May: Day 14: Holy Martyr Isidore of Chios

May: Day 14:
Holy Martyr Isidore of Chios
 
(Traits of a True Confessor of Christ)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today we celebrate the memory of the Holy Martyr Isidore. Saint Isidore was a native of Alexandria and lived in the third century. He served in the Roman army. During the reign of Decius, a decree was proclaimed throughout the Roman Empire commanding, under pain of torture and death, universal worship of idols. Isidore was to perform the worship equally with other soldiers, but he courageously confessed himself a Christian. “They can kill my body,” he said during interrogation, “but no one has power over my soul. Let them torture me: I have a true God, Who will be with me even after my death.” After many tortures, Isidore was deprived of life by beheading (251). His body, abandoned without burial, was committed to the earth by his friend Ammonios. Later, part of the relics of the Holy Martyr Isidore were transferred to Constantinople and placed in the Church of Hagia Irene.

II. On the day dedicated to the memory of the courageous confessor of the holy Christian faith, the martyr Isidore, let us consider, brethren, those signs and qualities by which one can unmistakably recognize the true confessors of Christ.

a) Orthodox confession, strictly speaking, is nothing other than the heartfelt acceptance and open testimony of the truths of the word of God. By this definition of confession, we can easily recognize a direct confessor of Christ. He who recognizes and accepts the word of God as the rule of his life, as the mirror of his deeds and as the source of God's mercy towards him: he can rightly be called a direct confessor of Christ.

Such were all the God-bearing luminaries of the Church, who, preferring the word of God to gold and silver and precious stones, "and more than honey to their lips" (Psalm 118:103), exercised themselves so fruitfully in teaching it, that not only did they abundantly satisfy themselves with this spiritual food, but also, by feeding many others with it, made them true confessors of Christ. But not such is the atheist who has rejected Christ, who scoffs at the word of God; not such is the blind worshiper of nature, who, measuring the depth of Revelation by natural laws, contrasts the poverty of his mind with the riches of the mind of God; not such were the depraved interpreters of Divine Scripture, who, doing violence to its true meaning and content, even to this day tear apart the Church of Christ. All such who reject the truths of the word of God reject Christ Himself. How different they are from the confessors of Christ is obvious to everyone.

b) Another feature of a direct confessor of Christ, directly connected with the first, is to consist in the reverent acceptance and observation of the traditions of the Church, which are either clearly contained in the Holy Scriptures, or are deduced from it through correct inference, or are invented for the beauty of the temple of God. Thus, the beginning of the use of holy icons in the Church of Christ is found in the decoration of the Tabernacle, where God commands Moses to fashion two cherubim of gold and place them on either side of the mercy seat, and to create other cherubim as "woven work" (Exodus 25:18, 26:31) on the curtains and sides of the Tabernacle. From this it directly follows the veneration of icons and their reverence. For if God was pleased to be known by Moses and to speak to him through the sculpted cherubim, how much more does He delight in being known in His image that we contemplate, and in graciously speaking to us? The same should be understood about the most blessed and immaculate icon of the Mother of God, as well as about the icons of the saints of God, who assist us with their prayers and inspire us to emulate their holiness, as well as regarding the lighting of lamps, the burning of incense, the preparation of church vessels, the three-fingered sign of the cross, and the rest. All of this is very necessary and beneficial for maintaining unity in the glorification of God and in the veneration of the holy servants of God, who have legitimized this practice, and ultimately for distinguishing between the true sons of the Church and those who have departed from it.

Thus, with regard to the acceptance or rejection of ecclesiastical traditions, those who either do not venerate holy icons or venerate them while idolizing their materiality, significantly differ from the true confessors of Christ. Those who, instead of the image representing the Holy Trinity composed by the three fingers, submit to heretical divisions of the personhood within Christ's unity. Those who, not accepting God's appointed shepherds and shunning the apostolic successors, wish to be either led by those fallen under oaths, or by ecclesiastics avoiding the severity of justice, or by those who have audaciously assumed this high office as commoners. Indeed! none of such are children of the Church; consequently, they are not true confessors of Christ. But we, leaving them to divine destinies, will continue our discourse on the true confessors of Christ.

c) Since the success of every deed is known from its end, then the true confessors of Christ, in order to be perfect until the very end of their lives, remain unwavering in their confession, and as a testimony to this constancy of theirs, patiently endure misfortunes, conquer themselves, resist temptations, and regard death itself as nothing, if only not to be excommunicated from the Christ whom they confess. This feature of the confessor of Christ is so proper and inalienable to him that not only those who have openly rejected Christ, but even no Christian who is in the least doubtful or faint-hearted in the faith can anticipate it. Who will consider that sailor safe, whose ship is tossed about in the midst of a stormy wave, and who is not only shaken with fear, but also deprived of all feelings? Who in the feat of struggle can boast of victory, when his cunning companion has already managed to shake his steps? Is he faithful to his sovereign who, blinded by the rich gifts of the enemy, intends to betray his fatherland to him? Is he magnanimous who, having seen death, not only loses the strength of his soul, but, like timid infants, defends himself from it only with a pitiful cry? All these similitudes depict the feat of our confession.

But alas, the weakness of man! Does not each of us admit that our soul is often sown with sinful doubts, like wheat, where the tares of harmful thoughts, having risen upward for a while, again fall and mix with the pure wheat! How often does this world triumph over us, wearing out the treasures from its depths, and flooding our hearts with them, like flood water - extinguishing the fire of love for Christ! How often do violent passions overthrow our reason from its throne, and in order to satisfy their whims force us to forget both the duty of a Christian and the Creator Himself! How often do misfortunes, leaning their terrible weight on the temple of our soul, threaten it with the final destruction of faith! How often do the temptations and tricks, the threats and flattery of the world tear us away from Christ! How necessary, then, do we have after this the sword of the word of God, the shield of faith and the power of God’s grace, so that, having overthrown our enemies, we may become true confessors of Christ?

III. Almighty Christ Jesus! We, fighting under Your banner in this life, from You also ask timely help, that our faith in You may not fail, that, being clothed with Your grace from on high, we may boldly confess You as our God before men to our last breath, that You also may confess us, Your true confessors, before Your Father Who is in heaven. Amen. 

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