May: Day 27: Teaching 2: Venerable Therapon of White Lake

May: Day 27: Teaching 2:
Venerable Therapon of White Lake

(Our Primary Business Should Be To Care For Our Soul)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Therapon, commemmorated today by the Church, was known as Theodore in the world, and was born in 1337 in the city of Volokolamsk to the nobles Poskochinnykh. Theodore spent his youth piously, helping the poor and acting in everything according to the commandments of God. Little by little, the desire to leave the world altogether grew stronger in him, and at the age of 40 Theodore left Volokolamsk for Moscow. Here in the Simonov Monastery Theodore took monastic vows with the name Therapon (or Therapont). Therapon carried out all the chores entrusted to him with complete obedience and was constantly present at church services.

The abbot saw Therapon's zeal in every matter and often sent him to near and far places on monastery business. Once he was sent to White Lake. Having fulfilled the abbot's instructions, the monk wanted to get to know the Belozersk country in more detail, walked around it in different directions, and fell in love with its dense forests, impassable swamps, many rivers and lakes. Therapon decided to settle in this wild nature, which so contributed to the complete solitude and silence of monastic life. His new place of solitude was surrounded by a dense forest and lay between two picturesque lakes. Here the monk cleared a place, built a cell, dug up the earth and planted vegetables.

At first, the time in the wilderness was very difficult for Therapon; there was not a single human dwelling far around, and only the roar of wild animals interrupted the silence of the forest. Robbers often attacked the monk, demanded money from him and threatened to kill him. Finally, they were convinced of his complete non-covetousness and poverty, and then left him alone. When the local residents learned that a great ascetic was located among the Belozersk forests, many began to come to Therapon and settled near his cell. At the request of the monks, Therapon built a church in honor of the Nativity of the Mother of God, built cells and established a community in the new monastery. Prayer and unremitting labor (various crafts and copying books) were the constant activities of the brethren. The brethren asked Therapon to be the abbot, but he, out of deep humility, refused, and then the brethren, with his blessing, chose an abbot for themselves. But although Therapon did not accept this rank, he nevertheless remained the main leader of the brethren, edifying them with word and example.

Venerable Therapon died on May 27, 1426, at the age of 90. His relics rest in the cathedral church of the Luzhetsky Monastery under a bushel. The Moscow Synod of 1547 canonized him.

II. The Venerable Therapon, by his strictly ascetic life, gives us, brethren, the instruction that our most important concern should be about our eternal salvation.

a) Indeed, what could be more essential to us than the salvation of the soul? Why do we live on earth? He chose us “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4). We are created to present our souls to our Lord in a manner worthy of His holy love. This is what we should prioritize and concern ourselves with above all else. Every being in the world is primarily obligated to be what it was created to be. And each person is primarily obliged to be a human being, a rational and faithful servant of their God. Sin has corrupted the soul, but the God-like spirit within must, with the help of the Highest, rectify the corrupted life and lead it towards perfection. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33).  This is how important the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the soul is! Everything else that we need only for a time, for our earthly journey, is given to us by the Lord before our requests, if only we care about the salvation of the soul. Both the body and the objects around us are intended to serve the salvation of the immortal soul. So, our first concern is not about them, but about the soul; we can only look at them as means for the soul. The salvation of the soul is an essential need for everyone: not satisfying this need means not living and even worse than not living. “It would have been good if that man had not been born,” said the Savior about Judas the traitor, who destroyed himself (Matt. 26:24). This is the connection between the existence of the soul and its salvation.

b) Our soul is so high in its properties that everything earthly in comparison with it is very poor. Christ Jesus, the eternal truth, contrasting the human soul with the world visible to us, with its beauty and diversity, said that the whole world cannot compensate man for the loss of his soul: “What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Indeed, how can our soul not be high when it bears the image of God, the image of a mind of all perfection and a will with the highest freedom and power? It is strong and powerful in comparison with everything visible already because it is immortal.

And how much can her mind embrace in itself! What cannot her free will achieve? The soul can embrace with its mind not only the created world, but also know its God, the God of the universe and of eternity. With its heart it can converse in prayer with the Lord and bring into the world the miraculous power of prayer. With its love it can draw near to its Lord and bring down God's blessing upon the visible creation. By the power of its Redeemer it can be as mighty as He. "He that believes on Me," said the Lord, "the works that I do, he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do" (John 14:12). Sin has spoiled much in the soul, but how the grace of the Holy Spirit has exalted it! "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16). How can we not care most of all about our soul, when it is so high in heavenly gifts? How can we not protect, how can we not guard the temple of God within ourselves? How can we put care for the body and earthly things on a par with care for the salvation of the soul? Possession of the whole world cannot compensate for the loss of the soul.

c) Eternity, eternity! The forgetful pagan did not always forget about you; and at times you disturbed him. How can we, Christians, forget about you – we, to whom you have been described so clearly, so vividly, so convincingly? How can we enter your circle, careless about the salvation of our souls? How will we live in your endless course? Nothing can be said against the justice of the sentence: “What a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:8). Holy is God, holy are His words: “Everyone will receive wages according to his labor” (I Cor. 3:8). The time of harvest will come, when what you have sown will grow, and you will see how and what you have sowed. If on the soil of your soul you have sown only sins and iniquities: oh, what bitter fruits will you have to taste there! The time of rewards will come. What is there for you to expect, if your life has been a carefree dream? God is eternal truth: for every act of goodness, He will reward with joy, but He will not leave unaccounted a single sinful thought, nor a single idle word, let alone pride, vanity, ease, and luxury. Be cautious here. And the good deeds performed with unclean intentions or at the wrong time will not earn you a crown. Guard your heart; do not allow it to be seduced by sin for which the responsibility weighs heavily beyond the grave. To awaken in yourself thoughts of your eternity, imagine the state of the dead. Do honors, wealth, splendor, and luxury matter to them now? Alas! They are more than useless to others: for having failed to use them well here, for nurturing passions and corrupting the soul, sinful owners suffer "in the flame" (Luke 16:24). And either eternal blessedness or eternal torment awaits you, depending on how you prepare your soul here.

III. Brethren! There are no labors, no feats that would not be worth saving the soul from eternal torment. Amen.

 

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