DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
The Sunday of the Pharisee and the
Publican Tone 1 Fast Free Week Jan. 28, 2007
Kellia for a Hieromartyr: Sirach 51:1-12 LXX
Epistle: 2 Timothy 3:10-15 Gospel: St. Luke
18:10-14
A Martyr’s Prayer: Sirach
51:1-12 LXX, especially vss. 11, 12: “I will praise Thy Name continually, and will sing praise
with thanksgiving; and so my prayer was heard: for Thou savedst me from
destruction, and deliveredst me from the evil time.” This prayer may seem strange on the lips of God’s holy
martyrs. Still, more than likely,
it would have seemed most natural to the God-bearer and Hieromartyr, Ignatios
of Antioch. When Ignatios knew he
was being led to death in the arena at Rome, he solemnly begged the churches
all along his route, from Asia through Thrace and Epiros to Rome and to his
martyrdom, “not to be an ‘inopportune favor’ to me. Let me be food for the wild beasts, through which I can
attain to God....Then I shall be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the
world will not see my body at all.”
Do you see the application? For a true disciple of Christ, like St.
Ignatios, “...near the sword is near God, with the beasts is with God,” for
there is a certain kind of death that is far worse than the biological end of
the body. Fr. Alexander Schmemann
explains this Christian vision: “death is above all a ‘spiritual reality,’ of
which one can partake while being alive, from which one can be free while lying
in the grave. Death here is man’s
‘separation from Life,’ that is, from God Who is the only Giver of life, Who
Himself is Life.”
Even a cursory examination of this passage
immediately shows that these verses are a prayer of thanksgiving to God for
deliverance. The author of the
prayer, Jesus ben Sirach, was a well-schooled, professional teacher of the Old
Testament law. He penned this
prayer, sometime before 132 BC. The prayer reflects his gratitude for some unnamed
physical salvation. Listen to his
words: God “preserved my body from destruction” (vs. 2).
Nevertheless, the prayer itself, when read
from the evangelical viewpoint, provides an instructive model for equipping the
Faithful to witness fearlessly in the face of all sort of afflictions - even
torture and physical death.
Consider: when the Faithful are caught in circumstances which demand
that they renounce their deepest convictions and the Life in Christ, they are
faced with true spiritual death, for they confront the possibility of
separation from “Christ Who is our life” (Col. 3:4). If at such a time they lift up supplication from the earth,
and pray for deliverance (Sir. 51:9), God does not forsake them in that day of
affliction (vs. 10). Rather, they
are delivered “in the greatness of [God’s] mercy and of [His] Name” (vs. 3).
Notice that the prayer shows us in detail how
God acts to save us from all sorts of spiritual death. Sirach speaks of “the snare of a
slanderous tongue” (vs.2). Those
who would draw us from the truth of Christ often slander us and God, thinking
of Him as a figment of our imagination, some psychological device to help under
stress. The prayer mentions
“devouring teeth” (vs. 3), that is, confrontation with anger. There is always a temptation to return
hate for hate, anger for anger, bitterness for bitterness - but such is death,
Beloved of Christ!
To what, then, does the prayer direct us? It directs us to our true strength
under duress: “Then I remembered Thy mercy, O Lord” (vs. 8). “Then
lifted I up my supplication from the earth and prayed for deliverance from
death” (vs. 9). It is life to cry out to Life Himself:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner!” He both turns us from those invitations
of the world to die to the truth in us, and, at the same time, He fills us with
life: “for Thou savedst me from destruction,
and deliveredst me from the evil time: therefore will I give thanks and praise
Thee, and bless Thy Name, O Lord” (vs. 12).
O Lord save Thy people and bless Thine
inheritance, granting to Thy People victory over all their enemies, and by the
power of Thy Cross, preserving Thy Kingdom.
Return to the January Calendar