Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Christ. In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen. It wasn't so long ago, someone
who had been reading Lives of the Saints said
to me, But really, Father, some of this looks
just fantastical. Hard to believe and hard to
accept. And not only that, the number of martyrs
over and over and over again that appear in the
lives of the saints, the Synaxarion, the book
that has these everyday lives, it seems impossible.
Of course, the first 300 years... of the existence
of the Christian church show that there were
indeed countless martyrs. Not every single year.
There were periods of peace. But you read about
these men and women and children who have St.
Sophia over here with her daughters. And there
were many, many, many others just like that.
It's not that fantastical when you see someone
who's a true Christian and desires to witness
and to give testimony what he or she knows is
the truth about reality. You have these tens
of thousands of people. Getting burned up in
a church. It's just a couple days after Christmas.
You have that feast. The martyrs of Nicomedia.
It's like 10 ,000 people in a church. How could
that be? You have the 40 martyrs. And you have
these 40 martyrs. You have these 300 people.
In Georgia. 100 ,000 Christians killed on the
bridge. Well. Maybe that seems fantastical. But
we have actual proof. That this is the case.
For 75 years, the church was the victim, not
the victim, but stood tall against the relentless
and the vicious and the bloody attempt to dismantle
the Orthodox Church completely. Before the revolution,
there were 75 ,000 churches in Russia. Over 1
,000 monasteries. You can look up all these statistics.
Father Nicholas gave a very fine talk last night
about Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd, who's
over there on the wall, and his life and how
he stood. By 1937, 74 ,000 of those churches
had been closed or destroyed or blown up. A couple
of bishops remained. Very few monastics. Priests
had dug their own ditches and been shot and shoved
into them. There are stories over and over again.
The story of Metropolitan Peter of Clutica. At
the age of 47 in 1920, he was consecrated a bishop.
A death sentence for sure, like being made a
pope in the third century in Rome. for sure you
wouldn't last very long. He was arrested and
put on a train where priests and other people
were just shoved off as the train's going. He
was shoved off, but he landed in a snowbank.
And he wasn't hurt. This was the middle of the
night, the middle of nowhere, on the way to Siberia,
I suppose. And he walked and he walked. He only
had his cassock on. And it was cold. Obviously
there's snow. He sees a bear. And he makes a
sign of the cross. Gives glory to God. The bear
lies down before him. And he snuggles up to the
bear. And he probably smelled pretty bad. And
he was saved by the heat of that bear. Of course.
The Secret Service found him eventually. He lived
in a village where he ministered to people for
almost a year. But he was found out. And in 1937,
he was shot. What's special about 1937? Well,
in 1937, the government did a census. And they
found out that 80 % of the population still considered
themselves Christian. After all those years of
terror. Vicious terror. Dismantling because they
believe that the old had to go. Had to go. So
I ponder this. This feast of the new martyrs
of the Russian lands. And the revolution. And
then I think, this gospel we heard today. Of
course, the one about betrayal and wars and rumors
of wars. But not that one. This one. This one.
Jesus said to the Pharisees questioning him.
This is the third time he was questioned in this
chapter. What's the greatest commandment? Well,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment. And
the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor.
As yourself. I think today is a good day to ask
myself, in the absence of persecution on me,
why is it so hard to love the Lord our God with
all our soul? Not just the little portion of
it we set aside on Sunday. That's good, but not
enough. Why can't we love him with all our strength,
all our mind, all our heart? Everything that
we have. Those in the persecuted times did that.
And they loved their neighbor as themselves.
Which we find so hard to do. To love our neighbor.
We love ourselves maybe dysfunctionally. That's
why. And then I hear this epistle from Colossians.
And I ask myself. As the Christians. The Orthodox
Christians in Russia were being killed, churches
blown up and dismantled, turned into public restrooms
in the cities. The communists, the Bolsheviks
are saying, where's your God? Look at what's
happening to you. It's all over for you people.
Where's God in this? There is no God. And the
Christians are thinking St. Paul's words, for
you died. and your life is hidden with Christ.
We are all to be martyrs in the sense that we
have died in baptism, and can we not witness
with the very words and manner of our life to
that glorious kingdom that as these Christians
were being killed, more Christians were standing
in the place, just like the 40 martyrs, because
they saw, they saw something in those men and
women and children. And they believe, when Christ,
who is our life, appears, then we shall also
appear with him in glory. There was no glory
at the time. Therefore put to death your members
which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire. Put off anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy language. They did that in
the face of that terrible persecution. They lived
that way, which is why they're saints. It's not
just because they died, no, but because they
witnessed to the glory of God, to God's power
in human weakness, which is the story of the
cross, and they became like Christ, shedding
their blood for the truth of things. They knew
because they did this. They put on tender mercies,
kindness. humility, long -suffering, meekness,
bearing with one another, forgiving one another.
They let the peace of God rule in their hearts
and Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom,
teaching with psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. Why is it? That we can't love our neighbor
as ourself and love God with all our hearts,
all our mind, all our strength. Why is it that
the words of St. Paul in Colossians seem so foreign
to us? Sort of religious, but not essential.
The communists told the Orthodox Christians,
that's just sky, your religion is sky, pie in
the sky fantasy. I would say politics is pie
-in -the -sky optimism. Promises. And isn't the
church amazing that she puts right at the beginning
of the liturgy so that we put our loyalty and
fidelity in the right kingdom? Put not your trust
in princes and the sons of men in whom there
is no salvation. Doesn't mean you hide your head
in the sand. But it means that you put your trust
in the only place that is the kingdom of God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Metropolitan T. Conn
wrote a little meditation, three or four lines.
Here's what he says. Here's a lesson for us in
this feast day. Rather than more talk, more indignation,
more public stands, more controversies and opinions,
Shut off the news, brothers and sisters. You
want your heart to be pure, not filled with that
stuff. Rather than all that, perhaps we need
more prayer, more fasting, more services, more
attention to our neighbors. That is, the living
and breathing people God places before us each
day. To say it in a few words, what we need is
more simplicity, more humility. This is the way
of holiness. and holiness is the only solution
to the ailments of fallen creation. To our Lord
be glory. Through the prayers of the holy new
martyrs and confessors, Lord Jesus Christ, have
mercy on us.