Orthodoxy in America

A Homily by Father Seraphim Rose

To Be Different

A person who takes Orthodoxy seriously and begins to really work on understanding   it with his heart and changing himself -- has at least a little of a quality   we might call the fragrance of true Christianity; he is different from people   who live by nothing higher than the world. St. Macarius the Great, the 4th-century   Egyptian desert father, teaches in his Homilies that "Christians have their   own world, their own way of life, their own understanding and word and activity;   far different from theirs are the way of life and understanding and word and   activity of the people of this world. Christians are one thing, and lovers of   the world quite another. Inasmuch as the mind and understanding of Christians   is constantly occupied with reflection on the heavenly, they behold eternal   good things by communion and participation in the Holy Spirit... Christians   have a different world ... a different way of thinking from all other men"   (Homily V, 1:20). Later I'll try to say a word on how Orthodox Christians should   be absorbing this different world and way of thinking. Orthodoxy, the true Christianity,   is not just another set of beliefs; it is a whole way of life that makes us   different people, and it is directly bound up with how much heavenly and eternal   things are present in our life.

An Orthodox person who is not different can be worse off than the non-Orthodox.   There is nothing sadder than the spectacle of Orthodox Christians, who possess a treasure   that cannot be valued by any earthly measure, something which many are seeking   and do not find in today's world -- nothing is sadder than Orthodox Christians   who do not value and do not use this treasure.

An Example for the Orthodox

I'd like to tell you a little about a group of Protestants who live not too   far from our monastery in northern California. In some ways I think they are   actually an example for us, in other ways a warning, and perhaps most of all   an indication of the responsibility and opportunity we Orthodox Christians have   because we have been given the true Christianity.

These Protestants have a simple and warm Christian faith without much of the  sectarian narrowness that characterizes many Protestant groups. They don't believe, like   some Protestants, that they are "saved" and don't need to do any more;   they believe in the idea of spiritual struggle and training the soul. They force   themselves to forgive each other and not to hold grudges. They take in bums   and hippies off the streets and have a special farm for rehabilitating them   and teaching them a sense of responsibility. In other words, they take Christianity   seriously as the most important thing in life; it's not the fullness of Christianity   that we Orthodox have, but it's good as far as it goes, and these people are   warm, loving people who obviously love Christ. In this way they are an example   of what we should be, only more so.

Whether they attain salvation by their practice of Christianity is for God   to judge, for some of their views and actions are far from the true Christianity   of Orthodoxy handed down to us from Christ and His Apostles; but at least an   awareness of their existence should help us to be aware of what we already have.   Some of our Orthodox young people -- for whatever reason, they don't realize   what treasure their Orthodox faith contains -- are joining such Protestant groups;   and some of our uninformed young people go much farther from Orthodoxy -- one   of the 900 victims of Jonestown a year ago was a Greek Orthodox girl, the daughter   of an Orthodox priest.

A Matter of Life and Death

I'm telling you about these Protestants both as a warning of how Orthodox young   people can lose the treasure they already have if they haven't been made aware   enough of it, and more importantly, as a means of defining a little better the   true Christianity we have and these Protestants don't have. Some of our Orthodox   young people are converted to groups like this, but it works the other way around   also -- some of these Protestants are being converted to Orthodoxy. And why   not? If we have the true Christianity, there should be something in our midst   that someone who sincerely loves the truth will see and want.

We've baptized several people from this Protestant group in our monastery;   they are drawn to Orthodoxy by the grace and the sacraments whose presence they   feel in Orthodoxy, but which are absent in their group. And once they become   Orthodox, they find their Protestant experience, which seemed so real to them   at the time, to be quite shallow and superficial. Their leaders give very practical   teachings based on the Gospel, but after a while the teachings are exhausted   and they repeat themselves. Coming to Orthodoxy, these converts find a wealth   of teaching that is inexhaustible and leads them into a depth of Christian experience   that is totally beyond even the best of non-Orthodox Christians. We who are   already Orthodox have this treasure and this depth right in front of us, and   we must use it more fully than we usually do; it is a matter of spiritual life   and death both for ourselves and for those around us who can be awakened to   the truth of Orthodoxy.

Just this last week I crossed the whole of America by train -- a vast land,   with many different kinds of landscapes and settlements. And I thought of St.   Seraphim's vision of the vast Russian land, with the smoke of the prayers of   believers going up like incense to God. Perhaps someone will say to me: "Oh,   you talk like a convert! America is America. It's full of Protestants and unbelievers,   and the Orthodox will always be a little minority of people who stick to themselves   and have no influence on the rest of America." Well, I'm not saying that   we Orthodox will "convert America" -- that's a little too ambitious   for us. However, St. Herman himself did have such a dream. He wrote a letter   after participating in the first "missionary conference" on American   soil, when that small band of missionaries divided up the vast land of Alaska   and argued over who would get the most land to cover. St. Herman, hearing this,   says that he was so exalted in soul that he thought he was present when the   Apostles themselves were dividing up the world for the preaching of the Gospel.

We don't have to have such exalted ideas in order to see that the prayers of   believers could be going up to God in America. What if we who are Orthodox Christians   began to realize who we are? -- to take our Christianity seriously, to live   as though we actually were in contact with the true Christianity? We would begin   to be different, others around us would begin to be interested in why we are   different, and we would begin to realize that we have the answers to their spiritual   questions.

We Have to Sow More

On this same train trip across the country I had what could he called missionary   encounters. Of course, I wasn't passing out tracts in the aisles; but just sitting   there in my ~ryassa~ with a cross and my beard, I attracted attention. Some   of it wasn't fruitful, but was typical of how we Orthodox are often regarded   in America: one small boy thought I was "Santa Claus," and a woman   pointed me out as "Ayatollah!" I also had several encounters with   people who should have been Orthodox: one woman who was married to a Greek man;   a man who was married to a Greek woman, but neither of them Orthodox because   the woman's grandmother had become a Lutheran for social reasons -- here it   was obvious how worldliness had taken its toll of yet another Orthodox family   in America.

But there were some fruitful encounters, too. To several people I was able   to speak about Orthodoxy (which they had never heard of) and hand out some copies of "The   Orthodox Word". One of these people had a story that should move our Orthodox   hearts.

For most of the day that I was crossing vast Wyoming -- full of nothing but   frozen, barren land and a few antelope herds -- I was talking to an intense   young man who was searching for the truth after finding out that the "charismatic"   movement is not from God. After becoming disillusioned with American religion   -- the Methodists, Roman Catholics, Baptists, and various Protestant evangelists   -- as a last resort he is learning Russian in order to go to Russia and find   out what he'll be told by people who are suffering for their faith. "Maybe   that will be real," he said, as opposed to the religious hypocrisy he sees   everywhere. He asked me eagerly about many things, from doctrines to customs   to moral teachings, and then read the chapter on the charismatic movement in   our book, "Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future" -- which he said   put into words what he felt (based on his own experience) but didn't have the   teaching to express. Here is where Orthodoxy, the true Christianity, can literally   save someone who otherwise might fall into despair from the inadequacy of the   Christianity of the West. Here again a seed was sown; perhaps Wyoming won't   become Orthodox, but a few souls there might.

Read the whole thing here.

For more writings by Father Seraphim go here.

Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works by Heiromonk Damascene

Comments

[AntigoneSis]

Stavros,
Thanks for posting this excellent article. Also, per your suggestion, I am reading Markides' 'The Mountain of Silence', and I intend to re-read it, too. It is very enlightening. As you are both in Maine, have you ever had an opportunity to speak with him on the subject?

[Stavros]

AntigoneSis,

Professor Markides spoke once at our Church. He is as interesting in person as he is in print. Make sure you read the sequel to Mountain of Silence as well, it is well worth your time:

http://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Desert-Forgotten-Christian-Spirituality/dp/0385506635/ref=bxgy_cc_b_img_b/102-1530351-7458527

I recently found three interviews of the author of the biography of Father Seraphim Rose, Hieromonk Damascene, which provide some fascinating insights into his life:

http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2007/10/podcasts-on-fr-seraphim-rose-1982.html