March: Day 5: Teaching 2: Venerable Mark the Athenian

March: Day 5: Teaching 2:
Venerable Mark the Athenian*
 
(On the Paths of Life — the Broad One Leading to Hell and the Narrow One Leading to Eternal Life)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Venerable Mark the Athenian, whose memory is celebrated today, was a wondrous ascetic. He labored in the Libyan desert, on Mount Trache. He himself told the following about his life to the holy elder Serapion, whom God sent to him on the last day of his life:

“For ninety-five years I have lived in this desert and have seen neither man, nor beast, nor bird, nor any other living creature. The first thirty years were especially difficult for me: I had no clothing and suffered both from cold and from heat; sometimes I satisfied my hunger with earth and my thirst with sea water; the lonely and deserted place filled me with sorrow and anguish. More than once my thoughts carried me back to the world, with all its comforts and pleasures.

But most of all I suffered from demons: neither by day nor by night did they give me peace, threatening to kill me, to drown me in the sea, or to tear me to pieces. After thirty years I was granted a great mercy from God: my flesh changed, and hair grew over my body which protected me from cold and heat; food began to be sent to me, and angels began to visit me.”

After recounting his life, Mark asked Serapion:

“Are there now in the world saints with such wonderworking faith that, according to the word of Christ, they could move even mountains from their places?”

At these words the Trache mountain began to move from its place and proceed toward the sea. Then the Saint stopped it.

Mark invited Serapion to pray, and afterward said:

“Great for me is this present day, for my soul is separating from the body and going to the heavenly dwellings.”

At that moment a voice was heard from heaven:

“Bring to Me from the desert My faithful servant, the perfect Christian. Come and rest, Mark.”

And Mark gave up his spirit. Serapion saw his soul being carried by angels to heaven.

II. We have seen, brethren, that the Venerable Mark the Athenian chose not the broad path of life, which consists in indulging one’s sensual nature and serving the passions, in an idle and sinful life, but the narrow path joined with hunger, cold, labors, fasting, and vigils. And this path, as we have seen, led him to the Kingdom of Heaven, whereas the other would inevitably have led him to the place of eternal torments.

The paths along which a man journeys in this life appear many and diverse, just as human activity itself is diverse. But according to their nature there are essentially two: one is the path of sin and vice, the other the path of virtue.

a) The Broad Path

The first path is called in the Gospel broad (Matt. 7:13). It attracts people with earthly goods and treasures, deceives them with pleasures, and allures them with everything that flatters sensuality and our corrupted heart.

On this path walk all who love to give free rein to their reason even in matters of faith, who do not wish to submit it to Divine revelation and to “bring it into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5); all who give free rein to their passions and their will, casting off the “good yoke” of Christ’s commandments (Matt. 11:30); all who refuse obedience to the Holy Church and her statutes, who do not submit to the authorities, and who resist their parents.

On this path are also the “fornicators,” “adulterers,” “the unclean,” “the covetous,” “thieves,” “drunkards,” “revilers,” and “extortioners” (1 Cor. 6:9–10). Here are the lovers of pleasure “whose god is their belly” (Phil. 3:19), and seducers “who beguile unstable souls” (2 Pet. 2:14), and perjurers, murderers, and those who oppress widows and orphans.

Here are found not only open sinners, but also all pharisaical Christians, who often cry, “Lord, Lord” (Matt. 7:21), and strive to have “a form of godliness,” while in reality “they deny its power” and “hold the truth in unrighteousness” (2 Tim. 3:5; Rom. 1:18).

In general, this path is so spacious that it accommodates all sinners, however countless they may be on earth — even within Christianity itself.

b) The Narrow Path

The other path is the narrow path (Matt. 7:14), because of the many obstacles encountered upon it, the difficulties that must be overcome, and the sacrifices that must inevitably be made.

To enter this path one must “deny himself” (Mark 8:34), repent of all sins (Matt. 3:2), and “mortify the members” and all sinful attachments “which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5).

To walk this narrow path one must restrain, limit, and humble oneself in everything: to subject the mind to the faith of Christ, the will to the law of God, the heart to the promises of the Gospel, and the whole spiritual life to the guidance of the Orthodox Church.

One must wage an unceasing struggle against the enemies of our salvation — the world, the flesh, and the devil — and therefore, clothed in the full armor of God, continually “be sober, be vigilant, and pray at all times with all prayer in the Spirit” (1 Pet. 5:8; Eph. 6:10–18).

One must also patiently and courageously endure many sorrows, trials, and persecutions of every kind, with which this path is strewn from beginning to end (2 Tim. 3:12).

One must be ready to forgive every offense, to love even our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44).

And who walks this path?

Alas, “few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14). Only the true followers of Jesus Christ walk it — He who “for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2): the cross of self-denial and obedience to the will of God, the cross of afflictions and sorrows; and “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death” (Phil. 2:8).

III. Now, brethren, each of you may determine for yourselves where you are going.

If you walk the broad path, know that according to the word of the Savior it “leads to destruction” (Matt. 7:13) — to that place where “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48), where there will be “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46), “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12), and where sinners will have no relief or rest “unto the ages of ages” (Rev. 20:10).

But if you are on the narrow path, rejoice and give thanks to the Lord, for this path “leads unto life” (Matt. 7:14). It leads to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is “neither weeping, nor crying, nor sickness, nor death” (Rev. 21:4), but where eternal blessedness (Heb. 9:15) and eternal glory (2 Cor. 4:17) are revealed to the righteous.

Yet who would not tremble at the very thought of willingly walking into eternal fire, toward one’s own eternal destruction, and voluntarily depriving oneself of the eternal blessings offered to us in heaven?

O stop, sinners, on your broad path and come to your senses! However far you have gone, you can still return and enter the narrow path of virtue.

However numerous and heavy your sins may be — repent, for “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

However weak your moral strength may be — pray, for “the power of God is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), and the Heavenly Father “will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13).

And by the grace of the Holy Spirit, through your faith and Christian striving, there will be “abundantly supplied to you an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:11). Amen.

(Compiled by Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko from the Chetii-Minei and from a sermon of Macarius, Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, Vol. II, pp. 11–15.)

 

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

 

* Venerable Mark the Athenian is commemorated by the Slavs on April 5th; this was done so as not to confuse the two Marks commemorated by the Greeks on March 5th, so they separated them. In the original Russian text, this passage is under April 5th.