Page 19 - Western Diocese Annual 2023

own sheep by name ... and the sheep listen to his voice”. And this “calling by name” was a transcen- dent lightning flash that illumined the unknown depths and breadths of Sava’s existence.
Before and during the period the Fourth Cru- sade occurred—crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, then the capital of the Byzantine Empire—those where ill- starred years were years of general upheaval and confusion on many levels. Rastko, the third son of the Serbian ruler Nemanja, finds himself and devel- ops in such circumstances and shocking events. But the Lord of history, with his discreet methods, pre- pares the secret of the brave Prince and his mission. In all these commotions, Rastko is not swept away, and the focus on the horizon does not fade for him. A fugitive from his parents will be caught in the net of the Holy Spirit, in order to “tie” his compatriots to the fold of Christ, the Great Shepherd, who said: “I know My sheep and am known by My own”.
Having a shepherd, according to an Athonite El- der Vasileios of Iveron, gives man the possibility of knowing God in a way worthy of God, of seeing, of feeling His presence as a light that enlightens and comforts every man coming into the world. Thus, St. Sava opens for us the door to the knowledge of God. And that road is love. And Sava recognized this love. He knew it by privilege, which only God knows why it was granted to him. When he left his homeland to live as an ascetic at Holy Mountain, he learned from his Athonite brethren that God is communion, that God is love. And that love is the only way to be able to come into communion with God.
I am the door; if anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The open door that leads to freedom and unity. He will go in and out and find pasture. In other words, he will find and keep finding freedom and unity—the untrammeled freedom which has become a wel- coming nest. And the unity of love which has the spaciousness and purity of the outdoors—the Chris- tian ecumene. And so, with his presence, Sava would enchant and transform his environment: ecclesiasti- cal, social, political... Contrary to our present-day manners, Sava did not oppose East and West, but strove for their synthesis. As St. Nikolai of Zhicha said, “in it East and West met in full harmony... He was prone to deep thinking like an Easterner, and energetic in action like a Westerner”.
The Gospel reading also says, that the Shepherd “goes before them”. When He takes the sheep out of
the sheepfold, He does not abandon them. He looks after them. He leads them “further” (Lk 24:28). He is constantly sacrificing Himself for the liberation, the continuous progress and the sanctification of the sheep. Realizing that the Church in the Serbian na- tion needs self-government to breathe fully, Sava goes to Nicaea in 1219. The Lord blesses his inten- tion. With the support of Emperor Theodore I Las- karis and “the Most Venerable Patriarch and the whole Constantinopolitan assembly”, St. Sava re- ceived the blessing that Serbian archbishops receive consecration from their own bishops’ assemblies. When this sincere Christian ecumenist worked to organize the local Serbian Church, “he only wanted to make his people a worthy member of the univer- sal Orthodox family of Christ through a nationally organized church. He was personally imbued with the spirit of Christian ecumenism,” says St. Nicolai, and adds: “As such, he feels at home in every Ortho- dox community of every race and language.” And from this each of us can draw real lessons.
And we see in Sava’s case, that when the Good Shepherd calls the sheep by name and sacrifices Himself for them, He creates new good shepherds by grace. Sava organized his church into dioceses headed by new bishops. He then embarked on a cul- tural and ecclesiastical renaissance that included the establishment of schools and the beginnings of a medieval Serbian literature
Here we come to our concluding remarks:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
In the image of the Good Shepherd, St. Sava sac- rificed his life many times for the rational sheep; he called the sheep by their own names, each one indi- vidually, allowing his people to speak its own lan- guage, to become living persons. By teaching them to out of love sacrifice their life for others, he offered them to live the reality that death has been abol- ished.
It is significant because Saint Sava, with all the sensitivity that distinguished him, made the Serbian people understand something paradoxical—that the life of the Christians was a life lived between life and death. If one really loves people, one must iden- tify oneself with them and share their difficulties and sufferings. Love means sharing the misfortunes of others. All these, my brothers, are characteristics of this great Saint whose memory we commemorate today. And this relationship of Sava with the Lord reveals to us that saying we love God, and our fellow man is not enough if we do not sacrifice for them.
2023 DIOCESAN ANNUAL
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