Four Epistles of St Symeon the New Theologian (Part 1)

Epistle 1. By our father among the saints, Symeon the New Theologian, a word on confession, written to a certain child of his, and concerning those who have received power to bind and loose sins

 

 

You laid a charge upon our nothingness, father and brother, to answer you whether it is permitted to declare one’s sins to certain monastics who do not have the priesthood, adding also this: “We hear that to priests is given the power to bind and loose” (cf. Matt. 16:19). Such are the words and soul-profiting questions of your God-loving soul, of a fiery desire and of fear. For our part we have approved your inclination toward the good, for you are striving to learn of divine and sacred things; yet being unable to reason or write of such matters, we wished to keep silence, because “to compare spiritual things with spiritual” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:13) belongs to men dispassionate and holy, from whom we stand at the utmost remove in life, in reason, and in virtue. Nevertheless, since “the Lord is nigh,” as it is written, “unto all them that call upon him in truth” (cf. Ps. 144:18), I too, unworthy as I am, having called upon Him in truth, will say this to you not in my own words, but from the divine and God-breathed Scripture itself — not teaching, but bringing you testimonies from it concerning what you have asked of me — that by the grace of God I may keep both myself and my hearers from the two abysses: that of him who hid his talent (cf. Matt. 25:25), and that of him who sets forth the divine teachings unworthily and vaingloriously, or rather, in a darkened mind.

From whence, then, shall I begin my word? From the beginningless Beginning of all things? So it is better, that the words may be firm (cf. Heb. 2:2), for it was not angels who made us, nor did we learn it of men (cf. Gal. 1:12), but from “the wisdom that is from above” (Jas. 3:17) — that is, we have been mystically taught by grace through the Spirit, and are ever, hour by hour, being taught still. And now, having called upon her, let us speak thus, first explaining the manner and the power of confession.

Confession is nothing other than the acknowledgment of debts — that is, repentance for one’s transgressions and the condemnation of one’s own folly — as the Lord said in the Gospel parable: “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both” (Luke 7:41-42). Every believer, then, is a debtor to his Master and God, and what he has received of Him will be required of him at His fearful and most dread judgment, when all of us — kings and beggars together — shall stand “naked and opened” (Heb. 4:13). But hear what He has given us. There are many other gifts which no man could number; but the best and most perfect of them are these: freedom from condemnation, sanctification from defilement, the passage from darkness into unspeakable light, to become His children and sons and heirs through divine Baptism, to put on God Himself (cf. Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27), to become members of Him (cf. 1 Cor. 12:27), and to receive the Holy Spirit dwelling within us (cf. Rom. 8:11), who is the royal seal with which the Lord seals His own sheep (cf. John 10:3). And why should I speak at greater length? To be made like unto Him, brothers and joint-heirs of His — all this, and much more besides, is given to the newly baptized immediately upon divine Baptism. And the divine apostle calls this the divine riches and inheritance (cf. Eph. 1:18; Col. 2:3).

The Master’s commandments, meanwhile, are given as guardians of these unspeakable gifts and graces, which, like a wall surrounding the faithful man on every side and keeping unsullied the treasure hidden in the soul, render him unassailable to every enemy and thief. But we suppose that it is we ourselves who keep the commandments of God, and we are burdened by this, not knowing that it is they who keep us — for he who keeps the commandments of God keeps and guards not them, but himself, from enemies visible and invisible, which are innumerable and terrible, as Paul indicates, saying: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12) — those who, plainly, are secretly arrayed against us in the air at all times. He, then, who keeps the commandments is kept by them, and does not squander the riches entrusted to him by God. But he who despises them is found naked before his enemies, and having squandered all his riches, becomes a debtor to the King and Master for all that we have spoken of — a debt no man can repay, since these gifts are heavenly, and where shall those who received and then lost them ever find them again? Truly, nowhere — just as neither Adam nor any of his sons could have restored himself or his kindred, had not our God and Lord Jesus Christ, who is above nature, come and, becoming his son according to the flesh, raised him and us up from the fall by divine power.

But he who supposes that he keeps not all the commandments, but observes some while betraying others, let him know that even if he neglects but one, he thereby loses the whole of his riches. Imagine that the commandments are twelve armed men guarding you, standing naked in their midst; and imagine also other, hostile soldiers surrounding you on every side, attacking, seeking to seize and slay you at once. If one of the twelve should fall away of his own will, forsake his post, and yield his place to the enemy like an open door, what good would the remaining eleven men be, when one enemy passes through their midst and cuts you down without mercy — since they cannot even turn to help you? For even should they wish to turn, they themselves would be overrun by the enemy. Just so will it be with you, if you do not keep the commandments: if you are wounded by one enemy and fall, all the commandments fly from you, and little by little your strength fails. Or, put another way: as from a vessel filled with wine or oil, if it is not whole on every side but has even a single hole on one side, all its contents will slowly drain away — so he who neglects one commandment falls away, little by little, from all the rest, as Christ says: “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he thinketh he hath” (a conflation of Matt. 25:29, Luke 8:18, and Luke 19:26); and again: “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). And Paul says: “Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Pet. 2:19). And again: “The sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. 15:56). He did not say “this or that sin,” but whatever sin it may be, it is itself the sting of death. He calls sin the sting of death because those who are stung by it die. Every sin, then, is “unto death” (1 John 5:16), for he who has once sinned, as Paul says, has already died, having become liable for the debt (cf. Rom. 5:12; 7:9-11; or 6:10), and, wounded, is left by the robbers lying by the roadside (cf. Luke 10:30).

What else, then, does the dead man desire but to rise again? And the debtor who has nothing wherewith to pay — what does he desire but the forgiveness of his debt, and not to be cast into prison until he has paid what is owed (cf. Matt. 18:23-35) — since, having nothing, he could never come forth from that eternal prison, that is, the darkness? So too the man beaten by robbers seeks above all that a compassionate and tender-hearted physician should come to him, for he has not within himself that burning fear of God which would send him hastening to the physician on his own; but rather, through negligence, he lies there with his soul’s strength grown slack — a spectacle inspiring dread and pity to those who see the soul’s transgressions well, or rather, spiritually.

So then, having become through sin a slave of the devil — for the apostle says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are… whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (a conflation of Rom. 6:16 and 6:19) — trampled by his enemies, stripped of the royal purple, having become, instead of a child of God, a child of the devil: what is he to do, to regain possession of that from which he has fallen? Plainly, he will seek a mediator and friend of God, able to restore him to his former state and reconcile him with God the Father. For if a man who has clung to Christ by grace, become a member of Him (cf. 1 Cor. 12:27), and been adopted by Him (cf. Eph. 1:5), afterward forsakes Him and “turns like the dog to his own vomit again” (2 Pet. 2:22), and clings to a harlot, or is joined to another body — as one who has dishonored and insulted Christ, he is judged together with unbelievers, since, according to the divine apostle, “we are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor. 12:27), and he who clings to a harlot “maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot” (1 Cor. 6:15). One who has done this, and thereby angered his Master and God, cannot be reconciled to God except through a holy man, a friend of Christ, and through flight from evil.

Therefore let us above all flee sin. But if we are even wounded by its arrow, let us not delay, savoring its poison as though it were honey, nor, like a wounded bear, enlarge the wound by our own doing — but let us run at once to the spiritual physician, and vomit out the poison of sin through confession; and having spat out this venom, let us eagerly receive from him, as an antidote, the penances he gives, and strive to fulfill them with fear of God and burning faith. For all those who have wholly squandered the riches entrusted to them, and wasted their father’s substance with harlots and publicans, whose conscience, bowed down through great shame, cannot lift itself up, having no boldness — these rightly seek a man of God who will take their debts upon himself, that through him they may approach God. For it has never been heard, nor is it written in the God-breathed Scriptures, that anyone has taken upon himself the sins of another and answered for them, unless the sinner first undergo labors suited to the kind of sin, and show forth fruits worthy of repentance. For the voice of the Forerunner of the Word says: “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father” (a conflation of Luke 3:8 and Matt. 3:8-9). For our Lord Himself said this of the unwise: “Verily I say unto you, though Moses and Daniel should stand up to deliver their sons and their daughters, they should not deliver them” (echoing Jer. 15:1 and Ezek. 14:14-20).

What, then, are we to do, we who desire to repent — what means shall we devise for the release of our debt and our turning back from the fall? God will grant it — listen. Seek out a mediator, a physician, and a good counselor: that as a good counselor he may propose to you, in keeping with your own case, methods of repentance by good advice; that as a physician he may give you the medicine suited to each wound; and that as a mediator he may propitiate the Godhead for you by prayer and petition, standing before Him “face to face” (echoing 1 Cor. 13:12; cf. Deut. 34:10). Only do not seek out a flattering counselor, or one enslaved to his belly, as your ally, lest, indulging your own wish, he teach you what is agreeable to you instead of what is pleasing to God, and you remain, once again, in truth an irreconcilable enemy of God. Nor seek an inexperienced physician, lest by excessive severity and untimely surgery and cauterization he drive you to the depths of despair; or, on the contrary, lest by excessive leniency he leave you, thinking yourself well, still sick — and, most terrible of all, hand you over to that eternal punishment which is no part of your hope, but to which this present sickness of the soul, dying together with us, in fact leads. I do not think it so simple a thing to find “a mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), for “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6), but those who, in accordance with the name, clearly know the very meaning of the name, and are a mind that sees God; nor are all who are called by the name of Christ, in truth, Christians: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father”, says Christ (Matt. 7:21), as He also says: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out devils in thy name?… And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me” (Matt. 7:22-23).

Therefore all of us, brothers — both those who serve as mediators for the sinful, and those who themselves desire reconciliation with God — must take heed, that the mediators not draw down upon themselves wrath instead of reward, and that those who have stumbled and seek reconciliation not fall upon an enemy, a murderer, and an evil counselor instead of a mediator. For such men will hear, with great threatening: “Who made thee a ruler and a judge” over My people? (echoing Acts 7:27 / Exod. 2:14). And again: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5) — the beam being some single passion, or a certain lust, that darkens the eye of the soul. And again: “Physician, heal thyself” (Luke 4:23). And again: “But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee” (Ps. 49:16-17). And Paul says: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. God is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4).

It is on account of all this that I tremble and shudder, my brothers and fathers, and I beg all of you — strengthening both you and myself through this exhortation — not to treat with contempt these divine mysteries, terrible to all; not to play with what is not to be played with; not to act against our own souls out of vainglory, love of fame, gain, or insensibility — for it does happen that men take upon themselves the thoughts of others merely so as to be called “rabbi” or “father”. I beg you: let us not so shamelessly and recklessly seize the apostolic dignity, but let us take our lesson from an earthly example. If someone should dare to impersonate a representative of an earthly king, and be caught having secretly or openly appropriated what was entrusted to that representative, he himself, and his accomplices, will be subjected to the harshest punishments, as a warning to others. What, then, will those who unworthily seize the apostolic dignity suffer in the age to come? Do not wish to become mediators for others before you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and know the universal King by the sense of your own soul, and become His friends. For not all who are acquainted with an earthly king can act as mediators before him on behalf of others — very few can do this: those who, by virtue and by the sweat, that is, the labor, of their own efforts, have gained boldness before him, and no longer need a mediator, but speak with the king face to face.

Shall we, then, fathers and brothers, fail to keep this order in relation to God as well? Shall we not honor the heavenly King at least as much as an earthly one, but rather appropriate to ourselves a seat at His right hand and His left, seizing it in advance, before we have asked for it and received it? O, what boldness! What shame will overtake us! Even if we are accused of nothing else, for this alone, as men who have shown contempt, we shall be deprived of that seat of honor with disgrace, and cast into “everlasting fire” (Mark 9:43). But this is enough for the instruction of those who wish to attend to themselves, since it was for this reason that we turned aside in our discourse from the subject at hand. Now let us speak of what you, child, wished to learn.

That it is permitted us to confess to a monk who does not have the priesthood, you will find to have been the case with everyone, from the time the penitential garb and habit were granted by God to His inheritance, and monks received their name — as is written in the God-breathed writings of the Fathers, in which, if you look into them, you will find that what is said is true. Before the monks, the bishops alone received, as though by succession from the divine apostles, the power to bind and to loose. But as time went on, when the bishops became unworthy, this fearsome commission passed to the priests, who possessed a blameless life and had been made worthy of divine grace. Then, when they too — priests together with bishops, all mingled together — became like the rest of the people, and many, as now, began to fall under the power of deceiving spirits and vain babblings, and to perish, it passed, as has been said, to the chosen people of Christ — I mean the monks. It was not taken away from the priests or the bishops; rather, they themselves made themselves strangers to it. “For every priest,” as Paul says, “is a mediator between God and men, and is appointed to minister unto God, and must offer sacrifice both for the people and for himself” (echoing Heb. 5:1,3; 1 Tim. 2:5). But let us begin our account from an earlier point, and see whence, and how, and to whom this power to perform the sacred rites, to bind and to loose, was first given, so that gradually the answer to what you have asked may become clear — not to you alone, but to all other people as well.

When our Lord and God and Savior said to the man with the withered hand, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” the Jews, on hearing it, said, “This man blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21 / Mark 2:7). Thus the forgiveness of sins had not yet been given to prophets, nor to priests, nor to any of the patriarchs of that time. This is why the scribes were indignant, as though some new doctrine and unheard-of thing were being proclaimed. But the Lord did not reprove them for this; rather, He taught them what they did not know, showing Himself to be the giver of the remission of sins as God, and not as man — for He says to them: “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” (cf. Matt. 9:6). He says to the man with the withered hand: “Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored whole as the other” (Matt. 12:10,13) — thereby, through a visible miracle, giving assurance of a greater, invisible one. So it was with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10); so with the harlot (cf. Luke 7:37-50); so with Matthew at the tax office (Matt. 9:9); so with Peter, who denied Him three times; so with the paralytic, whom, having healed him and afterward finding him, He said, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (cf. John 5:14). In saying this, He showed that the man had fallen into that sickness because of sin, and that in being freed from it, he received also the forgiveness of his sins. None of them had need of a long time, of fasting, of sleeping on the ground — but only of conversion, unwavering faith, the cutting off of vice, sincere repentance, and many tears, as with the harlot (Luke 7:38) and with Peter, “who wept bitterly” (cf. Luke 22:62).

Here, then, is the beginning of this great gift, belonging to God alone, who alone possessed it — and who then, being about to ascend into heaven, leaves this gift to His disciples in His own place. Let us learn how He conveyed to them this dignity and this power, and who they were, and how many: the eleven chosen ones, when “the doors were shut” (cf. John 20:19) and they were gathered together within — for, entering and “standing in the midst of them” (cf. Luke 24:36), He breathed on them and said: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (cf. John 20:22-23) — and then He commands them nothing at all concerning penances, since they were to learn this from the Holy Spirit.

So, as has been said, the holy apostles handed down this power by succession to those who inherited their throne, since “none of the rest durst” (cf. Acts 5:13) even conceive of such a thing. Thus the Lord’s disciples kept, with exactness, the right to this power. But, as we have said, with the passing of time the unworthy became mixed and merged with the worthy, and one man began to strive to outdo another. From that point the holders of the apostolic thrones proved to be carnal, pleasure-loving, vainglorious, and given to heresies; and divine grace forsook them, and this power was taken away from such men. And since they had also abandoned everything else that those who perform the sacred rites ought to have, only one thing is required of them: that they hold to orthodoxy — though I think that even this they do not have. For he is not orthodox who merely introduces no new dogma into the Church of God, but he who has acquired a life in accord with right doctrine. Yet such a man, or one like him, the patriarchs and metropolitans of that time either sought and did not find, or, having found him, preferred an unworthy man instead, requiring of him only one thing — that he set down the creed in writing — and being satisfied with this alone: that he was neither a zealot for the good nor a fighter against evil. In this way they supposedly preserve the peace of the Church, which is worse than any hostility, and is the cause of great disorder.

For this reason the priests have become worthless, and have become like the people, according to the word of the Lord — for, instead of reproving, restraining, and driving out sin, but rather excusing and concealing one another’s passions, they have themselves become worse than the people, and the people worse than they; while some of the people have turned out far better than the priests, glowing like embers amid the priests’ unrelieved darkness. For if the priests, according to the Lord’s word, shone with their life like stars, or like the sun, the glow of the embers, eclipsed by that brighter light, would not be seen. But since only the outward form and vesture of the priesthood remained in men, the gift of the Spirit passed over to the monks, and through signs made it understood that they were following the active, apostolic life. But there too the devil once again did what is proper to him: seeing that they had again been proclaimed in the world as, so to speak, new disciples of Christ, and had shone forth with life and with wonders, he mixed in among them false brethren — his own instruments — so that, having multiplied little by little, the monks, as you see, have themselves become worthless and altogether un-monastic. Therefore it is not given by God, simply on account of ordination alone and its dignity, to monks in outward appearance, nor to those ordained and enrolled in the priestly rank, nor to those honored with the episcopal dignity — that is, patriarchs, metropolitans, and bishops — to remit sins. God forbid! To them is granted only the performance of the sacred rites — and even this, I think, not to most of them, lest, being straw, they be burned up on account of it — but only to those priests, bishops, and monks who, by their blamelessness, can be numbered among the disciples of Christ.

How, then, will those who are themselves numbered among the ones just spoken of, and those who seek them, recognize such men with precision? By what the Lord taught, saying thus: “And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues” (this being the God-breathed teaching of the Word) “they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them” (Mark 16:17-18); and again, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27); and again, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:16). By what fruits? Listing many of them, Paul speaks thus: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23) — and together with these, mercy, brotherly love, almsgiving, and what follows from them; and besides these, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gifts of healing, and many others, all of which “worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will” (1 Cor. 12:11). Those, then, who partake of these gifts — whether all of them, or in part, insofar as it profits them — are numbered among the rank of the apostles, and those who become such even now are enrolled in that same rank. Such men are recognized not only by these gifts, but also by their manner of life. Thus both those who seek him, and each man more precisely with regard to himself, will know: whether they have counted it, without shame, in likeness to our Lord Jesus Christ — or rather, as the greatest glory — to be brought low and to be humbled; whether they have shown, as He did, unfeigned obedience to their fathers and superiors, and to those who give spiritual direction; whether they have loved from the soul dishonor, insult, reproach, and blame, and have received those who inflict these things upon them as bestowers of great goods, and prayed for them from the soul with tears; whether they have counted all the glory of the world as nothing, and everything in it as refuse (cf. Phil. 3:8). And why should I lengthen the discourse with many words? If anyone attains equally both to the whole of the virtue read of in the Holy Scriptures and to every kind of good work, and recognizes that he has gradually made progress in each of them, and has ascended to the summit of divine glory — then he himself will know of himself that he has become a partaker of God and of His gifts, and he will be recognized not only by those who see well, but even by those who see poorly.

For all such men have kept the commandments of God even unto death, have sold their possessions and given to the poor, have followed Christ in the endurance of temptations, have destroyed their souls for the love of God in this world and have gained them for eternal life; and having gained their souls, they found them in the intelligible light, and so, in that light, beheld “the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Tim. 6:16), God Himself, according to what is written: “In thy light shall we see light” (Ps. 36:9). But as to how one may find the soul one already has — attend. The soul of each of us is a drachma (cf. Luke 15:8-9), which was lost not by God, but by each of us, by plunging ourselves into the darkness of sin; and Christ, the true Light, having come and met those who seek Him, has granted them — as He alone knows how — to see Himself. This is what it means to find one’s own soul: to behold God, and to stand in His light above all visible creation, and to have God as shepherd and teacher, from whom, if he wishes, he will learn how to bind and to loose, and, having learned it with precision, will worship the Giver, and will be able to pass this on to those in need.

I know, child, that to such men it is given to bind and to loose by God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit — to those who, by adoption, are sons and holy servants of His. And I myself was a disciple of such a father — one who had not received ordination from men, but who enrolled me among his disciples by the hand of God, that is, by the Spirit, and who commanded me to receive ordination from men properly, in the customary manner. Let us pray, brothers, that we too may become such men, that we may become partakers of His grace and receive the power to bind and loose sins, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[Here the manuscript tradition diverges — what follows is preserved as a separate, variant continuation rather than a straightforward sequel:]

…moved for a long time by the Holy Spirit with a strong desire for this. Therefore let us first pray to become such men, fathers and brothers, and so let us speak with others about deliverance from the passions and the reception of [the disclosure of] their thoughts. Let us seek out such a confessor — or rather, such earnest men, true disciples of Christ — and with labor of heart and many tears, for days on end, entreat God to open the eyes of our hearts, to know whether such a man may be found anywhere in this crooked generation; so that, having found him, we may receive through him the forgiveness of our sins, obeying his commands and precepts with our whole soul — just as that man, having heard the commandments of Christ, became a partaker of His grace and gifts, and received from Him the power to bind and loose sins, being set aflame by the Holy Spirit, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, with the Father and the Only-begotten Son, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

(To be continued...)

Saint Macarius of Optina (+1860): Spiritual Freedom

 

If you need to make a quick decision, and you understand that you ought to consult someone about the matter that concerns you, but you have no one near you who could advise you, turn to God and, as the Fathers teach us, invoke His help three times. Then do whatever He enlightens you to do.

I cannot approve of your passion for smoking cigars. Consider this: previously, you could have regarded yourself as a free woman. But now you are a slave, enslaved to a foolish whim. My advice is: Give it up! Give it up for your own good. Think, too, of how much money you are wasting. And also of how much harm you are doing to your health. In other words: You are paying for your slavery! And you are paying for your death! What kind of logic is that?

I understand that you are now continually tormenting yourself over that phrase you blurted out during our conversation: “Marriage! For me, that was a punishment from God!” Ever since you returned home, your friends and relatives have not stopped telling you that these words must have greatly angered God, because in this way, you showed that you wanted to arrange your life according to your own will and not His. And they add that every desire and every longing are sinful feelings. And that each time you should abandon yourself completely to circumstances as they naturally unfold—that is, to the will of God!

That is what they say. And I say to you:

Do not seek truth or consolation in the showy arguments of worldly people. Seek them only in the word of God. It is He, and no one else, who gives man true wisdom and genuine freedom. These gifts of His, however, we ought to use in a steadfast and heroic struggle for our spiritual progress. Your desire, for example, to dedicate yourself to God springs from this deep source of your free will.

When our desires, clarified and illumined by reason and understanding, aim at the accomplishment of what is good—and what is good is nothing other than the will of God, which must be done “as in heaven, so on earth”—when we live and act always with this end in view, God is well pleased and supports us. But even when, in an outburst of irrational selfishness, we question His holy will and attempt to act contrary to it, He still does not intervene to override our will. He allows us to act wrongly, indeed, but freely. Inevitably, of course, in the first case we receive our reward, while in the second we receive condemnation, as is testified many times in Holy Scripture.

We, however, act in accordance with our genuine human nature when we ardently desire what is good and when we struggle with perseverance and courage to accomplish it. There is nothing wrong with this at all. On the contrary, it is foolish to believe that all our desires are sinful, that we should never ask God to fulfill our longings, and that we must abandon ourselves fatalistically and passively to whatever may befall us. Without doubt, such an attitude is contrary to reason, human nature, and the sacred texts. Desire is not a sin. Only the desire for evil is a sin. How could man belong to the kingdom of God the Logos and be a rational and free creature if all his desires were evil?

And if you were supposed to force yourself to desire absolutely nothing—not a happy marriage, but not even the purity of the virginal life—what kind of life would that be? You are neither a log nor a stone. And I imagine you would never want to be one. You were created a woman, free to desire, to choose, and to act—always, however, in accordance with God.

* * *

There is no reason to fear praise. We need only guard ourselves against the satisfaction and pleasure that it may produce within us. Abba Isaac says that this satisfaction, whenever we feel it, is our entire reward. Let us not then expect a reward from God as well for whatever good we have done. Praise, however, is harmless when we remain indifferent and unmoved by it. Do not be troubled, either, because you once made the decision to read a Paraklesis every day at a specific hour, and now, as you say, it is impossible for you to carry out your decision. So you ask me: “Since it is absolutely impossible for me to read the Paraklesis at the appointed hour, may I do it later, while I am knitting or looking after the children?”

And I answer you categorically: No! That would certainly be wrong. Our promises to God are not like debts that we owe to a harsh moneylender, a lender who wants us to repay him down to the last ruble without caring about anything else. The Lord does not want us to be slaves; He wants us to be free.

If, then, you truly and objectively cannot carry out your decision, show humility and self-reproach on account of it, regarding yourself as a humble debtor. If you avoid the temptation of agitation and irritation, you will gain far greater spiritual benefit than if you were to mutter, half-heartedly, hurriedly, and indistinctly, words of prayer, only to be followed by self-satisfaction and pride because you supposedly kept your promise despite all the difficulties.

* * *

Human life is subject to radical changes. These changes are sometimes gradual and sometimes lightning-fast. But even when we enjoy long-lasting prosperity and glory, we cannot find consolation, we cannot find joy and happiness, unless our heart is illumined by the strong and steadfast light of peace. It is this peace that we must seek; it is for this peace that we must pray. The peace that the Lord gave to His disciples and to all those who truly believe in Him: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

You say that your daughter and your son-in-law are trying to persuade you to stay with them, but you cannot bring yourself to decide upon it unless I give you my blessing, assure you that everything will turn out well for you, and, finally, certify to you that you will be happy there!

But how am I to know all these things? Who am I to know what will happen to you in this village or that city? I am neither a soothsayer nor a prophet.

The only thing I can say is this: I believe that this change, from the quiet of the village to the bustle of the city, will probably not be beneficial to you. It is certainly pleasant to live with those whom one loves. But how long will that pleasure last?

Nevertheless, I do not want to influence you. In this matter I want to leave your will free. I pray only that you will align it with the will of God.

 

Greek source:

https://imlp.gr/2026/07/30/%cf%80%ce%bd%ce%b5%cf%85%ce%bc%ce%b1%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%ae-%ce%b5%ce%bb%ce%b5%cf%85%ce%b8%ce%b5%cf%81%ce%af%ce%b1/

 

 

 

How Did We Get Here? (2003)

by Dr. Timothy J. Clader, M.D.

This was an invited talk, scheduled to be given at 11:00 a. m. on 28 Nov/11 Dec, 2003, at the Clergy Conference of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Nyack, New York. The talk was canceled.

 

 

Beloved Metropolitan, Archpastors, and Pastors: I ask for your blessings and for your prayers for my family and myself. Thank you for asking me to come to this conference. I am an American convert to Orthodoxy, and was invited to give the convert perspective on the issue at hand.

The prime issue at hand is not whether to normalize relations with the Moscow Patriarchate; rather, it is whether we can say categorically and with God's authority that the Moscow Patriarchate has grace.

My family's journey to the Orthodox Church began in the late 1970s. We began to realize that the watered-down Protestantism of our youth was missing something. When we first began to search for that something, we had no idea that it would lead us to the Orthodox Church. In fact, we spent quite some time visiting a variety of Protestant denominations, realizing with each visit that they lacked that "something" we were looking for. We both began to wonder if that "something" perhaps didn't even exist. After we had been at this search for some time, a friend of ours sent us a copy of a letter written by Bishop Ilarion in the late 19th century. This letter was his response to an invitation for the Russian Orthodox Church to join the then-fledgling World Council of Churches. (Even as Protestants, we realized that the whole concept of the W.C.C. was demonically inspired and smacked of a one-world church.) This same letter stated plainly that "we" (the Orthodox Church) had the truth, and there was no reason for us to join with the W.C.C., since the Russian Orthodox Church embodied the Truth. Bishop Ilarion then invited those churches (from the W.C.C.) to join the Orthodox Church. Because he made such an emphatic statement regarding the Truth, we realized that our own challenge was before us: To decide if this church did, in fact, embody the Truth.

We then bought a copy of Timothy Ware's book, The Orthodox Church, and read it over and over with hunger. After months of prayer, and with great anticipation and some fear (that we might be once more disappointed), in the summer of 1980 we decided to visit an Orthodox Church. What we found was an English-language mission of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia attached to the Cathedral of the Holy Transfiguration in Los Angeles, California. This mission was run in a small school room; it had a plywood iconostasis and paper icons. In spite of its small size, there were about 30 people crowded into the room, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, including some pious Old-Calendar Greek families who joined ROCOR because of the Calendar issue. The singing was off-key and alternated between Byzantine and Russian chants. It was August, and the temperature was well above 100 degrees. There was no air conditioning. The room was so crowded that we could barely fit inside (we had two small children with us who were both in diapers). When the Ektenia of the Catechumens began, we were ushered out into the hallway. As we stood in the hallway while the Ektenia of the Faithful progressed through the rest of the Divine Liturgy (and in spite of the spartan surroundings), we were both struck with the unambiguous realization that we were standing outside, and that God was inside, and that we were, at that moment, separated from Him – not only physically, but spiritually as well.

In spite of the heat, in spite of the singing, in spite of the plywood and paper, in spite of the children crying, we were both struck with an immutable fact that hit us like a sledgehammer: This Church had that "something". It wasn't until later that we began to realize that that "something" was God and His grace.

Since we became Orthodox, we have read and listened and learned what you, our beloved Bishops, have taught us.

We learned from Archbishop Averky [1] that the Russian Church in Exile has a love for the Truth, and that the Orthodox Church is the "pillar and ground of the Truth." [2] Further, that we are commanded by the Apostle to "walk in the Truth" [3] and, following the warning of the great Father of the Church St. Gregory the Theologian, we do not want to "become betrayers of the teaching of the faith and Truth, communing in the leaven of the Evil One and joining ourselves to the plague ridden... apostates from the Truth." [4] Archbishop Averky warned us, however, that "The Russian Church Abroad is dear to us beyond price, but only insofar as it actually remains the lawful heir of the previous Russian Orthodox Church." [5] Vladyka reminded us of the words of St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria:

"We must not serve time, but God."

Archbishop Averky warned us that there will not be a cry that says: "Forward! Forward! To the Antichrist!" No, he taught us, it will be much more subtle; it will seem on some levels to even be good; he taught us, however, that as members of the Russian Church Abroad the age-old motto of the true Church of Christ remains in full force:

Stand... remain unmoved! [6]

Although these times call for us to "move forward" and to "overlook our differences", Archbishop Averky states plainly: "For us, 'forward' is only the constant spreading, as predicted by the Word of God and the Holy Fathers of the Church, of 'Apostasy' and its crown: Antichrist, of whose near arrival so many are already so openly speaking." Vladyka warned us not to become the "salt which has lost its savor." He concluded by saying: "Whoever thinks otherwise, whoever is inclined to `march in step with the times,' consequently, has already entered into some sort of compromise with the `evil of this world,' leading to the Antichrist, and is not a member of the Russian Church Abroad, even if he formally continues to belong to it." [7]

Archbishop Averky taught us that – more than anything on earth – we should value our Church's freedom. [8] As an American convert, I am eternally grateful to the Russian Church Abroad for accepting my family where we may partake of the Mysteries of the True Faith. I also smile at the realization that - in spite of her own weaknesses and shortcomings – my own country, the United States of America, was entrusted by God Almighty to preserve this kernel of the True Faith when the Synod relocated here. Part of that decision, no doubt, came from the Synod hierarchy realizing that the spiritual freedom of the Church could, in fact, be preserved in this country.

As a convert to Orthodoxy, I also had to learn what it meant to be in a Church that is a "hierarchal" church. Not only did I read about the difficulties with the Greek Archdiocese and the calendar issue, but also the history of the Metropolia. Finally, following my entry into the Church, there was the crisis that centered around the Boston Monastery. Through these troubled times, we were led by our hierarchs, as we should have been. I was struck by the strong words of Dositheus:

"The dignity of the Bishop is so necessary in the Church that without him neither the Church nor the name Christian could exist or be spoken of at all... He is the living image of God upon earth... the fountain of the Sacraments." [9]

You taught us further that the bishops of the Church were the sole source of authority for the presbyters: No priest had the "right" to celebrate the Mysteries except at the express appointment and authorization of his Bishop. Thus, the Orthodox Church and Its Faith are defined by its hierarchy. The hierarchs of the Church are the guardians of the Faith, and through them the grace and authority to perform the Holy Mysteries flow. Once one becomes a bishop, the Holy. Scriptures warn you to:

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the Church of God." [10]

Further, the Scriptures demand that: "A bishop must be blameless as being the steward of God... holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to confute opponents. For there are also many disobedient, vain babblers and deceivers." [11]

As a convert to Orthodoxy, I was aghast at the utter cruelty and demonic force of the Communist state in Russia. During those initial years of uncertainty, the Soviets would intimidate the faithful in many heinous ways. One of the favorite means of shocking the faithful employed by the KGB was to greet parishioners who were arriving at church with their crucified priest hanging, naked, upside down spread-eagle over the center of the Royal Doors. The Soviet state would ask little children if their parents ever said prayers at home, or had icons. If the innocents said "Yes", their parents would disappear soon thereafter, never to be seen again. Those same children were then raised and indoctrinated by the state. Other parents would be cowed into submission and not tell their own children about the Faith at all. I could go on and on, but the tale of atrocities and murders and terrorism and blood baths seemed endless. Much of it was not aimed at political enemies; rather, it was aimed specifically at Orthodox Christians. Besides the many innocent clergy who perished during those years, the Tsar himself, having abdicated the throne, was a powerless layperson, but was – together with his family – nonetheless murdered because he was Orthodox.

All of these atrocities were carried out by the Communist Soviet state: the same state to which Metropolitan Sergius pledged full allegiance (while tens of thousands of his fellow clergymen went to their deaths). Why was Sergius' capitulation so important? What difference did it make?

You taught us, dear Vladykas, that our Church is a Church defined by the Faith of its bishops. If Sergius defined the faith of his church, then how did Sergius' church choose its replacement bishops once many had fled Russia or were murdered?

There is no question that the main tool by which the Communist state implemented its terrorism and strong-armed its policies was with the KGB. [12] The KGB hand-picked its members from those people who were particularly cold and ruthless. One had to "prove" one's worthiness to become a member of the inner sanctum of the KGB. This proof could come in many forms: Murders and tortures of the faithful, ghastly acts of terrorism; destruction of churches and holy places; intimidation of the faithful, etc. This same KGB became the breeding ground and source for most – if not all – of the bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate. [12] These bishops were hand-picked by the KGB as looking and acting and seeming like pious pastors, but they were, in fact, KGB agents, selected for their viciousness and cruelty. The Mitrokhin Archives even names the KGB code names for their agents who became bishops in the Moscow Patriarchate. [13] Even the present "Patriarch" of the Moscow Patriarchate, Alexsi II, came up through the ranks of the KGB. As a KGB agent, he was known as "Agent Drozdov." [14]

Following the annihilation of the hierarchy by Stalin, it was systematically replaced by Communist-state-approved bishops. [15] These "bishops" have then – following all of the "external" rituals of the Orthodox Church – systematically appointed many additional bishops. It can safely be said that all of the current bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate are KGB operatives or were personally chosen by the same. [16]

The KGB also orchestrated the joining of the Moscow church to the World Council of Churches. This was useful as a political tool to the KGB: Its faithful hierarchs [17] and representatives to the W.C.C. denied – often indignantly – all reports of persecution of the Church by the Soviet state. Tales of outright deception, lying, and propaganda – all to aid the Soviet state – were the order of the day with the KGB agents in the W.C.C.

This method of infiltration of various organizations by the KGB, with the eventual aim of taking it over, has been their modus operandi for many years. It was used by the KGB to take over most of the Eastern bloc countries and other countries in Central America and throughout the world without ever even firing a shot. They simply infiltrated their agents within the body of the government, organization or church, and then began to take control with time. It is a highly successful method that they have used over and over and over. [18]

When Satan unleashed his unbridled fury on the Russian land in 1917, it was always assumed by many of the faithful that one of the evil one's goals was the destruction of religion. This fact seemed obvious because of the millions of clergy and pious laity that were imprisoned, tortured and murdered, and the tens of thousands of churches and monasteries that were physically destroyed. It is curious, however, that the evil one never seemed to quite finish the job. There were still a few churches standing; there were still some scattered services going on here and there; there were still a few bishops left. The Soviet state was simply preparing the church – the Moscow Patriarchate – to be remade in its own image. With the numbers decimated and the faithful cowed, the Central Committee recognized all along that the ultimate control of the Church rested in controlling the Episcopal ranks. The Evil One knew that the Faith of the Church was defined by Her Bishops.

The godless Soviet state has had 80 years to replace the ranks of the hierarchy with its own. How am I to believe that any of their present hierarchs are even Christians? Based on the simple truths of their selection and their background, I can only conclude that they all must be agents of the Antichrist. I have been presented with no data to support any other conclusion.

As converts to the Faith, you have taught us, holy fathers, that the Orthodox Church is a Church defined and upheld by its Bishops. How can we find grace in a church that has avowed enemies of Christ not only within it, but leading it? We have been told by some that the laity have maintained the faith, and that even though the hierarchy is corrupt, the Moscow Patriarchate still maintains its grace because of the deep faith of the laity.

I am sorry, but this statement flies in contrast to all that I have been taught by you and have learned about Orthodoxy.

You also taught me, dear bishops, that the day of reconciliation with the Moscow Patriarchate would come when several conditions were fulfilled. These included the glorification of the New Martyrs, the rejection of Sergianism, and the rejection of ecumenism. It also included the Apostolic injunction that any clergy who are traitors of Christ (apostates) must be defrocked and can only reenter the Church as laymen. [19]

If the rumors I have heard are true, it seems that we, as the faithful of the Russian Church Abroad, are not demanding their repentance and defrocking of these apostate bishops; instead, there are some who would even consider the Patriarchate to be grace-filled and submit to her "bishops". Glorification of the New Martyrs came about begrudgingly and half-heartedly; Sergius is now the topic of a book that calls him a "Man of God" and the MP still participates in the WCC and is expanding its interaction with the Vatican. So much for the fulfillment of the conditions.

In a letter to Sergius, Metropolitan Anthony declared Sergius' infamous declaration to be no less than an act of treason against the Church. Since the fundamental goal of the KGB is to eradicate religion, the dealings of the MP hierarchs who are KGB agents should be considered to be even worse than treason. [20]

How am I, a convert to the Orthodox Faith, to deal with all of this?

I am eternally grateful to the Church Abroad for showing me the fullness of Holy Orthodoxy. In spite of worldly pressures, poverty and dwindling numbers, the Faith has been preserved by the Church Abroad just as Patriarch Tikhon envisioned, and as our Lord promised:

"Upon this rock will I build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." [21]

I, for one, am not bothered by our lack of glorious cathedrals or swelling numbers. These are, after all, the last times.

Perhaps this odd topic of "unification" with the Patriarchal church is only a wild and vicious rumor. This is my most sincere hope. Sadly, I have also heard that the Patriarchate has offered the Synod autocephaly if only the Synod will recognize the grace of the Patriarchal church. I am not only reminded of the same type of actions being taken by the Pope with the Uniates, but – even more poignantly – I am reminded of the great temptation that Satan presented Christ:

"Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, 'All these things will I give Thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.' Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him." [22]

I hope that you know that those of us who left our ethnic and familial roots to become Orthodox are particularly unnerved by this news, and are hoping against hope that the information on the website is false. Placing familial and cultural values at a higher level than the basic tenets of the Faith will completely negate the very reasons that I turned my back on my ethnic and cultural background – and much of my family – to become Orthodox.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?" [23]

"Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the council of the ungodly...." [24]

It is my sincere hope that these talks of "reconciliation" and "unification" and "overlooking our little differences" are just talk. From my perspective as a convert to the Faith, it is certainly not easy to walk away from your comfortable ethnic and cultural background. Nonetheless, when you are making that trip from darkness into the Light of the Truth, it is precisely because you are searching for the Truth, and not some cultural equivalent. I am happy that I made that journey, and I hope and pray that it may give me the means to salvation, unworthy as I am. I also hope that those whom I know and love are not taking a walk in the opposite direction. [25]

"I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." [26]

Just as the Soviets – through all their persecutions, programs and propaganda over the past eight decades – have created a puppet Russian Orthodox Church to serve the state, and have now unleashed it by declaring it and their Fatherland to be free, so unwittingly have they provided us the freedom to establish our churches in Russia for the resurrection of the Holy Faith.

This is the same Holy Faith that was entrusted to us – the ROCOR – to maintain in its fullness over that same time. Let us rise to meet the challenge as the Church Militant on earth. Our path is clear: There can be no uniting of Christ with Belial. Let us bring back to the true Orthodox faithful in Russia the Church as She has flourished and been preserved in freedom from bondage to the Evil One and his Soviet state. Let us bring to them what the Soviet church cannot:

"[The] Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." [27]

Let us step away from the external trappings of the church: For just as the Divine Liturgy was served in that sweaty little classroom 23 years ago, and just as it was served on the breast of an imprisoned saint, and just as it has been served anywhere the faithful are gathered, so it can be celebrated without the beautiful Orthodox churches occupied by the Soviets and their agents. God does not need our stone or wooden edifices; He needs the hearts of the faithful!

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." [28]

Looking back 2000 years at the Roman Empire, one can see how the world stage was set for the Advent of Christ. Looking today, one can see how the world stage has been set by the Soviet state and its relations with the U.N., and the W.C.C., with their mutual goal of establishing world peace through one-world government and a one-world church. Using the tools of satellite television and the internet, their mutual goal is more readily and instantly available through mass communications to all peoples throughout the world.

Is it possible that even our most esteemed and pious leaders could be drawn into this deceit? I hope and pray to God that this could not be so.

There is a holy and pious and heartfelt desire on the part of all of the faithful of the Russian diaspora that someday Russia would be (spiritually) resurrected. Since the dawn of the Communist revolution our premise has always been that Satan was seeking to completely destroy the Church; i.e., to obliterate it from the earth. It is abundantly clear, however, that this was not the Evil One's goal; rather, Satan sought to recreate the "Orthodox Church" in his own image: To present himself as an "angel of light." St. Paul warns us of this very possibility in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, and he speaks directly to the issue of the ranks of the bishops (apostles) in the Church:

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." [29]

Then what happened to the resurrection of Holy Russia? Are we to conclude that the blood of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Land had no voice before the throne of God? I would submit that this resurrection has already been taking place right in front of us. The New Martyrs were glorified. The Royal Martyrs have rightly assumed their place on the right hand of the Throne. Holy Orthodoxy has spread to all the ends of the world. These are the fruits of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and they are happening now, and have been happening all around us!

"But... but...," you say, "is this all there is? What about the glory of the Patriarchate? What about the huge churches, trimmed in gold, with booming deacons; what about the glory of the Fatherland?" It is this very thought that the Evil One has used to such effect with some of the pious faithful. As a convert to Orthodoxy, looking at this with non-Russian eyes, it is plain and clear to me that Satan has recreated the Moscow Patriarchate in his own image to provide this illusion to the faithful, and, in turn, to drag them unwittingly to the edge of the abyss.

I say: Awake, sleeping giant! It is time for the Church Abroad to take its rightful place in history and fight this "abomination of desolation" [30] [31] that has set itself up in Christ's place.

I am reminded by the words of our Savior regarding the last days, and hope that they are not upon us:

"And then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, He is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." [32]

Finally, I am reminded of Bishop Ilarion's response to the invitation from the W.C.C., which was to refuse to join them, but to instead ask them to join the Orthodox Church. It seems to me that it is once again time to refuse discourse with the MP in regards to joining it or recognizing its grace; rather, it is time to invite the MP to repent and join the True Church.

My prayers are with our little remnant of the True Church.

In Christ -

Timothy J. Clader, M.D. [as of 2020, Fr. Timothy Clader]

Choir Director and Parishioner

Protection of the Mother of God Russian Orthodox Church

Rochester, New York, USA

 

ENDNOTES

1. Archbishop Averky, On the Russian Church Abroad, from the writings of Archb. Averky, reprinted from Stand Fast in the Truth, compiled by Fr. Demetrios Serfes, pp. 3-5, and republished by the St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty, TN

2. I Tim 3:15

3. II John 1:4

4. Cf. the Works of St. Gregory, Part I, p. 192

5. Ibid., Archbishop Averky, On the Russian Church Abroad

6. Cf. the words of Bishop Theophan in On Orthodoxy, with Warnings about Errors against It, p. 7

7. Ibid., Archbishop Averky, On the Russian Church Abroad, p. 4

8. A particularly moving passage on this topic is found in I.M. Andreyev's masterpiece Russia's Catacomb Saints (St. Herman of Alaska Press, Platina, CA 1982, pp. 48-49), as follows:

"After the death of Patriarch [Tikhon], his successors one after another were banished. And then Metropolitan Sergius, becoming head of the church, published the Declaration known to everyone, which acknowledged the joys and sorrows of the Soviets as his own and declared all martyrs political criminals.

"All Orthodox Russia was shaken, and delegations with protests extended to Metr. Sergius from all corners of the land. "As a member of such a delegation from the Petrograd Diocese I [I. M. Andreyev] too came to Moscow. In the Metropolitan' reception room forty people were waiting, and everyone of whom I asked his reason for coming replied that he had come as a delegate to see the Metropolitan. Russia had not accepted the Declaration!

"The Metropolitan received us out of order. Finding out the reason why we had come, he reaffirmed everything written in the Declaration, and in answer to our convictions called us 'counter-revolutionaries' and 'schismatics.' Not taking his blessing, we left without obtaining anything.

"Soon the churches that did not accept the Declaration began to be closed. In Petrograd only one remained, but everyone who entered it was registered and later arrested. This was the time when the atheist Soviet power demanded of believers that they go to churches of the official Church. [i.e., the Moscow Patriarchate]

"I, too, was arrested and banished for five years. At Solovki I encountered many hierarchs of the true Church. And there we already had our Catacomb Church.

"In the concentration camps the persecution against faith was completely open: priests were shorn and shaved, forbidden to wear cassocks and crosses. For making the sign of the Cross a new term of imprisonment was given. Of course, there was no question of any open services. The relics of saints were exhibited for mockery in an anti-religious museum with blasphemous inscriptions – even the saints suffered with us! The monks of Solovki who remained there as specialist laborers were forbidden to have any contact with the prisoners under penalty of death. It was especially difficult before great feasts: it was impossible to gather even in twos, no one was allowed anywhere without special passes, night rounds were made more frequent, sentries were doubled. In order to pray one had to be ready at any minute for a martyr's death. And we were ready for it, always carrying with us, like the first Christians, a Particle of the Holy Gifts. I brought such a Particle abroad and gave it to Metropolitan Anastassy.

"And not only were we ready to die, but many did die, confident that somewhere there, outside the reach of the Soviet authorities, where there is freedom-there the Truth was shining in all its purity. There people were living by it and submitting to it. There people did not bow down to Antichrist. And what terror overwhelmed me when, fairly recently, I managed to come abroad and found out that some people here ‘spiritually’ recognize the Soviet church. Spiritually! Many of us there fell, `for fear of the Jews,' or giving in to the temptation of outward cooperation with the authorities. I knew priests of the official Church [MP] who, at home, tore their hair out, who smashed their heads making prostrations, begging forgiveness for their apostasy, calling themselves Cain – but nonetheless they did not have the strength to decide upon martyrdom. But even they spiritually did not recognize the Red Church. But these others abroad – it is precisely spiritually that they submit to it. What good fortune that our priest-martyrs, in dying, did not find out about this betrayal!"

9. What is a Bishop?, published by the St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty, TN

10. Acts 20:28

11. Titus 1:5, 7, 9-10

12. From the Records of the Council for Religious Affairs to the Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, published in Russian 1974; English translation, Monastery Press, 8011 Champagneur Ave., Montreal, H3N 2K4 Que. 1981

13. Andrew C, and Mitrokhin V: The Sword and the Shield, the Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, Published by Basic Books, A member of the Perseus Books Group, NY, NY 1999 ISBN 0-465-00310- 9 pp. 486-507

14. Ibid., p. 507

15. Ibid., p. 501

16. I. M. Andreyev: Russia's Catacomb Saints, St. Herman of Alaska Press, Platina, CA 1982

17. Ibid., p. 487

18. Crozier B: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1999, Prima Lifestyles, ASN 0761520570

19. Apostolic Canon Number 62, The Rudder (Pedalion), English Translation of John Nicolaides, 5th Ed., Athens, Greece, 1908; Published by The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, Chicago, IL 1957, pp. 107-108

20. Last Will and Testament, Archbishop Antony of Los Angeles, 24 Nov/7 Dec 1995 21 Matt 16:18

21. Matt. 16:18

22. Matt. 4:8-11

23. II Cor. 6:14-15

24. Ps. 1:1

25. I.M. Andreyev: Russia's Catacomb Saints (St. Herman of Alaska Press, Platina, CA 1982, p. 51):

"This is why the question of our jurisdictional divisions is not a question of `quarrels of bishops over portfolios.' No, it is a question of cooperation (or tacit agreement) with the forerunners of Antichrist, or else uncompromising battle against them. This alone separates us from those who have broken away from the Truth; but it does not separate us from the Russian people, for there the soul, even if it is invisible, even if it has retracted within itself, is still alive, is not spiritually enslaved; it is drawn to the light of Truth."

26. II Cor. 6:16-18

27. Eph. 5:27

28. Luke 12:32

29. II Cor. 11:13-14

30. Matt. 24:15

31. Mark 14:14

32. Mark 13:21-22

 

Source: Living Orthodoxy, #155, September-October 2006, St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty, TN, pp. 21-27.

Archbishop Averky: His Significance for the Ecumenical Orthodox Church

“Alas! His golden lips have been silenced!”

 

 

Too often have we Orthodox Christians grown used to “taking for granted” the great men in our midst, of not valuing them as we ought until they have departed from us—and even then not evaluating them properly, and letting their significance and their teaching slip away from us into oblivion.

Archbishop Averky was 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.

Born Alexander Pavlovich Taushev on October 19 (Nov. 1), 1906, in Kazan, Archbishop Averky was of a noble family. His father was a government official whose duties took him to many parts of Russia, allowing young Alexander to have a first-hand acquaintance with the heart of Holy Russia, its monasteries and holy places; the memory of these places remained with him all his life, even though he left his homeland while still a young teenager. Even at that tender age he was attracted to books of a spiritual nature, such as Unseen Warfare, and already from the age of seven or eight he began to feel an alienation from the ordinary life of the world and a subconscious attraction towards the monastic life.

In the midst of the civil war that followed on the Revolution of 1917, the Taushev family left Russia, in 1920, with great grief of soul. The family settled in the Bulgarian city of Varna, where Alexander attended school until 1926. The chief religious influence on him at this time was the local parish church and its priest, Father John Slunin.

Then, in 1925, a bishop came to Varna who was to give Alexander’s life its direction: Archbishop Theophan of Poltava, a strict monk, a man of prayer, and theologian in the true Patristic tradition. After meeting him, the young student resolved to undertake the monastic way of life. With Archbishop Theophan’s blessing, he attended the Theological Faculty of the University of Sophia, and on graduating from it with brilliant success in 1930 he went to Carpatho-Russia (in Czechoslovakia) with the intention of becoming a monk and serving the Russian Church. Tonsured a monk there in 1931, and ordained priestmonk the next year, he served several parishes and assisted the abbot of the monastery of St. Nicholas near the village of Iza. Soon he also undertook responsibilities as editor of the diocesan periodical and teacher of catechism in secondary schools.

When Carpatho-Russia was occupied by the Magyars in 1940, Father Averky went to Belgrade and served under Metropolitan Anastassy, Chief Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, conducting courses in religious subjects both for seminarians and laymen.

When the Synod of Bishops moved to Munich in 1945, he followed it and continued his work of the religious education of youth. In 1950 he was appointed by the Synod as chairman of its Missionary Education Committee. When he came to America in 1951 he was invited to the newly-organized Holy Trinity Seminary at Jordanville, New York, to teach New Testament, Liturgics, and Homiletics. In 1952 he became Rector of the Seminary, in 1953 Bishop of Syracuse, and in 1960, at the death of Archbishop Vitaly, Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery. In these positions he continued until his death his life’s work of enlightening the Orthodox faithful, both the future pastors of the seminary (about 100 priests came from the seminary in these years) and all those who read the Monastery’s publications, which were all solid works of Orthodox piety and theology. His sermons appeared frequently in the Monastery’s bimonthly publication, Orthodox Russia, and his own books included textbooks on Homiletics and the interpretation of the New Testament (2 volumes), collections of his sermons and articles, and works on the life and letters of his beloved Abba, Archbishop Theophan.

All of the writings of Archbishop Averky bear one and the same character of love for God’s truth, righteous zeal in expressing it, and urgent exhortation to others to follow it.

The abundance with which his golden lips gushed the sweet honey of the pure teaching of Orthodoxy, especially in his most fruitful last years, has perhaps helped to hide from us the rarity and even uniqueness of his teaching in our evil days. We have grown so used to his flaming and bold words that we have not noticed that he was virtually the only hierarch of any Orthodox church writing in any language with such boldness and uprightness in defense of Orthodoxy.

In earlier centuries the Church had many Holy Fathers writing in defense of Orthodoxy against the numerous heresies which attacked her singly or together. But in our day, when Orthodox Christians are losing the savor of Orthodoxy and virtually all the Local Orthodox Churches are giving in to the apostasy of our times, his voice was almost the only one to continue speaking the truth with such vigor and boldness, even amid the many infirmities of his old age. Truly, he was a champion of Orthodoxy in our age when faith is growing cold.

His view of the contemporary world was sober, precise, and entirely inspired by the Sacred Scripture and Holy Fathers of the Church: He taught that we live in the age of the Apostasy, the falling away from true Christianity, when the “mystery of iniquity” has entered its final stage of preparation for the “man of sin,” Antichrist (II Thess. 2:3–12). Archbishop Averky traced the development of this Apostasy in particular from the time of the schism of the Church of Rome (1054), through the era of Humanism, the Renaissance and Reformation, the French Revolution, 19th-century materialism and communism, culminating in the Russian Revolution of 1917, which removed the last great barrier to the working of the mystery of iniquity and the coming of Antichrist. (See his book, True Orthodoxy and the Contemporary World, Jordanville, 1971, pp. 18–21; the quotes that follow are all from this book.)

In such an age, he writes, “to be a true Orthodox Christian, ready unto death to preserve one’s faithfulness to Christ the Saviour, in our days is much more difficult than in the first centuries of Christianity” (p. 17). Although often open (in the lands under communist control), the persecution against Christianity today is more often hidden. “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” (18). He often quoted the words of Bishop Theophan the Recluse about the latter times: “Although the name of Christian will be heard everywhere, and everywhere there will be churches and church services, all this will be only an appearance, while within there will be a true apostasy” (21).

In fulfilment of these words in our own days, Archbishop Averky writes, “The Christian world, it is frightful to say, presents today a frightful, cheerless picture of the most profound religious and moral decadence” (22). The temptation of worldly comfort and prosperity drive God away from the soul. “The servants of antichrist more than anything else strive to force God out of the life of men, so that men, satisfied with their material comfort, might not feel any need to turn to God in prayer, 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 frantic whirlpool of life bound up with it, keeps a man in a constant state of emptiness and distraction which give no opportunity for one to go at least a little deeper into his soul, and so the spiritual life in him gradually dies out” (29). All of contemporary life, on the public level, is a preparation for the coming of Antichrist: “All that is happening today on the highest levels of religion, government, and public life . . . is nothing else than an intense work of preparation by the servants of the coming Antichrist for his future kingdom” (24), and this work is being done as much by “Christians” as by non-Christians (18).

After painting such a grim picture of the present and future, Archbishop Averky calls on Orthodox Christians to struggle against the spirit of this world that lies in evil. “All who in the present day desire to preserve faithfulness to Christ the Saviour must guard themselves especially against every attraction towards earthly goods and against being deceived by them. It is extremely dangerous to give oneself over to every desire to make a career for oneself, to make a name for oneself, to obtain authority and influence in society, to acquire wealth, to surround oneself with luxury and comfort” (28).

To those willing to struggle to preserve their faith, Archbishop Averky offers a sober and inspiring path of confession: “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” (28). We must be true Christians, not giving in to the spirit of the times, making the Church the center of our lives (26). Giving thanks to God for the existence of our Russian Church Outside of Russia, “which has not tainted itself by submitting to the dark powers of Antichrist that are acting in the contemporary world” (24), we must be “its faithful and devoted children, and at the same time its missionaries, fighters for the true faith of Christ, both in the non-Orthodox environment that surrounds us and among the Russian people who have fallen away or are falling away from it” (27). We must lead a conscious life of prayer, nourished by the reading of Scripture and the Holy Fathers and by frequent confession and reception of Holy Communion (30).

The path ahead of us, despite the deceptive promises of modern “progress,” is a path of suffering: “The Lord has clearly said that it is not ‘progress’ that awaits us, but ever greater tribulations and misfortunes as a result of the increase of lawlessness and the growing cold of love; when He comes, He will scarcely find faith on earth (Luke 18:8).”

The strength of the true Christian in the terrible times ahead is the apocalyptic expectation of the Second Coming of Christ: “The spirit of a constant expectation of the Second Coming of Christ is the original Christian spirit, which cries out in prayer to the Lord: Even so, come, Lord Jesus (Apoc. 22:20). And the spirit opposed to this is undoubtedly the spirit of Antichrist, which strives by every means to draw Christians away from the thought of the Second Coming of Christ and the recompense which follows on it. Those who give in to this spirit subject themselves to the danger of not recognizing Antichrist when he comes and of falling into his nets. Precisely this is the most frightful thing in the contemporary world, which is filled with every possible deception and temptation. The servants of Antichrist, as the Lord Himself has forewarned us, will try, if possible, to deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24). The thought of this, however, should not oppress or crush us, but on the contrary, as the Lord Himself says, Then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh (Luke 21:28).”

It is such a man, a true Holy Father of these latter times, filled with the Christian apocalyptic expectation of Christ’s Second Coming and with the sober Orthodox spirit of preparedness for it, who is the author of the following commentary on the culminating book of the New Testament Scriptures, the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian. Although his interpretation of the book is based solidly on the early Fathers of the Church, the very fact that he himself is so much in their spirit, and in the spirit of St. John, is a pledge for us of the accuracy of his commentary, as well as of the fact that it can speak not merely to our curious minds, but also and above all to our believing hearts. Archbishop Averky was an Orthodox scholar in the unbroken tradition of patristic thought which has come down to us from the ancient Fathers to our own days, and which he imbibed most of all in his own teachers, the 19th-century Theophan (the Recluse, †1894) and the 20th-century Theophan (of Poltava, †1940). An unblemished teacher of the Orthodox moral and spiritual life, he is also an unrivalled theological and patristic guide for us.

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, like the Woman of the Apocalypse (ch. 12)—the Church of the last times.

 

Source: The Orthodox Word, Vol. 17, Nos. 5-6 (100-101), September-December 1981, pp. 219-226.