Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
“And there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.” (John 10:16)
What does this honorable, though small, gathering in the church of the First-Called Apostle on this present day signify — a gathering such as had never taken place in former years? What church celebration is being observed today?
Today the Church celebrates the memory of the two holy brothers, Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios, who enlightened the Slavic peoples with the faith of Christ, invented an alphabet for them, and translated the Holy Scriptures and church books from Greek into the Slavic language.
Until quite recently we did not honor Saints Cyril and Methodios with a special service on this day. Why then, for almost nine hundred years, was the memory of the holy enlighteners of the Slavs not especially honored in our Church? Probably because the holy brothers did not preach the Christian faith specifically to us Russians, nor did they invent the alphabet and translate the Holy Scriptures and church books specifically for us, but rather for our Slavic brethren — the Moravians, Pannonians, Czechs, Bulgarians, and others. To us these treasures came by inheritance from those Slavic tribes among whom the lust for power of the Roman Pope introduced Latin worship.
But now, when the completed millennium of the Russian state has compelled us, as it were involuntarily, to look back into the distant past and carefully trace the destiny of our fatherland, as well as consider to whom and to what we owe the greatest blessings of our life — our faith, political strength and power, literacy, enlightenment, sciences, and arts — we have turned special attention, full of gratitude and reverence, to those two great Slavic laborers who lived a thousand years before us and who, by the will of God and through the mediation of the Slavs, bestowed upon us the priceless treasure of the faith of Christ in our native Slavic language, and together with the faith and literacy, the treasure of spiritual knowledge and all the foundations for our complete education.
We have now fully and historically recognized their great services to the Russian Church and the Russian state, and we have composed a special service for them. It is meet and right solemnly to honor the memory of such laborers. The Holy Apostle, urging us to do this, says: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you; considering the outcome of their life, imitate their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7)
Therefore the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodios should be especially precious and solemn for us, like the memory of the holy and right-believing Prince Vladimir.
But the memory of the holy teachers has become especially solemn for us in recent times for another reason as well, one capable of having very important consequences for the destiny of the Slavic peoples — namely, among these peoples, including us Russians, there has arisen a clear and powerful consciousness of our mutual kinship, of the necessity of spiritual communion with one another, and of the formation of one common Slavic language. The memory of Saints Cyril and Methodios, as the original teachers of the Slavic peoples, serves as a banner of the spiritual unity of the Slavic tribes.
Here one involuntarily recalls how harmoniously and triumphantly this banner bearing the image of the holy teachers of the Slavs was carried last year by our Slavic guests from your hospitable house and brought beneath the vaults of this church, as an everlasting remembrance of our unity with the Slavs and as a prayerful intercession before God by these Saints for our actual union with them. May it therefore always remain a sign of our unity; may the Almighty accomplish this union — “that they all may be one!”
Thus our speech has naturally come to the unity of the Slavic tribes.
Toward what kind of unity should we strive, in what thoughts, for what goals, and in what spirit? In the spirit of faith, for the advancement of true Christian enlightenment — in a word, for the glory of God and the true good of humanity.
There are tribal and national unions formed for earthly, ambitious, and selfish calculations. Thus Napoleon I at the beginning of this century united twenty nations under himself and led them into a destructive war in order, with their help, to establish for himself a universal monarchy, just as the ambitious Alexander of Macedon had once desired. Such unions of peoples scatter peaceful nations, halt agriculture, industry, sciences, and arts, overthrow states, and turn whole lands into deserts.
Such unity is unworthy of Christian peoples, to whom peace and love have been commanded; and Orthodox, peace-loving Russia has never created such warlike national unions. With faith and hope in God she went forth against enemies only with her own household.
In striving for union with our Slavic brethren, we do not even think of tearing them away from lawful authority; we only wish to strengthen among ourselves the love, peace, and unanimity proper to brothers — to make more common our interests in enlightenment, sciences, and arts.
Thus our striving is, on the one hand, natural and based on blood relationship. But natural motivation alone is insufficient, for it is not enduring. Blood brothers often quarrel with one another over trifles, become hostile, and separate when the outlook or interests of one diverge from those of another; and how often the views even of two people differ completely!
Besides the natural and tribal motive, another motive must draw us toward union with the Slavic peoples — a moral and religious one. We should desire the fulfillment of the burning wish of our Divine Savior, that all tribes and peoples should become one rational flock, one true Church under His headship, for eternal salvation and eternal life.
Many of the Slavs are “other sheep not of this fold” (John 10:16), that is, not of the Orthodox Church, not members of the one Body of Christ, “them also must He bring” to the unity of the faith. These brothers of ours, in times of ignorance and barbarism, were torn away from the true Church by the self-will of the West into heterodoxy. But now the times are enlightened. Why remain any longer in a Church “which holds the truth in unrighteousness”? (Romans 1:18)
God grant that the Catholic Slavs may recognize the need for unity with the Orthodox Church. For only then will our union be firm. Otherwise it will merely be a temporary excitement of minds and hearts, after which coldness and even worse hostility may again arise. The Polish Slavs are proof of this. Why could they not unite with us over the course of nine centuries? Because of differences in confession.
A few more words.
While striving for union with kindred peoples, we must not harbor hatred in our souls toward peoples of other races, especially those who greatly populate our fatherland. This is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. Even if we cannot love many of them for their own sake, because they bear unjust hostility toward us as Russians and Orthodox Christians and even revile our faith without knowing it, still let us love them for the sake of God, Who commanded us to love our enemies. Let us cry unto God: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) And let us “overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
Therefore, brethren, while striving for closer communion with some, let us not sharply distance ourselves from others, for these others are also our brothers.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples,” says the Lord, “if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
