These are very wise words. Nassif has
elsewhere described this condition as being "sacramentalized without being evangelized."
It is a shocking statement for him to flat-out say that there are Orthodox Clergy who aren't even Christians!
I am beginning to appreciate more and more how the gospel is in the liturgy, but it does seem like it would be helpful if there was more explanation offered.
After all, Paul does say that we will be transformed by the "renewing of our minds."
I guess what I'm getting at is that if people don't have a basic understanding of the gospel message, they should not be expected to live it.
Thank you very much for this important posting. I am overwhelmed by the loving response I've received since starting my blog less than a week ago.
JFred,
Again, thanks for your hosting this discussion.
I have a Roman Catholic friend who is involved in lay spiritual formation work. Like Nassif, she reports that many Catholic clergy--though "sacramentalized"--have not made a personal commitment to Christ. Saying that these clergy are not Christian is for me a bit of an overstatement, they are baptized, BUT you are right we (especially the clergy) need to make a greater effort to explain and apply the Gospel.
You're right, people need to understand the Gospel to live it. This means that when we explain the faith have to demonstrate how it has an effect on how we live.
In my own ministry I take an anthropological approach asking what does this or that teaching of the Church tell us about what it means to be human. E.g., what does it say about what it means to be human that Christ comes to us in the Eucharist? What does baptism say about not only my relationship to Christ, but with the other members of the Church? To what human need does fasting a response?
FYI Orthodox Psychotherapy by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos is helpful here. While the translation is a bit rough, his work helped me grasp the dynamic, dare I say, charismatic and prophetic, nature of the Orthodox faith.
My God bless your blogging and your journey to Orthodoxy.
Please keep in touch.
In Christ,
+FrG
Ironically we've recently had situations with radio program listeners that were "convinced" of Orthodoxy, went to an Orthodox Church for a couple weeks then ran away screaming when the actually encountered the Church. The intellectual process of conversion in the grand scheme of things is cake. The "renewing of your mind" (listen to our program interview with Fr. Demetrios on the NOUS) means more than MORE intellectual presentations of Bible facts. It is the transformation of the whole human being by the purification and reorientation of the "nous" or "mind" as it is translated. This only happens through spiritual disciplines and praxis, not ONLY logic and reason and discourses. One can renew the "mind/nous" through fasting and prayer (as Christ said...some demons can only be removed by that), without having a firm intellectual grasp of the apologetics for theological issues. We tend to think folks need to be seminary candidates to be "Truly Converted", whereas if we just do what the Gospel tells us to do within the context of the protection of the Church's life, we're probably further along the path to sainthood than most priests, bishops and high-IQ'd bloggers about the faith.
"It is a shocking statement for him to flat-out say that there are Orthodox Clergy who aren't even Christians!" It is also an incredibly arrogant and full-of-self statement to make. Sounds far too much like the individualistic protestant mind reveling in its grasp of the "truth," and now wanting to tell everyone else what the truth is. There's nothing but trouble ahead when one person in the church claims to know the gospel and then proceeds to identify others in the church who don't. It won't be long and we'll have our own Orthodox denominations--so we can keep track of who's got the gospel and who doesn't, who's gospelize and who's sacramentalized, who's the real Christian and who's only the orthodox Christian. Nothing but trouble, my friends.
While I appreciate Robert's concern to protect against rabid individualism, the are three issues that must be addressed.
First, people have ALWAYS divided those in from those out. St. Paul spends a good deal of time trying to correct just this in his epistles. Of course, in that case it was the tension between the Jews and the Greeks; unfortunately, we are still dealing with the "same song, different verse" of associations built on anything other than Christ. Indeed, it is the nature of sin that makes division the inevitable state of humanity apart from Christ. The particular manifestation of that divisiveness is, in the end, irrelevant. As such, we MUST insist that our leadership embody the full-hearted commitment to Christ that is needed to cultivate it in others. Likewise, as Scripture states, we must not forget that leadership is subject to a higher level of judgment (probably because a failure of leadership is destructive on so many levels). For this reason, I am not as scandalized by the previous indictment of our leadership.
Second, nominalism (or at least an absence of life-changing discipleship) is patently evident in the pew. The pervasiveness of the problem indicates a least some inability to recognize or address it in the leadership. If nominalism is not an outright heresy, it is certainly a disease of sin which Christ felt moved to confront directly. ("He who turns back can not be my disciple," etc.) I suspect that we MUST love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength because that is the only way one can love. That is to say, we CAN'T love unless we do so with all we have. Anything less ends up being a contract. We see this often enough: in marriage, people who allow themselves to give something less invariably face difficulty and, if the problem is sufficiently acute, divorce. Love REQUIRES consecration, full self-offering - or at least the movement toward it according to the limit of our abilities. If our leaders do not strive to foster this, then they have abrogated their duties as a shepherd. The Scriptures are full of examples of God's displeasure with such shepherds and we are not exempt. While we must not judge nor engage in backbiting, we must also not make excuses for leaders who were promoted ahead of their maturity in the faith (again, a concern of St. Paul) or without the requisite evidence of the gifts for and calling to leadership. (Far more than I would like, I have seen the "nice person with an interest in the faith" go to seminary.)
Finally, there is a long, LONG way between a call for committed and capable leadership and the full-blown division that resulted from the Protestant reformation. (Not that the Orthodox haven't had their own variation of similar issues before.) This is not the place to assess the matrix of assumptions and social factors that led to the fission that has characterized much of Protestantism. To the contrary, it is precisely our desire to AVOID this consequence that requires that we address these concerns and insist on exemplary discipleship in our leadership. The Protestant reformation became a religious force because so much of the Catholicism of the time was not reaching or changing people's lives. I, too, have seen far too many baptized Orthodox attend Evangelical churches because they yearned for a closer relationship with God and had not received the teaching and formation they needed. As a convert who spent years in those circles, I am able alert them to the often shallow, intrinsically self-centered and solipsistic teaching they will encounter - but the yearning, the need (and the heartbreaking lack of it in Orthodox circles) leaves them with few options. As the old saying goes, they may indeed be dining on cheap hamburger when they have the best steak at home -- but the steak is in the freezer, no one seems to know how to prepare it and they only know that they are starving. That people leave the fullness and richness of the Orthodox faith for the shallow and tepid varieties offered elsewhere is a heartrending indictment: our people will take ANYTHING(however cheap) when the stewards of the household have not brought forth the riches held in the storehouse. God help us.
I dare not judge the relationship with Christ that any other person has, but I look at our leadership in the OCA and say there is a severe and critical lack of commitment to living according to St. Paul's dicta at the top of our heirarchy. Is this what Nassif might have meant?
(I cannot listen to the file on this computer. Alas.)
It is one thing to welcome converts, it is another thing to actually integrate them into the community and nurture their growth in the faith...
And this must happen within a community that is itself committed to integrating new members. This means that it is not simply converts who need to change, we need to change as well.
I am curious to knwow more of your thoughts about this. Do you mean only that we extend the catechumenate or are there other things that a parish should do to help a new member stay in the faith?
This is for Robert who sounds so terribly familiar, like a dear brother from my town and who is right, very right.
In some repsects, it is hard to imagine that a newly ordained priest who has received the sacrament and is so full of the Holy Spirit, that sometimes/usually he does not even realize how full of It he is would fall away from this Grace.
But the Church teaches us in catechesis that the sacrament is Full/Complete of Grace even when the instrument (the priest) is empty.
And I think with respect to "personal relationship" the Church speaks of mystical experience which can be personal as Saint Symeon the New Theologianfor one has taught (but much later than many others) and also it can be a mystical experience revealing the good state of others: as in St. Symeon's vision of the spiritual state of his own spiritual father, as in the case of the Abbott over Saint Efrosynos, as in the case of the nun who witnessed Saint Irene's of Hrisovalantou prayer.
The truth of the matter, however, is that for most of us the "personal relationship" of others is not visible. Sometimes our own "personal relationship" as real as it may be does not ring mystical. I agree with Robert that one cannot throw stones to our brother or sister accusing of lack of "personal relationship" or experience of the Spirit. As Orthodox We can only pray for ourselves first and then others and we do not convert but are asked consistently to give a witness of truth and mercy. I have to say, however, it is difficult for me personally not to be repelled when a priest shows consistent and constant lack of mercy and badmouths fellow priests and bishops. As it is very hard not to be repelled when any brother/sister consistently bad mouths one or more brothers/sisters.
I do then think of emptiness and fill of sorrow without developing a wish of converting anyone to my truth.
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