I greatly rejoice that the disciples of Father Ghelasie Gheorghe, good theologians and missionaries, have begun to make known the life and works of this devout Father from Frăsinei – one of the most profound Romanian monastics. In an authentic Orthodox spirit, they have shed new light through their explanation and popularization of his thought – that could be inscribed along the lines of the theological renewal launched by Father Dumitru Stăniloae – the Theologian. If the writings of Father Ghelasie appear difficult to many, due to their very personal vocabulary and style, which could discourage the reader, behold – his disciples make them accessible to us through their “explanation,” so that as many people as possible can rejoice in them.I believe that it was precisely his unique vocabulary and style that lead some into hurrying to condemn him as developing a nebulous, untraditional mysticism, a kind of modern gnosticism. That this is not at all the case is proven not only by his disciples, but also by the disappointment of those who, being tempted by all kinds of syncretism and gnosticism, which is in fashion in our days, drew close to the Father with the hopes that they would find him to be their mentor. The result was that Father won many of these to the single healthy mystic life, which is that of the Church.
We could even say that through their style, the writings of Father Ghelasie are like a trap which catches precisely those who search in them for occult, religious syncretism, and esoteric things.
Essentially, in his writings, Father Ghelasie attempts to bring the Orthodox mystical tradition up to date through an iconic vision, by returning from scholastic theology to biblical-patristic theology. He grasped as no one else has until now, the iconic character of Romanian spirituality as an un-confusable seal of Orthodox Tradition in general.
In the works of the devout Ghelasie, one can follow a ceaseless striving to manifest and extend the liturgical way of Orthodoxy into mystical modes. The ritual of personal worship flows from the ecclesiastical ritual and in the same way it has spiritual transformation as its finality.
An important contribution of Father Ghelasie consists therefore, in his un-fragmented, unitary vision of the Christian life: therefore, Father approaches the connection between the liturgical life of the Church and the personal living of mystery from many different angles. The very Liturgy of the Church is viewed according to its likeness of divine inter-Trinitarian Love.
As an example, the biblical-patristic understanding of man’s image as an icon of the Son of God is manifested by him in the hesychastic practice through iconic prayer, as gesture that consists of the entire man, soul and body, the gesture of worship according to the likeness of the Son’s offering Himself up to the Father in the joy of the All-Holy Spirit. Life is then discovered like a liturgy of spiritual transformation.
In the context of the growing de-valorization of the body’s mystery, in a world assaulted by “consumer values,” Father Ghelasie offers possibilities for the rediscovery of the Christian ethos, in which the body has the mission of being an “altar of the divine embodiment-partaking.”
Christian asceticism, so poorly understood in a world of comfort and explosion of information that assaults and overwhelms us, is revealed to us precisely in this finality of “the remaking of the eucharistic condition.” It is “the enflaming divine longing,” and preparation for partaking without condemnation of the Body and Blood of Christ.
The reader is sensitized through a more profound and detailed understanding of certain aspects with which he is confronted in today’s world. In his considerations, Father Ghelasie insists on “the theological image” of man, which has its origin in divine love and its fulfillment in the mystery of spiritual birth.
Marriage is depicted in the same iconic-liturgical modality as the mystery of birth. Children, as Father Ghelasie shows, bear in them, through genetic inheritance, the memorial – affected by the destructiveness of sin – of the parents, the nation and the entire body of humanity. At the same time, they have the mission and gift from God to cleanse and sanctify the inherited or acquired memorial through the Holy Mysteries of the Church and by bearing personal fruit through a life of prayer.
Modern man’s understanding of these truths is fundamental for obtaining his own health and spiritual growth, for evading certain tragic errors that lead to the amplification of the anarchic and destructive memorial. In this way the murder of newborn children has at the same time a self-destructive character for their parents, since children are the very bearers of God’ gifts that lead towards salvation.
“The trauma of abortion” that sooner or later supervenes and effects the lives of those who take part in these actions, especially the mother, was noted by numerous researchers in the sociological, psychological, psychiatric and medical domains. Child murder casts the responsible party into the shadows, onto a steep slope of tragic destiny, marked by psychophysical tumult – from which only divine grace, through the participation in the Mysteries of the Church, can save and renew.
On the other hand, the importance of marriage is revealed precisely as the mystery of birth that fulfills the image of man. Bodily relations with the refusal to give birth bear the seal of un-fulfillment, of the absence of the divine gift, of the image of birth that crowns conjugal life. Father Ghelasie understands marriage as the “liturgizing of the mystery of birth.” To give birth and to raise holy children properly is the mystery of conjugal holiness. This perspective offers to the current generation, Christian references for understanding and surpassing crises in familial relationships, through the re-sacralization of the body and beginning the personal liturgy in the Church’s Body again, for bearing the fruit of the Holy mysteries in our life.
In this way, it is important that parents participate as much as possible in the Mysteries of the Church and become complete partakers of the Holiness of the Church in their lives. And this is not only for them, but in order not to give their children and all of those who love them, an inheritance weighted down with “destructive memories” or a “poisoned gift.” The sins of parents weaken the genetic base of children. Abortion does not just “weigh down” the parents, but adds to the “dowry-cross” of the children that they have born or will give birth to. Today, we assist an unprecedented rise of illnesses that have a genetic basis. The number of cases of cancer among children is in unsettling growth.
Father Ghelasie draws attention to the responsibilities of man regarding his own mission, his own growth on his road towards “the borderline of eternity.” The sobornical understanding of this responsibility helps to escape from the tragedy of egotism that searches for blind and individual satisfaction. At the same time, it sustains the longing for spiritual transformation. The solution to stop life from skidding is only one: entrance into the cleansing bath and the sanctifying bush of the divine Mysteries.
Likewise, Father Ghelasie presents the monastic Image to today’s world in its greatness and divine importance. Father reveals it as “the mystery from the border of eternity,” “the mystery of the age to come.” It is the “remaking and perfecting of the image of heaven in the icon of the kingdom, the image of Eucharistic union and of eschatological vision, of man’s standing face to face with God.
Father Ghelasie strives untiringly to give “iconic references” to contemporary man, disoriented by the “loss of his image among the things of this world.” The loving care of Father for the tempering and re-Churching of today’s man is a living and strengthening example for the fulfillment of the Christian mission to be “leaven that raises all the dough” of the world.
I once again express my joy that Father Ghelasie’s disciples have engaged themselves in this important effort in the research and clarification of his works, for our benefit and for building everyone up. The three volumes published up until now: “The Iconographer of Divine Love,” “The Devout Ghelasie the Hesychast” and “Ghelasie the Hesychast, the lover of God,” have stirred up a living interest. They have brought to light an exemplary life and thought imprinted by the spirit of prayer, full of spiritual penetration and interest for the actual problems of current life. The Image of Father Ghelasie is added to the pleiad of the great spiritual fathers and confessors of the Orthodox Church, given to us by God so that we can “walk into the renewal of the Spirit” being made firm on “the Rock that is the Corner Stone, Christ, our Lord.”
Nürenberg, 11 April, 2005
The feastday of Saint Calinic of Cernica
Metrop. Serafim (Joanta)
[this article appeared in the volume "Avva Ghelasie, Cuvântătorul de Dumnezeu", ("Avva Ghelasie, the Theologian"), Platytera Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004, pp. 6-10. Translation into English by Fr. John Downie).
The Romanian (original) version can be found here.
Copyright: Platytera Publishing House.
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