Autumnal Feasts
Archbishop Nikon (Rklitsky)
The wheel of time spins tirelessly on. Everything
changes and everything passes. Those hot, stuffy days, when the
scorching stones of the big city would bring exhaustion to its
inhabitants, have departed from us. The last warm rays struggle to
penetrate the cool air, where the flocks of hovering birds take
enjoyment in them. These days hold a mystical sorrow for the life
that is dying, and a distant premonition of the coming resurrection.
But even more beautiful than the dying nature are the Orthodox
feasts of autumn. And so in the quiet of Holy Trinity Monastery and
Holy Ascension Cathedral, we celebrated the Dormition of the Mother
of God, the feast of St. Job of Pochaev, on the following day the
great feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, and then the
memory of St. Alexander Nevsky (the patronal feast day of the
Lakewood church).
Once, not long before the Great War, tens of thousands
of worshipers would gather at the Pochaev Lavra for two great
feasts: St. Job of Pochaev and the Beheading of St. John the
Baptist. Then-Archbishop Anthony of Volyn, future founder of the
Russian Church Abroad, would summon the faithful to the Pochaev
Lavra on these days. And these feasts were dear to the hearts of the
people. Having persevered the harsh summer, having gathered their
harvests in the fields, farms, and gardens, the Orthodox residents
of these western lands, oppressed by their heterodox neighbors, came
fervently to the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God and to St. Job of
Pochaev in his grandiose Dormition Church, built by Count Potocki on
a mountaintop, and which Emperor Nicholas I called an "audacious
structure." This church housed over five thousands, and it so
happened that in those days even it could not hold all of the
worshipers. In one of the last years, so many people came that the
iron railings on the massive stone stairs could not hold them back,
and many people fell off; thankfully not to the left side, into the
ravine that was there, but to the right side, and only a few of
those who fell received bruises and sprains. In the aftermath of
this unpleasantness, as the generous landlord, Archbishop Anthony
gave every victim 100-150 rubles, with which one would buy himself a
new horse, or another would solidify his holdings. And thus the
injuries healed on their own.
So it once was in the boundless expanses of Russia. Now
we celebrated the feast of the Beheading here in New York, in Holy
Fathers Church (600 W 153 St.). This church is located in a
picturesque spot in New York: on the side of a hill, between an old
cemetery and the wide, abounding Hudson River. This church is highly
prized by our whole diocese. It was the first founded by the
now-reposed Archbishop Apollinary. Although it is situated in the
basement of a large building, it is nonetheless a true church, well
prayed-in and grandly adorned with icons; it disposes one to prayer,
and attracts many of our worshipers.[1]
Jarov’s
male choir sang during the divine service, under the artful
direction of the parish’s longtime choir director, A. Krasnoumov,
along with Priest Sergay Kargay, recently arrived from Venezuela
with a young hierodeacon, Fr. Anthony, who not long before had
undergone a complicated surgery in St. Luke’s Hospital, and who
still bears marks of his illness. As an aside, there in the hospital
the American doctors, alongside our compatriot Dr. B.N. Petrov, and
the hospital staff, surrounded our young monk with love and
attention, caring for him as though he were family. May the Lord
reward them for it.[2]
Among
our worshipers, in addition to the parishioners, there stood many
DPs, recently having arrived from Europe, where they learned how
properly to pray and not be burdened by the long services.
The feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, or
Forerunner, is one of our 15 great feasts (7 feasts in honor of the
Lord, 1 feast in honor of Christ and the Mother of God, 4 feasts in
honor of the Theotokos, 2 in honor of St. John the Baptist – his
Nativity and Beheading, and 1 in honor of the Apostles – the feast
of Sts. Peter and Paul). These 15 feasts are like satellites,
surrounding our Sun – the festival of festivals, the feast of
feasts, the Lord’s Pascha, eternal joy – victory over death.
What is special about the feast of the Beheading is in
its confirmation of truth as the eternal and immutable foundation of
Christ’s Church.
Two
thousand years ago, in the palace of Herod, already subdued by Roman
conquerors, but nonetheless having preserved its arrogance and
pride, there is a banquet. King Herod celebrates his birthday. His
guests are the noble dignitaries of his waning kingdom: his
commanders and lords. And here appears the "dancer," the young
daughter of Herodias, Herod’s unlawful wife. Her artful dancing
elicits the delight of the drunken crowd. Herod, showing off his
imaginary might before his underlings, promises the dancer whatever
she asks of him, "unto the half of my kingdom." This, of course, he
could not fulfill, being as he was under the authority of the Roman
occupiers. The dancer runs to her mother for counsel, and Herodias
decides to exact her revenge on the great prophet, languishing on
her account in Herod’s prisons. More than once has Herodias asked of
Herod that he kill John, because he said of her: "It is not lawful
for thee to have thy brother’s wife" (Mark 6:18). Herod had
considered this murder himself, but when he was sober, he decided
against it, as "he feared the multitude, because they counted him as
a prophet" (Matthew 14:5). He himself trembled with awe before his
prisoner: "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and
an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many
things, and heard him gladly" (Mark 6:20).
But now he is drunk with passion, arrogant and proud.
Hearing this senseless request, he seems for a moment to grow sober.
— "And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and
for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her" (Mark
6:26). "Would that thou hadst not made that vow, O iniquitous Herod,
offspring of a lie," says the Holy Church. "And since thou didst
make the vow, would that thou hadst not carried it out; for it were
better to have foresworn thyself and receive life, than remaining
true to thine oath to have cut off the head of the Forerunner."
Herod fulfilled his oath. The head of "the greatest among them that
are born of women," the "mediator of the Old and Forerunner of the
New, leader of the preaching of the Gospel," as the Church calls
him, was severed. He received his end, barely 30 years of age, in
the prime of his glory, having the greatest authority amongst his
countrymen. But did this great prophet choose correctly, from the
point of view of worldly wisdom? Was it worth the cost to involve
himself in Herod’s private life? Would it not have been better for
him to join Christ in preaching, supporting His activity with his
own authority? Or maybe he would even have been better off making a
concession to Herodias and using his influence over Herod to curry
favor with the king? After all, he was not killed for preaching the
Gospel, nor was he killed for bearing witness to the Messiah, but
for an extraneous circumstance, which had no direct connection to
the preaching of the Gospel. Many similar insidious questions might
be posed today to those who wish to follow the great prophet’s
example.
John the Baptist’s death for the sake of truth clearly
speaks to the character of the new teaching for which the great
prophet was the forerunner. John bore witness to the world that
Jesus Christ was truly the promised Messiah, the Son of God, who
taketh away the sin of the world. And humanity, saved, accepted
John’s witness as truth, because he was a bearer of truth his whole
life. One who has impressed his life into the service of truth
cannot err in bearing witnessing to the Messiah. He who was faithful
over a few things will be faithful all the more so over many things.
The great prophet could make no concessions, no compromises. Since
life saw fit to present him with these circumstances, in which he
was called upon to bear witness to truth, he did so without any
vacillation. His heart and mind could harbor no thought of
compromise. In this we can see his true greatness. And this law
remains the law of Christianity for all time. There can be no
falsehood or wickedness at the basis of Church life. The ship of the
Church must follow the straight path of truth. The ship cannot, as
one famous spiritual writer recently wrote, "sway to and fro…" Where
there is uncertainty, there is departure from Christ’s Church, there
it is impossible, as the same writer wrote, "to carry those human
souls, faithful to the Lord, to the eternal shore." That is why the
great feast of the Beheading of the Holy Prophet St. John the
Baptist is so dear to us. In it is confirmed the clear and immutable
path of Christ’s Church – that path is the path of truth.
[1] In 1961, a splendid church was built in the Russian style on that same
street in New York.
[2] Since 1968, Fr. Anthony has been the Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical
Mission in Jerusalem in the rank of Archimandrite.
