A lecture delivered at the Russian Orthodox Youth Conference near Sydney, Australia, on 23
December 2003 - (Father Andrew Phillips)
INTRODUCTION: OUR IDENTITY AND THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
'Save yourself and thousands will be saved round about you', said St Seraphim of Sarov. But
how can we first save ourselves if we don't know who we are?
Sooner or later, at some point or other in our lives, I think we all ask ourselves this very
question, 'Who am I?' And frankly, if we haven't yet asked ourselves this question and found
an answer to it, then we haven't yet lived. At a particular point in my life, when I was six
years old in fact, I first asked myself that question and was able to answer it. It was
related to a special experience. But I don't want to talk about myself, but about someone else
who asked himself that question.
He was born in a village in the east of England where I too was born. He was born there in
1919 into a poor family of eight children. Four children died before the age of three. In the
early thirties the family lived for months off bread and water, that was all they could
afford, since the father of the family was very ill, after being gassed in the First World
War. He never left the east of England until he was twenty-one, when he was called up to the
British Army during the Second World War. Then he who had never been more than thirty miles
from his home village began to travel, to places he had only dreamed of. He went to South
Africa, he went to India, taking Italian prisoners of war to the British camps there. And he
went to Egypt.
Just over sixty years ago in October 1942 in the Egyptian desert a great battle took place. On
the one side there were some of Germany's finest soldiers, the Afrika Corps. On the other side
there were English, Scottish, Australian and Greek soldiers. They had been driven back by
German forces to a place in Egypt called El Alamein, which is Arabic for the monastery of St
Mennas. St Mennas is a desert father venerated in the Orthodox Church on 11 November.
The ambitious German plan was to break through the Allied lines, take Cairo and the Suez Canal
and speed on across the Middle East to oil-rich Iraq. There they would meet up with other
German soldiers who would have gone down through Russia and the Caucasus; and they in turn
would meet up with Japanese troops who would have gone through Burma and the north of India
and Iran and met there at Babylon. A rendez-vous in Babylon; that was their plan. But man
proposes and God disposes.
One dark night at the end of October 1942 the Allied Forces launched an offensive against the
Germans with a huge artillery barrage. The Scots troops advanced in the cold desert night,
accompanied by the sound of bagpipes. The Australians advanced with tanks. The Greeks advanced
under a great light in the sky, which they said was St Mennas leading them to victory. The
English too advanced, among them the man from my village I have spoken to you of. As he
advanced with on either side of him his two best friends, an Irishman called Paddy and an
Englishman called Brian, a German shell burst.
The bodies of the two friends were blown to pieces; pieces of them were picked up later and
buried. As for the man in the middle, miraculously he survived. He regained consciousness
three days later in a hospital in Cairo, where he was to spend three months and make a full
recovery. During those three months he had time to ask himself and find answers to many
questions, including that question I asked at the beginning of this talk: 'Who am I?' He found
his answer to that question.
Just as well for me, because if he had not survived, I would not be here now, because the man
I have been talking about is my father.
I could tell you many other stories about people who came to answer and also ask this
question: 'Who am I?' But we have no time now, I just want to say again that sooner or later
we will all ask ourselves this question at a certain moment in our lives, at the moment of
truth, when reality breaks through the illusion in which we spend most of our time. It is the
moment when the spirit breaks through into our minds and souls, when daybreak floods our inner
darkness with the light. Let's try and understand this with a little theology.
OUR THEOLOGICAL IDENTITY
a) OUR ORIGIN
In order to try and answer this question: 'Who am I?' we have to try and answer two other
questions. The first is:
'Where do I come from?'
As regards this first question 'Where do I come from?' about our origin, the Holy Scriptures
tell us that our origin is both material and spiritual. The first chapter of the Book of
Genesis tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Although God made us from
the same clay, chemical elements or material nature, as animals, we have instincts and a mind
and feelings similar to them, there is one vital difference between us and them. God has
breathed into us His spirit - we are made in His image and likeness. This is the spirit which
makes us eternal and immortal; it is the spirit which can make man noble. And a society where
there is no spirit and no cultivation of spiritual things is an ignoble society.
As one of the greatest Church Fathers, St Basil the Great said in the fourth century: 'Men are
animals, called to be gods'. This explains why there are so many resemblances between our
bodies and the bodies of the higher animals. We have four limbs, a head, five senses, two
eyes, two ears, two lungs, two kidneys, a liver, a stomach, a heart, the ability to reproduce,
instincts. This we all share with animals: this is the proof not of some strange and outdated
theory of Evolution, but proof that we have the same Maker, the same Designer. Our
resemblances are due to the Hand of the same Maker, the Hand of the same God in Creation.
But as I have just said, there is one difference between us and animals, symbolised by our
ability to speak intelligently. We are possessed of the spirit and word and wisdom of God,
which burn within us; we have fire in our souls, we are capable of worshipping God, we have a
religious or spiritual sense. This is where many archaeologists go wrong. They find the bones
of some primitive humanoid ape in France or Kenya and then call it Homo Something or Other.
But despite the resemblances of bones, these are not men, because they have no religious
sense. They were rather intelligent apes, which have now died out. This is why the biological
name for man is 'Homo Sapiens', meaning 'Wise Man', man who is capable of Wisdom and of
worshipping Wisdom, that is the Wisdom of God, the Eternal Word of God. In Wisdom he is able
to participate and in some way capable of reflecting that Divine Wisdom. This is why the
greatest cathedral of the Orthodox world in New Rome, Constantinople, was dedicated to the
Divine Wisdom - that which makes us physical animals potentially divine.
If you don't believe that we have an eternal and immortal spirit, the spirit of God, then of
course you can kill us human beings in slaughterhouses, like they do animals, like both Nazi
and Soviet atheists did in their slaughterhouses or concentration camps. If you don't believe
this, then you can massacre us like the atheistic Western world massacres its babies by the
million in its abortion clinics. If you don't believe this, you can burn up our bodies in your
crematoria, you can call us walking corpses who have lost all their beauty, you can say that
we are mere ignoble animals and that our life is senseless and absurd.
But if you believe that we have the spirit of God inside us, then everything changes and you
can begin to answer that question: 'Who am I?' And you can also know that this world will go
on for as long as there are people who are asking and answering that question, because their
lives have a point and purpose and so the world has a point and a purpose. It is only when
people have become as degenerate as at the time of the Flood and are incapable of seeing God,
only when they have sinned themselves unconscious, that they will stop asking that question
and the world will then come to an end.
OUR THEOLOGICAL IDENTITY
b) OUR DESTINY
I said that there are two questions we must ask ourselves in order to answer this question
about who we are. The second question is:
'Where am I going?'
As regards this second question, which is about our destiny, we have already been told by St
Basil the Great that our destiny is 'Called to be gods'. In other words we are called to get
out of the gutter where we are, stop being animals, and head for something higher, something
nobler. This is a frightening responsibility, if you take it seriously. Just think: we're in
charge of our lives: freedom is ours. We can mess it all up or we can become saints - become
godlike! That's frightening. But the answer to this question is in our own hands.
Where are we going? In fact, I'm not going to attempt to ask or answer that question now in
this talk, because I believe that it will be for you, at the end of this Conference, to ask it
and even to try and answer it. If you can't answer it at the end of this Conference, then I
will not be disappointed. But on the other hand, if you have not at least asked yourself this
question by the end of this Conference, then I will be very disappointed. Because all my
provocation will have been in vain! Ultimately, only you, you personally, each one of you
individually, can answer where you are going. The only thing I can say to reassure you before
this frightening responsibility is, you can find help and guidance on the way. So at least
you're not alone.
'Who am I'? The noble Orthodox Christian answer to this question is: I am a person living in
the world, made by God in His image and His likeness, with a divine origin and also a divine
destiny.
OUR IDENTITY IN THIS WORLD
But these theological facts may not always help us in our everyday life. We may be thinking
about the question 'Who am I?' in another way, we may be thinking about our human identity in
this world, here and now. So here is another answer to this question.
I think most of you here have Australian passports and were born here. In other words, most of
you have made this country into your permanent home. But most of you, like most, though not
all, Australians have ancestors who not so long ago lived in Europe or Asia.
Of course there was a culture here in Australia before Europeans or Asians arrived. It was a
culture which in its myths preserved some very interesting nature wisdom and very significant
racial memories of the world before the Fall, of what the Aborigenes call 'the Dreamtime'. But
undoubtedly most of what goes on in Australia today was brought here from Europe in recent
times. It is this that has made Australian culture over the last 200 years or so. Modern
technology, modern houses, offices, railways, roads, sports, and the rabbits, the sheep and
the beer - they all came from Europe.
But the most useful and important and precious thing that Europeans brought here is the thing
that nearly everyone in Australia has forgotten: Christ. Yes, Faith in Christ came from
Europe, together with something like 90% of the population. And yet it's a sad fact though,
that if you asked a thousand people in the streets of Sydney what the most important thing to
come from Europe is, I am not sure if a single one would answer Christ. And yet it's on the
Australian national flag.
In the top left hand corner, there are three crosses: the English cross of St George; the
Scottish cross of St Andrew; the Irish cross of St Patrick. Together they make up the British
flag. And that covers the three countries from where over 75% of Australians have their
origins. And the crosses show the Christian origins of those countries.
Today those countries have for the most part forgotten their origins, they have forgotten
Christ because they have mixed up the memory of Him with all kinds on impure, unChristly
things. But there are a few in those countries who have seen the crosses on their flags and
have begun to wonder what they mean. Some have even gone back a thousand years and found
Christ in Orthodoxy, not the Christ of modern Europe, but the original Christ Who came from
Jerusalem, Who united Asia and Europe in the Orthodox Faith, as symbolised by the
double-headed eagle, looking East and West.
In Australia you Orthodox have a unique opportunity to witness to all Australians, whatever
their racial origins, who have forgotten Christ. This is because Orthodoxy is the only faith
which has not forgotten Christ in His wholeness and purity, the entire Christ of Europe and
Asia. But to witness you have to know who you are and what your Faith is. That's why you must
keep the faith that your parents and grandparents and others brought here. Keep it intact.
Keep faith. The most precious and valuable thing that Europe has brought to Australia is the
knowledge of the Orthodox Christ.
CONCLUSION: THE SPIRITUAL MEANING AND IDENTITY OF AUSTRALIA
So who are you then?
You are Australian. You have a passport in your pocket that says so. But whatever your
origins, whatever language you prefer to speak, you have another passport in your pocket, a
second passport. In it are written your distinguishing marks, your particular features, your
tendencies for good and bad. This is your spiritual passport, and that's Orthodox.
You can be proud, in the good sense of being appreciative, of being Australian, of living in
this huge and beautiful country that God has given to each one of you. But also be proud, in
the good sense of being humble, of being Orthodox. Being Orthodox means being in the here and
now but also being different, it means keeping your identity, it means not swimming with the
tide.
Australia for some is all about beach and beer and barbie: well, show them that there's
another Australia. Be different and be yourself; be true to Orthodoxy. God has given
Australians a beautiful country full of wonders, but most people here have forgotten or never
even known Christ, so they don't yet know how to thank God for this land.
The Orthodox Christ of our Orthodox Church is the only thing that stands between greatness and
nonentity, everything that's good and everything that's bad in Australian life, between a new
Dreamtime and an old nightmare. If you want Australia and Australian life to be a nonentity,
then forget Christ. If you want Australia to be a great country, then keep faith with Christ
and you will forge an Orthodox identity and meaning for Australia.
Earlier on, I spoke to you about the crosses in the top left hand corner of the Australian
flag. They show where most Australians have come from. They represent their past. But you've
also got another cross on the Australian flag: the Southern cross, the cross of stars. That's
the cross where as Orthodox you can go, if you so choose, that's the cross you're destined
for, if you want it. It is the cross of your future.
Over a hundred years ago, an Irish writer said: 'We're all lying in the gutter, but some of us
are looking at the stars'. Well, keep the Orthodox Faith and you'll not only look at those
stars but also be guided by them, like the Wise Men who followed the Star and found Divine
Wisdom. Then you will truly be 'Homo Sapiens', Wise Men.
WHAT CAN I DO? PART II
In order to understand how we might be able to save ourselves, I am
going to ask a fourth question: 'What can I do?' and, specifically in
our context, 'What can I do for the Church?'
Here I would like to share with you a piece of advice telling me what I
could do in the Church. It was given to me nearly nineteen years ago
when I was ordained to the diaconate. An old lady came up to me then
and said: 'The trouble with you is that you are young and intelligent'.
Since I knew the piety of that old lady, I trusted her and understood
that in some sense I had to become old and stupid. Well, over the last
nineteen years I have made efforts to become both.
You see what the old lady meant is that when you are young, you lack
experience of Life, which is your real teacher. And secondly, by
'intelligent', she meant that when you are young, you are close to the
world of studies, school, university, seminary. You've read a lot of
books. As a result, you may think that you know something, for book
knowledge can quickly 'go to your head', and not just in the literal
sense. Salvation comes not from how many books we have read, for that
can actually puff up our mind and make us pretentious and proud. Our
salvation comes from humility. As a wise man once said: 'The more you
know, the more you realise how little you know'.
In one sense our question, 'What can I do for the Church', is
ridiculous. Ultimately, after all, the Church does not need us at all;
it is we who need the Church. In some ways, rather than ask a question
about what we can do for the Church, we should be asking the question:
'What can the Church do for us?' Though that question too suggests that
somehow we are religious consumers, and that we expect something to be
done for us by the Church. In reality, we get nothing, if we put
nothing in. The Church is not magic. As the proverbs say: 'First help
yourself and then heaven will help you' and 'No pains, no gains'. As
the Gospel says: 'The Kingdom of heaven is taken by force'. In reality
we should not expect anything. But whatever the case, the fact is that
the Church has done and does do things for us.
For example the Twelve Apostles, the Church of Pentecost, went out and
changed the whole of the Mediterranean world. Just twelve people
transforming the greatest Empire in history. A highly-organised Empire,
hundreds of years old, based on slavery, tyranny and domination that
became Orthodox.
And what about Russia, pagan Russia, before Baptism? That too was a
terrible age, where children were sacrificed to gods of the wind and
fire. It was an age without any sort of morality and justice at all.
Anything went. You can read about this in the history books on ancient
Russian history. But if you do not believe me, then look at what
happened to Russia when she renounced Orthodoxy in 1917. Then she
simply fell back into the old paganism, and started out on the
appalling road of Soviet paganism. Instead of processions carrying
banners and icons, they held processions carrying pictures of tyrants
and rifles. Instead of venerating holy relics in Moscow, they began
venerating the rotting mummy of their tyrant. Paganism was restored.
Nothing new there. Nothing changed until the Second Baptism of Russia
began.
If Orthodoxy could transform the Roman Empire, if it could transfigure
pagan Russia, old and new, then just think what Orthodoxy can do for
Australia or any other country. It can transform Australia, both
individually and socially. How? Well, first of all, we have to learn.
WHAT CAN I DO TO LEARN?
Any change must begin with ourselves. To paraphrase the words of an
American President of over forty years ago: 'Ask not what the Church
can do for you: ask what you can do for the Church'. But to do
something for the Church, we first have to learn, to put something
inside ourselves.
I could answer the question 'What can I do for the Church?' by saying:
'Become a saint'. What a thought! Someone here could become a saint in
this huge country which has never known an Orthodox saint. What a
calling! But that's not very realistic now, because that's a lifetime's
work, and you want practical answers to begin with here and now. So I
want to speak in this part of my talk not about stories from the
ancient past or ideas, but about stories of real learning experience,
all of which I have seen and experienced at first hand. Here's the
first story:
There was once a young man, zealous for the Faith, who moved house and
joined his local parish. It was an old parish and one of the things
that struck him was how dirty all the icons were. He spoke to the
elderly priest about this. The latter gave the young man a blessing to
clean the icons using a soft tissue and warm, soapy water. Over a
period of several weeks between services, in such a way that nobody
would notice, this is what the young man did. He removed decades,
sometimes centuries, of soot from the icons. In two or three cases of
particularly black icons it became clear for the first time who the
icons actually depicted.
The only thing was some people did notice. One devout old parishioner
noticed the bright colours and told others in the church that a miracle
had taken place; the icons had renewed themselves. 'It's a sign', she
said. People became interested, recalling that they had never noticed a
particular icon before and even began asking about the lives of some of
the saints. In the end the parish priest had to tell them that no
miracle had happened. Of course in one sense the parish priest was
right: no miracle had happened. But in another sense, he was wrong, a
miracle had happened. The icons had been cleaned and no-one else had
ever done that or even thought of doing that.
So here is something we can do: I don't necessarily mean wash the
icons, I mean - get to know the saints in our churches. Do we know the
saints in our icons and on the frescoes? Do we venerate them? By
venerate, I mean not only kiss them and light candles and pray in front
of them. By veneration, I also mean, do we know their lives? After the
Scriptures, the lives of the saints were the favourite reading of
Orthodox in old Russia. Are they ours?
And here's something else we can do. When a priest or deacon censes
round a church, he censes not only the holy images, the icons, but also
the living images, the people. Perhaps we know our icons, but do we
know the people in our parishes, those who are made in the image, as an
icon, of God? Yes, surely we know our family and one or two neighbours,
but do we know the others? Among many of the older and not so old
parishioners, there are always people who have had incredible lives.
Among former parishioners, I had one who had played with Tsarevich
Alexis as a child, another who had been the governess of the King of
Greece. As for our eldest daughter's godfather, he was a Belorussian
who had fought against Polish persecutors before the Second War,
escaped from the concentration camps of both Hitler and Stalin, joined
the British Army in Persia after trekking through Siberia, and then
fought with the French Resistance.
I could go on and on and on. There are extraordinary people in our
parishes with extraordinary stories of being saved by the saints, by
icons, like a babushka in our little parish in England now, who escaped
the Japanese by walking through China during the Second World War and
so escaping to India. All on foot, as a fourteen year old girl, her
only possession her icon of her patron-saint, which ever since has hung
over her bed.
Get to know these people, learn from them, visit them, talk to them,
write down their stories for yourselves and for your children.
You want to be a deacon or a priest? Seminary is useful, and you have
to be ordained by your bishop, but your real education begins with your
parishioners. That's why the Russian proverb says: 'The family's our
primary school, but the parish is our high school'.
Another story: A hospital visit to a terminally ill man. He asked the
priest: what can I do while I am in bed here in the last weeks of my
life? The priest answered him: learn Psalm 50 by heart and recite as
often as you can. The old man answered. 'That is what I have been doing
every day of my life since I was seven'. And then he repeated Psalm 50
by heart. He'd known it all his life.
But perhaps you'd like some other ideas about what each one of us can
do.
WHAT CAN I DO IN THE CHURCH?
As I have just been saying, our parish churches are families,
communities. Do we know the icons in them? Do we know the people in
them? Let us get to know the lives of both. You will be surprised when
you get to know the people you pray alongside. As the Russian proverb
says: 'Chuzhaya dusha - tiomny lyes'. 'Another's soul is a dark
forest'. In a community, we look after one another, we visit each other
in hospital. We pray for each other. Ask your parish priest what you
can do to help him. Remember in the Church, we are saved together,
saved by the sacrament of mutual love. The Romanian Elder Cleopa said:
'Only acts of mercy and prayer can release souls from hell'. And that
may well mean releasing our own souls from hell.
Next, how well do you know the Church and the Church calendar? Do you
know the services, understand how harmoniously they fit together? If
you don't, find out; one of the best ways is learning how to read or to
serve in the altar. Start attending Vigil Service. It's surprising how
many people do not, when they could. Speak to your parish priest. Maybe
he would like you to help at the parish school. Maybe there is no
parish school, because people like you have not come forward to offer
their help. Maybe you could help type out the monthly parish bulletin.
Maybe you don't have a monthly bulletin, because the priest doesn't
have time. Maybe you are the person to help.
There was a time when every parish had a sisterhood, often dedicated to
St Mary and St Martha, who looked after the church, did cleaning and
sewing of vestments and prepared church meals. Do you belong to it?
These days, when so many women are out at full-time jobs, I can't see
why men should not take part in the activities of sisterhoods. Or then
why shouldn't every parish have a sisterhood and a brotherhood? Yes, I
know that men are from Mars and women are from Venus - and my matushka
knows it too, but you know it's a lonely solar system, when only Venus
or only Mars is operating. That's why when you go into a church, you
see on the right-hand side of the iconostasis an icon of the Saviour,
who became human as a man, and on the left-hand side, an icon of the
Mother of God. You need both.
In Russia they used to have brotherhoods and they have them again now.
They organise pilgrimages, they build things for church, they help out,
they have evenings when they talk about the Faith. Why, every parish
ought to have a sisterhood and a brotherhood, each doing its bit. They
could be a great support for both single people and for families in the
parish.
Do you fast? Do you know about fasting? Do you understand how we fast
and why? Have you ever felt that wonderful lightness, the result of
fasting, and the ease with which a soul that fasts can pray? If you
have not, then you have not lived yet!
What's the icon-corner in your home like? Do you dust it? If it's
dusty, maybe it's because your soul is dusty. Do you have an icon in
your bedroom? Do you go there often? Do you read the Gospel and Epistle
readings there every day? Do you know what they were today? Do you ask
questions about what they mean? Do you make a small and modest sign of
the cross when you eat in the office, in a restaurant, in the canteen?
Or are you one of those people who pretends not to be Orthodox in front
of Non-Orthodox? Your duty is to convert Australia, not in a silly,
showy, aggressive way, but in a modest and straightforward way, simply
by being yourselves, by setting examples.
Do you ever visit any other parishes? Let me tell you another story. It
happened last year. There was a Cypriot girl in London who contacted
me. She wanted to meet her husband. She was prepared to marry almost
anyone, as long as he was Orthodox, any nationality, any jurisdiction,
any country, and wanted a family. She had tried dating on the Internet
and other services, but with no success. So I made some suggestions,
including visiting the other Cypriot parishes in London. Amazingly, she
had never been to any of them. Well, she visited another Greek parish
in a nearby suburb and she met a man. As far as I know, things are
going well, though I haven't yet been invited to the wedding. It's
funny how people go round the world for an answer to their problems,
but often the answer is right on their own doorstep.
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED
I come now to a vitally important part of this talk. It's all about
music. Long, long ago, when I was a teenager, I can remember an
American popular song. It was called 'American Pie'. It had a catchy
tune, but there is one line of that song which has stuck in my memory
to this day: 'I saw Satan laughing with delight the day the music
died'.
You see, I don't remember very much about that song, what it was about
or anything, but those words stuck in my memory. I'd like to tell you a
story about why they mean so much to me. In the parish in Paris where I
served in the nineties, there had been a wonderful priest, Fr Sergei
Pfefferman. I didn't know him, but many of the older parishioners had
known him. He'd been born in Russia before the Revolution and he was a
Jew. One day before the Revolution, passing by an Orthodox church, he
had heard the singing. It was his moment of truth. When he heard that
singing, he went inside and as soon as the service was over, he asked
to be baptised. The same thing happened to our dear friend Jose in
Chile. That's how he became Orthodox too.
You see, music is vitally important. As St Nectarius of Optino said:
Music is the most cosmic of the arts. The Russian singer, Vertinsky,
sang that 'Muzyka kak Lyubov', 'Music is like Love'; it is something
that you cannot see and touch and yet it is the most important thing,
that touches and changes souls. I am convinced that as long as there is
a single church choir left in this world, Satan will not come; as the
song says: Satan won't laugh until the music has died. Well, don't let
the music die - unless you want to hear Satan laugh.
Well, do you sing in your church choir? Could you learn to sing? Could
you help? Could you broaden the repertoire of your church choir? There
are some beautiful melodies for different parts of the services sung in
different parishes; often they are virtually unknown outside a
particular parish. Did you know that there are dozens of melodies for
the Thrice-Holy Hymn or the Cherubic Hymn, over a hundred for 'Our
Father'? Experience wonder. Extend your church culture. Get to know
them. They are wonderful. The state of Church music is something of a
barometer of Church life. A church where the singing is good and
prayerful, is a church with spiritual life. If the singing is poor in
your church, don't blame others, you do something about it, you help to
make it better.
At the present time there is a need in some parishes for people who can
sing in English. I know from nearly thirty years of experience how
controversial this can be. But there are many parishes which have
started reading the Gospel and the Epistle in English or have
introduced a litany in English. Other parishes want to introduce a
Saturday liturgy in English once a month.
There is something here which is very important. A lot of the older
generation do not want this. I can understand. Personally, I'm also
against it - if it is done badly. But I can assure you, and again this
is from experience, that they will want it, if it is done properly. I
have heard liturgies sung in English and French very badly. But when it
is done properly, opposition melts away.
The 'best' liturgy I ever heard sung in French was by a choir of about
eight. Two elderly Russian women were present and at the end of the
liturgy they said to me. 'Isn't Slavonic beautiful?'. They had actually
not realised that the whole liturgy had been sung in French. Why?
Because it had been done so well, it had been faithful to the spirit of
Orthodoxy. No fantasies there. Nothing added and nothing taken away.
The language issue is a false problem. As long as you're faithful to
the Russian Orthodox Tradition and spirit in your parishes, it doesn't
matter what language it's in; it's a question of being spiritually
faithful, not linguistically faithful.
If you can do that in English, be faithful to your spiritual heritage,
even the most Slavophile of your parishioners will accept English. To
be honest with you, some people who want services in English do
themselves a great disservice, because they do not know how to do it
properly. You have to rehearse, have a choir, have a good reader. You
can have excellent, prayerful and well-sung services in English - but
only if you make the effort to do so. And that means sacrifice. But it
is the task of your generation, it is your calling.
WHAT CAN I DO IN MY JOB?
So far I have concentrated on personal attitudes towards the Church and
what we can do, but some of you may quite rightly be saying to
yourselves; Well, that's all very well, but what about the rest of my
life? What can I do? Or is that of no importance? What about that part
of my life where I earn my money, where I spend at least forty hours a
week? What can I do here'?
Many of you may at the present time be thinking about career paths,
about jobs and studies, about choices in life. Maybe some of you are
high-flyers, you are going into business, finance, law, politics. And
why not? Maybe one of you here is one day going to be the first
Orthodox Prime Minister of Australia. You may laugh, but who knows?
When I was a student, I didn't think it, but I met someone who became
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and another who became the
President of Pakistan. They were students with me.
And why shouldn't one of you become the first Orthodox Prime Minister
of Australia? We need you. The only thing is, if you are a high flyer,
you're going to be in contact with big money. Don't let the money get
to you.
The Apostle Paul does not say that money is the root of all evil, but
he does say that the love of money is the root of all evil. Money in
itself is neither good nor bad. It's what you do with it that counts. I
could tell you half a dozen stories from experience about that. God
will allow you to be rich, if you are able to use the money wisely,
like St Seraphim's father, who built a church which still stands in
Kursk today. You can do all sorts of good things with money, but you
can also do a lot of evil things with it. And also don't let the power
get to you either. Remember Pilate; you can use power for good or for
bad. It depends on the person who is given power for a time. Remember
the words of that wonderful Russian saint, St Alexander Nevsky: 'God is
not in power, but in truth'. Carve those words on your hearts! Write
them down now! 'Ne v sile Bog, no v pravde'.
Maybe, though, most of you are not high flyers, you're one of me, a low
flyer. The bad news is that if you are a low flyer, you might hit your
head on something sticking up. I often do. On the other hand, I've got
good news for you. You're probably going to be a lot happier than the
high flyers. I know because I've have known several high flyers in my
time. They're a pretty miserable lot on the whole.
Maybe, you're cut out to be a secretary, a policeman, a salesman, a
shop-assistant, a supermarket-worker, a truck-driver, a teacher, a
soldier, a nurse, a homemaker. And why not, there's nothing wrong with
that either. The only thing is, like everything else, you can be a bad
nurse or a good nurse, a bad truck-driver or a good one, a bad
policeman or a good one, a good homemaker or a bad one, and so on. You
- be good ones. Do your best at your job, whatever it is. Imagine an
Australia where all the shop-assistants or all the truck-drivers are
Orthodox. I tell you, it would be a different Australia from the one
you are