Lazarus, the Friend of Christ (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Lazarus, the Friend of Christ 

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

Lazarus was a friend of Christ and the only one, outside the circle of the twelve disciples, who received directly from the Teacher Himself this very honorable designation, namely “friend.”

He was also the brother of Martha and Mary, whose house Christ had visited many times and had been present with them at the common table.

This Lazarus is the one whom Christ raised from the dead, and this resurrection is narrated with precise details in the Gospel according to John, and only there.

It is worthwhile, from the very beginning, to mention these detailed descriptions, which we find in the 11th chapter of the Gospel according to John, in order to refute certain rationalistic views.

First, in the Gospel a specific place is recorded, namely Bethany, a village that is only three kilometers away from Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. 

Homily on the Resurrection of Righteous Lazarus (Theophanes Kerameus)

 

Homily on the Resurrection of Righteous Lazarus

Homily 25

By Theophanes Kerameus (+ 1152)

1. Today, the Evangelist John, who reclined on the breast of Christ, sets before us a rich table — and this is the resurrection of the righteous Lazarus. As bread he offers the narration of the story, and instead of condiments he sweetens the table with theological meanings. Therefore, sharpening both our hearing and our mind, as good fellow-diners, let us enjoy with great appetite these spiritual foods. The detailed narration of the miracle, of course, requires much time and discourse. We, however, leaving aside the many points and what those before us have explained, shall touch upon the most important.

2. At that time “a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, from the village of Mary and Martha” (John 11). Here the Evangelist uses a more precise narration, namely he mentions both the name of the town, the sick man, and his sisters — something he does not do in another miracle. And I think that from these details he shows that this Lazarus is different from the poor Lazarus about whom the most divine Luke spoke in the parables (cf. Luke 16:19–31). Rather, however, this was done because it is John’s custom to begin from sensible things and gently lead the discourse to higher realities; just as he did in the account of the Samaritan woman and of the blind man, so here also he sets the event so that it may be understood both spiritually and historically. It will become clearer, then, what we must understand about Lazarus and the village and the rest. And this will be altogether evident if we present the translation of the names into the Greek language. Lazarus, therefore, means “the one who is helped.” Bethany, again, means “house of obedience.” Bethany, therefore, is an image of that heavenly dwelling. For in it the Son of God, Jesus, manifested His glory to men. Lazarus, moreover, signifies our own nature, which was in need of God’s help. For when our nature became sick with the illness of disobedience, it fell upon the bed through the increase of sin and was delivered over to the death of sin. This teaching is also connected with the fact that Lazarus was a friend of the Lord. For Christ said to His sacred disciples: “You are My friends” (John 15:13). And there is also the saying of Holy Scripture which says that the wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy (cf. Prov. 27:6). This shows us that God is our friend, and the “wounds” are the corrective discipline of the flesh which comes for our salvation.

Venerable George of Mount Maleon in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

From a young age he loved the Lord with all his heart. However, since his parents, against his will, wanted to marry him off, George became a monk and devoted himself with all his strength to every kind of ascetic practice — namely fasting, self-discipline, prayer, the study of the divine Scriptures, and more.

Many who came to the Venerable one were enlightened and returned through repentance to Christ. But because there were many who visited him, they did not leave him in peace to pray, and so the Venerable one withdrew to Mount Maleon, where he lived in stillness. Yet even there a multitude of monks gathered, whom the Venerable one guided through prayer and ascetic struggle.

He advanced so greatly in virtue that he became renowned and admired even among rulers, and even among kings, to whom he had written many important and noteworthy letters of counsel on various matters.

The Venerable one foretold the end of his earthly life three years in advance. Thus, after falling ill for a short time, he gathered the monks of Mount Maleon, and after giving them divine counsel, he delivered his righteous soul to God, whom he had loved from infancy.

About the Holy Martyrs of Thessaloniki, Theodoulos and Agathopodas

In the Synaxarion of the martyrs Agathopodas and Theodoulos, the time of their martyrdom is not mentioned. However, taking into account certain details from the extended Martyrdom that follows the Synaxarion, we conclude that the two martyrs were perfected at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, under Caesar Maximian (286–305) and the governor Faustinus.

In their Martyrology, special emphasis is placed on the courage, boldness, and steadfastness of the two martyrs in the true faith, which aroused the admiration of all those present.

Both martyrs were from Thessaloniki. Theodoulos, young in age, was a Reader and came from a distinguished family. His brothers — Kapiton, Metrodoros, and Philostorgos — were very devout young men, and during the difficult hours that Theodoulos endured after his arrest, they stood by him, strengthening and encouraging him. It is also noted in his Synaxarion that shortly before the persecution against the Christians broke out, Theodoulos, while asleep, received as a gift a unique ring, a symbol of God the giver. After this event, Theodoulos acquired healing abilities and performed cures.

Prologue in Sermons: April 4

The Destructive Consequences of Self-Deception

April 4

(A Homily of our Holy Father Cassian, “On Not Being Proud”)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

There have been — and still are — many such people who, having served God with certain special ascetic labors and imagining about themselves that they had become the closest of men to God, began to believe in their own way, to follow self-invented rules concerning the salvation of the soul, to neglect communion with their neighbors, and to despise and judge them. This self-deception, this spiritual pride, brings with it the most destructive consequences.

The monk Herodion spent fifty years in the desert and surpassed all the monks living there by his life equal to that of the angels. But pride destroyed even such an ascetic. He imagined that the monks living near him did not follow the rule that, in his opinion, they ought to follow, and he began to treat them with contempt. He did not even wish to partake of food with them on great feasts, and in order not to see them, he would not go to church even on Bright Pascha. The devil, noticing the self-conceit that had arisen in the elder, did not delay in taking care to destroy him — and succeeded. He appeared to him in the form of a radiant angel, and the self-deluded monk truly took him to be such. Then the devil suggested to the elder that he throw himself into a well, saying that because of his holy life he would suffer no harm from it. The elder obeyed and was pulled out of the well barely alive. On the third day he died.

The Hymnography of Holy and Great Week (Fr. George Metallinos)

The Passion of Christ, National Art Museum of Ukraine (1575-1600)

The Hymnography of Great Week 

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

 

Great Week recapitulates the whole of human history: creation, the fall, and the re-formation and re-creation in Christ. Christ — the crucified and risen Lord of the Church and of history — is presented through the Sacred Services as the One who provides the solution to the timeless tragedy of man and gives meaning to history.

There is, moreover, coherence and continuity in what is read, chanted, and enacted in worship; this, however, is weakened by a fragmentary participation, in contrast to monastic liturgical practice. The recourse of those who love the Services to monasteries during these days — especially those of Mount Athos — has precisely this meaning: the possibility of experiencing the full range of the recapitulation of the salvation of man and the world offered through worship.

"Behold, We Are Going Up To Jerusalem..."

By Protopresbyter Fr. Antonios Christou

My beloved readers, with the help and grace of God, we have reached the end of Holy and Great Lent. As is well known, Great Lent is essentially completed on the Saturday of the Resurrection of Lazarus; on Palm Sunday we are permitted to eat fish, and from the evening, with the Service of the Bridegroom, the strict fast of Holy Week begins.

As for what we celebrate each day and experience during Holy and Great Week, we have dealt with this in other articles in the past. In the present article, we will concern ourselves with the content and perspective of the phrase of our Lord found in our title: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem…”. It is a phrase from the Gospel according to Mark, read on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, but it is also an opportunity, more broadly, to recall the entire relevant Gospel passage:

"Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again'” (Mark 10:32–34).

Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“While you were alive, O Father, you were a divine hymnographer of the Living God; 
But I, after your death, am a new hymnographer of you” (Verses of the Synaxarion).

This divine father was from Sicily and was the son of Plotinus and Agatha. He succeeded in fleeing his homeland so as not to be captured by the barbarians, and from there, traveling from place to place, he arrived in Constantinople, where he endured afflictions and persecutions for his pious zeal on behalf of the holy icons. He finished the course of his life in a holy manner, having become an excellent composer of hymns, and he fell asleep in the Lord after 866. Joseph wrote hymns that covered almost the entire Parakletike, as well as a great many poetic Canons of the Menaia; for this reason he is characterized as the preeminent hymnographer of the Church.

If the path of Christians who live with full awareness is “together with all the saints,” because in Christ we are all one — both those of the Church militant, as we say, and those of the Church triumphant — this is all the more true for Saint Joseph the Hymnographer: he is our constant fellow traveler, our daily companion, our great friend and brother, because through his hymns and canons our eyes are opened in the churches so that we may properly honor and glorify most of our Saints. For this reason it is not accidental that the wise hymnographer calls him the “prytaneis” (chief/leader) of all the other hymnographers (Kathisma of Matins).

How was the Saint able to write so many hymns, and with such great ease? And indeed hymns whose content reveals not only the historical course of each Saint, but above all his life in Christ and the mystical stirrings of his grace-filled heart? This, notes his own Hymnographer, is a gift from God. Christ gave it to him, responding to the request of his heart, even using as an instrument the Holy Apostle Bartholomew. “The Savior Lord, who knows how to glorify those who glorify Him, granted you the gift of poetry through the divine and venerable Apostle Bartholomew” (Doxastikon of Vespers).

And here precisely we have the deeper explanation: Joseph had Christ as his constant reference; it was Him he longed continually to glorify in his life, and therefore he considered it a necessity of his soul to be occupied both with Him and with His saints, who constitute another mode of doxological prayer to Him. “You glorified the divine ranks of all the saints and proclaimed with power their achievements, for you drew your words from the fountains of salvation” (Sticheron of Vespers).

Thus it is understandable that Saint Joseph loved and hymnologized the Saints so greatly, because he was a participant in their life — that is, a participant in the very life of the Lord. Only one who has a corresponding way of life with the saints, struggling against his passions with a painful turning of his heart toward the will of God and enduring all the temptations that accompany this turning, can both understand them and describe them in the proper way (Sticheron of Vespers, Lity).

Therefore the Saint activated his gift because he was moved by the breath of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. That Spirit, ultimately, he had as his teacher and guide. “A great wonder! Tell us, Joseph, how did you speak and record your hymns so easily? As if you were being taught by someone else. Surely the Holy Spirit was speaking through you” (Lity).

The result is clear: whatever moved the Saint in his writings, this is what he also transmitted — the uplifting of hearts. The ecclesiastical hymnography of Saint Joseph leaves no room for misunderstanding. “Having ascended to the height of the virtues and received from God the wisdom from above, you clarified the divine dogmas of the Scriptures. Therefore you raise every person through your hymns to divine eros, indicating the excellent paths of compunction” (Kathisma of Matins).

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Prologue in Sermons: April 3

 

 

On the Eternal Torments of Sinners

April 3

(The Word of Saint John Chrysostom on those who say that there is no torment for sinners.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some say there will be no eternal torment and that God threatens it only to instill fear in sinners. But is this really true?

Saint John Chrysostom says: “Some sin-lovers say that there will be no eternal torment. Such will be condemned with the heretics... That there will be eternal torment, the Lord showed by punishing sinners even in this life. Thus, we accept punishment for our sins even now: either an unfortunate war happens to us, or a fire, or famine, or the death of livestock, or death visits our families, or we suffer from illness. All this also comes to us now for our sins. Besides what has been mentioned, sometimes fire scorches us, and water drowns us, and thunder and lightning strike... And this in this life... But in the future, eternal torment awaits sinners. And believe, brethren, that truly eternal torment awaits sinners. Ask the Jews and heretics, and finally, the demons themselves, and they will tell you unanimously that there is judgment, torment, and retribution for each according to his deeds, and that God punishes sinners and crowns the righteous with glory. So assure your soul and teach it not to invent false doctrines.