BCP: Three letters about the purity of heart (The third letter – to the youth on purity and happiness)
29 September 2020
If we asked a young person a question: “Do you want to be happy?”, they would certainly reply: “YES!” and even raise both hands in agreement. – But how long would you like to be happy? A day, a week, a year? Ten years, thirty years, all life up until your death? And do you want to be happy after death as well?
Deep in their souls, people desire happiness, true happiness, which cannot be taken away. That is to say that even a thought about happiness that ends one day brings sadness. Man is looking for happiness in relationships with other people, property, wealth, career, fame, success. He looks for happiness in pleasures, alcohol, drugs, but happiness cannot be found there. What follows is a disillusionment, even bigger emptiness, abandonment and pain in one’s soul. Back in his time St. Augustine expressed this desire for happiness with these words: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
Ideological globalists remove even a simple human happiness and program into the individuals and nations perverse homosexuality, gender schizophrenia including stealing children by the juvenile justice system and their moral and mental devastation. By legalizing the opioids, they enforce the culture of death. Even healthy people are killed by way of euthanasia in order to prepare the so-called paradise for the billionaires (the golden billion).
The American Statue of Liberty depicts a portrayal of false happiness. Almost every morning, bodies of dead birds can be found at her feet. When a nocturnal bird in flight hits the illuminated statue, it breaks its wings and lifelessly falls to the ground. This is a picture of many young people who look for happiness in a false freedom.
Only the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who overcame the spirit of lies and slavery to sin, gives a true freedom.
God created you and He loves you, He gave for you His own one-born Son, who paid for your sins on Golgotha. You shall receive the love of God, forgiveness of sins in Christ, by admitting your sins to yourself and before God.
It was quite obvious in Christian nations as recently as in the first half of the last century that a boy and a girl entered the marriage with a pure heart.
Example: A young man decided to terminate his life by committing a suicide. Before his death he wanted to see the person who had caused that he, once an innocent boy, had become a criminal. It was an author of an immoral book. He pointed a gun at him and looked closely at his face. Then he said: “You have destroyed not only my life, but also the life of thousands of young people. Do you realize what crime you have committed?”
The situation today is much worse, because Internet pollutes millions of people with impurity and moral perversion, so much more than books. The youth promptly swallows this poison. How can they get ready for a responsible marriage and a responsible parenthood with such thinking and false ideals? That is utopia.
China took a wise precaution. They set a strict censure, which does not allow for any impure scenes on the Internet or on TV and neither can they promote occult reincarnation, violence and crime. The Chinese government did it to protect their youth from moral devastation. Every government that cares about the future of the nation should act like that. In addition, media should promote it appropriately and present a morally strong person, who is capable of a sacrifice, as an ideal instead of drugged pseudo-stars of the rock music, who mostly end up overdosing or commit a suicide.
Unless the government implements such a censure of Internet, the person who wants to keep pure and wants to be happy in life must impose such censure upon themselves, which is much harder, of course. Today it is a particularly great heroism!
A person fighting for the purity of their heart, for pure thinking, must fight in their bud against impure thoughts, imaginations, memories, impure images brought about by pornographic commercials, corrupt art, films, music, jokes, immoral conversation, suggestions or false psychology, which opens doors of the human soul and weakens a defense system. Jesus also says: “If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Mt 6:22) The fight for the purity of the heart is the hardest fight for a young person and it can be compared to a non-bloody martyrdom, especially in these times, when they are exposed to particularly strong and deceitful pressure. Fighting this battle, they need also a supernatural help, which can be drawn from the personal relationship with Jesus Christ, their Savior.
At the end of the 19th century in France, at which time the moral laxity was observed, a following question was asked: “What is the biggest treasure of Paris?” One wise man answered: “Show me a pure young man in this city and I am going to tell you that he is not just the biggest treasure of Paris, but of the entire France.”
Remember: The most important rule in the fight against impurity is – avoid an immediate opportunity to sin, guard your looks and thoughts. “In fuga salus” – “Salvation in flight!” Do not look at impurity, do not debate with a temptation, but run – flight brings victory! By fleeing the opportunity to sin, you will preserve your heart and thinking pure.
The Word of God says: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?” (1Cor 6:19) Apostle Paul says: “For God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” (1Cor 3:17)
A young person needs a clear, pure ideal, model. Many saints who persistently and victoriously fought this fight with themselves and gained an experience should be such an ideal of a moral life. They are real psychologists and know how to fight with this passion, behind which is a spirit, an unclean spirit. They know that the defensive position is not sufficient in this fight and it is necessary to advance to an active, complex fight with a root of the evil in us. That root is a proud independence from moral laws and rejection of God. This fight for the purity of the heart is the best preparation for a happy marriage. Every honest young person desires such marriage. A young girl wishes for a good, loving and faithful husband. A young man desires a good wife, who will be a good mother to his children and a faithful wife. In the past this ideal used to be a reality in Christian nations, because young people were raised to be honest, responsible and entered a marriage without having a past of impure relationships. Consequently, they were able to face difficult life challenges and support and not betray one another. This faithfulness lasted a lifetime. They had healthy rules of life and saw a model in their parents and their environment. They were aware of the fact that a pure heart, which they had kept until they got married, was the most precious pearl they would not trade in a way as the children in South Africa had once traded the most precious diamond for a few candies.
One doctor of psychiatry explained: “I am convinced that a young girl is capable of loving only one man. Her heart wakes up only once. If the girl had seven boys, she is messed up in marriage (he literally said that). She marries the seventh man and keeps thinking about the first one, to whom she had given herself completely.” Up until several years ago it was quite normal that an engaged couple entered the marriage with a pure heart. One and the other protected their pure heart for that one person to whom they wanted to commit themselves until their death.
Example: In 1945, Russian Army liberated Czechoslovakia from Fascism. After the liberation of one village, local young men talked to Russian soldiers. One young man asked their commander: “Do you have a wife and children?” The commander replied: “No. Our girls work in Ural in the ammunition factories. When the war is over and if I return alive, I will marry one of them. I believe that the one is waiting for me; I believe she kept her heart pure for me. How could I look into her eyes if I had stained myself with others before our wedding? I would be having remorse.” These words deeply impressed young men.
Divorces have their roots in the time of impure years of youth. Pre-marital sexual intercourse, adultery are the sins that bear serious consequences. A proverb says: “As many as are sins before the marriage, there are tears and cry in the marriage.” Tears and crying occur in marriage anyways and a marriage is sometimes a heavy cross, but still those who kept themselves pure before marriage have the strength in the face of all trials to keep the most precious treasure for their children – stable family.
People often forget the law: “One will reap what one sows!” What fruit do the people who are infected with illness such as AIDS reap? What kind of happiness can we talk about with people who confuse sacrificial love with cynical egoism?
What every nation needs the most are healthy families. Healthy families need a healthy pre-marital education and self-education. In order for a young person not to become a slave to various passions, alcoholism, drugs, mammon, careerism and abuse of other people, they must have a strong motivation, which is anchored in a transcendence. They need to acquire a responsible approach to one’s own life. What is the purpose of your life? What is your end going to be like? What is there for you after death? The true wisdom is to consider the end of one’s life. Today there are few wise people. However, you be wise. The life ends with death, you don’t know the day or the hour of your end and therefore you need to be always ready! There is God’s judgement and eternal reward or eternal punishment after death. It is necessary to realize that man is not an animal, but in his substance he is an immortal spirit, which makes man similar to God. The life will pass in the same way as yesterday passed. Remember that one day you will be accountable for your actions. Remember that “nothing is hidden, which will not be revealed” (Mt 10:26). Hidden spiritual cameras watch your life. The copies of these records are in your soul and in your conscience. Your life is a test to find out whether you would follow your conscience and God’s laws and look for the truth here on earth, love it and defend it – for which you will receive a reward in the eternal happiness. If you reject the truth and love related to it, you will be faced with an eternal tragedy.
A wise state should therefore pass a sound educational system as the law. It should promote a healthy education especially through school system and culture. It should be interconnected with prevention of negative impact of the western demoralization and pseudo culture. It should be ascertained that parents of each pupil receive correct instructions about the education of their children. Therefore, it should be mandatory for them – under penalty – to undergo a training for at least two hours per week for a period of one year focusing on the healthy education and restriction of negative influence on a child. Culture, school system and politics should adopt as a priority forming a healthy family and thus a healthy young generation.
What should the Church do? Today it has to make every effort to achieve its own regeneration in order to become a light and salt for the world. Only then can it provide spiritual means to regenerate the family and the nation.
We admire the political system of the West, which through its anti-discriminatory laws promptly legalizes anti-education of the entire society. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus should therefore react adequately to this decadent pressure and make sure healthy moral standards – principles – are enacted in their societies. Good principles make man a man. Destruction of moral values means a suicide of an individual as well as of the nation.
By promoting the impurity and removing moral laws immorality spread. Lifestyle changed. Christian, but also healthy moral principles were marginalized, and the reality of death, God’s judgement and eternity disappeared from the consciousness of people.
In order for a person to fight the passions and the root of evil in their innermost being, they need a clear motivation. That is a vivid faith in Jesus Christ connected with the effort to ensure the salvation of one’s soul.
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
+ Methodius OSBMr + Timothy OSBMr
Secretary Bishops
The Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate (BCP) is a community of monks, priests and bishops living in monasteries. The BCP is headed by Patriarch Elijah with two Secretary Bishops, +Timothy and +Methodius. This Patriarchate arose from the need to defend the fundamental Christian truths against heresies and apostasy. The BCP does not recognize pseudo Pope Bergoglio and is not subordinate to him.
