Saturday, January 25, 2020

"I am Yours, save me".(Ps: 118: 94)
Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Saint Sophrony with his spiritual father
Saint Silouan the Athonite.
Blessed be this hour which our good Lord grants us. In peace and calm we can speak about various aspects of our long journey.
          How wondrous is this way! It is beyond our mind. Our spirit is unable to follow the "example" of Christ[1], our God, Who brought down to earth the fire of the Father's love[2].
          Today I will refer to the subject of repentance and filial adoption. Despite the fact that these states in their perfect form are beyond every human description, we, in our foolishness, will speak in the measure of our capacities about these things, which are infinitely and inexplicably great and sublime.
          How many times have we repeated that we begin our journey from the small step of repentance... The end however of this way, according to our understanding, is the deification of man. When we dare speak about these matters, many faint-hearted persons become troubled and annoyed. O, if only they knew with what fear is filled our soul, lest we be mistaken in any of our words, when we refer to the most Holy of all and everything, Father's love!
          How can we however approach this subject? Leaving behind for the time-being some details, we will speak about the most essential.
          Christ's preaching began with the word: "Repent"[3]. And when we examine this word, as with many others of Christ's words, we discover many levels of meaning. Thus we need to find in addition a suitable language in order to interpret these. And notice, we will discern two levels of repentance: one touches the limits of ethics, whereas in the other there is no longer any reference to ethical matters but to eternity itself, that is God. The first refers to the creative judgment of man who cannot and does not yet understand how it is possible to discern these two aspects of repentance. The first I would call an ethical act, whereas the other, that is the passage from the temporal trajectory to the eternal, an ontological act. In our present case we will not try to explain whether the passage is possible or not from the transient to the eternal or from the ethical to the ontological.
          An example of a deep and beautiful act of repentance we can see in the rich young man of the Gospel, who thirsted for divine eternity and asked Christ what he should do to pass from the transient to the eternal. The Lord looked at him with love and said:
          - Keep the commandments...
          - Which?
          - Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal...
          - I have kept these from my youth. What do I still lack?
          Then the Lord said to him:
        - If you want to be perfect, leave everything, all your property, all your knowledge and follow me as a poor man.
            The young man could not bear this[4].
          From the Gospel narration we see that this young man was a pious Jew of that time, when the expectation of the Messiah by mankind was at its peak. From an ethical point of view this young man was at a high rank. But there exists a higher one, which relates to the divine sphere of the uncreated and beginning-less Being. Thus, this example shows that there are different grades of spiritual states in people. And the passage from the transient to the eternal seems impossible, as is impossible in mathematics the passage from numbers to the infinite.
          Let us take another example: There lived at Bethany two sisters, Martha and Mary. Christ loved both of them, and they loved Christ and believed that He is the Messiah. When however Christ came to their house, Martha was busy with many things offering hospitality and preparing food, whilst Mary when the Bearer of such a Spirit, as was Christ, approached her, sat at His feet thirsting to hear every one of His words.
          And what happened? Martha, heavy leaden with the daily chores, the anxieties and with all the unessential matters of housekeeping, turned to Christ and said: "Tell Mary to help me". Then the Lord replied meekly: "Martha, Martha you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needed; Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."[5]
          You see what a difference! The level of ethical or visible love of our customary human relations is praiseworthy, but it does not yet transfer us to the divine eternity. The Lord says: "Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away"[6]. Reading these words of Christ we spontaneously bring to mind: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"[7].
          You see how closely the two sisters lived together, but simultaneously what a great distance there was in the thirst of each one. Mary was ready to receive Christ in the conditions of disorder and everyday informality, whether the other wanted to show all her love through every external expression. You see the difference in levels? On the one side "In the beginning was the Word" and on the other, love "from all the heart and all the mind"[8], which does not yet however go beyond the limits of the spiritual development which we have called ethical. So also in some other Gospel examples we find very deep meanings, ideas and life situations, about which using a different terminology we can say that they comprise the "second rank", which is no longer ethical -physical but ontological - spiritual.
          In these latter times we encounter on earth a paradoxical phenomenon: on the one side the oppression of all mankind through the most unbelievable cruelty, and on the other the trend to comprehend the principle of the human person, that is, what man is as a person, where the mind of the person is directed.
          When the Hypostatic principle begins to develop within us, then, even if we are shut in prison, we escape with our spirit to the boundless expanses of the created cosmos. Then man does not see the external, but lives with the internal. His theoria or contemplation however, which extends to the infinite abyss, is impossible to be defined in human words.
          What can we say about the abysses which open for the man who dives into the love of Christ? What characterizes these abysmal chasms and from where do they originate? Are they perhaps external or internal? We cannot grasp them nor determine them, but only through repentance of the ontological type can we enter this world. But even then it remains unknown to man if the infinity which opens before him exists somehow as an "objective reality" or does it comprise a state of mind, which was created "in the image" of the Mind of the Creator, of God Himself...
        
Saint Sophrony conversing with
Metropolitan Ioretheos Vlachos.
 
The Lord calls this "Mind", this "Spirit", Father: "God is Spirit"[9]. And we then wonder:: "How is it possible for this Spirit to touch us without consuming us?" At the beginning of my life on Athos my spiritual father told me the following words: "Beware, don't address God with small requests, but from the great God you too should ask only great things". Then occurs the following paradox: Man, poor and having nothing, suddenly feels himself possessing the infinite wealth of God in all His creation. The entry into this paradox happens totally peacefully, within the everyday conditions of life, and if possible, man becomes free in a natural way from everything and lives only with Him, God.
          Really, we can feel that this world was created by the Mind and the Will of that Spirit, whom we call God and God the Father: "Let us create man in our image and resemblance "[10]. It is however difficult for us to discern the starting point, in order for us to speak about the tragedy which has crushed all of us. The sufferings of the world over thousands of years are incomprehensible. How could God create such a world, in which sufferings reach a dead end? What happened? What did Adam do? I would like to speak about that great tragedy which also crushed me thousands of times. How is it possible for such sufferings to be endured during all the thousands of years which passed from the moment when it was worded: "Let there be light"[11]? In our Christian ethics we are astounded by the image of Man, the one Man, Who climbs Golgotha, in order to lift on His shoulders the whole weight of the earth's curse and the burden of all the passions. Thus, from an ethical point of view we do not see anything more grand, more Holy than Christ. I speak about this because our mind can grasp the reality of the Divine Being, even if it does not yet know the character of this great Spirit.
          It my youth it happened that I read the words of Pushkin: "Who with hostile authority called me out of naught?" The poet was considering that the world was suffering. And if the world was suffering, then of what kind of spirit could the Creator of this world be? But you see however, His Son comes, in order to speak with that man, whom He created in the image and resemblance of God. In His person we contemplate the prior to the ages concept of our Creator God for man. And if man sees himself in Christ intrinsically so good, alike to God Himself Who appeared on earth, then of course, when He reveals Himself by the Holy Spirit, we can no longer by any means draw ourselves away from this great Act of the Divine Being. This means that the Creator is not guilty for these sufferings, but a single being, potentially alike to Him: man, the image of the Absolute God.
          But you see however, we call on His Name: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, He Who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. He Who takes away the sins of the world, accept our supplication. He Who sits at the right hand of the Father, You Who are truly the only Holy One". And there is no end to our awe in front of that Original, in Whose image man was created.
          From the moment then when man is lifted in mind and heart to the divine sphere, his mind will constantly be carried precisely to this sphere. And how could it be possible to wish to depart from there! All these things are beyond our mind, our capacities, and no mental attempt conduces to the acquisition of revelation relating to the depths of God Himself.

         
"Yes, you are my son"

          Forgive me, my beloved. There is only a little time left for me to be speaking with you, and this is why I am in a hurry. In speaking I have no other aim but to impart to you the beating of my heart. I mean, it is frightful for us to speak further, because the Lord is calling us to follow Him. But where is He walking? In the garden of Gethsemane, at night time. And then on to Golgotha...
          Thus, when we become Christians and see the sufferings of the whole world, we begin somewhat to understand the "language" of Christ. The Apostles John and James asked that it be granted to them to sit at the right hand and left of Christ. Christ answered: "Are you able to drink the cup which I drink and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? They said to Him: We are able." As the Father of us all, Christ answered with love: "The cup which I drink you shall drink and the baptism with which I am baptized you shall be baptized"[12]. And we too, as souls, will drink the cup and will be baptized, as the Lord was baptized.
          With what wisdom did the Fathers of the Church teach that, gradually, from the small things we are suddenly lead to the vision of the grand, even in the details! And this is the true man, the image of God. Our striving, the ascetic fight of the monks, takes place with the aim of reinstating within us this image, which was blackened by sin and the base passions. Then our mind is renewed and sees things through a different perspective and a different light. However, this does not at all mean that one is freed from the passions.
          In our present times the outside world is becoming all the more distant from Christ, and this is the most wretched, tragic, frightful aspect of the events of our epoch: to lose Christ for the second time, as Adam did in Paradise... How can this be possible? Bearing the small frictions of our daily life, we do not "see", in a certain way, our own slips towards anger, towards discontentment, towards anything else, because we should see the sufferings of man and not his negative aspects. In reality this constitutes "material" for a great "being", about which we cannot yet speak. And our path begins from the point where almost always I end my word: Even in the small things keep your mind where the Lord is, "behind the second veil"[13] of the Eighth Day; keep your mind there, whilst with the body live and participate in the conditions of these times. The soul of man is placed in these in order to begin his awareness of being. The Lord thus often behaves with us as if He does not perceive our weakness. And it would be impossible to endure such a world, if Christ was not God. But as long as He is God, then "all things are possible"[14]. We however, despite all the afflictions, say to Him, our Father: "Glory to You, O most High God, Glory to You unto the ages of ages".
          Before closing, I would like to say two words also regarding the question which one of you submitted in written form, and I don't remember if I replied: "When did Israel receive filial adoption?"
          When we pray to God, according to the advice of the spiritual father from the Holy Mountain, we will not ask for small things, but from the great God we will only ask for the great things. Nevertheless, we should discern these two moments: where does the ethical end and where does the divine ontology begin.
          In one of the Psalms is found the following phrase: "I am Yours, save me"[15]. When we pronounce these words, we may seem exceedingly bold. How do you, O man, say: "I am Yours, save me"? Does God have need of you? Is perhaps what you are doing so great, that God Himself should come and meet you?
          There comes a moment however when God says suddenly to man: "You are my son, today I have begotten you"[16]. When we pray saying: "I am Yours, save me", we should go beyond the ethical level. We can really ask for filial adoption, but we cannot be sure that we will be accepted. This can be done only by God Himself. Thus in Paradise our forefather made the foolish step: He wanted to achieve deification without God; a simple-minded and childish step...
          When God Himself  "corrects" this phrase saying: "Yes, you are my son", then the filial adoption takes a decisive and eternal form. If however I am saying: "I am Yours", I am saying this within the limits of ethical nature: "I don't know anyone better than You, but You save me". This means that I am not Your son, prior to You Yourself bearing witness to me that I am.
          We read in the Gospels that the voice of the Father was heard: "This is my beloved Son, listen to Him"[17]. Thus the testimony of the Father Himself was necessary, in order to confirm the extreme power of the reality of this divinization, that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father.
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Reference:
BUILDING THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITHIN US AND IN OUR BRETHREN by Archimandrite SOPHRONY (Sakharov), Vol. 3, Translation from Russian to Greek by Archimandrite Zachariah, St. John the Baptist Monastery, Essex, England, Third Edition, 2014. Homily113(Delivered in Russian on 1 February 1993)

Translation of the above Homily from Greek to English by Holy Trinity Family, Douma, Lebanon.




[1] See Jn. 13,15.
[2] See Lk. 12,49.
[3] Mt. 4,17.
[4] See Mt. 19,16-22.
[5] Lk. 10, 41-42.
[6] Mt. 24,35.
[7] Jn. 1,1.
[8] See Mt. 22,37.
[9] Jn. 4,24.
[10] Gen. 1,26.
[11] Gen. 1,3.
[12] See Mk. 10, 35-39.
[13] See Heb. 9,3.
[14] Mk. 9,23.
[15] Ps. 118,94.
[16] Ps. 2,7.
[17] Mt.3,17 and 17,5; See also Mk. 9,7; Lk. 9,35.