According to Abba Cassian the monk seeks to obtain the kingdom of heaven
and aims to purify his heart through repentance. By extension this
applies to all believers and laity who wish to struggle and are already
struggling for their salvation.
Abbot of Vatopaidi, Archimandrite Ephraim |
When
we talk about repentance we do not mean feeling remorse for our sins
(this is a psychological event and it is possible for one to stay only
at this level and not to experience the pious, spiritual event), neither
do we mean the sacrament of confession which is the confession of our
sins and the accounting of our thoughts , but mostly we mean the
situation in which the entire human being – mind, intellect, heart, soul
and body of man- is inspired by and directed towards God. It is about
the ontological union of man with God through the non-physical fire of
repentance.
Repentance is a priceless gift of God to
man given after the fall. Through repentance man not only cleanses his
heart but also acquires sanctification and deification.
The path of repentance is not easy; it
is a long ascetic process, a fine science and art which one learns and
receives from an experienced guide, the Elder, who has experienced all
the stages of repentance. And this essentially is the essence of the
Patristic tradition: to conveying the spirit of repentance, the art of
sanctification from generation to generation.
The monk after initially making the
abdication, after refusing his family, relatives and friends,
scientific and professional career because of his fervent love to
Christ, he then should refuse all of his passions.
To recognize one’s passions and sins is
such an important event, that the Fathers consider it even more
important than the vision of angels. Because recognizing one’s passions
means to view the sinister and most dark abyss in the human heart, many
laity- not knowing that this condition is treated through repentance and
essentially is a state of self-awareness, which will shortly lead to
the knowledge of God- fall into despair and abandon the struggle for the
purification of their heart from their passions.
The most comprehensive and great
passions are those of ambition, sensuality and greed, and are fought by
the basic virtues and promises of obedience, chastity and indigence
which the monks give.
In the monastic community the first
passion which is completely exterminated is avarice, ie greed. With
greed man is trying to gather lots of material goods for personal
enjoyment. Under the guise of need infiltrated the passion of greed.
Greed shows the size of the selfishness of man as well as of his
infidelity to God.
In a commune, where everything is common
and there is nothing personal, nothing which is one’s “own”, where
there is no private fortune and the monk does not control even the most
worthless material thing, there is no place for avarice and greed.
Many times, we see the Fathers showing
such strictness against the passionate acquisition of material goods
that they behave in such a way as to even refuse what is absolutely
needed. Abba,Dositheos was given once a very good knife , necessary for
his activity. But because his Elder, Abba Dorotheos, saw that he had a
passionate attachment to this knife, he did not give him a blessing to
use it.
This correctness of the Fathers was not
applicable in the old days but also during our times. The blessed Elder
Joseph once gave Elder Ephraim Katounakioti a simple pen (Bic) to write
with and Elder Ephraim was very pleased, because he could write well.
Elder Joseph offered to give it to him
but because he did not accept it, Elder Joseph said that he would buy
him another one from Daphne.
The same night, but at midnight ,comes
the Elder Ephraim of Katounakia at New Skete to our elder’s cell- having
made a roundtrip of more than three hours- and begged him not to buy
the pen because he saw in prayer that was passionate about this little
thing.
This spirit of true indigence, of
detachment from material things, was passed on to us by our Elder
Joseph, He had received it from Elder Joseph the Hesychast, when they
lived as a monastic company at the New Skete, and then we preserved it
after 1990 when the community was re-planted and manned the great priory
of Vatopedi.
It may seem paradoxical but the heart of
a coenobic monk can be more easily set free from all material
attachment than that of a hermit. Abba Gelasios was a hermit, a recluse.
Then according to the will of God he became an abbot in a large
monastery, with many monks who had many farms and animals.
When a famous fellow ascetic visited
him- one with whom they had struggled together in the desert- and
expressed concern that his mind would have been captured by the property
owned by the monastery, the apathetic, considerate and perceptive Abba
Gelasios told the hermit: “From what I see, your heart is more attached
to a pin, than mine to the estates of the monastery. “
The ideal social life of the Church is
embodied in the monastic community. The purpose of a coenobium is the
emergence of a community of persons. That is why the institution of
monasticism has a very enduring importance to the life of the world. But
even within monasticism institutions are properly honored.
The second passion, sensuality, is
associated with the second monastic pledge of chastity. Of course, the
monk has left the causes and thus practical sin. But to achieve a
purification of the heart not only one ought to be removed from any
practical sin, but also from sinful thoughts.
The enemy, passions, submits
continuously to the mind thoughts of sensuality. One needs great
watchfulness and alertness of the mind to watch and discern the thoughts
which incite passion, but also have the power to intercept these
thoughts. It is not that easy. The war of thoughts is arduous. Keeping
one’s mind is the most strenuous effort, which any Christian can launch.
What strengthens the mind in this race
is the permanent state of repentance and the constant invocation of the
divine Name, called ‘single thought prayer’, the “Lord Jesus Christ,
have mercy on me.” Says Paul: “no one may speak the name of Lord Jesus,
if not through the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 12.3). So each time you invoke
the name of Christ, the Holy Spirit is with us, and where the Holy
Spirit acts no kind of vice and passion can stand.
The prayer, by the observance of the
mind, will gestate the cleanliness of the heart and will bear the
fragrant flower of purity in the heart of monk.
The passion which keeps fighting man
until the last moments of his life and when mastered makes the heart of
man very hard and dark is that of ambition, with its consequent passions
of pride and selfishness.
Only the humble mind can resist this
passion. And a humble mind can acquire only those who obey in Christ.
Obedience shows our reference, our dependence on God the Father; namely
that we have no confidence in ourselves; that we do not believe that we
are something and that we think that whatever good we have comes from
God.
On the matter of obedience, I believe,
monks are more advanced that Christian laity. The monk lives in such a
way that all his life is a continuous, uninterrupted obedience-which
cannot be achieved in the outside world-and is also tasting in abundance
the fruits of obedience.
The real obedient is a meek, humble,
sweet talking, obedient, sociable, hesychastic, forgiving and loving
person; He has acquired the mindset of Christ.
The monks, or the lay people who strive
for the purity of heart through repentance, slowly begin to taste the
virtuous condition and divine illumination. However, it takes many
years, usually 15 to 20 years and more, depending on the personal
struggle and divine providence, for one to consolidate his virtues and
assimilate divine Grace. Then, virtues will become second nature or
rather the true nature of man. Prayer, purity, gentleness, humility,
forgiveness, love will all become his natural condition.
The man would then not be able to act
with malice, or with some passion; He could not be angry. In Gerontikon,
there is a story about two Elders, who had never quarreled. One said
the first day, “Let’s try to quarrel and be like the laity, to see what
this thing is about, how they feel when they quarrel.”
Then the second says: “And what will
happen?” “Let’s get a brick”, says the first monk, “and say that it is
yours. Then I will take it and I would say that it is mine and so we
will quarrel.” The second elder takes the brick and says, “It is mine”,
“No”, says the first monk, “it is mine”. “Well, as it is yours, take
it”, the second Elder says. And they could not quarrel intentionally,
because in their hearts lived the “peacemaker” Holy Spirit.
This virtuous state achieved through
repentance in Christ must not only be experienced by monks and lay
Christians, but also by the leaders of the institutions of Church and
State, who must selflessly offer their services to save others and act
for the good of the country.
In the Old Testament we have the example
of Pangalos (all virtuous) Joseph-which is particularly shocking to our
times-who was jailed for his virtue for failing to commit adultery with
the wife of his master. This same virtue, however, later made him ruler
of Egypt.
He was accepting the illumination from
this virtue on how to govern the whole country, how to increase the
production of material goods, so that at times of crisis and of the
great famine to enable not only the residents Egypt to survive, but to
feed other nations as well.
“The virtue”, says St. Gregory the
Theologian, is admired by the enemy.” Indeed, he who is virtuous in
practice and not in some moralistic way impresses with his wisdom and
honesty others and inspires them to follow his example.
In our country we experience a crisis in
the institutions. The family, monasticism, the Church as institutions,
have been allowed to perish.
What has made modern people to challenge
and deny these institutions? On one hand, we have the external
imposition, the treatment of people as numbers, and the mechanization of
social life. On the other hand, we have the internal reason, which is
the ignorance of virtue by those who are in power. This dissolves
institutions. Also the absence of repentance in those who are
representing them degrades human personality, thus changing the
institutions to become impersonal and inhuman.
The Church through repentance and the
acquisition of virtues provides the institutions with the dynamics of
honest persons, blessed with divine wisdom and prudence, which in turn
give the institutions prestige and respect.
The institution is the glass and the
person is like water in the glass. The institution is the casing and the
person is its contents. The institution is the tree and the person is
the fruit. The institution is the form and the person is its essence.
The essential value is the person. The
institution honors the person. If the people are not living consciously
and are aware of their statutory role then automatically the value of
institutions disappears.
Basically today we have no institutional
crisis, but a crisis of the human person at all levels of society,
politics, economics, art, science, and at any form of administration. So
the crisis is found in the anthropological, ontological level.
The postmodern man has forgotten that
his ontological essence is godlike. He does not live in repentance and
neither strives to become virtuous. And therefore, he does not want a
family, does not understand what monasticism has to offer, does not love
his country, does not want to be ruled, but also cannot himself govern
properly.
These days, we observe the new
phenomenon of “the outraged citizen” and the striking protesters.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets protesting at
what is happening in our country.
How useful would it be if all these
people understood the spirit of repentance and were praying in the
churches? Wouldn’t the merciful and benevolent God change the current
situation? God, who accepted the repentance and heard the prayers of the
people of Nineveh and the city was not destroyed -despite His original
intention-can do the same in each case.
Greece has passed other major financial
crises and painful situations in the past wars and has endured and
survived, because there was still a good understanding of the
institutional role of individuals as persons, who acted as antibodies.
We need repentance, widespread repentance, deep repentance, repentance
with knowledge and God will not abandon us.
The economic crisis is the result of the
institutional and essentially, the anthropological crisis. How can a
man of passionate mind, who is obscured by selfish interests, properly
manage material goods? Says the prophet David: “the rich have become
poor and went hungry but those seeking the Lord will not be deprived of
any good” (Ps. 33.11).
Who were these wealthy that went hungry?
They were the bad managers of wealth, those who did not live in
repentance along with the practice of virtues, but were ruled by
selfishness and by satisfying all their sensual passions. And who are
those who will not be deprived of any good? Those, who invoke the name
of the Lord, those living in repentance and keep God’s commandments.
Blessed Elder Ephraim Katounakiotis was
telling us that during the difficult times of the German occupation, the
communities in Mount Athos who kept their spiritual preoccupation were
not lost, felt no hunger, unlike the others who had rich material things
but had neglected their spiritual lives.
This spirit we have received from our
Elders and our desire is to pass it on to the next generation. That is,
to prioritize the spiritual struggle, to insist on the purification of
the heart through the fiery spirit of repentance, to desire Christ and
cling to His love and to worship the living, personal God.
Hence during this difficult period for
our Monastery when our accounts had been frozen for about two and a half
years, nothing was missing in the Brotherhood. We have the special care
of our Lady Mother of God, who takes care of anything. The Brotherhood
multiplies, is peaceful, united and loving for the glory of Christ.
The Vatopedi monastery has a precious
spiritual and cultural tradition. In the course of the centuries it
became one of the largest centers of Orthodoxy, experiencing hesychasm,
bringing to light numerous saints, while performing extensive missionary
work in and outside Greece.
The Brotherhood surrounding today
Vatopedi Monastery is fully aware of the spiritual and cultural
tradition of the monastery and feels responsibility towards the Greek
Nation and Orthodoxy, and its activities are always in the context of
love for others and in accordance with the spirit of the blessed Elder
Joseph The Hesychast and the late Elder Joseph Vatopaidinos.
Everything you have seen in the
documentary that preceded and what we are planning to do, will be
accomplished for the glory of our Church and of Orthodoxy in general,
but also for the good of our country. Our country has found itself in a
very difficult juncture in its history, and we are praying that the
alien forces that impinge on it will not prevail.
Finally, I would ask all of you to pray
for everyone, in whatever way one can -these days we celebrate the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit-so that the Holy Spirit gives all- Greek
rulers and laity -as well as to all the people of the world the spirit
of repentance, of prudence and peace. Amen.
We need to convert Greek churches to Latin speaking because all the Yuvrey who were born in Greece and pretended to convert under Mussolini come to practice their Greek and all the Slavs come trying to make us Tsarvrey. Why do you think the Russian letters for Tz and Sh are identical with the Hebrew? If the Greeks were such nationalists, why do they allow Southern Italy to call itself Magna Grece (http://magnagrece.blogspot.com/)? Because the Greeks know the Slavs are all coming from being Yuvrey with all their crazy bubble studies and fasting and stuff. We all want to be diverse, parochial, feudal and belong to the land and no Tsarvrey universalist globalizations. That is why we all marry Catholic Italian and stay away from Slav churches.
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