Orthodox Wisdom Newsletter

“God appointed the salvation of the world to His Son and not to us…. We must first look at our soul and if we can, let’s help five or six people around us.”

~ Elder Epiphanios (Theodoropoulos), Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit

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Advice for Beginners – Archbishop Mark (Maymon)

☦️ Dear fellow pilgrim,

You may have noticed that I repeated the same quote from Elder Epiphanios above…this is not a typo! Each week, I try to find a quote from my book that dovetails with the topic of my weekly reflection…and this seemed like an appropriate one for today’s topic: how to deal with “problems” in the Church? Elder Epiphanios exhorts us to focus on that which we have control over: our own spiritual life, and if we can, to assist those immediately around us.

The following quote from St. Porphyrios builds upon this thought, and drives it home:

In order for us to preserve our unity, we must be obedient to the Church, to her bishops. When we are obedient to the Church we are obedient to Christ Himself. Christ wishes for us to become one flock with one shepherd.

Let us feel for the Church. Let us love her fervently. We should not accept to hear her representatives being criticized and accused. On the Holy Mountain the spirit in which I was nurtured was Orthodox, profound, holy and silent — without conflicts, without disputes, and without censuring. We should not give credence to those who make accusations against the clergy. Even if with our own eyes we see a priest doing something we judge negatively, we should not believe it, nor think about it, nor talk about it to others. The same is true for the lay members of the Church and for every person. We are all the Church, those who censure the Church for the errors of her representatives with the alleged aim of helping to correct her make a great mistake. They do not love the Church. Neither, needless to say, do they love Christ. We love the Church when we embrace with our prayer each of her members and do what Christ did — when we sacrifice ourselves, remain ever vigilant, and do everything in the manner of Him who when he was abused did not return abuse, and when He suffered did not threaten.

– Wounded By Love, p. 91-92

It is incredibly difficult for modern converts to Orthodoxy (and perhaps, especially for Americans?!) to see things that we disagree with in the Church (and in the world) and to sit “idly” by. We have been trained to believe that our opinions are very important and that it is our “duty” to “fix” things that we consider broken. The truth however is that, as with most aspects of the Christian life, this worldly approach is the opposite of the true Orthodox Christian approach.

As Elder Epiphanios said, the salvation of the world is ultimately God’s job (though we are certainly called to act as Christians in the Church and in the world, and in this way God may use us).

St. Porphyrios takes this a step further and emphasizes that the only way to unity in Christ is if each of us dispenses of our own self will and opinions, and rather embraces the self-sacrificial love of Christ. This is much more difficult for a variety of reasons…one of the chief of which is that the path of Christ leads to the Cross and, while ultimately the Cross leads to the resurrection, we are not assured that we will experience “success” or “resurrection” in this life. What we will experience is much greater, however: we will acquire the kenotic love of Christ which is, ultimately, what will save the world (and fix the problems in the Church).

The Church has weathered many problems over the centuries, and while occasionally Her Saints have been called on to uphold Orthodox doctrine, the vast majority of Her Saints simply embraced the path to Golgotha, regardless of whether or not they were “successful” in this life.

During Covid, the Church suffered a great temptation and the unity of the Church was preserved by those who remained faithful to their priests and bishops, even though many of these same faithful might have had personal misgivings. For St. Porphyrios, as with all of the Saints, there is an emphasis on unity, and also on the sacrificial love that is necessary to preserve this unity.

May God grant us the strength to embrace the true Orthodox path of self-renunciation, humility, and love for Christ, His Church, and His children!

In Christ our Lord,

Herman