By the Blessed & Ever-Memorable Archbishop Averky of Jordanville
The following homily is something of a period piece, written
as it was over fifty years ago. However, although a few references may strike
readers as dated, there is much of spiritual worth in the Archbishop’s words.
Indeed, the state of the Orthodox diaspora and the mentality of its peoples has
not greatly altered since Archbishop wrote this work. If that mentality has
altered, and if the world has changed, it is sadly in both cases much to the
worse. The Archbishop’s words are more pertinent now than when he penned them.
Our readers will notice, and some might be offended by, his constant references
to the Russian peoples, but one must bear several things in mind. First and
most basically, he was a Bishop of the Russian Church addressing his flock of
Russian people, mostly emigrés, which at that point probably comprised very few
non-Russians. He is addressing them in terms to which they would respond. And take
particular notice how carefully he phrases his expression. He never speaks of “Russian
Orthodox people,” but always of “Orthodox Russian people.” There has been a
tendency, one unfortunately greatly augmented in recent years with the euphoria
in some quarters over the “re-united” (actually more-than-ever disunited)
Russian Church, to represent Russian Orthodoxy as something essentially
distinct from, and, grotesquely, even superior to, the Orthodoxy of other
peoples. Few are the hierarchs and Church leaders in the Russian Church today
who would have the sensitivity of Archbishop Averky to address the Orthodox
Russian people, rather than the Russian Orthodox people. And, although his
words are addressed to each of us as individuals, yet we can only bemoan the
fact that his teaching was not heeded by the “uniting parts of the Russian
Church” in 2007, which now so heartily congratulate themselves on their “well-being,”
but have glossed over the need for real repentance.
Today, 1st August, according to
our Orthodox calendar, we set out upon the Dormition Fast. For us it serves as
a spiritual preparation for the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy
Theotokos, imitating her own fast, by which she prepared herself for her
departure from this earthly life, and it lasts for two whole weeks.
Last year, 1959 [this sermon
was first given on 1st/14th August, 1960 - ed.], the Assembly of Hierarchs
declared this present year, 1960, a year of repentance. In connection
with this, we have for a long time been considering reminding all the
Orthodox Russian people of the Appeal of the Pastoral Conference, which
was convened this year at the Holy Trinity Monastery:
“The Fast of the Dormition of
the Theotokos stands before us, by which customarily we prepare for the Great
Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. Do we all always observe
this fast in all its strictness, do we all prepare and commune of the holy
Mysteries of Christ during this fast? The Mother of God weeps for us, having a
presentiment of the dread punishment of God, which we bring upon ourselves by
our own lack of concern, our own lack of repentance, our own stoney lack of
feeling. In this year of repentance, let us now observe this fast before the
Dormition as one of general preparation of all the people, so that we might
worthily approach the Communion of the holy Mysteries of Christ on the feast of
the Dormition. It is to this that our Pastoral Conference now calls the
Orthodox Russian people” (See Pravoslavnaya Rus’ - No 12, 15th
/ 28th June, 1960).
But what of us? Are we addressing
everyone in this appeal or not? Are we entering upon this fast as our Holy
Church teaches us, with increased prayers, with all-round abstinence from the
passions both of soul and of the body, with the labours of true repentance?
Will we prepare as is proper and as is appointed, and will we apply ourselves
with feelings of heartfelt contrition, with a firm intention to correct our
life, for the great Mysteries (sacraments) of Confession and Holy Communion?
Before all else, let us take a
clear account of ourselves with that certain truthfulness, such as pertains to
all healthy minded people; then following this, let us resolve to change our
life from the very root for the better, upon which depends the whole course of
our future, both here in this earthly life, and, what is more important, there
in that life eternal which we all await.
It is true that, glory be to God,
many of us, Orthodox Russian people abroad, make such preparation. They do so
every year in Great Lent, and some do so in the other fasts, among which the
Dormition Fast is numbered. But is this preparation, as it is sometimes done
simply by received custom, by tradition, as something inherited from pious
forebears, always a real preparation? - that is, is it really repentance, which
is what is required of us, what God awaits from us?
Can one really call it
“preparation” to receive the dread Mysteries of Christ, when one comes late at
the very start of the Divine Liturgy, expecting confession during the time of
the Liturgy itself, and thus requiring the priestly ministers either to break
off from serving or (if it is a concelebration) not to take part? Can one
really call it “preparation” when it is done in a purely mechanical way without
any deep self-examination, without the self-examination which is required by
the Apostle’s injunction (1 Cor. 11:28)?
How many come to confession
nowadays without sufficient examination of their interior world, and even, as
they themselves often openly inform the confessor, without knowing what they
have to repent of. “I am sinful, like everyone else,” or “I am sinful, having
the usual human sins,” they will customarily say, without the necessary
understanding of the whole depth and weight of their sins, and, it follows,
without the intention to leave off from, or change, their sinful life. And when
they hear the prayer of absolution, they assume that all that is required has
been done, and that with a conscience at peace they may approach the Holy
Chalice, and then equally at peace, without any interior conflict within
themselves, they continue with the sinful life to which they had formerly
become habituated.
All this is not that true
repentance, which the Kindhearted Lord, the God of those who repent,
awaits, desiring that the sinner turn away from his path of transgression.
True repentance presupposes
before all else a painstaking self-examination; an attentive scrutiny of one’s
conscience, of one’s interior world, by means of setting against it the law of
God; an assessment of one’s sinfulness, without those tiny quotas of some sort
of self-justification; it presupposes brokenness of heart on account of one’s
sins and a decisive rejection of them, united with a firm intention to make
amends for one’s sins by the good deeds which are contrary to them, and not to
repeat those sins any more.
“Repentance is a contract with
God for the correction of life,” says that great instructor of the
spiritual life, the Venerable John of the Ladder (Step 5). So, where
there is no intention to correct one’s life for the better in a
fundamental way, there is no true repentance. The Greek word itself, metania,
which has been handed down to us without the slightest shadow of
change of meaning, and which is expressed in our word ‘repentance,’
means ‘change,’ - a complete, fundamental change of a person’s thought,
feeling, and desires, i.e., his inner spiritual rebirth. For this reason
repentance is called a ‘second rebirth,’ or a ‘second Baptism’ (see the
Order of Confession in The Book of Needs).
Behold, this is the repentance
which the Lord awaits from us! He desires that we, Orthodox Russian people,
change our lives in a fundamental way, to become, as it were, a new, a
different people, better in all respects than we were hitherto.
With such repentance, such a
fundamental change for the better, our present life, all our hopes for some
better future, for our salvation, for the salvation and rebirth of our unhappy
homeland, Russia, are vain. And what are we, Orthodox Russian people in foreign
lands, to repent of?
Oh, there is much that we should
repent of!
First of all it is necessary to
repent of the general sins of mankind, checking our life against the demands of
God’s Law, even if only according to the Ten Commandments. (And for this it is
necessary, of course, to know these Ten Commandments, something which - alas! -
our contemporary generation cannot boast about). Many Russian people have completely
ceased accusing themselves of sins, even those mostly clearly and evidently
breaking these Ten Commandments, instead accounting the breaking of them as
normal, widespread, and therefore in some sense excusable. They have no idea of
the patristic saying that “the multitude of sinners does not save us.” Even if
everyone around us sins, this does not serve as any justification for our own
particular sins.
Furthermore, we have our own
particular specific sins, for which undoubtedly God will call us to account, if
we do not really repent of them.
Know that we, sons and daughters
of Holy Russia, have the great good fortune to confess the one true, the one
saving, Holy Orthodox Faith. Much has been given us. And to whom much is given,
from him much will be required (See Luke 12:48).
Our most important and basic sin
is that we have forgotten that we are living in foreign countries, in ‘far
lands,’ and here in exile and in the diaspora, we have begun to feel ‘at home.’
Many of us, - alas! - many already do not want to take into account why we are
found abroad, besides which, to be at ease in their countries and attempting to
come to terms with their circumstances, we are merging completely with life around
us, we are assimilating, slavishly imitating all the people among whom we live,
only considering how in some way we might best get established and improve our
material success, our well-being, in our new circumstances, and for this end we
are ready to sacrifice our spiritual values, including even our Faith itself.
Among us there are some who care
about the salvation and rebirth of Russia and about returning to Russia and
they even set up various types of political and patriotic organizations with
this aim, periodically holding assemblies and organizing conferences. But in
the majority of cases, they sin in that they do not desire to understand why
such a dreadful catastrophe befell our homeland, and they continue to live
aboard entertaining those very same thoughts and feelings, and with the temper which
accompanies them, which once brought that catastrophe about. They do not desire
to bring about within themselves that unique and saving fundamental change;
they do not really want to repent. And therefore, for all their sometimes,
maybe, very good and sincere intentions and efforts, they are left with
still-born fruit, which leads to nothing and never brings anything positive,
leaving behind for all only the bitter after-taste of disillusionment.
The whole life of contemporary
Christians is in all ways completely contrary to that which true Christianity
requires of us. At the present time, people, bearing the name ‘Christian,’ in
the majority of cases, do not even think about what this name implies and they
do not strive even a little to fulfil the Gospel precepts, but lead their lives
in a completely pagan way. And for this reason it is now not possible for us to
live ‘like everyone else.’ Now, more than ever before in the past, it is imperative
that we bear in mind the teaching of the holy Apostle James: “Know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And so, he who has his
own ideals so that he might persuade himself and set himself at rest is he “whosoever
will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).
The present-day dissipation and
light-mindedness of life in the world is so mindless that it cannot be
reconciled with Christianity. These two things are mutually completely at odds.
There is no such thing as a minimal Christianity, which might in some way be
reconciled with contemporary dissolute worldly life, which has made as its one
purpose the achievement of the greatest possible comfort in life, along with
every kind of pleasure and enjoyment.
He who wants really desires to
repent must resolutely reject the evil worldly wisdom of the present times.
Either / or! There is no midway, and there cannot be one. Either we are sons of
God, or we are “sons of opposition,” “sons of perdition.” To constantly amuse
oneself, going to restaurants and cinemas and other places of entertainment -
all this is clean contrary to true Christianity, and these things he, who has
firmly resolved to commit himself truly to repent before God, and not simply in
an exterior or hypocritical way, cannot stand to do.
From this point of view, the
incessant instances of the countless balls and suppers, events and entertaining
gatherings, even when they go under the name of “benefits,” in which so much of
our life in the diaspora is now submerged, especially here in America, goes
completely against any true repentance.
The most dreadful thing is that
in the life of contemporary people falsehood enters in and gets very firmly
established there. Present-day Christians lie before God, they lie to each
other, they even lie to themselves. The are always “playing a rôle,” attempting
to present themselves as something they are not. They are concerned only with
outward respectability, “neglecting the tabernacle fashioned by God.” as the
Great Canon [Ode 2] expresses it.
And within this there is an even
greater sorrow: that they do not even want to keep Christ’s commandments and
without the least fear they flout Church rules, and in doing so, they think, in
a completely un-Christian way, that they are justified in all their unbridled
behaviour and by their own mind-set.
Self-love and pride literally
infect everything - all of contemporary life.
But the most dreadful thing, of
course, is that this is not simply sinning against morality, which to one to
degree or another has always had its place in people’s lives, but this is the
basic sin of the present day, which hitherto never manifested itself with such
force, which never before enclosed people, even those calling themselves
Christians, in such a broad sweep, which never hitherto so boldly raised its
head, vigorously captivating for itself even those who, evidently, wanted to
resist it, but also did not find within themselves the strength to go against
the general flow.
This is the sin of Apostasy,
or of capitulation.
And it is an all too frequent
manifestation today. People call themselves Christian, sometimes even ministers
of the Church of Christ, and in reality they are apostates. They have
surrendered their souls to the coming Antichrist and they actively participate
in his grandiose scheme, now underway throughout the whole world, - the
preparation for the kingdom of Antichrist on earth.
And it is especially painful and
bitter that many Russian people not only continue to live abroad with those
dispositions which led Russia to Bolshevism, but under the influence of the
foreign and heterodox environment around them they go even further, wholly
engaging in the headlong course of the Apostasy. For such people repentance is
particularly difficult. Without the special action of the Grace of God upon
their souls it may even be unattainable.
This sin is particularly
enticing, because it promises so much - money, career prospects, and all
earthly good things, and at the same time it is very proficient at hiding
itself under the disguise of an outwardly good appearance.
He who actually, and not in words
only, desires to repent, must exhibit full obedience to the Holy Church in all
things - to her teachings and to her practice, to her age-old usages which are
founded the sacred Scriptures and Holy Tradition, on the teaching of the Holy
Fathers, those Pillars of Orthodoxy and strugglers for Christian piety. With
resolution he must reject all those pretensions, which are so full of pride and
self-confidence, which seek to ‘reform’ or to ‘correct’ things in the Church,
or to ‘infuse’ some ‘new, living current’ within her, and so on. No kind of innovation,
no kind of modernism should be able to find any place in our Church, more
especially that modernism which follows the trends of the anti-Christian ideas
of this present evil age, which, while they appear one thing, conceal any sign
of their ideological aspirations, such as the ecumenical union of all faith
confessions, or universal government headed by a one-world administration.
“Not all that glistens is gold,”
says a good Russian proverb [and an English one too! - transl.] And we,
the Christians must understand that Satan himself, when it proves
necessary for him, can “take on the appearance of an Angel of light,”
and therefore it is no marvel “if his ministers also be transformed as
the ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14-15).
He who desires actually to
repent must, with all resolution, tear asunder the entangling nets of the
contemporary world, which, with a determination which cannot be countered, drag
all deeper and deeper into the abyss of Apostasy, from which there is no way
out.
This we, Orthodox Russian people,
must recognise within ourselves, if we are really seeking to achieve true
repentance, if we sincerely desire salvation for ourselves and for our
homeland, Russia, and with that of the whole of mankind, of the whole world,
for as must be manifest to us all now, the fate of the whole world at the
present time is closely bound up with the fate of our homeland, Russia.*
But woe to us, if within us there
begins to speak a feeling of proud self-justification; if we do not begin to
desire to recognise within ourselves all the various guilty things enumerated
above. “Pride and self-justification,” according to the teachings of the Holy
Fathers, “darken the mind” (Abba Dorotheus: Questions and Answers, question
82).
“Guard against pride and
self-justification,” the great elder John the Prophet teaches, “for they
impede repentance” (answer 82).
Unfortunately there are among us
Russians, those who not only do not recognise the whole depth of their fall,
but with a kind of incomprehensible delusion, even yield to some sort of
unfounded delight, with self-esteem and trust in themselves and in others,
assuming that everything is alright with them.
Such a disposition is completely
alien to true Christianity. We must not congratulate ourselves, lest this bring
upon us the most severe judgment. Lulling the conscience, into which groundless
fantasies have entered, is the very greatest evil, which cuts off at the very
root every possibility of true repentance.
Before all else, true repentance
depends upon humility, a complete and unreserved humility before the
commandments of the Gospel, before the canons and precepts of the Church, a
readiness completely and without dissimulation to submit to them. True
repentance is completely alien to any sort of pretence or claims of
self-determination. It is an inexorable awareness within oneself of one’s own
sinfulness. Only when it is such can it be active and salvific.
What then? Shall we embark upon
this road of real repentance? Shall we thus observe the Dormition Fast which is
upon us? Shall we resolve in the most fundamental way to change our life for
the better?
Or, as before, shall we take life
easily, disregarding all that has been said above, until we are struck at the
inescapable dread hour of God’s retribution which is approaching, when
instantaneously all our present “well-being” will fall away, and awful
destruction shall befall us, not only a temporal one, but one eternal.** May
it not be!
Translator’s footnotes:
* This thought might strike some of our readers as odd or
unrealistic. In fact, Archbishop Averky could have been thinking of two things.
He was writing in 1960, when the Cold War was at its coldest. Politically the
fate of the whole world then was very much bound up with that of what was
commonly called Russia. However, on the deeper level, he was more probably
considering Russia’s classic claim to be the Third Rome. This
concept has, unfortunately, been bastardized by extreme nationalists, and is
often presented as if it were a reason for pride, or some kind of national
superiority. In fact, it was a calling to a ministry within the Church, that
Russia should serve as a beacon of Orthodoxy to the rest of the world, and thus
her fate would be very much bound up with the fate of the whole world. If she
would lead in showing the way of repentance, then there would be hope that
other peoples would follow.
** This, of course, might refer to the end of the world, but
also applies at the time of death of every Orthodox individual, something we
shall all experience.
Source: The
Shepherd: An Orthodox Christian Pastoral Magazine, August 2011, pp. 2-11.
