Delusion is most widespread among those who stand out by outward churchliness and by keeping the laws the Lord has given

The devil sets snares on every side for a person who has set out on the path of church life. It is hard to say which is more difficult — to overcome fornication, theft, slander, or to master the pride that victory over them brings. Keeping precisely this golden mean is the Christian's chief concern. Archpriest Gelasi Natroshvili, a priest of the church of St Nino, talks to us about the most dangerous manifestation of the pride that church life can breed — spiritual delusion.

— Father, what is delusion?

— I think it would be better first to explain in a few words the essence of sin. Sin is the breaking of religious laws, disobedience to the word of God. It is a religious concept and applies only to those who accept the Christian law, believe in God and are under His saving wing. Whoever has remained outside the bosom of the Church cannot fully sense his own sinful fall and his estrangement from God and the truth.

Sins are of many kinds. Some are obvious, others at first sight harmless but especially dangerous for the soul. At the root of the overwhelming majority of them lies a lack of faith. It is precisely in this that the fall into delusion differs from all other sins. A person in delusion ascribes to himself a multitude of spiritual gifts. It is a false, seemingly churchly state of the soul, which only looks saving from outside but is in reality a nest of pride.

— You mentioned pride. What other sins lead to delusion?

— It is impossible to single out any one of them in this respect, because a person's life does not depend on any one emotion — man is a most complex phenomenon, his spiritual experience is boundless; so it would probably be better to say that what casts a person into delusion is a combination of sins, or a failure to recognize one's sinful state. Though it can be said that the chief blame for the sinful fall lies with haughtiness and pride. A person in delusion thinks himself special. He hands out instructions generously on everyday and spiritual questions, and he takes his own ideas for the only truth, and gradually a feeling of haughtiness and superiority over others is born in him. And this is nothing other than pride — the most ruinous of diseases. Everyone knows well that it is precisely pride that is the mother of all passions and sins. Nothing separates a person from God as it does. Pride shows itself in self-love, arrogance, self-assurance, egoism, Pharisaism and so on.

— Father, how can we tell that we are in delusion?

— In general, delusion is especially widespread among those who stand out by their outward churchliness and their keeping of the laws the Lord has given — but, sadly, only outwardly. Many of them think that they have already attained a special fruit of perfection, that they are already worthy of the Kingdom, and to prove it they appeal to a thousand signs: dreams, voices, visions... The deluded person thinks that those around him are obliged to listen to him and obediently accept his “teachings.”

— But surely one may really dream something special?

— Of course. In such a case we must be guided by the teaching of the holy fathers. They advise us to treat every dream or vision with distrust, however clear and harmless it may seem — not to think about it and not to believe it. Only so shall we protect ourselves from delusion.

— What would you say to those families where icons stream myrrh, or to those people on whose bodies crosses appear? And in general, how should we regard a miracle?

— It is hard to give a single answer here. A miracle is a warning from the Lord, and it should not cast us into pride but make us think about ourselves. In every case, whether it is a dream or myrrh flowing from an icon, we must turn to our spiritual father and be guided by his counsel alone.

— What part does the spiritual father play?

— The greatest. He is the father of his spiritual child and his guide on the hard church path, full of temptations. In order to give right counsel, the spiritual father must himself be free of delusion. I mean the demonic, especially dangerous delusion; otherwise, every believer is at least a little sick with this disease. The cause of this is ignorance of the laws of theology and insufficient church education. The spiritual father is obliged, from the very start of a person's church life, to tell his spiritual child that such a sin exists, and then to keep constant watch over his spiritual state. The spiritual father should set in order every sphere of his spiritual child's life. A person should even read his prayers as the spiritual father directs. Let me add here that love should lie at the root of everything a priest does.

— What helps a person fall into delusion?

— Often it is that the person has no strict spiritual father who would show him his spiritual fall and help him to be freed from this gravest of sins. Instead, the person in delusion is surrounded by people who trust him easily and take what he tells them for divine revelation. And naturally the person forms an exaggerated idea of himself and a wrong attitude toward his own spiritual state. So if we see that someone is in delusion, we must expose it with heartache and love, explain to him the nature of this sin, and try to save him by prayer.

— Can we tell that someone is in delusion by outward signs alone?

— It is hard to speak of any sin from outward signs alone, though I think an experienced eye should have no difficulty noticing someone gripped by this sin. I mean first of all an experienced spiritual father who has more than once had to deal with a person in delusion. Even so, this sin is more easily noticed in conversation than otherwise.

— Is delusion unavoidable in a Christian's life?

— No sin is unavoidable. God created man sinless, and sinlessness is precisely his natural state; but the fall of our first forefather gave birth in each of us to an inclination toward sin. Delusion is one of these sins, and the one who will above all be saved from it is the one who rightly understands the essence of Christianity, who begins to look in himself for failings rather than merits.

— How are we to fight delusion?

— Fighting delusion is hard, because at its root lies the most deeply rooted passion in a person's being — haughtiness. Wrestling with it requires great courage and strength. To free ourselves from delusion we must obey our spiritual father in everything, acquire a proper theological education, and beg the Lord to free us from this passion.

— Which virtues root out delusion?

— If we take pride to be the chief cause of delusion, then its remedy, accordingly, will be humility. Only a sincere humility, not a feigned one. And that is the fruit of untiring labour, of prayer, of frequent reflection on one's own fall. Let us beg the Lord to send down upon us grace and strength for the fight against sin, and to make us worthy to draw near to His holy throne.