:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Friday, July 30, 2004 ::

The Queen Mother and the Dormition

Starting next week Orthodox Christians will begin the two week fast in preparation for the Feast of the Dormition. I thought what Silouan posted on a discussion group a few weeks ago was pertinent.

Traditionally, next to the throne of the King was a second throne. Many would assume that the second throne belonged to the wife of the King, but in ancient Israel it belonged to the mother of the king.

There is an Aramaic word, "Gebirah", which means "Queen Mother". The Gebirah was an official position, one with which everyone (Jesus and His disciples included) was entirely familiar. Her role was as an advocate of the people. Anyone who had a petition or sought an audience with the King did so through her.

This role is mentioned in several passages from the OT:

1 Kings 15:13--"He also deposed his Maacah from her position as queen mother."
2 Kings 10:13--"We are kinsmen of Ahaziah," they replied. "We are going down to visit the princes and the family of the queen mother."
Jeremiah 13:18--"Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne."

Her specific place of honor and intercession is dramatically illustrated in the following passage from 1 Kings 2:13-21--

"Adonijah, son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. "Do you come as a friend?" she asked. "Yes," he answered, and added, "I have something to say to you." She replied, "Say it." So he said: "...There is one favor I would ask of you. Do not refuse me." And she said, "Speak on."

He said, "Please ask King Solomon, who will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunamite for my wife." "Very well," replied Bathsheba, "I will speak to the king for you." Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king's mother, who sat at his right. "There is one small favor I would ask of you," she said. "Do not refuse me." "Ask it, my mother," the king said to her, "for I will not refuse you."

Of particular import are the following observations:
1.Adonijah assumed that the queen mother would approach the King on his behalf; he trusted her.
2. The reaction of the King is noteworthy: he stood up to meet her and paid her homage.
3. A throne was provided for her and she sat at his right.
4. Her power as intercessor is stressed by the repetition of the idea that the king "will not refuse her".

Update: "My heart is warmed because I'm learning to know a person and what she means to my God."

Update 2: Tom, speaking of our relationships with the saints: "It's not a matter of logical necessity, but of natural desire."

:: Karl :: 8:17:00 AM [Link] ::

Generational Curses and Party of Five

The topic of generational curses has come up in conversation recently with various non-Orthodox family members.

While I've already explained in detail why, from an classically Christian point of view, this teaching is heretical and dangerous to the development of a healthy spiritual life, I thought I'd also use an example from pop culture as well.

The following is a direct quote from the script of one of the best episodes of one of the best shows on television in the last 15 years (IMHO!) The title of the episode is "The Intervention"--#20 from the third season of "Party of Five.". Listen to Bailey try to explain his alcoholism and resultant bad behavior to his siblings:

"I'm my father's son, right? Which is...which explains a lot of things. I mean, I can finally stop looking at myself and thinking, what is going on here? What am I turning into? Who am I turning into? Because it's him. I'm turning into him. And it's not my fault. It's not my fault. It's his fault. So...so I'm gonna stop beating myself up and I'm gonna stop letting all of you guys beat up on me. Because this is just who I am, and this is what I do..."

When you boil it all down, this is the train of thought that logically proceeds from the anthropology of generational curse theology (GCT).

While GCT does highlight a few truths such as the reality of the demonic forces and the importance of understanding one's psychological makeup/family history, it does it in a way that cheapens free will and ignores the commandment not to judge one's neighbor.

Bailey was wrong. He may have been predisposed to alcoholism because of family genetics or environmental triggers--but he was the one who drank to excess. And he is the only one who can repent of that sin.

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin." Deuteronomy 24:16

:: Karl :: 8:38:00 AM [Link] ::

Pontificating and Personality Types

The more I've gotten involved in blogging about theological issues, the less interested I am in actually talking about them verbally. It is a strange thing in many ways.

I have this funny feeling that those who only know me through the blog have a very skewed image in their mind of my personality. I'm actually quite taciturn in large groups; even when theology, philosophy, or other topics I love are being discussed.

Being an INTJ, I tend to be quite shy and introverted. While I love deep one-on-one discussions, I abhor large groups and the interpersonal dynamics they create. Authentic interaction seems to be inversely proportional to the number of people involved.

When I first became Orthodox (and even before that) I hardly ever missed an opportunity to verbally rant, argue, muse, or otherwise pontificate on theology or philosophical issues.....or, quite frankly, any area where I felt I had some "expertise." I was an intellectual in the worst sense of the word.

Pontificating has often been a favorite hobby and in some ways that hasn't changed. Nowadays, however, I pretty much try to keep this habit of mine contained within the blogosphere.

Update: "It seems that the harder I try to draw near to God, the less I have to blog about."

:: Karl :: 8:27:00 AM [Link] ::

A Conversation About Zen

A few weeks ago a reader sent me some interesting questions about "the supreme identity" concept in Buddhism and was curious if there was a correlation in Orthodoxy.

What follows is another excerpt from the email discussion:

He wrote, "I understand from my Christian perspective, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme identity of God's incarnation and revelation. But don't we also speak of incarnation in other ways?"

Yes we do (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20; etc), but these all flow organically from The Incarnation. Otherwise we run the risk of divorcing the Essence of God from His Energies....

"I've been pondering the notion that when a Zen practitioner claims to have a satori, and that he or she has touched the divine that what may be happening is that they are awakening to an awareness of their own spirit, or getting in touch with their 'Imago Dei'. It's not a direct touching of God, but a glimpse of His reflection in our own created being."

Sure, to some extent I think this is true. Most western practitioners probably aren't going as deep as they think they are because we tend to "play" at Zen. We don't really take seriously the ascetic lifestyle needed for this kind of illumination. There are so many stories and warnings from the desert fathers about the dangers of what they call "prelest"; spiritual delusion as a natural consequence of indulging in "mystical experiences" not tethered to the Church and her ascetic and liturgical life. Any "spirituality" that isn't focused on and flowing from Christ is bound to become prelest sooner or later....

"While I agree with you regarding your observation about the absence of the Personal aspect, mystical experience is transpersonal, but this doesn't necessitate the exclusion of the Personal. It's just as you've said, language is inadequate to describe or define it. Therefore we can only communicate in metaphors which do not do complete justice to the experience."

True. This is why Orthodoxy has always been a "come and see" kind of faith....human language can point the way and in some ways open up the door. But we have to walk through it in faith and in experience. It was coming to realize, in some very profound ways, that Truth was a Person (not an koan, a state of nirvana, or simply knowledge for its own sake) that I was able to turn toward Christ.

"I also have some questions about the asceticism and the 'simply dying' idea. I wont quote D.T.Suzuki, or Alan Watts, or even Ken Wilber, but for my example I'll use the obscure 60's song by Donovan, where the refrain repeats an old Zen description of satori, 'First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.' This sounds absurd to those not studied in Buddhist tradition, but this is a typology of resurrection. The first mountain is the common conception of the mountain, then there is no mountain...is emptiness, or seeing beyond the form of all things, and then there is the mountain again, but a qualitatively different mountain, one for which the devotee now sees in it's absolute relationship to all things."

I see what you are getting at. I suppose if I was going to qualify what I originally said in this regard, it would be to note the importance of the Orthodox understanding of the passions--the powers of the human soul. The Church's view of asceticism is quite different than both the western Christian and Near East understanding and it stems from a different view of what a human being is....In a nutshell, true asceticism is a purification, a restoring of what is good in essence but has been stained by sin and twisted by the misuse of our free will

The Buddhist view of asceticism, because of the implicit dualism at its core, ends up rejecting incarnated living as an essential component of what it means to be fully human....thus the injunction to "cease from all desires" never restores the proper place of desire--it just annihilates it.

One of the beautiful things about Orthodoxy is that things like contemplation, mystical prayer, the centrality of paradoxical language, etc, are all an organic part of the Orthodox way of life. Anything Zen has to offer, Orthodoxy has *and has Christ at the center of it*...and this makes all the difference.

In other words, there is no need to pursue Zen or other mystical approaches to life if one wishes to be a Christian.

:: Karl :: 7:34:00 AM [Link] ::

Humor Cornucopia: Random Wednesday Musings

* How to win an argument. His bit about using Latin phrases really got a chuckle out of me but the whole thing is quite amusing.

* Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast. I know a few of you have already seen this (Jan Bear and Josh Claybourn for starters), but it is too good not to pass on. Those email scams are something else...

* The ever classic, "Leave me alone! What I do in private doesn't affect you at all!" way of justifying sin.

* "Then MC Yammer gets up to 'wrap it up.' ... We were given these little sheets of paper with fill-in-the-blank statements...One of them, for example, was 'Change [in the sense of changing to follow God's will] is most often prevented by our desire to be ________.' Vayammer Ice fills it in for us with 'comfortable.' Ever the rebel, I put 'evil.'"

Speaking of young adult groups...Josh's experience reminded me of when I was part of a large Protestant "college and career" group in the mid-90's. There are times when I can hardly believe I was part of that world...

* Katie has some good reminders about our tendency to use bitter sarcasm as a weapon. But I also like what G.K. Chesterton said about the proper role of humor in the Christian life.

"So far from it being irreverent to use silly metaphors on serious questions, it is one's duty to use silly metaphors on serious questions. It is the test of one's seriousness. It is the test of a responsible religion or theory whether it can take examples from pots and pans and boots and butter-tubs. It is the test of a good philosophy whether you can defend it grotesquely. It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it."

* Does anyone remember that old spoof about a modern marketing firm sending an Orthodox parish a "changes you'll need to make to grow your church" letter? I seem to have a vague recollection that Terry Mattingly may have printed it at one point. If someone can find the text, please email it to me or send me a link.

Update: Terry Mattingly did indeed write the article in question. Thanks Clifton!

:: Karl :: 7:53:00 AM [Link] ::

Bones In My Ceiling

Tonight, at the local "Orthodox Young Adults" discussion group, I'll be sharing my journey to the Orthodox Faith.

Earlier this week, in preparation for the talk, I was digging through some old files and found the original copies of all my poetry from 1995-1999. During this time period I had a good dozen officially published in various poetry journals, literary magazines and the like.

I thought I'd post one of these previously published poems here on the blog for fun. Feel free to critique or offer an interpretation. The poem is entitled "Bones in My Ceiling."

You say you see bones in my ceiling
Visions left over from some travels taken
A vacation from the beautiful flower
Which now looks like an old melted candle
And you see bones, little pieces of blotter, pieces of us
Are we creative within our earth, our world of routine?
You say you want this
And I wonder what it is we really need
I tremble and shudder from something that is not real
I know this
Truth as I come back down
And you see bones
You say you see bones in my ceiling
But maybe tonight all we have seen
Will combine itself inside us
And then you will see what I see
A long trail of stars
Revealing lights on my white sky
I will wake glowing
The illusion tucked back and away in my eyes.

:: Karl :: 7:41:00 AM [Link] ::

Diversity and Unity: Part II

Later Justin replied, "I think what you're saying would also apply to the modern megachurch if it were true."

Not quite. People in the megachurches are not unified in matters of faith (get 10 in a room together and you'll get 8-9 different Christologies!), they are not united in way of life (except individualism and consumerism), and they are not united in either faith or practice to the history and tradition of the Church throughout the ages.

What unites them is only worship...and as we both know that it isn't enough.

Now it must be said that not every Orthodox parish exhibits or creates the kind of community one might expect. However, as I noted in the comments of Part I, this is in spite of our theology and praxis not because of it. IOW, Individualism, Consumerism, the peculiar American aversion to intimacy, "the cult of the nice", ignorance of and lack of exposure to patristic teaching and God-bearing fathers, decades of persecution, etc are all much better explanations of our failings.

The assumed "stuffiness" of liturgy, "suffocating" ethnic barriers, "rigid" doctrine or "man-made" traditions are simply straw men. The heart of the problem is that too many of us take our ideas about friendship and community (not to mention theology) from the world rather than the Church.

Another contributing factor (at least among Americans) is that quite a large number of Christians, particularly men, have never truly experienced authentic friendship before. This wound, this psychological hole creates a sense of urgency and immaturity; both of which typically injure the delicate and organic nature of relationships. I've seen this happen time and again...

Lewis once quipped that there wasn't anything that foiled an attempt to have a good conversation more effectively than someone starting off a discussion by urgently saying "Let's have a good conversation!" Too often our "church activities" and methods of building community are the equivalent of such folly.

Community comes when people suffer for the truth together and who thus come to love God and experience the unity of that truth. If you don't have deep friendships it probably means you, and those around you, aren't suffering enough--at least not for the sake of the Gospel anyway.

Update: "We're handicapped in this area; so few of us have ever actually 'experienced' community."

:: Karl :: 8:28:00 AM [Link] ::

Diversity and Unity: Part I

Justin writes, "Orthodoxy probably does have a lot of diversity, but it's not the kind of community that some of us are talking about. Standing in a room with other people and doing the same thing is a completely different type of community than actually getting to know each other and interact."

Actually the two are intimately connected...which is why, IMO, the emergent movement is having such a hard time with this issue.

There is a closeness, a deep connection that is made when there is a common purpose--it is in sharing in the same worship, the same way of life, the same prayers, etc that we *truly* form the foundation any true friendship requires. The ability to form community outside the walls of the Church is directly related to how united we are inside those walls...which explains, again, why Orthodox people are a) so diverse and, paradoxically, b) so united.

A group of people, all believing and living in radically different (and in many cases, contradictory) ways will have a very difficult time forming lasting friendships, deeply satisfying community, and stable faith....long term.

The emergent movement's answer to this is to simply to intensify the "diversity"--a rather nebulous and artificial concept that starts with the assumption that unity and community will develop if only we had more voices to add to the cacophony of modern day Christianity. The truth is that true diversity is the natural child of authentic unity...but not its mother.

We see this perfect balance and relationship between unity and diversity in the Orthodox Church time again throughout history.

As Bishop Ware writes, "The mutual indwelling of the persons of the Trinity is paralleled by the mutual indwelling ('pericorisis' in Greek) of the members of the Church. In the Church there is no conflict between freedom and authority; there is unity, but not totalitarianism. There is diversity, but not subjectivism or individualism."

More to come in Part II....

Update: Robbymac continues the discussion.

:: Karl :: 8:10:00 AM [Link] ::

On the Transfiguration

Here is the essay I've been working on for the upcoming August edition of the St. John the Baptist parish newsletter:

It is fitting that the Church chooses to place the liturgical celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration in the middle of the summer; that time when the light of the sun is so plentiful. St. Maximus the Confessor notes, "The sun that rises and illumines the world makes itself visible as well as the objects it illumines. It is the same with the Sun of righteousness."

The Transfiguration of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:1-9) is one of the twelve great feasts of our Lord commemorated in the Church and is an opportunity for us to reflect on the themes of light, sight, and love and how they are intimately connected. What does this strange and mysterious event in the Gospels tell us about our lives as Christians? What does the light of the Transfiguration teach us about Jesus Christ, our neighbor, and the telos of our lives?

In St. John's first epistle, we are told that "God is light and in Him there is no darkness." (1 John 1:5). It is no wonder how St. John can make such a bold statement since he was one of the three disciples (Sts. Peter and James being the other two) who saw the Transfiguration first-hand. But what does it mean to say that 'God is light'? It is to say, as Georgios Mantzaridis notes, that the light that the disciples saw was "the natural brightness of His divinity...the radiance that was His from the beginning." While we can never see or know the Essence of God, we can see and know Him as He manifests Himself to us in His Uncreated Energies. This is important because, as St. Basil the Great tells us, "we come to believe in the Essence by virtue of the Energies."

When we think of Christ being transfigured, it is tempting to believe that He somehow changed. But this is far from the truth. St. Gregory Palamas says that "Jesus is transfigured, not by assuming what He did not posses, nor by changing into what He was not, but by revealing Himself as He was to His disciples, opening their eyes and healing their blindness."

Like scales falling from their eyes, the disciples saw, for a few brief moments, Jesus as He really is and always was during his earthly ministry-the perfect union of two natures in one person "without confusion or division." In fact, one could say that the Transfiguration is the transformation of the disciples more than anything else.

Throughout the history of the Church, we see that those who see the Uncreated Energies of God are themselves transfigured into light. The blinders of sin, self-centeredness, and short-sightedness are lifted through repentance and the Christian sees his goal-union with God. "Just as many lamps are lit from one flame," says St. Macarius, "so the bodies of the saints, being members of Christ must be what Christ is and nothing else...our human nature is transfigured into the power of God, and it is kindled into fire and light."

But how does this kindling take place? One of the troparians of the feast gives us a hint. It says, "You were transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God, revealing Your glory to Your disciples as far as they could bear it." As far as they could bear it. One of the many challenges this feast poses to us is this: how far are we willing to bear the light of Christ? How seriously do we wish to throw off the scales of sin from our eyes (Heb 12:1b) so that, like the disciples, hesychasts, and saints, we might begin to see God for who He is? "See! The Lord is our mirror: open your eyes, look into it, learn what your faces are like!" (Odes of Solomon).

Is this our prayer? If so, we must want to see reality for what it is, our lives for what they are, and our neighbor for who he is. This kind of light, this type of revelation is a gift of God and thus requires our assent before it can come about in our lives. Fr. Alexander Schmemann puts it well when he says that "faith is also a plea for the everlasting light, a thirst for this illumination and transfiguration... 'Lord it is good for us to be here!' If only these words might become ours, if only they might become our soul's answer to the gift of divine light, if only our prayer might become the prayer for transfiguration."

Participating in the sacramental life of the Church, keeping a rule of prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy will make our souls and bodies light, and open the eyes of our heart to God's grace and light.

One of the beautiful moments of the Presanctified Liturgy occurs when the priest comes forth from the Royal Doors and, lifting a large candle, proclaims, "The light of Christ illumines all mankind!" Met. Anthony Bloom (of blessed memory), reflecting on a particular icon of the Transfiguration, remarks that "these rays of divine light touch things and sink into them, penetrate them, touch something within them so that from the core of these things, of all things created, the same light reflects and shines back as though the divine life quickens the capabilities, the potentialities of all things..."

How difficult it is to see this potentiality in our neighbor! How easy it is to open our eyes, not to the image of God in those around us, but only to the sins and human foibles we so readily want to see! The Feast of the Transfiguration shows us a different way; a vision of the human person that neither subsumes him into nor isolates him from his Creator.

Bishop Kallistos Ware has a beautiful way of looking at it. He says that "[in] the Transfiguration each person and each thing stand out in full distinctness, in their unique and unrepeatable essence; and at the same time each person and each thing transparent, to reveal the divine beyond and within them."

In "The Weight of Glory", C.S. Lewis says something similar. "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare."

Which creature do we wish to be ourselves? One who is filled with light, overflowing with the love of God, seeing the image of God in others? Or one who voluntarily shuts his eyes to the light, refuses communion with God, and thus only sees darkness--the sin and isolation of his own soul projected onto all he experiences. "And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)

Let us celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration by asking the Lord to grant us purification of heart since without this we will not rejoice in the light of Christ's resurrection. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." (Matt 7:8). Amen.

:: Karl :: 7:28:00 AM [Link] ::

Complexity, Divorce, Saints, Imputation: Random Friday Musings

* How many times have you heard sentiments such as, "We need to forget all this complicated theology and philosophy and just return to simple childlike wonder!" I love this rejoinder: "We need to forget about all these complicated trees, bushes, plants and shrubs and just return to simple seeds!"

The subtle, but important, difference between complication and complexity seems to fly right over most of our heads. Sadly.

* Thomas Valentine has a short but informative page on "Divorce and Annulments: The Difference between Orthodox Christianity and the Latins"

* Don't you get this feeling every now and then? Maybe it's just me!

* Gregory Orloff, (a regular reader and commenter on numerous Orthodox blogs) has created a beautiful electronic pamphlet, complete with icons, summarizing the lives of North American saints.

* Here's a question on the nature of the word "imputation" that was brought up in a theology discussion group:

Adams's sin gets imputed to us, right? I can't agree, but I follow the line of thought so far; it's based upon a mistranslation of Romans 5:12. Then our guilt gets imputed to Christ, yes? I can follow that, too, without agreeing. It's the next part that throws me: Christ's righteousness gets imputed to us. But wait a second--what righteousness? By imputation, isn't He guilty of every sin that ever got committed?

A follow up question is this--is a soteriology couched in concepts of "merit" (either ours *or* Christ's) inherently unstable?

* I apologize for the lack of substantive writing the last week or so. I am trying to keep on top of the massive amount of reading I have to do for class, working on an essay (soon to be published) on the Transfiguration, and various other projects.

:: Karl :: 7:33:00 AM [Link] ::

Agia Sophia, Ever-Virginity, Polygamy, More on Moore: Random Wednesday Musings

* Please keep Agia Sophia Academy in your prayers. After so many doors opening earlier this year, the classical school has hit a few snags--a financial crunch, administrative difficulties, but mostly spiritual attacks. The Evil One would like nothing better than to see the school fail. Let us ask the Three Hierarchs for their prayers that classical Orthodox Christian education will become a reality here in Portland.

* S.F. Danckaert posts some quotes on the Ever-Virginity of the Theotokos. You'll be surprised who is stepping up to the plate to support this ancient patristic teaching.....

* A provocative idea for a sermon. I don't think many pastors could pull this off.

* As has been noted by many pundits, once you open the door to redefining the definition of marriage to include homosexual relationships, the argument for changing the definition again to include polygamy and pedophilia is philosophically unstoppable and politically imminent.
Props to Joel.

* Can you imagine the hysterical and reactionary hoopla that would surround a film like Celsius 250? The fact that some people thought this was a real film just goes to show how gullible we are when in comes to the image-based media.

Here are some other intriguing articles on Fahrenheit 9/11 I've been reading:

* Dave Kopel's comprehensive essay "The 59 Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11" is by far the most in-depth review of the film I've seen and is chock full of disturbing tidbits.
* On the falsity of the 1.4 billion dollar number used in the film.
* Christopher Hitchen's infamous critique
* Bunnie Diehl offers several links.
* A blog devoted to exposing the factual errors of Fahrenheit 9/11
* Richard Cohan, a liberal and no friend of Bush, isn't happy with the film at all
* An expose of the hypocrisy of film critics
* This balanced review contains some interesting remarks about whether Kerry is any different than Bush.

Update: James Lileks has a great new piece where he coins a phrase. "A Mooreism [is] an assertion thrown out with the assurance that no one will question it."

:: Karl :: 7:28:00 AM [Link] ::

St. Elizabeth the New Martyr

Today is the feast day of Grand Duchess St. Elizabeth the New Martyr.

I've always appreciated her story because she had a holistic understanding of the spiritual life. "All of her spiritual qualities were strictly balanced, one against another, never giving an impression of one-sidedness."

One account of her life noted that "she always appeared before people with a bright, smiling face. Only when she was alone or with a few close people, her face and especially her eyes reflected hidden sorrow; the mark of a great soul languishing in this world."

We call this "bright sadness"--the noetic vision of human life that takes seriously the sin of the heart and because of this, is the path to true repentance and newness of life. St. John Climacus said that "repentance is the daughter of hope and the denial of despair." Later, in his classic book "The Ladder of Divine Ascent" he promises that "if you put on the blessed and graced-filled mourning as a wedding robe, you will know the spiritual laughter of the soul."

The life of St. Elizabeth proves this to be true. When we are so often surrounded by frivolity let us run toward authentic joy...and thus accept gladly our sufferings.

In the midst of worldliness,
thy mournful heart dwelt in Heaven;
in barbaric godlessness,
Your valiant soul was not troubled;
You longed to meet your Bridegroom
as a confessor,
and He found you worthy of your martyric purpose.
O Elizabeth, with Barbara,
Your brave companion,
Pray to your Bridegroom for us.

:: Karl :: 8:47:00 AM [Link] ::

Independent Laborers: Freedom and Obedience

"One things is principles, which remain the same; but it is human nature to attach to these principles certain purely idealistic preconceptions about persons, and this is what can lead to shipwreck."

"This is above all true of bishops, the leaders of the Church. In our days of general decline in the Church, one should not expect too much of them. While giving them all due honor, respect, and obedience, one must realistically acknowledge that (save in rare cases) they are not in a position to serve as personal guides, least of all to converts."

"[St. John Maximovitch] made it a point precisely NOT to accept disciples, but rather to inspire and encourage independent labors within the Church, under the conditions of growth and mutual counsel within the Orthodox tradition."
From "Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works" page 297 (emphasis his).

With those last 12 words, Fr. Seraphim Rose brilliantly completes a paradox of vision and carefully nuances something I've always believed: We, as laity, must always choose what we do and how we are to live--and that includes, paradoxically, the obediences of the spiritual life.

Once we let the spiritual father or the bishop "tell us what to do" without our conscious, informed, and properly directed will being fully engaged, then the dynamism of the Church's way of life does in fact become simply "rules" and "obligations" that will result in cold-hearted phariseeism, legalism, and spiritual death.

Fr. Theodore noted in his 6/13 homily, if we find ourselves living the Orthodox life out of a sense of legalism or guilt we will confuse the means for the end. How often do we see this in our lives?

Now, as I carefully noted before, the critical place of free will in our spiritual life does *not* cheapen, neglect, or otherwise reduce the importance of the spiritual father. In fact, without obedience, accountability and community, there is no true freedom at all. Freedom is freedom for, not simply freedom from.

There is a world of difference between obedience *for its own sake* and obedience that leads to and provides the foundation for freedom in love.

:: Karl :: 8:55:00 AM [Link] ::