April: Day 14: Teaching 2: Holy Apostles Aristarchus, Pudens and Trophimus of the Seventy

April: Day 14: Teaching 2:
Holy Apostles Aristarchus, Pudens  and Trophimus of the Seventy*
 
(On the Reasons for the Hatred of the Apostles by the World of their Time)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Apostles Aristarchus, Trophimus, and Pudens, whom we commemorate today, were co-workers of the Holy Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul in their apostolic ministry. All of them were beheaded under Emperor Nero.

Aristarchus was converted to Christ by the Apostle Paul; mentioned in the Epistle to the Colossians (Col. 4:10), he was bishop in Apamea of Syria. His end came under Emperor Nero; he was beheaded at the same time as the Apostles Paul, Pudens, and Trophimus.

Saint Pudens, mentioned in the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:21): “Eubulus greets you, as well as Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren,” was a Roman senator and a pious man; he received into his house the Holy Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul and all Christians, so that his house served as a kind of church.

Concerning the Apostle Trophimus, who was from Ephesus and was converted to Christ by the Holy Apostle Paul, it is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (20:4 and 21:29) that he accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys; and in the Second Epistle to Timothy (4:20) Paul says: “But Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick.” Having followed Paul also during the persecution under Emperor Nero, he was in the year 64 beheaded together with him and the other Apostles.

II. Thus all the Holy Apostles commemorated by the Church today suffered for Christ. The question arises: what were the Holy Apostles guilty of before the world, that it so hated them, persecuted them, drove them out? What was the reason for the universal hatred toward them by the world of their time?

a) “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them” (John 17:14). Thus the Lord Himself explained the cause of the universal hatred which His first disciples met in the world, and which all who followed in their footsteps have also encountered.

They received from the Lord and proclaimed to the world the word of truth — and the falsehood and delusions reigning in the world, prejudices and superstitions, the heresies and schisms of that time, could not but rise up against them with all the malice characteristic of falsehood and prejudice.

They taught purity and holiness of life, demanded the mortification within oneself of evil desires and passions, the cleansing of oneself from every defilement of flesh and spirit — and the lust of the flesh reigning in the world opposed them with all the force of its impure passions.

They required self-denial, taught humility and poverty of spirit, meekness and patience, simplicity of heart and innocence, the good-spirited endurance of all insults, misfortunes, and afflictions, trust in God and devotion to His all-holy will — and the pride of worldly life reigning in the world turned away from them with contempt, accompanied them with mockery and abuse, and delivered them to tortures and prisons.

In general, when a person lives the life of the world and is under the power of this age, when he loves his sinful darkness and gives himself with all his heart to the unrestrained will of his passions: then he not only does not love the light and flees from it, but even hates the light and tries to extinguish it, if possible; then everything holy, divine, becomes hateful and as if hostile to him; then he sets himself with all the power of his mind against the Gospel teaching, arms himself with all the malice of his heart against the very preachers of this teaching, against righteous and pious people who live a life in Christ.

b) The hatred of the world toward everything holy, heavenly, and divine is always the same. True, in our time it is expressed differently than before. Now they do not torment the followers of Christ with tortures and sufferings, do not throw them to be devoured by beasts, do not burn them at the stake, do not crucify them; but the rejection of the word of truth and righteousness, the contempt for the Christian teaching on self-denial and poverty of spirit, on meekness, humility, and long-suffering, the hatred for the word of reproof, which demands true repentance and correction of life — all this remains the same. Even the Jews contemporary with Christ said: “If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets,” yet they themselves persecuted, tormented, and killed the preachers of the Gospel sent by the Lord. And it is true — we seemingly revere the memory of the great heralds of the word of God, glorify their labors, admire their impartial word of truth and righteousness. But the Jews also built rich tombs for the prophets and adorned the monuments of the righteous; did the Lord praise them for this? No; because, while adorning the tombs of the righteous, they did not follow their faith and piety, did not imitate their holy and righteous life; while building the tombs of the prophets, they did not fulfill their teachings, did not believe in the Redeemer of the world whom they foretold.

III. True veneration of the great heralds of the word of God consists, brethren, in this: that, according to the instruction of the Holy Apostle Paul, “considering the outcome of their life, we imitate their faith,” that we follow their God-pleasing life and their virtues; we must make our own their zeal for the glory of God, their meekness and humility, their gentleness and patience, their mercy and compassion toward their brethren, their temperance and self-denial. “I beseech you, brethren, be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” This is the final fatherly desire and command which the Holy Apostle Paul bequeathed to all his children in the Lord.

(Compiled from the sermons of Demetrius, Archbishop of Kherson, vol. II).

 

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

 

Notes: 

 

* In the original book, this text is placed under April 15th, due to these Holy Apostles being commemorated in the Slavic calendar on that date, but in this English translation it is placed under April 14th, since this is their feast day in the Greek calendar.