Elijah – “the Lord is my God”
What do you think, why do we address God? Why do we ask God? Why are we doing this? So that He would help us. In what? Main problems… salvation of the soul. So in what way would God have to help us? In salvation.And in what manner? What is required of us in order to be saved and for that we ask God? OK, I will tell you. We have to know His will. In order for us to be saved God became incarnate and revealed His Will to us. True? In general terms we know God’s will but do you know what is yet lacking? We should learn what is the Will of God for each of us in particular (in detail) relating to our personal life! We need to know God’s will not only in general terms what concerns the general ideas that could be found in the Bible concerning the salvation of souls but what concerns the salvation of my soul, which is realized in God’s Will. Therefore I have to know for what purpose (why) do I live on earth for is someone is called to be a lawyer and as a lawyer to do good for people, other as a doctor, still other as a priest, then how am I called to do good?
The Lord has His definite plan but this Will of God I have to learn somehow with the help of someone. Do you understand? I am speaking not only about getting to know one’s vocation but later on when one is in the process of realization of that vocation there arise different complications and again I need to have someone who would help me to learn how the Lord directs my life, to learn about those little everyday details. Very often in the way we live there is not much interest in what God would want from me in this or that situation. Even as far as when it comes to buying something . Does God want me to buy this? Should I wear this or that? It is not the same. Everything has its plave and meaning. Therefore I have to learn to know God’s Will to the details that regards me personally. And from this point life becomes exciting (interesting). About the necessity of spiritual direction teach us about the Church Fathers. For example, if you want to take a bus and get to some certain place in Phoenix and if you knew that the bus driver does not know how to drive and does not know the streets of Phoenix would you take such a bus? Or in the case of a lawyer, if you knew that the lawyer has a fake diploma and in reality he or she does not know anything would you approach such a lawyer? Or in case of a doctor, if you knew that this doctor purchased his or her diploma – would you turn to such a doctor?
So there have to be people that would help you in different situations of your life. And there have to be those that can help you to know God’s Will. St. Basil the Great teaches us that it is very important to seek the person that would be able to direct my soul (to spiritually guide me). And when I find one I should entrust myself to that person. It is very important to have spiritual direction. Another reason because then I have an excellent occasion to see whether I am proud and in what degree. Because to be spiritually guided I have to entrust myself to someone to direct my soul and to help me to make a right choice in complex situations in my life. Perhaps that person would sometimes tell me to do not easy things for me (As we say “bitter medicine”) and I have to entrust myself if I wish to act rightly.
Very clearly it is seen in the Monasteries. Monks go to the Monastery exactly for the reason that they live there under the spiritual direction. Every monk has a spiritual director. And those monks, each time they have a complex situation or if they do not understand what is going on in their spiritual life they immediately have recourse to the guidance of the spiritual director.
Only God can be an ultimate guide to the soul, the guide to your soul can be the Holy Spirit. Now you may ask, “What is the role of the spiritual director?” He is a mediator between you and the Holy Spirit, Spiritual director is to help you to remain in contact with the Holy Spirit. In the East in Greece, a spiritual director is called ‘pneumatophor’ – a person that is a bearer of the Holy Spirit. A person that is in very close relationship with the Holy Spirit. And when one lives by the Holy Spirit then he can easily evaluate your soul and tell that the grace of God is in you, that the Holy Spirit is in you or that you make mistakes and the Holy Spirit is saddened and is deserting you, because the main motto of the Christian life is a life in the Holy Spirit. When you are in contact with the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit helps you to accomplish what God wants. This is not a question here of being dependent on Spiritual director, no this is not the case. Spiritual director is one that has to help you to make you dependent on God, he has to point out to you your mistakes – where you move away from God and especially when you make a choiceand you have 3, 4 or 5 options and you do not know what to choose. What would be best for you and in what manner you will be best to glorify God. A Spiritual Director is to help you to cope with your desires with your resources, with your heart. He will never tell you “you must do so and so” he will suggest what a spiritual way. And if you want to follow spiritual path do so and so.
St. John Cassian, a monk that lived in the fourth century and left many spiritual writings said the following: ‘Christian life has a goal – ultimate goal and immediate goal. That ultimate goal is to come to know God and this is Eternal life. That is we have as our goal to be with the Lord. Our goal according to Divine Revelation is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because we understand that here on earth we live a short time but the life after this life will be eternal. And the essence of our life here is to get to the eternal life which if one lives according to the will of God already starts here on earth. Or if one does not live according to the will of God, if one resists God then one can experience the reality of hell already here on earth that passes to the eternal damnation. Thus in order to avoid that we always have to choose what God asks from us. So, final destination, ultimate goal is Eternal life and immediate goal… do you know what?...PURITY OF HEART.
Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall God! If anyone has a pure heart he can himself recognize the Holy Spirit and the will of God, So, if we are talking about the Spiritual director, why then do we need him? In order to attain to this purity of heart. When we have a pure heart then we have a direct connection to God. We see Him in us, we hear Him in us and He directs us. Thus a spiritual director is not one that has to hold me in his hands all my life and constantly say what I should do and every minute I have to call him asking whether I can do this whether I dare do that or not – this is not the goal. The goal is that I reach SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. Spiritual freedom is when I have a pure heart. That means that sin does not have any power over me, I am not a slave of sin, I am not a slave of sinful passions, I am a free person. And when I have this spiritual freedom I can hear God, I can see Him, I can see Him in me in my neighbor, in the life circumstances I can see where the Lord is and where He is not and then it becomes easy for me to choose whether place of work or the question of my occupation, or to choose in a daily living different small things that are necessary. Because I perceive and even the voice of my conscience tells me while taking a thing in my hand I hear, even spiritually hear that my heart does not want it that is the Holy Spirit does not want it. True? There is such a thing. You may stand before any object of your attention and you hear that your heart tells you “go away from that, do not have anything to do with that.” For example if you were buying a painting for your home. You pass among many paintings and you do not want anything and suddenly you come in front of a painting that corresponds to your interior. And when you have the Holy Spirit in you then the Holy Spirit is closer to you than you are to yourselves. Do you understand? And one can say that the Holy Spirit is that measure by which we measure all things in our life. And then on the outside you search for something that would correspond to the One who lives in you. Because He would right away tell you “I do not like it, but this is a good thing for you.” See what a wonderful thing it is? Do you wish to have something like that?
Spiritual Freedom is a solution of all your problems. Unless you have a pure heart you do not know what are your real problems! Until you attain to the purity of heart you will not know what are your real problems and your real needs. From the pure heart we acquire an eye for heart and an ear for heart. One can say that in a pure heart there are all our senses – sight, scent, taste, touch and hearing – 5 cell phones through which we connect (communicate) with the outer world and those 5 phones constantly receive information, they endlessly buzz in us, they are read from incoming calls, from incoming information. And through those 5 senses, if we do not have a pure heart, comes in everything. When our heart is pure then those 5 phones are spiritualized and instead of seeking by their means wordly, empty, material information we start to seek spiritual source, the source of light, the source of love, the source of goodness… Just imagine that those 5 senses are spiritualized then the whole person is spiritualized and there is no longer a question of health about which you care so much, there is health.(period) When the heart is not pure then you have a cause of illnesses. Of course it is possible that we have illnesses having a pure heart but those are not illnesses those are given to us for the sake of our spiritual growth. Those are sufferings for the salvation of someone else. A person with a pure heart does not suffer for himself or herself rather he or she begins to suffer for others. And this ids a totally different life. Those sufferings they come for a moment and are gone. There are no such complicated illnesses as one would have due to his or her sins.
Thus, when we have a pure heart there begins a wonderful life. This is Heaven on Earth. This is God in you and you in God… You already have God in you. This is visible on your faces, in your eyes. God is in you. He sees with your eyes as much as you let Him. You have Him in you as much as you let Him to be in you. But when a person has a pure heart he or she is totally devoted to God and then God totally sees with her or his eyes. And there begins the stage which can be called resurrection of your soul. When you are in the hands of sin – you are a slave. When you are in the hands of God you are free. Because all that God wants to do with you is to set you free, He wants you to become like Him.
Saint Makariy spent 65 years in Egyptian desert. Today his Monastery is dedicated to him. People used to call him “god on earth” that is how much he was spiritualized that is how much God radiated through him, that is how much God performed miracles through him and spoke through him that people could not otherwise call him. SS Peter and Paul, the Apostles were called gods. That is people perceived that those were not simple men – this is the man of the living God, this is the man with whom is with God.
In our Christian life we always have to look towards the ultimate goal and this is being in god, this is our likeness to God, this is our holiness. There is no such happiness on earth, no such joy that would compate to that when someone is realized, fulfilled in the Lord. That is why it is very important to have a spiritual director and not to worship him but rather to be humble before him in order to learn to be humble before God.
When you are humble, then God is with you. St John Climacus teaches that those who consecrate themselves to God deceive themselves thinking that they do not need a spiritual director. When I think that I am a Christian and that I do not need a spiritual director it does not matter what is my occupation or state of life, I deceive myself. Those that came out of Egypt had Moses as their guide and those that escaped from Sodom had an angel as a guide, and we, from whom do we have to flee? We should flee from sin. Therefore your spiritual director has to teach you how to flee from sin. Israelites in time of Moses were fleeing from the Egyptian slavery, people from Sodom were fleeing from perdition and we flee from sin.
And one more important point makes St Gregory Theologian in order to persuade us that in reality a spiritual director is necessary. “An eye sees other things but does not see itself. Thus each of us can see other people and say the thing that you do is not worth anything but the thing that he does is very valuable. However about yourself you could never tell such things because you cannot see yourself. “Therefore in each affair have a guide for the hand needs the other hand and the leg – the other leg” – says St. Gregory. “Come children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps 34.12) this is the voice of the good teacher that out of Fatherly compassion encourages to learning. For a disciple is a spiritual son of the teacher. In another words we are to become Spiritual sons of the Teacher. And we know that the Highest Teacher is the Holy Spirit but mediator is spiritual director.”