Tag Archives: charity

Love is Not Jealous

Posted on by
Reply
This icon shows monks climbing the ladder of virtues toward Christ and the saints. Most fall to their doom because they give in to temptations rather than heeding their guardian angels and struggling against sin. The monks reach the top of the ladder when they focus on love and Who it is that they are climbing toward.


Love waits patiently, it is kind; love is not jealous, love is not conceited, nor is it inflated… nor does it seek its own interests… it bears everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

This chapter which describes love is perhaps the chapter heard most often because it is read at weddings so often. St. Paul describes love in phrases that are short and simple, just as Plato describes love in a series of short sentences although Plato uses eros rather than agape as the word for “love.” Plato’s praise of love is part of an after-dinner speech in the Symposium and other authors who praised love after that usually made it part of an after-dinner speech as well. St. Paul’s praise of love is also in the context of an after-dinner reflection (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-34).

Much of what St. Paul writes in 1 Cor 13 also appears in Romans 12. Both chapters are describing what love looks like and how people behave who love one another.

“Love is not jealous.” That is especially important in a parish like Corinth that is torn apart by jealousy. The parishioners are jealous of each other’s spiritual gifts and abilities. They refuse to talk together or eat together. “Conceited” people brag about themselves and their gifts and their abilities, just as the Corinthians bragged.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent (a guide to monastic life but with much applicability to Christians who are not monastics) suggests that jealousy is the result of avarice (Step 17) or pride (Step 23). Avarice always wants, wants, want. It wants more. In Corinth, this creates jealousy because people wanted more spiritual gifts, they wanted what they saw other people had and felt jealous that they did not have these gifts as well. Pride gives birth to jealousy because if I am proud, I want the most and the biggest and most spectacular of the spiritual gifts; pride leads to jealousy if someone has what the proud person wants.

If the parishioners in Corinth claim to practice love, they have to first stop bragging about themselves and being jealous of each other.

The greater the love of God that the saints possess, the more they endure all things for him.

St. Augustine of Hippo, On Patience, 17

Older translations of the New Testament often used “charity” to translate agape.

A man with charity fears nothing for charity casts out fear. When fear is banished and cast out, charity endures all things, bears all things. One who bears all things through love cannot fear martyrdom.

St. Ambrose of Milan, Letter 49

Love (our behavior now), faith (in God and Christ now), and hope (about the General Resurrection, the Kingdom of God, and the Second Coming of Christ) support and complement each other. They define authentic Christian life.

St. Philothea, nun-martyr of Athens (1589)

Posted on by
Reply
St. Philothea’s childhood home is the oldest house in Athens and is now a museum dedicated to her and her charitable work.

St. Philothea was born in Athens on November 21, 1522 to an illustrious and wealthy family. They had no other children, but after fervent prayer her mother gave birth to a daughter whom they named Revoula. Against her will, she was married at the age of 14 to the nobleman who abused her. When he died in 1539, she was only 17, beautiful and wealthy and her parents insisted that she get remarried. Instead, she remained at home, spending much of her time in prayer. The family wealth gave her the opportunity for charitable work, and while still a young woman she had gained the respect and love of the community.

When her parents died in 1549, Revoula found herself the owner of extensive holdings. (Her house, now the oldest in Athens, is a museum dedicated to her and her work.) She embraced the monastic life and took the name Philothea; around 1551, she established a women’s monastery. There the young nuns taught other young women handiwork, weaving, housekeeping and cooking. In this way, she prepared young women who came to her for the domestic life.

Philothea is primarily remembered for her abundant philanthropy. The convent opened several charities in Athens and on the Aegean islands, including a second, more secluded monastery at Patesia. She also built hospices, homes for the elderly, and schools for the girls and boys of Athens. One of her more controversial activities was to buy the freedom of Greeks taken as slaves by the Ottoman Turks, especially women taken to the harems. She offered shelter to the young women, some pregnant. Despite being hunted by the Turks, she helped them escape secretly to Tzia, Andros, Aegina and Salamina, where they were safe. (We would describe her work as rescuing those trapped in human trafficking or sexual exploitation and slavery.) In a 22 February 1583 letter to the Venice, Philothea asked for donations to help pay off her debts from ransom money, duties, bribes, and taxes that she owed to the occupying Turks. Her monasteries were frequently plundered, and the farming and agricultural program, which were a basic source of sustaining her work, devastated.

Four women who had been enslaved by the Ottoman Turks in harems were able to escape and ran to her for refuge but the women were traced and Philothea was beaten and brought before the magistrate who put her in prison. Friends intervened and paid the district governor for her release. As her fame grew, so did the Turkish animosity against her. On 3 October 1588, four Ottoman mercenaries broke into the monastery at Patesia during the evening vigil service and beat her severely. She remained bedridden and died of her injuries on 19 February 1589.

Philothei is considered a martyr by the Orthodox Church. Just a few years after her death, she was canonized a saint. Her memory is venerated on February 19 and she is considered one of the patrons of Athens. Her relics are interred in the cathedral in Athens. The Filothei district of Athens is named after her.