Maria Yudina (1899-1970) was a brilliant Russian pianist and a devout Christian at a time when, if you wanted to advance in the world, it was advisable to adopt the official atheism of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless Yudina did succeed in her career, and one day Joseph Stalin heard on the radio a performance of Yudina playing Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto. He was quite taken with it and demanded to have the recording. No one dared tell Stalin that the broadcast had been live. So Maria Yudina and the orchestra were unceremoniously summoned to the recording studio in the middle of the night. The conductor was so terrified that he couldn’t complete the performance; therefore a second conductor, then a third had to be brought in before the recording could be finished and delivered to Stalin.
Shortly afterwards Stalin sent Yudina twenty thousand rubles. Her thank-you note read something like this:
I thank you Iosef Vissarionovich for your help. I will pray for you day and night and ask God to forgive you your sins against the people and the country. God is merciful and will forgive. I gave the money to the church I attend.
Of course Stalin had killed people for lesser offenses than this, and it is said that a warrant was indeed made out, but never signed. When Stalin died, the recording of Maria Yudina playing Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto was found on his record player — evidently the last music he heard.Once again we are near the end of the Liturgical Year. The last Sunday of the year — the Feast of Christ the King — reminds us that although the earth seems filled with rulers and those who desire to rule, no one but God can be truly sovereign. It is only to the Divine that we bend our knee and our will.
Living out of this truth requires us to stand for what Christ stands for. In practice this is sometimes as simple as disagreeing kindly with a friend or writing letters to our senators or representatives urging them to vote for justice and peace. In more extreme cases it may mean putting our lives, our fortunes, or our reputations at risk, as did Maria Yudina. And it always means living so as to witness to the love and goodness of Jesus and the peace of the reign of God.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
(Psalm 27:1)