June: Day 4: Teaching 1: Saint Metrophanes, Patriarch of Constantinople

June: Day 4: Teaching 1:
Saint Metrophanes, Patriarch of Constantinople

(The Secret of Longevity)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Metrophanes, whose memory is celebrated today, lived during the time of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine, belonged to a pious Christian family and was related to the imperial house. In time, when Constantine the Great transferred the capital from Rome to Constantinople, Metrophanes, for the holiness of his life and high intellect, was elevated to the rank of bishop and was the first hierarch of Constantinople. He lived one hundred and seventeen years, was distinguished by the gift of clairvoyance and died peacefully, respected by the whole Church, having predicted the hour of his death ten days in advance.

II. Saint Metrophanes, who lived 117 years, gives us, brethren, a reason to talk with you about the secret of longevity.

a) Who could tell us what the secret of a long life is? It would be best, of course, to ask about this from someone who has himself reached a ripe old age, and therefore has comprehended this desired secret through life's experience. But where are these elders - God's chosen ones, to whom even death is afraid to approach with its sharp scythe before gray hair adorns their heads? These elders - the holy ascetics, whose dwellings were cramped cells, wild deserts, dark caves, and impassable thickets! It would be difficult to believe this if there were not so many sincere eyewitnesses. Open the lives of the holy fathers who labored in cenobitic life, and read how the greater part of their day and night was spent in church services; then kneeling and prayerful standing for whole hours in their cells; then handicrafts, hard labors of monastic obediences, and an hour or two a day for rest; and with all this their food is the most meager, often only bread and water, or even just some herb. How long, it seems, will the physical strength last with such labors? But these elders had enough for eighty, ninety, and even a hundred years! Pachomios the Great lived to be 85 years old; Euthymios the Great – 97 years; Theodosios the Cenobite – 105 years; Savvas the Sanctified and Ioannikios the Great – 94 years; and our Russian ascetics: Venerable Nikon of the Caves, 90 years old; Sergius of Radonezh, 78 years old; Cyril of White Lake, 90 years old; Alexander of Svir, 85 years old; Macarius of Zheltovodsk, 95 years old and others.

b) They will say: “These were holy people; God Himself preserved them with His grace. How can we, sinners, follow their example?”

But, firstly, no one says that it is absolutely necessary to abandon the world and flee into the desert; we are talking about longevity, and so we point out examples of long life among holy ascetics, and these examples clearly show that strict fasts, mortification of the flesh and other Christian feats do not at all shorten human life, as the wise men of this age think, and that, therefore, God's holy commandments about fasting and abstinence do not in the least contradict human nature.

Secondly, it is also true that God especially preserved and extended the lives of His saints, so that they could use their words and example to benefit others. However, we should not forget that the Lord gave them long life because they dedicated this life entirely to His service. So: live according to God, and God will bless you with long life. He preserved them, and He will preserve you, He helped them, and He will help you.

Finally, this must be said: we have become too accustomed to excusing ourselves by the fact that we are not saints, that we are sinful people. And we do not want to understand that the saints were the same people as we are; that they had the same flesh and blood - they were not angels, after all, and therefore they felt hunger and thirst, cold and heat - all just as we do. Therefore, it is in vain that we think that the saints lived only by grace.

c) No, that is the whole point, that the very simplicity of their life, the very severity of their exploits, their severe fasts, their hard labors, all this was, of course, not without the assistance of God's grace, the reason for their long life. How so? Well, listen: we have one enemy of life - it is sin; its dues are illness and death. And with what greed this gentleman collects his dues!

He tells the “drunkard” with authority: you won’t live long – you’re mine!

The same sentence for the “fornicator”: your depraved life will soon exhaust your spiritual and physical strength, will bring you to the grave – you are mine!

“To the ambitious and the lover of money” he says: envy, like a worm, will gnaw and dry up your bones and shorten your days - you are mine!

"The angry and irritable" one shortens his own life.

And so the saints of God fought with sin all their lives, and they firmly conquered this fierce enemy in their hearts: that is why he did not dare to cut off their lives with the sickle of death before they, like God’s wheat, ripened for the heavenly granary.

True, there are cases when, for example, infants who have not yet sinned in any way die, when mature men, full of love for God and their neighbors, who have not reached even half the days of their lives, are lifted up from this earthly life to heavenly life - but these cases are exceptional and are under the special supervision of the all-wise and all-good Providence of God, which either delivers these prematurely dead people from sin and punishment for it, or punishes people through their premature death who do not want to value them as great servants of God, or through the removal of great people from earthly life directs the history of people on a different path.

III. Therefore, generally speaking, sin is the real enemy of our life; abstinence in everything is the mother of health and longevity. Saint Metrophanes of Voronezh, the namesake of the now glorified Metrophanes of Constantinople, gave the following rule: “Drink little, eat little – and you will be healthy.” This is the secret of long life! And therefore, those who say that “each person has a certain limit, and how long God has appointed for him to live, that is how long he will live,” speak the truth. God sets the limit of your life, depending on how you yourself live: if you live well, God will add years to your life; if you live poorly, do not count on a long life: your sins will shorten it and take it from you before its time. “Who is the man who desires life, who loves to see good days? Depart from evil, and do good” (Psalm 33:13, 15). This is a lesson from the experienced king and prophet David.  

 

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