Passion Bearers 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. It's our joy to gather together

all these holy days of July to celebrate these

martyrs and these holy ones. Of course, we celebrate

the Feast of St. Seraphim on Sunday. Tomorrow,

we'll commemorate St. Elizabeth, the new martyr,

and her attendant, the nun Barbara. Next week,

we'll have St. Jacob of Alaska. There's St. Christina.

And today is St. Marina, the great martyr. There's

a fresco that's going to be painted of her every

year. One day, God willing. And, of course, we

gather today to ask the intercessions of the

royal passion bearer, St. Martin Nicholas. His

wife, Seriza Alexandra. And their children. Alexis,

Tatiana, Olga, and so forth. We can't possibly

imagine what their life, very vaguely imagine

what their lives were like. Maybe you've seen

PBS shows, upstairs, downstairs. The Crown. Movies

about Queen Elizabeth. Not a very good, for the

Russian church in any way, for the Russian people,

not a very good representation. We can't put

our minds to what their lives would be like.

And to the incredible level of honor that they

had. And the authority that they were given.

And the love. that up until the end, the people

gave Tsar Nicholas. You know, people say he was

murdered. He wasn't murdered. He was martyred.

Big difference. In the world, he's murdered.

And they judge him according to how good he was

as a ruler. He himself said he was totally unprepared

to be a ruler. He had no idea what it meant and

no idea how to do it, and he was desperate, desperate.

for god's help and he prayed constantly in the

church we say he was martyred and we don't judge

him according to the political standards he wasn't

voted in the office after all and he wasn't voted

out we judge him according to his life his whole

life his life went from the glory of of the empire

to the most frightful degradations that humans

have to suffer. Slander, lies, brutality. He

and his family experienced all of that. And how

did he respond? He responded in a certain way

that he knew exactly what the Lord said that

we heard today. And he knew what St. Paul had

written that we heard today. Nothing is going

to separate us from the love of God. And in fact,

St. Paul is saying in tribulations and glory,

in nakedness, in shipwreck, in tribulation, in

hunger, in betrayals. We show our love for God

and how we respond in those situations. And we

commemorate the royal martyrs. We call them passion

bearers because in their response, they witnessed

to exactly what Jesus was talking about. Jesus

said he would send the comforter. They had the

comforter. They lived according to the words

of Jesus. They knew if they hated him, they will

hate you also. Their lives were not of this world.

It was not a kingdom on earth that they were

concerned about so much. And we're not concerned

about going back to some kind of monarchy like

that. Our gaze is fixed on the eternal kingdom.

Our gaze is fixed on following Christ and responding

in whatever situation that we are in. Whether

we have to wear a mask, whether we have a pestilence

and a pandemic to deal with, brothers and sisters,

comparatively, really, we look at these people

and we exalt them today. We honor them today

and we try to emulate their response. Forgiveness.

Kindness. Do you know? that the Bolsheviks had

to continually change the guards when the family

was at the Tatev house. Continually change the

guards because the family would be so kind and

so loving. After a week or two, the guards would

become friendly and open to them. And so the

Bolsheviks got the lowest of the low, the most

brutal people to be the guards. And their hearts

would be changed too after a week or two. That's

the kind of people we want to be. To respond

to hatred with godly love. And if we don't have

it, we get on our knees like those people did.

And we pray, God, send me thy love. Jesus, in

this gospel reading we heard today, love one

another is what he said. And when we love one

another, it's not love those who love you. It's

even love the enemy. Our royal passion bearers

are for us an example for our time, for sure,

and not that distant was it when they were killed,

when they were martyred, when they witnessed

to the power of God, the power of the resurrection,

the belief that God will raise us from the dead,

that God sends the comforter, that God is with

us no matter what tribulation and difficulty

we have. He is there. Let us be with him. Through

their prayers, Lord Jesus Christ, your God, have

mercy on us.