Teaching on St. Thomas Sunday – St. John of Kronstadt

 

Follows a translation of a little teaching of St. John of Kronstadt on St. Thomas Sunday. Although it in no way concerns St. Thomas, it’s a good after Pascha rebuke.

Christ is Risen!

Beloved brothers, so Bright Week has passed and taken with it our deeds to the throne of the Heavenly Master and Judge: there, brothers, there are our deeds now. I say this in order to frighten with the fear of the heavenly judgment those who unworthily, not Christian-like, spent the feast of the bright Resurrection of Christ and to comfort those who spent it with temperance and spiritual joy.

How did very many spend the feast of the bright Resurrection? I would not like to call to remembrance foul human deeds but they, together with those that performed them, need to be remembered and judged on behalf of God. The all-bright feast was met, after the bright Paschal service, with dark deeds: intemperance and drunkenness, fights, cursing, and all types of sin. Consider that we fasted before the feast only in order to, with even more eagerness, rush into all fleshly, sinful deeds so that we can unashamedly and with insolence indulge in every iniquity. Alas! Woe unto us!

All those who met the feast with intemperance and drunkenness, adultery, cursing, and other similar deeds of the flesh lost all the benefit which they had received (if they even received any) from the fast, lost the benefit from repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries, trampled them as an unreasonable animal under their feet, lost the acceptable time for salvation, given them by the mercy of the Lord, time which will not be returned. It was proper to say to you during the fast, behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2) for it was just then that you had come to the saving font of repentance and to the all-cleansing, true Mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord. Now your confession and communion is put off until the next fast but who knows if the Lord will vouchsafe you to again confess and commune? Who knows if you will repose in those very iniquities with which again, after the font of repentance, you have defiled yourself? How painful, how piteous, beloved brothers, that so soon you have turned out to be betrayers of Christ and have given yourself over to the devil to serve him, the original murderer, the author of, and instructor in of every type of sin! You are, using the words of the Savior, and I, a great sinner, am as well are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do (John 8:44).

What, then, remains for us to do, beloved brothers? To pray and weep for our sins. To weep that not Christian-like and not even human-like did many of us met the feast but like vile idol worshipers and like wild animals, which have not been fed for a long time with their favorite food. To weep that we have trampled upon the great, soul-saving Mysteries of Christ, that is, repentance and communion, and counted them as naught. To weep that the time, given for salvation, we have thoughtlessly lost. May we weep and pray to the Lord that He “didst not become angry with us neither didst destroy us with our iniquities” (First morning prayer) but would return us to the way of repentance and make us skilled performers of His commandments. Let us firmly decide from now on not to give ourselves over to intemperance and drunkenness and all the sins which follow and with tears ask the Lord that He, with the Grace of the Holy Spirit, would strengthen us in our intentions and good deeds.

Brothers! May we all shed tears for we all unworthily met the great feast of the Lord and angered our Lord; not in this way, not in this way, indeed, should we meet the feasts of the Lord. We need to meet them with spiritual joy in the Lord, for our deliverance from sins and for our eternal salvation through Christ, the Son of God, with deeds of mercy, temperance from passions, visiting the church of God in spirit and truth and with simplicity in food and clothing.

O, you, decorated with gold and a multitude of precious fabrics, women and maids! In the name of the Lord, I direct my speech to you! What a multitude of poor would you have been able to cause to rejoice on the all-bright day of the Resurrection of Christ and, in that way, worthily meet that great feast, if you would have, in generosity and Christian love, changed even a few of these decorations into money and given that money to the poor who are so many in our city? Would it not have been reasonable, in a Christian way, if you had fewer precious clothing and the money remaining you had given to the poor? What rich mercy would you have received on that day from Christ the Lord? Yes, truly Christian-like would you have then met the feast of Christ’s Resurrection. But now what? You are decorated like idols but the members of Christ are without clothes; you are satiated but the members of Christ are in want; you roll in every possible pleasure but those are in tears; we are in rich and decorated dwellings but those are in cramped conditions and uncleanness, in dwellings which are often not any better than a pigsty. We do not have Christian love and, therefore, there is no true feast of the Resurrection of Christ, for those truly celebrate the Resurrection who himself was raised from dead deeds for deeds of virtue and Christian faith and love, who trampled on intemperance, luxury, and all of the passions. Brothers! May we celebrate the feasts of the Lord as Christians and not as pagans! Amen.

The Spiritual World by Photios Kontoglou

 

Contemporary man has altogether forgotten the world that is within himself and has occupied himself only with the world that is outside himself, the material world. And he investigates by means of science “the outside of the cup and platter” (Matthew 23:25).

One of these worlds is material, the other is spiritual. One of them is for the transitory life; the other for the eternal. One of them is in space and time, while the other is beyond these.

Today’s man lives materialistically, busying himself with pseudo-spiritual things. Only matter interests him, the rather coarse, more tangible aspect of the universe. He cannot experience spiritual reality by means of his bodily senses and does not concern himself at all with it. He who hurls into space with machines made of aluminum, he who has his brain full of numbers, screws, springs, and other such things, cannot understand what is hidden behind the material world that he perceives by means of his physical senses.

How can he taste the fruit that is hidden inside the husk of the universe? He nourishes himself only with the husk, for it is this husk that his materialistic science is constantly studying. How can he understand the words of Christ, who says: “The kingdom of God is within you”, or those of Paul the Apostle who says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you”

(1 Cor. 3:16). How can this barbaric and hard heartened mankind, which is attached to the mud of matter, understand those words of divinely inspired Paul, who says that carnal men “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator”? (Rom. 1:25)

For those who are engrossed with the knowledge of material things,

“the mystical gate is closed”, and they are unable to cast a glance “into the Holy of Holies.” Their materialistic minds do not experience any other life besides the life of the flesh. They have placed all their hopes in it and are incapable of hearkening to the words of Paul, who says:

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19); that is, “If we believe only in this life, we are the most miserable of all human beings.” And elsewhere he calls such materialistic individuals persons “who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).

And indeed we see that such people are full of anguish, fear and agitation, because the “wages of sin is death”. “For whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:7-8). And elsewhere it is written that “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). In saying ‘peace’, Saint Paul means true peace, whereas pseudo peace is to be found in the external, material world, in which the materialists believe.

“What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”, asks Christ (Matt. 16:26). But who listens to Him? All of us are striving to gain this unreal world, and we do not want to understand that which used to be sung by a beggar with the wisdom that is possessed by simple men:

I entered into the world naked

and will go out of it naked.

The world is alien,

it belongs to no one.

Listen, therefore, my brother to what Saint Paul again says, and try to understand something about the hidden world of mystery that is behind the external world that we investigate with the aid of machines, believing in our learned ignorance that we possess knowledge of the roots of the totality of things. He says: “The creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption” (Rom. 8:21). ‘Bondage of corruption’ is the slavery of those who live and labor for the corruptible world of matter; those whose thoughts are bad, foolish; those who are without faith and without love - full of death, since they are preoccupied with the world of corruption that has no hope, but is full of darkness and despair. These individuals are the faithful followers of Satan, who serve him obediently without knowing why.

On the other hand, the faithful ones of God, “the children of God”, possess freedom, true freedom, which consists in knowledge of the Truth, that is, of Christ. Only with this knowledge do the nuptial doors open, from which the soul beholds the wondrous light of the incorruptible essence of the cosmos. The thoughts of these children of God are good, peaceful, and gladdening. “Become peaceful within yourself”, says a certain saint, “and heaven and earth will become peaceful. Enter into the chamber that is within you, and from there you will behold the palace of heaven” [St. Seraphim of Sarov].

The things that exist in the incorruptible heaven that has been revealed by Christ, and that which the soul looks from the mystical chamber that is inside us, are the true things. They are blessed, peaceful isles in the ocean that extend beyond every material constellation and are outside the slavery of space and time.

Translated by Dr. Constantine Cavarnos from Kontoglou’s Mystical Flowers, Vol. 6, Works (Erga), (Athens: Astir Publishing Company, 1981), pp.85-88.

With What Kind of Body Will The Dead Rise? by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

 

"But someone may say, `How are the dead raised?' 'With what kind of body will they come back?'" (1 Corinthians 15:35).

The Apostle Paul knows in advance the objections which the unbelievers will make concerning the resurrection from the dead and, in advance, he rejects them. Even today, the non-believers who have not seen with the physical eyes the miracle of the resurrection in nature, much less the spiritual resurrection, ask: "How will the dead be raised?" "You fool!" continues the apostle, "What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies" (1 Corinthians 15:36). Until the seed dies in the ground, the plant will not grow, in other words, something totally different than the seed will sprout up. The non-believers see through their eyes and do not see, but further ask: "How will a dead man resurrect?" How? In the same way that Christ resurrected. He lowered Himself lifeless in the tomb and rose alive. Even nature manifests the resurrection from the dead; but stronger than nature, it is manifested by the resurrected Lord. In order to make it easier for us to believe and to hope - to believe in the resurrection in general and to have hope in our own resurrection, He Himself resurrected from the grave and prior to that resurrecting Lazarus who lay in the grave for four days, the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of Jarius.

The non-believers ask: "With what kind of body will the dead rise?" In that kind of body which God wills. With God there are many kinds of bodies. The Apostle Paul divides all bodies into two groups: into earthly bodies and into heavenly bodies. Therefore, they who have died in earthly bodies will be clothed with heavenly bodies: the incorruptible will replace the corruptible, the immortal will replace the mortal, the beautiful will replace the ugly. In this heavenly body man will also recognize himself and others around him as man recognizes himself or even when he is clothed in beggar's rags or even when he is clothed in royal purple.

Lord, All-plentious, do not hand us over to eternal corruption but, as royal sons, clothe us in the garment of immortality. Amen.

The Spiritual World by Photios Kontoglou

 

 

Contemporary man has altogether forgotten the world that is within himself and has occupied himself only with the world that is outside himself, the material world. And he investigates by means of science “the outside of the cup and platter” (Matthew 23:25).

 

One of these worlds is material, the other is spiritual. One of them is for the transitory life; the other for the eternal. One of them is in space and time, while the other is beyond these.

 

Today’s man lives materialistically, busying himself with pseudo-spiritual things. Only matter interests him, the rather coarse, more tangible aspect of the universe. He cannot experience spiritual reality by means of his bodily senses and does not concern himself at all with it. He who hurls into space with machines made of aluminum, he who has his brain full of numbers, screws, springs, and other such things, cannot understand what is hidden behind the material world that he perceives by means of his physical senses.

 

How can he taste the fruit that is hidden inside the husk of the universe? He nourishes himself only with the husk, for it is this husk that his materialistic science is constantly studying. How can he understand the words of Christ, who says: “The kingdom of God is within you”, or those of Paul the Apostle who says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you”

(1 Cor. 3:16). How can this barbaric and hard heartened mankind, which is attached to the mud of matter, understand those words of divinely inspired Paul, who says that carnal men “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator”? (Rom. 1:25)

 

For those who are engrossed with the knowledge of material things,

“the mystical gate is closed”, and they are unable to cast a glance “into the Holy of Holies.” Their materialistic minds do not experience any other life besides the life of the flesh. They have placed all their hopes in it and are incapable of hearkening to the words of Paul, who says:

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19); that is, “If we believe only in this life, we are the most miserable of all human beings.” And elsewhere he calls such materialistic individuals persons “who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).

 

And indeed we see that such people are full of anguish, fear and agitation, because the “wages of sin is death”. “For whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:7-8). And elsewhere it is written that “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). In saying ‘peace’, Saint Paul means true peace, whereas pseudo peace is to be found in the external, material world, in which the materialists believe.

 

“What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”, asks Christ (Matt. 16:26). But who listens to Him? All of us are striving to gain this unreal world, and we do not want to understand that which used to be sung by a beggar with the wisdom that is possessed by simple men:

 

I entered into the world naked

and will go out of it naked.

The world is alien,

it belongs to no one.

 

Listen, therefore, my brother to what Saint Paul again says, and try to understand something about the hidden world of mystery that is behind the external world that we investigate with the aid of machines, believing in our learned ignorance that we possess knowledge of the roots of the totality of things. He says: “The creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption” (Rom. 8:21). ‘Bondage of corruption’ is the slavery of those who live and labor for the corruptible world of matter; those whose thoughts are bad, foolish; those who are without faith and without love - full of death, since they are preoccupied with the world of corruption that has no hope, but is full of darkness and despair. These individuals are the faithful followers of Satan, who serve him obediently without knowing why.

 

On the other hand, the faithful ones of God, “the children of God”, possess freedom, true freedom, which consists in knowledge of the Truth, that is, of Christ. Only with this knowledge do the nuptial doors open, from which the soul beholds the wondrous light of the incorruptible essence of the cosmos. The thoughts of these children of God are good, peaceful, and gladdening. “Become peaceful within yourself”, says a certain saint, “and heaven and earth will become peaceful. Enter into the chamber that is within you, and from there you will behold the palace of heaven” [St. Seraphim of Sarov].

 

The things that exist in the incorruptible heaven that has been revealed by Christ, and that which the soul looks from the mystical chamber that is inside us, are the true things. They are blessed, peaceful isles in the ocean that extend beyond every material constellation and are outside the slavery of space and time.

 

Translated by Dr. Constantine Cavarnos from Kontoglou’s Mystical Flowers, Vol. 6, Works (Erga), (Athens: Astir Publishing Company, 1981), pp.85-88.