The Writer

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Biography of Father Elia Mitri

My Story

A friend told me once: "I am not as enchanted by the Orthodox Youth Movement (MJO) as you are".

Son, may I hope that you will emulate this enchantment for as long as you live? For the son should emulate his father, if only he is walking in the Truth. I do not want you to emulate my mistakes, but all I care about is that you, yourself, carry this enchanting torch with your hand, your heart, your mind and with everything that moves within your soul.

I will relay to you, briefly, the tale of my stories:
I was a young lad the day when another young lad met up with me and invited me to a meeting being held, in our parish church, by some young people of the regeneration. He invited me; however, I did not care for him, for my evils were overflowing.

Do you remember the area in which you were born?
My presence in that area used to be a real terror for some of its people. If I were to walk down its roads, you would see no one beside me other than those who are similar to me. The other young people, young or old, used to back away from us, if we passed them by, the way people back away from the target of artillery. We were at war; and this is a fitting image for those days, the mere mention of which resembles what I am ashamed to recall.

As I said, I did not really care for him. I heard his invitation as though I had not. The young man had specified to me the date and place of their meeting. The appointed date passed without my showing up to it. How would I agree to what I never cared for? How do I respond to what means nothing to me? Nonetheless, what moved me was that that lad was never discouraged by my rejection. He remained free, and invited me again. Like the first time, he saw me by chance. Maybe he meant to see me. God knows! He saw me, and chided me for my defaulting. How could he approach me, invite and chide me? Do not ask me! I do not know. How had I allowed him that? Do not ask me. Where was the urgency of my evils? I do not know. Today, I know that no one on earth can prevail against those who love God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That young lad, with his eloquent persistence and ability to chide, was irresistibly strong. At that time, I was not aware that righteousness was stronger than all kinds of evil. His righteousness got the better of me. I saw myself, like an infant, sitting next to a few young people who were speaking a language I was not accustomed to. Paradoxically, what you're not accustomed to can stimulate you a lot. Their language stimulated me exceedingly. It also overwhelmed me.

Overwhelmed, I started bringing myself, every week, on schedule, to that specific place, the meeting room of which quickly became mine. Since I have walked into it, I have never been absent from it. No, not even once. I found myself captivated by a language, the vocabulary of which I did not know that it had been formerly written on the board of my heart. These young men have taught me that repentance does not come to you from outside of yourself. Hence, everything in me turned to them.

I want you to pay attention to this last sentence (everything in me turned to them). Maybe you expected me to say: they are the ones who prompted me to repent to God. In what I have written, it is enough for me that I have said it exactly as it had to be said. Repentance, in the teaching of our Church, is a repentance to God Who is dwelling in His community. Before I really understood, I figured out that repentance was not just to leave off vices that captivated me, nor to merely change this or that behavior. For repentance, true repentance, is to leave off my estrangement from my brethren, to see their friendship and fellowship as being an oblation to God. God stands amidst my brethren. Therefore, I found myself their captive in all things. So much so that I just waited for one of them to signal to me with his hand or his eye and I would cater to him like an obedient slave. My brethren have taught me all things, the loftiest of which was to understand freedom on the basis of obedience to the Truth that is dwelling in them.
This is what still enchants me. I am not praising my own person which found no respite from my grief over the sins of my youth, those sins I hope our Lord will not remember. Believe me that my boast is in the Lord who "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood". The activity of His Holy Spirit is what I boast about.
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Prior to answering the invitation of that young lad, who overcame my rejection, I had never thought that what I had discovered could ever exist on earth. For me, the Church was there to be visited at Christmas and Easter. Even then, I used to visit against my will. Maybe, besides my parents’ urgency, especially my mother’s, what I would consider to have been a motive was that traces of Christianity were still attached to me. For the Holy Spirit, Who, in baptism, had granted us His gifts, does not leave us, even if we leave Him! This is what, prompted by these young lads, was transformed in me into everything. This is the real catch, the catch according to Scriptures. That young man had cast a net at me and I got caught in it. I got caught, and I could not get out. This is the new way of fishing and the new scope of fishing.
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The day I entered that room, in which were gathered some of those whom God’s love for us had enticed, I had been totally blind. I was taught by them to see my sins that hinder me from seeing God. Most people believe that He had created eyes for us mainly to see others. As for us, we have to believe that He had created them, mainly to have compassion toward others and to always keep seeing our sins. From your face, you overlook your heart; and if you do enter it, you would understand what I am telling you.
…
There are people who die indebted to others, bequeathing their debt to those who come out of their loins. This is my debt, and you are my son. I am starting to realize that I will not be able to pay it back. You, yourself should try to. And if you could not, then your wealth would be to bequeath to your children an unpayable debt.

*Excerpt from the book "Personal papers". Chapter: "The Orthodox Youth Movement".

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