"You should hate evil, but you should not hate a man who does evil, because he is sick. If you can cure a sick person, but don't kill him with your hatred", the bishop thought.
Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich (1881-1956) is one of the most impressive personalities of Serbian Orthodox spirituality. He was educated in Switzerland and England, where he also received his doctorate. Some consider him the most non-dogmatic Serbian theologian. Books, pastoral letters, sermons and great public engagement made him very popular, and because of his great reputation and influence, the Germans arrested him after the occupation of Serbia and eventually interned him in the Dachau concentration camp. After the war, he went to the United States, where he died. Here are some of his thoughts taken from the book “On God and on People” which is a selection of excerpts from his speeches, articles and books:
“If travelers know, say, how many rocks are in the cobblestones of the road and how many grains of sand are under the cobblestones, and if they know the names of all the trees and all the grass that grows along the road – what good is all that knowledge if they don’t know where the road started? Where will they end up, and where did they come from and where are they going?”
“Every day, people live by faith more than anything else. In the inn, a man eats lunch with the belief that there is no poison in the food, sleeps in bed with the belief that there are no scorpions under the pillow, receives a banknote at the market with the belief that it is not fake, buys a match in the store with the belief that it is not wet, rents a carriage with the belief that the coachman takes him where he needs to go, he travels by rail with the belief that the driver is a normal man who does not think of suicide. He harvests the grain with the belief that the seed will grow. The shepherd chases the herd to pasture with the belief that his grass has not dried up overnight. The woman hurries with the jug to the spring, believing that water is still flowing from it. The school is based on the faith of students and teachers. The state is based on the faith of the citizen in the citizen and in the government. Marriage exists on faith, in the good faith of both parties. Friendship exists on faith in the sincerity of both parties.”
Man's faith is nothing but opening the door of the soul and allowing God to enter?
“Does my faith in God not bother me to adopt all true science from alpha to omega? The best science stands in perfect harmony with the best faith. And the best never quarrel: the best understand and love each other. Low or unequal they argue and gnaw and enjoy arguing and gnawing. But arguing and slandering pseudo-faith and pseudo-science has shaken many simple souls in the faith.”
“An educated man is one who has managed to cleanse his tongue of nasty words and his heart of stinking desires and his mind of ungodly thoughts. Whoever did not succeed in this, schooling only helps him to earn a living with one learned skill, just as an educated (in his own way) bear earns with his playing skills.”
“Wealth is good when it can be turned into a good deed. Wealth is an evil when, instead of giving freedom to a man, it puts his owner in service.”
“Does anyone envy a leper? No! Then why do some people envy evil, when evil is a greater disease than leprosy? Leprosy is a disease of the body and evil is a disease of the soul.”
“The truth is wider, higher and deeper than the universe. That is why the truth cannot be known – it can be revealed to a spiritual person, just as a day cannot be known, but it can be revealed to the open eye.”
“To say that one faith or one philosophy contains all the truth is the same as saying that all other faiths and philosophies contain all delusions. It is rare for a large mass of people to be free from this brutality. And to gain this freedom means to take one giant step towards greatness, towards divinity.”
“It will be easier for you to prove the greatest truths to people with your life than with words. That’s why don’t start talking about them first, because you will bring people into doubt.”
“He who thinks spiritually, comes to the realization that the world is not more spacious than man, but vice versa, that man is more spacious than the world. Let the universe magnify itself and multiply itself a million more times, my soul crosses all its limits and embraces it all like a giant hand embraces a small ball.”
“Think of each day as a whole life that just began and just ended. Live it as a whole and not as a part. Let each of your days fall away from you as a whole man with whom you will want to meet again as a friend and show him to the universe without shame.”