Epistle for the 20th Sunday / St Job of Pochaev

Gal. 1:11-19

The Apostle Paul proclaims in today’s Epistle, “I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Throughout human history, mankind has tried to make sense of this life, of suffering, of joy, of life and of death. Various religions and philosophies have struggled to understand and explain these great questions of life. Some have created elaborate mythologies to tell the stories that seek to make sense of the mysteries of life, they have articulated understandings to a greater or lesser degree between truth revealed and truth supposed. In all cultures and in all lands we see mankind reaching out to try to understand and explain this life and the possibilities of the life beyond.

Mankind reaches out to God and comes closer in some cases than in others to understanding the attributes and nature of God… it is these hints and glimpses of truth that resonate within the human soul who seeks her Creator and God.

And yet, God did not leave us to grope about in vain… no matter how strenuously mankind might reach out, we can never come close to touching God. In order for God to intersect and connect with His creation, He takes the initiative to reach down to us. This is the revelation of God that, as Apostle Paul writes, is ‘not according to man’.

God has revealed Himself to us… He has revealed Himself to us in the most intimate of ways. He willed to become incarnate, taking on human flesh, living among us, teaching and healing us, and submitting in His humility to be arrested and beaten and killed due to our ignorance and greed for worldly power. And yet, as the Source of Life, He could not be contained by the grave, and on the third day He arose in glory. This is the gospel message of Christ, of the victory over death and evil and of the triumph of life and love. This gospel which was preached by the Apostle Paul was not given to him by man, it was revealed by Jesus Christ.

And our Lord did not leave us orphaned… He provided us with His Church and He bestowed upon His Church the grace of the Holy Spirit and upon his disciples the power of heaven. Within the ark of the Church our Lord continues to reach out to man – touching us through His sacraments of baptism, confession, communion, and more.  Within the Church we receive the teachings of the holy fathers – who taught not their own wisdom, but the continual unfolding of the grace of God as It manifests Itself within the lives and struggles of His faithful servants. These things are not given to us by men, but come to us through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what makes our Orthodox faith so precious and so worth preserving with the utmost fidelity – for it comes to us through the revelation of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today we commemorate a man who is remembered and honored as a champion of and great defender of the Orthodox faith, this Gospel not given by man but from the Lord… today we honor the venerable Job, abbot and wonderworker of Pochaev.

St Job was born around 1551 in the Lviv region of what is today Western Ukraine. His family name was Zhelezo, which means ‘iron’ and he lived up to this name in his firm and steadfast fidelity to, and defense of, his faith in the midst of tremendous pressures and persecutions.

From his youth he was known for his great piety and strict asceticism and at the young age of twelve he was accepted into the monastic ranks at the Ugornits Holy Transfiguration Monastery in the Carpathian Mountains. His labors and piety drew attention and appreciation from many - including the famous defender of Orthodoxy, Prince Constantine Ostrogsky. He made arrangements for St Job to be released to the Dubensk Monastery of the Holy Cross, located on his estate. After some time, St Job was made the abbot of the Dubensk brotherhood. He remained in the rank of abbot for over twenty years.

One of his labors during this time was the printing of books to disseminate and teach the Orthodox faith. This was especially important and needed at this time as the complications stemming from the recently signed Union of Brest were dividing the land –placing a large number of the Orthodox under the rule of the Pope of Rome… creating what we know as the ‘Uniat’ or the ‘Greek-Catholic’ Church. St Job spent much time and effort to define and defend the Orthodox faith during these upheavals.

Seeking greater solitude, St Job came to the blessed hill of Pochaev – where the Mother of God had appeared and where her footprint can still be seen on the stone where she stood and where a miraculous spring burst forth. The presence there of St Job brought a great flowering of growth and support to the monastery at Pochaev, which shone like a citadel of Orthodoxy in those far western lands of Rus. St Job often took refuge in a small cave on Pochaev hill. The saint would remove himself to the cave for a whole week, and pray for the world there, fasting strictly. It was not granted to any mortal to know what was done in those hours in the cave, but one day, while the saint was praying there, ‘an extraordinary light suddenly shone around the cave and for the span of two hours was reflected from its depths upon the church opposite it.’

St Job lived to be one hundred years old. A week before his repose, he received a revelation that he would soon be leaving this world. He served Liturgy in the morning and then peacefully reposed, giving his soul over to the One Whom he had served and defended all his long life.

It has been a great blessing in my life to have made multiple visits to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Monastery. I used to travel for work to Lviv several times a year over the course of ten years and had the opportunity on several occasions to make the drive to Pochaev. Beneath the majestic Dormition Cathedral one can enter into a small cave chapel where lie the incorrupt relics of St Job. His body lies under a glass topped coffin, much like we see when we visit St John in San Francisco, however his hand is open to the air and can be venerated directly. Just to the right of his reliquary, is the small tunnel leading to the tiny cave where St Job spent so many hours in solitary prayer. I cannot adequately express to you the sense of holiness which permeates this space where St Job lived and prayed and where his relics now lie and bring consolation and many miracles to those who seek his intercessions.

Just as in centuries before, the Pochaev Monastery stands as an island and as a beacon of Orthodoxy amid peoples who are hostile to the faith. These hostilities have been renewed in recent years and are continuing today… the monks of the monastery are under heavy threat of eviction as those loyal to Rome and Constantinople seek to displace them. I ask all of you to please keep the brotherhood of Pochaev in your prayers!

May God grant that we will hold fast to our Orthodox faith… the good news of the Gospel that was given to the Apostles by our Lord Jesus Christ, that was defined and defended by the great saints over the centuries, and that provides for us an inheritance of life-giving Truth and soul-healing Sacraments which are worth defending, for, as St Paul so eloquently put it: the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.’