Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual
father of St. Elisabeth Convent, answers various questions of the parishioners.
What should an ideal woman be like?
The Most
Holy Mother of God must be the ideal for every Orthodox woman. Apostle Paul
once uttered bold and daring words, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus. (Cf.: Gal. 3: 28). That is, when a person is filled with the
Spirit, he has all the beauty. God cannot be ugly, it’s a human being who can
be imperfect—whose body, face, voice or something else can be imperfect. When
he has God, everything changes, of course. That is why, in my opinion, an ideal
woman or an ideal man is when you can see God in them and the light of the love
of Christ in their eyes. The rest—the shapes, the curves, the eyes, and the
hair—is temporary and ephemeral. When you see a person filled with love, you
don’t just rejoice but also see how love acts, or to be precise, how Christ
acts through that person and saves the world.
Can you name the best and the worst qualities
of a woman’s nature?
Women and
men are different by nature. Of course, none of us are Angels. The best women’s
qualities are humility and modesty. The worst qualities are hypocrisy,
insincerity, falsehood. A person may choose to imitate something in front of
the others and in front of herself. As she keeps playing that role, she cannot
tell whether it is fake or real any longer. Sure, I could name many other
negative traits but falsehood is the worst. Other drawbacks may be overcome but
when a person pretends to be not the person that she truly is, it causes
aversion. I pity those who do so.
Why are there so few female saints in the
Orthodox calendar?
There may
be many more holy women who haven’t been canonised — women who carried out
their obediences in families, hospitals, or convents but who did not
demonstrate exceptional feats of faith due to lack of physical strength.
Each
person has their own place, and their own level of ascetic effort and ministry.
It just happened when males who were more physically robust and mentally adroit
turned to God, they could do something that impressed other people and taught
them a lesson. With that said, the majority of those who remained in the Church
during persecutions were elderly women. The Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women were the
first to come to the Lord’s Tomb, and they weren’t afraid.
Anyway,
Adam, not Eve, was the first human. That is why women can’t be priests or
deacons, and they cannot enter the sanctuary. Nevertheless, the Mother of God
is titled more honourable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare
than the Seraphim. A woman’s heart is more responsive and faithful.
However,
all are one in Christ, women and men.
April 26, 2018
St.
Elisabeth Convent
CONVERSATION