October: Day 4: Teaching 1: Discovery of the Relics of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan

October: Day 4: Teaching 1:
Discovery of the Relics of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan
 
(A Christian is a Wanderer on the Way to Heaven)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today we celebrate the Discovery of the Holy Relics of our Holy Fathers Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan.

Saint Gurias was the Archbishop of Kazan. He came from a boyar family from the city of Radonezh, the birthplace of Saint Sergius, and served Prince Penkov. He was very modest and pious, for which the prince and princess loved him. His comrades, out of envy, slandered him for a grave and vile crime concerning the honor of the princess. The prince, without investigating the case and believing the slander, imprisoned him in an underground dungeon. While in prison, the Saint glorified God, saying: "Without punishment my soul could have remained unhealed," and wrote small, very useful books for children. Two years later, the Lord Himself freed him, and he retired to the Volokolamsk Monastery, where he became the abbot. Tsar Ivan the Terrible respected Gurias, and in 1555 appointed him Archbishop of the newly conquered Kazan kingdom. Here Saint Gurias served as bishop for nine years and converted many Mohammedans and pagans to Christ. Two years before his death, due to his health being ruined by prison life, he retired and took the schema.

Saint Barsanuphius, in the world John, was born in Serpukhov and was the son of a priest. During the Tatar invasion of Serpukhov, he was captured as a 17-year-old youth, which he endured for three years. John endured his bitter captivity with patience and complete devotion to the will of God, for he knew that the trial was sent to him by the will of the Heavenly Father for his own good. In captivity, he learned the Tatar language. Returning from captivity, he entered the Andronikov Monastery. When Saint Gurias was sent to Kazan, the Saint was sent there with him, as he knew the Tatar language, and he helped him a lot in spreading Christianity. In 1567, Saint Barsanuphius was summoned by Ivan the Terrible to the episcopal see in Tver. But due to his old age, he did not rule the diocese for long. Having retired and taken the schema, he lived in Kazan in the Transfiguration Monastery he founded, where he was buried next to Saint Gurias. He died in 1576. Thirty years after the death of Saint Barsanuphius, the incorrupt relics of both of them were discovered, exuding healing.

II. When reading the lives of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan, who experienced many sorrows in their lives, but not only did not complain to God about it, but even thanked Him for them, since, having lost all the deceptive pleasures of this world, they all the more zealously entered upon the path that leads to the true heavenly fatherland - when reading the lives of these Saints of God and many others who withdrew from the world and avoided that false and fragile happiness that it gives, the truth involuntarily comes to mind that this earthly life is not the final goal of a Christian, that a Christian is only a wanderer on the path to his true fatherland - Heaven.

Indeed, we are in this world as strangers and pilgrims, appearing here only for a time, coming here and departing from here. Our true life is in heaven: there is our eternal homeland, there is our heavenly Father, who so loves us, as "He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” There is our complete and perfect rest, our blessedness is unchangeable and eternal. Let us, brethren, live on earth as strangers and pilgrims, seeking the eternal city, “whose designer and creator is God!”

a) The wanderer does not burden himself with unnecessary burdens, does not gaze for long at anything pleasant in a foreign country, does not stop in any place longer than is necessary for rest. This is also what a Christian does, seeking a heavenly homeland: he does not become too accustomed to his temporary dwelling - the earth, does not attach his heart to anything earthly and temporary.

b) The wanderer is not ashamed by the fact that he is overtaken by storms and bad weather on the road, by steep slopes and mountains, by obstacles and dangers; he endures everything, overcomes everything in the hope of peace in his fatherland and in his home. So too, a Christian meets and endures everything that happens to him in life - both joyful and sorrowful, pleasant and burdensome - with good nature and patience, with gratitude to God, with submission and devotion to the will of God.

c) A traveler in a foreign land tries to acquire only what will be necessary and useful to him at home, and he hastens to send everything he has acquired to his homeland. So too, a Christian, living in the world, tries to enrich himself with good deeds of piety and truth, love and mercy, in order to appear in his heavenly homeland with the good hope of a righteous reward from the heavenly Father, and not with fear of judgment and condemnation. He gives his most earthly treasures in return to God, sending them to heaven through the hands of the poor and needy, in order to make “friends for himself from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when he becomes poor, they will receive him into eternal shelters.”

d) A wanderer has one thing on his mind and in his thoughts - his fatherland; one desire and aspiration - to return quickly to his home; one concern - not to remain forever outside his father's house. The very thought of his fatherland serves as a consolation and joy for him in a foreign land. So a Christian always directs his mind and heart to heaven, where his eternal dwelling is, where all the treasures of his heart are, where his life is hidden with Christ in God.

e) For a traveler in a foreign land, a true signpost leading to the fatherland is necessary, a reliable guide is needed, and a light is needed that would illuminate both the path itself and all the objects around it. For a Christian, this signpost of the true path to the Kingdom of God is the law of God, which, according to the word of the prophet, "is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths" (Psalm 119:105). This leader and true light, enlightening every person coming into the world, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and His Holy Gospel. “I am the light of the world,” He says: “He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). Overtaken by the darkness of night, the traveler himself does not know where he is going and how and where; finally, he will arrive, after he loses his way, wanders and stumbles, goes into thickets and abysses. This happens to a person in his moral life and activity, if this life and activity are not governed by the law of God, are not illuminated by the light of the Gospel of Christ.

 

f) A pilgrim needs places and times of rest to renew and strengthen his strength to continue on his journey. So too, for a Christian who is marching toward the heavenly homeland, there are places and times of spiritual rest. This place of spiritual rest is the temple of God, which the Lord God Himself calls His home. In it, the souls of believers, as in the true home of their Father, find blessed peace from worries and sins at the foot of the cross of Christ - and the immortal food of the life-giving Body and Blood of Christ, which heals all spiritual ailments, strengthens us in our infirmities, renews our spiritual strength - and the spiritual drink of the word of God, which encourages our spirit with help from the Lord, delights our heart with Divine promises, gladdens the soul with joy in the Lord.

 

g) The further a wanderer goes along his path, the shorter his path becomes, the closer he is to his homeland. So too, my brethren, the more we continue the path of our life, the closer we will come to its limit – death, the closer we will come to the gates of eternity.

III. How much longer we have to wander in this world, we do not know. Perhaps the present year is the last stage that will lead us to the grave. So, is our spirit ready to be “released” from the bonds of the flesh “and to be with Christ?” Is our heart ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ and be united with Him forever? Are we ready to appear in our heavenly homeland among the ranks of holy angels and perfect righteous spirits and to partake of the glorious triumph of God’s chosen ones? In heaven, in the house of the heavenly Father, everything is ready, and they are already waiting for us there – let us also be ready: “For we know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of man shall come!” Amen.

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