Approaches on a life subject

(Sociability)

Today it is a fact that the human beings have lost our spiritual mien. We accepted (or condescended) to subjugate to the scruples of our time, resulting in losing a whatever escape to the outside. There is nowhere a blue sky. The circles of the eagle have no relation with us any more.

And the questioning goes on.

I feel that "I hear around me the sound of a world that is just tumbling". (Olga Votsi).

Of course "there is always time for the truth". (Votsi).

Shall we dare a starting, an escape? An escape to another land, to other places? Will it bring in anything? Or is this going to work in our case, what someone wrote:

"Wherever you go, the same world you will find

the same with the one you are carrying with you"

(M. Maratheftis)

But what does this mean? What else than the lack of some co-ordinates of spiritual life? Each one of us is turned into a lonely observer of today. A frozen solitude is spread around. Until when will the people be dressed with conceivable chains? Chains which snap in our hands and keep us prisoners on the earth?

Every person today wants to avail himself on against

the other, without being interested in whether the quality of

life is downgraded.

Life, of course, is advancing with its fletting joys, its permanent sorrows, its corruption in the dimensions of time and place.

Are we going to let it go by without being activated? Or are we going to catch at least the last wagon to make it? Let us not forget that "alas to the one who stays without hope". (Votsi).

But which is this saving for us wagon? What else than Sociability?

But what is sociability?

According to a Greek thinker, with this word we mean the "compassion, the participation to the neighbour´s suffering, in one or the other way" (I. M. Panayiotopoulos). And he adds: "And not only the neighbour´s. But every person´s". We talk about a situation that characterises that personality, which is spent fully, in order to do the right thing, to make the toil easier" (I. M. Panayiotopoulos). So he is devoted honestly, without ultevior motive "even without the legitimate, after all by many views, wish of postrumous fame." (I. M. Panayiotopoulos).

So Sociability is "the split of the ego, effusion and expansion of that ego to the others for an edifying dialogue of souls, which has as a basic condition the offer to the others of the most beautiful and purest presents our existence hides". (Mgr Georghios of Nikea).

Of course today "even the most spacious societies became icy solitudes. Every person takes his course. He associates with his neighbour as long as he needs him, but deserts him with the first sign of danger. Whole nations suffer from the lack of affection, they go mad because of the lack of friendship. The "bonds" are simple forms. The everyday life loses its snugness, its sweet warmth more and more." So "the good morning", this happy opening of the window to the fair sky, is transformed slowly slowly into a grin. The human greediness, the thirst of good life, does not leave place for polite feelings. Something more: the polite feelings are considered old-fashioned". (I. M. Panayiotopoulos)

The right sociability "is not a profession. It is not an instrument for self-assertion or success. It is an abjuration. You have to deny many things, in order to win the more substantial. But it is not a passive resistance either. Exactly the opposite, it is a form of unceasing energy … History is full of great men´s examples. But it has few "human beings" to present." (I. M. Panayiotopoulos)

The human being is social, because he is a person and not an individual. Let us not forget that "respect for the "personality" of the human being is may be the most important ideal of our times". And "uniqueness is something absolute for the person. The person is so absolute in its uniqueness, so that it does not allow itself to be considered as an arithmetic meaning, to be added to other beings, to be combined with other objects, to be used as a means, even for the holiest purpose" (Zizioulas). "We all understand that what differentiates the human existence from any other form of existence, is the self-realization and the dissimilarity. We call self-realization the self-consciousness of the existence,

the certainty I have that I exist, and that I am the one who exists, a being with identity, an identity that differentiates me from any other being. And this differentiation is an absolute dissimilarity, a unique, different and unprecedented character, which determines my existence" (Chr. Yiannaras).

"The personal relation, orthodoxically meant, presupposes the participation in Truth. It is the relation that is created in Christ, who is the incarnated Truth. "The walk to Emmaous (Luk. 24:13) expresses this relation vividly. Christ, according to Luke, walked with them (that is the disciples). This is orthodoxically the authentic interpersonal relation, the walking with Christ. The relation that has Christ as a focal point and an immovable reference point of the people. So only those, who belong to the clan of those who live in Christ, those, who belong to the category of the Saints and those, who fight for holiness can experience authentic social relationships." (G. Metallinos)

These must be added here: "The people can create a society, because by refuting their individuality, at the same time they abolish the massive coexistence." (G. Metallinos)

What creates Sociability?

a. The lack of self-sufficiency: The human being at last ascertains that he is not self-sufficient. He cannot live outside the society, because he is not a beast. Only beasts can live away from the society.

In the society the human being satisfies all his needs (material-spiritual-moral).

b. The spiritual need: It is an inborn mental need of the human being for social co-existence and communications with his fellow-human beings.

c. The spiritual balance: Only in the society he ensures his spiritual balance. Away from the society? He becomes

a. misanthropic

b. inhuman

c. unhappy.

d. The continuous adjustment: Sociability helps the human being to become social all the time.

But what do our times have to present?

a. a loss of the sight of the whole

b. a short-sighted look of life

c. a pass from "according to nature" to the "contrary to nature", that is a denial of the natural order.

d. an absolute and revolutionized self-sufficiency of the individual. (Chr. Yiannaras)

After all these, there is one thing left for you. "To reconcile with the word, that is with the horrible substance it expresses. With its unbeavable reality." (C. Votsi). And this word and reality is one: the right sociability. A primitive sociability.

It is really sad for us to have tested everything, but we do not find redemption. And yet we do not deign to raise our head and to gaze in the Great Arris of Eternal Silence the

so many holy figures, which covered the real grandeur of life so positively.

Of course we do not need to run to the caves or holes of the earth, to find solutions and answers to our questions. It is enough to search for the small secrets of life, which constitute the substance of the everyday routine, without being afraid or trembling. We have already realized that the human being enraptured by his civilization, contemporarily sank into his primitive civilization, he irretrievably buries love and its consistent peace, because he has interrupted every relationship, every bond with heaven.

All these bring us before the question: Where do we take our ship without a stigma, without hope?

Such a questioning easily leads us to those archetypal elements of Apostles´ Acts. The "with one accord" (Acts 1:14) and "they had all things common" (Acts 4:32).

That is we return to the view that "Orthodoxically and Fatherly the Church is not just a set of believers, a sum of human beings, neither a "body of Christians", but "the body of Christ". Basically and mainly the Church is Christ himself, as Man-God. He is our "preacher", who gathers us in his body, his by God made humanity and we the "Church-goers" (the gatherers) the ones united with Him, in order to become our head (Col. 1:24:18)…. Just like God´s design for salvation is age-long, it is the same with the will for the foundation of the Ark of Salvation on the world, the Church. We walk towards that ….. Church, because as Apostle Paul would say, "our polity (that is life, the homeland) exists in heavens" (G. Metallinos). So we end up to Orthodoxy.

And "the way of Orthodoxy is inwardness, the internal transmutation - the metamorphosis of the human being, which leads to orthodox sociability and society. (G. Metallinos). And this way is the only one that leads to the God becoming. And "the God becoming and the authentic sociability of the human being is possible only, if the human being returns to the clarity of the holy image in him, to the clarity of his nature". (Metallinos)

In this scope we can now understand in deep meanings-categories of the Bible, like:

a. brother (new brotherhood)

b. con-servant (everybody debtors to God)

c. neighbour (people of love).

An expansion of all these views creates forms of interpersonal-social relationships like:

a. Friendship: A classic presentation of the walk to Emmaous. It becomes clear that "friendship means sacrifice for the other, a giving and not a transaction".

b. The economic relationships: "They do charity, that is ruled by selflessness and the absence of any idea of interest". (Metallinos)

c. Science: In the life of the Church science is meant as a consistent feeling of the unbuilt acts of God in nature.

d. Marriage: Here we have a rising of the couple beyond the natural determinism and incorporation in the personal communication with Christ "Marriage in

Christ rises the standard of the interpersonal communication in Christ, with the wisdom of the couple and the thanking mention of their common life to God." (Metallinos)

e. Politics: Obtains hieratic-ministrative character.

But since when is this need for sociability created? Already Adam whereas he has the capacity to communicate with God, he cannot communicate with his alikes. That is why God said "it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18)

Abbot Dorotheos describes very vividly the possibilities that are developed now in the relationship of Adam and Eve with each other and with God.

"As the human beings approach God, they go near to each other and as they depart from God, they depart from each other".

But how will the right sociability develop among people, when the people see the others as

a. strangers (result: enstrangement, allienation)?

b. enemies (they see the others as source of evil. Result: anguish, insecurity, fear, anxiety)?

c. competitors (that is why many times an unequal fight is created about who will catch up)?

d. an object of exploitation (of all kinds)?

e. consumption beings (fans, voters etc)?

f. inferiors (anti-social situations are created the weed of pharisaism, of holiness´s egoism etc)?

By doing these pointings out, we substantially agree with what a Greek thinker wrote: "Ethic….comes out at the peak of the pyramide. From there it directs life in all its manifestations. Just like the lighthouse. But the quality of the lighthouse is important for its performance. It is not enough to be technically perfect. It is not enough to have clean windows in all its sides. Neither to be solid and immovable. It must also be able to turn or to escalate its light, either rhythmically to create certainty, either alternately in order to help the side that needs it the most. And it must also be supported on a complete building and on solid soil". (Greg. Kassimatis).

We can look these words metaphorically. Let us not forget that the Christian must be "a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid". (Matth. 5:14).

Of course we do not forget that "the mystery of the fall as a revolt of the creature against His Creator is repeated in all the course of human history…." (Berdyaef). Result: "the human being of the foreseen future would have obtained all the facilities, but he will not be happy. Then he will find out that happiness is not found in the facilities" (Angelos Terzakis). Of course we did not find out this last reality yet. Maybe the solution is somewhere else. Maybe we must face the people differently. And we have so many things to see from such a new facing. We will understand (and we will find out) that they are

a. our brothers, with problems, weaknesses and faults just like our own.

b. images of God, even disfigured by sin. In their faces we must see Christ

c. psychosomatic beings, that is they combine a perishable body and an immortal soul

d. these "Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6)

e. our neighbours. That is why we must love them.

So we end up to another conclusion that Christianity suggests "love" as a solution to every problem. "And love leads directly to social life, to equality, which is the basic and eternal, but also indestructible residence of the human soul, which is manifested in the social environment. But love and equality are always hard and hard to accept things…." (Kassimatis)

Of course in our times many strange things happen. It is a fact that "with the today´s ignorance of everything, one cannot but suspect that many people who call themselves Christians, do not know what this word means and that some others, who deny Christianity unequivocally, are more Christian than many others who support it". (T. S. Eliot). Let us not forget that "the wind bloweth where it listeth" (John 3:8).

It seems that "it is useful for someone to remember, that only a human being cannot have communication problems. And this human being is the human being of love. Where love prevails, communication is constructive and creative. The authentic saint, as a man of love, communicates without problems even with the wild beasts…" (I. Cornarakis)

However, this means that the problem is somewhere else: In the relationship of the human being with himself. Something on which the quality of his spiritual life depends.

That is an issue of correct self-knowledge arises. And this is

because very often we think that we know our self, but without something else happening deep inside. Our surprise is great, when we find out the delusion, in which we live.

A right facing of this issue helps in the correct spiritual awakening, the cultivation and the formation of the human being. And this facing presupposes an unceasing fight for an honest relationship with himself.

For the correct communication with the other, some more things need to be noted, which are completely necessary today, like:

a. A (correct) dialogue with the other.

b. The acceptance by us of the other just like he is. With his peculiarities, his weaknesses, his faults.

c. The disposition to listen. Today, more than ever, everyone wants to talk.

d. And something else. In order a dialogue to take place, two people are needed. If we are psychologically "buttoned-up", how are we going to discuss with the other?

Here we must stress some details:

a. We all are sinners with falls and weaknesses, independently of the spiritual standard of each one of us.

b. "Christ died" (Rom. 5:6) for every human being, fair or sinner.

c. The other is a benefactor for us. And this is because we must not forget what St. Makarios

the Egyptian teaches us: "Because there is no other way for us to be saved, rather than through the neighbour" (Elias Voulgarakis). He benefits us, because he gives us reasons, with the temptations he brings us to become better. At the same time he benefits us because he gives us the chance to …. help him.

d. In the face of the other we must see Christ himself. (Matth. 25:31).

e. The other is opposite us not expecting to come near us. We have to go to Him.

f. We must deny our will (Gal. 6:20, Matth. 10:39), our ego, ourself.

g. It is helpful to stop seeing our self as the standard for the judgement of everything or person. Usually "we do not judge the good or the bad person objectively, but by now good or bad is towards us". (Voulgarakis).

h. In the issue of responsibility which is our stand? Is it possible to ask for a meeting with the other and the fear of responsibility or a disposition of transmitting every responsibility on the shoulders of the other to possess us.

So in order to become correctly sociable, that is in order correct sociability and communication to exist among us, we must fight a lot. If there is something that we do not notice, then the impact and the consequences happen right away.

Unsociability is possible to bring many harms:

a. It increases violence and criminality

b. It leads many people and mainly young people to drugs.

c. It transforms the fringe into people without personality.

d. It cultivates the extreme individualism and the unfair competition.

e. It threatens the social cohesion and mines the harmonious social co-existence.

f. It infringes on humans´ rights

g. It leaves unsolved the individual and social problems.

The facts that the people of our days look for a right sociability, that they want to belong somewhere, that they want to communicate with someones, that they want to have a relationship with someone are already self-evident, but also many times said.

But does the human being today find the channels for right Sociability? Or does he wander regressing? But then it is natural to end up

a. in the group of "the flower children" (hippies)

b. in drugs

c. in the groups of the fringe or yet

d. in the various religious groups with the mass suicides we have seen in the newspapers lately.

Where will we turn to? To Orthodoxy, of course, where one can find what he wants. Only here he can truly live

a. to live

b. to feel

c. to rest by saying: "Thank you God, for giving me a voice to praise You". (Votsi). Whereas at the same time he will pray: "Help me, my God, to continue my way, the long way, which as it goes, it becomes rough and rising. Help me to find Your roots easily in the darkness that I go down." (Votsi).

We should make this our request. And we must be sure. God will give it to us.

Fr. George

MATTER OF LIFE

“Why does this prostitute woman repent? Is it a usual psychological crisis of guilt, an act of contrition for the social outcry a condensation of thirst for moral restoration?”

A contemporary thinker wonders. It is clear that he refers to the prostitute woman, who the Church presents to us on Holy Tuesday. And he goes on.

“The church ignores these justifications. The woman’s repentance, which really marked History, has a unique measure and motive God’s ‘sense”…. What radically differentiates the sinner woman of Holy Tuesday, is her personal recount with God’s truth, her shocking daring to measure the abyss of her sins with the infinite dimension of God’s love… the without dimensions limits of the personal God’s truth and of the human face, revealed through the fact of repentance”.

These, admittedly, sound a little strange in our days, since, as we know, a conscience of no sinning is around. Since, as we all know we didn’t kill, nor…nor…

But how is the issue of the human being’s failure in his life faced? Existentially or legally? Does the human being of today realize that the sin is not just a simple violation, but the factual refusal of the human being to be what “by nature” is?

The human being refuses to be a face. To perform in relation and individuality in communication of love with the personal God and his fellow human beings.

He entrenched himself in his individuality He changes his existential truth. He is disorganized. He is spoiled spiritually. And... he is heading for death.

He is desperately fighting for

a. an individual ensuring

b. a self – sufficiency of good life

c. a social imposition

d. moral recognition.

But eventually he intensifies

a. the breaking up of his existence

b. the size of his loneliness.

Objectively all these leave him

a. in the air

b. in a dead-end,

from which only the experience of repentance can take him out.

That is, since the human being feels the fathomless bottom of the human failure, he will realize the size of love’s potentials. And he will dare the jump from death to life.

The realization of this failure clarifies that

a. the personal achievements

b. the how much you worth

c. the good deeds

do not

a. lead anywhere

b. bring any result

c. count, necessarily in favour of the person.

What is needed is a scream. A scream

a. of trust

b. of love from the depths of our abyss

c. in a moment of recovery

d. and agony

in the subjectivity of our “happiness”.

This way in front of us appears

a. a ceaselessly open invitation

b. a hope

c. a request of the human being.

Of that human being who reached the point to see in him the abysmal deprivation of life. That is to see the necessity of repentance.

But what is Repentance? It is

a. the intense will of God, who is hungry and thirsty for the human being’s return.

b. the encouragement from His part for the recognition of our sins

c. God’s offer for the healing of the wounds, that sin caused to us

d. a product/donation of Holy Providence and by extension a divine gift

e. the result of consiliation

f. and the justification that the Lord offered to the human race with His redeeming work.

Repentance, as it is in the Church

a. is a mystery

b. a virtue

c. is based on baptism.

And this is because it is considered “a second baptism”.

So Repentance that is the power of the absolution of the sins

a. belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ

b. is preserved

c. and allowed from His living Body, the Church, where this grace has been saved, for it and only the Church can handle.

The Church uses three ways for the absolution of the sins, that is

a. the baptism in the water

b. the baptism of the Blood (that is of the Sacrament)

c. Repentance.

Presuppositions: The Repentance to be

a. personal

b. mystic

c. in action

d. and in the disposition

e. hatred against sin.

This way Repentance proves to be

a. a sword

b. and “a hoe”

Let us stress something else: “Absolution does not come from the personal Repentance by itself, but through the grace and the powers of God.

That is they are needed

a. an awareness of our insufficiency

b. a demand of the divine education

c. compassion towards the fellow human being

d. an allowance of forgiveness to them.

Finally, the purgation “is done by the spirit of God, which uses the Repentance of the human being”.

But it is time to transfer our focus to another issue unbreakably linked with Repentance. The Confessor. “The recourse to the Confessor is

a. an absolute need

b. because not only is the human being unable to check... himself, whoever it is, but he also cannot know safely the way he has to follow and he is always in danger if getting away from the correct route”

c. the result “ the danger of the human being to follow his will which in the state of the fall tends to bring him against God’s will

d. a necessary need “because of the ignorance of the dangers and the traps that he will meet on his way and the forces he will face.

a. Obedience

b. The submission to a venerable father

are necessary.

The Venerable father

a. is not a teacher

b. but a spiritual Father,

who

a. spiritually gives birth to his child

b. helps him to increase “until he reaches the point of age in Christ

c. attends the cure of his sick child

d. leads the person who confesses by showing him the correct route in life

e. travels the way, accompanying his child

f. carries him on his shoulders

g. helps him specifically, so that he will not sidestep from the straight road

h. to discriminate

i. to surmount the obstacles that he finds in his road

j. to reach his target

k. especially attends “not to risk to be infected or at least not to be affected by the diseases of the others” but

also not to infect with the disease those whom he tries to look after.

The illumination of the Holy Spirit offers to the confessor a power with a special meaning for his work that of knowing the others innermost thoughts and feelings.

He cultivates

a. humbleness

b. love

c. sympathy

d. expresses his availability every moment

e. patience

f. sweetness

g. leniency

h. the exercise especially of his concern and care, according to Christ’s example for those who do not go well who “really need a doctor” and not with discriminations.

The confessor with his words

a. encourages

b. sympathizes

c. admonishes

d. asks

e. heals

f. guides

g. advises

h. particularizes both the problem and its solution

i. prevents future diseases with redeeming “recipes”

j. prays for them

k. Acts with the example he gives

l. Exercises his spiritual energy always with the free

consent of his child and his cooperation

m. Is strict, when it is totally necessary.

From the side of the child? Obedience is demanded that

a. it is the way that leads directly to the spiritual healing and salvation

b. offers with certainty access to the more advanced stages of the spiritual life

c. helps the human being to deny his will

d. to acquire humbleness

e. to be complete

This way obedience

a. is not a subordination to a personality that imposes itself

b. is founded more in faith

c. trust

d. love

Eventually the confessor

a. respects the freedom of his spiritual child

b. suggests more than he imposes

c. makes recommendations than he orders

d. puts his personal opinions aside

e. attends so that his spiritual children would increase, whereas he “is reduced”

Now, how is the confession done? Of course

a. without omissions

b. overcoming the numerous inner resistances that are especially due to pride and vanity

c. surpassing the fear of crisis or accepting censure

d. surmounting the “offences of the demons, who try to prevent the confession in action since it is both necessary and beneficial, but also essential for spiritual progress

e. looking for characteristic information related to the spiritual meaning and worth all of those we reveal to him

f. and some advice about the attitude we should show.

With confession the human being

a. feels free from the oppression

b. and the darkness the thoughts caused in him

c. feels liberated from worry

d. fear

e. inner sorrows

f. agony

g. the desperation that is linked to the thoughts

h. is possessed by a feeling of relief

i. and peace

j. feels heartless

k. and happy.

Let us clarify here that this relief is not just a result of the expression of all those who burden us. This happens

a. in Confession

b. and in front of the confessor (and not for example in front of an icon).

How does the confessor work?

a. he offers careful

b. and benevolent hearing

c. encourages

d. and urges the one who trusts himself in him

e. undertakes the difficulties his spiritual child has just

revealed to him

f. and he even prays for him

It is demanded

a. complete trust towards the confessor

b. the confession to be always done to the same

confessor

c. the confession not to be an end in itself

d. not to expect immediate results from it

e. to one who confesses to get to know the exact nature

of his thoughts

f. his decision for an undertaking of an effort for

spiritual fight.

A fight that will be characterized for

a. its hardness

b. its fierceness

c. being arduous.

Special meaning has the facing of thought, which are characterized for

a. their subtle character

b. their participation

c. and intervention in the tricks that the demons use

in the battle, so that they will alienate the people

d. the difficulty of the fight

e. the meaning of the toils that the human being will undertake in his fight.

Here

a. the inclinations

b. the dispositions

c. the efforts of the human beings are taken into account, but also the stragedy … that is followed for their opposition.

And

a. the dispositions of the human beings are his passions, which are expressed primarily with thoughts

b. the predispositions are specified by the memory of the evil.

That is by the trace they leave in the soul

a. the passions

b. the faults

c. the omissions of the past.

Let us clarify here that temptation itself, that is, when we

a. do not cultivate it

b. do not host it

c. do not discuss with it

d. de not subordinate

does not compose a sin.

How is it faced? But with

a. attention

b. alertness

All these are medicines of first choice.

These two mean

a. continuous vigilance

b. continuous wakefulness

c. investigation of every thought

d. discrimination of its nature.

So the only solution is the turn

a. to the firm stone, the security that is, which he offers

b. in confession

c. to the Confessor.

And the stone is Christ (1 Cor. 10:4)

+ f. George

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