Galatians
3:23-4:5; Matthew 4:18-23
After our Lord’s victory over death
at Pascha, He ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples
and apostles at Pentecost. Last week on
the Sunday of All Saints, we commemorated all those who have participated
personally in the holiness of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost and All Saints remind us that doing
so is not a calling for a select few, but the common vocation of all who bear
the divine image and likeness as unique, irreplaceable icons of Christ. He calls us all to obey His commandment to
the first apostles: “Follow Me.”
We might find it hard to see how the
Lord’s calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John has much to do with us. We certainly do not somehow have to repeat
their unique roles, but definitely must learn from their examples how to become
fully receptive to the healing mercy of the Lord as we discern and obey His
calling in our lives. Doing so is completely different from trying to use God to meet our
personal needs or desires for anything in this world. It has nothing to do with impressing other
people or making us feel better about ourselves. The Savior’s Cross demonstrates that following
Him is in no way a path to conventional earthly power or glory.
As
living members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we have received the fullness of
truth by the power of the Holy Spirit, poured out richly at Pentecost. We are filled with the Spirit personally in
Chrismation and nourished by the Savior’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He
has called and empowered us to live each day of our lives as those who
participate by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity. To confront these truths is to know
immediately how unworthy we are of such blessings and how far short we fall of
living accordingly. When we recall the
Lord’s teaching that “to whom much is given, much will be required,” we should
fall on our faces in repentance because of the great responsibility that is
ours. (Lk 12:48) The Savior said, “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but
he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) He also said,
“If you love me, you will keep my
commandments.” (Jn. 14:15) As the Lord told His disciples, “Unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5: 20) Struggling to obey the Lord through daily prayer, regular fasting, generosity
to those in need, and constant mindfulness are necessary for us to gain the
spiritual clarity to discern and follow our path of obedience to the heavenly
kingdom. To identify ourselves as
Orthodox Christians without embracing this difficult and humbling journey is
nothing but self-righteous religious hypocrisy by which we will condemn only ourselves. We will do the opposite of obeying the Lord’s
command “Follow Me” if we entangle ourselves in the nets of spiritual pride, self-righteous
judgment of our neighbors, and the idolatry of seeking first any kingdom other
than that of our Lord. Instead of
attracting others to Christ like a beacon in the darkness, we will turn them
away by our bad example and reveal how we have shut the doors of our hearts to
the healing presence of the Holy Spirit.
A shining example of someone who heard and obeyed Christ’s
command is the Holy Great Martyr Kyriaki, who gave the ultimate witness by
refusing to worship pagan gods and giving up her life after suffering brutal
persecution by the pagan rulers of the Roman Empire. A beautiful young
virgin, Kyriaki came from a wealthy family, but she refused the offer of marriage
to the son of a magistrate who wanted their money. The magistrate then denounced
the family as Christians to the Emperor Diocletian. Even when offered
great riches and marriage to one of the emperor’s relatives if she would
worship the pagan gods, Kyriaki refused and miraculously survived horrible
tortures from four different rulers. The Lord appeared to her and healed
her wounds. The next day her prayers
destroyed a pagan temple, and the wild beasts to which she was later thrown
would not attack her. Kyriaki gave up her soul right before she was to be
beheaded.
As
we discern what it means to respond faithfully to the Lord’s calling in our lives,
the example of St. Kyriaki should remind us that our hope for the healing of
our souls does not lie in the pursuit of earthly possessions or success. She had wealth from her family, great beauty, and a way
to become powerful, prominent, and even wealthier by worshiping false
gods. The eye of her soul was so pure,
however, that she knew Christ not as a mere religious figure from the past to
be manipulated however she found useful, but instead truly as God. Because she was filled with the Holy Spirit
and radiant with the divine light, she saw clearly that the blessings of this
life must not become idols that would turn her away from the Lord. Because they are His gifts to us, she knew
that we must offer them and ourselves faithfully to Christ, recognizing that there
is nothing more important than seeking “first His Kingdom and His righteousness,”
even to the point of enduring torture and death, as did her Lord.
St. Kyriaki faced a clear
choice between obeying the Lord’s calling to “Follow Me” and seeking first the
power and glory of this world. Where we
tend to fall into trouble is when our choices are less clear, when the contrast
between faithfulness and idolatry is not as stark. It may seem unlikely that someone will promise
us great wealth and power if we will deny Christ and worship another god. Something very similar happens, however, when
we confuse obedience to Christ with the service of conventional political or
national agendas, as though His Kingdom would come when one faction imposed its
will on another through whatever means necessary to save a nation or even the
world. Such false presentations of Christian
mission are especially dangerous because they identify the way of our Lord and
His Cross with the powerful temptation that He faced and clearly rejected: to become a conventional political Messiah who
would rule over an earthly kingdom by overthrowing the Romans with military
might. He called the first apostles and Kyriaki to become martyrs who bore
witness to His salvation by loving and forgiving their enemies as they remained
faithful to their Lord, even to the point of death. Their hope was not in some rearrangement of
the powers that be, but in a Kingdom not of this world.
Before their shining examples, we must bow in humility as
we humbly embrace the basic spiritual disciplines that help us hear and discern
how to obey His call to “Follow Me” in the particular circumstances of our
lives. We will find our salvation not by
giving ourselves to any of the false gods of this world, but by taking up the
crosses that are so obviously present in our lives each day. We must not be distracted by idealistic
dreams of any kind that divert our attention from faithfulness in the opportunities
for obedience that are right before us.
For example, no one else is married to your spouse, is the father
or mother of your children, or is the particular friend, worker, or parishioner
that you are. No one else has the vocation
to serve Christ in those around you in the unique way that you do. No one else
can resist your temptations or keep a close watch on the thoughts of your
heart. The present circumstances of our lives present limitless opportunities
to become fully receptive to the presence and peace of Holy Spirit. None of us lacks anything at all that is necessary
to grow in holiness, obey Christ’s calling, and draw others into the life of
the Kingdom. We are all without excuse
in obeying our Lord’s command: “Follow Me.”
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