December: Day 23: Venerable Nephon, Bishop of Constantia

 

December: Day 23:
Venerable Nephon, Bishop of Constantia
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. The Danger of Bad Company, and
b. The Need to Exhort to Salvation Neighbors Who Are in Danger of Moral Destruction)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable Nephon, whose memory is now being celebrated, lived in the fourth century. In his youth he was pious, kind, quiet, meek and loved to go to church. But when he began to reach the age of maturity and lost an experienced mentor, and then became close with bad companions, he began to act according to his own mind and reason, as he pleased, and thus little by little his good character was spoiled. But God showed him His mercy and in an instant awakened in him a feeling of repentance. One day, Nephon's friend, Nikodemos, came to him. Having greeted him, he looked at his friend's face and was greatly horrified. Both friends were silent. "Why do you look at me as if I were a stranger?" Nephon asked. "Believe me, friend," answered Nikodemos, "I have never seen you as you are now; your face is black, terrible and terrifying." Hearing this, Nephon vividly recalled his behavior, covered his face with his hands and began to weep. His repentance was sincere. He began to pray fervently and lead a pious life, crucifying his flesh with passions and lusts with the fear of God's judgment. Finally, for the holiness of his life, he was subsequently, by God's command, chosen as Bishop of the Cypriot church. At the time of his death, his face was illuminated and filled with a special attractiveness and joy.

II. The life of Venerable Nephon gives us, brethren, many instructive lessons.

a) From it we see, firstly, all the harm to moral life of bad companionship. While Nephon had an experienced and kind mentor, he was meek, quiet, obedient and generally pious; but when he lost his pious mentor and fell under the influence of corrupt companions, he began to walk in the paths of his carnal lusts and gave himself over to a wicked life.

The word of God strongly warns people against getting close to bad company.

1) Warning against depraved company and seductive conversations, the wise Solomon decisively says that such conversations and companies are inevitably destructive.

"Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?" (Prov. 6:27, 28). The Holy Apostle Paul writes: "Evil company corrupts good habits" (1 Cor. 15:33), i.e. bad company corrupts good morals.

2) The same is testified by all those who have experienced the fatal influence of bad companionship. Blessed Augustine thus lamented the misfortunes of his youth: “I wandered in such blindness that I was ashamed not to have as much shamelessness as my companions had; I became more wicked day by day only in order not to be considered a dishonest person by them for my honesty. My God! You saw with what pleasure I walked through the streets of Babylon, and how I delighted in wallowing in the mud, as if it were the most precious balm. An invisible enemy trampled me under his feet and led me at his will, for I, poor thing, followed him everywhere with joy.” How did such blindness come about? “O hostile friendship!” continues Augustine, "You corrupt the hearts of young people so much that they do evil not for their own benefit, not in order to do harm to others, but without intention, just for the sake of a joke. Ah! Sometimes they would just say: come with us, do this or that, and I was ashamed not to indulge in all the wicked passions."

b) From the life of Venerable Nephon we see, secondly, how precious is the exhortation to correct one’s life, if it is given from a kind and friendly soul, or if it is generally carried out in the spirit of Christian love and mutual edification.

When Nikodemos, Nephon's friend, upon seeing his gloomy face, on which his wicked life was imprinted, expressed his just amazement and even horror, this was enough to awaken Nephon's dormant conscience and turn him to the path of moral correction.

This is what we must do when we see our neighbors ready to die morally.

Saint John Chrysostom, urging the laity to share with him the labors and concerns for the salvation of the brethren, wishes that they devote themselves to this work with all the fervor of love, and that they do not abandon this work when they do not see the fruit of their zeal. "Do you not see," he says, "how fathers, often despairing of the lives of their sons, sit down with them, weep, grieve, kiss them, do everything that depends on them until their last breath? Do the same with your brother. With weeping and tears they can neither drive away illness nor avert threatening death: but you are often able, with patience and perseverance, to attract and raise up a desperate soul with tears and weeping. Did you advise and not convince? Cry and touch him often; groan bitterly, so that he, ashamed of your care, will turn to salvation... Nor should we reject and neglect those who suffer from an incurable disease, even though we clearly foresee that even after much care and instruction for them, they will not bear any fruit. If this word seems strange to you, we will prove its faithfulness by what Christ did and said. We, people, do not know the future, and therefore we absolutely cannot say about the listeners whether they will or will not be convinced by our words; but Christ, clearly knowing both of them, did not cease to completely correct those who were disobedient to Him" (Discourse 1 on Lazarus 1).

"Some dumb ones do not care about their neighbors and have no idea about others," says the same Holy Father of the Church. There are no more proofs of love than not to despise erring brethren (18 demons on Ephesus). "When you see," says the same saint, "that someone is in need of spiritual and physical healing, do not say to yourself: why did so-and-so not heal him? But deliver the sick man from his illness, and do not demand from them an account of their negligence for him: for if you pour out upon him like oil the word of teaching, if you bind him with meekness, if you heal him with patience, then he will enrich you more than any treasure. "If thou wilt bring forth the honest from the unworthy, thou shalt be my mouth, saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 15:19).

“Some foolish people do not care about their neighbors and have no understanding of others,” says the same Holy Father of the Church. There is no greater proof of love than not to despise erring brethren" (Discourse 18 on the Epistle to Ephesians).

“When you see,” says the same Saint, “that someone needs spiritual and physical healing, do not say to yourself: why did such and such not heal him? But deliver the sick person from his illness yourself, and do not demand from them an account of their neglect of him. For if you pour on him, like oil, the word of teaching, if you bind him with meekness, if you heal him with patience, then he will enrich you more than any treasure. 'If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth,' says the Lord (Jer. 15:19). What can compare with this? What neither fasting, nor lying on the ground, nor all-night vigils, nor anything else can do, this is done by caring for the salvation of a brother. Consider how frequent and numerous are the sins you commit with your mouth. How many obscene things has it said? How many blasphemies, how many abuses has it uttered? If you give some thoughts to this, you will surely never hesitate to look out for your fallen brother. By this one good deed can cleanse every stain from your mouth. Why do I say cleanse? Because you will make your mouth as the mouth of God. And what honor could be equal to that? It is not I who make this promise to you. God himself said it. If you bring back one person, he said, your mouth will be cleansed and holy, as my mouth is. So let us not be careless in the consideration of the brothers, but let us care for their salvation" (Discourse 6 Against the Judaizers).

"If you see a blind man standing on the brink of an abyss, will you not hasten to prevent him from falling?" says the same Holy Father of the Church in another place. "How can we look upon our brothers continually falling into the abyss of hell, and not lend them a helping hand?"

"Use all your efforts, apply all your knowledge, all your cares to the instruction and conversion of those who have gone astray" (Discourse 5 Against the Judaizers).

"I, says the Lord, have created heaven and earth, and to you, O man, have I given the same power to make the earth heaven. I have kindled the lights; you can do the same, illuminating your neighbor with the light of truth. You cannot create man, but you can transform him and make him pleasing and beloved to Me." “He who converts even one soul pleases God far more than he who gives all his possessions to the poor.” (Gal. 6:1; 1 John 3:18; 1 Peter 2:9; 12; James 5:20; Ezek. 3:18).

“Preaching the truth to others is greater than prayer," says Saint Gregory the Dialogist. "To convert a sinner to repentance is a greater miracle than to resurrect a dead person: the resurrected one will die again, but the soul that has risen from sin will live forever. Look carefully: the Lord resurrected Lazarus from the grave, and there are no Gospel accounts of his subsequent life; Christ resurrected the soul of the Apostle Paul – and he did many powerful things with his teaching.”

"If he who quenched the thirst of his neighbor's mortal body with a cup of water is not forgotten before God the Rewarder, how much more will he be remembered with favor who helped the immortal soul, during its spiritual thirst, to taste at least a drop of the sweet and living water of prayer and grace?" teaches Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow.

III. May God, through the prayers of Venerable Nephon, help us to edify one another for the building up of the body of Christ, and to assist all to become heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

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