Why Is Life Given to a Person?

A Sermon for the Birthday and Name Day of the Faithful Sovereign Heir and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

For Your sake (O Christ) we are put to death all day long: we have been counted as sheep destined for slaughter (Rom 8:36; Ps 43:23)

Today the Orthodox Church, especially the local church of Tver, joyfully keeps the feast of the memory of the passion-bearer, the Right-Believing Prince Michael of Tver, who was tortured to death in the Horde by the Tatars and glorified with wondrous signs of holiness, of incorruption, and of many miracles from his relics. It was an evil time for Russia, by the righteous judgments of God, when even our great princes underwent a martyr’s death at the hands of the Tatars, who were then our enslavers. Now, by the mercy of God, it has long since been free, great, and glorious; and the holy passion-bearers pray with boldness to God for our whole Reigning House and for Russia.

Today as well the Church and Russia keep solemn festival on the Birthday and Name Day of the Faithful Sovereign Heir, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the third son of the Peacemaker, Emperor Alexander III, who reposes in God.

Two birthdays have met in one day for one person: his birth after the flesh and his rebirth after the Spirit, that is, holy Baptism and his enrollment in the holy Church under the glorious name of the holy passion-bearer of Russia, the Right-Believing Prince Michael, whose holy relics rest in the city of Tver.

And the birth after the flesh of the Faithful Sovereign Heir is most illustrious, as the birth of a royal son; but his birth after the Spirit, through faith, is incomparably more glorious, a birth from God by the Holy Spirit, the day of his enrollment in the Church of God and of his adoption by God, for walking the path of earthly labors toward the inheritance of eternal life in the eternal heavenly fatherland.

To us all Christians the Creator gives a temporal existence for inheriting life eternal: for the Christian faith, sealed with the Mysteries and with Christian love and good works, gives us the right to it. And this right was purchased for us by the Most Pure Blood, shed on the cross by Jesus Christ for the salvation of the human race. For God loved the world so much that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe (like the new apostate Count Tolstoy) is already condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God[1].

So then, what is the chief purpose of our life?

Every single thing, all that breathes and moves on the earth has its purpose from the Creator, and there is not one smallest creature without a purpose: for all was created wisely, purposefully, and beautifully. Man is the crown of creation and the king of the earth, created in the image and likeness of God, with a rational and immortal soul. His final goal is not here, for on earth everything is corruptible and passing, and man here is only a temporary sojourner, a wanderer, a transient warrior and soldier: he must by the cross and patience clear for himself the path to heaven, for which he was created—for man, the lord of the earthly creatures, himself, through his own heedlessness at the beginning, became from a free being the slave of the devil and of his own countless passions, which altered and disfigured his beautiful God-like nature, made him a slave of corruption and of every sin and an enemy of God the Creator, removing him far from Him by an impassable chasm. Only the Lord Jesus Christ destroys this chasm for those who believe in Him and leads them to God through faith and repentance.

Thus, the defining quality and character of our life here is unceasing struggle and warfare with oneself, with one’s passions and with every vicious inclination, the cleansing of oneself from all defilement of flesh and spirit[2], the restoration in oneself of the fallen image of God. The kingdom of heaven is won by force, the Lord says, and those who seek it earnestly acquire it[3].

You are right-believing Christians, and you have heard or have yourselves read by what struggles the saints in this world attained eternal life and glory, how they overcame senseless, hideous sin and trained themselves in every virtue. Imitate their way of life according to your strength; learn their faith, self-restraint, prayer, simplicity, meekness, humility, patience, repentance, obedience; be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord[4]. What is asked of you now is not the martyric struggle for winning eternal life with which the first Christians contended, or our Russian passion-bearers—the right-believing Prince Michael of Tver, or Prince Michael of Chernigov with his boyar Theodore and the other martyrs who suffered in the Tatar Horde. We all freely confess the holy Faith under the sovereign rule of Orthodox tsars. But we too have enemies—these are our sins—and enemies of the faith—the sectarians of today, who openly revile our holy, saving Faith and the Orthodox Church and preach senseless, pernicious teachings. What is asked of you even now is firmness in the faith and a courageous struggle against the sectarians—the exposing of their madness by the sound word of the Faith. There are now no bodily torments endured for the Faith, but believers often have to suffer torment of soul from the audacity of the sectarians, especially the Tolstoyans, who blaspheme the most holy and magnificent Name of the Holy Trinity and of the One of the Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ. So guard your faith steadfastly, struggle for your faith, in which our saints and our forebears labored toward salvation and were saved—and attain to eternal life, to which you are called by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.