Γέροντας Σωφρόνιος - Η Προσευχή της Γεθσημανής

Ο Χριστός περιέλαβε σ’ αυτή την προσευχή ολόκληρο το ανθρώπινο γένος, από τον πρώτο Αδάμ μέχρι τον τελευταίο άνθρωπο που θα γεννηθεί από γυναίκα.… Κανένας δεν γνώρισε τόσο πόνο όπως τον αισθάνθηκε ο Χριστός.
Αυτοί που αγνοούν μια τέτοια αγάπη και αυτοί που δεν επιθυμούν να τη γνωρίσουν, ας μην εκφράσουν γνώμη για το Χριστό. Κανένας μην τολμήσει στην ανοησία του να ταπεινώσει την εμφάνιση του Χριστού ανάμεσά μας.
Γνωρίζομε από την πείρα ότι η ψυχή μπορεί να τραυματιστεί πιο τρομερά παρά το σώμα.

Για να γνωρίσουμε μόνο «δι’ εσόπτρου εν αινίγματι» το δρόμο που πέρασε ο ίδιος ο Χριστός, για να μετασχηματίσουμε την γήϊνη φύση μας σε προσευχή που να αντικατοπτρίζει  αμυδρά τουλάχιστον την προσευχή στη Γεθσημανή κατά την πιο τραγική νύχτα της ιστορίας της ανθρωπότητας, πρέπει να δεχθούμε θλίψη. Η δυστυχία ανοίγει την καρδιά στους πόνους όλου του κόσμου. Ο τελευταίος σταθμός αυτής της μεγάλης επιστήμης της παγκόσμιας αγάπης έρχεται όταν φτάνουμε στο κατώφλι μιας άλλης ζωής, όταν πεθαίνουμε.

Στο πρόσωπο του πρώτου Αδάμ όλο το ανθρώπινο γένος υπέφερε μια φοβερή καταστροφή, μιάν αλλοτρίωση που είναι η ρίζα όλων των αλλοτριώσεων. Το σώμα τραυματίστηκε, ο σκελετός τσακίστηκε, η όψη – το κατ’ εικόνα Θεού – καταστράφηκε. Οι διαδοχικές γενιές πρόσθεσαν πολλά άλλα τραύματα και τσάκισμα οστών στα τραύματα του πρώτου δημιουργημένου ανθρώπου. Ολόκληρο το ανθρώπινο σώμα ασθενεί. … Η ελαφρότερη επαφή αποτελεί βάσανο. … στην πνευματική ασθένεια είμαστε μνησίκακοι και αποδίδομε τον πόνο μας σε εξωτερική επίδραση. Έτσι και με το Χριστό. Αυτός ο μόνος αληθινός γιατρός ενδιαφέρεται για τις πληγές των αμαρτιών μας που προξενούν τον πιο οξύ πόνο σ’ όλο το ανθρώπινο γένος. … Είναι αδύνατο να απεικονίσουμε τον πόνο του Χριστού. Τελικά κανένας δεν μπορεί να τον εννοήσει.

Ο καθένας μας θα φτάσει κάποια στιγμή στα όρια χρόνου και αιωνιότητας. Φθάνοντας σ’ αυτό το πνευματικό ορόσημο, θα καθορίσουμε το μέλλον μας στον κόσμο και ή θα αποφασίσουμε να είμαστε με το Χριστό ή θα αποχωριστούμε απ’ αυτόν. Αφού γίνει όμως η εκλογή – μαζί ή χωρίς το Χριστό – με την ελεύθερη βούλησή μας για όλη την αιωνιότητα, ο χρόνος πια δεν λειτουργεί.
Μπορεί να υποστηριχθεί με κάποια βεβαιότητα ότι σχεδόν πουθενά δεν κηρύσσεται γνήσιος Χριστιανισμός. Ο Χριστιανισμός τόσο πολύ υπερέχει από τη συνηθισμένη αντίληψη, ώστε η προσευχόμενη καρδιά δεν αποτολμά να κηρύξει ευαγγελικό λόγο. Ο κόσμος αναζητά την αλήθεια. Αγαπά τον Χριστό. Αλλά – κυρίως στις μέρες μας – προσπαθεί να τον μειώσει στις δικές του διαστάσεις, πράγμα που μειώνει το Ευαγγέλιο, σε σημείο να παρουσιάζεται σαν ηθικό δόγμα.

Η επίτευξη της γνώσης της Αλήθειας απαιτεί μεγαλύτερη προσπάθεια απ’ ότι απαιτεί οποιαδήποτε άλλη επιστημονική μόρφωση. Ούτε η μελέτη μεγάλου πλήθους βιβλίων, ούτε η εξοικείωση με την ιστορία του Χριστιανισμού, ούτε η μελέτη διαφόρων θεολογικών συστημάτων μπορεί να μας φέρει στο σκοπό, εκτός αν εμείς συνεχώς και με όλες τις δυνάμεις μας υπακούσομε στις εντολές του Χριστού.
Όταν όμως προείπαμε μας χαρισθεί μια σκιά έστω ομοιότητας με την προσευχή στη Γεθσημανή τότε ο άνθρωπος ξεπερνά τα όρια της ατομικότητάς του και μπαίνει σ’ ένα νέο τύπο υπάρξεως – προσωπικής υπάρξεως καθ’ ομοίωση Χριστού.

Κάθε άνθρωπος στον οποίο ο Θεός κληροδότησε το σπάνιο και φοβερό προνόμιο να γνωρίσει για λίγα λεπτά την αγωνία του Χριστού στον κήπο της Γεθσημανής, θα «σκοντάψει», αργά και οδυνηρά, σε μια πειστική γνώση της αναστάσεως της ψυχής του και σε μια αντίληψη της βεβαίας και αληθινής νίκης του Χριστού. … ώ Χριστέ με τη δωρεά της αγάπης Σου, που είναι ανώτερη από κάθε γνώση, έχω περάσει κι εγώ από το θάνατο στη ζωή … Τώρα – Υπάρχω.

Πηγή: Επιλεγμένα Κείμενα από το βιβλίο – Η ζωή μου η ζωή του

St Gregory Palamas on Palm Sunday

The sermon below was delivered by St Gregory Palamas on Palm Sunday of a year between 1347 and 1359, in a church in the city of Thessalonike

“In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee,” said God through Isaiah (Isaiah 49.8). It is good today to speak these words of the apostle to your charity: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6.2). “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us work the works of light. Let us walk honestly as in the da” (Romans 13.12-13). The commemoration of Christ’s saving passion is at hand, and the new, great spiritual Passover, which is the reward for dispassion and the prelude of the world to come. Lazarus proclaims it in advance by coming back from the depths of Hades and rising from the dead on the fourth day just by the voice and command of God, who has power over life and death (John 11.1-45). By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, children and simple people sing praises in advance to the Redeemer from death, who brings souls up from Hades and gives souls and bodies eternal life.

“What man is he that desireth life and to see good days? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile: depart from evil and do good” (Psalm 34.12-14; compare 1 Peter 3.10-11). Evil means gluttony, drunkenness and dissolute living. Evil means love of money, being greedy for gain, and injustice. Evil means vainglory, arrogance and pride. Let everyone turn aside from such vices and do those things which are good. What are they? Self-control, fasting, chastity, righteousness, almsgiving, forbearance, love, humility. That by so doing we may worthily partake of the Lam of God who was sacrificed for our sake, and so receive the earnest of incorruption, and keep it as an assurance of the inheritance promised to us in heaven. Is it hard to do what is good, and are the virtues more difficult than the vices? That is certainly not how I see it. The drunken, self-indulgent person subjects himself because of this to more sufferings than someone who restrains himself; the licentious person suffers more than someone chaste; someone striving to become rich more than someone who lives in contentment with what he has; the person seeking to surround himself with glory than someone who passes life in obscurity. Since, however, the virtues seem more difficult to us because of our love of comfort, let us force ourselves. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,” it says, “and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11.12).

All of us, eminent and lowly, governors and governed, rich and poor, need diligence and attention to drive these evil passions away from our souls, and introduce the whole range of virtues in their stead. Farmers, shoemakers, builders, tailors, weavers, and in general all those who earn their living by their own effort and the work of their hands, provided they throw out of their souls the desire for riches, glory and pleasure, are truly blessed. These are the poor to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. It was on their account that the Lord said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5.3). The poor in spirit are those whose spirits, or souls, are free from boasting, love of glory and fondness for pleasure, and therefore either choose to be poor in external things as well or else courageously bear involuntary poverty. Those who are rich and comfortable, and enjoy fleeting glory, and in general all who long to be like them, will yield to more harmful passions and fall into other worse traps of the devil, which are more difficult to deal with. When someone becomes rich, he does not lay aside his desire for riches, but increases it, grasping at more than he did before. In the same way, pleasure lovers, power seekers, the dissolute and the debauched increase their desires rather than renouncing them. Rulers and eminent men increase their power so as to commit greater injustices and sin.

That is why it is difficult for a ruler to be saved or for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. “How can ye believe,” it says, “which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (John 5.44). But if any of you are well off, or eminent or rulers, do not be dismayed. You can, if you wish, seek the glory of God and exert force on yourselves to stop the impetus towards becoming worse, to practice great virtues and to drive away great evils, not just from yourselves, but from many other people, even against their will. Not only can you act honestly and chastely yourselves, but there are many ways in which you can prevent those who want to be unjust and licentious from doing so. Not only can you show yourselves obedient to Christ’s Gospel and His teachings, but you can also bring those who are minded to disobey into subjection to Christ’s Church and its leaders according to Christ. This you are able to do, not just by means of the power and authority allotted to you by God, but by becoming an example of all that is good to those below you. For subjects become like their rulers.

Everyone needs diligence, force and attention, but not to the same extent. Those exalted in honour, wealth and power, and those who concern themselves with words and the acquisition of wisdom by means of them, even if they wish to be saved, are in need of greater force and diligence, since they are less obedient by nature. Exactly this can be clearly seen in the reading from Christ’s Gospel yesterday and today. The miracle performed on Lazarus openly proved the one who did it to be God. But whereas the people were convinced and believed, the rulers at that time, that is to say, the scribes and Pharisees, were so far from being persuaded that they raged against Him even more, and resolved in their madness to hand Him over to death, although everything He had said and done plainly declared Him to be the Lord of life and death. No one can say that the fact that the Lord lifted up His eyes at that time and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,” was an obstacle to their regarding Him as equal to the Father, since He went on to say, “I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they might believe that thou hast sent me” (John 11.41-42). So that they might know He was God and came from the Father, and also that He did not work miracles in opposition to God, but in accordance with God’s purpose, He lifted up His eyes to God in front of everybody and spoke to Him in words which make it clear that He who was speaking on earth was equal to the heavenly Father on high. In the beginning when man was to be formed, there was a Counsel beforehand. So now also, in the case of Lazarus, when a man was to be formed anew, there was a Counsel first. When man was to be created the Father said to the Son, “Let us make man” (Genesis 1.26), the Son listened to the Father, and man was brought into being. Now, by contrast, the Father listened to the Son speaking, and Lazarus was brought to life.

Notice that the Father and the Son are of equal honour and have the same will. The words are in the form of a prayer for the sake of the crowd standing by, but they are not the words of prayer but of lordship and absolute authority. “Lazarus come forth” (John 11.43). And at one the man who had been dead four days stood before Him alive. Did this come about by the command of the life-giver or His prayer? He cried with a loud voice, again on account of the bystanders, since He could have raised him not only by using His normal voice, but just by His will alone. In the same way, He could have done it from afar and with the stone in place. But instead He came to the grave and spoke to those present, who took away the stone and smelt the stench. Then He cried with a loud voice. He raised him in this manner so that by means of their sight (for they saw Him standing at the grave), their sense of smell (for they were aware of the stench of the man four days dead), their sense of touch (for they used their own hands to take away the stone beforehand from the grave, and afterwards to loose the grave-clothes from his body and the napkin from his face), and their hearing (for the Lord’s voice reached the ears of all), they all might understand and believe that it was He who called everything from non-being into being, who upheld all things by the word of His power, and who in the beginning by His word alone made everything that exists out of nothing.

The simple people believed Him in every respect, and did not keep their faith quiet, but began to preach His divinity by deeds and words. After the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day, the Lord found an ass, and, when His disciples had made it ready, as the evangelist Matthew tells us (Matthew 21.1-11), He sat upon it and entered Jerusalem, as had been foretold in Zechariah’s prophecy: “Do not fear, O daughter of Zion: behold thy king cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9.9; Matthew 21.5). The prophet shows by these words that this king in the prophecy is the only true king of Zion. “Your king,” he says, “does not arouse fear in those who see him. Nor is he an oppressor or an evildoer accompanied by shield-bearers and spear men, trailing behind him a host of foot-soldiers and cavalry, passing his life in greed for gain, demanding taxes and tributes, and unpleasant and harmful labours and services. By contrast, His banner is humility, poverty and lowliness, and He enters mounted upon an ass, without any human pretensions at all. He is the only righteous King who righteously saves. He is meek, and meekness is His distinctive work.” The Lord said of Himself, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11.29).

So the King who had raised Lazarus from the dead entered Jerusalem sitting upon an ass. Everyone, children, men, old people, immediately spread their garments in the way. They took palm-branches, which are symbols of victory, and went to meet Him as the life-giver and victor over death. They fell at His feet and escorted Him in procession, singing together, not just outside but also inside the precincts of the Temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21.9). “Hosanna” is a song of praise directed to God, which means, “Save us.” The additional words “in the highest” show that He is not only praised on earth, nor only by men, but also by the heavenly angels on high.

The people not only sang His praises and called Him God, but they subsequently opposed the scribes and Pharisees’ evil purpose against God and their murderous allegations. For the latter were mad enough to say of Him, “This man is not of God, and since he doeth many miracles, if we let him thus alone and do not put him to death, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation” (compare John 9.16 and 11.47-48). But what did the people say? “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh” (Mark 11.9-10). By saying, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” they showed that He was from God the Father and that He came in the name of the Father. As the Lord said of Himself, “I came in the name of my Father” (compare John 5.43) and I proceeded forth and came from God” (John 8.42). On the other hand, by saying, “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh,” they showed that this was the kingdom in which, according to prophecy, the Gentiles too, and indeed the Romans, were to believe. For this king was not just Israel’s hope, but also the expectation of the Gentiles, according to Jacob’s prophecy: “Binding his foal unto the vine,” where “foal” refers to the Jewish people who were subject to Him, “and his ass’s colt unto the branch of the vine” (Genesis 49.11). The branch of the vine is the Lord’s disciples, for the Lord said to them, “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15.5). By this branch, the Lord binds to Himself His “ass’s colt,” namely the New Israel of the Gentiles, who become sons of Abraham by grace. If, asked the people, this kingdom in which we have put our faith is the hope of the Gentiles too, why should we fear the Romans?

Those who were childlike in innocence but not in intelligence were inspired by the Holy Spirit to offer up to the Lord a faultlessly perfect hymn, and bore witness that, as God, He had brought Lazarus back to life after he had been dead for four days. When the scribes and Pharisees, on the other hand, “saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the Temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased and said unto the Lord, Hearest thou what they say?” (Matthew 21.15-16). In fact, it would have been more appropriate for the Lord to put the same question to them, “Can you not see, or hear or understand?” To refute those who were complaining that He tolerated songs of praise that were fitting for God alone, He replied, “Yes, I hear those who, invisibly enlightened by Myself, declare such things about me. But these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Have you never read the prophecy that, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise’?” (Psalm 8.2; Matthew 21.16). This was another amazing fact, that simple, uneducated children should speak perfectly of the divinity of God made man for our sake, and that their voices should take up the angelic hymn. At the Lord’s birth the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth” (Luke 21.4), and now at the time of His entry into Jerusalem the children offered up the same hymn, “Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21.29).

Let us all, young and old, rulers and subjects, be childlike in innocence, that God may empower us to make a public show of the trophies, and carry aloft the symbols of victory, not just of victory over the evil passions, but over visible and invisible enemies, and may we find the grace of the word to help in time of need (compare Hebrews 4.16). The young colt which the Lord deigned to ride for our sake prefigured, although it was only one, the Gentiles’ obedience to Him and we, governors and governed alike, are all Gentiles come from them.

In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, nor Greek, nor Jew, but all, according to the holy apostle, are one (Galatians 3.28). In the same way, in Him there is neither ruler nor subject, but by His grace we are all one in faith in Him, and belong to one body, His Church, whose head He is. By the grace of the all-holy Spirit we have all drunk of the one Spirit, and have all received on e baptism. We all have one hope and one God, who is above all, and through all, and in us all (Ephesians 4.6). So let us love one another. Let us bear with one another, seeing that we are members one of another. As the Lord Himself said, the sign that we are His disciples is love. When He departed from this world, the fatherly inheritance He left us was love, and the last prayer He gave us when He ascended to His Father was about love for one another (John 13.33-35).

Let us strive to attain to this fatherly prayer and let us not lose the inheritance He left us nor the sign He gave us, lest we should also lose our sonship, our blessing and our discipleship. If that happens, we shall fall away from the promised hope and be shut out of the spiritual bridechamber. Before His saving passion, when the Lord entered the earthly Jerusalem, not just the people, but also the true rulers of the Gentiles, the Lord’s apostles, spread their garments in His way. In the same manner, let us all, rulers as well as subjects, lay down our natural garments before Him, by making our flesh and its impulses subject to the spirit, that we may be made worthy not only to see and worship Christ’s saving passion and holy resurrection, but to enjoy communion with Him. “For if,” says the apostle, “we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6.5).

To which may we all attain by the grace and love towards mankind of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom belong all glory, honour and worship, together with His Father without beginning and the life-giving Spirit, now and for ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

«ΩΣΑΝΝΑ ΕΥΛΟΓΗΜΕΝΟΣ Ο ΕΡΧΌΜΕΝΟΣ»

(Θεολογικό σχόλιο στο περιεχόμενο και το νόημα της Κυριακής των Βαίων)

Μετά την θαυμαστή ανάσταση του Λαζάρου οι ευσεβείς αδελφές του παρέθεσαν στον Κύριο και τους μαθητές Του μεγάλο και λαμπρό δείπνο για να ευχαριστήσουν τον Μεγάλο Ευεργέτη τους. Η Μάρθα φρόντιζε να μη λείψει τίποτε από το πλούσιο τραπέζι. Μαζί τους καθόταν και ο Λάζαρος. Η Μαρία, κατά τη διάρκεια του δείπνου, πήρε ένα πολύτιμο δοχείο γεμάτο πανάκριβο μύρο και άρχισε να πλένει με αυτό τα πόδια του Χριστού. Κατόπιν ξέπλεξε τα πλούσια μαλλιά της και μ' αυτά σκούπισε τα πόδια του Λυτρωτή. Η ευώδης οσμή του μύρου γέμισε την οικία. Το γεγονός αυτό δημιούργησε αισθήματα εκπλήξεως στους παραβρισκόμενους. Ο Ιούδας ο Ισκαριώτης, ο μελλοντικός προδότης του Κυρίου είπε: «Διατί τούτο το μύρον ουκ επράθη τριακοσίων δηναρίων και εδόθη τοις πτωχοίς;». Και σχολιάζει ο ιερός ευαγγελιστής: «είπε δε τούτο ουχ ότι περί των πτωχών έμελεν αυτώ, αλλ΄ότι κλέπτης ην, και το γλωσσόκομον είχε και τα βαλλόμενα εβάσταζεν» (Ιωάν.12,6).

Ο άνθρωπος της ανομίας, απόλυτα υπόδουλος στα ταπεινά του πάθη, έμεινε εντελώς ανέγγιχτος από την τρίχρονη παρουσία του θείου Διδασκάλου του. Η ωφελιμιστική υλιστική σκοτοδίνη του, τον κρατούσε δέσμιο του πάθους της φιλαργυρίας. Αυτό το πάθος θα τον οδηγήσει, κατόπιν, σε λίγες ημέρες στην προδοσία του Δασκάλου του και στον προσωπικό του τραγικό αφανισμό. Το όνομά του θα γίνει στους αιώνες συνώνυμο της προδοσίας.

Ο Κύριος με προφανή λεπτότητα αντιπαρήλθε την πρόκληση του Ιούδα και είπε: «Άφες αυτήν, εις την ημέραν του ενταφιασμού μου τετήρηκεν αυτό. Τους πτωχούς γαρ πάντοτε έχετε μεθ' εαυτών, εμέ δε ου πάντοτε έχετε» (Ιωάν.12,7-8). Φυσικά τα λόγια αυτά ήταν ακατανόητα για τους μαθητές Του, διότι, προσκολλημένοι ακόμη στην εθνικιστική ιουδαϊκή περί Μεσσία αντίληψη, πίστευαν σε μια λαμπρή προέλαση προς την Ιερουσαλήμ, προκειμένου να πάρουν την εξουσία και να απελευθερώσουν το έθνος από τον ξένο δυνάστη.

Την ίδια ώρα κατέφθασε στην οικία του δείπνου όχλος πολύς από τους Ιουδαίους, οι οποίοι ήθελαν να δουν τον θαυμαστό ραβίνο που ανάστησε το Λάζαρο. Ήθελαν επίσης να δουν με τα ίδια τους τα μάτια τον αναστημένο. Ταυτόχρονα οι αρχιερείς και οι άρχοντες του Ιουδαϊκού λαού έκαναν συμβούλιο και συζητούσαν το ενδεχόμενο να φονεύσουν τον Λάζαρο, διότι διαπίστωναν με ανησυχία ότι πολλοί άνθρωποι είχαν πιστέψει στην θεϊκή δύναμη του Ιησού, εξαιτίας του εξαίσιου θαύματος! Ήδη είχε αποφασισθεί η θανάτωση του Κυρίου (Ιωάν.11,47-57) και ο προδότης μαθητής βρισκόταν σε επικοινωνία με το ιουδαϊκό ιερατείο (Ιωάν.12,3-8, Ματθ.26,14-16) για την παράδοση του Διδασκάλου του.

Την άλλη μέρα ο Χριστός μπήκε στην Ιερουσαλήμ με τους μαθητές του. Το μεγάλο νέο της ανάστασης του Λαζάρου είχε φτάσει από τη Βηθανία στην αγία πόλη και δημιούργησε αισθήματα ενθουσιασμού και ευφορίας στο λαό. Λόγω δε της επικείμενης εορτής του Πάσχα είχαν συρρεύσει εκεί πολλοί ξένοι προσκυνητές. Όταν πληροφορήθηκαν οι όχλοι την άφιξη του ανθρώπου που ανάστησε το Λάζαρο, πήραν στα χέρια κλαδιά φοινίκων και βγήκε στους δρόμους για να Τον προϋπαντήσουν τραγουδώντας τον νικητήριο παιάνα: «Ωσαννά΄ ευλογημένος ο ερχόμενος εν ονόματι Κυρίου, ο βασιλεύς του Ισραήλ» (Ιωάν.12,13). Κάποιοι έστρωναν τα ενδύματά τους στο δρόμο για να περάσει ο μεγάλος θριαμβευτής. Η σκηνή αυτή ήταν συνηθισμένη στους χρόνους εκείνους. Οι νικητές βασιλείς έμπαιναν τροπαιούχοι στις πόλεις, αποθεωμένοι από τα πλήθη.

Ο Κύριος καθισμένος πάνω σε πουλάρι όνου έμπαινε ήσυχα, ατάραχος και αδιαφορώντας για τους πανηγυρισμούς, στην αγία πόλη, εκπληρώνοντας την προφητεία του Ζαχαρίου: «Χαίρε σφόδρα θύγατερ Σιών, ιδού ο βασιλεύς σου έρχεταί σοι δίκαιος και σώζων αυτός πραϋς και επιβεβηκώς επί υπόζυγιον και πώλον νέον» (Ζαχ.9,9). Ο κόσμος επισημαίνει ο ιερός ευαγγελιστής ομολογούσε ότι «τον Λάζαρον εφώνησεν εκ του μνημείου και ήγειρεν αυτόν εκ νεκρών. Δια τούτο και ηπήντησεν αυτώ ο όχλος, ότι ήκουσαν τούτο αυτόν πεποιηκέναι το σημείον» (Ιωάν.12,17-18). Αντίθετα με τους ενθουσιασμούς του πλήθους, οι Φαρισαίοι με εμφανή ανησυχία και μίσος είπαν μεταξύ τους: «θεωρείτε ότι ουκ ωφελείτε ουδεν; Ίδε ο κόσμος οπίσω αυτού απήλθεν» (Ιωάν.12,19).

Η είσοδος του Κυρίου στα Ιεροσόλυμα είναι η τελευταία σκηνή του δραματικού έργου της επί γης ζωής Του. Μπήκε ταπεινά επάνω στο ονάριο, παρ' όλο ότι ο όχλος τον ζητωκραύγαζε και συμπεριφερόταν ως να είχε μπροστά του κάποιο εγκόσμιο βασιλιά, ο οποίος μπαίνει θριαμβευτής στην πρωτεύουσα του βασιλείου του. Γνωρίζει πολύ καλά πως οι ιαχές και οι πανηγυρισμοί των όχλων είναι πρόσκαιρες και λαθεμένες εκδηλώσεις. Όλοι αυτοί οι ενθουσιώδεις άνθρωποι οι οποίοι τον αποθέωναν, εκδήλωναν εκείνη τη στιγμή την μικρο- εθνικιστική τους αντίληψη για Εκείνον. Τα κίνητρά τους ήταν ιδιοτελή και φτηνά. Η απουσία πνευματικότητας ήταν διάχυτη σ' αυτούς.

Γνώριζε επίσης ο Κύριος ότι όλοι αυτοί οι άνθρωποι, οι οποίοι τον δόξαζαν με την είσοδό Του στην Ιερουσαλήμ, θα είναι οι ίδιοι, οι οποίοι θα φωνάζουν πέντε ημέρες μετά κάτω από το πραιτώριο και θα απαιτούν από τον εκπρόσωπο του Ρωμαίου δυνάστη τους «σταύρωσον σταύρωσον αυτόν» (Λουκ.23:22)!

Για μας τους πιστούς η είσοδος του Κυρίου στην Ιερουσαλήμ αποτελεί την απαρχή της εκούσιας πορείας Του για το θείο Πάθος. Εορτάζουμε την ημέρα αυτή με ανάκατα αισθήματα χαράς και λύπης. Γιορτάζουμε με αισθήματα χαράς, διότι ο Λυτρωτής μας Χριστός οδεύει προς τα σωτήρια παθήματα για την δική μας σωτηρία. Γιορτάζουμε με αισθήματα λύπης, διότι ο Κύριός μας θα υποστεί για χάρη μας, και εξαιτίας της δικής μας κακουργίας, τα επώδυνα παθήματα και θα υποφέρει και θα πονέσει ως άνθρωπος. Θα ανέβει στον Γολγοθά, θα πεθάνει ως κακούργος και θα ταφεί ως κοινός θνητός. Σε ανάμνηση της μεγαλειώδους και θριαμβευτικής εισόδου του Κυρίου μας στην αγία πόλη, κρατάμε και εμείς κατά την αγία αυτή ημέρα κλάδους δάφνης, υποδεχόμενοι τον Κύριο ως νικητή και θριαμβευτή βασιλέα, όχι βέβαια κοσμικό, όπως τον περίμεναν οι Ιουδαίοι, αλλά ως αιώνιο πνευματικό άνακτα.

Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou) -On The mystery of man’s heart

Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

All the ordinances of the undefiled Church are offered to the world for the sole purpose of dis­covering the ‘deep heart’,[1] the centre of man’s hypo­s­tasis. According to the Holy Scriptures, God has fashioned every heart in a special way, and each heart is His goal, a place wherein He desires to abide that He may mani­fest Himself.

Since the kingdom of God is within us,[2] the heart is the battlefield of our salvation, and all ascetic effort is aimed at cleansing it of all filthiness, and preserving it pure before the Lord. ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life’, exhorts Solomon, the wise king of Israel.[3] These paths of life pass through man’s heart, and therefore the unquenchable desire of all who ceaselessly seek the Face of the living God is that their heart, once deadened by sin, may be rekindled by His grace.

The heart is the true ‘temple’ of man’s meeting with the Lord. Man’s heart ‘seeketh knowledge’[4] both intellectual and divine, and knows no rest until the Lord of glory comes and abides therein. On His part God, Who is ‘a jealous God’,[5] will not settle for a mere portion of the heart. In the Old Testament we hear His voice crying out, ‘My son, give Me thy heart’;[6] and in the New Testament He commands: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.’[7] He is the one Who has fashioned the heart of every man in a unique and unrepeatable way, though no heart can contain Him fully because ‘God is greater than our heart’.[8] Nevertheless, when man succeeds in turning his whole heart to God, then God Himself begets it by the incorruptible seed of His word, seals it with His wondrous Name and makes it shine with His perpetual and charis­matic presence. He makes it a temple of His Divinity, a temple not made by hands, able to reflect His ‘shape’ and to hearken unto His ‘voice’ and ‘bear’ His Name.[9] In a word, man then fulfils the purpose of his life, the reason for his coming into the transient existence of this world.

The great tragedy of our time lies in the fact that we live, speak, think, and even pray to God, outside our heart, outside our Father’s house. And truly our Father’s house is our heart, the place where ‘the spirit of glory and of God’[10] would find repose, that Christ may ‘be formed in us’.[11] Indeed, only then can we be made whole, and become hypostases in the image of the true and perfect Hypostasis, the Son and Word of God, Who created us and redeemed us by the precious Blood of His ineffable sacrifice.

Yet, as long as we are held captive by our passions, which distract our mind from our heart and lure it into the ever-changing and vain world of natural and created things, thus depriving us of all spiritual strength, we will not know the new birth from on High that makes us children of God and gods by grace. In fact, in one way or another, we are all ‘prodigal sons’ of our Father in heaven, because, as the Scriptures testify, ‘All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’[12] Sin has separated our mind from the life-giving contemplation of God and led it into a ‘far country’.[13] In this ‘far country’ we have been deprived of the honour of our Father’s embrace and, in feeding swine, we have been made subject to demons. We gave ourselves over to dis­honourable passions and the dreadful famine of sin, which then established itself by force, becoming the law of our mem­bers. But now we must come out of this godless hell and return to our Father’s house, so as to uproot the law of sin that is within us and allow the law of Christ’s command­ments to dwell in our heart. For the only path leading out of the torments of hell to the everlasting joy of the Kingdom is that of the divine commandments: with our whole being we are to love God and our neighbour with a heart that is free of all sin.

The return journey from this remote and inhospitable land is not an easy one, and there is no hunger more fearful than that of a heart laid waste by sin. Those in whom the heart is full of the consolation of incorruptible grace can endure all external deprivations and afflictions, trans­form­ing them into a feast of spiritual joy; but the famine in a hardened heart lacking divine consolation is a comfort­less torment. There is no greater misfortune than that of an in­sensible and petrified heart that is unable to distinguish be­tween the luminous Way of God’s Providence and the gloomy confusion of the ways of this world. On the other hand, throughout history there have been men whose hearts were filled with grace. These chosen vessels were enlight­ened by the spirit of prophecy, and were therefore able to dis­tinguish between Divine Light and the darkness of this world.

No matter how daunting and difficult the struggle of purifying the heart may be, nothing should deter us from this undertaking. We have on our side the ineffable good­ness of a God Who has made man’s heart His personal con­cern and goal. In the Book of Job, we read the following aston­ishing words: ‘What is man, that thou shouldest mag­nify him? And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment…Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?’[14] We sense God, Who is incomprehensible, pursuing man’s heart: ‘Be­hold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’[15] He knocks at the door of our heart, but He also encourages us to knock at the door of His mercy: ‘Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’[16] When the two doors that are God’s goodness and man’s heart open, then the greatest miracle of our existence occurs: man’s heart is united with the Spirit of the Lord, God feasting with the sons of men.

We deprive ourselves of the feast of God’s consolation not only when we hand ourselves over to the corruption of sin, feeding swine in a far country, but also when we contend in a negligent way. ‘Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully,’ warns the Prophet Jeremiah.[17] In the feed­ing of swine, it is the devil, our enemy, who gives us work which is accursed. But if we do the Lord’s work half-heartedly, we put ourselves under a curse, though we may be dwelling in the house of the Lord. For God will not toler­ate division in man’s heart; He is pleased only when man speaks to Him with all his heart and does His work joyfully: ‘God loveth a cheerful giver,’ says the Apostle.[18] He wants our whole heart to be turned and de­voted to Him, and He then fills it with the bounties of His goodness and the gifts of His com­passion. He ‘sows bounti­fully’[19] but He expects the same from us.

From the few thoughts we have mentioned, we now begin to see how precious it is to stand before God with our whole heart as we pour it out before Him. We also begin to understand how vital is the task of discovering the heart, because this allows us to talk to God and our Father from the heart and to be heard by Him, and to give Him the right to perfect the work of our renewal and restoration to the original honour we enjoyed as His sons.

As long as man is under the dominion of sin and death, being given over to the power of evil, he becomes in­creas­ingly selfish. In his pride and despair, and being separated from God Who is good, he struggles to survive, but the only thing he gains is a heavier curse upon his head and even greater desolation. But however much he may be cor­rupted by the famine of sin, the primal gift of his having been created in God’s ‘image and likeness’ remains irrevoc­able and indelible. Thus, he always carries within him the possibility of a rising out of the kingdom of darkness and into to the kingdom of light and life. This occurs when he ‘comes to himself’ and in pain of soul confesses, ‘I perish with hunger.’[20]

When fallen man ‘comes to himself’ and turns to God, ‘it is time for the Lord to work’, as we say at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy; in pain, man then enters his own heart, which is the greatest honour reserved by God for wretched man. God knows that He can now seriously con­verse with him, and is attentive to him, for when man enters his heart he speaks to God with knowledge of his true state, for which he now feels responsible. Indeed, man’s whole struggle is waged in order to convince God that he is His child, His very own, and when he has con­vinced Him, then he will hear in his heart those great words of the Gospel, ‘All that I have is thine.’[21] And the moment he convinces God that he is His, God makes the waterfalls of His com­passion to flow, and God’s life be­comes his life. This is the good pleasure of God’s original design in that it is for this that He created man. God then says to the one who has succeeded in persuading Him that he is His, ‘All My life, O man, is thy life.’ Then the Lord, Who is God by nature, grants man His own life, and man becomes a god by grace.

In the Gospel of St Luke we are told that the prodigal son ‘came to himself’ and said, ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.’[22] This is a wondrous moment, a momentous event in the spiritual world. Suffering, affliction, and the menacing famine of the ‘far country’ compel man to look within himself. But a single movement of divine grace is enough to convert the energy of his misfortune into great boldness, and he is enabled to see his heart and all the dead­ness from which he is suffering. Now, with prophetic know­ledge, he boldly confesses that ‘his days are consumed in vanity’.[23] In pain of soul, he discovers that his whole life until then consists of a series of failures and betrayals of God’s commandments, and that he has done no good deed upon earth which can withstand the unbearable gaze of the Eternal Judge. He sees his plight and, like the much-afflicted Job, cries out, ‘Hades is my house.’[24]

With such a lamentation of despair and, thirsting only for God’s blessed eternity, man can then turn his whole being towards the living Lord. He can cry from the depth of his heart to Him Who ‘has power of life and death: who leads to the gates of hell, and brings up again’.[25] This is the turning point in our life, for God the Saviour then begins His work of refashioning man.

When man falls into sin his mind moves in an outward direction and loses itself in created things, but when, con­scious of his perdition, he comes to himself seeking sal­vation, he then moves inward as he searches for the way back to the heart. Finally, when all his being is gathered in the unity of his mind and heart, there is a third kind of movement in which he turns his whole being over to God the Father. Man’s spirit must pass through this threefold circular motion in order to reach perfection.

During the first stage, man lives and acts outside his heart and entertains proud thoughts and considers vain things. In fact, he is in a state of delusion. His heart is dark­ened and void of understanding. In his fallen condition, he prefers to worship and serve ‘the creature more than the Creator’.[26] Because he lives without his heart, he has no dis­cern­ment and is ‘ignorant of [Satan’s] devices’.[27] As the Old Testament wisely observes: ‘The fool hath no heart to get wis­dom’,[28] and because his heart is not the basis of his exist­ence, man remains inexperienced and unfruitful, ‘beat­ing the air’.[29] He is unable to walk steadily in the way of the Lord and is characterised by instability and double-minded­ness.

In the second stage, man ‘comes to himself’, and he begins to have humble thoughts that attract grace and make his heart sensitive. Humble thoughts also enlighten his mind; they are born within himself, and they help him in dis­cerning and accepting only those things that strengthen the heart, so that it stays unshakeable in its resolution to be pleasing to God both in life and in death. During the first stage, man surrenders to a vicious circle of destructive thoughts, whilst in the second, inspired by Christ’s word, he is led along a chain of thoughts, each deeper than the last: from faith he is led to more perfect faith, from hope to firmer hope, from grace to greater grace and from love of God to an ever greater measure of love. ‘We know’, as the Apostle Paul says, ‘that all things work to­gether for good to them that love God.’[30] Indeed, this entry ‘into oneself’ and the discovery of the heart are the work of divine grace. And when man heeds God’s call and co-oper­ates with the grace that is bestowed on him, this grace summons and strengthens all his being.

When the grace of mindfulness of death becomes active, man not only sees that all his days have been consumed in vanity, that everything until now has been a failure, and that he has betrayed God all his life, but he realises that death threatens to blot out all that his con­science has hitherto em­braced, even God. He is now con­vinced that his spirit has need of eternity and that no created thing, neither angel nor man, can help him. This provokes him to seek freedom from every created thing and every passionate attachment. And if he then believes in Christ’s word and turns to Him, then it is easy for him to find his heart because he is be­coming a free being. His faith is salutary, for he now acknow­ledges that Christ is the ‘rewarder of them that diligently seek him’,[31] that is, he believes that Christ is the eternal and almighty Lord Who has come to save the world and will come again to judge the whole world with justice. He has entrusted himself to ‘the law of faith’,[32] and begins to be­lieve in hope against hope,[33] pinning everything on the mercy of God the Saviour. Such true faith can be seen in the Canaanite woman, who received the Lord’s instruction as a dog receives food from its master, and she followed Him freely and steadfastly. As far as she was concerned, God re­mained righteous and forever blessed whether He were to rebuke her or praise her. Faith like this receives the ap­proval of adoption because it grows out of love and humi­l­ity, ever attracting divine grace which opens and quickens the heart.

When man believes and his spirit finds true contact with the Spirit of ‘Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead’[34] and Who lives and reigns forever, he is enlightened so that he can see his spiritual poverty and desolation. He also perceives that he is still far from eternal life, and this gives birth to great fear in him because he is now aware that God is absent from his life. Godly fear such as this strengthens man’s heart to resist sin and begets a firm resolve to prefer heavenly things to earthly things. His life begins to prove the truth of the words of Scripture: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’[35] As man’s heart draws to itself the grace of God, this gift of fear humbles him, and pre­vents him from becoming overbold; that he ‘not think of himself more highly than he ought to think’,[36] and that he keep himself prudently within the limits of created being.

Another infallible means by which the believer finds his heart is in accepting shame for his sins in the sacrament of confession. Christ saved us by enduring the Cross of shame for our sakes. Similarly, when the believer comes out of the camp of this world,[37] he disregards its good opin­ion and judgment, taking upon himself the shame of his sins, and thereby acquiring a humble heart. The Lord re­ceives his sense of shame for his sins as a sacrifice of thanks­giving, and imparts to him the grace of His great Sacrifice on the Cross. This grace so purifies and renews his heart that he can then stand before God in a manner that is pleas­ing to Him.

There are many ideas, theories as well as practices that contribute to the heart’s awakening, its building up, its preservation and enlightenment, and finally to its Christ-like enlarging, and we shall develop some of these in the days to come. For the time being, I would just like to men­tion two more – prayer and repentance.

In the Jesus Prayer, the invocation of the Lord’s Name draws the believer into the living presence of the Personal God, Whose energy is imparted to the heart, transforming the whole man. When prayer is humble and accompanied by the practice of watchfulness, the mind is concentrated in the heart that is the dwelling-place of our beloved God, and He grants us a marvellous sense of His closeness that is beyond words.

As for repentance, this all-embracing practice builds and keeps the heart more than any other undertaking. Repentance has a wondrous and holy purpose. The person who repents bears witness to the living God of our Fathers as a God Who is righteous and true in all His desires, all His ways and judgments. But repentance also acknow­ledges the fact that man is a liar,[38] deluded by sin, and there­fore deprived of the honour and glory which God gave him in the beginning. And this is where the person who would repent must begin: he confesses his sinfulness, taking his sin upon himself in humility and self-condem­nation. There is no trace of audacity in his con­version, and he becomes true and attracts the Spirit of Truth, Who cleanses him from sin and justifies him.[39] As St Silouan used to say, the Holy Spirit bears witness in his heart to his salvation.[40] But the Lord too is justified, for He is true Who confirms the words of His Prophet: ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.’[41] For when man comes to himself and freely says from his heart, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son’, the voice of heavenly goodness then sounds in his soul: ‘All that I have is thine.’[42]

To begin with, man repents of his sins. But as the grace of repentance increases, his estrangement from eternal life is healed and the wisdom of God’s pre-eternal design with regard to man opens up before him. The image[43] of his Archetype, Christ, is gradually formed in his heart as he perceives ever more clearly his calling to become like Him, ‘after the image of him that created him’[44] and he no longer compares himself with mortals, but with the eternal God. This vision leads him to the fulness of repentance, that is, repentance on the ontological level, which, according to Fr Sophrony, has no end upon earth.

In the early stages of repentance, the believer carries the small cross that God’s Providence, in His discernment and love for mankind, has foreseen in the life of each one of us. Our personal cross is shaped according to our spe­cific need to be liberated from every form of passionate attachment, and unless we carry it we will never be able to love God our Creator and Benefactor with a free heart and run His course faithfully and steadily. In other words, we take up our cross in response to the commandment to repent, and it becomes the key to our entry into the great and eter­nal inheritance, which Christ gained for us through His Cross and Resurrection.

But there are no limits to man’s repentance. The highest form of repentance for which God bestows an exceptional measure of grace is when man who offers up a cry of repent­ance for the whole human race and, like another Adam, perceives the cosmic consequences of his own fallen state. We see examples of this kind of repentance in the three Holy Children in Babylon, in the great Apostle Paul, in the humble intercession of all the Saints, and last but not least, in St Silouan’s prayer for the whole world: ‘I pray Thee O merciful Lord for all the peoples of the earth, that they may come to know Thee by Thy Holy Spirit.’[45] The depth of this deceptively simple prayer can be discerned in Adam’s Lament, his personal portrait of universal repentance.

How, then, does repentance become universal in its content? If we prepare the soil of our heart with the plough of repentance and continually irrigate it with the living water of grace, a time will come when ‘the day will dawn, and the day star will arise in our hearts’.[46] At some point, the energy of the Spirit of Truth, which will have accumu­lated in the heart, will open and enlarge the heart infinitely, and it will embrace heaven and earth, and all that exists. On this day, man will enter into Truth and thus be regenerated as true man. Then, according to the prophetic words of the Psalmist, ‘True man goeth forth unto his true work and labour until the evening of his life.’[47] He will then know how to ‘perfect holiness in the fear of God’,[48] to think upon ‘whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report’,[49] undertaking only such things as will contribute to his spiritual perfecting. The peace of Christ, the Prince of Peace[50] will reign in his heart, and his every word will echo the treasure of perfection which he contains within himself. He will offer whatsoever overflows from the good treasure of his heart out of love for his fellows, and his enlarged heart[51] will not exclude anyone. His spirit will scale eternal heights and survey the depths of the judgments of God’s compassion. He will offer up his prayer, bringing every soul before the Lord, and praying that God may fill the heart of each with the in­corruptible consolation of His Spirit.

When the heart is thus given fully to the Lord Jesus, He overshadows it with His messianic power, for He possesses the marvellous key of David, which, with a single right turn, ‘brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’.[52] The humility of his thoughts generates intense spiritual energy within him, fuelling the soul’s inspiration and endurance in following the good Lord ‘whithersoever he goeth’,[53] even to hell. Then again, a single left turn of this key opens the way for all the thoughts of the enemy to return to man’s bosom. Should this happen, he will acquire spiritual watchfulness, which will be carried out with angelic precision, making the believer a sharer in the supra-cosmic victory of our God and Saviour. From this point on, his struggle is essentially positive in character, and only rarely negative. The ascetic now labours with ever greater longing ‘to be clothed upon with our house which is in heaven…that mortality might be swallowed up by life’,[54] and he witnesses the powerful and infinite ‘increase of God’[55] in himself.

The heart is now purified by the grace of God, and the intellect can establish itself there with ease, through the invocation of the Name of Christ. Whereupon the heart, quite naturally, begins to cry unceasingly with ‘groanings which cannot be uttered’.[56] From this time forth, the Lord is ever present, dwelling in our heart, and being ‘taught of God’,[57] we learn to discern which thoughts are in harmony with His presence and which ones hinder His coming and abiding in us. In other words, we are initiated into the proph­etic life. The heart is instructed to indite good matters,[58] to understand the language of God and with holy de­termin­ation to cry ceaselessly, ‘My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing and give praise’ to my Re­deemer.[59] We are taught how to become signs of the Spirit, witnessing to the truth of Him Who has come to save us and Who will come again to judge the world with justice and goodness. With all our strength, and in all our en­deavours, we try to meet the expectations of our Lord, knowing that ‘the Lord loves holy hearts, and all blameless persons are acceptable with him’.[60]

I have not said much, but I hope it is clear that man’s principal work, which alone gives worth to his life, is the effort of discovering and purifying his ‘deep heart’, that it may be blessed with the indescribable contemplation of our God, Who is Holy.

Source: Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou), The hidden man of the heart, edition Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, Essex 2007, pp. 11-26.

NOTES 

1. Cf. Ps. 64:6.

2. Cf. Luke 17:21.

3. Prov. 4:23.

4. Prov. 15:14.

5. Exod. 34:14.

6. Prov. 23:26.

7. Matt. 12:30.

8. 1 John 3:20.

9. Cf. John 5:37; Acts 9:15.

10. 1 Pet. 4:14.

11. Gal. 4:19.

12. Rom. 3:23.

13. Luke 9:15.

14. Job 7:17-18, 20.

15. Rev. 3:20.

16. Luke 11:9-10.

17. Jer. 48:10.           

18. 2 Cor. 9:7.

19. Cf. 2 Cor. 9:6.

20. Luke 15:17.

21. Luke 15:31.

22. Luke 15:18-19.

23. Cf. Ps. 78:33.

24. Cf. Job 17:13.

25. Wisdom of Solomon 16:13.

26. Rom. 1:25.

27. 2 Cor. 2:11.

28. Cf. Prov. 17:16.

29. Cf. 1 Cor. 9:26.

30. Rom. 8:28.

31. Heb. 11:6.

32. Rom. 3:27.

33. Cf. Rom. 4:18.

34. 2 Tim. 2:8

35. Prov. 1:7 LXX.

36. Rom. 12:3.

37. Cf. Heb. 13:11-12.

38. Cf. Rom. 3:4.

39. Cf. 1 John 1:8-10.

40. Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), Saint Silouan the Athonite, trans. Rosemary Edmonds (Tolleshunt Knights, Essex: Patriarchal Stavro­pegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 1991), p. 304.

41. Ps. 51:17.                        

42. Luke 15:18-19, 31.

43. Cf. John 5:37.

44. Col. 3:10.

45. Cf. Saint Silouan, p. 274.

46. Cf. 2 Pet. 1:19.

47. Cf. Ps. 104:23.

48. 2 Cor. 7:1.

49. Phil. 4:8.

50. Isa. 9:6.

51. 2 Cor. 6:13.

52. 2 Cor. 10:5.                     

53. Rev. 14:4.                                    

54. 2 Cor. 5:2-4.

55. Col. 2:19.

56. Rom. 8:26.

57. Cf. John 6:45.                  

58. Cf. Ps. 45:1.                     

59. Ps. 56:7 LXX.

60. Prov. 22:11 LXX.

Η ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΛΑΖΑΡΟΥ - ΤΟ ΠΕΡΙΣΤΑΤΙΚΟ - ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΕΡΜΗΝΕΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΙΚΟΝΑΣ

Ο Λάζαρος ήταν φίλος του Χριστού και οι αδελφές του Μάρθα και Μαρία τον φιλοξένησαν πολλές φορές (Λουκ.ι΄, 38-40, Ιωαν.ιβ΄, 1-3) στη Βηθανία κοντά στα Ιεροσόλυμα. Λίγες μέρες πρό του πάθους του Κυρίου ασθένησε ο Λάζαρος και οι αδελφές του ενημέρωσαν σχετικά τον Ιησού που τότε ήταν στη Γαλιλαία να τον επισκεφθεί. Ο Κύριος όμως επίτηδες καθυστέρησε μέχρι που πέθανε ο Λάζαρος, οπότε είπε στους μαθητές του πάμε τώρα να τον ξυπνήσω. Όταν έφθασε στη Βηθανία παρηγόρησε τις αδελφές του Λάζαρου που ήταν πεθαμένος τέσσερις μέρες και ζήτησε να δει το τάφο του.

     Όταν έφθασε στο μνημείο, δάκρυσε και διέταξε να βγάλουν την ταφόπλακα. Τότε ύψωσε τα μάτια του στον ουρανό, ευχαρίστησε τον Θεό και Πατέρα και με μεγάλη φωνή είπε: Λάζαρε, βγές έξω. Αμέσως βγήκε έξω τυλιγμένος με τα σάβανα ο τετραήμερος νεκρός μπροστά στο πλήθος που παρακολουθούσε και ο Ιησούς ζήτησε να του λύσουν τα σάβανα και να πάει σπίτι του. (Ιωαν. ια΄,44)

     Η αρχαία παράδοση λέγει ότι τότε ο Λάζαρος ήταν 30 χρονών και έζησε άλλα 30 χρόνια. Τελείωσε το επίγειο βίο του στην Κύπρο το έτος 63 μ.Χ. και ο τάφος του στην πόλη των Κιτιέων έγραφε: «Λάζαρος ο τετραήμερος και φίλος του Χριστού».
Το έτος 890μ.Χ. μετακομίσθηκε το ιερό λείψανό του στην Κωνσταντινούπολη από τον αυτοκράτορα Λέοντα το σοφό, ο οποίος συνέθεσε τα ιδιόμελα στον εσπερινό του Λαζάρου: Κύριε, Λαζάρου θέλων τάφον ιδείν, κλπ

    Χαρακτηριστικό της μετέπειτας ζωής του Λαζάρου λέγει η παράδοση, ήταν ότι δεν γέλασε ποτέ παρά μια φορά μόνο όταν είδε κάποιο να κλέβει μια γλάστρα και είπε την εξής φράση: Το ένα χώμα κλέβει το άλλο.
    Η Ανάσταση του Λαζάρου επέτεινε το μίσος των Εβραίων που μόλις την έμαθαν ζήτησαν να σκοτώσουν τον Λάζαρο και το Χριστό.
   Αυτή τη μέρα δεν γίνονται μνημόσυνα με κόλλυβα, σε ανάγκη μόνο απλό Τρισάγιο.

  Η εικόνα έχει βάση την αφήγηση της σχετικής περικοπής του Ευαγγελίου χωρίς πολλούς συμβολισμούς δείχνοντας τη φυσική πλευρά, που είναι προσιτή στην ανθρώπινη αντίληψη.

    Στα δύο άκρα της εικόνας υπάρχουν βράχοι-βουνά και στο ένα μέρος της ο Χριστός με τους δώδεκα μαθητές Του. Ο Χριστός στέκεται σε μεγαλόπρεπη στάση δείχνοντας τη θεϊκή Του δύναμη. Στο αριστερό Του χέρι κρατά ειλητάριο έχοντας το δεξιό τεντωμένο να ευλογεί και δίνει εντολή να ανοίξει ο τάφος. Στα πόδια Του, που τα ασπάζονται γονατιστές, βρίσκονται οι αδελφές του Λαζάρου Μαρία και Μάρθα με μια ανάμικτη έκφραση θλίψης και ευχαριστίας στον Κύριο.

   Απέναντι από το Χριστό βρίσκεται ο τάφος λαξευμένος στο βράχο και μέσα του βρίσκεται ο Λάζαρος. Είναι τυλιγμένος με λωρίδες (τις κειρίες του Ευαγγελίου) και στέκεται στο άνοιγμα του τάφου. Είναι χλωμός με βασανισμένη όψη, γιατί έχει επιστρέψει από τον Άδη, νέος στην ηλικία με μαύρο γένι. Κάποιος του αφαιρεί τα σάβανα και άλλος σηκώνει την πλάκα του τάφου και την παραμερίζει.

Ανάμεσα στα βουνά και πίσω από μια ράχη φαίνεται το τείχος της Βηθανίας, και πλήθος Ιουδαίων βγαίνουν από τη πόρτα του. Βλέπουν με θαυμασμό το γεγονός και κάποιοι από αυτούς φράζουν τη μύτη τους με το ρούχο τους λόγω της δυσωδίας που έρχεται από τον τετραήμερο νεκρό Λάζαρο.

    Η επιγραφή της εικόνας συνήθως είναι: “Η έγερσις του Λαζάρου”.

ΠΗΓΗ : Γ. Β. Μαυρομάτη, Η Ανάσταση του Λαζάρου

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann -Saturday of Lazarus

The joy that permeates and enlightens the service of Lazarus Saturday stresses one major theme: the forthcoming victory of Christ over Hades. "Hades" is the Biblical term for Death and its universal power, for inescapable darkness that swallows all life and with its shadow poisons the whole world. But now — with Lazarus’ resurrection — "death begins to tremble." A decisive duel between Life and Death begins giving us the key to the entire liturgical mystery of Pascha. Already in the fourth century Lazarus’ Saturday was called the "announcement of Pascha." For, indeed, it announces and anticipates the wonderful light and peace of the next — The Great — Saturday, the day of life-giving Tomb.

Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, personifies the whole of mankind and also each man, as Bethany — the home of Lazarus, — stands for the whole world — the home of man. For each man was created as a friend of God and was called to this friendship: the knowledge of God, the communion with Him, the sharing of life with Him: "in Him was Life and the Life was the light of men" (John 1:4). And yet this Friend, whom Jesus loves, whom He has created in love, is destroyed, annihilated by a power which God has not created: death. In His own world, the fruit of His love, wisdom and beauty, God encounters a power that destroys His work and annihilates His design. The world is but lamentation and sorrow, complaint and revolt. How is this possible? How did this happen? These are the questions implied in John’s slow and detailed narrative of Jesus’ progression towards the grave of His friend. And once there, Jesus wept, says the Gospel (John 11:35). Why did He weep if He knew that moments later He would call Lazarus back to life? Byzantine hymnographers fail to grasp the true meaning of these tears. "As man Thou weepest, and as God Thou raisest the one in the grave..." They arrange the actions of Christ according to His two natures: the Divine and the human. But the Orthodox Church teaches that all the actions of Christ are both Divine and human, are actions of the one and same person, the Incarnate Son of God. He who weeps is not only man but also God, and He who calls Lazarus out of the grave is not God alone but also man. And He weeps because He contemplates the miserable state of the world, created by God, and the miserable state of man, the king of creation... "It stinketh," say the Jews trying to prevent Jesus from approaching the corps, and this "it stinketh" can be applied to the whole of creation. God is Life and He called the man into this Divine reality of life and "he stinketh." At the grave of Lazarus Jesus encounters Death — the power of sin and destruction, of hatred and despair. He meets the enemy of God. And we who follow Him are now introduced into the very heart of this hour of Jesus, the hour, which He so often mentioned. The forthcoming darkness of the Cross, its necessity, its universal meaning, all this is given in the shortest verse of the Gospel — "and Jesus wept."

We understand now that it is because He wept, i.e., loved His friend Lazarus and had pity on him, that He had the power of restoring life to him. The power of Resurrection is not a Divine "power in itself’," but the power of love, or rather, love as power. God is Love, and it is love that creates life; it is love that weeps at the grave and it is, therefore, love that restores life... This is the meaning of these Divine tears. They are tears of love and, therefore, in them is the power of life. Love, which is the foundation of life and its source, is at work again recreating, redeeming, restoring the darkened life of man: "Lazarus, come forth!" And this is why Lazarus Saturday is the real beginning of both: the Cross, as the supreme sacrifice of love, and the Common Resurrection, as the ultimate triumph of love.

"Christ — the Joy, Truth, Light and the Life of all and the resurrection of the world, in His love appeared to those on earth and was the image of Resurrection, granting to all Divine forgiveness."

Archpriest Alexander Schmemann

The Christian Way, 1961

Ὁ Χριστὸς προσκαλεῖ τὴν ἁμαρτωλὴ ψυχή

 

Γιατὶ μὲ ἐγκατέλειψες, ἄνθρωπε; Γιατὶ ἀποστράφηκες ἀπὸ τὸν ἀγαπήσαντά σε; Γιατὶ πάλιν ἑνώθηκες μὲ τὸν ἐχθρό μου; Θυμήσου πώς κατέβηκα γιά σένα ἀπὸ τοὺς οὐρανούς. Θυμήσου πώς ἔγινα γιά σένα σάρκα. Θυμήσου πώς γεννήθηκα γιά σένα ἀπὸ τὴν Παρθένο. Θυμήσου πώς ἔγινα γιά σένα βρέφος. Θυμήσου πώς ταπεινώθηκα γιά σένα. Θυμήσου πώς ἐφτώχυνα γιά σένα. Θυμήσου πώς ἔζησα γιά σένα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Θυμήσου πώς ὑπέμεινα γιά σένα διωγμούς.

 

Θυμήσου πώς ἀποδέχτηκα, γιά σένα, τὶς κακολογίες,τὶς ὕβρεις, τὶς ἀτιμώσεις, τὶς πληγές, τοὺς ἐμπτυσμούς,τοὺς κολαφισμούς, τὶς κοροϊδίες καὶ τὶς καταδίκες. Θυμήσου πώς γιά σένα «μετὰ ἀνόμων ἐλογίσθην». Θυμήσου πώς γιά σένα ἔλαβα τὸν ἀτιμωτικὸ θάνατο. Θυμήσου πώς γιά σένα ἐνταφιάστηκα. Κατέβηκα ἀπὸ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς γιά νά σὲ ἀνεβάσω στούς οὐρανούς. Ταπεινώθηκα γιά νά σὲ ὑψώσω. Ἐπτώχευσα γιά νά σὲ πλουτίσω. Ἀτιμάστηκα γιά νά σὲ δοξάσω. Πληγώθηκα γιά νά σὲ ζωντανέψω.

Ἐσὺ ἔκανες τὴν ἁμαρτία, καὶ Ἐγὼ πῆρα αὐτὴ τὴν ἁμαρτία ἐπάνω μου. Ἐσὺ φταῖς, καὶ Ἐγὼ ἐκτελέστηκα. Ἐσὺ εἶσαι ὀφειλέτης, καὶ Ἐγὼ πλήρωσα τὸ χρέος. Ἐσὺ… καταδικάστηκες σὲ θάνατο, καὶ Ἐγὼ πέθανα γιά σένα.

 

Μὲ προσέλκυσε νά τὸ κάνω ἡ ἀγάπη μου καί ἡ εὐσπλαχνία μου. Δέν μπόρεσα νά ἀντέξω νά ὑποφέρεις, εὑρισκόμενος σὲ τόση δυστυχία. Καὶ ἐσὺ περιφρονεῖς αὐτὴν τὴν ἀγάπη μου; Ἀντὶ ἀγάπης μοῦ ἀνταποδίδεις τὸ μῖσος. Ἀντὶ Ἐμένα ἀγαπᾶς τὴν ἁμαρτία. Ἀντὶ νά μὲ ὑπηρετεῖς, λειτουργεῖς τὰ πάθη σου. Ἀλλὰ τὶ βρῆκες σὲ Μένα πού θὰ ἔπρεπε νά ἀποφύγεις;

 

Γιατὶ δέν θέλεις νά ἔρθεις σ΄ Ἐμένα; Ἀναζητᾶς καλὸ γιά τὸν ἑαυτὸ σου; Κάθε καλὸ τὸ ἔχω Ἐγώ. Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν μακαριότητα; Κάθε μακαριότητα τὴν ἔχω Ἐγώ. Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν ὀμορφιά; Τὶ ὑπάρχει πιὸ ὄμορφο ἀπὸ Μένα; Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν εὐγένεια; Ποιός εἶναι  πιὸ εὐγενὴς ἀπὸ τὸν Υἱὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τὴν Παρθένο; Ἀναζητᾶς τὸ ὑψηλό; Τὶ  εἶναι  πιὸ ὑψηλὸ ἀπὸ τὸ Βασιλέα τῶν οὐρανῶν;

 

Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν δόξα; Ποιός  εἶναι  πιὸ ἔνδοξος ἀπὸ Μένα; Ἀναζητᾶς τὸν πλοῦτο; Ὅλα τὰ πλούτη βρίσκονται σὲ Μένα. Ἀναζητᾶς τή σοφίᾳ; Ἐγὼ εἶμαι ἡ Σοφία τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν φιλία; Ποιός  εἶναι  φιλικότερος ἀπὸ Μένα, πού ἔδωσα τὴν ψυχή μου γιά ὅλους σας; Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν βοήθεια; Ποῖος μπορεῖ νά σὲ βοηθήσει ἐκτὸς ἀπὸ Μένα;

Ἀναζητᾶς τὸν γιατρό; Ποιός μπορεῖ νά σὲ θεραπεύσει ἐκτὸς ἀπὸ Μένα; Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν ἀγαλλίαση; Ποιός θὰ σοῦ τὴν δώσει ἐκτὸς ἀπὸ Μένα; Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν παρηγορία μέσα στίς θλίψεις σου; Ποιός θὰ σὲ παρηγορήσει ἐκτὸς ἀπὸ Μένα; Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν ἡσυχία; Σ’ ἐμένα θὰ βρεῖς τὴν ἡσυχία γιά τὴν ψυχή σου. Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν εἰρήνη; Ἐγὼ εἶμαι ἡ εἰρήνη τῆς ψυχῆς.

 

Ἀναζητᾶς τή ζωή; Ἐγὼ ἔχω πηγὴ ζωῆς. Ἀναζητᾶς τὸ φῶς; Ἐγὼ εἶμαι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου. Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν ἀλήθεια; Ἐγὼ εἶμαι ἡ ἀλήθεια. Ἀναζητᾶς τὴν ὁδό; Ἐγὼ εἶμαι ἡ ὁδός. Ἀναζητᾶς τὸν ὁδηγὸ στόν  Οὐρανό; Ἐγὼ εἶμαι ὁ πιστὸς ὁδηγός. Λοιπόν, γιατὶ δέν θέλεις νά ἔρθεις σ’ Μένα; Δέν τολμᾶς νά μὲ πλησιάσεις; Ποιός, ἀλήθεια, εἶναι πιὸ εὐπρόσιτος ἀπὸ Μένα; Φοβᾶσαι νά Μὲ παρακαλεῖς; Πότε, ἀλήθεια, ἀρνήθηκα νά πραγματοποιήσω κάτι, ὅταν Μὲ παρακαλέσαν μὲ πίστη;

 

Δέν σοῦ ἐπιτρέπουν οἱ ἁμαρτίες; Ὅμως Ἐγὼ πέθανα γιά τοὺς ἁμαρτωλούς. Στενοχωριέσαι γιά τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν σου; Ἀλλὰ ἡ εὐσπλαχνία μου εἶναι πιὸ μεγάλη. «Δεῦτε πρὸς Μὲ πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς».

 

 Ἅγιος Τύχων Ζαγκόρσκ

 

Πηγή: Ῥωμαίϊκο Ὁδοιπορικό