Month: June 2023

WOE FROM WIT

Archpriest Sergiy Baranov

The Holy Trinity Cathedral, Iveron Monastery of Orsk

28.05.2023

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy!

I have a question for you. Raise your hands those who is willing to make mistakes. Oh! Here is one insane woman. You should visit a doctor. Usually, people do not want to make mistakes consciously. Do they? Why should we make mistakes? Mistakes always lead to a trouble.  

Then I have another question. Who of you can do without mistakes? No one again. As a rule, no one, except for some queer people, wants to make mistakes cautiously because mistakes bring discomfort in our lives and ruin its mere structure. 

No one can do without mistakes. We always make mistakes. How do you think, why does this happen? Don’t you know? I think we are all crazy. Forgive me, of course. Well, who then does not want to make mistakes but keeps making them? The one who is wrong in the head. I guess, we are all wrong in the head.  Do you know why this is so and what is happening there? There is a mess in our head. We do not see obvious and simple things and constantly make mistakes because we have a mess of thoughts there. The “smarter” (in commas) we are, the more mistakes we make, as our intellect, or what we call it, is our insanity in truth. Too many thoughts.  These thoughts tangle with one another and mix, and we cannot distinguish in this mixture the answer to what we should do, how we should act correctly, as everything is so confused there. 

We may turn a simplest business into the most complicated one. Do you know who helps us in doing so? If you go to church for a long time, you might hear and know that God is the greatest simplicity. And everything is definite and clear in this simplicity: yes is yes and no is no. Do you remember what the Lord says in the Gospel? He says, “Let your word be simple: your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’” A word comes from a thought, it is brought from the head. If everything is complicated in one’s head, it will never give a simple word, this word will never give a simple decision, and everything will always remain complicated. We are ill ourselves, but there is someone who stimulates and makes our illness progress. Who do you think this is? Surely, this is not the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, everything is very simple and definite: this is a sin, this is the truth. “My child, do it this way and you will be happy and do not do it that way.” But when the truth and false are mixed in one cocktail, you will never distinguish what to do and how to act, as everything is confused.  

Satan mixes our thoughts and makes everything complicated in order to make us insane in these murky waters, deceive us and possess us through this in the end.  Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit simplifies our thoughts. He makes our thoughts and actions simpler. We think in a simple way and understand everything simply. Well, simplicity is relative and the truth is relative too. Someone might say, “Oh, the truth is so complicated, one should think a lot, dig to the roots, and come at the truth.” However, for someone the truth is very simple. Stop digging and set yourself to Christ. He is the Truth. That’s it. Nevertheless, you do not trust Him, but you trust your thoughts and you keep spinning in this whirl. Christ is the Truth, not you. You are a poor man, as if someone has lowered a mixer into your head and mixed everything there. I tell you as a spiritual guide, I sometimes want to cry. We may pervert and make complex the simplest thing ever. I sometimes want to say, “What’s going on? O Lord, everything is so simple. What is happening to you?” 

They say, people may go crazy because of the Jesus prayer. It might happen  not because of the Jesus prayer, but due to incorrect practice of it. Has someone understood the essence of the Jesus prayer? What is the essence of it? When we say the Jesus prayer, we practice the stoppage of our thoughts in one point and in one phrase, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” At this moment, we turn away from all the mess in our head and simply say, “Jesus, Jesus.”   What have I already told you about the truth? Christ is the Truth. Our thoughts, logical conclusions, all those labyrinths, where we go and never find the way out, are not the truth. Christ is the Truth. This is very simple and short, “Jesus, Jesus.” 

You see those people who say the Jesus prayer with their mouths and wander in those labyrinths of logic with their heads, have nothing to do with the Jesus prayer. They go mad not because of the Jesus prayer, but because of being highbrows. The Jesus prayer, on the contrary, teaches us simplicity of mind where everything is simple. But those people think they say the Jesus prayer and it sends them a thousand of revelations and they enjoy them and go crazy. If the Jesus prayer has the right way, it will not make anyone crazy. Quite the opposite, it brings people back to sanity. Stop, o man, in your thoughts, and come back to your senses. No matter how high you fly in your thoughts, they are mere fancies and illusions; satan deceives you, he will fly with you up to the Sun, but then will smash you against the ground. 

It is very easy for a spiritual guide to distinguish who says the Jesus prayer correctly and who does not. He sees who is in a good spiritual state and who is insane. Those who have a sober head, act soberly, very simply, laconically and shortly. Meanwhile, those who have a mess in their heads will turn the simplest business into a universe disaster.  For example, one may give a tree sapling to two people. One of those people would be a simple headed person, another one, though being faithful, with a mess in his head. The one having a simple mind would say, “Lord bless me to plant this tree.” He digs a hole, puts a little manure in it, plants the tree, covers the roots with soil, waters it with three buckets of water, crosses it and leaves.   

At the same time, the one who has a complicated mind will make a whole business out of this. “Let us read the Akathist for planting an apple tree. Interesting, are the Akathist for an apple and the one for a pear tree differ or not? ” They read the Akathist. “Let us have a round procession with this sapling.” They go. “Let us do something with the roots.” In the end, while they do all this, the roots become dry, and soon after the planting, the tree dies.  “Lord, where are You?” He says, “Madman, I was crying for three hours when you were making a spectacle of yourself. I was here, but you were too smart to ask Me. Even if I tried to say something to you, you would nevertheless say, ‘Lord, wait. I will read up the Akathist.’” 

No one goes mad because of the Jesus prayer. People go crazy because of their highbrowness. You see, the main criterion, those who think simply, say simply and act simply and everything is simple in their lives. Everything surrounding them is simple. Meanwhile, it is very hard and sometimes even unbearable near the person who complicates everything.  Lord, have mercy! It’s impossible! Someone prays sincerely, “Lord, give me some intelligence!” He thinks intelligence is many thoughts. “The more thoughts I have, the smarter I will be.” Today, when you come back home, think about my words. Is having many thoughts speaks for your intellect or… What is it called in psychiatry? Schizophrenia. God forbid! Where everything is simple there are a hundred Angels, where everything is complicated, there are no Angels.2 They have all flown away.    

Forgive me.

Glory to our God, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen! 

1“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” (Mt. 5:37)

2The quote from St. Ambrose of Optina.

WHY DOES EVIL EXIST?

Archpriest Sergiy Baranov

St. John of Kronstadt Cathedral of Gai

June 11, 2023

Let us discuss the presence of evil in this world. This is our experience. Well, someone can say, someone who thinks frivolously, we can stop him and say, “Well, think about that!” To which he might answer, “There are no sinister forces, there is no devil.” But we stop him again and say, “But where does it come from? Look, it comes from the outside. Do you want this evil”? “No”. And he will say, “This is my habit.” But there was a reason for your habit, this habit appeared somehow, this temptation by evil appeared from somewhere. There was your answer to this evil, but this evil came to you from the outside. This suggests that in our world, in being of our world there is a dark power which tries to spoil everything around. If there had not been a light power as an opposition to the dark one, the latter would destroy this world, our world simply would not exist. This fact proves that there is a light power which opposes sinister forces. This is a continual fight. On no account do I want someone to think that these forces are equal, – on no account do I want that! In an instant, one question appears, well, why, if God is almighty, why would He, as someone may think, let this dark power act, why would He let this power be? Have you not thought about that? 

This evil power entered into us and united with every cell of our body. So in order to destroy this evil one should destroy all of us. We are all contaminated by this evil, every cell of ours is infected with it. But God loves us, He feels compassion. That is why God has a wise plan, a long term plan. He lets this evil tempt us so that we would be able to show our inclination to kindness, to make a choice. He can not become our Friend by force, without our choice, He can not become our Father by force. One can become a lord or a leader forcefully; one can come and conquer. But one can not become a friend forcefully. So, that is why God let us show our inclination for Him. We make our choice when resisting a temptation. 

Not having any temptation, one may say that, “But I have already shown everything.” I do not believe you. The very first hardship will show that, actually, you have already shown everything, the very first hardship – and you have already changed your mind.  Your inclination is not reliable, this is not true. I love You while everything is good. But there appears just a little, small unpleasantness and I do not love You anymore. This is not love. These are commercial relations. Love is unconditional. So, in order to show this unconditional love to God, we have to be tempted. And this silly dark power does not even suspect that it helps us to resist temptation. This power tempts us and lets us win this way. Having repelled temptation, we say that, “God, it is not that I simply tell You,  “Jesus, I love You,” – but I prove it every day.”

Now there are many words out there, but it is hard to believe them. There are so many different words. People speak lofty language but do sordid acts. So, word means nothing if not proved by action. But what is worse is that this word can be hypocrisy. That is why any word should be proved by action. In order to prove our sincerity to God, we have to constantly resist temptations, which provoke us – whether we really love Christ or not.  

Look, what Gospel we have read today, if someone can remember, “He who has not left father or mother for Me is not worthy of Me.” He does not say, “I do not want to see you.” He says that your love for Me is not complete. So, you can prefer an imperfect father or imperfect mother to the Perfection of God. He does not say I do not want to see you, I am offended, I am angry. He says, “Not worthy of Me” – the quality of your state is not worthy. “Who has not left a son or daughter is not worthy of Me.”

I, as a priest, saw so many lives for the last 30 years. One goes to church sincerely, ardently. Then a temptation came – a disease of a child, your own disease, your career is destroyed, friends left you – and your relations with God got on the wrong side. So, it means that your relations with God were not sincere, it means that you always needed something from Him. “God I want nothing from you but only You Yourself! This is my main wish.”

Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day.  This was their way. God says, leave your father and mother, leave your son and daughter, leave your property, as apostles did. They were poor people. Their property was – a boat and a fishing net – they needed it to make their living. God came, “Follow Me”. They left their boat and net, and they went to some place unknown. The same happened with all saints: leave this, leave this, leave this. But the last…last thing God says in the Gospel, “Do you want to be my disciple? Take your cross.” 

Now it is very often the case when people are coming to church to achieve completely different goals. Where to read to make my family feel good? Where to read to manage hiccups at work? Where to read to make this or that part of my body healthy? Only a few people enter a temple and approach not to that, or that, or that icon from which they can ask for this, for that, and for this. They go straight to a rood. To the Cross on which is Jesus with blood flowing down. Sometimes I may say to people who need this, and that, and this from Jesus, “Go to the Cross. Look at His hands, legs. Ask Him.” And it may happen that your tongue can not even move. One has some power to only say, “God” and that is it but then there is some pause. 

All saints, there was not even one saint, we remember today, apostles, hierarchs, righteous saints, we remember martyrs, we remember different archieratikons, venerables, but there was not even one saint who entered the Kingdom of Heaven without a personal cross. This cross is like a key which can open this door. It is impossible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven without a cross. On an icon we can see that the righteous thief enters the Kingdom of Heaven with the cross on his shoulders. It does not matter what archieratikon, I say, you had when you strived – as a righteous lay person or a monk, as a hierarch or a priest, as a venerable, as a martyr, especially as martyr. No one entered the Kingdom of Heaven without a cross. 

This is the answer to the question why does evil exist? Evil is a marker which reveals the quality of our Christianity, it is like an acid test. We may see through this evil – if we agree with it or resist it. We may even be succumbed by this evil but we cry about it and this is our fight. We do not agree with it but evil fights with us and this process is our inclination to Jesus. Evil can win one hundred times but we go to penance through this shame and announce our confusion and this process is our inclination to Jesus. 

Why does evil exist? Now we do understand it, right? To fight it, to beat it. If we do not conquer this evil we will run away from it all the time but it will keep catching us occasionally. We need to win it as the saints did. Everything is for Christ’s sake. But the main thing, I would like to emphasise it, not only for Christ’s sake but with Christ. I do not believe that someone was able to win evil without Christ. These are arrogant people with self-importance. One day this self-importance thing will betray them, it will collapse. Why did the Lord let this happen? For us to become firmly convinced of our imperfection. We should understand it properly so that we cry and scream, “ Lord! I lost this battle one thousand times and finally I got that I can not be without You. I can not. Do not leave me and I will not leave You. Only like this can I win.” 

Glory to God, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen

ON GRIEF AND SELF-WORTH

May 7, 2023

 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

There was once a  great Orthodox Elder, Ephraim of Arizona, who passed away just a few years ago, whom many know as a great and powerful elder. He was once a novice, the youngest novice to another great Elder, Joseph the Hesychast of Athos, a cave-dweller already canonized by the Holy Church. Once the  young novice Ephraim heard from Elder Joseph that the way of ascension to God is as if it were a ladder with different steps.  The Holy Fathers, the Venerable Saints who strove for Christ, are on different steps: some higher to God, some lower. Then young, naive Ephraim asked, “Father Geronda (from Greek Γέροντας), and where am I?” The elder answered, “Nowhere. You are not on the ladder because you have not repented yet.”

Elder Joseph, an experienced spiritual warrior, identified the main work of the ascension to God. Repentance is the first step. And if you have not achieved it, all your other feats are feats of the antichrist, feats of proud satan. Perhaps someone may have read about when satan appeared to Antony the Great, saying, “You keep vigils at night, but I don’t sleep at all. You fast rigorously and I don’t eat at all. All your feats are nothing. I can do better than that. The only thing I cannot do is humble myself. I can do all this out of pride in myself. I can stay awake, I can rub my knees red when I pray, I can neglect eating, I can go around the world and even do good deeds, but out of my pride and not out of love. I can go around, do good deeds and admire myself for what a wonderful person I am. I can do it all! All, except humble myself.”

 You only  begin to enter the spiritual life at this first step of repentance. Those who have not passed this point cannot even dream of a spiritual life. They are just building  castles of sand that will collapse. You build, you shape, you think you have something monumental already. You have prayed so much, done so many good deeds, gone to church so often – and suddenly it collapses in an instant. You are not on the ladder because you have not repented yet.

There are two reasons that a person is allowed to experience grief. First, grief is allowed to sinners for humility. Secondly,  it is allowed to righteous people, for perfection. And the biggest mistake is when a sinner, who has not yet repented, who has not passed this point of repentance, suddenly thinks that he is allowed to have grief for perfection. Grief for perfection is allowed to those who have repented, those who have already gained experience through repentance. But if the hapless novice, the hapless Christian, who has just come to the Church, suddenly thinks that grief is allowed to him for perfection but he has not yet passed the point of repentance, he, poor man, does not understand that this grief is his own wrong behavior, grief he is bringing on himself. The commandments of God are not commandments of prohibition, not a desire to rule over a poor man. God does not say: I order you to do this, I order you not to do that. God’s commandments are recipes for happiness. God says to us, “Do this and you will be happy. If you fail to do so, you will be in bad health, you will suffer, troubles will follow you”. The man does not keep the commandments and is in grief all the time. And woe unto that foolish ascetic if he thinks that he has already ascended to that degree of spiritual life where grief is for his perfection. This was true for Seraphim of Sarov – grief for perfection – and for Sergius of Radonezh – grief for discernment. And for us poor people who have not yet passed that initial point, grief is for our sins.

There was once a nun named Eupraxia living in Orsk. In Soviet times there were no monasteries and our Orsk nuns lived in flats. I visited her and gave her the Eucharist. She had such a serious illness, you know.  When I arrived her asthma was choking her. I started to read the communion prayers and she almost fainted. But the moment she received the Eucharist she came back to life, as  if she was resuscitated in an intensive care unit. I asked, “Mother Eupraxia, where does it hurt?” And then she told me, mispronouncing the Russian words (she was a Chuvash woman), “My sins hurt”, – she understood exactly what was hurting her. She, being such a good nun, never once told me, “God visits me to perfect me.” She would always say that her sins hurt. 

Hapless is a novice, a monk or any Christian who has not passed that period when he realizes that all his problems are of his own making, but suddenly starts saying: “The Lord has visited me with grief, it is for my perfection, my humility.” You have no humility, you have a high opinion of yourself! “My spiritual father has chastised me, and he has done it for the sake of my perfection.” Your spiritual father’s not perfecting you, he’s just not controlling himself anymore! That’s why he chastised you. Saint Ephraim of Katounakia once said, “Do not upset God, do not break the commandments, He will take His grace away from the confessor and the confessor will give you a thrashing”. And then He will restore His grace upon him, and he will be peaceful and kind again. 

The most crucial mistake is to misunderstand why grief occurs. I doubt that, of those of us standing, there are many people here who are sent grief for perfection. So far, grief is still for our wrong behavior. It is a violation of the law, the law of happiness, and that is why we are unhappy all the time. Let’s sober up, get back to reason. Realize who we are and where we are. And then maybe we’ll just come to that first step on the ladder and hear  Elder Joseph say, “You haven’t repented yet.” 

Lord, take away our folly and give us reason, which Christianity calls humility of mind. Some people think they are really wise, but if they are just wise, they are spiritually insane. Orthodox wisdom is called humility of mind. Without the word ‘humility’, wisdom becomes the wisdom of this age, thus becoming spiritual madness. The man is so clever, so well-off, understands everything, but does not believe in God. So what? Then he dies and is buried with his wisdom, even if no grief visited him in this life. Buried and forgotten. All his wisdom is five feet under. If he does not succeed to the Kingdom of Heaven, what is his wisdom? It is foolishness. 

To Our God be the glory always, now and ever, and unto  the ages of ages. Amen!