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Δευτέρα 6 Ιανουαρίου 2014
MODERN CIVILIZATION. ELDER PAISIOS.
MODERN CIVILIZATION
"Civilization is a good thing but if it is to be
beneficial, the soul must also be 'civilized'."
God's Wisdom and the Environment
« Wisdom Hast Thou Made Them All"'
Geronda, is it right for us to destroy the swallow nests?
The swallows leave droppings which soil the area and attract bed bugs. - Well,
can you create a swallow nest? Look at what God has created with just one word!
What harmony, what variety! Wherever one turns, one sees the wisdom and the
grandeur of God. Look at the celestial lights, the stars; with what simplicity
His divine hand has scattered them in the sky, without using a plumb line and
level! They give such comfort to people, whereas man-made lights tire the eyes
even though they are placed in regular distances. You see, trees planted by man
in a forest, resemble an army battalion, whereas natural forests, made of trees
of different colours and sizes, comfort the human eye. Natural forests are so
peaceful and restful! Some trees are small and others are big, and each one has
its own colour. One of God's small wild flowers has more grace than a pile of
fake paper flowers. They differ as much as nylon differs from ay Ion.
Everything that God has made is a wonder in itself.
The human body, for example, resembles a factory. God has arranged everything,
the heart, the liver, the lungs, and so on with great wisdom. Think of the
wisdom with which plants are made! During the German occupation, we used to
plant about five irrigated acres of melons. Once, I cut off the big leaves that
lie near the roots, thinking that it would be good to clean them out. But those
big leaves underneath serve like filters - they are the plant's kidneys - and
absorb the plant's bitterness. When the melons ripened ... the bitterness was
so bad that our tongue was stinging for hours!
- Geronda, you notice everything! - Yes, I find God in
animals, in plants, in everything! How can you not admire it all? You see a
tiny bird travelling to Africa and returning to find its old nest without the
use of a compass! And people, even when using maps and signs get lost! And it
is not as if the birds walk on earth and mark the routes where they pass from.
They fly in the sky, high above the sea, and cannot possibly mark these areas:
Some small birds climb on the storks, the "aeroplanes", to travel by
"aeroplane" to their destination! During their journey over the sea,
they stop occasionally on the islands they find on the way to rest.
Once, when I was at the Kalyvi of Timios Stavros (Holy
Cross), I saw a flock of birds coming from the east that looked like sparrows
but were bigger and prettier than sparrows. Four or five birds from the flock
seemed to have gotten tired and could not fly any more. At that point, about
fifteen more birds broke from the flock to join the tired ones and rest on a
tree, while the rest of the flock continued to fly. They rested a bit and then
took off together. They climbed very high to get their bearings and to find
their flock again. What impressed me was that the four or five tired birds were
not left alone, but another fifteen of them broke off from the flock to keep
them company!
Everything God created is beautiful! Have you seen how
beautiful and yet, varied are the colours of kittens' coats? Wherever you turn
your head, you will encounter God's wisdom. In the old days, everything was
natural and beautiful. You see, when the rooster crows it's not because it is
telling the weather. It just sits on one leg and when that gets numb, it crows
"cockatoo". But it knows how many hours have lapsed. It switches legs
and when the one it is standing on gets numb it crows again. And you know it
does that at fixed intervals, at twelve, at three and at six o'clock in the
morning, every three hours. It does not even have a clock or a battery and it
certainly does not need winding!
Anything that you see or hear in this world, you
should use it to reach up to Heaven; let it transport you there. Climb up step
by step, from the creatures all the way to the Creator. The Americans went to the
moon and at least they placed a sign up there that says, The heavens declare
the glory of God. The Russians went too, but Gagarin4 said that he did not find
God. How could he possibly find Him, since he went with his feet upward and not
with his hands raised up? That's how
some people end up saying, "Nature created the universe." The entire
universe? Now, an old machine breaks down and a whole group of technicians and
workmen gather to repair it. They put their heads together and they try again
and again. And it's only an old machine. But God moves the entire globe without
electricity and the battery never runs down and the engine never quits! And the
earth turns with such a speed that man does not even notice! Isn't that
amazing! If the earth were turning slower, man would be tumbling all over the
place! Can you imagine that the sea contains so much water and moves with such
great a speed without spilling it! Do you realize that the stars with their
huge mass move with vertiginous speeds and yet do not touch one another and
always keep the same distance? And here comes man and makes an aeroplane and
glows with pride! And if he goes a bit mad, he starts making no sense and has
no idea what he's saying.
Our Modern "Achievements"
Civilization is a good thing but in order to be beneficial
the soul must also be "civilized". Otherwise, we are in for a total
disaster. Saint Cosmas said, "Evil
will come from those who are educated."
Despite the fact that science has advanced so much and made tremendous
progress, when it tries to help people it often ends up harming them,
unintentionally. God allows man to do whatever he wants. But when we don't
listen to Him, we end up in disaster. The very things we create destroy us.
What have we achieved in this century with our civilization?
We have driven people mad and have polluted the atmosphere and the environment.
When the wheel leaves its axis, it spins aimlessly out of control. Similarly,
when people stray from God's harmony, they are tormented. In the past, people
suffered from wars; today they suffer from civilization. Then war made them
leave the cities and go to the villages where they lived off a small field. Now
they will abandon the cities on account of civilization, because they can no
longer live in them. In the past wars brought about death, now it is
civilization that brings about diseases.
- Geronda, why has the death rate from cancer gone up
so much?
- It's the result of what they did at Chernobyl. This is all man-made ... We live in such a
crippled world! Can you think of a time when so many people were sick? It was
not like that in the old days. Now all the letters I get in the mail are about
cancer or mental disease or strokes or broken homes. This is what I hear
everyday. In the past, cancer was rare. You see, back then, people led a
natural life. God of course allowed illness, but that's another matter. People
ate natural foods and were full of health. Fruits, onions, tomatoes and so on,
they were all pure. Now even natural foods will make people sick, because everything
around us is contaminated. If things were this way back then, my eating habits
would have killed me since being a monk, I ate only leeks, lettuce, onions and
cabbage from my garden. And yet, I lived on that diet for years and I was so healthy.
Now they use fertilizers and pesticides. Think of all the diseases brought on
by food and stress. When science is used indiscriminately, thousands of lives
are ruined.
- Geronda, in the past, why did people bear asceticism
better and were much healthier than they are today? Did the foods they ate also
help? - Yes, because back then food was pure. This is beyond question. Then
they used to eat everything ripened. Now they cut everything before it ripens
so that it does not spoil and they keep it in refrigerators. The fruit is
gathered while still green and left to ripen. In the old days, fruit would get
ripe while on the tree and then it would either fall from it or drop in your
palm the moment you touched it. But besides eating good quality, healthy foods
- bread and butter and milk were very nutritious foods for children - people
would also use their mind and could tell if they got sick because of something
they ate. Today, our food is adulterated and on top of that people will not put
their mind to work.
And look at how many of the things that we make today
are useless! We have gradually done away with wool. It's difficult to find a
woollen sweater to absorb your sweat. I put on a woollen undershirt and I can
tell right away if it has synthetic material in it, because my body cannot
breathe. I experience discomfort and I feel like I am about to suffocate. And
they consider synthetic fabrics better, sturdier; they consider it progress!
But are these things healthy? If you consider the way they make them, they are
actually quite unhealthy. And the labels will still say, "Pure Virgin
Wool"! And they will find even purer words to advertise these products! So
now, we raise sheep only for their meat, since we make "wool" from
petroleum. And so the silkworm comes to us and says, "If you want better
silk, go ahead and make it yourselves"!
People Have Lost Their Patience
- Geronda, why don't we have patience today? - The
current situation does not help people to become patient. In the past, life was
peaceful and people were peaceful and had the endurance to be patient. Today
haste has invaded the world and people have become impatient. In the old days people
knew they could eat tomatoes by the end of June, for example, and they were not
concerned about it. They would wait until August to eat a watermelon. They knew
in what season they would eat melons or figs. But today they will import
tomatoes from Egypt earlier rather than eat oranges which contain the same
vitamins. You may tell someone, "Come on, why don't you wait and find
something else to eat now?" But no, he'd rather go to Egypt and get
tomatoes. When people in Crete realized
that, they started constructing hothouses in order to grow tomatoes faster. Now
they constructed hothouses everywhere in order to have tomatoes available in
the winter. They will work themselves to death to build hothouses, to grow all
kinds of foods and make them available
throughout the year, so that people will not have to wait.
And let's say that this is not that bad. But they go
even further. The tomatoes are green in the evening and in the morning they
have turned into plumb red tomatoes! I scolded an officer of state once
regarding this matter. "Having hothouses is one thing," I said,
"but using hormones to ripen the fruits, tomatoes and so on, overnight, is
going too far because people who are hormone sensitive will be harmed."
They have destroyed the animals too: chickens, cattle, they are all affected.
They use hormones to make a forty-day old animal appear like it is six months
old. Can anyone who eats this meat benefit from it? They give hormones to cows
and they produce more milk than the farmers can distribute to market. As a
result, the prices fall and producers go on strike, they pour the milk on the
streets and in the meantime, we drink milk with hormones. Whereas if we left
everything the way God made it, all would go well and people would have pure
milk to drink. Notice how hormones make everything tasteless. Tasteless people,
tasteless things, everything is tasteless. Even life itself has no taste.
Nowadays, young people lost their zest for life. You
ask them, "What will give you peace?" "Nothing," they
reply. Such vigorous young men and nothing pleases them. What has happened to
us? We believe that we will correct God with our inventions. We turn night into
day, so that the hens will lay eggs! And have you seen these eggs? If God had
made the moon shine like the sun, people would have gone mad. God created the
night so that we may take some rest, and look at us!
We have lost our peace of mind. The hothouses, the use
of hormones in produce and in animals have made people impatient. In the old
days, we knew that we could reach a certain place on foot in a certain amount
of time. Those with stronger legs would get there a bit sooner. Later, we
invented carriages, then cars, aeroplanes and so on. We try constantly to
discover faster and faster means of transportation. There is an aeroplane which covers the distance between France and America
in three hours. But when someone goes from one climate to the other with such
great speed it's not good, even the sudden change of time itself can be
confusing. Hurry, hurry... Gradually man will enter a projectile and with the
squeeze of a trigger, this projectile will be launched only to burst open at
some point and allow a madman to emerge! Where is all this taking us? We are
heading straight to the madhouse!
They Have Poisoned the Air, but It Is the Bones of the
Dead That Bother Them!
- Geronda, they are thinking of starting to burn the
dead for sanitation purposes and for saving space. - For sanitation purposes?
Listen to that! Aren't they ashamed to even say that? They have polluted the
entire atmosphere and they worry about the bones of the dead? After all, the
bones are clean. And what is this idea of saving space? There is the entire
country of Greece, with all these forests, and they cannot find some free
space? I reprimanded a university professor about this one day. When they
exhume the bones, they can dig deeper graves and place the bones there. Is that
difficult? People can dig so deep into the earth to extract coal. Let them make
the effort to prepare some large area to gather all the bones.
There is no respect left. And you can see what is happening
now. Old parents are being put away in retirement homes. In the old days, they
used to take care even of their aged oxen; they would not slaughter them,
because they thought, "We have eaten bread through them," as the
saying goes.
In the past there was such respect for the dead! I
re-member the risks we took to bury the dead during the War. Not only the
priest, who was obliged to go anyway, took risks, but also the soldiers who had
to carry the dead through the snow, in freezing cold under enemy fire. In 1945,
during the War, before I joined the army, I used to transport the dead with the
church sexton. The priest went ahead with the censer and we followed. When we
heard a bullet fly by, we would fall to the ground. It was difficult to get up
after that. And when we heard another bullet, again we would fall to the
ground. Later, while still serving during the War, we did not have boots and
had to go barefoot in the snow and they ordered us to go and remove the shoes
of some soldiers who had died. Not one of us moved. But those good years are
gone now!
The problem is that those in power who could protest
are not doing so because they support cremation. As for the Church, since this
problem has come up, it must take a position and resolve it. Otherwise, we will
leave the charge of spiritual things to lay people and whatever they say will
be the rule. This is impiety. How can people have God's blessing under these
circumstances? They are trying to gradually degrade human beings. But it will
not happen the way they want. Somehow ample space will be found ... you'll see,
it will.
Pollution and Destruction of the Environment
The sun is hot in the Sinai desert even in winter,
be-cause they have opened holes in the atmosphere. Without the northerly
breeze, it's impossible to stand under the sun for long.
- Geronda, what's going to happen with the ozone? - We
must show a little bit of patience until the scientists go up there with five
kilos of putty and plug the hole up!! Yes, let them go up to plug the holes,
and they will realize that God has made everything to be good, to be in perfect
harmony, and perhaps then they will say to the Lord, "Have mercy on us, we
did not do things right." Let's pray that the hole, which has been opened
in the atmosphere, will be closed. Indeed, a bowl full of the wrath of God is
now open in the sky and is causing trees and plants to wilt and dry up."
But God could do away with this problem. And now look at how cunning some
people are! In order to get money out of the very wealthy, they spread the
rumor that a hole has opened in the atmosphere and the world will vanish. The
only way to save the world is for scientists to dig deep into the earth and
avoid the sun. Of course, this cannot happen. And so they change their story
and make another claim that facilities will be built on the moon - restaurants,
hotels, housing - and people will go there. And they are even taking down
payments to secure a spot! The whole thing is a lie! There's nothing up on the
moon. Human beings cannot live there. Only one or two persons went up there, in
a capsule, and came back. And there are some people who believe this nonsense
and pay money for it.
- Geronda, many people worry about air pollution. -
This is why they must put pressure on factory owners to place anti-pollution
devices and save people from all this smog. Instead of bribing members of
parliament to take care of their interests, they should pay a little more money
to install anti-pollution equipment in their factories. In the old days, there
was no smog, no contamination like we have today. Today everything is polluted
and people take that to be progress. How could this ever be considered
progress, when they are destroying human beings? You go out of your house, and
the air smells of fumes. As soon as you open the window, the smog comes in and
sticks on your skin. Even when you wash your hands, you cannot get rid of it
because it is not something pure. Smoke from the fireplace is exhaled by our
lungs when we cough, but smog will not be exhaled because it contains oils and
gets stuck there.
In apartment buildings, people are piled up one on top
of the other. When one dusts their clothes, the dust falls on the balcony
below. I pity those who live on the first floor; they get all the dust and
garbage of their upstairs neighbours! They have their clothes hanging out to
dry or their window happens to be open and people throw their dusting from the
floor above with no consideration for those below. In the old days, these
modern apartment buildings would have been taken for prisons, like Yiendi
Koule. It's just so dreadful. Years ago, our houses used to have a yard,
animals, a garden, and a few trees where birds would gather.
- Nowadays, Geronda if you live in the city it's rare
to see even a swallow!
- Are the swallows crazy to go and live there?
Gradually people will forget what a swallow looks like. In America, at the
Theology department of a University that specializes in the history of the Old
and New Testament, in order to make students understand what wheat is, they
cultivate some on their grounds. And in order to make students understand what
a shepherd and ewe are, they brought a small flock of sheep with a shepherd
holding a shepherd's rod. And they call this a University!
The air has been polluted. Even in the winter we can
smell the stench of garbage! Imagine how bad it gets in the summer! And they
won't send an aeroplane to spray with disinfectant! We are lucky that God has
made flowers with fragrant aromas. All these flowers, with their various forms
and sizes, remove the stench with their fragrance. If we did not have that in
the atmosphere, what would happen? It only takes one dead animal and the stench
is unbearable. God takes such good care of us! What would we do if He ever
abandoned us? With all these natural perfumes around, our own, human stench
goes unnoticed. And besides, flowers give us so much delight!
Once, a layperson came to my Kalyvi and asked me,
"What are you doing here day and night, all the time?" Everything
around me was in full-bloom, a slope full of flowers! There was a sweet
fragrance everywhere! So I said to him, "Do you know what I must go
through to water and take care of all the things you see? And do you see how
many vigil lamps I light in the sky every night?I do not have enough time to light them
all." He was looking at me dumbfounded. "Don't you see all the lamps
up there at night? I am the one who lights them. How could I possibly have
enough time; it's not easy with so many lamps, to change the wick, to pour the
oil!" The poor soul was at a loss for words.
Spraying disinfectants is poisonous too. On top of
everything else, it also kills the poor birds. They spray the trees to protect
them from disease but, as a result, people end up getting sick. Thus,
everything is poisoned. Wouldn't it be better if we sprayed less and buried the
rotten fruit in the landfills instead of producing excessive amounts and
throwing the good ones away? The vapours from spraying are naturally harmful to
man and can prove fatal for young children. This is one reason why they are
born sick. I once said to someone, "What's going on? You have killed the
insects and now you are killing people."
They spray the flowers to kill
the insects and people get sick. Next thing you know, they will make even
stronger pesticides and what will come out of it?
It has been proven that some of the insects they
ex-terminated were actually killing other harmful insects. Now we will try to
develop these insects again so that they can kill the others. God has arranged
everything so well! Wherever there are crickets there are no mosquitoes. A
person came to the Kalyvi with a small device that produced a harsher version of the cricket's sound to
repel mosquitoes. They have killed the crickets which, after all, made a sweet
sound, and now they are trying to imitate their sound, which God has made, with
a battery run device! They have killed everything, the crickets; the
turtledoves... It is rare to see even a raven today. Soon, we'll be exhibiting
ravens in a bird cage.
When you spray the trees, let God help you a little.
If the pesticide does not go everywhere, it does not matter. We have all kinds
of means today for so many things, but nothing’ to strengthen our faith. I hear
people ask, "Have they come up with a medicine for this? Where is it?
Abroad?" And they rush to the phone to find out how to get it. Gradually,
lay people and even monastics are putting God aside. You see, if spiritual
progress came first, if that was our priority, everything would be made holy
and good. The problem is that those of us in monastic life are not far ahead
from lay people when it comes to spiritual progress.
- But Geronda, dacus
is harmful to the olive trees. - Pray with a komboschoini for the dacus
to leave the trees. Do not just rely on spraying; try praying; put some Christ
in your work. We are making an effort to do things right as if we lived in the
world, and it does not even cross our mind that we who live the monastic life
must be concerned with the other world {cosmos). We should not try to compete with
those who live in the world. Where is Christ? What have we done with Him? I am
not saying that you should not spray at all; but just keep in mind that others
are still experimenting testing chemicals and so on.
And when you must spray you should always wear masks.
It is better to have some fruit afflicted by dacus than to try and spray
everything in sight. Try and cut down on the number of sprayings. Instead of
spraying everything, try to pray with devotion. Read the first Psalm and sprinkle some Holy Water on the trees.
When you live correctly, you will get the rain you need and the caterpillars will die. God will provide for you. You need
to have devotion and trust in God.
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