October: Day 28: Teaching 2: Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi of Iconium

 

October: Day 28: Teaching 2:
Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi of Iconium
 
(The Benefits of Reflecting on the Passion of Christ)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi, whose memory is today celebrated by the Holy Church, lived during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the city of Iconium. Her parents were Christians and especially honored Friday — the day of the Savior's suffering and death on the Cross, spending it in fasting and prayerful remembrance of Christ's Passion. When God granted them a daughter on this day, they named her Paraskevi, which means "Friday" in Greek. Later, growing in faith and Christian piety, Paraskevi, following the example of her parents, especially honored Friday. Her very name recalling the sufferings of Christ, she strove in her heart to draw continually closer to the Lord crucified for the salvation of the world. In this closeness, she found a source of consolation and strengthening of her faith and love for the Lord. Finally, she herself worthily partook in Christ's Passion, courageously confessing Christ and enduring the most severe tortures for Him. Brought to trial, Saint Paraskevi, still a young virgin, boldly resisted the temptations and threats of the torturer, who urged her to sacrifice to idols for the sake of her life. The torturer then ordered the Holy Confessor to be hanged from a tree and her body tormented with iron nails. Then, wounded to the bone and barely alive, she was thrown into prison. But God did not leave the courageous sufferer without consolation and miraculous help. An angel appeared to her in the prison, holding in his hands the instruments of Christ's Passion — the Cross, the Crown of Thorns, the Spear, the Reed, and the Sponge — and said, "Arise, maiden, sharer of Christ's Passion. I have been sent by God to visit you. For the consolation of your soul and the healing of your ailments, I bring you these instruments of the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. Arise, Christ the Lord heals you." The Holy Martyr immediately arose, kissed the instruments of Christ's Passion, and the angel wiped her wounds with the Sponge, and suddenly her entire body was healed of its wounds, so that the prison guards who arrived in the morning, expecting to find the Martyr dead, saw her in her former blooming form and beauty. In this miraculous healing, the Holy Martyr's evil tormentor failed to comprehend the invincible side of the crucified Lord and continued to torture Saint Paraskevi, ordering her, hanging from a tree, to be burned with torches and finally beheaded with a sword. Thus, the Holy Great Martyr, in the wedding garment of virginity, adorned with her own blood, stood before her Heavenly Bridegroom, Christ, becoming a participant and sharer in His Passion!

II. May the example of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi serve as an incentive for us to constantly preserve in our souls the thought and memory of the saving sufferings of Christ, so that it will be all the more convenient for us to wage war with our passions and achieve communion with Christ.

It is salvific to reflect on the sufferings of Christ not only on certain days, but at all times, every day and hour.

a) If we often reflected on the Savior's suffering and death, how we would love Him! Is it possible to be cold to the One who sacrificed everything for us? The mere thought that the Savior endured everything for us, that He came down from heaven for us, that He clothed Himself in flesh, that He endured slander and insults, that He ascended the Cross, that He bled upon it, and that He suffered unspeakable torment — this thought alone should crush the hardest heart, soften the most callous soul. Oh, if I constantly remembered this, I would not fear any sacrifice to testify of my love for Christ!

The fast would not be burdensome for me. I would be glad to demonstrate through the act of fasting that I desire to offer even a small sacrifice to Christ within myself, in gratitude for the sufferings He endured on the Cross for me. Long prayers and church services would not be burdensome to me. Spending time in prayerful conversation with the One Who loves me would be pure delight for me, and if it were not for the weakness of the flesh, or the duties and tasks of home and service, I would always be ready to converse with Christ. It would not be difficult for me to endure offenses, insults, or dishonor from others. If the Savior, completely innocent and sinless, being true God, endured them on my behalf, and endured them all His life, how then could I not occasionally endure them myself, as a great sinner, always deserving of reproach and insults from people for my sins? This is always the way of those who never let go of the thought of what Jesus Christ has done for them, who remember His sufferings, who remember His love. But we forget these sufferings, only occasionally recalling them, almost in passing, and therefore we have little patience for the sake of Christ. Fasting is difficult, rising early for prayer is difficult, long services are difficult, fasting and preparation for receiving the Holy Mysteries is difficult, frequent attendance at church is not desired, bearing offenses is difficult – everything for Christ is difficult, and it is difficult because we love Him little, and we love Him little because we hardly remember how deeply He has loved us.

b) If we often remembered the Savior's suffering and death, many of the sins we now commit so boldly and fearlessly would never even occur to us. If I often thought of that head bowed for me "on the Cross," would I begin to think proudly of myself, sometimes treat others with disdain, seek primacy and advantage over those more worthy of me? If I remembered those "hands pierced with nails," with their deep wounds, would I stretch out my hands to appropriate the property of others, to insult and oppress my neighbor, or to any other forms of sin committed by human hands?  If I could more often picture to myself that "languid, sickly face, those dim eyes, those closed lips, that parched throat," that interior scorched by unbearable heat, that pierced "rib," those mockeries heard at the Cross, that abandonment by His Heavenly Father, would I live only for the flesh, for the belly, for the senses, go to places of pleasure alone, seek laughter, joy, entertainment, utter with my lips what is not proper for a Christian, look with my eyes on what excites impure ideas and desires, only rest, pamper, excessively adorn my whole body, much less use it as an instrument of sin? Would I allow myself to condemn and mock others, as the enemies did with Christ? Oh, no, I would then be afraid of all this, lest I offend my Redeemer who exhausted Himself for me. At every temptation to sin, I would restrain myself from it by this remembrance of His sufferings — and then my thoughts, my desires, my heart, my whole soul, my whole body would be pure, blameless, my whole behavior would be blameless. And even if I sinned, I would rather fall before this Cross of my Savior, and weep bitter tears over all my guilt. This is what we would do with frequent remembrance of the Savior's sufferings. But we forget the sufferings of Christ, and because of this we drink in sins like water; we cannot live without sin; we do not flee from it, but seek an opportunity to do so, and we wage no struggle against it.

III. Therefore, my beloved brethren, let us reflect more often on the sufferings of Christ: they are accompanied by great and, one might say, incalculable benefit for us. 

 

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