Question #1
I have attended the Divine Liturgy
at an Orthodox Church. It all looks
very mystical to me with the vestments, incense, candles, singing.... How would
you compare the Orthodox Church to the other Christian Churches of the West?
Answer #1
The Orthodox Church is an
Eastern Church in the sense that, at least humanly speaking, it is the product
of Middle Eastern, Hellenic and Slavic history and culture. Basically, the Orthodox Church
has a historical and spiritual development worked out in almost total isolation
from the Christian Churches of Western Europe and America, namely the Roman
Catholics and the Reformed Protestant Churches
The formal break between the
Christian East and West cannot be easily pinpointed. It may be put formally in
the 11th or 12th centuries. However from as early as the 4th century the
Christians of the East were already living with very little contact with the
Christians of the West.
The liturgy of the Orthodox Church
as celebrated today developed within those centuries when the East was already
in a certain isolation from the West. The liturgy stands at the center of the
church's life and bears witness to the central experience of the Orthodox Faith,
namely that man is created for communion with God in the everlasting life of His
Kingdom.
Question #2
Would you say that the Orthodox Church is
more like the Roman Catholic Church than Protestant churches?
Answer #2
It is difficult to answer that question
easily without giving the wrong impression. The Protestant churches, as you
know, came out of the Roman Church when this body had already been separated from the
Eastern Orthodox Church for hundreds of years. Thus, as one Russian theologian put it in the last
century, it is probably true to say that the Roman and Reformed Protestant
churches are much closer to each other -- historically, spiritually,
theologically, culturally, psychologically -- than the Orthodox Church is to
either.
The many events and changes in the
various churches in recent days, not excluding the Orthodox Church, makes this
question still more difficult to answer. Thus, although we might say that the
Orthodox are closer to the so-called "high" churches of the West such as the
Roman and Anglican, it might be much safer and more correct to approach
Orthodoxy solely on its own ground without too much comparison to others.
Question #3
What
is the proper name for the Orthodox Church? One sees so many, and of such
different variety!
Answer #3
It must be understood first of
all that names like Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Serbian
Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, etc. are all names for one and the same Church with
one and the same faith and practice. Of course, within these churches there are
cultural differences which do not touch the essence of the faith as such.
Sometimes the Orthodox Church is
also called the Eastern Orthodox Church, or the Oriental Church, or the
Christian Church of the East, or the Orthodox Catholic Church, or the Greco-Russian
Church. But once more, these are all different names for the same Church.
Care must be taken not to
confuse the Orthodox Church with the Eastern Christian Churches in union with
the See of Rome: the so-called Uniates, or Byzantine or Greek Catholics.
Thee is also a distinction between the Orthodox and the so-called
Oriental Orthodox or Lesser Eastern Churches such as the Coptic Church, the
Ethiopian, Syrian, Armenian, Indian, and other churches which are very close to
the Orthodox Church but not part of it.
In America it must be noticed
that the new autocephalous (self-governing) Church which used to be the Russian
Orthodox Church of America is now simply called the Orthodox Church in America
(OCA).
Question #4
This
leads one to think of Orthodoxy as a very loosely organized body. How is the
Orthodox Church organized and how is it held together as one worldwide Church?
Answer #4
The Orthodox Church as a whole
is the unity of what are called local autocephalous or autonomous churches.
These words mean simply that these churches govern themselves, electing their
own bishops and organizing their own lives.
Each of these churches has
exactly the same doctrine, discipline and spiritual practices. They use the same
Bible, follow the same canon laws, confess the authority of the same Church
Councils and worship by what is essentially the same liturgy.
It is nothing other than this
communion in faith and practice which unites all Orthodox Churches together into
one world-wide body. In this sense, there is no one dominating authority in the
Orthodox Church, no particular bishop or see or document which has authority
over the churches.
In practice, the Church of
Constantinople has functioned for centuries as the church responsible for
guiding and preserving the worldwide unity of the family of self-governing
Orthodox Churches. But it must be noticed that this responsibility is merely a
practical and pastoral one. It carries no sacramental or juridical power with it
and it is possible that in the future this function may pass to some other
church.
Question #5
What
about all of those titles then: Patriarch, Metropolitan, Archbishop, Bishop?
What does all of this mean?
Answer #5
In Orthodoxy, the bishop is the
leading church officer, and all bishops have exactly the same sacramental
position in guiding the people of God.
A bishop of a large and
important area of leadership (usually called a diocese) may be called archbishop
or metropolitan, the latter meaning simply the bishop of a chief city, a
metropolis.
The patriarch is the bishop of
the most important city and diocese in a local church and is normally the
leading bishop of a country (patria means country). This is especially
the case when within the self-governing church of which the Patriarch is primate
there are other bishops with metropolitan sees. For example, in Russia the
bishop of Moscow is the patriarch; the bishops of Kiev and Leningrad are
metropolitans; and there are other archbishops and bishops within the local
church.
However, once again, it cannot
be over stressed that all bishops, regardless of their title or the size and
importance of their diocese, are identically equal with regard to their
sacramental position. None is higher or greater than the other; none rules over
another.
Question #6
Speaking about the clergy, what are the clerical offices in the Orthodox Church
and what is their significance?
Answer #6
The Orthodox Church has the three
classical Christian offices: bishop, priest and deacon.
The bishop is the highest office
since the bishop is the one responsible to guide the life of the church, to
guard the faith and to preserve the unity of the churchly body in truth and
love. Bishops are traditionally taken from the monks, and by a regulation dating
from the 6th century, must be unmarried. A widowed priest or any unmarried man
can be elected to the office of bishop.
The priests (or presbyters)
carry on the normal pastoral functions in the Church and lead the local parish
communities. They are usually married men. They must be married prior to their
ordination and are not allowed to marry once in the priestly state. Single
priests or widowers may marry but in this case, they are no longer allowed to
function in the ministry.
At the present time, the
diaconate in the Church is usually a step to the priesthood, or else it exists
solely as a liturgical ministry. The deacon may also be a married man, with the
same conditions as those for the married priesthood.
Question #7
You
mentioned monks. Does the Orthodox Church have monks and nuns?
Answer #7
There are both monks and nuns in
Orthodoxy, and monasticism has traditionally played a very important tole in the
life of the Orthodox Church.
The monastic men and women in
Orthodoxy are usually restricted to monasteries and do not normally participate
in the active ministry of the Church. This is so since the monastic vocation of
contemplation and prayer is considered to be a unique calling quite different
from that of being a pastor, teacher, nurse, or social worker. Normally the
monastic vocation is a lay vocation with each monastery having just one or two
priests to care for the sacramental life of the community.
In America there are few
well-functioning monastic communities. In the old world, however, recent years
have seen a renewal of monasticism particularly among the more educated members
of the Church.
Question #8
Your
explanation until now makes the Orthodox Church look like a highly clerical body
with strong hierarchal control. What about the laymen in the Church? Do they
have a role?
Answer #8
First of all, it has to be
understood that all members of the Church are full members, each with his own
calling and responsibility.
The clergy are those members who
have a special service within the body, and not over it or apart from it. They
are chosen from the people and are ordained within the community with the
special sacramental function to lead and to care for the life of the faithful.
The clergy, however, are in no
way infallible. They also have no "personal" rights or powers. Their entire
service is organically carried on in and for the Church. If they fail in their
service and prove themselves unworthy, they may be challenged by the lay people
and by procedures clearly indicated in church laws they may be removed from
their ministry. There are many examples in Orthodox Church history when lay
people have preserved the Christian Faith in opposition to unworthy hierarchs.
Also it must be seen that there
are conciliar bodies on every level of church life in which lay people
participate. The majority of theologians and teachers in the Orthodox Church, as
well as church administrators and workers of various sorts, are lay people and
not clergymen.
Thus, although the clergy have
their own particular function of leadership, and that by sacramental grace and
not merely by human choice or selection, the lay people have their functions as
well. All, however, are responsible for the integrity of the Church. This
traditional Orthodox position has the official confirmation of the famous
Encyclical Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1848. In this letter it is
clearly expressed that the entire body of the Church is the bearer of the
Orthodox Faith and Life, with each member bearing full responsibility before God
and men for Christian unity in the truth and Love of God. Thus if we can speak
about any infallibility at all, or of any power or authority, it must belong to
God who lives and acts in all of His People, led by the sacramental hierarchy.
Question #9
You
talk about the Church as unity in the truth and love of God. What do you mean by
this?
Anwer #9
We Orthodox believe that the
life of the Church is life in communion with God Himself, in the Truth and Love
of Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
We believe that Christ is the
Son of God. We believe that He reveals the truth about God and man. We believe
that we can know this truth by the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, that He
gives to us.
The greatest truth shown to us
by Christ is that God is Love, and that the only true way of living is by
following Christ who called Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Christ gave the great
commandment and the great example of perfect love. Thus the greatest truth is
love. This is our conclusion. And life in this truth which is love, is the life
of faith, the life of the Orthodox Church.
Of course there are deviations
and betrayals and sins all around. Clergy and laymen alike are guilty. But the
Church itself, despite the sins of its members, is still the union with the
Truth and Love of God given to men in Jesus Christ, made present and accessible
in the Holy Spirit, who lives in those who believe.
Question #10
You
will have to be more specific than. You called Christ the Son of God. This is a
common phrase. What do you actually mean by it?
Answer #10
The faith of the Orthodox Church
is that Jesus Christ is fully human, that He is a real man. But we believe as
well that Jesus is not a "mere man," but that He is the eternal, divine Son of
God.
By this we mean that from all
eternity, before the creation of everything that exists, God Himself existed
without beginning, in a manner incomprehensible to men, completely outside the
bounds of time and space. In this perfection of divine existence, God the Father
always had with Himself His divine Son and His Holy Spirit. Both the Son and the
Spirit are exactly what God the Father is, namely perfect, unchanging,
every-existing, timeless, spaceless, beyond human comprehension, etc. In a word,
whatever can be said or understood about God the Father can be said and
understood about the Son (also called the Word, Logos, Wisdom, and Image of God)
and the Holy Spirit.
Thus there are Three who are
divine, each being what the other is and each being in perfect union and unity
with the other. These are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: the Holy
Trinity.
Now we believe that it is the
eternally divine and perfect Son of God who was born as a man from the Virgin
Mary and lived on the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (Christ) of Israel
and the Savior of the world.
Thus it is the Orthodox faith
that Jesus is fully human and fully divine; the Son of God and the Son of Man,
one and the same Son.
As the unique divine-human
person, Jesus saves the world by teaching the absolute truth of God; by
forgiving the evils of all men and the whole world; by suffering and dying in
innocence, voluntarily and unjustly on the cross in order to be with all who
suffer and die; by rising from the dead in a new and glorified form; by taking
our humanity to God in order to make it divine forever; and by sending the Holy
Spirit of God to men who believe so that they could teach and do the very things
which Jesus Himself both taught and did...that they could, in a word, be sons of
God in Him.
Question #11
You
talk as if only the Orthodox who believe these things can be saved. What about
other Christians and all other men in the world?
Answer #11
In the first place it must be
made clear that it is not enough for anyone merely to believe these things, or
merely to be a formal member of the Church. In order to be saved one must live
by the truth and love of God.
It is the common teaching of the
Orthodox Christian tradition that the Church has no monopoly on grace and truth
and love. The Church teaches on the contrary that God is the Sovereign Lord who
saves those whom He wills.
The Church believes as well that
salvation depends upon the actual life of the person, and God alone is capable
of judging since He alone knows the secrets of each mind and heart. Only God is
capable of judging how well a man lives according to the measure of grace,
faith, understanding, and strength given to him.
The Orthodox would insist,
nevertheless, that an honest seeker of truth and love will see these things
perfectly realized and expressed in Jesus Christ and will recognize God, the end
of their seeking, in Him.
We all know, however, that our
image of Christ is deformed both by the lives and the doctrines of those who
claim him, and thus His truth and love and His very person remain obscure and
hidden to those who might follow Him if they could see Him clearly.
But once again, let it be clear
that every man is judged by God alone according to the actual truth and love in
his life. This goes for Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. And although the
Orthodox confess that the fullness of truth and love is found in the life of the
church, nominal church membership or formal assent to some doctrines does not at
all guarantee salvation.
12. You
have mentioned Christ, the Holy Spirit and God the Father. Can you say something
more about the Trinity?
According to the Orthodox
teaching, God is always and forever unknowable and incomprehensible to
creatures. Even in the eternal life of the Kingdom of God -- heaven , as we say
-- men will never know the essence of God, that is, what God really is in
Himself.
But we believe and confess that
God the "ineffable, inconceivable, incomprehensible, ever-existing God," to use
the words of the Orthodox liturgy, has made Himself known to creatures. He has
revealed Himself in the creation of man and the world, in the Old Testament Law
and the Prophets, and fully and perfectly in Christ through the Holy Spirit in
the New Testament Church.
In every way that God reveals
Himself, He does so through His Son (or Word-Logos) and through the Holy Spirit.
It is the same Son and Spirit through whom God made the world, through whom God
revealed Himself in the Old Testament, through whom God enlightens and makes
alive every man in the world ... that come to us personally in the New Testament
Church. The Son comes as a man in the person of Jesus Christ -- we have
discussed this already. The Spirit comes to those who believe in Christ in order
to make them sons of God in Him.
Thus we have always and
everywhere God the Father, the Son of God who comes as Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit. In the Orthodox Church we confess that these three are not three
competitive gods, divided, and separated from each other. On the contrary we
believe that the Father, who is the Source of all that exists, always has His
Son and His Spirit who are not creatures, Who were not made like everything and
everyone else, but Who exist eternally with Him; from, in and by His very own
divine being.
Thus what God the Father is, the
Son and the Holy Spirit also are, namely: eternal, perfect, good, wise, holy,
timeless, spaceless ... divine and worthy of the title GOD.
We believe as well that each of
the three divine persons is divine in his own unique way, yet always living and
acting in the perfectly absolute unity of the divine truth and love. Thus the
Three are one not only because what they are is one and the same, but
because their divine union allows of no separation or duality or division
whatsoever.
We must hasten to point out here
that the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Trinity is not an "abstract dogma"
thought up by some clever minds. It is the expression on the level of words --
which are always and of necessity inadequate to reality -- of the loving
experience of God in the Church. The doctrine of the Trinity is the product of
man's living communion with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
13. You
also keep speaking about the experience of God and communion with God. Do you
really believe that these things are possible for men?
If communion with God is not
possible, then there is no Christian Faith and certainly no Orthodoxy.
The entire faith of the Church
is built on the fact that "God is the Lord and has revealed Himself unto us."
This biblical line is solemnly sung at every Morning Service in the Orthodox
Church.
God has revealed Himself! He has
not merely told some things about Himself, or communicated some data about His
divine existence and purposes. He has shown forth Himself and has given Himself
to men for divine communion.
According to Orthodoxy, there is
no other meaning to the life of man except in communion with God. God is the end
of all longing, the fulfillment of all desires, the source and the goal of man's
very humanity made in God's divine image and likeness.
Through Jesus Christ in the Holy
Spirit, man comes to living communion with God the Father Himself. There is no
other meaning and purpose to the Church and to life itself.
Man and all creation with him
must come to be divine by sharing the being and life and action of God Himself.
All of the attributes of divinity -- as one saint put it -- must become ours;
eternal life, truth, goodness, holiness, purity, joy ... all perfections summed
up in the greatest which is Love. For God is Love! This is the meaning of life,
and it is certainly possible for men to attain it. At least, once more,
according to the Orthodox Faith.
14. If
this is so, how do you understand life in this world right now? What is it that
men should do?
The purpose of life right now is
for men to become saints; to begin to share, right here and now, in the divine
life of God; to become "holy as God is holy."
With this as the goal, however,
men must know that this effort is total. It is both personal and social. It is
both inward and outward. It works within the soul of man as well as within the
life of the world. And men must know that this effort, as a total one,
ultimately requires a total self-sacrifice. It inevitably brings pain and
suffering and perhaps even physical death. This is what "bearing the cross"
means, and why it is at the heart of the Christian ethic.
The pattern here is Jesus
Himself. There is no rule of Christian morality except the life of the Lord. The
rule therefore is total love, the greatest expression of which is the laying
down of one's life for the other in obedience to the truth and love of God. The
rule therefore is also nothing other than the cross, which cannot be "taken up"
except by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.
This Christian view of what man
should do is, at bottom, the fundamental morality for all men. Every ethic must
be the expression of what is true and good. All men must live this way. And
inevitably, when they do, whether they are consciously Christian or not, their
actual goodness and righteousness leads them to some sacrificial suffering on
behalf of others. In this world where evil abounds, the Cross is certainly the
rule.
15. You
mentioned this evil world. What is the relation of the Orthodox Church to this
world? What about such things, for example, as the Church and the State?
The Church first of all is the
experience of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is a mystery, as we call it; a
sacramental experience and vision of reality. It is that reality itself within
which we can come to a knowledge of God and Communion with Him and all things in
Him.
In this sense then, the Church
is not merely a human organization or institution. Although it has
organizational and institutional aspects -- a "human form" -- the Church cannot
be reduced to these things, and essentially it is really none of them. The
Church is not a human organization or institution at all. It is the gift of
divine life in this world.
As far as this world is
concerned, the Orthodox believe that although it is essentially "very good,"
created this way by God, it is ruined and spoiled and in the power of evil. It
needs to be healed and purified. In a word, the world needs salvation in order
to be what God made it to be.
Because this world is, in its
present ambiguous form, both good and evil at once; and because it requires
salvation in order to be the perfect dwelling-place for God and man that it was
made to be, it will always remain a world of relative values until being finally
transformed by God at the end of the ages.
In this perspective, some form
of government is necessary to care for life in this world in its present
relative condition. Christians traditionally have held that there must be some
form of state government with real power to care for the common good. The state
can never be absolute however, and it may even be evil, in which case it must be
resisted by men who love truth.
There have been in history many
alliances between Church and state in Orthodoxy. These alliances have not always
been happy ones and not seldom have been damaging to the Church and have
required resistance from the Church in the persons of the prophets and saints.
Nevertheless, the Orthodox would insist that for the relative life of this
world, there must be some form of government with equally relative powers to
preserve good order. And the Orthodox should be ready to be loyal to any such
government which does not assume what belongs properly to God.
16. This
sounds awfully other-worldly! Doesn't the Church have any more direct
relationship to the life of this world and the good of the human society right
now?
We have already said that the
Church is the experience of the life of the world and of human society as it
should be in God. At the liturgy, for example, we are given the "vision" of what
life and society are all about; what they should be when perfect, filled with
the Presence of God.
However, although it has to be
clearly understood that the clergy are strictly forbidden direct involvement in
the life of this world, according to Orthodox canon law, because their sole
function is to stand for the Kingdom of God which is not of this world,
Christian people are not only the clergy, and the Church is not only those who
are in "holy orders."
The Church is the whole body of
faithful. We have talked about this before. And the body of believers in God are
certainly in the world bearing witness in every possible way -- social,
political, economic -- to that very Kingdom which is not of this world.
And if, as we have said, the
purpose of man is to become holy and godlike and to suffer for truth and love in
communion with Christ Himself, then it must be seen that there is no other place
for man to do these things than in this present world right here and now.
Thus, although the church as
the church cannot possibly be reduced to the relative categories of this
world, the Christians who live in this world must certainly use every means
available to make this world as much as possible the expression of that Kingdom
of God which is to come in the final revelation of Christ. They must know as
well that they will never succeed absolutely in their efforts and will usually
be greatly resisted. We come once again to the significance of the cross.
Also it must be mentioned that
since the values of this world are always relative, and the concrete action of
witnessing to the Kingdom of God is not always that simple and easy to
determine, each individual Christian must be left free to make his political
decisions and actions according to his own conscience. The Church can give
principles and provide the vision of perfection, but it cannot dictate concrete
policies and actions in this or that given instance.
17. What
about the Orthodox relation to war? The fact that the Orthodox have blessed the
military seems to contradict your entire position, not to mention the teaching
of Jesus about non-violence.
On the contrary, we would hope
that the Orthodox position relative to the military supports what we have
already discussed.
Christ taught that perfection
requires the love of enemies and the absolute renunciation of resisting evil by
evil. Thus if a man will be perfect he will renounce the relative values of this
world totally and will not participate in any act which is morally ambiguous. In
this way, for example, the Church forbids the bearing of arms to its clergy and
does not allow a man to continue in the ministry who has shed blood,
theoretically even in an accidental way!
However, the Orthodox Church
follows Christ and the apostles in teaching that the relative and morally
ambiguous life of this world requires the existence of some form of human
government which has the right and even the duty to "wield the sword" for the
punishment of evil.
In the Gospels, for example, we
do not find Christ or John the Baptist of the apostles commanding the soldiers
which they met to cease being soldiers. Even the early Christians bore the arms
of the pagan Roman state for the welfare of society in this world.
But still, if a man will be
perfect and give his life totally to Christ, he will of necessity renounce
military service as well as any political service which always and of necessity
is involved with relativistic values and greater and lesser evils and goods.
Such a man will also renounce his possessions and follow Christ totally and in
everything.
Thus total pacifism is not only
possible, it is the sign of greatest perfection, the perfection of the Kingdom
of God. According to the Orthodox understanding, however, pacifism can never be
a social or political philosophy for this world; although once again, a
non-violent means to an end is always to be preferred in every case to a violent
means.
When violence must be used as a
lesser evil to prevent greater evils, it can never be blessed as such, it must
always be repented of, and it must never be identified with perfect Christian
morality.
Also, one final point of great
importance is that Christians who are involved in the relativistic life of this
world must resist military conscription when the state is evil. But when doing
so they must not yield to anarchy, but must submit to whatever punishment is
given so that their witness will be fruitful.
18. How
do you reconcile this position of not only with the past history of the Orthodox
Church which seems to have violated it, but with the Orthodox participation in
ecumenical groups as the World and National Councils of Churches which have
taken positions on concrete political issues?
In the first place, relative to
the Orthodox past, it is impossible to find any saint or teacher of the Church
who would say that Christians can be perfect while participating in the secular,
political, and military affairs of this world.
In societies where the rulers
were Christians, however, the Church would always urge the most humane
government, and there have been cases in which saints blessed the national
powers to bear arms, as the only alternative to what was understood to be a
human catastrophe. Nowhere however can you find the Church itself recruiting
soldiers or blessing the use of violence as such.
As we have mentioned, there have
been intimate alliances of Church and state in Orthodox history, but the number
of churchly prophets, saints, and martyrs who have resisted the identity of
church and nation is endless and can be easily documented.
About the present participation
of the Orthodox in ecumenical organizations, we can say generally that the
Orthodox have understood the necessity of their participation, or at least their
representation, as following from the desire that all men would be united in the
truth and love of Christ. There are, of course, unhappy exceptions where some
Orthodox participate for less worthy reasons, and these should be lamented.
Concerning the secular policies
of these ecumenical organizations, the record is rather clear that all of the
Orthodox, regardless of their motives for participation, have been virtually
unanimous in their lack of sympathy for this type of political action and have
generally made their dissatisfaction known.
It bears repeating also on this
point that the Orthodox have never been opposed to statements of Christian
principles on any issue: social, economic, legal, military ... What has ben
opposed however is the assumption on the part of churches or ecumenical agencies
and organizations of the right to promote or support specific policies, actions,
parties, candidates, etc.
19. What
about such very specific issues as divorce and birth control and abortion? What
do you have to say about such things?
These important issues all bear
upon the appreciation of the family, and generally we can say without hesitation
that the Orthodox understand the family to be willed by God as a created
expression of His own uncreated life. Thus, in principle, the family must be
preserved and glorified as something divinely and eternally valuable.
Regarding divorce, the Orthodox
follow Christ in recognizing it as a tragedy and a lack of fulfillment of
marriage as the reflection of divine love in the world. The Church teaches the
uniqueness of marriage, if it will be perfect, and is opposed to divorce
absolutely.
If, however, a marriage breaks
down and collapses, the Orthodox Church does in fact allow a second marriage,
without excommunication, that is, exclusion from Holy Communion, if there is
repentance and a good chance that the new alliance can be Christian.
More than one marriage in any
case, however, is frowned upon. It is not allowed to the clergy, and the service
of second marriage for laymen is a special rite different from the sacrament as
originally celebrated.
The control of the conception of
a child by any means is also condemned by the Church if it means the lack of
fulfillment in the family, the hatred of children, the fear of responsibility,
the desire for sexual pleasure as purely fleshly, lustful satisfaction, etc.
Again, however, married people
practicing birth control are not necessarily deprived of Holy Communion, if in
conscience before God and with the blessing of their spiritual father, they are
convinced that their motives are not entirely unworthy. Here again, however,
such a couple cannot pretend to justify themselves in the light of the absolute
perfection of the Kingdom of God.
As to abortion, the Church very
clearly and absolutely condemns it as an act of murder in every case. If a woman
is with child, she must allow it to be born. In regard to all of the very
difficult cases, such as a young girl being raped or a mother who is certain to
die, the consensus of Orthodox opinion would be that a decision for abortion
might possibly be made, but that it can in no way be easily justified as morally
righteous, and that persons making such a decision must repent of it and count
on the mercy of God. it must be very clear as well that abortion employed for
human comfort or to stop what a contraceptive method failed to prevent, is
strictly considered by the canon laws of the Church to be a crime equal to
murder.
20. What
you say sounds super-human. Is it really reasonable to expect the people to do
it? Indeed, who can do it?
The question about who can do it
was asked a long time ago. St. Peter asked it of Christ when he was listening to
His teachings. The answer of Christ was conclusive: "With men these things are
impossible. But with God all things are possible."
This is the point. Christian
morality is, strictly speaking, not a human morality designed for the happy life
in this world. Christian morality is the morality of perfection. "Be perfect as
your Father in heaven is perfect." These are the words of Christ in the Sermon
on the Mount.
Such a morality in this world is
really open-ended. It is never complete. As a matter of fact, it is the teaching
of the Orthodox Church that man's life is never complete even in the Kingdom of
God. Man will always be "on the way." His very perfection, as one saint put it,
is always to grow more perfect.
To be as perfect as God is
impossible to men. But to move toward this perfection eternally and forever is
within man's possibilities with the help of God. And this is the life and the
moral position to which Christians are called.
The Church is always ready to
forgive the sinner, since Christ is the Head of the Church and He has come
exactly to save sinners. But while condescending to forgive every sort of sin
and weakness and necessity to indulge in relativistic and morally ambiguous
actions (such as warfare and politics and birth control...), the Church cannot
give these actions complete approval and cannot change its gospel which
proclaims that man is created for the Kingdom of God and divine perfection.
21. You
talk about the Kingdom of God continually. What is this Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God is what
Christ has brought to the world. The Gospel is full of Christ's insistence that
the Kingdom of God is given to men by His coming. It is a Kingdom not of this
world, but of God, a Kingdom of everlasting life in union with God, the Trinity.
Thus, we define the Kingdom of
God as life in and with God. The Orthodox believe that this life is communicated
to men in the Church through Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is a life where men
worship and obey God and do His will by the presence and power of His spirit.
One saint has even defined the
Kingdom of God as life in the Holy Spirit, which is the same definition given by
Orthodox to the Christian Church itself.
What we know in the Church, in
the Holy Spirit, of communion with God the Father through Jesus Christ, remains
still a mystery. The Kingdom is really here, but in symbol and sacrament. At the
end of the ages this Kingdom will come with observation, with power and glory,
when Christ will be revealed and God will be "all in all."
Thus because we Orthodox believe
that the Kingdom is already given to those who believe, and that the righteous
dead have even a greater access to this Kingdom than we have on earth because of
our mixture with the evil of this age, we insist that "heaven" is not a
locatable place within the space of our created universe, but a spiritual,
divine, condition of existence which will fill the universe at the end of time.
It is "eternal life" already revealed to the saints in death and to the holy
people of God within the sacramental life of the Christian Church.
22. We
have not talked much about the Church itself. For example, what about the Bible?
Do the Orthodox use the Bible as other Christians do?
For the Orthodox, the Bible is
the book of the Church, written by and for those who believe in God and
constitute His People. The Four Gospels are the center of the Bible, just as
Christ is the center of the Church. For this reason the Four Gospels are always
enthroned on the altar in the Orthodox Church building.
The Orthodox generally interpret
the Bible in terms of Christ. In this sense, the Old Testament is partial in
that it prepares for the time of Christ, the Messiah, who fulfills its message
and history.
The New Testament writings are
also centered around Christ and tell of His action in the world and in the
Church through the Holy Spirit.
Thus the Orthodox position about
the Bible, would be that the New Testament is prefigured in the Old, and the Old
Testament is fulfilled in the New.
The Bible is central in the life
of the Church and gives both form and content to the Church's liturgical and
sacramental worship, just as to its theology and spiritual life. Nothing in the
Orthodox Church can be opposed to what is revealed in the Bible. Everything in
the Church must be biblical.
The Bible itself, however, not
only determines and judges the life of the Church, but is itself judged by the
Church since it "comes alive" and receives its proper interpretation and
significance only within the life of the Church as actually lived and
experienced by the People of God.
This would be the basic Orthodox
approach to the Bible. Very sadly however, it must be mentioned that the
knowledge of the Bible among Orthodox is not very great. There is a conscious
attempt being made today to renew the reading and meditation of the scriptures
by the faithful of the Church.
23. What
about the sacraments? How many are there? How does the Orthodox Church
understand them?
First of all we must say that
traditionally the Orthodox never counted the sacraments. The number of seven was
adopted in Orthodoxy very recently under the influence of the Roman Catholic
Church.
Traditionally the Orthodox
understand everything in the Church to be sacramental. All of life becomes a
sacrament in Christ who fills life itself with the Spirit of God.
The Orthodox baptize infants as
well as adults as the new birth into the new life of Christ. Baptism is
understood and celebrated as the person's participation in the death and
resurrection of Christ. It is the person's Easter as he is born again into life
eternal.
Chrismation (or confirmation) is
the "sealing" of the new life in Christ by the life-creating Spirit. In
Chrismation the person receives the "seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" in
order to have the power to live the new life in the new humanity of Christ. In
this sense, chrismation is the person's personal Pentecost just as baptism is
his Easter.
Holy Communion is the "sacrament
of sacraments" in that it is the banquet of the Kingdom of God, the fulfillment
of every other sacrament. In Holy Communion we partake of the Body and Blood of
Christ, the Eternal Passover Lamb, Who makes us alive and holy with Himself.
Through Holy Communion we become sons of God the Father, together with Jesus,
filled with the "communion of the Holy Spirit."
Marriage in Christ allows our
human love to become divine and unending. There is no "until death do us part".
The point is just the opposite. Christ comes to our human love, frees it from
sin and grants it everlasting joy in His Kingdom of love.
By our anointing of the sick in
Christ's name, we consecrate our sufferings with the sufferings of Christ and we
are healed by Him; if not for more time in this world, certainly for an eternity
in the Kingdom of God. Thus by anointing with oil in Christ's name, our wounds
become the way to Life and not to Death.
In confession, the sacrament of
repentance, we come to Christ and receive His divine forgiveness. We are allowed
once more to enter into Holy Communion with Him in the Church. We are reinstated
into that life which we received in baptism and are renewed with that power
which we were given in chrismation.
The one sacrament within the
Church which guarantees the identity and continuity of the Church in all times
and places is the sacrament of priesthood, the "holy orders," as they are
called. The priesthood exists within the Church as the sign of the certain
presence in the community of Christ Himself. Christ is not absent from the
Church. He is present as its head and is manifested in the Body through the
ministry of the priesthood. Thus the mystical life of the Church is fulfilled.
