WHAT IS ORTHODOXY
By Archbishop Averky of Syracuse and the Monastery of the Holy Trinity
On the first Sunday of the Great Fast our Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, the victory of true Christian teaching over all its perversions and distortions - heresies and false teachings. On the second Sunday of the Great Fast it is as if this triumph of Orthodoxy is repeated and deepened in connection with the celebration of the memory of one of the greatest pillars of Orthodoxy, the hierarch Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, who by his grace - by bringing eloquence and the example of his highly ascetic private life he put to shame the masters of lies who dared to reject the very essence of Orthodoxy, the podvig of prayer and fasting, which illuminates the human mind with the light of grace and makes him a communicant of divine glory.
Alas! How few people there are in our time, even among the educated, and sometimes even among contemporary "theologians" and those in the ranks of the clergy, who correctly understand what Orthodoxy is and in what its essence lies. They approach this question in a completely external, formal way and resolve it too primitively, even naively, completely neglecting its depths and not seeing the fullness of its spiritual contents at all.
Despite the superficial opinion of the majority, Orthodoxy is not simply another of the many "Christian denominations" now in existence, or as it is expressed here in America "denominations." Orthodoxy is the true, undistorted, unperverted by any sophism or human invention, genuine teaching of Christ in all its purity and fullness — the teaching of faith and piety which is life according to Faith.
Orthodoxy is not just the sum total of dogmas accepted as true in a purely formal way. It's not just theory, but practice; it is not just right Faith, but a life that agrees in everything with this Faith. The true Orthodox Christian is not only one who thinks Orthodoxly, but who feels according to Orthodoxy and lives Orthodoxy, who strives to embody in his life the true Orthodox teaching of Christ.
"The words that I speak to you are spirit and life": thus the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples of His divine teaching (John 6:63) . Consequently, the teaching of Christ is not just abstract theory, separated from life, but spirit and life. Therefore, only he who thinks Orthodoxy, feels Orthodoxy and lives Orthodoxy can be considered Orthodox in reality.
At the same time one must realize and remember that Orthodoxy is not only and always what is officially called "orthodox", since in our false and evil times the appearance everywhere of pseudo-orthodoxy raising its head and establishing itself in the world it is an extremely serious fact but, unfortunately, already indisputable. This false orthodoxy fiercely strives to replace true orthodoxy, for in his time the Antichrist will strive to supplant and replace Christ with himself.
Orthodoxy is not simply a type of purely earthly organization headed by patriarchs, bishops and priests who hold ministry in the Church that is officially called "Orthodox". Orthodoxy is the mystical "Body of Christ", whose Head is Christ Himself (see Ephesians 1:22-23 and Col. 1:18, 24 et seq.), and its composition includes not only priests but all those who truly believe in Christ, who have entered licitly through Holy Baptism into the Church founded by Him, those living on earth and those who have died in Faith and piety.
The Orthodox Church is not some kind of "monopoly" or "business" of the clergy as the ignorant and strangers to the spirit of the Church think. It is not the heritage of this or that hierarch or priest. It is the close spiritual union of all those who truly believe in Christ, who strive in a holy way to observe the commandments of Christ for the sole purpose of inheriting that eternal bliss which Christ the Savior has prepared for us, and if they sin out of weakness, they sincerely repent and they strive to "produce fruit worthy of conversion" (Luke 3:8).
The Church, it is true, cannot be completely removed from the world, because people who are still living on earth enter it, and therefore the "earthly" element in its external composition and organization is inevitable, but much less "earthly" " is there, the better it will be for its eternal objectives. In any case this "earthly" element must not obscure or suppress the purely spiritual element - the question of the salvation of the soul to eternal life - for the sake of which the Church is was founded and exists.
The first and fundamental criterion, which we can use as a guide to distinguish the True Church of Christ from the false Churches (of which there are now many!), is the fact that it has preserved the Truth intact, not distorted by human sophisms, since according to the Word of God, "the Church is the pillar and foundation of truth" (I Tim. 3:15), and therefore there can be no falsehood in it. Anything in her name officially proclaims or confirms any falsehood is already not the Church. Not only the highest servants of the Church, but the hosts of lay believers must shun every lie, remembering the Apostle's admonition: "Therefore, abandoning lying, let each one speak the truth to his neighbor" (Eph 4:25) . , Or "(Col. 3:9) . Christians must always remember that, according to the words of Christ the Savior, lies come from the devil, who "is a liar and the father of lies" (Jn 8:44). where there is falsehood there is no True Orthodox Church of Christ! Instead there is a false church which the visionary saint vividly and clearly described in his Apocalypse as "a great whore sitting on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication" (Revelation 17:1-2).
Even in the Old Testament we see from God's prophets that unfaithfulness to the true God was often 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 crazy days we should observe not a few attempts to turn the Church of Christ itself into a "brothel", and this not only in the aforementioned figurative sense, but also in the literal sense of this word, when it is so easy to justify oneself, fornication and all impurity are not even considered sins! We saw an example of this in the so-called "living clergymen" and "renovationists" in our unfortunate homeland after the Revolution, and now in the person of all contemporary "modernists"(Mt 11.30) for themselves and betray the entire ascetic structure of our Holy Church, legalizing every transgression and moral impurity. Talking here about Orthodoxy, of course, is in no way appropriate, despite the fact that the dogmas of the Faith remain intact and unharmed!
True orthodoxy, on the other hand, is alien to any dead formalism. In it there is no blind adherence to the "letter of the law", because 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 this is the case in reality. In Orthodoxy there can be no place for Jesuit casuistry; the favorite saying of worldly jurists can. not be applied: "You can't trample on the law, you have to get around it."
Orthodoxy is the one and only Truth, the pure Truth, without any admixture or the slightest shadow of falsehood, falsehood, evil or fraud.
The most essential thing in Orthodoxy is the podvig of prayer and fasting which the Church especially exalts during the second week of the Great Fast as the double-edged "wonderful sword" with which we strike the enemies of our salvation: the dark demonic power . It is through this podvig that our soul is illuminated by the grace-bearing divine light, as taught by Saint Gregory Palamas, who is "triumphantly honored by the Holy Church on the second Sunday of the Great Fast". Glorifying the sacred memory of him, the Church calls this wonderful hierarch "the preacher of grace", "the beacon of Light", "the preacher of divine light", "an immovable pillar for the Church".
Christ the Savior himself emphasized 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 plainly, “This kind (of devil) cannot be overcome except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Interpreting this passage of the Gospel story, our great patristic theologian-ascetic, the hierarch Theophan the Recluse, asks: "Can we think that where there is no prayer and fasting, there is already a demon?" And he answers: “We can. Demons, when they enter a person, do not always betray their entry, but hide, secretly teaching their hosts every evil and averting every good. That person can be convinced that he is doing everything himself , while he is only carrying out the will of his enemy. Only undertake prayer and fasting and the enemy will immediately leave and wait elsewhere for an opportunity to return; and he will indeed return if prayer and fasting are soon abandoned" (Thoughts for Every day of the year, pp. 245-246).
From this one can come to a direct conclusion: where fasting and prayer are ignored, neglected or completely set aside, there is no trace of orthodoxy: there is the rule of demons who treat man as their own pathetic toy.
This, then, is where all contemporary "modernism", which demands "reform" in our Orthodox Church, leads! All these liberal freethinkers and their lackeys, who strive to belittle the meaning of prayer and fasting, no matter how much they shout and proclaim their alleged allegiance to the dogmatic teaching of our Orthodox Church, cannot be considered truly Orthodox, and have proved such apostates from Orthodoxy.
We will always remember that in itself totally formal Orthodoxy has no goal if it has no "spirit and life" - and the "spirit and life" of Orthodoxy are first of all in the podvig of prayer and fasting; furthermore, the genuine fasting that the Church teaches about is understood in this case as abstinence in every respect, and not simply refusal to enjoy non-Lenten foods.
Without podvig there is no true Christianity at all, that is, Orthodoxy. See what Christ, the first ascetic himself, clearly says; "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mk 8:34). The true Christian, the Orthodox Christian, is only he who strives to emulate Christ in carrying the cross and is ready to crucify himself in the name of Christ. The holy Apostles taught this clearly. Thus the apostle Peter writes: "If when you do good and suffer for it, you endure it, this is pleasing to God. For here also you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we should follow his footsteps" (I Pet. 2:2-21). In exactly the same way the holy apostle Paul repeatedly says in his epistles that all true Christians must be ascetics, and the ascetic work of the Christian consists in crucifying himself for the sake of Christ: "Those who are Christians have crucified together the flesh with the passions and lusts" (Gal. 5:24). A favorite expression of St. Paul is that we must be crucified with Christ in order to be resurrected with him. He expounds this thought in a variety of his sayings in many of his epistles.
You see, therefore, that he who loves only to pass his time in amusement and thinks not of self-denial and self-sacrifice, but continually revels in every possible pleasure and carnal joy is completely unorthodox, unchristian. In this regard, the great ascetic of Christian antiquity, the Venerable Isaac the Syrian, taught well: «The way of God is a daily cross. of the beautiful path, we know where it ends" (Works, p. 158). This is that "wide and broad way" which, in the words of the Lord Himself, "leads to destruction" (Matthew 7:13) .
This then is what Orthodoxy, or True Christianity, is!
Few people today know that the Orthodox Church is none other than that Church which has preserved intact the genuine teachings of Jesus Christ, the same teachings passed on to each successive generation of believers. These teachings have come down through the centuries. by the Holy Apostles, explained and carefully interpreted by their legitimate successors (their disciples and holy Fathers), betrayed and preserved unchanged by our Eastern Church, the only one that can demonstrate its right to be called "the Orthodox Church".
The divine Founder of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, clearly said: "I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (St. Matthew xvi, 18). He sent the Holy Spirit to the Church. The Spirit descended upon the Apostles, the Spirit of Truth (St. John xv, 16s) who "manifests all things" to her and guides her (St. John xvi, 13), protecting her from error. Indeed, it was to declare this Truth to men that the Lord came into the cosmos, according to his own words (St. John xviii, 31). And Saint Paul confirms this fact in his letter to his disciple, Bishop Timothy, saying that "the Church of the living God is the foundation and pillar of truth" (I Tim 3, 15).
Since She is “the foundation and pillar of Truth,” “the gates of Hell cannot prevail against Her.” It follows, then, that the true Christian Church - palpably unique since Christ established one Church - has always existed on earth and will exist until the end of time. She received Christ's promise: "I will be with you until the end of time". Can there be the slightest doubt that the Lord is referring here to the Church? Any honest and sound judgment, any act of good conscience, anyone familiar with the history of the Christian Church, with the pure and unaltered moral and theological teachings of the Christian religion, must confess that there was but one true Church founded by our Lord , Jesus Christ, and that You have kept His Truth holy and unchanged. History also reveals a traceable bond of grace from the holy Apostles to their successors and to the holy Fathers. Contrary to what others have done, the Orthodox Church has never introduced innovations in its teachings to "keep up with the times", to be "progressive", "not to be left by the wayside", or to accommodate the needs and the fashions of the moment, always suffused with evil. The Church never conforms to the world.
In fact no, because the Lord said to his disciples at the Last Supper: "You are not of this world". We must stick to these words if we want to remain faithful to true Christianity: the true Church of Christ has always been, is and will always be foreign to this world. Separated from it, it is able to transmit the divine teachings of the Lord unchanged, because that separation has kept it unchanged, that is, as the immutable God himself. What the learned call "conservatism" is a principal and, perhaps, most characteristic index of the true Church.
Since the TRUTH is given to us once and for all, our task is to assimilate it rather than discover it. We are commanded to confirm ourselves and others in the Truth and thus bring all to the true Faith, Orthodoxy.
Unfortunately, opinions expressed by well-known figures that are harmful to her have appeared within the Church itself, even among the hierarchies. The desire to "march with the times" makes them fear not being recognized as "educated", "liberal" and "progressive". These modern apostates of Orthodoxy are "ashamed" to confess that our Orthodox Church is precisely the Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church to which belongs the great promise that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her", and to whom he confided the plenum of divine Truth. With their deception and false humility, with their blasphemy against the Lord, these false shepherds and those with them have been distanced from the true Church. They tacitly expressed the idea that "the gates of hell" had "prevailed" against the Church. In other words, these apostates claim that our holy Orthodox Church is equally "at fault" for the "division of the churches" and should now "repent" of its sins and enter into union with other "Christian churches" by means of certain concessions for them, the result is a new, indivisible church of Christ.
This is the ideology of the religious movement that has become so fashionable in our times: "The ecumenical movement" among whose number one can count the Orthodox, even our clergy. For some time we have heard that they belong to this movement to "witness to the peoples of other confessions the truth of holy Orthodoxy", but it is difficult for us to believe that this statement is something more than "throwing gunpowder in our eyes". Their frequent theological declarations in the international press cannot lead us to any other conclusion than that they are traitors of the holy Truth.
As a matter of historical fact, the "ecumenical movement" - of which the WCC is the supreme body - is an organization. of purely Protestant origin. Almost all Orthodox Churches have joined, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia being the most notable exception. Even those churches behind the "Iron Curtain" joined. For some time the Russian Patriarchate resisted, flattering itself with the purity of its Orthodoxy and quite naturally seeing this movement as hostile to Orthodoxy. She has since become a member.
The Russian Synod is almost unique in its opposition to the "ecumenical movement." How to explain its isolation from the rest of "global orthodoxy"? We must understand the situation in terms of the words that "this must come to pass" (St. Luke xxi, 9), that is, the "great apostasy" clearly foretold by the Lord (Sol II, 3-12). “it is permitted by God,” as [St.] Ignatius Brianchaninoff said nearly a century ago. (Another spiritual father, Theophan the Recluse, painfully announced that the horrible apostasy would begin in Russia.)[St.] Ignatius wrote: "We are powerless to arrest this apostasy. Powerless hands will have no power against it and will not nothing more will be required than the attempt to hold it back. The spirit of the age will reveal the apostasy. Study it, if you wish to avoid it, if you wish to escape this age and the temptation of its spirits. It may also be supposed that the institution of the Church which totters from long time it will fall terribly and suddenly. In fact, no one can stop or prevent it. The current means of supporting the institutional Church are borrowed from the elements of the world, things inimical to the Church, and the consequence will only be to accelerate its fall. However, the Lord protects the elect and their limited number will be filled."
The Enemy of humanity makes every effort and uses all means to confuse it. Help comes to him through the total collaboration of all the secret and invisible heterodox, especially those priests and bishops who betray their high calling and oath, the true faith and the true Church.
Repudiation of and preservation from the apostasy that has made such enormous progress demands that we separate ourselves from the spirit of the age (which bears the seeds of its own destruction). If we expect to resist the world, it is first necessary to understand it and sensitively keep in mind that in this present age everything that bears the holiest and cherished name of Orthodoxy is not actually Orthodox. Rather, it is often "a fraudulent and usurped Orthodoxy" that we must fear and avoid as if it were fire. Unlike this false faith, true Orthodoxy has been given and must be accepted without novelty and nothing must be accepted as teaching or practice of the Church that is contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the dogma of the Universal Church. True Orthodoxy thinks only of serving God and saving souls and is not concerned with the secular and ephemeral well-being of men. True Orthodoxy is spiritual and not physical or psychological or earthly. To protect ourselves from the "spirit of the age" and preserve our allegiance to true Orthodoxy, we must first and with all our might live above reproach: a total and rigorous commitment to Christ, without deviations from the commandments of God or the laws of his holy Church. At the same time, we must have no common prayer or spiritual connection with modern apostasy or with anything that "dirties" our holy Faith, even those dissenters who call themselves "Orthodox". They will go their way and we will go ours. We must be honest and tenacious, following the right path,
The sure path to perdition is indifference and unprincipledness which is euphemistically called “the bigger picture.” This "broadened vision" is contrasted with the "rigor of ideas" which, in modern times, is fashionable to label as "narrow" and "fanatic". Of course, if one adopts the "modern mentality", one must consider the holy martyrs - whose blood is "the cement of the Church" - and the Fathers of the Church - who fought all their lives against heretics - nothing less than " narrow" and "fanatic". In truth, there is little difference between "the broad way" that the Lord warned against and the modern "broader vision." He condemned the "broad path" as the path to "gehenna".
Of course, the idea of "gehenna" does not scare those "liberal" and avant-garde theologians. They may smugly "theologize" about it, but by recklessly and arbitrarily discussing "the new ways of Orthodox theology" and acquiring a number of disciples, they demonstrate that they no longer believe in the existence of Hell. This new generation of "orthodox" is nothing more than modern "scholastics".
In other words, the way of these "progressives" is not ours. Their way is deceptive, and it is a pity that it is not obvious to everyone. The “wider” or “broader view” alienates us from the Lord and his true Church. It is the road that leads away from Orthodoxy. This vision is sinister, maliciously invented by the Devil to deny us salvation. For us, however, we do not accept innovations, but we choose the ancient and proven way, the way in which true Christians have chosen to serve God for 2000 years.
Let us choose the path of fidelity to the true Faith and not the "modern path". We choose fidelity to the true Church with all its canons and dogmas that have been received and confirmed by local and universal Councils. Let us choose the holy customs and traditions, the spiritual riches of that faith transmitted to us complete and entire by the Holy Apostles, by the Holy Fathers of the Church and by the Christian heritage of our venerated ancestors. This alone is the faith of the true Orthodox, as distinguished from the counterfeit "orthodoxy" invented by the Adversary. We only receive the Apostolic Faith, the Faith of the Fathers, the Orthodox Faith.
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