I was attacked on Facebook today by a very arrogant, seemingly prideful, and rather belligerent Protestant today. He argued that simply because I did not hold the scripture as the sole source of truth within the context of the Christian faith, that I was somehow in denial of Christ. I eventually had to block him, as there was no reasoning or room for civil discourse. Plus, he kept posturing as some Grand Master of the Christian faith, and claimed I stepped out of my pay grade when I shot down whatever garbage translation he was using by showing him the Greek. I will pray for him.
Placing scripture in its proper place and historical context and understanding is not a denial of Christ. Christ is not the book. Scripture is truth, but YOUR understanding of scripture is not. He argued the understanding of scripture in the early Church, as well as the theology of Christendom, was voted on by mere men, I guess making a de facto assertion that his understanding was somehow superior. To me, this only reinforces how our understanding of Church affects our understanding of Truth.
We should always start with the question, “What did the Church teach,” for truth does not change, and I imagine the Christians of the first four centuries, from whom we get our best commentaries, know better than we do today. Also, we can see how the Church lived, what the Church said regarding them, and understand the same. The Church is the Pillar and foundation of truth, for it is the body of Christ.
I really like the words of Saint Raphael regarding Scripture within the context of Tradition.
“Just as the written word is nothing other than the more brief and at the same time more constant representation of the spoken word, so also holy Scripture can be viewed as the brief and at the same time constant expression of sacred Tradition. Hence sacred Tradition and holy Scripture are thus very closely tied to one another, so that each by necessity requires the other, and the absence of one in these important points is detrimental to the other. In this way, when holy Scripture is disregarded, sacred Tradition runs the danger of distortion because then the human can be mixed up easily with the divine, the profane with the holy, and truth with falsehood. On the other hand, when sacred Tradition is removed, holy Scripture is subject to many misinterpretations because when holy Scripture is left to each one’s free understanding and interpretation, a certain strange diversity within the one and same Christian teaching can hence result.”
I was born at a unique time I suppose. I was dropped onto this world right in the middle of the video game industry crash of 1982. I have been on a computer since I was a toddler, booting floppy disks on the commodore 64 at that age (so my mother tells me). My first video games were on cassette tape. I can never remember a time in my life without technology. I didn’t see my first cell phone till my senior year. I bought my first cell phone in 2001.
I have watched technology grow by leaps and bounds, yet I remember life before it became such a huge part of it. Even the wife and daughter stare at their phones more than I would like. I work in IT, running the help desk for a small telephone company, so I have to have one, but it lives in my bag most of the time. I would much prefer a smart watch.
Technology has improved the ease of communication in the world. but I think its overall quality of communication has diminished as well. We are farther apart as a people, and I have to wonder what the impact of technology on our relationships with other people is.
Yet, if technology can separate us from other people with artificial interactions, then how so can the same seperate or distance us from Christ. While I believe that technology is a great tool, it is also a double edged sword. If we are not careful, if we are not mindful about our technology and the part in plays in our lives, it very well may supersede our humanity.
In the Epistle reading for today, Saint Peter writes of struggle, specifically here to that of servants under their masters. He exhorts them to be mindful of God in their suffering, and endure just as Christ endured. Indeed it is a gracious thing to be mindful of God when we suffer diverse sorrows, trials, and afflictions all for the sake of our faith. Yet, it is equally gracious for those of us who suffer likewise and simply endure because of our faith. For our faith is one of endurance, as Paul writes, stating that when we endure our sufferings for doing good, it is gracious in the sight of God. We are reminded elsewhere by James as to why we do so, writing in his Epistle that the crown of everlasting life is promised to those who love him who persevere in their faith. Though, it is not suffering to which we are called, for suffering in and of itself is not a good thing; but, the fruits of our suffering are what separate us from the world. In it we are tempered like steel against the anvil, and purified like a precious metal in the refiner’s fire. Our faith is a journey of purifying transformation.
Anyone who believes, or anyone who tells you that the Orthodox Christian faith is easy, anyone who says that a life lived in the shadow of the cross is comfortable, such a person is misguided. According to Saint Theophan the recluse, “All the saints accept the only true path to virtue to be pain and hard work… lightness and ease are a sign of a false path. Anyone who is not struggling, not in podvig, is in spiritual delusion” Podvig, a Russian word understood to mean “spiritual struggle,” is often used to describe our faith, for our faith is one of struggle. Our faith is a continual struggle against ourselves, against the passions of the flesh that persist against us daily. Our struggle is against the ailments of our minds and bodies in day to day life. Also, our struggle is against the world, against daily misfortunes, against people and their wills, against a symphony of noise wholly aligned against the silence of God. Nowhere in the whole of scripture was it ever lauded that our walk of faith would be easy. To say as much is a lie propagated by those false teachers and preachers of the prosperity Gospel, men and women who say that health, wealth and prosperity can be ours in this life through Christ.
Christ left everything behind in the performance of his ministry, and told others that did likewise, “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” The Apostles lived austere lives, and all were martyred for their faith. The brightest lights of the Orthodox faith were the ones who sacrificed the most in the name of Christ, those who sacrificed of body, of ambition, of needs, of wealth and every worldly thing. Often when the world is at its darkest moments, the brightest lights shine through to dispel the shadows, such as those great Russian saints in Soviet Russia whom we venerate today. They have shown us that our way is not of this world, and have revealed that the greater our attachments to the things of this world, to the ambition and desires of self, the greater the sorrows of our struggle will be. The manner in which we respond to that struggle and suffering is a good barometer of our faith, and how close indeed we are to Christ in our lifelong pursuit of purification, and theotic illumination. Suffering and struggle proves the purity of the faith possessed of the faithful. It is a pure soul that meets hatred with love, injury with kindness, violence with peace, slander with silence, and insults with a smile.
How did the saints respond to their struggles within their own enduring faith? The Church recalls the response of Saint Lawrence, who was essentially grilled alive on a great gridiron over hot coals, entreated his torturers “I’m well done on this side. Turn me over!” The desert father Saint Macarius came across someone robbing his cell, so helped him load his beast of burden with his own possessions and sent him on his way, recalling to himself that “We brought nothing into this world but the Lord gave, as he willed, so it is done: blessed be the Lord in all things.” One Saint was threatened with death, and replied, “Ok, and then what will you do to me?” Abba Anthony says of those not able to bear insults, “You are like a village magnificently decorated on the outside but destroyed from within by robbers.” So it goes, on and on with examples from the hagiography of the Church. The more we are attached to the things and matters of this world, the easier sorrows find our soul.
Indeed, there are those who are murdered for their faith, their light extinguished by the very darkness they sought to enlighten, but I say they have it easy. Though they have made the ultimate and final sacrifice for their faith, they had but one choice to make. They can choose to live, clinging to the dead promises of this world, or they can choose life in Christ, and their struggle is over. They will are wreathed in the crowns of martyrdom. Though, this is not a common circumstance for most, as few will be forced to make such a sacrifice living in the relative comfort of their home.
Christ is the way, the truth, and the Life.. His is the way because He is risen, enduring the death of the cross for all men, to open the gates of paradise. He is life because He is risen, trampling down death by death! He is Risen because He is God incarnate in the flesh, he who condescended to become one of us, that we may be able to become like him. Though, while He is Risen do not forget that we are still fallen. He is Risen, but we will only rise with him through the patient and enduring struggle of our faith. Ours is a faith of action, a spiritual life that lives in friction against the world. It is in this friction, this very day to day struggle that we truly come to know ourselves and the depths of our own faith..
Ours is a vigilant faith. Ours is an enduring faith. When the darkness comes, we patiently wait for the coming dawn. When sadness finds us, we wait till joy finds us again. When chaos crashes around us, we await for the peace that the world cannot give. When the rain falls, we remember that the Lord is merciful, the Lord is just, and he rains on both the just and the unjust. Where the rain falls, the sun shines likewise, so while we recognize and remember that all things come from God, we also accept that these are not the measures of our spiritual life. Each is a test of our faith, good and bad, our struggles and successes, and each brings a suffering of its own. For we indeed were exhorted to carry our crosses daily. If Christ can carry his cross, even falling three times, on his miserable sojourn to his own death, then surely we can endure our own crosses, carrying them as we march to our eternal life.
So, as we distance ourselves from the end of Great Lent, let us not forget the gains we have made from our own struggles of faith, the ascetic practices undertaken and with which we sever our attachments to the things of this world. Such practices are our spiritual struggle through which we build up our faith and strength of spirit. Our struggles with the things of this world are the means by which that faith is tested, and in the perseverance of an enduring faith made even stronger. However, if you find yourself feeling as though you missed out, as though you failed in prayer, repentance, fasting, or any number of spiritual exercises for the building of our faith, then fear not. Great Lent will come again, and we will be reminded once again that He is risen! For, indeed our faith is an enduring faith, a journey of struggle and growth through which we grow into Christ. Even though Great Lent is behind us, our life in this world is still standing before us, so we must keep watch just as Saint John of Kronstadt exhorts us:
“Every day, hour, and minute, keep a strict watch and consider every thought, desire, and movement of the heart, every word and deed, and do not let yourself be defiled by one sinful thought, desire, or movement of the imagination, in word or deed, knowing that the Lord is the Righteous Judge Who is judging you every instant and is evaluating the inner man. Continually keep yourself pure for God.”
Faith is life. Faith is continual. Faith is enduring. Faith finds growth through struggle. We have faith because – He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! May we all live to rise with him.
Someone asked me elsewhere in response to my previous entry the following question: ” Is there not also a case that we lost the beauty of simplicity and adaptability?”
Length of prayers does not mean a lack of simplicity, for we have the whole world to pray for in addition to the Church and her people. More time in prayer does not mean an insufficiency of beauty, but quite the opposite. If the Church is a living icon of the eternal worship, then what matter is a sacrifice of time or words to us? Everything has been given to us, shouldn’t we be wont to do likewise?
Studying liturgical development from the first through the seventh century really is an interesting field of study. In doing so, one learns how our liturgies came to be what they are today. They were originally fairly small and simple. Yet, over the years more and more prayers were added – prayers for the departed, prayers for the Church, prayers for the people, prayers for the hierarchs and clergy, and the fleshing out of the actual liturgical prayers – giving more beauty, breadth, and depth to the liturgical practice and rhythm of the Church.
Each Bishop had a collection of notes and prayers that he would either add to or subtract from. When he reposed or was no longer the Bishop of the Church for whatever reason, the next Bishop would inherit these notes and do likewise. With the exception of the Liturgy of Saint James – though it is likely even that liturgy changed form over the centuries – there were very few formalized liturgies in use throughout Christendom. It was not until the fourth century that the Church was blessed with Liturgies such as that of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil, or the Liturgy of Saint Gregory later in the seventh century. Many of these are still in use today.
Yet, there is one thing that rang true through the centuries, regardless of the liturgy in use, and that is the Laity never ever had a say in the liturgical praxis of the Church. Heck, the clergy did not even have a say in in. It was the Bishop, who did not exist as a Bishop without the Church, yet nor did the Church exist without the Bishop. He determined the Liturgy and liturgical practices, no one else. Those that refused to follow were considered in disobedience to their Bishop, obedience being a necessary precursor to humility. It is not the place of anyone else to determine the liturgical life and well being of the Church, or everyone then becomes their own Bishop, much like a particular Christian milieu that was lamented to have a million Popes. But, I digress….
Liturgical development, as well as Ecclesiology are two things I would like to dive more into when I am done with school. For now, I will keep writing essays on the world wars and such…..
There is no easy answer to that question, and those who think the answer is easy, really don’t understand the Christian faith.
Christianity before I found the Church was a shallow and vapid expression of the Christian faith, and seemed focused on emotionalism more so than the truth. What feels good or feels right is indeed the truth in this cacophony of error. I spent most of my life as a protestant, and while everyone was teaching what THEY thought scriptures were saying, no one taught how a Christian should live, what it actually meant to be Christian.
As I dove into history, and focused on early Church history, there are certain elements and qualities in the Church, qualities and expectations in the life of a Christian, that just isn’t found today in most of Christendom. The Church, and its entire sacramental life and being within, should point to the Eucharist.
A Christian is a part of the body of Christ. One becomes a part of that body through Baptism. One participates in communion with that body by the Eucharist. One remains a part of the body by holding to the same beliefs, as taught and passed down (catholicity of the Dogmatic fabric of faith), and remaining in communion with one another, just as the three persons of the Godhead are in perfect communion and unity with one another.
As we were created human beings, with both body and spirit, we are to live our lives in recognition that we live and exist in both body and spirit. As such, those who live by mental ascent alone do nothing for the body. They continue to live in their passions, and do nothing to defeat the disease, of which sin is the symptom.
If the Church is the Hospital, the Priests her Doctors, and theology a therapeutic science for the soul, to be Christian is to work ourselves within the divine-human institution of the Church to the healing of mind, body, and soul, affecting a restoration of relationship with God. To be a Christian is to obediently follow the prescription of the Church, just as we follow a doctors orders to the healing of our bodies, for Christ is the Great Physician and those prescriptions are his. Ours is not a faith of passivity, but activity in love and compassion. We are the light to lighten the gentiles, because we are the body of Christ, and together we incarnate Christ in this world.
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