Wednesday February 10, 2021 / January 28, 2021
36th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Fast. Fish Allowed
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian (373). Venerable Theodosius, abbot, of Totma (Vologda) (1568). St. Theodore confessor, priest (1933). New Hieromartyrs Ignatius bishop of Skopinsk, Vladimir priest and Hieromartyr Bartholomeus, Virgin-martyr Olga (1938). Venerable Leontius, confessor (1972). Venerable Ephraim, abbot, wonderworker of Novotorzhok (1053). Venerable Ephraim, bishop of Pereyaslavl (Kiev Caves) (1098). Venerable Palladius the Hermit of Antioch (4th c.). Venerable Isaac the Syrian, bishop of Nineveh (ascetic writer) (7th c.). “Sumorin Totma” Icon of the Mother of God (16th c.).
James 3:11-4:6
Mark 11:23-26
Galatians 5:22-6:2 Venerable Ephraim
Matthew 11:27-30 Venerable Ephraim
The Monk Ephrem the Syrian
Commemorated on January 28
The Monk Ephrem the Syrian, a teacher of repentance, was born at the beginning of the IV Century (his precise year of birth is unknown) in the city of Ninevah (Mesopotamia) into the family of impoverished toilers of the soil. His parents raised their son in piety. But from the time of his childhood he was known for his quick temper and irascible character, and in his youth he often had fights, he acted thoughtlessly, and even doubted of God’s Providence, until he finally recovered his senses from the Lord’s doing, guiding him on the path of repentance and salvation. One time he was unjustly accused of the theft of a sheep and was thrown into prison. And there in a dream he heard a voice, calling him to repentance and rectifying his life. After this, he was acquitted of the charges and set free.
Within Ephrem there took place a deep repentance. The youth withdrew outside the city and became an hermit. This form of Christian asceticism had been introduced at Ninevah by a disciple of the Monk Anthony the Great, – the Egyptian Wilderness-Dweller Eugenios (Eugene).
Among the hermits especially prominent was the noted ascetic, a preacher of Christianity and denouncer of the Arians, the bishop of the Ninevah Church, Saint James (Comm. 13 January). The Monk Ephrem became one of his disciples. Under the graced guidance of the holy hierarch, the Monk Ephrem attained to Christian meekness, humility, submission to the Will of God, and the strength without murmur to undergo various temptations. Saint James knew the high qualities of his student and he used them for the good of the Ninevah Church – he entrusted him to read sermons, to instruct children in the school, and he took Ephrem along with him to the First OEcumenical Council at Nicea (in the year 325). The Monk Ephrem was in obedience to Saint James for 14 years, until the bishop’s death.
After the capture of Ninevah by the Persians in the year 363, the Monk Ephrem abandoned the wilderness and settled in a monastery near the city of Edessa. Here he saw many a great ascetic, passing their lives in prayer and psalmody. Their caves were solitary shelters, and they fed themselves off a certain plant. He became especially close with the ascetic Julian (Comm. 18 October), who was one with him in a spirit of repentance. The Monk Ephrem combined with his ascetic works an incessant study of the Word of God, gathering within it for his soul both solace and wisdom. The Lord gave him a gift of teaching, and people began to come to him, wanting to hear his guidances, which produced a particular effect upon the soul, since he began with self-accusation. The monk both verbally and in writing instructed everyone in repentance, faith and piety, and he denounced the Arian heresy, which during those times was disrupting Christian society. And pagans likewise, listening to the preaching of the monk, were converted to Christianity.
He also toiled no little at the interpretation of Holy Scripture – with an explication of the Pentateuch (i.e. “Five Books”) of Moses. He wrote many a prayer and church-song, thereby enriching the Church’s Divine-services. Famed prayers of Saint Ephrem are to the MostHoly Trinity, to the Son of God, and to the MostHoly Mother of God. He wrote for his Church song for the Twelve Great Feastdays of the Lord (the Nativity of Christ, the Baptism, the Resurrection), and funereal song. Saint Emphrem’s Prayer of Repentance, “O Lord and Master of my life…”, is said during Great Lent, and it summons Christians to spiritual renewal. The Church since times ancient valued highly the works of the Monk Ephrem: his works were read in certain churches, at gatherings of the faithful, after the Holy Scripture. And now at present in accord with the Church Ustav (Rule), certain of his instructions are prescribed to be read on the days of Lent. Amidst the prophets, Saint David is pre-eminently the psalmodist; amidst the holy fathers of the Church the Monk Ephrem the Syrian – is pre-eminently a man of prayer. His spiritual experience made him a guide to monks and an help to the pastors of Edessa. The Monk Ephrem wrote in Syrian, but his works were very early translated into the Greek and Armenian languages, and from the Greek – into the Latin and Slavonic languages.
In numerous of the works of the Monk Ephrem are encountered glimpses of the life of the Syrian ascetics, the centre of which involved prayer and with it thereupon the toiling for the common good of the brethren, in the obediences. The outlook of the meaning of life among all the Syrian ascetics was the same. The end purpose of their efforts was considered by the monks to be communality with God and the diffusion of Divine grace within the soul of the ascetic; the present life for them was a time of tears, fasting and toil.
“If the Son of God be within thee, then also His Kingdom is within thee. Here then is the Kingdom of God – within thee, a sinner. Go inwards into thine self, search diligently and without toil thou shalt find it. Outside of thee – is death, and the door to it – is sin. Go inwards into thine self, dwell within thine heart, for since there – is God”. Constant spiritual sobriety, the developing of good within the soul of man gives unto him the possibility to take upon himself a task like blessedness, and a self-constraint like sanctity. The requital is presupposed in the earthly life of man, it is an undertaking by degrees of its spiritual perfection. Whoso grows himself wings upon the earth, says the Monk Ephrem, is one who soars up into the heights; whoso down here purifies his mind – there glimpses the Glory of God; in what measure each one loveth God – is that measure wherein is satiated to fullness by the love of God. Man, cleansing himself and attaining the grace of the Holy Spirit while still here, down upon the earth, has a foretaste therein of the Kingdom of Heaven. To attain to life eternal, in the teachings of the Monk Ephrem, does not mean to pass over from one sphere of being into another, but means rather to discover “the Heavenly” spiritual condition of being. Eternal life is not bestown man as a one-sided working by God, but rather like a seed, it constantly grows within him through effort, toil and struggle.
The pledge within us of “theosis” (“obozhenie” or “deification”) – is the Baptism of Christ, and the primal propulsion for the Christian life – is repentance. The Monk Ephrem was a great teacher of repentance. The forgiveness of sins in the sacramental-mystery of Repentance, according to his teaching, is not an external exoneration, not a forgetting of the sins, but rather their complete undoing, their annihilation. The tears of repentance wash away and burn away the sin. And moreover – they (i.e. the tears) vivify, they transfigure sinful nature, they give the strength “to walk in the way of the commandments of the Lord”, encouraging the hope on God. In the fiery font of Repentance, wrote the Monk, “thou dost sail thyself across, O sinner, thou dost resuscitate thyself from the dead”.
The Monk Ephrem, in his humility reckoning himself the least and worst of all, at the end of his life set out to Egypt, to see the efforts of the great ascetics. He was accepted there as a welcome guest and received for himself great solace in his associating with them. On the return journey he visited at Caesarea Cappadocia with Sainted Basil the Great (Comm. 1 January), who wanted to ordain him a priest, but the monk considered himself unworthy of priesthood, and at the insistence of Saint Basil, he accepted only the dignity of deacon, in which he remained until death. Even later on, Saint Basil the Great invited the Monk Ephrem to accept the cathedra-chair of a bishop, but the saint feigned folly to avoid for himself this honour, in humility reckoning himself unworthy of it.
Upon his return to his own Edessa wilderness, the Monk Ephrem intended to spend the rest of his life in solitude. But Divine Providence again summoned him to service of neighbour. The inhabitants of Edessa were suffering from a devastating famine. By the influence of his word, the monk induced the wealthy to render aid to those that lacked. From the offerings of believers he built a poor-house for the destitute and sick. The Monk Ephrem then withdrew to a cave nigh to Edessa, where he remained to the end of his days.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
HYMN OF PRAISE
SAINT EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN
Ephraim’s heart burns
With love for Christ,
And Ephraim’s tongue speaks
Of the pure wisdom of the Gospel.
Ephraim, the honey-bearing bee;
Ephraim, the fruit-bearing rain!
With repentance, Ephraim breathes;
With tears, he proclaims repentance.
Ephraim writes: “Repent ye!
For God glorifies penitents!”
A wondrous leader and teacher,
Through his life and through his books.
Ephraim, comforter of the sorrowful,
And terrible scourge of the careless.
Toward others, the honey of mercy;
Toward himself, a sword of austerity.
Of Ephraim the Church is proud.
The angels call him brother;
And this becomes Ephraim,
This self-effacing theologian.
The Church glorifies its Syrian,
The glorifier of God’s Son.Ephraim, the honey-bearing bee;Ephraim, the fruit-bearing rain,Intercessor, day and night:Ephraim. the mighty monk!Toward himself, a sword of austerity,Toward others, the honey of mercy!The Church glorifies its Syrian,The glorifier of God’s Son.
REFLECTION
The absence of envy among the saints is a startling and wonderful phenomenon. Not only did the saints not allow envy to seize their hearts, but they labored to uplift their companions and to diminish themselves with all their might. On one occasion, when St. Hilarion of Palestine visited St. Anthony in Egypt, St. Anthony exclaimed: “Welcome, O morning star!” To that St. Hilarion replied: “Greetings and health be to you, O shining pillar who sustains the universe!” When they praised St. Macarius as a monk, the saint replied: “Brethren, forgive me. I am not a monk–but I have seen monks!” When some people told St. Sisoes that he had attained the same level of perfection as St. Anthony, Sisoes replied: “If only I had but a single thought as does Anthony, I would be all aflame.”
CONTEMPLATION
Contemplate the Lord Jesus as a Servant:
1. How He voluntarily descended among men to be a Servant to all;
2. How He never refused anyone a good service which was requested of Him;
3. How even today, as always, He invisibly and silently serves the whole world.
HOMILY
on the Man Whom no one knows
“Who are Thou?” Jesus said to them: “The beginning…” (John 8:25).
The Lord Jesus is the beginning of creation, the beginning of restoration, the beginning of salvation, the beginning of resurrection, and the beginning of immortal glory.
Wherever there is any evil in the world that needs to be uprooted, He is the beginning. Without Him it is impossible. Wherever there is any good that is desired to be done in the world, He is the beginning. Without Him it is impossible. If anyone desires to uproot dissent and malice in a family, in a village, in a town, in the entire world, without Him it is impossible. One must begin with Him. If anyone desires to instill good will, peace, love and unity in a family, in a village, in a town, among the peoples in the entire world, without Him it is impossible. He is the beginning.
Why is it that one cannot uproot evil or sow good without Christ? Because all evil is from sin, and only He can forgive sins. When He (and only He) forgives sin, then sin is plucked out by the root. No manner of good is possible to be sown without Him, because in Him is the treasury of all good–all the seeds of good. He is the only Sower of Good in the field of the world.
The Apostle Paul, who understood all of this better than we, said: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Philippians 4:13). Without Jesus Christ, who can begin to heal himself of evil, to heal others from evil, to sow good in himself and to sow good in others? No one, truly no one.
Therefore, brethren, if we are determined to uproot evil in ourselves and in others, and in place of evil to sow good in ourselves and in others, let us begin with the Beginning–that is, let us begin with the Conqueror over evil and the Sower of good, with the Lord Jesus Christ.
O Lord Jesus Christ, be Thou to us the Beginning in every struggle against sin and in every good work.
To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
Kith and Kin Observer 