The wine that gladdens the heart of man

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos speaks to us

Certainly, most Christians today are unaware of their own spiritual condition. We are "dead in our trespasses" (Ephesians 2:5) and not only do we not grasp this, but we also have the sense that we are full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and adorned with virtues.

Unfortunately, this self-sufficiency that dominates us destroys the work of salvation. How can Christ speak to a person who justifies himself? Thus, we resemble the Pharisees of Christ's time who had no need of a doctor. How can the great charism of repentance and lamentation bear fruit in a heart that does not feel its desolation? In this way, we cannot speak of inner life.

Along with the feeling of illness, there must also be self-condemnation, which is a great grace. This reveals inner humility, since "self-reproach always dwells with humility of soul," according to the words of Saint Gregory Palamas. This self-reproach "breaks and crushes and squeezes out the saving wine, which gladdens the heart of man, that is, our inner man. And this wine is humility".

Self-condemnation and the weeping that accompanies it destroy the passions and fill the soul with blessed joy. "Therefore, we must ceaselessly condemn ourselves and reproach ourselves, so that through our voluntary diminishment we may cast off involuntary sins," according to the words of Saint John Climacus.

 From "Orthodox Psychotherapy. The Path to Healing according to the Holy Fathers", Sophia Publishing House 2021