A letter of Elder Ephraim of Arizona
I
pray that the All-good God will send down upon you the All-holy Spirit,
as He did to His divinely sent holy Apostles, so that you may be
enlightened to walk the arduous path of salvation. “Behold now, what is
so good or joyous as for brethren to dwell together in unity with love?”
(cf. Ps. 132:1 ). There is nothing more beautiful than for a synodia to
be replete with godly love. Then, everything is radiant; everything is
full of beauty, while God above delights, and the holy angelic spirits
rejoice above where love is boundless. “Love one another, as I have
loved you. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have
love for one another” (Jn. 13:34,35). O love, whoever possesses you has a
truly blessed heart, for within love, what could one possibly want and
not find! Humility, joy, patience, goodness, compassion, forbearance,
enlightenment, and so on, are all there. But in order to obtain this
supremely wondrous love, we must constantly call upon the God of love to
give it to us. When the name of God is remembered through the prayer
“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”, it contains within it eternal
life, and eternal life is the God of love! Therefore, he who prays this
prayer obtains true, godly love. So, onwards; behold the way and means
of victoriously conquering love. Take courage and bravely proceed into
the battle. Say the prayer constantly: orally and noetically. It is more
beneficial to say it orally during the day, because at that time the
nous is scattered by one’s work.
The beautiful road of love is
effortless, and there is neither blemish nor stain in love, but rather
the conscience testifies that the soul has boldness towards God. But
when there is no love, the soul has no boldness in prayer, and as one
defeated and cowardly, it cannot lift its head because it feels remorse
for not having loved as God has loved it; it is a transgressor of the
commandment of God. If we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how
can we love God whom we have not seen” (cf. 1 Jn. 4:20 ). He who has
true love has God; whoever does not have love does not have God in
himself. The Holy Fathers say, “If you have seen your brother, you have
seen God; your salvation depends on your brother”. The holy monastic
fathers of old walked the path of salvation effortlessly, because they
sacrificed everything so that they would not fall away from love. Love
was their goal in life. Our path, though, is completely strewn with
thorns which sprouted because we lack love. And this is why when we
walk, we constantly bleed. The foundations of the house shake when we do
not lay the foundation of love well.
Compel yourself, my child, for the sake
of your soul. Compel yourself to comfort the brethren, and the Lord will
comfort you—He will give you His grace. Have patience, have patience.
Let everyone treat you like dirt, and He will give you His grace. Great
is he who has more humility. God gives grace to the person who has fear
of God and obeys everyone like a small child and constantly seeks God’s
holy will. Such a person never seeks that his own will be done, but the
will of God and of the others. He always says, “As you wish, as you know
best”. He does not give his own opinion because he considers himself
lower than everyone. When they tell him to do something, he eagerly
says, “May it be blessed”. So, my child, this is what you should do,
too. This makes the demons tremble, flee far away, and not approach
anymore. They are very afraid when they see humility, obedience, and
love towards all.
My child, just do your duty. If the
others do not obey, leave it to God and be at peace. It is due to the
devil’s jealousy, my child. Will the devil go out perhaps to the
mountains to create temptations? He goes wherever people are struggling
for their salvation. And since we, too, are seeking our salvation, he
jumbles us up without our realizing it. Carry the burden of the
brethren. God rewards everyone justly. The time will come when you will
see how much He will give you for the pains you went through to look
after so many souls. Labor in this world; keep helping, and you will
never be deprived of God’s help. Now you are sowing; the time will come
for you to reap. Pray that God will make you strong in patience,
discernment, enlightenment, etc. I am constantly praying for you, but I
have no boldness before God, and thus my prayer bears no fruit. Just
think what the Fathers went through to save others. It is no small
matter; you are helping the others, which is why the devil will take it
out on you and afflict you. So start showing patience and bravery, and
say: “I am ready to die in the battle helping my brethren to be saved,
but God will not let me perish, since I am doing it for the sake of His
love”. Yes, do so, and you will see how much strength and joy you will
receive in the struggle. For sometimes impatience, despair, and
pessimism deprive a person of God’s grace, and then he wrongly
attributes it to the burdens he is bearing. But courage, self-sacrifice,
bravery, and faith in God bring the grace of God. I pray that God will
invigorate your spiritual nerves to fight with renewed strength.
Abide in the bond of mutual love, for
love is the beginning and the end—the foundation. It is on love towards
God and your brothers that “all the law and the prophets hang” (cf. Mt.
22:40 ). Without love we are a clanging cymbal—a big zero. According to
the Apostle Paul, even if we give our body to be burned for Christ and
distribute our belongings to the poor and mortify our life with harsh
ascesis for Christ, yet lack love, we have accomplished nothing (cf. 1
Cor. 13:3 ). Therefore, with all our strength we must see to it that we
keep a strong hold on mutual love, so that our trivial works may be
approved by Him Who examines the secret thoughts of our hearts.
You write, my child, about someone who
kept grieving you, and you cursed him, etc. No, my child, do not curse
anyone, no matter how much he has harmed you. Our Christ tells us to
love our enemies, so how can we speak evil? Seek forgiveness from God,
and henceforth love him as your brother, regardless of whether or not
you agree with him. Didn’t Christ on the Cross forgive his crucifiers?
Then how can we do otherwise? Yes, my child, we must love everyone,
regardless of whether they love us or not—that is their business.
My child, always justify your brother
and reproach yourself. Never justify your deeds. Learn to say,
“Bless”—in other words, “Forgive me”—and humility will dwell within you.
Have patience and overlook your brother’s faults, remembering God’s
forbearance towards your own faults. Love as Jesus loves you and as you
want others to love you. Hold on to silence, constant prayer, and
self-reproach, and then you will see how much mourning and tears and joy
you will feel. But if you fail to hold on to them, in other words, if
you neglect to apply them, then coldness and dryness will replace the
above graces. Love the brethren. Your love will show when, despite all
your brother’s weaknesses, you count them as nothing and love him. Love
will keep you from all sins. Think of nothing but your own sinfulness.
Reproach yourself constantly—this is the best path.
I pray your soul is in good health, for
when it is healthy, it has patience in afflictions, it has self-denial
with the body and in its thoughts; and it fears neither illnesses nor
selfish thoughts. When the soul is healthy, it has love within itself;
it does not scandalize others; it endures a brother’s harsh words; it
does not expose his faults in public; it always has something good to
say about his brother; it gives way in quarrels and escapes having
bitter thoughts and distress. When the soul is healthy, it does not get
angry, complain, talk back, murmur, disobey; it does not follow its own
whims, and it does so many other things indicative of spiritual health.
This health is what I seek from you; this is what I advise; for this do I
pray.