October: Day 29: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman

 

October: Day 29: Teaching 2:
Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman
 
(About our Ingratitude to God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the life of Anastasia of Rome, celebrated today, there is a trait worthy of our great attention and reverence: when she was subjected to cruel scourging, she is said to have glorified God with the words of the Psalms — not a word of murmuring, not a word of hesitation, doubt, or cowardice, although her torment was so cruel that even the common people, accustomed to such spectacles, began to reproach the ruler. How, then, can this wondrous, angelic act of the Holy Martyr Anastasia be explained? Her profound gratitude to God for that immeasurably great and indescribable blessedness which the Lord has prepared after death for all who love Him — in short, for her salvation, the path to which must inevitably be narrow and sorrowful. How few such Christians are there in our time!

II. This prompts us, brethren, to talk with you about our ingratitude to God, despite all His countless blessings towards us, which we experience from the first minute of our birth, and which we very often forget and very little, to our great sorrow, appreciate.

Who today, brethren, thinks of thanking God, conscious of their complete dependence on Him? Suppose our prosperity were never interrupted, is it not certain that our ingratitude would also continue? To develop in us such carelessness, characteristic perhaps of an animal, does not at all require, as you may suppose, a favorable position, complete good fortune, or one of those unheard-of blessings that cause dizziness. No, for this, alas! a sufficiently prolonged prosperity, an untroubled carelessness, the certainty of finding daily bread on one's table — this is enough to lead us to forget that all blessings are bestowed upon us by God. We act as if God is obligated to bestow upon us what He bestows. The very habit of His blessings deprives us of their full value. We must deprive ourselves of this, and only then will we understand all His mercies.

a) Look at the spectacle the world presents us with in this regard! In every situation, you will notice people who despise what God gives them and who exalt their views of others above themselves, constantly demanding from God what He has denied them.

For example, will a worker, to whom God grants his daily bread, health, strength, affections, and satisfying joys, value his well-being? No, his gaze is turned upward, he envies those to whom God has given a higher position, and the only blessings he desires are found at a height he cannot attain.

And this more endowed man, the object of his envy, do you think he considers himself happy and contented? Does he feel in his heart the fullness of gratitude at the thought of what he possesses? No, he, in turn, looks with envy at those standing even higher, looks higher, that is, into the realm of abundance and luxury; there lies his happiness, and, from his point of view, only those above him are the fortunate ones of the earth.

Ask those fortunate ones, who possess everything to envy in independence, wealth, and the means to satisfy their most trivial whims. Do you think they are truly happy? Alas! They are the ones most often dissatisfied with their well-being, and their hearts and minds are most easily satiated with these blessings. You see how they, in turn, develop new, unrealizable desires and how they seek happiness everywhere except where God has ordained it.

You see a woman of the world , whom God has hitherto spared from serious trials, forgetting that among thousands of beings she occupies a unique position, possessing what is denied to the vast majority of her kind; you see her creating imaginary sorrows for herself, giving herself over to them, talking about them with others, complaining constantly, losing sight of the world with its real, bloody sorrows, encountered at every step, and completely unknown to her.

You see these favorites of fortune, despising the thousands of joys scattered by God on their path, and striving with insatiable zeal towards a goal that is constantly retreating from them, in pursuit of that happiness which they will never attain.

b) Brethren! Let us not ridicule this trait of human nature, but, upon reflection, let us rather deplore it. In this dull "dissatisfaction" which pursues man everywhere, darkening his joys and ruining his happiness, we must ultimately recognize a clear proof of the loftiness of his destiny. You thought that man could be happy on earth, and that happiness lies in these joys he desires. No! The experience of centuries and your own answer us. No! Happiness does not lie in this. Why is this so? Because our soul was created for God, and only the infinite can satisfy it. "O God!" once exclaimed Saint Augustine, "You created us for Yourself; that is why our heart is restless until it finds rest in You!" You find the man on earth who, trampling all joys underfoot, seeks new and impossible pleasures, to be mad; you blame the one who, being capable of enjoying everything, gives himself over to the intoxication of passions, whose pursuit consumes all his joys, like a brazier devouring dry leaves. Yet, recognize in these very errors the hidden thirst that torments the human soul, and, by the immensity of its desires, measure the greatness of that which alone is capable of satisfying it forever. Into that vast emptiness of the heart, where God is absent, you would vainly cast earthly blessings: success, glory, attachments — in short, everything visible, everything loved, everything envied. The abyss will remain unfilled, and no matter what you cast into it, you will not diminish it. This heart requires more than earthly well-being, more than even the world itself: only the love of God could fill it.

c) Be that as it may, Orthodox Christians, ingratitude to God, unfortunately, is quite common among Christians.

But you, my brother, are a Christian. You have learned to know yourself through the light of the Gospel. You know all the poverty, greed, and sinfulness that reside in your life and heart; you have explored those dark recesses of your nature that are invisible to the human eye; you know how much self-love and pride mingle with your best deeds; you have measured the gulf that separates you from the love of God. We are all not ignorant of what our just fate would be if He judged us according to His holy law.

But you are Christians, that is, you rejoice in having found in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ the Savior; you believe that you were the object of His boundless love; you find this love again in that divine Providence which found you in your errors; in that cry of your conscience which impelled you to go to the Cross of Golgotha; in the heavenly joy which fills our hearts at the good news of forgiveness; in the multitude of gracious gifts of which you have been the object, and in the hope of that supreme blessedness which is appointed to you in eternity by virtue of the redemptive merits of the Son of God.

So, if gratitude is to be found anywhere on earth, is it not primarily in your own heart, and would you not, would we not, Christians, be the most ungrateful of people if we remained so unappreciative?

d) But it is strange that in this forgiven, sanctified soul, filled with the love of God and angelic joy, you see ingratitude taking up residence, like a cold snake. Who gave it access? Our natural inconstancy, or that terrifying frivolity with which we forget our most vivid and serious impressions? No, here we must examine one of the sad sides of our heart. This heart is ungrateful because every obligation weighs upon it, even the love of God... Yes, within us lurks a remnant of proud independence, unwilling to accept God's yoke; we seem to sense that His blessings bind us, but we do not wish to be bound; in the light of redemption, we sense the wickedness of our selfishness.

It is not difficult for anyone to see traces of ingratitude in that "carelessness," truly animal-like, with which a Christian accustoms himself to being the object of God's love, regarding his situation as entirely natural. We find it in the dry and insulting manner with which he speaks of the most touching and sacred work of redemption, of which he was the object. We find it in the "murmurings" that escape him as soon as the hand of God refuses him one of those blessings to which he so quickly accustoms himself. Alas! in this sacred soul we find the "old man," the ancient contempt, the ancient insensibility. This is also why, brethren, God grieves us, calling each of us in turn to pass through the crucible of tribulations, thus continuing that divine education which forgiveness alone would not complete. This is why God visits us with misfortunes, because in sorrow, especially, we are able to discern His presence. And indeed, try to notice this: only at the moment when God strikes us do we realize that He has spared us until now. In His wrath, His love is revealed; the just God reveals the good God, and under the blows of His justice, we understand for the first time the boundlessness of His mercy!

III. Let us, brethren, be grateful to the Lord both for His blessings and for the sorrows He sends, which educate us for the Kingdom of God. Amen. 

 

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