By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Onesimos was a slave of Philemon, a Roman man, to whom the Holy Apostle Paul writes (the homonymous epistle of the New Testament, the Epistle to Philemon). Onesimos became a disciple of Paul (when he had fled from his master Philemon and took refuge in Rome, where he met the Apostle Paul, who was under custody awaiting trial before Caesar), and he ministered to him. After the death of the Apostle, he himself was also arrested and brought before Tertullus, the governor of the region, and by him was sent to Puteoli. When Tertullus also went there, he found Onesimos persisting in the faith of Christ, and so he first ordered him to be beaten severely with rods and then to have his legs broken. In this manner he departed from this temporary life.
The Apostle Onesimos is yet another case of a man who received in his life the almighty energy of divine grace and was converted: from a harsh and difficult slave he became an Apostle of Christ. That is to say, from a man who, because of the oppression he felt, harbored negative feelings toward the world, he became one who placed himself in loving service to his fellow human beings, even giving his life in the end for Christ’s sake. This of course means that, in order to reach the point of accepting the word of the Gospel, he preserved within himself good elements; that is, there existed in his soul a certain search for the truth. In this respect he resembles his spiritual father, the Holy Apostle Paul, who himself, from being a persecutor of the Christian faith, became its greatest preacher and theologian.
What concerns Saint Onesimos we also see within the New Testament, in the well-known Epistle to Philemon of the Apostle Paul. It is indeed a very short epistle, yet one containing most important truths, especially regarding how one ought to view one’s fellow human being — and particularly one reborn in the faith, like Onesimos. Let us recall that the Apostle, after receiving the fugitive slave Onesimos and, by the grace of God, converting him to the faith, sent him back again to his master Philemon, but with the remark: “I am sending him back to you, no longer as a slave, but as a brother. Receive him, therefore, more than a brother. Receive him as you would me, as the Lord Himself. He is my very heart.”
Saint Theophanes, the hymnographer again of today’s Saint, strongly emphasizes the special relationship of Onesimos with the Apostle Paul. He repeatedly highlights in the hymns of the Canon that Onesimos was illumined by the spiritual sun Paul and thus escaped the darkness of ignorance in which he had been; and that this light of Paul’s gospel truly freed him from the bonds of slavery.
“O glorious one, having been illumined by the radiant flashes of Paul, you easily escaped the mist of ignorance.” (Ode 1)
“The prisoner Paul loosed you from the slavery of delusion, and having been honored with the freedom of grace, becoming a son of God, you were shown to be a divine heir of God.” (Ode 3)
The Hymnographer, of course, while emphasizing the spiritual relationship of Onesimos with the Apostle Paul, does not forget to tell us that this relationship is in reality Onesimos’ relationship with Christ. Saint Paul functioned as an instrument of Christ and directed all toward Christ — which was, after all, his constant preaching.
“The Lord who wills that all men be saved," says Theophanes in Ode 4 of the Canon, "chose you from the yoke of slavery as His minister, O blessed and God-proclaiming Onesimos, to minister the venerable gospel.”
This elevation of Onesimos to a priest and minister of the gospel means in reality, according to the Hymnographer, his elevation into a temple of God, founded upon the Holy Spirit. In other words, the one who comes to know Christ is led to the highest possible point a human being can ever reach: to become himself a son of God, a dwelling place of Him, bearing within himself the very light of divine grace.
“You were shown to be a most comely temple, having within you as a lamp the radiance of divine grace, and being founded upon the structure of the Divine Spirit, O blessed Onesimos.” (Ode 5)
It is almost unnecessary to note that the hymns of our Church, on the occasion of Saint Onesimos — the fugitive slave, as we said, who was freed in Christ, becoming thereafter His servant — emphasize this most fundamental truth: that one becomes truly free not merely by escaping certain earthly bonds, but by being liberated from the real chains — the passions of one’s wickedness and of the initiator of evil, the devil.
This means that a person may be outwardly free and yet inwardly a slave; and likewise, one may be outwardly a slave and yet inwardly truly free. The reason for this is surely the fact that true freedom exists where its source exists — the Spirit of God. As the Apostle notes: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Consequently, in order to become free one must become a servant of God. Only he who submits himself and “enslaves” himself to the Lord — that is, obeys Him — is essentially liberated. And because the Lord does not desire slaves, those who enslave themselves to Him, that is, who obey Him, He raises up to be His sons. Saint Theophanes is clear. Beyond the previously mentioned hymns, the following moves on the same basis:
“Having been freed from the slavery of delusion, you appeared as one freed in God, becoming in His grace His true servant.” (Matins Kathisma)
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
