Brothers and sisters in
Christ—
On Tuesday, we will celebrate
the great feast of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius, who is called the
Myrrhgusher, because a sweet smelling oil exudes from his bones. The oil itself
is an illustration of a truth in which all of us Christians participate, for
oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God, Who, having been sent to anoint the
Apostles, the Church, and, through it, all life on earth, sanctifies and sustains
the created world. On the feast of St.
Demetrius, there is a canon (a long metrical poem consisting of nine odes)
appointed to be sung at Matins, which is dedicated to praising God for the
miraculous oil (myro), which flows from the holy martyr and works miracles
among God’s people. The canon was
composed by Philotheus the Patriarch of Constantinople. In this canon we find the following beautiful
and excellent verses:
You
mounted upon life-streaming floods, being cleansed by divine Baptism; and when
you were washed in the blood of martyrdom, O Demetrius, you made a new mixture,
you yourself becoming a fountain of holy oil.
O
great protector of Thessalonica, you, as a great river of the Lord,
illustriously made your city glad with the rushings of your myrrh, and you
sanctify the whole world like a divine tabernacle.
Your
city is fountain of living waters, pouring out your myrrh like floods of a
river that wash away seas of heresies and of passions.
Christ,
the Myrrh flowing spiritually in your soul, poured forth a fountain of myrrh
both upon your lips and upon your members, O Demetrius, showing you to be an
august tabernacle of the Spirit’s grace.
These verses very skillfully weave
together the imagery of water and oil, together with the martyr’s blood. These
images together remind us that our journey of transformation in the Lord begins
with our Baptism, through which we receive the presence and promise of the Holy
Spirit. Our journey continues in the
holy anointing of Chrismation by which we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. But
the purpose and goal of the whole Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit
in His fullness (as we have said before, to be deified, to become God by
grace). We receive the Mystery of
Baptism and then Chrismation so that we can become an oil-exuding fountain,
pouring out the Holy Spirit to others, and to the whole creation around us. The
nineteenth century spiritual writer and monastic St. Seraphim Sarovsky bears
witness to the power of the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us and all of
life when he says: Acquire the Holy Spirit, and others around you will be
converted in their thousands.
But how do we “acquire the Holy Spirit?”
The answer to this most important question is contained in the verses, which we
have just read. We have seen the images of water and oil as the symbols and
emblems of the Mysteries, but what of the martyr’s blood—a sine qua non for his
destiny as a life-giving fountain for his city and people? In this image is
concealed the simple but poignant truth that it is by the sufferings and
circumstances of our everyday lives that we are to acquire the Holy Spirit of
God, it is by our individual human acts that we are to become life-giving
fountains, pouring forth the life-giving Spirit. A fountain is ever full, yet ever emptying,
and in the same way, we must be ready to continuously empty ourselves, so that
we can be filled with the Spirit’s grace.
Since the very early days of the Church,
even during the great age of the martyrs, the saints knew that they needed to
build a habit of self-denial that was based in their love for God. Their great
love for God made the saints exceptionally choosy, for they refused to be
satisfied within anything or anyone less than God Himself. They strained towards Him, reaching out to
Him with all their desire, rejecting all of the things between them and Him, no
matter how important or how valuable the world considered those things to
be. Unlike our earthly desires that
constantly frustrate us by their non-fulfillment, their straining towards God,
reaching out towards Him with all their hearts and souls, meant that they dwelt
constantly in His presence. At every stage of their journey to Him, He was with
them, their fellow traveler, sating their desire for His presence by His
abiding presence, and constantly inviting them to draw nearer to Him, even as
He transformed them into Him by His grace.
Like us, in their Baptism they acquired the Holy Spirit, but then by
degrees, over the course of their lives, they acquired Him more and more
deeply. They were like ships, which at the harbour of their Baptism took on the
Holy Spirit, but their love for Him alone led them gradually, but
enthusiastically, to toss all the other cargo overboard, so that they could
take on more of Him—their only precious cargo.
Tossing the other cargo overboard is what we call self-denial. We need a habit of self-denial.
What can we deny ourselves on a daily
basis that will help us build this habit? Perhaps time. Perhaps we can give up
an hour, a half an hour, of some amusement in order to give it to prayer or
spiritual reading. Perhaps we can give up some money or material, putting aside
a little extra something for charity (remembering, of course, that it is only
self-denial if we feel it). Perhaps we can give up some attachment (a favourite
drink, food or pastime). In all of these ways we can begin to walk the path of
the saints, and become a life-giving fountain, ever emptying, but ever full
with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
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