THE GREAT WAGER A Spiritual Warning from Fotis Kontoglou A couple of days ago, I was reading an old book by Fotis Kontoglou, the great Greek hagiographer and writer. I came across a very beautiful passage that I wanted to share with you. It is called “The Great Wager.” It speaks about the great wager between believers and unbelievers—in other words, about the struggle that takes place between a person who believes in God and one who does not. The believer does not wage war against the unbeliever. Rather, he simply tells him, with love, that he is going down the wrong path and that he should begin to think more seriously about these things—to seriously consider spiritual matters and the truth of Christ. For Christ is the Truth. There is no other truth apart from Christ. Let me read this passage slowly and say a few words about it. A Night Beneath the Stars One beautiful spring night, just before midnight, before I went to sleep, I went into the little garden behind our house. I stood there for a while, looking up at the nearby sky, filled with stars, as though I were seeing it for the first time. Sometimes it seems that a person’s consciousness suddenly opens, and he sees something familiar as though it were completely new. That night I looked at the sky as a child would look at it for the first time. How beautiful the colors seemed to us when we were children! How beautiful the fragrances of the flowers were! Everything had an indescribable, almost virginal beauty. These things filled the space of the child’s soul. And when we grow older, perhaps we retain something of those childhood experiences. Sometimes a particular fragrance, a certain light, or some familiar sight brings those beautiful memories back to us. That night the sky seemed to me to be filled with something profound, as though a distant hymn were coming down from above. It seemed as though I could hear sacred hymns, quietly repeating: “Arise, O Lord, our God, and worship at His feet.” An elderly holy man once told me that at such hours the heavens seem to open, and the air itself becomes filled with the fragrance of musk and with the glory of the Lord. This is why Kontoglou’s description is so beautiful. Who could look at the flowers of spring, smell their fragrance, and gaze upon the stars of a clear night without feeling something great within his soul? My dear friends, look up at the sky on a clear spring night. Look at the stars. You must have felt something. I could have remained there until dawn, as though I had no body and no connection with the earth. But I thought that someone in the house might wake up and worry that I had disappeared. So I went inside, lay down, and soon fell asleep. The Man Who Appeared to Me I do not know whether I was awake or asleep when I suddenly saw before me a strange-looking man. He was pale and yellowish, almost as though he were dead. His eyes were open and he looked at me with terror. His face was like a mask. His skin appeared dark and strangely distorted. With one hand he held his chest, as though he were suffering terrible pain. The sight made me shudder. He kept looking at me without speaking, as though he were waiting for something. Everything was extraordinarily strange. Then I heard a voice. As soon as I heard it, I knew who he was. He opened his mouth and sighed, but his voice seemed to come from very far away—as though it were coming from a deep well. I could see that he was in terrible pain, and I began to suffer with him. His hands, his legs, his eyes—all of him seemed to express unbearable agony. I went toward him because I wanted to help him. But he waved his hands, telling me to stop. Then he began to cry out so terribly that I froze. He said: “I did not come here by myself. They sent me.” I trembled all over. I was completely overwhelmed, and I asked God to have mercy on me. He continued: “I want to die, but I cannot.” Then he said: “What you told me has come true.” “Do you remember a few days before my death, when you came to my house and spoke to me about religion? There were two other friends with me who were unbelievers, just like me. When you spoke, they laughed. They told me that it was a shame for someone with such a good mind to believe such nonsense. They said that these were merely old women’s stories. We had heard such things so many times. And we laughed at you. But now, my friend, I understand what you were telling us.” “I Thought I Would Live Forever” “Do you remember what you told me many times? You told me: ‘My friend, save money if you want, but you will die just like everyone else. Look how much you already have—and yet you always want more.’ And I told you that I had made a kind of agreement with life—that I would live for many more years. You asked me: ‘What do you want to do with all those years?’ And I answered: ‘You will see how old I become. I am seventy-five, and I will live beyond one hundred.’” This, too, was a deception. A person can imagine that he has many years ahead of him, yet the human heart can stop at any moment. Nothing guarantees us another day—or even another minute. The human heart depends upon extraordinarily delicate electrical and biochemical processes. A tiny electrical impulse causes the heart muscle to contract, again and again, keeping the body alive. And yet a person’s entire earthly life can end in a single moment. I thought I had made a contract with life. I said: “I will live beyond one hundred. I have taken care of my children. My son makes good money. My daughter has married a wealthy man. My wife and I have everything we need.” And I thought I was secure. I laughed when Christians spoke about death and the end of life. The Great Irony This is the irony that many secular people and unbelievers use against Christians. When Christians speak about the end of our lives, when we make the sign of the Cross and say that we want our final years—and especially our final moment—to find us as Christians, people sometimes laugh at us. But what does it actually mean? It means that we want to be prepared. We want to leave this world as Christians. That is not something ridiculous. It is something of enormous importance. When we hear in church about death and judgment, we are shaken. We make the sign of the Cross. We understand that our life will end. And we want that end to find us spiritually prepared. Yet some people laugh at this and consider it foolish. But now let us see what happened. “Why Did Your Merciful God Allow Poor People to Exist?” The unbeliever asks: “Why did your merciful God create poor people? Why should I give money to the poor? Why did He bring them into the world?” This is another misunderstanding. We are told to give alms to the poor, not merely because the poor need material help, but because helping them is also for the benefit of our own souls. In reality, the poor often benefit us spiritually far more than we benefit them materially. We may give them a little money, some food, or something they need. But through them, God gives us the opportunity to practice mercy, charity and love. The ideal is not to keep every surplus thing in our own pockets. The Danger of Becoming Dependent And then there is another danger that we should think about. Imagine a society in which everything depends upon cards and electronic systems. You have money, but it exists only through a card. You need the card for everything. Without it, you may find yourself unable to buy what you need. Even today, if you do not have a telephone card, you may have difficulty making a telephone call. You must find another telephone, a public phone, or someone willing to help you. I am not saying that every card is evil or that we should literally reject every modern service. These things can be useful. It is a matter of personal judgment and conscience. We should not condemn someone simply because he uses such services. We do not have that right. But we should remain spiritually alert. We should avoid becoming completely dependent upon systems that could eventually control every aspect of human life. This is an act of vigilance and, where necessary, an act of spiritual resistance. God sees the intention of the heart. Saint Paisios warned that after such systems of identification and cards, even more restrictive forms of identification and control could eventually appear. Whether one agrees with every detail of such warnings or not, the spiritual lesson remains: Do not surrender your freedom of conscience. Do not allow modern conveniences to become chains. “Why Should I Give Anything to the Poor?” The unbeliever continues: “Why should I give anything to poor people who are lazy? Why did God create them? Why should I support them?” But God does not abandon the poor. And He also uses the existence of the poor to test the hearts of those who have more. The poor give us an opportunity to practice mercy. They may receive something from us materially, but we can receive something much greater spiritually. “I Will Live to Be 110” The man continued: “I was a doctor. I had studied. I knew how to speak. I knew how to make fun of religion. I believed only in things that could be seen and measured. I told myself that I would live to be 110 years old. I was certain of it.” But suddenly everything changed. He seemed to be suffering terribly, as though he were being burned. Something came from his mouth. He cried: “Oh! Oh!” Then he became silent for a moment. Finally he said: “What I told you a few days ago has happened. I died. I died—and I lost the wager. What terror! What horror! I cried out: ‘Mercy! Mercy!’ But no one heard me. What torment this is! Everything you told me has come true. You won the wager.” “You Were Right” He continued: “When I was in the world you live in, I thought I was the intelligent one. I was a doctor. I had learned how to speak and how to ridicule religion. I believed only in tangible things. But now I see that what I called fairy tales and superstition is real. Now I understand. Now I see what I refused to believe. But it is too late.” His voice slowly faded away. I fell asleep for a while. Then, suddenly, I felt a cold hand touching me. I opened my eyes and saw him again. This time he looked even more terrible. He appeared smaller, almost like a distorted old Byzantine figure. He opened his mouth and told me: “Soon it will be dawn, and they will come to take me away. Those who sent me will come.” I asked him: “Who sent you?” He answered with confused words that I could hardly understand. Then he told me: “There are many others here like me. They are the ones who mocked you because of your faith. Now they understand that human reasoning does not extend beyond the grave.” The Malice of the Devil He also spoke about people who had received kindness from Christians and yet repaid that kindness with hatred. This is one of the great evils of the devil. Sometimes when we show kindness to someone, that person does not rejoice. Instead, he feels humiliated. He thinks: “They are better than me. They have something I do not have. I am in a worse condition than they are.” And instead of responding to kindness with gratitude, he responds with bitterness. This is a terrible spiritual condition. The man said: “I am being severely tormented because I rejected the love of God. As one of the saints said, the love of God becomes a scourge for those who refuse to accept it.” The Great Wager Then came the most important words: “You who have Christ in your heart, you for whom the word of Christ is the Truth, you have won the great wager. You have won the great wager between believers and unbelievers. I, the miserable one, lost. I perished. I tremble and sigh, and I cannot find peace. Unfortunately, I am in Hell. There is no repentance there anymore. Woe to those who leave this world as we did. While we were on earth, we allowed our passions to intoxicate us. We joined ourselves to those who did not believe in God or in the life to come. And the world applauded us. It applauded us when we mocked those who believed. The world applauds evil. You can see it in the theatres. The more vulgar and obscene a performance becomes, the more applause it receives. And when performers see that obscenity receives applause, they give the people even more of it. It becomes a vicious circle. If the world stopped rewarding obscenity, obscenity would diminish. But instead, the world applauds it.” When Evil Is Crowned and Goodness Is Mocked He continued: “Look at what happens. Evil is crowned, while goodness is condemned. The world applauds those who live according to their passions and mocks those who believe in God and eternal life. People called us clever. They called you fools. And we accepted that applause. We thought we had won. But now I understand. Our wickedness was not a victory. It was our destruction.” He described how the world can insult Christians with every kind of accusation: “Hypocrites! Religious fanatics! Blasphemers! Fascists! Obscurantists!” And many other names. Yet Christians are called to receive such insults with patience rather than hatred. If those who mock Christianity could see, even for a moment, the reality of the spiritual world from which this man was speaking, they would be terrified. I wish they could be warned. I wish they could change their ways. But I have no permission to return and warn them. It is like the rich man in the Gospel who begged Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers. He was not sent. A Final Warning We will all be judged according to our deeds. Those who live in sin must take seriously the consequences of sin. Those who live in repentance, faith and love place their hope in the mercy of God. These are spiritual flowers from the writings of Fotis Kontoglou, reflections on the immortal values of Orthodox Christian life. This particular passage is deeply moving because it resembles accounts found in the writings of various saints—accounts of visions, of souls experiencing the consequences of their earthly lives, and of the terrible realization that can come after death. My dear friends, those who do not believe may one day be confronted with a reality they did not expect. And then it will be too late to correct what should have been corrected during this earthly life. That is why this message deserves to be taken seriously. Not only by those who believe, but especially by those who mock religion and regard everything spiritual as a joke. It is time to think seriously—very seriously—about God, about Christ, about death, about the soul, and about the life to come. The great wager is not about money. It is about eternity. And every human being is making that wager through the way he chooses to live.