Lives of the Saints
1. THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH YEAR (OR: THE BEGINNING OF THE INDICTION)
The First Ecumenical Council determined that the church year should begin on September 1. The month of September was among the Jews the beginning of the new civil year (Exodus 23:16), the month of the gathering of fruits and the offering of sacrifices of thanksgiving to God. At the time of this celebration, the Lord Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth, opened the book of the Prophet Isaiah, and read the words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance (Isaiah 61:1-2). Furthermore, this month of September is notable in the history of Christianity, for in it Emperor Constantine the Great achieved victory over Maxentius, an enemy of the faith of Christ, and that victory was followed by the freedom of the Christian confession throughout the entire Roman Empire. For a long time the civil year in the Christian world was also reckoned, as the church year, from September 1; but it was later moved to January 1, first in Western Europe, and afterward in Russia in the time of Peter the Great.
2. VENERABLE SIMEON THE STYLITE
A Syrian by birth, of peasant parents. At the age of eighteen he fled from his parents and became a monk. He gave himself over to the most severe ascetic labors, at times fasting for forty days. He then devoted himself to a particular ascetic feat, until then unknown, namely: to stand day and night upon a pillar in unceasing prayer. His pillar was at first six cubits high, after which they raised one of twelve, then of twenty-two, then of thirty-six, and finally of forty cubits in height. His mother Martha came twice to see him, but he would not receive her, and from the pillar he said to her: "Do not disturb me now, my mother; if we are deemed worthy, we shall see one another in the other world." Saint Simeon endured countless temptations from demons, but he conquered them all by prayer to God. And the saint performed great miracles and healed many of the sick by his word and prayer. Around his pillar people gathered from all sides, rich and poor, emperors and slaves. And he helped them all, restoring bodily health to some, offering consolation and instruction to others, and reproving some for heretical beliefs. He thus turned Empress Eudocia away from the heresy of Eutyches and restored her to Orthodoxy. He practiced his asceticism in the time of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, Marcian, and Leo the Great. This first stylite in Christianity and great wonderworker, Saint Simeon, lived one hundred and three years and reposed in the Lord on September 1, 459. His relics were translated to Antioch, to a church bearing his name.
3. HOLY JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN
The leader of the people of Israel after the death of Moses. He alone and Caleb entered the Promised Land out of the several hundred thousand Jews who came out of Egypt. (Read of his faithfulness to God, his deeds and miracles in the Book of Joshua.) He lived one hundred and ten years and departed this life around 1440 years before the Birth of Christ.
“His mother Martha came twice to see him, but he would not receive her, and from the pillar he said to her: "Do not disturb me now, my mother; if we are deemed worthy, we shall see one another in the other world." Saint Simeon endured countless temptations from demons, but he conquered them all by prayer to God.”
Hymn of Praise
Simeon the Stylite, first of the pillar-dwellers,
An illumined elder radiant with the light of the immortals,
Bound to the pillar, a willing sacrifice,
Heaven beholds him living, earth sees him dead.
Fasting and prayer and vigils through the night --
By this difficult path he sought salvation.
His mother came to him one morning:
"Come down, my son, that your mother may see you!"
Thus she spoke to him. But Simeon was silent.
The mother repeated her plea many times...
At last Simeon answered his mother:
"I am in the service of the Heavenly King;
This life is a struggle and a preparation,
There is no time here for idle conversation.
Go, my mother, choose the pure path,
Care for your soul, and live according to Christ;
In that other world, after this warfare,
If Christ finds us worthy,
There you shall see your son, my mother,
And the son shall delight in his mother's face."
“Simeon the Stylite, first of the pillar-dwellers, An illumined elder radiant with the light of the immortals, Bound to the pillar, a willing sacrifice, Heaven beholds him living, earth sees him dead.”
Reflection
In this world we must make use of everything needful for the building up of our soul, for when death separates us from this world, we carry nothing into the other world except our soul, such as we have built it here. Saint Simeon the Stylite, as an eighteen-year-old youth, in his concern for the salvation of his soul, fell face down upon the ground one day and raised a prayer to God, that God might show him the path to salvation. And lying thus long in prayer he had a vision: as though he were digging a trench for the foundation of something, and wearied by digging, he stopped to rest. Then a voice came to him: "Dig deeper!" Then he began with great labor to dig still deeper, and wearied again, he stopped to rest. But again he heard the voice: "Dig deeper!" And again he began to dig with still greater labor and effort. Then the voice came to him: "Cease, it is enough; now whatever you wish to build, build; without labor you shall accomplish nothing." Those who labor little and build the life of the soul upon the shallow surface of the senses, build upon sand a structure that cannot endure in this transient world, still less in the world that does not pass away.
“Dig deeper! And again: Dig deeper! Cease, it is enough; now whatever you wish to build, build; without labor you shall accomplish nothing.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the transgression of David (II Samuel 11), namely:
1. How David committed adultery with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, while Uriah was at war;
2. How David contrived the death of Uriah;
3. How God became wrathful at David.
Homily
on the Word -- the Son of God
The Word, or the rational, meaningful Speech, was in the beginning. This refers to the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning -- does this mean, brethren, some beginning of the Word of God? Or some temporal date of the birth of the Son of God from God the Father? In no way. For the birth of the Son of God can have neither date nor beginning, since time is a condition only of this transient world, and since it does not touch the eternal God nor determine anything in God. Can radiance be separated from the sun, and the sun remain the sun? Can the mind be separated from man, and man remain man? Can sweetness be separated from honey, and honey remain honey? It cannot. Still less can one conceive of God separated from His Word, from His rational Speech, from His Meaning, from His Wisdom -- the eternal Father separated from His co-eternal Son. Here, brethren, the question is not about some beginning of the Son of God from God the Father, but about the beginning of the beginning of the history of the creation of the world and the salvation of mankind. That beginning is in the Word of God, in the Son of God. He began both the creation of the world and the salvation of the world. Whoever wishes to speak either of the creation of the visible and invisible world, or of the salvation of the human race, must begin with the Beginning. And that Beginning is the Word of God, the Wisdom of God, the Son of God. It is as if someone were telling an event concerning a ship on a lake, and began thus: "In the beginning there was a lake, and upon it sailed a white ship..." No reasonable person will understand the words "in the beginning there was a lake" to mean that the lake came into being on that very day when the event with the ship took place. So too no reasonable person should understand the words of the Evangelist, "in the beginning was the Word," as though at the beginning of the event of the creation of the world the Word of God came forth from God. Just as the lake existed thousands of years before the event with the ship upon it, so the Word of God existed for all eternity before the beginning of creation.
O Son of God, co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, enlighten us and save us. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Can radiance be separated from the sun, and the sun remain the sun? Can the mind be separated from man, and man remain man?”