Fr. Rafail Noica: the last days contain an extraordinary grace
"O, Lord, grant us light to learn how to struggle ascetically, how and in what way to profit from these terrible and amazing times in which we live."
Know that these are clearly the end times. Even the Apostle John 2,000 years ago said that they were. They were, in the form of a seed, but today what was unbelievable when Revelation and other prophecies were read is technologically feasible. It is terrifying, but if our God is called All-Powerful, in our days we will see what All-Powerful means, and we ask You, Lord, to show us this if we are to traverse these periods of time. They are terrifying, but we will not despair because God is merciful and God is great. The attacks and storms that come upon a person are already incomparable to those before. Someone said last night, a Metropolitan I think, that in our lifetime, in the past 30 years, the world has become unrecognizable. So it is, and it changes with each hour that passes!
An experienced nun, Sebastiana, from the region of Timisoara, whom the Lord took a few years ago, told a priest whom I know: “Father, we have not encountered such times as these. I experienced wars, famines, and persecutions, but I never saw times like these. Yesterday–she said–I needed four hours to read an akathist.” Do you understand why your mind wanders and does not remain in prayer, in church, or in your cell? Yes, we are sinful, but know that it is not only our sin. There are other things that we cannot determine, but I tell you this as the testimony of someone older who experienced other worlds. I too already see myself as the witness of another world for those today who are 30 or 20 years old, or less. And yet our Elder [Sophrony] was the witness of a world before World War I, and he told me that afterward there was never again the same peace which he remembered from his youth, that calmness in the world which he felt. After the first worldwide fratricide, grace left the world and did not return. After the second worldwide fratricide, it was even worse, and during the 70’s he would tell us: “If another World War takes place, it will be impossible for faith to exist in the world.
I see that what I called faith went bankrupt many times in my life until I began seeing that I do not have it, and this is a characteristic of our epoch, not only of Stan Patitul [a character in a book] who says, that is, “You believe that…” and you realize “no”; it is as if you stand firmly on something solid, on solid boards, and someone puts a tie around your neck, the boards fall from under you, and you realize that it is a noose. Forgive me, but this is what the evil one wants to do to us. However, this is the first part of the word given to Elder Silouan: “Keep thy mind in hell”–do not imagine that the world is otherwise. We must be serious and aware! But, “and despair not” is the second part. God, Who hears me now, is powerful and can spare me from this noose and this “trapdoor” that falls from under my feet.
But, Lord, protect us, because as many said last night and today, temptations are more terrible today. Not only more terrible, but also more subtle, more unheeded. You think that you are a believer and you realize that your reactions are the reactions of an unbeliever. Your faith fails you, it betrays you. It is not a reason to despair. When we observe these things it is a reason to draw closer to God; and I would say even more: it is a reason to rejoice. It is the time to rejoice with joyful sorrow, and a hidden joy can exist somewhere if we have more faith and more understanding in the direction are going: it is God! It is the uncreated light that is next to me, within me somewhere, and it illuminates me and shows me how sinful I am.
I ask God to strengthen you in these days, days of sifting, days that are very painful, terrible, frightening–“keep thy mind in hell,” but also, “and despair not”–days that contain an extraordinary grace. In a world that today, en masse, massively, permanently slips more and more into all that is apparently sweet–oh, how bitter sin is, with all its “sweetness,” and the evil one tricks us if we are foolish!–into sin that displays itself as the ethics of a permissive society, as it is said in the West. The fact that, for better or worse, we fools are lacking such “sweet” things which our comrades gave us does not have much value. Freud and others taught us to do whatever we want. Thank you “comrade” Freud, I do what I want. But is our choice today not more valuable than at any other time? God knows how much more valuable it is, but there are prophets who also encourage us. So, these are days of extraordinary grace and I would like for the Lord to give us that extraordinary light, extraordinary hope which He gave us through Saint Silouan’s word, through “despair not.”
Let us profit from these days that the Elders of the past prophesied would be terrible, and at the same time, that many would have wished to be alongside us, to struggle with us in our times. O, Lord, give us light to learn how to struggle ascetically, how and in what way to profit from these terrible and amazing times in which we live. Great pain—pain is tied to birth. I believe that all pain is a birth. So, Lord, what birth have you reserved for us in these times? Make us worthy, O Lord, to see them as well.
Conference held at Ramet Monastery with the Synod of Metropolitans and first synaxis of exarchs, abbots, and spiritual fathers from the monasteries of the Cluj, Alba, Crisana, and Maramures Metropolises, Nov 9, 2006.