“We felt it was our duty to suffer with him”
– Father Amfilohie, what impressed you most about Father Justin?
– The fact that he tried to practice the faith, to live it in the way that Scripture tells us to overcome the world. He was a man who overcame the world with the power of faith in Christ. Around him I sensed a special spiritual power that made people aware that they could not live without an ideal. In dialogue with Father Justin, you always asked yourself the essential questions of life: What are you looking for? Where are you? Where are you going? And this made him, for us and for the whole Church, a great animator who forced himself to put the power of faith into the patterns of great achievements. He was the man who understood the revival of the nation and society (which today is in chaos and obvious imbalance) through the works of faith.
For us, especially the young, he was a candle in the darkness of this age, in whose light the darkness in us and around us was dispelled by the power of faith in Christ. But his faith was a living, working faith, a courageous faith, if you can call it that, that changed the thinking and the lives of people from the bottom up. By his word he raised many to the steps of a Christian life capable of going to the point of sacrifice. In his presence, the weak man felt strong and gained confidence; moreover, he instilled this confidence in all those with whom he spoke – that man, through faith, could overcome even the impossible, all the evil in himself and in society.
He was a man in whom love of God, love of neighbour and love of country shone at the same time. Father knew how to live our faith in all these directions, as children of God and of our nation. He helped us to understand our nation in the light of the spiritual dimension and our historical destiny.
So, for me, Father Justin was the great confessor who knew how to work in the depths of the human soul, to move in him the longings towards the final goal of life: the resurrection, union with Christ, the Absolute, perfection. Many can say much about Father Justin because they knew him in many ways. I had him before my eyes and in my soul as the man who, in these times of atheism, in which the New World Order is clearly moving towards the establishment of a world government, showed us the light of truth and urged us to have truth as our point of reference in everything we do, and not human principles, because only on the path of the Church can we bring this peace, love and stability to souls and to society.
Not to separate man from God, to lead him to the historical and divine mission with which he has been endowed, was Father Justin’s whole concern as far as I knew him. So I can only admit that my whole orientation in the spiritual life and all the work I do here, with the nuns and with the people around us, is deeply marked by the formation given to me by Father Justin, a formation he also gave to all those around him. He alleviated the suffering of the sick, he strengthened others in need and difficulty, but above all he raised consciences to a much higher mission of life. He led people to the higher rites of life and awakened consciences to our mission as children of God on this earth.
“Father Justin saw man with the eyes of God”.
– What was it like to serve with Father Justin?
– It was a joy, because around this man you received strength and you received trust. It is a great thing to have the confidence that he instilled in the disciples, because from that confidence in the confessor came a strength of soul and a fearless conviction that you will triumph by doing what this man urged you to do – and by his personal example he urged you to really put your soul into Christ, not just to talk or tell others about the faith. For us, Father Justin simply lived, he was the man in whom lived the power of action, the power of faith, the power of prayer.
He was not just a counsellor, he was a spiritual power, a strength for those around him – which was a strength for us and a worry for others. For there are those who worry when such lights shine in the darkness of this age and seek to destroy them, driven by outside interests that are totally contrary to the Christian concept. This man here, without weapons, without the force of financial, banking or military power, reaffirms certain Christian principles of life. He was a man of faith who, through the power of his love and his prayers – for he had a great power of prayer – showed that man, as God created him, is capable of overcoming evil in himself and in society and of bringing true peace, unity and stability to his soul and to the world.
In the presence of Father Justin, I felt that we have a purpose in this life, that we too, despite the sins with which we all struggle, have support from God, through the confessor, through the Church and through all that Christ puts at our disposal.
– It is well known that there were many people who did not love Father Justin – or even wished him harm. How did His Holiness deal with these people?
– Father Justin had a Christian outlook on life, both in times of difficulty and in times of joy. He was not influenced by the outward appearance of things. He had the spiritual understanding to see everyone as equal. I noticed in Father Justin a special intuition and inspiration: he penetrated with great ease into the heart of problems and managed to reach the soul of man, seeing both what was weak and what was good in him. He knew well the influence of evil spirits on the human soul. He could tell when a person was under divine inspiration, when he was under his own power, and when he was under the power of Satan. Father Justin saw man with the eye of God, he did not look at the world as social or political or any other kind of science presents it. He looked at man with the eye with which God looked at him, and then he understood to fight constantly to free him from the dominion of evil, by the way of prayer, of love, which is practically stronger than all forms of coercion or determination. This is why he always had a loving attitude towards those around him, often misunderstood – but here, in the end, everyone sees him as a man who overcame the world through the power of Christ’s love.
This grace of immediately perceiving with great precision what is good and what is weak in man is a gift of the great Confessors, which helps them to free man from the fear of his own sins. For this reason, he always promoted the introduction of Christian virtues into the social, personal and family spheres, understanding that the only way to elevate our nation, and humanity in general, is to imprint the precepts and teachings of the Church in creative, stirring, refreshing deeds. Here there has been a stumbling block for some and a stumbling block for others. This is the fate of the great spiritualists, the great men who have the power to awaken our consciences to the way of truth.
“He also set us on this path of sacrifice, out of love for God…”
– Throughout his life, Father Justin served his neighbour; to think that he spent up to eighteen hours a day at the service of others… How did Father arrive at such a spirit of sacrifice?
– Well, it is very simple: it is the spirit of sacrifice of every man who loves. And the more you love, the more you sacrifice. Father said it himself many times: “If I had not loved this people so much, I would not have become so deeply involved in their problems! Naturally, he bowed down to the suffering of the people because he saw in them his brother, his sister, his child, those whom God brings to him with a purpose. And Father Arsenie Papacioc said: “No one is ever around you by chance”. These great spiritualists looked at the world with their inner eye and saw in each person a creature whom they wanted to free from the snares of the devil. The passions that often destroy the family – drunkenness, quarrels, fornication and all the rest, up to a series of technologies for the destruction of the human soul, in the most satanic forms – he sought to resolve them all spiritually, because he knew from experience (an experience paid for with much blood!) that you do not fight against passions itself, but against the spirit of wickedness, the spirit of lust, the spirit of darkness; you feel that it is a battle with spirits, you feel that they are really spirits and not mere “behavioural errors” as the scientific world interprets them.
That is why Father Justin suffered with joy, with serenity for his neighbour, and as a man he gave his price of vigilance, of sweat, of need. But he did it with a good conscience, I felt it. And for our part, we felt obliged to suffer with him. I’m really sorry that I didn’t live through his years, although they were years of great suffering! And we too, out of love for God, entered into this path of sacrifice, with great confidence that we were on the path of victory, that God was at the end of these great sacrifices, in our soul, in our heart, and in our whole path. That He is the Way, the Truth, the Light and the Victory in all this struggle. Undoubtedly you feel that you are walking towards a great victory in the way of faith. That is why Father asked for a working faith, a faith in deeds, a courageous faith, the confession of the truth through your deeds! Father did not preach, rarely when he spoke – but he had a power in his words that came from this faith and trust in God.
And that is why I believe that Father Justin is a man through whom God has shown that He has overcome the world in Jesus Christ. He goes as a conqueror of this world, he goes as a great confessor, as a great hope for us, in the company of those whom he served throughout his life. I still have great confidence in the help of his holiness and in his intercession with God for us.
(Hieromonk Amfilohie Brânză – Orthodox Family Magazine, No. 7 (54), July 2013, pp. 41-45)