December: Day 27: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Maurice and the 70 Soldiers Who Suffered With Him

 

 

December: Day 27: Teaching 2:*
Holy Martyr Maurice and the 70 Soldiers Who Suffered With Him
 
(On the Need for Patience)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The ingenuity of the torturers of the Holy Martyrs Maurice and those with him, whose memories are celebrated today, was exhausted, and all forms of torture were tried in vain to turn the Martyrs away from Christ. But one of the emperor's advisers suggested the following: "There is a swamp nearby, infested with all kinds of insects. The Martyrs could be taken there, their bodies anointed with honey, and tied to trees." Emperor Maximian was greatly pleased with this satanic advice and ordered it to be carried out. The Holy Martyrs endured terrible torments from insects, heat, and thirst for ten days, and all peacefully surrendered their spirits to God.

II. The Holy Martyr Maurice and the Seventy Soldiers who suffered with him for Christ amaze us with their wondrous patience: ten days of terrible torment, ending in slow death, and not a single word of complaint, not a single sign of impatience. Let our word now be about the necessity of Christian patience, without which salvation is impossible.

Who would not desire salvation? And can there be anyone who truly does not desire it? If some people live and act as if they do not desire salvation, it is either because, seduced and blinded by passions, they foolishly consider it possible to safely postpone the fulfillment of this desire until the future; or because, due to the multitude of sins and iniquities they have committed, they despair of their salvation. And if the hope of salvation were awakened in them, then the desire would also be awakened.

The desire for salvation and the awareness of its possibility naturally follow the consideration of the means to achieve it. The highest principle of our salvation is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, as His beloved disciple testifies: "For the Father has sent His Son, the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:14). And the means corresponding to this principle on the part of man are faith, working through love, and the use of the Mysteries of the Church, as the Lord Himself said: "He that has faith and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16).

a) No matter how perfect and effective these means of salvation may be, since obstacles and difficulties arise in adapting them to a person's soul and life, certain auxiliary means are again required to remove these obstacles and overcome these difficulties. One such means is indicated to us by the Lord's saying: "He who endures to the end will be saved." Only he who endures, and endures to the end, will be saved. Consequently, the auxiliary means of salvation is patience, and patience to the end.

Christ the Savior places patience in close relation to persecution for His name. "Behold," He says, "I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. They will deliver you up to the synagogues, and in their councils they will scourge you. And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved." Persecution for the true faith is an open and triumphant struggle for patience; and the glorious rank in the Church of those who endured to the end and were saved are the Holy Martyrs.

But for all of us, the patience of Jesus Christ is necessary and imperative. Therefore, if we wish to be saved, we must acquire patience and maintain it to the end. He who endures to the end will be saved.

b) Patience should extend throughout a person's entire life and to all the destinies of humanity in this world. With patience, a person acquires and preserves blessings, succeeds in undertakings, achieves the fulfillment of desires, and endures the attacks of evil without harm. Having lost patience, one is immediately in danger of losing blessings and suffering from evil, or, what is no less disastrous, committing evil. A moment of impatience can ruin years and centuries.

Would you believe that patience was needed even in Paradise, where, apparently, there was nothing at all to endure? – You will believe it, if you think about it. If our first mother Eve had the patience to refrain from responding to the serpent's temptations, which were false from the first word, not to rush rashly to the forbidden fruit when her sensual desire was aroused, but to pause and consider whether it might not be safer to believe in God rather than the serpent, to consult, before making that unfortunate decision, a husband less inexperienced than herself, one who had already been in communion with God even before her creation. It is very likely that the sensual desire would have been checked, truth would have triumphed over falsehood, sin would not have been committed, and death would not have followed. There was a lack of patience: both our first parents fell, and with them they brought down the entire future human race.

Compared to Paradise, is it necessary to explain how much more patience is needed on earth, where man was sent from Paradise so that he could acquire his soul through patience.

If the above experience of the destructiveness of a lack of patience is terrible for us, then let us console and encourage ourselves with other obvious experiences of how one can maintain patience in the most difficult circumstances, and how beneficial the consequences of this are.

What hardships, sufferings, and temptations Righteous Job endured! And how faithfully and generously his patience was rewarded!

What cruel and prolonged persecution David endured! And how gloriously his patience was rewarded!

What a variety of tortures, torments, and deaths were deliberately devised by the enemies of Christianity to shake the patience of Christian martyrs! And how miraculously God's power was manifested in their weakness — sometimes through calm, and sometimes even painless, endurance of torment, sometimes through the sudden healing of wounds, sometimes through punitive measures against the tormentors, sometimes through spiritual victory that transformed the tormentors themselves into Christians!

And besides martyrdom, how much and how long did many ascetics of piety suffer, who, according to the Apostle's description, faithful to both past and future times, "went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts, and on mountains, and in caves, and in the abysses of the earth" (Heb. 11:37, 38)! And from the apparently meager seeds of self-denial, voluntary privations, endured temptations, with watering tears and the fervor of prayer. What abundant fruits of virtue, spiritual gifts, gracious power and glory were and are revealed in them, not yet on earth, not heavenly, but then, from heaven, closed to us, beneficially shining upon the earth!

c) Without patience there is no struggle: and without struggle there is no virtue, no spiritual gift, no salvation. For "the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence" (Matthew 11:12).

Do you want, according to Christ's commandment, to acquire perfect love, one that embraces even your enemies? Consider how this is possible. You often encounter shortcomings in people, often vices, and sometimes even hatred towards you. This leads to disrespect, aversion, and mutual hatred, not love. How then can you acquire love for everyone? If you resolve and train yourself to look with patience upon the shortcomings and vices of others, and even upon their hatred towards you, then you can love everyone without ceasing to hate their vices; but without patience you cannot.

Do you want to be a child of obedience, as the Apostle says (1 Peter 1:14)? Consider how this is possible. It is inevitable that you will often be commanded to do things that are not to your liking, not to your desire, not to your taste, that are burdensome to your indulgence, unsettling and burdensome to your carelessness. But to fulfill these things without resistance, without contradiction, without grumbling, requires patience. Therefore, if you have patience, you can have obedience; but without patience you cannot.

Likewise, every virtue requires some hardship, labor, and struggle against passions, desires, and temptations, not always easily or quickly crowned with victory. And, consequently, it requires patience. If patience falters, no other virtue will endure. Therefore, just as virtue is a duty for one's entire life, so patience is a necessity for one's entire life.

III. Brethren, ascetics of faith and virtue! Brethren! ascetics of self-denial and the cross! Let us run with patience in the struggle set before us, looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and with patience let us continue to the end. "He who endures to the end will be saved." Amen.

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

Notes:

* Because the original text follows the Slavic Calendar, there Saint Maurice and those with him are commemorated on February 22nd, where the above Teaching above can be found. In the Greek Calendar, Saint Maurice and those with him are commemorated on December 27th.