Recognizing Our Situation.

        We need humbly to acknowledge that the highest claims of Orthodoxy are often subverted by lack of tangible evidence and actualization, by our own lack of sufficient self-awareness, by our failure as Orthodox Christians to nurture the holy fire of the presence and power of the Spirit. Look around you and ask yourself: How many of the faithful go to Church with a sense of eagerness and joy? How many of us are present and ready at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy to sing the Doxology and to confirm with a resounding “Amen” the priest’s invocation, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?” How many of us come out of the Liturgy spiritually renewed and strengthened, in the words of St. John Chrysostom, “like lions breathing fire?” How many of us have placed the love of Christ and the cause of His kingdom as the primary priorities in life?

        Certainly, not all Orthodoxy, nor all Orthodox Christians, make up a burning bush glowing with the holiness and transforming presence of God. If it were so — and how we wish that it were so! — the world would surely notice and soon be converted. Orthodoxy has developed an enormously rich tradition — elaborate worship, high doctrines, impressive offices, appealing customs and innumerable canons. Orthodoxy is often viewed like a beautiful antique, or a grand fireplace in which the fire, however, is not burning with intensity in all places and at all times. Not that the fire of the Holy Spirit has ever diminished in power or availability — far from it. Rather, it is that the firewood needs stoking. In some instances, the fire seems virtually extinguished, perhaps only smoking, or the ashes need to be poked to find some hot coals below in order to rejuvenate the fire. This situation may be true of our own personal fireplace, or the fireplace of a local parish, or even the fireplace of an entire regional Church.

        What to do? We must imitate the example of the prodigal son who “came to himself” and returned to his father’s home. If we wish to attain to the high calling of holy fire, an Orthodoxy in full awareness, we must heighten our sensitivities at several levels. The first level is honest and courageous appraisal of our actual situation. We need diagnosis in order to apply measures of therapy. The problems are not new. They have been called by various names ending in “ism” — institutionalism, factionalism, minimalism, nominalism and so on. Nominalism is being a Christian in name only and having little or no significant interest in God, the Church, or Christianity. The Bible calls this condition spiritual deadness. Minimalism is picking and choosing from the Church’s table whatever suits our interests and convenience, without strong commitment and enduring motivation to learn more about and to grow in the Faith. The Bible calls this condition lukewarmness. Factionalism is a divisive spirit based on ego and arbitrary choice. The Bible calls this heresy, whether theological or ethical. Institutionalism is a way of thought and practice that relies strictly on or is satisfied with merely outward forms, while neglecting or even denying the inner spirit of the Tradition. This the Bible calls hypocrisy and self-righteousness. In modern times, add to all of these “isms” secularism, a total indifference to and even hostility toward God, while worshiping other gods of the present age. This the Bible calls idolatry, the worship of false gods.

        But let us not despair. The above phenomena in various mixtures have existed in every era. The fourth century, the golden age of the Church Fathers — Saint Athanasios, Saint Basil, Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint John Chrysostom — was engulfed by as much evil, sin, callousness, pretension, injustice, conflict, and division as our own times. Facing widespread conflict and schism in the Church, Saint Basil devoted his theological and pastoral talents to the task of unity according to the ideal of the early Church in the Book of Acts. Saint Gregory the Theologian, who presided for a time at the Second Ecumenical Council (381) was exceedingly distressed by the chatter and manipulations of ecclesiastical authorities. Saint John Chrysostom did not hesitate to critique the Church of his day. For example, in an astonishing homily on 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, Saint John exalts the spiritual gifts of the early Church and laments the situation of the contemporary Church. He portrays the Church of his day as an aged woman who had lost her inspired leaders, as well as her spiritual jewels, and is satisfied merely by exhibiting her empty jewelry boxes to the world. Here is what he says:

In truth the Church was a heaven [back] then, the Spirit governing all things and moving

each one of the leaders and making him inspired. But now we retain only the symbols

of those gifts... The present Church is like a woman who has fallen from her former

prosperous days... displaying indeed the repositories and caskets of her golden ornaments,

but bereft of her wealth (1 Corinthians, Homily 34.7).

Saint John Chrysostom, whose prophetic voice thunders across the centuries to reach our own ears, fought like a lion of God against unacceptable ecclesiastical conditions. As a result, he was persecuted by emperors, bishops, priests, as well as monastics in name only — but not by the people themselves who loved him and loved to hear him, although they did not necessarily practice all that he preached and taught. Saint John was exiled and died in great suffering. However, he lost hope neither in the power of the Gospel of Christ, nor in the mission of the Church. He had the spiritual maturity to go to his Lord in peace, his last words being: “Glory be to God for all things!”