By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saint Phocas was the son of Pamphilos and Maria and lived in the city of Sinope. From a very young age, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, he performed wondrous miracles, and he continued to work miracles until the end of his life. For this reason, God revealed to him his end through martyrdom in the following manner: a dove alighted upon his head and placed a crown upon him, and then the dove said to him with a human voice, ‘A cup has been given to you, and you must drink it.’ Indeed, he was found worthy to drink this cup of martyrdom under the Emperor Trajan, bringing his life to an end by the sword and by fire. Many miracles, of course, were also performed through him after his departure to the Lord.
2. We are grateful to the Lord, who illumines His holy hymnographers so that they may guide us in glorifying His holy name through the Saints. “God is wondrous among His Saints.” The hymnographers, going before us who are the faithful, enable us to transcend the daily reality of the passions and the turmoil they cause, because they open our eyes to see the depth of reality, both with regard to the Church Triumphant and to the Church Militant. This means that the believer who devotes himself, even for a little while, to the Services of the Church, especially Vespers and Matins, experiences an atmosphere different from that of the tragedy of this present life. Not in the sense of fleeing from life, for this is incompatible with the Christian faith and its realism; it would be a denial of the Incarnation of our God, but in the sense that he is raised to such a level that he sees life with a different vision: from the perspective of eternal life. If this does not happen, then any person, even one considered a believer, becomes trapped in this world and enters, as we have said, into the whirlpool of the passions and of the workings of the devil, the ancient source of evil.
In this particular case, the hymns of our Church lead us today, first of all, to a magnificent vision of what is taking place in the Church of the firstborn brethren, the Church Triumphant, on the occasion of the Holy Hieromartyr Phocas: “The choirs of Hierarchs, the throngs of Martyrs, the assembly of the holy Apostles, and the spirits of all the Righteous rejoice, having you, O Martyr Phocas, in their midst.” What an extraordinary image, revealing the love and joy experienced by our Saints in Paradise, understood, of course, within the blessed presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the Hymnographer also turns his divinely-inspired gaze toward what is happening on earth: Saint Phocas stands among the faithful as a radiant and light-bearing spiritual sun, illumining the multitudes of the faithful, becoming their help in their needs, a treasure for all the poor, a source of spiritual blessings, and literally a harbor for all those struggling amid the waves of the sea of the passions. “The Master has placed you in the Church as a divinely radiant and light-bearing spiritual sun, illumining the multitudes of the faithful, O glorious Martyr.” “You are the help of those who are in need, the wealth of all who are poor, and a fountain of gifts of good things.” “You have become a most tranquil harbor for all who sail upon the sea.”
What is the reason for the Holy Hieromartyr Phocas' exalted position? Nothing other than what we see in all the Saints: fervent love for God, that is, the fact that he had established the foundations of his soul upon the rock called Christ, and therefore adorned this soul with every virtue. In other words, Saint Phocas is honored by angels, Saints, and the faithful in the world because he too became a manifestation of our Lord, extending His beneficence to all people and to all creation. “The divine longing setting your heart aflame,” the Hymnographer notes, “having your foundations established spiritually upon the rock,” and “having acquired a soul and heart adorned with virtues.” We have only to call upon him ourselves. Whatever may be happening in our world, whatever arrows of the evil one may be hurled to disturb and disorient us, we must not forget that our God and His Saints are above all these things. If only we shift the center of gravity of our lives somewhat toward the holy will of the Lord, we will see His power becoming active in a wondrous manner and delivering us from our afflictions. But, as we have said, our Church possesses the wealth of divine gifts, while we, rather, do not possess the prerequisite for acquiring them: the faith that is needed. May God have mercy on us.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
