October: Day 12:
Holy Martyrs Probos, Tarachos and Andronikos
(On Carelessness About Eternal Salvation)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Holy Martyrs Probos, Tarachos and Andronikos
(On Carelessness About Eternal Salvation)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. The Holy Martyrs Probos, Tarachos and Andronikos, whose memory is celebrated today, suffered under Diocletian. They were brought to trial in the Cilician city of Tarsus, before the governor of the region, Numerius Maximus. Tarachos was the first to be tried. To the repeated question: "What is your name?" he continually replied: "I am a Christian. This name is dearer and more glorious to me than the name given to me by my parents. But if it is necessary to know that name, I am called Tarachos." Having subjected him to scourging and seeing his obstinacy, the judge ordered him to be thrown into prison. Another Christian, Probos, when asked about his name, replied: "My first and most honorable name is Christian; my other name is given to me by people - Probos." To the promise of favors and gifts from the king for renouncing the faith, Probos said: "I do not seek favors; I myself was rich and left wealth to serve the true God." The judge ordered him to be tortured. Then Andronikos, one of the most honorable citizens of Ephesus, was brought in. When he, too, gave the same answers to the questions put to him, he too was thrown into prison. Then all three martyrs were subjected to new interrogations, tortures, and torments. When they were threatened with death, they said: “Those who do evil die; but we will live in heaven, for the Lord is our resurrection. Do not hope to turn us away from God; we serve Him with all our hearts, and are not afraid of threats.” The judge, having lost all hope of inducing them to renounce, condemned them to be eaten by wild beasts. But the beasts did not touch them.
II. The Holy Martyrs Probos, Tarachos and Andronikos remembered very vividly about eternal life and actively prepared for it, and the saving thought about eternal life in heaven, as we saw from their short lives, supported them throughout their suffering for Jesus Christ.
Do we think about eternal life after our death? Do we prepare ourselves for a new home in heaven, for a higher and endless form of existence! We think so little that this subject does not belong at all to the ordinary circle of our reflections. Incomprehensible strangeness! Amazing carelessness! When there is a journey ahead to a distant country, how many arrangements and preparations there are! We try to find out in advance the place we are going to, who lives there, what customs, what nature, what are the conveniences and inconveniences of life; we try to have in reserve everything that can be useful for us, we make connections and acquaintances there in advance.
And to enter eternity! And to stock up on what will be necessary for us there! And to free ourselves in advance from what is intolerable there! We have neither thought nor concern about this...
a) What does this mean? Is it not disbelief in the future life? But how can one not believe this, when our very life here is clearly only the beginning, necessarily presupposing a continuation? How can one not believe in life beyond the grave, when in the best moments of our life we ourselves not only feel that there is something inside us that is not of this world, but, one might say, already anticipate the life that awaits us in eternity?
b) Or perhaps another thinks that it makes no difference whether one enters into eternity, having prepared for it or not having prepared at all? But to reason in this way means to be more thoughtless than a child. For, obviously, the future life must be in close and immediate connection with the present, like fruit with a flower, like a flower with a stalk. What is sown here will be reaped there. “He who sows to the flesh,” we say in the words of Saint Paul, “of the flesh will reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:8). To hope for the opposite would mean to transform in one’s thoughts the statute of God’s wisdom and truth, the order of all nature.
c) What does our carelessness mean in relation to the eternity that awaits us? It means that we, like little children, gazing at toys, forget everything, even ourselves; it means that we do not dare to think about anything else except the satisfaction of our sensuality, our whims and passions. For one of our greatest misfortunes is that we have the ability, occupied with trifles, to ignore the most important things. As a result of this, we so unreasonably value earthly gains or losses, and are so inattentive to what awaits us in eternity!
III. Should we always remain in this strange and pernicious negligence about eternity? O Immortal soul, a soul destined to dwell with God Himself! How long will you remain as if you were dead and senseless? Arise, why do you sleep! You sleep and give yourself up to the dreams of your imagination; and death is already preparing to snatch you away from among the living. Awake then, while there is time; arise, survey your dangerous situation, and, like the wanderer who slept on the road, taking up the staff of faith, rush along the path of virtue to where there is neither sorrow nor sighing!
Through the prayers of the Holy Martyrs of Christ, Probos, Tarachos and Andronikos, who never forgot about eternal life, may the grace of the All-Holy Spirit strengthen in us the thought of our imminent departure from this temporary - preparatory - life for entry into eternal life, which has no end, and may it awaken us from the terrible carelessness about the salvation of our souls.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.