The Holy Great-Martyr and Healer Panteleimon (286-305); Our Holy Father Clement the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Okhrid (910).
Polyeleos Feast.
2 Timothy 2:1-10; John 15:17-16:2.
Read John 15:17-16:2
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
If the entire life and ministry of Jesus could be summed up into one statement, it would be this command from today’s Gospel – love one another. In fact, this is the second time during the Last Supper discourse that Jesus has given this command. Two chapters ago we read: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you”. In giving us this command to love, Jesus is not issuing a vague directive to ‘be kind to others’. Rather, the love that Jesus calls us to has very real consequences: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you…”
Why would those who’s lives are characterized by love be subjected to persecution? As St. John the Evangelist tells us, it is because there is a fundamental conflict between those whose love is primarily directed towards the things of the world, and those who love in the absolute sense: “…light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20).
We see an example of this dynamic in the life of St. Panteleimon, the Great-Martyr and unmercenary healer whose memory we celebrate today. Panteleimon dedicated his life to the suffering, the sick, the unfortunate and the needy. He treated all those who turned to him without charge, healing them in the name of Jesus Christ. He visited those held captive in prison – these were usually Christians, and he healed them of their wounds. In a short time, reports of the charitable physician spread throughout the city. Forsaking the other doctors, the inhabitants began to turn only to St. Panteleimon.
The other doctors, envious of Panteleimon’s success, and fearful that their source of money was being threatened, told the emperor that he was healing Christian prisoners. When brought before the emperor and commanded to sacrifice to idols, St. Panteleimon confessed himself a Christian, and suggested that a sick person, for whom the doctors held out no hope, should be brought before the emperor. Then the doctors could invoke their gods, and Panteleimon would pray to his God to heal the man. A man paralyzed for many years was brought in, and pagan priests who knew the art of medicine invoked their gods without success. Then, before the very eyes of the emperor, the saint healed the paralytic by calling on the name of Jesus Christ. The furious emperor executed both the healed man, and St. Panteleimon.
As we reflect, today on command of Jesus and the life of St. Panteleimon, let us not be afraid to truly purify our idea of what it means to love. For this love that we seek is He who loved us from before the foundation of the world, as St. Gregory the Theologian says, “If someone were to ask us what it is that we honor, and what we worship, we have a ready reply: we honor love”. (Homily 23)