April: Day 16: Holy Martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia

 

April: Day 16:
Holy Martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia
 
(How Should a Christian Relate to Dreams?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the life of the Holy Martyrs Agape, Chionia and Irene who are celebrated today there is the following story. During the persecution raised by Diocletian, when all the Roman prisons were overflowing with Christians, the elder Chrysogonos was their comforter and mentor. He tirelessly watched over those who faced a difficult trial, preparing them for the feat of martyrdom. Such influential opposition to their efforts to exterminate Christians could not be hidden from the persecutors. Chrysogonos was taken and put to death (commemorated on December 22). His beheaded body was thrown on the seashore. Near this place lived the Christian priest Zoilos, and in his neighborhood three sisters – virgins – lived a solitary, pious life: Agape, Chionia and Irene.

Presbyter Zoilos, having learned whose body lay unburied, took it and buried it in his house. On the 30th day after his death, the Martyr Chrysogonos appeared to the presbyter in a dream and said to him: “Let it be known to you that during the next nine days, three virgins living near you will be taken for torture. Tell the servant of God Anastasia (the Pharmakolytria, who helped the Holy Martyrs) to take care of them and prepare them for their upcoming trial and martyrdom. And be at peace about yourself; soon you will receive from the Lord a reward for your labors and will rest with the saints.”

Anastasia had a similar dream. She found out where the three Christian sisters lived, hurried to them and spent the whole night with them in conversation and preparing them for their upcoming trial.

They did not have to wait long... The young girls were taken for confessing the Christian faith and thrown into prison.

Soon their earthly fate was decided: the death sentence was pronounced on them. Having learned that they were doomed to be burned, the Christian women cried out: "We thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, that You have led us to be confessors of Your name."

Agape and Chionia were thrown into a fiery furnace and they, with a prayer, gave up their souls to God. Anastasia the Pharmakolytria, who dedicated herself to serving Christian prisoners and caring for the burial of the remains of martyrs, took the bodies of Agape and Chionia, which remained undamaged, and secretly buried them. The soldier pierced Irene with an arrow the next day. Dying, she joyfully cried out: "I am going to my blessed sisters!"

II. Listening to this story, you, brethren, probably noticed that both the pious priest Zoilos and Saint Anastasia the Pharmakolytria believed the dreams that God had given them and acted according to the instructions given through them. This circumstance probably raises the question: how should a Christian relate to dreams? Should we believe all dreams?

Even pagan sages had different opinions about dreams. One pagan sage (Protagoras) said: "Every dream has its own meaning, its own sense, and it is useful for human life to pay attention to dreams." Another pagan sage (Xenophanes) explained that all dreams are empty and deceptive, and that he who pays attention to them and arranges his affairs according to them is mistaken. Truth must be sought in the middle; i.e. "first, not all dreams should be paid attention to, and second, not all dreams should be despised, considered empty."

a) First of all, we say, not all dreams should be paid attention to. God Himself admonishes people through Moses "not to divine from dreams" (Lev. 19:26). "Fools," says Sirach, "deceive themselves with empty and false hopes; whoever believes in dreams is like one embracing a shadow or chasing after the wind; dreams are exactly like the reflection of a face in a mirror" (34:1-3). The majority of dreams are only the natural consequence of a person's excited imagination. Whatever a person thinks about during the day, what he is strongly interested in, what he passionately desires or does not desire, that is what he dreams. Saint Gregory tells of a man who foolishly believed in dreams and who was promised a long life in a dream. He saved up a lot of money in order to have something to live his long life safely, but suddenly he fell ill and soon died, and thus he could not make any use of his wealth, and at the same time he could not take any good deeds with him into eternity. Consequently, there are many empty and deceptive dreams that mean nothing and to which one should not pay attention.

b) But, secondly, there are also dreams that have meaning for us and to which we must pay attention. Let us point out, for example, the dream of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of the Patriarch Jacob. Joseph dreamed that he, his father and brothers, were reaping wheat in the field: Joseph's sheaf stood upright, and the sheaves of his father and brothers surrounded him and bowed down to him. This dream was exactly fulfilled. After some time, Joseph, sold by his brothers to Egypt, became the ruler of Egypt, and his father and brothers who came to Egypt had to bow down to him and honor him. In exactly the same way, the prophetic dream of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, came true. If Pharaoh had not paid attention to this dream and had not made large reserves of grain in the fruitful years for the lean years, he would have bitterly repented: the inhabitants of Egypt, as well as Joseph's father and brothers, would have died of hunger.

And many of the people, and perhaps of those among us, have reason to repent of not having paid attention to some of their dreams. Here is an example of one story. One dissolute youth, who did not listen to the admonitions of his best friends, who were directing him to another, better path, once saw in a dream his father, who strictly commanded him to leave his dissolute and godless life and live better; but, according to the saying of Jesus Christ, "if they do not listen to the law, then they will not listen to him who would rise from the dead," so the youth did not pay any attention to his dream. Then he sees the same dream again: he again sees his father, who tells his son that if he does not change his life, then on such and such a day death will overtake him, and he will appear before the judgment of God. The youth told his similar companions about the dream jokingly, and not only did not think about correcting his life, but even wanted to laugh at the threat received in the dream. Precisely on the day when the father threatened his son with death in a dream, he scheduled a big party with his friends. And what happened? In the midst of drinking, the son suddenly suffers an apoplectic stroke, and dies a few minutes later! From the stories given here, we see that not all dreams are deceptive and empty: there are dreams that actually come true in life. (See “Preacher Leaflet” No. 9 for 1890).

III. In conclusion, let us give some advice on how to treat dreams:

a) If dreams encourage us to do good and keep us from doing evil, then consider these dreams as the finger of God, pointing you to heaven and turning you away from the road to hell. This is how one book of Holy Scripture speaks about it:

"God speaks once, and if they do not perceive it, twice: in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while they slumber upon the bed. Then he opens man's ear and seals his instruction, to turn a man from doing something, and to remove pride from him, to deliver his soul from the pit, and his life from being slain by the sword" (Job 33:14, 18).

“When you see the image of the cross in a dream,” teaches Saint Barsanuphios, “know that this dream is true and from God; but try to receive an interpretation of its meaning from the saints, and do not believe your own thoughts.”

b) If you are not sure or have no reasonable reason to think that the dream comes from God, especially if the dream concerns unimportant, indifferent subjects, then there is no need to pay attention to dreams and arrange your actions according to them; be careful, so that, paying attention to every dream, you do not become superstitious and do not fall into the danger of sinning.

c) If, finally, a dream tempts a person to sin, then it is a consequence of our corrupted, disordered imagination, our fantasy, or it comes from the one from whom God will save us by His grace, i.e. from the devil. 

 

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