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WRATH IS A VOLCANO
Seventh Talk on the Divine Liturgy, Part B

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

Part 7A

Photo: bangkokbook.ru

“For our deliverance from every tribulation, wrath…” We also pray for
deliverance from wrath. Wrath is a tornado bursting forth from a person’s soul; it is
thunder, lightning, a hurricane that sweeps away everything in its path. Wherever this
hurricane sweeps by, there will be only ruins. This is what wrath is. But the first to suffer
harm from anger is the angry one himself. The first one who languishes, suffers, and is
tormented isn’t the one who has to endure outbursts of someone else’s anger, but the
angry person himself. The soul of such a person rots like the body of a dead man. Or so it
seems to me at least. Anger corrupts us, and has a detrimental effect on others as well.

We often justify ourselves: “I got angry. I said this and that, but you know, I don’t stay
angry for more than five minutes. I calm down quickly.” So you can easily calm down in
five minutes? What about the other person—the one upon whom you poured out your
anger, the storm of your emotions, and your rude words? Does he easily calm down and
forgive? No, the other person doesn’t move on as quickly as you. “Oh, I already forgot
about it,” you assure him. But the other person hasn’t forgotten anything. For him, your
anger is like bucket of boiling water on his head. He’s covered in burns from your words.
How long it takes him to heal from these burns!

Let me share my experience as a confessor. I’ve met elderly people who have reached the
end of their lives who still remembered something that was said to them when they were
young. They complained that they’d been carrying an unhealed wound in their soul from
their youth. When I asked them about this wound, they answered: “When I was young, my
friend (or father, mother, or relative) said this and that to me…”

“Okay, but now you’re eighty-five, and you still remember what a friend told you when you
were fifteen?”

“Yes, I do. I can’t forget it.”

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They really remember it and can’t deal with it. Every person has his own spiritual
storeroom. In order to unload our spiritual trauma, we have to make a little effort; we need
spiritual medicine, spiritual labor. Therefore, the Fathers placed great emphasis on never
hurting your brother in any way. You don’t know what kind of trauma your words can
cause his soul. I think you all know (both from your own experience and the experience of
those you’ve spoken with) that even one simple mistake can seriously traumatize the soul
of your neighbor.

That’s why you have to be careful with all your jokes and ridicule. As they say here in
Cyprus, ridicule is a sword that you stab into the heart of your neighbor. “Come on, I was
just kidding,” we say, justifying ourselves. Yes, you were just joking, but your joke hurt me.

Jokes are dangerous. Be careful with them. I also have this shortcoming: Sometimes I
indulge in jokes. Of course, sometimes a joke can benefit someone else. But the best thing
is not to allow yourself to joke at all, and even more so to ridicule others.

Even little children can suffer from someone’s jokes. I often meet kindergarten or
elementary school children who suffer psychological torment from the jokes and ridicule
of their classmates. “Shorty!” “Fatty!” “Elephant ears!” “Hook-nosed!” Children suffer
when they hear things like that. Children are children, and they don’t realize they’re being
cruel, that they’re tormenting the other child with their ridicule. There are children who
suffer a lot—they weep at home, they don’t want to go to school; and over time, their
mental wounds worsen and turn into inferiority complexes. Sometimes a child is ridiculed
not even by other children, but by his teachers.

I can testify: How many times I’ve joked around about people, justifying myself by saying I
supposedly wanted to correct them so they’d be more prudent, collected, modest, and
quiet—and nothing good came of my joking, except that I offended everyone. Especially in
our times, people don’t have the humility to accept someone’s comments and recognize:
“Yes, it’s good that Father told me that,” or, “The teacher’s remark was good.” It’s very
hard for modern people to accept remarks—and not just remarks, but even a word that
encourages correction offends and burdens them.

Wrath is a real volcano, shooting everything out. Wrath is destructive; it destroys a man’s
soul. As the Holy Fathers say, for even if an angry man raises the dead, his prayer is not
pleasing to God. Even if an angry man works miracles, God doesn’t look upon him. Why?
Because wrath is, as a rule, a product of our egotism. An egotist wants everything to go
according to his plans, as he drew it up in his mind and imagination. And when something
goes a different way, he loses his temper and starts getting angry. It’s not good at all. A

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humble man reacts correctly: It didn’t go the way he wanted? It’s no big deal; he’s not
going to get angry or upset about it.

How is anger cured? By humility. We have to humble ourselves and accept circumstances
as they are, saying, “This is how the situation turned out? Okay. Let it be. Bless the name
of the Lord.” By doing this, you’ll calm down quickly and free yourself from endless, “I
want, I want, I want.”

If you wound the soul of another, you should ask him for forgiveness. We have to learn to
ask forgiveness. It’s medicine for both sides. Go to the person you’ve offended and burned
by the eruptions of your volcano. Just don’t say, “If I happened to offend you, forgive me”
(which is what we usually say). No, say this: “Brother, I offended you. Forgive me.” Just
like that. And, of course, without any add-ons, like: “Forgive me. But, you know, you also
said this and that to me. You put me in a difficult position…” Saying things like that
doesn’t mean asking forgiveness. It’s just like saying: “Forgive me. But of course, it’s your
fault.” Asking forgiveness means saying: “It’s all my fault. I was the one who treated you
rudely.” And even if the other person starts to object, saying, “I also didn’t behave very
well towards you…”—don’t let him finish, but take the blame upon yourself: “No, you’re
not to blame for anything. It’s my fault alone.” If you do this, God will inform your
neighbor’s soul, his heart will soften, and your relationship will change for the better. And
even if his heart doesn’t soften, at least your own soul will receive healing. If you humble
yourself for God’s sake, then the Lord will find a way to comfort the soul of your neighbor
whom you wounded.

“For our deliverance from every … danger and necessity.” We entreat God to
deliver us from every danger. This petition is especially relevant to our present times,
when danger lurks around every corner. For example, just getting home from here, you’ll
be exposed to hundreds of dangers, at least from cars. As St. Paisios the Athonite said, God
used to preserve the world with one hand, but now He protects it with two hands. Indeed,
often when you’re driving somewhere you see someone’s car overtake you at breakneck
speed. “Where are you racing to?” you automatically wonder. And then—oh!—another car
comes flying out of somewhere off to the side, also at breakneck speed. Had it shot out two
or three seconds earlier, the cars would have collided and been smashed to smithereens.
And you realize that they’re saved by God’s providence. And why were the drivers rushing
like that? Maybe they were driving drunk, or they were distracted, or, as they say, they lost
their nerves, or they couldn’t wait any longer, or something happened to them. We don’t
know what happened. The fact is that they overtake other cars at high speed, and they
don’t care about the possible consequences.

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God’s providence is behind everything, saving a man from danger. Troubles inevitably
befall us in our lives. And if the Lord didn’t protect us, there would be immeasurably more
of these troubles. Therefore, in the Anaphora at the Liturgy, the Church thanks God “for all
things whereof we know, and whereof we know not”—that is, for all the blessings rendered
us by the Lord, whether we know about them or not. How many times we simply didn’t
notice the danger that threatened us, but God, Who sees everything, delivered us from
trouble. God preserves us from sorrows, and from wrath, and from dangers, and from
needs.

1
One of our clerics went to visit the ever-memorable Archbishop Christodoulos a few days
before his repose. He spoke to the seriously ill Archbishop with words of support:

“Hold on, Your Eminence, everything will be okay.”

The Archbishop answered:

“Father, listen. I know what kind of illness I have and how long I have to live. Before this
illness, my life was all about words. I was constantly talking: preaching, teaching. And now
I must fulfill everything that I taught others. Now is the time for deeds. I should spend the
remaining days of my life enduring pain and suffering, until the Lord calls me to Himself.”

Such is our life. No man can ever say he lived without pain, suffering, danger, needs,
sorrows, woes. Look, for example, at them which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles
2
(Mk. 10:42). Let’s say for example Gaddafi, who just yesterday was reigning in his palace.

Such is human life—a revolving circle. Today you’re at the very lowest point on the circle,
tomorrow you move up, and the next day you’re at the bottom again. We should learn to
say like St. John Chrysostom: “Glory to God for all things!” And we must learn to use all
circumstances—whether good or bad—for our salvation, so in the end our life would have
one goal—the salvation of the soul. As Christ said: For what is a man profited, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mt. 16:26). You might achieve everything
you wanted in life, but if you lose your soul, then in the end you’ve achieved nothing. And
vice versa: You might achieve nothing in this life, but you can achieve the one thing
needful—the salvation of your soul. The salvation of the soul can be achieved through
humility, as did the thief on the cross. The thief humbled himself, repented, and entreated
Christ: Remember me… (Lk. 23:42), and he was saved. Therefore, we can say the thief
achieved success in his life. That’s why the Lord teaches us to be attentive in dealing with
others and forbids us from condemning anyone. We don’t know what’s happening in the

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soul of another; we don’t know what will happen to him or with us in the final moment of
our lives. You’re very good, you’re virtuous and holy, and in the last minutes of your life
you can fall and perish, while the person whom you condemn today and consider a useless
person, a criminal, a liar, a deceiver, may repent and find salvation in Christ.

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

Translation by Jesse Dominick
Pravoslavie.ru
7/26/2023

1 Christodoulos (Paraskevaidis; 1939-2008), Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. He died of cancer.
Shortly before his repose, he underwent a liver transplant.

2 Muamar Gaddafi was killed on October 20, 2011.

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