February: Day 26: Saint Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza

February: Day 26:
Saint Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza
 
(On Love For Enemies and the Power of Prayer)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. When Saint Porphyrios, whose memory is celebrated today, after his election as bishop, went to the city of Gaza, the seat of his bishopric, the city dwellers, mostly rude pagans who hated Christians, having learned of the bishop’s approach, threw thorns on the road, made holes and set fire to heaps of dung, in order to mock the Christians, of whom with their wives and children there were no more than 280 souls. Saint Porphyrios had to live with such frenzied pagans, who, even before seeing him, tried to insult him! But the humble shepherd remembered the Lord’s instruction and repaid evil with good. Thus, during a drought, he made a religious procession outside the city, and on the same day asked God for rain, and the pagans, who had been sacrificing to the gods in vain for seven days, saw that Saint Porphyrios is a saint of the true God, and hundreds began to convert to the faith of Christ.

II. What lessons for our spiritual benefit can we draw from the life of Saint Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza? The following two.

a) The Christian faith teaches us not to repay evil with evil, but to overcome evil with good, and commands us to love mankind. Those who consider insulting a non-believer, such as a Jew, to be a deed pleasing to God, therefore think falsely. Christian love extends to pagans as well and cares for their conversion not by threats, but by gentle measures.

b) The second lesson we learn from the life of Saint Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza, is that the prayer of a Christian, if sincere and fervent, can be very powerful and effective. It can, for example, call down rain from heaven during a devastating drought, as Saint Porphyrios did.

Some Christians, who know and practice the work of prayer more outwardly, according to ritual, than inwardly, according to spirit, not seeing the tangible consequences of their prayer either in themselves or around them, instead of doubting the truth and worthiness of their prayers, come to the false thought that strong and effective prayer is, perhaps, a special gift of grace, granted only to some of God's chosen ones and only for some extraordinary cases.

For such we will say frankly that there is no man whose prayer could not become powerful, if he desires it firmly and sincerely, with faith and trust in God; and there is no thing in which prayer could not become effective, if only the subject of prayer is not contrary to the wisdom and goodness of God and the good of the one praying.

Imagine a man who, by the power of prayer, closes and opens the sky to stop and bring down rain; commands that a handful of flour and a little oil be sufficient to feed several people for several months, and even, perhaps, for more than one year - and this is fulfilled; blows on the dead - and he rises from the dead; brings down fire from heaven so that it burns up the sacrifice and the altar immersed in water. What can seem more extraordinary than such power of prayer? But this seems so only to a man who does not know spiritual power; but for one who knows this is the work of a man like us. This is the teaching of the Holy Apostle James, who, teaching us to pray for one another, says to convince us of this that the prayer of a righteous man can do much, and this instruction common to all and convincing thought is confirmed by the following example: "Elijah, a man of passions like ours, prayed in prayer that there would be no rain; and it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months: and again he prayed; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit" (James 5:17 and 18). Why is it said here that this miracle-working Elijah was like us? As if so that, considering him an extraordinary man, we would not become lazy in imitating him and achieving strength in prayer.

Seek, if you will, invent in your thoughts a thing that would seem inaccessible to the power of prayer - we do not despair of showing you in the light of the word of God that it is accessible and achievable, even if it seems impossible. Imagine, for example, an entire nation that has angered God with a grave crime; add that God is already expressing His righteous will to destroy this nation, and that in these terrible moments there remains only one man in the world who can offer prayer for this nation, almost already engulfed in hell. Does it not seem to you that it is already impossible to save this nation? The experience of Moses showed that this too is possible. The people of Israel, immediately after the glorious Epiphany and the enactment of the Sinai law, suddenly fell into idolatry. Moses stood before God on the mountain. Listen and understand what wondrous words the Lord spoke to Moses at this time: "Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them" (Ex. 32:10). What then? The intercessor did not leave God even then, but intensified the prayer, and the wrath of the invincible Almighty yielded to the power of the prayer of a mortal man! And the Lord was merciful for the evil which He said He would do to His people. Measure here, if you can, the miraculous power of prayer, and find after this what it could not accomplish for salvation!

III. Why do so many prayers remain ineffective, if every prayer can be so powerful and effective? Let us note here one case when a prayer seems unfulfilled, whereas it is fulfilled in an unexpected and supreme way. Thus, the Holy Apostle Paul prayed to the Lord three times that the foul spirit of the flesh might depart from him, but God answered him: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:8, 9). The temptation is not stopped, but a still more wonderful victory over the continuing temptation is granted. If we exclude such cases, then all unsuccessful prayers are explained by the short saying of the Apostle: "You desire, and have not, because you ask not; you ask, and receive not, because you ask wickedly, that you may spend it in your pleasures" (James 4:2, 3). Our prayers are fruitless either because they are not earnest and persistent requests, which would come from the depths of the soul, and in which the whole soul would pour out, but only weak desires, which we utter without stirring up the spirit, and we think that they must be fulfilled by themselves; or because our requests are impure and evil, that we ask for what is harmful, and not useful for our soul, or we ask not for the glory of God, but for the satisfaction of our carnal and selfish desires.

 

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