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| Venerable Pimen the Great |
Friends,
Today the Holy Church commemorates Venerable Pimen the Great, one of the holy eminent fathers of the Egyptian desert. When I was listening to his life on Fr. Josiah’s web site, PATRISTIC NECTAR, someone sent me a note about how some search engine is blocking returns of Hillsdale’s free on-line classes. But maybe because I was listening to St. Pimen’s life, I had a little different thought about this latest drop in the ocean of evil that is fighting everything good and true and beautiful in our world today.
The examples are replete – every day brings many. There are so many, in fact, that it is rather easy to fall into despair if we let each one take away a bit of our joy in Christ. And perhaps this is just another consequence of allowing our lives to be run by algorithms rather than the Gospel. Whether we have chosen one side or another by our browsing habits, we are attacked and urged to continue to move more and more to the extremes. These extremes drive us further and further away from other humans and make it harder and harder to form relationships with those who do not occupy our own personal extreme position. Thus, social media shows itself again and again as the most destructive and efficient tool of those who wish to do away with all that is good and true and beautiful, of course beginning with Christianity. It is not good for us to have a persecution complex. It is also not good for us to be foolish in the face of overwhelming evidence. And in the Gospel we find the stance of the Church in this regard:
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (John 15:18)
St. Pimen suggest we be “destroyed” drip by drip not by the evil of the world, which uses every opportunity to try to truly annihilate us via algorithms, and which we welcome so zealously into our lives as those who irrationally love to consume poison, but rather he instructs us:
The nature of water is soft, and that of stone is hard. But a goat skin hung above a stone, letting the water fall drop by drop, will bore through the stone. So it is with the word of God. It is gentle, but our hearts are hard. Yet, the man who hears it often will open his heart to the fear of God. (Venerable Pimen the Great)
Our parish is on social media. Because that is where the world is, and we must meet the world where it is in order to bring it to a higher plane. We must meet the suffering where they are suffering so that we can bring them to health. But we should not, as St. Vladimirians, mistake this presence on social media as an affirmation of the good of social media BY ANY MEANS. Quite to the contrary in fact. But the Church has always sought out the lost sheep wherever they are, and will continue to do that until the end of the world. If you are still on social media, try to wean yourself off as quickly as you can. Imagine how many good spiritual books you could read for your salvation, the prayers you could say, the Divine Services you could attend, how often you could read the Gospel and strive to conform you life to that “algorithm” of Christ, rather than the algorithm of destruction that is found on social media, if you could only free yourself from this snare of the Evil One.
If I was the Emperor of the World things would change. :) Not necessarily for the better probably, which is why the Lord does not give such control and power to sinners like me. But the first edict I would publish would be the removal of all social media from the world. This is principally how vices are delivered to us now. This is principally what pulls us off The Way of following Christ. But of course, if there was not social media evil would find another way to fight, because the Author of Lies is quite wise in worldly terms. So my fantasy emperorship might not be all that helpful after all. Therefore, let us embrace the reality: we will never be victorious over evil by falling into despondency due to the fact that evil opposes good in our world. That is simply the baseline reality that we need to come to terms with. And that despondency is a tool of the Devil. Rather, let us fight evil by overwhelming it with good! And that starts with ceasing from the endless distraction that is social media:
The principle of all the vices is distractedness. (Venerable Pimen the Great)
Put the phone down. Pick up the Gospel. Leave off distraction. Flee the other vices that flow from it. Embrace all that is good and true and beautiful (that is, virtue), beginning with a life centered on Christ, His Gospel, and His Church. Thus we will destroy evil by overcoming it with good, as have our fathers and mothers in the faith who came before us and pointed the way for us to the Heavenly Kingdom. The path is clear as day, but not when you are consumed by the evil that is social media.
Let us continue to discuss! Share your thoughts in the comment section, ASK A QUESTION ON CURIOUS VLAD (which will finally return from its decadently long summer break in October), or attend one of our forthcoming Spiritual Discussions (more on those to come soon) at the church on some Sundays after our meal.
Asking Your Prayers,
Fr. Gregory
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