Elder Porphyrios on What We Should Do when We Face Injustice
Excerpt
from the unpublished book With Elder Porphyrios: A spiritual child remembers by the
late Constantine Yiannitsiotis, translated by Marina M. Robb.
One
should feel sorry for the person wounded by a criminal
The author had asked the Elder about some apparent
injustice he had suffered. Here he gives us the Elder’s answer:
“One day, ” he started to tell me, “you are walking
quietly on your way and see your brother walking in front of you, also quietly,
when at one point a crook jumps out in front of your brother from a side road
and attacks him. He beats him, pulls his hair, wounds him and throws him down
bleeding. Faced with a scene like that would you be angry with your brother or
would you feel sorry for him?”
I was puzzled by the Elder’s questions and I asked him
in turn: “How could I possibly be angry with my wounded brother, who fell
victim to the criminal? The thought didn’t even cross my mind. Of course I
would feel sorry for him and I would try to help him as much as I could.”
“Well, then,” continued the Elder, “everyone who insults you, who hurts you,
who slanders you, who does you an injustice in anyway whatsoever is a brother
of yours who has fallen into the hands of some criminal demon. When you notice
that your brother does you an injustice what should you do? You must feel very
sorry for him, commiserate with him and entreat God warmly and silently both,
to support you in that difficult time of trial, and to have mercy on your
brother, who has fallen victim to the evildoer, the demon. Because if you don’t
do that, but get angry with him instead, reacting to his attack with a counter
attack, then the devil who is already on the nape of your brother’s neck will
jump on to yours and dance with the both of you.”
I was amazed by the liveliness and the directness of
the example. Once again the Elder had caught me without my “homework”, whereas
others considered me to be well-read in matters of religion… The advice was
obvious: the people who did me an injustice had fallen victim to the criminal
devil, but I only saw the physical not the spiritual image. The result was that
I got annoyed with them and the devil that was on the back of their necks also
jumped on to mine, so all of us, victims and supposed victimisers would dance
the demonic dance, in a group and without knowing it.
But the Elder’s example could apply to all
interpersonal relations. It could function like a general spiritual rule. Not a
day passed by without me remembering it, since that demonic dance as either a
threat or a reality, would appear before every so often. Living in an age of
tension and the spread of aggression of every kind, from the height of
refinement to the depths of coarseness, I felt that the Elder’s message was a
direct and timely wake-up call. Discernment and a prayer alarm were needed to
confront evil. All my spiritually troubled friends, who heard this advice were
impressed.
Correction
not condemnation of the bad person
The Elder proved himself to be an anatomist and healer
of both the human soul and human spiritual relations. He said to me with regard
to this “Our aim is not to condemn evil, but to correct it. A man can be lost
through condemnation, but through understanding and help he will be saved. We
must treat the sinner with love and respect his freedom. When a member of the
family knocks a vase off the table and breaks it we usually get angry. If at
that crucial moment, in a movement of spiritual elevation, we show
understanding and we excuse the damage, we win both our soul and that of our
brother’s. That is all our spiritual life: an elevating movement, from the
annoyance that comes from egotism, to the understanding that comes from love.”
Bad
thoughts are dangerous
According to the Elder, this elevation began after
earnest work. One day, when surrounded by thoughts of bitterness about some
people who had criticized me unjustly, the Elder rang the alarm bells regarding
my aggressive, as he put it, stance. I objected, saying that I had neither said
nor done anything at all against my critics; I just had negative thought, which
I hadn’t externalized and therefore I hadn’t hurt anybody. Then the Elder
revealed one more secret of the spiritual battle to me, saying: “You shouldn’t
get annoyed even internally about any unjust criticism of you whatsoever. It is
bad. Evil starts from bad thoughts. When you get bitter and annoyed, even if
only in thought, you ruin the spiritual atmosphere. You stop the Holy Spirit
from working and you allow the devil to increase evil. You should always pray,
love and forgive, rejecting each and every bad thought within you.”
That is to say the Elder taught that our bad thoughts
about one of our fellows on the one hand defiles our soul, and on the other, it
can do harm to the other person. A bad thought sends out an evil power, which
influences the other, as prayer helps him. Of course all this has to be
understood correctly within the teaching of the Church about the existence of
good and evil spirits and their work. The work of the evil ones is denigration,
lying, commotion, dissension and so on, whereas for the good ones it is the
service of those who are destined to inherit the Kingdom of God. A bad thought
cannot be hidden. It affects the person we are thinking ugly thoughts about
unfavourably towards us, even from a distance, even if the other person doesn’t
consciously realize why he is opposed to us. We are obliged to be “pure in
heart”, pure not only from evil works, but from bad and evil thoughts,
especially from resentment and bitterness
Forgive
people
The Elder considered the last thing mentioned,
forgiving whoever has harmed us, to be fundamental. He often repeated the verse
of the prayer, “First be reconciled to those who grieve you.” And in confession
he paid special attention to this spiritual sin of remembering the bad things
that another has done to us and to hold malice, or bitterness, or animosity
against him. He wanted our souls to be free from resentment, full of forgiveness
and kindness.
Source: http://silouanthompson.net/2013/11/when-wronged/
