— Unfortunately, there is still a widespread opinion in the world that people go to a monastery from unhappy love, loneliness, from life’s difficulties and troubles… Sometimes even from church people you can hear: “If I go to a monastery, let them feel how bad it is without me” or “I will sit in my cell, pray, and no one will bother me with their problems.” What is the real purpose of monasticism?
— It’s one thing when such an opinion exists among secular people who understand absolutely nothing about spiritual life, but if a certain part of Orthodox people have this opinion, it means that these people do not understand anything about spiritual principles and are somehow outwardly churched. In general, it is very sad when Orthodox Christians think this way. This means they are some kind of semi-Orthodox. A person does not escape from some tragedy, not from contradictions. All monks always had the same reason: a person leaves for Christ.
Now, if a girl falls in love with a guy, you can’t stop her. Her parents will close her, and she will crawl out of the window at night and run after him. It’s the same in a relationship with Christ. Christ is a Person. Not a philosophical idea, not some kind of abstraction. Christ is a Person. It is God, but God is a personal God. There is such a concept. And therefore, a person — woman or man — comes to the understanding that there is nothing higher, sweeter, better than this Personality, which he began to partially know.
Of course, when a person does not have such a personal relationship with God, he just read the Gospel and seems to sympathize, it is difficult to talk about it at this level. And when a person went to church and prayed to God, he began to develop a personal relationship with God. Then he begins to prefer this Personality to the whole world — both in terms of other personalities, and in terms of simply some earthly interests. He falls in love with this Person, and he wants to be only with her, with this Person. But in order to be completely with this Person, he leaves the world, worldly attachments. Let us remember the Gospel story, when a young man came to Christ and asked: “What should I do to be saved?” The Lord tells him: “Keep the Commandments.” The young man replies: “I was born into a pious family and have observed them since childhood.” Then the Lord says to him: “If you want to be perfect, leave everything and follow Me.” That is, He separates the concepts of “simply salvation” and “being perfect.”
What does it mean to be “perfect”? It is to be perfect with Christ. Be with Christ completely, with all your understanding, with all your life, with all your soul. For some this can be difficult. But the one who really wanted to be with Christ completely understands that he needs to leave everything. For some reason, secular people know: in order to make, for example, a career, you need to give up a lot, things that interfere with a secular career. A person is even ready to work in hazardous work for the sake of a pension, spoil his health, get up at 5 o’clock in the morning for early shifts or go on night shifts. And this happens for a significant part of life. And no one says: “Here is a crazy person, sacrificing something for the sake of a pension.” But in essence, what is he sacrificing for? To retire with ruined health, which he lost in hazardous work, and then just die? And when a person sacrifices something for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, for the sake of Christ, even some Orthodox people have thoughts: “Why such sacrifices?” But a person always has limitations. Let’s say a person is a fornicator, a debauchee who pleases only his flesh and his soul, even he sacrifices something. And he also has some restrictions in order to achieve these pleasures. And monks limit themselves in order to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven.
And most importantly: some Orthodox people live with the concept that the Kingdom of Heaven will begin for them somewhere there, beyond the threshold of the tomb. They will die, the Lord will have mercy on them, and then they will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And the patristic teaching says that we can anticipate the Kingdom of Heaven already here, in spiritual life, in the state of the Holy Spirit, in a state of grace, like Seraphim of Sarov. This can be seen very clearly in his example. No, perhaps the word “can” is not appropriate here. I would say more precisely — they should. If every Christian does not to some extent anticipate the Kingdom of Heaven here, then his Kingdom of Heaven is distant, illusory, beyond the grave — very precarious. Many holy fathers, in particular, Simeon the New Theologian, writes that if a person does not anticipate the Kingdom of Heaven here, his Christianity is in big question. Therefore, monks live by this feat not in order to one day inherit something. By and large, every monk should be with God every day. This is his goal and this is his great consolation in his monastic deeds.
Archpriest Sergius Baranov.
Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Investment in the Soul!
