1) Is it egotistical to lock oneself up in a monastery to save one's own soul in favor of fighting for God in the world?
"The Gospel is very clear about this issue. Let me give you an example. Do you recall the incident when that young man went to Christ and asked Him, 'Lord, what must I do to save my soul?' And Jesus replied, 'Sell everything you have and join me.' In another part we hear Christ say, 'Nobody can be my disciple if he loves his mother or his father, or his daughter or his fields more than me.' And He gave the first injunction, 'Love the Lord Thy God with all they soul and with all thy heart.' That is, love God with your entire being. Just think of the Twelve Apostles. They were ordinary people that He picked from ordinary life, but they gave up everything in order to follow and live with Him."
2) How can you live in a monastery when Christ lived in the world?
"How many years did Christ preach? (Almost three.) Right. Of the thirty-three years, He preached for only about tow and a half. What was He doing the previous thirty or so years? For thirty years Christ maintained a life of silence. He neither preached nor did He do anything noticeable. The Most Holy Mother of God, the Panagia, the holiest human being that has ever existed or that could ever exist on the face of the earth, never did anything that we can pinpoint. Did she ever preach? Did she ever create any welfare institutions? The only thing we know is that the Panagia was in the templ praying and worshiping God. Then she was given her special assignment. Why was she chosen to give birth to the Christ? Certainly not because she was a great missionary, but because she was perfectly holy.
Do you remember what Christ said to the apostles just after His Resurrection? Go and sit in Jerusalem quietly doing nothing and wait until the Holy Spirit comes to you. It came on the Pentecost. It was only after their enlightenment through the descent of the Holy Spirit that they were instructed to go into the world as healers and teachers. Christ showed them the way. He shows us that we are not to get on the road and become self-appointed missionaries. His example indicates that we must wait in silence and obscurity and focus our hearts and minds exclusively on our personal relationship with God. It is in this way that if and when we are called by God to go out into the world for a particular task, then we will be ready for it.
Also keep in mind...that the apostles lived communally. They gave up everything that connected them to the material world because their exclusive preoccupation with God. They owned nothing individually. They lived celibate lives and were totally obedient to their master and teacher. This is exactly what we do in the monastery. So really, the roots and foundations of monasticism began right from the inception of Christianity by Christ Himself through His life with the apostles."
3) What would you say to families who feel that their relative has been seduced by monasticism?
"Do you think it is easy for a young man who comes here as a novice? A lad raised on hamburgers, pizza, and Coke has a difficult time getting used to the boiled vegetables and legumes that we eat. Then it is asked of them to go to the gardens and plow the ground. After that they are asked to get a broom and sweep the yard. And all these tasks are done while wearing an old, worn-out apron when visitors and relatives may be watching them. Do you realize what a humbling experience that is? Do you think that a young woman or man, disappointed with life and in a state of psychic collapse, will have the necessary stamina and discipline to go through such an experience and training? Such a person will run away from the monastery in a few days. In the monastery he will be in a state of constant spiritual struggle. This is not a place to sit back in a corner passively enjoying the sun. He is obligated to keep up with the calender of the monastery. Can he be on time for services starting at four o'clock in the morning? If not he will have to give up the life of a monk."
4) Who is more useful to society, a doctor or a monk?
"I have been asked this question before. What does monasticism offer to society? Well, this question is characteristic of a modern way of thinking. It is an activist orientation toward the world. Every act, every person, is judged on the basis of their utility and contribution to the whole. Parents urge their children to excel so that they may be useful to society. Based on our spiritual tradition I prefer to see human beings first and foremost in terms of who they are and only after that in terms of their contributions to society. Otherwise we run the risk of turning people into machines that produce useful things. So what if you do not produce useful things? Does that mean that you should be discarded as a useless object? I am afraid that with this orientation contemporary humanity had undermined the inherent value of the human person. Today we value ourselves in terms of how much we contribute rather than in terms of who we are. And that attitude toward ourselves often leads to all sorts of psychological problems. I see this all the time during confessions. People using such utilitarian criteria look at monasticism and conclude that it is useless and therefore must be discarded. But when we are willing to employ different criteria, monasticism offers the supreme gift to humanity that modern individuals may not recognize.
Each person is assigned by God a specific task, a specific duty. I am not a doctor. I am a pneumatikos [spiritual guide, confessor], somebody else is a medical doctor.... Each person leads a life in accordance to his or her diakonia [providentially assigned life's task]. A leg cannot tell a hand 'I do not need you,' neither can an eye to an ear. When we raise the question 'who is contributing more?' the very nature of the question is problematic. Why? Because, as I mentioned before, we must not evaluate human beings on the basis of their contributions and utility to society, but on the basis of who they are individually. This is the essence of Christian spirituality."
5) What is monasticism's contribution and relationship to society as a whole?
"Monasticism keeps alive in an unadulterated way the experience of the Christ. It is the space within which a human being is liberated from all biological and worldly concerns to redirect their focus and energy toward an exclusive preoccupation with the reality of God. Suppose I were to be married. I would be obligated to go to work, look after my kids, accumulate property for their education, and so forth. In other words, I would have a lot of worldly concerns. I honor all that. These are blessed tasks. But what are my concerns now? A great deal certainly, but of what nature? I now have prayer, confessions of hundreds of people, and sermons and discussions about the nature of spiritual life. I can do all these things because I am not obligated nor bound by worldly concerns.
Everybody, you see, contributes accordingly. Nobody can see the liver working inside the body. Yet its contribution is monumental. The heart works ceaselessly and quietly, yet without its function the body dies."
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