His Beatitude’s remarks were delivered at the Acton University plenary session on Thursday, June 16, in Grand Rapids, Mich. AU is a “four-day exploration of the intellectual foundations of a free society” with the aim of deepening students’ knowledge of philosophy, Christian theology and “sound economics.” This year’s event attracted more than 600 people from 70 countries across a broadly ecumenical spectrum that included Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim lecturers, students, clergy and business people.

For more on the Acton Institute see its , its scholarly , the quarterly , and the .

Download (.pdf).

Among other things, living our life in Christ requires that we grasp the spiritual significance of two opposing forces with us:

1. The flesh vs. the body
2. The world vs. creation

In the current social context, and so for this evening’s conversation, let me please add another set of opposing movements in the human heart:

1. Consumerism vs. worship

Following traditional Orthodox (and orthodox) theology, the first of these terms—the flesh, the world and consumerism—refer to humanity in rebellion against God. Even when we refer to “the world” we are referring to how creation has become disordered by human sinfulness. Because of Adam’s sin and mine, my body, the creation and the works of my hands have all become estranged from God. Not only that, they have also become sources for my estrangement. As we have become estranged from God, oblivious to God, the body, created matter and the works of our hands, have become idols. They become the means of endless distraction from the reality of God, of communion with one another, and from both life and death.

Thus the tragic paradox of the fall, the great tragedy of human sinfulness is this: the gifts of God have become distorted. Rather than drawing us closer to Him and to each other, we misuse the good things of God to our own harm, spiritually, morally, psychologically, socially and physically. In the words of the Prophet David:

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
Eyes they have, but they do not see;
They have ears, but they do not hear;
Nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them are like them;
So is everyone who trusts in them (Ps 135:15-18).

The second of these terms—the body, creation and worship—are likewise richly anthropological. But here they refer to a way of life built on obedience to God. If idolatry strikes man dumb and breathless, obedience animates him and makes him sing out in the praise of God. Again from the Prophet David:

Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless His name;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples (96:1-3).

Just as our sin obscures our ability to perceive the beauty of creation and our own humanity, our obedience to God renews both and reveals their true beauty (see Romans 8:18-25).

In the theology of the Orthodox Church obedience is our response to God. Broadly speaking this response has two foundations: holy baptism (and really, all the sacraments) and metanoia, that change of heart by which we turn personally from our sin and toward the Living God in “faith, hope and love” (see 1 Corinthians 13:13). But repentance is more than turning away from sin. It is turning to God, and allowing Him to renew and transform our very consciousness. It is turning from self-will to obedience, from egocentric “dancing alone” to synergy. It is only through a life of obedience to God that we can rightly exercise the gifts God has given us.

Repentance renews our vision of creation, through our bringing our mind and heart into synergy with God. Fundamental to this obedience is the stewardship of the material world, and its proper use to glorify God. Through repentance God enlightens our hearts to see and know that the eucharistic Bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood; baptismal water is filled with the Presence of the Spirit and sanctifies us; oil of Chrism is sanctified and becomes the means of imparting the Gift of the Holy Spirit. These things, these material elements, are revealed not as ends in themselves, bread simply to be eaten and wine to be drunk, but become the means of communion with God. This sacramental vision ultimately extends to the entire creation, where everything is a means of communion, everything and everyone is filled with grace. It is not the creation that is found,wanting, but rather our hearts, our ability to perceive.

This evening I want to speak with you about the second of the two foundations of the obedient life: repentance. How is it that, in response to divine grace, we can come to live in obedience to God? A second question, and one which I think speaks broadly to the lectures and conversations that have occupied you this week, is this: What does this obedient life mean for us who live in society that has become increasingly materialistic and driven more and more by a desire to consume rather than to sanctify creation eucharistically?

The Orthodox liturgical theologian Fr Alexander Schmemann was an astute social commentator. In one of his most well respected works, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, he points out that we live a “secular age.” By this he means not that we no longer believe in God or that we reject “some kind of transcendence and therefore of some kind of religion.” No, what contemporary society rejects and negates is the worship of the God Who is the source, means and goal of human life. Secularism, for Schmemann, is “in theological terms … a heresy … about man.” At its core this heresy

is the negation of man as a worshiping being, as homo adorans: the one for whom worship is the essential act which both “posits” his humanity and fulfills it. It is the rejection as ontologically and epistemologically “decisive,” of the words which “always, everywhere and for all” were the true “epiphany” of man’s relation to God, to the world and to himself: “It is meet and right to sing of Thee, to bless Thee, to praise Thee, to give thanks to Thee, and worship Thee in every place of Thy dominion…”¹

While as religious believers we may disagree among ourselves as the to the exact nature, context and form of worship, if we are faithful to our respective traditions as Jews, Christians, and Muslims, we know that our disagreements do not obscure, and more importantly must not be allowed to obscure, our fundamental agreement with the anthropological fact that to be human in the fullest sense is impossible apart from the worship of God.

As an Orthodox Christian, I believe (and I suspect many of you here this evening would agree with me on this) that both “worship in general and the Christian leitourgia in particular” presuppose “the sacramental character of the world and of man’s place in the world.” Again, the particulars of that are a source of some debate and even disagreement among Christians much less across religious traditions. We ought not to deny this. Nevertheless when we look at “the world, … it in its totality as cosmos, or in its life and becoming as time and history” the created order is “a means of [God’s] revelation, presence, and power.” To put the matter somewhat differently, the physical creation (and so humanity) “not only ‘posits’ the idea of God as a rationally acceptable cause of its existence” it also “truly ‘speaks’ of Him and is in itself an essential means of knowledge of God and communion with Him, and to be so is its true nature and its ultimate destiny.”²

As St Paul says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image… Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts…” Rom 1:20-24.

Man was created with an intuitive awareness of God and thankfulness to Him for the creation. In return, the creation itself was made to be a means of communion and revelation of God to man. Man was thus created as a Eucharistic being, the priest of creation, to offer it in thanksgiving to God, and to use it as a means of living in communion, the knowledge and love of God. Man was created to worship. In our fallenness, turning from God to created things as ends in themselves, we lost the intuitive knowledge of God and our essential attitude of thankfulness to Him. Secularism is rooted in this loss of divine awareness, the darkening of our intuitive perception of the creation as the sacrament of God’s Presence. It is a denial of our essential reality as human beings, and our reduction to purely material animals. Thus the refusal to worship and give thanks, to offer the creation in thanksgiving back to God, is a denial of our very nature as humans.

What Schmemann is testifying to is that “worship is truly an essential act, and man an essentially worshipping being.” It is “only in worship” that I can find “knowledge of God and therefore knowledge of the world.” As the etymology of the word orthodoxy suggests, the true worship of God and the true knowledge of God converge and are together become the foundation of obedience to Him.

Asceticism, the Cross and the Healing of the Person

Knowledge in the context of the Orthodox Church’s tradition is not a matter of abstract facts about the world, much less God. Rather knowledge is synonymous with love and intimacy—knowledge in this context means “communion with God and therefore [in God] communion with all that exists.”³

All this is negated by secularism and as a result, the human person is left with a spiritual void that manifests itself concretely as shame and self-loathing. Reflecting on the widespread problem of alcohol and drug addiction in post-Communist Russian society, the bishops of the Orthodox Church in Russia have this to say:

The principal reason for the desire of many of our contemporaries to escape into a realm of alcoholic or narcotic illusions is spiritual emptiness, loss of the meaning of life and blurred moral guiding lines. Drug-addiction and alcoholism point to the spiritual disease that has affected not only the individual, but also society as a whole. This is a retribution for the ideology of consumerism, for the cult of material prosperity, for the lack of spirituality and the loss of authentic ideals. In her pastoral compassion for the victims of alcoholism and drug-addiction, the Church offers them spiritual support in overcoming the vice. Without denying the need of medical aid to be given at the critical stages of drug-addiction, the Church pays special attention to the prevention and rehabilitation which are the most effective when those suffering participate consciously in the eucharistic and communal life.⁴

Alcoholism, drug addiction, the normalization of sexual immorality, as well as consumerism, and the pursuit of material prosperity as an end in itself, all of these are symptoms of the deep spiritual void created by secularism.

The fruit of secularism is despair.

I will leave to others better qualified than I to discuss and debate the social history of secularism and how we have come to be held so tightly in its grip. This evening I come to you as a pastor. While as the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America will often and necessarily require of me that I address social issues and matters of public morality, my primary concern always is as bishop and as Christian who God has entrusted with the great work of healing the wounds sin inflicts on the human heart. How does Christ liberate us from the “spiritual emptiness, loss of the meaning of life and blurred” morality that enslave each and every one of us both personally and as a society?

The solution we are looking for is the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is His Cross that heals a fallen creation, a fallen humanity, and me as a sinner. Reflecting on the appropriateness of Christ’s death on the Cross as a public proclamation of God’s love for humanity, St Athanasius the Great writes:

[I]f the Lord’s death is the ransom of all, and by his death “the middle wall of partition” is broken down, and the calling of the nations is brought about, how would he have called us to him, had he not been crucified? for it is only on a cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out his hands, that with the one he might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in himself. For this is what he himself has said to all: “I, when I am lifted up,” he says, “shall draw all men to me.”⁵

The Christian ascetical life, that is the life of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the works of mercy and obedience, is the application and the appropriation of the Cross to my life. It is the means by which I both enter into a life of communion with God and become myself a sacrament of that communion for others. This is possible because at its most basic level, asceticism “is the struggle of the person against rebellious nature, against the nature which seeks to achieve on its own what it could bring about only in personal unity and communion with God.” Our “restoration” to a life of personal communion with God and so our personal “resistance” to the powers of sin and death, “presuppose a struggle” within each human heart that is often lacking in contemporary society and even our churches.⁶

This struggle IS the ascetical life and as an Orthodox Christian I believe that I cannot effectively preach the Gospel if I neglect my own person podvig, my own personal ascetical struggle to live a life in conformity to Christ. So clearly I am not referring here to “just any kind of asceticism.”⁷ Fasting, for example, simply to make ourselves more attractive to others is also a type of asceticism; it is the false asceticism of consumerism that encourages rather than mortifies our egoism. Likewise we can work longer hours so that we can simply own more things. This too is a false form of asceticism because it too is grounded in egoism.

The asceticism that is need to preach the Gospel, and so offer hope and healing to those gripped by the materialism and despair of secularism and the false idol of consumerism, is the kind of asceticism by which we “resist death in our own bodies.” This happens I believe only by our “conformity to the example of Christ, who willingly accepted death so as to destroy death.” As with worship, we may disagree among ourselves as Jews, Christians and Muslim as to the source, content and form of the ascetical life. But is it so daring to say that, on anthropological grounds at least, we agree among ourselves that “Every voluntary mortification of the egocentricity which is ‘contrary to nature’ is a dynamic destruction of death and a triumph for the life of the person” and so society?⁸

Can we not as religious believers and as men and women of good will, in our own lives, in the lives of our respective communities and in our society at the very least foster a renewed appreciation and practice of asceticism?

+Jonah is Archbishop of Washington and New York and the Metropolitan of all America and Canada of the Orthodox Church in America.

ENDNOTES

© 2011, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

This sermon was delivered by Archbishop Job at the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy celebrated during the Liturgical Institute held at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, June 29, 1984. The unity of his thought and thorough understanding of the Orthodox Tradition is plainly evident. He talks about the true renewal of the Church being a renewal of the life of the Spirit in the Church.

The theme of this year’s Institute is one that has needed serious reflection for quite some time. In fact, we must be realistic in confessing that no genuine theological, liturgical and spiritual renewal can take place in our Church sojourning in North America and throughout the world without understanding and practicing repentance.

Over the past thirty-five years our small Church has undergone various positive evolutionary stages. The most obvious and decisive stages have affected our approach to theology and liturgy. We are witnessing to the integration of theology and liturgy which has culminated in what has been called our Church’s eucharistic revival. Consequently, we are a Church which on the one hand is becoming more and more capable of articulating and proclaiming its ethos, while on the other hand it is more actively manifesting itself as the Body of Christ which gathers to give thanks to God the Father in the celebration of the Eucharist. Let no one doubt that this organic evolution has strengthened our links with the Church’s past, while at the same time opening up numerous and exciting vistas for the future.

Much has been accomplished. The organic evolution of our Church which sojourns in time and space continues. Nevertheless, in spite of what may be considered or termed “renewal,” the Church, the Body of the faithful, must continually purify itself; it must continually repent if renewal is to continue. Without repentance, without this purification, the “newness,” the youth of the Church will disappear and the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit will be indiscernible or simply denied. Without this fundamental act of repentance, the qualitative growth of the Church will never be realized. Yes, we are in the midst of a theological and eucharistic revival; however, such a re-birth can only be sustained and strengthened if the Church is repentant.

It is not an exaggeration to say that if the Church fails to repent, our mission in North America will also fail. It will fail not because we will have empty churches. It is quite possible that the churches will be full. We will have failed, however, because of our own infidelity to that which we have received and to what we have been called by Christ to be. Only through repentance is the Church continually renewed by the Holy Spirit. Only by cleansing ourselves will the vision of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church be kept clear. Only by repenting will our theological and eucharistic revival be meaningful and saving.

Without repentance the Church, comprised of hierarchs, priests and faithful, will be unable to sustain the blows of a pluralistic and secularistic society – a society which can be accurately termed as post-Christian and even overtly anti-Christian. As a living Church, we are confronted with many temptations and delusions. Every day, the faith of the Church, the faith of the believers, is put to the test.

The greatest and most dangerous temptation is the world’s continual and violent attempt to change the very nature and vision of the Church. Our enemy, especially in this country, is not comprised of flesh and blood. Our enemy, the enemy, is invisible and manages to infest the body of believers, beginning with the hierarchs, by corrupting the Church’s fundamental vision and mission which is to proclaim Christ crucified and risen, and to make disciples of all nations.

By our Baptism and Chrismation, we, the Church, are commanded to go out and to change the world in the same spirit as that of the Holy Apostles whose memory we celebrate today. The transfiguration of the world is only possible through repentance, and repentance must begin within the Church. We talk repeatedly of Church growth, yet this is too commonly understood in terms of numbers, also with various preoccupations such as more and more complex bureaucracy, budgets, appearances, committees and subcommittees, all of which somehow indicate that we have “arrived” – that we “have come a long way.” Continuing to be lured, or rather seduced by the world, there is the frightening possibility of total disaster – that the Church, while retaining the correct dogmatic formulas and liturgical forms, can be reduced to a clanging bell – a mere shell with little or no content and life.

The re-birth of Orthodox theology has directed the Church back to its liturgical, biblical and patristic roots, while simultaneously exposing and exorcising a “foreign” theology and piety. This return to the sources is nothing less than repentance, a repentance which has led to the conversion and restoration of the Orthodox mind, heart and soul. It is this repentance which has provided the foundation for spiritual renewal not only in this country but throughout the world.

As we stand together today as the Church gathered around Christ’s Altar let us open our hearts and repent. Let us confess not only our personal sins, but also the sins which we commit as a body gathered together to celebrate the Lord’s mystical banquet. As I stand before all of you this morning, I realize that I am placing myself in a very vulnerable position.

Nevertheless, in light of what has taken place here this week, if a confession is to be made, I have no other position to assume.

As the Church, let us confess that we are seduced by the powers of darkness into becoming a Church which is more and more preoccupied with creating an image of respectability so that it will be accepted by the standards of the world. Let us confess that we sometimes doubt that the Church has the power of the Holy Spirit to change the world.

Let us confess that we are often too ready to accept aspects of our American culture or lack of culture, which are not beneficial, not edifying, and are even spiritually destructive, forgetting that the Church has the responsibility to influence and direct the culture of the society in which it finds itself. Let us confess that we are prone to selfishly withholding the Church from the world, forgetting that it is given by God for the life of the world.

Let us confess that in spite of the Orthodox renaissance taking place during this century we continue to “politely” rationalize an un-Orthodox ecclesiology ranging from congregationalism and clericalism to a plurality of jurisdictions existing in the same territory. As for the latter, it has become the custom and norm simply to cease speaking the truth by concealing it under the bushel basket of diplomatic rhetoric.

Let us confess that in spite of the theological and sacramental renaissance of our time, our Church which is hierarchical by nature, is quickly becoming hierarchical in appearance only. Theological and sacramental renewal cannot be divorced from or viewed apart from a correct ecclesiology. More specifically, the bishop and priest must re-assume the position not only of “president” over the Eucharist, but as father, elder, teacher and servant. If all of us as the people of God are to recover a correct place in the make-up of the Church, this recovery must first be achieved by the hierarchy.

By confessing our weaknesses and shortcomings, all which comprise sin, and repenting of them, the vision of one local American Church will not fade away into the ivory tower of the academic theologian or canonical theoretician. Growing continually in the experience of the Church we will understand that not only must we all repent, but that all of us must be involved in the Sacrament of reconciliation. Sacramental reconciliation by bishop or priest does not occur in a vacuum. The entire community must again gradually become involved in the Sacrament of repentance and reconciliation in spite of the pragmatic aspects of so-called private confession.

Soon we will place our offerings upon the Altar of God. Before this is accomplished, let us recognize and confess our sins by submitting our hardened hearts to the grace of God. Let us be renewed as persons and as Church. Let us ask forgiveness of each other – a difficult act – so that as the living Body of Christ we may as community manifest the most perfect icon of His presence in the world. As Christ’s Church, as those called by God to be His people, let us with fear of God and with love draw near to the one High Priest receiving Him as our offering, as our sustenance, as Life Itself. Amen

© 2009, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

Archbishop Job was an honest homilist, and this was the source of his preaching power. Like the late Bishop Innocent of Anchorage, Archbishop Job honestly and directly addressed the problems he faced in the Church.He spoke with love and passion for the Gospel of Christ, and with love for his beloved flock. This is one of his most inspiring sermons, given on Holy Monday, April 17, 2006.

His Eminence JOB, Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest

Delivered at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois

1. The Completion of Great Lent

Great Lent is now over.  The school of repentance is closed but the ‘text book’, the Lenten Triodion, remains open and opportunities for repentance are still available to us – even for “those who have delayed until the eleventh hour’ (St. John Chrysostom).

2. The Holiest of Days

We have entered into the holiest of days where time is sanctified and we experience true reality through the liturgical life of the Church.  Great and Holy Week began Friday evening and two feasts, the Raising of Lazarus and the Entrance into Jerusalem are combined into one.  The joy manifested in the entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem is now fleeting.  Now we have entered into the time of Passion – Icon of Life – where darkness, sorrow, defeat, despair and death are all tempered by the light, joy, triumph, hope and life promised through Our Lord’s Resurrection.

3. Many Great Lents, many Great and Holy Weeks, many Paschas

It is indeed mind boggling to think how many millions of faithful have observed the Feast of Feasts; how many souls have been saved; how many lost?  And to be sure there has never been a time in the history of the Church – from Pentecost to our present day – without troubles besieging Her both from within and without.  The Church is not even exempt from trouble and difficulties when acting officially.  Indeed we can find many cases in our history as best exemplified by a synod that deposed St. John Chrysostom, a synod that endorsed and accepted iconoclasm, a synod that agreed to the selling out of Orthodoxy at the Council of Florence, a synod – Your Holy Synod – who shirked responsibility, allowed itself to be lulled into complacency, and let you down for so many years, and who have led the Church into this time of crisis.

4. Why Here?  Why Now?  Shouldn’t We Just Pray?  Holy Week: In invitation to Contemplate Reality

There may be those among you who are thinking, “Why is he bringing this up now?  We have more important things to meditate on, to pray about – the Passion of Our Lord.  Why doesn’t he just leave it alone?  Didn’t His Beatitude, in His archpastoral letter read last week, say to do just that?”

Yes!  In fact, Metropolitan HERMAN wrote:

It is time for this turmoil in our parishes, in our dioceses and throughout the Church to cease and desist, especially as we approach Holy Week.  We must lay aside these earthly cares and re-focus our spiritual lives on… “the one thing that is needed…that good part which will not be taken away.”  (Luke 10:42)

Unfortunately, I am afraid that I see it another way.  With respect to His Beatitude, I must express disagreement.  Let us look at these days which we had behind and before us and see if they don’t give us a clue as to where our minds should be:

- After the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus cleansed the temple, not a politically correct thing to do.

- Today’s Gospel deals with the unfruitful fig tree.

- Tomorrow’s with the condemnation of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees

- Today, we hear the frightening words of The Lord, “therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and   given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”

- Tomorrow we will hear:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23)

The Church at this time invites us to contemplate and confront these realities – painful and disturbing as they are, and not avoid them.

5. The Readings of Holy Week: A Lesson and Directive for us Today

Can we read these Gospel lessons and not be immediately reminded of the current state of our Orthodox Church in America?  The Fig Tree: beautiful to look at, inviting and with the promise of good fruit.  With the same mind let us think of our All-American Councils or pilgrimages to St. Tikhon’s where hierarchs, resplendent in gorgeous vestments put up a great façade so as to “Keep up with the Joneses” of other jurisdictions and to try to impress all with a proud and chest pounding roar of “we are autocephalous”.  Who are try trying to fool?

And so we must ask: where is the fruit?

One of my brother hierarchs wrote, “We don’t need accountability; we don’t need transparency; all we need is Christ?”  To me this sounds so pious, so convenient, so easy.  God protect us from such empty words!!

6. A Reality of Dysfunction

As lay people, as clergy, as dioceses, as hierarchs, as Holy Synod we must deal with REALITY – OUR reality, as unpleasant or even tragic as it is.  We must not “lay aside these earthly cares” at this time, but rather we must deal with them and recognize the dysfunction in our midst – a dysfunctional Synod, a dysfunctional Central Church Administration, a dysfunctional Metropolitan Council, dysfunctional dioceses and parishes, and dysfunctions in our own Diocesan Church.  Only after we recognize and admit these dysfunctions can there be RESPONSIBILITY, REPENTANCE, and FORGIVENESS.  Otherwise, if we remain as the barren fig tree, we may hear the words:

Woe to you, Orthodox Christians of today, hypocrites: for you bind the Book of Gospels in covers of gold and silver and jewels, but you fail to live by its teachings.

Woe to you, Orthodox Christians of today, hypocrites: for you give lip service to the precepts of the Church, and place your trust in the wisdom of this world.

Woe to you, Orthodox Christians of today, hypocrites: for you travel land and sea to win one convert, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Woe to you, Orthodox Christians of today, hypocrites: for you hold to a semblance of faith but deny its power.

7. Intolerabilities

We must look at our poor Church and confess that it is intolerable:

-  that division in the Holy Synod, acute as never before seen, should not be addressed and remedied.

-  that the Holy Synod not address the anger, frustration, depression and cynicism among the clergy and informed lay people and assume pro-active leadership.

-  that the vision and enthusiasm, empowered by the gift of autocephaly 36 years ago, has faded into obscurity.

-   that words like humility, forgiveness, repentance, obedience should be used as “pious platitudes” reducing them to empty words.

-  that one person or group of persons – be they lay people, priests or hierarchs – should have unlimited power.

-  that the influence that our Church and many of her leaders once had among Orthodox and non-Orthodox in North America and abroad is lost or greatly reduced.

-  that our Orthodox ecclesiology, as we are experiencing now, is being put to such a cruel test.

- that one single dollar obtained from one of our faithful ones for a specific purpose, be utilized for another – regardless of excuse.

8. Discussion, Solidarity, Oneness of Mind, Dedication

This crisis has brought the best and the worst out of people in all levels of Church life.  In my opinion it has brought the best out of the faithful in the Diocese of the Midwest as witnessed by discussion, solidarity, oneness of mind and dedication.  We do not need pointing fingers or blame casters.  We must all assume our share of the responsibility for not being as faithful as we should and for not praying unceasingly as Paul the Apostle exhorts us to do.

I most of all am responsible and humbly ask your forgiveness.  Things are being done – drastic measures have been taken.  And so now we are able to follow The Lord in His Passion, having faced and accepted reality, as unpleasant and traumatic as it is.

Now I can quote His Beatitude:

Again, I ask for your understanding and forgiveness, and your prayers for [our first hierarch] for … our Holy Synod, for our clergy and for all our faithful.  The time has come for us to unite our efforts to restore peace and harmony in our Church.  If we are to become the co-workers with Christ that we are called to be, we must place our focus on our Savior.  His Saving mission, and our shared participation in that saving mission.  We must direct our energies to the work to which each of us has been called: our own salvation and the salvation of those around us … May Our Lord help us and strengthen us and bless our every good effort.

To Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to His voluntary Passion for us, be all glory, now and ever and unto ages of ages…

AMEN!

© 2009, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

By New Hieromartyr John, Archbishop of Riga and Latvia, who, for his unyielding witness to the Truth suffered many persecutions and was burned alive by communist assassins in the night of October 12, 1934.

From that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples that it is necessary for Him to go away to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day. And Peter took Him to himself and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘May God be gracious to Thee, Lord; this in no wise shall be to Thee.’ But He turned and said to Peter,

Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offense to Me, for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.

Mt. 16:21-23

This revelation of the Lord concerning the sufferings which awaited Him, struck His disciples like a thunderclap from a clear sky. Earlier, He had told them that His path was also their path: The servant is not greater than his master.

He who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

Mt. 10:38

And in the lives of Christ’s true disciples there is a time of suffering passion when each must enter his own Jerusalem, ascend his Golgotha and the fateful cross, and take up the fateful cup – even unto death.

Even the sons of this world each have their own Golgotha. Unforeseen and uninvited, suffering enters the house. You must suffer whether you like it or not. The bitter “must.” This “must” is bitter even for the faithful disciple of Christ. And the cross of suffering frightens even him. In his soul is heard the voice of Peter: ‘have mercy on yourself, do not let this happen, protect yourself.’ And this is not surprising, for after all, the Great Sufferer Himself prayed:

If it be possible, take this cup from Me

Mt. 26:39; Mk. 14:36; Lk. 22:42.

This “must” is altogether necessary and we are powerless to stand against it.

From that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples that it is necessary for Him to go away to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things….

Mt. 16:21

If the way of the Lord leads to Jerusalem, if His fate is to be decided by the scribes, the Pharisees, the elders, then it is natural that He must suffer and be killed. This Jerusalem towards which Christ directed His steps is not the Heavenly Jerusalem, but an earthly city filled with the spirit of this world, which had fallen away from its God, not recognizing, not comprehending the visitation of the Lord.

This is the same Jerusalem which, at the altar of the Lord, killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to it [cf. Mt. 23:37; Lk. 11:47-51]. And the world, my brothers, even unto this day stands on that same foundation. Perhaps it does not have the same outward appearance. Nowadays they do not crucify people on crosses as they did Peter, nor are people stoned like Stephen. People have become too indifferent towards faith to suffer for its sake.

Our path is less rocky and whoever murmurs at the harshness and the evil of this world should know that he is far from suffering unto blood. Nevertheless, now as never before, the words of the Lord contain a sacred truth:

If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world–but I chose you for Myself out of the world–therefore the world hateth you

Jn. 15:19

It cannot do otherwise.

The natural desire of man’s heart is to live at peace with everyone. Many a youthful heart has decided to follow the path of reliance on oneself: ‘I want to get along with everyone; I must not antagonize anyone.’ But even the best-intentioned soon realize that this is impossible. Even the meekest lamb is sure to meet on his way a ferocious wolf that says: ‘You are a thorn in my side.’

He who believes must confess his faith. He who desires to serve God in this world must act according to his faith. But every confession inevitably arouses antagonism and every action is sure to meet with hostility. To see that his honest persuasion and striving are not recognized by the world; that his good deeds are everywhere met with opposition; that there where he sows only love, he must reap evil – this is obviously very grievous to the follower of Christ. And he is often ready to ask, together with his Master: ‘What evil has been done to you? Or how have I offended thee?’ [from the hymns of Great and Holy Friday of Passion Week]. The truth which you proclaim and which you confess and which the world cannot gainsay, or the righteousness manifest in your life which silently reproaches the world, or the peace of the Lord written on your face which the world cannot forgive, or the heavenly other-worldliness of your behavior which shames and accuses their earthly way of life – this is how you have offended the world. And the world would sooner pardon you of ten vices and crimes which get you on a level with others, than forgive one good deed which elevates you above the rest. Why did Cain murder Abel? Because Cain’s actions were evil and the actions of Abel were good and righteous [cf. 1 Jn. 3:12]. Why did the scribes and Pharisees condemn the Savior? Because He was Light and darkness cannot abide the light [cf. Jn 3:16-21].

Do not be astonished then, my dear brothers, if the world hates you. It is to be expected. This is nothing unusual. Do not let evil mockings and the vicious hatred of evil doers lead you astray. Go along the straight road with the name of the Lord, through the world which lies in evil and think in yourself “I must…” and the world cannot do otherwise. It would not be the world if it did not prefer the lies of its errors to truth; egoism to love; its laziness to zeal for God; worldly vanity to righteousness. I am not a disciple of Christ, not His soldier, if I do what is pleasing to everyone, if I go along the broad path together with the crowd instead of keeping to the narrow path where there are few travelers.

And so let us step forward in the name of the Lord with the conscious awareness that “I must.”

There is another aspect to this “I must.” When the Son of Man told His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and there to suffer much and to die, He was aware that this was necessary even for Himself.

Because He was obedient unto death, even death on the cross, God raised Him up and gave Him a name above every name.

Phil. 2:8-9

If the Heavenly Father so willed that even His only-begotten Son would drink from the cup of suffering, is it for us sinners who are so imperfect to shun this cup of suffering, this school of suffering, when we are such a long way from perfection and still have so much to learn in order to become worthy disciples of the Great Sufferer?

Some think: ‘How much more fervently and willingly I would serve my Lord if only my life’s path were easier, if it were not so thickly strewn with sharp rocks.’ In saying this, you yourself obviously do not know who and what you are, what is beneficial for you and what is harmful, what you need and what you do not need. It is true when they say that a man tolerates least of all his own well-being. Days of happiness, days of success, when everything goes according to one’s own wishes – how many times have such days woven a fatal net which captures the soul? What dissoluteness grows on man’s heart, like rust on the blade of an unused battle-sword, or like a garden which becomes overgrown if not tended by the gardener’s shears. Tell me, O Christian, what preserves you from haughtiness which so easily penetrates even the strongest hearts, even the hearts of Christ’s disciples? Is it not the cross of suffering? What humbles the passionate inclinations of the flesh which so quickly and easily spread in times of well being and prosperity, like insects in a swamp on a sunny day? What teaches you to shun this uncleanness? Is it not the rod of misfortunes and sorrows? What arouses you from the sleep of self-assurance, lulled to sleep as we so easily are by times of happiness: Or what is more conducive to a routine of laziness than cloudless, carefree days of prosperity? At such times a storm can only be regarded as a blessing. What will draw you out of the dangerous state of insensibility? Will not sorrows? Will not illness? What tears us away from our worldly attachments, the love for the world and all that is in it? Is it not necessity and misfortunes? Do not trials teach us to take life more seriously? Do not sorrows teach us to be prepared for death? Wild brambles of the heart cannot be uprooted without the pruning shears of the Heavenly Gardener and the good fruit of truth and righteousness will not grow without the rain of tears and sorrows. Nowhere can true obedience be better tested than in the bearing of the bitter cup of sorrows, when one can only say:

…not my will, but Thine be done, Father

cf. Mt. 26:39; Mk. 14:36; Lk. 22:42

And submission to God’s will is never manifested so clearly as in days and hours of storm when in the midst of menacing and frightful waves the Christian gives himself totally into the hands of Him Whose very hand holds these waves and tempests.

When can the steadfastness, courage, and strength of a soldier of Christ be better demonstrated than when trials and obstacles must be turned into deeds, than in the war against evil, or in times of danger? All the noble strength of the Christian soul, of the Christian character shines forth most brightly in times of distress, misfortunes and sufferings. All the miracles of God’s grace are most evident in times when the waters of grief and misfortunes flood our souls and we are forced to recognize our helplessness, our weakness and draw all strength and understanding from Almighty God.

Or, when God Himself chastises you and calls you to account, are you going to ask “what for” and “why”? Or when the Lords sends you to the school of the cross, will you say: “I have not need of its teachings”? Rather you must say: “I need this; I must go to this school of the cross; I must suffer with Christ in order to be raised with Him” [cf. Rom. 6:3-8; 2 Tim. 2:11-12]. When the Lord chastens me I must think and feel like a child chastened by the loving right hand of the Lord, like a grapevine under the pruning shears of the gardener, like iron beneath the smith’s hammer, like gold in the purifying fire. This “I must” is of God and I must not shrink from it.

If you, my friends, agree to what I say, here in the house of God, then hold onto this principle when you are visited by grief, and yours becomes the way of the cross. These are basic truths which must be repeated before each bed of sickness and with each student entering the school of sorrows. Pastors know this. He who preached these truths a thousand times to others must repeat them for himself in every situation. Thou, Lord, help us to understand more fully and to plant deep within ourselves this lesson of the divine “I must.”

Even the ancient Greeks and other people bowed before the divine will, before sacred duty, before immutable destiny, man’s dependence upon Providence. The submission of one’s will before this divine “I must,” the exact fulfillment of divine decrees – in the wise this was called wisdom, in heroes, it was courage, in the righteous, sanctity. How much more willingly must we Christians fulfill our duty when we know that we are not being led by blind faith, but by the good will of the Father which led even Christ to Golgotha and the Cross, but through Golgotha and the Cross to the glorious Resurrection. And so we must put our faith and trust in Him even when we cannot comprehend the meaning of the guidance. Mankind would have been deprived of so much goodness, such glory and blessedness, if the Savior had harkened to the voice of Peter: ‘defend yourself’.

Let each soul bow before the divine “I must;” for the will of God is good, perfect, guiding all men to salvation. And you, O son of dust and corruption, bend your neck under His almighty hand before which your strength is as nothing. Trust to divine wisdom before which your light is but a dark shadow. Give yourself over to the fatherly guidance of Him who desires not enmity and sorrows, but peace and blessedness for all mankind. When you submit your thoughts and your will to His thought and will, then no cup will be for you too bitter, and no cross too heavy. You will be able to withstand it. Such is the will of God.

If your spouse, children, friends, and everyone you love surround you; if they try to persuade you to have pity on yourself, not to destroy yourself – do not look at their tears, do not listen to their pleadings. Point to the Heavens and say: “Do not burden my heart; thus it is pleasing to God and I must. You are reasoning according to man’s wisdom and not God’s.” And if from your own heart there cries out the voice of flesh and blood, and begins to persuade you: “…this cannot happen to you; defend yourself…” – turn away from this counsel of your own heart and follow after that which glorifies God.

We can more easily bear our afflictions if we keep in mind the example of the Savior. See with what peaceful and holy determination He goes to His Passion. And then follow Him along the path of the cross until with His last breath you hear from His lips the divine words:

It is finished.

Jn. 19:30

And then ask yourself: are not you inspired by this example? Do you not understand now the commandment:

…he who wishes to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow after Me?

Mt. 16:24; Mk. 8:34; Lk. 9:23

Do you not share the conviction of that disciple who said: “I cannot wear a crown of roses when my Savior is wearing a crown of thorns”?

At the cross of Christ even the most suffering souls among us can find consolation. I have endured, and even now endure much, but my Divine Savior endures still more.

And if you find this example too lofty, read what the holy Apostle Paul says:

Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

2 Cor. 11:23-30

See what he endured for Christ’s sake, how many times he was beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and then understand how far we are from him. Everywhere the cross is the sign of Christianity.

A Christian cannot be without his cross. Amen.

© 2009, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

In this sermon, Fr. Josiah presents an intriguing idea: What happens if Christians experience Ascension, but do not experience Pentecost.

Introduction: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

The last ten days in the Church have been unusual.  In some sense we have been living between two realities.  On the leave-taking of Pascha we ceased the sustained celebration of the Holy Resurrection of the Lord as well as our saying, “Christ is risen.  Truly He is risen.”  The next day we celebrated the Glorious Ascension of our Savior into the heavens to sit at the right hand of the Father.   For these days between Ascension and Pentecost we have been in a waiting mode.  We, like the Apostles of old, have been heeding our Lord’s ascension instructions to “wait in Jerusalem to be clothed with power from on high” (St. Lk. 24:49).  We have been waiting for the Holy Spirit to come.

Why were the Apostles waiting?

The obvious answer to this question is that they were waiting because the Lord Jesus commanded them to tarry until Pentecost.  There is, however, much more to this waiting than that.  We must understand very clearly the difference between the apostles before Pentecost and after Pentecost.  Something dramatic happened to them that changed them personally.  They were transformed.  Fear turned into martyric boldness; fishermen became the world’s teachers;  doubt was replaced by mountain-moving faith.  All because of Pentecost.

The Necessity of Pentecost.

Some of us do not understand the necessity of Pentecost.  Pentecost is many things, and we have spoken about these realities before.  Pentecost is revelation of the Holy Trinity to the world. This is why this Feast is also called “Trinity Day” in the Church.  The Apostles knew the Father.  They had become the disciples of the Son.  And now they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost is also the birthday of the New Testament Church.  It is the democratization of the Spirit of God to all believers.  It is the unification of all mankind, and the definitive beginning to the reversal of the chaos of the Tower of Babel.  All of these things we have previously discussed, but today I wish to point out that Holy Pentecost is the evidence that Christianity is not a man-made or earthly religion.  It is not a set of ethical standards.  It is not for moral guidance.  Christianity is a miraculous and divine communion between God and man.  Christianity is the spiritualization or divination of man.

If Christianity were simply a man-made religion, even if it were the best and most beautiful man-made religion, there would be no need for the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem these days awaiting Pentecost.  Why would they need to?  They had for years lived in close contact with Christ, and had been His most intimate students.  They could have simply begun to write and teach and pass on what they had learned.  They had been fully trained, and so it is time to start training.  This is how it is with every other of the world’s religions.  Not so with Christianity.  Christianity is not about ideas, moral guidance, ethical norms, social structures, etc..  Christianity, of course, is not free from these things, but this is not what Holy Orthodoxy is about.  Holy Orthodoxy is about the coming of the Holy Spirit into man.  It is about human transformation and deification, not ideas.  There is no Christianity without Pentecost.  Orthodoxy without the Holy Spirit is not Orthodoxy.

Many Christians tragically live between Ascension and Pentecost.

With that said is it not tragic how often we live with our Orthodoxy as a set of ideas.  We think we are Orthodox because we believe certain things in our heads and were born or converted to a certain family or at a certain time.  If the Apostles had remained in the state they were in between Ascension and Pentecost they would never have brought the Gospel to the world.  They would never have become the great saints they did.  They would never have crushed the demons like they did.  They did all of these things because they were living in union with the Holy Spirit of God.

Sometimes we Orthodox evidence little proof that we are living post-Pentecost.  Our faith is weak. We are bound by sins.  We have little Christian joy.  We read or listen to the Acts of the Apostles and think that the Apostles were living a different way of life.  We pick up and read a book on the life of a particular saint and the saint’s mode of being appears to us to be foreign and almost unintelligible.  Why? Because we are not living in the Holy Spirit.  We are more like the fearful and doubting disciples prior to Pentecost.  Others around us seem to be radiant.  They endure trials with joy.  They don’t worry.  Why?  Because they are in a dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit.  They are sincerely praying the Prayer to the Holy Spirit,  “O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art in all places and filleth all things, the Treasury of Good Things and Giver of Life, come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls O Good One.” The Holy Spirit is in these ones abiding in them, cleanses them, and saving them!

Christianity without Pentecost is Empty Form!

If our Orthodox life is not permeated with the presence of the Holy Spirit it is all in vain!  Consider first that the Holy Sacraments or Mysteries of the Church are all dependent completely upon the Holy Spirit.  Baptism saves us because we are not born of the water alone, but of water and the Spirit (St. Jn. 3:3-5).  Chrismation itself is an individual’s personal Pentecost.  The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Ordination is the special bequeathal of the Holy Spirit to men, and the substance of the priesthood is that priests bear the Holy Spirit in the community.  This is why our Lord gathered the twelve together and breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whoever’s sins you remit are remitted.  Whoever’s sins you retain are retained” (St. John 20:23).  Marriage is simply temporal and earthly if it is not consecrated by the Holy Spirit and bound together in His love.  Holy Unction without the Holy Spirit is simply a complex skin treatment!  It is the Holy Spirit in the sacred oil healing our souls and bodies!  Confession is insincere and pointless unless it is a Spirit-inspired compunction and a Spirit-empowered absolution.  And think of the Mystery of Mysteries and the Sacrament of Sacraments:  the Holy Eucharist.  The existence of the Holy Eucharist is completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit Whom the priest calls down upon the Holy Table in the epiklesis:  “changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.”

This liturgical reality is beautifully evidenced in many different saints’ lives, especially those saints who were bishops or priests responsible for the celebration of the eucharist.  The story is told of St. Basil the Great that he had hanging over his altar a beautiful oil lamp made in the form of a golden dove. Always at the time of the transformation of the gifts the dove would begin to swing.  A similar story is told about our Holy Father John of San Francisco and Shanghai.  St. John would see the Holy Spirit descend as fire into the holy chalice at the epiklesis as he served liturgy.  On one occasion the liturgy was delayed because St. John would not go on since he saw no fire.  Wondering why he turned to his deacon and saw his face was covered over in a black cloud.  Asking the deacon what was wrong the deacon confessed that he had not prepared for the liturgy properly.  Once the deacon divested and left the altar the fire came and liturgy could continue.

All of the Holy Mysteries are empty forms without the Holy Spirit, and this may be said about all matters of our faith and practice.  Fasting is simply dieting if it is not an attempt to acquire the Holy Spirit.  It is not a coincidence that our Lord went into the desert to fast for forty days “led by the Holy Spirit” (St. Lk. 4:1). Sin is not overcome except by the Holy Spirit.  He is One Who enables us to “mortify the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13).  We could go on and on. There is no prayer without the Holy Spirit praying in us.  There is no church without the Holy Spirit.  There is no Church Temple without the Holy Spirit. This is why when we erect a true church temple the bishop chrismates the altar and the temple itself.  The Temple has its own Pentecost for it truly becomes not simply a functional gathering place, but the House of God and Temple of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit lives there.  If He does not then the Temple become a Temple of Satan (Rev. 2:9).

Our Goal is to Acquire the Holy Spirit.

In the light of truth we see then that St. Seraphim was correct when he was asked by someone, “What is the purpose of this life?”, and he answered, “The acquisition of the Holy Spirit.”  “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?  Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (St.Lk. 11:11-13).  All of our Christian effort and spiritual struggle is guided toward this one thing: obtaining an increase of the Holy Spirit.  This is what it means to become spiritual.  This is the goal of Christianity:  the union of man with God by the Holy Spirit.  Let us not betray the true nature of our religion by living as though Orthodoxy was about ideas, morals, etc.  Nonsense.  Christianity is about becoming one with the True God: by grace becoming what He is.  Now some of you may be thinking, “But how do we experience Pentecost? What do I do if I feel stuck between Ascension and Pentecost?”  An answer to these questions will be given in next Sunday’s homily.

Now to God the Father, and to the Ascended Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Spirit poured forth today be all glory.Amen.

Fr. Josiah Trenham is the pastor of St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, CA.

© 2009, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.