WE ARE GOD’S CO-WORKERS LEARNING FROM SAINT KOSMAS AITOLOS

WE ARE GOD’S CO-WORKERS LEARNING FROM SAINT KOSMAS AITOLOS Fr Luke A Veronis We are God’s fellow workers, building a strong foundation upon which the Church, the people of God, can build something that will glorify His Holy Name! Imagine, here on earth, God waits for each one of us to become His co-worker. Are we, together with one another, building a worthy foundation. And will this foundation be strong and solid or will it crumble in times of adversity? To act as Christ’s co-worker and ambassador in this world can be quite intimidating, even scary. Who are we to represent Jesus Christ in the world? The world presents grave and serious challenges, it’s a place often unfriendly to the Church and to the Message of Jesus Christ. And yet, God calls us His representatives in this world and we are to face whatever challenges, struggles, temptations, and difficulties that may confront us with humble and courageous faith, with bold trust in the Risen Lord Jesus! Today’s Gospel story of Jesus walking on water offers us a blueprint to how we approach this role as ambassadors of Christ. First, we see Jesus go up into the mountains at night to pray, while He sends His followers across the Sea of Galilee. As they are rowing across the sea, they encounter a storm in the middle of the night. In the midst of that storm, Jesus comes to them walking on the water. At first, they think they’re seeing a ghost but Jesus assures them – “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.” Peter, can’t believe it and tells Jesus to call him out onto the water. Jesus does, and as long as Peter’s eyes stay focused on Christ, Peter Himself begins to walk on water. Yet, the moment Peter turns his attention to the waves and the winds and the storm itself, he begins to sink and cries out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reaches out His hand and says, “Man of little faith. Why did you doubt.” And the Lord grabs Peter, takes him back into the safety of the boat, and calms the storm. Here is a blueprint for our role as ambassadors of Christ and co-workers of our Lord. We are trying to build something in the world that will glorify God! We need to remember that we never do anything alone, but we are His co-workers! Imagine, our partner is Jesus Christ Himself! We are called to participate in His great works; we are simply working alongside the Lord of Wonders who Himself can perform miracles! He walks on water. He heals the sick. He raises the dead. He is the Lord of the Universe. We simply need to work humbly together with Him, allowing ourselves to become simple instruments in His hands! A magnificent example of becoming a co-worker with God is the great Apostle, Saint Kosmas Aitolos, an 18th century itinerant priest-monk who did wonders for the glory of God. We celebrated his feast day yesterday! Saint Kosmas grew up as a simple, poor, illiterate villager during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Most Greek villagers were uneducated at this time, with little prospects for a better life. They had lived 400 years under the Islamic yoke as second class citizens. Imagine Christians lives under the dhimmi status, or the “protected status” within Islam. This meant that Christians could have freedom to worship and maintain their religion, but in order to do so they had to pay an extra tax. They were forbidden to share their faith with non-Christians. They had to wear specific clothing to make obvious their religious identity. They could not build new churches, could not bear arms, and had to bow or get off their horse whenever a Muslim walked past them as a sign of respect. After 300 years of such subjugation, combined with an illiteracy which included a spiritual illiteracy, this led to a period when many traditionally Orthodox Christians were abandoning their faith and converting to Islam. They were tired of being second class citizens and did not fully understand the value of their particular faith. This was the societal reality in which Saint Kosma was born and raised. Kosma himself was formally uneducated until the age of 20, yet his illiteracy deeply disturbed him because it hindered him from reading and understanding the Holy Scriptures. So strong was his desire to learn more about God and his faith, that he decided to travel from village to village in 1734 seeking an education. He eventually ended up at the Theological Academy on Mount Athos and even became a monk at the Philotheou Monastery. After 19 years of living in the monastery, he grew to have an intimate love for His Lord Jesus Christ, and realized the incomparable treasure he had in Orthodox Christianity. He felt this call to fulfill his role as a co-worker of God in new ways. He would later say, “Studying the holy and sacred Gospel, I found many different teachings which are all pearls, diamonds, treasures, riches, joy, gladness. I discovered eternal life. Among the many things, I also learned that no Christian should be concerned only with his own salvation, but we all must be concerned with our brethren so that they may not fall into sin. Hearing this sweetest teaching spoken by our Christ, to concern ourselves with our neighbors, that teaching gnawed inside my heart for many years, just as a worm eats away at wood.” Saint Kosmas realized he couldn’t stand idly by unconcerned about the salvation of others, while countless people in the villages throughout the Balkans were unaware of the love of Jesus Christ and the great treasure in their Orthodox Christian faith. Monks don’t typically leave their monasteries, and yet, after 19 years, Saint Kosmas couldn’t resist the opportunity to become a co-worker with God in His vineyard. “Disregarding considerations of my personal spiritual welfare, I said to myself, let Christ lose me, one sheep, and let him win the others. I decided to risk even my sure damnation to stand by the side of my compatriots. I looked out of my window and I perceived them wounded, bleeding, and crying for help. I saw them submerged by waves of ignorance, egoism, hatred for one another. And I decided that I should not tarry a moment longer worrying for my own salvation. The salvation of others mattered to me above all else!” After getting the blessing from his elder, and then the blessing of the ecumenical patriarch, he traveled to hundreds of villages over the next 20 years proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. He shared with the villagers the intimate relationship of love that God wants to have with each of us. “The most gracious and merciful God has many and various names. He is called Light, Life, and Resurrection. But God’s chief name is LOVE. If we wish to live well here and go to paradise, and to call God our Loving Father, then we should have two loves: love for our God and for our neighbor.” Kosmas insisted that people’s lives would be transformed when they encountered this God of Love and embraced His life-changing Good News. He insisted that the transforming power of God leads us to forgive unconditionally even our enemies. “A man insults me, kills my father, my mother, my brother, and then gouges out my eye. As a Christian it is my duty to forgive him” One fascinating aspect of his ministry was how he reprimanded the clergy of his day for failing to study the Bible. “How can our nation be preserved when the sacred clergy are disastrously ignorant of the meaning of the Holy Scriptures which are the light and foundation of the faith?” He exhorted the clergy to teach the Scriptures and challenged village elders to establish schools so that the children could learn to read the holy writings. Ignorance, he believed, was the main cause of evil because illiterate people were unable to read the writings of the church, and thus, to learn right from wrong. Saint Kosmas inspired the establishment of more than 200 schools during his lifetime. He was a simple illiterate man from a poor family and village. And yet, Saint Kosmas discovered the “pearl of great price” and fell in love with Jesus Christ, the Panayia, the saints, and the life of the Church. He understood that as unworthy as he was, God called him to become His co-worker and ambassador during a critical time for the Orthodox people in the Balkans during the 18th century. He accepted this call. He offered his simple life to God. He became God’s co-worker who performed wonders among the people, and who helped stop the slide of many Christians from abandoning their faith and become Muslim. I remember one of the regions in Albania that remained Christian, even when most other Albanians converted to Islam, was the area of Museqe where Saint Kosmas lived and preached, and ultimately was martyred. As we remember Saint Kosmas every August 24th, let us honor him by not only celebrating his life and legacy, but learning from him and imitating him by each one of us offering our own lives to God, becoming the co-workers and ambassadors of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming His Good News to a society and world just as lost and confused, and at risk of falling away from their faith, as was the world in which Kosmas lived three hundred years ago. Saint Kosmas pray for us!