August: Day 10: Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Lawrence

August: Day 10:
Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Lawrence
 
(On the Benefits of Remembering the Heavenly Reward)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Archdeacon Lawrence who is celebrated today suffered in the persecution of Valerian. He was accused of visiting Christians hiding in caves, bringing them food and clothing, and hiding the treasures of the Roman Church.

The Roman eparch subjected him to torture, and then, showing him the instruments of even more terrible suffering, said to him: “I will torment you with all these instruments if you do not fulfill my commands. Why do you not want to name the Christians who are hiding? Name them now, and bow down to the gods yourself. Your treasures will not save you.” 

Lawrence answered: “Fulfill your threats. What you call torture is a glory and joy for Christians. I will not name the Christians who are hiding, because you are unworthy of seeing those whose names are written in heaven. I do not hope for earthly treasures, but for those blessings that the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.” 

The Saint was scourged and burned with fire, but the Holy Archdeacon firmly endured everything. When new tortures did not shake the Martyr’s firmness, the eparch ordered an iron grate to be brought. Having laid the Martyr on it, they spread burning coals under it. Lawrence, suffering in the fire, said to the eparch: "These hot coals are preparing coolness and peace for me, but for you - eternal torment." After some time, turning to the servants, he said: "It is already baked; it is time to turn." During these sufferings, heavenly joy shone on his face; and finally, with a prayer for his enemies, he gave up his soul to God. At night, Presbyter Justin with one Christian took the body of the Martyr and gave it a Christian burial. The feat of his suffering was accomplished in the year 258 after the Nativity of Christ.

II. We will not be wrong, brethren, if we say that the Holy Archdeacon Lawrence in his terrible torments for Christ and his miraculous patience, with which he continually amazed all Christians, was supported by a living hope of receiving a heavenly reward. He himself said to the tormentor: “I do not hope for earthly treasures, but for those blessings which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.”

This hope is not something imperfect, alien to a true Christian.

a) For the deeds accomplished by man on earth, God does not forbid him to think about the reward: and even He Himself uses the thought of reward to encourage man to fulfill the commandments and to achieve perfection. “Honor your father and your mother”: this is the commandment. And here, right after it, is the reward, encouraging to fulfill it: “that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth” (Ex. 20:12), “If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor”: this is the requirement of perfection. And here, right after this, is the reward, encouraging to achieve this perfection: “and you will have treasure in heaven” (Matt. 19:21). "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad": this is the great demand of the feat, for which extraordinary strength of spirit and unshakable patience are needed. For this, here is the great reward, capable of arousing and supporting extraordinary strength of spirit: "for great is your reward in heaven."

b) But we, Christians, must seek not an earthly but a heavenly reward.

The Old Testament, as a preparatory one for Christian perfection, speaks most openly of earthly rewards; because, being adapted to the concepts of people to whom it was given, it was of necessity obliged to clothe the spiritual contemplation of heavenly blessedness in sensual images of earthly well-being. The New Testament, as revealing the perfection of the Kingdom of heaven, in its spiritual power and high purity, usually points out heavenly rewards to its ascetics and sufferers, and earthly ones it not only disdains as unimportant, but sometimes even considers them a loss of heavenly rewards. “They shall receive their reward,” says the Lord about the hypocrites who seek human glory through virtue; that is, they received their reward on earth, from men, and therefore will not receive it in heaven, from God.

Instead of the ancient law that caressed with earthly well-being: "you will be blessed, you will live long on the blessed earth," the Gospel threatens earthly well-being as something dangerous, and regards the contempt of this well-being as a guarantee of heavenly blessedness: "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? He who loves his life will lose it; and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25).

Thus, each of those who hear this has the opportunity to pose to themselves and may simply decide, which I hope is an important question for each of us: Am I a true Christian or not? If you are a true Christian, then you are not, in spirit, attached to temporary well-being; you are not inclined towards earthly rewards; you encourage and comfort yourself with the thought of a heavenly and eternal reward. But if you forget about the heavenly and eternal reward, striving instead for temporary gain, honor, or the convenience of living for your own pleasure, do not be deceived: such inclinations do not reflect the spirit of a truly Christian person. Those who are guided and inspired by the desire for only earthly rewards are earthly and old covenant believers, far from spiritual perfection and from acquiring heavenly treasures. Those who perform good deeds for temporary gain or for human glory have not yet left the realm of paganism; they produce idols of virtues for sale or display: they receive their recompense from humans, and therefore heaven and God owe them nothing more.

c) It would be much more useful for the moral state of Christians if they always looked not so much at earthly rewards, which are always small in comparison with the labors used for them, and of little joy in comparison with the unpleasantness of searching, competition, deprivation, as at the heavenly reward, always great, completely joyful, never taken away. If everyone constantly had before his eyes his “great reward in heaven,” which everyone has the power to have before his eyes constantly, then, satisfied with the expectation of it, everyone would not so passionately seek earthly rewards and temporal consolations. The seller would be less greedy; the judge would more willingly prefer gratuitous truth to the dishonest reward of unrighteousness; the one obliged to serve society would more resolutely prefer the general benefit to his own personal one, and would not renounce service to the common good, even if his service was not given all justice; the one placed in subordination and obedience would more easily forget his own will, and would be less burdened by the exactingness of the superior; the servant would work more diligently and cheerfully even for an ungenerous master; in short, the selflessness of each, supported by the thought of a heavenly reward, would constantly increase the treasure of the common good of people, and the inner treasure of virtue in the heart of each.

III. O Lord, generous in promise and faithful in fulfillment! Strengthen us in beneficial remembrance and expectation of “many rewards in heaven,” so that earthly rewards will not be tempting for us, and temporary sorrows and losses will not be unbearable. Amen. 

 

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