HOMILY FOR THE SUNDAY OF THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN

This Sunday the Church commemorates the Myrrh-bearing Women. Here is what the Gospel tells us about these holy women and why they are called “the myrrh-bearers.” “And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came to the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, and they said among themselves: Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher for us?”

Dear brethren! Can you imagine the state of these myrrh-bearing women? For those who have suffered under the Soviet rule in Russia, and endured the persecution of the Church, – it is so understandable. People stole through dark streets at night in order to get to church. Anything could happen, and everything was to be feared. The neighbors might hear you go out at night, or you could be stopped on the street, or the church services might be disrupted by the authorities, or the priest might be arrested. This was the state in which the myrrh-bearing women found themselves. They could be arrested any minute. Even in their homes they locked the door, scared of each knock, each rustling noise. It was only two days ago that Peter had denied being one of Christ’s disciples. And in front of whom? In front of a servant girl! And only because she might inform on him. Such was the situation. Their Teacher had been judged, condemned to the most terrible death, and executed… Now it was their turn: as disciples of an executed Teacher they were outside the law, they were already being hunted down. The wisest course was to run away somewhere, to hide… But instead, these women prepared to go out at night to the sepulcher, which was not far from the place of execution. And they knew that the entrance to the sepulcher was blocked by a huge stone, that the stone was sealed, that Roman guards stood over the sepulcher, that these guards were armed and on the alert, since they had been warned of a possible attempt by the disciples to steal the Body. From a rational point of view, what these frail women were planning to do was not only impossible, it was an insane risk… And yet they went. Why? What mighty force impelled them? This force was their strong love for their Teacher, which compelled them to fulfill the Word of God, as expressed in the law of Moses. And thus, in fulfillment of what was a holy law for them, they bought sweet spices and went to anoint His Body. Their conscience demanded it. And so, their strong faith in the Word of God, their strong love for their martyred Teacher, and their strong hope in God’s help, – turned out to be more powerful than fear, more powerful than reason, more powerful that everything.

And what happened? When they arrived, they found that the guards had run away in fear, that the stone was rolled away, and when they entered the sepulcher, they saw a youth in white garments, and they were frightened. He said to them: “Do not be frightened! You are seeking Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. Behold the place where He was laid!”

The same holds true of our lives, dear brethren. The myrrh-bearing women, in accordance with Old Testament law, the law of Moses, bought sweet spices and went to anoint the Body of Christ. And we, in accordance with New Testament law, the law of Christ, must acquire spiritual spices: and these are His commandments – humility, meekness, tranquility. And His Body is the Church of Christ, all our brothers and sisters in Christ. Often, while trying to acquire virtue, we are subjected to discomfort, and losses, and mockery, and sometimes even danger. At times like these our cold reason, our egoism put up such barriers that we often give up, we retreat, we are afraid to present ourselves openly as followers of Christ.

But as soon as we reject this shameful fear, as soon as we begin to follow His teaching, – then the same thing will happen to us that happened to the myrrh-bearing women: obstacles will simply dissolve, will fall away as that heavy stone at the entrance to the sepulcher, and all those who would hamper us will disperse… And before us will be the shining sepulcher of Christ, which will provide us with such clarity, that all our doubts will disappear. We will know exactly what to do and how to go about it, and everything that seemed impossible – will suddenly become very possible.

Dear brethren! From this very day let us follow the example of the myrrh-bearing women, and let us not be afraid to follow the Law of Christ, let us not be afraid to be His disciples. Christ has always conquered, always conquers, and always will conquer! Amen.

 

Christ is risen!

 

(Archbishop Andrew of Novo-Diveevo, “The One Thing Needful”)

 

 

 

SUNDAY OF THE BLIND MAN

 

Today’s Gospel reading and church hymns describe to us how the Lord Jesus Christ healed a man blind from birth. The Lord saw the blind man, spat on the ground, made clay from this spittle, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the clay, and then told him to go and wash his face in the pool of Siloam. The blind man obeyed the Lord, went away, and came back seeing (John 9:1-7).

The issue was as clear as day. That same Jesus, Whom the scribes were ready to stone as a blasphemer, had performed yet another great miracle. It only remained to acknowledge Him, repent of their blindness, and give glory to God Who had honored His people with such great signs. But for that they had to humble their pride and have their spiritual eyes opened – which was precisely what they did not wish to happen. Even the blind man, if he had not obeyed the Lord and had not gone to the pool of Siloam to wash his face, – would not have had his sight restored. Most importantly, though, the blind man began seeing not only with his physical eyes, but also spiritually.

Several times the Pharisees and the scribes interrogated the former blind man about what had taken place, called in his parents, and demanded that the healed man acknowledge his healer as a sinner, so that finally he lost all patience with them; the former blind man then rebuked and lectured them on the fact that God does not listen to sinners, but listens to those who honor God and act according to His will. Not seeing and not wishing to see the truth of these words, the scribes and the Pharisees did not know what to reply to him, but expelled him instead, using violence in place of words.

Hearing of his expulsion from the synagogue, Christ Himself found him and strengthened his faith. “Dost thou believe in the Son of God?” – He asked the seeing man. – “And who is He, Lord, that I might believe in Him?” Then followed the merciful reply: “Thou hast both seen Him and it is He that talketh with thee.” Seeing the divine image standing before his seeing eyes, the former blind man joyously exclaimed: “I believe, Lord!” and worshipped Him.

If this question were addressed to us, how many of us would have said “I do not believe?” We are all Christians and belong to the true Church of Christ, the Orthodox Church. But which one of us can say that his faith in God is firm, unshakeable, living, active, attested to by his entire life and works? “Show me thy faith from thy works” – says the Apostle Paul in one of his epistles. In truth, which one of us truly believes in God, the Almighty Creator, Master over all, i.e. is convinced that his life, as it had come from God in the beginning, so remains at all times in His omnipotent will?

A certain man came to confession to one of our native ascetics, who was engaged in spiritual endeavor near Kiev. After hearing the man’s long confession of all his personal sins, the ascetic said: “I can see that you are repenting of your personal sins, but you have not said the most important thing – do you love God and do you believe in His word?” The man was quite surprised by such a question and said: “O venerable father, how can one not love God, pray, and why should one not believe in His word, which consists of total truth and holiness?” The ascetic then replied: “If you loved God, you would be thinking about Him incessantly and with heartfelt pleasure, while for you the contemplation of God represents hardship and boredom. If you were convinced and believed beyond any doubt that there was eternal life beyond the grave, with retribution for all earthly deeds, you would be thinking about it constantly, and you would be spending your life on earth as a stranger preparing to leave for his homeland. Yet your thoughts secretly run along the lines of “who knows what will come after death?” Thus the cause of disbelief in God is lack of faith, and the cause of lack of faith is lack of conviction, and the cause of lack of conviction is a refusal to seek true knowledge and spiritual enlightenment. In other words: it is impossible to love without believing.”

Let us think a moment about this. Let us try to ponder this more deeply. It is hard to ascend the ladder of virtues, but such an endeavor comprises the feat of our salvation. Even the blind man did not remain as he had been, but was included among Christ’s disciples; he multiplied the faith and the commendation which he had received from the Lord for the glory of God.

This ardent faith of the former blind man caused Christ to speak a homily on spiritual blindness: “I have come into this world to judge, so that the unseeing would see, and the seeing would become blind.” It turned out that when the true Light appeared, bringing enlightenment to every man, only those who were regarded as ignorant and blind were able to see Him, – all those poor in spirit, who in the simplicity of their hearts fully accepted the Lord; and on the contrary – those who in their pride imagined themselves to be seeing and all-knowing – turned out to be pitifully blind.

Unfortunately, such spiritual blindness is widely spread even now, and is being further spread primarily among those classes of society which believe themselves to be people of reason and learning. In their blindness such people now think to re-educate the whole of society and the entire world. A tree is known by its fruits, and we see their fruits every day in the anti-religious education they are promoting, which is based exclusively upon worldly knowledge.

Let us become church-bound, dear Orthodox brethren, and not only through external churchgoing, but primarily through inner development. Let today’s Gospel narrative convince us of the unreliability of earthly knowledge, which seeks enlightenment for itself only within its own limited reason and not in divine reason. Therefore, all of us – both educated and non-educated – should appeal to the Lord together with the Holy Church, that our spiritual eyes be opened and that life-giving faith be preserved within us as an indubitable pledge of eternal life: let us fan the flames of this faith within us by prayer and the reading of the Word of God, fulfilling God’s commandments earnestly and faithfully, and the Lord will not abandon us, as He had not abandoned the blind man, for “God will not despise a broken and contrite heart.” Amen.

 

 Protopriest Igor Hrebinka

 

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PENTECOSTAL PRAYERS

 

On the day of the Holy Pentecost (Trinity Day), when the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, there also occurs an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all of us who pray in church on that day. During the Vespers (which follow immediately after the Divine Liturgy), the Church prays for “all those present, awaiting the grace of the Holy Spirit,” while the subsequent kneeling prayers speak of the actions performed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And we, too, pray to the Holy Spirit to visit His grace upon us, to cleanse us of all impurity, and to grant us holiness and comfort, because He is the Source of both one and the other.

A certain elder said: on the day of the feast of the Holy Pentecost, when you will be kneeling, brother, and piously heeding the prayers offered by the priest on behalf of his congregation, then you should definitely know for what you should pray, for on that day the Holy Spirit is present in the Church so obviously, so fragrantly and divinely, that He will hear your prayers. Therefore, brother, concentrate your thoughts and think ahead of what you will ask of God. Perhaps there are many sorrows, and cares, and burdens weighing upon your heart, and you wish to ask God to resolve your problems and to help you. Pray for it. But your first, and primary, and infinitely more important entreaty should be that God grant you the grace of the Holy Spirit and fill your heart with it to a surfeit, i.e. that He receive you into the Heavenly Kingdom while you are still on earth, that He grant you the pledge of future eternal rapture. I will even tell you that that should actually be your only entreaty on that day. However, the flesh is weak, and in your frailty you may ask God for help with worldly cares, if you so desire. God will hear you, as it is written: “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble” (Psalm 20:1). Always remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things (i.e. all your earthly needs) shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). Incorporate these words both into your faith and into your life: believe in God and trust in God. Know also that God knows how much your heart suffers from earthly misfortunes, and that the small coal of love upon which flames and rises the incense of your prayer and faith may be completely extinguished if sorrows sap your spiritual energy. God knows that your heart is diminutive, and He wishes it to belong to Him entirely, as it is written: “My son, give Me thine heart” (Prov. 23:26). Thus, if you give Him your heart, God will make sure that it remains His and will not allow great sorrows and the demons, – who act under the cover of sorrows and who incite tempests in order to prize your heart away from God and with strong currents of misfortune extinguish your love for God and all your thoughts of eternal life. – to weaken your soul and bring it to the point of total exhaustion. Thus, brother, give your heart to God and afterwards remain without a care in the world, and be solely concerned with having your heart remain constantly in God’s hands. Thus, on the day of the Holy Pentecost, on the day of the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, earnestly pray that the Holy Spirit descend upon you as well, and prior to that prepare yourself with prayer and the reading of spiritual books.

Thus, ask the Heavenly King to grant you this charity: the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21). Amen.

 

Archimandrite Amvrossy

 

 

 

THE HOLY TRINITY – AN IMAGE OF CONCILIARITY

 

From eternity and before all ages our God exists in the form of the Trinity: three Persons in one Being.

Throughout a number of centuries the comprehension of this sacred truth and major Christian dogma was completely forgotten by Christian humanity to such a degree, that the countless multitude of enemies of our faith cite precisely this dogma as incomprehensible, while the defenders of Christianity, being almost in agreement, demand a blind acceptance of this truth on faith, without the least attempt to delve into it more deeply and understand it, since such understanding is supposedly totally impossible.

Of course total understanding is impossible, but total understanding of anything at all, especially dogmas of faith, is equally impossible. An in-depth study of this particular dogma and a fuller understanding of it as much as possible are especially important and necessary for a proper understanding of both the Christian Church and of human nature itself.

The Lord created man in His image and likeness, because only a being like unto God can be truly good.

God is one in essence, but triune in Persons. God’s creation was due to become the same. Adam and Eve were individual beings, but together were due to become one. The means to this was to be another God-like quality – love – the divine force which achieves total and absolute unity within the Divinity despite the difference in the Persons, and which is so inherent to God that Apostle John says that God is love.

This same God-like quality of love, given by God to humans, was supposed to unite them into a single being through love for each other, so that this single human being, also through love, but in this case towards God, would gradually, in an infinitely joyous process of realization of love, unite into a single being with God.

This is what St. Basil the Great formulated so clearly: “I am a man, but have been tasked with becoming God.” This process is never-ending, because the task assigned to man is boundless and infinite.

However, man stumbled in his first step towards it. In order to accomplish his task, man was supposed to achieve perfection in love, manifesting it and nurturing it by a voluntary (because love is a God-like quality and cannot be forced) fulfillment of the commandment of the One Whom he had been called upon to love. Man broke off his love for God by violating His commandment, and ruptured the tie of love between himself and his helpmate by placing the blame upon each other while being called to account before God.

Nevertheless, since man’s sin was not absolute, and the humans expelled from paradise stepped unto a path of repentance, the tie of conciliation, though broken, was not completely destroyed in mankind. All manifestations of love, compassion, and mutual understanding are manifestations of this innate conciliarity among humans. The only reason I am able to understand the thoughts of another person is that by God’s design I was supposed to be one-in-essence with him. But never will I be able to fully understand another person, never will I be able to fully assimilate the life of another as my own, because our natural conciliarity has been corrupted by sin, and we have become locked into self-assertion.

The greatest manifestations of this, though corrupted, but still existing natural human conciliarity are marriage and motherhood. Here, more than anywhere else, a person lives the life of another as his own. In marriage two individuals, while fully retaining their personal characteristics, their individual uniqueness, strive to become a single being. A good and loving marriage is the closest approach towards the accomplishment of our God-given purpose. A loving husband and wife truly live each other’s lives almost as their own. And at the same time their unity does not limit them in any way, does not lessen the personal uniqueness of each of the spouses.

However, even in the most perfect human marriage, not to speak of other manifestations of conciliarity ruptured by sin, the fullness of unity of essence is never reached. Never can man fully live the life of another as his own.

And yet, according to God’s design, in the pre-eternal Council of the Trinity man was tasked with attaining complete and perfect unity of essence similar to the unity of essence in the Holy Trinity, in Whose image man was created. And, in turn, the desired union in the Kingdom of God, the union of man with God, is called the wedding feast of the Lamb, i.e. the marriage of Divinity and the human soul, in which, without losing his personality, man unites with God to the same extent as a loving husband and wife strive to merge into a single being.

In the light of such understanding of the immemorial and all-encompassing nature of the law of love as the foundation of God’s design for mankind, it becomes understandable why Christ the Saviour, Who came to restore the lost unity between men and God, placed the commandments of loving God and neighbor as the cornerstone of His teaching, and said that upon these two commandments hang the entire law and all the prophets.

To love one’s neighbor as oneself, to live his life as one’s own means precisely to be one-in-essence with him.

To love God with all one’s heart, all one’s thoughts, all one’s might, all one’s being means to fulfill God’s design for mankind, because all of man’s spiritual forces, his entire being were given to him precisely in order to strive for unity with God and to attain it in the infinitely joyous process of the wedding feast of the Lamb.

This supreme precept of love was brought by Christ to mankind. But it is very nearsighted to think that that was all the Saviour did, as think the rationalistic moralists, who find the only value in Christianity to be its lofty moral law. If this were so, then those who take this point of view a step further and conclude that actually Christianity has not given mankind anything really new would largely be correct, because the founders of other religions also proposed lofty moral precepts that were quite often similar to very basic Christian laws and, moreover, appeared prior to Christianity.

We can easily agree with that. Of course, it does not mean that Christianity has nothing of its own, as rationalists think, that it is borrowed from outside sources. It only means, as one ancient Church father said, that man’s soul is Christian in nature, and that the roots of likeness to God are planted deeply within it, making it thirst at all historical stages and under all the various geographical conditions for the true ideal and not an illusory one.

But never could any commandment, even the most perfect Christian moral law, be fulfilled by any man, as a consequence of his essence being damaged by sin, had not Christ imbued mankind with a new force, giving it the possibility of uniting with Him into a single being within the Church, thus restoring the conciliar unity of people, similar to the conciliarity of the Holy Trinity, that had been lost in the Fall.

And Christ – one-in-essence with God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity – also became one-in-essence with us in the Church, as a consequence of which we now acquire within it an infinite invisible power that gives us the opportunity of eternal life in the Kingdom of God, which is represented by the Church, i.e. the realization of the process with which we were erstwhile tasked – a blessed union with God, a return to Him.

This does not mean that the Church accomplishes our salvation mechanically. One enters the Church, unites with God, and is already saved – no, our sojourn in the Church, precisely because it represents union with God, requires very difficult conditions from man – a total lack of sin, total purity and lack of vice, because it is impossible to unite anything sinful with God. Therefore, in order to truly enter the Church, one must be completely cleansed of sin, one must completely fulfill the Gospel law of perfection.

The foundation of this law is love, whose basic element is comprised of ancient and innate human conciliarity, which has remained in man and has preserved for him the possibility of salvation and renewal. Without it we cannot achieve the new conciliarity – union with God and other people within the Church. It is also a sign of the soul’s relative maturity.

It is noteworthy how sins and crimes obscure the natural human conciliarity, and how a man who serves himself, his sins, and his passions loses all interest in others, loses the ability to understand others, destroys within himself his innate conciliarity, and thus dooms himself to dissatisfaction and moral torment. This is because only a God-like conciliar life with love and interest in each other can give joy in life.

For this reason the dark demonic forces, who after their apostasy from God have totally and absolutely lost their former innate angelic conciliarity and have consequently become immersed in utter darkness and torment, battle primarily against the sense of conciliarity among people.

As a result of mankind’s widespread apostasy from God in the modern age, we clearly see the fading out of conciliarity in mankind, which tries in vain to camouflage this terrible phenomenon with various international conferences, assemblies, and treaties. However, people have lost the feelings of pity, compassion, and interest in each other, which are all manifestations of conciliarity.

We, Christians, on the contrary, declare conciliarity in all its facets to be the foundation of our life. We joyously greet all manifestations of love, trust, understanding, and solidarity in people, seeing in them the scattered but significantly important elements of the ancient conciliarity implanted into man by God, yet knowing all the while that this natural conciliarity, ruptured by sin, is not sufficient and is corrupted, and through it we strive for a higher, boundless, and invincible conciliarity, a conciliarity in Church through union with Christ, and through Him with the entire Holy Trinity, and at the same time with all the angels and humans incorporated into this unity.

 

Archbishop Nathaniel (Lvov)

 

 

 

CHRISTIAN TEACHING

 

Life is a gift from God

 

Therefore I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me (Eccles. 2:17).

There is not a single person who at some point in his life does not undergo the temptation to repeat these words of Solomon, realizing at the same time how wrong and sinful they are. This is truly a temptation; the evil spirit throws his hellish light over all the filth and vileness that we come upon in life, and upon seeing it we are overcome with revulsion towards the whole world; we unconsciously ask ourselves: is it truly worth living, and for what? Is it only in order to add our pitiful voices to the universal wail of suffering mankind, as we whirl around in this maelstrom of sin and seduction?

A Christian should not hate life; though being aware of how imperfect, gloomy, often cruel it is, especially in our times, he should nevertheless love it as God’s greatest gift and understand that each person who so desires may learn a lot from it. Life is an arena in which we struggle against falsehood for the sake of truth and against evil for the sake of good. It is a treasure that is frequently and easily wasted by people; we, on the other hand, must cull benefit from it and, when the time comes, must return it into God’s hands, from which we received it. Life is a soil that is often subjected to storms and inclement weather, yet is also irrigated by gentle rains. Finally, it is first and foremost a gift from God; what right have I to hate this gift and to curse that which God had blessed?

In order to love life there is no need to look for what it can give us, but rather what we ourselves should bring to it. Do you want to love life? Try to see what benefit you can bring in it to others! Was there not a single person in your path who needed your love, whom you could comfort, support, lead to God? By illuminating ourselves with deeds of love, we will transform and decorate our entire life with the light of such love.

“Make a daily attempt, – someone said, – to reduce even a little bit the huge mountain of human suffering and add to the tiny heap of human joy.” Do not love your life in terms of egoism, but love it for the sake of the Lord, because it is that field of battle in which you can stand up for Christ and against sin. And remember – real life will begin only when you place it fully at the disposal of the One Who had given it to you. Each day is a gift from God.

 

(From the diary of an Orthodox priest)

 

The meaning of life

 

The ultimate goal of each person is in God, in communion or living union with God. Having been created in the image and likeness of God, the very nature of man is to some extent a form of divine nature. By being partly divine in nature, man cannot but seek communion with God, not only as his source and prototype, but as his highest good.

For this reason our heart is content only when it communes with God and is possessed by God. No one can comfort it except God. Solomon knew many things, possessed many things, and enjoyed many things, but in the final analysis he was forced to acknowledge all of it as vanity and vexation of spirit.

However, our good lies not only in the sole aspiration of all our desires towards God. In seeking God, we wish to acquire Him, we wish to truly become part of Him, to be within Him, and have Him within ourselves. Such a living, internal, direct communion of God with man and man with God represents our ultimate goal.

Let not anyone think, though, that a living union with God requires the soul to evaporate within God and to lose its freedom and independence. Not at all! Although the soul truly comes under the influence of God, touches upon God in a certain sense, and is permeated by His force, it still does not cease to be a soul – a reasoning and free spirit, just as white-hot iron or coal, being engulfed by fire, do not cease to be iron or coal.

On the other hand, it is also wrong to believe that when communion with God becomes man’s ultimate goal, such a man will become worthy of it only at the end, for example after all his endeavors. No, it must be man’s constant, uninterrupted state of being, so that if there is no communion with God, if it is not felt, then man must admit that he standing outside his goal and his purpose.

Thus those people are far from the truth who believe man’s ultimate goal to be man himself, whatever fancy appellations they may give to such a belief – calling it a development of spiritual forces, for example, or a striving towards improvement. With such a goal people become disjointed through their concern only for their own selves, and become used to turning everything into a means to that end, including God Himself, whereas in reality man, like all other creation, is a means in God’s hands for the purposes of His Divine Providence.

It is also unfair to consider the good of others as man’s ultimate goal, to focus all one’s concern on the well-being of society. To assist universal well-being is man’s unarguable obligation, but not the primary, nor exclusive one. If this were to be the prime duty, then each person would turn his mind and his heart towards others and away from God and, consequently, all the people would make up a society closed in upon itself, but separated from God.

This would be like a body without a head. On the contrary, when in communion with God, all people become united in this single goal, not only in thought, but in deed, and all of them together, filled with one spirit and one force, make up a whole, living, and well-functioning organism. Only under such conditions can a genuine and reliable union be created among people.

 

Saint Theophanus the Recluse

 

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

 

On May 21st (the 8th by the old calendar) the Church commemorates the memory of the venerable Arsenius the Great.

St. Arsenius was born in Rome, received a good upbringing and an excellent education, but left off his studies and dedicated himself to God, becoming a deacon. Against his will he was taken by Emperor Theodosius to Constantinople as a worthy instructor of the Emperor’s sons. However, the saint’s soul yearned for solitude, and he was greatly burdened by his position. The Lord acceded to his appeals, and one day he heard a voice saying: “Arsenius, run away from people and you shall be saved.” Leaving the palace in secret, he went off and entered one of the Egyptian monasteries. Once, while praying, the saint again heard a voice saying: “Arsenius, run away from people and remain silent – that is the root of sinlessness.” After that the saint went into seclusion, coming to church only on Sundays and major holidays. He spent 55 years in great spiritual feats and reposed at the age of 95. St. Arsenius taught: “Many times I have repented of my words, but never of my silence.” In response to the question of why he hid from people, the ascetic replied: “God sees that I love everyone, but I cannot simultaneously be with God and with people. The heavenly powers have a single will and glorify God in unison, while on earth each person has his own will, and people’s thoughts are different. I cannot leave God and live with people.”

 

 

 

On inner purity

(Spiritual instruction by St. Arsenius the Great)

 

Many people, in order to cleanse themselves of the iniquities of the flesh and sin, spend a very strict life. Yet they do not think at all or very little of mental purity and of absolute cleansing of oneself. Many try to avoid fornication and other vices of the flesh, but few take care to suppress within themselves their innermost passions, such as envy, vanity, egoism, avarice, and – worst of all – pride. For this reason they are not only half-pure, but the greater and more important part of themselves remains impure. They are like statues which glitter with gold externally, but internally are full of all kinds of foul things.

Above all we must try to cleanse ourselves of our secret passions. We must know that our enemy the devil tries to tempt us with various cunning approaches, and tries to throw us into the abyss of vice even by means of good deeds. For example, by enticing us to offer hospitality, he lures us into partaking of forbidden food and drink together with our guests. Hospitality in itself is a wonderful virtue – that of love. However, by means of it he secretly and gradually makes us slaves to our bellies and nourishes incontinence and lust within us. Others he disposes towards the giving of charity, towards generosity, but through this he incites within them love of money and avarice. And so on.

 

 

 

ORTHODOX VENERATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

 

I. Veneration of the Mother of God during Her life on earth

 

From apostolic times to our days all those who truly love Christ also venerate the One Who gave birth to Him, nurtured Him, and safeguarded Him in His childhood. Since She was chosen by God the Father, while God the Holy Spirit descended upon Her, and God the Son became incarnate within Her, obeyed Her in childhood, and showed concern for Her while hanging on the Cross, should not all who confess the Holy Trinity worship Her?

While She was still living on earth, Christ’s friends – the apostles – showed great care and devotion to the Mother of God, especially the Evangelist John the Theologian, who, in fulfillment of the will of Her Divine Son, took Her to his house and cared for Her from the moment the Lord said to him from the Cross: “Here is thy Mother.”

The Evangelist Luke painted several images of Her, some with the Pre-eternal Infant and others without Him. When he brought them over and showed them to the Holy Virgin, She approved them and said: “The grace of My Son shall be with them,” and repeated the words She once said in Elizabeth’s house: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and My spirit rejoices in God, My Saviour.”

At the same time, during Her earthly life the Virgin Mary shunned the glory that was due Her as the Mother of God. She preferred to spend life in quietude and to prepare for Her passage into eternal life. Until the last day of Her earthly life She took care to be found worthy of Her Son’s Kingdom, and She prayed to Him before Her death to deliver Her soul from the evil spirits who meet human souls on their way to heaven and try to seize them, in order to drag them down to hell. The Lord answered His Mother’s prayer, and when the hour of Her repose arrived, He Himself came down from heaven with a multitude of angels to take up Her soul.

Since the Mother of God also prayed for the chance to take farewell of the apostles, the Lord gathered together for Her repose all the apostles except Thomas, who were brought to Jerusalem on that day from the four corners of the earth by an unseen force, in order to be present at Her blessed passage into eternal life.

Singing divine hymns, the apostles buried Her Most-pure body, and on the third day they opened up the sepulcher, in order to worship the Mother of God once more, together with the apostle Thomas, who had by that time arrived in Jerusalem. But they did not find Her body in the sepulcher and returned to their homes in bewilderment, but during their common meal the Mother of God Herself appeared to them, shining with divine radiance, and told them that Her Son had also glorified Her body, and that now She, being resurrected, stands before His throne. At the same time She promised to be with them forever.

The apostles greeted the Mother of God with great joy and began to venerate Her not only as the Mother of their beloved Teacher and Master, but also as their heavenly help, the protector of Christians, and intercessor for all of mankind before the Righteous Judge. And everywhere that Christ’s Gospel was preached, His Most-Holy Mother also began to be venerated.

 

II. First enemies of the Mother of God’s veneration

 

The more the faith of Christ spread and the name of the Saviour of the world was glorified on earth, together with the One Who had been worthy of being the Mother of the God-man, the more the hate of Christ’s enemies increased towards Her. Mary was the Mother of Jesus. She manifested an extraordinary example of purity and righteousness; moreover, even after departing from this life, She remained a powerful, though physically unseen, support for Christians. Thus all who hated Jesus Christ and did not believe in Him, who did not understand His teaching or, rather, did not wish to understand it as the Church understood it, who wished to replace Christ’s preaching with their own human philosophies, – all transferred their hate of Christ, the Gospel, and the Church upon the Holy Virgin Mary. They wished to humiliate the Mother, in order to then destroy faith in Her Son, to create a false impression of Her among people, in order to then have the opportunity to reconstruct the entire Christian teaching on other principles. In Mary’s womb God became joined with man; She was the One Who had served as a ladder for the Son of God as He came down from heaven. To strike a blow at the veneration of Her meant to strike at the root of Christianity, to destroy its very foundation.

Even the very beginning of Her heavenly glory was marked on earth by an outburst of anger and hate towards Her on the part of the unbelievers. When after Her saintly repose the apostles carried Her body for burial in Her chosen place in Gethsemane, John the Theologian walked in front, carrying an elysian branch which the Archangel Gabriel had brought to the Holy Virgin three days before, when he came down from heaven to announce Her forthcoming departure for the celestial dwellings.

“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,” – Apostle Peter began singing Psalm 114, while the entire assembly of apostles and disciples joined in with the “hallelujah.” And while this holy hymn, called by Jews “the great hallelujah,” i.e. the great glorification of God, was being sung, a certain Jewish priest named Athonius rushed towards the bier with the intent to overturn it and throw the Mother of God’s body to the ground.

Athonius’ insolence was punished immediately: Archangel Michael cut off his hands with an invisible sword, and they remained hanging on the bier. The amazed Athonius, in great pain and torment, recognized his sin and appealed with prayer to the Jesus he had hated until this moment, and was healed right away. He then converted to Christianity without delay and confessed it before his former co-religionists, for which he was martyred by them. Thus the attempt to denigrate the honor of the Mother of God served to Her greater glorification.

Christ’s enemies did not dare show their disrespect to the body of the Most-pure with further force, but their hate did not abate. Seeing that Christianity was spreading everywhere, they began spreading malicious slander against the Christians. They had no compunction in involving also the name of Christ’s Mother, and made up stories that Jesus of Nazareth had supposedly come from a lowly and immoral environment, and that His mother was a Roman soldier’s paramour.

Would Christ have been shown respect and allowed to preach in the synagogue if He had been born from illicit cohabitation? Mary would have been subjected to the law of Moses, which commanded such individuals to be stoned to death, while the Pharisees would have been more than glad to rebuke Christ for His Mother’s behavior. But the opposite was true: Mary enjoyed the greatest respect, She was an honored guest at the wedding in Cana, and even when Her Son was condemned, no one dared to mock or berate His Mother.

 

III. Attempts on the part of the Jews and heretics to discredit

Mary’s Eternal Virginity

 

Jewish detractors were soon convinced that it was almost impossible to discredit Jesus’ Mother, and that on the basis of the information they themselves had on hand they could more easily prove Her blameless life. They therefore left off their slander, which was about to be picked up by the pagans, and tried to prove at least that Mary was not a virgin when She gave birth to Christ. They even said that no prophecy had ever existed about the Messiah being born of a Virgin, and that in vain were the Christians trying to glorify Christ by the supposed fulfillment of such prophecies about Him.

Jewish interpreters appeared who made up new translations of the Old Testament into Greek, and in them they translated the well-known prophecy of Isaiah as “Behold, a young woman shall conceive” (Isaiah 7:14); they asserted that the Jewish word “aalma” meant a young woman and not a virgin, as was written in the holy translation of the 70 interpreters, where that verse was translated as “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive.”

The new translation purported to show that on the basis of an incorrect interpretation of the word “aalma” the Christians were trying to ascribe to Mary something that was totally impossible – giving birth without a husband, while in reality Christ’s nativity was in no way different from other human births.

However, the new translators’ malicious intent soon came to light, since comparisons of different parts of the Bible clearly showed that the word “aalma” precisely meant “virgin.” Moreover, not only the Jews, but also the pagans, on the basis of their traditions and various prophecies, expected the Saviour of the world to be born of a Virgin. The Gospel clearly states that the Lord Jesus was born of a Virgin.

“How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” – Mary, who had sworn to remain a virgin, asked the Archangel Gabriel as he brought Her the glad tidings of Christ’s birth.

And the Angel replied: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee; therefore also that Holy One who shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34-35).

Later the Angel appeared to the righteous Joseph, who had wanted to let Mary go from his house, knowing that She had conceived without having had conjugal relations with him. To Joseph the Archangel Gabriel said: “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in Her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:20).

The flourishing staff of Aaron, the boulder that broke off a mountain without being pushed, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream interpreted by the prophet Daniel, the vision of the closed doors seen by the prophet Ezekiel, and many other visions in the Old Testament forecast the birth by a Virgin. Just as Adam was created by God’s Word out of untilled and virgin soil, so for Himself the Word of God fashioned a body from a virginal womb, when the Son of God became the new Adam in order to rectify the fall of the first Adam.

Christ’s virgin birth can be rejected only by those who reject the Gospel, while from ancient times Christ’s Church has confessed Christ as “being incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.” However, God’s birth from an eternal Virgin became a stumbling block for those who wished to call themselves Christian, yet did not wish to humble their prideful minds or to be concerned about purity of life. Mary’s pure life was a reproach to those who were also unclean in their thoughts. In order to appear Christian, they boldly rejected Christ’s birth from a Virgin, but asserted that Mary remained a Virgin only “till She had brought forth Her firstborn son Jesus.”

“After the birth of Jesus, – said the false teacher Helvidius in the 4th century, as well as many others after him, – Mary entered into a conjugal life with Joseph and had children from him, who were called Christ’s brothers and sisters in the Gospel.” However, the word “till” does not mean that Mary remained a virgin only up to a certain time. The word “till” and similar words often signify eternity. The Holy Scriptures speak of Christ that “in His days shall the truth flourish, and abundance of peace till the moon endureth” (Psalm 72:7), but this does not mean that when the moon ceases to exist at the end of the world, God’s truth will also disappear; on the contrary, it is then that it will triumph. Or what does it mean that “He is to reign till all His enemies become His footstool”? Will the Lord rule only until His enemies become His footstool and not any longer? In the Gospel the Saviour says to the apostles: “Lo, I shall be with you all the days till the end of time.” Does this mean that after the end of time the Lord will abandon His disciples? Or that at the time when they will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel they will no longer be in communion with the Lord?

It is also wrong to think that Christ’s so-called brothers and sisters were the children of His Most-holy Mother. The names “brother” and “sister” have various meanings. Referring to primary kinship between people or to their spiritual closeness, these words are used either widely or in a stricter sense. In any case, brothers and sisters are those who have both parents in common, or only a father or mother in common, or even those who come from different fathers and mothers, if subsequently (after being widowed) their parents became married (stepbrothers), or if their parents are related by close degrees of kinship (first cousins), etc.

Nowhere does the Gospel show us that Jesus’ so-called brothers were or were considered to be His Mother’s children. On the contrary, it was known that James and the others were the sons of Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, who was widowed and had children from his first wife. Similarly His Mother’s cousin, Mary Cleopas, who stood with Her at the Lord’s cross, also had children who, in view of such close ties of kinship, could rightly be called the Lord’s brothers. The fact that the so-called brothers and sisters of the Lord were not His Mother’s children can also be clearly seen in that before His death the Lord entrusted His Mother to His beloved disciple John. Why would He do so, if She had other children besides Him? They would have taken care of Her themselves. However, the sons of Joseph, Jesus’ seeming father, did not consider themselves obligated to take care of their, as they thought, stepmother, and in any case they did not have the same love for Her that children have for parents, or that John, who became Her adoptive son, had for Her.

Thus, a careful study of the Holy Scriptures reveals with perfect clarity the unsoundness of the arguments against Mary’s eternal virginity and puts to shame those who teach otherwise.

 

(To be continued)

 

 Saint John of San Francisco

 

 

 

 

THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN

 

Why seek ye the living among the dead? (Luke 24:5)

 

The angel’s wings glitter, His voice is celestial: “Why seek with the dead The Eternally-Living?” Great joy does he bring them, The ethereal spirit, Of otherworldly tidings The radiant bearer. O, how to believe it, This bright golden message! ‘Tis awesome and joyous… Their Teacher has risen To show to the world His unearthly beauty, And death has been vanquished By the Saviour-Redeemer!   — Lyubov Glukhova — Translated by Natalia Sheniloff