September: Day 9: Teaching 1:
Holy Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna
(The Virtuous Life of Parents is the Best Inheritance of Children)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
(The Virtuous Life of Parents is the Best Inheritance of Children)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. On this day the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the holy parents of the Most-Blessed Virgin Mary, the righteous Joachim and Anna. At this remembrance, everyone, of course, has often thought how happy these worthily blessed spouses are, who were honored to have such a truly happy and most blessed Daughter!
II. But such happiness is offered, brethren, to all parents who wish to see their children truly happy and blessed. "He who lives in righteousness without blemish will leave his children blessed" (Prov. 20:7), says the Wisdom of God through the lips of a God-inspired lover of wisdom. Thus, according to the teaching of the Wisdom of God, the happiest inheritance for children is the pious and righteous life of parents, and the first duty of parents who wish happiness for their children is to live righteously and piously themselves, as the righteous parents of the Mother of God lived.
a) Our worldly wisdom does not reason in this way. “Living truthfully,” it says, “you will not gain much; what will the children be left with? How different would it be if by any means you acquired great wealth for them, left them houses and lands as an inheritance? Then they could be happy and prosperous for life. Living truthfully, you will not go far along the path of honors, you will not reach those degrees of worldly greatness on which the names of the fortunate shine with titles and enjoy hereditary and ancestral advantages; how will the children of the righteous be distinguished among millions of simple and ignoble people? And what honor and respect can they enjoy among their fellow citizens? It is another matter if you achieve high honors, adorn your name with loud titles, so that your children can be proud of their origin, glorify themselves with the names of their fathers and ancestors. Then all paths to honors and glory will be open to them. Living truthfully, one cannot help but acquire many ill-wishers and enemies, whose enmity will then turn to the children. How happy will the children of the righteous be among those who hate them? How different is it to gain, by whatever means, the favor of the powerful of the earth? Then the children will also enjoy their patronage and favor, and will find the path to well-being."
Thus, I say, does our worldly wisdom reason. "But the sons of men are deceitful in their standards, that they may not do justice" (Ps. 61:10). Are these apparently well-founded calculations of worldly wisdom always justified in practice? No, much more often the opposite happens. The property acquired by unrighteousness does not remain long in the hands of the children and heirs of the unjust rich man. Most often it happens that, according to the word of the prophet, "strangers devour his labors," and his descendants remain poor. In vain does a man fret, saying the word of the Lord: "He lays up treasures, and knows not for whom he will gather them" (Ps. 39:7). It is rightly noted that only he who acquires wealth by his own labors knows how to use it wisely, and not he who gets it for free, without labor and care. How many spacious houses of the once rich have already changed owners? And the unfortunate descendants of their builders seek and find no corner to lay their heads. And do not the honors achieved by injustice lie as an indelible stain on children and descendants? Do they not, instead of undeserved honor, subject them to deserved ridicule? How many great and glorious names in the eyes of the world have there been, whose very memory, according to the word of Scripture, perished with noise? On the other hand, if, even living by truth, one can arouse the hostility of evil and corrupt people; then, living by injustice, is it possible not to leave behind a hostile memory even among good and honest people? And how many tears of the offended fall not on one grave, but on the remaining descendants of an unrighteous person? How many bitter reproaches and complaints will his children hear? And will not the memory of an unrighteous parent serve for them not as a consolation, but as a punishment? Likewise, how long can the patronage of the mighty of the earth ensure the fate of the children of their flatterer and servant? "Do not trust," says the word of God, "in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation: his spirit will go forth, and return to his dust, in that day all his thoughts will perish" (Ps. 145:3- -4), and with him will perish all the hopes placed in him.
b) Such is not the inheritance of children of parents with a blameless, righteous and pious life. This inheritance is stronger and more reliable than any wealth, more precious than all honors and titles, more faithful than any favor of the powerful of the earth.
He who lives righteously, walking in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord blameless (Luke 1:6), first of all, the blessing of God rests on him, which passes on to his descendants throughout all generations. Abraham pleased God, and not only his immediate but also his most distant descendants prospered under the shadow of the blessing of God that rested on their ancestor. The wicked Saul was deprived of the blessing of God, and his royal descendants wandered about as beggars, and his very lineage died out in a short time. How many people there are, perhaps, among us, living in contentment and well-being, who have achieved this state not by a rich inheritance or strong connections, but by the prayers and blessing of pious parents! So great and important, so reliable and durable for even earthly well-being is the blessing of God, resting on pious and righteous people! This is the true happiness of their children and descendants. "The generation of the righteous will be blessed," says the word of the Lord.
Whoever lives righteously, not only does not offend anyone, on the contrary, he does good and does good to each and every one, and does good to his enemies themselves; he leaves behind him only a good memory and a good reputation, a grateful feeling in the hearts of all who surrounded him. The offspring of such a person will always find shelter and protection. The good name of a father is like a letter of recommendation for his son; with it he will find friends and protectors everywhere. If a righteous man had any ill-wishers in his life, then their ill-will cannot continue beyond his grave. For they cannot help but realize that they unjustly hated a righteous man, unjustly offended and insulted him during his life, that they repaid him with evil, but he repaid them with good. And will not their awakened conscience prompt them to do something good for his children? Thus, will not the children of the righteous find friends and protectors rather than enemies and ill-wishers not only in friends, but in his very enemies?
He who lives in truth without vice lives industriously, moderately and temperately. If he has no greater wealth, then he has honest contentment in everything; because he has neither superfluous, exquisite needs, nor varied needs, invented by idleness, nor boundless, unsatisfied desires, but is content with what the Lord God sends and blesses him with. He also teaches his children from infancy to be also industrious and temperate and also to be content with the state with which God blesses them. Can such children be unhappy? No; for the true happiness of a person is not outside him, but within, in his heart. Shower a selfish and greedy person with any wealth you like - he will not be content, he will not cease to be tormented by the desire for more, and will be truly unhappy, because he will never have what he wants. Decorate an ambitious man with any honors you like, but it will not be enough for him, he will never cease to be tormented by envy of his rivals, he will always be tormented by the fact that his reckless dreams do not come true, his unbridled desires are not fulfilled. For behold, "the kingdom of God is within you," says the Lord. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things needful for this temporal life shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
Finally, he who lives piously himself, also brings up his children in piety and the fear of God. But a good and pious son will be happy even without a rich inheritance, just as wealth is of no help to a wicked son. "Piety," says the Apostle, "is useful for everything, holding out promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." That is why Saint David assures us that in all his long life he never saw the descendants of a righteous man suffer need and be in distress. "I have been young," he says, "and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; and his descendants are blessed" (Psalm 37:25-26). The righteous parents of the Most Holy Virgin Mary did not possess earthly treasures, and did not leave Her any wealth as an inheritance; on the contrary, having brought Her, a three-year-old Maiden, to the temple of God, having given Her over to the Lord, they themselves soon departed to the Lord, leaving Her an orphan, alone and helpless in the world, under the protection of the temple of God and under the gracious protection of the Lord of the temple Himself. But they left Her as an inheritance the living spirit of true piety, with which Her heart was nourished from youth, becoming a pure and holy temple of the Spirit of God; they left love for the law of the Lord and the divine word, with which Her soul was nourished, as with manna from heaven, and grew to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ; they left the example of their chaste, reverent and God-fearing life, which was for Her a good guide and mentor in Christ. They betrothed Her to the Lord, and the Lord chose Her to be His Mother. What earthly inheritance could make Her so happy and make Her truly blessed and most blessed forever?
III. Oh, if only parental love and the desire for happiness for their children would induce everyone to live in truth without vice! How happy both parents and children would be then! Amen.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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