The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (16:13-19)

Today’s epistle and gospel readings are given to us specifically for the wonderful feast we are celebrating, that is the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the foremost chiefs of the apostles. These men loved Our Lord Jesus Christ to the very depths of their hearts and souls. They loved Our Lord so much that they willingly died, they gave up their lives as martyrs for the sake of their Lord and Master.

Last Sunday as soon as I arrived at Camp St. Thekla I received news of a terrible incident that took place in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria when a follower of Islam, entered the church of St. Elias during the divine Liturgy while the people were praying and detonated a bomb in their midst. In that most terrible of moments, in this grave tragedy, new martyrs, new saints were created. You might be surprised that I mentioned this today with young and old present among us. But my brothers and sisters, let us not hide from the realities of the life of a Christian. After all, we worship a crucified Lord. We don’t hide the fact of the cross, we embrace it. We are a Church full of martyrs and these martyrs will be among the saints who will adorn the walls of this church if the Lord wills.

The ancient church writer Tertullian once said “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” What did he mean by that saying? He meant that every time someone was martyred for the sake of Christ, their sacrifice, their shed blood, would become new potential for life in the Church. Sometimes we hear stories of the martyrs and we learn that the way they composed themselves, the way they showed courage and stood up to their torturers would amaze many of the onlookers and even many of the soldiers who watched over them. Sometimes their holy presence, their righteousness and bravery would bring people, sometimes thousands of people at once, to Christ, at the moments leading up to their deaths and many many more as their stories were spread over time.

Now we might think to ourselves, “that could happen to us.” And there is some truth to that thought. In fact we are always vulnerable in life and we are very vulnerable as Christians who try to come together as a community to love our Lord and love one another. But there is nothing to fear because God is present in this place and wherever God is present, life reigns. Because Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He turned the worldly understanding of suffering and death upside down. The world understood death as only a tragedy and an end. The Christians understood death as a doorway to the kingdom and life, because Our Lord trampled down death by death! And this is why in the early Church those who gave their lives due to persecution and violence for the sake of Christ were called martyrs. The word means witness.

Some of the earliest martyrs were those who had witnessed the event of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that included these two pillars of the Holy Church, Sts. Peter and Paul. So this became their living witness and they carried their witness all the way to their deaths. No matter what you throw at them. No matter how much you torture them. No matter how much pain you inflict on them. No matter how you threaten them. They will still boldly proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who rose from the dead. I need each of you to understand what I am saying. This life that we share together is life in Christ. Everything else in our lives will fade away. This life, in Christ, is all that we really have. Everything else is like a vapor that will slip through our grasp no matter how much we desire to keep it.

So love of the truth compels us to teach that only those who love God and are obedient to His teachings will obtain the virtues and the fruits of the Spirit and only those who have gained these possessions will have something that remains with them after their departure from this life. In fact St. Maximos the confessor teaches something very beautiful when he writes,

“Let yourself die while striving, rather than living in laziness. For those who die while trying to keep the commandments are just as much martyrs as those who died for Christ’s sake.”

— St. Maximos the Confessor

These men and women who died while they were praising, blessing and glorifying God gave their lives and in return they will receive their lives back more fully, more radiant, because they suffered and were persecuted in their innocence. They took on the likeness of Our Lord Jesus Christ by their own sacrifices. And as the Lord’s sacrifice redeemed the whole universe, the sacrifices of their lives, this thing that we in the world call a tragedy, this event didn’t kill them, not in the sense that the world understands death. It brought them into the arms of the One who is life. It made their prayers more powerful than they had ever been before. Through their martyrdoms they have sanctified their corner of the world and claimed it for Our Lord Jesus Christ.

My brothers and sisters, may we look to their courage and have the courage to live like martyrs in the world. Witnessing to a life of obedience to the Lord and love for the Church which He founded and which was established by the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and which was watered and continues to be watered with the lives of countless faithful lovers of Christ our true God. And Glory be to God, Forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons