The Passing of Our Venerable Father Abraham, Archimandrite and Wonderworker of Rostov; The Holy Venerable-Martyr Anastasia of Rome; Our Venerable Father Abraham the Recluse.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-14; Luke 11:14-23.
Read 1 Thessalonians 2:9-14
Catherine Doherty writes this in her letter, “Where Love is, God Is” (Cf “Grace in Every Season” page 289,290):
What we need today is Saints. Hundreds, thousands, millions more saints! All kinds of bombs, hates, and fears vanish like mist in the sun before saints, before men and women in love with God, men and women of sanctity.
Sanity means much loving. That is what we have been created for – to love – to love our neighbour and, through him or her, to love God. Loving is fun. Loving is joy. Loving is peace. Loving means serving. Loving means forgetting self for others. Learn how to love, and all the rest will be added unto you.
We are almost beside ourselves today with fears – about bombs and wars. Our heads cannot rest anywhere, nor our hearts, nor our souls. We seek answers vainly in armaments, treaties, and laws, knowing, even while we do all this, that we are shadowboxing because there is nothing we can do to prevent annihilation from the weapons our own brains have invented.
Nothing can save us except sanctity. That’s why we need to saints today. If St. Francis of Assisi had an atomic bomb, would any one worry about it? No. Because, being a saint, he loved much. And where love is, there cannot be fear or evil.
Ah, we do need Saint today! We need understanding, too, to realize that the greatest tragedy that can befall us is not to be saints.
Now, in light of what Catherine Doherty has written, read the following phrases that St Paul has written in today’s epistle to the Thessalonians:
“we worked day and night”
“that we might not burden you”
“how pure upright and blameless our conduct”
“we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children”
“urging and encouraging you”
“we also constantly give thanks to God for this”
“you accepted it not as human word but as what it really is, God’s word.”
If St Paul had a nuclear bomb “would any one worry about it?” Again, we see the magnanimity of St Paul’s character and his Spiritual love. We see the magnanimity of the lives of the saints. As Jesus called his disciples to follow him, described as the ‘carrying of the cross’ so too Paul tells the early Christians to imitate him. (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1) So too, we are all called to do likewise; the path taken by the saints, lives lived! Amen.