September: Day 25: Teaching 1: Saint Sergius, Wonderworker of Radonezh

September: Day 25: Teaching 1:
Saint Sergius, Wonderworker of Radonezh
 
(Lessons from the Life of Saint Sergius: 

Love of Solitude, Humility and Abstinence)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today, Christian brethren, the Orthodox Church remembers and glorifies with its hymns the holy life and blessed death of the Saint of God Sergius, the Wonderworker of Radonezh. This holy man died more than 500 years ago. He came from a noble family and was the son of pious parents. As the Sovereign, for the good of his fatherland and his subjects, invites people from different countries and ranks, so our heavenly King and Father chooses for Himself servants from different classes, calling people for great spiritual feats not from any one family, but from every rank and, overshadowing His chosen ones with the grace of the Holy Spirit, He shows them to be both conductors of heavenly gifts to sinners and intercessors pleasing to Him for people.

In his youth, Bartholomew (as Saint Sergius was called at baptism) was almost incapable of learning, but the Lord, as a manifestation of His favor to His future servant, miraculously sent him great spiritual gifts, namely, when one monk-elder blessed Saint Sergius and gave him a piece of prosphoron, then Bartholomew began to quickly and well understand the teaching.

In his youth, Saint Sergius, after the death of his parents, withdrew into the wilderness, where, together with his brother Saint Stephen, he built a small wooden church, and thus laid the foundation of his now famous monastery.

Living in the wilderness, he suffered not only physical need: terrible hunger and cold, but also great spiritual troubles. Meeting serious demonic attacks, Saint Sergius destroyed them with heartfelt and strong prayer to the Lord. Having deep humility, Saint Sergius, when the brethren gathered around him thought of choosing him as abbot, did not agree to this for a long time and said that it was much better to obey than to rule, and only after long requests, he decided, trusting in the Lord, to accept the management of the monastery.

For his holy life, the Lord God glorified Saint Sergius in his early years. Not only did people respect him, but wild animals obeyed him and did not harm him: one large bear often came to the Saint’s cell and received food from his hands. Strict piety and Christian humility attracted the respect of Saint Sergius from the great and noble people of this world. Not only the Metropolitan, but also the boyars and even the prince himself respected the holy ascetic. Thus, when the formidable Mamai with terrible Tatar hordes was marching on the Russian land, Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich came to Saint Sergius for his advice and blessing. Gifted by the Lord with foresight, Saint Sergius, blessing the prince for the war, predicted his victory, which, through the prayers of the Saint, came true, and from that time our fatherland began to free itself from the heavy Tatar domination. Saint Alexis, who was Metropolitan of Moscow at that time, before his death wanted to appoint Saint Sergius as his deputy and had already placed his hierarchal cross on him, but the humble ascetic declined this great service, saying to Saint Alexis: “From my youth I have not been a gold-bearer, but in my old age I most want to remain in poverty... You will not find in me what you are looking for, for who am I? A sinner and the worst of all men!” This is what the humble man said about himself, who was honored with the appearance of the Mother of God with the Apostles Peter and John the Theologian in his poor cell. Saint Sergius foresaw his death six months before and gave up his spirit to the Lord God at the age of 78, on September 25, 1392. Thirty years after the death of Saint Sergius, his relics were found incorrupt and opened in the Lavra he founded for the reverent veneration of the Orthodox people, exuding many miracles through the grace of God.

II. This is how, O venerable Christian, the Saint of God, now remembered, labored for the salvation of his soul and ended his righteous life! He showed us in his life both instructive and God-pleasing examples, which it is necessary and useful for every person to follow, and especially for an Orthodox Christian.

a) Neither nobility of birth, nor wealth, nor honor and glory from people were dear to the humble and pious soul of Saint Sergius, for he saw that everything earthly is temporary and hinders full service to the Lord, and therefore, having left the world with its vanity, he began to acquire through a new God-pleasing life eternal wealth in the priceless abodes of the King and Father in heaven and for this he lived in solitude and, remaining in all abstinence, exercised himself for many years in divine contemplation and prayerful exploits, always preserving deep humility in his soul. Is there, Christian brethren, anything similar in our lives to the exploits of Saint Sergius? Alas, many of us, it seems, do not have even a shadow of this great image! We are too arrogant, haughty, rude and lazy for a life pleasing to God, so that in our time we can boldly say with the holy prophet: "There is none who does good, not even one. They have all turned aside, together they have become worthless... They have all gone astray from their way."

b) The holy Saint of God Sergius spent almost his entire life in solitude and prayer, but we do not want to retire from our usual activities not only during one day, designated by the Lord for serving Him, but we do not want to spend even a few hours during a church feast day service without conversation and reverently; we do not even devote the short morning time, for example on Sunday, when the greatest service is performed in the holy church, to prayer, but as soon as the light appears, many even respectable parents take up trade and go to drunken houses for entertainment and sometimes indulge in all sorts of lawlessness here.

If, O Christians, on Sundays and feast days it is sinful - according to God's commandment - to engage in ordinary affairs, then is it permissible to behave outrageously at this time? The Lord will one day remind us of all this, but even bitter tears will not help to free those who do not repent from His terrible wrath and punishment.

c) Saint Sergius, as we have seen, was distinguished by great humility and avoided all worldly honors and all glory. This humility attracted the grace of God to him and made him great before men. “To whom shall I look,” says the Lord, “only to him who is meek and quiet, and trembles at My words” (Isaiah 66:2). As great, praiseworthy and pleasing to God as the virtue of humility is, so reprehensible and contrary to God is the vice noticed in many of us – pride: “The beginning of sin” is “pride” (Sir. 10:15), says the Wise One. “God resists the proud” (1 Peter 5:5), says the Holy Apostle Peter, “but gives grace to the humble.” As a place and a dwelling are necessary for a person’s life, so humility is necessary in our soul for the grace of the Holy Spirit. For this virtue the Lord exalted people, granting them both incorruptibility and the power of miracles – which we see both from the life of the now commemorated Venerable Sergius and from the life, for example, of Saint Nicholas, who through humility acquired great things from the Lord. The Lord looked upon the humility of His servant, the Most Pure Mother, and through this exalted Her not only in the host of holy people, but also above the cherubim and seraphim. Finally, He Himself, Jesus Christ, both in His birth and in His life, showed us an image of deep humility, that we might follow in His footsteps; He humbled Himself for us sinners even to the death of the cross, for which reason God exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name.

d) Venerable Sergius was a great ascetic and teacher of abstinence: may we imitate him in this virtue.

“As a warrior," teaches Saint John Chrysostom, "who carries a heavy weapon, no matter how courageous and brave he is, cannot be terrible for enemies, because the weight of the weapon hinders the speed of his feet and military activity; but if he takes a light and easy-to-carry weapon, he will fly at his enemies like a bird: so he who does not fatten his flesh with drunkenness, or indulgence, or luxury, but makes it light and subtle through fasting, prayer and great patience in sorrows, like a bird flying from above, with great swiftness attacks the regiments of demons, easily overthrows the opposing forces and subdues them for himself.”

“As light ships cross the seas more quickly, but those laden with a heavy load sink: so fasting, making our mind lighter, helps it quickly cross the sea of this life, strive for heaven and heavenly treasures, not respecting the present, but consider it less than shadows and sleepy dreams. On the contrary, drunkenness and gluttony, burdening the mind, fattening the body, make the soul a captive, and constrain it on all sides, and, not allowing it to use the sound judgment of the mind, force it to rush about the cliffs and do everything to the detriment of its own salvation” (Saint John Chrysostom).

III. Let us, brethren, calling for help on Saint Sergius of Radonezh and other holy saints, root out sinful habits in ourselves and, by our obedience to the holy word of God and good deeds, try to be worthy of the high Christian calling freely bestowed upon us. And You, O all-good Lord! Do not remove Your mercies from us, but through the prayers of Saint Sergius, through the intercession of Your Most Pure Mother and through Your great mercy, turn Your face away from our sins and cleanse all our iniquities with Your immeasurable compassion. Amen.

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

 

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