Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord!
In my youth, while obtaining a theological education, I studied the hesychast tradition in depth. This is a spiritual tradition that emphasizes deep prayer and ascetic practice. In this way the peace of the heart is attained, as the holy Apostle Paul states, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7). Indeed, there is nothing more precious in the life of a Christian than being a bearer of the peace of the heart and feeling it in your heart. There is no man who does not want to have inner peace. For Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee,” Blessed Augustine said in his Confessions. The human heart can find peace and quiet in God alone, Who mysteriously dwells within it. Therefore, all our spiritual labors must be concentrated in our hearts. Someone once expressed it poetically: The whole spiritual life of a Christian is a journey from the mind to the heart.” That is, as a result we should think with the heart, speak with the heart and do everything with the heart.
Why is the heart so important in our lives? Because it is the center and focus of the human being, and all his physical and psychological processes—that is, the energies flowing through him, gather and concentrate in it as in a focus. As the Romanian theologian St. Dumitru Staniloae (1903–1993) asserted, matter is nothing but energy that has thickened and become plastically tangible. In the beginning God created light: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light (Gen. 1:3). In its innermost depths, all of God’s Creation, including man, is energy filled with light. Man, created in the image and likeness of God, concentrates all creation in his heart. The whole universe is concentrated in the heart of every human being.
That is why some Holy Fathers say that man is a microcosm. “Man is a little world composed of the same elements with the universe” (St. Gregory of Nyssa). “Man, containing all the elements that make up the world, is himself a condensed world” (St. Isidore of Pelusium). As opposed to these, Sts. Gregory the Theologian, Niketas Stithatos and Simeon the New Theologian considered man as a macrocosm. “Each one of us was created by God as a second world, a great world inside this small and visible one” (St. Simeon the New Theologian). We don’t live in the cosmos, but the cosmos lives in us! The cosmos is permeated with countless energies; it is a magnetic field that holds everything together by the power and work of the grace of God: That God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). And all these energies are summarized in every person. Even what we call “reason, intellect” or “mind” is nothing but the energy of the heart.
The mind comes from the heart and is expressed through the brain in feelings, words and actions. How great is this mystery—man and the cosmos, the microcosm and the macrocosm! This is a mystery that we can penetrate through faith alone. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Heb. 11:3). Without faith we are blind. Without faith many things seem unclear and meaningless. The eternal higher meaning and purpose of man and the universe was revealed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who became a Man like us, Who was crucified and rose from the dead to redeem the world. The Resurrection of Christ determines the meaning of human existence and that of all Creation. The Apostle Paul writes: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable (1 Cor. 15:19).
The concept of time comes from the Ancient Greek word “kairos” (“кαιρός”—” a right or critical moment”), and not from the Greek word “chronos” (“xρόνος”—“time”). “Kairos” means the right time for change, when God is working in people’s lives, when people listen to His call and turn to Him, determined to follow Him and co-work with Him.
St. John the Baptist began his preaching on the Jordan with a call for people to repent: Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Mt. 3:2). Similarly, the Savior Jesus Christ began His messianic ministry by calling people to repentance: The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel (Mk. 1:15). God’s time is eternity. The Epistle to the Hebrews reads: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Heb. 13:8). And His call to repentance and discipleship always resounds in God’s eternal presence. In the Gospel of Luke Christ says: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me (Lk. 9:23).
El Greco. John the Baptist
The Revelation of the Apostle John the Theologian reads: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20). Repentance—that is, turning to God or reconciliation with Him, is not just a moment in a person’s life, but a permanent process that lasts his entire life. Day after day, hour after hour, throughout our lives we are called to rise again and again from our great and small falls that separate us from God and return to Him. Human nature is fragile and changeable—we can fall at any moment. But we can also always rise if we cry out to God for help. The wise Solomon says, For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief (Prov. 24: 16). It is also true that everything in human life is co-working with God, as St. Paul wrote: For we are labourers together with God (1 Cor. 3:9). A person cannot do or achieve anything without God. Christ says, For without Me ye can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). But even God cannot save a person without his consent or against his will.
God is mysteriously present and working in our life. Through His uncreated energies He is omnipresent throughout Creation, but remains above Creation, like the Sun, which penetrates everywhere on earth with its rays while being outside the Earth. We read in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory (Is. 6:3). From a theological point of view, God’s continuous care for His Creation is called Divine Providence. Christ asks in the Sermon on the Mount: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Mt. 6:26). In the Gospel of Luke He assures us: But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows (Lk. 12:7).
God cares about everything in a person’s life and in return expects only recognition of this and the fulfillment of His commandments: If ye love Me, keep My commandments (Jn. 14:15). Nevertheless, starting with Adam, people have been constantly violating the commandments of God and suffering from it. Sin is the violation of the laws of God, which the Creator put into human nature. Sin is the violation of His commandments, which He gave to man for a harmonious life. Repeated sin becomes a passion and leads to enslavement by sin, which torments the whole person. We must fight sin to the point of blood, as St. Paul writes in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin (Heb. 12:4).
Our struggle against sin is a spiritual one, and it must continue throughout our lives through prayer and ascetic life on our part. Asceticism in this case means self-restraint in everything that leads us to sin. Of course, we wage this warfare with the permanent help of the grace of God, which comes into our lives in proportion to how we ourselves struggle with sins and passions. There is well-known expression just about this: “Give blood and receive the Spirit.” The paradoxical reality of the grace of God, which requires a bloody struggle from us in order to receive it, is confirmed by all who live in Christ.
Based on these fundamental truths of Christian spirituality, let’s now look at the passage from Genesis about St. Joseph the Fair and reflect on what we can learn from it. The story of Joseph, in who the Holy Fathers see a prototype of Christ, represents the transition from the era of the Patriarchs to enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt. This is one of the most touching fragments of the Old Testament. Joseph, a son of Jacob and Rachel, had a brother named Benjamin and eleven half-brothers. Since Joseph was obedient and hardworking, his father loved him more than the others, which provoked envy and hatred in the hearts of his brothers. They sold him to merchants, and he became a slave to Potiphar, a eunuch and chief of Pharaoh’s guard. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand (Gen. 39:4). However, since he did not succumb to Potiphar’s wife’s attempt to seduce him, Joseph was imprisoned. Here he found favor with the warden.
M. Shulga. Joseph the Fair
Joseph had the gift of interpreting dreams. For this Pharaoh gave him freedom, because he realized that no one in Egypt was as reasonable and wise as Joseph. Pharaoh appointed him second ruler over the entire land of Egypt. He entrusted him with the management (collecting and storing) of harvests during seven years of plenty and the distribution of food during seven years of drought and famine. The drought spread to Canaan, where Jacob and his family lived. When Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, he sent his sons there to buy it. Joseph recognized his brothers immediately, but did not reveal himself to them until their second visit when they brought his younger brother Benjamin with them. With tears in his eyes, Joseph said to his brothers: Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life (Gen. 45:5). At Joseph’s invitation, Jacob’s entire family (seventy-five persons) traveled to Egypt and settled in an area where there were the best agricultural lands in the country. But eventually there were so many Israelites in Egypt that the Egyptians viewed them as a danger. Therefore, they tried to drive them to physical exhaustion by forcible hard labor and exterminate them by killing Jewish newborn boys. After 430 years of slavery the Israelites were liberated by Moses who miraculously led Israel across the Red Sea to Canaan, the Promised Land.
What can we learn from the life of Joseph the Fair, who, as we said above, is a prototype of Christ? First and foremost, his living faith in God and in Divine Providence. Faith in God and fear of sin also strengthened him in the temptation that befell him from Potiphar’s wife when she attempted to seduce him. Faith allowed him to forgive his brothers and not answer evil for evil: But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive (Gen. 50:20). Joseph knew what God’s rule was: To Me belongeth vengeance and recompence (Deut. 32:35). He believed that everything in his life was the work of God.
We know from millennia of experience that faith is associated with experience of suffering. And if a Christian accepts suffering with faith and offers it to God in prayer, it does not have such a destructive impact on his life as suffering of those who do not have faith and do not see the hand of God in their lives does. The Lord allows Christians to experience suffering, and thus they get even closer to Him. So for a believer, suffering is not destructive, but rather redemptive and sanctifying. Joseph was a just and kind man and suffered more than his brothers. But the trials did not embitter him, as they often do others, but made him gentle and forgiving. That’s why he had enough strength to forgive his brothers.
For us Christians, forgiveness is an important part of our faith. You cannot be a Christian unless you forgive those who do you wrong, including your enemies, as the Lord Himself teaches us: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Mt. 5:44). Loving your enemies is more than just forgiving. For forgiveness can be limited to simply forgetting evil. But loving your enemies means responding to their spite with kindness and by praying for them.
Giotto di Bondone. Judas’ Kiss
I will quote St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, who died in 1938. He said: “The soul cannot know peace unless it prays for its enemies. The Lord taught me to love my enemies. Without the grace of God we cannot love our enemies, but the Holy Spirit teaches us to love them. Brothers, I beseech you, put this to the test. When someone slanders you, insults you, deprives you of something that belongs to you, or persecutes the Church, pray to the Lord, saying: ‘O Lord, we are all Thy creatures. Have mercy on Thy servants and bring them to repentance!’ Then you will feel the work of grace in your hearts. To begin with, constrain your hearts to love your enemies. And the Lord, seeing your good will, will help you. But he who thinks with malice of his enemies has no love of God within him and does not know God.”
For us Joseph the Fair is an example of forgiveness of enemies who hated him profoundly. And his forgiveness of his brothers saved all the people of Israel. The power of forgiveness saves the life of an individual, of a nation and of all mankind. The Lord had His own plan for Joseph. But He also has a secret plan for every person, which He brings to perfection, co-working with him. In the wonderful Divine Economy no one is rated lower than another. Everyone has their own mission in this world, according to the talents they are endowed with. We Christians understand this better than others do, as we believe that Christ renewed all of humanity by being incarnated in a human body.
That is why St. Paul wrote: Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular (1 Cor. 12:27). Every member of the Church is assigned a special task. In order for the body to be healthy its members must carry out the tasks assigned to them at the time of creation. If some part of the body does not fulfill its task, it will get sick, and the whole body will suffer with it. Thus, there is an organic interaction between the members of the huge body of the Church and the whole of humanity. When this body suffers, it is because people do not perform the tasks they were created for.
Sin means “missing the target”—that is, the goal that each one of us has in the living body of the Church and society, and also means pursuing false goals. We sin by sabotaging God’s plan for us. But we learn this plan when we join the living body of the Church, when we are involved in the life of the church community we belong to, when we listen to instructions of our father-confessor, because Christian life is a communal one. Man is a social being by nature and finds self-fulfillment only in contact with others. The Holy Fathers said that a Christian is not saved alone, but together with others. The Russian writer F. M. Dostoevsky wrote that all of us are responsible to everyone for everything [the words of Elder Zosima in the novel The Brothers Karamazov.—Trans.]. The faithful should bear the burdens of their neighbors, just as healthy organs take on the functions of sick ones.
Christ commanded us, Repent ye, and believe the Gospel (Mk. 1:15). The essence of the Gospel is the forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation of God with humanity through the death and Resurrection of His incarnate Son Jesus Christ. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:8-9). It is impossible to move forward in spiritual life without the awareness of sin and without repentance. The main sin is alienation from God and unbelief, which all the other sins originate from.
Faith is also the grace that we receive when we ask for it. The Apostles asked the Lord: Increase our faith (Lk. 17:5). Reconciliation with God is related to reconciliation with others and with oneself. The sign of forgiveness of your sins is peace in the heart. The hesychast Fathers speak of “warmth in the heart”, which means to feel the warmth of grace in the heart. The grace of God transforms an insensitive heart into a compassionate and merciful one. St. Isaac the Syrian writes: “Blessed is the man who always strives to prepare his heart pure to receive grace, so that when it comes it can find the fragrance of virtues and the sanctity of the soul and dwell in it forever and ever” (Homily 55. Philokalia. Vol. II). Let’s pray to the Lord that He will give us such hearts. Amen.
