The connection of the believer with Christ is not achieved on an intel ectual, sentimental or even psychological level, but rather on the realistic, that is, the existential level. Christ is a stance and a way, a style and a manner of life. The faithful today have distanced themselves from this sense and understanding of life, which is the real relationship with the living God. Christ is no longer at the center of life. The approach to Him is rather guarded. But, through the sacramental life of the Church, our existential experience of Christ wil be restored.With the Mysteries (Sacraments) of our Holy church we can feel the presence of God in our lives –
here and now. Through Baptism we become members of the one and undivided body of Christ. We are vested with a garment of light and gladness, and we receive Christ Himself in an eternal relationship. With the mystery of Chrismation the Holy Spirit comes to dwel in us. We thus enter into a new and holy community, that of the sons and daughters of God, and we receive new life. This new life is nourished and constantly renewed through the Holy Eucharist. We eat and drink the body and blood of Christ – unworthy and ungrateful though we are – as the source of eternal life, the greatest gift of God to mankind. Our life draws its existence from this divine food and drink.
A significant contribution to the connection of the believer with Christ is made through the study of Sacred Scripture, particularly the New Testament, on a very regular basis and in a prayerful manner. This provides not only information but spiritual transfiguration.
Christ is not simply a good ideologist, but the unique Theologian. He is the only one who can speak of heaven from which He descended. Moreover, Christ is not the successful miracle-worker, but the one who is sacrificed for the life of the world. Christ does not simply change the world; He gives it life in a vital way.
Christians are not members of a society with rights and responsibilities, or adherents of a particular political party, gathered, grouped and herded together, but rather free sons and daughters of God, invited to the heavenly banquet, whose foretaste clearly begins from this life, as the Fathers of the Church reassure us.
The entire cycle of dominical holy days is for the souls of the faithful. It is not merely a reminder of ancient events but a reenactment, an experience of those events in the depths of our hearts. The Fathers say that Christ dwel s in our hearts through faith. He becomes incarnate in us when the pain of asceticism bends and cuts the passions. And He is resurrected when the Christian, freed from sinful passions, experiences spiritual visions, ascents and delights.
Christ offers true and real life to His friends. Without Christ life is dark, joyless, despairing. As the twentieth century draws to a close and as life gal ops toward new conquests in space, we have an amazing diminution of distances and instantaneous knowledge of what is taking place in the four corners of the earth.
Yet, more than any other time in history, we are restless, insecure and pathological y anxious. Nuclear, atomic and chemical weapons, totalitarian governments of every type, accidents with many victims, ecological catastrophes, and economic and social disasters weave the fabric of modern man's anxiety. At the same time one can also observe a great “spiritual” movement with new philosophical trends, political theories, deviant expressions of art, cultural manifestations and a variety of heresies. Is it possible that this contemporary crises can become an impetus for authentic spiritual regeneration? Is it possible that utopia is to be found in man's attempt to bring heaven down to earth? Could the tragedy of our time be found in the wil ful ignorance of, or at least in the inability to believe in, the existence of eternal life? Can out of despair and decay come the privilege of hope and the flowering of real joy? We shal not attempt to answer these difficult questions, but to introduce an atmosphere from within which can come divine help, or at least the problematic and the intimation of another way of life that has no end.
CHRIST AS THE GIFT OF LIFE AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE
I shal share with you here the words of a great contemporary starets of the North, who began his spiritual journey on Mt. Athos. In a recent book he writes that, after the breakout of the First World War, “my youthful dreams were devastated. But at the same time, a new vision of the world and its significance appeared before me. Next to the destruction I gradual y formulated my rebirth. I saw that there was no tragedy in God.
The tragedy was only in the life of the people, whose vision never extended beyond earthly boundaries.
Undoubtedly, not even Christ Himself depicted a tragedy in his passion. Nor were al His sufferings on earth of a tragic nature. And the Christian who has accepted the gift of the love of Christ, even though he recognizes that he is not yet fulfil ed, can escape the nightmare of death that destroys everything. The love of Christ, for the entire duration of His stay here on earth, was indeed a fearful tribulation” (Fr. Sophronios).
During His earthly sojourn, Christ did not cease to endure the disbelief of our perverse nature –
weeping at the grave of His friend Lazaros, embittered with the Jews who would be kil ers of prophets, deeply saddened in the garden of Gethsamane, and thus partaking ful y in the tragedy human of the human condition.
It is this fal en and suffering nature that Christ bends and raises, granting it peace, courage, fearlessness, love and eternal life.
The stubborn refusal of a great part of mankind to accept Christ as the only true God deprives it of the redemptive light of eternal life. For it is our wil ingness to freely align ourselves with the company of the disciples of Christ that transfers us beyond this present pain and suffering, and introduces us into the graceful intimation and foretaste of the unwaning light of Christ.
Self-condemned in the prison of selfish individualism, strongly secured in the pleasure of our ideas, emotions, preferences and idiosyncrasies, we isolate ourselves from others, toward whom the Gospel wants us to b e open, to be available, and to have good intentions. Thus, we are unable to accept our neighbors and, consequently, to love them and to pray for them. For it is with prayer that this tragic isolation is overcome, we become united with others, and we meet Christ Himself.
It is thus, dear friends, that man begins to be cal ed spiritual when he begins conscientiously to be preoccupied with himself; when he is aware of sin within him; when he ceases to scrutinize others; when he repents and begins to pray. For one to see and acknowledge his real condition requires strong wil power, and also powerful divine help. Christ exists for such moments, to hasten to us and to help, significantly and effectively, as long as we continue to truly want His help. For it is often enough that we begin something but are unable to finis. It is in such instances that the danger is readily at hand, due to fear of what we shal encounter. The continuous and difficult struggle that is required for our labors to be fruitful, and the temptation which introduces thoughts of cowardliness, are in themselves impediments of considerable power.
As we come to know ourselves, we also know God. It is thus that our person is revealed to us. By loving God, we gradual y become aware of the magnitude of His love. It is thus that God is known and thus that He is revealed – primarily as love. Il umined by divine love, man transcends space and time intrepidly, fearlessly, joyful y, becoming a sojourner who is vital y interested in the purpose of his journey – the heavenly kingdom –
without neglecting the present life, but giving it only the importance that it deserves.
As we have said, to this knowledge are guided al the souls who humbly pray, discretely struggle and sincerely repent. Christ finds it impossible to dwel in darkness. And sin is but darkness. Let us not seek to justify our sins, for we thus grieve the Lord and become transgressors of His commandments. Christ wil leave us in our darkness if we prefer to remain there, but He wil always and in every circumstance anticipate our repentance.
Oftentimes, a so-cal ed “misfortune” of life – il ness, bankruptcy, the il ness or death of a relative or friend – wil lead someone closer to Christ. It also often happens that, as soon as the problem passes, Christ is forgotten. As you wel can understand, this is not the Christian way. Christ is not only for the moment of need.
But, if one does not make the resolve, and take the necessary effort, to anchor himself permanently” at the feet of Jesus,” the waves of contemporary influences wil likely sweep them away.
In a world of deception, despair, violence and abuse, it is no longer fashionable to hear words of love, nobility and grace. But when founded upon the immovable rock of faith in Christ, we become strong and invincible, receiving as His children the inheritance of His victory.
The time of loquaciousness has passed and the world today anxiously seeks authentic life and example.
Many times the most thunderous message is given in silence, as the Fathers of the desert have said. A message without the manner and the style of authentic and pure experience becomes tiresome, without consequence or continuity. This is why many young people are helped only by silence, by the sacred services of worship in the Church, or the measured words of the monks of Mt. Athos. A wise man of recent history has said the following words, which are both significant and need to be careful y observed: “I love Christ, but the Christians I do not love because they do not resemble Christ” (Ghandi). I think he is right. Many times, more than the so-cal ed atheist, it is we Christians who denigrate the name of Christ and provoke with our inconsistencies the blaspheming of His holy name. In the life of the great martyr George it is noted that fel ow soldiers, seeing his face shining with joy, asked what it was that made him so happy. He answered that it was the fact that he was a Christian that made him so happy and joyful. They in turn responded by saying that if their own lives were to become so beautiful and joyful, then they too would like to become Christians. This is the best way to preach the Gospel truth. It is the pure life of the martyr. Someone said that to be a Christian means to be joyful.
Christians of today are far from this true joy.
In the present fickle world, which you know better than I since you live it on a daily basis, man is easily influenced and sometimes swept away. His conscience has been blunted to the point where his mind and his heart are constantly accepting notions which alter his Orthodox ecclesial principles, his genuine Orthodox beliefs, and even the basic principles of his ethics. Today most Christians are indistinguishable from the rest of society. With al the decadence that is seen and heard, hardly anyone reacts with indignation. And if someone manages to break loose from the evil intrigues of the world, arrives broken and hurting at the doorway of the Church, and finds no doorkeeper there, it is truly tragic. But even more tragic is to find the church's doorkeeper there, but unprepared, tired, superficial, preoccupied with many other things, and struggling to justify a rapid departure. And this while the returning prodigal so of God stands before him. I would like to conclude this parenthetical remark by repeating what was said by a famous physician: “If we had good spiritual guides we would not need psychiatrists and psychoanalysts” (Jung).
As we continue, please give your attention, not to me, but to the word of God, which leaves no one uninformed, without rest, without consolation. I would like to assure you, supported by the assurance provided us by our other brothers, the saints, that there is no wound or disease that Christ cannot heal. No matter what our individual history or condition, let us never be afraid. It does not matter that one was born at a difficult time under adverse conditions; that life was accompanied by poverty, ignorance and hardships; that he was swept away by the easy life. No matter what the problems of life or of character, if there is repentance, Christ comes and wipes everything clean, makes everything new. We see this many times among monks of Mt. Athos, whose repentance guided them, b varied paths, to the “Garden of Panaghia.” After their conversion there is no indication of former evil and sins. They have been visited by the grace of God.
When the mind of the Christian is fil ed with the memory of Christ, a condition that each monk seeks, this proves in the final analysis to be extraordinarily pleasant and beneficial. Through the remembrance of Christ every event of the day takes on a different character. Whether circumstances are pleasant or unpleasant let us say: “Glory to You, O God!” St. John Chrysostom expired during his exile in Armenia, praying on the floor of a deserted chapel, with the words: “Glory be to God for al things!” The blessing of a consciousness continuously focused on Christ anoints man and makes him Christ-like. This blessing enables man to see, to touch, to understand and to interpret the world in a different way.
The Christian is then able to go through this life with respect, patience and love, and with the spirit of acquisition, exploitation and greed no longer present. To be able to approach the world in this manner is an enormous freedom and a beneficent ease.
Spiritual ease is not necessarily associated with material luxury. Often we meet people “who have everything” but lack the serenity of sweet sleep, the fearlessness of the believer, and the roominess of simplicity.
The believer, by giving his first thoughts to Christ, as wel as his hopes and his “programs,” and by giving very little if any concern to “what people wil say,” wil surely gain that serenity with which Christ rewards His true friends. By being more concerned with ourselves and to a lesser degree with others, we can be easily spared many anxieties. This, of course, does not mean that we wil be careless about others or that we wil ignore the possibility of scandalizing them with our words and actions, but rather that our love for them, while remaining undiminished, wil not degenerate to pathological anxiety.
Our love wil not depend on their love. The existence of the love of others must not necessarily be taken for granted in order for our love to be manifested. We are cal ed, therefore, to revolt for a spiritual independence that wil be subjugated to the Orthodox tradition and wil natural y have nothing in common with any form of isolation. Perhaps in this way we may not be popular with the many, but then again this is hardly our goal. If we should desire to have the praises of al , this can only mean that we do not real y desire the praise of Christ. In order to have al the people on our side, we must necessarily become sophists, diplomats, flatterers and politicians, compromising, retreating and behaving obsequiously, in an undignified manner that is not consistent with our Christian identity.
Let not these remarks be taken as a prideful stance, because Christ Himself in the praetorium, when unjustly slapped by the servant, asked for an explanation, while on another occasion He suggested that when slapped we should offer the other cheek as wel . Also, on Golgotha the garments of Christ were divided among the soldiers, not so that the executioners may have a talisman, nor even for the prophesies to be fulfil ed, but rather to indicate for us a manner and way of life. Christ had only one valuable garment, woven and seamless from top to bottom. With this single garment Christ is teaching us the virtue of simplicity and frugality, sobriety and dignity.
Once a monk was wearing a worn cassock ful of holes and a very discreet ascetic who saw him remarked: “Through the holes of your cassock I see your great pride!” There is great significance in the way we behave. The spiritual man is not obvious at the “good times” of regular church attendance and of required acts of charity, but during the whole day and night. Our spirituality is judged at each and every moment. Our mirror is Christ and His word. Imitation of Christ means to have a profound delight in His Gospel, to be buried with Him and to be raised with Him, adorned with the evangelic virtues. Let us not confuse humility with wretchedness.