October: Day 17: Teaching 1: Venerable Martyr Andrew the Cretan

 October: Day 17: Teaching 1:

Venerable Martyr Andrew the Cretan
 
(On the Beatitudes)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The now glorified Holy Martyr Andrew the Cretan lived in the 8th century during the time of the iconoclast Emperor Constantine Kopronymos, who persecuted holy icons. He lived on the island of Crete as a hermit, and was highly respected for his holy life. He heard rumors of the desecration of holy icons and the sufferings of the faithful servants of Jesus Christ, so he decided to go to Constantinople in order, if possible, to turn the emperor away from his impious actions. Everything he saw along the way inflamed his zeal even more: the most respected bishops were being imprisoned, the dungeons were full of prisoners, torture was everywhere, executions were daily. Andrew's heart was inflamed with indignation. Having arrived in Constantinople, he immediately went to the Church of Saint Mamas, where the emperor was then. Pushing his way through the crowd, he appeared before the emperor himself and began boldly to reproach him for his criminal actions. “Why do you call yourself a Christian,” he said, “and a servant of Christ, if you mock the images of Jesus Christ and oppress His servants?” The soldiers seized the hermit and began to beat him, but the emperor stopped them and ordered that Andrew be brought to his palace.

“How did you dare to slander me so boldly?” asked the emperor, “was it from madness, or from a desire to become known to me?”

“Neither from one nor from the other,” answered Andrew, “but from zeal for God. I have heard about the evil heresy that tramples upon the holy icons, I have heard that you persecute the faithful servants of Christ, and I have come from afar to either convince you or die for Christ.”

The Emperor began to call the honor given to icons idolatry. Andrew fearlessly objected to him, proving that the honor given to an icon pertains to the one depicted on it. "Why do you not execute with death the one who does not show due respect to the statues and images of the Emperor?" he said. "You want to be honored in your images, but you forbid the veneration of Jesus Christ in His images!"

The Emperor became angry and ordered that Andrew be cruelly beaten. He threatened him with the most cruel tortures and death itself if he did not agree to stop venerating the holy icons; but Andrew exclaimed: "God forbid that I should reject Christ in His icons. You had better stop, Emperor, arming yourself against the Church and persecuting the faithful servants of Christ."

They tortured the hermit cruelly. They took him out into the square and threw stones at him, then, barely alive, they locked him up in prison. There, the Orthodox gathered around him, respecting the courageous sufferer for the truth. He instructed and strengthened them in piety. This reached the Emperor, who ordered him to be tortured again; they led Saint Andrew through the city to the place of execution, threw stones at him, and finally one of the heretics rushed at him with an axe and killed him. The ascetic with prayer gave up his soul to God.

Iconoclasm was condemned by the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, which took place in the city of Nicaea in 787. On the first Sunday after October 2, the Church honors the Holy Fathers who attended this synod.

II. Christians brethren! We will not be wrong if we say that the Venerable Martyr Andrew, out of zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of the souls of his neighbors, sacrificed his life, and attained eternal blessedness in the highest abodes of the heavenly kingdom. How can we attain even the last place in the kingdom of heaven? By patience in torment? But, thank God, they are no longer there; we can obtain salvation by diligently fulfilling the commandments that lead to the attainment of blessedness, of which there are nine. Let us focus on them.

a) "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is the first commandment of beatitude. The poor or the needy in spirit are humble people who feel their unworthiness before God and their powerlessness in the matter of salvation. “Since Adam fell from pride, dreaming of being God, then Christ raises us up through humility, placing it as a foundation" (Blessed Theophylact). The kingdom proclaimed by Christ belongs to spiritual poverty, with all its blessings and the inexhaustible wealth of grace. What joyful good news this was for the poor (Is. 61:1) and how it contrasts with the dreamy ideas of the Jews about the earthly power of the kingdom of Christ.

b) The second beatitude reads as follows: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." They that mourn, that is, over sins, and not over anything worldly, and not only over their own sins, but also over the sins of their neighbors. But so that this deep sorrow of those who mourn does not extend to despair, they are promised the consolation of grace, consisting in the forgiveness of sins and peace of conscience. This is the consolation which the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, gives to souls who have been blessed (John 14:16, 26); it serves as their lot not only in this life, but also in the future: here they are comforted by the hope of receiving forgiveness of sins, and there they will continually rejoice, having received eternal life. (Blessed Theophylact)

c) "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." This, brethren, is the third commandment of beatitude. Patient endurance of sorrows, inevitable in life, quiet and gentle treatment of all, being an alien to anger: in general, such a disposition of spirit as not to irritate anyone and not to be irritated by anything. These are the qualities that the followers of the gospel acquire not only God's blessing in temporary life, peace and prosperity (Psalm 36:11), but also lead them to the inheritance of the land of the living (Psalm 26:3), "the land of paradise" (the expression of Saint Ephraim the Syrian), i.e. eternal blessedness.

d) "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled," says the fourth beatitude. Here the languishing feeling of hunger and thirst, demanding satisfaction, is compared with a strong desire for spiritual good, namely, “every virtue,” which a Christian should desire, like food and drink, especially “that righteousness of God” (Rom. 3:22), “which consists in the justification of man” before God, through grace and faith in Jesus Christ. And just as physical satiation, ceasing the feeling of hunger and thirst, restores and strengthens one’s strength, so spiritual satiation brings peace and rest to the soul of a pardoned sinner and makes him capable of good. However, the complete saturation of righteous people will follow in the future life, when they, illuminated by the light of the sun of righteousness (Matt. 13:43; Mal. 4:2), washed and made white by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14), will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

e) "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." This, my brethren, is the fifth great commandment, the fulfillment of which can give us eternal blessedness. As Saint John Chrysostom noted, “there are various kinds of mercy, and this commandment is broad” (Homily 15 on the Gospel of Matthew): it embraces not only the physical needs of those oppressed by misfortunes, but also spiritual ones. Good advice to one’s neighbor, consolation of the unfortunate, prayer for him, forgiveness of offenses – all these are deeds of spiritual mercy; they are as valuable in the eyes of God as material help to one in need from one’s own acquisitions. The merciful “receive mercy both here” – “from people” (Blessed Theophylact), and “there”, on the day of righteous retribution at the Last Judgment, and the Lord will have mercy on them and accept them into His eternal kingdom (Matt. 25:34–40).

f) The sixth beatitude says: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The purity of heart, of which the Lord speaks, does not consist only in simplicity, truthfulness and sincerity, but also “in the abstinence from every unlawful desire,” from every excessive attachment to earthly things, and in the unceasing remembrance of God. Pure people, according to the interpretation of Saint John Chrysostom, are those who “have acquired complete virtue and are not aware of any wickedness in themselves” (Homily 15 on the Gospel of Matthew).

Having attained “the purification and sanctification of the heart by the communion of the perfect and Divine Spirit” (Saint Ephraim the Syrian), they will see God – both “in their own beauty” (Saint Athanasius of Alexandria), as free from any passionate attraction, and in divine revelation, because, in the words of Blessed Theophylact, “just as a mirror reflects images when it is pure, so only a pure soul can see God and understand the Scriptures.” But, like other beatitudes, beginning on earth and ending in heaven, the vision of God, assimilated by the pure, beyond the earthly world will be even fuller and clearer, in direct vision face to face (1 Cor. 13:12; Phil. 1:23).

g) "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God," teaches the seventh beatitude. The followers of Christ, who, according to the expression of Saint Isidore of Pelusium, “are at peace with themselves and do not stir up rebellion, but cease their inner strife by subjecting the body to the spirit,” establish peace in others who live in discord both with themselves and with each other. By behaving amicably toward everyone and not giving cause for disagreement, they reconcile those at war and calm strife and discord. And although all believers, by the grace of redemption, are called children of God (John 1:12; Rom. 8:16; Gal. 4:5, 6), this name and the degree of blessedness corresponding to it especially belong to peacemakers, who are like the Son of God, Who came to earth “to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, whether they be on earth or in heaven” (Col. 1:20). (Saint John Chrysostom; Saint Isidore of Pelusium; Blessed Theophylact)

h) In the eighth beatitude, our Lord commands us, brethren, to love righteousness and piety so much as to be prepared for all tribulations for their sake: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." In these words the Lord revealed the future fate of His followers: He proclaimed to them not glory and riches, not acquisitions and pleasures, but – contrary to the dreamy expectations of the glorious kingdom of the Messiah Christ by the Jews – poverty, dishonor, persecution, exile. They will be persecuted for righteousness' sake, that is, according to the explanation of Saint John Chrysostom, for virtue and piety (Homily 15 on the Gospel of Matthew), and therefore they are commanded constancy and firmness in virtue, courage and patience amidst the temptations and dangers that threaten the faith. For the loss of earthly benefits and peace they will be rewarded in the heavenly kingdom with an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:4).

i) Finally, the Lord, addressing the apostles, showed that it is especially characteristic of teachers to endure reproach: “Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.” “They shall bear your name in scorn, as evil for the sake of the Son of man: rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for so have they cast out the prophets, which were before you.” Not everyone who is reviled attains this high degree of blessedness, but “only he who endures reproach for Christ’s sake, and falsely.” (Blessed Theophylact). This slander, endured for Christ in humility of spirit, acquires for the ascetic a great reward in heaven – “a double retribution, and one crowns him for the deed itself, and the other for the slander” (Saint Nilus of Sinai).

In contrast to these beatitudes, which belong to the true disciples of the gospel, the Lord announced woe to proud and vain people, who make wealth and sensual pleasures the exclusive object of their desires, the goal of all their activity: woe to you who are rich, for you will lack your consolation; woe to you who are full now, for you will hunger; woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep; woe, when all men will speak well of you.

III. Brothers and sisters! Let us pray to the Lord that He will give us the strength to fulfill the commandments, which are the only paths that lead us to eternal life, and along which the now glorified Holy Martyr Andrew the Cretan and all the other saints walked.

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