If You Fast but Don’t Love, You Failed!
Homily by Fr. Matthew Brown. 🗓️ November 16, 2025 📍 St. Mary Magdalen Orthodox Church (OCA), New York City
Who Is My Neighbor
So we have a number of readings today.
The Good Samaritan is probably one of the parables from the New Testament that most people are familiar with. Even people who are not very religious often know this story. It is all about who is my neighbor, which means who do I have obligations to and who do I owe something to. It is really a question about the nature of my relationships with other people.
The question becomes how do I relate to people who have nothing to give back to me. What about the people who, if I refuse to help them, there will be no consequences for me.
If my child is hungry and I do not feed them, eventually someone might call protective services. But if I step over a homeless person with no food, there are no consequences.
That is the entire point of the question of neighbor.
The lawyer in the Gospel answers the commandment correctly but lives it incorrectly. He knows the right words but fails to understand what love of neighbor actually means. He also has not put that commandment into practice.
God Desires Mercy Not Sacrifice
In another Gospel reading, Jesus is sitting with tax collectors and sinners. He is criticized for this. Why are you doing this. Why are you spending time with these people. The deeper question is why are you in any sort of relationship with them.
This reveals our human desire to draw lines of who is in and who is out. Today it is incredibly common to hear people say they cut someone out of their life because they are toxic. Usually the people who say this are also toxic. The phenomenon of ghosting is another example. People simply vanish from others without explanation. It is a quick way to sever obligations.
This is the same issue with Jesus. They are upset because these are people you do not have to love. You do not have to be kind to them.
At the end of this exchange Jesus says God desires mercy and not sacrifice. The Gospel text does not explain it. The statement simply stands.
In this context sacrifice means ritual temple offerings. Sacrifice represents my love for God. Mercy represents my love for my neighbor. When God says He desires mercy and not sacrifice the meaning is that the most authentic way to love God is to love the people He Himself loves which is your neighbor.
You cannot love God and not love your brother.
Saint John says the one who claims to love God but hates his brother is a liar.
He also says the greatest love is to lay down your life for your friends.
The great commandment is love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. These are twin loves. They cannot be separated. To love God means to love other people. It is very hard to love people if you are not loving God. They belong together.
Religion is not an occasion to boost your ego or feel good about yourself. Our spiritual ancestors did not pass down the faith so we could have nice feelings. We are here to be different and live differently.
If I fast but act like a jerk I have broken my fast.
If I pray long hours but gain no humility or patience I missed the point.
Mercy Always Costs Something
Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of the lawyer by asking who was the real neighbor. The answer is the one who showed mercy.
Mercy is always a sacrifice.
The Good Samaritan had to change his schedule, inconvenience himself, take the wounded man to the inn, and pay for his expenses. Mercy cost him something.
The Levite and the priest passed by, likely because they wanted to get to the temple to offer proper sacrifices. They abandoned their duty of mercy. They missed the point. The purpose of sacrifice is to learn to love God by loving people.
Paul teaches the same thing. He boasts in his infirmities and hardships.
Obedience is not a virtue unless you obey when you do not want to.
Chastity is not a virtue unless you are tempted.
Patience is not a virtue unless someone is annoying you.
Virtue appears only in deprivation.
Generosity is not impressive if you are giving out of abundance.
A billionaire giving one hundred thousand dollars has given nothing.
The widow giving her mite is the generous one.
There is no spiritual profit unless something stretches us.
There is no virtue without cost.
There is no mercy without sacrifice.
This is not new. The prophet Malachi says the Lord rejects sacrifices that lack justice, mercy, and humility. Our prayers, hymns, and fasts are rot and stench if they lack virtue.
Who is our neighbor. Anyone God places in our life at any moment.
Final Thoughts : The Real Measure of Holiness
This is the radical proclamation of the Gospel. The tribe expands to the edges of the universe. There is no one to whom we owe nothing.
Christianity is difficult. The sayings of Jesus are hard.
But the measure of a saint is not the one who sins the least but the one who repents the most.
The saint is not the one who never falls but the one who always gets up.
Some people are born with easier lives and fewer struggles. That is like beginning halfway down a golf fairway. Of course they will get a better score. The measure is not how high I climb but how high I climb from where I started.
Where sin abounds grace abounds more.
Someone whose life is messy may be holier than someone who looks put together.
Jesus sees the heart and the path that led to this moment.
If I start from a low place but turn toward God in repentance that distance matters.
If I start from the bottom I may have even more opportunity to become a saint.
Paul’s sufferings revealed the love in his heart. When we enter fasting we take on hardship so that we can grow in virtue and love. In weakness we become strong.
This is the way of the Gospel.
The fast exists so that we can love more truly.
Glory to Jesus Christ.