It is
rightfully said of the saints: Their works do follow them (Rev. 14:13).
Sometimes, there will be a festive service to a saint, and afterwards you find
out about the wondrous help that the saint gave to someone close to you. This
is a story told to me by Fr. Sergei, whom I’ve known for a long time. There is
something humorous and yet tragic in his story. But the most important thing is
the spiritual meaning, which we will try to extract from what happened.
One time as a
teenager Fr. Sergei was playing soccer and he suffered a small foot injury, and
a lump formed on his toe. It didn’t really hurt anything. He was able to serve
in the army, to study at seminary, and now to serve as a priest without any
problems at all. But after a while, he felt that the bump was chafing against
his shoe. It didn’t seem like a big deal, but since it was bothering him, and
for the sake of comfort, he wanted to have the lump removed.
Fr. Sergei
has many acquaintances, and one surgeon he knew examined the toe and said it
was no problem. They said they’d do a simple cosmetic operation, there’d be no
more bump, and the seeming discomfort would be gone. Given the simplicity of
the operation, the surgeon had his assistant do it all. He performed the
surgery, but it turns out he had severed an important tendon. They also didn’t
know that an infection had somehow entered the wound.
Fr. Sergei
and his surgeon friend were beyond surprised. If before he only seemed to have
a problem with his toe, , now he had a big one. It was painful to step on that
foot. The inflammation was making itself known. They prescribed the patient
strong antibiotics. Here I’ll reveal another secret—Fr. Sergei didn’t take any
of the antibiotics. He wasn’t too concerned about the inflammation, because
everything always somehow went away on its own. He put off taking care of his
health for a while, in view of other matters and tasks that he considered to be
more important.
As a result,
he lost time. The inflammation spread to new tissue, affected the cartilage,
and spread to the foot. One day, Fr. Sergei realized that he didn’t just have a
problem, but that it was probably a very serious problem. He went back to the
clinic. They took some x-rays and did an examination and some other tests. What
Fr. Sergei heard shocked him to his very core:
“Unfortunately,
it’s too late for the infection to be cleaned. You’re at risk of gangrene.
We’ll have to amputate the toe and part of the foot. And there’s no time to
waste.”
How could
this be? It’s probably a mistake, he thought. I can’t just go under the knife
now. He rushed to other clinics. But everywhere, even in the most expensive
clinics, they said the same thing: They had to immediately amputate his toe,
otherwise they’d have to amputate the leg later, or he would simply die. So the
apparent discomfort with a minor lump snowballed into a real deadly threat. He
couldn’t believe it and he kept going around to various doctors, calling on all
his doctor acquaintances.
Finally, at a
research institute in Moscow, after hearing about all his misadventures and
wanderings to various medical centers, they gave him good news: “Hurry up and
lie down. We have a chance to cure you without amputation.” He immediately
agreed and lay down. They’d do some kind of surgery, maybe to clean the tissue,
he assumed. But closer to evening the day before the surgery, the doctor came
and said: “You know, since you’re a priest, I can’t lie to you. Tomorrow
they’re going to amputate your toe.” It turns out that’s what they’d decided to
do, without warning him, in order to save him from gangrene. The doctors simply
had no other choice. They didn’t want him to get worse, leaving him to endless
worrying and running around to various medical centers. When he found out what
awaited him, Fr. Sergei could think of nothing better than to immediately run
away.
What was
driving him at that moment? That’s a rhetorical question. Let’s just say that
we priests are people just like everyone else, with the same fears, doubts, and
worries. Sometimes we don’t know the right thing to do. We believe that God
won’t leave us, but what should be our next step so as not to sin—we don’t
know. Sometimes we can’t even pray fervently and ask for something boldly. But
despite all the twists and turns with his diseased leg, Fr. Sergei continued to
celebrate the services. He continued to hear confessions, to commune people,
and to preach. Although limping with one foot, he still walked the pastoral
path that he devoted himself to with all his heart.
But also, and
this is closer to the point, quite independently of the whole story with the
hospital, he had ordered an icon of St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) for his parish
and asked for a particle of the relics of this holy healer. He didn’t make any
kind of vow or plead for a miracle. He simply wanted to hang an icon of our
renowned wonderworker in the church in time for his feast on June 11.
So, the icon
was painted, and a piece of the relics were given. The relic holder was placed
in the icon itself, and the icon was hung in the church. On the feast day, June
11, Fr. Sergei celebrated the Liturgy and a moleben to the saint; he read a
prayer, sang the magnification together with everyone, and went up to the icon
to venerate the holy relics. Everything was just like at the festal services
everywhere. He didn’t want to think about his medical condition. He just
prayed, without any anguish or hand-wringing. He prayed according to the
prayers in the service book, in the prayer book, and in the Book of Needs. And
the next morning, June 12, he woke up to discover something amazing.
There was
absolutely no inflammation either on his toe or on his foot. It was like
nothing had happened. At the same time, there were small stitches where the
infection had been, as if an invisible surgeon had operated on him at night
while he slept and saved him from possible gangrene and from imminent
amputation. An examination confirmed that his foot and toe were healthy, and
even the tendon damage was gone.
So that’s
what happened to my friend Fr. Sergei. Wondrous are Thy works, O Lord!
The
conclusion should probably be as follows: If you don’t have a serious problem,
don’t create one for yourself. But if you’ve gotten yourself into the briar
patch, don’t despair. Remember that we have the saints who stand before God in
Heaven who see us and can, by the grace of God, lead us out of any dead-end
situations in life.
Priest Valery
Dukhanin
Translation
by Jesse Dominick
Pravoslavie.ru
6/24/2021
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