Rom 8:28-29, Luke 21:12-19
“By your patience, possess your souls.”
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, and deliver you up to… the prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. … You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience, possess your souls” (Luke 21:12-13, 16-19, italics mine).
“By your patience, possess your souls.”
Patience, brethren, … patience is hard. We are impatient in our places of occupation, looking always for the next pay raise, the next opportunity for promotion. Heck, waiting just for the clock to strike noon, or four, or five, so that on our way home we can impatiently wait in line for a drive-thru order, then impatiently wait in traffic, then impatiently rush into our homes to turn on the television, and impatiently sit through advertisements. Patience is a difficult virtue, and we are very impatient, even in the least pressing, the least incovenient of situations.
“Customer service… hold please.” Gaaggghhh!
“Our tables are full right now; it will be a 10-15 minute wait.” Gaggghhh!
Sitting behind a stopped schoolbus… “Kids! Move it! Gaggghhh!”
Are these situations incovenient? Sure. Do they test our patience, our spiritual fortitude? I mean, sure. Are they indiciative of our spiritual maturity, insofar as they provoke a patient or impatient response on our part? Sure. And yet, though we are impatient in these scenarios—we’ve all been there, yes?—how far removed are these scenarios from those “trials of patience” that we hear of in today’s Gospel Reading? Very far removed, I would say.
Recently, brethren, I have been re-reading (re-listening actually, thank God for audiobooks) to the acclaimed, in Orthodox circles, historical biography, Fr. Arseny. I am sure many of us have encountered this text. For those who are unfamiliar with it: Fr. Arseny (in the world, Piotr Andreyevich Streltzof) was a hieromonk imprisoned in a Soviet gulag for two decades—twenty long years—as many Russian clerics were during the Soviet Revolution. Fr. Arseny’s crime against the state was his priesthood, that is all. He was a renowned art critic and historian; he was immensely well-educated. He wrote prolifically. He contributed to Russian culture. It did not matter one iota. He was a Christian, and a devout one. He was sent to the gulags to serve; he was sent to the gulags to die.
“They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, and deliver you up … to the prisons” (Luke 21:12).
It is impossible to recount in such a short time all the atrocities and horrors and suffering that Fr. Arseny both personally experienced and witnessed in the gulags. Death, so much death, and vulgarity, profanity, slander, in-fighting, hatred, cruelty, torture. On numerous occasions Fr. Arseny was beaten to within an inch of his life. He would go comatose, and wake up days later, by the grace of God, bloodied and bruised. On at least one occasion he was sent to a “special cell” on the outskirts of the camp, a wooden shack, uninsulated, in the middle of winter; temperatures with windchills in the negative thirty, negative forty degrees. He would be forced to remain here overnight, and somehow, by the grace of God, he would endure, saved only by the warmth of prayer, and an angelic champion.
In reflection, Fr. Arseny’s life is more than remarkable, more than extraordinary, more than demonstrative of the patient endurance that each Christian believer is called to. He embodies the spirit of today’s Gospel. And while he is exemplary, he is by no means exceptional. He exemplifies the Christian spirit, but he alone is not exemplary. How many saints have endured as Fr. Arseny endured, and have endured even worse things than these? We commemorated many such saints just this past week.
Last Sunday, September 17th, the Holy 50 Martyrs of Palestine and 100 Martyrs of Egypt, burned alive by fire; who had their eyes plucked out, and arms cut off, before being beheaded by the sword.
On Tuesday, September 19th, the Martyrs Trophimus, Sabbatius, and Dorymedon of Synnada, beaten; then hung from a tree, their flesh scraped with knives to the bone.
On Wednesday, September 20th, the Bishop Hypatius and Andrew the Presbyter, tortured in prison, then tied behind horses and drug along the ground until their flash was tattered and torn.
On Thursday, September 21st, the Martyr Eusebius of Phoenicia; also bound, and suspended, and tortured through lacerations, deep cuts; salt added to his wounds; then beheaded.
One week, four days: 156 martyrs in Christ, and many, many more with them.
“They will lay their hands on you and persecute you… . And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Luke 21:12, 17, italics).
Makes, uh, … waiting in line at Dunkin’ for coffee seem kind of trivial. It makes our own “instances of impatience” an occasion for shame.
Suffering, brethren, is universal to the human experience, now that we are beyond Paradise. We all do suffer. And we acknowledge one another’s suffering. But not all suffering is equal. There is suffering as a consequence of our own ignorance, our own vice, our selfishness.
I make me suffer, a lot actually. I would suffer less if I sinned less. But then there is the kind of suffering that is imposed upon us by others. How great can this suffering be. We speak harsh words to one another; we forget one another, in friendship and in prayer. We slander one another, gossip about one another. We hurt one another. In these things, as we well know, brethren, our Lord is also experienced. And his counsel to us remains the same: “By your patience, possess your souls.” In the gulags, Fr. Arseny did not condemn his oppressors. He helped them. He worked alongside them. He counseled them, so far as they would endure him. He prayed for them. In their prison chambers, the saints did not deride their captors but prayed for them. On the cross, Christ did not judge his executioners but prayed for them: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
To be a Christian, brethren, is not merely to suffer. All suffer, but not all are saints. But to be a Christian is to suffer in faith, and in the sure hope of the resurrection of the dead. How does one endure a gulag without going insane, without giving into despair, depression, despondency; without resorting to the same criminality and hatred that surrounds you? Faith, hope, love, patient endurance. Faith in the risen Lord. Hope in the resurrection of the dead. Love for God, and love for others, even one’s enemies. Patient endurance: for as the Apostle says,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution… ? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8:35, 37).
Patience, when a toddler is throwing a tantrum, and not listening, and you have a headache and are already so fatigued. Patience, when a friend does not respond to your text, your phone call, your message, and you feel alone and dejected. Patience, when you are trying so hard, and no one notices, no one is appreciative, no one is grateful for your efforts. Patience, when the pain just won’t stop; when the back always aches, and the hands are numb, and the muscles spasm, and “nothing works like it used ‘ta.” Patience, if and when, God forbid, “you are old, and you … stretch out your hands, and someone else … [leads] you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18).
In all things, brethren, by patience, and much prayer, and by the grace of God, “possess your souls.”
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!