The Importance of Having a Merciful Soul



Elder Porphyrios (February 7, 1906 - December 2, 1991)



The following is from one of my favorite books of all times, Wounded by Love:  The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios (pgs. 213-214).  This section is entitled 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden' which are words spoken by the Wise King Solomon. The Elder's reflection is on the necessity of having a merciful soul.  This marvelous book can be purchased here from Uncut Mountain Supply. 

Within us there is a part of the soul called the 'moralist'.  This 'moralist', when it sees someone going astray, is roused to indignation, even though very often the person who judges has strayed in the same way.  He does not, however, take this as an occasion to condemn himself, but the other person.  This is not what God wants.  Christ [through St. Paul] says in the Gospel:  You, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself?  While you preach against stealing, do you steal? Romans 2:21 It may be that we do not steal, but we commit murder;  we reproach the other person and not ourselves.  We say, for example: 'You should have done that and you didn't do it.  So see now what's happened to you!'  When we think of evil, then it can actually happen.  In a mysterious and hidden manner we diminish the power of the other person to move towards what is good, and we do him harm.  We can become the occasion for him to fall ill, to lose his job or his property.  In this way we do harm, not only to our neighbor, but also to ourselves, because we distance ourselves from the grace of God.  And then we pray and our prayers are not heard.  We 'ask and not receive'. James 4:3 Why?  Have we ever thought of this? 'Because we ask wrongly.' James 4:3  We need to find a way to heal the tendency within us to feel and think evil of others.

It's possible for someone to say, 'The way that person is behaving, he will be punished by God,' and to believe that he is saying this without evil intent.  It is not a simple thing, however, to discern whether he had or does not have evil intent.  It does not appear clearly.  What is hidden in our soul and how that can exercise influence on people is a very secret matter.

The same is not true if we say with a sense of awe that another person is not living well and that we should pray to God to help him and grant him repentance;  that is, neither do we say, nor deep down do we desire that God will punish him for what he does.  In this case not only do we not do harm to our neighbor, but we do him good.  When someone prays for his neighbor, a good force proceeds from him and heals, strengthens and revives him.  It is a mystery how this force leaves us.  But, in truth, the person who has good within him radiates this good power to others, mystically and gently.  He sends light to his neighbor and this creates a shield around him and protects him from evil.  When we possess a good disposition towards others and pray, then we heal our fellows and we help them progress towards God.

There is an invisible life, the life of the soul.  This is very powerful and can have effect on the other, even if we are miles apart.  This also happens with the curse, which is power that works evil.  But if, conversely, we pray with love for someone, whatever the distance that separates us, the good is transmitted.  So distances do not affect the power of good and evil.  We can transmit these across boundless distances.  Solomon the Wise [King Solomon] says this very thing: 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden.'  Wisdom of Solomon 1:10  The noise of our soul is transmitted mysteriously and affects the other, even if we don't say a word.  Even without speaking we can transmit good or evil, irrespective of the distance which separates us from our neighbor.  What is not expressed generally has greater power than words.

Elder Porphyrios finishes his train of thought

The elder continues a few paragraphs later about praying rightly...

The same is not true if we say with a sense of awe that another person is not living well and that we should pray for God to help him and grant him repentance; that is, neither do we say, nor deep down do we desire that God will punish him for what he does. In this case not only do we not do harm to our neighbor, but we do him good. When someone prays for his neighbour, a good force proceeds from him and heals, strengthens and revives him. It is a mystery how this force leaves us. But, in truth, the person who has good within him radiates this good power to others, mystically and gently. He sends light to his neighbor and this creates a shield around him and protects him from evil. When we possess a good disposition towards others and pray, then we heal our fellows and we help them progress towards God.

There is an invisible life, the life of the soul. This is very powerful and can have effect on the other, even if we are miles apart. This also happens with the curse, which is a power that works evil. But if, conversely, we pray with love for someone, whatever the distance that separates us, the good is transmitted. So distances do not affect the power of good and evil. We can transmit these across boundless distances. Solomon the Wise says this very thing: 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden.' (Wisdom 1:10) The noise of our soul is transmitted mysteriously and affects the other, even if we don't say a word. Even without speaking we can transmit good or evil, irrespective of distance which separates us from our neighbour. What is not expressed generally has greater power than words.

Such simple wisdom. The trick is snatching those evil feelings and thoughts before they leave the building! May God help us always to disseminate peace to each other and the world!

Again this is from the book Wounded by Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios. Available at Uncut Mountain Supply.

Good and evil thoughts, part 1 of a 1,000,000,000 in a series

More about those who harm us from Elder Porphyrios:

We need to be careful not to harbour any resentment against those who harm us, but rather to pray for them with love. Whatever any of our fellow men does, we should never think evil of him. We need always to have thoughts of love and always to think good of others. Look at St. Stephen the first martyr (Acts 7:60). He prayed, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. We need to do the same.

We should never think about someone that God will send him some evil or that God will punish him for his sin. This thought brings about very great evil, without our being aware of it. We often feel indignation and say to someone: 'Have you no fear of God's justice, are you not afraid of God's punishment?' Or else we say. 'God will punish you for what you've done,' or 'O, God, do not bring evil on that person for what he did to me,' or, 'May that person not suffer the same thing.'

In all these cases, we have a deep desire within us for the other person to be punished. Instead of confessing our anger over his error, we present our indignation in a different way, and we allegedly pray to God for him. In reality, however, in this way we are cursing our brother.

And if, instead of praying, we say, 'May God repay you for the evil you have done to me,' then once again we are wishing for God to punish him. Even when we say 'All very well, God is witness,' the disposition of our soul works in a mysterious way and influences the soul of our fellow man so that he suffers evil.

More about this from Elder Porphyrios tomorrow. Good stuff although hard to bear because it exposes false piety. Sigh...

We owe no one anything, except to love one another

When someone injures us in whatever way, whether with slanders or with insults, we should think of him as our brother who has been taken hold of by the enemy. He has fallen victim to the enemy. Accordingly we need to have compassion for him and entreat God to have mercy on both on us and on him, and God will help both. If, however, we are filled with anger against him, then the enemy will jump from him to us and make a mockery of us both. A person who condemns others does not love Christ. Our egotism is at fault. This is where condemnation of others stems from. Let me give you a little example.

Let's suppose someone is all alone in the desert. Suddenly he hears a voice crying out in distress in the distance. He follows the sound and is confronted by a horrendous sight: a tiger has grabbed hold of a man and is savaging him with its claws. The man is desperately shouting for help. In a few minutes he will be torn to pieces. What can the person do to help? Can he run to his side? How? It's impossible. Can he shout for help? Who will hear him? There is no one within earshot. Should he perhaps pick up a stone and throw it at the man to finish him off? 'Certainly not!' we would say. But that's exactly what can happen if we don't realize that the other person who is acting badly towards us has been taken hold of by a tiger, the devil. We fail to realize that when we react to such a person without love it is as if we are throwing stones at his wounds and accordingly we are doing him great harm and the 'tiger' leaps onto us and we do the same as him and worse. What kind of love do we have then for our neighbour and, even more importantly, for God?

This quote is from the beautiful book, Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios. This book tells the story of his life and, in simple, deeply reflected and profoundly wise words, he expounds the Christian faith for today. It can be purchased at Uncut Mountain Supply.

The title of this post is Romans 13:8. If you continue to verse 10, it continues on to say, "Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Also a lovely thing to ponder!