Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles
By St. John Maximovitch
(Delivered in Shanghai in 1941)
By St. John Maximovitch
(Delivered in Shanghai in 1941)
What a joyful cry of gratitude would burst forth from the lips of people who from birth had sat in a dark cave deprived of light, when someone, opening their gloomy dwelling, would pour into it the life-giving rays of the sun and then lead them out into freedom!
Such also should be the feeling of gratitude we experience toward the holy brothers Cyril and Methodios.
To the Slavic tribes who “sat in the land and shadow of death” (Matt. 4:16) of paganism, they brought the light of the true Faith of Christ.
To those who knew nothing of the Kingdom of Heaven, they proclaimed it and showed the way into it.
The servants of false pagan gods they made into servants of the True God!
Those living in impiety and coarse customs they taught to love goodness and truth; they showed them the superiority of virtue, “purified their senses,” and made them pious and moral.
Those who were under the power of sin and vice they freed from the snares of the devil, regenerated through Holy Baptism, and taught a new life for the glory of God.
At the same time, for the ignorant and half-wild Slavs they created an alphabet, bestowed literacy, and by teaching them to use writing laid the foundation for their intellectual enlightenment.
With Saints Cyril and Methodios begins the advancement of the Slavs in every sphere of life. The former semi-barbarous tribes were transformed into great peoples and established strong states permeated with the spirit of Christianity.
Thus, wherever we look, everywhere among the Slavs where light shines and good is accomplished, we see the traces of the labors of Saints Methodios and Cyril.
Let us raise our eyes to the spiritual heavens — there we behold the countless choir of holy saints of God who struggled in the Slavic lands. These are the fruits of the seeds sown by the holy brothers.
Let us look upon the earth — we see glorious Slavic realms, the history of the Slavic peoples filled with heroic deeds, and the achievements of the Slavs in the fields of science and the arts. For this we must be grateful to those same holy First-Teachers of ours.
And therefore on the day of their memory it is our duty to glorify them and with gratitude cry out to them:
“Glory to you, holy brothers, enlighteners of the Slavs!”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
