© Copyright 2020 Saint Kosmas Orthodox Christian Education Association. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or posted on another website without permission of the copyright owner. Permission is granted to share this lesson only by sharing the link to this webpage.
Dear Children,
On October 26 we celebrate the feast day of Saint Demetrios the Great-martyr and myrrh-streamer. The Gospel reading for the feast of the St. Demetrios and all male Great-martyrs is John 15:17-16:2. In this Gospel reading, Christ is speaking to His disciples to strengthen them before His upcoming Passion, and for the persecution that they also will face.
Let’s read together the words of Christ in the Gospel for today’s feast:
“These things I command you, that you be loving one another. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you for Myself out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Keep on remembering the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they know not the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates Me hates My Father also. If I did not do the works among them which no other one has done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which has been written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ But whenever the Paraclete should come, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, that One shall bear witness concerning Me. And you also are bearing witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. These things I have spoken to you, in order that you should not be made to stumble. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yes, moreover, there comes an hour that everyone who kills you shall think that he offers God a service.”
Martyrdom is the highest reaching and most complete expression of love for God and love for one's neighbor. The martyrs had such love for Christ that they were willing to give their lives rather than obey the emperor and offer him sacrifice. They forgave those who tortured them, the ultimate expression of love for their neighbor.
In the Gospel (John 15:17-16:2) for the feast of the St. Demetrios, Christ is speaking to His disciples to strengthen them before His upcoming Passion, and for the persecution that they also will face.
This Gospel reading begins with Christ's command to "love one another". The Spirit of Truth commands us to love and to forgive. The spirit of the world is against what the Church teaches. Instead of love, the world teaches hate; instead of forgiveness, retaliation. The ruler of the world is Satan and all those who he works through, especially the Antichrist. But Christ is the All-Powerful One, the Pantocrator.
Throughout church history there has always been persecution. With persecution the devil attempts to attack through violence, with force. The martyrs of our Church have suffered and given their lives rather than to deny Christ.
Even more evil is how the devil attacks through heresy. Heresy is a lie of the devil. The devil is the father of lies. He attempts to deceive people through heresies. The fathers and confessors of our Church fought hard against every heresy to preserve the truth.
We must be willing to stand up for the truth especially as times get more difficult. Like the martyrs we must be ready and willing to give our lives to confess our faith that Christ alone is the true God, fully God and fully man, born of a Virgin mother.