FISHERS OF MAN – Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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FISHERS OF MAN – 3
Children, why in today’s Gospel Reading Christ says that He would make His disciples “hunters (fishers) of men” and He would not say, for example, teachers or leaders or something similar? Let us see why.
Let us begin with ourselves, as it is the rule, and let us ask ourselves: Are we the bearers of the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart (Jesus prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me), that is, can our mind prayerfully stay in our heart and does our mind become enlightened there? Obviously, not. The reason is captivity of our heart from the senseless (unreasonable) passions. We know very well, above all, that it is the unreasonable passion of vainglory, the high opinion of ourselves or pride; that is, the fact that we put our passionate, defiled nous (regardless of our level of intelligence) as the supreme criterion of everything we perceive around us, and we draw conclusions based on it.
The problem, in particular, is that if reality is entirely different from what we think, we do not even ask ourselves about the negative consequences of wrong conclusions to our spiritual development. We know the cure, but we do not use it. It is the harmonization of the way of our life with the level of the spiritual development we are at, i.e. putting the mind in the process of healing through obedience to the spiritual father – until we attain the enlightenment of the mind.
Now, if we who are aware that we are held captive by the unreasonable passion of the high opinion about ourselves and we are fighting against it, and we still cannot liberate ourselves, then what happens to those who are neither aware that they are held captive by the unreasonable passions nor are aware that they are being led through them to devastation? Especially when we know that the instigator of every unreasonable passion is the demon.
Therefore we can see that just as the irrational animal runs away from the hunter, so the people, seduced by the irrational passions (vainglory, covetousness, and love of pleasures), are led away by the demon away from the Church and the spiritual fathers. Therefore, just as the ordinary hunter must be experienced to catch his prey, so the hunter of men, that is, the spiritual father, must be experienced in order to bring people to salvation. The spiritual father is, in fact, a witness of Christ and an exorcist of demons, and therefore a hunter of people – captives of the demons.
A spiritual father can only be called a person who, with the help of God’s grace, has prepared himself for it and has been called for it. A man who has enlightened his mind with prayer in his heart. A man with a word that springs from his purified heart and that reaches the depths of his neighbours’ heart; A man with a presence in the power of the grace of God.
In his presence passions are paralysed, the demon runs away, and his word brings light, strength, and hope into the heart of the other man.
But even when one physically separates from his spiritual father and when the passion revives again, and when the demon returns again, he is not left alone. The spiritual father with the prayer in his heart, to a sufficient extent, maintains the light, strength, and hope, that is, the spiritual seed that he has sowed in the heart of his neighbour so that the seed in cooperation with the free will of the one in whom it has been sown and with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit can germinate, grow and bear fruit – the liberation of the heart from the passions and from the demonic influence.
So, we can expel the demon from others, only if we have previously expelled him from ourselves. If we do not reach our own heart, through the prayer of the mind in the heart, we cannot reach the heart of others either.
Is it clear now why we have no success in the preaching (mission) and why when someone approaches us we make him similar to us or worse, and not similar to Christ?
And why we distance people from the God-Man Christ, instead of gaining them for Him and for their salvation?
Today, the “hunters of men” are rare. The grace of God, these days, brings people who seek God to the Church and to the spiritual fathers of the Church because they themselves are not “fishers of men”. A different opinion about ourselves to this is delusion.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
03 / 07 / 2021 15:49
