Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol
Having promised yesterday, I will
say a few words on the topic of Pharisaism.
All these things that take
place—everything that we do—our pilgrimages, our candles, our night-vigils, our
prayers, our fasts, our gestures of charity—everything that we do in our
life—are for what purpose and what is the reason that we do them? The answer to
this question is very important, because correctness about our spiritual life is
dependent on it.
Let me give you an example: I ask
children at our summer camps: "what is God’s greatest commandment? What is God’s
most important commandment, my children?" And all the children—all of them—quote
various commandments: do not steal... do not lie... do not be unjust to your
fellow-man... respect your parents... love your neighbor... However, none of the
children suspect that not a single one of these is God’s first commandment. I
suspect that the same is likely true among most grown ups as well.
God’s first and only commandment—all
others are in reality the result of this first one—is to love God with all of
your heart. Christ Himself said that the first commandment is: Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. (Mk
12:30)
And a second commandment, similar to
the first—which springs from within the first commandment—is the one that says
love thy neighbor. Everything else is a result of these. If you love your
neighbor, you will not rob him, you will not lie to him, you will not be unjust
with him, you will not take his things, you will not tamper with his wife, you
will not interfere with his home, you will not censure him... That is what we
mean by "it springs from the first commandment." The love thy neighbor
is likewise a result of the first commandment. If you truly love God, it is
impossible to not love your neighbor. Therefore, the first and only commandment
by God is to love God Himself with all our heart. Subsequently, whatever we do
in church, has that precise purpose. And that is why we go to pilgrimages, why
we fast, why we pray, why we go to confession, why we light candles, why we read
the lives of saints, ... It is our way of loving Christ.
Now, where is our mistake? The
mistake is that, unfortunately, we say that we do all these things in order to
just become good people... and that is where the big hoax lies. It is the step
that we all stumble over. Because, if the purpose of the church was just to make
us better people, then there wouldn’t be any need for a personal relationship
with Christ, nor would there be any reason for Christ to have come to the world.
Why do you think we aren’t able to understand the saints? Or, to ask it in a
simpler manner, why is it that we cannot understand those who love God?
We often ask whether it is necessary
to do certain deeds in order to be saved, to be near to God. Is it necessary,
let’s say, to depart to the mountains or the desert (as some saints did)? Of
course not. If we could understand that our relationship with God is not only
for the sake of salvation, but is a relationship of love, only then will we
understand the saints and why they did the things they did (much of which cannot
be interpreted rationally). This is because love transcends logic. Even secular
love—the way that one person loves another person—for example when one wants to
get married, he loves the young lady that he will wed, and the same applies to
the young lady—then they do things that seem totally irrational. If, for
example, you were to ask her or him who is the most beautiful or handsome one in
the world, they will probably say it is their beloved. Naturally, they are
seeing the other through their own eyes... Our eyes see something entirely
different... The prospective bride will describe her man with the finest words.
She sees no flaws in him, no faults... she can’t see anything bad about him,
because love transcends all these things. And, of course, the same holds true
for the groom as well.
Love cannot be forced into the molds
of logic. Love is above logic. That is how God’s love is. God’s love surpasses
human logic. That is why we can’t judge with logical criteria those people who
love God. That is why the saints reacted with a logic of their own; they had a
different kind of logic, and not the logic of humans; because their logic was
the "logic" of love. So, the church does not teach us just to become good
people, not in the least. It is only natural, that we have to become good
people, because if we don’t, then what have we succeeded in doing? Our Church
teaches us to love Christ, to love the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Inside the church, a relationship
develops. It is a personal relationship between man and Christ; not with the
teaching of Christ and not with the Gospel. The Gospel is something that helps
us to reach the point of loving Christ. When we reach that point of truly loving
Christ, the Gospel "will no longer be needed." Nothing will be needed... all
these things will cease... only man’s relationship with God will remain. That is
the difference between the church and religion.
Religion teaches you to do your
duties, the way the idolaters did. An example: let’s say that we went to our
pilgrimage sites, paid our respects, left some money in the charity box, left
some lit candles, some oil, or even our entreaties, our names, our
offering-bread, everything. All these things are religious duties, but our heart
has not changed in the least. The hour of duty ends, and we are the same as we
were before: we are ready to attack the other, ready to protest about the other,
ready to be sour again, the way we were before.... Our heart has not changed.
And thus, we do not acquire that relationship with Christ, because we simply
confine ourselves to duties—to religious duties.
And you must know that such
people—you know, "religious" people—can become the most dangerous kind in the
church. May God protect us from them... Once, when I was officiating in church
and we were citing the words Lord, save the pious...; a Holy Mountain monk
jokingly remarked: "Lord, save us from the pious..." In other words, God save
you from those "religious" types, because their behavior often implies a warped
personality, which has never had a personal relationship with God. These types
[of persons] merely perform their duties towards Him, but without any serious
relationship involved and that is why God says nothing about this type of
person. And I too, must confess, that—from my own experience—I have never seen
worse enemies of the church than this type of "religious people."
Whenever the children of religious
people, or of priests and theologians—or even of those who in church act like
theologians and with self-importance—tried to become monks or priests, they [the
parents] became even worse than demons. They would become exasperated with
everyone. I remember parents who would bring their children to our homilies, and
when their child progressed spiritually, they became the worst among all and
found faults with all others. And I would say to them: "But you were the ones
who brought the child to the homily; I didn’t bring him..." One other time, I
told a father whose daughter I could tell had a zeal for the church: "Make sure
you don’t bring her again to any homily. Don’t bring her to talk with me,
because your daughter will become a nun and afterwards you will say that I was
to blame." He replied: "Oh no, father, far be it! We adore you!" And his
daughter did in fact become a nun... It has been seven years now, and he still
isn’t talking to me...
People who wouldn’t miss a single
homily, all those who were always the first to show up at homilies,
night-vigils, Bible studies... they would also bring their children along;
however, when the time came for the children to exercise their freedom—to decide
by themselves which path to choose—then those people would move to the extreme
opposite camp, thus proving that Christ had never spoken to their hearts. They
were merely "religious people." That is why religious people are the toughest
kind in the church. Because you know what? Sometimes, people like these will
never be cured, because they only think they are close to God.
Sinners, on the other hand—the
"losers," so to speak—at least they are aware of their sinful nature. That is
why Christ said that publicans and prostitutes will go to the Kingdom of God,
whereas to the Pharisees He had said: This people draweth nigh unto me with
their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from
me.(Mt 15:8). They had merely adhered to the observance of religious
formalities.
Therefore, we should all pay close
attention and understand that the church is a hospital that cures us and helps
us to love Christ, and our love for Christ is a flame that ignites inside our
heart so that we can examine ourselves, to see if we are within God’s love. If
we discern all those forms of malice and selfishness and wickedness inside us,
then we should be concerned, because it is not possible for Christ to be in our
heart when we are full of "vinegar" inside. How can you be praying and at the
same time be full of bile towards another person? How is it possible to read the
Gospel and not accept your brother? How is it possible to be part of the church
for so many years—either as a monk or a priest or whatever—and yet, where is the
alpha and omega of our faith, which is love? Where is that patience towards your
brother? By not embracing true love, it means that you have accomplished
absolutely nothing.
We saw how Christ reached the point
of telling those virgins that He would have nothing to do with them. He threw
them out of the wedding hall even though they had all the virtues; what they
didn’t have was love. It is as if He was telling them that "you may have
external virtues, you may have remained virgins, you may have done a thousand
things, but you didn’t achieve the essence of that which is the most important."
What’s the use, whether I consume olive oil today, or I don’t? I may [fast and]
not eat olive oil, for example, but I devour my brother from morning to night...
They used to say on the Holy Mountain "don’t ask if I eat fish; as long as one
doesn’t eat the fisherman, he can eat fish"; or, "as long as you don’t eat the
oil-bearer, you can have a drop of olive oil to eat." To "devour" someone with a
sharp tongue is far worse than consuming a spoonful of olive oil. And yet, we
focus on things like that: we eat oil, we don’t eat oil; we eat fish, we don’t
eat fish...
You can see how ridiculous these
things are and how the demons make fun of us, as well as all those who are
outside of the Church. And when such non-Orthodox minded folks approach us,
instead of seeing the people of our Church transformed into Jesus Christ—into
sweet-natured people and mature people, well balanced, fulfilled people, full of
harmony inside them—they instead observe us driven by all of our passions and
the sourness that accompanies them; and they will inevitably say: "What? And
become like one of them? I’d rather not!"
You, who are a churchgoer, tell me
how the church has benefited you. You have visited several pilgrimage sites, you
saw the fathers, you saw the holy relics, you saw the Holy Mountain, the Holy
Mother at Tinos Island. What was the end benefit of all these experiences? Was
your heart transformed? Did you become humbler people? Did you become
sweet-natured? Did you become meeker people in your homes, your families, your
monastery? Or at your place of work? That is what truly counts. If we did not
achieve those things, let us at least become humbler, with true repentance. And,
if we did not manage that either, then we are worthy of many tears—we are truly
pitiful...
When asked how many years he had
lived on the Holy Mountain, Elder Paisios used to say: "I came here the same
year as my neighbor’s mule." (His neighbor, old Zitos, had a mule—and you know
how every cell on Mount Athos has an animal, a mule, for carrying their things.
That animal has a long life span; you don’t buy a mule every day—they are too
expensive). "Well, the year that I came here, to the Holy Mountain, my neighbor
purchased his mule in the same year. We have the same number of years on the
Holy Mountain, and yet that poor beast remained a mule, but then so did I. I
didn’t change at all."
So, we quite often say "I’ve been
here for forty years;" and we, priests and monks, tend to say these words: "I
have been in the monastery for forty years." But what we do not realize is that
all these years are not in our favour. God will say to us: Forty years, and
you still haven’t managed to become something? You are still angry after forty
years, you still censure, you still contradict, you still resist, you still are
not submissive to your Elder? You’ve had forty years, and you still have not
learnt the first thing about monastic life and about Christian life. What am I
supposed to do with your years? What am I to do with you, if you have spent
fifty years with frequent confessions and you cannot respond to another person
with a kind word? What use are all these things to Me?
All of these facts weigh against us.
And I am saying all these things first about myself. Because they apply to me
first... And because I know these things from myself, that is why I am telling
you about them (and why you must also think I am saying them to each one of
you). People think that I’m referring to them, but it is not so. It is first
about me that I mentioned these things... about me first... We need to consider
these things to at least humble ourselves; let’s keep our mouth shut, as all
those egotistically-driven behaviors ridicule us and make us look foolish in the
presence of the Lord.
If we humble ourselves and cease to
have grand ideas about ourselves, maybe then can we begin to correct ourselves,
gradually, through true repentance, which is born out of true humility. He who
does not strive to justify his actions truly repents. He who keeps justifying
himself will never repent; and that person who always justifies himself—either
externally or internally—will never learn the meaning of repentance. That is why
we should always examine ourselves. As the Apostle says, let us test ourselves,
to see if there is a love of God inside us, if we are living within the realm of
repentance, so that God can cure our existence; this kind of association with
the Church can heal us, and thus we can become people who have been cured of
their passions and their sins.
Many ask how we can reach this
point. How do we get there? Well, we do it by leaving ourselves in the hands of
the Good Physician—God; when we leave ourselves trustingly in His hands; because
when we are in various circumstances, in difficulties, God knows what is best
for each one of us and will lead us along those paths that will slowly, over the
years, perfect us. All we need to do is give ourselves to God with trust, the
way we give our trust to a doctor, or the captain of a ship. We show trust. He
leads us, and we do not worry about the destination and the arrival timer; we
know that the one steering the ship is mindful, vigilant, and he knows the way
and is careful.
Another important element that I
would like to discuss a little further with you (also because some of you have
asked me to do so) is on the issue of time.
Did you notice during these days
that we have been spending on this ship, how we had no external distractions? We
had nothing to draw our attention elsewhere, like at home, for example our
televisions. Did you see how much time we had available? We even conversed among
ourselves. You who are married had time to talk to each other. The children
played together, they talked amongst themselves, and we had lots of time to
ourselves and we communicated with each other, and that is the most important
element of all: that we could communicate. The most tragic thing is at home,
when everyone is sitting in front of the television and they don’t talk to each
other... time slips away and people do not communicate with each other. And even
worse than this are the program we see on television! They are the source of the
worst corruption for us, for our children and for our souls.
One day, when we had disembarked and
were walking about, I noticed in one of those refreshment cafes, that a
television was on; and, even though nobody was paying attention to it, the TV
was still on. So I stood there for a moment, to see what it was showing: I guess
it was something like some people who were chasing after some other people all
the time, and there was a constant chase, there were guns, bullets, cars,
explosions, jumping from one house to another, etc. But these are things that
your children, your young children, sit and watch; so much violence... and I’m
not even discussing the obscenities that can be heard, which have destroyed even
elderly folks. I hear about such things during confession. Elderly people, very
old people, who are otherwise very respectable, have been ruined by television,
from all that vulgarity that they are exposed to every day. I’m not referring to
that specific damage right now; I am referring to all the other things—all the
violence that the television projects. Our children become over-familiarized
with violence and will naturally become unruly and disobedient; they will do
things that are entirely foreign to their human nature!
Have you any idea what an ugly sight
it is, when you see young children mimicking older people? They mimic adults,
and they destroy their innocent childishness. Sometimes, when I am invited to an
event, they bring along tiny toddlers and tell them to dance. And you see these
little girls or boys, ten or twelve years old, full of innocence, making dance
moves that they have seen older men and women do, entirely disgraceful, with
another morality altogether. You can actually see how those children are being
destroyed, with their emulations of the adults that they see on television. And
also doing all sorts of things and entertaining themselves with choices that are
catastrophic. And I am not saying this from the spiritual aspect only, but from
every aspect—psychological, social and family.
Keep your children as far away as
possible from such things. Help your children to not be dependent on television,
because they will be filled with obscene images, and so will you. If you don’t
allow your children to watch obscene movies, but you the adult does, then what’s
the use? And what about those silly warnings that they write on screen—that the
movie is not suitable under 17 or 13 or... Does that mean that if they turn 13
this sight becomes a suitable one? Of course those warnings only arouse the
youngsters’ curiosity, and every one of them will inevitably watch the film.
They think to themselves that if this movie is forbidden for those younger than
13, it must have something that is deserving of every curiosity...
In my opinion, the destruction that
is inflicted on people’s inner world is incalculable. All positive and good
images that one absorbs are extremely beneficial in one’s spiritual life. The
same applies in reverse; the bad images that a person observes create damage
that is literally extreme, and sometimes, we cannot tell if it can be cured.
If someone would study this
phenomenon, he would see just how great a catastrophe television can wreak on a
person’s psyche, and especially in younger people. But that is only the
beginning; one evil will bring on another. It will be a whole chain of evils,
because it destroys communication, it destroys time, it destroys the innocence
of a person’s soul, and then man becomes exhausted; and being exhausted, he has
no desire to do anything, especially anything spiritual. His soul gets filled
with things that wearied him, and then he wonders why he is tired—he cannot
understand why... Try eliminating television and the like (or at least minimize
these evils), and you will see how much more relaxed you will become and how
much free time you will have at your disposal.
Naturally, these things are not
unrelated to our spiritual life, because a person’s spiritual life is a product
of all the activities that a person does. By this, I don’t mean to say stop
watching television altogether. I am not against it per se; it’s just that
things like these make our life more difficult instead of making it easier, and
they destroy it, the way it was destroyed by technological "progress" which
has—otherwise—facilitated our lives. You catch a plane, and you are there. You
get on a ship, and you get there quickly... or a thousand other conveniences. In
the long run, such conveniences may have facilitated our lives, but they also
trapped us and made us lose ourselves; they made us lose the beauty of our life
and we eventually destroyed the world we live in, and now we want even more
sciences and discoveries, to see if we can salvage what is left of it...
All these things that constitute the
tragedy and by-product of our Fall make it abundantly clear just how impossible
it is to humanly tackle this problem; and yet, if one turns to God, then we will
see that which Christ had said that: With men this is impossible; but with God
all things are possible. (Mt 19:26). We can see around us that miracle by God,
which, even in our day, with all the information and all these provocations
taking place around us, and the accessibility to sin, still, there are people
who love God and from among the thorns, we see roses spring forth.
Roses blossom from among the thorns,
and the immense miracle of man’s salvation becomes reality, regardless of our
own human weaknesses, our wretched state, our problems, the difficulties with
our self, our church, our family, our society and the other elements that
unfortunately bombard every person. That is why, to return from all these
things, we need to return where we started from, when we said that the solution
and the answer to all problems is for man to turn towards loving God, and that
when man loves God, then God will cure him; God will resurrect him—even if that
person is dead and decomposing—God will restore him, provided man discards from
inside him all that is useless and put in his heart a love for God, and build
his life around that love for God. And atop that love for God, to build his
life, his marriage, his family, his path, his studies, his course in life. If
man does that, then he will truly come to enjoy life and his life will become a
paradise, because paradise is nothing more than God’s love, whereas "hell" is
nothing more than the absence of God’s love.
So, it is my wish, as a conclusion
to this homily, that the love of God will always accompany all of you, and that
we should not forget that everything we do, we must do for that reason, and not
just to be religiously behaving people. We must become God-loving people, so
that our lives can be transformed correctly and we ourselves be transformed into
Jesus Christ our Lord.
God be with you.
Transcript of a homily by Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, Cyprus (as
transcribed by the Orthodox Center for Dogmatic Enquiries—translated by the
staff of "Orthodox Heritage," edited for length).
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