Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Athanasios and Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria
13th Vigil of Theophany: Isaiah 49:8-15 Epistle: Hebrews 4:1-13 Gospel: St. Luke 21:12-19
St. Luke 21:12-19, especially vs. 19: "By your patience, possess your souls." The next three
readings this week describe the last period in the Lord's ministry before His Passion. He used the time to prepare the
Church for the persecutions which He prophesied for His followers (vs.12). He hid none of the degrading pain associated
with oppression: pursuit, arrest, abuse, jail, trial, betrayal by family and friends as well as hatred and death (vss. 16,17).
His goal was to help His disciples triumph in the midst of persecution, and He solemnly promised God's help to His
faithful martyrs, confessors, and witnesses.
Twenty centuries of Christian history have confirmed every word of these important teachings of the Lord. Whether we
experience what the Lord describes here or whether we will be left alone in the serene eddies of life along the banks of the
raging torrent of oppression, let us realize that persecution is not the exception, but rather the norm of discipleship. It has
swept down upon a great many of our brethren. Every awakened Christian knows that tides of intolerance and opposition
to the Gospel often rise to flood stage. We do well to pay attention to the Lord and learn how to possess our souls through
disciplined patience and practice.
How do we possess our souls by patience? Surely, first of all, by honestly recognizing how unruly our souls are. The
watchful Orthodox Christian understands the depth of struggle that is required to possess one's soul. St. John of the Ladder
reminds us that our souls are like greedy kitchen dogs running from one garbage can to the next. Those who have made
even mildly serious attempts at unceasing prayer know that we are "dull of hearing," babes who "need milk" rather than
solid spiritual food, "unskilled in the word of righteousness," and often given to dabbling in discussions of "the elementary
principles" of Christian Faith (Heb. 5:11-6:1).
How then may we break this tyranny of the passions and gain possession of our souls? The Holy Fathers teach that
freedom comes with the help of the Holy Spirit as we love and practice self-control, "first curbing passions of the soul
and...second, those of the body." Desires not submitted to Christ must be converted, one after another, until we reach what
the Fathers call "dispassion." Let us not grow weary, but "by [our] patience, possess [our] souls" (vs. 19), by the steady
subduing of each of the passions with the help of the Life-giving Spirit of God. In turn, peace of soul will equip us for
those certain seasons when we shall be asked to witness, when persecution and resistance to the Faith will demand that we
take a stand. The Lord gives His true disciple the words and wisdom that adversaries cannot contradict nor silence (Lk.
21:13-15).
Dispassion is a Divinely blessed state that enables the Christian to face betrayal by his own family and dearest friends.
Dispassion is the impregnable redoubt from which God's love sallies forth, either to capture hatred in its embrace or to be
crowned with the victor's wreath as a blessed martyr or an honored confessor. Dispassion is that grace which God gives to
His Faithful ones whereby "not a hair of your head shall be lost" (vs. 18).
Once the point is grasped that the battle is within us and not exterior, then we may be abused and killed and nothing will be
lost. Beloved, we receive these precious truths from the Passionless One, Who, in order to "bring many sons to glory, as
Author of their salvation, was perfected through sufferings...and through death...destroyed him who had the power of death,
that is the devil" (Heb. 2:10,14). He gives His Holy Spirit to help us also gain passionlessness, by patience to possess our
souls. We have the resources of His kingdom. Let us begin!
"Deliver me from them that persecute me, O Lord, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may
confess Thy Name." (Ps. 141:6,7 LXX)
