ABOUT FOOLS, WISER THAN THE WORLD
By St. Nikolai Velimirovich.
We are fools for Christ’s sake.
[1 Cor 4:10]
Thus speaks the great Apostle Paul who in the
beginning was guided by worldly wisdom, which is against Christ, until he
recognized the falsehood and decay of the wisdom of the world and the light and
stability of the wisdom of Christ. Then, the holy apostle did not become angry
with the world because they called him “a fool for Christ’s sake” neither did
he, in defiance of the world, hesitate to be called by this name.
It is not of any value to us how the world is going to
regard or call us. However, it is important, and extremely important, how the
holy angels in the Heavens will regard and call us when, after death, we meet
with them. This is of crucial importance and everything else is nothing.
Either we are fools for the world because of Christ or
we are fools for Christ because of the world. O how short-lived is the sound of
a word of the world! If the world would say to us “fool,” the world will die
and its word will die! What then is the value of its word? But if the heavenly,
immortal ones say to us “fool,” that will neither die nor is it removed from us
as eternal condemnation.
Whoever does not believe in the Living God, nor in
eternal life, nor in the Incarnation of the Lord Christ, nor in Christ’s
Resurrection nor in the truth of the Gospel nor in God’s eternal mercy and
justice—is it any wonder if he considers that one a fool who does believe in
all of this?
O, may every one of us who cross ourselves with the
Sign of the Cross not only find it easy to endure but with satisfaction receive
the name “fool” for Christ’s sake! Let us rejoice and be glad if the
non-believers call us such, for that means that we are close to Christ and far
away from the non-believers. Let us rejoice and be glad and repeat with a
powerful echo in the ears of the world: yes, yes, indeed we are fools for
Christ’s sake!
O Lord Most Wise, strengthen us by Your power that we
not fear the non-believing world neither when they lash us with whips nor when
they insult us with words for Your sake. Amen!
http://apantaortodoxias.blogspot.gr/2015/08/about-fools-wiser-than-world-by-st.html
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