Keynote Talk for the 2013 Youth Conference in Chicago
By Metropolitan Moses
The theme of the 2013 Youth Conference is: Family Life, Child Rearing, and Education according to the teachings of Saint John Chrysostom, “The Golden Mouth.” This Conference celebrates the memory of Saint John and will give answer, in part, to that important question, “How, then, should we live?”
The resources chosen for this conference were the Saint Vladimir's Press booklet entitled “On Marriage and Family Life” which contains a series of homilies by Saint John Chrysostom and “An Address on Vainglory and The Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children,” also by Saint John.
The topics of the Conference are: The Life of St. John Chrysostom, Marriage and Morality, Obedience to the Church, Christian Home and Family Life, Loving God and the Church, and the Sayings of Saint John on Education
The saints have shown forth as many stars in the spiritual heavens, and Saint John is one of the most glorious and illustrious of all of the saints. He taught the word of God and fulfilled the virtues that he preached about in his own life. The life and teachings of Saint John are part of our Christian narrative. He looked to the saints of old and imitated them and by his life and teachings he calls each one of us also to live a life of Christian philosophy.
It is my conviction that the only way a Christian Family can survive during these difficult last times is to seek a life of Christian philosophy and consciously embrace the story and narrative that they are of “The People of God.” Every family must recognize its story within the great story of Christian History; every family must recognize that they have a personalized narrative that must be consciously embraced by both the husband and wife and actively taught to their children.
We Christians participate in the greatest and most sublime story, the story of the Acts of God and how we, of all people, are the most blest. We know from revelation concerning why creation was established. We know why God created us and what our purpose is. We know what is promised to us in the future age.
Furthermore, we have a great source of consolation to know that we are not alone. We have many Fathers in the faith, such as Saint John. We have many mothers in the faith. If we are faithful unto our Christ, these saints are our kindred and we are of the household of God. The saints are alive in Christ and we commune with them through the reading their lives and their admonitions and through praying to them. Through this spiritual communion we are changed in a good way. If you pray to Saint John and ask for his help and intercessions, your heart will leap for joy in discovering exactly how our Christ triumphed in the life and teachings of Saint John. Saint John's story can become part of our own personal story regarding how we conduct ourselves and how we can be made holier and closer to God through the influence and mediation of the saint.
God is indeed wondrous in His saints and they are alive in Christ and are part of our daily life.
In addition, when we Christians of the last times embrace our story, the story of the people of God, we must unambiguously teach our children from their earliest years that, as Christians, we have been “set apart,” as Saint Peter wrote:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession; that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His wondrous light. (1Peter 2:9)
If you take the time to read the teachings of Saint John concerning doctrine and morality and pass these teachings on to your children, you will go very far in establishing them in a correct Orthodox Christian world view, so that later in life, they will be prepared to confront the many erroneous world views that surrounds us in today's secular society and they will be able to say, along with the Prophet King David, “Transgressors have told me fables, but they are not like Thy law, O Lord.” (Psalm 118)
It is precisely through embracing the story of Holy Scripture, the History of the People of God, that we commune with God Himself. When we are first united to the Church, we accept the teachings of our Holy Orthodox Church and reject the false narratives of the evil one. Only then are we Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Only then do we, for the first time, partake of the Holy Eucharist.
Saint Justin Martyr in his first Apology to the Roman Emperor Titus and his son Verissimus, testified concerning the mysteries of the Christians when he wrote:
...And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons...(First Apology of Saint Justin, Chpt. 67)
This is one of the earliest recorded descriptions of how the early Christians ordered their Eucharistic Service. Thus, from the very beginning of the early Church, participation in the Holy Eucharist was intertwined with the stories of the People of God. Likewise, these stories and the words and admonitions of the Holy Fathers must be an integral part of our daily life.
Our story is the story of God Who created the world, and so loved man that He put on our nature and became the God-Man for us. And He taught us that whoever sins is a slave of sin and that He came to set us free. You will hear many teachings from Saint John Chrysostom about child raising and obedience to parents in this year's conference – all of which points to a life of Christian philosophy. Saint John calls us again and again to become spiritual athletes for Christ and to take up our Cross and live a life of self-denial and love, which can set us free indeed.
I say these things because I think that it is easy for many of us, in this age of distraction, to lose sight of how completely essential it is for us to emphasize our Orthodox Christian narrative on a personal level through our own reading and our enthusiastic retelling of these stories to the next generation – our children.
Catastrophe struck our first parents, Adam and Eve, precisely because an intruder and slanderer, the diavolos, concocted a false narrative and convinced them to believe it, and, as a result, they broke the covenant given them by God Himself.
This tragedy has been repeated throughout history, that is, people who were given a covenant, a story, and an identity, turned away from that story and thus turned away from their communion with God.
One can describe the conflict that is occurring in every Orthodox Christian Homeland as the struggle of conflicting narratives and world view. Today in Greece there are true Greek patriots who desire to live in an authentic Orthodox Christian Greece and there are those who wish to embrace the secular European narrative that has led the state church into a false union with the Roman Catholics and membership in the World Council of Churches. The Western European narrative exists in order to lead as many as possible into membership in a one-world government and a one-world religion.
In North America today, one can say that the struggle our children face is a conflict of narratives and world view. The government schools promote their own story and world view of atheistic naturalism, which is simply a secular version of religious revelation.1 For many, this world view has eclipsed the concept of Christian morality and brought in a general acceptance of hedonism.
The writings and teachings of Saint John Chyrsostom are a cure for the soul and a remedy for all of the ills that face modern men and women.
During the times of Turkocratia, in some areas the Turkish oppression was so great that the Christians were threatened with persecution of they openly taught their children. The Christians rose to the occasion and established secret schools, in order to instruct Christian youth. So far, at least, our lives are not under threat if we struggle to teach our young. The things that war against us today are spiritual indifference and a secular society that lures us into an entertainment culture that can occupy all of our time.
I exhort you all to rise to the occasion and make the study of the things of God the highest priority in your families. Your efforts will be an investment that will repay you both in this life and in the age to come. Again and again I will remind you of Saint Irenaus' saying that, “God...made the things of time, for man, so that coming to maturity in them, he may produce the fruit of immortality . . .” (Saint Irenaus, Against Heresies, Book IV Chapter V).
It has been said that the lives of the saints are a continuation of the Acts of the Apostles, the story of the People of God in the New Testament. May you and your families be inspired by the words of Saint John to live a life of Christian philosophy and struggle to learn of the things of God and embrace your place in the story of the People of God and write your own chapter.
May God grant you increase in all good things and through the prayers of Saint John may we have a spiritually rewarding Youth Conference.
Amen.
1 In the Oxford dictionary science is described as, “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.” In present day academia, the limits of what science can actually tell us are ignored and the various great synthesizing theories of science attempt to explain the purpose of life.
[This keynote address was sent by Met. Moses to me by email and is posted here intact without any changes.]