By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saints Jason and Sosipater once again highlight what constitutes the priority of all consistent Christians: love for Christ, before which everything else is considered secondary and small. Our Church does not cease, through its hymnography, to proclaim this truth, since love for Christ is the only path of salvation. Without love for Him, everything becomes dried up, lifeless, and meaningless. Even the Christian faith declines into a kind of moralism, which may have fine rules of life but lacks life itself. And this life is offered only by the warmth of the heart toward God. It is the very commandment of God that calls man to love Him “with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength,” as well as the condition set by the Lord Himself, so that one may follow Him and be attuned to the energy of His grace: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Therefore, the interpretive key also to the life of Saints Jason and Sosipater — that which makes possible the understanding of their whole course — is precisely their love for the Lord. Him they loved above all; to Him they attached their souls; His footsteps they followed. “You left behind all the pleasant things, having loved Christ, to whom you attached your souls, O glorious ones; and you followed His footsteps with faith, O Jason and Sosipater, most wise” (Vespers Sticheron).
But it was not possible for them not to love Christ and not to follow the traces of His life, when one knows that they were disciples and followers of the one who loved the Lord with passion and, for the sake of His Gospel, traveled throughout the whole world, giving at the end even his own life for His name: the Apostle to the Nations, Paul, who always proclaimed, “I consider all things to be refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.” As the Holy Hymnographer also notes: “Having become disciples of Paul, O wise ones, and going according to his footsteps, you traversed all things, proclaiming the saving word” (Ode 3). Thus the Saints imitated Paul, who imitated the Lord, according to his words: “Become imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” And this shows how important, for our spiritual life, is the one to whom we attach ourselves as our teacher. According to the teacher, the spiritual life of the disciple is formed; in other words, the light or the darkness of the teacher becomes the light or darkness of the disciple as well. “Having been illumined by the teachings of Paul, you became luminaries of the world, O thrice-blessed ones” (Kontakion).
And indeed, the light of the apostles Jason and Sosipater — the light of Christ in reality — illumined the East and the West: “For having illumined the East, and having reached the West, you set” (Ode 7); but especially the island of Kerkyra, because there they chiefly labored, worked miracles, and gave their lives. For this reason the Hymnographer calls the people of Kerkyra above all to rejoice and to be filled with spiritual gladness: “The all-radiant and divine feast of the Apostles calls the multitudes of Kerkyra to rejoicing. Come, all of you, be filled with spiritual gladness” (Exaposteilarion). Yet the call of the feast and of joy is also for all the faithful everywhere on earth. The Saints are the delight of all. And the reason is clear, according to the Hymnographer: “For we are all your flock, having been redeemed from delusion by grace” (Oikos of the Kontakion).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.