I often struggle with apathy in my spiritual life. It completely baffles me how at certain times in my life I will care a lot about what I do to further my relationship with God and how I treat others, while at other times there does not seem to be an ounce of love for God or compassion for my neighbor in me. Why is this? Why is it so difficult for me to find the peace and consistency to pray and care for others as we are commanded to?

I believe part of the answer lies in the fact that we humans tend be incredibly fickle and subject to change about everything due to our fallen nature. There are always times in my life where I am really motivated to accomplish my goals, and there are other times I am not. If this is true with my own (often selfish) personal ambitions, then why would this not be true with our spiritual lives, which are constantly under attack by Satan and the demons?

Another part of the answer is found in coming to grips with the lack of love for God and my neighbor I have in my own life. If my faith was truly genuine, then my works would show it. St. James the Apostle discusses this idea at length in his epistle. He says:

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?¹⁵ If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. (James 2:14-18).

So the conclusion I am forced to come to is that this apathy is a result of a lack of faith and love on my part. For if I loved my neighbor, I would take care of him. Commenting on this notion, St. John Chrysostom says,“If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice [Holy Communion].” These are harsh words, no doubt. But they are necessary to wake me up to the reality of my own calling to love others as God loves me.

If my apathy is the result of a lack of love, then the cure for this apathy must be for me to love my neighbor by showing him generosity and compassion. The cure for the passions (sins) we face are always the opposite of the particular passion we are dealing with. Thus, the cure for apathy must be to love in such a way that compels me to be generous and kind to others.

This reminds me of something that occurred at a Greek Orthodox Archdiocese youth event about a year ago. A priest-monk got on stage and sang the song, “Care” by Kid Rock, noting that the song shows us the Christian principle that we must always show love and compassion to others. You can listen to the song by clicking here. Some of the lyrics go as follows:

Day by day my life gets colder
My ice grows thin, as I get older
Peace in pieces, bloody and bruised
I feel so helpless and confused

‘Cuz I hear screamin’ on the left
Yellin’ on the right
I'm sitting in the middle tryin’ to live my life

‘Cuz I cant stop the war
Shelter homeless, feed the poor
I can't walk on water
I can't save your sons and daughters
I can't change the world and make things fair
The least that I can do
The least that I can do
The least that I can do is care

This song marked one of the first times I thought deeply about caring for others less fortunate than myself. But with time, I forgot about this message and returned to my usual pattern of apathy, lack thereof, and then back to apathy again.

But then another event occurred a few months ago that reminded me of the song. I was walking in downtown Athens on a Friday night when a homeless man came up to me and told me that he was hungry and asked me if I would buy a meal for him. This shocked me because most of the homeless I have seen in Athens sit and beg for money as others pass by, while this man approached me and asked me for the food that he needed.

I agreed to buy him a meal, so we both walked to the nearby Waffle House where I bought him some hash browns. He was telling me about how he had moved to Athens to find work because he could not find it in his hometown. He was working as a painter and sending the money back to his family so that they could keep their house and pay the bills, while he slept on the streets. He was willingly sacrificing himself for the good of his family.

Again, this was very profound to me. It is rare that I am willing to sacrifice my own comfort for the sake of others, and this man continues to do that on a daily basis. When he was about halfway done with his hash browns, he asked our waitress for a to-go box. I asked him why he needed a to-go box. He responded that he knew others like him who were also hungry that he would bring the rest of the food back to.

I was astounded. This man who had nothing was giving to others out of his own poverty! It reminded me of when Christ saw a widow giving two coins to the treasury of the synagogue. Christ remarked that the widow had given more than those who gave large sums of money, for she gave everything she possessed out of her poverty, while others gave out of their wealth (see Mark 12:41-44).

I hope to one day have the same generosity and love that that man has. Hopefully, prayer and God’s grace will transform me to have the same love for others that He has for humanity. This will be a long journey, but it is a worthwhile one.

Let us, therefore, throw aside our apathy and cultivate good works for God’s kingdom by loving others as much as we are able. May God grant us the strength to do this. Amen.