By Protopresbyter Dr. James Thornton [+2024]
The late Metropolitan
Chrysostomos of Etna often commented that we live in an era of theological, ecclesiological,
and liturgical mediocrity. And while the statement is a model of the restraint
typical of His Eminence, what was meant is that in our time the outrageous and
unthinkable have become a reality, even a commonplace. From the standpoint of
religious bodies outside of Orthodox Christianity the description is obviously
and without any doubt true. Sadly, it is also true, to a large degree,
regarding much of what is called “World Orthodoxy,” the Orthodoxy that is
involved, directly or indirectly, in the so-called ecumenical movement and the
World Council of Churches, and in the promotion of the “new” or Papal festal
calendar, all flagrant betrayals of Holy Orthodoxy and of her Holy Canons. The
accuracy of the Metropolitan’s observation about mediocrity, and much worse,
becomes crystal clear when one reviews the final three quarters of the twentieth
century, and the first decades of the twenty-first, during which the abuses
mentioned above appear and then over time have become ever more pronounced within
World Orthodoxy.
However, God does not abandon his
people, as the Metropolitan knew well. Holy Scripture informs us: “Be strong
and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy
God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee.” [1] And Christ Jesus Himself spoke the words “Fear not” many
times, instructing us to believe in Him, [2] belief in Him being the antidote
to fear. And so, God gives us holy men to protect us from evil and to direct us
toward the good. We see proof of that in the lives of a number of Holy Church
Fathers of the twentieth century, several of whom we discuss here and all of
whom, in this case, were hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
Reading the biography of Archbishop Averky, which follows, one will note that
Father Seraphim (Rose) refers to him as among the last of the giants of the
contemporary Orthodox Church. All of the men featured here were precisely that;
giants of the Church, giants standing courageously athwart the path of the
heresies of our age.
1. BLESSED
ARCHBISHOP ANDREI, OF ROCKLAND & NOVO-DIVEEVO
Archbishop Andrei of thrice
blessed memory was born March 15, 1893 (O.S.) in Romny, Poltava, Russian Empire
(now part of Ukraine). At his Baptism, he was given the name Adrian — Adrian
Adrianovich Rymarenko. The Archbishop commented himself that he grew up
surrounded by
that Orthodox way of life which for generations had been created by Holy
Russia. In our family, life proceeded according to the Church calendar,
according to the yearly Church cycle. [3]
He goes on to say,
Our family
was wealthy. And the religious outlook with which our life was penetrated was
naturally reflected in deeds as well: we participated in the building of
churches, set out tables with food for poor people, sent donations to prisons,
hospitals, workhouses. [4]
The Revolution of 1905 gave rise
to a severe diminution of morale in Russia. The Archbishop writes that it
caused much disillusionment and desolation in society. People tended to live
more frivolously, their attention centered on what the Archbishop refers to as “egoistic
interests.” Feeling this atmosphere of cold alienation, he became dissatisfied
with the direction of his life, which aimed at secular success, and instead
felt that he needed the same Orthodox Way of Life that had surrounded
him during his childhood and youth.
During this stage of his life, he
came across a group of Orthodox students led by Archpriest John Egorov. This
group of about twenty-five students were given lectures by Father John on the
traditional Orthodox way of life based on the Holy Church Fathers and their writings.
The Archbishop explains that, among other things, he came to understand that
the Divine Services are not merely ritual, “but that in them are revealed the dogmas
of faith. They are the foundations of man’s reception of Divinity.” [5] Upon
completion of these lectures and studies, he states that he had come back to life.
He then came across Father Nektary, a disciple of Elder Saint Ambrose of
Optina, who, he says, showed him the path of pastoral service. Thus, in the
early 1920s he married and was ordained a Priest.
His pastoral duties began in his
hometown, Romny, at the local Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky. However, in
1926 the Soviet authorities closed the church and sent Father Adrian to Kiev,
where he was under surveillance. The Archbishop describes the reign of the
militant Communists as “the frightful time of the reveling of the atheists,
against a background of demonic carnivals, in the heat of persecution against
the Church and believers, of massive arrests and executions.” [6]
In 1941 the Germans occupied Kiev
and immediately reopened the churches and other Orthodox institutions including
the Protection Hospital Convent, where he served as Priest, and a home for the
crippled and aged. That time of the resurrection of Orthodox Church life lasted
but a brief two years. With the return of the Soviets those associated with the
Church or with any anti-Communist activities were evacuated, eventually finding
themselves in war-torn Germany.
Father Adrian was assigned head
of the Orthodox cathedral in Berlin where he assured that Divine Services were
celebrated every day, despite the continuous bombings. The Archbishop comments,
The Lord
helped us to preserve the Divine gift of the Eucharist of Christ so as to
strengthen and confirm in faith the souls of our Russian people who had fled
from communism or had been brought by force to Germany. The church was
constantly filled with Russian youth, who for the most part knew neither their
homeland nor God nor the Orthodox way of life, but now instinctively were drawn
to the Church, to Christ. One had to help them, caress them, teach them,
instruct them. [7]
As the war drew to a close and
the communists began to occupy Berlin amidst the most horrifying Bolshevik
atrocities, Orthodox clergy and people were evacuated, in the case of Father
Adrian, to the small town of Wendlingen in the State of Württemberg. There was
still danger, however. British and American leaders had signed a disgraceful
repatriation agreement with Stalin, promising to return to the USSR, and to the
“tender mercies” of the Red dictator, forcibly if necessary, all former Soviet
citizens, and even Russians who had left Russia before or during the civil war
and were never Soviet citizens. Thanks be to God, Father Adrian was not
included in the “repatriation.”
Father Adrian and other Orthodox
clergy were eventually allowed to immigrate to America. There, he was given the
duty of establishing a convent for Orthodox nuns scattered about various
countries by the revolution and the war. Thus, he founded Holy Dormition
Convent, known also as Novo-Diveevo, [8] in Nanuet, New York.
In 1968 Father Adrian’s wife,
Matushka Evgenia, reposed in the Lord and therefore, later that year, he was
tonsured a monk, with the name Andrei, and consecrated Bishop of Rockland. He
continued to serve as spiritual father to the nuns at Novo-Diveevo. He was also
Spiritual Father to Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of New York. Archbishop Andrei
reposed in the Lord July 12, 1978.
Blessed Archbishop Andrei is
known for his excellent book The One Thing Needful which is a collection
of his sermons for an entire year. The sermons are concise yet are sharply
focused on matters important to our salvation. An example of this is his sermon
for the Fifth Sunday After Pentecost, on which he speaks on the Gospel
According to Saint Matthew 8:28-9:1. This Gospel lesson involves Christ’s encounter
with two men possessed by demons.
The two demoniacs were, the
Gospel says, “exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.” [9] In
other words, the two demon-possessed men were very dangerous so that people
avoided passing by that area, and for good reason. Being controlled by demons,
they were capable of any evil and could easily injure or kill passersby.
Moreover, they lived in tombs which, of course, were unclean, but were a
natural environment for these hellish creatures. And so, these passages from
Holy Scripture testify to the existence of demons and of evil. The Archbishop
notes,
In our time
such a reality doesn’t even require proof. Every day, every newspaper tells us
about a whole list of crimes which simply cannot be explained without recognizing
that the person [committing such crimes] is possessed by an external, evil
power. [10]
Knowing that Christ is the Son of
God and saying so, and knowing too that He has the power to cast them out of
the two men, they ask if they might be allowed to enter into a herd of swine.
Christ tells them to go. The swine were so violently agitated when the demons entered
them that they rushed down a steep place and into the sea, perishing all.
Archbishop Andrei then comments,
Here is the
most terrible passage in this Gospel. First the demons were in two possessed
men. Later, we saw them in an entire herd of swine. And then, a whole town—possessed.
With what? With a passion for profit. According to Jewish law, raising pigs was
unlawful, sinful. But it made money, and huge amounts of money. And here an
entire herd perished. [11]
The Gospel says that “the whole
city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he
would depart out of their coasts.” [12]
The Archbishop states,
And the
people seemed to be saying to the Lord: “You have only set foot on our land and
have caused us a terrible loss. What will happen next if you stay here any
longer? You will ruin us completely! We see, we understand your greatness: even
the devils are obedient to you! But what does that do for us? What do the two healed
men matter to us? We don’t need your miracles. We need thousands, millions of
dollars. You are not for us. Go away, go away at once.” [13]
Since the people of that city
rejected him, the Gospel says that “he entered into a ship, and passed over,
and came into his own city.” [14]
Archbishop Andrei tells us to
examine our own souls and then asks a painful question,
Doesn’t the
same thing happen with us? Some kind of passion takes possession of us, but
Christ becomes an obstacle. And in our soul, we whisper the same terrible
words: “Go away from us.” May the Lord keep us from this! May our words
directed to Him always be: “Come to us and never leave us.” [15]
All kinds of things can become
passions. All of us must earn our livings, but earning money can become a passion
if it goes too far. If it goes too far it can damage our relationship with our
family, with friends, or, most serious from a spiritual standpoint, with Christ
and His Church. Immoral thoughts or actions can easily become a passion so
strong that it ruins our ability to think clearly and logically, almost like a
form of insanity, blinding us, depriving us of the ability to see the consequences
of our activity. Those passions obviously require a rejection of Christ. Sports
and hobbies can become a passion if taken so far that they rob us of precious
time which, at least in part, we owe to Christ. Let us be cognizant of the fact
too that some of these passions can, so to speak, creep up on us without us realizing
how serious they have become.
On this subject of unbridled
passions leading to a rejection of Christ, the Archbishop writes, “May the Lord
keep us from this! May our words directed to Him always be: ‘Come to us and
never leave us.’” [16]
Blessed Archbishop Andrei was a
true Church Father, like those in the early years of the Church and no
different from those of the Golden Ages of the Fathers. We learn from him, by
his life and by his writings. Another true Holy Church Father of our time, Saint
Philaret, Metropolitan of New York and First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox
Church Abroad until his repose in 1985, said of Archbishop Andrei in his Foreword
to The One Thing Needful that he “possessed a most rich spiritual
experience and a vast knowledge both in the realm of pure theology and in the
realm of the spiritual-ascetic writings of the Holy Fathers. [17]
Let us study his writings and
gain from his experience and knowledge.
2. BLESSED ARCHBISHOP AVERKY, OF
SYRACUSE & HOLY TRINITY MONASTERY
Father Seraphim (Rose) of Platina
refers to Archbishop Averky as “one of the last of the giants of 20th-century
Orthodoxy, not merely of the Russian Church Outside of Russia, or even of
Russian Orthodoxy—but of the whole of the 20th-century Orthodox Church.” [18]
Indeed so! He was born Alexander Pavlovich Taushev on October 19, 1906 (O.S.)
in Kazan, Simbirsk Province, Russian Empire. His family was of the Russian
nobility. While still quite young, he especially preferred reading books of a
spiritual nature which motivated him towards a monastic life.
Upon the outbreak of civil war
after the revolution of 1917, the family left Russia, settling in Bulgaria, in the
city of Varna. A major influence on young Alexander’s life at this time was
Archbishop Theophan of Poltava, whom Father Seraphim describes as “a strict monk,
a man of prayer, and theologian in the true Patristic tradition.” [19] It was
with the blessing of Archbishop Theophan, that Alexander entered the Theological
Faculty of the University of Sofia, from which he graduated magna cum laude in
1930. The following year he was tonsured a monk with the new name Averky and a
year after that ordained a priestmonk. During this time he served several
parishes in the Carpatho-Russian region of Czechoslovakia until that area was
occupied by the Hungarians in 1940. From there he moved to Belgrade where he
served under Metropolitan Anastassy, Chief Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox
Church Abroad.
With the seizure of Yugoslavia by
the communists at the conclusion of the Second World War, the Synod of Bishops
of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad moved to Munich, in the American-occupied
zone of Germany. There he centered his activities on the religious education of
the young. In 1951 he came to America where he taught courses in the New Testament,
Liturgics, and Homiletics to students at the newly established Holy Trinity
Seminary at Jordanville, New York. On May 25, 1953, Archimandrite Averky was
consecrated Bishop of Syracuse and in 1960 was appointed Abbot of Holy Trinity
Monastery and elevated to the rank of Archbishop. He served his remaining years
as Abbot and as teacher, transmitting all that he learned in his lifetime to
his monks and his students. Vladika Averky reposed in the Lord on March 31,
1976 (O.S.).
Archbishop Averky wrote an
impressive body of works. Currently available in English language editions are
his massive three-volume Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New
Testament and The Struggle for Virtue: Asceticism in a Modern
Secular Society. Other of his works have yet to be translated. Those
include A Guide to Homiletics, True Orthodoxy in the Contemporary
World, Archbishop Theophan of Poltava and Pereyaslav, and Present
Times in the Light of God’s Word.
Let us now read some excerpts
from Vladika Averky’s book, True Orthodoxy in the Contemporary World,
excerpts that have been translated from the Russian.
“The Christian world, it is
frightful to say, presents today a frightful, cheerless picture of the most
profound religious and moral decadence,” [20] says His Eminence. That
observation is, without doubt, more true today than it was when the author
wrote it decades ago. The decadence takes several forms including greed, on the
one hand, and moral depravity, on the other. Obviously, social subversion also
plays its important part.
We are rightfully obligated to
donate money in support of our church. However, congregations with thousands of
members are gulled by preachers into giving their money for the sole purpose of
enriching the preachers, who live in multi-million-dollar palaces and travel
about in chauffeur-driven limousines, while Christ Himself was poor and “had no
place to lay his head.” [21]
So-called churches demolish
centuries of liturgical tradition in favor of clown masses, rock and roll masses,
jazz masses, and other blasphemous exhibitions designed to bring things into
perfect conformity with the Zeitgeist, the “spirit of the times,” or,
one might say, the Weltgeist, the “spirit of the world.” Thus, the promoters
of such “churches” seek to satisfy the most vulgar of tastes.
The most basic moral laws are
overturned to attract degenerates who transform everything, wishing to remake
God in their own fallen image. Christ Himself is remade from the Son of God,
consubstantial with the Father, and One of the Holy Trinity, into simply a nice
man with nice ideas (though here and there a bit impractical) or remade into a
political and social revolutionary wishing to overturn civilized ways, or remade
thoroughly human with all of the faults of ordinary people, or remade into
one’s “buddy” to whom sin is not taken seriously and therefore becomes a laughing
matter. And even such men as Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin are mutated into
modern apostles of “progress” but whom in reality are apostles of a totally murderous
and satanocratic creed. To make matters even worse, practically every sect of
what is loosely termed “Christianity” has enthusiastically embraced the heresy
of ecumenism (even, sad to say, some in certain Orthodox national
jurisdictions!), in which confessional differences are ignored, the truth is
mingled with falsehood, and participants happily build what is, truth be told,
the new religion of the Antichrist. Christ warned us, “Take heed that no man
deceive you,” He warned, “for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;
and shall deceive many.” [22] Vladika Averky was certainly correct that
contemporary Christianity is decadent. It is decadence itself!
What is the purpose of this
deliberate march towards decadence? In this matter Vladika is crystal clear. He
writes, “All that is happening today of the highest levels of religion,
government, and public life … is nothing else than an intense work of
preparation for the servants of the coming Antichrist for his future kingdom.”
[23]
When the Archbishop wrote these
words the façade of normality was such that most people could not detect the
sinister undercurrent in the course of events. That was true in part because of
the threat posed by the Soviet Union, the evil empire, as it was rightly called
by then American President Ronald Reagan.
To those living in what was
called the “free world” it seemed as if they stood for all that was good. To a
certain extent that was true, but life outside of the Communist world was still
extremely materialistic. For example, the sign of our superiority to Communism
was not that the free world encouraged a worldview that recognized God and the
reality of the spiritual, but rather the fact that the non-Communist world could
produce more material goods than the Communist. That is why, recognizing that
an excessively materialistic outlook on life is antithetical to a Godly
outlook, the Archbishop wrote as follows:
The servants
of Antichrist more than anything else strive to force God out of the life of
men, so that men … might not remember God, but might live as though He did not
exist. Therefore, the whole order of today’s life in the so-called “free”
countries, where there is no open bloody persecution against faith, where
everyone has the right to believe as he wishes, is an even greater danger for
the soul of a Christian (than open persecution), for it chains him entirely to
the earth, compelling him to forget about heaven. The whole of contemporary
‘culture’, directed to purely earthly attainments and the constant state of
emptiness and distraction which gives no opportunity for one to go at least a
little deeper into his soul and so the spiritual life in him gradually dies out.
[24]
He goes on to say,
Under the
covering of a deceptive outward appearance that looks good and leads many into
error, in actuality there is occurring everywhere today a hidden persecution
against Christianity…. This persecution is much more dangerous and frightful
than the previous open persecution, for it threatens a complete devastation of
souls – spiritual death. [25]
Today, in what was once called
the “free world,” there are now open attacks by the mass media and government
on believers in more traditional forms of Christianity. The persecution is no
longer hidden. For simply speaking words of truth, for example quotations from
Sacred Scripture, these believers are, at the least, condemned as “rabid
extremists” or “potential terrorists,” and at worst threatened with arrest, prosecution,
and prison sentences, threats which in some places are actually carried out. In
Archbishop Averky’s time the plans of the devotees of the Antichrist were
better concealed, though he was not thereby misled.
How must we react to His
Eminence’s warning? There can be no doubt that his answer to us is binding, that
is if we truly believe: [26]
Now is the
time of confession—of a firm standing, if need be even to death, for one’s
Orthodox faith, which is being subjected everywhere to open and secret attacks,
oppression, and persecution on the part of the servants of the coming
Antichrist. [27]
We quote again from the pen of
Father Seraphim (Rose) on the subject of Blessed Archbishop Averky:
There are few
saints left in our pitiful times. But even if we do not see about us now such
upright and righteous ones as he, his teaching remains with us and can be our
guiding beacon in the even darker days ahead which he foresaw, when the Church
may have to go into the wilderness … the Church of the last times. [28]
Let us thank God for giving us
such men as Blessed Archbishop Averky.
3. BLESSED BISHOP
NEKTARY OF SEATTLE
Born Oleg Mikhailovich Kontsevich
in 1905 in Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, while still a young man,
Bishop Nektary was able to visit the Optina Hermitage before its closing by the
Bolsheviks in 1923. While it was open he was under the spiritual guidance of
Elder Saint Nektary of that monastery, a gift of God that dramatically altered
the direction of his life. Upon graduating from school, Vladika entered the Communications
Engineering Institute, earning a graduate degree. In 1930 he was tonsured a
Reader by a Bishop of the suffering Russian Church. Near the close of the
Second World War he was evacuated to Germany with millions of others to escape
the clutches of that very embodiment of evil, Josef Stalin. There, in Berlin, he
served at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral as a subdeacon under Father Adrian
Rimarenko, who later became Archbishop Andrei of Rockland and Novo-Diveevo.
In 1953, Vladika Nektary
emigrated to the United States where he was tonsured a monk and given the name
Nektary in honor of his spiritual father. Following that, he was ordained to
the deaconate, and, a week later, ordained to the holy priesthood. He was
assigned at that time to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco. In
1962, he was consecrated Bishop of Seattle, Vicar of the Western American
Diocese. In that role, he served the needs of the faithful in the more northerly
region of the Western Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
Although he resided in San
Francisco, he traveled frequently to Seattle to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on
Feast Days and for other matters requiring his presence. He encouraged Father
Seraphim (Rose) in the establishment of the monastery in Platina, California and
ordained him to the Holy Priesthood. After the repose of Father Seraphim on
September 2, 1982, Vladika came to the monastery in Platina on the fortieth day
to serve Divine Liturgy after which he spoke warmly of the deceased Hieromonk,
calling him a Holy Righteous One.
Blessed Bishop Nektary, who had
been ill for some years with heart ailments, reposed in the Lord only five months
later, on February 6, 1983.
Vladika is remembered by those
who knew him for, among other things, his beautiful sermons. One year, on the
twenty-ninth Sunday after Pentecost, he spoke on the appointed Gospel for that
day, which was from the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke (17:12-19). That Gospel
lesson deals with Christ’s healing of ten lepers, nine of whom were Jews and
one, a Samaritan.
The Bishop relates that,
One could not
but look with sympathy at these unfortunate men, for they suffered a terrible
infectious disease which was at the time widespread and caused untold hardship.
Victims were covered in putrid sores, their bodies rotting and decaying, and
parts of their bodies would actually fall off, their faces turned unrecognizable.
The sick also suffered bitterness, for by Mosaic law, they were obliged to show
themselves to the priests, who, confirming their disease, were driven out from
society and had no right to enter towns and villages, fated to wander the
wilderness; they were even prevented from drinking from the same water sources.
So, these ten ‘living corpses,’ rejected by all, dared not approach Christ, but
believing in His great healing power, cried out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us.” And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the
priests.’ For by the same law of Moses, the priests could declare them free of
their ailment and they could return to society. [29]
As we know, the Lepers went to
the city, where the priests were, and on their way discovered that they had been
healed, healed so fully that the priests declared them free of disease. From
having perhaps the most horrifying of diseases to being suddenly in perfect health,
one can scarcely imagine the joy that must have overwhelmed each of these men.
Vladika then says,
Imagine their
amazement, having been rejected by their relatives, their mothers, fathers,
children and friends. Having lost all hope for healing, they had no choice but
to wander the desert. Now by the word of the Lord, they headed to show
themselves to the priests and saw their bodies miraculously healing, their pain
subsiding, their limbs restored, and they became healthy human beings once
again. Undoubtedly, this miracle and living joy of healing allowed them to
sense the omnipotence of Jesus. Restored in body, they were purified and could
return to the joys of life. [30]
The healing of these ten men was
a kind of resurrection. The fullness of life had returned to them who were
previously almost dead, with bodies that were decaying even while technically
alive. One could easily picture them jumping up and down from pure unmitigated
delight.
But then we come to the crux of
the story. Of the ten who were healed, only one thought it necessary to go back
to thank the Lord for the miracle He had worked, and that one man was a
Samaritan. Remember that the Samaritans were, to the Jews, outsiders,
foreigners, a thoroughly detested group. So, according to the Savior Jesus
Christ, the nine Jews did not return to thank him but the Samaritan did. And
not only did he thank the Lord, but the Gospel says he “fell down on his face
at his feet.”
Bishop Nektary comments:
It would seem
that a just sense of gratitude would have compelled them to return to their
Benefactor and thank Him with all their hearts, which were now filled with joy
over their healing. The Lord would have received this gratitude and given them
the new light of His grace. But as the Gospel tells us, only one of them returned
and with a loud voice praised God and fell to His feet, and that man was a
Samaritan. How close is he to our hearts today. How good was he in his trembling
and inspired elation, having seen himself healed, without hesitation hurrying
back to his Savior. And how the Lord doubtless rejoiced over the return of this
once lost lamb. But only one of them returned. What of the rest? They left,
probably forever. The Lord was sorrowful over these nine and He said: “Were
there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that
returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” For if they did not
remember Him directly after being cleansed, would they remember Him when they
return to the pleasures and cares of this world? [31]
Did Christ tell this story for
the single purpose of condemning a group of Jews while exalting a Samaritan?
No, that was not His purpose. That is why Vladika then says,
Let us not
seek answers to this crude ingratitude of the healed Jews. Let us turn to
ourselves, and alone with our conscience, with pure heart compare ourselves to
those who were healed. Can we not join the Samaritan who humbly fell to the
Savior’s feet in gratitude? How bold would that be of us! We are like the
successors of the nine ungrateful Jews, and together with them we do not thank
the Lord for His great mercies and His all-gracious providence for us sinners. The
gifts and mercies of the Lord to us unworthy people are countless. The Lord summoned
us from non-existence, creating us in His image and likeness. The Lord granted
us a Divine gift—free will. He gave us the ability, in continually making
ourselves more perfect, to approach our Creator. But when we abused this gift
and willingly submitted to evil, caught and enslaved by the devil, God then
sent His Only-Begotten Son for the absolution of our sins with at the dearest
Cost—His Own Blood. If only we would repent. The Lord bestowed upon us
countless material, physical, emotional and spiritual goods, leading us by His Providence
towards salvation. But how often do we notice, with every single step we take,
the Hand of the Savior in our lives? Even the fact that we live in this country,
well-fed and free; that we now stand in church and are present at Divine
Liturgy, is a great mercy of God. Shall we not fall to His feet in gratitude? [32]
However, not only do we fall down
before Christ in thanks for the good things, the pleasant, happy things that He
gives us, but also for the difficulties and hardships. You see, these He gives
us for our benefit, to shape our characters and to shape our souls, making us fit
to receive Him in this life, and, when the time comes, in the next life. Here
he quotes from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (5:20) instructing us that
whatever comes to us we must give “thanks always for all things unto God and
the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And, quoting from Saint
Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians (5:18): “In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” To underscore this
advice to give thanks in all circumstances, he provides the following edifying
example:
There was a
certain Hieromonk (now Saint) Nikon, who was arrested by the Bolsheviks in
Optina Hermitage and sent to Turkistan. Suffering from tuberculosis, weak and
feeble, enduring beatings and an unjust trial, sent to hard labor in a terribly
hot region, this holy martyr wrote to his friends that he was limitlessly
grateful to God that He allowed him to endure all this in His Holy Name. He
wrote that he deemed the following words as though addressed to him personally:
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.” [33]
And so Vladika concludes by
reminding us that “in thanking the Lord we should not just do so for joys and pleasures,
but even for sorrows, even grave sufferings. For through great sufferings one
can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
We hear from these excerpts from
his sermon on the healing of the ten lepers how skillful and profound Blessed
Nektary was in speaking to his spiritual children. May Almighty God continue to
give us such wise and holy men for the sake of the salvation of our souls.
4. SAINT PHILARET,
METROPOLITAN OF NEW YORK [34]
It has been thirty-eight years
since of the repose of one of the great men of the twentieth century—not a great
politician, nor a great military captain, nor a great celebrity, but a man
great in the things of God: Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of New York. A true
Holy Church Father and Champion of Orthodoxy, he was a man whose character was
of precisely that unique melding of sanctity, fidelity, sobriety, and courage
that we discern in all of the Holy Fathers, from the first-century Apostolic
Fathers to those of the modern era.
Saint Philaret was born George
Nikolaevich Voznesensky on March 22, 1903 in Russia, in the city of Kursk. Upon
the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and the onset of civil war, the
Voznesensky family escaped the horrors then enveloping Russia and joined the
large numbers of emigre Russians living in Harbin, Manchuria. His father, a
Priest, took monastic vows after the death of his wife and was elected
Archbishop of Hailar, a city in China where large numbers of Russian refugees
also settled. The Saint, whose education began in Russia, completed his
education in Harbin, graduating from the Russian-Chinese Polytechnic Institute
in 1927 with a degree in electrical engineering. He then began classes in
theology at the St. Vladimir Institute, completing these in 1931. In December
1931, he was ordained a Priest and tonsured a monk, and took the name Philaret,
after St. Philaret the Almsgiver of Constantinople. Six years later he was elevated
to Archimandrite and served in various capacities in the Diocese of Harbin.
In 1945, near the end of the
Second World War, the Soviets attacked Japan, overrunning and occupying Manchuria
(then a province of the Japanese Empire known as Manchukuo). During this
period, after the Soviet occupation, Saint Philaret had as little contact with
the Soviets as was possible. He flatly and repeatedly refused Soviet
citizenship and a Soviet passport and was dauntless in his sermons, censuring the
Godless Ones for their outrages. For example, when the Journal of the Moscow
Patriarchate made reference to the mass-murderer Lenin as a benefactor of the
human race, Saint Philaret was so indignant that he devoted a sermon to the
subject, a sermon that received wide circulation in the Russian community.
Since he had become the focus of anti-Soviet sentiment among Orthodox Russians
in Harbin, Soviet agents decided to kill him by setting fire to his residence.
The Saint suffered some serious burns in the conflagration, but escaped—thanks
be to God—with his life.
In 1962 Saint Philaret was
permitted to leave Harbin. He travelled first to the then British Crown Colony
of Hong Kong and, after a short time, on to Australia. There, in 1963, he was
consecrated Bishop of Brisbane and Vicar Bishop to Archbishop Savva of the
Australian Diocese. The following year, 1964, Metropolitan Anastassy, First
Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, decided to retire. At the Sobor of Bishops
where Metropolitan Anastassy announced his retirement and asked for a new
Metropolitan to be chosen, amazingly, Saint Philaret of Brisbane, the hierarch
with the least seniority at that time, was unanimously elected the new First
Hierarch and Metropolitan. It was a providential step since the years ahead
would be difficult ones, requiring exactly a man with the qualities and
strengths of the new Metropolitan.
One of the principal issues
confronting the Church at that time was that of the growing importance of ecumenism.
Ecumenism, as it appeared and developed in the twentieth century, was
principally a movement of the Protestant left. Its agenda, its outlook, its ecclesiology,
and its theology were thoroughly Protestant in nature. In its view, all
Christian bodies were deficient and none represented the criterion of truth.
Therefore, only in bringing these bodies together, in a union of churches,
could the Church founded by Christ be, so to speak, re-founded. Moreover, its activities
were distinctly worldly, emphasizing radical social reforms and multifarious
utopian schemes and minimizing spirituality and the reality of the spiritual world
and of personal salvation. By the 1960s and ‘70s, this movement had allied
itself with various Marxist “liberation” movements across the globe, even to
the extent of financing terrorist activities.
In 1969, on the Sunday
commemorating the Sixth OEcumenical Synod, Metropolitan Philaret boldly wrote
an open letter, known today as the “First Sorrowful Epistle.” It was addressed
to “Their Holinesses and Their Beatitudes, the Primates of the Holy Orthodox
Churches” and to “the Most Reverend Metropolitans, Archbishops, and Bishops” [35]
of the Orthodox Churches throughout the world. In this First Sorrowful Epistle,
the blessed Metropolitan called the attention of the Orthodox Bishops to the
dangers of ecumenism, its intrinsic penchant for theological and moral
relativism and its basically Protestant presuppositions, and to the uncanonical
activities of certain of the Orthodox participants. He writes: “If initially
the Orthodox participated in ecumenical meetings only to present the truth,
performing, so to speak, a missionary service among confessions foreign to
Orthodoxy, now they have combined with them....” [36] Therefore, he continued,
“We regard it as our duty to protest in the strongest possible terms against
this state of affairs. We know that in this protest we have with us all the
Holy Fathers of the Church.” [37]
Unhappily, the Hierarchs of the
various national Churches addressed by the Holy Metropolitan ignored these
warnings. Consequently, in 1972, the Metropolitan penned a Second Sorrowful
Epistle, in which he cautions:
In the
[First] Sorrowful Epistle, we depicted in vivid colors to what extent the
organic membership of the Orthodox Church in that Council [the World Council of
Churches], based as it is upon purely Protestant principles, is contrary to the
very basis of Orthodoxy. In this Epistle, having been authorized by our Council
of Bishops, we would further develop and extend our warning, showing that the
participants in the ecumenical movement are involved in a profound heresy
against the very foundation of the Church. [38]
Once again, Saint Philaret’s
counsel went unacknowledged.
In 1975, the final Sorrowful
Epistle was issued, in response to a pro-ecumenist document published by the Constantinopolitan
Patriarchate. In this open letter the Metropolitan writes:
We now warn
our flock and call out to our fellow brethren, to their faith in the Church, to
their awareness of our common responsibility for our flock before the Heavenly
Chief Shepherd. We entreat them not to disdain our announcement, lest a
manifest mutilation of Orthodox teaching remain without accusation and condemnation.
Its broad distribution has moved us to inform the whole Church of our grief. We
would wish to hope that our cry will be heard. [39]
From those Epistles most
especially, the strictly Orthodox stand of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
was defined and made known to the world. Critics of the Metropolitan abounded,
writing off his Epistles as the work of a fanatic. But nothing was more contrary
to the truth. The Epistles, far from fanatical, were framed in pastoral and
moderate tones.
It is well known that the Saint
was especially concerned in the guiding and safeguarding of the souls of young
people. One of his parishioners remembers him in these words: “He would take
the youth that no one cared about and bring them into the church with nothing
but kindness. He was a father to every single one of us.” [40] In connection
with his dedication to young people, the Metropolitan produced a small book, On
the Law of God, which is composed of a series of lectures to young
people explaining basic Orthodox teaching, the benefit to them of this
teaching, and their responsibility as Orthodox Christians. We draw now from
that excellent work.
In the chapter entitled “The
Christian ‘I’,” the Metropolitan explains:
The first,
and the most important obligation which man has concerning himself, is the
working out within oneself of a spiritual character, of our true Christian “I.”
The spiritual character of a Christian is not something given to him at first.
No, it is something sought for, acquired, and worked out by his personal toils
and efforts. Neither the body of a Christian with its capabilities, powers, and
strivings, nor his soul itself ... are his spiritual personality, the spiritual
“I.” This spiritual character in an Orthodox Christian is what sharply differs
him from every non-Christian. In the Holy Scripture it is not called a soul,
but a spirit. This spirit is precisely the center, the concentration of the spiritual
life; it strives toward God and the immortal, blessed, eternal life.
We define the
task of the entire life of man as the necessity to use the earthly, transitory
life for preparation toward the eternal, spiritual life. In the present
instance, this can be said in other words: the task of the earthly life of man
consists in that he is able, in the course of this life, to build up, to work
out his spiritual character, his true, living, eternal “I.”
One can care
about one's “I” in different ways. There are people who are called egoists and
who cherish and are concerned very much with their “I.” An egoist, however,
thinks only of himself and about no one else. In his egoism, he strives to
obtain his personal happiness by any useful means—even though at the cost of
suffering and misfortune for neighbors. In his blindness, he does not realize
that from the true point of view, in the sense of the Christian understanding
of life, he only harms himself, his deathless “I.”
And here is
Orthodox Christianity (i.e., the Holy Church), calling upon man to create his
spiritual character, directing one in the course of this creativity, to
distinguish good and evil and the truly beneficial from the pretended
beneficial and harmful. She (the Holy Church) teaches us that we cannot
consider the things given us by God (ability, talents, etc.) to be our “I,”
rather we must consider them gifts of God. We must use these gifts ... for the
building of our spirit. For this, we must use all these “talents” given by God,
not for ourselves egoistically, but for others. For, the laws of Heaven’s Truth
are contradictory to the laws of earthly benefit. According to worldly
understandings he who gathers for himself on earth, acquires; according to the
teaching of God’s Heavenly Truth, he who, in the earthly life gives away and
does good, acquires (for eternity). [41]
Thus, we are taught by Saint
Philaret, that one's purpose in this life is to build and to shape one’s “I,” that
is, one’s spiritual, inward self, so that it conforms to the wishes of God. We
are taught that our abilities and talents are gifts from God that we must use
for the sake of others. And, we are taught that he who gathers for himself on
earth gathers treasure for his earthly existence. But he who gives and does
good, for the sake of Christ, acquires treasure for all eternity. May we all
pay heed to the Saintly Metropolitan’s admonitions!
NOTES
1. Deuteronomy 31:6.
2. e.g., St. Luke 8:50.
3. Archbishop Andrei of Novo-Diveevo, The One Thing
Needful (Liberty, TN: The Saint John of Kronstadt Press, 1991), p. 5
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid. p. 6.
6. Ibid., p. 7.
7. Ibid., p. 8.
8. “New-Diveevo.” Called this after a famous convent and
spiritual center in Russia, Diveevo, near Nizhny Novgorod. Saint Seraphim of Sarov
served as spiritual Elder for the nuns during his lifetime.
9. St. Matthew 8:28
10. The One Thing Needful, p. 94.
11. Ibid., p. 95.
12. St. Matthew 8:34.
13. The One Thing Needful, p. 95.
14. St. Matthew 9:1.
15. The One Thing Needful, p. 95.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., p. 3.
18. Archbishop Averky, The Apocalypse of St. John: An
Orthodox Commentary. Father Seraphim Rose, Trans. Introduction by Father
Seraphim Rose. (Platina, CA: Valaam Society of America, 1985), p. 11.
19. Ibid., p. 12.
20. Ibid., p. 15.
21. St. Matthew 8:20.
22. Ibid. 24:4-5.
23. https://mindofthefathers.wordpress.com/2021/10/31/trueorthodoxy-and-the-contemporary-world/
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Archbishop Averky, The Apocalypse St. Herman of
Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, CA, 1995, p. 23.
29. https://www.synod.com/synod/engrocor/enser_bpnektaryo10prokazhennikh.html
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. This essay first appeared in a slightly different form in
my book, Made Perfect in Faith: Sermons on the Lives and Works of Fifty Holy
Church Fathers, Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, Etna, CA, 2006,
pp. 316-322.
35. http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/sorrow.aspx
36. Ibid., p. 221
37. Ibid.
38. http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/sorrow2.aspx
39. Metropolitan Philaret, “‘The Thyateira Confession’: An
Appeal to the Primates of the Holy Churches of God, and Their Eminences the Orthodox
Hierarchs,” The Orthodox Word, Vol. XII, No. 1 (66) (January-February
1976), p. 11.
40. http://www.monasterypress.com/mphilaret.html
41. Metropolitan Philaret of New York, First Hierarch
of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, On the Law of God,
Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville NY: 2002, pp. 21-22.
Sources: The Good Word, Vol. 11, No. 5, May-June 2024
(pp. 1-8), and July-August 2024 (pp. 1-3). Footnote numbering combined.
