"If
you walk with an evil companion from the Church to the cell, he
will pull you back one year, but if you walk with a good companion
he will progress you six months." And for you my beloved brother,
I present this very real story that happened between two monks in
one of the monasteries in our contemporary time. It provides strong
evidence of the influence of friendship in the life of every person.
Sitting
in a calm meeting with my spiritual father, at the evening of every
day, I was a disciple at his hands and learned the principles of
the spiritual way that leads to eternal life. Usually at these times,
he spoke to me about the early monastic fathers, their sayings and
teachings. But this time he sighed deeply and said to me in a very
emotional voice, "They were great days!" Then he kept silent
and began to think of beautiful memories. The love of knowledge
made me ask him about these beautiful days.
He kept
silent but I repeated my question one more time, so he said to me
with great compassion:
After we
finished these hours of meditation, each one would return back to
his cell, usually after midnight, while our hearts were beating
from inside with many unutterable deep spiritual words and feelings
that made us not want to sleep but very little. After that, upon
hearing the Midnight Praises Bell, we would go quickly to the Church
to attend Midnight Praises, Divine Liturgy, and partake of the Holy
Mysteries.
We used
to encourage one another with spiritual words. If one of us went
through a really hard time, his brother used to support him spiritually
reflecting on the spiritual meaning of long suffering, patience,
forgiveness, and love. Thus, we solved our problems in a very spiritual
way. Because of this we learned how to earn the love of our fathers,
the monks in the monastery, how to comfort everybody and not to
grieve anyone even those who caused problems to us.
We learned
neither to judge nor to gossip about any monk, but rather we learned
how to love everybody and to see the good virtues in every monk.
Thus our hearts were full of love toward every monk, the monastic
life, and the monastery itself. We reached a conclusion that was
very helpful to our spiritual life that "to live as a monk in
the monastery, a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ, was much better
than to live as a king in the world."
But this
spiritual friendship with my brother did not last long. They called
my brother to the service and to be a priest of a church in this
world. Thus I had lost my OTHER WING whom my spirit used
to fly to God.
It was
very hard on me to see him leaving and I started searching for another
companion to help my spirit to fly to God. After a long time of
searching, I found another spiritual friend.
Each time
we met together we would discuss stories of the saints, the beauty
of the monastic life, the blessings of the spiritual warfare, and
long suffering. Thus, I found this OTHER WING by which my
spirit could high upward to Heaven with.
My father
continued to talk for a long time about the memories of these beautiful
days that he lived. I did not feel the time at all because I enjoyed
listening to these memories and after he finished I asked him to
be my OTHER WING to fly with my spirit to God.
And you
my brother, do you have a friend like this one who elevates you
to be united with God? Or a friend that moves you down to be united
with the world and sin?
Do you
have a friend that talks with you about God, His love, and the love
of the brethren, or a friend that gossips with you about your brothers,
judging them, discussing their pitfalls and makes you angry with
them?
I will
leave you, my brother now after you read these words to search for
your OTHER WING (your friend). But don't make this choice
in a hurry lest you choose a friend that disables you instead of
enabling you, and thus will break the wing that you have instead
of being the OTHER WING for you.