The Lives of the Saints
1. SAINT THEOPHYLACT, BISHOP OF NICOMEDIA
When the first imperial counselor Tarasius was elected Patriarch of Constantinople as a layman, several of his friends and admirers from the lay estate received the monastic rank together with him and through him. Among these was this Theophylact. Tarasius sent him as bishop to Nicomedia. As bishop, Theophylact was a good shepherd to his rational flock and proved himself to be filled with an extraordinary compassion toward the poor and destitute. After the death of Saint Tarasius, Nicephorus occupied the patriarchal throne in Constantinople, and shortly afterward Leo the Armenian occupied the imperial throne. He was an iconoclast, and as such stirred up a great storm in the Church of Christ. Although the iconoclast heresy had been anathematized at the Seventh Ecumenical Council, this emperor nonetheless revived it and sought to substitute it for Orthodoxy. Saint Theophylact opposed the emperor to his face, and when the emperor would not relent, Theophylact said to him: "There will come upon thee, O Emperor, a fierce destruction suddenly, and thou shalt find no one to deliver thee from it!" For these words Saint Theophylact was removed from his position by imperial decree and sent into exile, where he spent thirty years enduring many hardships and insults, and where he at last gave his soul to the Lord, around the year 845.
2. HOLY PRIEST-MARTYR THEODORET
Emperor Constantine built a cathedral church in Antioch of exceptional beauty. The people called this church the Golden Church on account of its gilding both outside and inside, and because of the many vessels of gold and silver within it. The emperor also donated great estates to that church for the maintenance of its clergy, who were considerable in number. The keeper of those vessels and all the treasures in the church was the presbyter Theodoret, a priest of great faith and rare piety. When Julian the Apostate began to reign, though he had been baptized, he renounced Christ and raised up a persecution against Christians. His uncle, also bearing the name Julian, came to Antioch and plundered the Golden Church, and took Theodoret as treasurer to trial, counseling him to renounce Christ. Not only did Theodoret refuse to renounce his Lord, but he rebuked Emperor Julian for having apostatized from the true faith and returned to idolatry like a dog to its vomit. When the wicked judge in his insolence defiled the Golden Church, Theodoret prophesied for him a terrible death, which soon overtook him. Theodoret was beheaded with an axe for Christ, while the judge Julian felt pains in his lower body from the very hour he defiled the church. His entire lower body was devoured by worms, and he vomited out his apostate soul in the most terrible torments. So also Felix, his deputy, in fulfillment of Theodoret's prophecy, died soon after — immediately upon the beheading of this righteous man he began spitting blood from his mouth. The holy Theodoret was beheaded in the year 362 and departed to the most glorious Kingdom of Christ the King.
Hymn of Praise
THE EXILE OF ADAM
Outside the emptied Paradise Adam crossed his arms,
Exiled and estranged, sorrow wrung sighs from him;
The heavenly angels, his companions until then,
Swiftly flew away, like beautiful dreams,
Away from the exile, away from the accursed one,
From the once-mighty master of Paradise!
And Adam wept upon the cold stone:
"Woe to my descendants! Woe to sinful me!
For one moment I scorned my Creator
That I might be scorned by all creation
Through days and nights, through long centuries —
To have the serpent in place of God as my companion!
Instead of I ruling over every creature,
Over me shall all things now, all things hold sway:
Winds and heat, the forces of nature,
Beasts and scorpions, vermin and serpents.
And instead of freedom, behold, fear holds me,
Troubles my thoughts and freezes me to the marrow.
There is only One who can give help:
That One have I offended — O have mercy, O God!"
“For one moment I scorned my Creator that I might be scorned by all creation through days and nights, through long centuries.”
Reflection
Be more trusting toward God than toward your own mother: confess everything to Him — He will not betray you; receive all His commandments at once as good — He will not deceive you. But as trusting as you are toward God, be that cautious toward the enemy: toward the flesh, the world, and the demon. All this was expressed more beautifully by the wondrous saint of God Ephrem the Syrian, who said: "In receiving the commandments of God, have simplicity; but in repelling the schemes of the adversary — cunning (the dove and the serpent)."
“In receiving the commandments of God, have simplicity; but in repelling the schemes of the adversary — cunning.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, namely:
1. How He repeatedly commands the disciples to keep watch and pray to God;
2. How He rises three times from His sweat-drenched prayer, goes about among the disciples, and finds them sleeping;
3. How temptation befell them because they abandoned their Teacher and all fled, for they were not prepared to withstand the fear of men;
4. How we too are slothful, and do not keep watch, and do not pray to God — on account of which the moment a temptation arrives we abandon the Lord Christ.
Homily
on the sight of the eyes and the sight of the spirit
And was found in fashion as a man (Phil. 2:7)
So speaks the Apostle Paul — that same apostle who said of the Lord Jesus that He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (Col. 1:15), and that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). Such is the Lord in His essence and in His inner being — yet He was found in fashion as a man. Men whose hearts are hardened and whose minds are darkened recognize objects around them only with their eyes. Such men in those days looked with their eyes and saw Jesus as a man, and they were not granted to learn anything more about Him beyond what they saw with bodily eyes. Fleshly men looked upon Jesus and saw a body, but they did not see in that body either God or the ideal, sinless man.
And today, whoever judges only by what he sees denies to Jesus everything he cannot see in other men as well. No one can speak justly of the Lord who measures Him only by his eyes. What the eyes are able to see of Him is but a small veil, behind which are hidden the eternal mysteries of heaven and the greatest mysteries of time and earth. But to see what is hidden in Him behind the bodily veil, one must have spiritual sight — that is, the Spirit of God in one's heart, the Spirit who parts the veil and reveals the mysteries.
O Lord, sweetest Mystery, count us worthy of a visitation of Thy Holy Spirit. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“What the eyes are able to see of Him is but a small veil, behind which are hidden the eternal mysteries of heaven.”