Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Nicholas of Myra
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast day of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker! The ancient prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah were sent by God to rebuke the Jewish people and the shepherds of Israel, to whom it was said: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who feed themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock? You have eaten the fat and clothed yourself with wool, you have slaughtered the fatlings, but have not fed the flock. You have not strengthened the weak, nor healed the sick sheep, nor bound up the wounded, nor brought back the ones driven out, nor sought the lost ones, but have ruled them with violence and cruelty. So they were scattered without a shepherd, and when they were scattered, they became food for every beast of the field. My sheep have wandered over every mountain and over every high hill; My sheep are scattered over all the face of the earth; and no one knows them, nor does anyone search for them” (Ezek. 34:2-7).
In other words, the Lord says: My shepherds have not fed my people, they have not fed God's sheep. They have slaughtered the fat ones, clothed themselves in their wool, they have not led them to pasture, they have not sought out the runaway sheep, and they have tended the sheep with cruelty. And the Lord promises to end this lawlessness and to provide new shepherds for the people who will walk in accordance with God's heart.
Thus God foretells the shepherdship of the New Testament, whose chief shepherd is our Lord Jesus Christ: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. But the hireling, who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. But the hireling flees because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and I am known by My sheep” (John 10:11-14).
A mercenary's main concern is lining his pockets and earning a steady income from his flock, without having to shepherd or care for them. Saint Nicholas, whom we glorify today, is a model of shepherding in Christ. A true shepherd shares in Christ's shepherding. We ask Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker with these words: "Saint Nicholas, Father, pray to God for us!" We call him father not because he gave birth to us in the flesh, nor because he is our nation, but because he cares for us in a fatherly way. The Lord instilled pastoral inclinations in Saint Nicholas from the very beginning; from his youth, he began caring for children, giving them various gifts. Even before the Revolution, it was not the pagan demon Father Frost who brought gifts to children at Christmas, but Saint Nicholas (Santa Nikolaus).
Let us recall the first episode in the Saint's life, when he learns that a bankrupt father wants to sell his daughters to be prostitutes so that they can earn money for them. Upon learning of this, the young Nicholas tossed a bag of gold coins into the family's yard three times during the night. Here, the future Saint displayed both modesty and tact: to ensure the householder would not refuse the money, Nicholas absolved him of gratitude and demonstrated Christian modesty, not desiring an earthly reward, but a reward from the Heavenly Father. His pastoral spirit was also evident in his episcopal ministry. A shepherd is a man of prayer, an intercessor for the reasonable sheep. Priests pray for their own sins and the sins of their flock. Saint Nicholas acquired this prayerfulness even before his ordination. When the bishops gathered to elect a new bishop, the Holy Spirit told them that the first one to enter the church would become bishop. They didn't tell anyone and sat secretly nearby all night, waiting for the first person to enter. The first to enter was Nicholas, who was already known throughout the city. They pounced on him. He tried to escape, but they bound him with their omophorions.
He was made Bishop of Myra, where he continued to serve as a shepherd. His life describes a harrowing episode: Nicholas served twelve years as a shepherd in a dungeon. During the persecution of Diocletian in 304, he was imprisoned in a stone cell. Nicholas taught Christianity to all who were imprisoned, celebrated Divine Liturgies in prison, and supported the martyrs who were going to their deaths for Christ. He prayed that the Lord would grant him a martyr's death, but the Lord did not grant it. Upon his release, Saint Nicholas reaffirmed his pastoral ministry, teaching Christians the faith and protecting them from false teachings. Many believe that a good shepherd should be kind, not strict. But a good shepherd, if he sees a sheep eating poisonous grass, should take a stick and drive it away. The sheep will bleat indignantly, claiming its constitutional rights have been violated, but its life will nonetheless be spared. A shepherd must not only preach the gospel but also curb heresies.
The Life of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker states that, upon his release from prison, he immediately encountered the heresy of Sabellius of Libya. Sabellius, a priest in the 3rd century, taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and the same person. Not three persons, not three identities, but one God who wears three masks. According to his teaching, sometimes God appears as the Father, sometimes as the Son, and sometimes as the Holy Spirit, but in reality, He is one God with three masks. Saint Nicholas rebelled against this false teaching, which contradicts the Gospel, and quickly eradicated it. Moreover, he demonstrated his shepherding by, like Christ, going into other people's homes. How do we often view sectarians? They say they are bad people, destroying culture, tearing people away from family and the state — it's all true! They truly are destructive! But what should a true shepherd do? He must bring the sectarian to Orthodoxy. As one of our modern missionaries, Father Oleg Stenyaev, says: what is the best victory over Satanists? To convert a Satanist to Orthodoxy!
And this is precisely the path Saint Nicholas of Myra followed. He visited a community of Marcionites, heretics who rejected half the Bible and the entire Old Testament. He spoke with two heretical bishops, converted them to Orthodoxy, and annexed their entire community. Saint Nicholas's pastoral zeal also extended to pagans. He did not believe that Christians should limit themselves to their own community. After the end of the persecution of Christians, he gathered the entire Christian community and attended the pagan festival of Artemis. At this festival, near the temple of the pagan goddess, he began singing Christian hymns. The demons dwelling in the temple immediately fled. Saint Nicholas, entering the temple, destroyed it and built a Christian church on the ruins, in which he was later buried. This church still survives and is located in the Turkish province of Antalya.
A great trial came for the Church. In 325, it was engulfed by a new, terrible heresy, Arianism, the echoes of which can still be heard today. Arius claimed that Jesus Christ was a creation of the Father, not the Son begotten from the essence of the Creator, not God from God, consubstantial with the Father, as the Church teaches, but a supreme creation of the Father, created by God as an instrument with which He created the world. Arians still roam the streets in pairs, but now they call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses. The founder of this heresy was the priest Arius, who in the city of Alexandria converted one-third of the clergy to his heresy, in analogy with his academic mentor, who had torn away one-third of the angels.
Saint Nicholas of Myra spoke out against Arius at the First Ecumenical Synod. Saint Nicholas, outraged by Arius's blasphemous blasphemy, who could no longer maintain the boundaries of a logical discussion or debate, began to blaspheme Jesus Christ. Saint Nicholas struck him with a slap, for which the Synodal Fathers immediately defrocked him and imprisoned him. We know that in that same night, Jesus Christ and the Mother of God returned his omophorion and the Gospel to him. Christ appeared to many of the Synodal Fathers and said to them, "Nicholas advocated for Me, and therefore deserves honor, not punishment." Saint Nicholas co-authored the first half of the Creed, which we sing together.
Saint Nicholas protected his children not only spiritually but also physically. We know of one miracle, when, at Saint Nicholas's request, a ship carrying provisions bound for Constantinople was stopped. He arbitrarily unloaded some of the provisions to feed the city, but the ship arrived in Constantinople full, as the Lord performed a miracle and multiplied the wheat in its holds, destined for the imperial court. We know how Saint Nicholas implored Emperor Constantine to reduce taxes on the city of Myra, which had suffered a terrible crop failure. Thus, Saint Nicholas demonstrated himself not only as a shepherd, but also as a capable administrator, not shy about pleading with the state authorities and influencing them in favor of Christians.
The most famous icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, from which the image of Saint Nicholas of Mozhaysk, sword in hand, was derived, was created in this way. Three noble citizens were slandered before the emperor, and the ruler decided to execute them, falsely accusing them of treason. They were brought out into the square, but at that moment Saint Nicholas arrived in Constantinople. Upon learning of the incident, he took his general friends and a detachment of soldiers with him and went to the site of the intended execution. He saw the executioner raising his sword over the head of one of the condemned men. Saint Nicholas ran up, snatched the sword from the executioner, and said, "And where is the governor Eutropios, who pronounced this unjust sentence?"
Eutropios heard this and, as is often the case, feigned illness and said he was not receiving anyone. Saint Nicholas, forgetting to put down his sword and waving it, approached the palace with three generals and a detachment of soldiers and knocked on the door with his sword, calling the ruler to come out. The servants were frightened and said he was not home. Nicholas of Myra denounced the ruler for lying and demanded to be let into the house. The servants refused, so he ordered three generals and soldiers to break down the doors. They broke down the doors of Eutropios's palace. Eutropios, hearing them breaking down the doors, fled and barricaded himself in his bedroom. Saint Nicholas ordered the bedroom door to be broken down, and the soldiers broke down the door and dragged the terrified Eutropios from under the bed. Saint Nicholas rebuked him, threatening that if such behavior were repeated, he would complain to the emperor.
The next day, the three generals who had accompanied the Saint were also slandered and threatened with execution. Then Saint Nicholas appeared to Emperor Constantine in a dream and threatened to destroy Constantinople unless the innocent men were released. The following morning, Emperor Constantine, having convened a court and established the generals' innocence, ordered their release. They set out to thank the Saint, but arrived on the day of his funeral, December 6.
Even after his death, he continues to help us all. Everyone knows that Saint Nicholas pours forth an inexhaustible sea of miracles. In difficult situations, one should pray to Saint Nicholas. If an unjust trial has occurred, one should read the Akathist to Saint Nicholas, and everything will be decided fairly. After an Akathist to Saint Nicholas, sudden changes occur — a judge may fall ill, or the composition of the court may change. Countless healings from the relics of Saint Nicholas continue to occur.
The Saint still shepherds us, desiring that we be the sheep of the Heavenly Father. On his feast day, glorifying the example of meekness and the rule of faith, let us strengthen ourselves in the Orthodox faith that Saint Nicholas laid out for us. Let us preserve the purity of our faith and purity of life, let us be humble, meek sheep, following in the footsteps of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, that we may receive the Kingdom of God!
God bless you all!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
