By Father Andrew Lemeshonok
Living in
this world, we are searching for the ways, which can lead us to eternal life .
God says: “I am the way” (John, 14:6), “I am the light” (John, 8:12), “And the
light shineth in darkness” (John, 1:5). Perhaps, each of us felt inspired when
he came to God. Everything becomes bright and pure, because God dwells in you,
and He protects you from lies and filth of this world. You can see the main
thing, and nothing can disturb you from this, because the knowledge of God has
struck you. This joy revealed the sense of life to you. You were choking on this earth before, for
everything is the same there: always the same menu, always the same laws. The
rulers are changed by other rulers. Everyone wants to be the head, to
outperform his competitors… People constantly choose something or someone. But
we choose Christ, and we do this not through certain manifestations or
bulletins, but through our life.
It is so
difficult to say “I am with Christ”, when everything crashes in your life, when
you suffer, when no one can understand you, and you do not understand what is
going on in the world. When it seems to you that what is going around is just madness.
The most people
judge on their spiritual condition by how they feel. However, this is quite naive.
We cannot focus on ourselves, because we are corrupted by sin. We partake of
the Holy Communion not just to make our soul soar, to restore peace inside, and
to make all the problems disappear. We need the Holy Communion to burn the old “self”,
which tells us how to live, which deceits us, while we believe him. And this is
why we cannot know right from wrong.
Fr. Sophrony (Sakharov)
said, that it is impossible to live in this world like Christians. We can only
die for this world like Christians. But we want to live here and now. And God
gives us such opportunity. He lets us see the blue sky and the sun, which is
warming already, by the way. However, no matter how good this life is, it will
end. This is why we should harden ourselves. If someone suffers and thinks that
God does not hear his prayers, he should not believe this condition. He should
not believe his grievance and despair, which dwell in a person when he does not
see the effect of his prayer. There is always effect, but God did not come to
this world to make our life great here and now. He came to this world so that
we all could prevail over death. He wants us to take part in our own
resurrection.
The forthcoming
week is devoted to a great ascetic – Saint John Climacus. Spiritual life is a ladder,
which leads to the Heavenly Kingdom. We climb it, we fall down, we hit the
ground, we stand up and we fall again. The thing is, we need to stand up
over and over again. The ascetics, who devoted their lives to studying
spiritual laws and struggle against sin, have left to us a lot of works for
edification. However, we need to be prudent. It can happen that a person, who
came from the world, has read the works of the ascetics, but still does not
understand the main things of the Orthodox teaching. While the main thing is to humble
yourself - to acknowledge your own weakness and to let God enter your life. You
do not need to surprise people with your feats and talents. The Lord speaks
simply in the Gospel: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew, 11:29).
March 27, 2017
St. Elisabeth Convent
CONVERSATION