Regarding Gaspar & Parsells Letters

Submitted March 27, 2005

From an Orthodox Christian perspective, there are several problems with Cristian Gaspar's letter ("Orthodox News," 15 March 2005) criticizing Gregory Parsells' letter and the article on Saint Seraphim of Sarov and Francis of Assisi ("Orthodox News," 8 March 2005).

First, Mr. Gaspar misread the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) website. It does not say the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) is not in communion with the Orthodox Church. What it does say is that the ROCOR is not in communion with the Church of Russia headed by the patriarch of Moscow, one of the 15 autocephalous and four autonomous Churches in the world today. While the ROCOR stand back from communion with most of these local Churches over the issue of ecumenism, it remains in communion with two of them, Jerusalem and Serbia. Thus, it is inaccurate to say that the ROCOR is not in communion with the Orthodox Church, as it is in communion with parts of her.

Second, Mr. Gaspar confused "heretical" and "schismatic," which are not the same thing. "Heresy" is a false or wrong belief that contradicts the true belief of the Church. "Schism" is a split in or division from the unity of the Church. Heretics are always schismatics, but schismatics are not always heretics, because schisms can occur over non-doctrinal (canonical, practical or jurisdictional) issues while both parties remain orthodox in their faith, like the recent short-lived schisms between the Churches of Greece and Russia and the Church of Constantinople over questions of territorial jurisdiction in northern Greece and Estonia. Thus, we ought not to be too quick to dismiss anything coming from schismatics as being automatically heretical. Instead, we should measure whether or not it agrees with the Sacred Tradition of the Church, lest we bear false witness against someone's orthodoxy.

Third, Mr. Gaspar is wrong to refer to Francis of Assisi as a saint. The English word "saint" comes from the Latin "sanctus" (holy). A saint is a holy person who heeded God's call to "be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16) by following the Lord Jesus Christ, keeping the Orthodox Christian faith and living according to the Gospel within the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Francis of Assisi lived at a time after Rome no longer kept the Orthodox Christian faith and broke its communion with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. While a few contemporary Orthodox Christians, under the influence of ecumenism's blurred vision regarding theology and ecclesiology, refer to the Roman Catholic Francis of Assisi as "saint," they are mistaken in doing so, for there is no sainthood outside the Church.

Why? Because saints do not become holy in and of themselves, but only through union with the God-Man Jesus Christ, who alone is holy by nature, "full of truth and grace" (John 1:14), as we sing in the Divine Liturgy: "One is holy... Jesus Christ." And we cannot be in union with Jesus Christ unless we are in union with the Church, because she is His Body (Colossians 1:18), against which hell cannot prevail (Matthew 16:18), since the Holy Spirit abides in her forever (John 14:16) and guides her into all truth precisely as "the Spirit of truth" (John 16:13). That is why the Creed identifies the Church as "holy" as well as "one," "catholic" and "apostolic." By becoming part of the holy Church, people are united to the Body of the only Holy One, Jesus Christ, in which His Holy Spirit resides, making them holy insofar as they open themselves to this holiness through her holy mysteries and Gospel-based lifestyle. By doing so, people become saints, "holy ones."

The Lord Jesus Christ, and thus His Body, the Church, is "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Note how the two are paired here: there is no grace without truth. For this reason, orthodoxy (literally "true belief," from the Greek words "orthos," true, and "doxasia," belief), is indispensable for holiness, which cannot come about without the grace and truth found in Christ alone. As a result, the Church cannot and does not honor as saints those who did not keep the Orthodox Christian faith and lived apart from the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, as is the case with Francis of Assisi. For this reason, his name does not appear on any of the calendars, menologia or synaxaria of the 15 autocephalous and four autonomous Churches that make up the Orthodox Church today.

Yes, there have been Roman Catholics and Protestants who lived good lives and did good in the world. But the heresies of their faith communities kept them from the "grace and truth" residing in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, Christ's own Body, and her Orthodox Christian faith. God will judge them on the basis of the "law written on their hearts," even though they did not have "the law" of the Church's Orthodox Christianity, according to the teaching of Saint Paul the Apostle (Romans 2:14-16). But we must leave it to God to reveal such things on Judgment Day. We cannot dare to overstep His bounds by honoring them as saints in the here and now, because "being good" isn't what makes saints –- nothing but union with that fullness of grace and truth found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus His Body the Church, in which His Holy Spirit resides and leads her in all true belief (orthodoxy), can accomplish that.

As for the article comparing and contrasting Saint Seraphim of Sarov with Francis of Assisi, it is quite accurate and orthodox. The spirituality of the Orthodox Church has always stressed humility, soberness and moderation focused on nothing but repentance for our sinfulness and God's mercy, warning us against actively expecting, desiring or seeking out special visions, spiritual gifts or emotional sensations, lest we fall into delusion ("plani" in Greek, "prelest'" in Russian) wrought by pride, self-centeredness and self-righteousness through narcissistic mysticism -- because even "Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Orthodox Christian spirituality has always been aware of this danger of delusion and fought against it. In "The Faith We Hold," Archbishop Paul of Finland recalls a young monk who excitedly told his elderly mentor: "Father, I've advanced to the point where I can always see my guardian angel standing at my right hand!" The old man shook his head sorrowfully and said: "If only you could see your own sins in front of you." The sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers tell us of a demon who appeared as the Angel Gabriel to a monk, claiming to be sent specially to him because of his holiness. "You must be mistaken -- I haven't done anything to deserve an angel," the monk humbly replied, and the vision disappeared, the temptation having failed to stroke his ego and divert his attention from his sinfulness and God's mercy. These stories exemplify the true spirituality of the Orthodox Church.

Francis of Assisi's mysticism is the first symptom of an unorthodox shift in Western thinking and culture after Rome's loss of Orthodox Christianity and unity with the Church, a shift from a "theocentric" (God-centered) worldview and understanding of life to a "humanocentric" (man-centered) one -- a shift that came to full bloom in the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. His emotionalism, romanticism and active seeking of special experiences take on even more sensual, even carnal and erotic, forms in later Roman Catholic mystics, such as Teresa of Avila. But this egoism (focus on one's self) is alien to the Orthodox Christian mindset that earlier existed in the West, in such saints as Saint Benedict of Nursia or Saint John Cassian, who had much to say against emotionalism, egoism and self-delusion in spiritual life focused more on ourselves than on God.

"Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well," the Book of the Church warns us in Proverbs 5:15, about looking outside the Church and her Orthodox Christian faith for answers or inspiration, lest we hear from the Lord Jesus Christ, her Head: "My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken Me, the Spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Sound advice for Orthodox Christians, indeed.



Volume 7 Number 13 - Tuesday, March 29th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY