By Fr George Calciu
Below is a recorded homily given in opposition to the law, the first in a series of “seven homilies to the youth” delivered as lenten meditations by Fr George Calciu to the youth in Romania. Under communist rule in Romania, Fr George was taken prisoner by the authorities for refusing to become a puppet of the government. He preached the truth openly to a society that was being contorted into a materialistic one, being stripped of all spiritual life. In the face of cruel imprisonment and unimaginable torture for which he suffered for many years, Fr George delivered to the youth a series of homilies of consolation, leading them away from the pernicious lies of a totalitarian materialistic society in order to find freedom in Christ–the Godman who was outlawed. (See links below to read and watch interviews of Fr George’s time as a prisoner).
Fr George’s mugshot before one of his sentences.
Homily I.
THE TIME HAS COME, young man, for you to hear a voice which has been calling you. It is a voice you have never heard before, or perhaps, one you have heard but which you have never understood or obeyed. It is the voice of Jesus! Don’t be shocked; don’t be amazed, and don’t smile incredulously, my young friend! The voice which calls you is not that of a dead man, but of One Who has risen from the dead. He does not shout after you from history, but from out of the depths of your own inner being. The words written and read from the New Testament today issue out of depths within you, yet unknown to you. Perhaps you have been ashamed or afraid to delve inside yourself and discover them. You believed that within you lay a wild beast, a sepulchre of instincts from which there would rise enchanting spirits. You did not see the face of an angel, and yet you are an angel. If this has never been told you before, Jesus is telling you now, and His testimony is true, for no one has ever caught Him in a lie.
What do you know about Christ? If all you know is what they taught you in atheism classes, you have been deprived in bad faith of a great truth — a truth which can set you free.
What do you know of the Church of Christ? If all you know can be reduced to the concepts of Giordano Bruno which were faithfully taught you in classes of so-called scientific atheism, then you have been despitefully thwarted from experiencing the light of true culture and the brilliance of spirituality which assures human freedom. In your classes did you ever hear these words: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you”?
If you have never heard these words, my friend, who hindered you, and by what right? Who prohibited you from knowing that there exists a better way, juster and simpler than that on which you now wander blindly? Who has pulled the veil over your eyes so that you would not see the most wonderful light of the love of Jesus, proclaimed and lived out unto the final end?
Friend, I have seen you on the street, young, handsome. All of a sudden you change, your face becomes distorted, your instincts break loose as though under a spell and ravish your being in violence. Where did you learn such violence, young people? From whom? I have seen your mother meek and tearful and your father with his face stunned by pain. And I realize that you did not learn it from them. Then from where?
Lift up your ears and listen to the call of Jesus, the call of His Church. Outside of her, your unflinching violence will lead you to judgment and imprisonment, where your soul will be irrevocably destroyed. I have seen you in pain before the magistrates, where your actions have assumed horrific dimensions. I have seen you afraid, cynical, and full of bravado; and all these attitudes show me how near you are to the edge of destruction. And I ask myself once more: who bears the guilt for your fall?
Come to the Church of Christ! Only here will you find consolation for your ravished soul. Only in the Church will you find certainty, because only in the Church will you hear the voice of Jesus saying meekly to you: “Son, all your sins are forgiven. You have suffered much. Behold, I have made you whole; go and sin no more.”
No man has ever said such words as these to you. Yet you hear them now. Rather, you have heard of class hatred, political hatred — always hatred. ‘Love’ is a strange word to you, but now the Church of Christ shows the better way, the way of love. Up until this moment you were a slave of your instincts; your body was a simple instrument through which your instincts expressed themselves. But now you heard the words of Jesus, through His Apostle, pleading with you: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Cor. 3:15).
You have been told that you descend from the apes, that you are a beast which must be trained; but discover another fact — the wonder that you are the temple of God; in you the Spirit of God dwells. You are called back to your dignity as a metaphysical being; you are raised up from the low place to which false education has sunk you, and you assume the sacred office of being the temple in which God dwells.
We call you to purity. If you have not forgotten the meaning of the word “innocence”, if there is still an area within you of unaffected childhood, you will not resist this call. Come to the Church of Christ! And understand what innocence and purity mean, what meekness and love are. You will learn your place in life and the purpose of your existence. To your astonishment you will discover that our life does not end in death, but in resurrection; that our existence centers on Christ, and that this world is not a mere empty moment in which non-being prevails. You will receive hope. And your hope will make you strong. You will receive faith, and your faith will save you. You will receive love, and your love will make you good.
My friends, these are the first words which Jesus addresses to you in the midst of the turmoil of this world and the agitation of your passions. No man has taught you to fight your instincts, but Jesus calls you from out of the transparent dreams of innocence which still haunt you from time to time.
Jesus is seeking you; Jesus has found you!!
Fr George’s experiences in torture camps:
The Anti-Humans and the Re-Education Experiment
Beyond Torture: Communist Prisons in Romania
Arguing About God’s Existence
