Thursday, January 31, 2002 9:14 PM
Letter from an Orthodox
This letter is from a lay Orthodox member of this mailing list:
I have been studying the way of the primitive church and researching the events that not only led to the schism but as a result of the schism have come about to further divide us. I have found many books, articles and pages talking about the things that have separated the church including that of the separation of the West to use the Gregorian calendar. I believe this also has been another way in which Satan blows his smoke in the church. Thank God smoke dissipates and Jesus’ Breath will blow it away in His final Triumph.
But who will still be left standing?
May I share a lesson I just recently learned?
We are helpless within our human nature to combat the real evil forces. This can only be obtained by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, great faith/works and the sacramental life of the church among other great teachings of Jesus such as love, the New Commandment, and forgiveness. I am convinced that Jesus will take care of the rest.
I look back at Abraham’s life and see how LONG he had to wait for God to fulfill His promise to him. And considering how old people lived back then maybe was also symbolic of how old the church will grow (2000 years so far and counting!) before fulfilling the promise of His triumph over Satan.
I know that as Orthodox we believe the coming of Christ will be when there is little light (meaning the belief in the power of the Holy Spirit will diminish and men will set themselves up as gods) left in the world brought on by the apostasy of which Paul speaks about … the signs preceding the 2nd coming (2 Thes 2). I believe we have been in those days since Christ’s ascension.
I have learned that even as Orthodox we too have become afflicted with the waning (the lax attitude we have taken in this modern world) of our faith. It is evident how we have given into reducing the power of the Holy Spirit by means of our prudence, the kind of prudence that has bred stubbornness and hearts of stone… it is this kind of misguided prudence that suffocates the Spirit, slowly snuffing it out and therefore we risk losing what little light we have left. Let us not think that numbers of attendance or monetary wealth of a church determines the presence the Holy Spirit.
Let me clarify what I mean by this… In our efforts as Orthodox Christians to preserve our faith and (tradition), we have become so over prudent (as a result of past history) that we have now come to a point where we risk suffocating the Holy Spirit without even realizing that we are doing so, by the very attitude we carry in our hearts over the persecutions that our church has suffered.
Look at the example of St. Stephen the first Martyr. We claim that our church is the church of Martyrs and saints, yet these saints were able to forgive their persecutors, some, even upon their very death. They cried out forgiveness!
Yes, our church has been through massacre after massacre and horrific things have happened to many within the church, I do not make light of the situation and humbly remember those who have gone before us and have died for the faith… but in the light of the very martyrs and saints we venerate… HAVE WE REALLY UNDERSTOOD THEIR DEATHS?
It amazes me that even they could shout upon their deaths “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” (as our Beloved Jesus did, what a great example to live by!). Can we really say we have lived the lives of the saints when we cannot even utter a single… ‘brother, I forgive you for what you have done to me 1000 years ago.’?
It doesn’t mean we have to condone the sin, only to love the sinner, truly from the heart and not with our lips. The sins of our past still burden us today. Jesus said … how do you expect My Father in heaven to forgive you when you have not forgiven others? Leave your Gifts at the Altar and go and seek peace with your brother.
I believe as Orthodox, in our efforts to preserve the faith we have been blinded along the way. We have done well to preserve the Holy Tradition and customs (the Law) of the church under the brutal assaults we have received, but I am also concerned that we will lose the very Thing that will bring us salvation in the end … without even realizing it…. and that is The Holy Spirit… Love… the Essence of the Law, the New commandment Jesus gave us and the weightier part of the Law and First commandment.
As an Orthodox Christian trying so hard to live the sacramental life and teach my children about the Love of Christ through OUR CHURCH, I cannot help but feel oppressed by the sins of the past, that are constantly burdening us, the lay people. It will be by the power of the Holy Spirit and His ability to save His church, NOT men who sit in high seats.
He is the Life Giver, He will return, He is amongst us now, but do we really recognize Him anymore? And as He spoke with His Apostles “how much faith will I find when I return?”
Have we also exchanged Christ’s image for man? The very thing we accuse other churches of doing? In other words … entrusting the salvation of the church from the apostates … to MEN and their beliefs regarding the deposit of faith left to us by the Apostles? Or do we entrust it to the Holy Spirit who guides the church through the PURE hearts of men?
How many of us (I humbly include myself as I am a sinner) can truly say our hearts are still PURE to receive the Holy Spirit of guidance when for so many years we continue to be obstinate in our ways and without Christ’s love for our brother?
Jesus said to us, remember … what you have done to the least of these you have done to Me. Well, that goes both ways… what they have done to us (massacres, persecutions, etc.,.) in the past.. as well as what we do to them, NOW, and that is the resentment we continue to hold in our hearts… we would rather harbor suspicion and resentment and spend more wasted energy in arguments and pride, rather than trust in the Holy Spirit to heal us. This sin blocks the way to true unity of the Holy Spirit to mankind.
The scriptures say that the Holy Spirit cannot come to a soul indebted to sin. As Orthodox … have we also fallen into this category (a snare of the devil)? By our over prudence and stubbornness we suffocate the Spirit because we have misguided our love for Christ’s Church into ‘ourselves’…. the image of man, instead of entrusting it to the Holy Spirit to spread the faith with great love, wisdom and tolerance among those ‘outside’ the fold.
As if we are actually going to be the ones who will save His church! To believe this analogy is also a sin. We are weak and human and the servant is NOT above His Master. It is only by the Power of the Holy Spirit that His church will be saved!
All this arguing and confusion, whether over Calendars, procession of the Holy Spirit, leaven or unleavened, communion Body or Blood or Both, etc. IS SIN, sins of the past that still burden us today! Why? Because none of us have sincerely left our Gifts at the Altar as The Lord has instructed us to do and gone to seek peace. Simple peace found in purity of heart, NOT the peace of men … but the peace bestowed by Christ.
We say they must come to us to ask forgiveness because we are the ones who possess the Truth, Christ is to be found in our walls not theirs. I am afraid that if we continue on this path we will no longer hear His voice because we refuse to lower ours, we can no longer see Him because we refuse to lower our heads. He is passing through us NOW. How much faith has He found?
I would not be fooled into thinking that the persecutions of our church is not sin… NOR, also … that our inability to forgive and this continued stubbornness is also not a sin, BECAUSE IT IS! The inability to forgive sows the seeds of doubt against the Holy Spirit and that is a blasphemy that we must be prepared to answer for.
Which is worse?
The one who committed the sin and with a contrite heart asked for forgiveness of the atrocities committed in the crusades etc..(as THIS Pope has done) from the very church that claims to posses the Truth … but did not receive the forgiveness because of the power men think they have to withhold it?
In the meantime, totally forgetting that only God can know the hearts of men, let us not be fooled into thinking that God has not known the heart of THIS Pope who in his efforts to obtain the simple peace of Christ, bowed before the feet of our Archbishop with a contrite heart to ask humbly for forgiveness of the Catholic Church and the atrocities committed against the Orthodox.
How much longer are we as Greeks going to harbor the mistrust? At what point do we really trust the deposit of Faith and relinquish Satan’s power over us and entrust the church and it’s healing to Christ? As long as men think they should remain in control, then we will reap what we have sown, even when we think we are justified in acting this way.
So…. which is worse?
The one who asked and did not receive? (remember, Christ said “ask and you SHALL receive.”)
Or … the one who abuses the Words of the Lord to withhold forgiveness. ‘For those whose sins you retain let them remain, for those whose sins are forgiven by you are forgiven in heaven.’ (paraphrased of course) I constantly hear this verse quoted and it makes me sad because we have made a grave error in understanding this verse, and by this error we use it as a power over our brothers.
God knows the hearts of men including the Orthodox zealous who have misguided their love for the preservation of the church into ‘themselves’ by the power they think they received to retain or loose the sins of others. This attitude is very dangerous and continues to breed hearts of stone and does not allow the Holy Spirit to breath freely within the church. We too will have ‘spiritual blood’ on our hands come Judgment Day, and if we think we are innocent then we have fallen out of the humbled state Christ taught us to live.
So in conclusion, this is what I have learned:
No, we have not left our Gifts at the Altar to go and seek peace with our brothers.
“May Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us the sinners.”
Amen
