Matthew 5:43 Fr Alexander Karloutsos

My dear friends,

I pray my brief note finds you and your loved ones well. Like you, I am sickened by man’s inhumanity to man as we witness the killing of innocents and the incessant death– blows of bombs upon the Ukrainian people. Like you, our Church is doing everything possible to help, while leaving the impossible to God. Hopefully, our prayers for peace will be heard.

Like you, I have also witnessed a proliferation of perverse, twisted, mind blowing and heart-wrenching emails that not only violate the Ninth Commandment, but also are truly void of human decency and Christian conviction. Many people reach out and ask me how they should respond or react to the putrid stench of gossip and malignant untruths that are polluting our lives with viciousness and vile.

Like you, I do my best to call upon our better angels and follow the dictates of our Lord who commands us with these words in Matthew 5:43-45: You have heard that it was said ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

At times of the insane, I look for the sane; and at times of evil, I look for the holy. There was a great sage in our midst, Fr Paisios of Mount Athos, who is now a Saint in our Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate canonized him on January 13, 2015.

When Saint Paisios was asked how he dealt with the evil of gossip, he simply offered the example of the bees and the flies. Please see his answer below. I believe he says it all and speaks for us all as well.

Father Alexander Karloutsos

Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

BEES AND FLIES

We once asked Father Paisios, “Father, you constantly tell us to think positively. We would like you to give us some advice on how to deal with when “People come to tell us that various priests charge a great deal of money for performing the Holy Mysteries. They claim that they smoke or frequent coffee shops. They even say that some priests are involved in immoral acts and, in general, make severe accusations against them, presenting evidence to justify these accusations. What answers can we give to those who accuse the clergy?”

The Elder said, “I know from experience that in this life people are divided in two categories. A third category does not exist. People either belong to one or the other. The first kind of person resembles the fly which is …attracted to filth…. When a fly finds itself in a garden full of flowers with beautiful fragrances, it will ignore them and land on top of some filth it finds on the ground. It will wallow in it, feeling comfortable with the foul smell. If the fly could talk, and you were to ask it to show you a rose in the garden, it would answer: ‘I’ve no idea what a rose looks like. I only know where to find garbage, toilets and filth.’ There are many people who resemble the fly thinking negatively, always looking for the evil things of life, ignoring and rejecting all the good there is.

People in the other category people are like the bee, which looks always for something sweet and pleasant to land on. When a bee finds itself in a room filled with filth, but where there is a small piece of sweet in a corner, it will ignore the filth and land on top of the sweet. Now, if we were to ask the bee to show us where the garbage was, it would answer: ‘I do not know. I can only tell you where to find flowers, sweets, honey and sugar.’ It only knows the good things in life and ignores all evil. People in this category think positively and see only the good side of things [whenever possible] covering up evil, in order to protect their fellow man. Contrarily, people in the first category look to expose evil and to bring it to the surface [even when it is unnecessary].

“When someone comes to me and begins accusing other people, putting me in a difficult situation, I relate to him the foregoing example and I ask him to decide in which category he wishes to belong, so he might find people of similar kind with whom to associate.

–Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain

Translated from the Greek