"Don’t Forget St. Nick!" Dec 3, 2021

Don’t Forget St. Nick!
In the modern world, we have all but forgotten the saints. Once upon a time, we used to name not only our children, but even our streets and our cities in honor of the saints of God, in order to seek their heavenly aid and intercession, and in order to continually bring these holy saints to our remembrance. On each day of the year, we kept the festival of not one saint only, but of many, sometimes even dozens on the same day.

We come to the saint who we will celebrate on Monday: St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, “Santa Claus.” In popular culture, Santa Claus is nothing other than the patron saint of consumerism – and therefore we keep his feast through a celebration of materialism. According to ancient lore, the mission of Santa Claus is to bestow virtuous children with virtue’s reward: more stuff. Although, it must be admitted that in recent years Santa has placed rather less emphasis on “making his list and checking it twice,” on finding out “if you’re naughty or nice.” Santa wouldn’t want to exclude anyone, or to hurt anyone’s feelings… and so, more or less everyone now “deserves” to get more stuff. In other words, we have come to view Santa Claus in many ways as we view God: a benevolent (and mythical) character who asks nothing from us, and who exists only in order to give us exactly what we want. His one commandment: “Have it your way.” And we are only too happy to oblige.

Of course, the popular figure of Santa Claus has its basis in the life of the real St. Nicholas, who was known far and wide for his kindness and his generosity. He did indeed once throw three bags of gold through the window of a certain house, in which there were three young women without dowries whom their father was therefore considering selling into slavery (or worse). But note the striking difference here: St. Nicholas gave these people alms not in order to reward their virtue, nor simply for the sake of giving them something nice, but rather precisely in order to save them from sin! St. Nicholas saw material wealth for exactly what it really is: neither more nor less than a means by which we are to strive for “the one thing needful.” The secular world seeks to use wealth in order to give people an earthly paradise; St. Nicholas teaches us to use wealth in order to bring people to the true and only paradise: the Kingdom of Heaven.

And though he is famed for his gentleness, he is hardly what we would today call tolerant. He famously struck Arius a blow upon the face for his blasphemy during the First Ecumenical Council and was vindicated for his zealous piety by the Most Holy Mother of God Herself. Moreover, he took what was far from a “live and let live” attitude towards those who worshiped idols: he would walk throughout his diocese, reducing to rubble the pagan idols and temples which he found there. Why do I relate these stories? Am I saying that we ourselves should start walking around striking blows to heretics? Of course not: we ourselves possess neither the boldness nor the discernment of St. Nicholas, and if we were to imitate his outward behavior it would almost certainly proceed from our own pride.
No, I relate these stories rather because St. Nicholas reveals to us a different kind of love than what passes for love today. He shows us a higher love, a heavenly love, a love concerned not with making others feel good, not with making them happy and comfortable, but rather with making them into saints. St. Nicholas loves all people so much that he does absolutely everything in his power to bring them to God – and that is exactly why he is known as the Wonderworker. And though our own deeds will no doubt be far more feeble, nevertheless we must strive to imitate this example of love as much as possible, and on no account settle for a love which desires anything less or other than salvation for the beloved.

But how did St. Nicholas acquire such love? And how did he gain the power to work the miracles which he worked – and still works – in such incredible abundance? Why has he become one of the most famous and well-beloved saints of all time – so much so that neither the demons, nor the modern secular world which they have formed, can possibly forget him, but must instead mock him and defile his memory as much as possible? The answer is simple and is clearly revealed in the troparion of this feast: “thou hast attained the heights through humility.”

Truly, it was the humility of St. Nicholas which gave birth to his great love. It was his humility which gave him the power to work so many miracles. It was his humility which allowed him to accomplish his great ascetic feats. It was his humility which enabled him to give away all he possessed to the poor and the needy. And it was his humility which even allowed him to strike Arius on the face and to topple the pagan idols, and to do so with absolutely nothing but love in his heart.

And how did he acquire such humility? The answer to this is also simple: through absolute obedience.

There is a story from early in his life, perhaps the most important story about him that there is to tell. After visiting the Holy Land, he was moved by a deep desire to go to the desert and to dedicate the rest of his life to prayer and repentance. Therefore, upon returning to Lycia, he entered the monastery of Holy Sion which had been founded by his uncle. But the Lord said to him: “Nicholas, this is not the vineyard where you shall bear fruit for Me. Return to the world and glorify My Name there.” And of course, St. Nicholas obeyed.
What a great lesson this is for us, the spoiled children of a world whose only command is: “Have it your way!” St. Nicholas was willing to renounce not only sin, but even the most holy desire of his own heart! How many of us are willing to follow such an example? How many of us are willing to set aside our own will completely, not only in what is sinful, but even in what we imagine to be pleasing to God? How many of us have truly cut off not only our own will, but also our own understanding?

Let me suggest a very simple criterion for answering each one of these questions: how many of us are saints? Because this is indeed the truth, the great truth revealed to us by the life of the Holy Wonderworker St. Nicholas: as soon as we truly and totally renounce our own will in all things, we will immediately become saints.

And that is worth far more than any number of stockings stuffed with all the treasures of this world. And so of course, that is the gift which St. Nicholas truly desires to give to each one of us on his feast day. Through his holy intercessions, may we become willing to receive it.

Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School