By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saint Sozon, coming from Lycaonia, was a shepherd of sheep. When he was deemed worthy to be baptized and to become a Christian, he entered a pagan temple in which there was a statue made of gold and silver. He broke off the statue’s right hand, sold it, and distributed the money he received to the poor. The ruler of the region began punishing many whom he suspected of having committed this deed; therefore, the Saint came forward and revealed that he himself was responsible for what had happened. Immediately they beat him severely, put iron shoes on him, and forced him to run. Again they began to beat him so severely that all the bones of his body were broken, and in this way he surrendered his spirit to God.
2. The feast of Saint Sozon is overshadowed by the great feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos. This is so not only because tomorrow is the Theometoric feast, but also because today our Church celebrates the forefeast of Her Nativity, and this takes precedence in all the services. Yet this constitutes a particular blessing for Saint Sozon, who was consumed by a fervent love for the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Hymnographer notes, among other things, “being inflamed with the love of God, O All-blessed one” — and consequently also for His Mother the Panagia. For, as we all know, it is impossible for someone to love Christ while disregarding His Mother. Only heretics, who have a distorted image of Christ as well, diminish and disparage the Most Holy Theotokos. According to our faith, Christ and the Panagia are contemplated together, and the degree of one's true vision of Christ also depends upon the degree of one's true acceptance of the Panagia Mary, that is, of accepting her as truly Theotokos. This is not merely an opinion or point of view, but a dogma of our faith, without the acceptance of which whatever faith we may have is not correct, and consequently our salvation is placed in jeopardy. It is therefore a blessing for Saint Sozon that he celebrates his feast beneath the coolness of the shade of the Panagia. Thus, what the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos points out concerning Her also applies to him: “Rejoice, tree with abundant shade, beneath which many are sheltered.” Among these many, in this respect, is Saint Sozon as well.
Saint Sozon was inflamed with the love of God, as we said, and this love led him to martyrdom for Christ, and indeed in a voluntary manner. The Hymnographer, however, reminds us that it is not enough merely for someone to be led to martyrdom, but that he must also remain steadfast to the end, preserving the love of Christ. This means that he must regard himself as a sweet-smelling sacrifice offered to Him, and therefore must retain love even toward his enemies: “you have offered yourself as a most sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.” Such steadfastness in love to the end is accomplished only when the grace of God cooperates. And the grace of God cooperates by granting endurance, which functions as coolness for the martyr. If so many cases of saints who endured martyrdoms joyfully and, many times, without pain are recorded in the accounts of the martyrs, it is precisely because the grace of God was active and strengthened them. Just as happened in the Old Testament with the three holy youths who were thrown into the fiery furnace and an angel of the Lord transformed the fire into coolness, so too the Lord strengthens the martyrs of His name so that they may endure the sufferings in the proper manner, that is, with love. The Hymnographer therefore points out this reality in the case of Saint Sozon as well: “Having been cast, O Martyr, into the furnace of grievous torments, you received coolness from God through endurance, and joyfully cried out: Blessed are You in the temple of Your glory, O Lord.”
The furnace of sufferings is, of course, also our life, many times, even when there are no bodily tortures from the enemies of the faith. Bodily illnesses, the suffering of our relatives, various failures, the problems of our children, the difficulties arising from financial hardship, and many other things that constitute the trials of life, what else are they but sufferings that test us as though we too were in a furnace? And the solution is the one that our Church proposes each time, based upon the eternal word of God and the life of the saints: turning to God in faith and the endurance that He gives, through which we are refreshed, even while we find ourselves in the furnace. Our Church, however, emphasizes once again: in order for the grace of endurance to operate, our gaze must be continually directed toward the only One able to save us, the Lord. It points this out once more concerning the Saint: “Sozon endured the sufferings of the body, looking toward the only One who saves the soul.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
