Resurrection and Despair.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

A letter written by Saint Sophrony to his sister Maria, after the death of their sister Alexandra(Shura).

Christ is Risen!.                                                                           The old rectory

27th May 1971

Dearest Maria,

Peace be with you from the Lord.

 

Icon of Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Romanian style.

[ ... ] Once again with love I have been praying about Shura. In my last letter I said, or wrote, to you that she, poor woman, spent her life in despair. Now I will clarify what I mean. When I speak of despair, I do not have in mind a bitter facial expression, a bad digestion, insomnia and the like. No. The essence of despair is the loss of hope, of expectation to attain to Divine eternity. People do not understand this. Espe­cially people of our civilized, humanist era. But one cannot kill completely in oneself the capacity of the human spirit to receive eternity. Those who have managed it live completely like animals; and those who have not managed, live in a state of hidden inner conflict. Thus our poor Shura spent her life, without understanding herself. But I do not in any way despair for her, because she was at heart an honest person, and on meeting with a new reality she will, I am sure, choose what is true and eternal.

When I serve the Liturgy, I of course pray for all the world and I have no doubt that as long as this sacrifice of love is being accomplished in the world, the world will be kept in existence. But when this sacrifice ceases to be offered, then without fail the world will burn in the fire of universal hatred. Yes, even to this day we do not see in past ages a time when Christianity has been seriously understood and assimilated into life by the masses. Or rather, I should say that the absence of Christ-like love in the souls of those who have seized power over the weakest by force has led to fearful distortions in the life of all humanity - hence the impossibility of every­one's clearly sensing the presence of God. In their blind hatred people utterly lose such a sensation, and then for them “God dies”. In corroboration of my idea my attention was drawn, a long time ago already, to the fact that the four Gospels begin with a reference to the prophecy of Isaiah.

"And afterwards  the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed, 
and all flesh shall see the salva­tion of God"

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley [that is, people belittled and trampled on by force] shall be filled, and every mountain and hill [that is, those who lord it over their brethren by force] shall be brought low: [ ... ] and the rough shall be made smooth. And afterwards [and only afterwards] the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the salva­tion of God' (Luke 3:4-6; Is. 40:3-5).

If you can find it, read the remarkable 24th “Homily” of St Symeon the New Theologian, who, in agreement with those who were before him, and those who came into the world after him, says: “God made in this world father and son, and not slave and hireling. [ ... ] Slavery began from the evil of men, who fought against each other and enslaved each other; but the hireling came from the poverty and want which pursued men because of the covetousness of the human race. [ ... ] For without force and poverty there would be no slave or hireling.”

This world, distorted by the malice in people, hides from view the Beautiful Face of God. God does not act by force; He holds sacred the freedom of those created in His image and likeness. More than this, He beholds with patience even the evil manifestations of human freedom. And in this He will go so far as to make possible the appearance of the Antichrist, who will try to eliminate the True God and then declare him­self god. The Antichrist will inevitably use force over the whole planet. Many are scandalized by this. They raise the question: “Where is God? Where is His Providence for every creature?” Among the scandalized was also our poor Shura. She could not grasp the ways of God, and in her pursuit of human justice she ran away from Divine righteousness. But now, finding herself in conditions where it is possible to see that God is mighty and can give to man even after death the fullness of life and blessedness, she will simply and with joy go to meet Him. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

I would very much like you to describe to me in more de­tail the last days of our Shura's life. I know that the death of a human being is a tragedy by its very nature. Death is only joyful when the spirit of a man has truly passed beyond the limits of mortality and strongly senses the impossibility of his death. If you can, describe for me her sufferings. About your own tribulation, the tribulation of all of you, I will not enquire, because this side of the matter is clear to me.

You are still suffering from headaches. R. told you that “It's better to be a fool than to suffer from headaches”. But I do not agree with him. There is no greater misfortune than to be a fool, even though no single fool is aware of this. And what is worse: the majority of people are dissatisfied with their lot, but it is exceptionally hard to find a person who is dissatisfied with his own mind. How everyone speaks with such confidence in their own rightness! The response given most often to someone else's idea is “no”.

Reference:

Letters to his family. Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov.2015.