by Archimandrite Kyrillos of Essex
My immediate answer to both parts of this question is a very affirmative
‘Yes’. God does not change. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today,
and for ever. And the nature of human beings has not changed either.
Since Adam, humans are dignified with such a power over their own
destiny that they can to a great degree turn their backs on God, on
spiritual life, on the quest for holiness. But until the end of the
world, there will always be people who, even if they are in the
minority, will call down God’s grace upon the earth and their fellow
humans. That the world continues is proof that there is holiness today.
Saint Silouan said, ‘I tell you that when there are no more men of
prayer on earth, the world will come to an end.’
In other words, spiritual life, and
holiness, which is its fruit, do not exist only in the past. We can see
holiness in our predecessors and learn from them, but we are not
examining spiritual life like an exhibit in a historical museum. It is a
living reality to which we are all called. Every human being has a
spiritual dimension. God is not partial: He calls each one into
existence with personal love, and endows each human with the potential
to share His own life. St. Peter using the terminology of his time said
that we are called to ‘become partakers of the divine nature’ [2 Peter
1:4]. And that is what holiness is: ‘Be holy, for I am Holy, and I will
that you have all that I have, unreservedly.’ This is God’s invitation
to us all, whatever our place in society, or our rank in the Church: the
rank of the laity, or that of the clergy. St. Silouan writes: ‘Everyone
in this world has his task to perform, be he king or patriarch, cook,
blacksmith or teacher, but the Lord Whose love extends to everyone of us
will give greater reward to the man whose love for God is greater.’
And again: ‘Not everyone can be an emperor or a prince; not everyone can
be a patriarch or an abbot, or a leader; but in every walk of life we
can love God and be pleasing to Him, and only this is important.’
Spiritual life is life which takes into
account the spiritual dimension of human beings. Working at our
relationship with God is not like a hobby for a certain category of
person, as people say, ‘He or she is the religious type’. It is not an
optional extra. It is what makes our life really human. Biology and
psychology, when they exclude the divine input into the human make-up,
give an incomplete picture. Secular man is merely a superior animal, and
actually sub-human. Without spiritual effort we will not cultivate our
spirit. It cannot be obliterated, but it can be stifled and atrophied,
ignored or denied. Only if we live a life which is spiritual will we
ever be fully ourselves, fully reintegrated as persons. Spiritual life
includes our psychological and our physical aspects. What I think and do
on every level of existence affects my soul. And when my soul is
touched by God’s grace, my thinking, my feeling and my body are also
blessed.
Especially in Western countries, many
people have abandoned Christianity. An English author (G.K. Chesterton)
wisely said that where people stop believing in the truth, they do not
start to believe in nothing, they start to believe in anything. Thus
although belief in God may remain when Christ is abandoned, in every
country nowadays one can meet all kinds of spiritualities. This is not
surprising, because ‘man cannot live on bread alone’, and spiritual
hunger exists even where ideas about the Absolute Being are confused.
Furthermore, many differing spiritual paths have features in common.
There is, for example, a core of ethical teaching common to the major
faiths. The radical differences between religions do not always show at
the beginning of the path: only when people go further do the
divergences become clear. Some of our contemporaries teach that the
further you go in any religion, the closer the paths converge: but
actually the opposite is true. So those who are seeking must seek for
truth, and find the path which is based, on right theology, on a true
vision of God as He Himself has revealed Himself to us. Then our deepest
intuition will confirm that indeed Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth
and the Life. The fullness of life in God is only accessible in the
God-man, that is, in the One who shares our human nature as well as
having Divine Nature, as One of the Holy Trinity. The Orthodox Church
gives us a true Prototype: we can see, and hear, and touch, and taste,
the Absolute Being; we can experience the fragrance of God’s actual
Being. Thus we can go to the end of the Church’s path with confidence.
No other path, however noble its practices, its morals, and its
aspirations, goes safely to the very end. Though nobody is totally
bereft of grace, fullness of sanctity presupposes orthodox doctrine. Our
teaching is unsurpassed; it is not out of date. It has borne fruit in
many different ages and circumstances and cultures. Orthodoxy is for
everyone; we can understand why Tertullian said that ‘every soul is
innately Christian’.
Thus spiritual life could be defined as
‘life in Christ’. Let us dwell on this for a moment. This phrase has
been used as the title of a book by St. Nicholas Cabasilas about the
Sacraments. Echoing him, the great wonderworker, St. John of Kronstadt,
who was a married priest living in Russia and who reposed in 1905, gave a
similar title to his ‘spiritual diary’ when he was asked to publish it.
An almost contemporary author called one of the books where he shared
his spiritual insights His – that is, Christ’s – Life is Mine. To be ‘in
Christ’ means to be incorporated into His actual Body, and to be
anointed with His Spirit – Christ means ‘the Anointed One’ – and adopted
as a child of His Heavenly Father. Christian faith is not only saying
‘yes’ to the Creed. It means ‘putting on Christ’ [Gal. 3:27]. How? By
Baptism, which, precisely, is preceded by a confession of faith. We
easily take this great gift for granted, but those who are converted in
the mission field or as adults can tell us from their experience that it
is a passage from darkness to light, from death to life. We sometimes
forget that at Baptism the priest said over us, ‘Thou art washed, thou
art sanctified, thou art justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God.’ These magnificent words, borrowed from St.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, can seem like a mere ritual formula if
we neglect to actualize the divine gift of grace in our life. The seed
of spiritual life has been sown in us. We ‘are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints’ [1 Cor. 1:2]. That is our task.
If we are certain that we ‘have found
the true faith’, we have nothing to fear from the plethora of spiritual
paths around us, even though it seems confusing. ‘For God has not given
us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind’
[2 Tim. 1:7]. If we remain faithful, and continually enrich our
experience and knowledge of the Church’s life and teaching, we will be
all the better fitted to help our contemporaries. The basic question is
always: What do you think of Christ? St. John reminded his
correspondents that ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And
every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is [the divine
Lord] come in the flesh is not of God: [1 John 4:2].
Of course, our exposition of what we
think of the Lord will be humble, not arrogant with self-assurance; it
will be full of love and gratitude. Saint Silouan says. ‘God is love,
and therefore the preaching of His word must always proceed from love.
Then both preacher and listener will profit. But if you do nothing but
condemn, the soul of the people will not heed you, and no good will come
of it.’ Certainly, not everyone is called to be a full-time preacher,
but whoever witnesses to Christ will be speaking of one who has made it
possible for all humans to become true persons. Spiritual life is,
according to Orthodox doctrine, a collaboration between our free will
and the will of God. The best ambassadors of Christ will be those whose
spiritual life in Him has prepared them to speak prayerfully, so that
others will want them to explain their belief. ‘Sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asks you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear’ [1
Pet. 3:15].
If we conform to the path on which alone
we can acquire what St. Paul daringly calls the mind of Christ, it does
not mean that our individuality gets lost. Our God is One in Nature and
Three in Persons. Our Fathers teach us that we do not divide the Nature
or confuse the Persons. And so it is to be when humanity is one as God
is one. If the world lived in Christ, His commandments would be the
first goal of each person: love for God and for each other. Therefore
each person would be, not dissolved, but affirmed and fulfilled in
loving relationships.
It is very instructive to read about
holy people, canonised saints and others, such as the twentieth century
holy elders, Iakovos, Porphyrios, and many more. I mention those from
the last century because it is almost ‘today’, and a century of great
suffering. I have in mind recognised holy men and women, because saints
do not wear a self-advertising label: ‘Look at me! I’m a saint.’ The
path of Christ is one of humility, and some were honoured as holy while
on earth, while some were not. Our Church wisely does not bestow
official recognition on someone until they have passed through the gates
of death, and even then usually not quickly. So it is too soon to speak
of 21st century saints. But if we only look at the 20th century, there
is such a variety of personalities, educational levels, degrees of piety
in youth, religious backgrounds, and so on. Then there are many
different life paths that led to holiness. Mount Athos has given the
world many great saints such as Silouan, who reposed in 1938; but not
all the 20th century saints were in monasteries.
There are the millions
of martyrs and confessors – men, women and children – from the Soviet
Union; there is a parish priest such as St. Nicholas Planas, and the new
Parisian saints, Maria [Skobtsova] and Dimitri [Klepinin]. There is St.
Nectarios whose astounding miracles show that our God is a living God
and is at work until now. There are many who bore suffering with faith,
and even if they are not famous, they are now reaping their reward and
praying for the world. All of these holy people went to the same
services and accepted the same Creed. Yet they vary like a garden with
many kinds of flowers. They present us with proof that God is with us
and accessible to us all here and now.
Those with a scientific training know
that proofs come mainly through experiment. The best way for us all to
answer the question posed by His All-Holiness to us today is to
experience for ourselves that ‘if you live after the flesh, you shall
die, but if through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you
shall live.’ ‘The flesh’, and ‘the deeds of the body’, mean here the
sinful energies such as hatred, pride, lust and other passions, which
cause disintegration and close the door against the Spirit of God.
Spiritual life will involve some ‘mortification’ for all of us. One
example of this is the Fasts that we undertake together at certain
periods of the Church year, precisely to help us to pray and to cleanse
our heart of sinful passions. St. Paul goes on to say that ‘As many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”. The Spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God [Rom. 8:
13-16]. When ‘the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us’ [1 Pet.
4:14], then it will be evident that there is spiritual life and sanctity
today.
Source-Pemptousia.com
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