May: Day 15: Teaching 2: Venerable Pachomios the Great

May: Day 15: Teaching 2:
Venerable Pachomios the Great
 
(On Getting Away From Heretics)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Pachomios the Great, whose memory is celebrated today, lived in the 4th century in Egypt and is revered as the first founder of monastic communal living, for before him, in the early days of Christianity, hermits, anchorites and other ascetics who knew neither monasteries nor communal living lived alone.

Having achieved a high degree of spiritual perfection and receiving from an angel who appeared to him in the form of a schema monk the rules and guidelines of ascetic life, Venerable Pachomios founded several monasteries near Tabenna, a place located on the banks of the Nile. Venerable Pachomios spared no effort and wisely governed the numerous brethren, whose number some believe to have been up to 10,000. Pachomios possessed all the qualities necessary for a leader: a higher calling, illumination, and extraordinary gifts of grace. His distinguishing traits were meekness and forbearance. His conversations with the disciples were akin to that of a father with his children.

With all his virtues, the Saint considered himself a great sinner. He viewed his power over others as nothing other than a duty to serve everyone, and did not tolerate any difference from others for himself.

The influence of such a leader, who also served as a model of holiness, could not but prove to be extremely beneficial; therefore, the society of the Tabenna monks represented a model of achieving spiritual perfection, and although the majority of the monks were simple villagers, uneducated and illiterate, all of them nevertheless “were full of Divine wisdom, which they drew from listening to and fulfilling the Holy Scriptures and from the enlightening influence on them of the great Pachomios.” From the monastery of Pachomius, many monks subsequently occupied episcopal thrones.

Venerable Pachomios died in 348 from a contagious plague that had spread in his monasteries. Two days before his death, he called together the heads and builders of the monasteries and said to them: “I feel that my end is approaching. Remember what I have inspired you with. Be vigilant in your prayers and judicious in all your actions. Do not associate with the followers of Meletius, Arius and Origen. Get close only to those who fear God and can bring you benefit and spiritual comfort through their conversation. Choose among you a man who would rule you according to the Spirit of God.”

II. Let us, brethren, turn our attention to the dying testament of the great Pachomios. In it, as you have heard, he bequeaths to his numerous brethren "not to have any communion with heretics" who have departed from the truth and lost the fear of God.

a) Not only monks, but all Christians should be guided by this wise warning of the Venerable Pachomios, a most experienced leader in spiritual life. Indiscriminate and close communication of Orthodox Christians with heretics and schismatics, as sad experiences show, turned many away from the truth and forever removed them from the path leading to eternal salvation. An Orthodox Christian must be extremely careful in his relations with heretics and schismatics.

b) The same caution in dealing with heretics is taught to us by the word of God. Jesus Christ Himself instructs the Apostles: “Whoever will not receive you, nor hearken to your words, when you go out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city” (Matthew 10:14-15). “But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the Kingdom of God has come near you’” (Luke 10:11). In general, the Lord Jesus commands His followers to avoid close contact with stubborn opponents of God and the Church, just as the Jews avoided fellowship with pagans and publicans.

The Holy Apostles, of course, only reveal the teaching of their Lord and teacher Jesus Christ on this subject. Nevertheless, when they touch upon the obligatory relations of Christians to heretics and schismatics, unbelievers and apostates, they preach not so much love for them as severity, careful but decisive avoidance of them, as people excommunicated from God and the Church, self-condemned and surrendered to Satan.

Thus, the Holy Apostle Peter, when Simon the sorcerer wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit and the apostolic authority from the apostles for silver, “so that whomever he lays his hands on might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” the Apostle Peter said to Simon: “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:18-24). It was not for nothing that Saint Peter spoke with doubt: “Pray to God, perhaps the thought of your heart will be forgiven you.” This was insight. According to the recorded tradition of the first centuries, Simon the sorcerer did not repent and continued to deceive the people with false miracles, for which he was executed by the same Holy Apostle Peter. Simon the sorcerer flew through the air before the eyes of the people in Rome, but at the prayer of Saint Peter he fell and was killed.

So also the Apostle Paul, when the proconsul Sergius, having called Barnabas and Paul, wished to hear from them the word of God, and Ellima the sorcerer resisted them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith, Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit and fixing his gaze on Ellima, said: O, "full of all deceit and all malice, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness! Will you cease to pervert from the straight paths of the Lord?" And he struck him with temporary blindness (Acts 13:6, 11).

Is the attitude towards such people any softer than that of the greatest preacher of love, the Holy Apostle John? He calls the false prophets of his time spirits of deceit, spirits of antichrist, even downright antichrists. "For as ye have heard," he writes (1 John 2), "that antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have arisen. They went out from us, but they were not among us. He that rejects that Jesus is not the Christ, he is antichrist, rejecting the Father and the Son." In his second epistle the Holy Apostle writes: "Whoever transgresses the teaching of Christ and does not abide in it does not have God in himself. If any man come unto you, and bring not this teaching, receive him not into your house, neither bid him welcome (and say not rejoice unto him). For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds."

III. Here is the genuine teaching, in the genuine expressions of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, about the relationship with heretics and schismatics and all kinds of unbelievers.

Therefore, to speak of love for such enemies of the Church, who spread such wide nets to catch her faithful children, is both contrary to the spirit of the Church and infinitely dangerous. The supreme apostles of Christ, Peter, Paul and John, preached not love, but fear of them and self-removal from them. The Holy Apostles, without a doubt, deeply comprehended both the spirit and the need of the Church. Amen. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.