September 1st
1. The Beginning of the Church New Year (or: Beginning of the Indiction). The First Ecumenical Council determined that the Church year should begin on September 1st. For the Jews, the month of September marked the beginning of the new civil year (Ex. 23:16), the month of harvest and offering sacrifices of thanksgiving to God. During this season of celebration, the Lord Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth, opened the book of the prophet Isaiah, and read these words: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2). The month of September is also significant in Christian history because it was during this time that Emperor Constantine the Great achieved victory over Maxentius, an enemy of the Christian faith. This victory led to the freedom of the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire. For a long time, the civil year in the Christian world was counted in the same way as the Church year—from September 1st. It was only later moved to January 1st, first in Western Europe and later in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great.
2. St. Symeon the Stylite. Born in Syria to peasant parents, he fled from home at the age of 18 and became a monk. He devoted himself to the most severe ascetic practices, sometimes fasting for up to 40 days. He then took on a unique ascetic feat, previously unknown—standing continuously on a pillar in unceasing prayer. His first pillar was 6 cubits high, later raised to 12, then 22, 36, and finally to 40 cubits. His mother Martha came twice to see him, but he refused to meet her, saying from his pillar: “Do not disturb me now, mother; if we are worthy, we will meet again in the world to come.” St. Symeon endured numerous attacks from demons, but he defeated them all through prayer to God. The saint performed many great miracles, healing the sick with his words and prayers. People from all walks of life, from emperors to slaves, came to his pillar. He helped everyone—restoring physical health to some, offering comfort and instruction to others, and reproving those led astray by heresy. He even convinced Empress Eudocia to abandon the heresy of Eutyches and return to Orthodoxy. St. Symeon lived during the reigns of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, Marcian, and Leo the Great. This first stylite in Christian history, a great miracle-worker, lived for 103 years and reposed in the Lord on September 1st, 459 AD. His relics were transferred to Antioch, to the church that bore his name.
3. Saint Joshua the Son of Nun. He was the leader of the Israelite people after the death of Moses. Only he and Caleb entered the Promised Land out of the hundreds of thousands of Israelites who left Egypt (Exodus). (Read about his faithfulness to God, his deeds, and miracles in the Book of Joshua). He lived for 110 years and reposed around 1440 BC.
Reflection
We must use everything in this world necessary for the building up of our soul. When death separates us from this world, we take nothing with us to the next world except our soul, in the condition we have shaped it here. St. Symeon the Stylite, as an eighteen-year-old youth, caring for the salvation of his soul, one day fell prostrate on the ground and prayed to God to show him the path to salvation. While lying there in prayer for a long time, he had the following vision: he saw himself digging a trench as if laying a foundation. After tiring from his digging, he paused to rest, and then he heard a voice say: “Dig deeper!” With great effort, he began to dig deeper and, once again exhausted, stopped to rest. He then heard the voice again: “Dig deeper!” So he resumed digging with even greater toil and strain. Finally, he heard the voice say: “Stop, that is enough; now, whatever you wish to build, build it; without effort, nothing can be achieved.” Those who labor shallowly and build the life of their soul on a foundation of sand are constructing a building that cannot withstand the trials of this passing world, let alone in the world that is eternal.
Contemplation
Let me contemplate the sin of David (2 Samuel 11):
1. How David committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, while Uriah was at war;
2. How David arranged the death of Uriah;
3. How God was angered by David’s sin.
Homily
On the Word—the Son of God:
“In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).
The Word—the divine, rational Word—was in the beginning. This refers to the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. “In the beginning”—does this refer to some beginning of the Word of God? Or to some temporal date of the birth of the Son of God from God the Father? Certainly not. The birth of the Son of God cannot have a date or a beginning, for time is a condition only of this transient world and does not affect the eternal God, nor does it condition anything in God. Can the light be separated from the sun and the sun remain the sun? Can the mind be separated from man and man remain man? Can sweetness be separated from honey and honey remain honey? No. Still less can God be imagined as separated from His Word, from His rational Word, from His Wisdom—the eternal Father separated from His co-eternal Son.
Brethren, here we are not speaking about the beginning of the Son of God from God the Father, but about the beginning of the beginning of the history of the creation of the world and the salvation of mankind. This beginning is in the Word of God, in the Son of God. He initiated both the creation of the world and the salvation of the world. Whoever speaks of the creation of the visible and invisible world or of the salvation of mankind must begin with the Beginning. And that Beginning is the Word of God, the Wisdom of God, the Son of God. It is like when someone tells a story about an event on a lake and begins like this: “In the beginning, there was a lake, and then a boat sailed into it…” No one of sound mind would think that the words “in the beginning there was a lake” mean that the lake came into existence on the same day as the event with the boat. Likewise, no one of sound mind should understand the words of the evangelist: “In the beginning was the Word” as referring to the Word of God coming into being at the beginning of the creation of the world. Just as the lake existed for thousands of years before the event with the boat, so too the Word of God existed for all eternity before the beginning of the creation of the world.
O Son of God, co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, enlighten us and save us. To You be glory and eternal praise. Amen.
