The Richest Man in Romania? – Gheorghe Axinte, Fr. Theologos
31 July 2022
A Visit to the Prodromița Monastery – Father Pimen Vlad
4 August 2022
One of the main problems of today’s society is the bodily view of the world that pushes us to big problems related – paradoxically – to the body, all with very serious effects for both the body and the soul.
Focusing on the body brings about its destruction, not its salvation.
Enjoy!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and now and ever and unto the ages and ages. Amen
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen
A necessary question
Today we’re going to talk a little bit about interpersonal relationships. And I would like to start this little talk about a story from the time of the Holy Prophet Elijah the Tesvitean. What impressed me is that the Lord asks Saint Elijah, after humiliating him and leaving him in his thoughts and despondency, the Lord asks him: Elijah, what are you doing? Like Adam, you know? Adam, where are you?
God’s question is very beautiful, but today I don’t know if anyone asks us anything anymore. In fact, today God only is still asking that in our hearts because we are in a civilization of “performance.” Every one with their own matters. Everyone is focused on their performance, on their career. And because of this we are sad. Do you understand?
Following God’s example, so should we — especially the spiritual fathers—should sometimes ask: Disciple, how are you doing? Or our friends: Friend, how are you doing? Or our children: How are you doing? Or the wife: How are you doing, my dear, my beloved, how are you?
Why do we become lonely
Unfortunately, as I said, we focus on our individualistic goals. This can be a frontal selfish goal, that is, a passion that is based on one or a complication of the three great passions: the desire for power, for wealth or for pleasure.
Of course it can also be masked by a very large humanistic purpose such as energy chase, nuclear fusion, environmental destruction problems, health problems, planetary problems and so on. But even in these cases of global humanitarian problems, if you trample personality, human lives, family and so on, and they are destroyed, then we go back to the same selfish goals that exist behind us.
Love of pleasure
And because of this you see that in the case of love of pleasure, it goes down to hallucinating things when people are obsessed with these things of personal interests, these bodily things carnal things, without any perspective of spirituality. Loving pleasure is terrible, brethren. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah.
Continuously, new methods of satisfying their fleshly lusts are sought with desperate fervor. If people were to deal with it, I often think, and study spirituality as they study bodily pleasures, they would all be holy at this time. But unfortunately, people are much more interested in the carnal than the spiritual.
We fight as a civilization in a finite infinity, desperately seeking a fulfillment in bodily pleasures, fulfillment that will never come, brethren, because bodily pleasure is the result of a chemical reaction that takes place in the brain and draws the mind into this chimera. Steal attention, steals the eye of the soul that is the mind.
Who fulfills us?
Only the grace of God can fulfill the man, fulfill the human person because the human person is created in the image and likeness of God, that is, the Perfect Persons of the Holy Trinity. And so only the Person can fulfill another person.
This thirst for infinity, for perfection of man cannot be fulfilled by anyone or anything, only by the good God who is purely spiritual.
So brethren, no bodily advance—for fleshly pleasure—will bring man closer to God but, on the contrary, it will bring him further away. He will be the prisoner, he will be the servant of the flesh, obsessed with flesh that generates loneliness, separation, and will not be the servant of God, as they say in the Church, that is, the servant of perfectly free and good Persons — that is, the Godly Persons — and therefore the servant of freedom and love — as God is loving — and of goodness — as God is good. Do you understand?
Whose slave we become, so we also become like. The flesh produces death, [so] we will be the servants of death. God is life, He is love, we will be the servants of love, of life and of freedom, as God is perfectly free.
This obsession of flesh also translates into fleshly lusts, of which it is a shame to even speak, but also into a morbid fear of disease and ultimately (fear) of death. Of course we must guard ourselves from diseases, but first there must be love for Christ and for one’s neighbor.
Love and humility
But, brethren, love for one’s neighbor does not mean imposing on others coercion and forced healing in the way that we find good. On the contrary. Love for our fellow human beings requires us not to impose on the other the treatment that we consider they should follow.
Of course we say according to the knowledge given to us by God Himself or by whoever this knowledge was given to us, our opinion, but that’s all. We do not harm human freedom.
Let’s never forget about others and about the fact that they can be other opinions even better than ours. In this case we should have the flexibility of humility, and accept that, but many times we don’t have that flexibility — of course sometimes also because we don’t believe or know that the other has a better position (if they do, of course) — and that, even though, eh, it’s not good, is kind of excusable because we’re all limited people and that’s it.
But most of the time we do not have this flexibility of humility to accept other people’s opinion because we do not want to lose our good image (meaning vain glory) in front of him or of our loved ones — where, attention! — “our loved ones” can also be family, friends, they can also be a very large audience in which we do not know anyone.
Love of wealth
Beyond vain glory, we don’t want to lose our wealth — money — and here, we can also include fame, the reputation that helps us earn the money, or power over others which, too, is a component of wealth.
Because of this the Lord said: “You cannot serve two Lords: God and Mammon.” Mammon is the Assyrian goddess of wealth. So you see: through wealth we evade the love of God, we move towards our selfish interest.
Transhumanism
These are all components of worldly power—they can also be described by this term. As an expression of the search for this human power and the morbid fear of death — of deadly fear… to death — is also transhumanism which, of course, begins with a good component to say so, a good pretext — to heal ourselves, to be healthy, to be supermen, to be better people in the fleshly sense of the word—but it goes to extremes that distance man from God.
Time and repentance
Of course, we turn to doctors and try to heal and be healthy. Brethren, you must know that we are doing this to gain time and repent, to die properly, to save ourselves, and not to avoid death at any cost from a bodily, carnal point of view. Time is given to us for repentance and the paramount importance of death is the fact that after death we no longer have time, we can no longer repent.
Well, if in our effort to heal, avoid death, waste our time repentance, stop repenting, and — moreover — we pride ourselves on our transhumanism, what we do and so on, then this does not help us but — on the contrary — it is very harmful, it takes us away from God.
Let us not forget, brethren, that the victory against death is done by holiness and not by patching and prolonging sinful life here on earth, in the way that it is. This fallen life, far from God. Man is eternal. A hundred years more or less do not count in the face of eternity — however, how we live those years matters a lot.
In this optics of our focus on how we live, on how we behave, a day and an hour more matters, of course. It matters if we repent properly!
We are not, a priori, against the discoveries of science that heal people and prolong life and ensure a better life, so to speak, but we are against the wrong optics with which they are viewed, generated and therefore used.
The sin
This is the sin: the misuse, brethren! Idolizing these things. The idea of deification that comes through transhumanism, of pseudo-deification in the flesh. Brethren, you can’t do that! It is only through the spirit that matter is deified. And the overcoming of death is done by holiness, by union with God.
Now, to lower the level a bit, of course there are saints who totally left themselves in God’s hands with unshakable faith. We, however, do can’t say the same for everyone because, unfortunately, we are not up to their measures—and, among other things, we can even be proud of it, beyond the fact that we can die without having repented or in the moment of illness instead of thanking God, [we can be] murmuring against His care, and we can even curse Him—God forbid!
We humbly say that it is good to use the science and doctors, which God has left so that we have time and we can repent more to be able to become better. For this we heal, brethren, and try to go to doctors and so on. That, of course, until God permits, until the moment of death comes.
About death
Be careful here not to go to the other extreme from fear of the shadow of death — that is, of pain — to want to die. Let God, brethren, know better when it is time for everyone to die — how long someone lives — you must know that man can become better, he can still repent
Because of this, only God can kill man, that is, take man to Him because only God knows what our spiritual maximum point is.
There are great sins! And killing others, when we kill others, because we do not know when his most spiritual moment is and when it is more convenient for him to die. And our own murder — that is, suicide.
Suicide
Nota bene, brethren, euthanasia is a form of suicide. Of course this should be obvious, but today euthanasia is packed very “nicely”, very technical so that the horror of the sin of suicide disappears. And those doctors who do euthanasia receive very clear instructions to take care of how they talk to patients so that they do not fall on the personal level and the man who wants to commit suicide realizes the horror of what he is going to do.
Brethren, believe me, suicide does not solve any problem but, on the contrary, it makes those permanent and amplifies them to the maximum within the man who committed it — after his death, of course — and in those around him who are related to him. Do not somehow believe, brethren, that if someone’s body died, he is also dead, and it’s all over. Nothing is over. It’s not like that. Man is eternal. I have said very, very many times that the soul is eternal and suffers the consequences of its deeds and has its existential state from the moment of death, only that it is amplified to the maximum.
And you have to know, brethren, that nothing is more terrible than the existential state of the one the devil pushes into to suicide.
I know cases, brethren, I know very well what I am talking about. It’s terrible, brethren! Once again: it does not solve anything — but on the contrary, it will cause a great deal of pain in everyone, including the person who does it. He should not believe the thought that everything ends with this life — he who wants to commit suicide. On the contrary: since he is alive, nothing has ended.
The temporarity and change
Those that are of this world are all fleeting, brethren. Everything is playing. Do not give importance, brethren, a greater importance than is necessary to things on this earth. Everything is important, brethren, only with the perspective of the eternal life, with the ultimate target of eternal life, as I said, God’s love and our take-off to Him must be done at the right time, and God knows this moment—not us— and that is what all those who have had suicide attempts can confess about. Good God forbid it! It’s awful.
Nothing is more terrible than suicide. Let’s not make irreparable nonsense, brethren, whatever happens! All things here on Earth pass, they all work out, don’t think that everything is over. They are all secondary to salvation and eternity. Nothing is over here on earth, [and] after death is eternity.
Those who have such thoughts, confess, pray to God to help you, because God is a father and is not punishing, and go out and simply speak with spiritual people, with your friends who can help you. I ask them to listen to you, to give a little time, a little attention to you. To those who are in trouble — who want to commit suicide — I address saying: Seek help from God and people who can help you, according to God! Do not try to solve your problems yourself. It’s very difficult. You can’t if you have reached this level, may the good God forbid it! Go, talk, get advice from people who can help you! Do you understand?
Holy Unmercenary Doctors
It is much better to pray to God and His saints to help us in the problem of sickness and death — especially since there is a special and very famous group of saints dealing exactly with that: they are the Holy Unmercenary Doctors. The Holy Unmercenaries are the most famous group — in number of about 20 — very cuddly and joyous with an abbot, which you should know about, Saint Panteleimon.
Father Teophylact from Nea Skiti, may we receive his prayers, whose cell was dedicated to the Unmercenaries, was protected so closely by them; he saw them very often, how all 20 of them would enter the cell, all the way to the chapel, singing the verses dedicated to them.
Very often, brethren! In a merriment he saw them. Father Theophylact said that Saint Panteleimon has a special glory, it shone more, was above all the others. It was their abbot.
A chance-happening
Let me tell you a story: at some point, Father Joseph of Vatopedi had serious stomach problems and the community decided to send him out to Thessalonica for treatment. Before leaving, Father Joseph goes to Father Teophylact who appreciated him very, very much because of his spiritual measure, but also because he was the disciple of Saint Joseph the Hesychast, that is, of Gheron Joseph as he is known in Romania, a saint whom he appreciated very much and under whose guidance he had been for a short time, only that he could not keep up with it because Father Teophylact was of a very sickly nature.
As proof of this special appreciation, Father Teophylact offers Father Joseph a very big fish… with sauce, pepper, seasoned, fried and puts it in front of Father Joseph: Here you go!
Father Joseph looked at the fish and said: Father Teophylact, please forgive me, I cannot eat it.
Eh, you refuse my hospitality, alas…!
No, please, it’s not that I’m denying your hospitality, but I cannot eat such a big thing as I have great problems with my stomach and…
And says Father Theophylact: No problem, until tomorrow morning, Saint Panteleimon will make you better!
They retreat to the cell, in the morning when they wake up, Father Theophylact enters the cell of Father Joseph and says: Did Saint Panteleimon make you feel better? What is it like, Father Joseph?
He was sick in bed there… And Saint Theophylact looks like at Father Joseph: How come Saint Panteleimon did not make you feel better?
He quickly goes to the chapel to Saint Panteleimon and says: If until tomorrow, you do not make Father Joseph feel better, I will not light up your candle anymore. Briefly.
Until the next day, Father Joseph was well again, brethren.
And you need to know that Father Joseph died of heart and pulmonary insufficiency, a whole different story, but until the moment of death he had no other problems with his stomach, he also ate artichokes, he ate canned food, that is, things that are difficult to digest. And this is due to the fact that Saint Panteleimon fulfilled the task that Father Theophylact gave to him.
Spiritfulness
By the way, to see what spiritfulness and discernment and wisdom mean, you need to know that after a certain time, Father Theophylact began to go blind and then became totally blind at an older age. And he was very sad because of this.
In this state, Saint Panteleimon appears before him and tells him, “I can heal you in the blink of an eye; but it is of no use for you”. Do you understand?
So brethren, yes, let us fulfill our human matters, but let us not force things, not force the hand of God, because He knows very well, much better than us what is useful to us and what is not, including diseases.
Of course we have our human law, but there also is the divine law and let us not enter too much into the very fine laws that God has left. Let’s not get into ethical matters.
That is, brethren, let us not be so confident in ourselves that we can do everything. We cannot do everything, and even if [there are] things we think we can do, that does not mean that we have to do them or that it is needed or it is good to do them. Do you understand?
We need a little discernment, and we must not forget that, still, there is God who is loving.
Interests
So let us not be so focused on our personal interests in any area, including that of health—the body security that we’re discussing now—so far as to trample our love for our fellow human beings and God. We don’t need to be so focused.
We don’t have to be because we destroy ourselves as civilization, and it’s not good. So because of this we should always put first the person of the other, the personality of the other, and always leave room for their freedom. Let us not trample the love between us for the sake of science, for the sake of discovery, for the sake of impressing others, for the sake of making us gods, pseudo-gods by vain glory to the detriment of others. That’s not good, brethren, and God does not validate that.
You see, although at this time, people are making some extraordinarily great plans, very big, because they trample love, God’s grace, the personality of the other, and that’s why nothing succeeds, and we go from drama to drama, from bad to worse. And instead of healing, we begin to be even more sick, and although from the point of view of the body we may be better than in the past, in terms of soul and happiness, it is very questionable whether we are still up to the measure of the saints.
And actually our purpose here on earth and especially in eternity is to be happy, and that only comes through union with God’s love between us.
May the good God help us!
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen
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