“Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.”
St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Acts 13:13-24
In those days, Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem; but they passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.” So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel, and you that fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about forty years he bore with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.”
John 6:5-14
At that time, Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!”
Equal of the Apostles and Emperor Constantine with his Mother Helen
The Church calls Saint Constantine (306-337) “the Equal of the Apostles,” and historians call him “the Great.” He was the son of the Caesar Constantius Chlorus (305-306), who governed the lands of Gaul and Britain. His mother was Saint Helen, a Christian of humble birth.
At this time the immense Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern halves, governed by two independent emperors and their corulers called “Caesars.” Constantius Chlorus was Caesar in the Western Roman Empire. Saint Constantine was born in 274, possibly at Nish in Serbia. In 294, Constantius divorced Helen in order to further his political ambition by marrying a woman of noble rank. After he became emperor, Constantine showed his mother great honor and respect, granting her the imperial title “Augusta.”
Constantine, the future ruler of all the whole Roman Empire, was raised to respect Christianity. His father did not persecute Christians in the lands he governed. This was at a time when Christians were persecuted throughout the Roman Empire by the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and his corulers Maximian Galerius (305-311) in the East, and the emperor Maximian Hercules (284-305) in the West.
After the death of Constantius Chlorus in 306, Constantine was acclaimed by the army at York as emperor of Gaul and Britain. The first act of the new emperor was to grant the freedom to practice Christianity in the lands subject to him. The pagan Maximian Galerius in the East and the fierce tyrant Maxentius in the West hated Constantine and they plotted to overthrow and kill him, but Constantine bested them in a series of battles, defeating his opponents with the help of God. He prayed to God to give him a sign which would inspire his army to fight valiantly, and the Lord showed him a radiant Sign of the Cross in the heavens with the inscription “In this Sign, conquer.”
After Constantine became the sole ruler of the Western Roman Empire, he issued the Edict of Milan in 313 which guaranteed religious tolerance for Christians. Saint Helen, who was a Christian, may have influenced him in this decision. In 323, when he became the sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire, he extended the provisions of the Edict of Milan to the Eastern half of the Empire. After three hundred years of persecution, Christians could finally practice their faith without fear.
Renouncing paganism, the Emperor did not let his capital remain in ancient Rome, the former center of the pagan realm. He transferred his capital to the East, to the city of Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople, the city of Constantine (May 11). Constantine was deeply convinced that only Christianity could unify the immense Roman Empire with its diverse peoples. He supported the Church in every way. He recalled Christian confessors from banishment, he built churches, and he showed concern for the clergy.
The emperor deeply revered the victory-bearing Sign of the Cross of the Lord, and also wanted to find the actual Cross upon which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. For this purpose he sent his own mother, the holy Empress Helen, to Jerusalem, granting her both power and money. Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem and Saint Helen began the search, and through the will of God, the Life-Creating Cross was miraculously discovered in 326. (The account of the finding of the Cross of the Lord is found under the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14). The Orthodox Church commemorates the Uncovering of the Precious Cross and the Precious Nails by the Holy Empress Helen on March 6.
While in Palestine, the holy empress did much of benefit for the Church. She ordered that all places connected with the earthly life of the Lord and His All-Pure Mother, should be freed of all traces of paganism, and she commanded that churches should be built at these places.
The emperor Constantine ordered a magnificent church in honor of Christ’s Resurrection to be built over His tomb. Saint Helen gave the Life-Creating Cross to the Patriarch for safe-keeping, and took part of the Cross with her for the emperor. After distributing generous alms at Jerusalem and feeding the needy (at times she even served them herself), the holy Empress Helen returned to Constantinople, where she died in the year 327.
Because of her great services to the Church and her efforts in finding the Life-Creating Cross, the empress Helen is called “the Equal of the Apostles.”
The peaceful state of the Christian Church was disturbed by quarrels, dissensions and heresies which had appeared within the Church. Already at the beginning of Saint Constantine’s reign the heresies of the Donatists and the Novatians had arisen in the West. They demanded a second baptism for those who lapsed during the persecutions against Christians. These heresies, repudiated by two local Church councils, were finally condemned at the Council of Milan in 316.
Particularly ruinous for the Church was the rise of the Arian heresy in the East, which denied the Divine Nature of the Son of God, and taught that Jesus Christ was a mere creature. By order of the emperor, the First Ecumenical Council was convened in the city of Nicea in 325.
318 bishops attended this Council. Among its participants were confessor-bishops from the period of the persecutions and many other luminaries of the Church, among whom was Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia. (The account about the Council is found under May 29). The emperor was present at the sessions of the Council. The heresy of Arius was condemned and a Symbol of Faith (Creed) composed, in which was included the term “consubstantial with the Father,” at the insistence of the Emperor, confirming the truth of the divinity of Jesus Christ, Who assumed human nature for the redemption of all the human race.
After the Council of Nicea, Saint Constantine continued with his active role in the welfare of the Church. He accepted holy Baptism on his deathbed, having prepared for it all his whole life. Saint Constantine died on the day of Pentecost in the year 337 and was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles, in a crypt he had prepared for himself.
A shoulder blade of Saint Constantine is located in the Monastery of Konstamonίtou on Mount Athos. Pieces of the Holy Relics of Saint Constantine are also found in Kykkos Monastery on Cyprus; in Moscow's Holy Trinity - Saint Sergius Lavra; and Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg.
‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’
Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos
‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house’ (Matt. 5, 14-15).
How does the world want people today to be seen to be and to behave? Apart from the necessary factors of work, and basic respect for laws, that is observance of rules, our culture nowadays requires each of us to accept the rights of others. Do what you like; just don’t annoy other people. So long as you don’t deprive them of the right to do as they like, as well; so long as you don’t affront their dignity. If you get on well and they do, too, then everything’s fine. Our happiness depends on our material goods. On our ability to enjoy what we have, our body, the bodies of others; if possible with little to no responsibility. The world wants us to be free, even if freedom involves indulging our desires, some of which become passions.
The Gospel has a different model for us. In his Sermon on the Mount, Christ asks each of us to become a light and to be like a city which can be seen from all around because it’s built on a mountain. In other words, what he wants from us is transparency, not only in our words and deeds but also in our thoughts. What we are, we should be seen to be. And in this perspective there’s no room for darkness. There’s no room for behavior that makes people close in on themselves; there’s only love and all that that involves.
Christians, real cities who can’t be hidden, can find room in the hearts of all their fellow-citizens. That is, they have room for the whole world. This isn’t a model for showing off. It’s a path to having an encounter with everybody. This is why Christ requires us not to judge: not in the sense of desisting from condemnation and the refusal to accept other people, but of seeing what goes against the Gospel. By speaking one on one or in front of ‘witnesses’, we can then offer them a way to change. Or we can do this by silence, which will be expressed through prayer or patience, depending on our gifts. Christians should be models of light and love. This doesn’t mean that they won’t sin any more or that they won’t err in their lives. What it does mean, however, is that they’ll be in a position to shoulder the responsibility for their words, deeds and thoughts and to help others in their need for truth. And, as far as they can- the rest will be completed by God’s grace- they should try to become sign-posts in the life of others, so that the city isn’t hidden.
We people hide when we’re ashamed. Just as Adam and Eve, after their disobedience to God’s will in paradise, hid when they heard God’s footsteps, so we also hide by denying the Gospel, though we do our best to justify doing so. Because the Gospel’s within us, in our conscience. Even when our soul’s so depraved that it thinks sin is a virtue or a right, something within us makes us feel that we have to hide. This becomes fear, depression, insomnia, an attempt to justify ourselves publicly, to claim our right to a life which is in opposition to the Gospel, to become not merely acceptable, but also as ‘true’ as the truth. We see it today in issues such as abortion, diversity, the refusal to acknowledge that there are unwritten norms whose provenance isn’t recorded but which operate in the depths of our soul. Society, and Christians in particular, should show respect and understanding for human wounds, should hold out the prospect of forgiveness, acceptance, love, repentance, and expectation of healing by Christ. In fact, however, society demands not pardon of sin but acceptance of sin as a right and, in the end, a virtue. And action brings reaction. Polarization, division, and a new generation increasingly estranged from the path of faith, the path of light, the path of the city, the path of the Gospel. Instead, it accepts the way of the world.
But unless we follow the path of faith, the path of the city, how will we, society as a whole, be able to accept ourselves, in the first place, and then all the others, since we’re all wounded and lying in darkness; some more than others, but all of us in the end? If we write Christ out of our life, everything’s permissible. What’s unnatural becomes natural; what’s sick is deemed healthy; and what’s really healthy will be considered ordinary, of no particular value. We Christians are called upon to set a boundary, even if this means we’re alone in the effort. The boundary is love and understanding. But love without truth no longer functions as a sign-post, as the city, as the light, and this causes confusion.
Christ’s exhortation that we should become a city of light, love, and shining truth seems to be our duty as Christians. This may bring with it psychological, social, or bodily costs. But it’s the only way for God to be glorified in the highest and for us to move onwards as those who’ve been called: as children of the light.
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 5/19: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday 5/20: no services or events
Wednesday 5/21: no services or events
Thursday 5/22: Matins 8:30 a.m.; Men’s Group 7 p.m.
Friday 5/23: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Saturday 5/24: Catechumen Class 4:30 p.m.; 40-Day Memorial for Evangeline 5:30 p.m.; Great Vespers 6 p.m.
Sunday 5/25: Divine Liturgy 9:15 a.m.
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Christ the Savior Orthodox Church is located in Southbury, Connecticut, and is part of the New England Diocese of the Orthodox Church of America.
Mailing address: Christ the Savior Church, 1070 Roxbury Road, Southbury, CT 06488
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Fr. Moses Locke can be reached at frmoseslocke@gmail.com