Commonly, man takes a posture such that his passions are protected, his weaknesses, his specific sins: as if he has a friendship with all of them, as if he regards them as children of his. Although we have been Christians for so many years and although we have weaknesses, passions, and illnesses in our souls, the chief reason that the Lord still has not healed us is that – even if we have some relation with Him – deep inside us, we go to Christ with self-sufficiency. We do not go as sinners and as infirm who have need that He heal us from our passions: but rather as if we want to be saved on our own accord.
Very few Christians do not have this
self-sufficiency, instead feeling themselves to be sinners, humbling themselves before God, begging for His mercy and regarding themselves as the least of men and hoping for the grace of God. And Christ visits them and treats them.
Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos (†)
From the book: Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos, “SPIRITUAL MESSAGES” Panorama Thessaloniki, 2017
