The Monk Whose Face Was Red

(Found here)

Standing beside a cave was a monk whose face was red, I mean really red. He smiled at me and said, “I guess you’re wondering why my face is so red.”

I sure was. “Well, it was this way. When I was fifty I died. When I went to judgment, they asked me, ‘What have you accomplished?’ That’s when my face turned red. I pleaded with them to give me more time. ‘All right,’ they said, ‘we’ll give you seven more years.’

“So I came back to my cave. I went in and kept going. I went in deeper than I’d ever gone before, in and down, in and down. I must have walked for several days, although it was so dark I couldn’t tell day from night. I just wanted to get away from people; my face was so red. And I wanted time to think, to think about how I would spend those seven years. But it was scary. I didn’t know what I’d meet down there, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find my way back. I kept going.

“Finally I began to hear a rumbling sound, like mighty waters. You know what it was? It was the tears of the whole world! I heard the bitter tears of EVERYONE’S fear, hurt, despair, disappointment, rage. Everyone’s. And I heard the sweet tears too—you know, when you’re loved, when you’re safe at last, a loved one restored, those tears of joy. Yes, I heard the death of Christ and his resurrection. I must have been at the heart of the earth, because, while I couldn’t hear any words, I heard ALL the tears and therefore I experienced total communion. I was separated from my separateness.

I don’t know how long I stayed there in that state of total communion—days, weeks. But I finally decided how I would spend my seven years. I would go back to the mouth of the cave and conduct people back and forth to the depths.

~Theophane the Monk