The Old Rectory
3rd June 1966
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| Saint Sophrony the Athonite. (Camil Rahal 2019) |
We confess at the same time though that Christ is true
Man. The Father, seeing such a Man, gave to Him, to that Man, a place in
eternity at His right hand, which means He is perfectly equal to the Father. If
men are such, then God the Father does not repent that He created man, as it is
said in Scripture: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually, And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth." (Gen6: 5-7).
Perhaps human evil is felt particularly vividly in our
time, because the evil appears in an organized form as never before. I am
already an old man, and only in my very earliest childhood did I gain an
impression of peace and light - but from the beginning of the Russo-Japanese
War!" until the present I see mankind overwhelmed by fratricidal wars, and
there is as yet no brightening on the horizon; rather, on the contrary, clouds
of unprecedented darkness fill the sky, ready to burst out in an apocalyptic
storm. And I, notwithstanding this brutality, was ready from my young years to
go out into the streets and squares, like Diogenes, with a lighted lantern, to
seek for a man. And when I found Christ, I rejoiced at this wonderful
discovery, and I will never be able to forget this fact of world history.
In essence only He, Christ, is fully a Man. We, though, pass the days of our
earthly pilgrimage in striving to become like Him. A man begins to be a man
when he is conscious of himself as a son of the eternal Father, and pronounces
the prayer "Our Father" with
this awareness. But we do not yet feel this dignity of man in its fullness, and
that is why we continue on the path of our development, of our upbringing in
the Holy Spirit. Without Christ it is impossible to justify humanity. Thus,
Christ, simultaneously God and Man, vindicates God in front of the world,
having revealed to the world the immeasurability of the Father's Love, and also
justifies humanity in front of God, having revealed to God the Father the true
face of man. This justification is not juridical, as many Christians tend to
think, but of a completely different order.
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| "Thanks to the manifestation of Christ we now know God as He is" |
You will understand that what I have written are only
small hints, a few fragments, of the picture presented to my mind - especially
during the hours of the Liturgy, which is the eternal sacrifice for the sins of
the whole world. Of course, I would like to speak with you for hours about
these vital matters. But there we are, in our days these hours are not given
to us.
So, I am wishing you, Maria, all the very best, and
among other things I wish you good health. Nonetheless more than all else and
before all else, I wish you inspiration from on High for a worthy passage
through your old age, which is already upon you, which is our most blessed
time on earth. Everything shallow and base fades away, naturally fades away,
and the thought of another level of Being becomes unceasing, by virtue of the
approaching solemn moment of our departure from here. We do not yet know what
will happen to us, because our experience is not enough for us to judge this
fully. We only know that Christ is risen, and that we will all rise in Him.
When these things will be brought to completion, as the actualization of God's
creative work, then with more credibility than from scientific proof everything
in the cosmos will be revealed to all of us, and our knowledge will acquire
that absolute character towards which man's spirit strives in every epoch.
May God keep you, blessing all your days. I send everyone
my fervent love.
Your Sophrony.
Reference:
Letters
to His Family. Archimandrite Sophrony(Sakharov).(2015).