By Monk Moses the Athonite
All the saints of our Church "ended their lives after a good struggle and keeping the faith".
The saints are good-conquering
strugglers and undaunted confessors. They were visited by the Holy
Spirit and graced. They were not just good, kind, noble, smiling, and
ethical, but they were icons of Christ. They are the ones that remain
always indissolubly united with Christ, who reveal to the world and lead
people to Christ. The saints assure us that the gospel is feasible and
practicable throughout the centuries and we can if we want strive to
unite with Christ. The saints by accepting Christ in their lives
unreservedly are made christ-like, and become christ-bearers and
christ-seers. In this way they testify, confess, preach, and present
everywhere and always Him. They cannot live without Christ. For them He
is everything.
Quite often we are given various
opportunities to confess Christ. Sometimes we do it promptly and
pleasantly, sometimes with difficulty and sometimes out of fear or shame
not at all. The true believer confesses Christ always fearlessly,
because they keep living in repentance and humility. He feels weak, but
trusts fully in Christ and is richly strengthened. He confesses Christ
Who is in him. Sometimes it is hard to confess Christ even to those very
near and dear to us. Then, according to the Gospel, they become
"household enemies of this man". It happens that our own people do not
understand us, but shouldn't we make an attempt to discreetly talk about
Christ. Or sometimes we go to the opposite end. We talk to them so much
about Christ, where in the end we fatigue them, sicken them, and
repress them, so they do not even want to hear about Christ. We can
never push or dominate or threaten anyone, and even more our own people,
to follow Christ.
Christ is freedom and love. He
invites, and requires no blackmail. We are called to inspire people to
love Christ. When man is self-imprisoned by the mighty "ego", suffering
from selfishness, individualism, egopathy and pride, it is difficult to
love others, more so God. And thus he is unable to confess in front of
people. Whoever does not confess, this means that they don't have love.
Whoever does not love is self-sentenced to an icy loneliness, which will
begin in this life and continue to eternity. The selfish egoist feels
the love of God as fire, and cannot resist it, does not want it, is
bothered by it, and it burns him.
...
Today there are Christians who
love the saints, study the lives of the saints, running to their feasts,
lighting oil lamps to them, venerating their icons, building temples in
their honor, as well as shrines, icons, lamps, bread, prosfora, boiled
wheat and so on. There also exist those who do not love the saints, and I
am not speaking about atheists, the impious and the irreligious, but
those influenced by rationalism, from an intellectual modern theology,
which considers all these things as sicknesses of non-theological
popular piety. Unfortunately much of the Christian world has not fully
realized the great value and importance of saints in our lives.
The reverence, piety and fervor
of the faithful lovers of saints have not disappeared in our days. One
can see and rejoice over houses full of icons, with an unwaning vigil
lamp, unquenchable candle and censer; simple grandmothers speaking with
tears about the wonderful presence of the saints in their lives, hoping
in the intercessions of the saints and the Theotokos to save them and
help them to enter into Paradise. The lovers of saints are those who
seek also today real saints to be upheld and benefited. They do not
create and imagine saints, nor follow those who play a god or false
saints, but bow to true and genuine holiness. The lovers of saints are
the finest of the congregation in the parishes. They continue the
tradition, honor reverently the memories of our saints, are not easily
scandalized by false saints and are not affected and ridden by
ecclesiastical scandals, real or not. When found in difficult
conditions, such as being under a totalitarian regime, they endure
bravely, hopeful and victorious.
The saints always remain humble,
because they have the certain conviction that what is good has been
given from above, and are not their own spoils. So the saints can't
boast about their gifts, being given by the Father of Lights. Our
saints, in full consciousness of their gifts, give all glory, honor and
worship to God the Gift-giver. When they are praised by people they
praise the Source of all good, the All-Good God. The more God sees man
humble himself, the more He blesses him and graces him, since always "to
the humble He gives grace". A charismatic who uses his gifts to his own
glory and gain, surely will soon lose it, and be exhibited miserably in
the eyes of people he exploited. From this life he will be confused,
bewildered and wretched and he will expect eternal hell.
There exists, my beloved, plenty
of hidden holiness in our troubled times. Not only in life nameless,
unknown, obscure monks in the deserts and monasteries, but also in the
world. Spouses who endure the resignation and capricious prodigality of
spouses - drunkards, night owls, worthless and indifferent. Who are not
led to divorce, but endure and hope and pray and leave a good example
for their children. The attitude of the mother teaches the children, she
is an excellent example, an incitement to virtue. This course they will
not ever forget in their lives. This heroic attitude can convert a
violent husband and definitely give you the crown of patience for the
long, and sometimes a life of, suffering. We have known such rare
heroines of faith, who for many years lived a horrible secret and
torment in silence, patience, prayer, tears, humility, trust and hope in
God. How can God not grace such beautiful souls?
You see, holiness has many
aspects. Those in the world will not be judged because they do not do a
lot of prayer, though there are some who do more than monks. St. John
Chrysostom said: the laity will be saved by almsgiving. Almsgiving shows
a humble soul who knows how to love. In this wicked and challenging
era, whoever is humbled, chaste, pure, honorable, honest, fair,
righteous and prudent will have much in heaven.
Translated by John Sanidopoulos
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