June: Day 28: Teaching 1: Translation of the Relics of the Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John

June: Day 28: Teaching 1:
Translation of the Relics of the Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John

(The Perniciousness of Pride and the Means of Combating It)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The sick turned to the holy unmercenary physicians Cyrus and John, whose translation of relics is commemorated today, not only during their lifetime, but also after their death. Thus, a certain city governor's son fell ill; local physicians treated him unsuccessfully. The father and son finally turned to the unmercenary physicians Cyrus and John, who appeared to the sick man and ordered him to "abandon his pride" and, as proof of his humility, demanded that he sweep their temple himself. The sick man fulfilled the demand - and was healed. When, after some time, he again forgot the lesson given to him, the illness returned. Now he had to carry water to the sick in order to be healed.

II. From the above story from the life of the Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John, you see, brethren, how destructive pride is and how necessary humility is for a Christian in order to attract to himself the intercession of the holy saints and the mercy of God.

a) Pride, says the word of God, is the beginning of sin, i.e. the source and root of all sins and iniquities. And indeed, the devil fell through pride and from an angel of light became a representative of darkness, from a pure and holy spirit became the head of all impurity and malice; man also fell through pride, and from a godlike being became a beast without sense and became like them.

1) Pride even now blinds the spiritual eyes of man to the point that he does not see or recognize the greatness of God and his own insignificance, and has neither fear nor reverence before God; he does not feel God’s blessings, and remains ungrateful before God.

2) Pride blinds a person in relation to himself, so that he either does not see his vices and weaknesses at all, or tries to cover them up with hypocrisy, sometimes even admiring those deeds of his that he should be ashamed of.

3) Pride deprives all dignity from the very philanthropy towards our neighbors, makes our very prayer ineffective, does not allow us to sincerely repent of our sins and does not allow us to take advantage of the gracious power of the holy mystery of repentance.

4) Pride has given rise to and continues to generate all vices and all calamities that afflict human societies. It engenders willfulness and stubbornness, which render a person unbearable in communal living. It incites selfishness and self-interest, disputes and quarrels, oppression and grievances, from which so much of human tears and blood is spilled upon the earth. From it, defiance, disobedience, and resistance emerge, which disturb the tranquility and peace of society.

It produces envy and ill will, the passion for condemnation and gossip, the spirit of slander and evil speaking, contempt and humiliation of others – this social plague that rages and strikes our societies with an incurable disease.

5) Finally, pride was and is the mother of all heresies and schisms, from which the Church of God itself has suffered and continues to suffer so severely. Truly, “the beginning of sin is pride, and he who holds it will spew forth filth.”

b) With such a terrible enemy of ours, we must, brethren, wage a strong, irreconcilable struggle in order to crush and subdue him; otherwise he will make us hateful before God and liken us to the devil.

But how can we arm ourselves against pride?

1) Humility. For this we must constantly reflect on God's greatness and our own insignificance; on the vanity of everything that man is accustomed to glory in on earth, on the fact that our very being is earth and dust, decay and food for worms, that every hour and every minute death holds its terrible axe over us.

2) We must look more attentively at our soul and heart through the mirror of the word of God and the law of the Lord, to see and expose in ourselves the ugliness of evil thoughts, inclinations and passions, the ulcers and scabs of sins and iniquities with which our conscience is burdened, with which our soul is stained, which turn our heart from the temple of God into a den of thieves.

c) It is necessary, turning our gaze away from the deeds of our neighbors, to judge only our own deeds, whether they were done about God: for if we had judged ourselves, we would not have been condemned.

1) Finally, we must look unwaveringly with the eyes of faith to the Author and Finisher of our salvation, Jesus Christ, “Who for the honor set before Him endured the cross, not caring for the shame.” This cross was made by human pride from the tree of disobedience. These humiliations, insults, spitting, beatings, blows, which the Only Begotten Son of God endured, were retribution for human pride: He who hangs on the cross, naked and mocked, wounded and tortured, suffering and dying, was a victim of God's justice for human pride. So terrible, so hateful before God, so hostile to the entire structure of the kingdom of God, so destructive to our rational, God-like being is pride!

III. “Therefore,” let us say in the words of the Holy Apostle Paul, “let us lay aside all pride and run with patience toward the struggle that is set before us, looking unto the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ.” Amen.

 

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