One of [Father Maximos’] close associates was Thanos, an environmental architect who was for a while a professor of architecture at the University of Slovenia. Fr. Maximos and Thanos had been friends since their high school years. Upon Thanos’s return to Cyprus with his Slovenian wife and two children, he became one of Fr. Maximos’s key advisors on several of the bishopric’s architectural projects.
But Thanos was also a self-confessed atheist. He told me that he believed only in science and things that “can be proven.” Furthermore, he found that members of the clerical establishment, with the exception of Fr. Maximos, were corrupt and reactionary. Yet his atheism did not affect their friendship and collaboration in the least. Thanos stressed to me that he was attracted to Fr. Maximos not only because they knew each other from their teenage years but also because he found Fr. Maximos “authentic.”
The elder’s selfless lifestyle and extensive community work resonated well with Thanos’s leftist political leanings, vegan culinary habits, and ecological commitments. He asked Fr. Maximos early in their relationship whether his atheism would jeopardize their friendship and cooperation. Fr. Maximos replied that he did not mind, assuming that Thanos himself accepted Fr. Maximos as a man of faith.
When a Greek Orthodox bishop from an Asian country visited Fr. Maximos and the three of them had lunch together, the guest, upon discovering Thanos’s atheism, was very surprised. How was it possible, he asked, that the two of them were such close friends considering their radical differences in regard to faith? Fr. Maximos replied by eulogizing Thanos as a man who exemplified many of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, such as humility, temperance, detachment from material things. He said to the other bishop, “Thanos has all the qualities of a real Christian. Our only difference is that he does not know as yet that God resides inside him.”
I wondered myself how long Thanos could associate so closely with Fr. Maximos while remaining a committed unbeliever.
~Adapted from Kyriacos C. Markides, Inner River: A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Christian Spirituality
Do not despair. Do not fall into despair because of your stumblings.
I do not mean that you should not feel pain because of them, but that you should not consider them incurable.
For it is better to be wounded than to be dead.
There is indeed a healer: he who on the cross asked for mercy on those who were crucifying him, who pardoned murderers as he hung on the cross.
Christ came on behalf of sinners, to heal the broken-hearted and to bind up their wounds.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he says; for that reason he has anointed me in order to proclaim good tidings to the poor. ‘He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind,’ (Lk 4:18) and to strengthen the bruised by forgiveness.
And the Apostle says in his Letter, ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.’ (1 Tm 1:15) And his Lord also testifies, ‘I am not come to call the righteous, for they who are in good health have no need of a doctor; only those who are sick.’ (Mk2:17)
~Saint Isaac the Syrian, translated by Sebastian Brock, Daily Readings with Saint Isaac of Syria
