Respecting Tradition

The following is a translated excerpt from the book; Sayings of Elder Paisios of Mt Athos Vol 1

Many holy martyrs, when they could not explain the truths and dogmas of our faith, would say to those who questioned them: “ I believe in all that was established by our Holy Fathers”. If somebody said this, they witnessed to the truth. Although they did not know how to show evidence to their persecutors to prove their faith and convince them of its truth, they trusted in the Holy Fathers. They thought to themselves: “How can I not trust the Holy Fathers? I know they are more experienced in expressing the faith, full of virtue and holiness. How can I now accept this nonsense? How can I tolerate somebody ridiculing the Holy Fathers?”

We must trust in our tradition. Today, unfortunately, “European etiquette” has become fashionable and people are only interested in putting on a good face. They want people to have them in high regard for their civility and good manners, and in the final reckoning, they end up worshipping the Devil!

“There should be one faith,” they say, and they bring everything down to one level. Some people also came to me and said: “All of us who believe in Christ should unite and become one denomination.” I answered them: “What you have just suggested would be equivalent to taking a pure nugget of gold, that has been separated from all impurities and prepared to perfection and to recombine it with all the impure elements. Is that a good idea? Just ask a jeweler if it is a good idea to mix impurities and scrap metal with gold.

Great struggles have occurred through Church history to clearly define the dogmas of the faith so that there is no room for confusion about what we believe. The Holy Fathers forbade official relations with heretics for good reason.

Today they say: “We should pray not only with heretics, but also with Buddhists, fire-worshippers and satan-worshippers. The Orthodox must participate in their conferences and prayer meetings. It is important for us to have a presence.” What kind of presence? They try to solve problems through worldy logic and excuse the inexcusable. The European mindset believes that even spiritual matters can be debated and decided upon in the spirit of “Free Trade”.

Some Orthodox, who possess a particular kind of superficiality and are interested in generating publicity, which they call “missionary work”, organize conferences and symposia with non-Orthodox. These almost always involve joint prayer meetings. They think that in this manner, by equating their faith with the false beliefs that the non-Orthodox hold, they will somehow promote Orthodoxy.

This then causes the hyper-zealouts to take the other extreme and begin to blaspheme against the validity of the Mysteries of the “new-calendarists” and the like, and those who have piety and sensitivity in matters of faith are severely scandalized.

The non-Orthodox, on the other hand, come to these conferences, take the role of ‘teachers’ and authority figures, take what good spiritual material they can find from us, pass it through their own “laboratory”, repackage it with their own trademarks, and represent it as their own ‘new age’ prototype. The sad thing is that today’s troubled world is drawn to these peculiar reinventions and is destroyed spiritually as a result.

The Lord will, nevertheless, provide figures like St Mark of Ephesus and St Gregory Palamas when the time is right. These people will gather together all of our scandalized and troubled brothers and sisters, to proclaim the Orthodox faith and reestablish the tradition in order to give great joy once again to our Mother Church.

If we lived like our Holy Fathers, we would all have spiritual health, which others around us would see and seek to imitate. This would lead them to leave the false paths they were on and they would be saved without needing any preaching. Our Holy Tradition cannot influence others around us unless they see an authentic continuation of this tradition. They want to see us, who claim to be a part of this tradition, showing our kinship with the Saints through our own lives. Every Orthodox Christian has a great responsibility to be an example to those around him. His or her life should help others to question their own paths, so that they do not excuse themselves falsely and thus lose the great blessings that Orthodoxy has to offer to them in this life and more importantly, the eternal blessings of God in the life to come.

Some catholic boys came to my hut on Mt Athos one day. These boys came with a pure disposition, ready to come to know Orthodoxy. They said, “We want you to tell us something that will help us in our spiritual lives”. “Look,” I said to them, “read the History of the Church and you will see that at one time, we were united and look at what you have become today. This will help you a great deal. Do this first, and next time we will discuss things further.”

In the past, people would put great value on family heirlooms for their sentimental value alone. I once met a very good lawyer. His house was simple and traditional and provided great joy to him and his visitors alike. He said to me that a few years before, his acquaintances would make fun of him because he had old “unfashionable” furniture. Today, they come and admire them as antiques. However, he would use them and take pride in them because they reminded him of his parents and his grandparents and they made him feel connected to them. Others collect various bits of old furniture from antique stores and fill their houses with them, in order to create a haven in their homes where they can somehow take a break from the stresses of the modern world.

People in the past would value items a lot more, not for their monetary value, but because they belonged to people they loved. Many people today do not appreciate, nor respect the past. They are more interested in financial gain and selfish comforts and this takes precedence in their lives. This mentality is slowly taking hold of all of us.

I remember that, when I first went to Mt Athos, the spiritual father of a particular group of monks was a little monk who had great piety. He would collect and lovingly keep as heirlooms, the belongings of his predecessors, even the instruments they would use to make their monastic habits. He had a great number of books and manuscripts amongst these heirlooms but he did not use them, he kept them under lock and key in his library cabinets so that they would not be damaged by dust. He would say: “I am not worthy to read such great books. I will read these simple things- the Ladder of Divine Ascent and the Gerontikon”. A young monk became a part of his hermitage- he did not end up staying on Mt Athos. This monk said to the elder: “Why are you collecting this junk?” He grabbed one of the old instruments and prepared to burn it. The poor elder was crying, “That was my grandfather’s, why does it bother you? We have so many rooms, leave it in a little corner.” This elder had so much respect he would keep everything his predecessors left.

I say this as an example- when there is respect for the small there will also be respect for the big. When there is no respect in the seemingly small, everyday things, this will also lead to disrespect for the significant things. This is how our Father maintained tradition.

This passage has been translated from the Greek and is a section of the following book:

Γέροντος Παϊσίου Αγιορείτου Λόγοι Α΄

«Με πόνο και αγάπη για τον σύγχρονο άνθρωπο»

Ιερό Ησυχαστήριον «Ευαγγελιστής Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος»

Σουρωτή Θεσσαλονίκης 1998, σ347-350.