“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1: 21
I.D.
Living in a world that is wildly careening and unmanageable can often be a toilsome experience.
When Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ,” he did not mean that he did not live for anything else but that the dominant note, the great consuming passion underneath everything, was his love for Jesus Christ—it simply explained everything he did—not an “Escape” but a “zealous passion.” So, you see, when we tell God that we want at all costs to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ, at that instant, a supernatural identification with His death takes place, and we know with a knowledge that passes knowledge that our “old man” is crucified with Christ for a new life; and we prove it by the amazing ease with which the new supernatural life of God in us enables us to do His will. That may explain why Christianity is actually a personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
RESURRECTION
Ah! But our sanctity (and sanity), however, is pummeled by Satan, whose aim is to resurrect that “old man,” to divert our lives into our desires, possessions, personal matters, pleasures, and doubts. Oh! But then a crisis arises and reveals our love for Jesus Christ (a test) on this journey to the kingdom of God. But, again, and again, the world—the universe we awaken to is not one of order, but a great big, howling confusion. It’s “toilsome!” Man seeks, he waivers, he wrestles, he falls, he rises—he falls—seeks—prays. He is born—studies—works—marries—then dies! But, until one seeks God’s beautiful way, life will indeed—be dead.
MOUNT ATHOS
A few years ago I was invited by a close Greek friend to visit Mount Athos in Greece. It is a mountain and a peninsula in Greece; a World Heritage Site, and autonomous polity in the Hellenic Republic. Because of its isolation, Mount Athos has remained as one of the most unspoiled parts of Greece. Its landscape is both stunning and wild! Athos is home to 20 stavropegial (from Greek: stauros ‘cross’ and pegnami ‘to confirm’—is an Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery subordinated directly to a Patriarch or Synod, rather than to a local Bishop. The name comes from the byzantine tradition of summoning the Patriarch to place a cross at the foundation of such monasteries) Eastern Orthodox monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople.
Greeks commonly refer to Mount Athos as the “Holy Mountain” (Greek: Agion Oros), centuries old. The peninsula, the easternmost “leg” of the larger Chalkidiki peninsula protrudes 31 miles into the Aegean Sea at a width of between 4.3 and 7.5 miles and covers an area of 129.58 sq. miles. King Xerxes the Persian King cut a canal across the peninsula for his ships to pass. It took him three agonizing years to complete the canal passageway for his ships to pass. It is a rugged sea-battered peninsula.
The actual Mount Athos has steep, densely forested slopes reaching up to 6,670 ft. Its snow capped peak is usually crowned by white clouds, an awesome sight to see. The surrounding seas can be dangerous. In ancient Greek history two fleet disasters in the area are recorded: in 492 BC Darius, the king of Persia, lost 300 ships under general Mardonius; and in 411 BC the Spartans lost a fleet of 50 ships under admiral Epicleas.
Though land-linked, Mount Athos is practically accessible only by frail ferry boats for direct access to monasteries along the eastern coast. The number of daily visitors to Mount Athos is restricted and all are required to obtain a special entrance permit valid for a limited period. Only males are permitted to visit the territory, which is called “Garden of the Virgin” by the monks. No female animals are permitted on the peninsula—even hens!
Greek mythology in antiquity is rich regarding Athos; being mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, Strabo, and citing the establishment of many cities populated by many from various colonies.
Residents on the peninsula today must be males aged 18 and over who are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church and must be either monks or workers. The residency of monks centuries ago numbered over 33,000; but now only 3,000 inhabit the spacious mountain in clinging and aging monasteries. Monks started arriving at some time before the ninth century AD.
In 885 AD, Emperor Basil I, proclaimed the Holy Mountain a place of monks, and no laymen or farmers are allowed to settle there. The building of the monasteries were largely funded by Emperors, and passed through many eras (Ottoman, Russian Tzars, etc.,) until the restoration of the Byzantine Empire came, after having suffered a harsh economic environment, and becoming a self-governing region, according to each monastery.
According to a decree in October 1913 (“following ancient privilege”); Mount Athos was governed by representatives of the 20 Holy Monasteries—and headed by the “Abbot” elected by the brotherhood for life. He is the lord and spiritual father of the monastery; a conglomeration of (sketes, cells, huts, retreats, hermitages); “dependencies” of some of the 20 monasteries—17 of which are Greek; the remaining three which are Serbian, Bulgarian, and Russian.
Before one enters the mountain by ferry boat, visitors must have been issued a form of Byzantine visa, using the Julian calendar (having a difference of 13 days from the Gregorian calendar; and is still used on Mount Athos). Stays are allowed for only a few days—gratis. Reasons for the visit are asked; tourism and sightseeing are not valid, but pilgrimage or study is. Laymen are required to have short hair, and any non-cleric arriving on Athos with long hair has his hair cut— gratis, too.
There is a prohibition on entry for women, called (Greek: avaton); to make living in celibacy easier for those who have chosen to do so. Monks feel that the presence of women alters the social dynamics of the community and therefore slows their path towards “spiritual enlightenment.”
The Athonite monasteries possess huge deposits of invaluable medieval art treasures, including icons, liturgical vestments and objects (crosses, chalices) codices and other Christian texts, holy relics, etc. There must be close to 18,000 icons on the Mountain today spanning the centuries, countless treasures, and skeletal remains of early monks and patriarchs.
Today, many of the Greek monks also speak foreign languages. Since there are monks from many nations in Athos, they naturally speak their own language; American, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc. Many are highly educated: physicians, lawyers, professors, engineers, writers, actors, singers, students, skilled workers. Some young men are sadly “escaping” from a doldrums existence, families, loved ones, and into seclusion; lost to the realities of existence.
Because of the Byzantine time reckoning, the liturgical day begins at sunset and not midnight as civil time, causing disorientations for boat schedules, and liturgical services, causing disruption in sleeping, praying (3–5 vesper calls in 24 hour span), worshiping, eating times, rest, etc., e.g., one early morning—2 a.m. arising to breakfast of octopus stew!
In a taste of monastic life, all the monks still lodge today, namely in: seats, in cells, huts, retreats, caves (for the most austere), sketae (communal way—a community of Christian hermits following monastic rules, allowing them to worship in comparative solitude but with a level of mutual practical support and security); all together known as “dependencies.”
The daily schedule is: praying (services in church or in private), common dining at the sound of the bell—2 meals a day (no speaking is allowed) (a monk reads from the New Testament aloud from a pulpit in the dining hall) (vegetarian, except fish—never meat), working, (according to the duties of each monk—agriculture, fishing, woodcarving, spirit distillation, iconography, tailoring, book binding, etc.) and rest.
The gates of the monasteries close at sunset and open at sunrise. Vesper services can be 4–5 times a day, beginning at 4 a.m. at the sound of the bell. The whole brotherhood meets for the Divine Liturgy service, on Sundays (Greek: Kypiakon) and on greater feasts (lasting days); traditional rituals embrace: chanting, all under melancholy candles and oil lamps, and sweetened by the mysticism of the occasion by myrrh incense) all in colorful ceremonial dress and awe-inspiring wonderment—a cloistered world of stalwart hermits and monks—an ascetic life—an Escape to the wilderness—total solitude and complete withdrawal from secular life.
DEAD TO IT ALL?
The monks in the early ages, furthermore, shut themselves away from everything to prove that they were dead to it all, and when they got away they found themselves more alive than ever. Earlier some monks were even lowered by rope into a deep crevice in the mountain, and left there to die—to come to an end of this world; to experience true “separation from it all” and communion with God.
But, death is God’s delightful way of giving us life! Jesus never shut Himself away from things—away from it all! The first place He took His disciples to was a marriage feast. He did not cut himself off from society. He was not aloof. So much was He not aloof that they called Him a glutton and a winebibber (Luke 7:34). But there was one characteristic of Jesus—He was fundamentally dead to the whole thing, it had no appeal to Him. The “hundredfold” (Matthew 19:29; 13:23; Mark 10:30) which Jesus promised means that God can trust a man anywhere and with anything when he is fundamentally dead to things.
GOD’S GIFT
One must be willing to have a humble and submissive spirit—to die as Jesus did throughout His life. Yes, our Lord died once on the cross; but in another sense He also died every day. The cross was the culmination of an entire lifetime of dying. He was willing to be misunderstood and maligned, to give up home and comforts, to take the role of a servant. That was His “death.”
We must be willing to die in that way as well. When we die with Him, God’s gift to us is “the life of Jesus.” “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:10), the most attractive life ever lived. His beauty will gradually grow in us and become our beauty as well. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed but not in despair. . . . always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.” 2 Corinthians 4:8, 10
EXUBERANCE!
Remember this saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” You have heard it many times before. Ah! But the portrait you draw of Jesus with your humble tranquil presence in the face of grievous wrong is worth many words on the subject. Some may see the life Jesus revealed in you and long to enter into that life. That is how dying daily can help bring life to another. You see—dying daily for Christ requires dying daily to self.
Finally, we use the phrase “drawing on the resurrection life of Jesus,” but try it; you cannot draw on it when you like, ‘ehh? You will never get one breath of that life until you are dead, that is, dead to any desire that you want a blessing for body or soul or spirit. Immediately when you die to that, the life of God is in you, and you don’t know where you are with the exuberance of it.
This is your ESCAPE!
Amen <>< <>< <><
John Theodorou
U.S.A.