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.