New Martyrs of Russia - What Is a Martyr - Fr. Lawrence Margitich

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to the Father. In

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

the Holy Spirit. Amen. I need to tell you that

this gospel you just heard about the Canaanite

woman, You hear every year just before you hear

about Zacchaeus. And you hear Zacchaeus just

before you hear about the publican and the Pharisee.

Then there's the prodigal son. Then there's the

last judgment gospel. Then there's the forgiveness

Sunday. And guess what comes next? The holy season

of the fast, Great Lent. So, the flags are out.

The bell has rung to tell us that we're on a

new course. And this is good because I think

all of us need a new course. And the church gives

us this challenge which we find gives us comfort

and help and understanding. But I'm not going

to talk about the gospel today. I want to ask

you to think about this for a moment. What is

a martyr? Is a martyr? No. Not the one that blows

up a car and a whole marketplace to win a war.

That's not a martyr. Is a martyr the one that

gets left behind and has to clean up the dishes

at home when everybody goes out to the movies?

That didn't happen to me this week. No. That's

not a martyr. Martyr is the one who joyfully,

underline that word, joyfully witnesses to the

love and power of the resurrection, which is

within. So it's real. This power to that person

is real. And they give testimony by their very

life. In Rome, You can believe in Jesus Christ,

but you also have to affirm everything else.

The martyrs didn't just die because they believed

in Jesus Christ. They believed everything about

Jesus Christ, that he is Lord and God, and that

Caesar wasn't Lord and God. And so the martyrs

went to their deaths. Voluntarily and with joy.

This is a mystery. This is a mystery of the church.

But we're surrounded with icons of the martyrs.

No one at the moment is asking for our life to

be given. But you think about Russia. Today is

the Sunday of the new martyrs. 500 years. Orthodox

Church. Bastion of Christianity. Yes, it had

many problems. But suddenly, things started to

shift. So no one's asking for our life now. But

think, brothers and sisters, what can you offer

joyfully, voluntarily, of yourself to God. How

many are there that ask for our mercy and they

need the word of truth, which if we don't have,

we can't give. But if we can have it, it would

bring to their hearts new life, new hope, new

joy. On the stand here and here, you see an icon

of the Russian new martyrs. We celebrate this

memory today. The thousands, millions of martyrs

of the Church of Russia and every church, Bulgaria,

Romania, Greece, has its new martyrs. But this

is ours. One Orthodox historian wrote this. He

said that in this commemoration, what we see

with the horror that was let loose on the church

and the church faithful. What we see here, he

says, is the incarnation of absolute evil in

the temper of man. In other words, he says, the

participation of the devil, the father of lies,

an ancient enemy of God, who tries to make humans

his obedient weapon against God. And this is

revealed in this great sea of witnesses. Those

who led the revolution in Russia in the years

before 1917 and after boasted that they are beginning

a new project. They're going to produce the new

man. And in doing so, they had to eliminate all

those that stood in the way of perceived progress.

And those that did object to this fantasy of

utopia. They just always believed that they would

have a better revolution than those who came

before. And one has to sacrifice for the future,

they said. And so they produced countless martyrs.

Only God knows all the names. Revelation, the

book of Revelation says, lo, a great multitude,

which no one could number, of all nations and

kindreds. in people and tongues. They stood before

the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white

robes and with palms in their hands. Do you know

why we wear white at baptism and carry palms

at Palm Sunday? The first churchman to be arrested

and killed was Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev,

whose feast day was yesterday. Frightening and

brutal men tortured him. The words of Archbishop

Benjamin of Petrograd, who is depicted on the

wall over here. He's our own bishop saint. They

ring out. He says, when he was arrested and he

had to deal with these terrible circumstances,

he wrote, it's difficult, it's hard to suffer.

But according to the measure of my sufferings,

consolation abounds from God. It is difficult

to cross this Rubicon, this frontier, and give

oneself over completely to the will of God. But

when this is done, and we don't need to be a

martyr to do that, that person abounds in consolation

and does not feel even the greatest sufferings.

Filled as he is in the midst of sufferings by

an inner peace, he draws others to suffering.

so that they could imitate that condition in

which the joyful sufferer finds himself. My sufferings

had not yet reached their full measure. Now it

seems I have to go through everything. Prison,

trial, public mockery, demands for my death as

people applaud it, the ingratitude, the betrayal.

anxiety and responsibility for the fate of others.

My sufferings have reached their height, but

consolation has also increased. I am joyful and

calm as always. Christ is our life. Christ is

our light and our peace. We pastors should have

more faith. We should abandon all self -reliance.

our intelligence and learning and human strength,

and give place to the grace of God. I am joyful

and peaceful. He is a living example of what

St. Paul said. We heard it in the epistle. What

can separate us from the love of God? Height?

Depth? Angels? Principalities? Powers? Life or

death? Nothing can separate us. It's been said

that the glory of the church is its martyrs.

Those people who prove ready to be witnesses

of God, witnesses of their faith up to their

own death. I was asked once, why would you endure

martyrdom? Why not be silent? Take the fifth,

but have faith in your heart. I looked for an

answer to this. I knew the answer, but I wanted

an answer from someone with spiritual authority.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom says this. Would you,

if challenged, renounce your father, your mother,

your child, your spouse, whom you love simply

for the sake of enduring no danger? And so it

was the martyrs. They love God, not sentimentally.

Not superficially, but with all of their heart.

They love the Lord with all of their life. I

have a few words here to end from Archpriest

Sergei Michev, executed November 1941. His father

was a great ascetic and elder. And to me, this

answers the question, Why did Margaret Dunn come

to Russia? After 500 more years of orthodoxy.

And here's what he said. Listen carefully, because

this has to do with us. The judgment of God is

taking place upon the Russian church. He's writing

this in the 30s. It is not by coincidence that

the external aspect of Christianity is being

taken away from us. The Lord is punishing us

for our sins and is thereby leading us towards

a cleansing. What is happening is unexpected

and incomprehensible for those who live by the

standards of the world, who seek worldly things

first. Even now, they still strive to bring everything

down to an external level. attributing all the

problems to outside the church. Our Lord is calling

us to accept a new form of life and salvation.

And this is the part I underline. Many churches

built by hands of men, filled with many treasures,

were open for centuries. At the same time, many

temples, not made by the hand of man, by God,

the soul. We're in a terrible state of decline.

Left unused and superficial. Formalism, secularism,

a nod to Jesus Christ was felt to be sufficient.

Come into church, light a candle. Now that the

church is built by man's labor are being destroyed

by the communists. In the repentant yearning

for them are raised temples built by the hands

of God. The flames of humble martyrdom are beginning

to be ignited. Let us, beloved ones, enter into

the cell of our soul, into the temple of our

spirit, which is consecrated to God at the time

of our baptism and sanctified by him at the time

of our communion, repeatedly. This temple of

ours, no one can destroy, except we ourselves.

In there is both priest, Christ, and penitent,

us. It's the altar table of our heart, he says,

and upon it we can always, with our tears, consummate

the great mystery of repentance and love of God.

It's difficult for us who have let our invisible

temple grow desolate without prayer, living by

the visible church, but now accept from the Lord

a new way of salvation. And he ends his letter

with these words. Let us stand aright. Let us

stand with the fear of God. Amen.