Wednesday, January 21, 2004
The Venerable Maximos the Confessor
Kellia: Wisdom 3:1-9 Epistle: James 3:11-4:6 Gospel: St. Mark 11:23-26
Wisdom 3:1-9, especially vs. 1, "But the souls of the righteous
are in the hand of God...." For the next three days, we shall reflect on Old Testament readings
appointed for the Vespers of righteous and God-bearing ascetics, worthies such as Theodosios,
Anthony, and Euthymios. The Church remembers three of them this month - on the 11th, the 17th
and the 20th respectively - each one of whom she pleases to call 'the Great.'
How is it that they are 'Great'? First, let us understand that, in our Baptism, all of us are
commanded to "preserve pure and unpolluted the garment of incorruption" with which we were
clothed immediately upon coming out of the cleansing waters. We are expected to strive daily to
be "invincible warriors" against every attack of those corrupt powers who regularly assail all the
Faithful. For the Apostle Paul such struggle means that we are to "stand fast in one Spirit, with
one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel" (Phil. 1:27).
The great ascetics are those who, being "anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, let [their] requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6). They meditate on "whatever
things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report" (Phil. 4:8). Their example calls us to remain in God's hand
by developing a strong inner spirit, maintaining peace in the face of death, and accustoming
ourselves to discipline by which God deems one "worthy of Himself" (Wis. 3:5).
Solomon teaches us that the righteous remain in the hand of God since "no torment will ever
touch them" (vs. 1). Obviously, many of God's righteous have been tormented and suffered great
pain. For example, a man who knew Father Arseny as a fellow prisoner in the special Soviet
labor camp reports that "He amazed me during the last trek. I could see that he was an
exceptional man. He had been working like all the others for many years in the same camp. He
was old and exhausted but he was still alive, he hadn't died. He believed in something, he
believed so hard that this was obviously the only reason he did not die, but lived." The Priest
survived despite the mosquitoes which "ate us alive. We were in such a state that people fell
down dead while still holding their spades and axes." No, the righteous often suffer great pains.
What keeps the righteous alive and untouched by torment is their interior life: "he believed so
hard that...he was still alive." Yes, they are tormented and endure pain as do all mortals, but "no
torment" touches them. The word in the original used by Solomon for "touching" connotes
interacting or communicating with pain. Pain and torment carry messages of hate, despair, or
meaninglessness; but since "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God" (vs. 1), and they
struggle to keep themselves in His hand, they do not receive pain's messages.
Even in death, when "they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be an
affliction, and their going from us to be their destruction...they are at peace" (vss. 2, 3), because
in Christ the righteous ascetics perceive death as a delusion of the unwise, of the godless, of those
whom Solomon calls, "the foolish" (vs. 2). Hence, in the face of death, "their hope is full of
immortality" (vs. 4), for they only allow the Spirit of Christ to touch them. Their interaction and
communication is with the life-giving Spirit of God, never with pain and death.
Great inner strength in the face of pain and death is sustained only by discipline: prayer, fasting,
godly reading, and the practice of the virtues. By these, as St. Nikolai of Zica says, it becomes
sweeter to "walk with God without men than to walk with men without God." May God find us
"Like gold in the furnace" and accept us "like a sacrificial burnt offering" (vs. 6).
Through the prayers of Thy righteous ascetics, have mercy upon us and save us, O Lord.
