We need one another, and we are needed by others, Bishop Grigorije Duri\u0107 emphasizes for N1. It is necessary, he notes, to understand that all people are potentially good and by no means to look up to those who have committed evil. This is the precondition for his deep conviction that \u201clambs always, in the end, defeat wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bishop Grigorije Duri\u0107 has published the book \u201cWe Need One Another,\u201d in which he brought together 30 sermons (symbolically, for 30 years of service in the Church), reminding us what it means to be a \u201cneighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI always gladly recall some old, ancient wisdom of the Egyptian monks who said, \u2018You have seen your neighbor, you have seen your God.\u2019 Therefore, if we see the good face of our neighbor, then we will see God in that face as well. The path to God is through the neighbor,\u201d said the bishop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final sermon, titled \u201cThe Mirror in Which We Look at Ourselves,\u201d was delivered while students were staying in Munich, on their way to Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a young monk, I taught religious education in a school. Then I realized that children are always a mirror of their parents. Here, a real miracle is happening, that these children are a wonderful mirror in which everything is revealed, both what is good in us as parents (spiritual or biological) and what is not. If we want to do something, we must direct all our intellectual, physical, and psychological strength toward helping these children, being with them, and looking at ourselves in them, seeing our virtues and our weaknesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked whether he was reproached for hosting the students, he says that no one called him directly, but that he heard there were objections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome even reproached us for receiving them into the house at all, which is truly frightening to me. A person would receive even a stranger, if he is a traveler, hungry, thirsty, and tired, let alone one\u2019s own children. Children who are fighting for freedom, for justice, for truth, who have made an enormous sacrifice,\u201d the N1 interlocutor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is convinced that the students are fighting for a good, healthy, normal Serbia and for their future in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the book \u201cWe Need One Another,\u201d on the other hand, there is much discussion of the past and the mistakes that were made. The bishop speaks about \u201cremembering without bearing grudges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBearing grudges is, according to Saint Anastasius of Sinai, the gravest sin. Worse or heavier than murder itself, adultery, or theft, because bearing grudges is actually letting hatred into the heart. That does not mean that a person should not remember, but one should not bear grudges. At terrible places of remembrance (the sufferings of the Serbian people), I warn that there must never be bearing of grudges, because, as the wise Hannah Arendt said, the only thing she would not forgive the fascists for is making her become like them. My thesis is clear\u2014lambs always, in the end, defeat wolves, but that end must be lived to see, and one must have hope that good will triumph over evil,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The precondition for this, he emphasizes, is to understand that all people are potentially good, and that we must by no means look up to those who have committed evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll people are brothers; we are all capable of making mistakes, but also of correcting ourselves. One of the most wondrous moments was when a young Franciscan priest approached me whose father and brother were killed by the Army of BiH in the area of Bradina. I was then in Bradina speaking about the suffering of the Serbs and said that it is better when a person is a descendant of those who were killed than of those who killed. As terrible as that is. He approached me and told me that his faith in the Gospel had returned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world has a different view of things, but the bishop emphasizes that \u201cthe final judgment will be given by God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGod will judge the world, and that judgment will be terrible, not because God is terrible, but because we will then experience various surprises. The only possibility of not experiencing a dreadful surprise is to follow what God tells us, which is to walk the path of love and forgiveness,\u201d said Bishop Grigorije.<\/p>\n\n\n\n