January: Day 20: Teaching 1: Venerable Euthymios the Great

 

January: Day 20: Teaching 1:
Venerable Euthymios the Great
 
(Why Did the Lord Hide the Hour of Death From Us?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Euthymios, whose memory is celebrated today, was born in the city of Melitene, near the Euphrates. When, after the death of his father, his mother gave him to be raised by his uncle, a priest, he presented the boy to the bishop. The bishop loved Euthymios for his good behavior and made him a Reader in the Church, and then a Priest, and entrusted him with the management of the monasteries in the city. But Venerable Euthymios wanted solitude, and at the age of 30 he secretly left the city and after some time, near the Dead Sea, founded a lavra. The lavra was poor at first, but the monk firmly hoped in God, and God sent everything necessary for it.

One monk refused the obedience that was assigned to him. Suddenly he fell to the ground unconscious. Then, at the request of the brethren, Venerable Euthymios healed him and said: “Obedience is a great virtue. The Lord loves it more than sacrifice."

Venerable Euthymios performed many miracles, and foretold the future for many. He converted many pagans to Christ and confirmed many of the unfaithful in the true faith, which is why he received the name of "the Great".

In the year of his death, Venerable Euthymios did not go, contrary to custom, into the desert during Lent and said to the brethren: "I will stay with you the first week, and on Saturday at midnight I will leave you," and exactly at that time (January 20) his blessed death followed. He died in 473, being 97 years old. The relics of Venerable Euthymios rest in his lavra.

II. From the circumstances of the death of Venerable Euthymios we saw that the Lord revealed to him the day and hour of his death a week in advance. Only rare and great saints of God are deemed worthy to know the hour of their death. This is not given to others.

The question arises: why does the Lord hide the hour of death from almost all people?

a) The Lord hid the hour of death from us, firstly, so that we would constantly be vigilant over ourselves, i.e., always be attentive to our actions, words and thoughts. “Watch therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour wherein the Son of man will come” (Matt. 25:13).

b) Secondly, the Lord did not tell us how long our life is, so that we would not put off good deeds and self-correction from day to day. Will a person constantly strain his strength to overcome evil, will he immediately begin to correct himself, if he knows that the end of his life is still far away, that he will not die soon? Will he not then have the following thought: “I will still have time to stock up on good deeds, I will still have time to devote myself to the feats of correction when I approach death, but until then I will live for my own pleasure.” If a person keeps putting off the work of his correction, can we guarantee that by the end of his life he will correct himself, will have time to adorn himself with virtues? The wise Solomon testifies to the contrary: “When the wicked comes into the depths of evil,” he says, “he is negligent” (Prov. 18:3). "The bones of the wicked are filled with the sins of his youth, and they shall sleep with him in the dust," says the righteous Job (20:11). The wise Sirach does not advise postponing turning to God from day to day, saying: "Do not delay turning to the Lord, and do not put off one day from another: for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will go forth, and in the time of vengeance you will perish" (Sir. 5:9). That is why the wise Solomon does not command to put off doing good until tomorrow, saying: "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Prov. 27:1). Thus, we must take care of our salvation tirelessly, hourly, without putting off this great work of self-correction for a distant time, because we do not know at what hour and day the Son of Man will come.

c) Thirdly, the time of our death is not announced to us so that our freedom will forever remain inviolable, and so that the value of our virtue will not be taken away. If it were revealed to us that in a week or a month we must certainly part with this world, then of course we would hasten to prepare ourselves for death, we would devote the rest of our days to the creation of good deeds. But would not such preparation be forced? Would not such good be the fruit of slavish fear? God loves only willing givers. “He who fears is not made perfect in love,” says Christ’s beloved Apostle John the Theologian, “because the fear has punishment, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Thus, without the good will of our spirit, our preparation would not deserve special value; virtue would not be high. The Lord has hidden from us the hour of death and the judgment of the future in the impenetrable darkness of obscurity, and our good deed remains a deed of freedom, the product of our pure love for good and the source of good; such a deed becomes worthy of a full reward in the eyes of God's truth. "Behold, I come as a thief: blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame," says God Almighty (Rev. 16:15). "Blessed is that servant," says Jesus Christ, "whom when his lord cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, He shall set him ruler over all his goods" (Matt. 26:46-47).

III. These are the reasons that common sense, based on the word of God, presents to us in response to the question: why did the Lord hide the hour of death from us? Amen.  

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