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Ek dink nie ek oordryf as ek sê dat ons leef in ‘n tyd waarin mense in ‘n krisis van sinloosheid verkeer nie. Mense weet nie meer hoekom hulle lewe nie; hulle weet nie hoekom ander mense lewe nie; en dis hoekom hulle onverskillig met die lewe omgaan. Dis hoekom ons leef in ‘n pandemie van depressie, selfmoord, genadedood en aborsies; dis hoekom ons leef in ‘n tyd van sinlose massamoorde en reeksmoordenaars.
Kan ek jou daarom begin deur vir jou vra: Wat is die doel van jóú lewe? Wat is die sin van jóú bestaan? Leef jy sinvol?
Dis seker die grootste vraag wat mens jouself kan afvra. Dis ‘n vraag wat van die beste breine in die geskiedenis besig gehou het. In hierdie feit lê een van die grootste onwaarhede oor die beantwoording van die vraag: dat mens deur hard en slim te dink, kan uitvind hoe om sinvol te leef. Want die antwoord lê nie op ‘n intellektuele vlak nie. Dis nie ‘n filosofiese probleem, of een wat rasioneel uitgepluis kan word nie.
Nee: in die Ortodokse beskouing is die sin en doel van ons bestaan eenvoudig, maar ontsagwekkend: om heilig te word. Wat beteken om soos God te word, soos God self op ‘n paar plekke in die Bybel sê: “wees heilig, want Ek is heilig.” Dit beteken op sy beurt om deel te hê aan die goddelike natuur, soos I Petrus sê:
“Immers, sy goddelike krag het ons alles geskenk wat tot die lewe en godsvrug dien, deur die kennis van Hom wat ons geroep het deur sy heerlikheid en deug, waardeur Hy ons die grootste en kosbare beloftes geskenk het, sodat julle daardeur deelgenote kan word van die goddelike natuur. . .”
En soos die Heilige Athanasios reeds in die vierde eeu gesê het, “God het mens geword, sodat die mens God kan word.”
In die proses van ons heiligmaking word ons deur genade wat God in sy wese is. Dis hoe ons god word; nie deur God se wese te deel nie – ons is immers skepsels, nie die Skepper nie – maar deur God se genade te deel in wat God van nature is.
Maar wat beteken heiligheid prakties? Wat is die inhoud daarvan? Laat ek eers sê wat dit nie beteken nie: om moreel goed of selfs moreel beter te word. Morele verbetering is nie waarna ons moet streef as ons heilig wil word nie. Dis ook nie in die Ortodokse beskouing ‘n sinvolle ding om te doen nie. Hoekom nie? Omdat dit ‘n byproduk is, nie ‘n doelwit nie. ‘n Heilige mens is moreel goed, maar ‘n moreel goeie mens is nie noodwendig heilig nie.
Want wat mense heilig en goddelik maak is liefde. Om in liefde te leef is, soos heiligheid, die sin van die lewe en die doel van ons bestaan. Dit is hoe ons God se aard deel: ons word en leef liefde, net soos soos God, wat liefde is.
Dit is hoekom ek altyd vir mense met depressie sê om twee goed te doen. Die eerste is om daagliks bestek op te neem van die tallose maniere hoe God liefde aan hulle bewys; en die tweede is om self liefdesdade aan ander te bewys. Want dit is wat blokkasie van selfgerigtheid deurbreek; en die sinlose bestaan weer sinvol maak.
Maar daar is ‘n ander eienskap van heiligheid en dis waaroor ek eintlik vanoggend iets wil sê: Ons word nie heilig op ons eie nie. Jy kan nie sonder ander mense liefdevol word nie. Want die liefde gaan in wese oor die ander.
Enersyds word ons liefdevol deur ons gemeenskap en die liefdesverhouding tussen ons en God. Ons word liefdevol deur ons samewerking met God se genade, maar ook deur gebede en askese en die uitleef van liefde, of liewers dalk, die uit-oefen van liefde vir God.
Maar andersyds word ons liefdevol in die Kerk. Ons kan nie liefdevol en heilig word as ons nie deel het aan die Liggaam van Christus nie; as ons nie deelneem aan die Sakramente wat ons tegelykertyd verenig met God en met mekaar nie; as ons nie in die gemeenskap van swak, gebroke mense waarin ons onsself bevind, leer om mekaar lief te hê nie. Dis hoekom die Kerk in die Ortodokse beskouing by uitstek die plek is waar heiliges gemaak word.
En dit bring my by die heiliges, want vandag is Allersielesondag, die Sondag waarop die Kerk alle heiliges, bekendes en onbekendes, gedenk. Hoekom doen ons dit? Omdat ons erken dat die Kerk nie net uit mense bestaan wat nog lewe nie, maar ook uit mense wat reeds uit die lewe vertrek het. Omdat ons weet dat liefde die dood oorwin het, en dat dié wat daarom gesterf het, steeds lewe in Christus. God is ‘n God van die lewendes, nie van die dooies nie.
Dat die dooies in Christus steeds lewe is ‘n geweldige gedagte, en ons het nie nou tyd om op die volle implikasies daarvan in te gaan nie. Maar dit beteken dat ons heiligmaking, ons “liefdewording”, ook in gemeenskap gebeur met dié mense wat deur die Kerk erken word as mense wat reeds die doel van hulle bestaan bereik het, mense wat waarlik sinvol gelewe het – en steeds deel is van die Kerk.
En as hierdie mense nog lewe, kan ons op hulle hulp staat maak om self heilig te word, liefde te word. Hoe gebeur dit?
Eerstens deur hulle voorbeeld en inspirasie. Dit is vir my tragies dat ons in die Weste die wonderlike verhale van mense se stryd om heilig te word, hoegenaamd nie ken of ag nie. Die Heilige Simeon die Nuwe Teoloog, wat in die 10de en 11de eeue geleef het, het gesê:
“Wanneer ons die lewensverhale van die heiliges lees, bereik ons twee goed. In die eerste plek laat die voorbeeld van hulle worsteling ons ontwaak uit die verdowing van nalatigheid en in die tweede plek, wanneer ons die lewens van die heiliges met eerbied lees, doen die heiliges vir ons voorbidding by Christus.”
Daar word op elke dag van die Kerkjaar meesal meer as 10 heiliges gedenk – ons gedenk vandag byvoorbeeld 11 heiliges – wat beteken dat daar minstens 4,000 verhale beskikbaar is van mense uit alle denkbare agtergronde en tydperke, wat vir ons wys hoe om sinvol te lewe, hoe om geestelike probleme die hoof te bied, hoe om liefdevol en daardeur goddelik te word.
Die laaste gedeelte van die aanhaling sê ook die tweede manier hoe die heiliges ons help, deur vir ons voorbidding te doen. Mense het dikwels hiermee ‘n probleem: hoekom is dit nodig dat iemand anders vir my bid – kan ek nie self met Christus praat nie? Natuurlik kan jy. Maar vra jouself af hoe heilig jy is, en hoe liefdevol. En hoe selfsugtig en kleinlik en aards jou gebede meesal is. Daarenteen is die mense wat deur die Kerk erken word as heiliges mense wat reeds die pad van heiligmaking voltooi het, mense wat die liefdevolle aard van God in volle maat deel en daarom in die mees intieme gemeenskap met God leef. Hoekom sal mens nie wil hê dat so iemand vir jou voorbidding doen nie?
Die derde manier is deur hulle vriendskap. Met die heiliges kan ons in ons gees en in ons gesprek met hulle, die voordeel en ondersteuning kry van gemeenskap met mense wat God bo alles liefhet en ons soos hulleself. Hieroor kan ek maar net getuig dat ek al wonderlike liefde ervaar en voordeel getrek het uit my vriendskappe met die Heilige Silouan, Matrona van Moskou, Johannes die Doper, Spiridon, en andere.
Laat ons daarom die heiliges nie minag of ignoreer nie. Want hulle is waarlik die groot wolk van getuies rondom ons, wat ons aanspoor om elke las af te lê en die sonde wat ons so maklik omring, en met volharding die wedloop na heiligheid te loop wat voor ons lê, die oog gevestig op Jesus, die Leidsman en Voleinder van die geloof, wat vir die vreugde wat Hom voorgehou is, die kruis verdra het, die skande verag het en aan die regterkant van die troon van God gaan sit het.
Saints, the people who lived meaningful lives
I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that we live in a time when people are in a crisis of meaninglessness. People no longer know why they live; they don’t know why other people live; and that’s why they deal with life carelessly. That’s why we live in a pandemic of depression, suicide, euthanasia and abortions; that’s why we live in a time of senseless mass murders and serial killers.
Can I therefore begin by asking you: what is the purpose of your life? What is the meaning of your existence? Do you live a meaningful life?
It is probably the biggest question people can ask themselves. It is a question that has occupied some of the best brains in history. In this fact lies one of the greatest untruths about answering the question: that by thinking hard and smart, one can figure out how to live meaningfully. Because the answer does not lie on an intellectual level. It’s not a philosophical problem, or one that can be rationally figured out.
No: in the Orthodox view, the meaning and purpose of our existence is simple but awesome: to become holy. Which means to become like God, as God Himself says in a few places in the Bible: “be holy, for I am Holy.” This in turn means sharing in the divine nature, as I Peter says: “For his divine power has given us all things that serve life and piety, through the knowledge of Him who called us by his glory and virtue, by which He has given us the greatest and most precious promises, that thereby you may become partakers of the divine nature. . .”
And as Saint Athanasios said already in the fourth century, ” God became man, so that man may become God.” In the process of our sanctification, we become by grace what God is in his essence. It is how we become god; not by sharing God’s essence – after all, we are creatures, not the Creator – but through God’s sharing in what God is by nature.
But what does holiness mean in practice? What is its content? Let me first say what it does not mean: to become morally good or even morally better. Moral improvement is not what we must strive for if we are to become holy. Nor is it a sensible thing to do in the Orthodox view. Why not? Because it is a by-product, not a goal. A holy man is morally good, but a morally good man is not necessarily holy.
For what makes men holy and divine is love. Living in love is, like holiness, the meaning of life and the purpose of our existence. This is how we share God’s nature: we become and live love, just like God, Who Is Love.
That’s why I always tell people with depression to do two things. The first is to remember daily the countless ways in which God shows his love to them; and the second is to show acts of love to others. For this is what breaks through blockage of self-directedness; and makes sense of meaningless existence meaningful again.
But there is another quality of holiness and that’s what I actually want to address this morning: we don’t become holy on our own. You cannot become loving without other people. For love is essentially about the Other.
On the one hand, we become loving through our community and the love relationship between us and God. We become loving through our cooperation with God’s grace, but also through prayers and asceticism and the practice of love for God.
But on the other hand we become loving inside the Church. We cannot become loving and holy if we are not part of the Body of Christ; if we do not participate in the Sacraments that unite us simultaneously with God and with each other; if we do not learn to love one another in the community of weak, broken people in which we find ourselves. That is why the Church in the Orthodox view is eminently the place where Saints are made.
And this brings me to the Saints, because today is All Souls ‘ Sunday, the Sunday on which the Church commemorates all saints, known and unknown. Why do we do this? Because we recognize that the Church consists not only of people who are still alive, but also of people who have already left this life. Because we know that love has overcome death, and that those who have died are therefore still alive in Christ. God is the God of the living, not of the dead.
That the dead in Christ are still alive is a tremendous thought, and we do not have time now to delve into its full implications. But it means that our sanctification, our “becoming love”, also happens in communion with those people who are recognized by the Church as people who have already achieved the goal of their existence, people who have truly lived meaningfully – and are still part of the Church.
And if these people are still alive, we can rely on their help to become holy ourselves, to become love. How did this happen?
First, by their example and inspiration. I find it tragic that in the West we do not know or give any attention to the wonderful stories of people’s struggle to become holy at all. Saint Simeon The New Theologian, who lived in the 10th and 11th centuries, said:
“When we read the life stories of the Saints, we achieve two things. First, the example of their struggle awakens us from the numbness of negligence and second, when we read the lives of the saints with reverence, the saints intercede for us with Christ.”
On each day of the Church year there are usually more than 10 Saints commemorated – we commemorate 11 Saints today, for example – which means that there are at least 4,000 stories available from people from all imaginable backgrounds and eras, showing us how to live meaningfully, how to cope with spiritual problems, how to become loving and thereby sanctified.
The last part of this quote also tells of the second way the Saints help us, by interceding for us.
Now people often have a problem with this: why is it necessary for someone else to pray for me – Can I not speak to Christ myself? Of course you can. But ask yourself how holy you are and how loving you are. And how selfish and petty and fleshly your prayers are most often.
By contrast, the people recognized by the Church as Saints are people who have already completed the path of sanctification, people who share the loving nature of God in full measure and therefore live in the most intimate communion with God. Why wouldn’t you want someone like that to intercede for you?
The third way is through their friendship. With the Saints, in our spirit and in our conversation with them, we can gain the benefit and support of fellowship with people who love God above all else and US as themselves. To this I can only testify that I have experienced wonderful love and benefited from my friendships with Saint Silouan, Matrona of Moscow, John the Baptist, Spiridon, and others.
Therefore, let us not despise or ignore the Saints. For they are truly the great cloud of witnesses around us, urging us to lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.