The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.
A very fascinating psychology, anthropology, and theology emerge as you read the actions and teachings of Zosima with attention. He makes it so necessary, natural, and joyful to love. That's what our earthly life is all about, it is "the power to say, 'I am and I love'." Love also provides a key to knowledge, or wisdom if you wish: “If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things.”
In Zosima’s world the vices are not just bad by themselves or because there is some sort of Divine Interdiction or Commandment. No! They are bad, because they diminish one’s ability to love, and therefore to live, think, and comprehend. Think of the aftermath of Raskolnikov's crime for example. That's what tortures him: not that he killed two if not three people, but that he can't embrace his family, can't look into their eyes with love. And conversely, virtues are those qualities that result in the increase of love and joy! Sinners, of course, do get their pleasures, but they are pleasures of hatred, resentment, despair and laceration of the emotional wounds. They are already in hell, because for Zosima, "hell is suffering of no longer being able to love."
That’s how he attacks lying and self-deception: liars simply cease to love!
“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. AND HAVING NO RESPECT HE CEASES TO LOVE, and in order to occupy and distract himself WITHOUT LOVE he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices...
The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill—he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and WILL REVEL IN HIS RESENTMENT till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine hatred."
Here is another of his teachings which drives home the same point: “If you are penitent, you love”: “it has been said of old that over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heaven than over ten righteous men. Go, and fear not. Be not bitter against men. Be not angry if you are wronged. Forgive the dead man in your heart what wrong he did you. … IF YOU ARE PENITENT, YOU LOVE. AND IF YOU LOVE YOU ARE OF GOD. All things are atoned for, ALL THINGS ARE SAVED BY LOVE. If I, a sinner, even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and expiate not only your own sins but the sins of others.”
And finally, the reward for such behavior, for the amassing of love, for being actively involved in mankind is right here! In joy and happiness. Who said that all that Dostoevsky preaching is “suffering”?
Zosima again: “Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love. Love all men, love everything. Seek that rapture and ecstasy. Water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those tears. Don't be ashamed of that ecstasy, prize it, for it is a gift of God and a great one; it is not given to many but only to the elect.”
And here he comments on his own joy: “If I seem so happy to you, you could never say anything that would please me more. For men are made for happiness, and any one who is completely happy has a right to say to himself, ‘I am doing God's will on earth.’ All the righteous, all the saints, all the holy martyrs were happy.”
