HOMILY 18
Our Christ thundered and continuously thunders from His Holy Gospel:
“If any one of My servants, who is baptized in My name and remains
faithful, confesses Me before men, if any brave athlete competes in the
contest of My name and proclaims that I am the True God Who came in the
flesh, Who was crucified and resurrected for the love of man, I will
also confess Him before the angels of My Father, before the angels in
Heaven” (cf. Luke 12:8). Blessed and fortunate is the man, the Orthodox
Christian, who will confess the Divinity of our Christ before tyrants,
atheists, materialists, and rationalists.
Our Church believes and proclaims that until the end of times, until
the end of this present age, the Saints will not cease to exist; rather,
She will continue giving rise to holy children worthy of crowns and
glory.
As we see, today there are no hermits living ascetically in the
desert; no one lives with the austerity endured by countless hermits of
the past. Since there are no such ascetics and strugglers today, how
can we be assured that the Church will not be deprived of saints up
until the end of the age?
Who will the saints of the final years be, now that even we as
monastics no longer lead an ascetical way of life or possess virtues
like the hermits and monks of past generations? Even though this is the
case, we must wholeheartedly believe that during the end times, which
we are now entering and will journey through, the holy people will be
they who will confess our Jesus and who will proclaim and thunder that
our Christ is the true God Who became incarnate for man. With this
confession, they will be crowned and become holy.
The martyrs made their good confession during the first years of
Christianity. There were numerous miracles taking place at the time.
Christians would perform miracles with ease. Holiness was widespread.
Virtue was cultivated abundantly. Today, conversely, we have no
virtue. Nowadays, we make minimal effort, and the virtue we attain is
trivial. Darkness, deception, and destruction are present everywhere.
Sin and darkness prevail in all levels of human society. This darkness
of unbelief and immorality will continue to escalate, multiply, and
worsen as we proceed toward the close of this age. Thus, even the
slightest virtue, even a slight amount of spiritual struggle will have
immense value in the eyes of God.
In past times, one Christian would help another spiritually.
Conversely, today one person pushes another toward sin and spiritual
deterioration. All you hear people talking about and discussing among
themselves is sin in one form or another. Needless to say, carnal sin
is the dominating topic of discussion that reigns in every sector of
society. The devil has managed with his wickedness, cunningness,
coercion, and skill to prevail upon the thoughts and desires of people.
“The fool has said in his heart: there is no God” (Ps. 13:1). Who
declared that “there is no God?” The “fool”! Foolish is the person
whose mind does not function properly; who cannot manage his thoughts
correctly; who does not make sound choices. Such a person erroneously
concludes and proclaims that God does not exist. The most absurd thing a
person can say is that “God does not exist.” God is within man, within
his soul; however, man has become estranged from God. He has no
relation or contact with God. The devil and sin have erected a wall of
division that now separates them.
Today, the number one warfare-let us refer to it as warfare, even
though it can more accurately be deemed an epidemic-is the carnal
mindset. This sinful impulse initially seeks to taint our thoughts and
the five senses (of both our body and soul), and subsequently to defile
us, leaving no room for the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. Furthermore, it
tries to prevent us from receiving God’s blessing and render us
incapable of accepting the fire of God’s love, which has the power to
rejuvenate us, revive us, strengthen us to confront all the difficulties
that lie in store for us.
We must try to purify ourselves both externally and internally,
especially our mind-because all the evil that takes place in our heart
and with our body originates from the mind. Evil is externalized
through the bodily members once the mind and intellect have succumbed to
sin. Bees do not land on flowers lacking nectar. Rather, they fly to
flora containing nectar, which they convert into sweet honey.
Similarly, the Holy Spirit races around the earth in search of a pure
mind and serene intellect, where He comes to rest and bears fruit.
Therefore, in order for us to receive the Holy Spirit, Who will
strengthen us and render us worthy of confessing the Divinity of our
Christ, we must first struggle to purify ourselves spiritually and
physically, and then be crowned.
In addition to the martyrs of the first centuries, we have an entire
cloud of new-martyrs: the martyrs who made their confession during the
Turkish occupation. Most of the new-martyrs had renounced their faith
and denied Christ due to various reasons, circumstances, and causes.
However, in following, they regretted their mistake, they confessed
Christ, they were martyred, they were crowned, and today they are saints
in Heaven. Their example is magnificent and powerful. Whoever reads
the lives of the new-martyrs is totally set ablaze with the desire to
suffer martyrdom also.
I will make reference to one of the new-martyrs names John. He
confessed our Christ before the Turkish ruler with these words: “Christ
is my God, whereas Moh@med is a deceiver and false prophet.” Shortly
after the ruler tortured him and locked him in jail, Holy Week arrived.
The new-martyr John entreated the Lord to be executed on Holy Pascha.
His prayer was heard, and on the day of Holy Pascha the ruler called him
to stand trial a second time.
The soldiers took and led him to the courthouse. As he entered the
courtroom, his soul was entirely ablaze, full of love, and filled with
Paschal resurrection. As he came forward he joyfully chanted, “Christ
is risen…” The Turks were yelling at him, “Are you crazy? Have you
lost your mind? What are you saying?” However, he continued chanting,
“Christ is Risen!” Finally, after he was sentenced to have his head cut
off, the soldiers took him and led him to the town square where he
would become a public spectacle. Our Christians were praying for this
martyr and entreating God to help him be crowned victoriously and thus
put the devil and the Muslims to shame. Indeed, this is what happened.
As he headed for martyrdom, the new-martyr was rushing to meet the
sword in order to depart for Heaven as quickly as possible. On account
of his eagerness and joy, he stepped on both Turkish soldiers who were
escorting him.
“Where do you think you’re going, you infidel?” they asked him. “To a festival?”
“If only you knew where I’m going!” replied the martyr.
Finally, when he arrived at the place of his execution, he stirred up
the executioner, “Let’s see what type of man you are! Do you think
you can cut off my head with one swipe?”
What bravery and beauty! This provoked the executioner, and he responded arrogantly, “You bet I can…”
He struck him with his sword, and his head rolled away on the first blow.
We see that this cloud of martyrs was full of zeal-and of course
during a time period that is not too far before our days, even though
they had the same desire and love for martyrdom as the first Christian
martyrs-and they were crowned with the same glory as the great-martyrs
of old. The same God Who existed then exists today, and He will remain
the same in the future. The Holy Spirit is also the same. Just as He
strengthened them, He will strengthen us. If God (out of love and
compassion) decides to have mercy on us, concedes, and deems us worthy
of making the good confession before impious atheists, we may also be
blessed with martyrdom. Our works are worthless, our sins are numerous,
our passions are uncontrollable beasts-only a martyrdom and a
confession of the faith can save us. The saints of the final years will
be confessors: they will be the ones who confess, as we stated in the
beginning of our talk, that our Christ is the true God Who came in the
flesh.
Imagine how beautiful it will be for a Christian of the present age
to bear witness to the Divinity of Christ and the Trinity before impious
people, to become a confessor, and to have his soul taken by the angels
who will begin chanting heavenly anthems of victory and praise!
All of us wonder: “How will we be able to endure martyrdom? We
cannot even tolerate a toothache!” I am the first who cannot. If a
needle or another sharp object pricks us, we immediately feel pain, we
cry, we look for alcohol and other medical supplies. As soon as we feel
even the slightest pain, we reach for medicine and run to our doctor.
Things will not be so in the case of martyrdom. All that will exist
then are the horrific tortures! What will happen then? Desire for
martyrdom exists; however the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
(cf. Mt. 26:41). The body resists, objects, and does not want to endure
pain and suffering.
I will give you an example of a young boy who was martyred many
centuries ago, and you will see how a person endures martyrdom and how
“with the temptation there also comes a way of escape” (1 Cor. 10:13).
When God calls a person to martyrdom, the former coward who feared pain
becomes a lion. How does this take place?
Listen...
While a certain ruler was preparing for war, he resorted (as was
common in those days) to an oracle in order to be informed by the demons
whether or not he would be victorious in battle. The demon attending
the oracle responded: “I will give you an answer only if you remove
from your capital city the relics of Hieromartyr Babylas and the three
youths.” The ruler immediately ordered the Christians to move the holy
relics of these saints outside the city limits, in order to enable the
devil to give him an answer–“yes or no”–concerning the war.
Our Christians (elderly, adults, and children), took the holy relics
and proceeded with them outside the city, chanting the following psalms
and hymns: “The idols of the nations are of silver and gold, the works
of the hands of men…they have eyes but shall not see, they have ears but
shall not hear…Let those who make them become like unto them” (Psalm
113:12). When the ruler heard their words, he took exception to this
and exclaimed: “They are ridiculing us with their songs!” He
immediately sent soldiers to apprehend some of the people.
An eighteen-year-old boy named Theodoros was amongst the faithful who
were detained by the soldiers. They hung Theodoros on a post, they
stripped off his clothes and began to lacerate his body with steel hand
rakes containing razor sharp prongs. As they cut grooves into his
flesh, his blood began flowing like a river. For as long as this boy
remained alive, hanging from the post, they gouged his entire body and
rubbed vinegar and salt into his open wounds. In the end, he resembled a
slaughtered animal. From morning till dusk the soldiers took turns,
one after another, until he was on the brink of death. When they
realized there was no life remaining in him and that he would die, they
brought him down off the pole and gave him to his family. The relatives
took the boy home and began to give him palliative care. At some point
the boy opened his eyes, at which time his parents began asking: “Our
son, Theodoros, how were you able to endure this? How did you manage
not to complain or cry out?”
“I will tell you. After they hung me on the post and the soldiers
began to slash my body with those sharp steel rakes, I started to feel
excruciating pain that pierced my very heart. At that moment I thought
to myself, ‘Wretched Theodoros, patiently endure this pain so you can
avoid the eternal pain of Hell.’ As I focused on this notion of Hell, I
decided with determination, ‘I will be patient.’ As soon as I made
this decision, I saw three beautiful young men approaching. One was
holding a basin filled with heavenly myrrh. The other was holding small
towels in his hands. When they came and stood next to me, the third
one would take one of the cloths, dip it in the fragrant liquid and
cover my face with it. Due to the fragrance of this holy myrrh, I no
longer felt and pain or suffering. I was living in a celestial state
and felt such blissfulness that it would have been better if they never
took me down from the wooden pole. As soon as they took me down, the
angels departed. I would have been glad if they continued gashing me
for years.”
Here we see how God intervenes in a supernatural way during
martyrdom. God is He who initiates martyrdom and Who also takes it to
completion. If a divine fire does not set ablaze the heart and soul of a
confessor, it is humanly impossible for a person to confess Christ and
to endure martyrdom courageously and triumphantly. This is why when our
thoughts tell us, “How will you endure martyrdom? You can’t even
endure the slightest discomfort,” we must firmly believe that if God
decides for us to suffer martyrdom, Christ Himself will come to help
us. He will send up the Holy Spirit, He will send the heavenly fire to
set us ablaze and give us the strength to suffer martyrdom.
The unfolding world events and the prophecies of our Church indicate
that the difficult days are approaching. It’s possible that we are
presently on the outer perimeter and, in following, we will start
spiraling toward inner circles until we reach the center. What we must
be concerned with in essence is “the one thing needful.” We should
prepare ourselves spiritually each day, we should prepare our soul, we
should purify ourselves from every sin, we should repent for the sins we
have committed or for whatever we will do henceforth, so that we are
found well prepared for the end of our life. We do not know if, even in
our days, we will find ourselves before martyrdom.
Parents must diligently teach the faith to their children.
They should implant and transmit their own Orthodox faith to their
little ones. They should expand on the topic of God, so their children
can believe in Him–because children today are shaken by the spirit of
atheism, which is prevalent everywhere. If our children do not possess strong faith in their soul, how will they be able to confront the Antichrist in the future?
How will they confront the numerous existing antichrists, like the
Jehovah’s Witnesses and all the other awful heresies if they do not
possess the pure faith in Christ? Of course, it would be very beneficial
if certain talks took place at some point in the future to discuss
topics such as faith in God, and proof of God’s existence, so that the
children acquire a strong foundation–because without a foundation, every
house crumbles. They must acquire a secure and unshakable foundation
of faith within themselves, so that, later, they can be in a position to
enter the contest and confess the Divinity of our Christ.
We all must make an effort to help the children, because I discern
that, despite their characteristic good nature and simplicity, they are
weak in matters of the faith. This is because they did not find what we
found growing up in our homeland. Here they found deficient spiritual
nourishment and consequently it is quite natural for them to be weak.
It is essential that we strengthen and vitalize them in the faith. This
lesson, of course, will take place sometime in the future; may God help
us to do this because it will be of great benefit to the children.
As you are aware, our small mission has come to an end and we are
preparing to depart. I ask that you pray for us, so we can meet again
next year, console each other, and help as much as possible. We, on our
end, pray for you a great deal. We ask that you pray for us in the
same way, so that we have the health and strength to continue coming and
providing minimal aid.
Homily 18 of the book The Art of Salvation by Elder Ephraim of Arizona
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