February: Day 27: Teaching 1: Venerable Titus of the Kiev Caves

February: Day 27: Teaching 1:
Venerable Titus of the Kiev Caves
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. Friends Should Be Chosen With Caution;
b. One Should Make Peace With One's Neighbor As Soon As Possible; and
c. Always Remember That Death Can Creep Up Unexpectedly)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. At the end of the 12th century, in the Kiev Caves Lavra, as the eyewitness blessed Simon wrote, there lived two brothers in spirit: the priest Titus, whose memory is celebrated today, and the deacon Evagrius; they were friends and loved each other. Such good relations of the monks were unpleasant only to the hater of goodness – the devil. He sowed such enmity and hatred between them that the former friends could not look at each other; with anger in their hearts they prayed and served God. The brethren tried to reconcile them, but they could not. But then God himself admonished the sinner. The priest Titus fell seriously ill and, having no hope of recovery, began to weep bitterly about his sin (i.e. about his hatred of the deacon). Wanting to reconcile with his enemy Evagrius, he called him to him. Evagrius not only did not go to the sick man, but began to slander him again and revile him with offensive reproaches. The brethren of the monastery, seeing Titus dying, forcibly brought the deacon to the bed. The sick man rose with difficulty, fell at Evagrius' feet and said with tears: "Forgive me and bless me." He turned away from the sick man and said: "I do not want to say goodbye to him either in this or the age to come." Having said this, the proud and spiteful Evagrius broke free from the hands of the monks who were holding him. But then something unusual happened - Evagrius fell down lifeless, having been completely healthy until that hour. Malice had so distorted his body that it was impossible to bend his arms, or close his mouth and eyes. And the sick Titus at the same time rose from his bed healthy. "What happened to you?" the brothers asked him.

"I saw the angels who had departed from me and were lamenting about my soul; and the dark spirits were delighted that in my anger I did not forgive my brother. And I wanted to ask Evagrius for forgiveness. As soon as they brought him to me, I saw an angel with a flaming spear, with which he struck the one who did not want to forgive me, and the deacon fell dead, and the angel gave me his hand and healed me."

II. What instruction, brethren, shall we draw from what we have heard? Not one, but three.

a) First, let each one choose his friend without haste and carefully, thoughtfully, as Jesus the son of Sirach advises: "If you want to acquire a friend, acquire him after testing, and do not quickly trust him" (6:4). And if you notice betrayal in a friend, then leave him without a quarrel, without revealing the secret entrusted to you. Otherwise, instead of friendship, hatred and malice will arise, through the action of the enemy, as with Titus and Evagrius.

b) Second, if a quarrel and abuse begins, then try to stop them as quickly as possible, at the very beginning, by sincere reconciliation with the enemy, forgiving from the heart all his offenses.

The commandment of the Savior, who commanded us to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who offend us (Matthew 5:26), also encourages us to forgive offenses. The benefit of our souls also encourages us. Let us remember, brethren, the word of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your Father in heaven will also forgive your trespasses."

You will say: it is hard to forgive an offense, it is hard to forget it? Let us be sure, listeners, He who teaches forgiveness of offenses and prayer for enemies, He is strong to help us in this saving work. Let us only pray fervently that the Lord will help us to endure offenses without complaint and give strength to our soul to forgive our enemy and love him as our brother in Christ, who did evil to us not by himself, but by the action of the enemy of our salvation, the devil.

c) The third lesson that can be learned from the life of Venerable Titus of the Caves is that one must always remember that death can unexpectedly befall any person, as happened to Deacon Evagrius.

It happened that people died quite unexpectedly, for example, on their wedding day, or from a seemingly insignificant cause.

The military leader Sisera was overtaken by death on his bed (Judges 4–5);

Amnon, the son of David, after a wine party among his relatives (2 Samuel 13).

One asked: “What time is it?” and by the time they asked about the clock, he had already died.

Another was reading his own speech to the guests who had just gathered for his name day evening, and fell to the floor dead.

In order not to forget the need to prepare for death, some saints in a special way aroused in themselves a living memory of death. Thus, for example, Blessed Jerome held a human skull before his eyes.

Others made a coffin for themselves while alive (Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk and many others) or dug a grave for themselves (on Athos), and sometimes lay down at night in these graves. In a word, one minute separates a person from death.

How then not to fear it and not to prepare for it? Usually, the young postpone the thought of death and preparation for the hour of death until old age. But if they rely on repentance for their preparation (as they should). then postponing this matter is too unstable for the success of the matter. Whoever has not lived with God until 60 or 70 years old, whoever was not at all familiar with the Christian life: how difficult it is for him to suddenly instruct himself in spiritual matters!

Saint Dimitri of Rostov speaks highly instructively about the unexpectedness of the hour of death.

“Many,” he says, “having gone to sleep at night, never woke up again, they were found dead, and for them this sleep became death, and their bed a grave! Many, having risen from sleep at night and having met the day, did not live to see the next night and died. The king of the Chaldeans, Belshazzar, was feasting in the evening, and was already quite tipsy, and then someone’s hand appeared, which in mysterious words wrote on the wall the death judgment on the feasting king – and he was killed that same night. Did he know that the hour of his death would come so soon? Oh, how unknown is the hour of death! The Lord admonishes us: 'Be ready, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time will be.'”

III. Through the prayers of Venerable Titus of the Caves, may God help us to imprint these lessons in our memory forever! 

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