Orthodoxy: Triumph of Triumphalism?

        The Sunday of Orthodoxy is called the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This title is connected to the historical origins, as well as the theological meaning of the Feast. The Sunday of Orthodoxy began more than eleven hundred years ago in 878. It was established as a celebration of the restoration of the holy icons, an event that occurred in 843. After nearly two centuries of bitter controversy, the heresy of iconoclasm (or “icon-smashing”) was defeated. The holy icons were returned to the churches and the homes of the faithful. Orthodox Christians were again permitted to venerate icons in remembrance and honor of Christ and the saints. Thus the restoration of icons signaled a historical triumph in the life and piety of the Church.

        The Feast of Orthodoxy celebrates a theological triumph as well. Icons reflect the mystery of our salvation and define our destiny as children of God. The most important icon, and that featured on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, is the icon of Christ. The icon of Christ symbolizes His incarnation by which He embraced our humanity and called us brothers and sisters. Created in His image and likeness, we strive to be living icons of Christ and sharers in the new creation, the mystery of the transfigured cosmos.  We kiss and reverence icons as sacred symbols, not idols. The honor passes on to the Lord and his saints. Icons are “windows to heaven.” They remind us of the Church triumphant, the communion of Saints, the victory of righteous men and women in Scripture and tradition. In the words of St. John of Damascus: “The icon is a song of triumph, and revelation, and an enduring monument to the victory of the saints.”

        Yet we must ask about our understanding and application of this triumph of the Orthodox Faith today. What is our part and claim, indeed our duty and mission, in the light of this triumph? Do we present ourselves in the manner of Christ’s love and service to others or in terms of exalted traditions and privileged status over against other people? What is the difference between a true triumph and false triumphalism in Christ’s terms? I invite you to reflect with me on these questions as we bring to mind the past and present of Orthodoxy, the unity and mission of the Church, the true faith and life in Christ.

        The triumph of Christ is His coming to Jerusalem for his holy Passion and glorious Resurrection. He came with a group of fishermen and others whose dialect betrayed them as village Galileans. He entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy that He was coming as the Prince of Peace. a spontaneous crowd of ordinary people waved palms and welcomed him with the words: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” He went on to cleanse the Temple to make it a house of prayer, not trade. He faced arrest, beatings, mockings, and finally shameful death on the Cross in obedience to God’s will. And God raised Him from the dead, smashing the gates of hell, shattering the power of death, and, in the words of the Epistle to the Colossians, stripping “the principalities and powers [of evil], triumphing (thriambeusas) over them in Christ” (Col. 2:15). The triumph was God’s, a true triumph accomplished by Christ, who came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life for many, as He said. The triumph was life and resurrection for all humanity, a splendid victory over the powers of sin and death through sacrifice, a source of abundant grace poured out by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

        About thirty years after our Lord’s resurrection, there was another triumph, the triumph of Titus, the Roman general and son of Vespasian Caesar. He had returned to Rome from a great war with the Jews during which he had destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple. a magnificent parade, which the ancients called triumph (thriambos), was prepared in his honor. Titus entered Rome riding on a shining chariot with all the trimmings of worldly pomp and military power. Soldiers and officers in full uniform marched ahead of him. Behind him came captured slaves and behind them wagon after wagon of booty. Excited on his arrival, all Rome shouted with one voice as to a god: “Hail, Caesar’s son! Hail, Caesar!” His was an awesome procession memorialized to this day by the colossal arch in Rome bearing his name — the Arch of Titus — and depicting carved scenes of his victory. His triumph was an exaltation of the power of man, the might of Rome, symbolized in the Book of Revelation as a harlot riding on the beast and drunken with the blood of Christian martyrs. But in God’s eyes this was not a triumph at all — it was an expression of self-glorification, hubris, human pride. It was empty, false triumphalism.

        Today Orthodoxy is resplendent with majestic worship, sublime doctrines and impressive offices. Orthodoxy claims a rich legacy of hymnology, spirituality and canon law. Orthodoxy exhibits the universal Faith of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to the whole world — Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and so many others. But what does Orthodoxy have to celebrate at the beginning of the third millennium as we consider its day-to-day life and witness in actual practice?

        A generation ago Father Alexander Schmemann wrote three classic articles on the “Problems of Orthodoxy” — the canonical problem, the liturgical problem and the spiritual problem.^[124] The same problems burden Orthodoxy today, much as they did thirty-five years ago when Father Schmemann wrote. About ten years ago, His Eminence Chrysostomos Konstantinides of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, wrote an article with the title “Ekklesia gerasmene?” (“a Church Grown Old?”), in which he touched on the ordination of women deacons, changes in the canons about fasting, and the activation of the laity in the Church.^[125] We are still talking about these subjects but are in fact reluctant to deal with them in substance. More recently, Father Thomas Hopko, Dean of Saint Vladimir’s Theological Seminary, used the following words to describe the position of Orthodoxy in the post-modern world: “Orthodoxy [is] still a minority Church riddled with massive inner confusions, fears, pretensions and divisions from its 2000 year odyssey through history [and] now finds itself in a ‘global village’. . . moving toward a [secular, post-modern] way of life which has already begun to dominate the planet.”^[126]

        As Orthodoxy celebrates the Sunday of Orthodoxy around the globe each year, it is therefore both pertinent and justifiable to ask whether Orthodoxy is celebrating a triumph or triumphalism. Are we following the way of Christ’s triumph through His example of humility, service and sacrifice for the life and resurrection of the world? Or are we following the way of another kind of triumph based on external splendor, institutional weight, and self-glorification which in God’s eyes is not a triumph at all, but hollow triumphalism? Given its treasures and triumphs, does Orthodoxy truly ascribe the credit and the glory to God, being grateful for His gifts and repentant for failing to use them adequately? Or is Orthodoxy self-absorbed with its identity problems, looking backwards to past glories, and drawing up the bridges because it neither understands nor is able to help a spiritually starving world?

        In his article on Orthodoxy in the post-modern world, which is one of the most prophetic statements I have ever read by an Orthodox theologian, Father Hopko shows the true way for Orthodoxy. It is a way which Jesus called narrow and hard, but the only way that leads to life. I focus on this article in part because it is a rare example of how theology applies to life. It is not often that we theologians descend from our ivory towers to look at the actual life of the Church and speaks prophetically within it. Yet theology is not merely a repetitive but also a critical and guiding discipline. Theologians are obliged not only to expound the truths in the abstract, or to recite the triumphs of the past, but also to apply them concretely. a fully adequate theology includes a prophetic, cleansing, even cauterizing function. The ancient prophets loved God and loved God’s people, and because of this burning love, they spoke boldly God’s word in order to bring about repentance and correction of life. To be prophetic in the classic sense means to speak on behalf of God — to be inspired, forthright, stirring, exposing institutional pretensions, denouncing hypocrisies on high, and calling all faithful to accountability before God. The aim of Father Hopko as a prophetic theologian is positive: to awaken the community to its actual conditions, abandon its illusions, and return to the path of God. For those who long to celebrate a true, sobering triumph on behalf of Orthodoxy, here are his insightful and weighty directives:

1)      We must compel ourselves to put Christ, and only Christ and His Gospel, at the center of our concerns, and do only that which is pleasing to the Holy Spirit and according to the mind of Christ (Acts 15:28;1 Cor. 2:16).

2)      We must practice conciliarity, the principle of working together, which is one of the defining truths of authentic Orthodoxy, applicable as much to parishes, dioceses, local Churches and patriarchates as to individual persons — working together and dying to our own narrow, selfish interests for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.

3)      We must abandon the lie that we can live by Christ’s Gospel and still retain all the riches and glories of our respective ethnic cultures and identities in America. This is not a denial of our ethnic heritages but a true appreciation of them in the light of Christ who affirms and blesses all that is good and beautiful in every culture and every ethnic heritage. Our Orthodox Faith and our ethnic heritages are by no means contrary treasures, but keeping the priorities straight is of immense importance for the universal mission of Orthodoxy in America and elsewhere.

4)      We must die — as the seed dies in the ground to bring new life — we must die to aspects of ecclesiastical institutionalism and notions of Orthodoxy as sectarian ideology. We must live Orthodoxy and present it to the world as the way of universal truth and life; and doing so we must be ready to talk and discuss, to question and be questioned, to dialog and persuade on the basis of all the challenges of modern life and without recourse to special pleading.

5)      We must reject all forms of coercion, control or dominance, and be prepared to put up with error and evil, while unmasking its falsehood and rebuking sin. On the one hand we must follow the way of love and affirm whatever in the world is true, honorable, just, and lovely (Phil. 4:8), doing so with joy, not reluctance. On the other hand we must intercede before God on behalf of all, witnessing to and serving all people, without dreams of conquest and domination, indeed, without even the desire to convert others which is God’s job, not ours. Thus, being free ourselves, we can bring God’s gift of freedom to others by the only way possible — proclaiming, learning, embracing, loving and doing the truth.

6)      Finally we must recognize that we live in what Pope John-Paul II has called a “culture of death.” We live in a society that is morally decomposing and bears the stench of death exuding from its very soul. And yet we must love this dying world and offer to it the message of life. As intercessors and advocates before God, we must, just as Christ did, love evil-doers with an unconditional love which alone can redeem sinners and draw them to the Kingdom of love. Orthodoxy is nothing if not this inexhaustible divine love and invincible paschal proclamation of Christ’s victory over death bringing new life to creation.

These are six golden points, six principles of prophetic vision, six ways by which to celebrate the triumph of Orthodoxy in integrity and authenticity. It is not enough for us to glory in that a crowd has gathered to witness the grandeur of Orthodox worship. It is not enough for us to leave the liturgical gathering self-satisfied that we have done our part in observing the great festival of the Sunday of Orthodoxy. It is not enough for us to go home re-assured that we possess the superior Faith. Such sentiments smack of triumphalism. The true triumph of Orthodoxy is God’s triumph, not ours. The victory of the true Faith is God’s victory, not ours. The mission to which we are called to rededicate ourselves tonight is God’s mission, not ours. We cannot claim the praise and the glory because they belong to God alone. We are but participants in God’s triumph, sharers of His victory, co-workers in His mission. We are God’s servants, His hands and feet, His voice and instruments, to bring Orthodoxy’s universal light and truth to all peoples.

        Christ exposes false triumphalism, the pride and boasting of empty religiosity, through the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. Certainly not all Pharisees were hypocrites. It was precisely because most were respected teachers of wisdom and sincere practitioners of their religion, that Jesus chose precisely a Pharisee to expose the dangers of religious triumphalism. The Gospel text notes that Christ said the parable for those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others (Lk. 18:9). Amazing is the fact that Jesus does not deny the Pharisee’s righteousness according to the Law. The Pharisee was not an adulterer, nor an extortioner, nor unjust like the tax collector. He fasted according to the sacred tradition and gave 10% of his income to the Temple. And yet it was this righteous man that lost all standing before God because of his boastful pride and contempt for others. Do we, especially the most zealous of us, not often exhibit prideful self-righteousness and unconcealed disdain for sinners and peoples of other faiths? Saint John the Baptist uttered a powerful prophetic word to triumphalists in all ages: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham” (Mt. 3:9).

        However, let us follow the way of another Pharisee who became an exemplary servant of Christ. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, and a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” who viewed himself as blameless according to the Law (Phil. 3:5-6)? He was so zealous for ancestral Jewish traditions that he persecuted the early Church to destroy it. But when he met Christ and converted to the mind of Christ everything changed! Astonishing is that fact that Saint Paul put aside essential aspects of the Jewish tradition, what Jews considered as integral to the Jewish ethno-religious identity, in order to preach and promote the universal Gospel and the one Church of Christ which is His Body. In many ways he died to what he was before in order to live his new Christian identity and to serve Christ as fully as possible. Are there not some lessons here about ourselves as Orthodox Christians in America seeking to affirm our common identity in Christ even at the risk of perhaps losing some of our cherished ethnic traditions? I leave that to your prayerful reflection.

        Saint Paul’s life and work teach us what true triumph is. On account of his courageous stance, the Apostle was himself persecuted by Jews, Jewish Christians, Gentiles and sometimes even members of his own congregations. Once he was compelled to write a letter of anguish and tears to the Christians in Corinth (2 Cor. 2:4). Strangely, those who are closest to us sometimes cause us the greatest pain. The Apostle’s great sufferings brought him closer to the sufferings of Christ and taught him to rely not on himself but on God whom he calls the God of all comfort who raises the dead (2 Cor 1:3-10). In the early chapters of 2 Corinthians Saint Paul describes how, amidst pain and sorrows unto death, he nevertheless proclaimed the Gospel and carried the aroma of the new life in Christ to all who were being saved. Not that he of his own power or talents was sufficient for Christian ministry. He writes: “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph (thriambeuonti hymas) and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14).

        For St. Paul, just as in the case of Christ, true triumph is achieved by way of humble service and sacrifice, the way of the Cross. There is, certainly, not only the Cross, but also the Resurrection. Yet, no one can have a share in the Resurrection apart from the Cross. Saint Paul well knew of the treasure of the soul inwardly beholding the glory of the Lord and being changed “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). But he also knew that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:7-9). Later on in 2 Corinthians, the great Apostle tells us that Christ had spoken to him saying: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Saint Paul concludes: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

        The triumph of Orthodoxy is the way of Christ. Behind the symbols, the icons, the hymns and prayers, the worship and theology, is the crucified and risen Christ, the heart of Orthodoxy, the inner mystery of its radiant beauty, the source of invincible life against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. On this day in particular, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, Christ through His icon looks upon us with eyes of love and tells us: “Take up your cross and follow me. If you truly wish to honor me, believe in me and commit yourselves to the great triumph of God in the world. Delight in me and love one another as I have loved you, so that others will know that you are my disciple and want to join you. Do not keep the treasure locked in colorful boxes while being boastful of your spiritual heritage as if it were your family inheritance. Follow the example of my servant Paul who renounced all to gain all, who became all things to all people for my sake and the Gospel’s. And, behold, I am with you to the end of ages.” To Christ, together with the Father and the Spirit, be all the glory, honor and worship now and forever.