The Tragedy of Heretics

Protopresbyter George D. Metallinos (+2019)

 

The Apostolic reading of the upcoming Sunday (Titus 3:8-15) directs our attention to heresies and heretics. The term "heretic" has received many interpretations from commentators, especially modern ones, in the field of the New Testament.

However, there is also the specific meaning that the term received in the language of the Holy Fathers, in the language of Orthodoxy. For our Holy Fathers, "heretic" means a distorter of the faith, of the revealed Truth, of the God-given way of salvation. Heresy, then, is an alienated version of the Person of the Savior Christ, which cannot lead man to salvation, to theosis, or redeem the world from evil. The Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451), whom the Orthodox Church honors worldwide on the upcoming Sunday, insist that we must preserve this meaning of the term in the following reflections.

The Holy Fathers, Genuine Theologians

To understand the tragedy in which heretics live and move, we must examine their diametrically opposite counterparts—the Holy Fathers—in their primary work, theology. Of course, one who is trapped in the sociological frameworks of our times will hasten to protest here, unable to comprehend that the entire work of the Fathers, in every era, is theology. For the Fathers, being united with God, address not only the issues of faith but also those of life as a whole. They offer God-Truth when confronting doctrinal crises, but they also offer God-Truth in shepherding their spiritual children and guiding them within the framework of life in Christ, which is the communion of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Fathers always theologize through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. They first become vessels and temples of the Spirit, through the grace of God and their spiritual struggle, and they are deemed worthy to become Spirit-driven, God-moved mouths of the Word and hands of the Spirit. Their theology, therefore, is an expression of their mystical experiences. They express what the Spirit reveals within them, spreading its light around them. They speak what they see in their illumined and God-bearing heart. Thus, they are not the thinkers and philosophers of the world, the intellectuals—as we say. Our reasoning can never become Theology. It remains philosophy, metaphysics, a human search.

The Theology of the Fathers is the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. This is testified by one of the few who justly received the title of Theologian in the Church, Saint Gregory the Theologian: "It is not for everyone to philosophize about God. It is not for everyone. This matter is not so cheap and lowly... It is not for everyone, but only for those who have been tested and have advanced in contemplation (that is, in the vision of God) and who have first been purified in both soul and body, or at least are being purified now." The Holy Fathers have every right to say, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us," without the slightest danger of being accused of pride.

Just as the Athonite Hesychasts proclaimed entirely naturally and unpretentiously in the Tomos of 1341: "These things we have been taught by the Scriptures, these we have received from our Fathers, these we have known through our small experience..." Their humility is evident in the word "small," yet they are compelled to speak also of their own theoptic experience.

Heretics, the untreated "Therapists"

Heresy is not merely a logical error, nor are heretics simply mistaken in their search for the truth. In their case, something deeper and more fundamental occurs. They know Scripture literally, sometimes in an astonishing manner. However, they lack something essential, and this absence radically differentiates them from the Fathers. They lack the Holy Spirit’s experience that the Fathers possess—the inner illumination of the Spirit. This is because they have not undergone the healing of the Church. They may be (externally) morally blameless, yet they do not have the Spirit within them. Therefore, they do not see what the Fathers see in the Spirit. Intellectually, they may be remarkably advanced. Indeed, it is a fact that all great heretics impress with their vast knowledge and "wisdom"—even today. However, their hearts are not pure, nor have they become temples of the Holy Spirit. Heresy presupposes a faulty or non-existent spiritual healing. This is why, for heretics, theology is merely an intellectual or scientific endeavor, a logical and rhetorical game. The experience of theosis, which validates the Fathers, is what they lack. Thus, the heretic is unable to discern the truth from delusion at critical moments, for he does not see the truth within himself, nor does he know it in his heart. He lacks the vehicle of noetic prayer and, therefore, cannot attain "glorification," which is the revelation of "all truth" by the Holy Spirit.

Here precisely is revealed the tragedy of all heretics, and above all, of the heresiarchs. Being themselves unenlightened, they seek to enlighten. Being themselves unhealed, they seek to heal. Being themselves godless (that is, without the true God), they seek to theologize. We could compare heretics to quack doctors and charlatans who deceive. But they are something worse: they are physicians who offer a murderous treatment that kills man eternally. They are pharmacists who distribute poisoned—adulterated—medicines, which are dangerous not for physical health, but for spiritual and eternal well-being.

The Difference in Reality

By following the Patristic understanding of heresy, we can become aware of its corrupting power in the sacred matter of our salvation. Amidst the dulling of our spiritual senses, we often place the difference between Orthodoxy and heresies on the level of verbal or formal variations. This leads to minimizing the distinction and to the impression that the disagreement is about insignificant matters, which can easily be resolved with some goodwill and verbal refinement. This is precisely what happens in the ecumenistic dialogue. This occurs because we usually perceive ourselves as Orthodox and compare the heterodox to ourselves. It is no wonder, then, that we see more similarities than differences! However, if we view heresies from the perspective of Patristic reality and contrast the heterodoxy of our time with our Holy Fathers, we will realize that this is a difference of realities, not of words. It is primarily a difference in the method of spiritual healing. The spirituality of Orthodoxy produces Holy Fathers, whereas the "spirituality" of heresies sows destruction. For this reason, the Holy Fathers will always remain the "golden mouths of the Word," calling not only heretics and the heterodox but also us—who are Orthodox in name only—to the genuine healing in Christ, which leads to glorification and true Theology.

 

Source: Orthodoxos Typos, July 17, 2015.