My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
MAN, AS AN IMAGE OF GOD: MODERN SECULARISM A FALSE
ALTERNATIVE. [Part II]
When human dynamism is not oriented in its proper direction, toward our Maker and Father, then it reveals itself negatively. The faculties of the soul are torn apart. The intellect is darkened. Fed by the passions, the mind hardens, becomes bestial and demonic. According to Saint Gregory Palamas: "A mind removed from God becomes like either a dumb beast or a demon. Once having transgressed the bounds of nature, it lusts for what is alien. Yet it finds no satisfaction for its greed and, giving itself the more fiercely to fleshly desires, it knows no bounds in its search for earthly pleasures."
WITHOUT GOD, THE SOUL TUMBLES INTO THE ABYSS OF NON-BEING — WHICH FINALLY DEVOURS IT. The human person, dissolving, falls to pieces. LIFE BECOMES HELL, FREEDOM A BURDEN, AND OTHER PEOPLE A CURSE. The state of fallen human existence is tragic. It has ‘no exit.’ The mistake OF SECULAR HUMANISM in all its shades is that it tries to make us forget our DIVINE ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, OUR ICONIC CHARACTER. In the name of progress, of civilization, of justice, it confuses us as to what IS CORRUPTIBLE, TEMPORARY, VAIN AND PASSING. It cuts off our wings. It strive to confine our divinely-instilled dynamism and erotic thirst to worldly activities–which are not so much evil in themselves as insufficient; too limited to fulfil the desires of living beings who are made by God and for God. It also tries to persuade us that humanity is itself God; its own law, self-sufficient and self-fulfilling.
Here we arrive at the very sin of Adam; self-deification, EGOISM. Here we find the essence of secularist philosophy, ethics, and politics. This same philosophy IS THE ORGANIZATION OF LIFE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH. SECULARISM IS THE PRODUCT OF WESTERN ATHEISM, an illness which is now beginning to devour our own Orthodox people.
Traditional Orthodoxy, our answer
and responsibility
We must admit, however, that sometimes there is also an error from our side. Under the influence of Western Christianity, THE ORTHODOX WAY OF DEIFICATION (THEOSIS) IS OFTEN REPLACED BY THE ‘WAY OF ETHICAL IMPROVEMENT.’
The latter, a vision of natural and ethical deification, IS MAN CENTERED. Even when it has a religious flavor, it still does NOT differ in essence from the ethical beliefs OF ATHEISTIC HUMANISM. It is neither churchly nor liturgical. It does not reveal to the world human beings who are deified. Instead it produces, (in Greece at least), ‘small-town Christians,’: people limited to the bounds of propriety as they understand it. It is based on human ethical activity, and not on the action of God’s UNCREATED GRACE. It does not lead men out of their eccentricity, nor provide them with the experience OF DIVINE GRACE, nor help them advance in true prayer and fellowship with God.
This approach made its first appearance in the Orthodox world some six hundred years ago. It was represented by the Western (Roman Catholic) theologian Barlaam the Calabrian, and it was as opposed to the latter individual that Saint Gregory Palamas made himself the defender OF THE THEOLOGY OF UNCREATE GRACE. Barlaam was defeated. However, he has since returned in the form of the strong intellectual currents of the West which have been ‘flooding’ into our Eastern European countries over the past two centuries.
Today we must become aware of the significant difference and opposition which exists between these two anthropologies and ways of life: that which is we fin din Saint Gregory and the Philokalia. When our young people wake up from the lethargy OF HEDONISM and HUMANISTIC SELF-DECEPTION, THEY BEGIN TO WANDER IN SEARCH OF A PLACE TO REST. A MERELY CONVENTIONAL CHRISTIANITY CANNOT OFFER THEM SUCH A PLACE. Their souls thirst FOR A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER AND AN EXPERIENCE OF GOD, FOR A LIFE WHICH EMBODIES A GENUINE MYSTICISM, A REDEEMED AND SANCTIFIED EROTIICISM. If they cannot find true Orthodoxy, cannot come to know our mystical theology, our real tradition and our genuine piety, then they will seek their resting places elsewhere — in the mysticisms of the Far East, for example, or in the much advertised SELF-TRANSCENDENCE PROVIDED BY THE ARTIFICIAL–AND LETHAL–PARADISE OF DRUGS … OR IN THE FOGS AND BOGS OF THE OCCULT. IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SEE THAT THEY DO NOT DO THIS. [Resources: The Eros of Repentance]
(To be continued)
_______________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +
With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 