June: Day 21: Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus

June: Day 21:
Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus
 
(On Heavenly Blessedness)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Julian, whose memory is celebrated today, after the death of his father, a pagan, lived with his Christian mother in the Cilician city of Tarsus and was raised by her in the Christian faith. During the persecution of Christians under Diocletian, the young Julian, the son of a former senator, was persecuted and tortured for his faith. For a year he was tortured in various ways in different places in the Cilician region. His mother followed him everywhere and was finally seized in the city of Aegeus, when she asked permission to visit her son in prison, under the pretext of persuading him to renounce Christ, while she herself begged him to remain firm in the faith even to death. Then she, too, was given over to torture along with her son; the heels of her feet were cut off; and Julian, after terrible torments, was condemned to a cruel death: he was thrown into the sea in a sack filled with reptiles. He suffered at the age of 18, in the year 290.

Saint John Chrysostom honored his memory in one of his homilies.

II. The Holy Martyr Julian, having endured for a whole year the most varied and painful sufferings for Jesus Christ and finally having accepted the most cruel death, which the devilish malice of the pagans had devised - having accepted both such sufferings and such a death in order not to be deprived of blessedness in paradise with Christ the Savior and all the saints, teaches us, brethren, to attain the blessed life in paradise, despite all the obstacles of the narrow and sorrowful path to it. What is paradise and how can we obtain heavenly blessedness?

a) Paradise is the blessed homeland of our forefathers, this beloved haven of our hope, this is the only desired object of Christian love, the last reward of the Christian faith! And whom should we ask, brethren, who would tell us: what is paradise? Let us inquire of two wise men of God who have seen it with their own eyes, namely, the Holy Apostles John the Theologian and Paul. John says: "And he (the angel) carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21:10). But this city was only an image of God's paradise, which if we were ever worthy to look at, our eyes would be convinced of its beauty, but our minds still would not comprehend what paradise is. The Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven, into God's paradise itself; he saw what human eyes had never seen, what “no ear has heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9); there he heard words which cannot be recited in human language (2 Cor. 12:4 ). Here are two people who saw paradise: one of them was John, the eagle of Theology, the other was Paul, the chosen vessel. But both of them speak of it obscurely and covertly. Therefore, no man could explain to us what paradise is. It was not for nothing that one righteous man said: “O paradise of God! We can acquire you, but we cannot comprehend you with our minds!”

Christ our Savior calls paradise immortal and eternal life and endless joy. “Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you,” He says (John 16:22). Think, Christian, what happiness here is! Let us suppose that you were a king, that you owned the whole world; let us suppose that you had no enemies, that you knew neither sorrows nor illnesses, that you were handsome, rich, and famous: is it not true that this is, in our opinion, what constitutes the greatest happiness on earth? And yet such happiness is also unhappiness! For no matter how long you live, you still have to die, and at the same time be afraid of death every hour, and it is this fear that makes you unhappy... And then, look, even in happiness itself there is still something missing!.. Let's assume that you will never die, and the fear of death does not disturb you; but even then, is it ever possible to satisfy every desire of the human heart? You are happy, but you would like to be even happier; and therefore your happiness is not complete, not sufficient, and consequently, even if you were mortal, you are still unhappy... Think now: to have all the happiness that your heart desired, not to be afraid of death, which now takes away happiness from us, to always be rich and healthy, not to know and not to be afraid of poverty, or illness, or human envy - what kind of blessed life would that be! And such is the life of paradise, a life full of endless, eternal joy, such a joy that can never diminish, but always, forever and ever, will be the same complete, all-perfect, ineffable joy... Your heart will rejoice in paradise, and no one, no one will ever take this joy from you! - Yes, in blessed eternity you will rejoice in the joy of God, you will reign in the kingdom of God, you will be glorified with Divine glory. Then we will be "like Him" – like God Himself, as the Apostle says, "for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).

b) But can we obtain heavenly blessedness? It is quite possible; after all, our salvation is in our own hands. – How is this so? Well, listen. God created heaven for the righteous, and hades for the sinners. He locked heaven, and He locked hades too. However, He kept the keys of hades with Himself: “I have the keys of hades,” He Himself says in the Revelation to the Apostle John. And He gave the keys of paradise to His apostles in the person of the Apostle Peter and their successors, the archshepherds and shepherds of the Church: “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore: the keys of hades are in the hands of God, and the keys of paradise are in the hands of men. Oh, how philanthropic is the providence of our Savior! When a man would like to suffer in hades himself, it turns out that the keys of hades are not in his hands; but when he wants to be saved, the keys of paradise are in his hands! This means that God Himself wants it to be difficult for people to fall into eternal torment, and therefore He does not give them the keys of hades. But He entrusted the keys of paradise to people. And note, the Lord says: I will give you "the keys", not "the key", therefore, God's paradise is not unlocked by one key. - What kind of keys are these? Yes, there are all kinds: iron, gold, and wooden. A beggar, for example, has a wooden key: he can unlock paradise for himself with his poverty. A rich man has a golden key: he can unlock the doors of paradise for himself with his wealth. And the iron key of patience, humility, labor, is in every person. Therefore, every person can be saved, can receive paradise.

c) One must remember only one thing: narrow and sorrowful is the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven. These are the words of the Lord Himself. This path is narrow, and therefore many ascetics, having entered upon it, left the world, cast everything worldly behind them, and walked this path in poverty and all kinds of deprivations; the holy martyrs wetted this path not even with sweat, but with their blood. Therefore, he who walks with his head held high, who is proud before others, will not pass here unless he bows his head, unless he humbles himself: narrow are the gates and narrow is the path! He who is satiated with earthly goods, grows fat from intemperance, will not pass unless he exhausts his body with fasting and labors: narrow are the gates and narrow is the path! He who has much of all sorts of unnecessary goods, who does not share his goods with his neighbors, who is also burdened with other vain cares, will not pass here unless he reduces all this: narrow are the gates and narrow is the way! Narrow is the way and sorrowful, full of thorns and thistles! Much sweat must be shed, much labor must be exerted, much must be endured and suffered in order to pass into paradise: through many sorrows must we enter the kingdom of heaven! He whose body loves comfort and peace, who wants to walk along a smooth road strewn with flowers, who cannot digest even one offensive word, he will not pass into paradise: narrow are the gates there, narrow and sorrowful is the way!

III. God of mercy and bounty! Grant us, through the prayers of the Holy Martyr Julian and all Your saints, the desire to attain the kingdom of heaven, and do not deprive us, the weak and feeble, of Your all-powerful, gracious help. 

 

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