Met. Athanasios of Limassol: On the Loneliness of St. Arsenios the Cappadocian

When you reach the point of giving yourself entirely to God, then you don't need anything more. Then you don't feel that you are alone.

Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian is commemorated on November 10. This text is from a talk given by Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol.

What can we say about Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian, about this great Saint of our times, to whom we are not equal because we lack the abundant grace he possessed? Thinking of him, I remember the beautiful words of Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos from his book describing the life of Saint Arsenios. Because of this, I decided not to talk about the life of the Saint again, to talk about how he was born in Pharasa, was ordained as a deacon by Metropolitan Paisios, then was sent back to Pharasa, where he served as a priest and as a teacher while performing many miracles - all this you can read in Elder Paisios' book. 

I think that the life of Saint Arsenios is already well-known by many. But I would like to note something mentioned by Elder Paisios, who always considered himself a disciple of Saint Arsenios. Towards the end of his book, before starting to write about the Saint's miracles, Elder Paisios said that Saint Arsenios "was alone, unknown, having a single protector - God - but was great, because he gave himself entirely to God and to His image. He was alone until the end of his life, having only God close to him."

Of course, Elder Paisios couldn't write any better about the life of Saint Arsenios, because this Saint survived his, let's say martyrdom, all by himself. He went to a monastery with his heart burning with the love for God, and, naturally, when he also felt internally ready, full of determination to devote himself to God, he gave himself entirely to God. It was very hard for him to abandon this path that he himself had chosen and go on another, very different path. (Note: Saint Arsenios was forced to leave the monastery of Saint John the Forerunner in Phlavianai, and with the blessing of Metropolitan Paisios II was sent back to Pharasa). 

When a man of such high spirituality, such force of prayer, and such love for God was forced to leave a place that he loved - the monastery - and follow a different path out of obedience for the will of God, he found himself alone. He was all alone - and this is not simply a word but a concept that has a deep meaning. If indeed we turn to the Scriptures, we see what the Lord Himself said: "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Genesis 2:18). And this loneliness is a great distress. The man of God is not alone. But Elder Paisios writes that Saint Arsenios was alone. 

And I remember the words that Christ said to His disciples not long before His passion: "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone" (John 16:32). And it seems that these words were said as a reproach, as a prophecy that He will fight with the devil and with the evil of humankind all by Himself. In the Paschal chants, we find words such as these: "Christ went down alone to battle Hades,

He came up taking with Him many spoils of victory." (Synaxarion of Holy Pascha). God performed the great mysterious act of saving humankind alone, with no human support, not even the human support of His disciples.

And this is why He told them, "you will leave Me alone" (John 16:32). Christ gave Himself up to this torment of loneliness. Indeed God said that it is not good for man to be alone, so let's consider that the saints experiencing this loneliness in the world tasted torments and pain to the very limit of human strength. 

So these people experienced loneliness. And when Father Paisios says that Saint Arsenios was alone, he knew what that meant, because he himself had experienced it living as a hermit. He had no other people close to him. He didn't have the comfort that we have in our monasteries, where we know that there are others next to us and that the monasteries are full of people. Undoubtedly, there is comfort for us because we are together with others. But when each of us is alone, we experience this truly terrible torment of loneliness, which is unnatural for man.

Man was not created for loneliness. But when you are alone, then you go into battle with Hades. Man goes to battle with Hades within himself. And during this time he reaches an extreme point that lies at the limit of his strength, from where he has nowhere to go, where he has no power left to take even one step forward. And there, alone, is where he meets God. Either he becomes a saint and saves himself, or he reaches the most evil place within himself. 

This is the most extreme point that a man can bear. This, if you will, is similar to what God said to Saint Silouan about hell: "Keep your mind in hell and despair not." In hell, man is alone and finds despair. You are completely alone, and God leaves you alone on purpose until you reach this absolute limit. Remember the terrible words the Lord uttered on the Cross: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). He uttered these words to show us that on such a path, all who want to follow Christ Jesus will find themselves.

And so Saint Arsenios lived in such loneliness. He was a Hesychast, a man of prayer, a man with spiritual vision. His mind and heart, all his being, were directed towards Heaven. And yet he had to give lessons to children, assemble the old people of Pharasa, find a common language amongst them, and even invite them to have a smoke so that they wouldn't get bored sitting and listening to the word of God!

He lived among very simple people, among people who cared about their daily hardships and not about their salvation in and of itself. These were very pious people, but they didn't lead such an exalted spiritual life as himself. There were even Turks, Muslims who were troubling him every day, asking him for advice, looking for healing, and begging for help. And Saint Arsenios was, in a way, the leader of the whole village. He distributed alms, tried to support the Christians, and was busy with many other things. He was serving together with a few other village elders, and in general, this soaring eagle was forced to live the humdrum daily life of an Eastern village. 

And there was nobody close to him to whom he could talk about himself, nobody to comfort him. Saint Arsenios wasn't born a saint. He worked hard to reach great spiritual heights. He fought, crossed the Red Sea, and overcame anguish and torments. He took the long path of fighting against evil. And this great struggle doesn't involve only external passions but also the internal fight for obtaining the experience of God. And for this, he experienced a great torment - to feel abandoned by God. When there is nobody to talk to, when there is nobody to comfort you, when even God abandons you, then you are in hell.

Avva Isaac the Syrian says he lived thirty whole years in the darkness of being abandoned by God; he tasted the scalding waters that spring from Hades. And after thirty years, God gave him so much comfort, such an abundance of blessings, that he felt it was all he could bear.

And so Father Paisios, wanting to write about Saint Arsenios, said that he was alone, small, unknown in a small Anatolian village. He was an educated man; he could have achieved much in this world; however, he himself chose to remain unknown. And for this, he received his reward. He had God as his protector - and this is the best intercession. Elder Paisios wrote: "When you have no help from man, you receive Divine help; when you have no comfort from man, you receive Divine comfort." Saint Arsenios knew this and refused help from man to receive constant and abundant comfort from God!

Such was the cross of Saint Arsenios. He, an unknown, received Divine comfort. He was unknown, but he was great before God. He was small, but he was great. This obscure man was significant before God because he gave himself entirely to God and His image! Elder Paisios puts an exclamation mark after these words to show the perfection of this Saint. To fully give yourself to God, and as a consequence, give yourself to God's image, represented by man - this is perfection. 

We see touching scenes in the life of Saint Arsenios, who had to come down from heavenly heights to live among people, to heal them, to strengthen them, to teach them, and to explain to them the simplest concepts. Often he pretended to be a fool for Christ so he could escape the praise of the people in the village. After the Asia Minor catastrophe, he followed his flock, the people of God, going on foot to Greece's shelters. And at the end of his life, he preferred to die alone in the hospital, having only God close to him. Thus Elder Paisios describes the Saint's life.

I think that even if we didn't know everything that Elder Paisios wrote about the life of Saint Arsenios, these last sentences would be sufficient to convey the depths and the heights of his life, which reveals to us the image of a life common to all the saints. Of course, each of them proceeded on the path of life in their own way according to their strength and their circumstances. At the same time, looking at Saint Arsenios, we also look at our own path in life. Each one of us stands before the life of these saintly men: truly, the saints will judge the world; they will judge our lives. The saints are a great comfort for us; they assure us that we don't need to seek human comfort, which many times we can't find. But even when we find it, many times it proves to be deceiving and false, and in the end, it confuses and disappoints us even more. 

This is especially true today when many of us feel alone. Even if we live among hundreds of thousands or millions of other people, loneliness is one of our most distinctive and distressing signs. Someone lives among millions but still feels alone. Someone converses with thousands of people and has many means of communication but still feels alone. We are now living in a flourishing time for information technology; many people work and buy whatever they need with the help of various devices without leaving their bedrooms. And yet today, like at no other time, man is alone. And because of this, because he is alone, his life becomes hell. As a consequence, contemporary man tries to find an escape. Often he finds escape in false and even deadly things: debauchery, love of money, vainglory, drugs, and gambling. He finds these things but cannot find comfort.

The saints, among which we count Saint Arsenios, are an answer for our times.

When you experience loneliness and the Lord is close, you are not alone, but fulfilled; you are everywhere and together with all because you are together with God and give yourself fully to God and His image - to man. And when you reach the point of giving yourself entirely to God, then you don't need anything more. Then you don't feel that you are alone. Then you are happy to be alone and are sad when you are not alone. Then you find an answer and a decision for your loneliness. You don't feel the need to do any window shopping, to go here and there, to waste your time left and right; you have only one desire: to stay close to God in your life. If God is in your life, you are not alone. You are together with God, the Holy Trinity, all the saints, and the whole world. And there is no happier man than the saint who is alone and who abides only in God. Such was Saint Arsenios - he preferred, even at the end of his life, not to look for the slightest human comfort; his only comfort was God. He filled his being with the truest comfort - the presence of God in his life, in his heart.

Let us also receive God in our lives, so that He can enlighten our darkness and sweeten the bitterness of our loneliness, turning its poison into healing and allowing us to partake in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.