Fr. Savatie Bastovoi: "Good thoughts, Father!”

Let us never believe bad things. And even if we see bad things, let us never tell them to others. And God will grant us good thoughts, and we will be happy, and we will make others happy.

Question:

Father, how can we convince people who have been scandalized by clergy to still go to church?

Fr. Savatie:

Let God work in them. People who are scandalized suffer from pride. They need to pray to God to free them from pride, to give them humble thoughts. Let me give you an example from my life about humble thoughts.

I was a deacon and I wasn’t any better than I am now. I believed at the time that I was very smart. I lived in Iasi at the time and I was on my way to serve at the evening service at the Three Hierarchs church; it was Saturday. I stopped for a while at my sister’s place (she lives in Iasi) and next to her place there was a small church. When I passed by the church, I saw the priest there exiting the church, accompanied by a woman around 30 years old who was laughing and had a lot of makeup. In my mind - since I believed myself to be a very humble man and a diligent monk - I thought: “Oh, look at this priest, next to this woman who is laughing so much…this can scandalize other people!” 

Three Hierarchs, Iasi

I walked by the priest thinking I shouldn’t even greet him, since he was one of those priests who scandalize people by talking and laughing with this woman in broad daylight. When I was near him, the priest said to me: “How are you doing, brother? Where are you going to serve this evening?” And he wanted to embrace me. And I thought to myself: “What kind of man is this? His breath smells of wine too! Is this how we are going to attract people to church?” But the priest embraced me with great love and said: “Come to my church and let us serve together.” And I replied: “I can’t, Father, I need to go to Three Hierarchs to serve this evening” (as if it was below my dignity to serve in that small church).

And so my thoughts were the thoughts of a madman. And look what happened: this priest, with perfect love and strength, embraced me tightly and said to me: “Good thoughts, Father!” And then we each went our way - and then I woke up all of a sudden and realized what I did. This man was a priest of the Living God. And God gave him to see my whole state of being, my whole madness. And God was merciful to me and didn’t leave me in that state. God said to me: “Good thoughts, Father!” 

We ask for these good thoughts in the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian as well…we ask for the spirit of humble thoughts. If we’ll have humble thoughts…oh, how we’ll see holiness in everyone! Oh, if I could be saved by the prayers of that priest…Truly I say to you: people who are scandalized have corruption within themselves. 

May God grant all of us to know this…“Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.” What can we then say about those people who judge clergy? Oh, happy are those who freed themselves from this! Do you know how these people see the world? They rejoice always. Do you know how they want to leap for joy when they see a priest? Oh, you don’t know how much joy they have…as if they saw God! Because God granted them good thoughts. And do you know how many blessings they have because of this? Oh, they already live in the Kingdom which is to come!

Truly I say to you: may God grant us this vision! But this starts with not saying bad things. Let us never believe bad things. And even if we see bad things, let us never tell them to others. And God will grant us good thoughts, and we will be happy, and we will make others happy. This is what I have to say about those who are scandalized by the clergy.

Translated by Grig Gheorghiu from: