Priest Ioan Bădiliță
In the rhythm of waltz I am sweeping with the broom the yard of the church. Out of nowhere a man shows up at the gate and he exceeded with many percents the maximum limit allowed for …merriment.
Blushed he examines me from head to my tennis shoes and tells me:
`Now you are with the broom in your hand. So you are an ordinary man. But when you dress up like a peacock and you keep the grace like this in your hands, do you know who you are?
`No. Who?`
`You are God`s translator (here he makes a break and points to the cross on the spire) – God`s translator, mister. That`s it.
True story.
Be it between us, a good part of my life I thought that wisdom can be found only on the shelves of libraries. But it is not like this. In the introduction of an interesting monograph dedicated to Saint John Casian, Augustine Casiday says:
`I owe my greatest gratitude to my children Helen, Beata, Anthony and Alexander, whose presence reminds me permanently that life means much more than books. Yes, a book can offer you a clue, a sign, an information, a compass, a comfort, a small light, but it can`t comprise Life. (according to John 21:25).
For this reason I think that among the writers of Philocalia are not only great mystics and saint theologians but also old women with the shovel on the back, men leaning on the scythe looking at the sky, babies pointing towards icons, husbands united in the evening prayer at the light of the vigil lamp…and merry men wobbling by the Church waiting for a translator to interpret for them the longing for the Mystery from the heart of Life.
