`Geronda, today, while so many people were waiting to see you, a certain young man didn`t wait to come his turn, he entered before all.
`Yes, he came and told me : I must see you. I went to the Holy Mountain but I didn`t find you and I came here.`
`Well, I told him, don`t you see how many people are waiting? To let all of them stop and take care now of you?`
`Yes, father`, he told me.
`Nonsense! And the others to stand on the stairs crowded, old people, women with children…but he insisted. He didn`t even have a serious problem, he wanted to tell me some nonsense. Do you understand? Let the rest fall apart!`
`Just think, there are some who come and tell me: `Father today pray only for me and for no one else.
What expectation they have. It is as if you said: `It`s only me who will travel by this train. Let no one else enter.
But if the train moves why don`t they all enter inside?`
Geronda, what meaning have Christ`s words: `For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find `it.[1]
They mean that the man must lose his life in the good sense. He should not value life, he should sacrifice his life for his brother.` No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.` [2] Saint Paul the Apostle. The whole basis of the spiritual life is this: to forget about myself in the good sense and think about the other one, to partake his pain, his burden. I should not be concerned how to get rid of the burden but how to help the other one, to give him rest.
`How will I figure out, geronda, what gives rest to the other one to turn to deed?
`If you put yourself in someone else`s shoes you will understand what gives rest to the other one. But if you remain shut in your shell, how to figure out what gives rest to the other one?`
In our times most of the people seek to take the place of the other one not to put themselves in someone else`s shoes and understand him. I sometimes notice that some people even when they go to commune don`t wait for their turn.
Everyone says to himself: I am busy and I am in a rush` and he doesn`t think `Do I deserve to commune?` or `Isn`t the other one in more hurry than me?`
Nothing. They commune and leave, while you should rejoice even when you renounce at the Holy Communion for the sake of the other one. If the priest has a small part from the Holy Flesh and there is a dying person who must be communed you must rejoice that you won`t commune so that the sick can commune. This is what Christ wants. This is how Christ comes in the heart and fills it with joy.
[1] Matthew 16, 25.
[2] I Corinthians 10, 24.
Excerpt from Passions and virtues – Pious Paisios the Athonite, Evanghelismos.
