Elder Aimilianos: "If I am not joyous, then I am nothing!"

 

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

 

"The lack of joy is a pathological state of man, a willing closure within one's self. And whatever he wishes to do he will not be successful.

First, one must clean his field, to find out what is going on and why he is not joyous. Then, he must pursue joy within himself, and then the peace of God will take the place of joy. Thus, man should keep his relationship with God and with his Elder [or Spiritual Father], and should seek a true life.

Am I good, faithful, perfect, holy?

Am I a teacher?

If I am not joyous, then I am nothing.

It is important when they tell me: "Physician, heal thyself, and then, offer him to God." God cannot enter into a heart that is not joyful, He cannot find a place of contact, because He is peace, He is the fulfillment of joy.

Only like things can unite, and because of this, God can only unite with a joyous soul. For the monk who is not joyous, the Elder cannot do anything at all, his hands are totally tied.

Whoever thinks that he is approaching to reach "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", but is not joyous, can understand that he is totally deluded. Joy is the criterion, the thermometer.

Joy is something external, but it is also something internal.

Ultimately, it is a necessary presupposition, because the lack of joy makes man study things differently and to become changed. For example, if one puts even one drop of nitric oxide into pure water, immediately he changes its essence. Thus, exactly, one drop of bitterness, depression, sadness transforms the whole atmosphere of a person, and extinguishes God.

But joy must also exist in a brotherhood [or a family], because it is an element both of one's personal life and of the brotherhood.

I cannot be joyous if all those around me do not have the tendency and the atmosphere of joy, neither, however, can I have any benefit if I do not take on this joy from the brotherhood.

Only when I take it on can I say that I have a relationship with the Elder, and then I can take in God, because God is the life that exists within man, and the life which is transmitted through man."

 

-Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra, from the book Neptic Life and the Ascetical Canons