By Fr. George Dorbarakis
The verse of the synaxarion of Saint Philaret gives the mark of his life according to Christ, taking as its basis his name and his epithet: philaret and merciful. “You who were adorned with every virtue have died, truly full of compassion you loved father." Indeed, the hymns of our Church, as is evident from his Apolytikion, consider that what constitutes the absolute jewel of Philaret, is his compassion towards his fellow men, and especially those in need. “You have adorned your life with compassion.” And this means that Philaret became par excellence a lover of God, since there is no greater virtue in which God rests than that which constitutes His own existence. “For God is love.” And it is worth remembering that any virtue, or even the whole of virtues, if it does not end in love and does not presuppose it, has no particular significance. Sometimes, in fact, it can even work negatively for its possessor, by creating in him boasting and pride, which leads him into direct opposition to his Creator. “The Lord opposes the proud.”
Thus, Saint Philaret, becoming “the dwelling place of the loving-compassionate God,” daily revealed, even in moments of his absolute need, the existence and life of Christ, with the result that, without speaking, he pointed to Heaven. In other words, the Saint followed “in His footsteps,” which is why he could say like the Apostle Paul: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” And indeed, as his synaxarion states, his last words, his last legacy, were this: “As you have seen me do, do not cease doing.” Who can say such words if he is not fully aware of the rich indwelling of the Lord within him? And it is as if the Saint also reveals the standards to which he had reached: the standards of the apostles and disciples of the Lord. That is why his Hymnographer establishes that such a holy life was ultimately a doxology of God Himself, who grants the grace of true love to the faithful man. “You have glorified the Giver of mercy.”
This love of Saint Philaret, which constantly took the form of giving and alms to his needy fellow human beings, we need to emphasize again that it was not simply a fruit of his naturally sensitive heart. Without denying the fact that he indeed had a natural sympathy for his fellow human beings as a character, he acquired his compassion through the spiritual struggles he undertook, in order to transform the impassioned elements that tormented him into the divine passion of love. “By the wealth of divine faith, you have scattered to those in need the riches that come to you, Philaret,” points out the Hymnographer, who will say: You scattered the material wealth that you had to the poor, Philaret, driven by your faith in God. His faith in God was what made him turn with love towards his fellow man, understanding that love towards him constitutes the activation of faith. “Faith through love activated” as the Apostle Paul says. In other words, with Saint Philaret, and not only with him of course, we understand that love constitutes the present of faith at any given time, that is, faith is alive when it is manifested with love.
That is why Saint Philaret refers, as we have said, to the life of the Holy Apostles, but also to the life of Saint John the Merciful, who has the same epithet as him. And even more: he brings to mind great personalities of the Old Testament, such as the Patriarch Abraham and the Righteous Job. Just as Abraham has come down in history for the great gift of hospitality that possessed him, just as the Righteous Job became famous for the patience he displayed, even in the harshest circumstances, so did Philaret, who was hospitable to the utmost, and himself patient. For even in the period of his greatest hardship, he did not grumble, he did not turn against God, he did not lose his faith. But repeating the words of the Righteous Job, “the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord,” he remained firmly attached to Him, proving his faith in action.
And it becomes for us today not just an example, but the example par excellence. Because we too today, with what we are experiencing due to the generalized crisis: economic, social, spiritual, can face the temptation of murmuring and the loss of faith in God. And the example of Saint Philaret comes precisely to remind us that as long as one insists on faith and love, as long as one endures with hope in God, so much does one “magnetize” God, Who, without us knowing it, has already opened the doors of the way out. For certainly let us not forget that the Lord “will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength, but will with the temptation also make the way out so that we can endure.” He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, but he will also give us the way out, so that we can endure.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
