 |
| Saint Sophrony the Athonite. |
Our wish is to live with the Holy
Spirit: to live where His Name is called upon. When we come into contact with
the Word of God, we cannot of course avoid the fear but neither the joy. How
many times have we said, and we will repeat it, that every day and every season
and every hour we try to live on holy ground, and this ground is the Church.
Through what is the Church sanctified.?!.
Through our effort, struggling not to
grieve the Holy Spirit, in trying to grasp every one of His words. These words
are written in our hearts: "Christians should speak always from what is
given to them by the Spirit and not to philosophize". If you examine how the Church and the crowds
of people reacted to the preaching of the holy Apostles, you would undoubtedly
wish to keep that joy and compassionate love for the world.
Why do I speak with fear about the
Word of God.?!.
Because the Gospel begins with the
words: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God"[1].
Those who have the ability of discerning the spiritual state of a person, will
confirm, according with the prologue of the Gospel of St. John, that man does
not speak thus. It is therefore useless to seek in philosophical works - as
some have tried- the origin of this statement of St. John the Theologian.
Even the most brilliant of men would
not be able to speak thus. The meaning of these words is not revealed through
human interpretations, but with the perception of the life enclosed in them.