March: Day 28: Teaching 1: Venerable Hilarion the New, Abbot of the Pelekete Monastery

March: Day 28: Teaching 1:
Venerable Hilarion the New, Abbot of the Pelekete Monastery
 
(We Should Not Be Attached to the World)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Having already placed the cross on his shoulders in his youth, the Venerable Hilarion, whose memory is celebrated today, renounced all the pleasures of the world and, devoting himself to monastic labors, soon surpassed everyone in strict life and virtues. Subsequently, he was ordained a priest and abbot of the Pelekete Monastery in Asia Minor, near the Hellespont.

During the reign of Emperor Constantine Kopronymos, Saint Hilarion suffered persecution for the veneration of icons (and died around 754). He is called "the New" – in contrast to Hilarion of Dalmatia, also a confessor, who suffered persecution under Leo the Armenian.

Among the written instructions of Hilarion, a well-known letter of his has been preserved, which reads:

“To my eldest brother and servant of Christ, I, the poor and least Hilarion, the least in mind and worthless in any good deed.

All who have renounced this world, having accepted the monastic schema and taken up the cross of Christ on their shoulders, call themselves successors of the apostles! Let us love the morals of those whose image we bear, let us follow those whose disciples we are called, let us hate earthly things, following the example of our fathers. Come, let us ask the eyewitness and servant of the Word of God, the beloved disciple of Christ, who reclined on the bosom of the Lord and drew wisdom there; come, you who are restless among earthly things, come, you double-minded, who have not rejected the world and who appropriate eternal life; come, let us ask the holy one, John the Virgin, and he will proclaim what is useful. Tell us, tell us, John the Theologian, what shall we do that we may be saved? We desire the Kingdom of Heaven, but is it true that we desire it? It is not visible, we are carried away by the love of the world, we love gold, we collect property, we love bright houses, we love glory, honor, beauty: and this is obvious to everyone. Tell us the truth, O Apostle, sort out our dispute, reconcile us, that we may be of one mind. The rich among us, the monks, reproach the poor, the poor condemn the rich. Answer us, O beauty of the Apostles, John, answer us, loud-voiced lips. And behold, he proclaims: 'As I have heard and seen in the Word of God Himself, so I also preach: love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for if any man love this world, the love of the Father is not in him.'"

II. Let us talk for a few minutes about the fact that Christians should not become attached to the world.

a) All the saints teach us not to love this world. All of us, they say, having walked the narrow and sorrowful way, having taken up the cross as a yoke, followed by faith in Him, our Leader, on the path of sorrows and suffering; all have come to the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father, to the abode of eternal glory and joy, from great sorrow. Some of us were beaten, others received temptation with insults and wounds, and also with chains and imprisonment, they were beaten with stones, they were struck down, they were tempted, they died by murder with the sword, they went in sheepskins and goatskins, deprived, grieving, embittered. For we have been made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men; as we were the offscouring of the world, we were the reproach of all. But these short-lived sorrows have brought us to an eternally blessed life; this short-lived humiliation has earned us eternal glory; these fleeting sorrows have brought us eternal and endless joy. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give glory to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, for He was slain and redeemed us for God with His blood.

b) All dead people tell us: "Look at us".

Many of us have distinguished ourselves with honors , occupied important places, had influence over a considerable circle of our fellows; ask any of them what their importance helped them with at death? Did it protect them from illnesses and bodily sufferings, from horrors and languor of the spirit? Did it prepare for them a Christian end of life, painless, shameless, peaceful and a good answer at the judgment of Christ? And if there were not some stone over their grave, you would not distinguish it from the grave of the last poor man. So, both honors and worldly distinctions without humility and the fear of God, without piety and virtue - are vanity of vanities.

Many have possessed great possessions, lived in magnificent palaces, enjoyed everything that this life can give for the enjoyment of man; ask them, too, what did they take with them from their treasures? What benefit do their souls gain from all the pleasures and comforts of the flesh? And they will tell you: "Naked we came out of the womb of our mothers, naked we returned to the womb of the earth - death took everything from us. The cup of worldly pleasures has turned for us into a cup of grief and suffering, and the more we were comforted there, the more we suffer now here." So, both the riches and comforts of the world without purity of heart and conscience, without deeds of Christian love and mercy - are vanity of vanities.

Many have spent their lives in poverty and wretchedness, amid shortages and privations, labors and cares, sorrows and griefs; ask them also, have they lost anything because they were not noble and rich, did not enjoy luxury and pleasures? Was death more bitter for them? On the contrary, they will say, death came to us as a friend-deliverer, to put an end to our earthly sorrows, to deliver us from all the burdens of our sad life. And after death we thank the Lord that He delivered us from the temptations and seductions of earthly happiness and led us along the narrow and sorrowful path of wretchedness: it is good for us, that You have humbled us, O Lord! Thus, poverty and wretchedness with faith and piety, with patience and submission to the will of God are not vanity, but an acquisition; not a punishment, but a sign of God's love.

Thus, all the saints and all the dead teach us one thing: that we should not attach ourselves with our soul and heart to earthly treasures and honors, to carnal pleasures and enjoyments.

III. We must, brethren, prepare ourselves for death and the future life. Let us be ready at all times to leave everything earthly and temporary, to separate ourselves from everything that people hold dear, with which they delight and are comforted during their earthly life, lest our hearts be attached to anything corruptible, lest it itself inherit corruption. "Take heed therefore to yourselves," says the Lord, "lest at any time your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and the sorrows of this life, and that Day come upon you suddenly" (Luke 21:34).

Let us be ready at any hour to appear before the Dread Judgment of God and to give an account to the all-knowing Judge of all our thoughts, words and deeds; and for this we must keep our conscience pure from the dead deeds of unrighteousness and lawlessness, or cleanse and enlighten it with sincere repentance and make it white in the blood of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.