By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Prokopios first followed the monastic life and practiced every form of ascetic discipline with great exactness. He completely purified himself from his passions, while he also reproved and abhorred all those who impiously denied the Incarnation of the Son and Word of God. Then, for the sake of his faith, he was scourged and was revealed as a great confessor; and after performing many miracles, he departed unto the Lord.
According to the hymnography of our Church, Saint Prokopios constitutes a confirmation of that which God granted to man from the very beginning of his creation: namely, that he was fashioned according to the image and likeness of God. Although man distorted this divine gift through his fall into sin — so that the image of God in man was darkened and the likeness lost — Saint Prokopios, like our other saints, made use of the supernatural coming of God as man in the person of Christ. Through this coming, Christ restored humanity to its original condition and even beyond it: He purified the image of God in man and reopened the prospect of attaining the likeness, that is, deification, which is now accomplished within the living Body of Christ, the Church.
Saint Prokopios therefore believed in Christ and struggled to keep this divine gift active in his life. Already the first sticheron of Vespers emphasizes this truth:
“You became according to the image and likeness of God, in accordance with the beginning of creation, O all-blessed one.”
Thus, in Saint Prokopios we behold man restored through Christ to his true image — that is, we see the authentic human being as he came forth from the hands of his Creator, not the mutilated and distorted man produced by the fall into sin.
This is a truth we must never forget: our saints, because of their communion with Christ — the perfect God and perfect Man — constitute the models of the true and authentic human being; indeed, they reveal humanity’s very limits and fulfillment. For this reason, the presentation of a saint always becomes a call to repentance for every believer.
The hymns of our Church also help us understand the manner in which man may preserve within himself the dignity of the divine image restored by Christ. This manner is none other than the believer’s unceasing struggle for purity of heart, given that through Holy Baptism we now possess the power to undertake this struggle.
In other words, the baptized Christian — who has received within his heart the seed of the Spirit of God, which continually urges him to live in God — freely cooperates with God through the practice of His holy commandments. Thus he himself becomes a living image of God, continually advancing upward upon the ladder of likeness to Him.
The Hymnographer speaks with great clarity:
“You made it your constant care and struggle to preserve the dignity of the divine image, with most pious thought, purity and chastity of nous, temperance of the passions, observance of Christ’s commandments, and true piety, O all-blessed one.” (Vespers sticheron)
Indeed, the Hymnographer regards this struggle for purification of the nous and temperance of the passions as the very priority of Christian life — literally its purpose — since in this way man keeps alive within himself the presence of God, which is the everlasting goal.
Is this not what the Lord Himself declared:
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you”?
Is this not what the Church reminds us daily — morning, evening, and night — when she prays:
“Grant, O Lord, that in this day, this evening, and this night we may be preserved without sin”?
Another hymn proclaims:
“You pleased the Creator, Who alone requires from us the purification and nobility of the soul.” (Vespers sticheron)
The priority of our life, as Saint Prokopios reminds us today, is precisely to preserve purity of heart — that which was granted to us through Holy Baptism — in other words, to follow in the footsteps of Christ, for only in a pure heart does the Spirit of God find rest:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Emphasizing this true human calling, the Hymnographer proceeds to make two observations.
First: the person whose life is centered upon the will of God is the balanced and spiritually sound human being, one who does not fall into the madness of atheism or heresy:
“For truly you despised the frenzy and madness of the godless.” (Ode 4)
Here the Hymnographer speaks in the spirit of Holy Scripture itself, echoing its inspired judgment:
“The fool has said in his heart: There is no God.”
Second: the true Christian is also the genuinely progressive person — the one who looks forward in life, continually surpassing his errors and sins. Christian life is therefore a continual transcendence toward what is truly human and true: the triumph of God’s righteousness in the world.
In a beautiful hymn from Ode 5, the Hymnographer writes:
“Having taken upon your shoulders the armor of the Cross, you followed Christ, O Father, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward toward the paths set before you.”
The Hymnographer clearly draws this truth from the Apostle Paul, in order to emphasize that the Christian possesses a dynamic power capable of shaking the world itself. For he continually follows Christ, leaving behind everything corrupt and base.
The life of a Christian — if lived even with modest consistency — is a bomb of genuine humanity within our world held captive by the devil. Its results may not be immediately visible, yet they exist and operate invisibly, just as a seed buried in the earth remains unseen until the time comes for it to bear fruit and grow into a great tree.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
