An
interview with the librarian of the Monastery of St Catherine, Mount Sinai,
Archimandrite Justin Sinaites, on the history and mission of the monastery, the
Ladder of St John, and the fear of death.
Priest Antoniy Borisov: Father, thank you
very much for agreeing to give us this interview. I’d like to start with a
question about your presentation. You started your paper with some ideas about
the Ladder of Saint John, hegumen of Sinai Monastery. This book for centuries
has helped many Christians. How can Christians – how can we – understand it in
the right way? And can you tell us about some special tradition of reading, of
learning the Ladder in your Monastery?
Archimandrite Justin Sinaites: Saint
John came to Sinai when he was only 16 years old. When he was 19, he was
tonsured a monk at the peak of Sinai. When his elder passed away, he lived in a
cave, and we know the location of the cave to this day. He lived there for 40
years, and then he became an abbot of Sinai when he was already an old man. So
here is someone who had passed his whole life at Sinai.
There are
many important books written at Sinai that have been the inspiration of
Christians, but the most important is the Ladder. It came at a critical time;
because it was in the following century that the Sinai passed outside of the
Byzantine Empire, and became part of the world of Islam. The Ladder is a
summary of all of the wisdom of the Desert Fathers up to that time.
St. John
says about one passage, “I didn’t want to put it this way, but I was forced
to,” and so it showed that it was not just his work, but that it was a
collaboration with others as well, who sometimes overruled his own opinion. The
genius of the work is that it is born from practical experience and practical
observations. So even though it was written for monks in community – and I
would say it’s still the paramount guide for monks living in community – it has
been read and treasured by married Christians with families from the time it
was written until our own day. It is read in every Orthodox monastery during
the holy Fast in preparation for Holy Week and Pascha, and that is why in many
monasteries it is depicted on the walls of the trapeza.
Human
nature never changes. Technology changes quite rapidly, but human nature
doesn’t change. So the advice he gave in the 6th and 7th centuries for
humility, for peace with others, for love for God – all of these are as
important today as they were in the 6th century.
A.B.: Your monastery, Sinai Monastery, is one
of the most famous in the Orthodox world. What is the modern situation of your
monastery? How many monks are there now? And what is the nationality of these
monks who live now in Sinai monastery?
J.S.: We call St Catherine’s Monastery
the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world. We can trace a
Christian and a monastic presence there to the end of the 3rd and the beginning
of the 4th centuries, and for 1700 years it has never been destroyed, it has never
been abandoned.
It was
the poor monastery at the edge of the inhabitable world. The great monasteries
in Constantinople were imperial foundations with splendid treasures, many
monks, and many monks who reached great heights of sanctity. Sinai was always
remote. It was the most difficult to reach of all the pilgrim shrines. Up until
the 18th-19th century it took 10 days on a camel to reach the monastery from
Suez, the nearest port. So it was a remarkable feat to say “I have been to
Sinai”. That meant that you had tremendous zeal, you had resources, you had
time, you had patience to make such an arduous trek. With the advent of
automobiles it became possible to travel there in 1 or 2 days. And then the
present highways were built in the late 60s and early 70s. But you have to
remember how recent all of these changes are. Sinai only became accessible 40
years ago. So when you go there today and you see the highways, the hotels, the
restaurants and shops which were built to support the visitors who come there –
that is a very recent development.
In
ancient times it was difficult to find food and water to support life. But
given that, you were living in isolation, in vast silence, and the monks there
reached very great spiritual heights. Today it is not a question of finding
food or water for the day, because transportation is so easy now. The challenge
facing the monastery is keeping the ancient heritage, the spiritual heritage we
have, as a living tradition, when so much around the monastery has now changed.
There are
23 monks in the community. It is a small community, compared to the great
monasteries of Athens, compared to the great monasteries here in Russia. But it
has always been the small monastery at the edge of the world. Twenty-three is
not very many, but 40 years ago there were only seven monks there. The famous
Greek author Kazantzakis visited Sinai. He said: “These seven old men are going
to die; that’s going to be the end of all these centuries of heritage”. But we
have more monks now that we did then.
There is
a rule that you must be of Greek descent to join the monastery, because it was
a part of the Greek-speaking world going back to the 4th century, and the monks
there were very very eager to preserve the Greek heritage. But although it has
been predominantly Greek throughout its history, there also have been monks
from other nations and other peoples throughout its history as well. By
exception to that rule there is a monk from England, and myself.
It has
been a place of pilgrimage for Christians from all around the world, and I
think it has a special relationship to Russia. We have a remarkable collection
of manuscripts in Slavonic, even in Glagolitic, so these are witness to
Christian pilgrims coming from Russia centuries ago. We have a silver reliquary
for the relics of St Catherine given by Sofia, the sister of Peter the Great.
We have a candelabra given by the empress Elizaveta. We have many gifts from
Russian sovereigns, from Russian hierarchs, from the pilgrims.
Today it
is Russians who are the predominant ethnic group visiting Sinai, because now
there are direct flights from Moscow to Sharm-el-Sheikh, and Russians go there
for vacations. But as a result, especially in winter we have 300 to 400,
sometimes 500 Russians coming there every single day. The monastery has many
publications in Russian, and the Bedouin in the area are learning Russian to be
able to sell their things to the visitors. So it has a special relationship
with Russia today, and with Russian pilgrims. Many come not knowing anything
about the monastery, and then they see the donations that have been given by
Russian pilgrims and Russian benefactors through the years and they become
enthused that this is a part of their heritage, and then we say they arrive as
tourists and they leave as pilgrims.
A.B.: What is the regime, the timetable of a
monk of Sinai Monastery? How does a monk of your monastery live from day to
day?
J.S.: It says in the Psalms, ‘Seven
times a day have I prayed unto Thee’, and because of that, the full canonical
office is seven services plus the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. But at
Sinai we group the services together. At 4 o’clock in the morning we have the
midnight service, the morning service and the celebration of the Divine
Liturgy, which ends at about 7:30 on a weekday, and at 8:30 or 9 on feast days
and Sundays. When you go to church at 4 o’clock in the morning all the stars
are out, and by the end of the service the sun is up. So we experience the
transition from dark to light in the course of the services. At noon we have
the reading of the third hour and the sixth hour, and then at 4 in the
afternoon we have the celebration of the ninth hour, vespers and compline. So
in these three time periods we have the full canonical office.
The monastery
is open to visitors from 9 until 12, and anyone who comes can visit the church,
can visit the adjacent museum, can see the place with the burning bush. In the
wintertime sometimes a thousand people a day come and see the Church during
that time, so it can be very very crowded. Summer is, by comparison, the
peaceful time. After the noon service we have the one meal where everyone sits
down together and we have the readings from of the Lives of the Saints and from
the writings of the Fathers. Then there is a quiet time in the afternoon in
anticipation of vespers. There is again a work period after the evening service
and again quiet time in the evening and the night in preparation for the
morning service. So it is an alternation between private prayer, common prayer
and also between times of work and times of rest.
A.B.: Nowadays your monastery is situated on
a territory with a very difficult political situation, and your monastery is
surrounded by Muslims. How can the monks and your monastery live in this
situation? Does this conflict have any influence on the monastery?
J.S.: Before the 7th century the whole
peninsular was Christian, and that is why there is a Bishop of Sinai. The
Bishop of Sinai was the signator of some of the early Church Councils. With the
coming of Islam the Christians there either left or converted to Islam. So
there was the end of the Christians’ presence at Sinai from the 7th and 8th
centuries except for the monastery and the churches and chapels connected with
the monastery.
From the
7th century, with the coming of Islam, the monastery became a place for the
resident monks and for pilgrims, but it was no longer a centre for large
numbers of Christians who dwelt in the area. The Bedouin who work for the
monastery and live in the area trace their descent to the soldiers who built
the monastery in the 6th century, so they have been affiliated with the
monastery since that time. We have been told by anthropologists that they are
the oldest separate ethnic group in the Middle East, second only to the
Samaritans, so they have a remarkable history of their own. They are called the
Jebaliyya, from the Arabic word “jebel”, – ‘mountain’ – which is ‘the people of
the mountain’, in reference to Mount Sinai.
In
ancient times there were just a few monks living in the monastery, and a few
Bedouin in the area, and they supported each other. The Bedouin would help the
monastery in their many tasks, and the monks would bake bread for the Bedouin
in the area and support them in turn. It was a remarkable symbiosis between the
monks and the Bedouin that is especially remarkable today, because the monks
are Christians, Greek-speaking monastics, and Bedouin in the area are Muslims,
Arabic-speaking with families, so we differ by culture, by language, by
religion, by all the things that make for conflicts. But instead of having
conflict we had and still have a remarkable relationship of peace and support.
The Archbishop has said that one of the great problems facing the whole world
today is the tension between the world of Islam and the Christian world, the
world of the West. Sinai is the emblem of fervent Christians and fervent
Muslims who yet have found a way to live in harmony and respect, and it is the
emblem of the peace that is possible and that becomes our hope for the world at
large.
A.B.: In your paper you talked about the
strong connection between prayer and the fear of death. But there is a
question. If a man is afraid of death, and this fear is so strong that he forgets
about salvation, this fear is like a wall, and the man cannot see paradise
because of this wall. How can modern Christianity explain to a man that this
fear can be a servant on the way to salvation?
J.S.: St John has a Step in the
Ladder, Step Six, ‘On the Rumours of Death’, and he says something that is very
striking, and that puzzled me. He said: ‘Christ fears death, but he does not
tremble at death’, to show that he is of two natures. Many times St. John says
something, but he doesn’t expand it, he doesn’t explain it. He was writing for
people who lived in close contact with each other, who shared the same
foundations. He only needed to make the brief gestures, as it were, and people
would understand. But many of these things are confusing and they need to be
explained. So I myself begin to read the writings of other Fathers to try to
understand this more clearly, because how can it say that Christ feared death?
It is St
Maximus who provides such beautiful insights into this passage. He mentioned
that Christ had a perfect Divine nature, but he also had a perfect human
nature. He feared death in that he had taken upon himself the fullness of our
human nature, and he experienced within himself all of the temptations, all of
the conflicts and all of the fears that we experience as human beings, but
without sin. But having triumphed over these, then he gives us hope and
consolation. So the fear of death, that is an inherit part of our human nature,
is no longer something to be feared, because Christ has conquered death. Death
for the Christian is a time of sleep, and it is a passing from the world of
temptations and tribulations into the hope of eternal life. So it is become a
passage now from death into life.
A.B.: Christian history, the history of the
Christian Church, shows us that sometimes theological discussions have become
the reason for some conflicts. Sometimes modern theologians don’t feel
responsible for their books, for their theological views. How can modern
theologians feel this responsibility for what they say? And can some
theological ideas and views nowadays become a reason for social or political
conflicts?
J.S.: I grew up in the West, and I
know the West as one who grew up there. In the West, especially today, you find
academics who are familiar with the Scriptures, with the early texts. They can
speak about the early texts with great authority, but they have no faith
commitment themselves. Sometimes they even despise people who have a faith
commitment, even though they are so proficient in speaking about the early
texts and Scriptures themselves. That is a divide that the Orthodox Church has
avoided. I was very impressed at the opening of the conference, when Patriarch
Kyrill spoke about this very dilemma, that when theologians write their
monographs on the history and the analysis and the observations about the
Fathers, the early texts of the Church, the Scriptures themselves, they must
have a responsibility for these in the Christian life so that they do not
diverge as they have in the West. The theologians should be, par excellence,
the ones who reflect the life of prayer and the life of dedication for
Christians at large. I am very pleased to see that this is the case here in
Russia, where it is not only a cerebral academic activity, but becomes a
manifestation of a dedicated life.
A.B.: Our Holy Fathers very often tell us
that every Christian, theologian or not, needs to be on the King’s Way, on the
golden mean. But sometimes we want to be liberal, and sometimes we want to be
conservative. What is the main problem for modern theology, for modern
theologians, to stay on this golden mean? How can we stay there and not go to
the right or to the left?
J.S.: The study of theology has a very
very important place. So we should not disparage this as an academic field. But
the theologian, par excellence, is one who prays, one who knows God and above
all one who has experienced God. We should never think of this as a purely
academic exercise, but remember the heritage that we have from the Fathers and
our need, not only to become familiar with these in an academic sense, but to
be the very embodiment of these texts. I think that is especially important in
our days.
We had
one visitor to the monastery and he said: “Anyone can read a book; I want to
see the living example”. That was remainder for us that we not only live in
such a special place, and we have an opportunity to attend the services and to
know the lives of the saints, but that we must become the example of this
heritage in a living sense.
It is not
the statements of doctrine only, or the arguments about doctrine only that
attract people to Christianity. It is lives that have been transformed and that
become luminous examples of Christian piety that reflect Christ into the world.
This is something we can never forget in our own dedication as Christians, that
we must become not only familiar with the texts, but we must become luminous
examples of the sanctification that these texts present us.
A.B.: The last question. Many theologians and
scientists today speak about the crisis in the world. Many of them tell us
about a religious crisis. This crisis is a part of secular society that is very
strong nowadays. In these conditions what can the Orthodox Church offer to the
society which doesn’t know who God is, and which sometimes doesn’t need God at
all?
J.S.: The hallmark of our times is
secularism, consumerism and the pursuit of personal goals and personal
enjoyment without regard for other people. This is an age of information
technology when it is so easy to connect with people around the world. But
instead of this becoming a means of sympathy for other people, many times the
internet is an isolating experience, and we become more removed from the people
at a distance and even from the people around us, compared to previous
generations.
Many
people do not have a hostility to the Church, but they see the Church as
something that is irrelevant to their needs. But there is planted in us a
remembrance of God, and a longing for God, that is part of our human nature. We
can find substitutes and gratifications in many other ways, but we cannot find
profound peace and true enjoyment until we come to know God, and God gives the
peace that passes all understanding.
It is a
temptation for the Church to accommodate itself to the world in a way that
compromises its own heritage. Certainly we need to communicate with the world,
to reach out to the world, but the world expects the Church to retain its
integrity and its witness and it is because of that integrity and that witness
that they return to the Church. And this becomes the answer to the challenges
of the modern world, that the Church does not change; it retains the same
witness it had over the centuries, and as it gave people hope, consolation and
profound joy in past centuries, so can it do so even today.
A.B.: Father, thank you very much for this
interview. Your ideas were really great and very important for us. Thank you
very much.
J.S.: Thank you.
An
interview by Priest Antoniy Borisov
Source:
http://www.bogoslov.ru/en/text/2361333.html
CONVERSATION