January: Day 21: Teaching 2:
Venerable Maximus the Confessor
(Christians Must Confess Their Calling Without Shame)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Venerable Maximus the Confessor
(Christians Must Confess Their Calling Without Shame)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. In the 7th century, the false teaching of the Monothelites arose in the Eastern Church, who recognized in Jesus Christ one divine will with two natures, divine and human. The defenders of the heresy were two Patriarchs, those of Alexandria and Constantinople; it was also held by the Greek Emperor Heraclius himself, who issued a decree confirming the heresy. But the Orthodox teaching found a firm defender in the Venerable Maximus, now being glorified by the Church. He convinced the faithful by word and writing to stand firm for the truth. On his advice, the Roman Bishop Martin convened a Synod in Rome in 649, at which the heresy and its defenders were condemned. Emperor Constans II, the successor of Heraclius, himself an adherent of Monothelitism, ordered Martin to be seized and brought to Constantinople; Maximus was also taken with him. The fate of the latter was very sad. They tried to convert him to heresy by various tortures, kept him in prison, beat him cruelly, trampled him underfoot. But Venerable Maximus, despite the tortures, remained unshakable and firmly defended Orthodoxy. Finally, the emperor ordered his tongue to be cut out and his right hand to be cut off, so that he could not proclaim the truth either by word or by writing. After this, the Confessor was dragged through the city in disgrace and finally exiled to imprisonment on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. He endured much suffering before he reached his place of exile. Arriving there, the Venerable languished in prison for three years under the supervision of cruel guards and died in 662.
II. Brethren! The Lord, commanding the faithful to hold fast the faith, forewarned them that whoever fearlessly confesses his faith, Him, the Redeemer, will confess before His Father as His faithful follower, and consequently will make him worthy of the glory and blessedness of heaven. "Whoever," He said, " shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 10:32). On the contrary, "whoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He shall come in His glory" (Luke 9:26).
a) Did not our Lord and Savior have in mind our own time and us sinners when He uttered such words? Does not this terrible threat of His concern us too: “Whoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He shall come in His glory?” Let us look at ourselves, how weak we are in faith in comparison with true believers, and even in comparison with our ancestors in general. How some of us begin, without a twinge of shame, to be ashamed of our Christian calling, Christian teaching, Christian rules and customs! It has become a shame to believe the word of God, with the submission of our “mind to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). It has become a shame to read the Holy Scriptures, the lives of the saints, and in general books of spiritual content. It has become a shame to be pious, to go to church often, to pray at home, to have Christian soul-saving conversations. It has become shameful to observe Church rules and Christian customs: to fast, to pray when entering a house, before eating food, to cross oneself when seeing a Christian shrine; it becomes shameful even to perform Christian virtues – to have humility, to be submissive to authority, respectful to superiors, sociable with inferiors. After all, it is so, brethren!
b) Misguided! Is this the Christian faith? Is it not the treasure of the Divine mind? Is it not wisdom infinitely superior to all earthly wisdom? Is it not an inestimable gift of God's love and grace to poor humanity? Is it not the source of our salvation, the teacher of purity and virtues, the guide to eternal life?
Christians should not be ashamed of their faith, but should boast of it, openly confess it as right, holy and divine, sacredly observe its rules and statutes, serve as an example of piety for simple and unenlightened Christians, and thereby testify to their intelligence and their attention to Christian duty. This is the true dignity, the true honor befitting Christians. On the contrary, one should be ashamed of that which dishonors both the Christian faith and human intelligence. One should be ashamed of ignorance, superstition, prejudice; one should be ashamed of freethinking, unbelief, schism; one should be ashamed of non-Christian deeds and actions: pride, resistance to authority, disrespect for superiors and elders, contempt for inferiors and lesser ones. We must be ashamed of a dissipated and worldly life, of frequent and immodest amusements, of excessive attire and dandyism, of freedom in mutual relations, of behavior in general that is contrary to chastity and purity of morals - we must be ashamed of everything that violates the teaching of Christ and offends the rules of our holy faith. This will be true and saving shame. For such shame our Savior the Lord will not be ashamed of us, but will love us, will call us His close ones, and will honor us, as His faithful followers, with blessed and heavenly glory.
III. Preserve us, O Lord, from destructive shame, make us “workers” in our holy Christian calling “not to be ashamed” (2 Tim. 2:15), grant us to place both honor and glory and our salvation only in You, our Redeemer, in the knowledge of Your divine teaching, and in the fulfillment of Your good and perfect will! Amen.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
