Words of Counsel
On the commemorations of the
holy martyrs, Elder Zosima would often say:
– O martyrs of Christ! Where are
your sufferings? Where is your martyrdom? They passed like a dream! And now you
rejoice eternally with the Lord… We, sisters, what shall we present on the day
of the dreadful Judgment, if we are unwilling to patiently endure, for the sake
of our Lord, a little toil or a small sorrow or a light illness? Yet we want to
be found in the heavenly land of the saints, of those who shed their blood for
Christ. We, who cannot bear even the slightest renunciation of our will and weaknesses,
want to be with those who endured the severing of their limbs and other
dreadful torments. In any case, we will either be with the saints or with the
demons – there is no third place! Let us therefore struggle for our salvation.
We have one life! And one soul!
***
Once, the elder, together with
two or three sisters, visited the house of an official, requesting some
assistance for the monastery. On the way back, the sisters asked him:
– Why were you so silent, Batushka?
It even seemed that you were avoiding so-and-so (they mentioned the names of
certain well-known figures), who were there and so eager to meet you and hear
you!
The elder replied with the
words of the Psalmist:
– "I did not walk in great
matters, nor in things too wondrous for me." "I became as a beast
before Thee; yet I am continually with Thee."
***
Once, it so happened that he
found himself at the table of a Christian who was a lover of monks, together
with several other monks. Throughout the entire meal, they discussed spiritual
matters. He, however, did not utter a single word. He sat modestly and humbly,
with his eyes lowered.
On the way back, the sisters
who had been at the table with him said:
– Forgive us, Elder, but we felt
saddened. You would have spoken better and more beneficially than those monks.
Why then did you remain silent?
– If they were not able to
benefit from my silence, they would not have benefited from my words either, answered
Fr. Zosima.
***
When he learned that someone
had benefited from his teaching and had corrected his life, he would say:
– I know that I am unrefined and
foolish. But when it was necessary, even through a donkey, did God speak!
He was referring to the
well-known incident with the seer Balaam in the Old Testament.
***
If any sister was saddened
because she had been wronged, he would say to her:
– Humble yourself, and heaven and
earth will humble themselves before you!
But if another sister happened
to make something beautiful and, subconsciously seeking praise, said, “Look,
Elder, how lovely it is!”, he would reply:
– Lovely, but not eternal. Every
thing says to us: Do not love me, I will depart from you!
And on every similar occasion,
he would repeat:
– All is good, all is good. But
look, we will die and not return here again. What benefit, then, is all this,
if we do not please the Lord?
***
He would also say:
– We cannot look with one eye
toward heaven and with the other toward the earth. In this way, we cannot have
our soul clinging both to earthly and to heavenly things. We must choose and
seek one of the two—either heaven or earth.
Greek source:
Γέροντας Ζωσιμάς της Σιβηρίας, by Abbess Vera Verhovsky, Holy Monastery
of Paraclete, Oropos, Attica 2007, p. 271.
Online:
https://www.koinoniaorthodoxias.org/gerontes/mikres-didaxes-tou-geronta-zosima/
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