Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)
How often we have heard that the Church is a hospital. What does this mean? Commonly we understand this to mean that the Church is a place of healing, where one can be restored to health. This is true. The Church has a great storehouse of medicines and treatments for our spiritual, physical, and psychological maladies. Through Confession, the Eucharist, Holy Unction and Holy Water, a life of prayer, through fasting and almsgiving and the liturgical life of the Church one can be “treated” for many ailments.
Yet the Church as a hospital means something else as well. It means that this is a place where sick people reside. For we are all infirm in some way; and restoration to health is a life-long process. We must remember that all of us are broken, all of us are sick. Just as each of us needs patience as we seek treatment for our unique infirmities, so those around us also must be treated with patience and kindness and compassion. A spiritual guide of the 20th Century offers these words about the hospital of the Church:
“Preserve peace with your close ones… Consider that all sorts of sick people have gathered there in a group; this is so. For this reason you must relate to everyone as they do in a hospital. They don’t berate people there for having an ailing lung or heart or stomach. They don’t say, ‘Oh you good-for-nothing blind woman. What’s the matter with you that your eyes are infected?’ So, too, you mustn’t rail at each other for your spiritual illnesses; rather you should be patient and pity one another. ‘Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.’” (Abbot Nikon, Letters to Spiritual Children)
In the world around us, we so often forget the brokenness of others (and our own brokenness, for that matter). If people are brusque or impolite or downright mean, we are tempted to despise them and berate them—in person or behind their backs—because it is their own fault and they are wrong. Thus we judge people based upon a partial and incomplete picture. And our judgment always finds them lacking.
As Christians, we must remember that God alone is the Judge and that we have been commanded to withhold judgment: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)
We must recognize that our view of other people is always incomplete and distorted. It is incomplete because we don’t know the depths of their heart and it is distorted by our own brokenness and our enslavement to the passions. Even when we think we know the full picture we usually don’t. Only our Compassionate Lord knows the hidden inner workings of each person. “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:5)
By becoming Christians at our baptism, we are accepting to be admitted into the hospital of the Church. We are confessing our own weakness and fallenness, and seeking renewal through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everyone around you is doing the same. If they fail at times, it only mirrors the failings of you and me. Sometimes we forget this.
The next time you come to church, remember this: You are in a sick ward; you are a sick person surrounded by other sick people. We are all on “life support,” the healing sacraments of the Church. And just as the Good Physician has compassion upon his patients, so should we have compassion for everyone in our community. When we bear one another’s burdens, we unite ourselves to Christ. Our Lord, who is called, ὀ Πολυεύσπλαχνος, “the Most Compassionate One,” bears the burdens of the entire human race. And we, who are His followers, are called to bear our portion. As is said in each Divine Liturgy: “Let us love one another, that with one heart we may confess.”
The next time a fellow parishioner—or your sinful priest!—incites you or annoys you, remember your own brokenness and his as well. Pray for him. And pray that God may give you the same compassion. “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.” (Romans 14:13)
