Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

(Matt. 15:21-28) (36th Sunday after Pentecost)

I became an Orthodox Christian because I believe the Orthodox faith is the highest and best expression of the Truth. I became an Orthodox Christian because I believe the Orthodox Church is the Church established by our Lord on the Day of Pentecost. But I chose to enter the Orthodox faith and Church through the Russian Church to a very large degree because of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, whose memory we celebrate today. More on this in a moment…

In the reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew today, we see a Canaanite woman come to our Lord, beseeching Him to have mercy on her, because a demon is tormenting her daughter. At first, He ignores her. When His disciples plead her case, He tells them that He was sent only for the “lost sheep of Israel.” She comes near to Him and worships Him, asking once more for mercy; and He calls her, in effect, a dog. A dog!

I don’t know about you, but where I grew up, them’s fightin’ words! Call me a dog, will ya? But she doesn’t get upset. In fact, she agrees with the description; and points out the truth: Yes, children eat their bread at the table; but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall on the floor. To the children, the crumbs are nothing; but to the dogs, the crumbs are a great deal, indeed.

Dogs are considered to be unclean. By calling the Gentile woman a dog, our Lord is making a clear statement: The Gentiles are unclean. The Canaanite woman stands for the nations of the wicked that were driven from the Promised Land as the people of Israel came there at the end of the Exodus. They were driven out so that they would not pervert the Israelites with their idolatrous ways. Yet this woman, by her humility, obtains what she desired; her faith has taken her from being a dog under the table hoping for a crumb to being a child of God, seated at the banquet table of the great Wedding Feast in heaven. In Christ, such things are possible.

If we were honest about it, most of us would have to say that the same thing is also true of us: by the way we live, we show ourselves to be nothing more than dogs. We make ourselves unclean by our sins, when we are meant to be children, seated at God’s table. In truth, we are children; but we are acting like dogs. Yet even so, God does not withhold His blessings or His presence or His mercy or His love from us. Today, God is calling us to faith. Today, God is calling us to transformation. Today, God is calling us to repent, and confess, and come back to the table, and take part in the feast – not eat the scraps on the floor! And the only thing we need is faith.

What kind of faith are we talking about? Certainly, it is the faith of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. No one knows how many there were; no one knows how many thousands suffered; no one knows how many died, save God alone. Some were arrested because they were clergy; some were taken because they were leaders; some were dragged off because they refused to be silent when confronted with the monstrous evils of the Bolshevik regime; and some were taken for no other reason than they would not give up their Church and faith. Like us, none were perfect; like us, some struggled greatly with sins and temptations that defile the soul. But though they were treated like dogs, they did not become dogs; their faith sustained them through torture and starvation and suffering, and death, to win a seat at the high table in the Kingdom of God. They shine forth today as glorious examples of what the children of God can do if they will but have faith.

Take a look at the world around us. Can you honestly say that there will not be a time when we, as Christians, will not have to take a stand against some monstrous evil being allowed, or even required, by the government? Do you honestly think that Christians will never be hated, and therefore denounced, because of the things we believe and do? As I learned of the persecutions of the faithful in Russia, in the prisons, in the camps, and in the killing fields, I looked at myself, and found myself to be lacking. There was nothing in my experience of the life of the faith that was mine as part of the western church that I felt would equip me to face the challenges that had confronted millions of Christians in the USSR. When I found the Orthodox Church and faith; when I found how it had shaped and strengthened the New Martyrs and Confessors, I knew I had found a way to be filled with what I lacked. If I will follow the Orthodox way of life; if I will pray, and fast, and give alms, and struggle, I can be like those who are celebrated today. If you will fast, and pray, and struggle, and give, you, too, can be like the New Martyrs and Confessors. If we will be faithful, and live the life they lived, perhaps, if it is needed, we can also face death as they did; and if not us, our children, or our children’s children.

Brothers and sisters, let us keep the faith. Let us come to the table, and there receive the Bread of life, the Body of Christ, that is ours because we are among the children of God. Let us eat the Bread, and be made strong by it, to live the Orthodox faith and life; and bear witness thereby that Christ is in our midst, and nothing, not even arrest, imprisonment, torture, or death, can take the Truth away from us..

Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, pray to God for us!