by hieromonk Iason
You cannot say “I am a Christian” without having discernment.
Of course, “Christian” is neither a lebel nor a conquest.
None other than our Lord has offered us the right to be Christians, in other words, to be members of the Church of Christ, with his Cross and Resurrection. And faith is a gift of God.
Today, you wake up and believe, the next day you don’t…!
We will struggle for as long as we can to preserve the Faith that we were given and to pass on this experience to our children and others.
Inside the Church we are disciples and teachers at the same time: everything we learn, we are eager to teach it to others.
When we were baptized, the priest gave us a lit candle and said, “Let your works shine on people’s eyes, in order for them to see your good works and praise the heavenly Father.”
From the moment we reborn in the Church, we undertake a holy mission, having a Devil before us! Struggle: over blood and flesh. It’s not easy to remain a Christian!
So, how are we going to learn and teach if we cannot discern things? We all build a self and a personality.
We grow up with or without a family, we do or we don’t study, we get married, we cloister, we take the veil, we become widows… and life goes on. We carry a bunch of experiences and knowledge.
Everyone is different, but the purpose of Christians is common.
Christ tells us how to see things again: “See your life as if there was no death: What are you afraid of? Why are you crying? ”
(anxiety, depression, crises, mania: the illnesses of our times)
The principle of discernment is the absence of fear.
If we are afraid, then something goes wrong in our “spiritual” issues. The more people withdraw into themselves, the more they die.
But the Savior defeated Death.
He triumphed over the forces of darkness; those who aim to make us withdraw to ourselves and be afraid.
If we are afraid, we will never open up. We will see things without discernment, as if it is just us and no one else.
Do we, eventually, believe this deception every day?
