By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“Great indeed is Anthony, the beginning of the Fathers, but divine Christodoulos is their divinely-inspired end.” (Verses of the Synaxarion)
The wise Hymnographer of the Service of Venerable Christodoulos, the teacher Iakovos Anastasios of Patmos, is distinguished for his deep knowledge of the spiritual life of the Church. This means that he is able with ease to discern the signs of the saintliness of Venerable Christodoulos and to present them to us in the best possible way. The saying of the Apostle Paul applies to him, which states that “the spiritual man who has the Spirit of God can examine all things, yet he himself cannot be judged by anyone who does not have that Spirit.”
Nevertheless, feeling his own smallness, from the very beginning he invokes — as is usually done by hymnographers — the illumination and grace of God in order to hymn the Venerable one correctly and not distort his image (Ode 1).
Thus the ecclesiastical poet truly presents the Venerable one, one might say, in the full extent of his life, both the earthly and the heavenly. And what does he tell us in general terms? That the Venerable one, wherever he went, in whatever place he practiced asceticism — on Olympus, on Latros, in Patmos, in Euboea — had one thing set before him above all: how to please the Lord, how to keep his relationship with Jesus Christ, his Lord, alive.
And striving for this, on the one hand he freed himself from whatever impassioned attachment bound him to the world (sticheron at Vespers); on the other hand he felt a great desire to guide his fellow human beings as well, especially when he saw them living in the darkness of ignorance of God.
Indeed, the poet observes that the Venerable one can be compared with the great figures of the holy prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament, because the life of Venerable Christodoulos corresponds to features of their own lives. For this reason he characterizes the Venerable one as another Samuel, as a new Moses, as a second John the Forerunner, and also as the Prophet Elijah, as Daniel, and so forth.
And of course the thing that the Hymnographer continually emphasizes as the driving force of the Venerable one and the interpretive key to all the wonders of his life is his love for God — his intense, fire-like longing for Him, literally his eros for Christ, which wounded his heart so that the Venerable one became His dwelling place. Thus he says, for example, among other things: “for he had the Lord within himself” and “having Christ dwelling within himself” (Lity).
A small example of this warmth that filled him is the following hymn from the first ode of his Canon:
“Because you were wounded by the eros of the true Wisdom (Christ) you regulated with prudence the movements of your mind by means of the higher and better fear that exists. Therefore, O wise one, you attained that which was the longing of your heart.”
What is especially important in this particular hymn? The regulation of the movements of the mind in a prudent manner. For it is known that the mind possesses such “changeability”, that is, such constant movement and fluctuation, that it is very difficult to restrain it. And this constitutes the most central problem in the spiritual life of a faithful Christian.
In other words, we are carried about by the thoughts of our mind, which sometimes come from our passions and sometimes from the wicked devil. As a result, the mind is characterized as a “wanderer” — it constantly roams about. What is it that can bring it under control?
The fear of God, says the Hymnographer as he observes the life of Venerable Christodoulos — a fear that is the fruit of the heart wounded by love for Christ. And this fear is manifested in its charismatic dimension when a person walks on the path of keeping the holy commandments of Christ.
That is, one loves Christ, stands before Him with absolute awe and reverence (fear) — for love toward God does not degenerate into childishness and liberties — keeps His commandments, and regulates the movements of his mind by controlling his thoughts.
It is not accidental that in the Service of Holy Communion there is mentioned, among other things, the very serious supplication of the believer that the Lord, through Holy Communion, may regulate his life:
“Sanctify me, cleanse me, and regulate me.”
Venerable Christodoulos was experienced in the spiritual struggle; his mind was regulated according to the commandments of Christ. For this reason, not with simple steps but with enormous leaps he reached the supreme desire of his life: the vision of his Christ.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
