Fourth Sunday of Great Lent – 40 Martyrs of Sebaste

(Mark 9:17-31)

In today’s Gospel from St Mark we heard about the boy possessed by demons. The demons caused the child to sometimes throw himself into the fire and sometimes into the water. Those who cared for the boy brought him to Jesus and begged Him that, if He was able, to have compassion and heal the boy. Our Lord responded, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ To this the father of the boy replied, ‘I believe O Lord, help my unbelief!’

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have the great hope that ‘all things are possible to those who believe’. We must believe and we must beg God to help us in our lack of belief! And let us remember, to believe in God is not simply to acknowledge that He exists; but we must believe in God… the way I might say ‘I believe in you.’ I’m not just acknowledging your existence, I’m saying: I trust you, I have faith in you, I will always think the best of you and assume your good intentions. This is what we must mean when we say we believe in God… we put our trust in Him, we know He loves us and we, in turn, love Him to such an extent that we would give our lives for Him. This is the great paradox of life and of faith - ‘For he who would save his life will lose it; but he who loses his life for my sake and for the Gospel’s sake will save it.’ It is such a seeming contradiction for us to be asked to surrender in order to achieve the ultimate triumph and freedom. But this is precisely what our Lord calls us to do, and this promise of faith is clearly demonstrated for us in the lives and deaths of the 40 martyrs of Sebaste, whom we commemorate today.

In the early years of the 4th century, while Christianity was becoming recognized and protected through the support of Emperor Constantine, there were still people in positions of power who wanted nothing more than to see Christianity destroyed. One of the military commanders of that time was a man named Agricola… he commanded troops in the Armenian city of Sebaste. Under his command was a company of forty Cappadocian Christians, brave soldiers who had distinguished themselves in many battles. When these Christian soldiers refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, Agricola began a merciless persecution desiring to break them and force them to bow down before the pagan idols.

It was a bitterly cold winter, and Agricola had the forty soldiers thrown into a lake near the city, and set a guard to prevent them from coming out of the water. In order to break the will of the martyrs, a warm bath-house was set up on the shore. During the first hour of the night, when the cold had become unbearable, one of the potential martyrs made a dash for the bath-house, but no sooner had he stepped over the threshold, than he fell down dead. During the third hour of the night, the Lord sent consolation to the martyrs. Suddenly they were surrounded by light, the ice melted away, and the water in the lake became warm. All the guards were asleep, except for Aglaius, who was keeping watch. Looking at the lake he saw that a radiant crown had appeared over the head of each martyr. Aglaius counted thirty-nine crowns and realized that the one who fled had lost his crown. Aglaius then woke up the other guards, took off his uniform and said to them, ‘I too am a Christian,’ and he joined the martyrs. Standing in the water he prayed, ‘Lord God, I believe in You, in Whom these soldiers believe. Add me to their number, and make me worthy to suffer with Your servants.’ Then a fortieth crown appeared over his head.

In the morning, the forty witnesses for Christ were then taken out of the water and their bones were crushed with hammers and their bodies were burned. Thus, they fled this earthly realm and received their reward in heaven.

What was it that led the 39 martyrs to endure for Christ? Why did the one abandon his martyrdom? And why did the guard Aglaius trade his life to join the death of the martyrs?

It was the crowning trinity of virtues: faith, hope and love, that led the martyrs to endure their sufferings for Christ’s sake, and it was a lack of these virtues that led the one to give up his crown… Thinking to avoid death and preserve his earthly life, he instead abandoned true life and lost everything.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I may not find ourselves in the extreme position of being cast into a frozen lake to declare our allegiance and faith, but, make no mistake… each and every day we are confronted with choices which call us to either confess Christ or to betray Him. We witness our faith and hope and love in Christ in even the smallest acts of kindness, self-control, and love for God and others. In each occasion of our lives we make a decision to abandon the crown which awaits us or to accept whatever circumstance may come our way and to win that crown of selfless love for God and our neighbor.

In these final weeks of the Great Fast, let us make every effort to reach out in faith and hope and love to God… guided by the characteristics of true and Godly love as defined by the Apostle Paul: that we may be longsuffering and kind, not envious, not boasting, never behaving rudely, not seeking our own will, not being provoked, nor thinking evil, never rejoicing in iniquity, but rejoicing in truth. Bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. May God grant that our love never fail!

Brothers and sisters in Christ… let us draw inspiration from the exploits of the forty martyrs of Sebaste. And if we ever feel our faith, our hope, or our love beginning to wane, let us join in that most honest prayer of the man from today’s Gospel – ‘I believe O Lord, help my unbelief!’