By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Arethas was the protos of the city of Negra in Ethiopia, during the reign of Justin, when the most Christian Elesbaan reigned in Ethiopia, and a certain Jew named Dunaan (Dhu Nuwas) reigned over the Homerites (Himyarites). This country is called Saba in the Holy Bible, and by the Greeks Eudaimon Arabia. Elesbaan subdued the Jew and placed guards in his city. However, the Jew rebelled and killed the guards, while he attacked the city of Negra, which he besieged and subdued, not by military force, but by perjury, resulting in the killing of all its Christian inhabitants, men and women. It was then that Saint Arethas bravely resisted, having previously supported everyone in the faith of Christ, although he had reached extreme old age, so that he could not even walk. Such was his physical weakness that when he was handed over to be beheaded, he was joyfully carried to martyrdom. And after they had cut off his head, he gave up his spirit to the Lord.
It is surprising that the one who led the resistance against the Homerites of the Jewish King Dunaan was not a young man, who has bravery as his natural feature, but a venerable old man, who was even unable to walk. “Physiologically,” the old man Arethas should have been the withdrawn and insecure one, since usually the elderly are more cowardly, due to the weakness that their age brings. And yet! Age was not the problem for Saint Arethas, because his mind was youthful. And the reason for this “paradox” was his spiritual life. Saint Arethas was possessed by the presence of God, who strengthened him and gave him his astonishing boldness, so that he appeared anointed, that is, a strengthener and animator of the faith of others, and with joy he set out for martyrdom. The hymnographer of his Service points out both of the above elements: both the respectableness of his old age, but also the boldness of his character. “In the boldness of the Spirit, you fought to bear witness for Christ,” he says of the Saint and of the other Christians with him who were strengthened by him. “Under your prudent guidance, your God-minded city, all-blessed one, solemnly radiant in its majesty, bravely dealt with the lawless." And this is a truth that should not escape us: when a person lives with God, when he feels with a sense of heart that he is a member of Christ and therefore has the presence of the Holy Spirit active within him, then regardless of age he becomes a bold person, who also channels this boldness to others. God always keeps a person young, because the “heart” makes someone young or old. And it is tragic to see what the Holy Elder Paisios also pointed out: young people with an “old” heart, that is, with a withered mind, who have already surrendered their weapons, before they even begin their lives. Because they have precisely erased Christ from their existence.
The hymnographer of our Church, starting from the fact that Saint Arethas, like the other Christians of his city, were killed by the Jews, parallels their martyrdom with what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ, even reducing the murderous hatred of these Jews to the hatred that their ancestors displayed towards God himself, during the period of the Old Testament, and even to their constant rebelliousness and murmuring during their journey through the desert, after their exodus from Egypt. “In imitation of Christ, you delivered yourself up, out of desire for martyrdom, to the ungodly Jews.” “For as in times of old, when the Mosaic law prevailed, they provoked in the wilderness Him who saved them from Egypt, (that is, Christ as God before the incarnation), and they condemned Him on the Cross, so also now with you: they have trampled upon the word of God in deed.”
The hymnographer, however, cannot help but raise the question that scandalizes the thinking of many Christians throughout the ages: how did God allow His own people, those whom He Himself, by His grace, formed into His body, to "be lost" in a lawless way? To be killed by the "wolves" enemies of the faith? It is the "eternal" question: why does God allow His own servants, His faithful, to suffer a multitude of sufferings, even a dishonorable death? Where is God's justice? Why does He not activate His omnipotence in their behalf? "Who will be able to understand the depth of Your providence, Christ, how the flock that You gathered, You delivered to the wolves, You who are the only one who created the hearts of men with a theurgic command?" The answer, of course, as we understand, is not given by the hymnographer in the hymn. He simply states his question, but without murmuring or doubting. He reduces this “thorn” for logical thought to the Providence of God. In other words, he places it in the infinity of His love, but indirectly giving with the other hymns the answer: God allows trials to His own, in proportion to what He Himself suffered in the world, even the Cross, because apparently this is also their salvation. That is, through trials and sufferings, the believer gains Paradise, the Kingdom of God, therefore the paradox is understood only at the level of faith and not through logical thinking. After all, what other path leads us to the Kingdom of God beyond the path of the Cross and martyrdom? “Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). “No one has ever ascended to Paradise with ease” (Abba Isaac the Syrian).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
