ἀνάργυροι

[777]

Who are unmercenaries?

ἀνάργυροι - anargyros (unpaid, voluntary, people who voluntarily renounce their property for the sake of the gospel)

The first unmercenary was Jesus Christ.

People characterized by the virtue of evangelical poverty:

Go, sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me, bearing your cross (Mark 10:21).

Lend, expecting nothing in return (Luke 6:35)

When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:13-14).

Let your conduct be free from the love of money, being content with such things as you have. For He Himself said, I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

What is unmercenariness?

Gk. anargyria

Being non-mercenary, without money, lit. silverless, penniless

Giving without payment, free of cost

Something priceless, worthy.

If we try to locate the supreme instance of Christian caritas (Christian love, charity), that is at the same time a supreme instance of the mission of the Church, these efforts will undoubtedly lead us to the practice of unmercenariness.

This practice for the secular human mind of our contemporary age is both incomprehensible and unintelligible both by its meaning and significance.

It is the super-historical call of the human to realize himself as a creative being, at the same time leaving his creativity undetermined and unburdened with the business logic of the world and its time, which make the human and his creativity nothing but market idols.

Those idols, or false market values come from the tendency in which the human rejects his own worth, but also the worth of the entire creation. At the moment when the world and the human start to evaluate themselves with limited and finite prices, regardless how many numbers they require, at that moment the human loses his essential axiological criteria and immensely distances himself from the original Biblical Anthropology.

Matthew 10:8

Freely you have received, freely give

You received without payment; give without payment

You received without a price; give without a price

You are without a price, don't limit the world around you with prices

The Perfect Unmercenary

Saint Serapion, who loved the hermit life from his youth, was a perfect example of monasticism—so free from the love of money that he owned nothing. A cave in the desert was his cell, his mantle his constant clothing, and the Holy Gospel his only treasure.

One day, while traveling to Alexandria, the man of God encountered a beggar shivering from the cold. Serapion stopped and thought to himself: "I am considered a faster and a follower of Christ; yet I wear a robe, and this servant of Christ is perishing from the cold! I will undoubtedly be a murderer if this poor man freezes to death." He immediately took off his mantle and gave it to the beggar.

Serapion sat at a crossroads, holding the Holy Gospel under his bosom, which he carried with him everywhere; and when a passerby asked him: "Why are you without a mantle, Father Serapion?" he answered, showing the Holy Gospel: "This book of God has undressed me."

The unmercenary had barely finished speaking when he saw a debtor being led past him to prison. Serapion didn't think twice: he immediately sold the Gospel and satisfied the creditor. The unfortunate man went home, blessing the angelic stranger.

When Serapion arrived at the cell, the disciple asked him, "Where are your clothes?" "I sent them there," replied the unmercenary, "where I can get better ones in their place." "And where is the Holy Gospel?" the disciple asked again. "My son!" said the righteous man, "it kept telling me, 'Sell your possessions and give them to the poor .' But you know that it alone constituted my entire possession: so I sold it and gave it to the poor."

Christians! Imitate, even if only slightly, the virtues of Saint Serapion, and you will be saved.

[Geremia]

ἀνάργυροι

Can that mean a volunteer?

[777]

yes, added.