Ep. 36 | Nevoia de validare din partea altora și despre cum laudele ne abat de pe calea mântuirii

“But nature weakens in those who seek praise from others or proves weak. What will a man do when he is no longer praised? And certainly the praises that are given to him are given to him because it is seen that he desires them and has the power to impose them. That is precisely why they are not sincere and will not last long. They will not last after they no longer have the power to impose them. Even those who praise someone, willingly or by necessity, condemn him in their hearts, while they praise him externally. And when they no longer have the interest in praising him, they will condemn him to their face. And praise is sought by the one who shows himself to be knowledgeable of the commandments, but not a doer of them, as the spiritual man is.” (St. Dumitru Staniloae) “Whoever praises the sweetness of God’s words but does not feed on them, makes them appear bitter.” So the words that we know but do not practice, but preach to others, at some point they become a bitter sweetness. A word that is not working in us, even to a small extent, cannot become working in the other. Our non-working makes a spiritual word out of sweet, bitter. The words are emptied of spirit by our mediation which is hypocritical and hypocritical. The words remain only in their abstract form. But they do not have the power of working life. We steal, for our vain glory, we steal the power from the words of Christ. And we condemn ourselves. "He who wants to show himself knowledgeable and not rather spiritual (i.e., a doer of words), I will be surprised if he escapes the punishment that is destined for him" (Elder Barsanuphius) We, somewhere, and by the fact that we show ourselves impressed by certain words from Scripture or from the Saints, always seek praise from others as if we were knowledgeable and that we understand high and deep things. When God directly targets us with a word, He always gives us a sweetness, a power, a serenity and a luminous energy. And for this reason, the soul adheres to this word spontaneously, directly, instantly. Although the old man in us rebels, however, the first reaction that the soul must feel is the joyful adherence to the word. What happens in the life of a person who has received spiritual comfort but ends up being praised later for a certain reason? Praise takes us out of the truth about ourselves. What truth? The truth about ourselves is that we are sinners and powerless. And we need the energy of these divine words to revive our soul. Praise, on the contrary, takes us out of this spiritual tension, out of the sight of sins and out of the minimal state of humility that we have. We lose everything through praise. They are very dangerous. When we praise someone, even if they are not present and do not hear, that praise somewhere at the level of the spirit is transmitted and reaches them and harms them. 00:00:00- Introduction 00:02:22- The praise of others weakens faith in us 00:03:51- Some praise us insincerely out of interest and will condemn us when they are no longer interested 00:05:11- Praise separates us from the truth about ourselves 00:08:43- Praise is very dangerous 00:09:17- The need for discernment when praising 00:10:49- Neither praising nor criticizing, but having simple and gentle words 00:12:19- What happens when we praise God's words but are not doers of these words? 00:15:19- How should we relate to time? 00:17:48- Where does the weakness of the body and the melting of the heart come from? 00:20:27- The inability to keep a fasting regimen 00:21:51- The monster of spiritual forgetfulness 00:23:05- Some do not eat or sleep until they are examined by the Lord