“At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing like it.”
(Brothers Karamazov, Exhortations of Fr. Zossima)
I remember where I was and how I felt upon reading the above passage for the first time. The wonder-filled truth of the message glowed in my soul. I was sixteen years old. Being irascible by nature, that admonition has come to mind many times ever since to quell the pique of the moment and subdue my temper. It stands with works like Dante’s Divine Comedy as literature that ought to be savored in subsequent readings through one’s lifetime, yet it can hardly be found in many local libraries, where entire shelves are taken up with novels of Danielle Steele and Mary Higgins Clark.
I thought of Brothers Karamazov in reflecting on the present euphoria over the heretical DaVinci Code, which a spiritually famished culture has turned into a substitute for faith. The latter is a good read if one enjoys murder mysteries, but the hype far exceeds the value as a historical revelation.
Works of Dostoevsky such as Brothers Karamazov are or can be attitude changers. It too is a murder mystery, but so much more profound and enlightening because it is a study in basic types of humans. Dostoevsky also explored the thought of what a person would be like who lived the Sermon on the Mount literally. It’s titled The Idiot.
I wanted to be like Alyosha, the youngest and purest son of the degenerate father who was killed by a half-brother. He was much like my apostolic hero, St. John the Theologian, who also struggled with control of temper. Alyosha’s older brother Ivan forced him to recognize self-righteous indignation in his soul. I wondered who the inspiration for Fr. Zossima was, thinking he couldn’t just be made up; and years later I found and read St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and felt he was the model and probable role model for Dostoevsky. Or perhaps it might have been the elder [staretz] Amvrossy of Optina Monastery. Dostoevsky visited the Optina Monastery with his friend the great theologian Vladimir Soloviev soon after Dostoevsky’s son had died. Writings such as this can nourish one’s soul for a lifetime, albeit they are mere fiction.
The advice, “Always decide to use humble love,” reflects the beatitudes such as “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and “Blessed are the meek,” but they are so difficult to live by. Rage is the adrenaline that powers so many souls in society. The meek are cut off on the highways and shoved aside at check-out lines. CEO’s and all in authority often utilize intimidation as a control method over the gentle. Knowing and living with that reality, nevertheless we are baptized into Christ and bear His name. Therefore, we are committed to a higher standard of life. Excuses and explanations won’t do—our Lord is our Model. He lays claim to transforming the world with love, and He has chosen us as His agents.
Is it not a powerful thought: “If you resolve on that [humble love] once for all, you may subdue the whole world”? It precedes the blessing of the beatitude, “inherit the earth.” Love alone is the antidote to all the world’s ills, but do we really believe it? I’m reminded of the words of Teilard De Chardin, recalled after his death:
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”