By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Great Fathers of the Church, such as the thrice-great Saint John Chrysostom, not only concerned themselves with Saint Babylas and his three spiritual children, but also wrote important discourses in order to emphasize their holy example and their fervent faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the culmination of which was the offering of their blood for His sake and, consequently, their glorious entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Among these discourses is that of the holy hymnographer Theophanes, who, referring to the Holy Bishop Babylas, emphasizes what is usually stressed when speaking of holy hieromartyrs: the Saint was both the one who offers the sacrifice and the one who is offered as the sacrifice. The one who offers the sacrifice, because as a high priest he ministered Jesus Christ in the Divine Liturgy; the one who is offered as the sacrifice, because he was called by grace to offer his own life precisely for the sake of his faith. The verses of the Synaxarion are very expressive:
“Babylas, who formerly offered Christ Himself as a sacrifice, is willingly sacrificed to Christ by the sword.”
And elsewhere, in greater detail:
“Offering to the Lord the spotless, awesome, bloodless sacrifice, O Hieromartyr Babylas, you also offered yourself as a spotless sacrificial victim through your blood” (Ode 4).
For Saint Theophanes, however, what above all constitutes the most important fact, and what also explains the Saint’s courageous confession before the king, as well as that of the three children — a confession that transcends even the natural inclination of man to preserve his life (“undaunted by threats before tyrannical tribunals,” Ode 4) — is the Saint’s great love for Jesus Christ, literally his love for the Holy Trinity. He truly speaks of divine eros, characterizing the Saint as a lover of the transcendent Trinity. And why is this so? Because, in order for man to free himself from the desire for earthly things — for, having a body, because of the Fall we turn with passion toward whatever constitutes an attraction of matter — a stronger force than this desire is required; and this force is none other than eros for Christ our God.
Let us listen to the Holy Hymnographer, who moves with complete freedom in his choice of the words he uses, without worrying that he might be “misunderstood” because of his erotology.
“You, O blessed Babylas, having subjected your desire for earthly things to eros, despised life itself, hastening to behold the beauty of Christ” (Ode 1).
And further:
“As a lover of the transcendent Trinity, O blessed Babylas, you died with joy together with the three children, giving your soul over to eros for Them” (Ode 1).
The Saint, according to the Hymnographer, recalls Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, who likewise, out of his longing for Christ, wrote that his eros had been crucified: “My eros has been crucified.” He also recalls the Apostle Paul, who, in the same vein, and even more emphatically, stressed that “for him to live means Christ, and to die is gain.” Why? Because “he had the desire to depart from this life in order to be with Christ.”
When we speak about the saints of our Church, we find ourselves on a level beyond material and earthly things. Through them we are brought into the words of the Lord Himself, who calls us to a corresponding love for Him, which means that we enter into Him, since, according to the teaching of the Fathers, He Himself is contained within His words: “In Him we live, and He in us.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
