HONOURS and RESPECT
By Father Aleksandar Todorovski
THE PATH TO ACHIEVING HONOURS
“If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of all.” (Mk 10, 43-44). With those words, Christ teaches us that: whoever is already honoured with worldly honours and advantages, he should not be proud of them, but humbly use them for the good of others (to be a servant).
Those who have achieved honours and who are clothed with some kind of glory should not be proud of their advantages, but use them with humility, because all our advantages are not our gain, but a gift from God (1 Kg 2, 7-8; Pr 8, 15; Ro 9:21; 1 Co 4, 7). Consequently, to be proud of them is to rob God of glory. It would be foolish to exalt ourselves with honours also because they are transitory; we can easily lose them, and then instead of respect, we will meet public hatred and contempt (1 Co 10, 12).
Those who have attained honour should use their authority and power for the benefit of others. All, distinguished by honour and authority, the word of God calls them “God’s servants for good” (Ro 13, 4). They are placed higher than others to serve as a good example to others. On the contrary, whoever uses honour but abuses it, he will not only give a strict account before God (Ws 6, 6), but will also lose true respect from people.
Whoever still strives for honours, he should achieve them with humility and true service to his neighbours (to be a servant to all), and not otherwise.
The path of humility and true service for the benefit of others is the true path to attain glory and greatness. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to serve“; that’s why “God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name” (Phil 2, 9). That path is difficult for our self-love, but it is the only one that leads us to true glory.
If we want to deserve true honour and respect not only before God, but also before people, then as much as possible we should do good to others (1 Co 9, 22; Job 29, 15-16), without in the least we exalt ourselves or to desire glory and honour. Then glory and honour will find us and follow us.
TO RESPECT THE SPIRITUAL ACT
“Fear the Lord with all your soul and honor His priests. Love Him who made you and do not forsake His ministers. Fear the Lord and honor His priests and give them their portion as commanded” (WSi 7, 29-31).
Reading these verses, their content is quite clear, but let’s dwell on those words that speak of the necessary respect for spiritual persons. Very often, spiritual persons know the words that are painful and offensive to the priestly act, but do those who inflict them know how much sin they inflict on their soul?
In the mentioned verse, we read that the word unites the two commandments about respecting God and His priests as one: Fear the Lord, it says, and respect the priest. This means that whoever respects God and fears Him, he must respect His priests and be careful not to offend them with anything; on the contrary, he who does not respect the spiritual act, he does not fear God. And why is that? Here’s why: do you know who established the spiritual rank and who gives you priests? The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who while still on earth, Himself chose the twelve apostles, and then the remaining seventy, and gave them authority to ordain where necessary, in towns and villages. The apostles commanded the same thing to the hierarchs appointed by them to continue it from generation to generation, as long as the world exists, so that the current priests and deacons have their service and authority through the hierarchs from the apostles themselves and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When he organized the priesthood in His Church in this way, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the apostles, and in their person to all the receivers, that is, to the current priests: “go into the world, preach the Gospel and perform holy services. They will hate and persecute you, but don’t worry. Always remember that you do not serve the world, but you serve Me: so the praise and reward for you will not be from the world – I will reward you for your works. Therefore, whoever receives you receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; whoever listens to you, listens to Me; whoever renounces you, renounces Me; he who receives a prophet in a prophetic name will receive a prophetic reward; and whoever receives a righteous person in a righteous name will receive a righteous reward. And he who does not receive you and goes astray with you, it will be worse for him than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah” (Mt. ch. 10). And so, whoever offends a priest, according to the words of the Saviour Himself, offends God, because priests are sent by God.
The one who reprimands a priest, sins gravely before God, and he will be held accountable for it before the righteous judgment of God! Want an example of that? In the Bible, we read that in ancient times, when God appointed Aaron, Moses’ brother, as high priest of the Jewish people, a man named Korah resented Aaron. He, along with Dathan and Abiron, turned against both Aaron and Moses, and stopped serving and respecting them as servants of God. And what happened next? It is terrible to mention their fate: the earth opened and Korah, Abiron and Dathan were swallowed up and taken down alive to Hades. God punishes severely for rebuking His ministers.
Think about it, who is asking the Lord God for your welfare? Who in the name of God blesses you in every good work? Who do you turn to during accidents? Who prays for you when you surrender your soul to the Lord? Isn’t that what the priest does? Then why do some think that a priest can harm someone and can such people say that they respect God and the holy faith. But even such people, if they truly repent, the priest can beg the Lord not to consider it a sin and everything will be fine.
Among some, other unlaudable actions against the priests are noticed: in order to discipline their children, some speak to them about the priest as if he is something bad and someone to be feared. Therefore, when children are brought to Holy Communion, they are afraid and cry, as if the priest is doing something wrong. How is it not difficult for the spiritual father to see all this?
Therefore, let’s teach ourselves: let’s stop slandering the Lord God by rebuking His priests and listen to God’s word: Love Him who made you and do not forsake His ministers.
IN RESPECT OF CHARITABLE PEOPLE
The Holy Apostle Paul, finishing the Epistle to the Romans, gives the following instruction to the Roman Christians: “I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea; that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.” (Rom 16, 1-2).
With those holy words, the holy apostle Paul does not only teach his contemporaries the Romans, but also all of us to respect them ie. to show all honour, respect and love to the benevolent and pious people, who strive for the glory of Christ’s name. That teaching of Paul is not his, but the will of the Most High God.
In order to show us how high the dignity and honour of virtuous people is, and how important it is to respect them, and how much harm we do to ourselves when we rebuke them, God compares them to the pupil of the eye, when He said of them: “you, the apple of My eye” (Zec 2, 12). This is confirmed by numerous biblical stories.
When the prophet Elijah traveled to Bethel, some little children, who had come out of the city, mocked him. They didn’t know about Elisha, that he was a prophet, so joking with him they told him: “Go up, baldy, go up” (4 Kings 2, 23)! He turned, saw them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the mountain and tore forty-two children from them. If God punished the little children just because of a mocking word with the prophet, because of their immature minds, then what will He do with those people, who, being more perfect than those children both in years and in knowledge, do not respect them, but despise the beneficent people and those who are engaged in clerical or teaching duties, and strive for the common good of the faithful?
But we see, you will say, a multitude of tyrants, evil men, who, though they despised, tortured and killed so many holy men and women, still remained unpunished. It is so, but don’t we believe that there will be another life, that there will be a general judgment and a reward for works? Do we not listen to God, who says: “But the ungodly man is kept for an evil day.” (Pr 16, 4).
God punishes those who despise charitable people, but blesses those who honour and receive them kindly. Laban is strong proof of that truth. When he heard that Jacob, his sister’s son, was coming to him, he “went out to meet him, embraced him and kissed him, and brought him into his home”. And when Jacob decided to leave Laban’s house, then Laban openly confessed that the joy he felt during that time while Jacob was with him was given by God, because he received Jacob in his house.
Examples, being voiceless, have a stronger voice than any word. But God does not only teach us by examples to respect the saints, but also by words that reveal His Divine plan. “He who receives you, receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives Him who sent Me” (Mt 10, 40). It means that God made the holy saints equal to Himself in honour, appointed them as His viceroys and rulers on earth, and subsequently gave them authority by His Divine power. It is indeed so, for we see that all creatures obey and respect them: the wild animals are afraid of them: the hungry lions were not allowed to touch Daniel (Dan 6, 22); reptiles respect them: a poisonous snake touches the hand of the apostle Paul, and does him no harm (Acts 28, 5).
Those who do the Lord’s will respect not only material beings, but also immaterial beings and spirits. Demons are evil spirits who have refused to obey God and are deprived of the Kingdom; they envy the human race – but they also obey the command of holy men.
But why are the benevolent given such authority, such honour and grace? Because they, after the perfection of their beneficence, became vessels that housed the great gifts of God, through which we see God’s omnipotence in the miracles performed by them. Therefore, God wants us to respect them and He severely punishes those who disobey them.
FOR RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER
“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor fiving preference to one another” (Rom 12, 10). The apostle not only commands us to address our neighbours with respect, but also to compete in respect for one another. He says to everyone: don’t worry about that only – to respond to respect with respect, but hurry to show respect yourself; don’t wait for them to greet you and bow to you, but hurry to bow; don’t wait for them to give you the first place at a gathering, but give it up yourself for someone else. We can then judge how sacred the obligation to respect our neighbours is for us.
Should we fulfill that duty to everyone? Yes, to everyone! Compete in respecting each other. The apostle does not say: respect only the elderly, superiors, parents, etc., but respect one another. It is so, because the soul of every person is the image and likeness of God, it has a godlike nature. If God so respects the soul, shall we not respect it? In that case, the object of our respect is the image and likeness of God. God cares for each of us with paternal love: will we dare to despise the one who serves as the object of that love? Christ on the Cross shed His purest blood for each of us – man is precious in the eyes of God! How, then, can we not submit ourselves to that precious being for God? Man, according to his personal characteristics, can be bad, dishonest, superstitious, unpleasant, but even in him, under the thick crust of sins and every evil, the image and likeness of God is preserved. Namely, the image and likeness of God is that gold and that diamond, which we should appreciate in every person, no matter how bad he is in his life. For the same reason, in the Epistle to his disciple Timothy, the Bishop of Ephesus, the Apostle Paul, pointing out his obligations to the congregations, says to him: “Do not rebuke an elder, but exhort him as your father, younger man as brothers” (1 Tim 5, 1). We are talking about old men, whose behaviour is worthy of reprimand. But the bishop should refrain from reprimanding them, having in mind not only the elderly, but also their human dignity.
But the matter is not only in external respect, but in that it should be an expression of sincere sympathy. It happens that one’s words are softer than oil, but they are arrows (Ps 54, 22). Another speaks to you flatteringly, but under that flattery hides malice, contempt and enmity. You will find many friends who, like Judas the traitor, will hide their hypocrisy with a friendly face. Unfortunately, there are not a few Christians who look like polite villains. Such people honour you with words, but in their hearts they prepare evil for you. Few can feel that under the mask of goodness lies evil, and they fall into the pit dug for them.
EXTERNAL RESPECT IS ONLY VALUABLE IF IT IS IN CONNECTION WITH INTERNAL, AND IF WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO KEEP OTHERS FROM HYPOCRITICAL RESPECT, THEN LET US AT LEAST KEEP FROM IT OURSELVES, FOLLOWING THE COMMANDMENT OF THE APOSTLE: TO COMPETE WE HAVE MUTUAL RESPECT!
