Fr. Sophrony:
Blessed
be the Name of the Lord now and unto the ages!
The
Lord left as His commandment: "Love me and in this love keep my
commandments"[1].
By keeping the commandments we become accustomed to live effortlessly in the frequent
memory of Christ, His life, His example and His words. So then, I ask you
please, my beloved brothers and sisters, to accept simply and in peace these
words, not as mine, but as an answer to the call which our Lord is addressing us.
If
you hear now some things, similar to those that the Lord said at the Last
Supper prior to His departure, I ask you please to not be saddened by these,
because He Himself said: "Do not premeditate what you will speak... but
whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak but
the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father".[2]
As He chose the Most Holy Virgin Mary and rendered Her a path for His
Incarnation, in that same way the Lord unites Himself with all of us and
according to our type of mind. Therefore, it follows that I have the right to
speak, following the example of Christ, because He said: "I have given you
an example, that you should do as I have done to you".[3]
I
will tell you that these last months were for me a great lesson. It is
difficult for me to be parted from you. However simultaneously, although the
Lord extended my days completely unexpectedly, my wish was to meet with each
one of you individually, to say even only two words.[4]
But somehow this is impossible in our life; and we accept this Divine
Providence as the way of the Cross. You who have come here have chosen us, and
not we you. Referring to His disciples the Lord said: "You did not choose
me, but I chose you"[5].
This is the way of the Lord: The Spirit of the Lord chooses us and acts within
us in our ignorance. What does it mean "in our ignorance"? That we
ourselves live, "without effecting"; we don't try to draw near anyone
in any way. We live in our simplicity and you come here guided by the Holy
Spirit, because our life, as seen externally by people, is simple. Nothing
special appears externally. However our life is a complete crucifixion. But no
matter how, whether you chose us- and for this reason the Spirit of God rests
in you- or we chose you, now we are "all one". And I say this to each
one of you, repeating with boldness the words of Christ[6].
When we live here, externally it is as if there exists nothing special. In
reality however, what prevails in everyone is something else, invisible to the
eyes of this world.
I
don't believe that death in the body will be able to separate us. No! My death,
nevertheless, in the doctors' opinion is now almost certain. Some give me a
total of a few days. In the past they were wrong; perhaps now also they will be
wrong. Our task now, our struggle, rests on overcoming the limits of time and
matter, the matter of our body, in order to remain united also after my
departure. And this, not because I am someone special, but because the Spirit
informs me thus in my heart. I am a sinful man and I am unable to keep the
commandment of the Living God, because this commandment embraces all the world,
all of creation beyond time and beyond space. The Lord said at the Last Supper:
"I live and you will live".[7]
Thus I should remain with you alive.
To
our beloved spiritual father Silouan, God revealed Himself without words, in
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| Icon of Saint Silouan the Athonite. |
Therefore,
be at peace in your hearts both in my presence and after my departure. We will
remain inseparable...
Yes,
I keep silent, not because I have no words, but because it is difficult for me
to pronounce them. The Lord said referring to His disciples in His prayer to
God the Father: "At this hour I am asking for them; not for the whole
world I am asking, but for those whom You have given me... whom I send out as
sheep in the midst of wolves"[9].
Thus bear this life! It is built in a strange way, as if nothing special
exists. But in reality there exists something most lofty and most grand: the
love of the Father, the love of the Son, the love of the Holy Spirit is with
us.
Praying
for each one of you by name, I am of course bound to each one of you with the bonds, which we can say belong to
the eternal kingdom, bonds of eternal love, unshakable to the ages of ages. It
is difficult for us to accept these. Some Apostles spoke about this with
greater boldness than that which we allow ourselves. Nonetheless, our principle
of humility is an effect of God Himself, as the bishops pray in the Liturgy:
"Visit, O Lord, this vine, which Your right hand has planted". I am
in a state of impasse. I am, myself, impatient, even though I surrendered my
life to the service of others. How many days, how many nights I spent with God
in prayer- which I could not even call prayer, because it was a gnashing of
teeth!
Therefore,
my precious brothers and sisters, at the end of my road I say to you that with
our love towards Christ we will remain unshakable. Every misunderstanding, our every
affliction, bear it as life in Christ. There are many ways towards the
"absolute" in the life of mankind, but there is none which can be
compared to the way of Christ. Therefore, don't become separated from Christ regardless
of whatever difficulties. If the Lord has appointed our death, we will die with
the consciousness of His love, which lead Him to the Cross. I hope that the
words of Christ: "I live and you will live"[10]
are truly effective within us.
Every
word of Christ is Divine Eternity itself. Do not betray Christ to anyone!
Let Him be the only king of your heart, together with the Father and the Holy
Spirit. Thus, faith in Christ is true life, the life of Christ Himself. As He
suffered for the whole of creation and for the whole world, so we too will pray
to God. And in the difficult times let us be overcome by the lamentation at
Gethsemane. Because it so happens with us also, when our prayer resembles
somewhat to that lamentation, when the Holy Spirit approaches us, for us to be
truly living. Then begins our immortal life. And then the Absolute God reveals
Himself to us in a totally different way. Our Christian faith is the utmost
perfection, and let no one separate us from the love of Christ!- as said
the great Paul. These words are mine, but you see we speak the same language about
the same life, in the same way the Apostles and all the Saints witnessed to the
Divinity of Christ.
I
am, thus, grateful to God, because I find myself here today also, carried by my
young brothers. I ask God, as always, to give me a word. Then the words crowd
together and I would like to chose those which are by nature carriers of life
eternal: When we begin to suffer like Christ for all of creation, then in
Christ and with Christ we live life eternal.
Thank
you for hearing my word, I am leaving with the certainty that the Lord brought
each one of you here by His hand. Our life is not easy. He who doesn't know it,
doesn't know the yearning for Christ. I end therefore my word to you with the
words: let us offer our lives, so that others may live: let us comfort those
who come to us; the poor who have no other comforter in this world. And so
serving Christ in the persons of our brethren who are suffering, we will, through
this love, be united to Christ for eternity.
 |
| "We will... be united to Christ for eternity." |
Our plan now is to build our underground cemetery for all of us. If we build a surface cemetery and we bury every one separately, then our space will not be sufficient for long. Thus we will build a crypt. There will the tombs be, there will our bones lay... The joy however will be, that even after death we will remain inseparable.
The
blessing of the Lord be with all of you, my brothers and sisters.
*******
[1] See Jn.14,23: "If
anyone loves me, he will keep my word".
[2] Mk..13,11; Jn.15,26.
[3] Jn.13,15.
[4] Finally this took place.
[5] Jn.15,16.
[6] See Jn.17,21.
[7] Jn. 14,19.
[8] See Jn.15,13.
[9] See Jn.17,9; Mt.10,16.
[10] Jn. 14,19.
Reference:
BUILDING THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITHIN US AND IN OUR BRETHREN.by Archimandrite SOPHRONY (Sakharov)Vol.1-3.Homily 115(Delivered in Russian on 8 April 1993), Translation from Russian to Greek by Archimandrite Zachariah.St. John the Baptist Monastery, Essex, England, Third Edition, 2014.
Translation from Greek to English by the Holy Trinity Family, Douma, Lebanon.