Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Martyr Tatiana
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 the Holy Martyr Tatiana!
The martyr Tatiana lived in the 3rd century and was a deaconess, that is, she was responsible for the administrative and economic affairs of the Church. She suffered at the hands of the ideology of her own time. In those days Rome was ruled by Emperor Alexander Severus, who supported the unification of all religions. In his private chapel he kept statues of Hercules, Zeus, Jesus Christ, Abraham, and Orpheus. He believed that one should bow to all gods and that people ought to venerate all deities, so that universal reconciliation might be achieved. Saint Tatiana was seized precisely because she refused to venerate all gods; for this “intolerance” she was executed. She is a herald of that intolerance which conquered the world. She refused to worship Apollo, who is mentioned in Holy Scripture as an evil spirit who at the end of times will destroy humanity. She came to the temple of Apollo and by prayer destroyed all the idols, thereby showing that a Christian fears nothing and is not afraid of pagan idols. It is the pagans who fear the divine power that dwells within Christians. If God has revealed Himself in Christ, then there can be no reconciliation of Truth with falsehood.
This is especially important for us to remember today, when even Orthodox Christians slip onto this rotten path of tolerance and permissiveness. Many Orthodox, out of a desire not to offend those of other faiths or confessions, do not tell them the truth — that they are perishing — forgetting a simple fact: those of other beliefs will perish anyway. And the fact that Christians remain silent about this will not make it any easier for them. For this silence the Lord will call us to account, because we did not tell a perishing person about his terrible infirmity. In the book of the Prophet Ezekiel, God says: “I have set you as a watchman, on a watchtower, to see whether the enemy is approaching.” If the watchman, seeing the enemy, sounds the trumpet and the inhabitants of the city take heed, he has saved their souls. If he sounds the trumpet and the inhabitants choose not to listen and perish in their lawlessness, then the watchman will not be guilty of their blood. But if the watchman does not sound the trumpet when he sees the enemy approaching, the townspeople will perish in their lawlessness, and the Lord will require their blood at the watchman’s hand.
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; you shall hear the word from My mouth and warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have saved your soul. And if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place a stumbling block before him, and he dies, because you did not warn him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ezek. 3:17–20).
This also concerns Christians. If a Christian does not warn people about their evil ways, if he does not try to stop them, but instead says that he respects all religions and is tolerant of errors, then the Lord will call him to account for this wrongdoing. One must remember that the sin of a person of another faith is no less grave than the sin of adultery or murder, because it is a sin against the first commandment. Saint Tatiana is a lesson for us in this: she bears witness that there is only one true path of imitation of Christ — by words, deeds, and thoughts, in faith in the Holy Trinity. And walking along this path, it is necessary to bear witness to the joyful news of salvation. Why is Christian “intolerance” joyful? Because we impatiently cry out that we have found the path of salvation, we have seen the Light of Truth, we have received the Heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith — come and join us! Our preaching should not be gloomy; we must proclaim Christ the Savior, who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and of His Kingdom there will be no end. Ahead lies the great Kingdom of God, the great kingdom of joy, the brotherhood of saved nations that the Lord will gather to Himself.
Saint Tatiana proclaimed this Kingdom, and therefore she died with joy. From her wound there flowed not blood, but milk, as a sign of the promised land flowing with milk and honey. Tatiana is now in the valley of eternal joy and calls us there as well. In the Church, the day of a martyr’s death is a day of triumph. It is a joy when a person departs from this world, being born into eternal life. We must remember that here we are only strangers and sojourners, and that our homeland is in Heaven, where the radiance of the infinite Light of God shines. There a loving Father awaits us, who cares for us and guides us, who saved us by the blood of His Son. He gives us life by the Holy Spirit and raises us above all the heavens. And therefore the day of a martyr is the day of a witness that death has already been conquered and that the road to Heaven has been opened — a road on which we ourselves must walk and to which we must call others, so that all may enter into the joy of their Lord.
May this joyful news accompany us and teach us to detach ourselves from this world. If a person builds a house for himself, he will not build it from second-rate materials, will not lay radioactive asbestos into it, will not use rotten beams; he will try to use the best materials and will place the house in a good location. In the same way, when we build a house for our soul, we must build it in Heaven and from the very best material — from good works: almsgiving, love, mercy, meekness, Orthodox faith, faithfulness to God and to people, piety, prayers, fasting, and other wonderful adornments that belong to our heavenly home. Let us strive to build this house so that it may be more beautiful, larger, and more splendid, so that in the eternal dwellings, which we hope to enter through the prayers of Saint Tatiana, we may have a place to live, and so that we may enter into the inheritance which we have already prepared.
May God bless you!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.