QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q[2]         My 13-year-old son asked me the following question regarding the Evergetinos, Hypothesis I, section D From the  Gerontikon, 6 regarding the ascetic monk who went to rescue his sister from her life as a prostitute. The analysis of the sister's salvation seems to be the focus, yet it seems the pride of the monk is at issue here also. The monk asks his sister to "get off the road ..until they [the travelers] pass..in order not to cause scandal," because not everyone knows [the prostitute] are my sister." Clearly the dead woman suffered and the Elder monk found she was forgiven and saved because of her disregarding her physical discomfort from the trip.  Is it inappropriate to examine the monk's actions here? If not, did not pride cloud his actions?

Á[2]    First of all well-intentioned examination of a word or an event is not bad. The sin starts from the susceptible thought where whatever we hear   we remain stubbornly in our original position even though the contrary is shown to us with arguments.

After studying the relevant passage of Evergetinos, we have to note the following, relatively to whether the monk was really   self-centered or not, when he asked his sister to go away from him, when he realized that some people where approaching.

Firstly, from the end of the story and the last paragraph, becomes clear that firstly   the task of saving the soul of the girl was completed, after he said  to her “move away” and last of all she dies. We notice speechless, apart from all the others, the rapid benefit of repentance.

Apart from this, one could find many other interpretations that make sense, seeing the specific monk’s act, which shows that according to the percentage of the mind’s purity ,such are our thoughts too. Pure mind has got pure thought. 

To be more specific, other possible motives that someone could attribute to the monk who says “go away” are:

A) perhaps he wanted objectively not to be traduced the symbol of the monk generally and to avoid adverse comments on monasticism, since he would be seen by others next to a prostitute   and even uncovered, them not knowing that she is his sister, but also not knowing that the reason for her staying uncovered was the direct escape from the whorehouse, based on her direct sincere repentance.

B) Probably he wanted to protect the others from carnal temptations or at least from malicious thoughts.

C) Probably he wanted   to protect the dignity of woman and not to get her at the temptation to regress to her passions.

Christ certainly spoke with the adulteress and with the prostitute but  He did not have our weaknesses that tend to the sin. The monk spoke with his sister-prostitute after the blessing of his spiritual father.

Therefore, the monk starts from the beginning to do humbly whatever he does, not for demonstration at all. But even if the specific choice of behavior scandalizes anyone , so to think that the monk acts selfishly,  similarly one or somebody else could be scandalized (by the thought that the monk acts selfishly) in the opposite case ,that is if he continued walking with her unaffected from the approach of the people passing by.

The St. John of Klimax, teaches about: «When I fast, I act with vanity, but when I (do not fast and) eat as not to show my virtue, I act too with vanity by the thought that I am prudent. When I wear luxuriant clothes I am defeated from her (the vanity), but even if I replace them with humble ones, I act with vanity, too. When I speak I am defeated, but even if I remain silent, I am defeated, too. No matter how you throw this thorn, its sting stands upright (Speech 24, About Vanity, St. John’s of Klimax)

Another angle from which somebody could see this particular incident is “niptical” psychology. That is to say the psychology that deals with the man of grace and thus strikes the passions at the center, even those well hidden in subconscious.

In contrast to modern psychology that deals with the fallen man supposedly eliminating the sense of sin and therefore the guilt and justifying every weakness.  Leading him  either at the psychiatric clinic or even worse, to committing suicide!

Evergetinos cannot be comprehended with secular moral. Ôhe travelers symbolize the susceptible thoughts that are directed as arrows from the devil to man. They have the shape of delicate   thoughts or observable images.

He who clear headed, that is to say he who is in alertness, strays immediately away from them with discretion (knowing the how, the when, the why), neutralizing them with a thorough hatred, through complete opposition, prayer, life in church’s mysteries, Christ-centered  self-analysis.

If, after the attack of the covered temptation, I start talking with him, I almost every time end at the acquiescence of the perpetration of the sin, I am captured by the charm of passion, I get used to it and continue doing it, the rationale, the thymic and the longing part of the soul   loosen and then I easily end to the real action, the sin.

Instead of the victory I would have had if I rejected immediately the travelers that have as mission to travel me to the fission of mind, I am now driven to the defeat that had started from their mere observation from me! That’s why the monk finally kept his sister away from the mere visual approach of the image.

Concluding, when we humbly do or think something with the blessing of our spiritual father, even if we act wrong, the God knows our motives and secretly blesses with an unexpected way the result of our cases, for the profit of all participants.