Elder Aimilianos: We live in Common

When all is said and done, what is Athonite life? A human society containing God. It is bliss, consisting, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa says, in this: “Having God within oneself ‘. God lives and moves among them.
But what of the world, all of us who make up human society, who is our bliss if not God? The God of all flesh, our God, too?
But you’ll say to me: “We’re swamped every day by the problems of life, by pain, by sickness by sin, by concerns, by the ragged tatters of our past life. We’re worldly”.
All right! So does that mean that since you’re swamped, or that since you’re such sinners – as much as I am, as much as any Athonite – that you aren’t children of God?
But, again, you’ll say to me: “We don’t see God, either as light or as darkness. We don’t have such experiences. They’re just dreams for us. How can we bear up in life? There’s only impotence and dejec­tion around us, only darkness”.
What is all this, dear friends? No! We live in common and we see in common. Why do you think of yourself as an individual and not as a member of Christ? Is the faith and experience of others foreign to us? What did we say before? “It is said that God dwells in darkness”. And the mystic, the heavenly author, goes on to say concerning the Apostle Paul, and this is surely true, that he saw Christ: “And, indeed, the divine Paul is said to have known God”.
What does this mean? It means that the saints say, the Scriptures mention time and again, the Fathers confirm, Paul confesses and the experience of the mystical life proclaims that God dwells in darkness and in light. If you have not seen Him, not recognised him, what does that matter? Are you the touchstone of truth? No. Which is why the experience of the Church has told it, tells it and writes it. And, since you have heard it – which is precisely why it has greater significance – your senses are not deceiving you.
This is why the Mountain insists on a tradition, a pre-eternal trad­ition, so as to have the certainty it possesses. The Mountain is to be believed, because it does not say anything which it has simply produced today. It is authentic because its witness goes all the way back to Christ. It has and gives life and life is God Himself, your God!
Scripture says: “The breath of man is the light of the Lord, Who searches the innermost parts of the belly”". Do you hear that? The light of God is our breath. In other words, we would have died were it not for the light of God, even if invisible. You therefore have the light, so believe in what you have, because at some stage that will place you on the right hand of God. It is enough to recollect and to know: like breath it enters into you and fills your innermost parts with life. Have you then no breath? You have. And yet you do not have light? You do not have God? Impossible. Your breath conceals this light. Catch hold of your breath. You are holding God there! God has come to dwell in us and searches the depths of our souls and sees our desires.
It was a cause of great distress to one monk that, although his Elder was a holy man, he himself did not feel he was experiencing God. And do you know what he did? He would fall down on his knees and kiss the earth, the stool, the door of the Elder’s cell, whatever was inside, and would say: “Christ is here, too. I’m kissing Christ”.
Another used to kiss the donkey which eased his way on rising ground, because it helped him comprehend God, Who gives rest to those who are weary and heavy-laden. You alone are without God?
You, too, can kiss the earth you tread upon. Where your wife treads, your husband, your child, the place where you pray, where you cense, where you cry. Comprehend Christ there, and kiss the place yourself, because it is a sign that God has passed that way.
The Holy Mountain has shown us and tells us that the grace of God is active everywhere. Do you know what Saint John the Damascan calls divine grace? “A vault of God”. That is a leap of God. There where you are sitting, where for years you have been expecting God and not found Him, He all of a sudden leaps and enters you, embraces you, kisses you and fills you with the breath of His nostrils, with His love, His being, His triunity.
It is as easy for God to leap and come into our lives as it is for anyone to jump. Just as He leaps on the peaks of Athos, as He gets into the little boats and caves, the crannies, everywhere, comprehen­ding the desires, the pains and the tears of the Athonites, so He com­prehends the least cry of your soul, of the souls of all.