April: Day 21: Holy Hieromartyr Januarius the Bishop and Those With Him

April: Day 21:
Holy Hieromartyr Januarius the Bishop and Those With Him
 
(On Spiritual Blindness)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Januarius, who is celebrated today, was a Bishop in the Campanian region of Italy, and was tortured for the faith of Christ during the persecution under Diocletian. Among other things, they threw him into a red-hot furnace, but he came out of it unharmed. The next day they brought him out to be devoured by wild beasts along with other Christians. But even in this, Januarius and his companions remained untouched: the beasts fell meekly at the feet of the Bishop, to the general amazement of the crowd of people.

Timothy, the governor of Campania, who had given these Christians over to torture, was not, however, moved by such a miracle of God's preservation; in his spiritual blindness, he attributed this miracle to magic. And so, as if in punishment for his spiritual blindness, which came from insensibility, he at that time also became blind in his physical eyes. But this did not awaken in him either a clear thought or a healthy feeling. Then the Lord, who always seeks only the salvation of sinners, deigned to act upon him with mercy. He gave the good-natured martyr Januarius the power to heal his blind persecutor. But the joy of healing did not soften or touch the hardened heart of the pagan, while at that very time up to five thousand pagans, who had witnessed the miracles, were converted to faith in the true God. And yet, the more the grace of the Lord abounded, the more the ruler became angry and put to death all those enlightened by the truth. All the confessors, together with Bishop Januarius, were, by order of Timothy, taken outside the city and executed by the sword. Their holy remains were taken by the inhabitants of various places; the body of Saint Januarius was transferred to Naples, where to this day it pours out its miraculous help and protection.

II. This is how far a person’s spiritual blindness can reach: in the face of obvious miracles, through which thousands are converted to faith, the pagan ruler who tortured Saint Januarius remains deaf and blind to everything that is happening around him.

Such is the destructive power of spiritual blindness!

It is hard to lose one's sight, not to see sunlight and to be in darkness all the time. But still, physical blindness is only for the duration of one's life and ends with one's life. After death, a blind person can see the unfading light, the true light, the Lord Himself, Who is called the Gladsome Light. Moreover, physical blindness can be useful to the soul and can help in salvation. When a person does not see, he does not have many reasons to sin, he is not subject to temptations that happen through our sight; the heart does not desire what the eyes do not show it. But there is another blindness, which is much more pernicious. This is spiritual blindness. In this blindness, a person does not see the spiritual light, and this light is none other than the Lord God and His holy commandments, in which His all-holy will is shown to us.

What causes spiritual blindness, and are there not among us, brethren, spiritually blind people?

a) Spiritual blindness comes from not listening to the teachings about God and not learning His commandments. An untaught soul is like a closed or bandaged eye. Open your soul and with an open soul perceive the teachings about the faith of faithful people; then you too will see the light of Christ's commandments. But if you do not listen and learn, then your soul will be like a blind person; in everything that concerns piety, it will wander as if groping, not knowing either the properties of God or the commandments given by God.

Every man is blind in his soul who knows nothing about God, that He is everywhere, especially in heaven and in the temple, sees all the deeds of men, both good and bad, and rewards for all that is good, and punishes for all that is bad. He is blind in soul who has heard nothing about the Savior, the Only Begotten Son of God, Whom God the Father sent down to earth so that He might teach men the holy life and redeem them by His sufferings. He is blind who has learned nothing from the Gospel of Christ and does not know the Christian law, does not know the necessity and saving power of the Christian mysteries. There is much of this spiritual blindness, which depends on ignorance, among the common people.

b) But besides spiritual blindness which depends on ignorance, there is also spiritual blindness which depends on vice and lust and hardness of heart. Thick dust darkens physical vision, black smoke makes surrounding objects invisible to us; in exactly the same way lust, or vice, or hardness darkens our mind and blinds the soul. Then even knowledge of God is of no use. Then even understanding of the Lord's commandments remains fruitless; then even obvious miracles do not produce their effect, just as they did not produce their saving effect on the pagan Timothy, who tormented Saint Januarius, blinded by passions and the service of sensuality. Possessed by passion, as if by an evil spirit, we do not remember ourselves, we forget our previous promises, we do not fear future punishments. For example: a person has heard and knows the teaching about the all-seeing and just God, knows the commandment of the Savior that one should not be angry; but, succumbing to the passion of anger, he forgets everything and throws himself at his neighbor, sparing neither his health nor even his life. Obviously, the passion of anger darkens and blinds him so that he does not see the light of Christ's commandment. A similar thing happens to a person who succumbs, for example, to a passion for wine. He knows that to get drunk on wine is both sinful and shameful, and extremely harmful to the spiritual and physical health. But lust darkens the mind, passion blinds his soul, and he pounces on wine, forgetting the promptings of reason, forgetting the commandments of God, forgetting the fear of God, shame before men, harm to himself. Such is the effect on man of other passions, such as: the passion of fornication, the passion of the love of money, the passion of the love of power.

III. Since, brethren, we are all partakers either of ignorance or of passions, we are all partakers of spiritual blindness. One is blind from ignorance of sound doctrine, and another from passions that war against the nous and darken the spiritual vision. Therefore, brethren, each of us must seek insight and for this purpose learn the truths of faith and the rules of Christian life, and especially beware of vices and passions.

Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light, illumine with Your mercy the spiritual eyes of our hearts. Amen.

 

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