2008 Sunday of Orthodoxy
All of the feasts of the Church have the economy of our Salvation as their theme. Today on the first Sunday of Great Lent we celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy. On this feast we commemorate the triumph of the correct doctrine concerning the holy icons and the triumph of all true doctrines of the Church over all false teachings.
Why does this matter? –Because it matters to our Savior Christ Who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).
And:
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
And again:
…To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice (John 18:37)
We cannot be indifferent to the distinction between truth and falsehood and at the same time be united to Christ.
The radical message Traditional Orthodoxy brings to modern man is that in the midst of confusion, uncertainty and human disorder God has established His truth in the world and this is found in the singular refuge of the Orthodox Church. God calls all to salvation, but it is in One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. The service for the Sunday of Orthodoxy is a prayerful celebration of Christian truth, a lesson in setting the distinction between true and false teachings and a heartfelt prayer for all of the erring to be converted to the truth. As it is written in the petitions for the service of the Entreaty for the Synodicon of Orthodoxy:
O Thou Who hast ordered this world for Thy glory, so arrange that those adverse to Thy Word may be converted and together with all those faithful to the true Faith and piety, may glorify Thee, our God, we beseech thee, O Omnipotent Creator, hearken and have mercy.
And
O Thou Who hast given us Thy commandment to love Thee, our God, and our neighbour, grant that hate, enmities, injuries, corruption, breach of oaths and other wickedness cease, but that true love may reign in our hearts; we beseech Thee, our Saviour, hearken, and graciously have mercy.
All societies in all times and places are ruled by the ideas that people hold about themselves, about right and wrong, and about individual responsibility. The Church, the Body of Christ, has, from the time of the Apostles, seen itself as the guardian of revealed truth. Saint Paul wrote to the Apostle Timothy, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:1-2).
We are all guardians of the truth. Not everyone is going to be able to understand some of the subtler aspects of theology, but during this era of confusion it is essential that we learn the traditions that have been given to us by our Savior from the very time of the Apostles. Not all of us are going to be able to recount all of the history of the Ecumenical Councils and how the controversies were dealt with, but we must all search out and understand the basics of Church doctrine and order. Church history testifies that there were times when bishops became indifferent to the truth and went astray and it was the laity and priests that stood fast in the faith. These heroic stands for the truth did not undermine the hierarchical nature of the Church, but rather they preserved it. If priests, deacons and laity had to abandon erring bishops, they always sought out right believing hierarchs as soon as possible.
The essential lesson is that from the very beginning of the establishment of the Church each bishop was the guardian of Apostolic truth committed to him in his diocese, but hierarchy is nothing if it is not united to the truth.[1]
The most pernicious attack on the truth in the history of the Church is the great Pan-heresy of Ecumenism. Ecumenism seeks to unite the Church to all of the doctrinally erroneous faith groups throughout the world. This pernicious heresy was born from politics infiltrating and trumping the Apostolic doctrines first in the local Churches of Constantinople and Greece and now, throughout the world. For reasons of diplomacy, key political leaders and hierarchs of the Church of Greece sought union with Protestant Churches in the west. These churchmen sought a union with the heterodox that was indifferent to dogmatic truth and the first step in their plan was the change of the ecclesiastical calendar. Much has gone wrong in the over eighty years from the Calendar change, and there are many of the laity of the various innovating jurisdictions that have been swept along with the idea that dogmatic truth is not important. Yet, there are many among the priests and laity in the new calendar jurisdictions that do not personally agree with the heresy of ecumenism. But, alas, they are lead astray by a Protestant concept of the independence of the local congregation from their ruling bishops or a false notion that bishops are simply administrators, much like CEOs. These anti-Orthodox teachings ignore the Mystical-Sacramenta l nature of the Church and the fact that the Eucharist is inextricably united to the confession of faith of the ruling bishop that is commemorated at each liturgy. If the bishop professes heresy, to partake of that Eucharist served in his name is to partake of the heresy.
Concerning the Faith, the heretics were totally shipwrecked; but as for the others, even if in their thinking they did not founder, nonetheless, because of their communion with heresy, they too were destroyed with the others.
-- Saint Theodore Studite’s Letter to the Patriarch of Jerusalem; (‘PG 99, 1164)
It should be obvious to all that in order to combat the heresy of Ecumenism, it is essential that we maintain the teaching regarding the relationship of the Eucharist, Bishop and the Church that has been given unto us since apostolic times. Any local Church that compromises this understanding does so to its own peril.
There will always be demonically inspired forces that seek to undermine the proper understanding of the faith and order of the Church. The Holy Apostle Paul who spent his days preaching the word of truth and establishing bishops throughout the world spoke clearly, “But though we, or an Angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we said before, and I say now again, If anyone preach any other Gospel unto you than that which ye have received, let him be anathema”(Galatians 1:6-10).
(By the words “Angel from heaven” Saint Paul means any messenger, either a vision of an angel with false wonders or a man that seems to live the life of an angel.)
Things have been difficult, but God has not left His people without a guide and example, even during this era of confusion, betrayal and apostasy. We have been blessed in North America to have had a great confessor of Orthodoxy shine forth in our own land, Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of New York. More than any other hierarch of the 20th Century, Saint Philaret made a stand for the truth Orthodoxy and clearly articulated the faith.
Especially from the time of the great watershed year of 1965 when the Patriarch of Constantinople “lifted the anathemas”[2] against the Roman Catholic Church Saint Philaret stood for the Apostolic Truth before a hostile or indifferent “world-orthodoxy.” His Sorrowful Epistles and open letters to the Patriarch of Constantinople were singular documents in defense of Christian truth.
From this point on, it became evident to many of our older clergy, who have been confessors in their own right, that the only way they could remain faithful to the Gospel truth was to leave their various jurisdictions and place themselves under his Synod, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
For the many years that Saint Philaret served as President of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad that Church was a singular beacon of Orthodox truth. Through his personal sanctity and love of Orthodoxy Saint Philaret lead the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad to proclaim the Anathema against the heresy of Ecumenism, thus making clear to all that had eyes to see, the light of the truth of Christ and His singular Bride, the Orthodox Church.
After the repose of Saint Philaret, his example was not cherished by his successors in the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and there occurred a resolute policy shift that involved ever-increasing intercommunion with ecumenist-orthodox jurisdictions. Time does not allow going into that history. All that needs to be said is that our priests continued to seek the truth through holding their bishops accountable by respectfully seeking clarification from them regarding the increasing canonical infractions that were occurring. Suffice to say that our struggling communities once again had to seek out hierarchs that eschewed ecumenism and compromise with canonical Church order. (Since our departure from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad their intercommunion with world-orthodoxy and eventual union with the compromised Moscow Patriarchate has only justified our actions.) God provided that we eventually found a haven in the synod of Archbishop Auxentius of blessed memory. This was fitting since it was Saint Philaret himself that gave support to and recognized and regularized Archbishop Auxentius and his synod back in the 1970’s.
Since Saint Philaret came to the aid and regularized both the Synod of Archbishop Auxentius and the Matthewite Synod, he can rightly be called a father of fathers and most assuredly he is the new beginning and father of the Traditionalist movement in Greece (even though he was elected President of the Synod of the Russian Church Outside of Russia in the 1964).
Our reverence for Saint Philaret is not some sort of “personality cult.” We worship God, not men. If a man separates himself from Christian truth, with sorrow we separate ourselves from him. We cling to the memory of Saint Philaret because of his steadfast love for the truth. He made up nothing on his own, but rather struggled to convey to us “the faith once delivered to the saints.” Let us preserve our unity in confessing the faith of the Holy Fathers.
Saint Philaret described the special temptation of our age:
“The distinguishing characteristic of our time,” he used to say, “is that people are now more and more possessed by indifference to the Divine truth. Many beautiful words are spoken, but in fact – in reality – people are completely indifferent to the truth. Such indifference was once displayed by Pilate, when the Lord stood before him at his trial. Before Pilate stood the Truth Himself, but he sceptically declared: “What is truth?” – that is, does it exist? And if it does, then it is a long way from us, and perhaps does not exist. And with complete indifference he turned away from Him Who announced the truth to him, Who was the Truth Himself. And now people have become similarly indifferent. You have probably more than once heard supposedly Christian words about the union of all into one faith, into one religion. But remember that what lies behind this is precisely indifference to the truth. If the truth were dear to a man, he would never go on this path. It is precisely because the truth is of little interest to everyone, and they simply want somehow to make simpler and more convenient arrangements in matters of the faith, too, that they say: ‘Everyone must unite’…
Code: Select all
“Brethren, we must fear this indifference to the truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Apocalypse clearly indicates to us how terrible indifference to the truth is. There he turns to the Angel standing at the head of the Laodicean Church and says: ‘I know thy works. Thou art neither cold nor hot. Oh if only thou wast hot or cold! But since thou art neither cold nor hot (but lukewarm – neither the one nor the other, the truth is not dear to thee), I will spue thee from My mouth!’ As an organism cast out of itself something which is absolutely repulsive and harmful to it.“Let us remember that this indifference to the truth is one of the main woes of our age of apostasies. Value the truth, O man! Be a fighter for the truth… Place the truth higher than all else in life, O man, and never allow yourself to decline in any way from the true path.
The Sunday of Orthodoxy should be for us a second feast day for the remembrance of our local holy Father. Let us rejoice on this day for all that God has provided for us and let us commemorate our Father among the Saints, Philaret, who stood for the truth, the confessor and champion of Orthodoxy, and cry out with heartfelt thanksgiving, Eternal Memory!
May God provide that we remain united in our effort to follow in the footsteps of this Holy Father and all of the Holy Fathers that struggled unto death to preserve Christian truth in the world, that in so doing we provide that greatest inheritance for our children, union with Christ Jesus, Who is Truth Incarnate. Amen.
[1] For example, the Church celebrates the memory of the confessors that rejected the false union of Brest-Litovsk in 1596. At that time all of the Orthodox bishops of that region apostatized and became Roman Catholics. Despite the betrayal of their hierarchs and severe persecution, many of the local priests and laity remained steadfast in Orthodoxy.
[2] An anathema is a condemnation by the Church of a false teaching. The only way an anathema can be lifted from an erring group is for that group to renounce the false teaching.