Archimandrite Hrisostom Ciuciu of Putna Monastery said in an interview with Trinitas TV that young people have a distinctive way of understanding the spiritual life, noting that “they are the first to recognise true fasting”.
The archimandrite emphasised that young people do not act out of constraint, but from inner conviction: “They do nothing unless they feel it is necessary. They do nothing by force, nothing unless they feel it is done out of love.”
“We will never be able to convince a young person to do something or to give something up by showing them how bad it is. Show them something better.”
Young People and Authentic Spiritual Life
He explained that being “young” refers not only to age, but to a state of the soul: “One who has a living soul, one who rejoices in what is beautiful.”
Young people, he said, have a particular capacity to seek the deeper meaning of things and to respond only to what is authentic:
“They understand better what it means to act out of love, what it means to love, and what it means for something to be worth sacrificing for.”
At the same time, they possess “the ability to look within themselves and find the highest motivation for any action”. Young people, he added, “are the first to denounce hypocrisy” when it comes to fasting.
“We fast from food, but not from passions. I abstain from various foods or even keep a strict fast, yet my heart is hooked. Young people are the first to expose this hypocrisy, because they understand things from the perspective of love,” Fr Hrisostom Ciuciu said.
Fasting as a Free Choice and Sacrifice of Love
The archimandrite also highlighted how fasting should be lived in practice, from the perspective of inner motivation and personal relationship with God.
“If you wish to remain humble and for your fasting to be your offering to God in a deeply personal relationship, and you wish to conceal your spiritual labour so that the world does not praise you, then it seems to me that if you partake a little of what is offered to you, you do not err, but rather the opposite.”
He also warned against compromise and a “lukewarm” spiritual life: “Christ says this clearly: ‘I will spit you out of My mouth, because you are lukewarm.’ Lukewarm means mixed. It means compromise.”
“You cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot be united to God while at the same time clinging to the devil. Love does not act except in fullness.”
Archimandrite Hrisostom Ciuciu concluded with an example from the Desert Fathers, stressing that fasting is not merely an external rule, but a living work fulfilled in love and sincerity before God:
“What we ate then was love. But now, since it is only us, it is fitting that we keep our fast.”
Photo: Facebook / Putna Monastery
