The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XLV, and XLVI, Part I

These texts from the Evergetinos unsettle us because they refuse to remain within the boundaries of what feels morally tidy or intellectually manageable. They do not ask us to refine our ethical reasoning. They ask us to relinquish it. Not because truth no longer matters, but because truth in Christ is no longer possessed or deployed by us. It is entered. It is suffered. It is entrusted to God.

Abba Alonios’ answer shocks precisely because it violates our instinct for clean distinctions. We want truth to be a weapon that guarantees justice. We want moral clarity to protect us from risk. Yet the elder places before us a situation in which telling the truth would mean cooperating with death. The choice is not between honesty and deceit as abstract values. It is between acting as judge and surrendering judgment to God. The lie he permits is not born of calculation or convenience but of restraint. It is a refusal to become the final arbiter over another human life.

Here the Gospel quietly overturns us. Christ does not save the world by insisting on correct procedure. He saves it by entering into its injustice and absorbing it without retaliation. He does not clarify situations from a distance. He descends into them and bears their weight. The elder’s answer does not sanctify falsehood. It exposes our illusion that we are capable of wielding truth without wounding when our hearts are still governed by fear and reactivity.

The second account presses even deeper. The Reader does not merely endure slander. He consents to it. He allows truth to be buried in order to spare the Church further scandal and to place his own vindication entirely in the hands of God. This is not passivity. It is not weakness. It is a terrifying freedom. He relinquishes reputation. He relinquishes status. He relinquishes even the right to be understood. He chooses to stand before God alone.

Here moral reasoning collapses. By every rational measure the Reader should defend himself. Justice demands it. Yet the Gospel reveals a different justice. One that does not rush to expose wrongdoing but waits for God to uncover what human judgment cannot heal. The Reader’s silence becomes prayer. His loss becomes intercession. His false condemnation becomes the means by which God exposes the deeper sickness of slander and restores the one who sinned.

What these texts reveal is that the Christian life cannot be lived from the center of our own discernment alone. The Gospel draws us past the point where we ask what is fair or reasonable and into the mystery of Christ who was condemned while innocent and silent before His accusers. These stories are not moral templates to be imitated mechanically. They are icons. They show us what love looks like when it no longer seeks to justify itself.

The Fathers knew how quickly our sense of virtue becomes self protection. How easily truth becomes an extension of our fear. The Gospel dismantles this illusion. It exposes how much of our judgment is driven by the need to control outcomes and secure our innocence. Christ does not ask us to abandon truth. He asks us to abandon ownership of it.

To enter this mystery is to accept that fidelity to Christ will sometimes look like loss. That obedience may cost us clarity. That love may require us to stand undefended. Not because injustice is holy but because God alone is capable of judging without destroying.

These writings do not give us answers we can apply. They draw us into a posture we must inhabit. One where restraint replaces reaction. Where prayer replaces accusation. Where truth is no longer something we speak over others but a life we entrust to God.

The Gospel does not refine our moral instincts. It crucifies them and raises something altogether new.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:00:41 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 343 G paragraph 2

00:06:59 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 343 G paragraph 2

00:07:17 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.org/blog

00:08:34 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "Philokaliaministries..." with ❤️

00:08:46 Una’s iPhone: Laughter is the best medicine?

00:10:05 Una’s iPhone: I’m reading St Nicodemos Handbook of Spiritual Counsel

00:10:25 Una’s iPhone: Yes

00:10:38 Una’s iPhone: Guarding the senses

00:10:49 Anna: What's the book we're reading?

00:11:02 Anna: Thanks!

00:15:01 Angela Bellamy: Good evening Father. I've been looking forward to the class. Its lovely to see you doing well. :)

00:34:40 John ‘Jack’: In John 7; 1-10 where the disciples try to talk Jesus into going in to the feast of the tabernacles he tells them his time has not yet come, he then goes in without them in disguise, thus has always seemed to be he lied, or at least misled them, id love to hear your interpretation on that scripture.

00:41:09 John ‘Jack’: They are very good at showing us our own minuteness

00:43:04 Angela Bellamy: Excuse my interjection but Jesus explained that He couldn't go openly because He was being sought after to be murdered. That the people did not accept Him and that it wasn't time for His crucifixion.

00:44:45 John Burmeister: if i saw the murder, im not judgeing the person, im judging the act,

00:45:26 Julie: The importance of praying for discernment

00:45:42 John Burmeister: god will still have his judgement. it maybe gods providence for me to turn him in

00:54:41 Anthony: I don't think I would just take the judgement. I'd suppose having a good reputation is important for not just me, but my family and people who assume I did the grave evil.  For example how many true and false accusations against Catholic priests and others in USA was an excuse for people to leave faith in anger and grief?

00:54:44 Anna: Wow suffering is so powerful

00:55:37 John Burmeister: Replying to "I don't think I woul..."

or for money

00:57:32 jonathan: Isaiah 53:7 – “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Mark 15:3–5 – When accused before Pilate, “The chief priests accused him of many things… But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.”

00:57:51 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "Isaiah 53:7 – “He wa..." with ❤️

01:01:54 Anthony: George Pell

01:03:27 Joan Chakonas: A example showing where you turn the other cheek to slander, and God takes care of you ultimately.

01:03:34 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "Isaiah 53:7 – “He wa…" with ❤️

01:06:55 Rebecca Thérèse: Unfortunately, abusers often manipulate themselves into important positions and a network develops where they look out for each other. Then when an allegation arises against an innocent person they go after them to make it look like they're cracking down on abuse and corruption where really they're just deflecting scrutiny away from themselves. The allegations against Cardinal Pell were easy to disprove but the authorities weren't interested in the truth.

01:08:44 Angela Bellamy: Joseph was slandered and yet the Lord held him dear. Humility invites God into our situation. He is sovereign over all.

01:10:20 Forrest: The bishop in this story continued his evil ways stating that the prayers of the reader must be to afflict the woman. Would the reader have been praying that way?

01:17:44 Janine: Praying for you Father!

01:18:37 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:19:43 Bob Čihák, AZ: Bless your excitement and overexpressing the Truth, Father, You're not alone!