June: Day 3: Holy Martyr Loukilianos

 

June: Day 3:
Holy Martyr Loukilianos
 
(Faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit Must Be Evidenced By Our Life and Deeds)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Loukilianos, who is remembered today, was a pagan priest until his old age and only in his old age did he understand the falsity of paganism and believe in the Christian God. Then he accepted holy baptism and, having zealously devoted himself to the study of Christian teaching, he zealously spread it, and, happy with his conversion, converted others to Christ.

Meanwhile, at this time in the city of Nicomedia, where Loukilianos lived, a strong persecution of Christians arose. This did not stop the elder from fearlessly continuing his preaching to the Greeks and Jews. And the hardened among them denounced Loukilianos, saying that he was corrupting the people with his insane preaching about Christ. The elder was subjected to cruel tortures and then thrown into prison. At that time four youths were already languishing there, arrested for confessing the faith of Christ. Sent as if by God Himself to strengthen the young sufferers, who were about to undergo an even more difficult trial, Saint Loukilianos strengthened them for their martyrdom with prayer and conversation with them about Jesus Christ. 

After some time, they were all summoned for interrogation and, having declared themselves firm confessors, were given over to torture. They were scorched by fire, but by the power of God they remained unharmed. Then they were sent to Byzantium to be executed there. Four youths were executed by sword, and the holy elder Loukilianos was crucified on a cross, nailed all over his body.

II. The Holy Martyr Loukilianos, a former pagan priest, who upon his conversion to Christianity proved his true faith by his pious life and martyrdom, teaches us, brethren, to testify to our faith by our life and deeds.

“Show me your faith by your works,” says the Holy Apostle James, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:18).

a) Indeed, he who truly believes in God the Father, the Creator and Almighty, the Master and Provider of all things; who is completely convinced that his life, as in the beginning came from God, so at all times is under His sovereign will: he considers every moment of his life as an invaluable gift of God, constantly thanks the Giver, always guards himself so as not to use for evil a single minute of life given to him for good deeds. He who is convinced with all his heart that everything he uses in life is sent down and given to us from above by the Father of lights; he uses everything with reverence, as a gift of God, he accepts everything with gratitude, as an undeserved gift. He entrusts himself and his whole life to the wisdom of the Heavenly Father, expects everything from His goodness, trusts in His fatherly providence and compassion in everything: he meets everything that happens to him in life without complaint and with gratitude - pleasant and unpleasant, joyful and sad. He is always careful not to offend the greatness and holiness of God not only by an unlawful deed and word, but also by an impure thought and desire and an evil intention. In short, the one who truly believes in God as his Creator and Provider testifies to his faith in Him with his whole being - with thoughts, desires of the heart, words and deeds of a God-pleasing life.

b) Whoever truly believes in the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation, crucified on the cross for our sins, suffered and died in agony, to deliver us from sin, the curse and death; he dreads sin as a deadly poison, and is ready to shed his own blood rather than mock the blood of Christ, shed for sins, and secondly crucify the Son of God with his sins. He, out of love for his Redeemer and Lord, in everything and always tries to imitate Him: he thinks and feels, speaks and acts, as Jesus Christ Himself thought and felt, spoke and acted; he suffers and endures, prays and hopes, as Jesus Christ endured and prayed. He always has death and the judgment of God before his eyes, constantly prepares for a peaceful transition into eternity to his Lord and Savior.

c) Whoever truly believes in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who sanctifies us by His grace, Who lives in true Christians as in His temples; he fears most of all to defile himself with any kind of sinful filth, always remembering the word of the Apostle: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him” (1 Cor. 3:16, 17). He does not indulge his fallen nature, does not give power over himself to his passions, but fights with them and conquers them, cutting off every impure desire; he follows in everything not his own will and his own wisdom, not his own rules, taken from the customs of the world, but the will of God, the words of the Spirit of God and the rules of the Gospel of Christ. He is zealous with all his heart to grow in himself the fruits of the Holy Spirit - "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control." He, even if he falls as a man, does not remain in negligence, does not give in to the sleep of sin, but immediately awakens himself to repentance, washes his soul with tears of heartfelt contrition, cleanses his conscience by confessing sin and with even greater zeal flows along the path of the Lord's commandments.

III. Acquire such a living and life-giving faith, my brethren, preserve it within yourselves, as an undoubted pledge of eternal life with Christ the Lord; kindle it within yourselves with prayer and reading the word of God, with holy zeal and zeal for the fulfillment of God's commandments, imitating in this the Saint of God, the Holy Martyr Loukilianos, who is commemorated today. Amen. 

 

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