November: Day 10: Holy Martyr Orestes

 

 

November: Day 10:
Holy Martyr Orestes
 
(Are We Worthy of the Title of Christians?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Orestes, whose memory is celebrated today, together with the Apostles Erastus, Olympas and Rodion, was a physician of Tyana in Cappadocia and suffered much during the persecution under Diocletian. He was tortured with ropes and sinews, so that his whole body was one continuous wound. For seven days they tormented him with hunger and thirst, then they drove twenty nails into his heels and, having tied him to a horse, they drove it with him through fields and sharp stones. And for the steadfastness of his faith during all these sufferings he acquired eternal blessedness, about which he himself testified when he appeared exultant to Saint Dimitri of Rostov, who was writing at that time about his martyrdom, and he himself supplemented the stories about himself, declaring that he “suffered more torment for Christ” than was known to his biographer, and he also showed his wounds with which he was wounded fifteen centuries prior.

The relics of the Holy Martyr Orestes were thrown into the river, but Christians managed to retrieve them from there and buried them on a mountain near Tyana.

II. In the history of the sufferings of the Holy Martyr Orestes the following circumstance is very noteworthy.

When Saint Orestes was asked about his name, he called himself a Christian, and for a long time did not want to tell the tormentor his name. "The name Christian is much more honorable and glorious than all the names in the world," said Orestes. "If you want to know, then from my physical birth I was called Orestes, and from my spiritual birth I am called a Christian. Now you will understand that the spiritual birth is more important than the physical, and therefore the name Christian is more important than Orestes."

There are people who boast of their titles, but how they neglect their Christian name!

Meanwhile, for a Christian there is and cannot be anything more precious than to be a true Christian, i.e. to worthily bear his title of Christian. So let us ask ourselves: do we worthily bear our title of disciples of Christ? Can we be imitators in this regard of a true Christian, such as the Holy Martyr Orestes, who is now being glorified?

Do not be surprised at this question, and do not consider it unusual. Among us the title of Christian is degraded, considered a small thing, consigned to oblivion; but it is more important than all the titles and distinctions in the world: for it alone will glorify or shame us one day before the face of the whole world. Is someone a slave and in the most despised lot: if he is a true Christian, then a throne and a kingdom await him, with which all earthly thrones cannot be compared. Is someone a lord and a ruler: if he is not a true Christian, then such darkness, such poverty, such bonds await him, before which all earthly prisons, all deprivations, sorrows and human executions are only a small likeness.

a) So, I will ask again: are we Christians? Do not rush to answer. We know very well that we are all baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that from time to time we go to the temple of God and perform a certain number of prostrations and prayers, that once a year, during the holy fast, we go to confession and partake of the Holy Mysteries, that we do not flee from the other mysteries and rites of the Holy Church: all this belongs to the title of Christian; but all this alone does not constitute true Christianity. For, fulfilling all this, one can be a bad person, an unfaithful spouse, a bribe-taking judge, a sly salesman, a harmful citizen: can such people be called Christians? No, just as a Christian has been promised extremely much, so therefore no small amount is required of him.

A Christian is required not to have his own will and his own rules, taken from earthly wisdom or the customs of the age, but to follow in everything the will of God and the rules of the Gospel.

A Christian is required not to indulge his fallen nature, not to give free rein to passions, but to fight with them and conquer them, cutting off every impure desire, avoiding the spirit of pride, luxury and greed.

It is required of him that in all his actions and in all the circumstances of his life he should have in mind not only his own well-being, but first of all the glory of God and the good of his neighbors.

A Christian is required to live in the world, to use the gifts of nature and art, the fruits of his own and others’ labor, not to attach his heart to anything, to be always ready to leave everything, so as not to lose his conscience and his salvation.

What is required of him is not so much to be guided by the present, the visible, as to look towards the invisible and await the future, preparing himself for a peaceful transition, through death, into eternity, to his Redeemer and Lord.

A true disciple of Jesus Christ is required to be above not only the temptations, but also the sorrows of the world, to wage an open and secret battle with the vice that reigns in the hearts of the sons of this age, to always and for everyone serve as an example of love, humility, good nature, patience, and forbearance.

These are the demands of a Christian! Necessary demands, without which Christianity will remain an idle name.

b) Now look around, my brethren, and answer: are these requirements and conditions of true Christianity fulfilled in you? Do you have those virtues and holy qualities without which it cannot exist?

Can you say, my brethren, that the salvation of your souls is more precious to you than anything else in the world? That at least half, at least a third of your time and strength is used by you directly and immediately to improve yourselves in virtues, to prepare yourself for eternity, to repent of your sins?

Blessed is he who feels in his conscience that he does not bear the precious name of Christian in vain, that he strives to be a faithful follower of the commandments of Christ, that sin and passions do not reign in his soul and heart, that the world with its temptations has no charm for him. Such a one is blessed by God the Father, blessed by God the Son, blessed by God the Holy Spirit. Such a one can calmly abide in his calling, whatever it may be; he can calmly look upon everything that happens to him, with the firm confidence that all things work together for good to those who believe in God; he can calmly await his end, which will bring with it a reward for all his labors and exploits.

But a hundred times cursed is he who goes the opposite way and, having been hitherto devoted to worldly vanity and passions, does not think about his correction. Whatever happiness he may enjoy in this world, however vast his granaries, bright his chambers, rich his servants, numerous his signs of honor, magnificent and great his titles, his fate is worthy of tears and sighs; for all this will not save him at all from the wrath to come. The terrible hour will come, when everything that amused, delighted, filled the soul and heart, will crumble to dust and disappear like a dream; and the poor sinner will be left alone with his soul leprous with sin, and will have to endure and suffer forever.

III. Remember this, my brethren, and do not allow yourselves to be blinded by vanity and worldly temptations. The sweetness of sin is seductive, but temporary and fleeting; but the harm that comes from it is eternal and terrible. Virtue, on the contrary, requires struggle and effort, but the reward for it is certain and endless. Besides this, a virtuous man already here finds peace in his heart and consolation in his conscience: but the wicked suffer invisibly here, and rarely are they not visibly put to shame in the end.

Remembering this, let us be firm and unyielding in virtue, even if it is combined with deprivation; let us begin to turn away from sin, even if it promises us a paradise of sweetness. Amen.

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