April: Day 25: Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark

April: Day 25:
Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark
 
(On Why the Path to Heaven is a Sorrowful Path)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Mark the Evangelist and one of the Seventy Apostles is celebrated today. He was a Jew by birth. Saint Peter in one of his epistles (1 Peter 5:3) calls Mark his son, from which we can conclude that Mark was Peter's disciple. He was with him in Rome, and there, twelve years after the Ascension of the Lord, he wrote his Gospel. The Holy Apostle Peter sent Mark to preach in different cities and countries.

Mark's last apostolic labor was in Alexandria, where he suffered a martyr's death. Not far from the seashore he built the first Christian church of that nation. The Egyptians, fearing the increase of Christians, decided to kill the Evangelist. They chose for this villainy the feast of the pagan god Serapis; on that very day, April 25, fell the Resurrection of Christ, and the day before Saint Mark had admonished the people not to participate in the sinful, pagan celebration. The pagans broke into the church during the service, led the Saint out and, tying a rope around his neck, dragged him through the city streets with shouts and blows. The Saint's blood stained the sharp stones of the pavement, but he did not cease to pray and repeat: "I thank You, my Savior, that You have granted me to endure suffering for Your sake." Towards evening the Holy Apostle was put in prison. At night an angel appeared to him and said that his name would be written in the Book of Life with the names of the other Apostles, and his memory would be preserved on earth. The Savior Himself then appeared to Saint Mark and said to him: "Peace be with you, my evangelist!"

The next day the torment was renewed. Saint Mark did not cease to pray, and finally, saying the words: "Into Your hands I commend my spirit," he departed to the Lord. The Saint was buried in the church he had built, and the election of the Alexandrian patriarchs took place over his relics for a long time.

Later, the relics of Saint Mark were transported to Venice, where a magnificent cathedral was built over them. Travelers are still amazed by the beauty of this cathedral and the square on which it stands, which bears the name of the Holy Evangelist.

II. In the brief outline of the life and sufferings of the Holy Apostle and Bishop Mark, you, brethren, probably noticed his words during his torment: “I thank You, my Savior, that You have granted me to endure suffering for Your sake.” It is evident that the Holy Martyr and Apostle of Christ clearly realized that the path to heaven, the path to Christ, must be accompanied by sorrows and sufferings, that his sorrows and sufferings for Christ serve as a clear sign that he will participate in heavenly blessedness with Christ. This is what evoked gratitude to God from his heart, despite the sufferings he experienced.

The question arises: why is it necessary to attain the Kingdom of God through sorrows and not through joys?

a) Because, firstly, the heavenly blessings of the Kingdom of God are of great value and incomparable with anything on earth. They must be acquired at the cost of many and difficult labors, which do not come without many and difficult sorrows. The rewards in eternal life are high and incomprehensible: they must be earned by many and difficult feats, which do not come without selflessness and grievous deprivations.

b) Because, secondly, the sinful illness of our soul is stubborn and long-standing. It is necessary to treat it with bitter medicines, strong means, painful operations. The roots of evil have grown deep into our hearts: it is impossible to tear them out from there without special efforts and without sensitive pain.

c) Because, further, on the path to the Kingdom of God we encounter many obstacles that must be overcome with persistent effort, many strong and cruel enemies with whom we must sometimes fight to the point of bloodshed, many temptations and trials that cannot be overcome without self-denial and some violence to oneself.

d) Because, finally, in the person of our fallen forefather we are all worthily and justly condemned to labors and illnesses, to sorrows and disasters, as long as we live on earth. “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life,” said the Lord to fallen man, “thorns and thistles will it bring forth for you.” Having thus sown the whole earth with thorns, can we not be wounded by them? Having ourselves called all the disasters upon our world, can we turn away from them and escape them? Having attracted the curse of God’s truth by transgression of the commandment of our Creator, can we turn away from its weight? Thus, sorrows and griefs in this life are our ancestral heritage from the first forefather, and there was no man on earth who did not drink from this bitter cup.

III. a) Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was pleased to take upon Himself our sins, in order to open for us the way to the Kingdom of God and to give us in Himself an image, that we might follow in His footsteps, was pleased to enter into His glory, which He had with the Father before the foundation of the world, not by the way of joys, but by the way of sorrows and sufferings. He hungered and thirsted, suffered reproaches and humiliations, persecutions and bitterness, deprivations and sorrows, was led before the courts of the wicked, was judged and condemned by the most unjust judges, endured terrible torments and death on the cross.

Not by way of bliss and luxury, joy and merriment, but by way of deprivation, sorrow and suffering did the Holy Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs and Desert-Dwellers follow Him into the Kingdom of God. Some of them “were slain, others were tempted with mockings and stripes, and also with chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were struck down, they were tested, they died with the sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, bitterly wounded; of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in caves, and in the depths of the earth” (Heb. 11:35-38). Such is the God-written history of the earthly life of all the saints. Through many, many sorrows they entered the Kingdom of God! There is no other way to the Kingdom of God, my brethren, for anyone. “If anyone wants to come after Me,” says the Lord Jesus Christ, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me; but whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 16:24; 10:38).

b) Let us not avoid sorrows, following the path to the Kingdom of Heaven: they are necessary and saving, as we have seen. But besides this, they are accompanied by great consolation. “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” Every feat of piety pours into the heart an inexpressible consolation, which smooths out every preceding sorrow. Every victory over temptation and sin is accompanied by blessed peace and joy in the heart; and the harder the struggle, the more difficult the victory, the higher and more perfect the joy in the Holy Spirit, with which the heart of the ascetic is filled. Every experience of self-denial and self-sacrifice for the glory of God brings such consolation and such joy to our spirit, with which all the comforts and joys of the world cannot be compared. Even the most external sorrows and sufferings, endured in the spirit of faith and trust in the paternal love of God, with prayer and devotion to the all-good will of the Heavenly Father, leave in the soul of the ascetic one sweet and comforting memory, a deep feeling of spiritual joy in the Lord. “Many are the sorrows of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them from them all,” filling their hearts with inexpressible and glorious joy, so that they rejoice even in the midst of suffering, praising and glorifying the Lord both in chains and in prison. 

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