Похвальная беседа о святом мученике Лукиане *1

Small number of listeners compared to the previous holiday; an exhortation to constantly attend church and an explanation of the benefits for the soul from being in church. Martyrdom - baptism. The Torment of St. Lucian by hunger, the severity of this kind of torment. The only answer of the martyr at the trial: I am a Christian. The meaning of this answer in the mouth of a Christian. An exhortation to despise luxury and boldly confess Christ. 1. What I was afraid of yesterday, it happened, has come true now: when the holiday passed, the people left us along with it, and our gathering became smaller. I knew that this would happen, but I did not cancel the teaching. Not everyone who listened yesterday obeyed, but not everyone turned out to be disobedient either; and this is not little for us, in the sense of consolation. Therefore, even today I will not deviate from the teaching, since if not through us, then through you, in any case, they will hear what is said. Truly, who could bear in silence such carelessness of them, or excuse and justify those who, having seen their mother (the church) for so long and enjoying the blessings in her, withdrew and were unable to return again, became like not Noah’s dove, but a raven, and moreover, while winter and excitement still continue, and a more and more severe storm rises every day, and this holy ark stands in the middle and calls everyone and attracts in itself and brings great security to those who resort to it? It repels not the blows of water and waves, but the incessant uprisings of the most unreasonable passions, destroys envy, and overthrows madness. Here, the rich will not be able to despise the poor, hearing from the divine Scriptures that “all flesh is hay, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass” (Is. 40:6), and the poor, seeing another rich, will not indulge in envy, hearing the words of another prophet: “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases: for when he dies he will take nothing; his glory will not follow him” (Ps. 49:17–18). This is the nature of this wealth: it does not accompany those who have it, does not move from here along with those who acquired it, does not protect them when they are judged there and are subject to punishment, but is completely separated from them by death, and has abandoned many even before death; its use is incorrect, its enjoyment is unreliable, its acquisition dangerous. But these are not the properties of virtue and almsgiving; this treasure is inviolable. How is this known? The one who spoke wisely about the local wealth and said that his glory would not fall from him behind him, he also taught us about the treasures of alms, which always abid and are never stolen, saying this: “He lavished it, distributed it to the poor; his righteousness endures forever” (Ps. 111:9). What could be more surprising than this? What is collected perishes, but what is scattered remains intact - and very justly, since God accepts one thing, and no one can steal from the hand of God, while the other is preserved in human treasures, where it is subject to many intrigues, where there is a lot of envy and ill will. So, beloved, do not be lazy to spend your time here, because if any sorrow disturbs you, here it is driven away; if - everyday worries, they run away; if there are crazy passions, they go out; and from the marketplace, from spectacles and from other external gatherings, we return home, burdened with many worries, sorrows and mental illnesses. If you constantly spend time here, you will certainly put aside the evil that you received from outside; and if you begin to evade and run away, then you will certainly lose the benefits that you have acquired from the divine Scriptures, little by little squandering your wealth in external meetings and conversations. And that this is fair, try, when you leave here, to see those who were not here today, and you will see how much difference there is between your complacency and their mental disorder. The bride sitting in the bridal chamber is not as beautiful and pleasant as the soul who appears in the church, fragrant with spiritual aromas, is wondrous and glorious. Whoever comes here with faith and zeal comes out with countless treasures; as soon as he opens his mouth, he immediately fills those present with all fragrance and spiritual riches; and even if countless calamities befall him, he will endure everything easily, having received here from the divine Scriptures sufficient encouragement for patience and wisdom. And just as one who constantly stands on a rock laughs at the waves, so one who constantly participates in (church) meetings and is watered by divine sayings, having established himself as if on the rock of correct judgment about things, will not be carried away by anything human, having become above the pressure of everyday affairs. Having received great benefit and spiritual consolation not only from the teaching, but also from prayer, and from the fatherly blessing, and from the general meeting, and from the love of the brethren, and from much more, he thus returns, bringing home countless benefits. See what blessing you will receive today, and what loss they will suffer. You will leave here having received the reward of martyrs, and they, in addition to losing this profit, will suffer other harm, having incurred a large heap of worries on themselves from useless activities. As “whoever receives a prophet, in the name of a prophet, will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of a righteous person” (Matthew 10:41), so he who receives a martyr in the name of a martyr will receive the reward of a martyr; and the reception of a martyr is to gather in his memory, to participate in a conversation about his exploits, to marvel at what he accomplished, to compete in virtue, to pass on his virtues to others. This is the treat of martyrs; This is how these saints are received, and this is what you did today! 2. So, yesterday our Lord was baptized with water, and today the servant is baptized with blood; Yesterday the gates of heaven were opened, today the gates of hell were trampled under foot. Do not be surprised if I called martyrdom Baptism: here too the Spirit hovers with great abundance, and there is a blotting out of sins and some wondrous and miraculous cleansing of the soul, and just as those who are baptized with water, so those who undergo martyrdom are washed in their own blood, which also happened to this (martyr Lucian). But before talking about killing him, it is necessary to talk about the deceit of the devil. Seeing clearly that the martyr laughed at every external punishment and torment, and that, having lit the oven, and dug a hole, and prepared a wheel, and lifted him up a tree, and thrown him into an abyss, and thrown him into the teeth of animals, he could not overcome the wisdom of the saint, (the devil) came up with another, cruelest method and tried to find such a torment that would be both the sharpest and at the same time the most prolonged. Since the unbearable punishments provide a very quick deliverance, and the longer ones cause less pain, he tried to find a punishment that combines both, both duration and extreme, unbearable pain, in order to crush the hardness of the martyr’s soul by both force and length of time. What is he doing? He gives over this saint to hunger. And when you hear about hunger, do not ignore this word; it is the cruelest of all deaths; witnesses to this are those who have experienced hunger; God forbid we experience it; we are well taught to pray “so as not to fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). It (hunger), like some kind of executioner sitting inside the womb, torments all members, stronger than any fire or beast, devouring the body from all sides, causing constant and inexpressible pain. And so that you know what hunger is like, (I will say that children too) were often eaten by mothers who could not bear the power of this evil. And the prophet, lamenting this disaster, said: “The hands of soft-hearted women boiled their children” (Lamentations 4:10). Mothers ate those they gave birth to, and the womb that gave birth became a coffin for the children it gave birth to, and hunger conquered nature, or rather, not only nature, but also the will; but he did not defeat the courage of this saint. Who wouldn't be amazed to hear this? What is really stronger than nature? What is more fickle than will? And yet, so that you know that there is nothing stronger than the fear of God, the will turned out to be stronger than nature; mothers were shamed by this torment and made to forget the pains of birth, but this saint could not be dropped; This execution did not overcome his wisdom, and this execution did not defeat his courage, but he remained firmer than any adamant, enjoying good hopes, admiring the reason for exploits, having sufficient consolation in the very reason for the struggle, especially constantly listening to the words of Paul: “in hunger and thirst, ... in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor. 11:27); and also: “Even to this day we endure hunger and thirst, and nakedness and beatings” (1 Cor. 4:11), since he knew, truly knew, that “man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). When the nasty demon saw that he did not succumb to such an extreme, he made the torment even more severe: taking the sacrifice to idols and filling the table with it, he placed it before his eyes, so that the ready opportunity to weaken the firmness of his will, because we are not so caught when tempting objects are not visible, as when they are before our eyes, just as we are more easily overcome by the lust for women, without seeing a beautiful woman, than by constantly looking at her. However, the righteous man defeated this trick, and by what the devil thought to weaken his courage, this most of all strengthened him for exploits: he not only did not suffer anything from looking at what was sacrificed to idols, but even more began to turn away from it and abhor it. And what we experience in relation to our enemies - the more we look at them, the more we hate them and turn away from them - he then experienced the same in relation to that vile victim: seeing her, he abhorred and avoided her even more, and constant contemplation aroused in him even more hatred and disgust for what was proposed. Although hunger cried out strongly within and commanded to touch what was offered, the fear of God withdrew his hands and made him forget nature itself; looking at the nasty and cursed meal, (the martyr) remembered another, terrible and Spirit-filled meal, and was so inflamed that he chose to endure and endure everything rather than taste those bad foods. He also recalled the meal of the three youths, who, having been taken captive in their youth and deprived of all protection, in a foreign and barbarian land, showed such wisdom that their courage is glorified to this day. While the Jews, even owning their own land, indulged in wickedness, and while in the church, served idols, these young men, taken to a barbaric country, where idols and the reason for all wickedness, constantly observed their fatherly customs. If captives and slaves and young people, he says, showed such wisdom before grace, then what kind of forgiveness will we be worthy of if we cannot get ahead of them even in the same virtue? 3. Reflecting on all this, he laughed at the malice of the devil, despised his intrigues and did not succumb to anything visible. Therefore, when the unclean one saw that nothing was of any use to him, he took him back to the court and tortured him with continuous questions. And to every question he answered only one thing: I am a Christian; and when the executioner said: What country are you from? “I am a Christian,” he answered; what is your occupation? – I am a Christian; who are the ancestors? - He answered everything: I am a Christian, with this one simple word hitting the devil’s head and inflicting constant wounds on him one after another. Although he also had external education, he truly knew that in such competitions what is needed is not rhetoric, but faith, not the power of words, but a God-loving soul; One word is enough, he says, to put the entire horde of the devil to flight. For those who do not carefully delve into the matter, this answer will seem, perhaps, inappropriate; but whoever pays attention to him will see from him the wisdom of a martyr. Having said: I am a Christian, he explained by this his fatherland, his family, his occupation, and everything. How? I say: a Christian has no city on earth, but Jerusalem that is above: “Jerusalem that is above,” says (the apostle), “is free: she is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). A Christian has no occupation on earth, but devotes himself to a higher way of life: “but our citizenship,” says (the apostle), “is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). A Christian has all the saints as his relatives and fellow citizens: we are “fellow citizens with the saints,” says (the apostle), “and members of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). Thus, he (the martyr) in one word indicated with precision who he was, where he was from, and from whom, and what he usually did. With this word, he ended his life and departed, bearing the deposit intact to Christ, and convincing his descendants with his sufferings to be firm and not to be afraid of anything, except sin and renunciation. So, knowing this, during times of peace we too will take care of what is needed for war, so that with the onset of war we too can erect a brilliant trophy. He despised hunger, let us also despise luxury and destroy the power of the womb, so that when the time comes that requires the same courage from us, we, having prepared ourselves in advance through lesser exploits, will appear glorious during the struggle. He spoke boldly before the leaders and kings: we will do this now, and if we sit in the assemblies of rich and glorious pagans, we will boldly confess the faith and laugh at their error. If they begin to exalt their own and humiliate ours, we will not remain silent and endure it calmly, but, having revealed their vileness, we will glorify everything Christian with great wisdom and courage; and just as a king wears a diadem on his head, so we will wear our confession of faith everywhere. It is not so much that he is adorned by the crown as we are usually adorned by faith and its confession; and not only in words, but also in deeds, let us begin to do this, demonstrating in everything a life worthy of confession, so as not to disgrace the dogmas by the vileness of deeds, but, glorifying our Master in everything, to enjoy both here and there the honor that may we all be worthy of, the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory, power and honor to the Father, with the Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen. His memory was celebrated on January 7, when - in 387 - the conversation was delivered. You might be interested in: