Texts chosen from the writings and teachings of the Father Theodossios Maria of the Cross
The language of signs
Time passes. Eternity remains; that is the permanent prism through which all things must be seen and filtered, all things, all thoughts, all feelings, all memories, all generosity and all pettiness, all moments of childhood splendor and all crumpling of the afflicted soul. What remains is Eternity; Love only is eternal.
Solitary landscapes, plains and gardens of infinite tenderness, blue seas beneath the blue summer sky, delicate flowers devotedly offered by delicate souls, high, high mountains and peaceful rivers, windows opened onto expanses of green, fragrance of thyme and incense and pure wax, white crosses upon deserted hills, far-off sounds of evening on flat and fertile plains, friendly voices tinged with eternal fidelity that traverse the fragrant hour of dusk, illnesses and open wounds offered with sweetness and without revolt, offered for the liberty and joy of unknown souls; presences which people all solitudes and solitudes of infinite love which transcend all presence, mistakes of holy origin, successes without merit which fill the soul with secret sadness in the hours of praise and ovation, shivers of cosmic solitude and of void before the image of the infinite universe, in motion and without love; shivers and warm tears of gratitude before the small. discreet vibration of the infinite love of the Creator, murmurs of gentle wisdom within friendships established by God in eternity fill my soul as I think of each of you, as we make our way painfully towards the mystery of the feasts of sorrow and resurrection.
Henceforth, for millions of men, the nostalgia for beauty and eternal Love does not belong to the "real". An entire language, a sensitive human language and all of the nuanced and delicate significations of words are effaced in the consciousness and sensibility of millions and millions of men. Yet the aim of the creation and the means of attaining to it as individuals, as peoples and as races, remain immutable. Thus every faithful and loving soul is led, amidst all tribulation, to perceive and to live, as much as is permitted and possible, the sign behind each thing, its intimate language of creature created innocent before any alteration, in order to receive, behind each thing, the eternal love of God and of his creation within Him.
In the leaves of the trees, transparent and gilded by the sun, one can read the message of the Word: hope. One can read a call, a dream and a promise. The whole of creation contains the sign, infinitely variable and absolutely unique, of the finality of creation. On the distant horizon gleams the interior horizon. And on the interior horizon shines the visage of eternal Love, visage both human and divine; visage of the multiple inf1nite and of the infinite One, for it is the visage of the Creator, of the unique Son of the Creator and of the Spirit thrice Holy of the Creator.
The tiniest wild flowers, the depths of friends' eyes, planets and galaxies, the glow of the oil lamp before the icon, the graves of little children and the centuries-old cemeteries, all the pure waters and sweet fragrances of fields and forests, the salty ocean wind, contain a secret song, a gentle song, discreet and infinite, the song of the Lord.
Flowers and trees and precious stones, as well as humble pebbles, waters, stretches of land and mountains, everything is a beautiful letter and word of the hidden language of eternal life. That is why the Holy Scriptures and all the sacred writings of God's servants are full of comparisons and references to nature. Flowers express spiritual blossomings which come forth from the depths of the initial creation of the primordial world. Precious stones express stability of conquered virtues, and each element contains immutable qualities as well as corrosive elements. And this is what Saint Paul writes, "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead."
The soul of good will, when it has definitively entered the path of profound humility, begins to be grateful for the littlest wheel that man can make, for the most minor medicine, for the water of rivers and for rain, for the wool of clothing, for the law of sound which permits a musical instrument, for the metal which permits a medical instrument and the magnetized needle; and the soul of good will is grateful for the laws which it knows of the natural world, for the perception of the infinitely small and the infinitely great in its rapports with finite nature, for colors, flowers, for the heavens. The soul is grateful because through the aperture of basic humility and of death, it understands the language of the whole visible universe and of all the laws of nature, which speak only of that life of order and peace and of eternal love of the Kingdom.
In order to understand and penetrate the meaning of "the goodness of things", that is, what things express and their sign, books serve little when man is weighed down by his "ego"; he must be free and he is liberated from his ego when he enters the glory of love, when he takes an interest in his brothers, when he takes an interest, for example, in writing a tender letter to his mother whom he loves: then man is free, he is joyful and smiling.
It is absolutely impossible to grasp the mystery of a landscape, to grasp the mystery of animals, the mystery of the rapport between humans and animals, if we do not readjust our own knowledge each day to a lived, intimate knowledge, if we are not continually moved by the desire to be united to eternal truth.
Things express an immense goodness when they manifest to man the message of God's love. And human beings themselves contain a great, sacred secret and can contain an immense goodness, a love which is a participation in God's love.
When one communicates with the Creation, there is a great nostalgia, because behind every expression the great goodness of God is engraved, hidden everywhere. Death is also hidden therein, for man can no longer communicate solely with the goodness of things when, loving himself, he egotistically wishes to separate himself from the evil of death, for then he becomes divided within himself, he leaves the Work of the Creation.
That is what the devil, who hates the Creation, who hates man, desires. The way in which sin and the original disorder manifest themselves most in a human being is in his incapacity to penetrate the mystery of the Creation, his ceasing to love the works of God. When nature is not dominated by eternal love within man, the goodness of things is lost.
In order to be constantly with God, one must love Him in fullness, love what He wanted to do: He wanted to save the world, that is, He wanted man to be able to communicate with the goodness of things, with the goodness of creation, with Him.So I must be fully available in order to understand the goodness of things: the goodness of the flame of an oil lamp, the goodness of a green prairie, the goodness of a smile, the goodness of an eyebrow, the goodness of a stone, the goodness of a warm room when I come in from the cold, the mysterious goodness which emanates from the forest, the goodness of earth, leaves, bark; the vibration of goodness which flows forth from a man, from his spirit, his heart, his hair, his ears, his bones.
And why are there so many crimes? Absence of love. So much courseness? Absence of love. Where there is no love all is foul, where there is love, all becomes holy because man's love, even the most ordinary, is a participation in God's love, and Christ came in order to sanctify it.
All that is without love leads to death, even if it is done in the name of God. That is why Saint Paul saidÑand I shall repeat it until the end of my lifeÑI may possess all wisdom and know all languages, I may give my body to be burned, but if I have not love, I am a clanging gong.
When you were in contact with the goodness of things, when, that is, contact with the exterior world lifted your soul and filled you with joy and holy love, you were free, without problems; when one becomes weighed down, he enters darkness.
Do not think that goodness consists in not desiring evil. Goodness does not mean, only not to desire evil, it is a continual activity as a constant light. And when someone near us is weak and weighed down within himself, or self-satisfied, or meditative or a little grey, we must be as lights to dissolve his darkness.
Believe me, knowledge is an endless journey, a journey to knowledge of God. One advances, one advances... What is defined is the way, and the only way is: to love, to desire good, to have endless patience, never, never to despair.
The man of truth discovers the signature of the Creator engraved within the intimity of all things, and he enters the path which leads away from history. He discovers that Christ entered history in order to liberate man from the Great Illusion. Thus, it is at the foot of the Cross that the path of liberation begins, where man discovers, little by little, the mystic language of all visible things. And then the day comes when the universe is silent and history is silent. The Illusion dissipates. The false image of the universe is overthrown. And the soul knows and lives, because it knows the eternal real, the Ineffable.
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