October: Day 17: Teaching 2: Venerable Martyr Andrew the Cretan

October: Day 17: Teaching 2:
Venerable Martyr Andrew the Cretan
 
(How Do We Approach the Performance of our Duties?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast day of the Holy Martyr Andrew the Cretan, who, out of zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbors, denounced the impious iconoclastic Emperor Constantine Copronymos (who lived in the 8th century) and for this was subjected to the most cruel tortures and death in full view of the Orthodox, whom he never ceased to teach until his last breath the truth and obedience to Holy Mother Church, it is fitting, my beloved brethren, to discuss whether we fulfill our Christian duties as Saint Andrew the Cretan did.

II. Christian brethren! Each of us bears our own duty, our own responsibility; each of us has a task for which we have been sent into this world by the will and ordinance of divine Providence. Do we all regard the duties that lie upon us as the Head of our salvation regarded His duties? Do we hold our own obligations in such esteem, and are we so devoted to our work, that we would willingly forgo food, drink, and sleep for its sake, considering the mere fulfillment of our duty as nourishment? Do we zealously seek the glory of God and the salvation of our neighbor’s soul as fervently as the now celebrated Saint Andrew the Cretan zealously pursued these ends? Alas, no, and far from it!

a) We are, first and foremost, members of a family. Everyone knows the responsibilities that spouses have towards each other. But does each person treat his wife as his God-given helper and co-worker on the path of life? Does each person respect her as much as he demands respect from her? Does each person love her as he loves himself? Do we not have marriages where husband and wife are almost complete strangers to each other? Are there not also those where the husband is an absolute ruler, a fierce tyrant, and the wife is a voiceless, unresponsive slave? The husband has his money, the wife has hers; the husband has his worries, cares, intentions and plans, the wife has hers; the husband is absent for weeks and months at a time, the wife doesn't know where he is, where he went, why, when he'll be back, etc. Some husbands demand servile services from their wives, impose excessive burdens on them, and instead of being considerate of their natural weakness, indulge in mockery, abuse, and sometimes even physical insults. There are also wives who treat their weak husbands inhumanely — they are constantly angry with them, scold them, restrict them in all their affairs, are ashamed to appear with them in public, etc. Woe to the wife to live with such a husband, woe to the husband to live with such a wife!

b) Spouses also have the most sacred duty to nurture and nourish their children so that they will eventually grow up to be both good people and good Christians. But do all parents fulfill this duty? Many parents only keep watch over their children for two or three years: when the child begins to run free, they abandon it to its fate, as if the parents have no business inquiring into what is being conceived, what is accumulating in the young and receptive soul of their child. It grows and develops like a blade of grass in a field! But this is not enough: we know that some parents, to the shame of man and the deep sorrow of the Church of Christ, send their children as apprentices or mercenaries to people dishonest in their dealings... And it is not only poverty that compels them to do this — no, sometimes greed also. What will become of such children? Parents will expect their children to comfort and care for them in old age. A vain expectation! Such children will not become drinkers and providers for their parents who at one time did not want to know what it means to raise children in goodness and in the fear of God.

c) Our household staff could also be considered part of the family. According to Christian principles, it should be such that neither the servant wrongs the master, nor the master wrongs the servant. However, in our case, it often happens that the master constantly quarrels and reproaches the servant, imposes excessive work upon her while compensating her meagerly, suspects her, denies her access to the house of God and to confession, and opposes her fulfillment of the significant and necessary duties of a Christian, and so on. The servant, for her part, reciprocates in the same manner by deceiving the master, performing her work carelessly, doing just enough to get through the day, slandering the master, and defaming him in front of others, and so forth. At the end of the term, the master does not pay the servant the full contracted amount, deducting damages and losses suffered due to the servant's dishonesty, often adding to these even those for which the servant is not to blame, but which are the result of the master’s own negligence; the servant complains, a quarrel ensues, a legal dispute arises... Thus, many of us fulfill — or, more accurately, distort — our familial duties!

d) While members of a family, we are all members of society, of the state, and each of us, as a citizen, as a member of society, also has our own duty, our own responsibility. Don't think that public duties rest only with officials, with various superiors and authorities: no, they rest with each of us. It is true that the higher a person stands in society, the greater and higher the position he holds, the more scope, opportunity, and means he has to act for society. But we must not forget that every higher authority, when it acts, relies on the lower authority that follows it, and that again on the lower, and so on, until we reach not only the lowest authority but also the simple artisan, the humble farmer, who has no public authority. If these latter individuals perform their duties honestly, then it will be easier for the authority above them to properly perform their duties, and if this is easier for them, then it will also be easier for the higher authority above them, and so on. In human society, it's like the human body. When is the body healthy? When all its members properly fulfill their purpose. Isn't it the same in society? For example: would not the prevalence of drunkenness, vagrancy, idleness, and various social vices in society decrease if all parents and educators diligently and zealously fulfilled their duties towards their children and foster children, that is, if they taught them both by words and by their own example the fear of God, industriousness, honesty, crafts, sciences, and the arts? And how much would acts of violence, oppression, overt and covert robberies, and assaults diminish if everyone diligently attended to the responsibilities of their station, and those appointed to uphold justice carried out their duties impartially, without bribery, and without corruption – administering judgment and righteousness! And what good can there be in society if some people deliberately abuse their social position? The entire problem lies in the fact that, for the most part, it is wrongly assumed that public offices are merely means to "profit." It is clear that a person who regards their office in this way can bring no benefit to society; they will only think about how to advance their own interests at the expense of public ones. As a result, almost every official is dissatisfied with the position they hold in society and strives to climb higher and higher, often without considering whether they are capable of fulfilling the responsibilities required by the office they so eagerly seek. Obligations seem to matter little to them; they are concerned with only one thing: "there is more profit and income there!" Thus, our public duties are sometimes distorted in this manner.

d) Finally, we are all members of a spiritual, heavenly society; we are all Christians. As Christians, we also have our own high responsibilities. In this life, under the guidance of the Church, we are only preparing for another life — a life "with Christ in God." Every day, every hour, we must reflect on our higher calling and destiny, and therefore we must constantly strive to become better, kinder, holier — how to cleanse our minds from vain thoughts, our hearts from evil lusts, our lives from bad inclinations, from wicked habits, from evil and impure deeds, so that we may appear in that life as worthy "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." And how good it would be in the world if we at least constantly thought about these highest responsibilities! How easy it would be for us to fulfill our family and social responsibilities, how many of the evil aspects of our lives that we have pointed out to you would disappear, if we continually strived to love the Lord God and our neighbors as we should! Then we would have less need of courts and punishments, because there would be fewer offenses and injustices among us.

III. Lord Jesus! Teach us to regard our duties and grant us the strength to perform them as You, O Lover of Mankind, regarded and accomplished Your great work! Teach us to do Your will, as You did the will of the Father who sent You. Teach us to care with holy and ardent zeal for Your glory and the salvation of our neighbors, as did the Holy Martyr Andrew the Cretan and all the other saints. Amen. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.