A HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY MARTYR AGRIPINA
(June 23/July 6)
About How Sorrows Lead to Heaven
Brothers and sisters!
Today our Holy Church commemorates the martyr Saint Agripina of Rome. Agripina’s parents were very devout, and so naturally they did everything possible to ensure that their child grew up to be a pious Christian. When Agripina reached the age of marriage, she decided that she would never wed, but would instead remain a virgin and lead a life of Christian devotion. She became famous for her spirited discourses on the faith; therefore, when the Emperor Valerian initiated a persecution of the faithful, she was seized and tortured. After being beaten with staves so savagely that her bones were broken, she was tightly chained and additional torments were inflicted on her naked body until she finally gave up the ghost. Other handmaidens of Christ – Bassa, Paula, and Agathonica – secretly took her corpse to Sicily, where they buried it.
Much later, in the ninth century, the Muslims attacked Sicily, which was then part of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. The islanders, who were Greek-speaking Christians, resisted the barbarians for 150 years, with some assistance from Constantinople and the help of the intercessions of Saint Agripina. Finally, as the Arabs were completing their conquest, the martyr’s relics were removed to the Imperial City for their safety.
Brothers and sisters, in her Life, we clearly see the road that led Saint Agripina to heaven: the path of grievous sorrows and sufferings. Our holy faith teaches us that there is no other way than this to the Kingdom. The Lord, His immaculate Mother, His chosen disciples, and all the saints trod this path, in accordance with His words: He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.[1]
In accordance with this, Saint Macarius of Egypt, great among the Fathers, wrote, “God has ordained that the path leading to life eternal be narrow and sorrowful, full of trials and the most bitter temptations, so that man might inherit the good things of heaven both in accordance with divine compassion and justice. Since God’s promises are great, ineffable, and surpass description, they necessarily demand on our part faith, hope, toils, severe struggles, and prolonged temptations. We desire to reign with Christ for endless ages: can we not determine to endure warfare, labors, and trials nobly throughout the course of this brief life, even until our death? For the divine Apostle, who glimpsed in spirit the celestial reward for sorrows, assures us that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”[2]
Generally speaking, self-willed people, who are travelling the wide highway leading to perdition, have fewer sorrows and temptations than do those treading the path to salvation, because the enemy of our salvation, seeing that the former are already doing his will, leaves them in relative peace, whereas many are the tribulations of the righteous.[3] Or as the wise Sirach puts it in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiasticus: My son, if thou come to serve the Lord God, prepare thy soul for temptation. Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of trouble. Cleave unto Him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased at thy last end.[4] Likewise, Saint Paul reminds us that people who are free of sorrows are in a wretched situation, for God has forgotten them and it is clear that they are not His true children.
Sorrows cleanse a man as gold in the furnace,[5] rendering him pure and, by the grace of God, worthy of eternal blessings. Thus Saint John the Theologian, the seer of divine mysteries, beheld in the great Revelation a multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and with palms in their hands. And it was told him that these are they which came out of great tribulation.[6] The soul that truly loves God regards his troubles, however difficult, as easy to bear with Christ’s help, and delights in them. He flourishes amid troubles, foreseeing in spirit the heavenly glory awaiting him.
And so, dear Christians, where exactly are we to find consolation amid sorrows and trials?
First, in hope in God. Saint Ephraim the Syrian tells us that every man who desires to please God cherishes hope, knowing that the Lord does not allow an unbearable temptation to overtake such a weak person as he, lest he fall into despair and it break him. Saint Paul writes, God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.[7]
Second, in patience, that healing balm that reminds us that everyone must endure some sorrow or other, but that he who bears it with discontent and complaining only makes the sorrow more bitter and difficult. However, he who gives thanks and glory to God for everything, considering himself worthy of a more severe chastisement, lightens his suffering. Such a man fully knows by experience the truth of Christ’s assurance: My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.[8]
Third, in the remembrance that everything that befalls us in accordance with the Lord’s providential care is for our ultimate benefit. Sorrows cleanse our sins, including old ones we may have forgotten. But woe to us, woe to us, if we who have spent every hour of our life sinning, appear uncleansed of defilement before the dread judgment-seat of Christ!
Finally, one can find consolation in comparing one’s own sorrows with those of others. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk counsels: “Are you enduring lengthy illness, yet have someone to serve you? Remember those covered with wounds who have no one to serve, feed, wash, or lift them; who have no one to treat their wounds. Have you been exiled? Think of the imprisoned who are beaten every day, who are forced to spend the daylight hours at hard labor, and who pass the nights in filthy, stinking cells – the imprisoned for whom death is preferable to life. Are you barely able to meet your expenses? Think about the truly poor, the half-naked, the wretched people living ill and on the streets. In your mind, descend into Gehenna, where there are souls that would prefer to return to earth and live in fire, if only they could escape eternal hellfire. Then lift up your inner eyes to the mansions of heaven, and consider that no one is living there who did not arrive on the path of patience, as it is written: We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.”[9]
Thus, as hard as it may seem to accept, sorrows are a gift from God: a great gift. In return for a little patience, we are vouchsafed ineffable, everlasting, celestial blessings, as ordained by the all-good Lord Who endured the most grievous sufferings not for His own salvation, but for ours. Sinless, He endured sufferings previously unknown to the chronicles of mankind, sufferings both physical and moral, for our sake; whereas we sinners suffer for our own sins, a little suffering for sins almost innumerable. By this we are cleansed of sins because, as Saint Paul says, we fill up thereby that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake, which is the Church.[10] And so it is that the Lord grants us the grace not only to see, but to experience forever and ever the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, which He hath prepared for them that love Him.[11] Amen.
[1] Matt. 10:38-39
[2]Rom. 8:18
[3] Ps. 33:19
[4] Ecclus 2:1-3
[5] Wisd. 3:6
[6] Rev. 7:9-10, 14
[7] I Cor. 10:13
[8] Matt. 12:30
[9] Acts 14:22
[10] Col. 1:24
[11] I Cor. 2:10
