Our Venerable Father Simeon, Fool for Christ, and His Fellow Ascetic John.
These two young men left their homes
and relatives: Simeon, his aged mother and John, his young wife. Both
received the monastic tonsure at the hands of the Abbot Nicon in the
Monastery of St. Gerasimus and withdrew into the wilderness where
they lived an austere life of asceticism for many years. Through
rigorous asceticism, they mortified their bodies so much that they
resembled two withered trees. One day Simeon said to John that,
according to God's command, he must depart from the wilderness and go
among the people and there serve God. John gave him this counsel:
"Guard our heart against all that you will see in the world.
Whatever you touch with your hand, do not allow it to touch your
heart. Whatever you eat with your mouth, let not your heart be
satisfied. When your feet begin to walk, let there be peace within
you. And whatever you do outwardly, let not your mind remain
disturbed. Pray to God for me, that He does not separate us, one from
the other, in the future life." St. Simeon accepted the counsel
of his companion, kissed him and, after that, departed the wilderness
and went among the people as a "fool for Christ," to teach
men and to convert them to the Faith of Christ. He pretended insanity
before men but his heart was the temple of the Holy Spirit and, in
that temple, was unceasing prayer. He possessed abundant grace from
God and was able to discern all the inner secrets of men, both near
and far, healing men from evil spirits and other ailments. Dancing in
the streets as one insane, he approached men and whispered their sins
in their ears and called them to repentance. He even appeared to
sinners in dreams, rebuked them for their sins and called them to
repentance. Thus it was with Bali, a pagan actor, who openly mocked
Christian shrines and to whom St. Simeon appeared in a dream, rebuked
and warned him so that he repented and became a model Christian. A
young fornicator went out of his mind because of sexual promiscuity.
Seeing this insane young man, St. Simeon struck him across the face
with his hand and said: "Do not commit fornication." At
that moment the unclean demon departed from the young man and he
became well.The Holy Prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel was the son of a priest from
the town of Sarir. He was taken to Babylon into captivity with King
Jeoiachim along with many other Israelites. Living in captivity,
Ezekiel prophesied for twenty-seven years. He was a contemporary of
the Prophet Jeremiah. While Jeremiah taught and prophesied in
Jerusalem, so Ezekiel taught and prophesied in Babylon. The
prophecies of Jeremiah were known in Babylon and the prophecies of
Ezekiel were known in Jerusalem. Both of these holy men agreed in the
prophecies of each other. Both were mistreated and tortured by the
unbelieving Jewish people. St. Ezekiel had frightening and
unimaginable visions. By the river Chebar, Ezekiel saw the heavens
open, "a great cloud and a fire infolding itself and a
brightness was about it" (Ezekiel 1:4) and four wild creatures
like molten copper [burnished brass]. One creature had the face of a
man, the second the face of a lion, the third the face of a calf
[ox], the fourth the face of an eagle [Ezekiel 1:10]. The face of the
man signifies the Lord Incarnate as a man, the face of the lion, His
divinity, the face of the calf, His sacrifice and the face of an
eagle, His resurrection and ascension. At another time he was shown
the vision of the resurrection of the dead. The prophet saw a valley
full of dry dead bones and when the Spirit of God descended upon
them, they came to life and rose to their feet [Ezekiel 37:1-10]. He
also saw the most terrible destruction of Jerusalem when the wrath of
God mowed down all, except those who were earlier marked with the
Greek symbol called Tau [Ezekiel 9: 1-7]. This mark is like our
letter T which is also the sign also of the Cross. The evil of the
Jews did not even spare this holy man. Infuriated at him because he
rebuked them, the Jews tied him to the tails of horses and ripped him
in two. He was buried in the same sepulchre with Shem, the Son of
Noah.
Respectably Taken From the:
"The Prologue of Ohrid"
by St. Nikolai of Zica, Serbia(Velimirovic)
No comments:
Post a Comment