My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
THE EROS OF REPENTANCE: THE THEOLOGICAL
WITNESS OF MOUNT ATHOS. [Part III]
The Holy Mountain of Athos in its entirety, both in its past and in its present, BEARS WITNESS TO CHRIST. Its witness is one OF FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE, A WITNESS TO LIFE EVERLASTING. This witness OF TRUE AND EVANGELICAL LIFE IS THUS ALSO A THEOLOGICAL WITNESS: "The accomplishment of purity IS THE FOUNDATION OF THEOLOGY", says Saint John of Sinai. Permit me to draw attention to some aspects of this witness.
THE WITNESS OF TRUE REPENTANCE
Our Lord, the Logos/Word made flesh, began His preaching with an invitation to repentance: "And after John had been imprisoned, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the word of God and saying: "The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL" [Mark 1:14-15]. On Mount Athos, repentance is experienced AS THE BASIS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. Someone once asked an Elder (Geronda) of the Mountain: ‘What is the Holy Mountain?’ He replied, ‘There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, and here we have many who repent.’
Athos is indeed A PLACE OF REPENTANCE. Its monks have come here in order to live true repentance, to receive in themselves the depths of their sinfulness, to suffer on account of it, to find assurance of the Lord’s forgiveness, to be cleansed of their passions. Repentance IS THE DAILY STRUGGLE OF THE MONK. His asceticism looks toward this one purpose: THAT HE REPENT THE MORE DEEPLY AND SO IS MORE PLEASING TO GOD. REPENTANCE IS THE MONK’S ‘CONSCIENCE.’ He does not repent just because he sinned at some time in the past. Rather, he feels intensely and every day that he cannot reply perfectly to God’s love. He WANTS TO OFFER HIMSELF COMPLETELY TO GOD, TO BE IN PERFECT HARMONY WITH HIS COMMANDMENTS, AND NOT TO EMBITTER HIM WITH THE SLIGHTEST OPPOSITION TO HIS WILL. Neither does the monk desire for even an instant to relax from the remembrance of God. As Saint Gregory the Theologian writes: "RATHER HE REMEMBER GOD EVEN THAN BREATH." REPENTANCE IS THUS A DYNAMIC CONDITION, A CONTINUOUS PROGRESS TOWARDS THE LORD. PROPERLY SPEAKING, IT IS THE PURSUIT OF THE LIVING GOD.
Its character is neither primarily ethical nor legalistic. Instead, IT IS THE FRUIT OF A SANCTIFIED EROTICISM WHICH STRAINS TOWARD THE BELOVED LORD, A SIGN OF PROFOUND HUMILITY AND DESIRE FOR GOD. The younger monks on Athos learn from the older fathers who, even when they have attained a high degree of virtue, STILL REPENT AND STILL MOURN, so that they fulfil the word of the Lord: "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO WEEP NOW, FOR THEY SHALL LAUGH." [Matthew 5:4]. The holy Elders (Gerondes) instruct the younger men not by calling them to imitate their virtues, but by showing them how much they feel themselves to be sinners and unworthy. Athonites DO NOT PRETEND TO BE GOOD.
They are not hypocrites. They reveal what they are. They confess in all simplicity whatever temptation they consider sinful. If, as human beings of flesh and blood, they become the cause of any grief to a brother, they do not rest until they have bowed before him and sought his forgiveness before the day’s end.
Our whole climate on Mount Athos CALLS US TO REPENTANCE, TO SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE, AND TO VIOLENCE WITHIN OURSELVES FOR THE SAKE OF GOD’S KINGDOM. How could we rest when we meet daily, when we keep company with brethren who are holy, are prototypes of repentance; when daily at the office so many examples of Christian perfections are set before us. These demand that we struggle NOT FOR HALF-MEASURES BUT FOR THE PERFECTION WHICH THE LORD COMMANDS.
One sign of TRUE REPENTANCE IS BLESSED COMPUNCTION, THE BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART, the constantly flowing tears of those who have progressed in repentance. Very often such fruit cannot be hidden. This kind of repentance draws down the grace of God, SECURES THE PENITENT, AND BRINGS PEACE AND JOY GREATLY IMPRESS THOSE WHO VISIT THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, AND ARE ABLE TO DISCERN THESE QUALITIES IN THE FACES OF THOSE MONKS …WHO ARE SO HOLY, AND OUTWARDLY DEPRIVED OF LIFE’S PLEASURES.
A characteristic of the monk who lives in repentance is his attribution of every good thing to God. Depending on Divine grace for everything, he has been stripped OF EVERY HUMAN SELF-SUFFICIENCY, EVERY CONFIDENCE IN SELF, AND EVERY DESIRE TO PLEASE HIMSELF. Those who possess THE SPIRIT OF REPENTANCE and HUMILITY will normally withdraw from giving advice. Even should they do so, it will be out of love and obedience, and not because they feel themselves to be worthy of it. Should you ever visit or live for a time on Mount Athos, you will find yourself in a place of repentance, where human incapacities, imperfections, and sins may not be lacking, but WHERE EVERYONE IS YET IN COMPLETE HARMONY ON THE GOAL OF LIFE; TO CLEANSE ONESELF OF DISCORD, OF WILLFULNESS AND SELF-LOVE IN ORDER TO FULFIL THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE SAVIOR. YOU WILL YOURSELF FEEL THE NEED TO REPENT, TO CONFESS, TO STRUGGLE.
It has often been observed that many of those who come to the Holy Mountain with no intention of confessing, will confess while they are there, and that while on the Mountain others who confess regularly while in the world, find themselves confessing sins of which they had either been unconscious or had not had the courage to confess before. There is indeed much joy in heaven when every day on Athos many sinners repent, both monks and pilgrims who, making their peace with God, become His friends. In this fashion the Holy Mountain makes its silent proclamation of repentance, and reminds us all that true repentance does not exhaust itself in some ethical and pharisaic self-justification. Neither can it be divided up into single moments. Instead, IT COMPRISES THE FOUNDATION OF THE WHOLE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE.
In today’s world, psychology, pedagogy, and psychiatry–all of them based on a non-Orthodox Christian anthropology — ignore and are silent about the REALITY OF SIN. Yet sin after the fall is an anthropological reality. It does not disappear because we try to persuade ourselves that it does not exist. There exists only one way for man, the creature of God, TO FIND FREEDOM FROM THE GUILT AND WEIGHT OF SIN: THROUGH FORGIVENESS BY HIS MAKER AND CREATOR. THEN, TRULY, MAN IS AT PEACE, LIBERATED FROM THE ANXIETIES, NEUROSES AND PSYCHOTHERAPY. THEN, INDEED, HE LIVES IN THE FREEDOM OF GOD. [Resources: The Eros of Repentance]
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 