Conversation with the First Hierarch of ROCOR, Metropolitan Vitaly: “The Process of the Rebirth of Russia Has Begun” (1992)

Source: Православная Русь [Orthodox Rus’], No. 17, 1992.

 

 

QUESTION: Your Eminence, the Free Russian Orthodox Church has already existed openly for 2 years. What gladdens you and what saddens you in its life?

ANSWER: We left Russia and live here, abroad, just as the Russian Church lived for 1000 years; we have changed nothing. One may personally judge us for sins, for weaknesses, but we stand completely unshakably on the entirely correct path of the canonical structure of the Church — on the Apostolic canons and the 7 Ecumenical Councils. We are not hurrying anywhere; we understand that after the 70-year terrible condition of Russia, one cannot immediately expect that everything will change.

What saddens us in particular is that sometimes certain individuals enter our ranks of the clergy who may be called “infiltrators.” Naturally, this is the simplest way of fighting against the truth. But we know that every infiltration is always outlived. It is impossible to deceive anyone when it concerns the truth — sooner or later everyone will sense whether there is truth in a person or falsehood. I repeat, we are not hurrying anywhere; we know that the process of the rebirth of Russia has begun. To extinguish it, all forces have been thrown in, headed by the Pope of Rome, the Uniates, all kinds of sectarians. If Russia does not succeed in overcoming this last, most terrible temptation, greater than Napoleon or Hitler’s invasion, then this will be the most dreadful — because it concerns the human soul. We are powerless to help with anything except sending literature, assisting with some of our clergymen and laity — the Russian people themselves must cope with this terrible temptation. And if not, then from where else can one expect any light of rebirth? From nowhere. Everything will go to the end, to the great end. But if the Russian people cope with this, then there will be a certain rebirth in Russia which will undoubtedly influence the whole world, and somehow people will begin to come to their senses and become somewhat more right-leaning. The West needs Russia as never before. Not as an economic unit, but as a spiritual word of truth — that is what the West and the whole world need.

Q: How does the process of the formation of the Russian Church take place, and what difficulties does it encounter?

A: The main reason is the 70-year captivity of the Russian People in communist pincers, and this left a certain film on the souls not of all, but of many Russian people, and this film must be removed. This is a painful process. A lack of understanding of the life of the Church, a lack of understanding of what the Church is — it is not an organization; the Church always remains a great mystery. The Church cannot be defined by any definitio as some formula of chemistry or physics. The Church is Christ. The true Church — it will always be God-man. Who realizes this God-manhood? — Christ in perfection, and we all, human beings, are called to be deified. This is our task. On the one hand, the difficulty is that the Russian people lived in terrible conditions, and a certain imprint remained on them; and on the other hand, we see the Russian people completely knowing nothing either about the Church or about the Mysteries. And this is even better — because it has no layers of scholasticism, influence of Catholicism or Protestantism, and incorrect thoughts; it is completely tabula rasa. And such a people, when it hears the truth and resorts to it, will indeed be a complete people.

So, there is no need to lament that the Russian people are completely emptied spiritually. When there is nothing in it, it will accept the truth in all its purity.

Q: That is, is it natural that our parishes encounter various internal difficulties, that those joining do not always understand what the hope of our Church consists in?

A: The entire structure of the Moscow Patriarchate is false, the entire life of the Moscow Patriarchate is false, completely incorrect. The first sin they constantly repeat is that they dispose of the episcopate as they wish — they drive bishops from see to see. They must know that a hierarch is crowned for life to his diocese, and no power on earth can remove him from this diocese — neither a patriarch, nor a council, nor a synod. He can be removed only if he voluntarily, because of ill health, wishes to retire, or if he has committed a crime, then he will be removed by trial, and they may even forbid him to serve and depose him from rank — this is the only way. All other decrees are lawlessness.

Priests are in the same position: if he is good, they will drive him into slums. Every day I speak by telephone with Moscow, Petrograd, with many Russian cities and see that this is the reality of our days.

Q: And all this is reflected in those who join us?

A: Of course. People think that a priest can be removed whenever one wishes. That is not true. Our episcopate in tsarist times always took into account the family situation of the priest, his abilities, his learning — all this was taken into consideration, and then all the priests were used to the maximum for the good of the Church. But in the patriarchate, it is not so; there they appoint real scoundrels. For example, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk): there is some priest there who recognizes nothing except money, and they keep him there because opposite him a Catholic priest serves, who smiles at everyone, embraces and kisses everyone, receives everyone and even gives out money, and he looks like a benefactor. But the priest from the Moscow Patriarchate compromises the Church, and truly believing Russian Orthodox people have turned away from him. Yet the Moscow Patriarchate keeps him. There you have a clear example.

Q: Recently in Russia, documents became public property proving that the Moscow Patriarchate for decades was a collaborator of the KGB; however, we see that despite this irrefutable evidence, a mass exodus of “church people” from the patriarchate is not taking place. How can it be explained that these people, knowing of such a situation, do not strive toward the true Russian Church?

A: First of all, there are many people who are accustomed to the fact that the Bolsheviks constantly mocked the Church, and they think that this is a continuation of the work of those same communists. Such people are known who think so — that is, they slander our clergy. Another part of the faithful is so corrupted and is in such a terrible state of ignorance that they simply pay no attention — they have become used to it.

The Moscow Patriarchate — this is a “Living Church” [renovationist — editor’s note], this is a continuation of the Living Church members.

Among the bishops there are those living with mistresses, thieves, murderers, and almost all without exception informers. Well, what can be done with such an episcopate? I am not saying that all the clergy are like that; there are very good batiushki who groan from being in the Moscow Patriarchate, but they have nowhere to go: they are married, they have children, they will immediately be thrown out onto the street.

We have no means to support them. We are simply paupers in comparison with the patriarchate. We can only offer them our pure faith, our pure canonical order. The grace of God is a very subtle fragrance, and it requires great carefulness; it can very quickly depart completely.

The Patriarch often says: “We lack spirituality.” Say simply: “We have no grace.” What kind of word is this — “spirituality”? It is a very vague word; it can be understood in any way at all; but I will say that spirituality is the sensation of the grace of God — there you have spirituality. And if you do not feel the grace of God, then it is not there. That is what is terrifying. Poor Russian people!

Now there is such a movement that one must be married in church, one must be baptized — well, they go to be married, they go to be baptized. As if it were some duty that must absolutely be fulfilled. It must be a personal desire to become a Christian, to stand on the path of salvation, and not simply for some reason — well, everyone went, so I will go too; well, they will sprinkle his forehead three times with the sprinkler, and he is “baptized.” This is sacrilege. In the same way they are married, because one must be married, and couples stand by the dozens in line, and they are married in exactly the same manner.

If there are still any truly believing people who pray before icons, pray by the words that godless priests pronounce — they pray, and for them the words remain the same, the liturgical ones — then for their sake the Lord perhaps performs an incredible economia — that is, they partake of the holy gifts, these people. If the Lord could commune hermits in the deserts through His guardian angel, then the Lord can make such an exception for the sake of some little old woman who sincerely believes in Christ.

But I cannot imagine that a man who betrayed his fellow bishops, who was an informer (there it is called by some special words produced by the Soviet lexicon, which I simply do not want to use, for this is a pollution of the Russian language), and this informer, for his fellow clergy, for his flock, celebrates the liturgy, and it is celebrated — I simply cannot accept that in his Chalice there is the Body and Blood of Christ. Or a hierarch who is an adulterer — and in his Chalice there is the Body and Blood of Christ? This is simply impossible to accept — this is sacrilege.

A group of Soviet Russian Orthodox priests addressed me: “Is it not sacrilege to think that the entire Russian people are without the sacraments?” I answer them this: “And do you not think that it is sacrilege if a married hierarch celebrates the liturgy and other sacraments?”

And in what way then does the Russian people nevertheless commune? Only thus can I understand it — the Lord performs an incredible economia for the sake of a believing soul.

These hierarchs have nothing in common with Russian hierarchs. The same with certain batiushki — coarse, insolent, unmerciful. There are, of course, also remarkable priests; with some of them I correspond.

Q: Here, abroad, among our parishioners there exists the opinion that, they say, the leaders of the patriarchate are bad, but the simple parishioners — little old women — are good; that they preserve true Orthodoxy, despite the fact that they are pastored in the patriarchate. Can one agree with this?

A: The Church is one, and the laity are the same Church. How often it happens that a council of bishops issues some decree, and the Church does not accept it. There is no acceptio — there is no reception of this decree. And who does not accept it? — the laity; they are the same members of the Church. Such decrees often happen — it seems that a council of bishops has resolved it, but this decree is not carried out, the Church does not organically accept it, and that is all; and thus, this decree goes away, evaporates, and no one remembers it anymore. The Church is the Church, and every layman is just as much a member of the Church of Christ.

It often happens that some layman will say something such that a hierarch will reflect. In fact, what do we do, hierarchs? We spiritually listen to the Church — what it lives by, what it breathes — and we return this, but concretely, clearly, and precisely. But from whom do we take all this? From the whole Church; it is not that we invent something or other. The Church is completely one. Here is the process that takes place: we mysteriously receive from the people that by which they live, but they themselves do not even realize that they live by it, they do not concretize it. And a council of bishops declares to them a clear path — milestones — and the people are grateful for this. The same concerns our intelligentsia. The intelligentsia has been given the possibility to study grammar, syntax, to express itself correctly in Russian, and it must necessarily express the people, and not something foreign to the people. The greatest tragedy of Russia became the fact that the intelligentsia, the thinking class, completely departed from the people, and the people felt themselves abandoned, orphaned, and the intelligentsia itself lost its way and almost entirely perished. And the people remained without their expresser. The intelligentsia is neither more nor less than the expresser of the people — like root and flower. The root cannot live without the flower, the flower cannot live without the root. The root is the people, the flower is the thinking class.

The laity and the bishops who are in the patriarchate are bound by a vicious bond, a bond not of grace. Every hierarch — he is potentially a Sergianist in life, in thoughts, in his behavior. In this lies the tragedy. It is unknown what will happen further, but I think that they must leave or they will be “removed.”

Remember how the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov prayed and saw all this impious episcopate — and there are already more than a hundred of them — and how he prayed to Christ that the Lord would have mercy. — No, I will not have mercy, — the Lord answered… Seraphim of Sarov prayed still, and the Lord told him — I will not have mercy. And this is terrible. But we are not intending and cannot judge anyone — from whom are we to choose judges?

Q: It is not infrequent to hear from people coming from Russia that they felt grace more during the divine services and when visiting holy places in the homeland than in the Church Abroad, that there they saw special signs of grace, for example, elders, and here there are none. What can be said to this?

A: Eldership — this is the result of the piety of the whole Church. It is as it were the crown of piety, a certain spiritual aristocratism of the Church in the very best sense of this word. Elders in the Moscow Patriarchate simply cannot exist.

A believing Russian girl once wrote to me that she had been in Russia to one so-called elder.

— I left him as from a snake, — she wrote.

One cannot enter a monastery and say: “I am an elder,” — that does not happen. Eldership is formed organically — it is the fruit of great piety, incredible obedience, sensible obedience. An elder gave birth to an elder; the disciple of an elder became an elder after the death of the elder; he lived closely with him, he breathed his atmosphere, his prayer, and he was imbued with his wisdom and especially with humility. Humility — this is the main effective cause of eldership — absolute humility, meekness. From where is this to be taken, when almost the entire episcopate of the Moscow Patriarchate is impious? From where can these “elders” be born, who must necessarily defend these hierarchs, and they are all defendants? They did not simply sin, let us say simply, they are in heresy, and their personal sins, as it seems to me, are the result of their standing in heresy. The Lord, for heresy, for wrong-mindedness, for false teaching, punishes with the most shameful sins, so as to humble to the ground. So let us not dwell on their personal sins — this is only a consequence.

The Moscow Patriarch has declared publicly that they will never renounce ecumenism. With Sergianism they have already merged so much that they no longer represent life outside Sergianism; in other words, they obey the powerful of this age, in this case the communists, who dictate to them the main line. Now, of course, the communists do not enter into details, such as the financial situation, this is too burdensome for them, but they indicate the main line. The communists feel that the rebirth of real Orthodoxy is deadly for them — they will in the end be sitting on a barrel of gunpowder, if only Orthodoxy truly spreads in reality.

Q: How can the essence of Sergianism be concisely formulated?

A: Simply. Into the Church entered NOT the will of God. That is all. Everything in the Church is directed by the will of God, by the Holy Spirit, but here, not the will of God entered, and it is obeyed, and in order to disguise this, they leave the entire external order — cense, please, preach sermons, keep the old style — do everything as is proper. But the will will not be yours. That is all in this. We call this Sergianism. When the will of God does not direct the Church, then the performance of rites gradually becomes empty, ritual-worship begins. The rites they leave — please, as many as you like, and the more splendid — the better. This is a terrible thing, this is a subtle thing, it goes far, far. Knowledge — please, know the history of the Church, know all schisms down to the finest details, know all philosophical systems, be theologians so that you are honored as doctors of theology — please. But the will will be ours. And in the will is everything; from it depends freedom or unfreedom. The Church needs nothing except freedom, and that is precisely what they do not have.

Q: In what does the particularity of monastic service consist of at the present time in comparison with past centuries? To what is contemporary monasticism called first of all?

A: We live in an interesting epoch — a search for essence in all areas, throughout the whole world. What is atomic energy? — It is a search for the essence of substance, of matter; great forces are directed to these developments and much has been discovered; technology in this field is very developed. A whole revolution has occurred, for example, in the typographical field, and in every other one, because of this technology. This entire electronic system — it is only “yes” and “no,” and that is all. On these two words all computers are based; in one second you can input colossal information, but the code: “yes” and “no” — plus, minus.

Thus, everywhere there is a search for essence; take, for example, music, literature — everyone searches, all idiots, charlatans, all search for some kind of essence, everyone is tired of forms. Writers want to break the doll in order to look inside, at her soul. And we, monks, must not dissipate ourselves on trifles; for with us there is much that is domestic, much that is worldly — from habits, much that is oily sentimental; monasticism is strongly infected by this, all these: “batiushka bless, batiushka bless, batiushka bless.” The essence in monasticism is simple, and it was expressed by the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov — the goal of the whole Church, of everything that is done in it, the single goal — the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. And there is no other goal in anything, in all mitres, churches, chantings; the venerable ones have only one goal — the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and if this goal is not there, then all this is nonsense, all this becomes habit. Prostrations are nothingness if there is no essence — the search for the Holy Spirit; they are necessary and fasting is necessary, but if the main thing is not there, then fasting will be starvation, prostrations tumbling — and so everything. Into everything one must dedicate oneself, one’s soul, for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. What is it to me that I believe in God, but I do not have Him in my heart. The first thing that the Venerable Seraphim indicated — the single goal of the Church of Christ, existing for 2000 years — the acquisition of the Holy Spirit and nothing more. The Church is rich, offers this and that, but the goal is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and if this is not there, then everything is empty. And how to acquire the Holy Spirit? Humbly to ask God to cleanse one’s heart and to pray to God with this cleansed heart. There is for you the quintessence of the monastic essence: if this is not there — there is nothing.

After Seraphim of Sarov came the righteous John of Kronstadt, and he continued to speak of the same ancient truth which the Venerable Seraphim reminded us of — that all life on earth has one single, unique goal — the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. John of Kronstadt came and says: How to acquire the Holy Spirit? — Meekly to ask to cleanse one’s heart, and with this pure heart to pray to God. Here is the essence of monasticism, and above this there is nothing. All the rest are methods; this is good, this is necessary, but if this is not there, then there is nothing. I think present-day monasticism, first of all, must show true piety, true heartfelt Jesus Prayer, and then by this monasticism all people, all parishes will align themselves, because without monasticism there is no Church. Where there is no true monasticism, there is no Church. It does not matter if there are no hermits, stylites — what matters is that there be pious, sincere, honest monasticism. When it strives to be honest and pious, then there is monasticism. Always both the white clergy and the laity will align themselves by monasticism. From time to time, they will come to a monastery, because they sense that there is fullness there. Monasticism remains full-fledged to this day. If in the Church there is no monasticism, then undoubtedly something is not right in that Church.

Q: One hears that our Church awaits the restoration in Russia of a monarchical system, and until this exists, does not wish to have dealings with any government there. What can be said to this?

A: This is slander against us. We can live under any system, if this system does not encroach upon the Church, if this system does not persecute us, and even when it persecutes, we live. We will always live, we will defend ourselves, but we will live. We do not at all hold such a position — monarchy and nothing else. Under any regime we live. Of course, for us, for the Church of Christ, as Saint Gregory the Theologian says, monarchy is most dear. The divine is best reflected in Orthodox monarchy, but we will live also under a republic, if such a regime is not an open enemy of the Church. The communists declared themselves simply open enemies of the Church, and yet we lived under them and suffered; we had many martyrs, they constantly killed us all in Russia. But the martyrs nevertheless bore the Church, and carried it through, and there, in Russia, to this day there are pious people; they are not many, but they are there.

Q: Your Eminence, how do you relate to the calls coming from the Vatican to the Orthodox Church to begin a dialogue?

A: Between us there are already almost 10 centuries. So many differences have accumulated, so many trenches have been dug, and not by us, but precisely by Rome. These trenches must be filled in. This is not some personal quarrel, this is a difference of life, a difference of mysticism, a difference of faith, a difference of behavior, a difference of morality — in everything a difference. This is a serious matter; what are we going to do, merely enumerate that we believe in the Trinity, and they believe in the Trinity, they believe in the Mother of God and we believe in the Mother of God, they believe in the saints and we believe in the saints. Are we going to count on our fingers what they believe and what we believe? This is absurd. First of all, in the Trinity we already do not believe identically — where will you put the filioque, for this is a serious violation of the dogma of the Holy Trinity. And the immaculate conception of the Mother of God. What is this? This was never recognized during 10 centuries by the holy fathers. How so? The Mother of God, suddenly, the Holy Trinity singled her out, and she is completely not partaker of any original sin of Adam and Eve. And why did the Lord not do this for every person? It would have been simple for Him to do this. And this so-called supererogatory grace [merit — editor’s note] — what kind of supererogatory grace can there be, when our holy Sisoes is dying and crying, they say to him: “Father, you labored 85 years in fasting and prayer, lived in caves as a hermit, and you weep?” And he answered: “But I do not know whether all my labors were pleasing, whether they were acceptable to my Lord?” Where can there be some kind of supererogatory grace here? Do you know what supererogatory grace is? It means that a saint prays, and the Lord forgives him, and who can be the judge to decide whether the Lord has forgiven him? — The Pope of Rome. Thus, when this saint is already “forgiven” and begins to pray and fast, then the grace of God goes to him beyond what is due — he no longer needs it, and this grace goes as it were into the treasury of the Church, like into a bank. And from there the Pope of Rome draws and gives to others, to those who lack. And such things have accumulated so much. Enter a Catholic church — there is spiritual hunger there. And suddenly we will extend a hand to one another. And all these differences? These differences are moral. These are not fantasies, not some abstraction, this is life. They no longer fast; almost up to 2 hours before communion one may eat, drink. We will never accept such things, the holy fathers never accepted this. Let them remember their king Louis, what a saint he was; he was Orthodox, almost, and accepted everything as Orthodox. Now this is absolutely forgotten by them. Where are they even going? In churches rock musicians perform. And we will accept all this and kiss one another, that we are identical Christians? Permit me, one of us is a Christian, and someone perhaps can no longer even be called a Christian.

Q: What at the present time is the attitude of the Russian Church Abroad toward various groups located in the Russian catacombs outside her pastoral care?

A: We relate to them very benevolently. The only thing that concerns us is if doubtful episcopal consecrations are encountered. This we cannot accept; we need proof that the consecrations of these or those catacomb bishops are indeed canonical. And to prove this is very difficult. There things are intertwined that are simply incredible. With us everything is canonical; we know from where our episcopate came, which bishops ordained whom. If they were to come to us and say: “Since you consider the episcopate of doubtful consecration, then unofficially perform cheirothesia.” And then they will be canonical. But will they have sufficient humility and meekness for this? I do not know. Some representatives of these groups accuse us in advance, considering that we did not rightfully at one time notice bishops who have long existed in the catacombs. But why did they themselves not make themselves known? We are not detectives searching for them throughout all Russia. We ourselves live openly; one can always address us from any country, from any corner of Russia. We do not hide; we only want everything with us to be canonical, because upon this depends the reception of the grace of God — upon a correct bishop, upon a correct council. Thus, we relate to them benevolently; we know that among their flock there are very many pious people.

Q: If the former spiritual traditions of the Russian people have not passed into history, then in what way is the continuity of these traditions now taking place in Russia?

A: I think that this aspect has been preserved in an incredible way. I even know people who did not go to church during all the time of communist domination, but performed various rites of a domestic character, remembered certain things. And this has remained in the people. I cannot say how widely this has spread, but it has remained. These things cannot simply be extinguished; they somehow live in the very blood of the people. Thus this aspect of the old way of life lives. The Russian people nevertheless exist; they have memory of their past. Now there is a spontaneous return to the past; true, this has not yet found for itself one common channel — there are very many different rivers.

Q: In the present world, when everywhere there reigns apostasy from the truth, it is very easy for us, children of the Russian Church Abroad, to fall into a feeling of exaltation; how can this be avoided?

A: Monasticism is obliged to set as its goal unceasing prayer; this is the goal of monasticism, and this is attainable. The Jesus Prayer. Think for yourself — if you repeat hundreds of times: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” you ask only for mercy and ask for nothing more. Only mercy. You repeat it 20 times and as though you have repeated it only with words, but you nevertheless labor, you stand, you make at least waist bows, and suddenly for this at least one standing in prayer the Lord will send you once, and you will feel that you have said from your whole heart: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” There you have humility, because you ask only for mercy. Who asks for mercy? He who feels himself a sinner, a criminal, a nothing — he asks only for mercy. The word “have mercy” is a remarkable word, an astonishing word. Only it is not always given to us to feel this. Why do we give a novice the minimum: read the Jesus Prayer in the evening before sleep 100 times and try, saying it 100 times, at least once to wrest out a real “Lord have mercy.” When a person says this and feels that he has said it with his whole being, he will never forget it. Because the response was immediate — he felt himself almost blessed. He will want to return to this, and will begin a second hundred already from himself, and not by obedience, and perhaps he will succeed again in feeling this. From now on only those who labor will seize the Kingdom of Heaven, — said the Lord. From now on — that is, from the New Testament.

Q: Your Eminence, for what must we now pray especially?

A: I will answer you with the words of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov. Save your soul and thousands of people will be saved around you. If you truly save your soul, you will never be alone; all will be drawn, all, because to save one’s soul is something great. It means to be passionless; this is holiness. What is holiness? The word holiness frightens us. Well, how could I attain holiness, we say. We imagine that they will paint an icon of us. No. There are more saints whom we do not know at all than those to whom we pray and whose lives we read. Thus in this is the service to the Church and to one’s people. Cleanse yourself of passions, and you will accomplish a worldwide deed, although we monks are accused that we are egoists, that we wish to save only ourselves. Not true! We never are saved in solitude. Never. If we pray to God and cleanse ourselves, then we will accomplish a world, a cosmic deed. Passionlessness — this is holiness. And when a person is passionless, everyone senses him, all go to him, like bees to honey. He cannot hide. He might wish to, but he cannot; he will go into the forest and they will find him there, he will bury himself in the ground and they will find him there. Because nothing is more important than this. They ask me: “What do you want, Vladyka?” — “One living saint in my diocese,” I say, “I want nothing more.” That is all. Because I know that in him everything will be.

Q: Your Eminence, in what must we, the children of the Russian Church Abroad, correct ourselves?

A: We must rid ourselves of the passions. We repent of sins, and we do well, but we can keep repenting of sins and fall into the same sins. And so all our life — but this is a sad picture. If only we would think that the source of sins is the passions, and we have not even touched them with a little finger. And one must pray thus: Lord, forgive my sins and deliver me from my passions. Why forgive? — Because sins are concrete acts of lawlessness. But a passion is not an act; it is the source of sins, our entire inner structure. The passions are a terrible thing. In almost every liturgical text there are prayers that the Lord deliver us from the passions. We are so inattentive to the liturgical texts; there is not a single service in the Menaion where this is not spoken of. The Church understands this, understands it deeply, but we think only about sins. Did Christ, the Son of God, come to earth only to tell us not to sin? No. Nicodemus did not in vain come to the Savior by night with a very important question: what is Thy goal, of all Thy teaching, all Thy miracles? What is the final goal? The Lord told him: to be born again, that is, to rid oneself of the passions, to become such as God created man — Adam without sin. Nicodemus was an intelligent man; he understood that this is impossible. He said: this is as impossible as to enter into the womb of one’s mother; and the Lord simply told him: yes, for man this is impossible.

The Lord revealed the whole fall of the human race so eloquently, so deeply, as only Christ could do. The apostles were horrified and exclaimed: “Who then can be saved?” And the answer: no one. “For man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Our chief sin is not that we are sinful, but that we do not ask God’s help; and if we do not ask His help, then we do not acknowledge His perfection, and we will fall into hell. He is the only One Who can save us, and therefore for the Orthodox world the Lord is not first of all a teacher, but a Savior. A Savior first of all saves, whereas a teacher can fill his head with all sorts of things, and there will be no profit. Protestants present the Savior as a teacher, and are very satisfied that they themselves are very clever. Now our most important task is the strengthening of our own Church, because now there is pressure from different sides, an iron ring is beginning slowly to compress us here. We must raise our piety, prayer especially.

Q: Your Eminence, what does the service appointed by God for our Church consist of?

A: Once Vladyka Metropolitan Anastasy said, and his words are now being fulfilled: “The time will come when the Church Abroad will become the most important unit in the whole world.” We see patriarchs who in one way or another immerse themselves in certain untruths, but our Church stands unshakably, like the woman fleeing into the wilderness, of whom it is spoken in the Apocalypse. This is our Church. Therefore we will never be rich — lest we become proud. We will never be splendid, full of health — lest we become proud. For the Apostle Paul, the greatest apostle, asked the Lord to deliver him from the thorn of the devil. We do not know to this day what it was. But the Lord said — My grace is sufficient for thee. So that he might not become proud. Even the Apostle Paul was in danger of becoming proud, and the Lord left him a “messenger of Satan.” If the archangel Satan in all his beauty became proud, then what of us?! Give us only a kopeck, and we already are proud as for a ruble.

Q: Is the service appointed by God for our Church being fulfilled?

A: It is being fulfilled apart from us. In this sense the Lord leads us. And when we invent something that is not right, it somehow evaporates and becomes nothing. A great responsibility lies upon the Church Abroad; the Lord Himself leads us, the Savior leads.

 

 

Russian source online:

https://sinod.ruschurchabroad.org/documents%20m%20Vitaly_1992_beseda.htm