Elder Porphyrios: "I Don't Like To Prophesy"
By Hieromonk Fr. George Kaufsokalyvites
(From the Holy Kalyva of Zoodochos Pege, of the
Holy Skete of Kaufsokalyvia on Mount Athos)
At a time when more and more people feel the
need, because of the profound crisis affecting mankind, to deal with
eschatological events as described in the Apocalypse of Saint John the
Theologian, as well as those things revealed by the Grace of God to the
Prophets, the Fathers of the Church and contemporary saintly elders like Elder
Paisios, we must especially stand with the view of Elder Porphyrios, and decode
why such a great Saint of our time, while knowing with precision and detail
everything that we are living and where things come from, avoided talking about
these things.
It must especially puzzle us why the Elder
didn't speak at all about what is coming, but only revealed what was necessarily
required for certain people.
The core thought of Elder Porphyrios was that
people need to consolidate and grow in love towards their Creator, not through
fear of things to come, but through a selfless relationship, as an affectionate
father towards his child.
Because the unity that was the greatest legacy
of Christ to His Apostles, can be ensured when the child is joined with his
Father primarily through love and not fear.
Elder Porphyrios aptly likened the times we
live in to the years just before Jesus came.
What existed then? A Roman "peace" in power and
idolatry, and a priesthood alienated by the passion for power that was
hypocritical without being beneficial, but rather distanced the people from God.
And finally there was a small portion of pure and good people.
All this describes in detail what is going on
today, and the repetition of this in our era should probably strongly trouble
us.
Before Christ there existed prophecies about
His coming as well as warnings for repentance to the people of God, as in the
case of Jonah and Ninevah.
However, these prophecies were sent by God for
those few good and pure people of each era, as I said before, because they had
the goodwill to receive the messages and know what to do.
Elder Porphyrios acted with this in mind,
calling people to approach Christ with love and not the fear of terrible
events.
He knew but he did not say. He spoke
laconically and in codes, understanding that in our era there was a great gap
between the spirituality of people on Mount Athos with the outside world.
For this reason he sent a man to notify Elder
Paisios to stop speaking about the Antichrist, the mark, imminent wars,
etc.
Not because it was wrong that which was
informed to Elder Paisios through Divine Illumination, but because the spiritual
measure of the world is at such a level that fear has no practical effect and
that the only approach needed was love for Christ.
For if man loved God, then God, when people
change, will change history. The same happened with the imminent destruction of
Ninevah.
The same Elder Porphyrios, during his last
days, stressed the moral degradation and misery which we find ourselves in as
people, and stressed to his spiritual children to find a verse in the Old
Testament that says "You have a cloak, you be our leader" (Is. 3:6).
There we were told describes clearly the
current situation. The same situations of "old Israel" with the "new Israel" and
the same symptoms.
The "old Israel" lost its unity with God and
the "new Israel" lost exactly this path of unity with Christ.
This was the great longing of the Elder and he
served it literally till his last breath.
The Hierarchical Prayer of Christ, "that all
may be one", was what the Elder served as long as he lived and he slept with it
on his lips. Because he knew that when mankind is ensured with unity with
Christ, then they will fear neither wars nor the Antichrist.
In contrast, today we approach evil and examine
those things that are coming as an inevitable evil. Here we lose the entire
essence.
Wars, calamities and upcoming events are the
ultimate remedy to human apostasy, which is why Elder Porphyrios would say: "The
Apocalypse was written for it not to happen".
The Apocalypse has as its purpose to alert, and
the way to avoid it is to serve the unity which Christ left to us as a
legacy.
This is the therapeutical treatment to the
sick, because if the sickness progresses, the events of the Apocalypse will be
the amputation caused by the physician when gangrene sets.
The Elder would say: "Our time is like the time
of Christ. Then the world had reached a terrible state. But God spared us. And
now we must not despair. I see through the calamity to appear some very
important person of God, who will rally and unite the world for good."
It was one of the few occasions when the Elder
spoke about that which we are living and is upcoming. He stressed that the
justice of God is changing and that our situation is miserable.
But he saw that the mercy of God will once
again visit mankind. Elder Paisios said the same thing when visitors approached
him with evident anxiety about upcoming events and when he was asked when the
wrath of God will come. He would say: "We need to ask that His mercy comes, not
His wrath."
This is what humanity needs and this is how we
must approach what the Saints told us. That which was prophesied in our time are
for those few who, like before the time of Christ, have the goodwill to serve
their unity in Christ.
The tabloids, the foreign press, the electronic
media channels deal systematically with what Elder Paisios and other
contemporary elders said. I don't know if they do it for the sake of
advertising, trade, etc. But we must think. We must think to look for the
substance in all this.
In 2009 while visiting Russia, as part of the
effort of issuing the letters of the first Ruler of Greece, Ioannis
Kapodistrias, we met with senior officials of the Russian Federation. With
surprise I heard a question that relates to all of the above.
He asked me:
"Elder George, the fathers of Mount Athos say
there will be a war between Russia and Turkey for Constantinople. What do you
say about this?"
I answered him without thinking, in a way I
believe Elder Porphyrios would answer:
"Saint Kosmas Aitolos, who is a great Saint of
Orthodoxy, said: 'They will try to resolve it with the pen, but will not be able
to. 99 times with war, and once with the pen.' However, us, we are with the
pen," I said.
The Greeks I believe had the blessing to be
sent by God a revealing personality like Elder Porphyrios to show us the way and
the path to avoid calamities and difficulties.
It is up to us to manage the legacy he left to
us, and not wait for the ship to collide with the iceberg.
If each of us acts alone and cut off from
Christ, it is certain that we will say that which the Holy Elder said: "He may,
however, according to the plan of God, come; to come so that people can acquire
an awareness, to see the chaos alive in front of them, and to say: 'Oh, we are
falling into chaos, we are being lost. Everyone back, everyone back, turn back,
we have been deluded.' And they will return again to the path of God and the
Orthodox faith will shine."
The last days of Elder Porphyrios were the most
revealing for his spiritual children and for all of humanity. The Elder gathered
us in his Cell in Kaufsokalyvia and told us: "I don't like to prophesy, but I
will tell you one prophecy."
The Elder told us about what will happen in
Greece and what its future will be. It was revealing for the future of Greece.
All of these have now begun to be realized. Today we are living all that he told
us and began to take place with exactitude.
The greatest revelation of God was the last
night of his life, when for a half hour he prayer the Hierarchical Prayer of
Jesus: "That all may be one".
The same Holy Spirit prayed within Elder
Porphyrios for the unity in Christ of all Christians and for all of humanity, so
that the sufferings of the Apocalypse would not come.
This prayer is the greatest legacy of Christ to
humanity. May the unity of humanity with God materialize.
This legacy today, 21 years after the repose of
Elder Porphyrios, remains alive and is depicted in an icon: the Panagia "That
All May Be One" Patriotissa, a prophetic and escatological icon, which all of
Christendom knows.
We his children serve today this legacy and
hope in it.
Source:
Translated by John Sanidopoulos
Thanks to John Sanidopoulos:
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