December: Day 7: Teaching 1: Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

December: Day 7: Teaching 1:
Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. The Need for Education From an Early Age;
b. Election to Serve the Church Is Not Done by Chance, But by God’s Command; and
c. One Must Obey the Church Hierarchy)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, whose memory is celebrated today, was born in 340 in Gaul, where his father was governor. Having lost his mother in childhood, he was carefully brought up by a pious sister. Having received an excellent education, he became governor of two Italian regions. The prefect Probus, sending him into the regions, said: "Govern them not as a judge, but as a bishop." Indeed Ambrose really ruled mercifully, and everyone loved him. In 374, a bishop was elected in Milan, and a disagreement arose on the occasion of this choice. Ambrose began to bring peace to the quarreling, and suddenly a child's voice was heard in the crowd: "Ambrose is Bishop!" These words were considered to be an inspiration from above and, despite the resistance, they chose Ambrose as bishop, who fully justified his election by his holy life and zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of the souls of his neighbors. The emperor and the people, who loved Ambrose as prefect, loved him even more as bishop. Ambrose zealously and very successfully fought against the Arian heretics and dying paganism: in his work On Faith, he thoroughly refuted all the objections of the Arians; he achieved in that the pagans were deprived of the estates that belonged to the temples, and the honors and privileges of their priests were abolished. Once, the emperor Theodosius, in a rage, ordered the death of several thousand rebellious Thessalonians. Ambrose wrote a letter to the emperor, reproaching him for his cruelty. When Theodosius, without revoking his cruel sentence, entered the cathedral to commune of the Holy Mysteries, Ambrose did not allow him to receive Communion. The emperor told Ambrose that David had also sinned, but had not lost God's mercy; but Ambrose replied: "You imitated David in sin, imitate him in repentance." The emperor repented and was allowed to receive communion. Saint Ambrose foresaw his death and died in 397. He founded many monasteries in the West and left many works. He is the author of the church hymn "Te Deum laudamus" (Latin for "Thee, God, we praise"). The relics of Saint Ambrose are kept in Milan. Part of the relics are on Mount Athos.

II. The life of Saint Ambrose of Milan offers us three instructive lessons.

a) The first is that one must take care of the upbringing of children in the spirit of Christian piety from an early age, just as Saint Ambrose's sister took care of him, thanks to whom her brother not only received a brilliant education, but also became a pious man and a zealous servant of the Church of God.

Blessed Tikhon, in his Zadonsk solitude, speaks thus about upbringing as the initial source of true goodness and happiness, looking at a small tree: “We see,” he says, “that a small tree bends comfortably to any side, wherever it bends; and wherever it bends, there it grows. The same thing happens with a young and small child... Will he learn good in his youth? He will be good throughout his entire life. Will he learn evil? As in youth, so it will be throughout his entire life, and from a small child a devil and an angel can come forth. For from upbringing, as from seed, fruits depend all the rest of life.” Therefore, brethren, the greatest crime is committed by those parents who, having the opportunity, do not form either the mind, or the heart, or the will of a child, a future citizen and Christian.

b) The second lesson we learn from the life of Saint Ambrose is that the calling to pastoral ministry is not accidental, but by the will of God. We saw that the mysterious child's voice that sounded in the church where the bishop was being elected: "Ambrose is Bishop!" was accepted by all as a sign from God, and Ambrose was made bishop, and by his holy life and great merits he fully justified his election.

A similar example can be found in the lives of Russian saints.

Eleutherius (later Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow) was already revealed his high destiny in childhood. Once he cast nets for birds, and after guarding them for a long time, dozed off from fatigue. Suddenly he heard a voice: “Alexis! Why such labor? You must be a fisher of men.” Awakened by this, the youth was amazed at the extraordinary voice and the name of Alexis. This vision sank deep into his soul; he became silent, abandoned games and began to think a lot about life and its purpose. His parents were amazed at the change in his life, asked the servants about the reasons for the change, but they could only say that Eleutherius often went to solitary places. They asked the youth himself why he avoided people and occupied himself only with books? Why did he exhaust himself with fasting? “Do not grieve for me, good parents,” answered the youth: “I do not do evil, but I wish to prosper in good; let the will of the Lord be done." At the age of 15, Eleutherius had already decided to devote himself to monastic life. At the age of 20 (in 1320), he entered the Moscow Theophany Monastery and was tonsured with the name Alexis, the same one he had heard in a dream seven years earlier. Although the Theophany Monastery was on a noisy shopping street, Alexis found peace here, devoting himself to asceticism. He spent time either in church or in cell prayers; he read books and diligently studied the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; he dried up his flesh and purified his heart with night vigils.

The event narrated here encourages us, my beloved brethren, to have great respect for the servants of God and to obey them as fishers of human souls for heavenly blessedness.

c) Finally, the third lesson that the life of the now glorified Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, offers us is that we, like the Emperor Theodosius, who was excommunicated from the Holy Mysteries and not allowed into the temple, but nevertheless, despite all the advantages of his imperial power, obeyed the archshepherd, must obey our shepherds of the Church.

Jesus Christ says in the Gospel: “If anyone does not listen to the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican” (Matthew 18:17). According to this, Orthodox shepherds teach that all Christians must obey the Church of Christ and must not disobey its definitions in any way.

One ancient Father and Teacher of the Church, Ignatius the God-bearer, teaches: “Be diligent, beloved, to obey the bishops, presbyters, and deacons; for whoever obeys them, listens to Christ, who instituted them, but whoever resists them, resists Jesus Christ. Whoever resists the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him... Do not deceive yourself, my brethren, whoever follows him who creates schism will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Epistle to Philadelphians, ch. 3).

Another Holy Father and Teacher of the Church, Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, says: “He who does not have the Church as his mother cannot have God as his father; those who harbor hatred for priests and withdraw from the Church of Christ, even if they give themselves up to death for confessing the name of Christ, will not wash away their sin even with their blood; outside the Church there is no salvation.” (Letter LXXII).

III. So let us imprint, my brethren, in our memory the soul-profiting lessons offered to us by the life of Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, now being glorified by the Holy Church.

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