www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology "NO" to Religion!

Fr. Thomas Hopko, the former Dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary and son-in-law of Fr. Schmemann, reminded us of the homily he preached at Father's funeral. In that homily, he recalled for us how Fr. Alexander basically formulated his own eulogy in a talk he and Fr. Thomas had had many years ago. In that talk, he told Fr. Thomas that one of the things for which he would like to be remembered is a "no."

That "no" was a very emphatic "no" to religion. He was very clear in stating that Jesus did not come and die for us to bring "religion." He came to bring the Kingdom of God. Fr. Alexander lamented the fact that we have tried to reduce the Church to a clinic where people come to feel good. In the sermon at the funeral, Father's own words from For the Life of the World were used:

...it is here that we reach the heart of the matter. For Christianity help is not the criterion. Truth is the criterion. The purpose of Christianity is not to help people by reconciling them with death, but to reveal the Truth about life and death in order that people may be saved by this Truth. Salvation, however, is not only not identical with help, but is, in fact, opposed to it. Christianity quarrels with religion and secularism not because they offer 'insufficient help,' but precisely because they 'suffice,' because they 'satisfy' the needs of men. If the purpose of Christianity were to take away from man the fear of death, to reconcile him with death, there would be no need for Christianity, for other religions have done this, indeed, better than Christianity.

But besides this radical rejection of "religion" as a source of therapy, Fr. Alexander also had, as we were reminded at his memorial service, a real distaste for "religion" as it is so often seen in the Orthodox world filled with people equating faith with purple hats, beards, incense and a fanatic thirst for liturgical propriety a thirst so fanatic that I have seen priests and deacons actually argue and fight over liturgical questions during the liturgy!

All of this is not to say that Father was not for liturgical order and propriety indeed, I was a sub-deacon at an ordination and we forgot to take the bishop's candlesticks out for a blessing when the ordination was done, and Father did not wait until the service was over to call the matter very clearly to our attention. At the first liturgy I served as a priest, Father made sure I had washed my hands and said the prayer before starting proskomedia. Rather, it is to say that Father understood that those external realities of our faith are there and important only in so far as they make manifest the internal reality of the presence of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom which He brings for us in the life of the Church.

We Orthodox and Eastern Catholics face a unique temptation in this last matter. Our liturgical life is so rich and the externals of our church life so rich and beautiful, that we can sometimes be dazzled and begin to mistake the external things with the internal things. Beards, hats, incense, etc. are what the world generally knows about Orthodoxy. What the world generally does not know about our faith, however, is the fulness of God's message which lives in our Church and Tradition. Basically, the world does not know this because we, as individuals comprising the Church, do not truly know and practice this fulness.

Lord keep us from the 'religion' of the Pharisees and give us instead, the Kingdom of God...starting NOW in our midst and forevermore in Eternity!


In His Holy Name,
+Fr. Gregory

Dear Father, Thank you for this post.

Vito

Dear Father,
I think you really "hit the nail on the head." Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets constantly berated the Israelites for their sacrifices and superficial faith. What God wanted was their hearts. Likewise, wasn't Jesus killed because he took on the Pharisees and their shallow faith?
Maybe the criterion Christian churches use for admitting each other to the Eucharist should be their love for Christ, rather than externalities?

What are you suggesting here? That Catholics and Orthodox should share communion? Or that Apostolic Churches and ecclesial communions should share communion? If you're in favour of the former I agree, the latter, I do not.

I have nothing against our seperated brethren but they are just that, seperated. We must never forget the nature of God's covenental relationship with humanity. This covenant in which we are living under was promised not to us but to David the King. We are the dogs eating the crumbs from under the masters' table after the children have finished. There is an unbroken line of covenats going back to Noah between God and man, and though at each successive stage in history God has promised more and more the rules surrounding that covenant have not changed.

Jesus took on the curse of the broken covenants of the Old Testament and so long as we abide in Him what we sacrifice through Him in Holy Mass is sanctified. However, dare we break our covenant as St Paul says 'we drink judgement upon ourselves'. Thats why many of the Corinthinans fells sick and some of them even died, because they ate His body and blood without discernment. If we break from the covenant that the Lamb of God has sealed in its blood then we cannot die with Him and rise with Him, we simply die. Those covenant curses fall on us instead and we will find out what St Paul meant when he upbraided the Corinthians for their laxity.

A covenant relationship is the equivalent of a marriage, which is epitomised by the way the prophets call Isreal a whore and the martial imagery used by the Apostles in the NT. We cannot think it acceptable to share the bridal bed with those who are not a part of this intimate union. The Eucharist is not a stepping stone on the road to unity it is unity itself, it is the Church and the goal of unity: A unity in understanding the natue of this covenant we live under and what is required of us in fulfilling it, in abiding in Him.

Fr. Gregory,

I appreciate the post! Thanks.

The Kingdom of God is not just hereafter , but here.

It is 'not of this world' and it is 'within' according to Jesus anyway.

Praying for your health and a very fruitful remainder of Lent.

In Christ,

Mary Jo

Lord keep us from the 'religion' of the Pharisees and give us instead, the Kingdom of God...starting NOW in our midst and forevermore in Eternity! <<<that's why I said this!



Your brother in the Lord,
+Fr. Gregory

I agree that it is what is in the heart that is important, and we don't want to have a religion that is empty ritual with no substance behind it. BUT...I am glad we have an apostolic Church that has preserved Tradition and the teachings of the Fathers. Without that Church, we might as well join the flower children and prance through the woods beating drums and revel in our own experiences - like the direction some nameless churches of late have gone.

Dear Fr. Gregory,

As I understand it, Eastern theology sees itself as the CURE for the sickness of religion. Religion being that short-circuit between heart and head [causing man to engage in idolatry], where one exercises virtue to repair short-circuit so the heart can pray without ceasing?

Daniel

Father Gregory,

I appreciate the post. In preparing the children I work with, myself, and a retreat I am writing for presentation next month, this speaks volumes. With the onset of lent for those of us of the Orthodox persausion, I find it a challenge to get people over the 8th saceament, food. Lent besides a corporate experience, needs to be focused on the personal. Many of our fathful miss that mark.

I have taken the point for the upcoming lent, developing a relationship in God, by prayer, renewal, and discipling the flesh is the place to start. Focus on developing an interior life and building that relationship that many lack. Lent does not have to a completely somber tone to it, but more of a spiritually enlightening one.

The church gives us the means but we always seem to approach it as a chinese menu, and with that in church. The focus I will try to instill this season is lent starts at home and with you. As you renew and build you bring it into the church and to your familes. It could be why the readings from Genesis start with the creation. Lent is the time we need to start recreating ourselves as children of God. I hope and pray when we read these verses, "In the beginning..." we actually begin the process of recreating ourselves spiritually, and that it will truly be a lenten spring where not only us but the the Church of Christ flowers with the new fruit of heavenly sweetness.

Forgive me if I am off course.

Your brother in Christ's service,
Father Anthony+

It would be well at this point to remember the last part of the Prayer of St Eprem!!

Amen to the words of the ever-memorable Father Schememann!!

Relax, Brian, I am not talking about the Orthodox! I think we are all aware of the excesses and extremes that are out there, and I am grateful our Eastern Churches have had the good sense and focus to avoid them.