the Son of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say this
in the account of the life and the martyrdom
of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, this great
saint of that special place, that city in northern
Greece, this beautiful temple that's built there
over his grave. 5th and 6th century church doesn't
say in St. Demetrius' life anything about his
inner psychology. The lives of saints don't deal
on that level. But I think it's safe to surmise
the following. St. Demetrius came from a prominent
family. His father was governor of that area.
A notable man, loved by the people. respected
by the emperor, respected by the Roman authorities
in the Senate. When he retired, reposed, then
his son was appointed in his place, Demetrius.
This was a Christian family. And I'm surmising
that at some point, the young Demetrius, noble
person, highly intelligent, educated, respected,
and also loved by the people and respected by
the emperor as well. I imagine that he heard
this gospel probably many times. They were secret
Christians. This was a time of brutal repression.
Not all times. with the Romans was their brutal
repression. Many times, they were free, the Christians
were free to practice the faith as they wanted
to, within some bounds. But I imagine the young
Dimitri heard this. He said, he heard these words
from the Lord, who said, when the Comforter has
come, who I will send you from the Father, even
the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the
Father, he shall testify of me. Testified. Witness.
And you also shall bear witness and testify.
The word witness is martyr. A martyr is not necessarily
one who suffers, although he does. It's the one
who bears testimony of the resurrection, of the
trust in God, that in our human weakness, God's
strength is made manifest. In our death, we enter
into life, and no tyrant can kill us, really,
because we shall rise again. He hears these words.
You shall also bear witness because you have
been with me from the beginning. These things
have I spoken to you that you should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yet
the time comes that whosoever kills you will
think that he's doing God a service. And I surmise
that St. Demetrius thought, it's time now to
live my Christian life a little bit more. profoundly
and openly, without fear. And that's what he
did. He was appointed the governor of Thessalonica.
His charge from the emperor was, when you go
back there, you are to put to death those Christians
who worshiped that one who was crucified. Demetrius
didn't say anything. He said, oh, I'm going back.
And he went back and he began to preach the gospel,
really like an evangelist, to each and every
person. And the Christian faith began to grow
in numbers. And this is also important to remember,
because he saw the storm coming. He didn't think,
oh, everything's going to be great now. I'm doing
God's work. God's going to reward me in this
life. I'm going to have everything I need. There'll
be no obstacles to the gospel here. He happened
to read St. Paul, that epistle we heard, knowing
that a good soldier is going to endure to the
end. But be strong. How? Not strong in yourself,
but strong in the faith of Jesus Christ, which
is in you. This is God's strength that St. Paul
says to be strong with. St. Demetrius knew this,
and he knew the storm was coming, and indeed
it did come. When the emperor came, he saw what
was happening. Demetrius was imprisoned. He was
beaten, I assume, and all that happens regularly.
And you know the story with Laeas in the stadium
and this young man, Nestor, who is seeing the
Christians, Be thrown into the ring. With this
Goliath of a man. And this man. Is on a pedestal.
And surrounding the pedestal. Are upraised spears.
All around. Farthest of them. And he just takes
the next Christian. Comes out and he tosses them
into the spear. Painful death. The next one tosses
them in. Nestor seeing this terrible thing. You
know. You can see movies on TV in which your
hero is going to come and then blast everyone
to death, you know, and he's the good guy. That's
not what Nestor did. Nestor went to... Yeah,
that thing's been chirping since last night.
Nestor went to St. Demetrius and asked for a
blessing to stand and defend the people, his
Christian people. And St. Demetrius blessed him.
And he went into the ring and said, oh, God of
St. Demetrius, help me. And the emperor hearing
this was not happy, and St. Demetrius was killed.
But Nestor proved a champion against this Goliath
of a man, and he was knocked down with one blow.
And then, of course, Nestor himself was martyred.
Why am I telling you all this? You can read this
for yourself. I'm telling you this to remind
you that there will be obstacles to your Christian
faith. There will be times in society like what
they experience, which will be very difficult
to be a Christian fully. That's okay. That's
fine. What do you expect? If they have done this
to me, says the Lord Jesus, they will do it to
you. You expect it will be all easy for us? In
this country, it's pretty easy, despite, you
know, the stuff we hear. I walk downtown in my
cassock, not once, not once since I've been a
priest has anyone said anything disrespectful.
Not one time. Now, it could happen. I don't gauge
that as anything special, but we can practice
our faith. But when the storm comes, brothers
and sisters, what do we do? Yes. We rely on the
strength of the faith of Christ that is in us.
And the more we do that, St. Paul says in that
epistle to Timothy, the more we have understanding
of God's plan for us, number one. Secondly, and
this is the most important thing, this is the
only thing I really should have said today. These
things I command you, says the Lord, that you
love one another. A wise person in our parish
said to me, when times are difficult, we have
to treat and be with each other warmly. Especially
those that you maybe don't really know. To reach
out to love them and treat them with love. Love
doesn't require that you know people. Because
we are enjoined to love our enemies. Love requires
what we have from Christ. That the Father is
glorified in us. That the Father loves Christ
and loves us. He says, continue in my love. If
you keep my commandments, you shall abide in
that love. If we keep the commandments of Christ,
we will have the love to love one another. So
that others seeing our love for one another will
glorify God. If we keep the commandments. If
we don't keep the commandments, we won't have
that kind of love. Jesus says, if you keep my
commandments, you shall abide in my love. Just
as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide
in his love. Jesus is asking us to follow him,
to trust him. The disciples were afraid. Jesus
says, don't be afraid. Oh, you of little faith.
And he calmed the storm. The storm may be out
there, but it's the storm in here that we need
mostly calmed. Ask the Lord to send that kind
of love so we can love one another and so that
we will have this calm, profound calm, as it
says in the gospel, and peace of heart to do
his will, to be the witness in this world of
God's love and God's salvation for all. Amen.