Father Damaschin, from the Athonite Monastery of Grigoriou, is the most missionary-minded monk I have ever met. He taught himself Romanian in just six months and mastered it so well that he went on to translate dozens of books on Romanian Orthodox spirituality into Greek – works by Saint John Jacob of Hozeva, Ilie Cleopa, Paisie Olaru, Arsenie Boca, Dometie Manolache, Arsenie Papacioc, Iachint Unciuleac, Petroniu Tănase, etc. He undertook two long pilgrimages to our monasteries: the first time in 1984 – when he spent two months in Romania – and the second time, three years ago. He confided in me that, of all the languages, Albanian was the one that gave him the most trouble: it took him two years to learn Shqipëria. He has now also learnt African languages: Swahili and Hirudi, since he has been on mission in Burundi and Rwanda. (He also spent twelve years in the Congo, in Kolwezi). A very skilled psalmist, he often leads the choir at the patronal feasts of the Romanian Athonites, singing and praising the Lord in our language. For the Africans, Father Damaschin himself translated the Byzantine church hymns into Swahili. But, apart from all this, Father has a great deal of love for his neighbour and, knowing this, I sought the abbot’s blessing for an interview. And as Geronda Christophoros agreed to this, I went up to the monastery’s guest quarters and began to speak…
The spiritual struggle
Father, how might we reconcile the ‘spirit of purity’ – towards which the soul strives – with ‘fleshly desire’ – from which many people find it hard to escape?
Human desire is natural. It is not a sin. But Christ has also given us a measure. A sound judgement. It is like when – for example – we go into town: we cannot just do as we please, but on the road we must pay attention to the traffic lights. When the red light comes on, we cannot cross the road. It happens that people engage in carnal union even before marriage. And not for the sake of having children. However, if people engage in this carnal union before they are married, then they fall into the sin of fornication. For if a person commits these carnal sins with pleasure, they are committing the sin of fornication. And the Holy Apostle Paul says that such people (adulterers) will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9). Sin, however, also brings with it distress. Because our conscience tells us that this (fornication) is a sin. And what can we do then? This spiritual struggle – for a person to become ‘pure’ – is possible only for the Orthodox Christian. Because in other religions there is no grace of God (to help man in this struggle). It is not possible because other Christians, of other faiths, do not have the Holy Spirit: neither Catholics, nor Protestants, nor Jehovah’s Witnesses. This struggle against the desires of the flesh can only be waged by a person who is an Orthodox Christian and has been baptised.
And how exactly can we wage this struggle, Father?
Little by little. A person who fears God and wishes to be saved pays ever greater attention to their soul: so as not to commit sins that are a disgrace before Christ. And they will keep His commandments. This is the greatest struggle: (keeping the commandments).
The purity of the priest
You know that a man who wishes to become a priest but has fallen (into sin) before marriage with a woman is forbidden to be ordained. For he who wishes to celebrate the Sacraments of Christ must be pure. And for this he must be very careful and responsible, for he enters the priestly order and becomes a ‘father’. And a father must work in the name of Christ.
The priest possesses the grace received at baptism and another grace – that of the priesthood – received through the laying on of hands at ordination. As a simple Christian, he is duty-bound to be mindful of the grace received at baptism, but he must also work with the grace acquired at ordination. The priest must save others – that is, help them to enter the Kingdom of God – but he must also save himself.
Father, do you believe that a priest can save others whilst, at the same time, losing his own salvation?
Yes. That is why great care is needed! We have a saying that it is better to go to heaven with kombustini (prostrations) than to hell with an epitrachelion! Our monks say so.
Saint Cosmas of Aetolia
You know that the monastic priesthood is missionary in nature – both inwardly and outwardly. Saint Cosmas of Aetolia (+ 24 August 1779) was an example of monastic missionary work: he left the Monastery of Filotheou in 1760, at a time when Greece was under Turkish rule, to revive Orthodoxy amongst our people.
In the places where he preached, people would erect a wooden cross in his memory. He built two hundred and fifty Greek schools and one thousand two hundred primary schools!
Yes. He was a great preacher and the greatest missionary monk. He performed miracles and was also a great prophet: he left us 130 prophecies; including one about the Third World War – which apparently began in 2012, in Syria.
I know he also told Ali Pasha what was to happen to him in life, and it was the Turk who built his first church – in Berat (Albania), in 1814 – and also made him a silver reliquary for his relics.
He also said that, in the end, it will be the priests themselves who lack the fear of God. That is a terrifying thought.
Yes, Father! I know that Saint John Chrysostom said that ‘out of a thousand priests, if one is saved’! And that was in the fourth century! What then will it be like at the end of the ages?!
Yes. And St Basil the Great said – speaking of thoughts: ‘I have not sinned with a woman, but neither am I a man!’
Alas! And who could be so pure as to be worthy to serve God?
Sins of economy
Consider this: a Greek bishop wanted to practise economy and ordained three priests in a single year. There was a shortage of priests, and he thought he was doing the right thing. However, those young men had not led pure lives before their ordination and were not pleasing to God, and within a few months – less than a year! – all three died. He acted as steward in God’s stead, and God does not want unclean people to serve Him.
And did the bishop sin?
Sins are not just for us; they are for bishops too. We are all sinners. But a God-fearing man must obey. And if he obeys, he will repent. And God will act in His own way. But before death he must repent and ask for forgiveness. So that he does not go to hell.
And everything he does for the faithful at this time—are all the Holy Sacraments he has administered still valid? Is the principle of ‘ex opere operato’ (‘by the work itself’) true?
If a priest’s ordination is valid, then all the Sacraments he has administered are valid. Remember: God is merciful and slow to punish. He knows that we are sinners. And we monks are no different. Which of us is worthy of His Kingdom? Who amongst us is holy? It is true that Father Paisios – with whom I lived here on Athos for twenty years – was a saint. But how many are like him?
Well, even the saints considered themselves sinners…
Australian rain
Anyone who considers himself a saint… is not a saint. Saint Paisios – when he travelled to Australia in 1969, together with the abbot and a few monks from the Iviron Monastery – was asked by the Orthodox faithful there to pray for rain. But Saint Paisios told them three times: ‘Come, all of you, and kneel down, and perhaps God will hear your prayers. And I shall pray together with you.’ And when the Venerable Paisios prayed, after about a quarter of an hour, a cloud appeared in the sky which brought rain. In other words, the ‘foundation’ of human life – and of monastic life – is always humility. And Saint Paisios humbled himself then too, in Australia, (when he was asked to pray). True Christians must be humble. Otherwise, they are enemies of Christ. Humility is a great grace (bestowed) by the Holy Spirit. And they – Catholics and Protestants – do not have the Holy Spirit and (therefore) do not have humility.
God will judge us for our lack of repentance
With priests, it is a different matter. There, in their personal lives, whether they are worthy or not, who knows? Only they and God. But when it comes to the Holy Sacraments: the Divine Liturgy, Baptism, Marriage, that is where God’s grace comes in – it comes to us, even if he is unworthy.
Let man fear God. For we do not know: whether we live or die. The Holy Fathers say this: God does not wish to judge us for our sins – for we are all sinners, and He came into the world for us, the sinners, not for the righteous. No one is without sin. And He knows this. But God will judge us for our lack of repentance, not for our sins. It is because we do not wish to repent that we shall be judged. We may sin due to a lack of instruction, and for many other reasons.
On priestly celibacy
But a fornicator cannot be a priest. He may be ordained, but he cannot be a priest. He must be a virgin at the time of his ordination. Otherwise, he cannot be ordained. He is not permitted to sin (to commit fornication) between his baptism and his wedding.
And in this case, is the priest still at fault if the bishop was aware of his sins and yet ordained him? Who is to blame: the priest or the bishop?
If the priest knows that this sin of his prevents him from being ordained, he must not accept the priesthood. If, however, he is unaware of this canon, he must obey his spiritual father. But the Lord takes care of this: God knows who is fit to be a priest and who is not.
The reckoning at the Last Judgement
Father, I know from Father Iulian (Prodromitul) that before God the bishop is held accountable – if he was fully aware of the matter. And he even gave me a scriptural argument from the prophet Ezekiel: ‘I have appointed you as a watchman over the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from My mouth. When I say to the sinner, ‘You shall surely die!’, but you do not warn the unfaithful to take heed of his ways, and the wicked man dies in his wickedness, then I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you speak to the sinner about his way, namely that he should turn from it, yet he does not turn from his way, then he will die in his wickedness, but you will have saved your own soul’. (Ezekiel 33:7–9). So, if the bishop – for he is ‘the watchman of the house of Israel’ – does not urge him to ‘take heed to his way’, then ‘the blood of the unfaithful, from the hand’ of the hierarch will be demanded.
Yes. If the bishop is aware of his sin, he must not ordain him.
On ordination
You are not a hieromonk, are you, Father?
I am not. Although Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria – with whom I worked for seven years in Burundi – wanted to ordain me. He told me that he had spoken to the members of the synod and they had decided to make me Bishop of Burundi. Other bishops in Africa, and even in Romania, wanted to ordain me as a priest, archimandrite or bishop. But no. I did not want to.
We must work for our own salvation with the fear of God. God is almighty and cares for His Church. We must not do this in His stead. And besides, the priesthood is not for sale.
The Acquisition of Grace
Father, how can a person still discern the Truth and the Way amidst this barrage of information?
A Christian must first look to what Scripture says, what the Athonite Fathers say, what Fathers Paisie Olaru, Ilie Cleopa and Ioanichie Bălan – who were very attentive and had the utmost respect for the canons of the saints and did not commit sins that would bar them from the priesthood. And they must know that the source of uncreated light in our lives is prayer. The prayer of the heart. First with the mouth, and then with the mind in the heart. What is important, as Saint Seraphim of Sarov also said, is that man’s purpose is to attain the grace of God. And how can we attain this grace? By reading? No. But by speaking to God: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’. If we say this prayer first for a few minutes a day, then for an hour, and so on, then it will remain within us, and so will the grace of God. Inner purification is achieved only through the Prayer of Christ and through confession. We must not forget the words of Saint John Climacus, who says, ‘Strike down your enemies with the name of Christ Jesus, for there is no stronger weapon either in heaven or on earth’ (21:7).
And if we live in humility and kindness, Satan cannot bring evil thoughts upon us.
Judging one’s neighbour
Another great sin of our day is judging one’s neighbour—both with one’s words and in one’s thoughts. Remember: God the Father has entrusted His Son to judge the world. And Christ did not accept to judge people and left it to the apostles to do so. So neither God the Father nor the Son wished to judge people, but left the judgement to the apostles (1 Corinthians 6:2).
Fornication
How can one escape fornication, Father?
We must not be proud. And, in addition to humility, we must ensure that our bodies are weary every day. A monk must fulfil all his duties, so that the devil of fornication finds him busy and ceases to tempt him…
