Posted by Fr. Evangelos, Share the Faith Director
Glory to our Jesus Christ!
To Share the Faith we must Live The Faith. Living The Faith presupposes that we know, or at least are continually learning, The Faith. We can learn about The Faith from this recent FB post from famous CCM recording artist of old, Ron Ephrem Moore, who served a year on our STF Board. Ron shares the following good counsel from the contemporary Man of God, Holy Paisios (+1994) of Mt Athos, showing how we should act when forgiving those of us who have not lived up to how we should be:
St Paisios once said, “A Christian must not be fanatic but have love for and be sensitive towards ALL. Those who inconsiderately toss out comments, even if they are true ones, can cause harm. I once met a theologian who was extremely pious, but had the habit of speaking to the people around him in a very blunt manner; his method penetrated so deeply that it shook them very severely. He told me once: “During a gathering, I said such and such to a lady.” But the way that he said it, crushed her. “Look”, I said to him, “you may be tossing golden crowns studded with diamonds to other people, but the way you throw them can smash heads and not only the sensitive ones, but the sound ones also.”
Let’s not stone our fellow-man in a so-called “Christian manner.” A true Christian:
• never behaves like a teacher;
• will LISTEN, and,
• whenever his opinion is requested, he responds humbly. In other words, he replies like a student!!!A person who begins to do something with a good intention and eventually reaches an extreme point, lacks true discernment. His actions exemplify a latent type of egotism that is hidden beneath this behavior. He is unaware of it, because he does not KNOW Himself that well, which is why he goes to…extremes.
To which I can only add that I once spent spent 17 mins alone on Athos (April, ‘88) with Holy Paisios and was inspired by his humility. Holy Paisios and all the Fathers teach that repenting leads to knowing oneself. Knowing oneself leads to being truly humble. Being truly humble leads to one being able to effectively reach a soul for Christ and His Church. And such is the way of a true believer.
Get Your heart clean. Live The faith. Pray. Be of few words but much example. For just as it is in LIFE, in missions, “Example is everything”.
Glory to our Jesus Christ!
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