September: Day 20: Teaching 1: Holy Right-Believing Prince Michael and Boyar Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernigov

September: Day 20: Teaching 1:
Holy Right-Believing Prince Michael and Boyar Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernigov
 
(The Feat of Confessing of Faith in Our Time and in Our Fatherland)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Orthodox Church has long ago included two martyrs of the Russian land among the saints - the Chernigov prince Michael and his boyar Theodore, whose exploits in their confession of the Christian faith it remembers on this day. Almost six hundred years separate us from their martyrdom, but reflection on it is always accompanied by great moral benefit for us, their descendants.

Prince Michael lived in those difficult times for Russia, when it was ruled by the Tatars, pagans. Having received an order to appear before the Horde as a tributary of the Khan, he went there with a firm determination to die a martyr for the holy Christian faith rather than shamefully betray it by worshiping idols, as some princes had decided to do, having gone before him to the Tatar Khan. His boyar, Theodore, who accompanied him, had the same thoughts as the prince. Khan Batu, who was hostile to the Chernigov prince because he, burning with love for the holy faith and his dear homeland, encouraged his neighbors to rise up against the Tatar yoke, ordered that he be admitted to him only after he had passed through the so-called "sacred fire" and worshiped the pagan gods of the Tatars - the idols made of felt. "No," Michael answered courageously, "I can bow to your king, to whom heaven has entrusted the fate of earthly states; but a Christian serves neither fire nor soulless idols." Batu was furious to hear such a bold answer from his powerless tributary. He ordered that he be given one of two options: either to bow to his gods and receive life, freedom and the right to own the principality, or to die an evil death for resisting his will. So on the one hand - freedom and life with its pleasures, family happiness with a wife and children among the beloved subjects of his principality, but for that - betrayal of Christ and His Holy Church; on the other hand - torment and death far from family and homeland, but for that - fidelity to the Christian faith. The choice was short and decisive: the prince chose the latter.

What inclined his soul to this exalted feat?

From his biography it is known that from his youth he was distinguished by meekness and humility of spirit, ardent love for his neighbors, active participation in the fate of the poor, prayerful contrition for his sins and frequent cleansing of himself from them by Confession and Holy Communion, in a word, by the Christian life, which prepared him for the feat of confessing the faith in a difficult hour of trial; the prince was also disposed to the holy work of martyrdom by his living, deep and sincere faith in Jesus Christ, as the true Son of God, who suffered for the sins of the human race out of love, the fear of being deprived of the Kingdom of God prepared by Him for His true followers and a clear awareness of the great responsibility before God for the temptation into which he, the prince, would draw others by his renunciation of the holy faith. When Batu was told of the Chernigov prince's resolute refusal to worship idols, an order was given to torture him to death. The murderers appeared and rushed at the prince like wild animals: having thrown him to the ground, they beat him on the chest with their fists and sticks and, turning his face to the ground, they continued to strike him with redoubled fury. The martyr's last word was: "I am a Christian," after which they cut off his head. His pious boyar Theodore was tortured in a similar manner by the Tatars.

II. Pious listeners! Not by words, but by deeds, not by teaching, but by their very lives, do these martyrs of our beloved fatherland teach us to confess our holy faith in Christ the Savior before all its enemies, whoever they may be.

At the present time, glory and thanks be to God, neither in our fatherland nor in any other country is there anything similar to those terrible persecutions of Christians, when they were burned alive at the stake and thousands were thrown to be torn apart by wild beasts. Such favorable conditions, apparently, should have encouraged and disposed everyone - both the strong and the weak in faith and the spirit of courage - to a truly Christian life, to the discovery in themselves of all the virtues prescribed by Christ's teaching. But this is not what we see in reality, in the life of Orthodox Christians in our fatherland. A life devoted to sin and sensual pleasures, extending to the oblivion of all the needs of the soul, destined for a higher, non-earthly existence, and disbelief in the Divine teaching and the holy institutions of the Orthodox Church - these are the two evils in the moral and religious life of today's society and at the same time the two modern enemies of Christianity. Sincerely and truly, in word and life, firmly and decisively, every true Christian must confess his faith and his deeds before them.

a) Thus, in our time and in our fatherland, when the service of sin has begun to spread everywhere, when the commandments of piety are not fulfilled, fidelity to church statutes and orders is violated, discord and disorder have entered family and married life, relaxation and indulgence have entered the upbringing of children; negligence and self-interest have entered into state and public service, unbridled freethinking has entered into science; pride, covetousness and envy, thirst for pleasure and intemperance have entered into the soul of each, then all who call themselves Christians must come to their senses, recognize their moral state, be horrified by their errors and vices, which have so removed them from the mercy of God and the perfection of Christian life, overcome and mortify their passions and become, so to speak, spiritual martyrs for the teaching of Christ. One holy man (Saint Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov) compares our vices, which we serve, with the gods of the pagans, the idols they worship. He who spends all his time in the pleasures of the flesh has already renounced Jesus and worships a pagan god - Aphrodite or Venus; he who is overcome by anger, serves Ares or Mars; he who indulges in drunkenness, for him the god Dionysus; he who is a lover of money, whose heart is not touched by the misfortune of his neighbor, he also serves idols and his god is the pagan idol Apollo. Truly, listeners, one can be a pagan, calling himself a Christian, but not doing Christian deeds.

Is it not the direct duty of such imaginary Christians to become true followers of Christ's teaching and in their lives to confess it before their carnal nature, infected with sin, as before a direct enemy of Christ? And the feat of such a confession of faith can truly place on the head of the confessor the crown of spiritual martyrdom.

b) Having overcome his own wicked inclinations, having gained victory over himself, a person will fully prepare himself for the struggle with another enemy of Christ's teaching - with the unbelief of our age. Recently in our fatherland there have appeared people blinded by satanic pride, who place themselves with their new teachings above the whole world of social relations, religious and moral concepts, above humanity, above history, above the spiritual life by which all peoples have lived from century to century, these impious proud people indiscriminately and without any reasonable evidence deny everything spiritual and holy that elevates the soul of man and tells it of its highest purpose. They allow themselves to curse, ridicule, contempt, slander, reproach for ignorance and backwardness, wild hatred and similar manifestations of an evil heart in relation to the followers of the Orthodox Church.

Should a Christian, at the sight of these attacks by freethinkers on his holy religious beliefs, lose heart, cowardly hide his convictions and Christian habits from them, shamefully, without a fight, give in to them and finally shamefully betray the Christian faith, going over to the side of its enemies? No, and a thousand times no: this is unreasonable, criminal, sinful! Openly and boldly, in word and life, without concessions, without indulgences, without fearful silence before the enemies of Christianity, he must confess his sincere faith in Christ the Savior and his ardent love for Him; always and everywhere he must show himself a faithful son of the Orthodox Church, which alone can lead a person amidst the underwater rocks and raging waves of the sinful world to the only reliable haven - the Kingdom of God, to eternal blessed life with God. He must know and remember that Jesus Christ is the only true way there, the truth and the life, the Author of our faith and its foundation.

We must not be ashamed or faintheartedly retreat before the opponents of the Christian faith, but rather boast and thank God with all our hearts for having enabled us to become Christians and members of the Holy Orthodox Church. Will we really be so selfish and ungrateful to God, who, out of love for humanity, gave up His Only Begotten Son to suffer and die for the sinful world, that we will not endure those insignificant sorrows, such as contempt, ridicule, slander, to which we may be subjected for our sincere confession of the Christian faith and our fidelity to the statutes of the Orthodox Church? “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words,” said the Lord, “of him the Son of man will be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and of the Father, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26). Thus the Lord warns His weak followers, whom He foresaw long ago, against cowardice and betrayal of Himself.

Even the consciousness of our human dignity, the respect for ourselves as rational and moral beings: the father of a family, a member of the church and a citizen of the fatherland, should not allow us to become a simple toy in the hands of unbelievers who rebel against everyone and everything, who are strong only in their boundless pride and insolence, who have arbitrarily set themselves up as judges of all phenomena of human life, without solid scientific knowledge, without love for serious and honest work, without respect for moral and civil laws, who do not spare anything sacred for the realization of their dreamy goals, not even the precious life of man - the image and likeness of God on earth.

III. Let the example of the Wonderworkers of Chernigov, celebrated today, who died a martyr's death for their courageous confession of faith, remind us of our duty to endure with patience, love and joy those small sorrows that we may receive for the living confession of our faith in Christ and His teaching. Amen.

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

 

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