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| Saint Sophron the Athonite. |
Everyone of us will at some moment be brought to the invisible border between time and eternity. Arriving at this spiritual boundary-line, we shall have to determine our future in the world that lies before us, and decide either to be with Christ, in His likeness, or to depart from Him. Once the choice to identify with Christ or to refuse Him-has been made, of our own free will, for all eternity, time will no longer function.
Until
this moment of decision, however, while we are still in this life we shall
often waver in our self-determining, hesitating whether to fulfil the
commandments or give way to our passions. Gradually, as we struggle, the
mystery of Christ will be revealed to us if we devote ourselves totally to
obeying His precepts. The moment will come when heart and mind are so suffused
by the vision of the infinite holiness and humility of the God-Christ that our
whole being will rise in a surge of love for God. Overwhelmed by self-loathing
for the evil in us, we hunger and thirst to become like God in holy humility,
and in this longing lies the seed of holiness. Ever-growing love for Christ
naturally leads to experiences that liken us to Him; and an unimaginable
panorama will unfold before our eyes. The sorrows of the world will grieve us
sorely. And we shall forget our body, and our spirit, in so far as it is able,
will live Christ's prayer ill Gethsemane. This is the beginning of the
knowledge of Christ for the excellency of which St Paul counted all other
things but loss. To win Christ and attain unto the resurrection of the dead, he
was ready to reject all other gain. St Paul spoke thus, not because he had
'already attained' but because he was 'pressing toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus' (if. Phil. 3.7-14).
So,
therefore, if the great apostle Paul had not 'already attained', neither may we
make bold to set ourselves on a level with Christ. There must be a certain
parallel, however. It is essential for all of us to bear at least a fractional likeness
if we would call ourselves Christians. But St Paul aspired after a more perfect
likeness and besought the Corinthians to emulate him (if. I Cor. 4.16). Consequently,
we must cast fear and faint-heartedness aside and in spirit follow after Christ
that we may inherit life eternal in true knowledge of the Heavenly Father and
of Christ, Whom He, the Father, sent into the world (if. John 17.3).
It
can be said with some foundation that almost nowhere is genuine Christianity
preached. Christianity so far surpasses tile ordinary understanding that the
praying heart does not venture to preach the Gospel word. People seek Truth.
They love Christ. But, in our day especially, they try to reduce Him to
dimensions of their own making, which debases the Gospels to the level of
moralistic doctrine. Yet Christ declared, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away:
but my words shall not pass away' (Mark 13.31; Luke 21,33).
To
attain to knowledge of Truth demands far more effort than it takes to acquire
practical and scientific learning. Neither the reading of a vast number of
books, nor familiarity with the history of Christianity, nor the study of
different theological systems can bring us to our goal, unless we continuously
and to our utmost ding to the commandments of Christ.
When,
as I have said, a shadow of a likeness to the Gethsemane prayer is granted him,
man then transcends the boundaries of his own individuality and enters into a
new form of being-personal being ill the likeness of Christ. By participating
in the sufferings of His Divine love we, too, in spirit can experience a little
of His death and of the power of His resurrection. 'For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death' (in deep prayer for the world and
consuming desire for the salvation of all) 'we shall be also in the likeness of
his resurrection' (Rom. 6.5). When it is given to us from 011 High to enter
this new sphere of Being, we arrive at 'the ends of the world' (J Cor. 10.II)
and pass into the light of Divine Eternity.
And
every man on whom God has bestowed the rare and dread privilege of knowing to a
minute degree the agony of Christ's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane will
stumble on, slowly and painfully, to a cogent awareness of the resurrection of
his own soul and a perception of Christ's undeniable, ineluctable victory. He
will know 'that Christ being raised from the dead hath no more; death hath no
more dominion over him' (Rom. 6.9). And his spirit within him will whisper: My
Lord and my God. Now, O Christ, by the gift of Thy love which passeth all understanding
I, too, have crossed from death into life.
Now-I
am.
Reference:
Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov (2001) .New York: St Vladimir’s
Seminary Press.