In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. It's our joy to gather together
all these holy days of July to celebrate these
martyrs and these holy ones. Of course, we celebrate
the Feast of St. Seraphim on Sunday. Tomorrow,
we'll commemorate St. Elizabeth, the new martyr,
and her attendant, the nun Barbara. Next week,
we'll have St. Jacob of Alaska. There's St. Christina.
And today is St. Marina, the great martyr. There's
a fresco that's going to be painted of her every
year. One day, God willing. And, of course, we
gather today to ask the intercessions of the
royal passion bearer, St. Martin Nicholas. His
wife, Seriza Alexandra. And their children. Alexis,
Tatiana, Olga, and so forth. We can't possibly
imagine what their life, very vaguely imagine
what their lives were like. Maybe you've seen
PBS shows, upstairs, downstairs. The Crown. Movies
about Queen Elizabeth. Not a very good, for the
Russian church in any way, for the Russian people,
not a very good representation. We can't put
our minds to what their lives would be like.
And to the incredible level of honor that they
had. And the authority that they were given.
And the love. that up until the end, the people
gave Tsar Nicholas. You know, people say he was
murdered. He wasn't murdered. He was martyred.
Big difference. In the world, he's murdered.
And they judge him according to how good he was
as a ruler. He himself said he was totally unprepared
to be a ruler. He had no idea what it meant and
no idea how to do it, and he was desperate, desperate.
for god's help and he prayed constantly in the
church we say he was martyred and we don't judge
him according to the political standards he wasn't
voted in the office after all and he wasn't voted
out we judge him according to his life his whole
life his life went from the glory of of the empire
to the most frightful degradations that humans
have to suffer. Slander, lies, brutality. He
and his family experienced all of that. And how
did he respond? He responded in a certain way
that he knew exactly what the Lord said that
we heard today. And he knew what St. Paul had
written that we heard today. Nothing is going
to separate us from the love of God. And in fact,
St. Paul is saying in tribulations and glory,
in nakedness, in shipwreck, in tribulation, in
hunger, in betrayals. We show our love for God
and how we respond in those situations. And we
commemorate the royal martyrs. We call them passion
bearers because in their response, they witnessed
to exactly what Jesus was talking about. Jesus
said he would send the comforter. They had the
comforter. They lived according to the words
of Jesus. They knew if they hated him, they will
hate you also. Their lives were not of this world.
It was not a kingdom on earth that they were
concerned about so much. And we're not concerned
about going back to some kind of monarchy like
that. Our gaze is fixed on the eternal kingdom.
Our gaze is fixed on following Christ and responding
in whatever situation that we are in. Whether
we have to wear a mask, whether we have a pestilence
and a pandemic to deal with, brothers and sisters,
comparatively, really, we look at these people
and we exalt them today. We honor them today
and we try to emulate their response. Forgiveness.
Kindness. Do you know? that the Bolsheviks had
to continually change the guards when the family
was at the Tatev house. Continually change the
guards because the family would be so kind and
so loving. After a week or two, the guards would
become friendly and open to them. And so the
Bolsheviks got the lowest of the low, the most
brutal people to be the guards. And their hearts
would be changed too after a week or two. That's
the kind of people we want to be. To respond
to hatred with godly love. And if we don't have
it, we get on our knees like those people did.
And we pray, God, send me thy love. Jesus, in
this gospel reading we heard today, love one
another is what he said. And when we love one
another, it's not love those who love you. It's
even love the enemy. Our royal passion bearers
are for us an example for our time, for sure,
and not that distant was it when they were killed,
when they were martyred, when they witnessed
to the power of God, the power of the resurrection,
the belief that God will raise us from the dead,
that God sends the comforter, that God is with
us no matter what tribulation and difficulty
we have. He is there. Let us be with him. Through
their prayers, Lord Jesus Christ, your God, have
mercy on us.