Seeking the Truth and Righteous Action
St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia
December 6, 2020<\/p>\r\n
We are in the midst of a series of significant saints who are all commemorated within one week. On November 30, we commemorated St. Andrew, the first-called apostle. Today, we commemorate St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia. Tomorrow, we commemorate St. Ambrose of Milan, a prolific theologian of the Holy Trinity and the sacraments in the fourth century.<\/p>\r\n
Of all the saints in late-antique Christianity, St. Nicholas exemplifies a beloved holy one whose local veneration became universal. He is venerated in both the Western and Eastern Churches, and communities that adopted him as their patron saint can be found throughout the world. St. Nicholas is especially beloved for children; many people throughout the world continue to put their shoes out on this day, for the saints to leave gifts for them. Many Christians throughout the world have composed popular songs, enfolding St. Nicholas Day into the longer season of Advent, in anticipation of Christmas.<\/p>\r\n
Putting on my academic hat for a moment \u2013 allow me to note that the story of St. Nicholas follows a well-established pattern in the lives of the saints.<\/p>\r\n
Let\u2019s just say that St. Nicholas\u2019 life was not a one-act play. Christians attribute many heroic deeds to him.<\/p>\r\n
For example, St. Nicholas is universally beloved because of his defense of justice. The story says that three men were to receive the death penalty by beheading, capital punishment for crimes they had not committed. The three men appealed to St. Nicholas; he appeared to the emperor Constantine and his counselor Avlavius in a dream and interceded on their behalf, preventing innocents from an unjust execution based on false accusations. Another story says that St. Nicholas saved sailors who were caught in a dreadful storm at sea \u2013 they called upon his name for help, and found themselves at home.<\/p>\r\n
Perhaps the most humorous story comes from St. Nicholas\u2019s confrontation of the priest Arius at the council of Nicea \u2013 apparently, the saint punched Arius for his false teaching that Christ was created and not equal to God.<\/p>\r\n
These stories are not exclusive to St. Nicholas \u2013 you can find attributions of both miracles and a fierce defense of true doctrine in many lives of the saints, including the equally famous life of St. Antony the Great written by St. Athanasius of Alexandria. Saints seem to excel at everything \u2013 they\u2019re perfect teachers and perfect pastors, and they never fail!<\/p>\r\n
This is why the hymns sung for St. Nicholas at Vespers call him a champion, guardian, and refuge.<\/p>\r\n
And this brings us to a difficult point \u2013 we know that even the most extraordinary saints were ordinary. Sometimes, their behavior is baffling; sometimes, they don\u2019t live up to expectations. Sometimes, they seem to fail just when we need them to perform extraordinarily the most!<\/p>\r\n
Despite this fact \u2013 one that we must embrace, that extraordinary saints also fail \u2013 God is still giving us much needed medicine for the healing of the world in today\u2019s commemoration.<\/p>\r\n
We want our Christian leaders to be perfectly perfect \u2013 to rightly divide the word of God\u2019s truth, and to model defending the widow and the orphan for the world.<\/p>\r\n
Last night\u2019s readings from Proverbs set a high bar \u2013 the righteous person speaks wisdom; the most righteous among us pursue truth \u2013 they\u2019re the real truth seekers \u2013 and pursuing the truth leads one to the Lord, and fills the one who wants the truth with the Holy Spirit (Composite reading from Proverbs, Vespers).<\/p>\r\n
Serious Christians would certainly agree on the need to speak the truth. The hagiographers \u2013 authors of the lives of the saints \u2013 make sure to confirm that St. Nicholas upheld the Christology of our Church, just as St. Antony did. This is an important point, one we should never take for granted \u2013 we worship the Incarnate God, true God of True God, begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father. The divine philanthropist, the lover of humankind, becomes one of us, like us in every way but sin, so that we could become God\u2019s children. Again, this point is essential, and if wisdom is the pursuit of truth, then St. Nicholas is a truly excellent model for us.<\/p>\r\n
So speaking the truth is definitely essential. But the life of St. Nicholas reminds us that the pursuit of truth must go beyond words \u2013 it also requires action, even for the imperfect. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n
How convenient it would have been for the saint to refrain from intervening \u2013 to let those who were falsely accused die unjustly; to let those whose boat capsized during a storm drown; the rob the dignity of the young women whose father was going to sell them into prostitution.<\/p>\r\n
St. Nicholas went out of his way <\/em>to intervene for those who could not help themselves. He challenged the highest political authority of the realm, the emperor, to act righteously. The Gospel from St. Luke presents Jesus preaching on the plain and exhorting the disciples to act righteously \u2013 to heal the unclean, to see the poor as blessed, to do what is needed even when it calls you to become hated, reviled, and persecuted (Luke 6:17-23). Speaking the truth and receiving divine wisdom to act righteously \u2013 these are costly decisions.<\/p>\r\n If we look through our own eyes, we may not see the poor, the unclean, the falsely accused, those about to be sold through human trafficking.<\/p>\r\n Today, we are asked to learn how to see the world through Christ\u2019s eyes, and we are given a model on how to do it through the life of St. Nicholas. God calls upon ordinary people to act extraordinarily, despite their faults, to protect his holy ones.<\/p>\r\n Like St. Nicholas, we can recognize those among us whose lives are about to be turned over; we can see those who are wrongly accused and unjustly punished; we can see those victimized by the sin of human trafficking and exploitation for someone else\u2019s gain.<\/p>\r\n God invites us to see his vulnerable children, and promises to give us the courage to speak the truth and to make things right \u2013 and the lives of saints like Nicholas, and Andrew, and Ambrose, and Elizabeth, and Maria \u2013 should give us the holy confidence to act and to intervene for the sake of the Lord and for the life of the least of his brothers and sisters (Mt. 25).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Let us also remember that God calls upon us to act righteously even though we are imperfect \u2013 or better yet, perfectly ordinary. We should anticipate failure when we attempt to respond to God\u2019s call to pursue the truth. Fear might slow us down or stop us altogether. We might be distracted by something that appears to be more urgent, especially if we see urgency through our eyes. No matter how often we fail, Christ will continue to call us to be wise, to pursue truth, and to intervene on behalf of the vulnerable. We can respond to that call, as perfectly ordinary people, with God\u2019s help.<\/p>\r\n Through the prayers of our holy father Nicholas, of the Holy Apostle Andrew, and of the Holy Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and of all of the saints, may God grant us the courage to seek the truth and to act righteously by seeing others through the eyes of Christ. Amen.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seeking the Truth and Righteous ActionSt. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia December 6, 2020 We are in the midst of a series of significant saints who are all commemorated within one week. On November 30, we commemorated St. Andrew, the first-called apostle. Today, we commemorate St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia. Tomorrow, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":54004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3119,3294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-ars-praedicandi"],"yoast_head":"\n