sunday School—about the lesson, he would pay closer attention and remember, so as not to feel embarrassed saying, “I don’t know.”
Thus, it is the duty of the family to participate in teaching, supervision, and review.
Parents should not think that their responsibility is limited to physical upbringing—health, education, material and social needs, or preparing children for work and marriage—while neglecting spiritual upbringing, which is of supreme importance.
We should also remember the responsibility of other family members, such as brothers and sisters. Here we recall what Saint Macrina did in spiritually caring for her brothers until they became bishops. We also must not forget the responsibility of grandparents.
Responsibility of the Church
This is a responsibility that expands and develops. Alongside spiritual and educational responsibility, there are many material and social responsibilities. All of this rests upon the shoulders of the fathers—priests—along with their assistants, the deacons, servants, and the various church committees.
Educational responsibility includes sermons in churches and special occasions, meetings, Sunday School, youth classes, university fellowships, conferences, retreats, cultural courses, and what the Church publishes in books, pamphlets, and magazines.
Spiritual responsibility includes leading the people to repentance and love of God, including the sacrament of confession, pastoral visitation, and resolving personal and family problems.
Material and social responsibility is clarified in the Lord’s words in Matthew 25:
“I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me… Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:35–36, 40).
How dangerous is the deprivation of the Kingdom for those who fail in this responsibility.
You also have responsibility regarding tithes, firstfruits, and God’s rights in your money, and obedience to the commandment: “Give to him who asks you” (Matthew 5:42). Also: “Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13), and “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so” (Proverbs 3:27).
Political Responsibility
You have a responsibility toward your country and toward the society in which you live. This includes registering to vote, obtaining an election card, using it, casting your vote, and choosing the best and most upright candidates to serve your nation. If you do not do this, you give opportunity for unworthy individuals to be elected.
Do not be passive. Responsibility obliges us to be positive. We are responsible before our country, our Church, and our consciences for political passivity and for the dangers it brings, both public and personal.
Two Types of Responsibility
There is official responsibility and voluntary responsibility.
• Official responsibility includes that of the bishop, of whom the Didascalia says: “Let the bishop care for everyone, that he may save them.” It also includes the responsibility of the priest and the deacon.
The Apostle Paul said of his responsibility: “A stewardship has been entrusted to me… Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16–17). Likewise, the responsibility of “the faithful and wise steward whom his master will make ruler over his household” (Luke 12:42), before whom stands the words: “Give an account of your stewardship” (Luke 16:2).
• Sunday School servants also have an official responsibility, even though it is voluntary. The Church has entrusted them with children who may depend on them as their only source of instruction. If they neglect their service, they are responsible for the loss of those entrusted to them and will be accountable before God.
• Fathers and mothers likewise bear an official responsibility toward their children. If a child falls into error, the parents and the servant may share in the responsibility.
Truly, if every family raised its children in the fear of God, and if every Sunday School and youth servant fulfilled his responsibility faithfully, the Church would become a community of saints—as it is meant to be.
• Everyone in a position of authority is responsible for his work—before superiors, inspectors, auditors, conscience, and God. If all fulfilled their responsibilities faithfully, we would not hear of losses in banks and companies, nor of disasters caused by negligence and lack of responsibility.
Calling and Responsibility
Some people are called by God to specific responsibilities, as Scripture says: “Whom He foreknew, He also predestined… moreover whom He predestined, these He also called” (Romans 8:29–30).
There is also another kind of calling that comes through holy zeal, inner conviction, and the voice of conscience.
We take as an example Archdeacon Habib Girgis, director of the Seminary. Who made him the teacher of his generation? No one asked him to do so. But his inner sense of responsibility and holy zeal drove him. As he wrote about the Seminary: “I felt that I was responsible.”
He not only served the Seminary, but also founded Sunday Schools, authored Christian education books for schools, and composed hymns—all without being asked. His conscience compelled him to meet the needs of the Church. He obeyed that conscience, driven by holy zeal, and this was considered a calling.
The same applies to the life of consecration out of love for God.
Among five graduates of the night seminary class of 1949, one felt compelled to consecrate his life to God, resigned from his job, and God opened the doors for him. Likewise, all consecrated men and women were driven by love for God and the needs of the Church—by heartfelt conviction, inner zeal, conscience, and the Church’s acceptance. All this constituted a calling.
A biblical example is David the prophet.
Though young, he saw Goliath mocking God’s people. King Saul and the entire army were silent, but David was not. His brother rebuked him, and Saul said, “You are not able to go against this Philistine… for you are a youth” (1 Samuel 17:33). Yet David’s zeal and faith surpassed all this. With a sling and a stone, he fought and defeated Goliath. Where was the calling here except in zeal and faith?
Another example is Nehemiah.
When he heard that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates burned with fire, and that the remnant was in great distress (Nehemiah 1:3), holy zeal seized him. He wept, fasted, prayed, spoke to King Artaxerxes, and began rebuilding the walls. Where was the calling, except in holy zeal and heartfelt passion?
If a mere sense of responsibility can accomplish all this without being asked, how much more is required of those who bear official responsibility?
If you see someone in danger and in need of rescue, do you hesitate, waiting for a divine call? Or does your conscience—and the commandment—call you to act?
