The Catalog of Good Deeds: Q&A with an Orthodox priest

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Question: When Church Fathers such as Cyprian of Carthage make such bold statements as, "He cannot have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother," does that mean that all non-Orthodox people are going to hell? What is the Orthodox perspective on the condition of Christians and non-Christians outside of the Holy Orthodox Church?

Answer by Fr. Bill Olnhausen: Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky was even bolder when he wrote, "Outside the Church there is no salvation, because salvation is the Church." Let's define terms. "Salvation" (soteria in Greek) means spiritual wholeness, health. Salvation is not an instant experience, nor is it a reward for getting a passing grade in holiness, nor is it the result of God's arbitrarily waiving heaven's entrance requirements.

Salvation is the successful completion of a long process of spiritual growth, until finally we become "perfect, just as [our] Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Salvation consists of becoming holy. In order to be saved, we must cooperate with God's saving process. This requires a correct understanding of God, a right relationship with God-"true doctrine" and "true worship."

The Church is essential to salvation for many reasons:

1) We cannot save ourselves. God alone can save us. The only way to perfection and eternal life is through union with the eternal and all-perfect God who is life, and who pours His saving power into us. God is salvation.

2) Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, through whom we are united with God. "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Jesus Christ is salvation.

3) The Church is the Body of Christ, an essential part of Christ's Incarnation, through which we are united with Christ. We are saved in the midst of a community. Salvation is not individual, but corporate. The Church is where Christ our God saves us. Therefore, the Church is salvation and salvation is found in the Church.

4) Orthodox believe that by His grace God has revealed and preserved "true doctrine" and "true worship" in the Holy Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church is the true Church.

Does this mean that all now outside the Church will go to hell? No. Bishop Kallistos Ware suggests that "While there is no division between a `visible' and an 'invisible' Church yet there may be members of the Church who are not visibly such, but whose membership is known to God alone. If anyone is saved, he must in some sense be a member of the Church; in what sense we cannot always say" (The Orthodox Church, p. 248, 1993 edition). Christ our God may be working in others in ways unknown to us and even to them, to bring them to salvation. And in due time, perhaps not till after death, they may recognize God and accept Christ and be united to His Body the Church-so that they can be saved.

This is in accord with the teaching of Christ. In the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25), notice that it is the "nations" (v. 32), the nonbelievers, who are being judged (this is obvious, because they are surprised to learn that Christ dwells in the needy), and some of them are welcomed into the "kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world" (v. 34).

Regarding God's mysterious work outside the Orthodox Church, we have nothing to say. We make no judgments about what God is doing there, or about what happens to the souls of those who are not Orthodox or not Christian on earth. It is all we can do to try to "work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12).

Source: https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/orthodox/2005/03/do-all-non-orthodox-people-go-to-hell.aspx

A reader wrote that he had begun to discover himself through Buddhist meditation despite 25 years of Orthodox Christian practice. He asked for my perspective. This is what I wrote him.

Dear E,

I don’t know enough about Buddhism or specifically about Buddhist meditation to make any sort of intelligent comment. Neither do I know you personally nor your experience as an Orthodox Christian nor your actual practice of meditation. Therefore, I will only make some very general observations and comments regarding the following question: Why is it that after living many years, perhaps growing up in, a pious Orthodox Christian context, why is it that some people seem to have their spiritual life jumpstarted by an encounter with or by a practice of heterodox Christianity or even non-Christian faith?

I don’t know why it sometimes happens that Orthodox Christians find a practice or perspective in a heterodox Christian or even a non-Christian faith which turns out to be very helpful in moving them forward in virtues that the Orthodox Church values. I know a devout and apparently holy priest who grew up in the Orthodox Church, went off into Evangelicalism in his twenties because he found his own Orthodox faith to be dead. Then in his thirties, he returned to the Orthodox faith with an evangelical zeal for the depth of wisdom, beauty and truth of the faith of his childhood. Why did he have to leave the Church to find the Church? Or, as in your case, E., why do some people have to look outside the Church to find a meditation practice that helps them find themselves?

I wonder if sometimes people (or monasteries or even whole cultures) fixate on certain aspects of the Orthodox faith to the extent that they ignore others. It can happen that while focusing intently on certain important aspects of the Orthodox faith, one can unintentionally be ignoring other equally and perhaps even more important aspects of the faith. It may be that, as Jesus pointed out to the religious leaders of his time, we strain out the gnats and swallow the camels. A person who eats only green, leafy vegetables will most likely find himself weakened or even ill, regardless of how important green, leafy vegetables are to one’s diet. And the irony is that a few people, perhaps with certain health conditions, might thrive on a steady diet of only green, leafy vegetables, while the same diet would weaken and sicken most otherwise healthy people. But seeing these few unique ones thrive, it is assumed by some that everyone should follow their diet, despite the evidence that most people don’t thrive.

I find it interesting that the exact same first-century B.C. Judaism that produced Sts. Zechariah and Elizabeth and their son St. John the Forerunner, and Sts. Joachim and Anna and their daughter the Most Holy Theotokos, that same religion also produced Ananias the hight priest who condemned our Lord Jesus. It was the same religion that produced the scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus condemned. The same. When you look at it this way, categories such as pious or zealous or faithful don’t really have much meaning. Two people can be following the same Orthodox Faith to the letter, and one sees only the letter while the other passes through the letter to the Spirit. One experiences the letter that kills, while the other the Spirit that gives life.

I don’t know why it seems to happen this way. I have been to monasteries where the love and compassion of the brothers toward one another and toward visitors is so overwhelming that the strict fasting and the long vigils seem to be less important, mere means to an end. Yes the strict fasting and long prayers in the night are the same, but somehow they seem less important, or less the thing, in the light of the brothers’ love for God and for one another. Other monasteries seem to be all about the rule, all about doing it right, all about identifying and straining out the non-Orthodox gnat. And all the while, the love part seem hard to find. Sometimes in such a context love is even reduced to obedience, as though the principle, or the rule itself, were what love looks like. I have actually heard people say things very similar to this.

And again, it is a profound irony to me that some people actually seem to thrive in this later rule-emphasizing Orthodox Christian environment. Others do not. I have some parishioners who have actually chided me for being too soft on them in confession, as though I do not take the faith seriously enough for them. I have other parishioners who fall into despair at the hint of a harsh word or tone, but who have responded very well to encouragement. And each priest has his own tendencies, some harsher, some more gentle. A lot depends on the relative discernment (or lack thereof) of the priest along with matters such as his own experience, expectations and personality. Sometime, maybe, an earnest Orthodox Christian believer might not be able to see the truth and tools available in the Orthodox faith because he or she has not met a spiritual father or mother who speaks to them, whom they can hear.

In St. Isaac the Syrian’s 66th homily, in the first section, he traces out the way to “spiritual knowledge,” using imagery of light and sight, seeing and darkness. By spiritual knowledge, I think St. Isaac is referring to the true, knowledge of things as they are, a spiritual knowledge of the world, of oneself, and (at least the beginnings) of God. In the final paragraph of the section he talks of hindrances to this knowledge and points out that “most men are unable to attain to a degree of perfection in spiritual knowledge.” Among these hindrances he lists “being unable to find a teacher and guide” along with “the hindrances of times, places and means.”

Not every spiritual father is appropriate for everyone seeking to grow in their faith and in their spiritual knowledge, very few priests or bishops or monks are suitable guides to everyone. The spiritual exercise that brings salvation to one might create only pride or depression or nothing at all in another. Sometimes we have to keep looking for the right teacher, the right time, the right place, the right means. I read somewhere once that St. Pacomius the Great only accepted a third of the men and women who came to join his monasteries. He would say to two thirds of those who came to him, “Salvation may be possible for you, but not here.” Salvation comes to those who seek and ask and knock. There would be no seeking if the first door one knocked on opened right away.

And so I wonder out loud: is it possible that if one becomes stuck in a particular Orthodox Christian context and is unable to progress there that God might use something from outside the faith to jolt this person to his or her senses, to open her eyes, to break his mental logjam? I don’t know. I do know that I have occasionally been inspired by a novel written by a heterodox Christian or even an atheist. I do know that I have found certain yoga stretches to be helpful—especially after standing for several hours in Church. Does that mean that Hinduism is OK or that atheists should be teaching the Faith? No, not at all. But I think it means that Orthodox Christians are free to use what is useful, to chew up the meat and spit out the bones.

But we must be careful; we must be discerning. We must be careful and discerning about what we might borrow from outside the faith because there is much attached to these foreign practices that we don’t see. We must listen to the wise people in our lives, the saints who have gone before us and those who know us well in this life. We must test everything, St. Paul tells us, and hold on to what is true and good.

Finally there is the chicken and the egg problem. My spiritual father taught me to breathe a certain way when I say the Jesus Prayer (sometimes, not always). Sitting in the doctor’s reception room recently, there was a large screen offering health advice. The advice that the screen offered regarding several mental ailments was to breathe in a way very similar to what my Orthodox spiritual father had recommended. And so, which came first? Did the Church borrow breathing techniques from others, or did others get it from the Church? Or more likely, it’s neither. Human beings are human beings, Orthodox or non-Orthodox, Christian or Buddhist or Hindu or atheist.

And a human being functions better if he or she takes time each day to breathe a certain way and stretches his or her body certain ways. It may have been the Hindus who first developed this stretching into a systematic practice (interwoven with many dangerous—from and Orthodox Christian perspective—Hindu concepts and presuppositions). However, the fact still remains that human bodies can benefit a good deal from systematic stretching of the body muscles. Similarly, certain breathing techniques and mental exercises may be universally helpful for all human beings even though these techniques and exercises were developed most systematically in a non-Christian context.

The Church has been Christianizing aspects of pagan culture from the beginning. However, one must be very careful that he or she is indeed Christianizing. That is, one must attend. The art, architecture, rhetoric and even philosophy of the pagan Greek world was largely Christianized. This Christianizing continues today, but you have to pay attention to what you are doing and thinking. Meditation can, I think, be Christianized. But we must be very careful lest the meditation Buddhistize us, lest the Yoga Hinduize us, rather than we Christianizing the various non-Christian practices.

And here, I submit, that the whole Church is necessary. I alone will most likely be deceived if I attempt to Christianize some pagan practice. So my advice is to proceed slowly and carefully, with as much discernment as you have, being open to rebuke and correction. No one of us has all the gifts, all of the discernment necessary to separate light from darkness.

By Fr. Michael Gillis

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/prayingintherain/2018/07/response-to-a-question-on-buddhist-meditation/

Question: Dear Father Andrew, please help me to figure out which position to take with regard to yoga as a physical practice. I did yoga for a long time, and I even trained a group. I regarded the clean-up of the body by physical exercise similar to the daily household chores that we all do. When I came to the church, I did an extensive research on the Church opinion about yoga as a system of physical exercises and finally realised that it is alien to the Orthodox spirit. Four years have passed since I stopped teaching yoga but those whom I taught sometimes meet me and ask if I’m thinking of gathering a group again. They want to do some kind of exercise to improve their health and boost their energy. I’m in doubt: is it a temptation? Should I try to coach them, if what I teach is going to be closer to the Orthodox spirit? Anna.

Answer by Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok: People who are initially leading an external, emotionally-driven life want to remain lively and energetic, and they use physical exercise to be in shape, which helps them in their lives. Little by little, they discover that there is the soul living in that body, and in the same way that the body requires motion, the soul requires God, prayer, and repentance, too.

The doctrine that lies at the roots of yoga is unacceptable for the Orthodox, in spite of the fine-tuned and time-honoured exercises that stimulate agility and make an individual more robust. This doctrine teaches that a human being can do everything; that he is able to climb the heaven using his own power. Its chief principle is “I can do it,” that is, an individual gets puffed up in his own eyes; he tries to exercise his huge potential, which is present in each one of us. It leads to pride. That is why you should avoid yoga at all costs. As far as physical exercises in general are concerned…

There are people who suffer because they don’t get enough exercise: they have a sedentary lifestyle, while they are still young and their bodies need to be fit. If possible, everyone should keep fit. I think it would be great if you organise a group, find certain exercises, and combine them with Orthodoxy, with the spiritual vigilance. It can be your ministry. If you are a good coach (apparently, people remember and respect you), you will be very helpful for those who join your group. You can do some exercises and then read the Gospel, for example, and then pray for each other or go and confess in the church. I would recommend you to gather a group of people. Perhaps, it may even become a fitness centre in the end. People need it because they need to keep fit. If it’s combined with Orthodoxy, it will be great!

September 20, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Question: Father Andrew, please tell me how to save my child. My daughter is 11. She’s lost interest in God and doesn’t want to go to church. Instead, she spends her days glued to her smartphone, and she is furious if I attempt to take it away. When she was younger, I was teaching my daughter to love God. We went to church, confessed and took communion often. I have always sheltered her from evil. Now she watches films with foul and angry words and says that they’re “cool”. How can I save my daughter? Maria.

Answer by Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok: Small children bring small troubles. She’s 11 now. Imagine what will happen when she’s 16? You’ve got to help your daughter to become a Christian. All good encounters that you had in the past, all your prayers and communions, haven’t been lost, believe me. She’s in her transition to adulthood now. She isn’t a little girl anymore. Unfortunately, children are sometimes attracted to sins—various sins. They want to be adult. They want to imitate the grown-ups, and sadly, they often choose to imitate bad adults. Therefore, you’ve got to muster your patience and humility. Talk with her wisely, with love and attention. Watch that bad film together and then explain to her that it isn’t as great as it seems. Watch a good film with her. Both you and your daughter will need your prayers and the effort that you must make to ensure that your daughter defeats all temptations of this world. God will never let you down.

Most children are susceptible to the smartphone addiction that you mention. Unfortunately, the filth that is so widespread nowadays sometimes sticks to their souls. That’s why we should fight for our kids. Summon your patience and humility, and learn to be a mother with faith. You can take a little child to church by giving him or her a sweet or taking her in your lap. It is harder to get an eleven-year-old girl to be interested in the church, and it’s harder still with a sixteen-year-old girl. I believe that if you do your best to lead a Christian life, you’ll win.

September 17, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

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