“Have you seen Christ?”

The knowledge of God on the well-trodden path is Holy Scripture, in the Church. It is the supernatural way in which God reveals Himself to the world. Then there is the knowledge of God through the path of rational argument. And now there is the knowledge of God through the natural sciences.

Now, those of you who know God and who affirm yourselves in this Council and affirm that you also know Him, it is up to you to come to the Holy Assembly, to the Church, where you will also see Him, as Jesus says: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20).

In 1959, I was arrested by the Security Police in Iași, around October, where I was held for two months, and then I was taken, handcuffed, to the Security Police in Bucharest, on Uranus. There I was held under investigation until the end of February 1960 (when I was detained in Jilava prison), having already been tried by the military tribunal and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and four years’ loss of civil rights.

I was under investigation at the Securitate in Bucharest, at Uranus, and the commander and the investigator examined me. The commander said:

– Have you seen Christ?

And I answered:

– Yes, I have seen Christ.

– And how have you seen Him?

– Since you insist that I answer, behold, I am telling you! And I answered:

– I was in the hermitage of Bradicești, around 1954. On a Thursday evening I was at Vespers, I was in the pew. On Friday, the faithful came on Thursday evening and took part in Vespers. Among the faithful who came to the church to pray, there was a young girl who went to pray at the icon of Jesus on the iconostasis.

There was also a small portable icon on the iconostasis, leaning against the large icon that the faithful were kissing. This young woman was worshipping, and this is what I saw: she was kissing Jesus, who was no longer in the picture, but appeared before her in the image of a living man. And I marvelled at her boldness to kiss the Lord Jesus on the cheek! This is the thing I saw!

So Jesus appeared before her, seen by me. She kissed the holy icon, but she did not see what I saw. I saw Jesus aievea and she saw Him and kissed Him in the icon. I didn’t ask her if she had seen Jesus appear in the icon. I kept that to myself.

The Commander asked me:

– How did you act when you saw Jesus?

– Naturally. When I was in the pew, I was taking care of my prayer, my service programme. And I didn’t even tell anyone, but it remained a secret of my heart, I replied and went on.

As with any devotion we offer to holy icons with all piety and faith, it is understood that this young woman’s devotion, made with due piety and faith, went directly to the person of the Lord Jesus who was there in the image. As the Orthodox Church teaches us about the dogma of the cult of holy icons.

(Pr. Mina Dobzeu, God and the Scholars, 2nd edition, AXA Publishing House, 2006 | available online and at archimandritminadobzeu.blogspot.com)