THE MEANING OF TRADIOTIONALISM
Inok Vsevolod (Filipiev)
When we talk about Orthodox traditionalism, we don't have in mind ordinary conservatism. No, it is something else.
Conservatism is like the flow of life stilled; an image rendered: beautiful, but not alive. But traditionalism's vocation is not to freeze life for archival, but to create with it the conditions necessary for blossoming and fruitfulness.
So what is traditionalism?
Let's go to the root of the word. Traditionalism means protection (1). The protector is otherwise called a guard or a sentry, that is, someone who stands guard at a guard-post. The guard-post is a synonym of traditionalism. Church fasting is, in essence, church traditionalism. The spiritual meaning of traditionalism becomes known through a clarification of the goal of church fasting.
A true fast consists of safeguarding one's heart from evil, averting lies, and cutting short worldly lust in humble self-restraint. Traditionalism also puts similar goals before itself, except the area of their effects extend from one person to the entire community.
Orthodox traditionalism is called to safeguard biblical truths, and create conditions for life by them. It stands against any evil, defends kindness and truth, extolls and elevates the biblical ideal, unmasks the spirit of this age, the spirit of our time.
The spirit of this age is a spirit of falsehood. Let us realize this and be on our guard.
The spirit of our time is an evil and hypocritical spirit, a spirit of the substitution of truth with deviation from orthodoxy. The spirit of this age flatters and leads away into its "sweet" captivity, leads away to death and destruction. The spirit of our time imbues Christians with hypocrisy; gradually, unnoticed, it eats away at the soul, poisoning it with materialism. The spirit of this age steals away the Christian heart and replaces it with a carnal heart. It is from these very robbed and spiritually dead Christians, in time, that a community of unbelievers will be created - a church of evil, a church of the Antichrist… Let us realize this and be on our guard.
Let us look within ourselves: has not our Christian heart been replaced by a false Christian heart?
If we speak in biblical terms, but do not notice the wretched, turn away from a beggar woman, evade the spiritually suffering and those needing in love, it means that our Christian heart has already been stolen away. If we seek for ourselves only a shining community, blameless and lofty interlocutors, but do not have love and compassion for the little ones of this world, it means that our heart is no longer a Christian, but a Pharisee. And if we retain the external appearance of model Christians all the while, being self-righteous, then this only underscores once again that we are already ready to become members of the mystical body of the great proud one, become children of the church of the devil…
Let us be on our guard against all of this!
The spirit of our time is the spirit of secularization. The spirit of this world is the spirit of deviation from true Christianity.
The holy fathers say: "It is better to die, than to sin". But what is sin? It is digression from the will of God. Sinner means ones who digresses. Being deep-rooted in sinfulness is the reason for apostasy. This is why Orthodox traditionalism, following in the footsteps of the holy fathers, says that it is better to die for Christ, than to go away from Him. It is better for us to perish and be crowned with halos from the Lord, than to be silent witnesses to the secularization of Christianity.
Orthodox, let us be on our guard against the spirit of this world, from the delusion of digression.
Traditionalism aims to serve the whole community, but in this does not forget about each Orthodox soul. The question of the retention of the purity of the faith comes down to the salvation of one's own heart, one's own conscience. And we, Orthodox Christians, honestly cannot and will not be able to acknowledge the falsehood of secularized Christians, who are accustomed to clear evil and serve it, and what is most frightening - admitting this servitude, instead of renouncing it.
The most important Church fast, Great Lent, is established in the memory of the 40-day fast of the Lord Jesus Christ in the desert before his going out to voluntary suffering which saved humanity. And the time of the great traditionalistic fast, the time of preparation for the global Armageddon, that time has come for us, Orthodox Christians, today: the final decisive battle of truth and falsehood.
A gathering of strength is happening. The forces of falsehood are being strengthened by the anti-fast: the desecration of the flesh, the vulgarization of the soul, a weakening of the spirit. But the forces of truth are being strengthened by conscious self-restraint, joyous self-sacrifice, the shining tears of the heart, the all-embracing fast; in a nutshell - Orthodox traditionalism.
Let us realize this and become protectors (2).
Orthodox traditionalism - it is taking a stand: minds in truth, hearts in ceaseless prayer, life spent in deeds of love - standing strong even to death.
Let us believe in salvation through this feat and we will stand fast. And then, at the end of the voluntary life-long fast we will be illuminated by the sun of the imperishable Pascha, the Sun of Truth. And God will say to us: "You safeguarded shining Orthodoxy, and I saved you from death. Come into the joy of your Lord!"
Jordanville
(Translated from Russian by Andrew Choufrine)
Footnotes
In the original document, the author makes use of puns and wordplay with the words "Traditionalism", "protection", "post", and "Great Lent", as all of these words have etymological ties or similarities in meaning in the Russian language. Unfortunately, this wordplay cannot be retained in the English language, and so this part of the essay cannot be translated precisely. - Translator
In Russian, "protector" and "traditionalism" have the same root; this cannot be conveyed in English unfortunately. - Translator
