St Demetrios

the Son of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say this

in the account of the life and the martyrdom

of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, this great

saint of that special place, that city in northern

Greece, this beautiful temple that's built there

over his grave. 5th and 6th century church doesn't

say in St. Demetrius' life anything about his

inner psychology. The lives of saints don't deal

on that level. But I think it's safe to surmise

the following. St. Demetrius came from a prominent

family. His father was governor of that area.

A notable man, loved by the people. respected

by the emperor, respected by the Roman authorities

in the Senate. When he retired, reposed, then

his son was appointed in his place, Demetrius.

This was a Christian family. And I'm surmising

that at some point, the young Demetrius, noble

person, highly intelligent, educated, respected,

and also loved by the people and respected by

the emperor as well. I imagine that he heard

this gospel probably many times. They were secret

Christians. This was a time of brutal repression.

Not all times. with the Romans was their brutal

repression. Many times, they were free, the Christians

were free to practice the faith as they wanted

to, within some bounds. But I imagine the young

Dimitri heard this. He said, he heard these words

from the Lord, who said, when the Comforter has

come, who I will send you from the Father, even

the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the

Father, he shall testify of me. Testified. Witness.

And you also shall bear witness and testify.

The word witness is martyr. A martyr is not necessarily

one who suffers, although he does. It's the one

who bears testimony of the resurrection, of the

trust in God, that in our human weakness, God's

strength is made manifest. In our death, we enter

into life, and no tyrant can kill us, really,

because we shall rise again. He hears these words.

You shall also bear witness because you have

been with me from the beginning. These things

have I spoken to you that you should not be offended.

They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yet

the time comes that whosoever kills you will

think that he's doing God a service. And I surmise

that St. Demetrius thought, it's time now to

live my Christian life a little bit more. profoundly

and openly, without fear. And that's what he

did. He was appointed the governor of Thessalonica.

His charge from the emperor was, when you go

back there, you are to put to death those Christians

who worshiped that one who was crucified. Demetrius

didn't say anything. He said, oh, I'm going back.

And he went back and he began to preach the gospel,

really like an evangelist, to each and every

person. And the Christian faith began to grow

in numbers. And this is also important to remember,

because he saw the storm coming. He didn't think,

oh, everything's going to be great now. I'm doing

God's work. God's going to reward me in this

life. I'm going to have everything I need. There'll

be no obstacles to the gospel here. He happened

to read St. Paul, that epistle we heard, knowing

that a good soldier is going to endure to the

end. But be strong. How? Not strong in yourself,

but strong in the faith of Jesus Christ, which

is in you. This is God's strength that St. Paul

says to be strong with. St. Demetrius knew this,

and he knew the storm was coming, and indeed

it did come. When the emperor came, he saw what

was happening. Demetrius was imprisoned. He was

beaten, I assume, and all that happens regularly.

And you know the story with Laeas in the stadium

and this young man, Nestor, who is seeing the

Christians, Be thrown into the ring. With this

Goliath of a man. And this man. Is on a pedestal.

And surrounding the pedestal. Are upraised spears.

All around. Farthest of them. And he just takes

the next Christian. Comes out and he tosses them

into the spear. Painful death. The next one tosses

them in. Nestor seeing this terrible thing. You

know. You can see movies on TV in which your

hero is going to come and then blast everyone

to death, you know, and he's the good guy. That's

not what Nestor did. Nestor went to... Yeah,

that thing's been chirping since last night.

Nestor went to St. Demetrius and asked for a

blessing to stand and defend the people, his

Christian people. And St. Demetrius blessed him.

And he went into the ring and said, oh, God of

St. Demetrius, help me. And the emperor hearing

this was not happy, and St. Demetrius was killed.

But Nestor proved a champion against this Goliath

of a man, and he was knocked down with one blow.

And then, of course, Nestor himself was martyred.

Why am I telling you all this? You can read this

for yourself. I'm telling you this to remind

you that there will be obstacles to your Christian

faith. There will be times in society like what

they experience, which will be very difficult

to be a Christian fully. That's okay. That's

fine. What do you expect? If they have done this

to me, says the Lord Jesus, they will do it to

you. You expect it will be all easy for us? In

this country, it's pretty easy, despite, you

know, the stuff we hear. I walk downtown in my

cassock, not once, not once since I've been a

priest has anyone said anything disrespectful.

Not one time. Now, it could happen. I don't gauge

that as anything special, but we can practice

our faith. But when the storm comes, brothers

and sisters, what do we do? Yes. We rely on the

strength of the faith of Christ that is in us.

And the more we do that, St. Paul says in that

epistle to Timothy, the more we have understanding

of God's plan for us, number one. Secondly, and

this is the most important thing, this is the

only thing I really should have said today. These

things I command you, says the Lord, that you

love one another. A wise person in our parish

said to me, when times are difficult, we have

to treat and be with each other warmly. Especially

those that you maybe don't really know. To reach

out to love them and treat them with love. Love

doesn't require that you know people. Because

we are enjoined to love our enemies. Love requires

what we have from Christ. That the Father is

glorified in us. That the Father loves Christ

and loves us. He says, continue in my love. If

you keep my commandments, you shall abide in

that love. If we keep the commandments of Christ,

we will have the love to love one another. So

that others seeing our love for one another will

glorify God. If we keep the commandments. If

we don't keep the commandments, we won't have

that kind of love. Jesus says, if you keep my

commandments, you shall abide in my love. Just

as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide

in his love. Jesus is asking us to follow him,

to trust him. The disciples were afraid. Jesus

says, don't be afraid. Oh, you of little faith.

And he calmed the storm. The storm may be out

there, but it's the storm in here that we need

mostly calmed. Ask the Lord to send that kind

of love so we can love one another and so that

we will have this calm, profound calm, as it

says in the gospel, and peace of heart to do

his will, to be the witness in this world of

God's love and God's salvation for all. Amen.