"Elizaveta Iurievna Kuzmina-Karavaeva Skobtsova, later known as Mother Maria, was a Russian Orthodox religious thinker, poet and artist. Her multi-faceted legacy includes articles, poems, art, and drama. In the 1910s she was part of the literary milieu of St. Petersburg and was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She fled Russia soon after the Bolsheviks' takeover and lived in Paris, where she became a nun. In 1935, she participated in organizing the so-called Orthodox Action, which was designed to help Russian immigrants in France. She and her fellow-workers from Orthodox Action opened a house for homeless and sick immigrants in Paris. During the Nazi occupation of the city, the house was transformed into a refuge for Jews and displaced persons. Mother Maria and her son were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and died in the Ravensbruck camp in Germany. Mother Maria's selfless devotion to people and her death as a martyr will never be forgotten. In 2004, the Holy Synod confirmed the glorification of Mother Maria." - from Columbia University Libraries Special Collection link

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Renounce All to Gain Everything

"If we responsibly and seriously resolve to fulfill the Gospel truth, upon which hangs in balance our human soul, then we ought to be done with doubts, as we go forth in each partial aspect of our life: we ought to renounce everything that we possess, to take up our cross and follow after Him" - Mother Maria of Paris

The title of today's blog is a quote from Evagrios the Solitaire.  It lines up nicely with the quote Mother Maria echoes from Jesus' very lips.

This renouncing all has plagued Christians and Christianity since it fell out of our Savior's mouth.  And, I am pretty sure that it was meant to do just that.

Approaching the Gospels without being stirred up seems to be an oxymoron.  We are meant to be challenged and offended, I believe.  It is meant to rile us up to the point of change.

Saint Jerome - and other desert fathers and mothers - wrestled with this notion of giving up everything to the point of literally giving up everything.  I believe Saint Jerome's line goes something like this, "I gave up everything I owned - even the book that told me to give up everything I own."  A myriad of other Saints throughout the ages have likewise been attributed with uttering these very words.

Central.

It is a central issue of the Gospels.

Wrestle with it forever.


To those who would yell and scream from the opposite shores that "this smells too much like someone who is trying to earn his/her salvation by renunciation", I leave the words of the man who did give up all:



"The only soul who can claim that grace is a FREE gift of God is the soul who has given up everything to follow after Christ."  Dietrich Bonhoffer,  The Cost of Discipleship



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