With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man: The Spiritual Counsels of St. Paisios the Athonite - Volume 1

Impudence and Lack of Respect - Part 9 of 14

The Saint responds to the question: “Is judging everyone and everything, Geronta, new to this generation, or has it always been this way?”

“No. It was not like that in the old days; this is the spirit of our times. Nowadays, they will not only judge laymen, politicians and Church leaders; they will also judge the Saints, and have come to the point of even judging God. ‘God,’ they will say, ‘did not act right in this case; He should have acted this way.’ Can you believe it? ‘But my son, how can you tell God what to do?’ I object. ‘Why can’t I?’ he replies. ‘This is what I think.’ They don’t realize the degree of their impudence. This secular spirit has destroyed so many good things. Evil begins this way, and slowly turns into blasphemy. They pass judgment on God, and don’t mind in the least that their thoughts may be blasphemous. And there are some among them, who - being tall, and able to reason a bit - will start criticizing: ‘This boy here is so short, and mere hand-full; that fellow walks crooked; one does this, the other that…’ They don’t care about anyone.”