The Apostles

 

 

In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God

Amen

 

As for Peter and Paul, the apostles, the

Shadow of the one was healing the sick,

Whereas the handkerchiefs and aprons of the

Other caused diseases to depart, and evil

Spirits to go out.

And after they preached the Gospel of the

Kingdom, and taught the nations, they shed

Their blood for Your Name's sake, and

Received the crown of Apostleship and that of

Martyrdom.

                -Excerpt from the Apostles Fraction

 

Our church has blessed us with beautiful fractions sung by the celebrating priest of the Divine Liturgy. These fractions are distinct in many ways, some for celebrations and feasts, some for specific liturgies and some just labeled the short fraction.

A question arises from a particular experience I had in church. I was attending a liturgy –no special feast, no fast and no occasion within the church. The priest recited The Apostles Fraction, and I flared to know why he did this. Truth be told, I am probably the only person who thinks about things like this but I was hell-bent to find out exactly why. I was getting myself in hot water just by thinking of asking someone why they prayed this certain prayer. I was waiting for the “excuse me look,” and the “and you are?” look. I received only the excuse me look. The priest then explained to me that he loved the fraction because of its poetry and was contemplating on it the night before. Being the person that I am, I asked what he was meditating on. This time I got the “none of your business” look which is almost always accompanied by the cross slap to the head.

So my mind ran with ideas of things he could have been thinking about that lead him into deep thought of this fraction; a fraction I barely ever noticed before and didn’t really understand the poetry of. But frankly, I didn’t care. I loved the fasting and prayer fractions of the Great Lent. The Apostles Fraction was just the icing on the cake of a fast I never really gave much thought or care. Then I thought to actually open the book and slowly read the words. And again. And Again. Then I felt I had the meaning of the author down. I then picked out two paragraphs that stood out like something as amazing as the sun.

The first verse discussed St. Peter and St. Paul and what they did, “As for Peter and Paul, the apostles, the shadow of the one was healing the sick.” AMAZING! Think about it! The shadow of one? The Shadow! How crazy is this? The thought of the shadow of someone healing sickness is a little laughable, a little ludicrous and sounds like mere exaggeration. What would a secular person say if they were to analyze this? I’ll tell you what I did: I got Goosebumps. To think that the shadows, a reflection of light on the earth, can heal sickness is nothing short of fear filling, great power; the power of the Lord of Hosts. The Lord let the shadow of a human heal disease. It takes days and sometimes weeks, prescriptions, a medical team, a hospital environment and all this equipment, to just TREAT someone with a common cold. It took this saint to walk by someone with a disease and it was CURED! This wasn’t the common cold either when the fraction says sickness; it is talking about chronic, life threatening illnesses. And a shadow of a guy cured all that.

The Fraction continues, “Whereas the handkerchiefs and aprons of the other caused diseases to depart, and evil spirits to go out.” A handkerchief is a piece of linen or silk, not used in an appealing, attractive manner. It is a piece of cloth used to wipe away sweat or mucus or whatever else is on someone’s face. And this dirty piece of cloth caused diseases to leave? Caused evil spirits to be cast out? Imagine you went to a hospital were told that you had a disease -cancer for instance. Then a man comes to heal you by taking a folded napkin out of his pocket to wipe your head with it? What would you say? Would you say please wipe your probably dirty napkin on my head? Nowadays, we worry so much about germs spreading that there are key chain hand sanitizers. You are told to wash your hands after and before everything and people sanitize themselves with the hand stuff like its water. The thought of healing handkerchiefs is not exactly so accepted. It cast out demons. Imagine you went to a priest with someone who had a devil in them. The priest does not pray or fast, but puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out his piece of tissue to wipe on the person. Imagine what would go on in your head. This author is definitely telling us something.

This paragraph in the fraction is explaining to the world the level of holiness and spirituality that these two attained. One denied the Savior and the other persecuted anyone who spoke the Saviors name, yet they both were able to reach an almost unattainable level of spirituality. I mean if we measured spirituality in levels and performing a miracle by fasting and praying is so up there, where does a miracle that you perform with your tissue or handkerchief fall on the scale? The author tried and succeeded in his message about Peter and Paul. I cannot even begin to comprehend the spirituality and holiness of these great saints. The bond they had with Christ is really unthinkable. For shadows and handkerchiefs of mankind to be held in such esteem, the Fraction clearly portrays the life they must have lived. The importance of these apostles is immortalized in these words.

The Fraction then takes a turn and speaks about their martyrdom –a word thrown around way too easily for such a strong term. Let’s take a second and think about martyrdom; shedding ones blood for a cause. In terms of Christianity, shedding blood for the name of Christ. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the martyrs. Many of them were rich or royalty, who gave up the velvet for sackcloth, gave up the feasts for hunger, gave up diamonds for shackles and chains, and gave up futures for the sword. Imagine the torture they endured. Today, they have senate hearings for using a hose to spray cold water on terrorist inmates for interrogation. I doubt the martyrs had such a pleasure. No. These brave and courageous men and women were thrown in boiling cauldrons of oil and tar. Imagine how much we are in pain when a drop of hot oil touches our skin while cooking. Now imagine being thrown into a pool of hot oil. Imagine how much we complain about a burn we might get on the stove from a hot pan or while ironing, and imagine having red hot irons pushed through your flesh very slowly. Imagine how much pain we complain of when we have a bad stomach ache or food poising. Remember the feeling and when we wish the pain would go away? We never eat at the same place again or eat the same food again because we know what will happen. Now imagine these saints being subjected to the poisons that did that to their stomachs every night as they only wait for more poison the next morning. When one girl is raped, police are dispatched, EMS and hospital is notified. Detectives are on the scene. Counselors arrive the next morning to ease the psychological pain of rape. I wonder if the soldiers provide the same comfort to those Christians they raped as part of their torture? No. These martyrs were given torture with a response of more torture. WHY? All they had to do was just three little words. “I deny Christ.” Then it was all over. They could get back to practicing Christianity, repent and confess. I mean that’s what happened to other saints, even St. Peter. So why all this? Ask yourself what you would do standing naked in front of hundreds of soldiers, about to be thrown in a huge cauldron of boiling oil. You can’t even look at it, but you hear the oil and tar sizzle and burn as the soldiers are laughing and excited to watch you drop. They ask you one last time to say those three words –what would you say? Would you think about just saying it and then turning back and asking God for forgiveness? Would you think about the other things you have said in your life that could be interpreted as unchristian and think saying these three words would just add to the list? Would you think about who would look after your family? How many of us would ask these questions of ourselves? One last meditation: what if you were in New York City, and you knew that there are evil people in San Francisco 3,000 miles away. Now I told that if you go there you will be tortured severely and then be-headed. (By the way contrary to popular belief, when someone was beheaded it usually took several swings of the sword on the neck before the person was killed. The soldiers used the bluntest swords to increase the pain and make an example. So your head would be cut in several places all half way through or less before being killed.) How many of us would dare to take a sack of belongings and WALK to San Francisco –fully aware that there we would face extreme torture, imprisonment only to be followed by a slow death. How many? How many of us do not attend church because we don’t have a car, and church is a couple of blocks or miles away? How many of us can imagine walking 3000 miles to face that kind of future?

            These are things the apostles did for Christ. For us! They went to all nations to preach his name, knowing what was to happen to them along the way. They didn’t care. Don’t our excuses for not going to church seem a little embarrassing now? Mine definitely do. All this for thinking about why a priest would sing a certain prayer. Just two paragraphs of one prayer create a thunderstorm in head. Questions of how and why are all over even though I know the answer. The answer to every single question is fairly simple. It is the Holy Spirit, which filled their hearts, bodies and minds. It Enlightened, Empowered and Engulfed these saints to accomplish what we only can know as the impossible.

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