From a Voice in the Catacomb Church: “Seeking Mother”

Monk Zachariah

Source: Православная Русь [Orthodox Russia], No. 10, 1947.

 

 

I heard in childhood:

“In very ancient times, in some country, a gang of robbers raged, striking terror into the surrounding population. The leader of this gang had lost all human feelings and committed unheard‑of crimes, indescribable in words.

One day this gang attacked the house of a good, peaceful man. They killed the master of the house, violated and then brutally killed his wife, and plundered the property. They also intended to kill the master’s son, a small child, who was helplessly crying in a corner. However, the leader of the gang, noticing the extraordinary beauty of the boy, decided that large money could be obtained for him and ordered that he be taken along.

The little one was brought to the cave where the gang lived. The leader entrusted the care of the boy to his ‘friend,’ worthy of him, and forgot about him…

After some time, once returning from a raid, the robber happened to meet this child and barely recognized him: he had changed so, had grown thin, and had a sickly appearance.

The leader’s ‘friend,’ asked about the reason for such a change, explained that the child was grieving greatly for his mother, would not go to anyone, avoided everyone, ate little, and would probably soon die.

In the evening, sorting through old plunder, the leader found the clothes, ornaments, and shoes of the child’s murdered mother.

‘Listen,’ he said to his ‘friend,’ ‘you say that the boy grieves for his mother. Well then, put all this on, go to him, caress him; perhaps he will take you for his mother and recover. Otherwise, it is a pity: he will perish, and good money could be made for him…’

The woman of the leader put on the dress of the deceased, adorned herself with her brooches and necklaces, assumed, as best she could, a gentle appearance, and went to the child. In fear, he recoiled from her and screamed.

‘Come to me, my little one,’ said the robber woman, ‘for it is I, your mother. Look: here is the dress, here is the necklace… Do you not recognize me?’

‘No, no!’ the child cried, trembling with horror. ‘Mama’s dress, Mama’s necklace — but you… are not Mama…’”

***

The present situation in Orthodoxy reminds me of this touching story I heard in childhood.

With their characteristic ability to maneuver concepts, the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate is trying to convince everyone that there, in Moscow, in her garments and jewelry, is our very real Mother.

Of course, all this is not aimed at members of the Catacomb Church, who know well the deceitful eyes of the "companion of the murderers." They cannot be deceived!

This is said to the children who lost their mother in infancy and therefore do not remember her face. These who do not remember their mother look at her dress, her jewelry, and—though their heart aches—they begin to doubt: what if it is she? After all, everyone has longed for her so much.

It is for such ones that the flattery of the hierarchs of the MP may be fatal. It is for them that my warning voice is directed. The voice of a Christian who has been in the Catacomb Church for almost 30 years.

— What are you looking at! What are you doubting! This is not her, this is not our Mother!

I pray to the One who gives power to the word, may He place in my mouth a strength that will open eyes and awaken the conscience of those who doubt. Yea, O Lord, accomplish this!

Listen, you who long for the Mother Church! This wanton companion of the dreadful robber chieftain in Moscow is not only not the Russian Local Church, but is not Orthodox, and even not Christian at all.

What are the signs of any Orthodox autocephalous Church? They are four:

1. Territory.
2. People.
3. Lawful hierarchy.
4. The Spirit of Christ—that is, the undefiled preservation of Christ’s teaching and the dogmas of the Church, beginning from the apostles.

In addition, each local Church has its own unique structure, its own spiritual-mystical worldview, found in no other local Church, belonging to her alone.

Only the totality of all these signs characterizes that a given church at the present time is the same as it was from the beginning of its existence. Taken separately, neither territory, nor people, nor hierarchy, nor preservation of dogmas, nor structure and worldview constitute proof of the continued life of the Church and its identity with the original one. After all, even today, all the names of the seven churches mentioned in the Apocalypse still exist. But who would say that these are still the same churches? And is the Alexandrian or the Roman Church really the same as in the time of Athanasius the Great or Leo, Bishop of Rome? Even retaining apostolic succession, how little do these daughter churches resemble their Mother.

And the one which has taken in Moscow the house of our Church-Mother — imprisoned and tormented — has put on her garments, adorned herself with jewelry given to her by the robbers, and sings her songs as if they were hers — in what else does she resemble our own?

In nothing!

Of all the signs she possesses truly only one: the house — the territory. The people she has betrayed, having blessed her master — the chieftain of the gang of murderers — to exterminate all who do not recognize him as "father and benefactor."

Hierarchy?... We know where it is. We know well where and how the faithful bishops and priests of the true Mother Church perished or are suffering. With our own ears we heard what the adulterous companion of the robber chieftain said about them.

The Spirit of Christ?... Open at random any issue of the journals of the Moscow Patriarchate, where priests and even bishops of this organization call their flock to vengeance, blood, pogroms, and hatred of dissenters. And then you will see for yourselves — instead of the meek face and loving eyes of the Mother Church — the animal grin of the harlot who has sold herself to the robbers.

So then, perhaps she is at least a fallen sinner — but Orthodox?..

No! For Orthodoxy is unconditionally defined by the acknowledgment of the dogma of original sin and its consequences. We believe that human nature, corrupted by original sin, is in itself inclined toward evil. No economic or political systems can, by themselves and without the grace of God given in the sacrament of holy Baptism, free man from his inclination toward evil and set him on the path of good. Man left to himself, having rejected God and all that is holy, inevitably slides into the abyss of evil. No “paradise” on earth can be built; on the contrary, evil will continue to progress, developing by the end of time to terrifying proportions, so that scarcely will faith be found on the earth (Luke 18:8). Any teaching that man is good by nature, that it is enough for him merely to establish proper economic and political conditions and he will become an angel of light — is unorthodox. Any organization that blesses the building of an earthly paradise — and that by a God-fighting state — that rejoices with the joys and grieves with the griefs of open godless Satanists, thereby rejects the dogma of original sin, the dogma of the Church as the guardian of God’s Truth on earth, as well as many other dogmas. And therefore — anathema be upon it!

Some of the lukewarm will finally say: “But still, it is a church.”

How few words there are in human language! Many directly opposite concepts are sometimes denoted by the same term. Even the prophet David found no word to designate that which is contrary to the Church. “I have hated the congregation of evildoers,” he said — as if even the evildoers still had a church.

“I will build My Church,” said our Savior to us. And from that time on, with the name “Church” we have connected the concept of salvation. Everything that does not save is not the Church; everything that lies is not the Church; everything that helps the God-fighters to destroy the soul of our tormented people is not the Church — or is the church of evildoers. If the name of God is forbidden to be used in vain, then likewise the name of the Church of Christ is inapplicable to the slave of the slave of Satan — the Moscow Patriarchate...

***

The true children of the Church of Christ will not be deceived by the garments and adornments taken from Her — our outraged Mother.

We firmly believe that soon, very soon, we shall meet Her — the true one, who gave birth to us by water and the Spirit, the real, the dear one, who has come forth from prisons, concentration camps, secret dens and the depths of the earth. God’s Truth shall yet triumph.

And then She — our much-suffering Mother, the Russian Church — will set before the Face of the Lord all her faithful children who remained true to the end, and will say:

— Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given me.

And those who endured to the end will joyfully cry out:

— Glory to Thee, our Savior, who art coming again! Soon!..

Yea, come, Lord Jesus!