In the Treasury of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kotor, Archpriest Stavrofor Dr. Miloša Vesin gave a lecture on the topic "Is illness a punishment or a warning" last night.
The organizer was the Croatian Orthodox Church Municipality of Kotor, and father Miloš, who always comes to us with interesting topics, was greeted at the beginning by the archpriest of Kotor-Tivat, parish priest of Kotor, archpriest-stavrofor Nemanja Krivokapić, emphasizing the importance of the lecture for today's man.
At the beginning, Father Miloš Vesin said that since last year's lecture in Kotor, also in November, and until today, the book he most often had in his hands was one of those that, as he said, is not only read and then put away, but is read and constantly picked up.
It is the book "Father Momo", published by the Serbian Singing Society "Jedinstvo" 1839 Kotor, dedicated to the archpriest vicar of Boko Kotor, parish priest of Kotor, archpriest-stavrofor Momčil Krivokapić, who rested in the Lord on April 29, 2020.
"The book contains thought and emotional encounters with the keeper of our souls in the eternally windy Boka," says the letter from the publisher of the book, which includes, among others, texts about Father Mom signed by the blessed Metropolitan Amfilohije, Matija Bećković, Mihajlo Pantić, Goran Petrović...
"I knew Father Momo for a long time, and at the time when I was in the seminary, in high school, then at the university in the 70s, Father Momo really was the concept of a priest, especially for us young theologians and students of theology. It is not known who was talked about more in those years, whether it was Father Momo Krivokapić from Kotor, or Father Perisa Vranić from Sarajevo. Indeed, they were two outstanding, among many great shepherds, in those by no means easy times", said Fr. Miloš at the beginning of an interesting meeting with the Kotor audience, after which he answered questions.
Speaking about the lecture, he said that it was about a topic that more or less affects us all in a certain way, directly, or through those we love and who are close to us.
As he said, in the case of an illness, people often wonder why this is happening to them, or even worse, why it is happening to their children."Is it some kind of punishment from God or is it perhaps a warning. The question is how much we perceive illness as a kind of warning, as a sign by which God wants to tell us something, to give us a message, to teach us something. In the time of Christ, there were only two categories as reasons why someone suffers," said Fr. Miloš, recalling the young man - a beggar who was born blind, when the apostles ask Christ what is the reason for his illness, i.e. whether he or his parents sinned, indicating a sin that returns as a consequence or what is a genetic inheritance, or maybe your parents or your ancestors have sinned something and you are now repaying that debt. In the words of the Bible, "the fathers ate sour grapes, and the grandchildren's teeth gnash."
Christ opens a new horizon and says that neither he nor his parents sinned, but "Let the works of God be revealed in him", by which the Lord shows that physicality is not all we have, that bodily torments and physical pains do not limit our ability to live", said Father Miloš.
We often quote, he points out, the incomplete saying "a healthy mind in a healthy body".
"The late academician Vladeta Jerotić very often spoke about how psychologically it is completely incorrect. He says, "where the spirit is healthy, the body, even though it is sick, will cope with the disease in a better and healthier way where the spirit is healthy". Therefore, the appearance, health, ability of a person's body is not necessarily a guarantee for the absolute harmony that should reign in that person. Harmony is actually the unity of body, soul and spirit, everything that makes a person a human being," Father Miloš said.
It is difficult, he continues, to find a definition of pain, as a subjective perception of something that affects either our physicality or our emotions, but also our mentality.
"The man who was exposed to an incredible amount of pain was also Righteous Job. And no matter how much pain he had, a man who was rich had daughters and sons, in one day he lost everything, after all, his health and sat on a garbage dump outside the city, scraping festering wounds from his body with a tile, he never asked for health in his dialogues with God, he only asked for one thing - "I want to not be afraid of You". He wanted a relationship with God that would be motivated by love," Father Miloš said.
Speaking about the problems of coping in today's world, he says that man, due to his ignorance of God, has to replace the vacant place of God with something.
"With what? To false gods. Do not think that I am against the achievements of modern technology, but the new modern god, pagan, idol of our time, is transhumanism in conjunction with artificial intelligence. Three weeks ago, information appeared, which exploded all over the world, that every week one million two hundred thousand people talk to artificial intelligence, only about one topic. We don't talk about other topics. About suicide. What is the easiest way to commit suicide", Father Miloš said.
He says that the basis of artificial intelligence is "an old Gnostic heresy dressed up in a new way."
"It is not only from the first days of Christianity, but from the first days of humanity. When does this struggle for the victory of disease and death arise? Even in that lascivious conversation between the snake and Eve," said Fr. Miloš, recalling that the phrase "you will become like gods" caresses the ears of every generation to this day.
Man, as he says, today thinks that disease and death can be defeated on the basis of technological progress.
"We will be able, as they say, to applaud our brains somewhere, and one day, when science has advanced so much, then it will bring it back and reconnect our dead physicality with those brains of ours that will live fresh under ideal conditions somewhere, on some "cloud 138". I do not deny the advantage of artificial intelligence in some segments of medicine, if a doctor needs to prescribe a certain and successful therapy for someone and if he can immediately see at least two or twenty million lung scans, which was the best and most effective treatment. However, what people don't think about is what artificial intelligence deprives us of. It deprives us of the meaning that is connected with every activity. So the activity has meaning regardless of whether you are a bus driver, a street cleaner, a shoe cleaner on the street, a surgeon, a teacher, a housewife, a politician, a priest, a lawyer... Anything. Every activity has its own dignity", said Father Miloš, adding that artificial intelligence deprives us of personal relationships.
He also spoke about the level at which the relationship between young people is today.
"It is on a very poor level and it comes down to what social networks can provide, which is their abbreviated, impoverished language, without punctuation marks with abbreviations that many today do not understand, and they understand, those "kids", who even at the age of four know how to use a mobile phone and a computer better than me," says Fr. Miloš.
What is happening on that occasion, he says, is being investigated both in the East and in the West."Especially researchers of child development. Until 2010, each generation of young people was more advanced than the previous one and incomparably more advanced than their parents. Since 2010, we have been witnessing a regression. A constant decline in the power of concentration, the power of memory. God forbid that today you give children something to learn by heart," said Fr. Miloš.
He ended the lecture with a sentence by writer Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović about how important joy is and what it carries on its banner.
"It is always and only love. If it is not the meaning and if it is not the goal, then there is no health, neither soul, nor spirit, nor body. That sentence reads: "I am only a pilgrim, and love is my Jerusalem", Father Miloš Vesin said, among other things.