The slaves of death and sin--
versus the slaves of righteousness-- What does it mean to be a slave of
righteousness? First, perhaps we need to ask ourselves, "What is
righteousness?" Righteousness is behaviour according to the standards of
God, just as our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples: "If you love me,
keep my commandments." Before the coming of the Lord Jesus, the standards
of God were expressed in the commandments of the Old Law, but even then, the
essence of that law was perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbour. To
have perfect love, we have to practice self-denial. Simply, self-denial means
that we seek the good of others, before we seek our own good. We can achieve
holiness, if we always take this for a rule of our behaviour.
Sometimes, to seek the good of
others before we seek our own good means that we need to sacrifice our comfort,
our time, and, in very grave occasions, our life, since we believe in the
everlasting life of the Kingdom of God, which is the reward of those who practice
self-denial in this world. Today, we celebrate the memory of all the saints of
Rus', all the members of our Church, who pleased God from the days of
Kyivan-Rus' until now. All these faithful members our Church are examples of
self-denial, because self-denial is an essential part of life in faith, since
in self-denial we recognize the presence of the virtues. For example, we
recognize the definition of the virtue of patience, since the virtue of
patience is willingness to endure suffering. Perhaps, we have many sufferings
in life. Nevertheless, only if we are willing to endure these sufferings, are
we patient.
The Church gives us all the
saints as examples of patience, which is born of love. When we read the lives
of the saints, we realize that perfect love of God and neighbour requires a
great deal of patience, great willingness to suffer. For example, among the
saints of Rus', the Church gives us the example of the great prince Michael of
Chernihiv, who suffered imprisonment and then death for the sake of his people.
The Church also gives us the story of the blessed priest-martyr Mykola Konrad,
who on the 26th of June 1941, drove to a nearby village to help a sick woman,
who needed to make her confession. At that time, the army of the Soviet Union
was retreating and the environment was very dangerous. His family and
parishioners begged Father Mykola to stay at home, but it is the duty of the
priest to comfort the dying, and therefore, Father Mykola drove with his cantor
Volodymyr Pryjma to the house of the sick woman. When he was returning to his
home, officers of the NKVD met him in the forest. They tortured the priest and
the cantor and killed them. This is a very beautiful example of patience.
Father Mykola was willing to endure suffering for the sake of love.
Thus, what about us? Do we seek
the good of others before we seek our own good? If no, we are far from the
spirit of the saints of Rus'-Ukraine. Among us, today, the acclamation
"Glory to the heroes" is very popular, and for good reasons, but we
should remember that true heroes are those that practice self-denial for the
sake of love of God and neighbour, and our heroes are only useful for us, if we
follow the example of their self-denial. Glory to the saints of Rus'-Ukraine,
past, present and future. May many people in this church be united with them to
rejoice in the presence of God forever, and to inspire future generations with
love of God and one another.
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