Martyrs and Confessors

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2000 by Olivier Clement

There is, particularly, the discovery of the human face as an expression of the heart, as beautiful as an icon. The discovery of welcome and friendship of those who share the same cell and whom one meets after so many days of solitude and obsessive interrogation. "Suddenly, you are taken to your friends ... Your souls beat in harmony with one another", and "your heart is overwhelmed by this festival of being with fellow human beings once again". These experiences, where people are sensed at a level deeper than their role or status, in this reflection of eternity which they bear in themselves, where the momentarily glimpsed beauty of the world becomes sacramental - these existing spiritual experiences make us human beings understand that our conscience is our relationship with God, and particularly the God of the gospel to which Allocha bears witness in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. When the soul opens up before the ultimate questions -- the meaning of life and of death - a revelation takes place of what Solzhenitsyn calls "the Mysterious". "It is I. Do not forget me." A God who is personal, a God of persons, One in whom it is easy to trust, because he is with us in our distress in order to raise us up:

   When my spirit fails, when the most intelligent can see nothing beyond this
   evening and no longer know what they are to do tomorrow, then, Lord, you
   grant me this glorious certainty: you exist and you yourself will ensure
   that the paths to goodness will not be blocked.

* Olivier Clement is professor of theology at the Orthodox Theological Institute of St Sergius in Paris. This paper was presented at the seventh international conference on Russian spirituality, held at the Monastery of the Annunciation, Bose, Italy, 15-18 September 1999. It has been translated from the French by the WCC Language Service.