Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Athanasius Sakharov
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast day of Saint Athanasius Sakharov, Bishop of Novgorod! Today is the feast day of one of our modern saints, the Hieroconfessor Athanasius, who shone forth in the 20th century. He died and departed to the Lord in 1962. Athanasius Sakharov spent twenty-four years in prison, exile, and hard labor. He is known to us as a great expert on ecclesiastical rites and a great hymnographer. He authored a service to all the Saints who shone forth in the Russian land; he was the greatest liturgist of his time. Wherever he was — in prison, in exile, or in a penal settlement — Athanasius Sakharov strove to offer a sacrifice to God — Holy Communion. He always celebrated the full cycle of services, regardless of whether he was in solitary confinement or working in a logging camp. Saint Athanasius possessed a phenomenal memory and celebrated the entire service from memory. He wrote a very interesting and important work, which many would find useful to read: “On the Commemoration of the Departed According to the Typikon of the Orthodox Church.”
On his feast day, I'd like to say a few words about ecclesiastical hymnography and how to use it. Many people who go to church do everything but listen to the service; they say they need the right mood, the right feeling. But then it's unclear why they need a service? Maybe they should install an organ, like the Catholics do? It also creates a good mood. Have you ever wondered why the Church banned organs and introduced liturgical singing? So that people would ascend to God with their minds and hearts. Church services are necessary for us to learn piety. So that people know how God created the world, how He saved us through the Lord Jesus Christ, how He sanctifies us with the Holy Spirit, how the righteous struggled, the martyrs fought, the saints conquered the passions, how we can fight sin and learn virtues? Church hymns, church singing sung by Christians, teach all this.
The sacred texts of ecclesiastical prayers are not ordinary texts, they go back to the Lord God – the Holy Spirit.
As the Apostle Paul said: “We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26-27).
All our hymns come from the Holy Spirit, Who in the Church prays through us to the Heavenly Father, moves us to the Heavenly Father, and thus we enter into the Trinitarian life.
The first singer is Jesus Christ: “In the midst of the church I will sing praises to You” (Hebrews 2:12), Christ says to God the Father. The Father is glorified in the Church by Christ the Savior, and we are drawn into eternal glory when the Son glorifies the Father, the Father glorifies His Son, and the Holy Spirit glorifies both the Father and the Son. It is no coincidence that our entire worship is built on the words of the Holy Spirit. Almost the entire worship of the Orthodox Church is woven from the words of Holy Scripture. And the hymns (canons, stichera, troparia) are also inspired by the Holy Spirit and are based on Holy Scripture. Our task is to learn from what is sung in Church.
We need to learn the knowledge of God, for only a fool hates knowledge: “How long will fools hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22). He who despises knowledge, evil will not depart from his house: "It is better for a man to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than be a fool in his folly. He who repays good with evil, evil will not depart from his house" (Proverbs 17:12-13).
Here, knowledge refers to knowledge of the word of God, which is a lamp and shows us where to go. There's a good rule: Church hymns should accompany us not only in church but also at home. Saint Athanasius Sakharov said that in our home prayers, we are free and can pray as we please, provided we pray to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However, he still writes that it's better to bring home prayer closer to church prayer.
Want to pray more? What should you do? Saint Athanasius says it's better to read the Hours — evening and morning. Pray in the church way, to be with the entire Universal Church. At first, this may seem boring. He noted that sometimes people prefer Akathists to Church services. Akathists are more understandable; they awaken the sensual without awakening the mind. Saint Athanasius cited the enemy's intervention as the third and main reason why people don't want to pray at home in the Church way. If a person prays with the entire Church, they demonstrate obedience; if they pray alone, vanity can arise, which will poison their prayer.
It is known that Saint Leonid of Optina, when still a layman, made up to three thousand prostrations a day, reciting three Canons and three Akathists. When he came as a novice to Optina Monastery, he asked how many prostrations he should make. The Venerable Elder Moses replied, "Make a hundred prostrations!" Novice Leonid became indignant, as he was making three thousand. To which Venerable Moses replied, "You'll come to me asking for less!" And indeed, Leonid began making a hundred prostrations and couldn't complete them; he lacked the strength. He was forced to make fifty prostrations instead of three thousand. Novice Leonid asked Elder Moses, "Why is this happening?" And the Venerable Moses answered him: “When you were in the world, you were nourished by vanity and pride, and you worked on this energy, your work was poisoned by the poison of pride, but when you began to pray in obedience, then your work became justified, since you do this not of your own will, but of God’s will, and the devil hinders you.”
We understand perfectly well that God does not need our physical training, He does not need the number of bows, but a pure heart: “A broken and humble heart God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19).
This is a very important principle, and that's why Saint Athanasius calls on everyone to pray at home in a church-like manner, to be churchgoers. In Soviet times, Christians greatly valued the opportunity to go to church and pray. Churches were very few, a tiny church for every large city. In enormous Moscow, there were only forty functioning churches, and they were packed to capacity. Back then, Christians valued the services, but now some consider it acceptable to skip Sunday services. We don't appreciate the gift we've received. And we should. No one told us this would last, no one guaranteed that persecution wouldn't resume. It could begin at any moment, and it's normal for the Church to be in a state of persecution. Therefore, we must take advantage of the days the Lord has given us.
We must accustom ourselves to church services and force ourselves to listen attentively to the words of the prayer. If something is unclear to you, approach the choirmaster afterwards and ask him to explain the meaning of the hymn. Our prayers must be meaningful. For many centuries, there was no preaching in the Church. For example, from the 15th to the 17th centuries, the Russian Church did not preach, with rare exceptions. Only Patriarch Nikon introduced mandatory church sermons. But Christians have always learned from church services; they listened attentively to them and drew from them everything necessary for salvation. During Soviet times, many church books were copied by hand — the Bible, the New Testament, prayer books, and service books.
We must continue to train ourselves to draw everything from the divine services. Saint Athanasius knew the divine services by heart, and no one could stop him from serving God. Wherever he was, he always prayed to God and served Him, and the Lord protected him. Let us also make use of this treasure. We in the Eastern Church have very complex divine services, and this is a good thing — the more complex the service, the more information it contains, the more it strengthens our minds and feelings, purifies our hearts, strengthens our wills, exposes the devil's wiles, and shows how to combat them. We have twenty thick volumes of liturgical books alone (the twelve volumes of the Menaion, the Octoechos, the Horologion, the Psalter, the Euchologion, the Lenten Triodion, the Pentecostarion, the Irmologion, and others). And all these liturgical books help us; they contain a wealth of knowledge, and we must make use of them. May the Lord help us in this! Let's learn from the Church!
May the Lord help you and save you!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
