Dimitrios Panagopoulos (+1982): Let Us Guard Our Souls!

 

Our soul is the image of God, but when we defile it with sin, what are we doing? We are casting the image of God into the mire. O our soul, how we despise you! O God, how You endure such contempt! We honor the image of a king or ruler, yet we do not honor our soul, in which You have engraved Your image. Nothing is more precious than the soul, and yet for a fleeting pleasure, a passing honor, or the acquisition of a little wealth, we sell our soul, this precious treasure.

If we had many souls, we would still have another left, but we have one and only one soul, for whose sake all things in heaven and on earth were made, for whose sake nature labors, the heavens move, the sun shines, the earth bears fruit, plants and animals come into being, and for whose sake Paradise was created, the Kingdom of Heaven prepared, along with unending blessedness, boundless glory, and all those blessings of eternal life “which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the human heart” (1 Cor. 2:9). And if we lose our soul, we lose everything: earth and heaven, the world and Paradise, both this temporal life and eternal life.

To test the patience of righteous Job, God gave the Devil permission to tempt him, to cause him loss and sorrow, and to afflict him in his wealth, his children, and his health—but not to touch his soul! “Behold, I give you all that he has; only spare his soul.” In the twinkling of an eye, the immensely wealthy Job became poor; his countless animals, small and great, were burned up; his lofty palaces were demolished by a violent gust of wind; his children met an untimely and sudden death within a single hour; and he himself, impoverished and covered with sores from head to foot, lay on a dung heap outside the city, scorched by the sun’s blazing heat by day and tormented by the frost by night. Job lost everything.

No, Job lost absolutely nothing, because he did not lose his soul. What does he say? Have I lost my wealth? But I was born naked; what is so strange if I die naked? “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.” Have I lost my children? But “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.” Have I lost my health? This was pleasing to my God: “As it seemed good to the Lord, so it came to pass.” I have lost everything, yet I have lost nothing, because my soul has remained intact; despite all my trials, I am righteous before God, and for this I glorify, thank, and bless His holy name. “Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job, chapters 1–2)

What providential care the Lord, who loves mankind, shows when He permits afflictions, either to test us or to discipline us, giving the devil permission to tempt us and harm us in everything except our soul! “Spare his soul.” He must not harm the soul, this only-begotten daughter of Jesus Christ, the heiress of His Kingdom, whom He even entrusts to a guardian angel to shelter and protect “from the terror by night, from the arrow that flies by day, from the thing that walks in darkness, from calamity and the noonday demon” (Ps. 90:5–6). And why? Because all other things—says St. John Chrysostom—are, first of all, many, and if one is lost, another remains: “Whichever of these is damaged, we meet our need through the other”; and second, if we lose them today, we can find them again tomorrow, just as Job recovered everything twofold. But the soul is one, and if we lose it, everything is lost: “If we lose it, by what shall we live?”

If we have an only child, how careful we are to ensure that no one harms or grieves that child, even though our salvation does not depend on them! Likewise, if we have a precious stone, we guard it with great care, even though we cannot buy Paradise with it. But if we lose our soul, nothing will benefit us, for it is for its sake that we human beings live in this world, and with it that we hope to live in Paradise. If we lose it, everything is lost—and then? “If we lose it, by what shall we live?”

The great privilege of our soul is that it is immortal. This vain and perishable world, with everything beautiful, good, and precious in it, will one day come to an end. “For the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Sooner or later, death will come, bringing an end to everything. Whatever we have in this world is either lost or left behind, for “all flesh is like grass, and all human glory like the flower of grass; the grass withered, and its flower fell” (1 Pet. 1:24). Our soul alone remains immortal, lives eternally, and never dies. What benefit is there, then, if a person gains the whole world, which will one day come to an end, when so great is the loss if he loses his soul, which endures forever? If a person loses his freedom, he can buy it back; if he loses his health, he may be healed; even if he loses his life, he can be raised from the dead; but if the soul is lost, it cannot be ransomed.

God entrusted the keys of Paradise to human hands: “And I will give you”—He said to Peter and all the Apostles—“the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 16:19). He did not give the keys of Hades to any human being or angel, but kept them Himself, as He says in Revelation: “And I have the keys of Hades” (Rev. 1:18). And why did He give the keys of Paradise, which is God’s royal residence, the royal palace of glory, into human hands, while He Himself, God, the King and Lord, kept the keys of Hades, that dreadful prison of outer darkness, that place of torment for condemned souls? So that we may learn that in this life, whenever we wish to open Paradise to keep our soul safe within it, the keys are easy to find. He has entrusted them to human beings here on earth; if we seek them, we find them in the hands of every spiritual father. But if death, whether sudden or natural, comes and finds us either laden with the burdens of this world or bound by the chains of sin, and we die without amending our lives, without repentance, without confession, and without Communion, where will we find the keys of Hades to free our imprisoned soul? No human being has them; no angel has received them; God Himself holds them. The Judge then shows no mercy and does not open, for the door has been shut. There is no hope of release, for in Hades there is no repentance.

But, O soul, you are the most perfect and beautiful creation, for you are the image of God; you are the most precious possession, for you are immortal. The crucified Jesus, the Son of the living God, shed His priceless blood to redeem you, gave the font of holy baptism to wash you, ordained another, “second baptism”—repentance—to cleanse you, prepared the table of His immaculate Mysteries to nourish you, established the Church here in this world to sanctify you, and created Paradise there so that you might live in blessedness forever and ever.

In His boundless goodness and compassion, He did everything possible to save our souls, yet we do whatever our utter wickedness dictates to lose our soul. But it is better to lose everything the world offers and save our soul; for “what will it profit a person if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

 

Greek source: https://katanixi.gr/prosochi-tin-psychi-mas-dimitrios-panago/