Let’s remember what Christ told us: Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves (Mt. 10:16). He said this to the Disciples, and through them to all His other disciples throughout the ages. Our elder of blessed memory would say:
Very well, our Lord Jesus Christ! You didn’t tell us that we’re Your sheep and You’ll send a few wolves to us. Let’s say there will be 500 sheep, and several wolves will come to them—fifty, for example. Then at least one sheep would be able to escape. Each wolf will devour ten sheep, and perhaps five or six sheep will escape this fate. But You, Lord, say that there will be ten of us sheep, and You’ll send us among 500 wolves. What will be the fate of these sheep? Not a single sheep will remain. Their fate is predetermined. They’ll drink all their blood. Ten sheep amidst 500 wolves—there are no options to avoid destruction, and that’s it.
But despite this, these sheep will defeat the wolves. It’s a miracle that happens by Divine logic. And the Lamb overcomes the beast. He Who seems weak, gentle, meek, Who doesn’t curse, doesn’t cause disturbances, but in His way, by His Divine power, conquers this world. Why? Because it bears the seal of Christ. And here the Lamb, Christ Himself, intercedes for His people, goes ahead of those who followed the Lamb (as we read in other places: the Lamb and a multitude of people, a huge crowd in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, who are like the Lamb and follow after Him).
Of course, as another good elder said: “To follow the Lamb, you have to be a lamb.” If you’re a wild goat, you won’t be able to follow the Lamb: You run up and butt others, you rush off to leap across the rocks, you behave like the goats of Paphos, and you don’t become a lamb. A sheep is one thing but a baby goat is another. They may be from the same family, but they’re very different. Those who follow the Lamb become lambs—take note of this. But if we want to be wild goats, then we don’t know where we’ll wind up. We’ll see. Somewhere among the potatoes.
However, this Lamb, this mysterious Lamb, bears the name of Lord of lords and King of kings. You see, this is another testimony of the Holy Scriptures about the Divinity of Christ. A testimony of Who is Lord of lords and King of kings. The same designation is given to God the Father and God the Word. Christ is the Lord of lords and King of kings. And those who are with Him, who follow the Lamb are the called, the chosen, the faithful. Do you remember how Christ says in the Gospel: For many are called, but few are chosen (Mt. 22:14)? This is talking about those who are called, and chosen, and faithful. We’re all called. All people are called to the Kingdom of Heaven. There’s no man who isn’t called to the Kingdom of God. If there were such a man, he’d have the right to say: “It’s not my fault that I don’t follow Christ. After all, I wasn’t called, I wasn’t invited. How can the Lord punish me and send me to hell for not following Him? He didn’t call me.” So it turns out God’s to blame, because He’s biased, partial, calling some and not others. But it’s not like that. We’re all called.
And few are the chosen. Who are they? Those who accept the Lord’s invitation and follow Christ without compulsion, by their own will, and walk His path. That’s why Christ told us: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me (Jn. 12:32). “When I’m crucified on the Cross, I’ll draw everyone to Me and give them the opportunity and strength for salvation.” We’re all called, but the chosen are those who follow Christ and remain faithful to Him.
You know, it’s not an easy thing to remain faithful to Christ. When the Fathers of the Church and saints talk about it, they know what it means. Perhaps we haven’t experienced this, but when hell is within a man, when he’s experiencing terrible problems, then unbelief attacks him. A great question arises then: Where is God now?
Once, many years ago, one man (who’s now a man of God in all respects) turned away from God because he was facing several serious problems. He experienced it with his whole being, very heavily; everything was against him. He was ready to rebel against God. And in this state, he passed by a church (this was in Greece. I was on the Holy Mountain then), turned to the church, and said to Christ: “Well, where are You; where are You? If You exist, don’t you see the situation I’m in? I’m completely crushed, completely destroyed; everything’s going wrong. If You exist, I spit on You.” Don’t be afraid, such things happen, but it’s not easy for a man to say such a thing. When you find yourself in such a position, when you’re pushed to the extreme, you could end up saying something like that. He spat upon God. “Since You see me and don’t help me, don’t take pity on me, it means You don’t care.” And this man really was in hell, in every sense of the word; everything was going awry and collapsing around him. After this, he fell into a terrible darkness. Later, by God’s providence, with the help of spiritual men, he found himself and truly became a man of God; but he went through such a terrible experience.
You know, that’s why they say, “faithful servant of God.” As the Lord said about St. Antipas, who suffered martyrdom in Pergamon: My faithful martyr (Rev. 2:13). It’s not easy to remain faithful to God. Do you remember Job? God said to the devil: “Do you see that Job is faithful to Me?” “Of course he’s faithful when his granaries are full, everything is good with his children, everything’s going well. But let me tempt him, and then we’ll see if he remains faithful.” And the devil received authority to tempt him and stirred up and shook Job with all his might.
When everything’s going well for us, why wouldn’t we be faithful? When you say: “I’m very grateful to God! Everything I’ve ever asked of Him, He’s given to me.” Woe to me if I’m not grateful in such a state! But what’s the value of such gratitude? “We’ll see, when the hour comes, when I don’t give you everything you want, when everything you do falls to pieces, when you’re crushed, when you melt completely from head to toe—then we’ll see how faithful a person you are.” The Lord says that then the true servant of God, the faithful, the chosen will reveal himself. In such difficult moments, let us entreat God to strengthen us. As Christ said to the Apostle Peter: Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren (Lk. 22:31–32).
When Peter renounced Christ, he became very deeply distraught and deeply grieved over his fall. Another disciple, Judas, was driven to suicide by such grief. Peter wept bitterly out of contrition. Christ prayed for Peter so that his faith wouldn’t fail. He was, above all, an apostle of faith, so we should always keep this in mind and ask God to strengthen our faith. And in difficult hours, we will keep our faith. I think that every man, at least once in his life (I think it only happens once, because twice would be too much) reaches the limit of his strength, reaches hell, when there’s nowhere else to go. If you don’t go through this during your life, it will happen at the moment of death, at your last moment.
When you see that everything has passed, that you’re leaving this world, you’ll experience the final state of your existence. At that moment, everything is lost, truly everything—only faith remains. We have to try to remain faithful to God, to continue believing that God is near, that God exists, that He won’t leave us. This faith will be the thread (very strong, but a thread) that you’ll hold and hang onto in the abyss—what matters is to not let go of it in this chaos. If a man goes through this one day, then everything else in his life after that will be like mosquitoes. But it’s a very difficult experience: The closer you come to the edge at that moment, the more intense and fulfilling it is. Imagine that a steamroller first runs over you and flattens you into a pancake (like we sometimes see on the roads—poor animals that have been run over, with only their skin left on the pavement), and then a bicycle rolls over you.
I remember the ever-memorable Metropolitan Augoustinos (Kantiotes) of Florina. He was fervent and reproving; if he were here speaking to you about Revelation, it would be a tremendous thing. I don’t have his gift. Once he came to the Holy Mountain. Being fiery, he got worked up, became heated while speaking about the Patriarch, about superiors and the authorities, and so on. The Sacred Community of Mt. Athos held an extraordinary session and asked him to leave Athos. He served Vespers in one of the monasteries, after which they asked him to leave the Holy Mountain. It was nighttime. I was with him then at Vespers; I didn’t participate in the Sacred Community meeting when they made this decision. They came and told him: “Your Eminence, the Sacred Community has decided that you must leave the Holy Mountain. Please do so immediately.” The Sacred Community has that right. It was already late. I thought: “How can they drive him out so late?” He was already an elderly man. They made an exception and allowed him to leave the next day at sunrise. Everyone was upset. He was a great man, a holy man of his era. But you could understand the Sacred Community too—it belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarch, and His Eminence had really excoriated him…
Metropolitan Augoustinos (Kantiotes) I went to the cell where he stayed that evening to see him, to speak with him a bit. I asked him:
“Are you upset, Your Eminence, that the Sacred Community kicked you out?”
“My poor father, I’ve been run over by a steamroller! What’s all this to me? Just a bike! A bike! A bike! I’m not upset at all. I’ve gone through such thunderstorms in this life—they’re all trifles.”
And indeed, when a man tastes the whole of hell, everything else is a trifle. But you’ll have to go through it once. You have to descend down there. Perhaps it will be a very painful experience (there’s no greater pain than such an experience), but after you go through it (and it can last for years, for a long time), you’ll recover, you’ll get stronger, and you’ll be wonderful. It really helps, but only if you don’t lose faith. Therefore, Christ told Peter: I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not (Lk. 22:32). Our Fathers also took note of this point: Be careful, keep the faith. It’s a big deal.
Those who follow the Lamb are the called, chosen, and faithful. It’s difficult to remain faithful to God, but at the same time, it’s the simplest thing we can do.
The angel continues to explain to St. John the Theologian: And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire (Rev. 17:15–16). The ten horns that you saw on the beast will hate the whore (this city, this empire, this event). They will hate her, rise up against her, ravage her, strip her bare, devour her flesh and completely burn her. The whore is destroyed by the very beast upon which she sat with a cup filled with the filth of her fornication, which intoxicated those living on earth.
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled (Rev. 17:17). And even without desiring all this evil, they won’t be able to escape God’s design. God’s creation won’t be left without care, won’t be left to chance. Everything is under the watchful eye of Divine providence.
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:18). Thus ends chapter 17.
I remember when there were serious discussions about the antichrist on the Holy Mountain, the fathers said:
Look, let’s attend to our spiritual life, watch over it, over our duties that God speaks of. Let us live in the Church by repentance and await the Coming of Christ. Are we really going to live in anticipation of the antichrist? After all, it’s Christ we desire! Forget the antichrist. He doesn’t interest us. And why should we be interested in him when we could die tomorrow? Or the day after, or sometime soon. I’ll go to Heaven to meet Christ there. And there it will be seen what I’ve done with my hands. We shouldn’t be pondering whether the antichrist has placed his mark on us when he hasn’t even come yet. We mustn’t live preoccupied with such things.
Christ speaks about this, says Revelation, so we’d be vigilant. But as we said at the beginning, Revelation is a book not about the antichrist but a book about Christ. It doesn’t talk about the victory of the antichrist but about the victory of Christ and the crushing of the antichrist and victory over the devil. It’s an extremely optimistic book that talks about Christ’s victory in the world. It wasn’t written to frighten us, but to encourage us. Despite all this, Christ will prevail. He’ll remain forever and everything else will disappear. This is the meaning of the Gospel.
—I’d like to ask a question about the names that will be written in the Book of Life. Will it only have people who received Baptism and Chrismation—the seal of the Holy Spirit? What do the Holy Fathers say about it? Is it necessary to be baptized for your name to be written there?
—A very good question. Christ tells us in the Gospel: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved (Mk. 16:16). But we don’t know what Christ will do. We want everyone to be saved and enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven. As St. Silouan the Athonite said: “Lord, give them Your Holy Spirit so they may know You through the Holy Spirit.” This is how the Church prays.
We don’t know what Christ will do. However, we know that the Lord established the Church as the ark of man’s salvation and left Holy Baptism and Chrismation as the Sacraments of rebirth and the renewal of man’s powers. He said: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you (Jn. 6:53). He spoke about this unconditionally.
Of course, everyone wonders: “But what will happen to all the other people? Will they really all perish?”
The Gospel has an answer to this question. In the Gospel, we’re commanded to preach the good news to every creature, to love all men, to treat everyone with reverence, to pray for the salvation of the whole world, to see others as our brothers, not as strangers. But if we start saying: “It makes no difference whether you’re baptized or not,” that would mean Christ was lying in the Gospel. That’s why I can’t speak the falsehood of the world. Today there are theories that we’re all children of God, we all believe in the same God, all religions are monotheistic, but this is a lie.
Do we really believe the same as Islam? We believe in God the Trinity, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Islam doesn’t accept that God has a Son. There’s no connection with Islam. What about Judaism? Do the Jews accept faith in the Holy Trinity? Do they accept the Incarnation of God the Word? Do they accept Christ as the true Savior of the world? We believe differently. When we start saying: “You believe in the same God. We have much in common,” then we’re lying. It’s better to say: “Look, the Gospel says this. We love you; you’re our brothers according to the flesh, as we’re all children of Adam, but this is what the Gospel says.”
To be continued…
