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| Russian icon of the Nativity of our Lord. |
Christ's commandments are expressed in a few simple words but in a
miraculous fashion when we obey them our spirit unfolds in longing to embrace
'all things which are in heaven, and which are on earth " in the love
commanded of us. Surely it is inconceivable that creatures brought into being
from 'nothing' could be possessed of such power? Of course, it is impossible
for us, of ourselves, to contain in our heart the whole universe. But the
Maker of all that exists Himself appeared in our form of being and effectively
demonstrated that our nature was conceived not only with the ability to embrace
the created cosmos but also to assume the plenitude of Divine life. Without
Him we can do nothing, but with Him and in Him everything becomes attainable -
though not without 'pain'. Pain is essential, firstly to make us realise that
we are free personae (hypostases), and secondly that on the day of Judgment the
Lord might give us His life for us to possess forever.
To transport ourselves in mind, whenever we suffer tribulation,
into universal dimensions makes us like unto Christ. If we do this, everything
that happens to us individually will be a revelation of what happens in the
wide world. Streams of cosmic life will flow through us, and we shall be able,
through personal experience to discern both man in his temporal existence and
even the Son of man in His two natures. It is precisely thus, through
suffering, that we grow to cosmic and meta-cosmic self-consciousness. By going
through the trial of self-emptying in following Christ, crucifying ourselves
with Him, we become receptive to the infinitely great Divine Being. In wearying
penitential prayer for the whole world, we merge ourselves spiritually with all
mankind: we become universal in the image of the universality of Christ
Himself, Who bears in Himself all that exists. Dying with Him and in Him, we
here and now anticipate resurrection.
The Lord suffered for every one of us. His sufferings do indeed
cover all our ills since the fall of Adam. In order to know Christ properly, it
is essential that we ourselves enter into His anguish, and experience it all,
if this be possible, as He Himself did. Thus, and only thus, is Christ-God made
known, existentially i.e., not abstractly, through psychological or
theoretical faith that is not converted into deeds.
From the outset when I returned to Christ, with a little more understanding
now of Who Jesus was, my heart underwent a change and my thoughts took a
different direction. From my inner conflicts I spontaneously shifted to
humanity at large, and found myself suffering with all mankind. The experience
made me see that we must not only live the ordeals that fall to our lot within
the narrow framework of our individuality but must transfer them in spirit to
the universal plane - in other words, realise that the same cosmic life that
flows through us flows in the veins of everyone else. Because of this
apparently natural psychological impulse, I began to feel all the ills -
disease, disasters, feuds, enmities, natural catastrophes, wars, and so on -
that befall the human race, with increased compassion. This really quite normal
compulsion was to bring forth precious fruit for me: I learned to live the
fate of all mankind as if it were happening to me personally. It is precisely
this that is enjoined by the commandment, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself "- neighbour, of course, in the Christian interpretation of the
word." Developing and growing stronger with the years, my cognition
naturally extended to the ends of the earth, and beyond - to the Infinite. With
gratitude to God I looked back on all the calamities of the First World War:
the terrible disruption of the administrative life of the country; the revolutionary
battle waged the length and breadth of Russia that endangered each and
everyone; the acute shortages of everything necessary for normal living; the
alienation from all that is important and dear to the soul and mind; the
agonising idiocy of everything that was happening . . . That was how I
conceived of the tragedy of contemporary history. Later I fathomed its sources
- in the Biblical narrative of the Fall of man.
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| Saint Sophrony the Athonite. |
A terrible scene. And still not the end: 'Yet once more I shake not
the earth only, but also heaven"
Thus I draw nearer to the great mystery of the 'image of God' in
us: the Persona. He revealed Himself to us in the Name - I AM THAT I AM. Yes,
we are in His image. Standing before Him in prayer, our spirit at one and the
same time both glories and bewails - glories in the contemplation of realities
excelling earthly imagination; bewails its nothingness, its complete impotence
to contain the Divine gift. Thus from the very outset of our birth from on High
the soul pines. To be sure, we do grow but the process seems to us a slow and
painful one. It can be said that the whole of Christian life consists of the
'pain of bringing forth' for eternity.
I notice that my mind continually returns to one and the same
vision, from which I cannot detach myself, to which I began to relate over half
a century ago. The Lord absorbs me completely. I both see and do not see my
surroundings. My eye glances around at intervals when I am busy with the
unavoidable preoccupations of everyday life. But whether I am asleep or awake,
God is closer to me than the air I breathe. During the past decades grace in
diverse forms has streamed down on me, sometimes like a wide river, sometimes
like a cascade of 'living water' on my head. On occasions - it still happens -
a boundless expanse of ocean would open out before me; or like a weightless
puppet I would hang suspended over a peculiar imaginary abyss . . . and here I
lose myself: what I have written is but a rough impression in a painter's
sketch-book of a majestic panorama. My soul would sing hymns of praise to God,
Who with such love came to meet me, a thing of nought, but I cannot find words
worthy of Him.!..
Reference:
On Prayer. Archimandrite Sophrony the Athonite. 1996.