Part 1. What guided people before the commandments of God?
Photo: pinterest.com
In the words of St. Nikolai of Serbia, “He who gives little, receives little. He who gives much, receives much. He who gives everything, gains everything.”1 Christ gave all—His own and Himself—and gained all. The wounds of Christ brought more blessing to the world than all the power of the Roman Caesars.2 All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth
(Matthew 28:18) This is what the Savior declared to His faithful followers after the Resurrection. Outside the authority of Christ, no one can live, die, come out of hell, or enter paradise. It is an unlimited and awesome power—and it is our blessing that such authority does not belong to a dark vulture, but to the Lover of Mankind, the Lord, who showed a love that surpasses all understanding.3
Thus, the defining trait of Christian love is that it is inseparable from sacrifice. “He did not refuse the overflowing cup of suffering, He did not remove the crown of thorns from His head, He did not lay down the heavy cross from His shoulders. Thus did He unite Orthodox faith with suffering, and love with sacrifice,”4 writes St. Nikolai in his book, I Believe. And for Christ’s followers, the Savior must become our daily bread, he says—and only by this can we ourselves become sacrificial.5
What’s especially striking is that while discussing morality in non-Christian religions, St. Nikolai also speaks about the moral problems within Christianity, and especially those of modern Europe. According to him, European society turned away from Christ after being severed from the ancient Apostolic, Orthodox Church. It began to seek values and ideals in the same places as the pagans—in philosophy and culture. Having distanced itself from Christ, “The European heretical population has been asking Christ the same Pilate-like question for centuries: ‘What is truth?’” Europeans, having embraced papal and Lutheran heresies, have now become closer than ever to paganism. “This is the final stop of Western humanity,” he writes, “in its relentless centuries-long descent from the heights of Christ into the satanic Tartarus.”6
In the majority of St. Nikolai’s writings, Europe—having driven away Christ—appears as a symbol of unbelief and error.7 Having lost the faith, Europe also lost its honor and reason.8 In his Indian Letters, the Bishop of Ohrid writes that both Europe and India suffer equally from ignorance, but for different reasons: India never knew the true path, while Europe knew it and abandoned it. “Salvation is not from India, nor from Europe,” he teaches, “but from truth—and truth is the Eastern, Orthodox Church.” And through the words of the monk Christodoulos, he teaches: “Truth cannot tolerate even the smallest drop of untruth. Just as the human eye is clouded and distorted by even the tiniest eyelash, so is the vision of the world corrupted by the smallest impurity of falsehood.”9
According to St. Nikolai of Serbia, one of the most disastrous consequences of Europe’s rejection of the One God is that it has elevated itself to the status of a “deity”, demanding that “all should worship her as the supreme god.”10 Europe, he writes, has surpassed all forms of paganism, for it “praises no god but itself.”11
The Church, he asserts, is the foundation of European civilization, a civilization no less than those of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, or China. Yet the ruins of those ancient cultures often appear more majestic than modern Europe. Only the Church can give Europe a distinct glory and beauty in comparison to those prehistoric worlds.12 “But,” laments the saint, “secular Europe knows nothing of this.”13 Christ has become a rejected beggar, seeking a place to rest, while atheists and Pharisees—such as Machiavelli, Napoleon, Marx, and Nietzsche—live in royal palaces without a care.14
With his authority as a bishop, St. Nikolai showed that for Christlike Europe15 there is only one path that can make it a a servant of all humanity: the path of sanctity. And the model for such a Europe can only be the Church of Christ, which alone possesses the true image of holiness, humility, goodness, and sacrifice.16 Such a Christian Europe would be able to offer to the Arabs, not mere knowledge, but goodwill; to India, which has its own sacred history, the highest sanctity; to China and Japan, the Christian ideals capable of bringing their nations true joy.17
In his Missionary Letters, the Serbian saint teaches that the root of all of Europe’s calamities, including its crisis, lies in apostasy. God permits disasters to awaken, sober, and call people back to Him. “In truth,” writes the saint, “the Lord used modern means to instruct modern man: He struck the banks, the stock exchanges, the entire financial system. He overturned the tables of the money changers throughout the world, just as He once did in the Temple of Jerusalem. He created unprecedented panic among traders and financiers. He stirred, overthrew, confused, and struck fear—all so that arrogant European and American intellectuals might awaken, come to their senses, and remember God. So that they, secure in their harbor of material comfort, might remember their souls, confess their iniquities, and bow to the Most High, the Living God.”18 But having rejected the law of Christ the Savior, Europeans—unlike some non-Christians—fail to even see moral lessons in the laws of nature. Modern Europe’s doctrine, says the saint, pronounces judgment on its own false philosophy of natural law.19
Reflecting on morality in non-Christian religions, the Serbian archpastor concludes: “No civilization in history has ever perished from a lack of bread; they have all died from spiritual hunger.”20 And it is precisely spiritual death that awaits Europe. For Europe received from God five candles, yet it failed to preserve them and let them go out. “People,” he writes in Conversations, “who become proud because of frequent communion with God fall into a worse abyss than those who had no knowledge of the true God, nor communion with Him.”21 As a result, Christian Europe has gone blind, and morally fallen below even the Gadarene pagans of the Gospel (Matthew 8:28–30). The Gergesenes at least asked Christ to depart, but Europe drives Him away just to remain alone—alone with its swine, and its demonic rulers.22
Analyzing St. Nikolai’s thought, it becomes clear that in his writings, the moral law of God is presented as absolute, unbreakable, and irresistible, just as Holy Scripture testifies. The non-revealed religions reflect truth in a distorted way, because, as he writes, “The human mind, having fallen into sin, drifted from its Creator, became veiled with forgetfulness, and human memory weakened.”23 And thus the Gospel law—For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required (Luke 12:48)—was tragically fulfilled in Christian Europe.
Explaining why there are sometimes more immoral and godless people among those who have accepted the Christian faith than among non-Christians—who never had everything and therefore never lost everything—St. Nikolai of Serbia writes: “He who is not satisfied even with the brightest countenance of truth, does not believe in any truth and no longer seeks any truth.”24 He develops this idea further in his Conversations: “When two men find themselves in the same darkness, it is darker for the one who entered it from greater light.”25 Europe, he says, not only extinguished the Gospel light within itself and blinded itself by turning away from the true Light, Christ the Savior, but also—by its immoral example—drives away non-Christian peoples, who still yearn for Christ. With sorrow, the Serbian Chrysostom concludes: “Christian nations hold the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, but today they hardly enter it themselves, and at the same time prevent others who wish to enter.”26
To the question of what is to be done, the saint offers a simple but powerful answer: Imitate the faith and prayer of the Canaanite woman, and unceasingly cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ: “Lord, have mercy on us sinners!”27 He emphasizes that our Christian faith commands us to pray for our enemies, for those lacking in virtue, for Muslims, Buddhists, those who worship Jehovah, and even for those who idolize the sun and stars.28 “In short, we must pray for all the children of our mother Earth, for all our brothers and sisters.”29
The saint also teaches that our closest neighbor is first and foremost the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, for He said: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37). St. Nikolai continues: “Perfect love cannot be divided and cannot be directed at two objects. Jesus Christ is incarnate love—both toward God and toward man. Through this love, which is one and indivisible, you will love both God and people.”30 And though all human beings are, as Acts 17:26 says, “of one blood,” and all bear within themselves the image of God, those who share our faith should be especially dear to us, as our brothers in the grace of rebirth. Quoting the Apostle Paul: As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10). St. Nikolai urges Christians:To do good to all, that they might taste the sweetness and joy of kindness; and especially to do good to their Orthodox brethren, most of whom do not expect material gifts, but only love, compassion, and prayer.31
The saint acknowledges that Christian nations and states may perish under God’s judgment for their sins, but no one who truly believes in the Son of God—as a member of the Holy Catholic (Universal) Church—will ever perish. To support this, St. Nikolai of Serbia cites an example from Holy Scripture: “There was only one believer whom God had in Sodom—righteous Lot—and He saved him alone when He allowed Sodom to perish.”32
Thus, in his writings, St. Nikolai clearly demonstrates the powerlessness, and more importantly, the lifelessness of pagan religiosity, basing his conclusions on the words of Holy Scripture: But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God... (1 Corinthians 10:20). At the same time, he reveals the beauty and saving grace of the Christian faith. As a confessor of Orthodoxy, St. Nikolai never expresses contempt for pagans, but instead implores them to come to know Christ, for, His divine tears are meant for them as well—to awaken, soften, cleanse, and sanctify them, so that they might no longer be serpent-like, but holy.33
