Orthodox Christianity Must Remain Eternally Unchanging

By St. Theophan the Recluse

It reached my ears that, as it seems, you consider my sermons very strict and believe that today no one should think this way, no one should be living this way and therefore, no one should be teaching this way. “Times have changed!” 

How glad I was to hear this. This means that you listen carefully to what I say, and not only do you listen, but you are also willing to abide by it. What more could we hope for, we who preach as we were ordered and as much we were ordered? 

Despite all this, in no way can I agree with your opinion. I even consider it my duty to comment on it and to correct it, since – even though it perhaps goes against your desire and conviction – it comes from something sinful, as though Christianity could alter its doctrines, its canons, its sanctifying ceremonies to answer to the spirit of each age and adjust itself to the changing tastes of the sons of this century, as though it could add or subtract something. 

Yet, it is not so. Christianity must remain eternally unchanging, in no way being dependent on or guided by the spirit of each age. Instead, Christianity is meant to govern and direct the spirit of the age for anyone who obeys its teachings. To convince you of this, I will put forward some thoughts for you to consider.

Some said that my teaching is strict. First of all, my teaching is not my own, nor it should be. In this sacred office nobody should, nor even can, preach his own teaching. If I or someone else ever dare to do so, you can put us outside the Church.

We preach the teachings of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of the holy Apostles, and theHoly Church, which is guided by the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we make sure to do everything possible to keep these teachings whole and inviolate in your minds and hearts. Every thought we present and every word we use, we do so very carefully, so as not to overshadow this brilliant and divine teaching in any way. Nobody can act differently.

...a single raising of your mind to God, and a single humble genuflexion to His glory and in His honor has infinitely more value than all the treasures of the world... --St Nicodemos and Theophan the Recluse (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 20)

Such a law that calls for each man’s preaching in the Church to be "God-sent," was established at the creation of the world, and should thus remain valid until the end of the world. The Prophet Moses, after the delivery of the commandments from God Himself to the people of Israel, concluded: “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you.” (Deut. 4:2)

This law of constancy is so unalterable that the Lord and Savior Himself, when He was teaching the people on the mountain, said: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Math. 5:17-18)

Then He gave the same validity to his teaching, before interpreting the commandments in the spirit of the gospel, by adding: “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Math. 5:19)

This means that anyone who wrongly interprets the commandments of God and lessens their validity, will be an outcast in the future life. This is what He said at the beginning of His preaching. He assured the same thing to Saint John the Theologian, the beholder of ineffable revelations, to whom He described the final judgement of the world and the Church, indicating in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelations): “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” (Apoc. 22:18-19)

From the time of His first appearance in the world until the Second Coming, Christ has given the Holy Apostles and their successors the following law: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” (Math. 28:19-20)

That means “for you to teach, not what anyone else could possibly imagine, but what I ordered, and this to the end of the world.” And He adds: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” (Math. 28:20)

The Apostles received this law and sacrificed their lives in order to keep it. And to those who wanted to keep them from preaching what it was they preached under the threat of punishment and death, they replied: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

This clear law was delivered by the apostles to their successors, was accepted by them, and has timeless effect in the Church of God. Because of this law, the Church is the pillar and the ground of truth. Can you see then what an inviolable steadfastness it has? After that, who would be so bold as to stubbornly disturb or move anything in Christian doctrine and law?

Next listen to what is said of the Prophet Ezekiel who for seven days was in the ecstasy of prayer and after seven days heard the word of the Lord: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth” (Ezek. 3:17), and he declared to the people: Here is the law for you! If you see a wicked person committing iniquity and you do not tell him: leave your iniquity and change your way, “that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.” (Ezek. 3:18) Conversely, “if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezek. 3:19-21)

What a strict law! And though it sounds in the consciences of all pastors during their election and consecration, when a heavy yoke is put on them, namely the instruction of the flock of Christ that He entrusted to them, big or small, not only to guide it but also to preserve it. How could anyone be so bold, to pervert everything in the law of Christ, when this involves the destruction of both pastors and flock?

If the saving power of this teaching depended on our opinion of it and our consent to it, it would make sense for someone to imagine rebuilding Christianity according to human weaknesses or the claims of the age and adapt it according to the sinful desires of his heart. But the saving power of Christian law does not at all depend on us, but on the will of God, by the fact that God Himself established precisely the exact path of salvation. Beyond this there is no other way, nor could it exist. Therefore, anyone who teaches in any other way, is deviating from the true path and is destroying himself and you. What logic is there in that?

Notice how strict judgment was mentioned when something similar happened to the nation of Israelduring the difficult years of their captivity. Some prophets out of pity for the suffering and sick talked to the people, not as the Lord had ordered, but as their heart dictated. Concerning them the Lord gave the following commands to Ezekiel: “And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own minds. Prophesy against them and say, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls.” (Ezek. 13:17-18)This means: Woe to those who order any kind of special treatment and suggest such leniency, so no one feels the slightest displeasure, either from those on top or those at the bottom, not caring whether this is for their salvation or destruction, whether it is pleasing to God, or repulsive. Woe to them, because “thus says the Lord God...your pillows and veils,” namely your candied and comforting teaching, “upon which there you are perverting souls, I will tear from your arms and I will let their souls that you are perverting, go away...” (Ezek. 13:20-21) from this teaching of yours and I will destroy you corrupters.

This is the benefit of this special treatment and leniency, such as you want to hear from preachers! When you put all this deep in your heart, it is not right for you to want us to make any concessions in Christian doctrine, having the wrong desire to be pleased by us. On the contrary, you are obliged to persistently demand from us to remain true to doctrine, as strictly and firmly as possible.

Have you ever heard of the indulgences of the Pope of Rome? Here is what they are: special treatment and leniency, which he gives defying the law of Christ. And what is the result? From all of this, the West is corrupt in faith and in their way of life, and is now getting lost in its disbelief and in the unrestrained life with its indulgences.

The Pope changed many doctrines, spoiled all the sacraments, nullified the canons concerning the regulation of the Church and the correction of morals. Everything has begun going contrary to the will of the Lord, and has become worse and worse.

Then came along Luther, a smart man, but stubborn. He said, “The Pope changed everything as he wanted, why shouldn't I do the same?” He started to modify and re-modify everything in his own way, and in this way established the new Lutheran faith, which only slightly resembles what the Lord had commanded and the Holy Apostles delivered to us.After Luther came the philosophers. And they in turn said, “Luther has established himself a new faith, supposedly based on the Gospel, though in reality based on his own way of thinking. Why, then, don't we also compose doctrines based on our own way of thinking, completely ignoring the Gospel?” They then started rationalizing, and speculating about God, the world, and man, each in his own way. And they mixed up so many doctrines, that one gets dizzy just counting them.

Now the Westerners have the following views: Believe what you think best, live as you like, satisfy whatever captivates your soul. This is why they do not recognize any law or restriction and they do not abide by God's word. Their road is wide, all obstacles displaced. Their way is broad, all the obstacles taken out. But the broad road leads to perdition, according to what the Lord says. This is where leniency in teaching has led!Lord, save us from this broad way! But it is better to love each difficulty that the Lord has appointed for our salvation. Let us love Christian doctrines and let us compel our mind with them, pushing it not to think otherwise. Let us love Christian morals and let us compel our will in them, forcing it to lift the light yoke of the Lord humbly and patiently. Let us love all Christian rituals and services which guide us, correct us, and sanctify us. Let us compel our heart with them, encouraging it to convey its desires from the earthly and perishable, to the heavenly and imperishable.

Let us confine ourselves as though in a cage. Or better, let us drag ourselves, as if we were passing through a narrow passage. Let it be narrow, so no one can deviate neither to the right left, nor the left. Yet undoubtedly, through this narrow way we will obtain the kingdom of the heavens in return. For as you know, this kingdom is the kingdom of the Lord. The Lord laid this narrow way and said, “Follow exactly this route and you will obtain the kingdom of heaven.”Could anyone then doubt whether the traveler will get to his destination? And what mind would one have who starts wanting all kinds of annulment of the commandments, when by doing this he would immediately lose his way and be lost?

Once you have fully understood this assertion, do not worry if something in our teaching seems to be strict. The only thing you should strive for is to carefully make sure if it is from the Lord. And after you have made sure it is from the Lord, accept it with all your heart, no matter how strict or obliging it may be. And not only avoid wanting special treatment and leniency with doctrine and the ethics, but even flee from all these, as though fleeing from the fire of Gehenna. Those who cannot escape from this are those who think up such things and with them lure those who are spiritually weak to follow them. Amen.

December 29, 1863  Sunday after Christ's Birth

Taken from the website of the Holy Monastery of Pantokrator (Melissohori, Greece).

Originally from: St. George (periodical) 1995, vol. 20.

Reposted from:

http://slava-bogu.blogspot.com/2011/11/sttheophan-recluse-why-orthodox.html

Early Christianity in the West

By Fr. Seraphim Rose

The 20^th century Orthodox Christian will find little that is strange in the Christianity of 6^th century Gaul; in fact, if he himself has entered deeply into the piety and spirit of Orthodoxy as it has come down even to our days, he will find himself very much at home in the Christian world of St. Gregory of Tours. The externals of Christian worship – church structures and decoration, iconography, vestments, services – after centuries of development, had attained essentially the form they retain today in the Orthodox Church. In the West, especially after the final Schism of the Church of Rome in 1054, all these things changed. The more tradition-minded East, by the very fact that it has changed so little over the centuries even in outward forms, is naturally much closer to the early Christian West than is Catholic-Protestant West of recent centuries, which had departed far from its Orthodox roots even before the present-day “post-Christian” era arrived.

Some historians of this period, such as O.M. Dalton in the Introduction to his translation of St. Gregory's History of the Franks (Oxford, 1927, two volumes), find much in Christian Gaul that is “Eastern” in form. This observation is true as far as it goes, but it is made from a modern western perspective that is not quite precise. A more precise formulation of this observation would be the following:

In the 6^th century there was one common Christianity, identical in dogma and spirit in East and West, with some differences in form which, at this early period, were no more than minor and incidental. The whole Church met together in councils, both before and after this century, to decide disputed dogmatic questions and confess the one true Faith. There were numerous pilgrims and travelers, especially “Westerners” going to the east, but also “easterners” going to the West, and they did not find each other strangers, or the Christian faith or piety or customs of the distant land alien to what they knew at home. The local differences amount to no more than exist today between the Orthodox Christians of Russia and Greece.

The estrangement between East and West belongs to future centuries. It becomes painfully manifest (although there were signs of it before this) only with the age of the Crusades (1096 and later), and the reason for it is to be found in a striking spiritual, psychological and cultural change which occurred in the West precisely at the time of the Schism. Concerning this a noted Roman scholar, Yves Congar, has perceptively remarked: “A Christian of the fourth or fifth century would have felt less bewildered by the forms of piety current in the 11^th century than would his counterpart of the 11^th century in the forms of the 12^th. The great break occurred in the transition period from the one to the other century. This change took place only in the West where, sometime between the end of the 11^th and the end of the 12^th century, everything somehow was transformed. This profound alteration of view did not take place in the East, where, in some respects, Christian matters are still today what they were then – and what they were in the West before the end of the 11^th century.” (Yves Congar, O.P., After Nine Hundred Years, Fordham University Press, 1959, p. 39, where he is actually paraphrasing Dom A. Wilmart.)

One might cite numerous manifestations of this remarkable change in the West: the beginnings of Scholasticism or the academic-analytical approach to knowledge as opposed to the traditional-synthetic approach of Orthodoxy; the beginning of the “age of romance,” when fables and legends were introduced into Christian texts; the new naturalism in art (Giotto) which destroyed iconography; the new “personal: concept of sanctity (Francis of Assisi), unacceptable to Orthodoxy, which gave rise to later Western “mysticism” and eventually to the innumerable sects and pseudo-religious movements of modern times; and so forth. The cause of this change is something that cannot be evident to a Roman Catholic scholar: it is the loss of grace which follows on the separation from the Church of Christ. And which puts one at the mercy of the “spirit of the times” and of purely logical and human ways of life and thought. When the Crusaders sacked and desecrated Constantinople in 1204 (an act unthinkable in earlier centuries for the Christian West), they only revealed that they had become total strangers to Orthodoxy, and therefore to the Eastern Christians, and that they had irretrievably lost what their own ancestors in 6^th century Gaul had preserved as the apple of their eye: the unbroken tradition of true Christianity. 

From: Vita Patrum by St. Gregory of Tours, Introduction by Fr. Seraphim Rose, pp. 69-71.

What is Orthodox Christianity?

By Archbishop Averky of blessed memory

Alas! How few people there are in our times, even among the educated, and at times even among contemporary "theologians" and those in the ranks of the clergy, who understand correctly what Orthodoxy is and wherein its essence lies. They approach this question in an utterly external, formal manner and resolve it too primitively, even naively, overlooking its depths completely and not at all seeing the fullness of its spiritual contents.

The superficial opinion of the majority notwithstanding, Orthodoxy is not merely another of the many "Christian confessions" now in existence, or as it is expressed here in America "denominations." Orthodoxy is the true, undistorted, unperverted by any human sophistry or invention, genuine teaching of Christ in all its purity and fullness — the teaching of faith and piety which is life according to the Faith.

Orthodoxy is not only the sum total of dogmas accepted as true in a purely formal manner. It is not only theory, but practice; it is not only right Faith, but a life which agrees in everything with this Faith. The true Orthodox Christian is not only he who thinks in an Orthodox manner, but who feels according to Orthodoxy and lives Orthodoxy, who strives to embody the true Orthodox teaching of Christ in his life.

"The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life"—thus the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples of His divine teaching (Jn. 6: 63). Consequently, the teaching of Christ is not only abstract theory merely, cut off from life, but spirit and life. Therefore, only he who thinks Orthodoxy, feels Orthodoxy and lives Orthodoxy can be considered Orthodox in actuality.

At the same time one must realize and remember that Orthodoxy is not only and always that which is officially called "Orthodox," for in our false and evil times the appearance everywhere of pseudo-Orthodoxy which raises its head and is established in the world is an extremely grievous but, regrettably, an already unquestionable fact. This false Orthodoxy strives fiercely to substitute itself for true Orthodoxy, as in his time Antichrist will strive to supplant and replace Christ with himself.

Orthodoxy is not merely some type of purely earthly organization which is headed by patriarchs, bishops and priests who hold the ministry in the Church which officially is called "Orthodox." Orthodoxy is the mystical "Body of Christ," the Head of which is Christ Himself (see Eph. 1:22-23 and Col. 1:18, 24 et seq.), and its composition includes not only priests but all who truly believe in Christ, who have entered in a lawful way through Holy Baptism into the Church He founded, those living upon the earth and those who have died in the Faith and in piety.

The Orthodox Church is not any kind of "monopoly" or "business" of the clergy as think the ignorant and those alien to the spirit of the Church. It is not the patrimony of this or that hierarch or priest. It is the close-knit spiritual union of all who truly believe in Christ, who strive in a holy manner to keep the commandments of Christ with the sole aim of inheriting that eternal blessedness which Christ the Savior has prepared for us, and if they sin out of weakness, they sincerely repent and strive "to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance" (Lk. 3:8).

The Church, it is true, may not be removed completely from the world, for people enter her who are still living on the earth, and therefore the "earthly" element in her composition and external organization is unavoidable, yet the less of this "earthly" element there is, the better it will be for her eternal goals. In any case this "earthly" element should not obscure or suppress the purely spiritual element—the matter of salvation of the soul unto eternal life—for the sake of which the Church was both founded and exists.

The first and fundamental criterion, which we may use as a guide to distinguish the True Church of Christ from the false Churches (of which there are now so many!), is the fact that it has preserved the Truth intact, undistorted by human sophistries, for according to the Word of God, "the Church is the pillar and ground of truth" (I Tim. 3: 15), and therefore in her there can be no falsehood. Any which in its name officially proclaims or confirms any falsehood is already not the Church. Not only the higher servants of the Church, but the ranks of believing laymen must shun every falsehood, remembering the admonition of the Apostle: ''Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor" (Eph. 4:25), or "Lie not to one another"(Col. 3:9). Christians must always remember that according to the words of Christ the Savior, lying is from the devil, who "is a liar, and the father of lies" (Jn. 8:44). And so, where there is falsehood there is not the True Orthodox Church of Christ! There is instead a false church which the holy visionary vividly and clearly depicted in his Apocalypse as "a great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication" (Rev. 17:1-2).

Even in the Old Testament from the prophets of God we see that unfaithfulness to the True God frequently was represented by the image of adultery (see, for example, Ezek. 16:8-58, or 23:2-49). And it is terrifying for us not only to speak, but even to think that in our insane days we would have to observe not a few attempts to turn the very Church of Christ into a "brothel,"—and this not only in the above figurative sense, but also in the literal sense of this word, when it is so easy to justify oneself, fornication and every impurity are not even considered sins! We saw an example of this in the so-called "Living Churchmen" and "renovationists" in our unfortunate homeland after the Revolution, and now in the person of all the contemporary "modernists" who strive to lighten the easy yoke of Christ (Matt. 11:30) for themselves and betray the entire ascetic structure of our Holy Church, legalizing every transgression and moral impurity. To speak here about Orthodoxy, of course, is in no way proper despite the fact that the dogmas of the Faith remain untouched and unharmed!

True Orthodoxy, on the other hand, is alien to every dead formalism. In it there is no blind adherence to the "letter of the law," for it is "spirit and life." Where, from an external and purely formal point of view, everything seems quite correct and strictly legal, this does not mean that it is so in reality. In Orthodoxy there can be no place for Jesuitical casuistry; the favorite dictum of worldly jurists cannot be applied: "One may not trample upon the law—one must go around it."

Orthodoxy is the one and only Truth, the pure Truth, without any admixture or the least shadow of falsehood, lie, evil or fraud.

The most essential thing in Orthodoxy is the podvig of prayer and fasting which the Church particularly extols during the second week of the Great Fast as the double-edged "wondrous sword" by which we strike the enemies of our salvation—the dark demonic power. It is through this podvig that our soul is illumined with grace-bearing divine light, as teaches St. Gregory Palamas, who is 'triumphantly honored by the Holy Church on the second Sunday of the Great Fast. Glorifying his sacred memory, the Church calls this wondrous hierarch "the preacher of grace," "the beacon of the Light," "the preacher of the divine light," "an immovable pillar for the Church."

Christ the Savior Himself stressed the great significance of the podvig of prayer and fasting when His disciples found themselves unable to cast out demons from an unfortunate boy who was possessed. He told them clearly,`"This kind (of demon) goeth not out save by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). Interpreting this passage in the gospel narrative, our great patristic theologian-ascetic, the hierarch Theophan the Recluse asks, "May we think that where there is no prayer and fasting, there is a demon already?" And he replies, "We may. Demons, when entering into a person do not always betray their entry, but hide themselves, secretly teaching their hosts every evil and to turn aside every good. That person may be convinced that he is doing everything himself, while he is only carrying out the will of his enemy. Only take up prayer and fasting and the enemy will immediately leave and will wait elsewhere for an opportunity to return; and he really will return if prayer and fasting are soon abandoned" (Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, pp. 245-246).

From this a direct conclusion may be reached: where fasting and prayer are disregarded, neglected or completely set aside, there is no trace of Orthodoxy—there is the domain of demons who treat man as their own pathetic toy.

Behold, therefore, where all contemporary "modernism" leads, which demands "reform" in our Orthodox Church! All these liberal free thinkers and their lackies, who strive to belittle the significance of prayer and fasting, however much they shout and proclaim their alleged faithfulness to the dogmatic teaching of our Orthodox Church, cannot be considered really Orthodox, and have shown themselves to be apostates from Orthodoxy.

We will always remember that by itself totally formal Orthodoxy has no goal if it does not have "spirit and life"—and the "spirit and life" of Orthodoxy are first and foremost in the podvig of prayer and fasting; moreover, the genuine fasting of which the Church teaches is understood in this instance to be abstinence in every aspect, and not merely declining to taste non-Lenten foods.

Without podvig there is altogether no true Christianity, that is to say, Orthodoxy. See what Christ, the First Ascetic, Himself clearly says; "Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34). The true Christian, the Orthodox Christian, is only he who strives to emulate Christ in the bearing of the cross and is prepared to crucify himself in the Name of.Christ. The holy Apostles clearly taught this. Thus the Apostle Peter writes: "If when you do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accepted with God. For even here unto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps" (I Pet. 2:2-21). In precisely the same way the holy Apostle Paul says repeatedly in his epistles that all true Christians must be ascetics, and the ascetic labor o' the Christian consists of crucifying himself for the sake of Christ: "They that are Christians have crucified the flesh together with the passions and lusts" (Gal. 5:24). A favorite expression of St. Paul is that we must be crucified with Christ that we might rise with Him. He puts forth this thought in a variety of his sayings in many of his epistles.

You see, therefore, that one who loves only to spend time enjoying himself and does not think of self-denial and self-sacrifice, but continually wallows in every possible fleshly pleasure and delight is completely un-Orthodox, un-Christian. Concerning this the great ascetic of Christian antiquity, the Venerable Isaac the Syrian, taught well: "The way of God is a daily cross. No one ascends to heaven living cooly (i.e. comfortably, carefree, pleased with himself, without struggle). And of the cool path, we know where it ends" (Works, p. 158). This is that "wide and broad way" which, in the words of the Lord Himself, "leadeth to destruction" (Matt. 7:13).

This then is what is Orthodoxy, or True Christianity!

(Originally appeared in Orthodox Life, vol. 26, no. 3 (May-June, 1976), pp. 1-5. )

The Pools of Narcissus and Siloam

Know thyself. 

The Christian understanding of self- knowledge is substantially different from that of the world. 

The Christian call is not one of egocentric self-fulfillment or self-gratification. The danger of a quest to “know thyself” outside the bounds of Christ Jesus is that, to some degree or another, it has elements of philautia (self-love). 

The search for self is toxic if its goal is only to please the self and confirm its desires and inclinations, thereby discovering more pleasure with which to indulge; seeking spirituality devoid of the Spirit.  The peril is to become like Narcissus of mythology, forever seeking an elusive reflection in the waters of psychological self-infatuation. Staring alone into the pool of self, one becomes entranced by the aura of one's own self-reflection (many time mistaking it for spirit), which is deceptively sweet at first but leads to death in the long run.  All self-centered searching will end in a loss of true existence and life, like Narcissus who perished in his attempt to embrace his own reflection. “He who loves his life shall lose it” (John 12:25), the God-Man Christ clearly proclaims.

Christ tells us in the Gospels “he who desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it ” (Mat 16: 25). The Christian search for self-knowledge is not predicated on the narrowness of modern individualistic "self-expression." The standard for knowing one's self is the boundless God-Man: Jesus Christ. In the beginning, mankind was created in the image and likeness of God. The reference point of true self-knowledge is placed concretely and objectively outside of mankind; this preserves a man from self- delusion. Thus only in God is the true image of mankind found, mankind must orient himself by a higher image: to be Godlike. Without God, mankind embraces a phantom and drowns in the depths of self-deception.  

Mankind is not able to search his interior depths without the illuminating light of Christ the Creator. After the fall repentance was set as the standard for restoration of true human self-knowledge. “When we are immersed in sins, and our mind is occupied solely with worldly cares, we do not notice the state of our soul. We are indifferent to who we are inwardly, and we persist along a false path without being aware of it. But then a ray of God's Light penetrates our soul. And what filth we see in ourselves! How much untruth, how much falsehood! How hideous many of our actions prove to be, which we fancied to be so wonderful. And it becomes clear to us which is the true path” (St. John Maximovich).

Man is intended to grow in the image of Christ, for Christ is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4). In becoming conformed to the image of Christ, we become conformed to that image for which mankind was intended, in doing this we find our true “self.” By rejecting and dying to the image of the sinful world we become alive to the Image of God, and by returning to It, we begin our return to our true and originally intended state. “A righteous man whose heart is filled with consolations of the Holy Spirit, wherever he may be, everywhere will be Paradise because the Kingdom of Heaven is within us (Lk. 17:21)” (St. Innocent of Alaskan, Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven).

To come to Christ means that the image of the fallen old man is being crucified, it must die. We do not gaze into the Christian Faith like Narcissus gazed into the waters of the pool, we do not seek to enjoy our own beauty or vain self- affirmation. We seek to heal our souls and to confront the wellsprings of darkness which we many times so easily excuses in our lives. This is done only by conforming to the great Physician and His revelation of true spiritual health. If we soberly and vigilantly weigh all things: our thoughts, our deeds, the inner movement of our hearts, and walk in the light of Christ's grace, then as St Theophan the Recluse says, “you will carry a Teacher within you, wiser far than any earthly teacher.” For it is “through Him (Christ) we fix our gaze on the heights of heaven. In Him, we see the mirror of God's pure and transcendent face. Through Him, the eyes of our hearts are opened. Through Him our foolish and darkened comprehension wells up to the light” (St. Clement of Rome).

We are called to approach our Orthodox Faith in simplicity of heart and the firmness of conviction that Christ Jesus has given us His very Self, in the revelation of the hypostatic union, as the Archetype of knowledge of true humanity. Yet, If we gaze at our own “beauty” and seek to measure faith according to it, we become idolaters and worship and praise our own image (although we may frequently give it the name “Jesus”).

In pure vision sanctified by the Holy Spirit we come to the mirror of the revealed Faith, not to be infatuated by our own “self” but to seek the image of Christ, the only True Man. This encounter necessitates kenosis - self-emptying. Whenever our own self-obsession occupies the high place of our being, taking the place of Christ, it keeps us in self-delusion.

Through the Cross, we are given true vision, and with spiritual eyes being enlightened and washed by the flesh and blood of Christ we then, with great eagerness, lose our fallen self-life for the sake of Christ and thereby find true Life in Him (cf. Mat. 16:25).  

In seeking to learn and evaluate our self in the revelation of Christ, shining in the Church, there are none of the Narcissistic drivings of the worldly pursuit for self-fulfillment and “knowledge.” Let us turn from the Narcissistic pools of modern self-infatuation and indulgence, most of all concerning faith, and set our gaze upon the Living waters, seeking to wash in the pool of Siloam, according to Christ's words: “Go, wash and see” (cf. Jn. 9: 6-7). We must know our self and the authentic nature of our humanity in the light of Christ the True Man. As St. Cyprian of Carthage says, “How can you expect to be heard by God, when you do not hear yourself? How do you expect God to remember you when you pray, if you do not remember yourself?” Pure remembrance comes when we turn from the delusional reflection of self-love. “The one who hates his life in this world shall keep it to eternal life” (John 12:25).  

Without Saints there is no Christianity

Saint. Sanctus. Agios. Svyatoy. Holy. We have journeyed through the whole drama of Christ's redemptive work, through which our very nature was hypostatically united to God, and through this union humanity is given to be united to God by grace: Theosis. We become participators in the Divine Life by grace. Even now from the right hand of God the Father the God-Man, the Theanthropos, Christ Jesus beckons to us: “Come follow me.” The journey, the life of a Christian is one of ascent from this fallen world to heavenly God-like living, an abiding in the Life. This is an ascent that begins here and now, it is an ascent of transfiguration. I have heard that the Greek word for saint, or holy one, agios, means not of this earth, not of this world. There is a subtle insinuation in much modern non-Orthodox theology: Christ has achieved everything (which is true) and now all a person has to do is mentally believe and confess Christ and His work and this brings about salvation. Salvation is primarily a complete transfer of status from “not saved” to “saved” via confession on the part of man and decree on the part of God. In some regard this passive faith brings about a slight apathy in spiritual life. Christ has achieved it all, all I have to do is believe it (and claim it)! In believing one is said to go from the total state of being condemned to the total state of having been saved. True personal transfiguration is not of primary importance, in fact it contributes very little to actual salvation. Of course there are moral standards that must be kept, but in many modern groups there is a strong impression that we, humans, cannot really live God-like lives. Theosis is impossible, and thus the whole phenomenon of saints.

The whole reality of saints, holy ones, in the Christian experience testifies against this new teaching, indeed it testifying to the fact that all of us today, in committing to be Christians, have committed ourselves to deepening our abiding in the Divine Life by grace.

I would conjecture that one reason why many western confessions do not have holy ones, saints, besides a very egalitarian take on the issue - we are all saints and there are no “special” saints - is the fact that to have men and women as examples of holy living is to challenge our current comfortable worldly standard. Our times are quickly losing any value or like for standards. Most things, from education to exercise are being dropped to a lower standard. Standards and challenge might make someone feel bad, so instead of helping people work to meet a higher measure society seeks to create environments of egalitarian “standards.” Now everyone can not be challenged and feel good about it! This is first and foremost a spiritual malady. What has been passed as Christianity in the Modern world has so lowered Christian living that now we can all be saints because there really are no saints! And if there is the off chance there are, their lives are most likely quaint mythical stories only meant to inspire (or possibly fantasy stories made up after the style of ancient legends that are intended to awe the uneducated). In other words, I do not really have to personally strive to emulate them, and thus, in the long run Christ. And so we are conveniently not spiritually challenged from the “status quo:” we can indulge our passions and be “saved” all at the same time! We can neatly pursue the obese acquisition of innumerable things, most of them unnecessary to life, to satiate our desires and attain to heaven too! We can live in comfort and easy, after all I worked hard to earn all this, and “pray to Jesus in our hearts.” Salvation is easy, anyone can be an armchair saint. The modern gospel has become: you do not have to be holy, you do not have to be ontologically not of this world (all you have to do is get a bumper sticker).

It is not pleasant to hear about fasting while our bellies are full; it is not convenient to hear about ascetical living while we live our life of ease. After all isn’t Christ suppose to make us feel good? All these examples of self-denial do not allow me to pat myself on the back and say “you are doing just fine.” Instead they say, “there is much that you have yet to do in Christ, arise work while it is day; repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Christianity is always incarnational. And the saints are those flesh and blood epistles that prove Life in Christ is real. Without saints Christianity is a philosophical teaching of the mind. Saints are special in the sense that they have applied in a concrete and serious manner the teachings and life of Christ Jesus: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). Saints are those who have applied themselves to being true humans. Most of us are simply use to living in a state that is often devoid of true holiness. Yet in truth human nature is in God, in Christ. Thus the truly human manner of living is holiness, not the “norm” of enslavement to sin that we have become sadly accustom to. We are all called to be saints, to be holy in Christ; but we have not all fully desired this with all our heart. Mankind's true vocation is to be made God-like, and the saints prove this.

A Thing Impossible

The tendency of humanity is to seek comfort and ease; due to the fall this tendency has led to a lowering of mankind's eyes from his true goal: life in Christ. Too often instead of striving for the Kingdom of God we surround ourselves with earthly pleasures and worldly ease. Moreover, modern man has become all the more fixated on instantaneous pleasure: “I want it now, easy, and my way.” This desire is then projected onto the Christian life. The search is for a spiritual experience which satisfies now, while all struggle and effort are avoided. Many seek a message that is centered around earthly enjoyment and self-satisfaction. A system that offers instant results and power. You too can be a super apostle! Yet if we are to pursue true life in the Spirit we must lay aside such ideas and desires for instantaneous results, self promotion, and worldly pleasure, which are thinly cloaked in spiritual jargon. Few want to be reminded of St. Paul's words, “We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). St. Macarius the Great echoing this councils Christians, “Most want to possess the kingdom without labors and struggles and sweat, but this is not possible … Most wish to obtain the kingdom and desire to have eternal life, but, following their own wills, they refuse to control them. They are rather more like a sower who sows vain desires. They refuse to deny themselves and still wish to receive eternal life, which is a thing impossible” (The Fifty Spiritual Homilies).

Life in the Spirit is not a way of ease. To embark upon the pursuit of God is to walk upon the narrow way: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mat. 7:13-14). To seek authentic Christian life in the Holy Spirit is to undergo a life-long transformation. Christ Himself compares following His life-giving commandments to the building of a house (cf. Mat 7:24-27). Each process must be done with care, labor, and diligence. Each step builds upon and relies on the preceding. Progress forward is not a distinct categorical movement from one level to the next. It is, instead, an organic unity and progression; each stage is ever sustaining, feeding, and supporting the next. There is never a time when the building stops relying on the foundation: without it the whole structure would collapse. Even though one may speak of various separate parts of a structure it is understood that only as a whole do they comprise the building. So, it is with life in the Spirit. Simply because we have laid a foundation does not yet mean we have built a house.

The believer pursuing life in Christ must respond to His divine grace. St. Symeon the New Theologian says, “'Grace' is … the gift of the Holy Spirit which makes us co-participants and communicants of God.” The Holy Spirit does not enter into the temple of our body and soul uninvited. A Christian is free to refuse the gift of the Holy Spirit; this refusal may be passive or explicit. Once grace moves upon the heart the believer is called to answer, thus beginning a work of synergy. The Holy Spirit stands waiting; we must open the door and allow Him continued reign in our life. The believer builds, through grace, his heart into a temple of God.

It must be stressed that only within the Theanthropic Body of Christ, the Orthodox Church, can personal experience be true and authentic. The believer partakes of the Holy Spirit, the fulness, given to the Church (cf. Eph. 1:23) by being biologically linked to the life giving Body; it is this partaking, safeguarded in and by the Church, which communicates true personal life and experience in the Spirit to the member, the believer. Personal experience outside of the Community of the Body of Christ becomes prey to deception and delusion (prelest), indeed it becomes individual experience and thus impersonal. The modern day pursuit of “Christian” Spiritual life detached from (and many times explicitly at the sake of) life in the Body of Christ becomes a dangerous type of spiritual self diagnosis and evaluation. The base of such a desire for an individual experience of God is many times based on our own human pride and perverted self reliance. Somehow I know better than everyone else, I will decide for myself what is true, I am my own sure spiritual guide (most of the time one adds some authority for effect, the Bible and I, the Holy Spirit and I, etc). This attitude is found nowhere in the Scriptures or experience of Christians through out all time. Rather true spiritual life in the Scriptures and testimony of Holy ones reveals that true life in the Spirit is received through much sacrifice, humility, and labor (just because God gives a free gift does not mean that we are yet capable of receiving it in its fullness). True Christianity understands that mankind is not capable of acute spiritual self diagnosis, and thus a Christian is called in humility to trust the Living witness of Christ in His Church, the bearer of true and clear Spiritual diagnosis and therapy; thus our limited experiences are weighed against the eternal experience revealed by Christ and His Body. True personal faith flowers within the safeguards of the Faith of the the community, which is the Body of Christ.

St. Justin Popovich writes: “In it (the Church), God has truly blessed us with all spiritual

blessings (Eph. 1: 3); He has given us in it all the means to be holy and without blame before God (Eph. 1: 4); He has adopted us in it through His only-begotten Son (Eph. 1: 5-8); He has revealed to us in it the eternal mystery of His will (Eph. 1: 9); He has united time and eternity in it (Eph 1: 10); He has made it possible in the Church for all beings and all matter to enter Christ, the Spirit and the Trinity (Eph. 1: 13-18). For all these reasons the Church constitutes the greatest and holiest mystery of God in all the worlds.”

In an age when there are thousands of voices shouting that Christ is in the dessert or inner room ready to give you your hearts desires (passions), and that one can instantly and easily attain the spiritual life, and receive the Holy Spirit in a lickety-split manner, pouring out seemingly great power with great ease, Orthodox Christians must be aware of the ancient and living teaching on life in the Spirit and refuse to believe these christs. True life in Christ is good and light, it is the tribulation of the Cross in this life, a losing and death of the self with all its desire for the easy way and self evaluation and reliance. Yet in following this path of seeming death (at which the fallen self revolts) one finds in reality resurrection and ascension with Christ in “Spirit and in Truth” to the right hand of God the Father. True Christian life in the Spirit is a thing impossible unless we are willing to die in Christ. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). 

True Christianity is an Apocalyptic Vision

“Little children, it is the last time” (1Jn. 2:18). True Christianity is a pronouncement of the end; not an end unto death but an end unto never ending Life. What then is ending? The corrupt system of sin and death that is proliferated and energized through human rebellion against truth in Christ Jesus. Christ our Lord came to put an end to this tyranny of destruction. The good creation that God Himself called into existence from nothing languishes under the evil yoke of sin that mankind has willingly subjected himself and creation to through rebellion and self-exaltation (cf. Rom 8:19-22). But not without hope, it awaits the refashioning of all things at the end, the restoration of incorruption and the victory of Life and Truth. Yet St. John the Theologian proclaims, “The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 Jn 2:17). The world, the system of rebellion against God, is passing away, it is ending, it is its last time. And its death throes are visible in rippling effects which are growing with every passing day. The world is passing because, as a system, it has rejected Christ. Only Christ is Eternal. Christ announces to the world: I have come (the first time) not to condemn but to save (Jn. 3:17, 12:31); I have come to bring you from death to life, so that you shall not perish (Jn 6:33,51); I am the light of the world (Jn 9:5); cease your rebellion and be healed. Essentially Christ announces: I have come to bring an end to the darkness and death that have bound you. The tragedy is:“Light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (Jn. 3:19). The world system was - and is - too in love with its own darkness and bondage, it fears the freedom proclaimed by Christ Jesus. What would we do without the bonds we have grown so use too, indeed that we have grown to love? Fear then turns to hatred, for the love of bondage can be nothing but hatred. The world system has turned against the very One Who has come to heal, save, and bring life to all. Thus our Lord Jesus said, “The world … hates Me” (Jn 7:7, 15:28), “I am not of this world” (Jn. 8:23), and He tells His disciples that the world will rejoice in His seeming destruction (cf. Jn. 16:20). Christ proclaimed the end of death and darkness and the beginning of Life and Light. He ratified this freedom with His own Blood, destroying death and sin, rising on the third day as the Victorious King. “Remembering the saving commandments, and all those things that have come to pass for us: the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and the second glorious coming again”, in truth these are the events of the eschaton.

True Christianity is mandated with the same dramatic eschatological proclamation. For all those who have been truly born from above through water and in Spirit (Jn 3: 5) have begun to put on Christ (Gal 3:27, Rom 13:14), to acquire the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), and thereby crucifying the flesh and its lusts (Gal. 5:24). The Body of Christ, the fulness of Him who fills all things (Eph. 1:23), continues Christ's proclamation to the world: Come, abandon death and darkness, throw off the totalitarian dictates of sin and the devil, they are passing away into the never ending destruction of Gehenna. Christ has come to set you free. But Christ Jesus soberly warns his Church, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of this world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of this world, therefore the world hates you ... If they kept My words, they will keep yours also” (Jn 15:18-20). The Theologian instructs, “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life” (1 Jn 3:13-14). It is a difficult thing to endure hatred. But there seems to be only two general responses (most of all according to St. John) to this proclamation of end: Hatred or love, rejection or acceptance. Thus the world that continues in darkness seeks to stop up the mouths of those proclaiming its end.

True Christianity in its essence is eschatological. Indeed it must be. Christ calls His followers out of the world, which insists on grasping relentlessly to its bonds. Why? Because these bonds will destroy true Life, they will burden the soul and keep it in bondage to death. “Where your treasure is there your heart shall be also,” Christ the Lord reveals (Mat. 6:21). From the very beginning of this proclamation of the end, the consciousness of the Church has been that She is no longer part of this phantom reality of the world. She has become the ambassador of the World without end. Thus She warns those who call Her their home and mother, “Many lose their true home because they have greater love for the road that leads them there. Let us not love the road rather than our home, in case we should lose our eternal home … Let us keep to this principle, therefore, that we should live as travelers and pilgrims on the road … free of lusts and earthly desires, but let us fill our mind with heavenly and spiritual forms” (St. Columbanus). St. Peter calls us to remember, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11). Elder Sophrony warns, "The tragedy of our times lies in our almost complete unawareness, or unmindfulness, that there are two kingdoms, the temporal and the eternal. We would build the Kingdom of heaven on earth, rejecting all idea of resurrection or eternity." Normalizing and acceptance of sin reveals a complete lack of true love, it betrays a cancer like infiltration by this world system. When Christianity becomes an integral institution of this fallen world something is dreadfully wrong. When it emulates the fashions and mentalities of mutable fallenness as standards of governing principles it has completely failed and lost its way. Indeed it is no longer by any means Christian. Not that the Church can ever be corrupted in Her essence, there She will remain pure and spotless to the end, and we as believers are called to enter into and conform our lives to that realm of purity. But those who would call themselves Christians and yet refuse to heed the pure call of Christ in the bosom of the Church are but building permanent structures on the road; and shall share in its destiny. When eschatological vision fails, Christianity becomes a hallow ringing of nicety, an empty gonging of ritual, a sterile structure, it becomes temporal institution using an eternal message for passing gain. Then every woe spoken by Christ to the pharisees aptly applies in fulness (cf. Mat 23:13-36). Therefore it is written, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of this world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 5:4).

True Christianity is always an apocalyptic vision of the eschaton. Thus the book of the age is the book known as Revelation, or the Apocalypse. It is the record of this vision of the Church. The revelation of the struggle of this dying age with the coming Eternal One. It is the great and final Exodus, the last journey of the Children of God from the midst of Egypt and Babylon, which was inaugurated by Christ Himself and will be consummated by Him. “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:17). St. Ignatius of Antioch radically councils, “Do not talk about Jesus Christ while you desire the world.” It may be that one of the reasons the book of Revelation is not read liturgically in the Church is because the Church Herself is the book of Revelation. In Her, as in Her Bridegroom, the proclamation of the end continues as the existent reality. Thus we see reflected in the very structure of the Church and Her worship the Apocalypse. The Church is not simply a reflection of the coming age, She is the unfolding revelation and reality of that eternal age in this withering one. The message is clear: this world is ending and those who cling to it will share the same fate. Thus all believers are constantly reminded by every means possible to lift their hearts and eyes unto the heavens, and by doing so afford the world the only true hope and help possible. This vital eschatological experience must never cease to be the heart of the true Christian proclamation to the world, could it ever truly not be? If those claiming Christ lose this message they simply become members of this world system but with "Jesus" tags, salt which has become insipid. Those who are Christians are throwing off this world and its hegemony of lusts and passions, they have left behind this decrepit land of bondage and have transferred their “citizenship (to) heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus” (Phil. 3:20). Yet Christ extends His mercy to all, compassionately delaying the culmination of the end so that humanity may repent (cf. 1 Pet. 3:1-9). He has not left the world without testimony, nor will He until that great and Final Day. Therefore the Church longs for Her Savior, and Her unending cry is the culmination of the age, the exclamation of the end, the eschaton: “And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the waters of life freely … Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:17, 20).