Martyrdom throughout the Length of Days
Martyrdom means bearing witness to God. Every soul that seeks in pureness of heart to know God and obeys the commandments of God is a martyr, bearing witness by life or by words.
In fact even if it is not a matter of shedding blood, the soul is pouring out its faith because it is by faith that the soul will be separated from the body before a person dies.
That is why, in the Gospel, the Lord praises the person ‘who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the Gospel.’ That person is blessed because he too is going to meet martyrdom simply by living in a way that is different from the crowd, because he is following the rule of the Gospel for love of his Lord.
The truly righteous are set apart from the world because they produce the fruits of grace in their actions. They do this because they have been able to become a friend of God and to obtain a place at the right hand of the Father, as the Apostles have done.
Clement of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Studies, 4, 4, 15 (Stahlin II, P.255)
Salvation Depends on Mutual Help
We cannot be saved by seeking just our own individual salvation; we need to look first to the good of others.
In warfare, the soldier who takes to flight to save his own skin brings disaster on himself as well as on the others, whereas the good soldier who takes up arms on behalf of his comrades saves his own life along with theirs.
Our life is a warfare, the bitterest of battles. So in loyalty to our King let us draw up the lines of battle ready for blood and slaughter, with our eyes on the salvation of all, encouraging the stalwarts and stirring up the laggards.
Many of our brothers and sisters have fallen in this battle, wounded and covered with blood, with no one to care for them. There is no one to look after them, no layman, no priest, no comrade, no friend, no brother, because we are all of us seeking our own individual salvation, and thereby spoiling our chance of attaining it.
True freedom and glory come from not being concerned with ourselves. We are weak and vulnerable to the devil’s attacks because we are not doing this. We are not standing shoulder to shoulder in the fight. We are not fortified with the love of God. We are not using the shield of brotherly love. On the contrary, we are seeking friends and comrades from very different motives: either because of family ties, or from habit, or because we live nearby, instead of the search for sanctity.
All our friendships ought to be cemented with this one bond, the desire to help one another.
John Chrysostom, On the Gospel of St Matthew, 59, 5 (PG58, 581)
~Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
