Ηe, who suppose to be a Christian, even if he doesn’t become a true Christian, he will be driven heather and yon by his own “keel”. In any case, each person has his own state of mind, and yet his state of mind can be quite burdened by an unhealthy state. All of us are led, are carried, by our state of mind, our mentality, and certainly when it’s ill.
Each person, then, is a victim of his mentality, his “keel”, and is led and carried about by his own self. Does your state of mind take you toward hermetic isolation? You go towards it. Does it move you to behave in a supposedly humanitarian way, toward acting supposedly social, toward a give and take relationship with others? You go toward it. We have to examine ourselves well and the way we present ourselves. We should wonder: This thing that we are doing, is it enough or does it conceal some self-interest?
One is eager to serve others. Does it proceed from virtue or is something else lurking there? One is eager to love flight, isolation, lack of community, which sometimes matches him quite well. We say: “What a neptic he is! What a hesychast!” But is this virtue or his weakness? We should always seek to learn this, to examine it. Certainly, a person will again be fooled, will again be seduced. The best way for someone to flee either the one extreme or the other, and more precisely, the best way for someone to overcome himself—because this is what must happen—is obedience.
Aug. 4, 1984
Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.
Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos
