Father Sophrony’s sister, Maria, in
one of her letters, wrote about a certain young relative whose ungrateful
attitude towards everyone was causing anxiety in the family, and this was
Father Sophrony’s answer.
I
received your last letter not long ago. At the present moment I cannot even
find where it is. But I will answer from memory. Of course, the first thing to
write about is young people. I must say that in my lifetime I have very often
met the phenomenon you write to me about. In this connexion I tried to remember
my own conduct in the past: did I not behave in such a way?. In my childhood I
did not understand what difficulties and sufferings raising us brought to my
(our) parents. My mind acted with its focus rather on myself, on my future, on
my needs, and not on how I could show gratitude towards my parents - father and
mother - or other people who in one way or another helped me in my childhood
and youth. Now I am thinking about those young people whom I have met, for whom
I tried to do as much good as possible, to help them arrange their lives; I
tried to foresee in my mind the potential difficulties they would have in the
future and so on. And the majority of them understood nothing of this; some
even thought that I needed something from them, and that was why I did them a
good turn.
More than this, in my work not only the
young people, but the older ones too, do not understand what it costs me to
serve them. As soon as their need or misfortune has passed, they completely
forget about me, even in those cases where it would seem that there had been a
visible intervention from Above, perhaps due to my prayers.
So the young, and the not so young, have
taught me much. Just as God commands the sun to shine on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, so we must act in His
image and likeness, since we were indeed created according to His image and
likeness.
This teaching was brought to us two
thousand years ago, but even until now the earth has not assimilated it; yet
just in it, in this teaching, eternal life is contained. What and how much has
Christ done for people when He was with us on earth? And what response did He
receive? Do you remember that little song that they used to teach children?.
The
Christ-child had a gardenWhere He planted many roses...
When the roses flowered
He invited the children of the Hebrews.
They each tore down a flower,
And all garden was laid bare...
But from the prickles they wove
A crown of thorns for Him.
Such is the path set before us, that we
may afterwards dwell eternally with Him: not to look for gratitude from anyone
for all that we have done for them; to do good to all, if possible with
compassion for them, because they do not yet behold the True Eternal Love of
the Heavenly Father.
When any of those close to us is
undergoing any trouble, or catastrophe, or moral fall, we suffer greatly. But
we should empathise like that whether misfortune befalls our neighbour or even
some more distant person. The energy of the particular experience which has
fallen to our lot is undoubtedly at that very moment visiting a multitude of
other people, perhaps even many millions of others. And in order to learn compassion
for all humanity, one must accept each of our experiences as a revelation of
the suffering of the whole world. Only when man has overcome his own
individualism, and has become a hypostasis in the image of the Hypostasis of
Christ God, can he become truly universal.
Until all people conform to the likeness
of Christ, we cannot expect any radical
rectification of life on earth. If
people remain forever egoists, how is the universal brotherhood of man
possible? How is it possible for all the world to know the Father of us all? If
more has been given to us than to one or another of our brethren, let us help
him to go upwards, without seeking even gratitude from him. If we live in
awareness that after our departure from here we will be going to another form
of being - the Divine Form of Being - then every good deed, whoever may have
done it, every achievement of someone acting for the good of his neighbours,
and so on, will belong to us eternally. In eternity nothing will be hidden from
us. Here we are not jealous of anyone; here we do not seek our own glory; here
we rejoice in any good success of any person, helping everyone we can,
assisting everyone as far as we are able; and for this small benevolence we
will inherit eternal Being of immeasurable splendour. It is indeed better to
suffer here for the good and to have peace in our soul, than to triumph over
our neighbour temporarily through violence, like wild beasts, drinking the
blood of one's brethren. It could be that through these long and seemingly
meaningless sufferings, such as have been experienced even in the course of
this twentieth century, people become more receptive to the Word of Christ and
will learn to live the whole of humanity as one family, and labour voluntarily
for the good of this family. And until this happens, fratricidal wars will not
cease; the world's way of life will not change; violence and exploitation in
one or another form will not be overcome.
 |
Thou that takest away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us,
Thou that takest the sins of the world,
receive our prayers. |
It is, then, vital for all people to
become universal in the Christian sense. Then peace will reign upon earth, then
the whole earth will become like paradise. But let us leave others to act
according to their own measure of understanding. If we have been given to know
and understand these things, let us bless God for this gift from Above, and
make an effort to live in accordance with this understanding.
There was a moment in history when a
certain group of people endeavoured to live just like that: when the multitude
of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of
them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all
things in common. When people live with this feeling, that all humanity - past,
present and future - is my life, then becoming receptive to the presence of the
Holy Spirit in the world becomes possible. All the four Gospels begin with the
prophecy of Isaiah: “ ... the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and
every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made
straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the
SALVATION of God”(Lu3: 4-6) .
What hills and mountains is the Prophet
speaking about?
The inequalities between people on
earth, the injustice in the sharing out of possessions, and, what is more
serious, the unfair distribution of suffering caused by the inordinate labours
of some, and the “inordinate” comforts of others. He is speaking of the
enslavement of some, and on the other hand, of the domination and violence of
others. Regretfully, to this day there is hardly anywhere in the world where
one meets a Christian attitude of this kind to everything that takes place. And
we must count ourselves elect, not chosen for our worthiness, to have received
this knowledge, and strive to serve everyone and each one without looking for
gratitude from them; the hour will come when everything done “in secret” will,
as the Lord directed, be “revealed”, and then the sun will rise and shine upon
us. Do not be despondent; do not be sad about the loss of material things. You
are not dying of hunger now. You and I have not much longer to live. Just
think: on 4th October, you will reach 72 years of age, and I am already 79.
Have we anything to be sad about except perhaps ourselves, that we have not
attained truly Christ like life?
Maria, forgive me, I am writing in a
dreadful hurry even though I feel ready to speak with you for hours. I know
that you love God and other people. I deeply esteem and love you. So, let's try
even harder so that our inner consciousness of the greatness of our Christian
calling acquires full strength in our hearts. There is not and there cannot be
any greater good fortune than to know Eternal Truth. This knowledge gives the
soul repose and joy in the face of all earthly misfortunes. They all become
superficial disturbances which last but a short time. And there is nothing more
dreadful than not to know this Truth. Then in the face of all the riches of the
earth, there can be no peace in the soul, except for a short hour of some kind
of “satisfaction” about one situation or another.
I commemorate you all with love. I
suffer for each one of you. Albeit I don't know who is suffering from what or
how much.
My current obligation is to write a
book. I would like to write in full MY real idea about the life of mankind. But
I know that such ideas are by far not accessible to everyone. This is a great
hindrance to me when I want to write: I always wonder whether or not it is
worth my writing about this. However, I will write some kind of rough draft,
and afterwards what will be will be…
Reference:
Letters to His Family. Archimandrite
Sophrony Sakharov.(2015)