My creed of life

Throughout my life I have not been personally political, nor have I been guided by the political principles of others. My creed in life is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. In serving Him, I have of course also served people, whatever their orientation in life. From my earliest years, our dear mother, Presbytera Aglaia, gave me the gift, before the icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be only in the service of the Church. From the very beginning, I had as an example our dear and venerable father, Dean Gheorghe I. Vasilachi, who throughout his life did not engage in any kind of politics, although he was asked several times to be a deputy or a senator.

Politics, he told us, is a group of human power which tries to integrate you into the structure of its dictatorial doctrine[1] and to separate you from God and all people. That is why he and all seven of his children were in no way involved in politics. But they all loved the Church and the Romanian people above all. It was in this mystical atmosphere of service to the Church that he was and preached all his life, pouring the heavenly gifts of the Holy Mysteries into the souls of all the people and his children. The village where I was born on 28 January 1909 is Idrici, which belonged to the commune Roșiești, Fălciu County. The village had a beautiful settlement on the Idrici River, among the gentle Moldavian hills, away from the big road of Docolina, where the water of Bârlad flows. The capital of our village was Roșiești, where, on 20 December 1768, the infant Vasile was born, son of Grigore Costachi-Negel, who became the great metropolitan of Moldavia – Veniamin Costachi. His brilliant figure was dominant everywhere, although almost two centuries had passed. He bequeathed his father’s estates in Rosiești and Vaslui to the Spirodonia of Iași, with a testamentary covenant that all the people of Moldavia should have free hospital care.

At the Theological Seminary of Huși, I was elected president of the cultural association “Veniamin Costachi”. In Iași, as a deacon and priest, I served and preached for years in the great cathedral built by Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi, where his remains are kept. And as Director of the Metropolitanate, I lived for several years in his Metropolitan Palace and in the houses he built. In 1942, on the centenary of Veniamin Costachi’s resignation, I wrote and printed his life, and in 1946, on the centenary of his death, at the request of the “Circle of Jesuits in Bucharest”, I gave a commemorative conference at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest. By becoming a monk in the Neamț Monastery on 6 September 1936, I dedicated my life entirely to God and His Church, seeking to keep God’s Law and not to fall under the condemnation of those priests of the Old Testament, of whom God Himself said: “Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.” says God from heaven. ” (Ezekiel 22:26) Whereas the role of the priests, says the same God, is “And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. ” (Ezekiel 44:23). Throughout my life my eyes have always been fixed on our Lord Jesus Christ, following the exhortation of the holy Apostle Paul: “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… “(Hebrews 12:2) And according to the call of the same Apostle: “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). That every Christian, and our humility, has been under the divine gaze, pouring grace and blessing, always increasing me spiritually and giving me special vocations of responsibility in life, as Director of the Metropolitanate of Iași, as Secretary and Preacher of the Patriarchate, and as Abbot of the Antim Monastery.

As from the political people, over the years I have suffered reproaches, blasphemies, expulsions from the service of the Church, deprivations, imprisonments and all kinds of blows, but all the time the Good Lord has been close to me in my sufferings, consoling me and helping me to get out of these persecutions, always opening for me a door to a new way of life. The Angel of His Church has often entrusted to me, the humble one, the divine mercy that is given to me: “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” (Revelation 3:8). The political power was against me, but God’s power was above human power, and although I had gone through “fire and water”, it was God’s almighty hand that brought me to the good shores of life, where the waves that were troubling humanity broke and stopped, retreating into the depths of their destruction, and on the shore of eternity appeared that which is eternal, God Himself with His almighty immensity. When the great calls came to be a bishop and to participate in the leadership of the Romanian Orthodox Church – Patriarch Nicodemus offered it to me in Bucharest and Metropolitan Irenaeus appointed me to Iași – then they rushed at me to stop me if I didn’t first make a pact with their communist creed, but the Good Lord helped me and I rejected this temptation, which offered me human greatness but asked me to participate in the robbery of the Church and of the Romanian people. Then they threatened me with great oppression, suffering and deprivation, removing me from my vocation as preacher of the Patriarchal Cathedral, from the direction of the magazine “Romanian Orthodox Church” of the Holy Synod and from the direction of the Priory of Antim Monastery in Bucharest, They sent me as a simple resident to the Neamț Monastery, then to Moisei in Maramureș, and from there to Horaița and Secu, and finally to the Pocrov Hermitage, while Brother Haralambie was moved from hermitage to hermitage in the Diocese of Huși.

All this put an end to their policy and put us to another and even harsher test, to prison, me for eight years and Brother Haralambie for seven years; he also died in Gherla prison. I wrote a book in English about what I suffered there, called ‘Another World, Memories from Communist Prisons’. God’s mercy and goodness were always with me and opened the prison doors for us. And when Metropolitan Iustin Moisescu would not receive me in Iași, God, through his disciple Bishop Teofil, opened the door to me in Cluj and I was a priest in the village of Bobâlna in Ardeal for five years. Through another worthy disciple, Archbishop Victorin, God opened the door for me to come to the United States of America, where I have been for almost twenty years, first as pastor of St. Michael’s Church in Southbridge, Massachusetts, for eight years, then in Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, for five years, and since 1984 at St. Nicholas Church in New York. Both in this country and in America, my eyes have always been fixed on our Lord Jesus Christ, to see what He did when He came to earth to save people, and what He would have done now in the circumstances in which we find ourselves in Romania and here, and in which I humbly find myself. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he came and as a human being, found himself in a land, Palestine, occupied by the Roman Empire. Humanly speaking, one would have expected him to be involved in its desolation. As a Jew in the flesh, He would have joined one of the groups that existed at the time to liberate Palestine from bondage. There were some who worked openly against the Roman tyranny, others secretly, in the shadows, others on a pious path of compromise with political power, and still others on an idyllic form of struggle, either on a mystical path or one of literary creation! Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, did not belong to any of these nationalistic currents. As God, He did not come down from heaven to become involved in the fulfilment of human political thoughts and plans. He brought a new way of life to all mankind, with heavenly aspirations of liberation from all human oppression and injustice. He himself was the way, the truth and the life, opening for all mankind a new era of human life with God. He brought liberation from sin to people all over the world at that time, not only to the Jews and the Asians, but also to the Romans and the Greeks, the Thracians and the Scythians, and all the Indo-European and African peoples. On all the peoples of the world His divine eyes looked with compassion as on “sheep without a shepherd”. All were enslaved in the chains of sins by which they had transgressed the Law of God, and all mankind was suffering, so even the little frame of Palestine at that time was carrying out His Divine Mission, through sermons in which He revealed to all mankind what is the Truth, which is the Eternal Wisdom that can bring light to the soul of mankind, and through healing all kinds of sufferings of soul and body, He brought relief to all those in the torments of life.

With this plan of work he went day and night through the towns and villages, in the houses and on the roads, by the seaside and in the wilderness, in the synagogues and in the temples, preaching his gospel to all men. This was also noticed by the Romans, led by the governor Pontius Pilate, who found nothing wrong with him. And from his judgment seat, before all the people, Pilate said, “I find no fault in Him” (John 19:6). But the rulers of the people of Israel sent their own men, and they themselves cried out, “Crucify Him! Pilate said to them: Shall I crucify your king? The archbishops – who had compromised with the Romans – replied: “We have no king but Caesar!” Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified.” (John 19:15-16). And being crucified, he died on the cross, shedding his blood for the salvation of all humanity, reconciling all humanity to God through forgiveness. In this way he made it possible for everyone to be part of the family of God, so that all could be brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. In this way he left His holy peace to all peoples, who ceased to conquer one another and to plunder and kill[2]. He urges everyone to forgive their enemies. It is to this creed of new life that I have dedicated my life, so that the kingdom of God may come on earth, where all peoples may live in peace within the natural boundaries of their own countries, enjoying all the rich gifts of this God-given earth and the heavenly treasures of divine teaching and graces poured out by God in His holy Church. And so, starting from this life, we can regain the lost Paradise.

In our life of more than half a century, we have seen emperors and kingdoms, kings and empires, rulers and lords, governments and parties, tyrants and people who made all kinds of compromises in life, bohemians and party people, fall like in a hurried film. We also saw the Scripture fulfilled: “He has delivered him from all trouble” (Psalm 33:16). And I too have been humbled by the Lord’s mercy, “through fire and water”, but mercy has not yet consumed me. Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ “has been my salvation” (Psalm 93:22). Jesus Christ alone is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), forever. He alone entrusts us: I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Praise and thanks be to God for everything!

(Fr. Vasile Vasilache – Extract from “The Total Love of God, Church and Nation”) 

[1] Not all political ideologies are dictatorial. In fact, in principle, politics has a noble role in the development and organisation of society, because it is “the art of governing”. The fact that Father Gheorghe I. Vasilachi saw politics in an exclusively negative light is due to the historical context in which he was formed. Let us not forget that the 20th century was a century of totalitarian ideologies: Nazism, Communism, Fascism and other extreme left or right-wing currents that sent millions of people to their graves. But this does not mean that politics is essentially without positive and necessary purpose, especially since without some form of leadership and organisation everything tends towards social anarchy. Moreover, Christians are called to sanctify even the political plan of the world. Let us also remember that great saints of the Church were politicians: Saint Emperors Constantine and Helena, Saint Voivode Constantine Brâncoveanu, Saint Neagoie Basarab, Saint Stephen the Great, and many, many others.

[2] The idea that the peoples of mankind ceased to conquer one another after the preaching of the Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ is somewhat romantic. There has indeed been peace among nations, but only to the extent that nations have embraced the Gospel, especially at the level of government! But it is no less true that over the centuries supposedly Christian political powers have waged war in the name of ‘justice’ and ‘God’. In short, the more people obeyed God, the more they had peace among themselves.