by Chris Banescu –
The greatest tragedy man experiences is not material poverty, but poverty of the soul. Neither sickness, nor poverty, nor physical suffering, nor misfortunes, can destroy a man as thoroughly as indifference to God. As St. Mark cautions us, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Our soul needs God. Our soul needs prayer. Our soul needs meaningful care and attention. “Care most of all for your soul, brother, it is your only treasure. Everything else you own, doesn’t really belong to you,” advises St. Nikolai Velimirovich.
When man stops praying and turns his back on God, his inner light begins to dim and his soul grows cold. He lives, works, pursues goals, and chases after his dreams, but he starts to feel uneasy, anxious, and unfulfilled. Materially he may be rich being measure, but he becomes poor in spirit. He enjoys many earthly success, pleasures, and distractions, but he’s still unsatisfied. He begins to die from the inside without realizing it. He loses his inner peace. His heart aches, his mind is troubled, and his soul feels empty, because nothing in this fallen world can replace the nourishment that God’s Holy Spirit and His Word provide to the human soul.
St. Innocent of Alaska reminds us that, “not a single earthly pleasure can satisfy our heart. We are strangers on earth, pilgrims and travelers; our home and fatherland are there in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom; and there do not exist on earth things which could perfectly satisfy our desires. Let a man own the whole world and all that is in the world, yet all that will not interest him for more than a minute, so to speak, and it will never satisfy his heart; for the heart of man can be fully satisfied only by the love of God, and therefore God alone can fill the heart and soul of man and quench the thirst of his desires.”
Someone who is indifferent to God inevitably becomes restless, hurried, and irritable. He’s dissatisfied with everything and everyone; even himself. He gets easily frustrated and angry. He begins to resent others. This happens not because he’s necessarily a bad man, but because his soul is no longer nourished by God’s grace and healed by His divine energy. The soul slowly gets sicker and gradually dims. Without God’s Spirit the soul withers, goes numb, and eventually grows cold.
“When people are empty of Christ, a thousand and one other things come and fill them up: jealousies, hatreds, boredom, melancholy, resentment, a worldly outlook, worldly pleasures. Try to fill your soul with Christ so that it’s not empty,” warns St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia.
Man was created to run on God and nothing in this fallen world can replace Him. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). Like oxygen to our lungs, so is God’s Holy Spirit to man’s soul. Just as the air we breathe keeps our bodies alive, so the Holy Spirit nurtures, strengthens, and gives life to our souls. As our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ proclaims, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Archbishop Averky beautifully describes how the human soul constantly searches and yearns for God. The soul’s desire for God can never be satisfied with any material things or worldly accomplishments. “This eternal lack of fulfillment, this constant dissatisfaction proves that our spirit strives towards something Higher, the Ideal, as they say. Therefore, nothing earthly can replace this Higher Being, this Ideal. The soul is restless, finding no peace. Only in God, in living communion with Him, can a person find total satisfaction and rest, having obtained grace-filled peace of soul and calmness,” writes Archbishop Averky.
“No soul can exist without God, without His Son, without His Spirit. God is my being, my breath, my light, my strength, my drink, my food,” testifies St. John of Kronstadt. “Do not forsake prayer, for just as the body becomes weak when it is deprived of food, so also the soul when it is deprived of prayer draws nigh to weakness and noetic death,” cautions St. Gennadius of Constantinople.
“One should nourish the soul with the word of God: for the word of God, as St. Gregory the Theologian says, is angelic bread, by which are nourished souls who hunger for God. Most of all, one should occupy oneself with reading the New Testament and the Psalter… From this there occurs an enlightenment in the mind, which is changed by a Divine change,” writes St. Seraphim of Sarov.
Only by turning back to God can the human soul find peace again. Only in Christ can the soul find rest and joy. Only through prayer, worship, and nourishment from God’s Word can the soul be strengthened and illumined. Only in seeking the divine power and life of the Holy Spirit can the human soul find true satisfaction and fulfillment.
Only Christ can redeem, restore, and save our souls, in this life and in eternity.
