By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer once again makes use of the names of the Saints in order to characterize, by means of them, the quality of their holiness. Timothy and Mavra thus "honored God" and "darkened error”: “Having honored God, they darkened error, namely Timothy and the glorious Mavra” (Kathisma of Matins). Repeatedly he employs figures of speech, especially the contrast between light and darkness, to show that although the Saint is called Mavra (“dark”), she is full of the light of God. “With a flashing form, O modest and all-blessed Mavra, and by the light of your grace you darkened the faces of the dreadful tyrant” (Sticheron of Vespers). “Having cast off the dark evil-mindedness, you became light through martyrdom, O God-blessed one” (Ode 5).
The light of God with which the Saints were filled was the result of their spiritual struggle. The Holy Hymnographer emphasizes that if “the great martyrs of Christ” (Ode 4) were deemed worthy to partake of His glory and light, it was because they kept His commandments and His laws and finally became partakers also of His sufferings. “You were deemed worthy to see the glory of Him who emptied Himself out of compassion, O all-praised ones, for you kept His laws and became partakers of His sufferings” (Ode 9). The participation in the sufferings of the Lord by the sacred pair, with their crucifixion as its culmination, is something on which the Hymnographer insists. Not once or twice, but many times he presents the depiction of the Passion of the Lord by the martyrs. “Being stretched upon the wood of the cross, O all-praised ones, for many days you depicted the venerable Passion of Him who suffered willingly” (Ode 8). And what is the cause of their keeping the law of the Lord and of their cruciform martyrdom? Nothing other than that which, as we know, constitutes the motive of every saint: fervent love for God. “With divine longing your soul was set aflame, O martyr” (Ode 3). “You carried in your heart as fire the love of Christ” (Ode 7).
Saint Joseph presents the sacred pair as a model of marriage. Although their earthly relationship did not last long, it acquired eternal depth, because they founded it upon the yoke of the Lord. For the Holy Hymnographer, the excellent marriage is that which presupposes the taking up of the yoke of the Lord. Only when the couple, the man and the woman, set Christ as the foundation of their relationship and life can we say that we have a proper and harmonious marriage, truly an excellent marriage. “Being clearly joined in an excellent marriage, you took up together upon your necks the most light yoke of the Lord, O martyrs, and you were joined to the companies of the martyrs” (Ode 8). If Christ is not present in the marriage, then the foundations of dissolution have already been laid from the very beginning of the shared life. For what will preserve the unity of the couple amid so many problems and so many temptations, especially in our own time? Without Christ, what prevails is not love, but egoism. And as a popular song says, “where there is egoism, there is also separation.” Saints Timothy and Mavra constitute an example of unity and marriage. Would that all married people, and all who enter into a relationship with the opposite sex, had them as a model and rule of life. Their life might perhaps become even from here a portion of Paradise.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
