Hieromonk Polycarpos of Hagia Anna
Head north and you will bring honey on your head.Τhis is a traditional saying of the place of our ministry, very characteristic of this beautiful land of Madagascar. I first heard it in an address to our Metropolitan, and it really made such a great impression on me that I asked the speaker to explain it to me after the charming greeting he extended to our Shepherd, the clergy and the people that had gathered that day on the occasion of a festive event. This is the people we were called to serve: so poor but at the same time so rich…
Go east and you will carry milk in your hands.
Move south and you will be satisfied with sugar.
March west and you will walk supported by a sugar cane.
We are in the poorest districts of Tulear in the Ambani region. You look around you and all that you see is vast stretches of desert land. Now in the quiet night outside the Holy Church of St John the Russian I can hear the muffled sound of the rough sea coming from neighbouring Mozambique. Our weariness is endless. My good friend priest-monk and doctor, really exhausted, is resting in the mud hut that the parishioners of the village have prepared for him in order to host this man who offers them invaluable help. A whole day is not enough to examine people.
Filling barrels with water brought by a lorry of the Mission
Think of the little children at the Church who are praising the Lord despite the fact that they are literally starving to death. The young man who filled with joy and satisfaction told me in the confession that he was freed from the sin that had been dominating him for so many years. My brothers’ pain, when they confide that the food stocks for the family have long been exhausted since the crops have all dried up due to prolonged drought. The people from the outlying villages begging for catechesis. It is true; we are so powerless! Without God’s helping hand we are really incapable of serving in such an over-sacrificial corner of the earth, where every morning rises the hot sun of poverty for the inhabitants of this desert land and of an endless struggle without limits or compromise for the humble workers of this truly multi-dimensional as well as extremely important ministry called the Mission.
The night has fallen and now you are seated beneath the darkened sky. You are admiring the exquisite starry clarity, but at the same time you feel the sandy dust of the sea breeze penetrate through your clothes and saturate your lungs. It seems as if nature itself wants to remind you at any time of the irrefutable connection between donation and pain and of the value of joy when it springs from sorrow and deprivation.
I cannot describe the feelings and the emotional swings one can experience in this field. In a field where we are well aware that we did not happen to be here “because of our own righteousness –for we have not done anything good upon the earth” but because of Christ’s mercy and compassion.
Here you know well that when a little child embraces you out of gratitude, your entire existence inside of you can change and that even the slightest effort pays off. Your small contribution can literally save souls. Your little word can change a whole community. And naturally you do not expect any other miracle but the one you see and experience: this early Christian simplicity and transformation of the people who look like infants suckling the heavenly “milk” that the Father is offering to them in this inconsolable life that fell to them as a lot and donation at the same time.
For the last time I look in awe at our Church, burned by the sun and smothered in dust, and ask from her patron Saint, St John the Russian, whom I particularly revere, to grant that I will never be forcibly separated from his flock that I love so much as a member of them and as their servant.
“Look”, I talk to myself, “look once more and direct your gaze to the north. And you will harvest the honey of the Divine Word which you gave to the hungry bees-those simple, poor people. You will harvest it one hundredfold within your poor heart.
Now head eastward and you will drink from the milk you offered to the thirsty children yesterday. Not your own milk; yet, it was your own thirst you satisfied as well as your miserable and painful existence.”
Now I feel a little friend of mine, dirty and in rags, press my hand with his little black hand and turn it southward, my longed-for poorest South, and whisper in my ear: “it’s from there that you will be satisfied with the sweetness of ‘sugar’. It’s by us, the poor and the destitute, that you will be satisfied with ‘sugar’ and the sweetness of the heart and conscience.”
And suddenly he turns it westward. Where the red sun lets its fiery rays paint our big red island for the last time. He changes color in his voice and warns me like a big man: “I don’t promise you embossed gold rods. I have nothing like that to give you. I will give you a reed in your hands to support you on your long marches through the dust and mud. Like the simple reed our Lord bore in His hands before that ultimate Sacrifice of Crucifixion. For our life here is an endless march through pain and death.
Beware though, for this reed is a pure sugar cane. At the end of your course, at the sunset of your life, open it up and eat the sweetest ‘sappy sprout’ it hides inside. A ‘sprout’ that will sweeten your embittered heart forever in eternity.
This is the quality of the people you serve, my good father and friend. Don’t you think that they are really worth your sacrifice?”
*****
Note of oru blog: Now I remembered the words of the holy great-martyr Lavrentios (Laurence) to the emperor of Rome. Let's see (from here):
Icon from here
The Martyrs Archdeacon Laurence, Pope Sixtus [our note: in those years, the Church of Rome were still Orthodox], Deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus, the Soldier Romanus were citizens of Rome, and suffered in the year 258 under the emperor Valerian (253-259). Holy Pope Sixtus, born at Athens, received a fine education, preached in Spain and was made bishop in Rome following the martyr’s death of Holy Pope Stephen (253-257, commemorated on August 2). These were times when a pope occupying the Roman throne, was known to choose death for the faith. In a short while St Sixtus also was arrested and put in prison together with his deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus.
When the holy archdeacon Laurence visited Pope Sixtus, whom they held in prison, he cried out with tears: “Whither art thou gone, father? Why hast thou forsaken thine archdeacon, with whom always thou hast offered the Bloodless Sacrifice? Take thy son with thee, that I may be thy companion in having blood shed for Christ!” St Sixtus answered him: “I have not forsaken thee, my son. I am old and go to an easy death, but yet greater sufferings await thee. Know, that after three days upon our death thou shalt follow after me. And now go, take the church treasury and distribute it to the poor and needy Christians.” St Laurence zealously did the bidding of the holy hierarch.
Having heard, that Pope Sixtus had been taken to trial with the deacons, St Laurence went there so as to witness their deed, and he said to the holy bishop: “Father, I have already fulfilled thy command, and distributed by hand thine treasury; forsake me not!” Hearing something about treasure, soldiers put him under guard, and the other martyrs were beheaded (+6 August 258). The emperor locked up St Laurence in prison and ordered the chief jailer Hyppolitus to keep watch over him. In prison St Laurence with prayer healed the sick gathered together with him and he baptized many.
Astonished by this, Hyppolitus himself believed and accepted Baptism from St Laurence together with all his household. Soon the archdeacon Laurence was again brought to the emperor and commanded to produce the hidden treasure. St Laurence answered: “Give me a period of three days, and I shalt show thee this treasure”. During this time the saint gathered up a crowd of the poor and the sick, who ate only because of the charity of the Church, and bringing them he explained: “Here are the vessels in which is contained the treasure. And everyone, who puts their treasure in these vessels, will receive them in abundance in the Heavenly Kingdom”.
After this they gave St Laurence over to fierce tortures, urging him to worship idols. The martyr was scourged (with a fine iron flail with sharp needles), they burned his wounds with fire, and struck at him with metal switches. At the time of the martyr’s suffering, the soldier Romanus suddenly cried out: “St Laurence, I behold a bright youth, who standeth about thee healing thy wounds. Beseech thy Lord Christ not to forsake me!” After this they stretched St Laurence on a rack and returned him to prison to Hyppolitus. Romanus brought there a waterpot with water and besought the martyr to baptize him. And immediately after the Baptism of the soldier, he was beheaded (+9 August). When they took St Laurence to his final torture, St Hyppolitus wanted to declare himself a Christian and die together with him, but the confessor said: “Conceal for now thy confession in thy heart.”
After some length of time I shall summon thee, and thou shalt hear and come unto me. Weep not for me, but rather rejoice, for I go to receive a glorious crown of martyrdom.” They placed him in an iron cage, under which they set an intense fire, and the flames of the fire flicked towards the body of the martyr. St Laurence, glancing at the governor, said: “Here now, you burn only but one side of my body, turn over the other and do my whole body”. Dying, he uttered: “I thank Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, that Thou hast accounted me worthy to enter into Thy gates” -- and with these words he gave up the spirit.
St Hyppolitus took the body of the martyr by night, he wrapped it in a shroud with ointments and gave it over to the priest Justin. Over the relics of the martyr in the home of the widow Kyriake they made an all-night vigil and Divine Liturgy. All the Christians present partook of the Holy Mysteries and with honor they buried the body of the holy martyr Archdeacon Laurence in a cave on 10 August 258. St Hyppolitus and other Christians suffered three days after the death of St Laurence (13 August), as he had foretold them of this.
See also
Orthodox Madagascar (tag)
The Orthodox Christian Church in Madagascar
Orthodox Mission of Madagascar | Facebook
Serving the people in Madagascar - Poverty, animism, bandits & Panayiotis, a boy who «ceased coming to church»...
"Who are you?" – A play in six acts
News & articles from the Orthodox Church in Madagascar here & here.
L’Eglise Orthodoxe à La Réunion
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