Among other things, care for the poor was entrusted to them, as was tending the sick. Especially in times of persecution against the Church, they visited confessors of the faith in prisons. The Apostle commanded that respect be shown to these "widows," and for these useful ministries, when he wrote to Timothy: "Honor widows."
The times of persecution passed. Christian love for mankind could act more freely than before. It seemed that special "servants" of Christian love for mankind had become less necessary. Meanwhile scandals multiplied even among Christians themselves. Withdrawal from mixed society among Christians, for the most part weak and false, seemed to have become more necessary. The apostolic institution of "widows" withdrew into secluded monasteries and deserts.
Now see how the spirit of true Christianity passes through changes of times and through the diversity of peoples, yet always remains the same and like itself. See how even now it renews its first beneficent actions in a form and strength like the former ones.
A monarchess, the mother of the blessed among monarchs, and therefore blessed among mothers, descends from this height of earthly prosperity deep toward suffering humanity. She appears as mother of orphans, widows, the abandoned, the helpless, and the sick.
Being not only humane, but inventive in love for mankind, she fashions new instruments of merciful care from those who have themselves been sheltered by mercy. Thus, among the widows she has sheltered, she seeks out "true widows," capable and disposed faithfully to carry out the ministry of love for mankind.
According to the feelings of her own heart she names them "compassionate." Solemnly dedicating them to the service of the sick, she "honors" them, because of the usefulness, difficulty, and holiness of this ministry. She honors them with a special honor confirmed by the sovereign consent of the most pious monarch.
Such is the lot now received by you, God-loving and humane sisters in the Lord. I already call you God-loving and humane, because I am assured that you have already been tested and found worthy of solemn service to Christian love for mankind.
Yet by the duty of the ministry entrusted to me, I remind you that the Gospel assigns "honor" only to "true widows." Therefore I charge you and entreat you. As you now prepare to pronounce before the all-seeing God the vow of compassion, and to receive the honor of compassionate widows, receive and renew a sincere and pure desire to be truly compassionate widows, God-loving and humane.
Look at the image of a true Christian widow written in the Gospel: "She who is truly a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day" (1 Tim 5:5). If this is reduced to one feature, it means that she must be pious, or God-loving.
Further, the apostolic institution, in choosing a widow, requires inquiry concerning her: "if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has received strangers, if she has relieved the afflicted" (1 Tim 5:10). This means that she must be active in love for mankind. Here is the image of your ministry.
As you draw near to this pattern, you will draw near to perfection in your work. You must often look upon this image with the eye of the mind, and always with renewed attention strive to imprint it upon the heart.
The more sincerely you are humane and God-loving in heart, the less difficulty you will find in the works of your ministry. The more success you will have, and the more blessedness.
Through preliminary experience you have surely already learned some difficulties of the ministry you are receiving. How love can lighten them may be seen from ordinary events of life. Why, for example, does a mother often keep watch unforced over her infant deep into the night, while a nurse cannot overcome sleep? Is not the difficulty of long vigil overcome by the power of maternal love?
If natural human love lightens difficult tasks in this way, will grace-filled love for mankind, animated by the power of divine love, be less strong? If you think that all human beings by nature are one in the first man, and that, having divided like streams from one source, they again flow together into one by grace in Jesus Christ, then your heart must feel accordingly.
It must feel that among those entrusted to your care there is truly not one stranger. Then care for neighbors will not differ from care for yourselves. One's own burden is not heavy, as experience says.
If you think that we live, and have no other hope of living, except by the love and mercy of the heavenly Father, then you will always feel how small and insignificant is what we do for our neighbors. Every minute He performs for us more acts of mercy, preservation, and help than we can perform for others in our whole life.
For this reason you will desire to have, and the love of God will give you, "wings of fire" (Song 8:6), so that you may fly easily and swiftly to every work of service to your neighbor.
At the same time as true love for God and neighbor lightens the labor of service to suffering humanity, it also brings forth abundant fruits from that labor. The one who "does not love," just as he himself "abides in death" (1 Jn 3:14), has every work dead and fruitless, even if it bears the outward form of virtue. His word is lifeless, "like a cymbal" (1 Cor 13:2).
But when true Christian love pierces and opens the heart, then in it, and in all its outpourings, appear "the springs of life" (Prov 4:23). A word of consolation from a heart filled with Christian love pours like a stream of life into the heart of the sufferer. Even a glance with such a heart penetrates, like a ray of light, a soul darkened by sorrow.
If this love truly governs your service to suffering humanity, then even the bodily works of this service, by the hidden blessing of God, the supreme lover of mankind, will be saving for the bodies of the sick. Your dispositions of soul will bring them spiritual relief, desirable in itself and naturally beneficial again for bodily health.
What is still more important, your true Christian love for mankind will be an unceasing Christian instruction for them. Your hope in God can strengthen them against despondency and fear of death. The prayer of your faith can be more healing than any medicine, both for their body and for their spirit.
For this reason, after the Apostle gave the command that "the sick man should call for the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him" (Jas 5:14), he at once added a general instruction. He did this so no one would think that the prayer of others was thereby excluded: "Pray for one another, that you may be healed" (Jas 5:16).
Finally, the same Christian piety and love for mankind, which alone can make your service beneficent in the highest degree for your neighbors, can also perfectly reward you for your struggles and make you blessed. Earthly honor and recompense do not console for long even those who are attached to earthly things. Still less do they console those who judge things without passion.
Blessed is the one who does not arrange his life and works only to "receive his reward" on earth and from men (Mt 6:2). Blessed is the one who does not stop at earthly things, but "presses toward the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:14).
For this reason earthly honor is also shown to you by the sign of the cross, so that it too may remind you "of the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus." Do you wish to acquire this honor in undoubted hope and secure it for yourselves forever? Let the love of Christ order the works of your ministry.
First, it will perform this wonder for you: it will turn your service to suffering neighbors into service to Jesus Christ Himself. He gave it this authority when He said: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me" (Mt 25:40).
What can be higher than this honor, though still hidden? What can be more than this blessedness, though concealed? What can be sweeter than one thought: to serve Jesus Christ Himself?
As a result of this service, compassionate love, if you follow it to the end, will raise you also to that royal honor and that highest calling. Then the King of kings will solemnly call you, with all the saints: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt 25:34). For He will say particularly to you: "I was sick, and you visited Me" (Mt 25:36).
Enter joyfully, then, into this blessed struggle, and carry it out without slackening, with the cooperation of the grace of Christ. To strengthen yourselves in it, each time you place upon yourselves the cross given to you as a sign of compassion, remember the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Out of love for suffering humanity, He healed every infirmity and every disease. He Himself willingly suffered and died on the cross, so that He might heal us all from the deadly sickness of sin.
Remember the compassion of the Most Pure Theotokos, who stood before the cross and burial of her Son with a pierced heart, giving us an example of compassion. By these remembrances graft onto yourselves the pure and saving wound of humane compassion. Let your heart ache with it. This holy wound, for the sick and for the healthy, will be a source of healing. Amen.
THEOSIS