Youth and (Lack of) Values – Fr. Theologos

One of the biggest problems today is the value system — or rather, the partial or almost total lack of a correct value system, especially among young people.

How can we have a correct value system, and what does value actually mean? Watch this message to find out.

Enjoy!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

Someone asked me to speak on the subject of “Youth in front of Life’s Values.” It’s a vast topic and I’ll be brief. The core issue here lies in defining these terms—mainly, what does value mean, and if you wish, who qualifies as a youth, up to what age is a young person young? Do we look at the biological age? That’s debatable. Do we look at maturity? Because today, people mature much later. Why is this so? This is exactly why — because they lack values. And they lack values because they no longer have God in their lives. You need to know that value is given by the presence of God.

Without God, there is no value. For a human being, as a rational creature, has a purpose in life, and that purpose can only be eternal personal perfection. Eternal personal perfection. And this is theosis, because man cannot achieve perfection alone since he does not know what perfection looks like or who is perfection, and then God comes and shows man, within the heart, what perfection is like; the way He Himself is. Therefore, because man doesn’t know what and who perfection is, and is actually distant from God, it means that man no longer has a correct value system, since value is defined as… or let’s put it differently, everything of value—be it a thing, entity, or idea—exists to aid a person in fulfilling their purpose.  Well, since man has stagnated his purpose, has diluted his purpose, he has no purpose, he is in a society devoid of meaning. We even have a post on our website, on chilieathonita.ro, we have a post on the lack of meaning, where I covered this topic in detail.

Since man no longer has meaning, it means that value no longer exists. If, however, man has meaning—that is, man has a personal God, since, as I said, man’s purpose can only be personal, in the true sense—then that means we also have value. Our values are given by this meaning, by God, through His fullest expression in time which is our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God the Word. And what did Christ say? “… learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart…” Therefore, brethren, the primary virtues, or values, are gentleness and humility of the heart—not as a façade, but of the heart. 

Unfortunately, looking around us, we see immense pressure on people, especially on youth, from the entire culture – movies, music, video games – a society in which man is taught to be proud and tough, aggressive, to be warlike. I can’t even say “warrior” because “warrior” already has a certain idea of bravery, of manliness, of love for the nation. Today, because there is no more love for the nation and there is no more nobility, for this reason I do not use the word “warriors” but the word “warlike,” “harassers.” Brethren, it takes a little faith. I have endured much – I don’t want to talk too much about myself now, but trust me as I am here and I confess: with gentleness and humility, man can prevail. For this is the mysterious nature of the divine-human hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand? We must always strive to be gentle! We won’t succeed all the time, but we should try as much as possible.

Let us endeavor to be gentle and have faith that it will work out! And you will see that you will find peace, for the natural state of the soul is one of gentleness and peace. Humility is the correct way of being. It is another aspect of the human existence. Humility is actually the knowledge of Truth, the knowledge of Christ, because Christ is the Truth. When a person knows Christ, the perfect communitarian God, he understands he must be perfectly communitarian himself in order to succeed. That is, he must love all others and unite with them in his heart, existentially, of course. This is not a figure of speech; it is truly necessary to unite with others.

My words may seem a bit difficult, but watch our posts where we talk extensively on this topic. Also read the works of Saint Sophrony. When we unite with others, we are humble and we are valuable because we are helping others get closer to God, closer to perfection which is, as I said, unity in God. And for unity to exist, as I was saying, there needs to be humility because by definition, egotism is hell. The solitude of hell is the solitude of egotism, exacerbated, pushed to its limits. So these are the two core values that aid us the most: humility and gentleness.

A very concrete expression of humility, brothers, is confession. We must confess and seek guidance from those whom God validates before us. When I say confession, I primarily refer to confession to our confessor, to our spiritual father. But sometimes we must also ask [others], especially professionally speaking—we must ask the boss, or in social matters — we have to ask the wife, the husband — the life partner. So we must not trust our thoughts or believe that we know everything. We must be willing to ask and willing to listen. Just as Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God the Word, likewise obedience is the incarnation of humility and love.

I obey the other because I love him, because I am humble, or, I strive to be. If I say, “I love you” yet refuse to obey you, where is the evidence of my love? It’s true that discernment is needed here, that is, if we see that the other — out of inexperience, out of lack of discernment — is saying something that is obviously damaging then, of course, we must tell them with a lot of love that we cannot do that. That is, when it is obvious, straightforward. But not every five minutes: “I won’t listen to you because your mind is always clouded” – not to use a harsher phrase – it’s not appropriate. Not so, brethren! This is a form of pride, that is, I think I am the greatest and the strongest and the other person – especially if he or she is our equal, our life partner – I think he or she is inferior all the time. It’s not like that, brethren!

We need to be humble, with discernment, to have this flexibility of humility that we talk about quite often in our videos because it is very important. For that, as I was saying, we need to have this reflexivity in our thinking. We need to think very deeply. Not to immediately blurt out what comes to mind, and not to embrace the thought as soon as it comes, and accept it as truth. Leave it, brethren, it’s not so! We must ask, “Is this what God wants? Will this hurt my brother, my wife, or others?” Do you understand? We should always ask and see how others would react as well. This is crucial.

Another virtue, a value that draws us closer to God, that unites all these, is prayer, because we need enlightenment from God so that we can move forward, but the subject of prayer is very vast. In any case brethren, very briefly, you must pray constantly. Establish a daily prayer schedule, and it should come first. Not after all the news, after all the TikToks, and after whatever social networks the good God knows you’re on; On IG and so on, and only afterwards praying. No. First and foremost, you pray. At work, at school, wherever you are, at university – first of all have time in which you take care to pray. This is very important. And pray boldly, “Lord, help me! Lord, do not forsake me!” And of course, pray the Jesus Prayer, “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Because it is the most powerful prayer. We discussed this extensively on our website, on chilieathonita.ro. I won’t delve into details here as I’ve made numerous posts on this subject, about 40 minutes on the topic of the Jesus Prayer. You can search there. 

Now, very briefly, as I said, beware, for the enemy will push you away from prayer, and that’s because you don’t have a value, a virtue, which is the virtue of patience. Brethren, we must stop a little bit in our frantic rush of doing, of constantly looking at our phones for updates, a rush for which you are not to blame, it’s true. Well, each of us bears his own guilt, but the main blame lies with a society estranged from Christ, from eternity, of a society fallen in immanence, in this world, which is continually trying to escape the horrors of inner hell, the horrors of inner solitude, and, because of this, looks for something to do, over and over. Brethren, let’s set aside the book of business for a while, [in Romanian, a play on words: “Afacerii,” vs. “A Facerii”] and read the Book of Genesis as well. Let’s take a moment to settle down, to rediscover the other’s personality, the other’s beauty, to rediscover love. Let’s settle down a little, to pray, to read and above all, to love. To love others.

Thank you kindly! Please forgive me! Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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