عبرانیان ۴.۱-۱۳ (رساله)

۱پس به‌هوش باشیم مبادا با اینکه وعدۀ راه یافتن به آسایش او هنوز به قوّت خود باقیست، آشکار شود که احدی از شما، از دست یافتن به آن باز‌مانده است. ۲زیرا به ما نیز چون ایشان بشارت داده شد. امّا پیامی که شنیدند، سودی برایشان نداشت، زیرا با آنان که گوش فرا دادند به ایمان متحد نشدند. ۳ولی ما که ایمان آورده‌ایم، به آن آسایش راه می‌یابیم. چنانکه خدا فرموده است: «پس در خشم خود سوگند خوردم که به آسایش من هرگز راه نخواهند یافت،» و با این همه، کارهای او از زمان آفرینش جهان به پایان رسیده بود؛ ۴زیرا در جایی راجع به روز هفتم بیان می‌کند که: «خدا در هفتمین روز، از همۀ کارهای خویش بیاسود،» ۵و باز در قسمتی که در بالا نقل شد، می‌گوید: «به آسایش من هرگز راه نخواهند یافت.» ۶بنابراین، از آنجا که این حقیقت به قوّت خود باقی است که برخی می‌باید به آن آسایش راه یابند، و آنان که پیشتر بشارت یافتند، به سبب نافرمانی راه نیافتند، ۷پس خدا دیگر بار روزی خاص را مقرر فرمود، و پس از گذشت سالهای بسیار، در مزامیر داوود، از ’امروز‘ سخن گفت و آن‌گونه که پیشتر بیان شد، فرمود: «امروز، اگر صدای او را می‌شنوید، دل خود را سخت مسازید.» ۸زیرا اگر یوشَع به آنها آسایش بخشیده بود، مدتها بعد، خدا از روزی دیگر سخن نمی‌گفت. ۹پس قوم خدا هنوز باید از آسایش شَبّات برخوردار شوند؛ ۱۰زیرا هر کس که به آسایش خدا داخل می‌شود، او نیز از کارهای خود آسودگی می‌یابد، همان‌گونه که خدا از کارهای خود برآسود. ۱۱پس بیایید به‌جدّ بکوشیم تا به آن آسایش راه یابیم، مبادا کسی از نافرمانی آنان سرمشق گیرد و در‌لغزد. ۱۲زیرا کلام خدا زنده و مؤثر است و بُرنده‌تر از هر شمشیر دو دم، و چنان نافذ که نَفْس و روح، و مفاصل و مغزِ استخوان را نیز جدا می‌کند، و سنجشگر افکار و نیّتهای دل است. ۱۳هیچ چیز در تمام آفرینش از نظر خدا پنهان نیست، بلکه همه چیز در برابر چشمان او که حساب ما با اوست، عریان و آشکار است.

لوقا ۲۱.۱۲-۱۹ (انجیل)

۱۲«امّا پیش از این همه، شما را گرفتار کرده، آزار خواهند رسانید و به کنیسه‌ها و زندانها خواهند سپرد، و به‌خاطر نام من، شما را نزد پادشاهان و والیان خواهند برد ۱۳و این‌گونه فرصت خواهید یافت تا شهادت دهید. ۱۴این را خوب به خاطر بسپارید که پیشاپیش نگران نباشید در دفاع از خود چه بگویید. ۱۵زیرا به شما کلام و حکمتی خواهم داد که هیچ‌یک از دشمنانتان را یارای مقاومت یا مخالفت با آن نباشد. ۱۶حتی والدین و برادرانتان، و خویشان و دوستانتان شما را تسلیم دشمن خواهند کرد و برخی از شما را خواهند کشت. ۱۷مردم همه به‌خاطر نام من از شما نفرت خواهند داشت. ۱۸امّا مویی از سرتان گُم نخواهد شد. ۱۹با پایداری، جان خود را نجات خواهید داد.

قدیس ماکاریوس کبیر

He was born around 300 in Egypt and in his youth was a camel driver. While still living in his village, he withdrew to a small cell to devote himself exclusively to ascesis and prayer. When the people there wanted to make him a priest, he fled to another village. There a young woman who was discovered to be pregnant falsely accused Macarius of being the father. Macarius was seized, reviled and beaten, but made no effort to defend himself; instead he took on more work in order to provide for the mother and her child. When his innocence was finally discovered, the townspeople came to ask his forgiveness; but he fled to the desert of Sketis (now called Wadi Natrun). He was then thirty years old, and for the rest of his life he dwelt in the desert.

His humility and detachment from earthly things were so great that once, when he discovered a thief stealing his few possessions, he helped the man load them onto his camel, even pointing out to him the few things he had missed. Once a demon spoke to him thus: “Everything you do, I do too: you fast, but I never eat; you keep vigil, but I never sleep; you only exceed me in one way: your humility. Because of this I am helpless against you.” The Saint said that the demons could be put in two categories: those who arouse passions such as anger, lust and greed; and others, much more dreadful, who deceive us by spiritual illusion, blasphemy and heresy.

Saint Macarius soon became known throughout Egypt, and many visitors came to his isolated home. He welcomed all with joy, judging no one and providing hospitality for all. His compassion extended to all, and he prayed even for the damned. Once he found the skull of a pagan priest, which addressed him, saying, “Each time you have pity on us who are in torment, immersed in fire and darkness, we receive a measure of comfort and are allowed to see the faces of our fellow sufferers.”

Saint Macarius became a disciple of St Anthony the Great, and in his turn became the spiritual Father of many who came to live near him in the desert. He is considered the founder of the ancient and venerable monastic community at Sketis. At the age of forty he was ordained a priest at the urging of St Anthony, so that he and his brethren would not have to walk the forty miles of desert to Nitria to go to church.

Knowing that he was soon to die, he visited his disciples one last time, saying to them with tears in his eyes, “Let us weep, brethren, so that our eyes flow ceaselessly with tears, before we go to where our tears will scald our bodies.” Soon thereafter he reposed. His relics now rest in the Coptic monastery that bears his name. The collection of fifty Spiritual Homilies attributed to St Macarius is a treasury of Orthodox spirituality.

پدر مقدس ما مرقس اِوجنیکوس, متروپولیت اِفِسُس و معترف ارتدکس ایمان (۱۴۴۳)

This holy defender of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church labored in the final days of the Byzantine Empire, when, pressed on all sides by the Turks, the Emperor in desperation sought union with (or rather submission to) the Papacy in hopes of obtaining aid from the West. It was St Mark who stood almost alone to prevent such a disaster to the Faith.

He was born in Constantinople in 1392 to devout parents. He received a thorough education and seemed destined for a secular career, but at the age of twenty- six he abandoned all worldly claims and became a monk in a small monastery in Nicomedia. Soon the Turkish threat forced him to return to Constantinople, where, continuing in the monastic life, he wrote a number of treatises on prayer and the dogmas of the Church. In time he was ordained priest, then, at the insistence of the Emperor John VIII Paleologos was made Metropolitan of Ephesus. The Emperor also prevailed on him to join the delegation which traveled to the Council of Florence to consider the reunion of the Orthodox Church and the churches under the Papacy. (Saint Mark went as exarch of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria, who were unable to attend.)

The Greek delegation included the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople. All, including Metropolitan Mark, began with great hopes that a true union in faith might result from the Council, but as the sessions proceeded, it soon became clear that Pope Eugenius and his theologians were interested only in securing submission of the Eastern Church to the Papacy and its theology. The Metropolitan spoke forcefully against various Latin dogmas such as the filioque and Purgatory, but the Greek delegation, desperate for western aid, bowed to expediency and agreed to sign a document of Union which would have denied the Orthodox Faith itself. Saint Mark was the only member of the delegation who refused to sign. When the Pope heard of this, he said “The bishop of Ephesus has not signed, so we have achieved nothing!”

When the delegation returned to Constantinople, the signers of the false Union were received with universal condemnation by the people, while Metropolitan Mark was hailed as a hero. The churches headed by Unionists were soon almost empty, while the people flocked to the churches headed by those loyal to Orthodoxy. Saint Mark left the City to avoid concelebrating with the Unionist Patriarch. He was exiled by the Emperor to Lemnos, but was freed in 1442. He continued to oppose the Union until his repose in 1444. In 1452 the Union was officially proclaimed in Constantinople, but the hoped-for Western aid was not forthcoming, and the City fell to the Turks in 1453.