What the Holy Fathers Say About Avoiding Communion with Heretics

~ Defilement through communion with heretical or wrong-believing bishops ~

 

It is indeed striking, the strictness that the Holy Fathers impose not only upon the heretics but also upon the members of the Church who adopt erroneous beliefs, for the Church is not divided only by the heretics, but also by those who believe and spread similar things: "It is not only by the heretics that it has been cut apart, but it is also divided by those who say the same things and are of like mind with one another."

1. The slightest matter that concerns God is not small, according to Saint Gregory Palamas.

2. St. John Chrysostomos tells us: "Not only those who sin, but also those who praise the sinners undergo the same or even worse punishment."

3. "Every clergyman," says Saint Symeon the Theologian, "whose faith, words, and deeds do not agree with the teachings of the Holy Fathers, we must not receive into our home. Rather, we must turn away from him and hate him as a demon, even if he raises the dead and performs countless other miracles."

4. Is this strictness, then, an arbitrary harshness and a "quirk" of the saints? Of course not! Our very Lord Himself was the first to teach clearly what our response must be when we hear teachings contrary to those which He Himself and His disciples delivered. Jesus Christ taught that His own sheep, when they hear the voice of a strange teacher, flee. "And a stranger [i.e., shepherd] they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers."

5. And immediately after the walling off, the Holy Apostles taught: "…Therefore, it is necessary to flee from the corrupting shepherds."

6. Not a few times have the official shepherds poisoned the flock—through distorted teaching—leading it to the worship of other gods. For "heresy" is not only "faith in a strange god,"

7. but "has been entirely clothed with the devil."

8. In our days the bishops have been openly shown to be false bishops because they defile the Faith by condescending to heretics. "Woe to those who defile the Holy Faith with heresies or condescend to the heretics."

9. Saint Antiochos Pandektos said that the one who does not have the right faith must not only be turned away from, but also anathematized—that is, considered to be outside the Church.

10. "Not even for a short while do we accept any association with those who are lame in the faith."

11. …"even if they seem to us very genuine and official, we must abhor them, we who love the Lord."

12. Saint Theodore the Studite declares: "And if they are friends according to God, how is it that they partake in communion with the heterodox? For such as these are not true and faithful friends."

13. The same Saint says: "The heretics have completely suffered shipwreck concerning the faith. And as for the others, even if they have not sunk in their thoughts, nevertheless by communion with heresy they perish together [because of their communion with the heretics, they will be lost along with them]."

14. He considers it a "betrayal of the Orthodox Confession" for someone to remain in communion with his wrong-believing bishop.

15. These Patristic positions were also incorporated into the Acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council: "Whoever justifies heresy, let him be anathema."

Saint Athanasios the Great, concerning the one who holds impious doctrines, states: "Avoid him, and thus you will preserve your faith pure."

16. According to Saint Nektarios of Aegina: "Communion with him [the wrong-believing and heretical one] defiles the faith with the responsibilities that this entails. Therefore, external disassociation protects from internal estrangement"… "It is false what they claim, that the paths of piety are many… there is one path only, and that narrow and not broad… one and only God and Lord."

17. If the Evangelist John, the "disciple of love," says that someone who does not accept the teaching of Christ and the Apostles should not even be received into your house, nor should you greet him, because by doing so you partake in his evil works and become an accomplice, how much more, then, should we not accept him in the church as a celebrant?

18. If Saint Basil the Great emphasizes: "A heretical man, reject,"

19. how much more the wrong-believing clergyman?

The holy Chrysostom explains to us: "Not only if some say entirely contrary things that overturn everything, but even if they teach the slightest contrary thing, let them be anathema."

20. "From such people we must leap away as we do when we encounter a serpent, and cut off all communion and flee with all our strength, even if they appear to us as venerable and meek," teaches Saint Photios the Great.

21. What, in truth, do we hope to inherit—we who voluntarily and willingly follow the modern heresy-promoting Bishops, despite the wrath of God and hell?

"If someone pretends to confess the right faith, yet is seen to be in communion with them [if someone, pretending, confesses the right faith but communes with the heretics], exhort such a one to abstain from such a custom; and if he promises, regard such a one as a brother [and if he promises you that he will break communion with the heretics—and does so—consider him your brother]; but if he persists contentiously, renounce such a one [cut off from him]."

22. Saint Job Iasites the Confessor said: "Let us not associate with them, then [the Latin-minded]… We will try with all our strength not to be defiled through ecclesiastical communion with them, and not to partake in their scab or their destructive disease. We will also guard ourselves in every way and completely abstain from their faction."

23. Saint Meletios of Galesion: "The Latins are heretics, and those who are in communion with them perish…".

24. Saint Gregory Palamas adds: "Since Kalekas is in this manner and so many times cut off from the entire body of the Orthodox, it is consequently impossible for anyone who has not separated from him to belong to the pious. On the contrary, whoever for these reasons is separated from Kalekas, such a one truly belongs to the list of Christians and is united with God according to the pious faith."

25. And furthermore: "It is impossible for someone to be in ecclesiastical communion with the Patriarch (Kalekas) and to be Orthodox…, whereas the one who was walled off is united with the pious faith."

26. We must again emphasize—because it is of utmost importance—that when Gregory was teaching these things, he was walled off, and Kalekas had not yet been synodally condemned!

Saint Theodore the Studite recalls the command of Saint Athanasius the Great: "…that we are to have no communion with the heretics, but not even with those who commune with the impious."

27. Thus he "rightly" concludes his final position: "…neither to commune with them [the heretics], nor to commemorate them… during the Divine Liturgy; for the greatest threats have been pronounced by the saints against those who condescend to them even to the point of sharing a meal…".

28. The Apostolic Canons fully support this position: "If anyone prays together with one who is excommunicated, even in a house, let him also be excommunicated."

29. Saint Mark says: "…Advise the priests of God to avoid in every way ecclesiastical communion with their Latin-minded metropolitan, and neither to concelebrate with him, nor to commemorate him at all, nor to consider him a hierarch, but rather as a hireling and a wolf! …Therefore, you also, brethren, avoid ecclesiastical communion with the excommunicated and the commemoration of the uncommemorated. This Latin-minded one will be condemned together with the Latins and will be regarded as a transgressor of the faith."

30. "…They must be fled from, as one flees from a serpent, as those men—or rather, much worse than those—as traffickers in Christ and Christ-merchants… Flee from them, then, brethren, and from communion with them. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ."

31. It is important to emphasize that the Saint does not raise issues such as the necessity of Synodal approval, the danger of schism or supposed separation from the Church, nor matters of applying economy, or for the sake of peace or the continuation of preaching.

After the signing of the false union at Ferrara-Florence, Saint Mark said: "I am convinced that the more I distance myself from him [the Patriarch] and from such men [the Latin-minded], the more I draw near to God and to the Saints, and the more I separate myself from them, the more I am united with the truth."

32. The Saint says: "Those who pretend to confess the sound faith, yet commune [commemorate] with those of different mind, if after your admonition they do not separate themselves from them, not only must you regard them as outside the Church, but you must not even call them brothers."

33. And for the venerable Neophytos the Recluse, "ecclesiastical communion with the Papists places the one who communes with them under the anathemas of the Councils and in the depths of Hades."

In conclusion, we will mention the words of the holy Patriarch Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople, to the Cypriot laypeople concerning the walling off from their clergy, who had submitted to the Latin conquerors in the 12th and 13th centuries: "…All of you who are true children of the Catholic Church, flee with all haste from the priests who have fallen into submission to the Latins, and do not gather with them in church, nor receive from their hands any kind of blessing; for it is better to pray to God alone in your homes than to gather in churches with the Latin-minded; otherwise, you will share the same condemnation as they."

34. "Anathema to those who commune knowingly [with the heretics]."

 

Greek source:

https://www.agioritespateres.com/ti-lene-oi-agioi-pateres-gia-tin-apofygi-koinonias-me-airetikous-%e1%bd%81-molysmos-dia-t%e1%bf%86s-koinonias-me-a%e1%bc%b1retikous-%e1%bc%a4-kakodoksous-%e1%bc%90piskopous/