Life and miracles of St. John (Maximovich) Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco — one of the greatest saints of the 20-th century.

Childhood

ARCHBISHOP JOHN was born on June 4, 1896, in the village of Adamovka in the province of Kharkov in southern Russia. He was a member of the Little Russian noble family of Maximovitch, to which St. John of Tobolsk also had belonged. He received at baptism the name of Michael, his heavenly protector being the Archangel Michael. He was a sickly child and ate little…..

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Tuesday. [I Cor. 12:12-26; Matt. 18:18-22; 19:1-2, 13-15]

Wanting to know how many times one should forgive his brother, Saint Peter asked with the suggestion: forgive till seven times? Saying this, he thought that he chose the greatest amount. How short is human patience! The Lord, applying His longsuffering to our infirmities, determined, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but Until seventy times seven. This is the same as saying: always forgive and do not think about not forgiving. All-forgivingness shall be the distinctive feature of a Christian spirit, as all-forgivingness is the source and constant support of our life in the Lord, from God Himself. Customary forgiving everyone of everything is the outer clothing of Christian love, which according to the Epistle, suffereth long, and is kind, is not easily provoked, beareth all things (I Cor. 13:4-7). It is the most faithful guarantee of forgiveness at the last judgment; for if we forgive, our heavenly Father will also forgive us (Matt. 6:14). In such a manner, if you want to go to heaven—forgive everyone, sincerely, from the bottom of your heart, so that not even a shadow of hostility remains.

In this Sunday of All Saints, St. Theophan the Recluse teaches about True Christian Love, as we can see in New Martyr Vukasin who our Holy Serbian Orthodox Church remembers on May 29:

Friday. [Rom. 2:14–29; Matt. 5:33–41]

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil (Matt. 5:39); in other words, allow yourself to be a victim of human selfishness and malice. But how can one live like that? Do not worry. He who gave this commandment is our Provider and Guardian. When you desire to live like this with complete faith from your whole soul, to not resist any evil, the Lord Himself will arrange a life for you which is not only bearable, but joyful. Furthermore, resistance in fact can irritate an aggressor even more and motivate him to invent new troubles, whereas a yielding demeanour disarms him and humbles him. Thus, if you would just suffer the first onslaught of malice, people will take pity on you and leave you alone, while resistance and revenge kindle malice, which is passed on from the individual to his family, and then from generation to generation.”

Saturday. [Rom. 1:7–12; Matt. 5:42–48]

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matt. 5:44). There is nobody on the earth without love. People love their parents and relatives, benefactors and protectors. But the feeling of love toward parents, relatives, protectors and benefactors is natural and forms unaided in the heart; that is why the Lord does not give it value. True Christian love is proved by our relationship to enemies. Not only should light and incidental annoyances not extinguish our love for others, but not even attacks and persecutions, misfortunes and deprivations, intentionally and hostilely inflicted. We must not only bless these people, but also do good to them and pray for them. See whether you have such a disposition toward your enemies, and judge by this whether you have Christian love, without which there is no salvation.”

[John 4:5–42]

The Samaritan’s woman fellow citizens said to her after two days with the Saviour in their midst, Now we believe not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world (John 4:42). It happens this way with everyone. At first they are called to the Lord by an external word, or as for many now, simply by birth. But when they taste in practice what it is to live in the Lord, they no longer cleave to the Lord through their external affiliation with Christian society, but through their inner union with Him. It is necessary for all who are born in Christian societies to make this a law for themselves; that is, to not limit themselves to mere external affiliation with the Lord, but to seek to unite with Him inwardly, that they may always bear witness within themselves that they are standing in the truth. Why is this necessary? It is necessary to embody within oneself the truth of Christ. The truth of Christ is a restoration of what is fallen. Thus, put off the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness (cf. Eph. 4:22–24), and you will know within yourself that the Lord Jesus Christ is in truth the Saviour—not only for the world, but also for you.

(St. Theophan the Recluse “Daily readings”)

Reflection in today’s Prologue from Ochrid:

It is a great art for anyone to unite love for God and to have fear of God. Many other Holy Fathers whenever they speak about love for God, at the same time, also mention fear of God, and vice-versa. In his homily: “On Perfect Love,” St. John Chrysostom speaks about suffering and the pains of Hell at the same time. Why? Because the great love of man toward God without fear, imperceptibly crosses over into pride and then, again, a great fear of God without love leads to despair.

Sunday of the Paralytic. [Acts 9:32–42; John 5:1–15]

Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee (John 5:14). Sin does not strike only the soul, but the body as well. In some cases this is exceedingly obvious; in others, although not so clearly, the truth remains that the illnesses of the body always stem from sins. A sin is committed in the soul and directly makes it sick; but since the life of the body comes from the soul, then the life coming from a sick soul is of course not healthy. The mere fact that sin brings darkness and sorrow must unfavourably act on the blood, in which lies the basis of bodily health. But when you remember that it separates man from God, the Source of life, and places man in disharmony with all laws acting in himself and in nature, then one must marvel how a sinner remains alive after sinning. This is the mercy of God, Who awaits repentance and conversion. Consequently, a sick person must rush first of all to be cleansed of sins and make peace with God in his conscience. This paves the way for the beneficial action of medicine. They say that there was one distinguished doctor who would not begin treatment until the patient had confessed and received the holy Mysteries; and the more serious the disease, the more urgently he insisted upon this.

(source: Thoughts for Each Day of the Year according to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God by St. Theophan the Recluse)

[Acts 5:12–20; John 20:19–31]

My Lord and my God! (John 20:28) cried the holy apostle Thomas. Do you feel the strength with which he has grasped the Lord, and how tightly he is holding onto Him? A drowning man grasps the plank on which he hopes to be saved in the same way. We will add that whoever does not have the Lord like this for himself and does not keep himself this way in relation to the Lord, does not yet believe in the Lord as he should. We say: “Saviour and Lord,” meaning that He is the Saviour of all; but Thomas says: “my Saviour and Lord.” He who says: “my Saviour,” feels his own salvation proceeding from Him. The feeling of salvation lies adjacent to the feeling of perishing, out of which the Saviour pulls whomever He saves. The feeling of perishing, for a man who is life-loving by nature and who knows that he cannot save himself, forces him to seek the Saviour. When he finds Him and feels the power of salvation proceeding from Him, he grasps Him tightly and does not want to be torn from Him, though he be deprived for this of life itself. Such a nature of events in the spiritual life of a Christian are not only imagined in the mind, but are experienced in deed. Then, both his faith and his union with Christ become firm, like life and death. Only such a person can sincerely cry: Who shall separate me! (cf. Rom. 8:35).

(source: Thoughts for Each Day of the Year by St. Theophan the Recluse)

O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.  But give rather the spirit of  chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen

The first and wonderful fruit of this wholeness or chastity is humility. We already spoke of it. It is above everything else the victory of truth in us, the elimination of all lies in which we usually live. Humility alone is capable of truth, of seeing and accepting things as they are and therefore of seeing God’s majesty and goodness and love in everything. This is why we are told that God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.

(protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann)