The Power of Faith in Christ
1st Sunday of Great Lent
Hebrews 11:24-26; 32-40; 12:1-2; John 1:43-51
The Apostle Paul, writing to his blood relatives, the Jews, reminded them of the power of faith that Old Testament righteous men had in Christ the Saviour, whom they did not live to see, but hoped that He would come. The apostle reminds us of specific examples:
“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”
(Hebrews 11:24-25)
The holy Apostle Paul testifies that faith in the coming of the Messiah-Christ was both an idea and a motivation for Moses to renounce worldly enjoyments and choose a path of suffering with his people. The apostle asserts that Moses considered
“the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”
(Heb. 11:26)
Moses died in faith, not having seen Christ the Saviour, but he did not lose God's reward, for he lived and died with that true and necessary faith.
The apostle cites a number of names (Gideon, Barak, Samson, Ephraim, David, and Samuel) and “prophets” who showed great faith in the future, in the coming of the Messiah-Christ, enduring incredible hardships, and defending their faith in difficult circumstances. They
“were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword… being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.” (Heb. 11:37-38).
None of the mentioned righteous ones and confessors witnessed the coming of Christ in their earthly life, but while living on earth, they displayed great faith among people and thereby strengthened that faith among their nation, being living examples of loyalty to God. And, consequently, they also became heirs of God’s mercy when Christ came to earth and brought salvation for all truly believing people.
The Apostle reminds us all that
“faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.“ (Heb. 11:1)
The unseen, the future can only be felt with the spirit, seen with spiritual eyes. That is why great people must have great spiritual strength to keep their faith in purity and truth through the long years of severe persecution, bans, and mockery of the rulers.
Today, on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent, the Holy Orthodox Church cites the examples of faith mentioned by the Apostle Paul, while also reminding us of the suffering faith of the first three centuries of Christianity.
The Church reminds us that in all ages, even in countries where there were officially Christian rulers, kings, and tsars, who sometimes even bore the title of defenders of Christians (even Defenders of the Orthodox Faith, as was the case in the Byzantine or Russian empires), it happened that these rulers persecuted the bearers of the Truth, people of great and strong Faith.
Great, strong faith is forged and strengthened precisely through persecutions and hardships. Our nation, many of its sons and daughters, also suffered greatly, enduring hardships for professing their pious Orthodox faith during the times of the Tatar invasions and turmoil.
We provide here just one vivid example from that period. Makary was chosen as the Metropolitan of Kyiv and could have quietly lived in Vilno, like his predecessors, and merely used the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv. But he refused those earthly comforts and a quiet life because he wished to live among his people, to share in their suffering and hardships under Tatar rule. Therefore, he set out on a journey from Vilno to Kyiv.
On May 14, 1497, the Tatars beheaded him while he was conducting the Divine Liturgy. Saint Macarius released everyone who was with him and said to them:
“Save yourselves, children, but I cannot; I must finish the Divine Service.”
This happened just over 200 kilometers from Kyiv. The body of Metropolitan Macarius, without its head, was brought to Kyiv and became one of the greatest treasures of St. Sophia's Cathedral. The headless body of St. Macarius was a testament to great faith—the faith of apostles and martyrs, who acted according to Christ's command:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” (Matthew 10:28)
And that testimony of faith—the headless body of St. Macarius—nurtured, strengthened, and will continue to strengthen true faith—the Orthodox faith.
We have a great number of confessors and martyrs who testified to their strong faith in Christ the Saviour during the times of Tatar rule, during our people’s captivity under the Turks, under the rule of fanatical Roman Catholic Polish nobility, and under various occupiers.
It must be said that not only outsiders persecuted the righteous of our people, but also the so-called “pious Russian tsars”, who sentenced the sons of our people, for their steadfastness in truth, to horrific punishments, walling them up in dungeons (as they also did with the hetman of the Zaporizhian Host, Petro Kalnyshevskyi).
In Lubny, at the Mharskyi Transfiguration Monastery, by the order of Tsar Peter I, even the remains of the last free Metropolitan of Ukraine, Yosyp Tukalskyi, who had been elected Metropolitan at the Clergy Council in 1663, were walled up in a wall more than two meters thick because he refused to consent to the subjugation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In this way, the Russian tsar sought to wall up the very memory, the history of the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
During the reign of the Russian tsars, starting from Tsar Peter I, on this Sunday — the Sunday of Orthodoxy — they cursed and anathematized the builder of God's holy temples — Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Our Ukrainian Orthodox Church, however, prays on this Sunday, as at other times, for the repose of the soul of this great son of the Ukrainian people.
Under the rule of atheists, our Ukrainian people suffered the most; it is impossible to count how many hundreds of thousands of martyrs perished for professing the Orthodox faith and, in general, faith in Christ. Yet cruel persecution continues in our times… It is hard for us even to remember this, but we know that
“Nor can the greedy plough any field / In the murky abyss of an ocean. / The living soul he will not bind, / The living word he’ll not constrain, / He’ll not besmirch God’s glory, / The glory of the great Creator”, as affirmed by our national prophet Taras Shevchenko. (The Caucasus)
The faith of our people in Christ the Saviour cannot be destroyed even by modern godless persecutors — our nation has been enslaved, but has always remained unconquered. Yet we must value and remember that for the confession and affirmation of the Truth, of true faith, many people have made great sacrifices, even giving their lives, and continue to endure suffering and hardships today.
From the consciousness of all this, it is easy for us to bear for ourselves those small restrictions established by the Orthodox Church during the Great Lent, so that our true faith is strengthened, so that we feel unity with God and our Creator through unity with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
