May: Day 21: Teaching 1:
Feast in Honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
(Whoever Wants To Be Under the Protection of the Mother of God Must Distance Himself From All Sin)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Feast in Honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
(Whoever Wants To Be Under the Protection of the Mother of God Must Distance Himself From All Sin)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. The present feast was established on the occasion of the deliverance of Moscow from the attack of Mehmed Giray, the Khan of Kazan. In 1521, the Crimean and Nogai Tatars led by him, in conjunction with the Kazan Tatars, moved towards the Moscow borders with such haste that the Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovich barely had time to send his troops to the banks of the Oka to restrain their efforts. Having defeated the Russian commanders, they set fire to the villages from Nizhny Novgorod to the Moscow River, captured countless residents, sold slaves in droves, starved the weak and the elderly, and desecrated the sanctity of the temples of God. On July 29, Mehmed, amid clouds of smoke, under the glow of burning villages, was already standing several miles from Moscow, where the defenseless inhabitants of the surrounding areas flocked with their families and property. The streets were blocked with carts; strangers and citizens, wives, children, old men, sought refuge in the Kremlin, crowded at the gates and pressed each other. Metropolitan Barlaam prayed fervently with the people, and God heeded the prayers of the distressed. The Moscow boyars, forced by the extremeness of their situation, in the name of the Grand Prince pledged to pay tribute to the Kazan Khan according to the charter of ancient times, and thus persuaded him to retreat from the capital.
But it was not so much this obligation, destroyed almost at the same time by the successes of our arms, as the supernatural assistance of Providence that saved Moscow, and with it all of Russia. The chroniclers relate that the Tatars wanted to burn down the Moscow suburbs, but saw a countless Russian army around the city and with horror reported this to the Khan, who, not believing them, sent others to verify the truth of this report. “And when the Russian army saw this, they told him; and the third sent a certain messenger from his neighbors to see the truth, and trembling, they ran and cried out: 'O Tsar, why are you slow? Let us flee; an immeasurable multitude of troops from Moscow are coming at us,' and they fled.” This miraculous vision, which frightened the enemies, according to the belief of contemporaries, was the result of the intercession of the Mother of God, who had already twice saved the capital of the Orthodox Russian kingdom from enemy attacks in previous times. And therefore the new experience of Her mercy and patronage was accompanied by the expression of new signs of gratitude on the part of the Russians: a special religious procession to the Sretensky Monastery was established in Moscow and it was decided to celebrate it annually on May 21 in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. During the days of the threefold deliverance of the Russian capital from Tamerlane, Ahmed and Mehmed Giray, the Church joyfully cries out:
"Today the most glorious city of Moscow shines brightly, as if having received, O Lady, your miraculous icon as the dawn of the sun. Pray to Christ our God, incarnate through you, that He may deliver this city and all Christian cities and countries unharmed from all the attacks of the enemy, and save our souls, for He is merciful."
II. So beneficial was the intercession of the Mother of God for our fatherland; so powerful was Her intercession in response to the prayers addressed to Her by the Orthodox Russian people.
a) And can the Most Blessed Virgin not listen to the prayers of those who resort to Her with true faith and love? We dare to say on Her behalf: She cannot! And this impossibility constitutes Her glory. Heavenly patrons, among other things, differ from earthly patrons in that the earthly ones can patronize, or they can not patronize, even if the one asking is worthy of patronage; but heavenly patrons cannot but patronize the worthy: where there is sincere prayer, there is their help, where there is faith and love for them, there they are; this is a holy necessity for them. All the more so, the Mother of God cannot but hear pure prayers, cannot but provide timely assistance, Who, as if in special reward for Her greatest and unparalleled service to the salvation of man, has been granted the right to be the first Intercessor for all in need, the joy and protection of all who grieve.
b) What should this precious confidence in the protection of the Mother of God produce in us? Carelessness in the matter of our salvation? Fearlessness in transgressing the law of God? Postponement from day to day of repentance? No, brethren, this would mean abusing the heavenly mercy and insulting our most holy Patroness. The purest of the virgins cannot patronize sins; She patronizes sinners, but only those who repent. Whoever wants to be constantly under Her grace-filled protection must constantly distance himself from every sin; for every sin breaks the union with Her. She prays for you on high, and you pray for yourself below; She covers you with the merits of Her Son, and you clothe yourself in them with faith and love. Otherwise, if we give ourselves over to sin, the same will happen as once happened to the Israelites. Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai for them, but they, growing weary of his absence, made a golden calf beneath the mountain and began to worship it and act unruly. Seeing this, the Lord immediately ceased His conversation with Moses and said: "Go down from here, for your people have acted corruptly," and now "Leave Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and I may consume them" (Exodus 32:7-10). Will not Her venerable Son and God say something similar to our most holy Intercessor if we, like the Israelites, begin to indulge in lawlessness? “You pray and intercede for them, and I am prepared to show all mercy to those for whom I endured death. Yet see what they do! When You pray, they worship the golden calf, offer sacrifices to the idols of their passions, and trample on My commandments. Where is the place for mercy in this? They bring wrath upon themselves. They require a punishment that awakens and instructs, rather than a comforting mercy. Leave Me, and in My wrath, kindled by themselves, I will consume them."
III. Knowing this, let us, brethren, undoubtedly have recourse to the protection of the Most Blessed Virgin; but let us not bring our sins under this protection without washing them with tears of repentance. The Mother of God heals all infirmities, assuages all sorrows, covers the sins themselves, insofar as they are combined with contrition of the heart for them; but she does not cover and cannot cover the hardening of sins! Amen.
II. So beneficial was the intercession of the Mother of God for our fatherland; so powerful was Her intercession in response to the prayers addressed to Her by the Orthodox Russian people.
a) And can the Most Blessed Virgin not listen to the prayers of those who resort to Her with true faith and love? We dare to say on Her behalf: She cannot! And this impossibility constitutes Her glory. Heavenly patrons, among other things, differ from earthly patrons in that the earthly ones can patronize, or they can not patronize, even if the one asking is worthy of patronage; but heavenly patrons cannot but patronize the worthy: where there is sincere prayer, there is their help, where there is faith and love for them, there they are; this is a holy necessity for them. All the more so, the Mother of God cannot but hear pure prayers, cannot but provide timely assistance, Who, as if in special reward for Her greatest and unparalleled service to the salvation of man, has been granted the right to be the first Intercessor for all in need, the joy and protection of all who grieve.
b) What should this precious confidence in the protection of the Mother of God produce in us? Carelessness in the matter of our salvation? Fearlessness in transgressing the law of God? Postponement from day to day of repentance? No, brethren, this would mean abusing the heavenly mercy and insulting our most holy Patroness. The purest of the virgins cannot patronize sins; She patronizes sinners, but only those who repent. Whoever wants to be constantly under Her grace-filled protection must constantly distance himself from every sin; for every sin breaks the union with Her. She prays for you on high, and you pray for yourself below; She covers you with the merits of Her Son, and you clothe yourself in them with faith and love. Otherwise, if we give ourselves over to sin, the same will happen as once happened to the Israelites. Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai for them, but they, growing weary of his absence, made a golden calf beneath the mountain and began to worship it and act unruly. Seeing this, the Lord immediately ceased His conversation with Moses and said: "Go down from here, for your people have acted corruptly," and now "Leave Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and I may consume them" (Exodus 32:7-10). Will not Her venerable Son and God say something similar to our most holy Intercessor if we, like the Israelites, begin to indulge in lawlessness? “You pray and intercede for them, and I am prepared to show all mercy to those for whom I endured death. Yet see what they do! When You pray, they worship the golden calf, offer sacrifices to the idols of their passions, and trample on My commandments. Where is the place for mercy in this? They bring wrath upon themselves. They require a punishment that awakens and instructs, rather than a comforting mercy. Leave Me, and in My wrath, kindled by themselves, I will consume them."
III. Knowing this, let us, brethren, undoubtedly have recourse to the protection of the Most Blessed Virgin; but let us not bring our sins under this protection without washing them with tears of repentance. The Mother of God heals all infirmities, assuages all sorrows, covers the sins themselves, insofar as they are combined with contrition of the heart for them; but she does not cover and cannot cover the hardening of sins! Amen.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
