Valeriu
Gafencu (24 January 1921 – 18 February 1952) was a Romanian Orthodox
theologian and Legionnaire who was active during the Legionary
Rebellion. He died in a Romanian Communist prison after being tortured for
years.Known as the Saint of the Prisons (a nicknamed bestowed upon him by Nicolae
Steinhardt), the Romanian Orthodox Church is considering his canonization.
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| Valerio Gafencu. |
A: Peace is a
mystery and is only found in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ.
Q: Is peace
present in souls or in the world, in history or in eternity?
A: Being found
in Christ, it is in all and through all.
Q: Can there be
a false inner peace?
A: The passions
lead to an impassioned state that can become permanent but is not peace.
Mistakes can lead to a state of delusion that considers itself all-knowing, but
a moment of truth can come that proves such a state to be a false peace. The
spirit of evil can possess someone to the point of blindness, but this is not
peace, but slavery. The ego, pride, vainglory, the desire for domination tend
to deceive us through personal peace, devoid of God, but man will find that he
is but a creation and cannot find peace apart from God.
Q: Can inner
peace possibly co-exist with unseen warfare?
A: He who does
not struggle, and does not defeat the passions and ignorance, does not know
peace.
Q: What
actually in unseen warfare?
A: Turn within
yourself and you will see!.
Q: Can one have
inner peace without being at peace with others?.
A: As long as
you stand guilty in relation to others, volunterly or involuntarily, knowingly
or unknowingly, through omission or through acts, you cannot be reconciled with
God or with yourself.
Q: What is
inner peace in Christ?.
A: It is life
in the Spirit of Truth, the kingdom of the Holy Spirit in man. It requires
discernement of the spirits and the ability to remain steadfast in the truth.
Q: To me it
seems difficult to distinguish between good and evil.
A: That’s why
man, free man, emperor man, in order to distinguish the spirits. If we do not
have discernment, we are not worthy to be called men. Men must be saints.
Q: Peace lies
in the law or in Grace?.
Q: Peace, both
in the hearts of men and in the world, seems to be totally unstable!.
A: Peace among
men depends upon the measure in which they are found in the Spirit of Truth, and
is therefore a spiritual problem, even though it manifests itself on the
political, social, economic, cultural, educational and moral planes [of life].
All problems of mankind are problems of conscience, while the conscience does
not find peace except in the religious domain. Religion is fundamental in
history.
Q: Valeriu, is
peace determined by conscience or by power?
A: It is a
mistake to accept the peace of power without truth. The peace of slavery is not
acceptable! The peace of evil is not acceptable! Satan offers you his power if you
worship him, but all power in heaven and earth was given to Christ. Therefore Christians
cannot accept the alluring, tempting peace of Satan.
Q: Valeriu. is
peace a struggle?
A: Peace
derives from the victory of good over evil, both at the level of conscience and
at the level of history. Here we see the sense of the unseen warfare of
ascetics, and the apocalyptic sense of history.
Q: Therefore,
peace must be unceasingly on the offensive?
A: Peace must
be on the offensive and always vigilant. The peace of God came down through the
“offensive” of the incarnation of the Lord Christ and through the “offensive” of
the Holy Spirit, Who will work in the world until His second coming. Christianity
means bearing witness, searching, boldness, perseverance, work, struggle,
self-sacrifice. Christians cannot accept anything other than the peace of
Christ, no matter how many sacrifices are required of them,
Q: Must peace
be defended?
A: Some defend
the peace of God; others defend the peace of Satan. But the power of the
apocalyptic beast will be annihilated by the power of the Lamb.
Q: What are the
Christian methods of struggle?
A: In its
struggle for assertion, Christianity is spiritual and therefore free. In their
own defense, Christians are often obliged to respond to an aggressor with his
own arms: David had to kill Goliath, St. Nestor killed Lius with a spear and
received martyrdom.
Q: Are we in
favor of peace or in favor of war?
A: There is a peace
that is more destructive than any war and there is a war that brings peace.
Examine the spirit that gave birth to events and the final goal to which it aspires
and thus you will know what you should do.
Q: We always
hear talk about peace!
A: Every power
promotes its own peace, but all of them are hypocrites, concealing under the
vague notion of peace their own domination.
Q: What is
missing in the Christian world of today: Faith, truth, or power?
A: First of
all, there is a crisis of faith. As a result, the world has situated itself,
apart from truth, and for this reason God has taken power from the hands of Christians.
Q: How should
we interpret the satanic power of our age?
A: Apart from
historical explanations, there are structural
and, ultimately, spiritual explanations. The structures of this world are
materialistic-atheistic. Forces arising in the East are inclined toward the destruction
of the planet. People are so possessed by [notions of] power, wealth, and
pleasure, that they live as though they are hallucinating. Disaster is
imminent, be it by the path of peace, be it by the path of war, because of the
evil spirit that controls the modem way of life. The world needs suffering in
order to be spiritually reoriented.
God has His own ways of intervening in history. We didn't participate in this
disaster, but we were aushed under its destructive steamroller, because we bear
witness to the Truth. But people nowadays do not accept it, because once again
they are sons of Satan.
Q: Is freedom a
product of evil?
A: By no means.
Evil does not exist ontologically. In God there is no evil. Evil is a
distortion of the freedom that the Creator bestowed upon mankind and the
,angels, His creatures to whom he gave freedom of choice. Evil began with the
pride of Satan and the disobedience of man.
Q: Does God
respect man' s freedom?
A: Through His
omniscience, God has ontologically respected the freedom of man, for at the
time of creation he foresaw the birth of His Son, while through His great
goodness, God was made man and suffers together with us until the world will be
saved. Man is free by nature. But absolute freedom is not in creation, but in
the Creator.
Q: Does Satan
respect man’s freedom?
A: Satan does
not know man inwardly, but makes use of every means to enslave man, for he
himself is a useless servant. There is no freedom in evil.
Q: Does man
respect man’s freedom?
A: Through egotism
and the desire for domination, man is a wolf to [other] men. Through virtue and
the enlightenment of grace, man is [like] Christ to [other] men. Man's respect
for his fellow man is a question of the deification of man.
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"And the peace of God, which transcends
all understanding,
will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus". (Ph4: 7)
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A: Man must
liberate himself from the tyranny of sin, from the tyranny of nature, from the
tyranny of his fellow man, from the tyranny of ignorance, and finally, to
defeat death. All these things can be accomplished only through Christ.
Q: But what is
slavery?
A: It is the
opposite of liberation, in other words slavery to passions, to the laws of
nature, to man, the slavery of ignorance, and in the final analysis, slavery to
death.
Q: Can freedom
be an attribute of evil?
A: Evil does
have a certain freedom, but people have to defend their own freedom, their own
dignity, their own integrity, their own values, their own faith. The freedom of
evil does not entitle it to govern. It must be confronted and eliminated from
the world.
Q: Is it
possible for a false freedom to exist?
A: If there can
be a false christ, then it is natural that there be also a false freedom. It
can be spiritual, political, or social. All the expressions of freedom find
their value only in Truth.
Q: What is the
relationship between freedom and authority?
A: In our world,
freedom cannot exist without authority and neither can authority exist without
freedom. Here they exist in an unstable balance; only in God are they
absolute.
Q: What are the
essential criteria of a free conscience?
A: First of
all, the commandments of God, then natural and vital necessities, and afterward
values sanctioned by human experience and laws established by men- but all
these things must be redefined and understood in context.
Q: What is the
authority that gives weight to freedom?
A: It is
obvious that man is not the creator and master of the world and of life, that
man in and of himself does not have the right to be the master of other men. Only
man in communion with God, man deified, has dominion over the world and enters
into universal communion.
Q: Given the
fact that man is free and imperfect, how do you see the problem of the
infallibility of man?
A: On the level
of personal conscience, man is infallible through his personal assurance of
the truth, but with exactly the reservation of his lack of infallibility. Therefore,
man alone cannot be infallible. Only Christ was an infallible Man.
Q: Therefore
what is the freedom of Man?
A: It is the
environment in which human personality develops. It is the condition of human
responsibility and also the justification of Man as King.
Q: What is the
difference between freedom and liberties?
A: Freedom is a
condition, liberties are rights. Liberties define and at the same time limit
freedom. Freedom lies in spirit, liberties lie in the letter [of the law.]
Q: What is the
status of the universe in relation to Man?
A: The universe
and nature were created in order to correspond to the freedom of man. There is
an amazing equilibrium between multiple forces. Man's material universe
functions the same way as man's spiritual universe and both of them steer man
toward God.
Q: Can man on
his own determine his own destiny?
A: Atheistic
materialists, obsessed with pleasure, the desire for domination, and egotism,
have created modern civilization, which culminates in technology. They have
isolated human nature and have abandoned the commandments of God. Their attempt
to create an earthly and sensual paradise has failed. Nature has been exhausted
and polluted, and has become unsuitable for life. Technology, in turn, has a
much greater capacity for destruction than construction. On top of all this is
the worst evil of all: Man's alienation. In these conditions, the advocates of
anthropocentrism no longer feel that they are in control of the fate of the
world that they themselves have created. And thus the world, alienated from
God, bears the punishment for its own evil deeds.
Q: What is freedom
according to atheistic materialism?
A: A farce, a
manifestation of the false christ. Materialistic determinism culminates in the
conditioning of the conscience as a complex of conditioned reflexes, through
which man is erased as man, as personality, for he no longer has freedom and no
longer has holiness within himself.
Q: But
atheistic materialism uses the force of ideas such as freedom, Communism,
equality, justice, matter, people, science, etc.
A: The spirit
and vision of atheistic materialism pervert all values, for they put them in
the service of egotism and tyranny. This proves that human values are not
absolute in and of themselves, but have value in accordance with the spirit, sense,
and measure in which they are used. Only in Christ is everything true, good,
and useful. Apart from Him, everything is disaster.
Q: How can Man
be fulfilled?
A: The
fulfillment of man is [to be found] in communion with the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is called to bring unity into diversity, to bring order into history, to
bring holiness into life. Holiness is not something seraphic, unearthy, or
esoteric, but is an opening that Christ makes toward a world steeped in the
Holy Spirit.
Q: Will the
Christian world of the twentieth century accept the vision of creative and
messianic freedom?
A: The tragic
events through which the modern World is passing will create conditions that
favor returning to faith. We must come back to the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, to
apostolic force. We have the duty of crying out with all our strength the
Truth, repentance, and the world’s return to God. Christianity is being reborn in
the ovens of fire and torture of materialistic atheism. It is exactly through
his own methods of operation that Satan will lose the world that he thinks he
will gain. Christ appears clearly as Savior, as Messiah, and mankind will
follow Him with faith!!.
Reference:
The Saint of the
Prisons. The Monk Moise.2009