| Before
beginning my talk, a word or two on why it is important to have an
Orthodox world-view, and why it is more difficult to build one today
than in past centuries. In past centuries—for example, in 19th century Russia—the
Orthodox world-view was an important part of Orthodox life and was supported
by the life around it. There was no need even to speak of it as a separate
thing—you lived Orthodoxy in harmony with the Orthodox society around
you, and you had an Orthodox world-view provided by the Church and society.
In many countries the government itself confessed Orthodoxy; it was the
center of public functions and the king or ruler himself was historically
the first Orthodox layman with a responsibility to give a Christian example
to all his subjects. Every city had Orthodox churches, and many of them
had services every day, morning and evening. There were monasteries in
all the great cities, in many cities, outside the cities, and in the countryside,
in deserts and wildernesses. In Russia there were more than 1000 officially
organized monasteries, in addition to other more unofficial groups. Monasticism
was an accepted part of life. Most families, in fact, had somewhere in
them a sister or brother, uncle, grandfather, cousin or someone who was
a monk or a nun, in addition to all the other examples of Orthodox life:
people who wandered from monastery to monastery, and fools-for-Christ.
The whole way of life was permeated with Orthodox kinds of people, of
which, of course, monasticism is the center. Orthodox customs were a part
of daily life. Most books that were commonly read were Orthodox. Daily
life itself was difficult for most people: they had to work hard to survive,
life expectancy was not great, death was a frequent reality—all
of which reinforced the Church's teaching on the reality and nearness
of the other world. Living an Orthodox life in such circumstances was
really the same thing as having and Orthodox world-view, and there was
little need to talk of such a thing.
Today, on the other hand, all this has changed. Our Orthodoxy is a little
island in the midst of a world which operates on totally different principles—and
every day these principles are changing for the worse, making us more
and more alienated from it. Many people are tempted to divide their lives
into two sharply distinct categories: the daily life we lead at work,
with worldly friends, in our worldly business, and Orthodoxy, which we
live on Sundays and at other times in the week when we have time for
it. But the world-view of such a person, if you look at it closely, is
often a strange combination of Christian values and worldly values, which
really do not mix. The purpose of this talk is to see how people living
today can begin to make their world-view more of one piece, to make it
a whole Orthodox world-view.
Orthodoxy is life. If we don't live Orthodoxy, we simply are not Orthodox,
no matter what formal beliefs we might hold.
Life in our contemporary world has become very artificial, very uncertain,
very confusing. Orthodoxy, it is true, has a life of its own, but it is
also not very far from the life of the world around it, and so the life
of the Orthodox Christian, even when he is being truly Orthodox, cannot
help but reflect it in some way. A kind of uncertainty and confusion have
also entered in Orthodox life in our times. In this talk we will try to
look at contemporary life, and then at Orthodox life, to see how better
we might fulfill our Christian obligation to lead other-worldly lives
even in these quite terrible times, and to have an Orthodox Christian
view of the whole of life today that will enable us to survive these times
with our faith intact.
Life today has become abnormal
Anyone who looks at our contemporary life from the perspective of the
normal life lived by people in earlier times—say, Russia, or America,
or any country of Western Europe in the 19th century—cannot help
but be struck by the fact of how abnormal life has become today. The whole
concept of authority and obedience, of decency and politeness, of public
and private behavior—all have changed drastically, have been turned
upside down except in a few isolated pockets of people—usually Christians
of some kind—who try to preserve the so-called "old-fashioned"
way of life.
Our abnormal life today can be characterized as spoiled, pampered. From
infancy today's child is treated, as a general rule, like a little god
or goddess in the family: his whims are catered to, his desires fulfilled;
he is surrounded by toys, amusements, comforts; he is not trained and
brought up according to strict principles of Christian behavior, but
left to develop whichever way his desires incline. It is usually enough
for him to say, "I want it!" or "I won't do it!" for
his obliging parents to bow down before him and let him have his way.
Perhaps this does not happen all the time in every family, but it happens
often enough to be the rule of contemporary child-rearing, and even the
best-intentioned parents do not entirely escape its influence. Even if
the parents try to raise the child strictly, the neighbors are trying
to do something else. They have to take that into consideration when
disciplining the child.
When such a child becomes an adult, he naturally surrounds himself with
the same things he was used to in his childhood: comforts, amusements,
and grown-up toys. Life becomes a constant search for "fun"
which, by the way, is a word totally unheard of in any other vocabulary;
in 19th century Russia they wouldn't have understood what this word meant,
or any serious civilization. Life is a constant search for "fun"
which is so empty of any serious meaning that a visitor from any 19th-century
country, looking at our popular television programs, amusement parks,
advertisements, movies, music—at almost any aspect of our popular
culture—would think he had stumbled across a land of imbeciles
who have lost all contact with normal reality. We don't often take that
into consideration, because we are living in this society and we take
it for granted.
Some recent observers of our contemporary life have called the young
people of today the "me generation" and our times the "age of
narcissism," characterized by a worship of and fascination with oneself
that prevents a normal human life from developing. Others have spoken
of the "plastic" universe or fantasy world in which so many
people live today, unable to face or come to terms with the reality of
the world around them or the problems within themselves.
When the "me generation" turns to religion—which has been
happening very frequently in the past several decades—it is usually
to a "plastic" or fantasy form of religion: a religion of "self-development"
(where the self remains the object of worship), brainwashing and mind-control,
of deified gurus and swamis, of a pursuit of UFO's and "extra-terrestrial"
beings, of abnormal spiritual states and feelings. We will not go into
all these manifestations there, which are probably familiar enough to
most of you, except to discuss a little later how these touch on the
Orthodox Christian spiritual life of our days.
It is important for us to realize, as we try ourselves to lead a Christian
life today, that the world which has been formed by our pampered times,
makes demands on the soul, whether in religion or in secular life, which
are what one has to call totalitarian. This is easy enough to see in
the mindbending cults that have received so much publicity in recent
years, and which demand total allegiance to a self-made "holy man";
but it is just as evident in secular life, where one is confronted not
just by an individual temptation her or there, but by a constant state
of temptation that attacks one, whether in the background music heard
everywhere in markets and businesses, in the public signs and billboards
of city streets, in the rock music which is brought even to forest campgrounds
and trails, and in the home itself, where television often becomes the
secret ruler of the household, dictating modern values, opinions, and
tastes. If you have young children, you know how true this is; when they
have seen something on television how difficult it is to fight against
this new opinion which has been given as an authority by the television.
The message of this universal temptation that attacks men today—quite
openly in its secular forms, but usually more hidden in its religious
forms—is: Live for the present, enjoy yourself, relax, be comfortable.
Behind this message is another, more sinister undertone which is openly
expressed only in the officially atheist countries which are one step
ahead of the free world in this aspect. In fact, we should realize that
what is happening in the world today is very similar whether it occurs
behind the Iron Curtain or in the free world. There are different varieties
of it, but there is a very similar attack to get our soul. In the communist
countries which have an official doctrine of atheism, they tell quite
openly that you are to: Forget about God and any other life but the present;
remove from your life the fear of God and reverence for holy things; regard
those who still believe in God in the "old-fashioned' way as enemies
who must be exterminated. One might take, as a symbol of our carefree,
fun-loving, self-worshipping times, our American "Disneyland";
if so, we should not neglect to see behind it the more sinister symbol
that shows where the "me generation" is really heading; the
Soviet Gulag, the chain of concentration camps that already governs the
life of nearly half the world's population.
Two False Approaches to Spiritual Life
But what, one might ask, does all this have to do with us, who are trying
to lead, as best we can, a sober Orthodox Christian life? It has a lot
to do with it. We have to realize that the life around us, abnormal though
it is, is the place where we begin our own Christian life. Whatever we
make of our life, whatever truly Christian content we give it, it still
has something of the stamp of the "me generation" on it, and
we have to be humble enough to see this. This is where we begin._ There
are two false approaches to the life around us that many often make today,
thinking that somehow this is what Orthodox Christians should be doing.
One approach—the most common one—is simply to go along with
the times: adapt yourself to rock music, modern fashions and tastes, and
the whole rhythm of our jazzed-up modern life. Often the more old-fashioned
parents will have little contact with this life and will live their own
life more or less separately, but they will smile to see their children
follow after its latest craze and think that this is something harmless._
This path is total disaster for the Christian life; it is the death of
the soul. Some can still lead an outwardly respectable life without struggling
against the spirit of the times, but inwardly they are dead or dying;
and—the saddest thing of all—their children will pay the price
in various psychic and spiritual disorders and sicknesses which become
more and more common. One of the leading members of the suicide cult that
ended so spectacularly in Jonestown four years ago was the young daughter
of a Greek Orthodox priest; satanic rock groups like Kiss—"Kids
in Satan's Service"—are made up of ex-Russian Orthodox young
people; the largest part of the membership of the temple of satan in San
Francisco, according to a recent sociological survey—is made up
of Orthodox boys. These are only a few striking cases; most Orthodox young
people don't go so far astray—they just blend in with the anti-Christian
world around them and cease to be examples of any kind of Christianity
for those around them._ This is wrong. The Christian must be different
from the world, above all from today's weird, abnormal world, and this
must be one oft he basic things he knows as part of his Christian upbringing.
Otherwise there is no point in calling ourselves Christian—much
less Orthodox Christians. The false approach at the opposite extreme is
one that one might call false spirituality. As translations of Orthodox
books on the spiritual life become more widely available, an the Orthodox
vocabulary of spiritual struggle is placed more and more in the air, one
finds an increasing number of people talking about hesychasm, the Jesus
Prayer, the ascetic life, exalted states of prayer, and the most exalted
Holy Fathers like St. Symeon the New Theologian, St. Gregory Palamas,
and St. Gregory the Sianite. It is all very well to be aware of this truly
exalted side of Orthodox spiritual life and to have reverence for the
great saints who have actually lived it; but unless we have a very realistic
and very humble awareness of how far away all of us today are from the
life of hesychasm and how little prepared we are even to approach it,
our interest in it will be only one more expression of our self-centered,
plastic universe. "The me-generation goes hesychast!"—that
is what some are trying to do today; but in actuality they are only adding
a new game called "hesychasm" to the attractions of Disneyland._
There are books on this subject now that are very popular. In fact, Roman
Catholics are going in very big for this kind of thing under Orthodox
influence and themselves influencing other Orthodox people. For example,
there is a Jesuit priest, Fr. George Maloney, who writes all kinds of
books on this subject and translates St. Macarius the Great and St. Symeon
the New Theologian and tries to get people in everyday life to be hesychasts.
They have all kinds of retreats, usually "charismatic"; people
are inspired by the Holy Spirit, supposedly, and undertake all types of
these disciplines which we get from the Holy Fathers, and which are far
beyond the level at which we are today. It is a very unserious thing.
There is also a lady, Catherine de Hueck Doherty (in fact, she was born
in Russia and became a Roman Catholic), who writes books about Poustinia,
the desert life, and Molchanie, the silent life, and all these things
which she tries to put into life like you would have some fashion for
a new candy. This, of course, is very unserious and is a very tragic sign
of our times. These kind of exalted things are being used by people who
have no idea of what they are about. For some people it is only a habit
or a pastime; for others who take it seriously, it can be a great tragedy.
They think they are leading some kind of exalted life and really they
have not come to terms with their own problems inside of them._ Let me
re-emphasize that both of these extremes are to be avoided—both
worldliness and super-spirituality—but this does not mean that we
should not have a realistic awareness of the legitimate demands which
the world makes upon us, or that we should cease respecting and taking
sound instruction from the great hesychast Fathers and using the Jesus
prayer ourselves, according to our own circumstances and capacity. It
just has to be on our level, down to earth. The point is—and it
is a point that is absolutely necessary for our survival as Orthodox Christians
today—we must realize our situation as Orthodox Christians today;
we must realize deeply what times we live in, how little we actually
know and feel our Orthodoxy, how far we are not just from the saints
of ancient times, but even from the ordinary Orthodox Christians of a
hundred years or even a generation ago, and how much we must humble ourselves
just to survive as Orthodox Christians today.
What we can do
More specifically, what can we do to gain this awareness, this realization,
and how can we make it fruitful in our lives? I will try to answer this
question in two parts: first, concerning our awareness of the world around
us, which as never before in the history of Christianity has become our
conscious enemy; and second, concerning our awareness of Orthodoxy, which,
I am afraid, most of us known much lass than we should, much less than
we have to know if we wish to keep it._First, since whether we wish it
or not we are in the world (and its effects are felt strongly even in
a remote place like our monastery here), we must face it and its temptations
squarely and realistically, but without giving in to it; in particular,
we must prepare our young people for the temptations facing them, and
is it were inoculate them against these temptations. We must be aware
that the world around us seldom helps and almost always hinders the upbringing
of the child in the true Orthodox spirit. We must be ready every day
to answer the influence of the world by the principles of a sound Christian
upbringing._ This means that what a child learns at school must constantly
be checked and corrected at home. We cannot assume that something he
is going to learn at school is simply something that is profitable or
secular and has nothing to do with his Orthodox upbringing. He may be
taught useful skills and facts (although many schools in America today
are failing miserably even at this; many school teachers tell us that
all they can do is keep the children in god order in class without even
teaching them anything), but even if he gets this much, he is also taught
many wrong attitudes and philosophies. A child's basic attitude towards
and appreciation of literature, music, history, art, philosophy, even
science, and of course life and religion—must come first of al not from school, for the
school will give you all this mixed up with modern philosophy; it must
come first from the home and Church, or else he is bound to be miseducated
in today's world, where public education is at best agnostic, and at worst,
openly atheistic or anti-religious. Of course, in the Soviet Union all
this is forced upon the child, with no religion whatsoever and an active
program of making the child an atheist._ Parents must now exactly what
is being taught their children in education courses, which are almost
universal today in American schools, and correct it at home, not only
by a frank attitude to this subject (especially between fathers and sons—a
very rare thing in American society), but also by a clear setting forth
of the moral aspect of it which is totally absent in public education._
Parents must know just what kind of music their children are listening
to, what is in the movies they see (listening and seeing together with
them when necessary), what kind of language they are exposed to and what
kind of language they use, and give the Christian attitude to all this._
Television—in households where there is not enough courage to throw
it out the window—must be strictly controlled and supervised to
avoid the poisonous effects of this machine which has become the leading
educator of anti-Christian attitudes and ideas in the home itself, especially
to the young._ I speak about the raising of children because this is
where the world first strikes its blows at Orthodox Christians and forms
them in its image; once wrong attitudes have been formed in a child,
the task of giving him a Christian education becomes doubly difficult._
But it is not only children, it is all of us, who are facing the world
which is trying to form us in anti-Christianity, by means of schools,
television, movies, popular music, and all the other influences that
pound in upon us, most of all in the big cities. We have to be aware
that what is being pounded in upon us is all of one piece; it has a certain
rhythm, a certain message to give us, this message of self-worship, of
relaxing, of letting go, of enjoying yourself, of giving up any thought
of the other world, in various forms, whether in music, or in movies,
television, or what is being taught in schools, the way subjects are
emphasized, the way the background is given, and everything else; there
is one particular thing which is being given to us. It is actually an
education in atheism. We have to fight back by knowing just what the
world is trying to do to us, and by formulating and communicating our
Orthodox Christian response to it._ Frankly, from observing the way Orthodox
families in today's world live and pass on their Orthodoxy, it would
seem that this battle is more often lost than won. The percentage of
Orthodox Christians who retain their Orthodox identity intact and are
not changed into the image of today's world, is small indeed._ Still,
it is not necessary to view the world around us as all bad. In fact,
for our survival as Orthodox Christians we have to be smart enough to
use whatever is positive in the world for our own benefit. Here I will
go into a few points where we can use something in the world which seems
to have nothing to do directly with Orthodoxy in order to formulate our
Orthodox world-view._ The child who has been exposed from his earliest
years to good classical music, and has seen his soul being developed
by it, will not be nearly as tempted by the crude rhythm and message
of rock and other contemporary forms of pseudo-music as someone who has
grown up without a musical education. Such a musical education, as several
of the Optina elders have said, refines the soul and prepares it for
the reception of spiritual impressions._ The child who has been educated
in good literature, drama, and poetry and has felt their effect in his
own soul—that is, has really enjoyed them—will
not easily become an addict of the contemporary movies and television
programs and cheap novels that devastate the soul and take it away from
the Christian path._ The child who has learned to see beauty in classical
painting and sculpture will not easily be drawn into the perversity of
contemporary art or be attracted by the garish products of modern advertising
and pornography._ The child who knows something of the history of the
world, especially in Christian times, and how other people have lived
and thought, what mistakes and pitfalls people have fallen into by departing
from God and His commandments, and what glorious and influential lives
they have lived when they were faithful to Him—will be discerning
about the life and philosophy of our own times and will not be inclined
to follow the first new philosophy or way of life he encounters. One of
the basic problems facing the education of children today is that in the
schools they are no longer given a sense of history. It is a dangerous
and fatal thing to deprive a child of a sense of history. It means that
he has no ability to take examples from the people who lived in the past.
And actually, history constantly repeats itself. Once you see that, it
becomes interesting how people have answered problems, how there have
been people who have gone against God and what results came from that,
and how people changed their lives and became exceptions and gave an example
which is lived down to our own times. This sense of history is a very
important thing which should be communicated to children._ In general,
the person who is well acquainted with the best products of secular culture—which
in the West almost always has definite religious and Christian overtones—has
a much better chance of leading a normal, fruitful Orthodox life than
someone who knows only the popular culture of today. One who is converted
to Orthodoxy straight from "rock" culture, and in general anyone
who thinks he can combine Orthodoxy with that kind of culture—has
much suffering to go through and a difficult road in life before he can
become a truly serious Orthodox Christian who is capable of handing on
his faith to others. Without this suffering, without this awareness,
Orthodox parents will raise their children to be devoured by the contemporary
world. The world's best culture, properly received, refines and develops
the soul; today's popular culture cripples and deforms the soul and hinders
it from having a full and normal response to the message of Orthodoxy._
Therefore, in our battle against the spirit of this world, we can use
the best things the world has to offer in order to go beyond them; everything
good in the world, if we are only wise enough to see it, points to God,
and to Orthodoxy, and we have to make use of it.
The Orthodox World-view
With such an attitude—a view of both the good things and the bad
things in the world—it is possible for us to have and to live an
Orthodox world-view, that is, an Orthodox view on the whole of life, not
just on narrow church subjects. There exists a false opinion, which unfortunately
is all to widespread today, that it is enough to have an Orthodoxy that
is limited to the church building and formal "Orthodox" activities,
such as praying at certain times or making the sign of the Cross; in
everything else, so this opinion goes, one can be like anyone else, participating
in the life and culture of our times without any problem, as long as
we don't commit sin._ Anyone who has come to realize how deep Orthodoxy
is, and how full is the commitment which is required of the serious Orthodox
Christian, and likewise what totalitarian demands the contemporary world
makes on us, will easily see how wrong this opinion is. One is Orthodox
all the time every day, in every situation of life, or one is not really
Orthodox at all. Our Orthodoxy is revealed not just in our strictly religious
views, but in everything we do and say. Most of us are very unaware of
the Christian, religious responsibility we have for the seemingly secular
part of our lives. The person with a truly Orthodox world-view lives
every part of his life as Orthodox._ Let us, therefore, ask here: How
can we nourish and support this Orthodox world-view in our daily life?_
The first and most obvious way is to be in constant contact with the
sources of Christian nourishment, with everything that the Church gives
us for our enlightenment and salvation: the Church services and Holy
Mysteries, Holy Scripture, the Lives of Saints, the writings of the Holy
Fathers. One must, of course, read books that are on one's own level
of understanding, and apply the Church's teaching to one's own circumstances
in life; then they can be fruitful in guiding us and changing us in a
Christian way._ But often these basic Christian sources do not have their
full effect on us, or don't really affect us at all, because we don't
have the right Christian attitude towards them and towards the Christian
life they are supposed to inspire. Let me now say a word here about what
our attitude should be if we are to obtain real benefit from them and
if they are going to be for us the beginning of a truly Orthodox world-view._
First of all, Christian spiritual food, by its very nature, is something
living and nourishing; if our attitude towards it is merely academic
and bookish, we will fail to get the benefit it is meant to give. Therefore,
if we read Orthodox books or are interesting in Orthodoxy only to gain
information—or
show off our knowledge to others, we are missing the point; if we learn
of the commandments of God and the law of His Church merely to be "correct"
and to judge the "incorrectness" of others, we are missing the
point. These things must not merely affect our ideas, but must directly
touch our lives and change them. In any time of great crisis in human
affairs—such as the critical times right in front of us in the free
world—those who place their trust in outward knowledge, in laws
and canons and correctness, will be unable to stand. The strong ones
then will be those whose Orthodox education has given them a feel for
what is truly Christian, those whose Orthodoxy is in the heart and is
capable of touching other hearts._ Nothing is more tragic than to see
someone who is raised in Orthodoxy, has a certain idea of the catechism,
has read some Lives of Saints, has a general idea of what Orthodoxy stands
for, understands some of the services, and then is unaware of what is
going on around him. And he gives his children this life in two categories:
one is the way most people live and the other way is how Orthodox live
on Sundays and when they are reading some Orthodox text. When a child
is raised like that he is most likely not going to take the Orthodox
one; it is going to be a very small part of his life, because the contemporary
life is too attractive, too many people are going for it, it is too much
a part of reality today, unless he has been really taught how to approach
it, how to guard himself against the bad effects of it and how to take
advantage of the good things which are in the world._ Therefore, our
attitude, beginning right now, must be down-to-earth and normal. That
is, it must be applied to the real circumstances of our life, not a product
of fantasy and escapism and refusal to face the often unpleasant facts
of the world around us. An Orthodoxy that is too exalted and too much
in the clouds belongs in a hothouse and is incapable of helping us in
our daily life, let along saying anything for the salvation of those
around us. Our world is quite cruel and wounds souls with its harshness;
we need to respond first of all with down-to-earth Christian love and
understanding, leaving accounts of hesychasm and advanced forms of prayer
to those capable of receiving them._ So also, our attitude must not be
self-centered but reaching out to those who are seeking for God and for
a godly life. Nowadays, wherever there is a good-sized Orthodox community,
the temptation is to make it into a society for self-congratulation and
for taking delight in our Orthodox virtues and achievements: the beauty
of our church buildings and furnishings, the splendor of our services,
even the purity of our doctrine. But the true Christian life, even since
the time of the Apostles, has always been inseparable from communicating
it to others. An Orthodoxy that is alive by this very fact shines forth
to others—and there is no need to
pen a "department of missions" to do this; the fire of true
Christianity communicates itself without this. If our Orthodoxy is only
something we keep for ourselves, and boast about it, then we are the dead
burying the dead—which is precisely the state of many of our Orthodox
parishes today, even those that have a large number of young people, if
they are not going deeply into their Faith. It is not enough to say that
the young people are going to church. We need to ask what they are getting
in church, what they are taking away from church, and, if they are not
making Orthodoxy a part of their whole life, then it really is not sufficient
to say that they are going to church._ Likewise, our attitude must be
loving and forgiving. There is a kind of hardness that has crept into
Orthodox life today: "That man is a heretic; don't go near him;"
"that one is Orthodox, supposedly, but you can't really be sure;"
"that one there is obviously a spy." No one will deny that the
Church is surrounded by enemies today, or that there are some who stoop
to taking advantage of our trust and confidence. But this is the way it
has been since the time of the Apostles, and the Christian life has always
been something of a risk in this practical way. But even if we are sometimes
taken advantage of and do have to show some caution in this regard, still
we cannot give up our basic attitude of love and trust without which we
lose one of the very foundations of our Christian life. The world, which
has no Christ, has to be mistrustful and cold, but Christians, on the
contrary, have to be loving and open, or else we will lose the salt of
Christ within us and become just like the world, good for nothing but
to be cast out and trodden underfoot._ A little humility in looking at
ourselves would help us to be more generous and forgiving of the faults
of others. We love to judge others for the strangeness of their behavior;
we call them "cuckoos" or "crazy converts." It is
true that we should beware of really unbalanced people who can do us great
harm in the Church. But what serious Orthodox Christian today is not a
little "crazy?" We don't fit in with the ways of this world;
if we do, in today's world, we aren't serious Christians. The true Christian
today cannot be at home in the world; he cannot help but feel himself
and be regarded by others as a little "crazy." Just to keep
alive the ideal of other-worldly Christianity today, or to get baptized
as an adult, or to pray seriously, is enough to put you into a crazy house
in the Soviet Union and in many other countries, and these countries are
leading the way for the rest of the world to follow._ Therefore, let us
not be afraid of being considered a little "crazy" by the world,
and let us continue to practice the Christian love and forgiveness which
the world can never understand, but which in its heart it needs and even
craves._ Finally, our Christian attitude must be what, for want of a better
word, I would call innocent. Today the world places a high value on sophistication,
on being worldly-wise, on being a "professional." Orthodoxy
places no value on these qualities; they kill the Christian soul. And
yet these qualities constantly creep into the Church and into our lives.
How often one hears enthusiastic converts especially, express their desire
of going to the great Orthodox centers, the cathedrals and monasteries
where sometimes thousands of the faithful come together and everywhere
the talk is of church matters, and one can feel how important Orthodox
is, after all. That Orthodoxy is a small drop in the bucket when you look
at the whole society, but in the great cathedrals and monasteries there
are so many people that it seems as though it is really an important thing.
And how often one sees these same people in a pitiful state after they
have indulged their desire, returning from the "great Orthodox centers"
sour and dissatisfied, filled with worldly church gossip and criticism,
anxious above all to be "correct" and "proper" and
worldly-wise about church politics. In a word, they have lost their innocence,
their unworldliness, being led astray by their fascination with the worldly
side of the Church's life._ In various forms, this is a temptation to
us all, and we must fight it by not allowing ourselves to overvalue the
externals of the Church, but always returning to the "one thing needful":
Christ and the salvation of our souls from this wicked generation. We
needn't be ignorant of what goes on in the world and in the Church—in
fact, for our own selves we have to know—but our knowledge must
be practical and simple and single-minded, not sophisticated and worldly.
Conclusion
It is obvious to any Orthodox Christian who is aware of hat is going on
around him today, that the world is coming to its end. The signs of the
times are so obvious that one might say that the world is crashing to
its end.
What are some of these signs?
—The abnormality of the world. Never have such weird and unnatural
manifestations and behavior been accepted as a matter of course as in
our days. Just look at the world around you: what is in the newspapers, what
kind of movies are being shown, what is on television, what it is that people
think is interesting and amusing, what they laugh at; it is absolutely weird.
And there are people who deliberately promote this, of course, for their own
financial benefit, and because that is the fashion, because there is a perverse
craving for this kind of thing.
—The wars and rumors of wars, each more cold and merciless than
the preceding, and all overshadowed by the threat of the unthinkable
universal nuclear war, which could be set off by the touch of a button.
—The widespread natural disasters: earthquakes, and now volcanoes—the
newest one forming not far from here near Yosemite Park in central California—which
are already changing the world's weather patterns.
—The increasing centralization of information on and power over
the individual, represented in particular by the enormous new computer
in Luxembourg, which has the capacity to keep a file of information on
every man living; its code number is 666 and it is nicknamed "the
beast" by those who work on it. To facilitate the working of such
computers, the American government plans to begin in 1984 the issuance
of Social Security checks to persons with a number (apparently including
the code number 666) stamped on their right hand or forehead—precisely
the condition which will prevail, according to the Apocalypse (ch. 13)
during the reign of antichrist. Of course, it doesn't mean that the first
person to get himself stamped 666 is the antichrist, or the servant of
antichrist, but once you are used to this, who will be able to resist?
They will train you first and then they will make you bow down to him.
—Again, the multiplication of false Christs and false Antichrists.
The latest candidate just this summer spent probably millions of dollars
advertising his impending appearance on world television, promising to
give at that time a "telepathic message" to all the world's
inhabitants. Quite apart from any occult powers that might be involved
in such events, we already know well enough the opportunities for presenting
subliminal messages by radio and especially by television, as well as
the fact that this can be done by anyone with the technology for breaking
into normal radio and television signals, no matter how many laws there
might be against it.
—The truly weird response to the new movie everyone in America is
talking about and seeing: "E.T.", which has caused literally
millions of seemingly normal people to express their affection and love
for the hero, a "saviour" from outer space who is quite obviously
a demon—an obvious preparation for the worship of the coming Antichrist.
(And incidentally, the movie editor of the official Greek Archdiocese
newspaper in America, an Orthodox priest, has heartily recommended this
movie to Orthodox people saying that it is a wonderful movie which can
teach us about love, and everyone should go see it. There is quite a
contrast between people who are trying to be aware of what is going on,
and those who are simply led into the mood of the times.)
I could go on with details like this, but my purpose is not to frighten
you, but to make you aware of what is happening around us. It is truly
later than we think; the Apocalypse is now. And how tragic it is to see
Christians, and above all Orthodox young people, with this incalculable
tragedy hanging over their heads, who think they can continue what is
called a "normal life" in these terrible times, participating
fully in the whims of this silly, self-worshipping generation, totally
unaware that the fool's paradise we are living in is about to crash, completely
unprepared for the desperate times that lie just ahead of us. There is
no longer even a question of being a "good" or a "poor"
Orthodox Christian; the question now is: will our Faith survive at all?
With many, it will not survive; the coming Antichrist will be too attractive,
too much in the spirit of the worldly things we no crave, for most men
even to know that they have lost their Christianity by bowing down to
him.
Still the call of Christ comes to us; let us begin to heed it. The clearest
expression of this call today is coming from the enslaved atheist world,
where there is real suffering for Christ and a seriousness of life which
we are rapidly losing or have already lost. One Orthodox priest in Romania,
Fr. George Calciu, is now near death in a communist prison for daring
to challenge young seminarians and students to put off their blind allegiance
to the spirit of the times and come forward to labor for Christ. After
speaking of the emptiness of atheism, he tells today's young people: "I
call you to a much higher flight, to total abandonment, to an act of courage
which defies reason. I call you to God. To the One that transcends the
world so that you might know an infinite heaven of spiritual joy, the
heaven which you presently grope for in your personal hell, and which
you seek even while in a state of non-deliberate revolt… Jesus
has always loved you, but now you have the choice to respond to His invitation.
In responding, you are ordained to go and bear fruit that will remain.
To be a prophet of Christ in the world in which you live. To love your
neighbor as yourself and to make all men your friend. To proclaim by
every action this unique and limitless love which has raised man from
the level of a serf to that of a friend of God. To the prophets of this
liberating love which delivers you from all constraint, returning to
you your integrity as you offer yourself to God."
Fr. George, speaking to young people who had little inspiration to serve
Christ's Church because they had accepted the worldly opinion (common
also among us in the free world) that the Church is only a set of buildings
or a worldly organization, calls them to a deeper awareness of Christ's
Church and of how our "formal membership" in it is not enough
to save us.
"The Church of Christ is alive and free. In her we move and have
our being, through Christ Who is her Head. In Him we have full freedom.
In the Church we learn of truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:32).
You are in Christ's Church whenever you uplift someone bent down in sorrow,
or when you give alms to the poor, and visit the sick. You are in Christ's
Church when you are good and patient, when you refuse to get angry at
your brother, even if he has wounded your feelings. You are in Christ's
Church when you pray: 'Lord, forgive him.' When you work honestly at your
job, returning home weary in the evenings but with a smile upon your lips;
when you repay evil with love—you are in Christ's Church. Do you
not see, therefore, young friend, how close the Church of Christ is? You
are Peter and God is building His Church upon you. You are the rock of
His Church against which nothing can prevail… Let us build churches
with our faith, churches which no human power can pull down, a church
whose foundation is Christ… Feel for your brother alongside you.
Never ask: 'Who is he?' Rather say: 'He is no stranger; he is my brother.
He is the Church of Christ just as I am."
With such a call in our hearts, let us begin really to belong to the
Church of Christ, the Orthodox Church. Outward membership is not enough;
something must move within us that makes us different from the world
around us, even if that world calls itself "Christian" and even "Orthodox."
Let us keep and nourish those qualities of the true Orthodox world-view
which I mentioned earlier: a living, normal attitude, loving and forgiving,
not self-centered, preserving our innocence and unworldliness even with
a full and humble awareness of our own sinfulness and the power of the
worldly temptations around us. If we truly live this Orthodox world-view,
our Faith will survive the shocks ahead of us and be a source of inspiration
and salvation for those who will still be seeking Christ even amidst
the shipwreck of humanity which has already begun today.
Reprinted from The Orthodox Word
Vol. 18, No. 4 (105) July-August, 1982 |