Not believing in the truth

June 3, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [Acts 12:12–17; John 8:42–51] What means, do you think, did the Lord use to ex­plain to the Jews the rea­son for their not be­liev­ing in Him? The means he used was to tell them the truth. And be­cause I tell you the truth, ye be­lieve me not (John 8:45). The lie be­came, as it is said, their flesh and blood, and made them un­able to re­ceive the truth. Why do peo­ple not be­lieve to­day? For the same rea­son; the Lord speaks the truth; this is why they do not be­lieve. But how can this be? Are they not all sci­en­tists, and don’t they talk on­ly a­bout the truth? They have man­y words, but no deeds. They spin their sys­tems as a spi­der spins its web, on­ly they don’t no­tice the flimsiness. The prin­ci­ples of their sys­tems are ground­less, and their con­clu­sions can­not be proved; but they are sat­is­fied with them nev­er­the­less. There has be­come such a de­mand for hypotheses that it seems they alone make up the en­tire con­tent of their minds, and this is reputed to be sol­id ed­u­ca­tion. They ap­ply the fog of their dreams to the few facts they have pro­cured; and these facts ap­pear in this fog to­tal­ly dif­fer­ent from what they are in re­al­i­ty. Nev­er­the­less, this is all reputed to be the sphere of im­mu­ta­ble truth. So their mind has gone rot­ten, and its taste has been ruined! How can it con­tain the truth? And so they do not be­lieve the Lord, Who speaks on­ly the truth.

Cleave to the Lord

June 1, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Sat­ur­day. [Acts 12:1–11; John 8:31–42] The Lord said: If the Son there­fore shall make you free, ye shall be free in­deed (John 8:36). Here is where free­dom is! The mind is bound with bonds of ig­no­rance, de­lu­sions, su­per­sti­tions, and un­cer­tain­ties; it strug­gles, but can­not get a­way from them. Cleave to the Lord and He will en­light­en your dark­ness (cf. Ps. 18:28) and dis­solve all the bonds in which your mind lan­guish­es. The pas­sions bind the will, and do not give it space in which to act; it strug­gles, like one bound hand and foot, and can­not get a­way. But cleave to the Lord and He will give you the strength of Sam­son, and will dis­solve all the bonds of un­truth bind­ing you. Con­stant wor­ries sur­round the heart and do not give it peace. But cleave to the Lord, and He will soothe you; then, at peace, and see­ing clear­ly ev­ery­thing a­round you, you will march in the Lord with­out hin­drance or stum­bl­ing through the gloom and dark­ness of this life, to the all-bless­ed, com­plete joy and spa­cious­ness of eter­ni­ty.

Mystery Of His Body And Blood

May 27, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [Acts 10:1–16; John 6:56–69] When the Lord pre­sent­ed His teach­ing a­bout the mys­tery of His Bo­dy and Blood, set­ting it as a nec­es­sary con­di­tion for com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Him­self and as a source of true life, then man­y of His dis­ci­ples went back, and walk­ed no more with Him (John 6:66). Such an act of God’s bound­less mer­cy to­ward us seem­ed too mi­rac­u­lous to them, and their dis­in­cli­na­tion to­ward the mi­rac­u­lous tore them from the Lord. The Lord saw this, and al­though He was pre­pared to be cru­ci­fied for the sal­va­tion of ev­ery per­son, He did not con­sid­er it pos­si­ble to di­min­ish or can­cel the mi­rac­u­lous. It is so cru­cial in the econ­o­my of our sal­va­tion! Al­be­it with re­gret, He al­low­ed them to de­part from Him in­to the dark­ness of un­be­lief and de­struc­tion; and said to them and to the cho­sen twelve as well, will ye al­so go a­way? (John 6:67) This show­ed that He was read­y to let them go al­so, if they could not bow down be­fore the mi­rac­u­lous. So it is, that to flee from the mi­rac­u­lous is to flee from the Lord and Sav­iour; and one who turns a­way from the mi­rac­u­lous is as one who is per­ish­ing. May those who are horrified by the mi­rac­u­lous heed this! Even they will come a­cross a mir­a­cle which they will not be able to thwart: death, and af­ter death, judg­ment. But wheth­er this in­abil­i­ty to thwart it will serve them un­to sal­va­tion, on­ly God knows.

From Unbelief To Belief

May 26, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Sat­ur­day. [Acts 9:20–31; John 15:17–16:2] When Saint Paul began to preach in Da­mas­cus, all were a­mazed, say­ing: Is not this he that de­stroy­ed them which call­ed on this name? (Acts 9:21). Isn’t it al­ways this way? Those close to some­one who con­verts from un­be­lief to be­lief, or from sin to vir­tue, mar­vel over what hap­pen­ed has with this per­son. He did ev­ery­thing our way and now sud­den­ly ev­ery­thing has changed: his words and his gaze, his step and his thoughts are not the same, and his un­der­tak­ings are dif­fer­ent, and the plac­es where he goes are dif­fer­ent. It is as if one were walk­ing to­ward the west, and then sud­den­ly turn­ed a­round to the east. These two lives are con­tra­dic­to­ry and mu­tu­al­ly ex­clude one an­oth­er. He who wants to com­bine them, or to make a whole life with part from the one, and part from the oth­er, will waste both time and ef­fort with no suc­cess. What can these lives have in com­mon?! On­ly those who do not un­der­stand things can say, “Why does it have to be so dras­tic!”

Nobody Will Know

May 17, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Acts 5:1–11; John 5:30–6:2] Why did An­a­ni­as and Sapphira sin so bad­ly? Be­cause they forgot that God sees their deeds and thoughts. If they kept in mind that God sees ev­ery­thing both in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal more clear­ly than all peo­ple see, even with re­gard to them­selves, it would not have en­ter­ed their mind to lie in such a way be­fore the A­pos­tles. This is why all of our sins and sin­ful plans a­rise. We con­trive to con­ceal ev­ery­thing from the gaze of man, and think that ev­ery­thing is fine. Peo­ple seem not to see any­thing, as­sume we are in good shape; but this does not change our es­sen­tial noth­ing­ness. Know­ing this, re­peat each of you to your­self: why doth Sa­tan fill my heart to lie be­fore the face of God? His eyes which are brighter than the sun see in­to the in­ner­most re­cess­es of the heart; nei­ther night nor sea, nor cave are con­ceal­ed from Him. Re­mem­ber this and so ar­range your in­ward and out­ward be­hav­iour, though it be un­seen. If the All-see­ing One were al­ien to us, it would be pos­si­ble to re­gard His om­ni­science in­dif­fer­ent­ly. But He is judge, and He of­ten pro­nounces His judg­ment, by vir­tue of His Om­ni­science, soon­er than we ex­pect. It could be that He has al­ready pro­nounced judg­ment up­on us the very mo­ment we thought to hide our­selves and our sins with a dark lie, say­ing, “God doesn’t see!”

Living Deeds

May 16, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Acts 4:23–31; John 5:24–30] And they shall come forth; they that have done good, un­to the res­ur­rec­tion of life; and they that have done evil, un­to the res­ur­rec­tion of dam­na­tion (John 5:29). This is how ev­ery­thing ends! As each riv­er flows in­to its own sea, so the flow of each of our lives comes, at last, to a place ac­cord­ing to its na­ture. Those who will be res­ur­rect­ed un­to life will al­so be at the judg­ment; but the judg­ment will on­ly seal their jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, and de­ter­mine their life, while the oth­ers will be res­ur­rect­ed on­ly to hear the con­dem­na­tion of eter­nal death. Their life and death are char­ac­ter­ized even now — be­cause some do liv­ing deeds, while oth­ers do dead and dead­en­ing deeds. Living deeds are those which are done ac­cord­ing to the com­mand­ments, with joy of the spir­it, un­to the glo­ry of God; dead deeds are those which are done in op­po­si­tion to the com­mand­ments with for­get­ful­ness of God, to please one­self and one’s pas­sions. Dead deeds are all which al­though in form may not op­pose the com­mand­ments, are done with­out any thought a­bout God and eter­nal sal­va­tion, ac­cord­ing to some as­pect of self-love. God is life; on­ly what con­tains part of Him is a­live. And so who­ev­er has on­ly dead and dead­en­ing deeds is bound di­rect­ly for death, and on the last day will come out in­to the con­dem­na­tion of death; but who­ev­er has all liv­ing deeds is bound for eter­nal life, and on the last day will come and re­ceive it.

The Truth of Christ is clear

May 14, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Acts 4:1–10; John 3:16–21] He that believeth not in the Son of God is con­demn­ed al­ready (John 3:18). For what? For the fact that when light is all a­round, he re­mains in dark­ness, due to his love for it. Love of dark­ness and ha­tred of the light make him en­tire­ly to blame, even with­out his de­ter­min­ing where the truth lies; be­cause he who has sin­cere love for the truth will be led by this love from the dark­ness of de­cep­tion to the light of truth. One ex­am­ple is the ho­ly apos­tle Paul. He was a sin­cere lov­er of the truth, devoted with all his soul to what he con­sid­ered to be true, with­out any self-in­ter­est. There­fore, as soon as he was shown that the truth lay not in what he con­sid­ered to be true, that very mo­ment he cast aside the old — which proved to be un­true — and cleaved with all his heart to the new, which was tan­gi­bly proven to be the truth. The same oc­curs with ev­ery sin­cere lov­er of truth. The truth of Christ is clear as day: seek and ye shall find. Help from a­bove is al­ways read­y for one who sin­cere­ly seeks. There­fore, if some­one re­mains in the dark­ness of un­be­lief, it is on­ly due to his love for that dark­ness, and for this he is al­ready con­demn­ed.

We Crucify The Lord by our sins

May 13, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [Acts 3:19–26; John 2:1–11] Re­pent ye there­fore, and be con­vert­ed, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of re­fresh­ing shall come from the pres­ence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). Thus spoke the ho­ly apos­tle Pe­ter to the Jews who cru­ci­fied the Lord, com­fort­ing them that they did it out of ig­no­rance. But we are cru­ci­fy­ing the Lord with­in our­selves for a sec­ond time, not out of ig­no­rance, but through our sins; but the most mer­ci­ful one re­ceives us too when we re­pent and turn to Him with all of our heart. We did this dur­ing Great Lent. Each came run­ing to the Lord with tears of re­pen­tance over his sins; and the more sin­cere­ly one did this, the more strong­ly did he feel the re­fresh­ment of for­give­ness, pro­ceed­ing from the face of the Lord, through the hands and word of ab­so­lu­tion of God’s priest. Now what is left for us to do? To be on guard a­gainst new falls, so that we would not fall again in­to the guilt of cru­ci­fy­ing the Lord. The A­pos­tle says that heav­en on­ly re­ceiv­ed the Lord Je­sus un­til the times of res­ti­tu­tion of all things (cf. Acts 3:21). Then He again will come and set forth judg­ment. With what eyes will those who pierced His side look up­on Him! In­deed, we too will have to stand in their ranks if we stop bring­ing forth fruits of re­pen­tance and re­turn to our old ways.

Walk in the spirit

May 10, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Acts 3:1–8; John 2:12–22] There are cer­tain in­div­id­u­als whom the ho­ly fa­thers praise for their Chris­tian lives, for they rose from the dead be­fore the gen­er­al res­ur­rec­tion. What is the se­cret of such a life? They mastered the char­ac­ter­is­tic fea­tures of a life ac­cord­ing to the res­ur­rec­tion as they are shown in the word of God, and made them their own in­ner prop­er­ties. The fu­ture life is de­void of all that is flesh­ly: there men nei­ther mar­ry, nor are wo­men giv­en in mar­riage, there they will not eat dead food, and they will re­ceive a spir­i­tu­al bod­y. Thus, who­ev­er lives es­tranged from all flesh­ly things re­ceives in him­self, or re­turns to him­self, el­e­ments of the fu­ture life ac­cord­ing to the res­ur­rec­tion. Reach the point that all flesh­ly things with­in you die, and you will be res­ur­rect­ed be­fore the fu­ture res­ur­rec­tion. The apos­tle in­di­cates the path to this when he says: Walk in the Spir­it, and ye shall not ful­fil the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). And he at­tests that through this path it is sure­ly pos­si­ble to at­tain what is a­wait­ed: he that soweth to the Spir­it, he says, shall of the Spir­it reap life ev­er­last­ing (Gal. 6:8).

Truth of The Resurrection

May 8, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [Acts 2:22–36; John 1:35–51] The mind can prove the truth of the Res­ur­rec­tion through rea­son based on the scrip­tures, and a non-be­liev­er can­not but ad­mit the pow­er of its ar­gu­ments, as long as a sense of truth is not yet dead in him. A be­liev­er does not need proof, be­cause the Church of God is fill­ed with the light of the Res­ur­rec­tion. Both of these in­di­ca­tors of truth are faith­ful and con­vinc­ing. But count­er-rea­son­ing can spring up and con­tra­dict mind’s rea­son, and faith can be tram­pled and shak­en by per­plex­i­ties and doubts, com­ing from with­out and aris­ing with­in. Is there no in­vin­ci­ble wall a­round the truth of the Res­ur­rec­tion? There is. It will oc­cur when the pow­er of the Res­ur­rec­tion, re­ceiv­ed al­ready at bap­tism, be­gins to ac­tive­ly be re­veal­ed as it purges the cor­rup­tion of soul and bod­y, and es­tab­lish­es with­in them the be­gin­nings of a new life. He who ex­pe­ri­en­ces this will walk in the light of the Res­ur­rec­tion, and any­one talk­ing a­gainst the truth of the Res­ur­rec­tion will seem to him in­sane, like a per­son say­ing in the day­time that it is night.