Embracing the Tradition

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

 

The meditation below was written with the current Dormition Fast (August 1-14)  in mind in addition to the incredible account of the Seven Maccabean martyrs.  It is that wonderfully-placed mid-summer reminder that we are called to be practicing Orthodox Christians.  The practicing Orthodox Christian combines orthodoxy ("right belief")  with orthopraxis ("right practice/action"). 

 

Or, as St. John Chrysostom said, "This is true piety: to combine right belief and right action."  Orthopraxis combines prayer and almsgiving and fasting (MATT. 6).  All of this is to prepare us to honor the most holy Theotokos.

 

The Maccabean Martyrs

                                                                                                                                            

  

On August 1, we commemorate the Seven Holy Maccabee Children, Solomone their mother, and Eleazar their teacher, all of whom were put to death in the year 168 BC.  As such, they were protomartyrs before the time of Christ and the later martyrs of the Christian era.  They died because they refused to reject the precepts of the Law when ordered to do so by the Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes IV.  

After conquering the Holy Land, Antiochus wanted to subvert the uniqueness of the Jews and force them to assimilate to the standards and practices of the prevailing Hellenistic culture.  By attacking the precepts of the Law, Antiochus was aiming to destroy the very heart of Judaism.  The Jews would then become like the “other nations,” and perhaps their smoldering resentment against their conquerors would be extinguished.  This, of course, did not happen, because the Maccabean revolt, led by Judas Maccabaeus, not only resisted but expelled the Hellenized Syrian invaders and restored the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory days one last time (142 - 63 BC) before the Romans under Pompey reduced the Kingdom of Israel to a conquered province.

To return to the story of the Maccabees, we find them, under the guidance of their teacher Eleazar, resisting the decree that they eat pork, which was prohibited by the Law.  Understanding that this was a threat against their entire traditional way of life, Eleazor refused and was subsequently tortured until he died.  He was simply asked to “pretend” to eat the meat, so as to encourage others to do so.  In reply, his dying words as recorded in the first book of Maccabees eloquently attest to his fidelity to the Law of God:

"Send me quickly to my grave.  If I went through with this pretense at my time of life, many of young might believe that at the age of ninety Eleazar had turned apostate.  If I practiced deceit for the sake of a brief moment of life, I should lead them astray and bring stain and pollution on my old age. I might for the present avoid man’s punishment, but, alive or dead, I shall never escape from the hands of the Almighty. So if I now die bravely, I shall show that I have deserved my long life and leave the young a fine example to teach them how to die a good death, gladly and nobly, for our revered and holy laws."

Following the death of Eleazar, the seven Maccebee brothers and their mother Salomone were arrested.  They were also tortured for refusing to eat pork, and one of them said:  “We are ready to die rather than break the laws of our fathers”  (2 Maccabees 7:2).  

Enraged by such pious resistance, the tyrant ordered that all seven brothers be tortured by various inhuman means.  All of this was witnessed by their mother, who watched all seven of her sons perish in a single day.  Acting “against nature,” she encouraged her children “in her native tongue” to bravely withstand the assaults on their tender flesh:

"You appeared in my womb, I know not how; it was not I who gave you life and breath and set in order your bodily frames.  It is the Creator of the universe who molds man at his birth and plans the origin of all things. Therefore he, in his mercy, will give you back life and breath again, since now you put his laws above all thought of self”  (2 Maccabees 7:22-23).  

We find in her last sentence, a clear allusion to belief in the resurrection from the dead.

Especially poignant is the death of her last and youngest son.  He was promised riches and a high position if he only agreed to “abandon his ancestral customs.”  Salomone his mother was urged to “persuade her son,” which she did in the following manner:

“My son, take pity on me.  I carried you nine months in the womb, suckled you three years, reared you and brought you up to the present age.  I beg you, child, look at the sky and the earth; see all that is in them and realize that God made them out of nothing, and that man comes into being in the same way. Do not be afraid of this butcher; accept death and prove yourself worthy of your brothers, so that by God’s mercy I may receive you back again along with them”  (2 Maccabees 7:27-29). 

In verse 28, we hear the clearest declaration of the belief that God creates “ex nihilo”—from nothing—in the entire Old Testament.

The youngest of the brothers then died after both witnessing to the meaning of their martyrdom and warning the tyrant of his own inevitable fate: 

“My brothers have now fallen in loyalty to God’s covenant, after brief pain leading to eternal life; but you will pay the just penalty of your insolence by the verdict of God.  I, like my brothers, surrender my body and my life for the laws of our fathers”  (2 Maccabees 7:36-37).  

We then simply read, in verse 39, that “after her sons, the mother died.”

It is difficult to say to what extent we can actually relate to all of this today.  We may deeply respect the devotion to the Law that is exhibited in this moving story of multiple matyrdoms—and perhaps be especially moved by the beautiful words of the mother that express our own belief in the creative power of God, His providential care for us and the ultimate gift of resurrection and eternal life with God—but this is far-removed from our contemporary Christian sensibilities.  In fact, such devotion today could very well strike us as being overly zealous, if not fanatical.  The prospects of such martyrdoms are not exactly on our radar screens.  Be that as it may, I believe that we have something greater than mere passing importance that we can learn from this ancient story.

____________

 

Tomorrow, August 1, we are beginning the Dormition Fast.  We are encouraged by the Church—our “Mother” we could say—to embrace the fast with the certainty that we are being guided into a practice that is designed to strengthen our spiritual well-being. This is part of an Orthodox “way of life” that has been witnessed to for centuries by the faithful of the Church.  We also could say that such practices belong to the “laws of our fathers.”  By embracing such practices we continue in the Tradition that has been handed down to us, the Tradition that we have “received.”  To ignore such practices is to break with that Tradition.  That can lead to an erosion of our self-identity as Orthodox Christians, especially considering our “minority status” in the landscape of American religion.  

The spirit of the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes is alive and well in the constant temptation we face to assimilate to the surrounding society and its mores, which are often reduced to finding the meaning of life in “eating, drinking and making merry.”  There are no official decrees that demand that we abandon our Faith, but there is always a price to pay for comfortable conformity. We are hardly being asked to be martyrs but we are being asked to manifest some restraint and discipline in order to strengthen our inner lives as we fast bodily to some extent.  If we convince ourselves that this is inconvenient, uncomfortable, or undesirable, then we place ourselves outside of the very received Tradition we claim to follow and respect.  

Older members of the community can bear in mind the words of Eleazar and realize that we are setting an example for our younger members.  We are responsible for preparing the next generation.  Mothers—and fathers!—can exhort their children in a way that is encouraging and not just demanding.  This has nothing to do with mere “legalism,” but with a “way of life” that has been practiced for centuries by Orthodox Christians, and which is just as meaningful today as in the past.  

And, as with the Seven Maccabee Children, it is ultimately a matter of choice.

 

 

 

The Dormition Fast: A Challenge and a Choice

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

On Saturday, August 1, we will begin the relatively short Dormition Fast that always covers the first two weeks of August (1-14), culminating in the Feast of the Dormition on Saturday, August 15.

As we struggle with the coronavirus, I think that it is all the more essential to respect the Tradition, and thus to approach the fast with seriousness and an openness to observing it as well as possible. This keeps us connected to the Church. And we support each other in doing so, even if we continue to stay apart as a parish community.

Here is one more good example of treating our homes as a "little church," to turn to St. John Chrysostom's famous phrase. I wrote this meditation some time ago, and some of the obvious references to the usual summer rhythms are not as obvious today, or they have been temporarily suspended. I have made a few adjustments below, but the meditation on the whole needs to be thought over in the light of today's "new normal" driven by the coronavirus. 

We will celebrate the Feast with a Vesperal Liturgy on Friday evening, August 14. As has become our tradition, we will place the tomb in the center of the church, decorate it with flowers, venerate the icon of the blessed repose of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God – Miriam of Nazareth - and sing hymns of praise to her “translation” into the Kingdom of Heaven. We will make it possible for those who love this Feast to be present for the service. Details will soon follow.

Every fast presents us with a challenge and a choice. In this instance, I would say that our choice is between “convenience” and “commitment.” (And with our ongoing restricted or semi-restricted lives, I am afraid that convenience becomes an even more enticing option). We can choose convenience, because of the simple fact that to fast is decidedly inconvenient. It takes planning, vigilance, discipline, self-denial, and an over-all concerted effort. It is convenient to allow life to flow on at its usual (summertime) rhythm - or its abnormal coronavirus rhythm - which includes searching for that comfort level of least resistance. To break our established patterns of living is always difficult, and it may be something we would only contemplate with reluctance. So, one choice is to do nothing different during this current Dormition Fast, or perhaps only something minimal, as a kind of token recognition of our life in the Church. I am not quite sure, however, what such a choice would yield in terms of further growth in our life “in Christ.” It may rather mean a missed opportunity. 

Yet the choice remains to embrace the Dormition Fast, a choice that is decidedly “counter-cultural” and one that manifests a conscious commitment to an Orthodox Christian “way of life.” It also allows us to make the Church "more real" in our lives since we cannot visit the place of our worship with anything resembling regularity. Such a commitment signifies that we are looking beyond what is convenient toward what is meaningful. It would be a choice in which we recognize our weaknesses, and our need precisely for the planning, vigilance, discipline, self-denial and over-all concerted effort that distinguishes the seeker of the “mind of Christ” which we have as a gift within the life of the Church. 

That is a difficult choice to make, and one that is perhaps particularly difficult within the life of a family with children who are often resistant to any changes. I still believe, though, that such a difficult choice has its “rewards” and that such a commitment will bear fruit in our families and in our parishes. (If embraced legalistically and judgmentally, however, we will lose our access to the potential fruitfulness of the Fast and only succeed in creating a miserable atmosphere in our homes). It is a choice that is determined to seize a good opportunity as at least a potential tool that leads to spiritual growth.

My opinion and observation is that we combine the “convenient” with our “commitment” within our contemporary social and cultural life to some degree. We often don’t allow the Church to “get in the way” of our plans and goals. And those plans and goals may be hard to avoid in the circumstances and conditions of our present way of life. It is hard to prevail in the never-ending “battle of the calendars.” The surrounding social and cultural milieu no longer supports our commitment to Christ and the Church. In fact, it is usually quite indifferent and it may even be hostile toward such a commitment. 

Though we may hesitate to admit it, we find it very challenging not to conform to the world around us. But it is never impossible to choose our commitment to our Orthodox Christian way of life over what is merely convenient – or simply desired. That may just be one of those “daily crosses” that the Lord spoke of – though it may be a stretch to call that a “cross.” This also entails choices, and we have to assess these choices with honesty as we look at all the factors that make up our lives. In short, it is very difficult – but profoundly rewarding - to practice our Orthodox Christian Faith today! 

I remain confident, however, that the heart of a sincere Orthodox Christian desires to choose the hard path of commitment over the easy (and rather boring?) path of convenience. We now have the God-given opportunity to escape the summer doldrums that drain our spiritual energy. More to the point, we can transform our rather secluded lives at home into arenas of spiritual effort and struggle. With prayer, almsgiving and fasting, we can renew our tired bodies and souls. We can lift up our “drooping hands” in an attitude of prayer and thanksgiving. 

The Dormition of the Theotokos has often been called “pascha in the summer.” It celebrates the victory of life over death; or of death as a translation into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Dormition Fast is our spiritually-vigilant preparation leading up to that glorious celebration.“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation!” (II COR. 6:2)

The Fathers & Theologians on The Lord's Prayer

Dear Parish Faithful,

At this past Sunday's Liturgy, the homily focused on the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, the name by which we call upon God, and that is "Our Father." (Often, the prayer is referred to as the "Our Father" based on those opening words of the prayer). 

My intention was to share some of the insights into the word "Father" for God as they have come down us from earlier saints; and from some of our more well-known theologians and teachers from recent times. Therefore, I primarily read a series of excerpts from these writings, which revealed a shared (Orthodox) understanding of the prayer; and various unique insights from each author, which only begin to further reveal the depth and riches found in the Lord's Prayer. Some of you who joined us through zoom or through Facebook told me that had a hard time hearing me clearly, for I delivered the homily from the doors of the sanctuary, as I have been struggling with a cough and thus thought it best to keep a distance between us. 

Be that as it may, I planned on sharing these excerpts with the parish and listing the various sources from which they come, in case you want to turn to them on your own. For I have only chosen key passages from much longer works that are all of the highest quality.

Through the centuries, various of the Church Fathers and other early ecclesiastical writers have written long commentaries on the Lord's Prayer. Most of these commentaries are now found in English translation. Here are the sources of those passages that are included in this attachment:   

The Fathers & Theologians on The Lord's Prayer (PDF)

The Lord's Prayer by St. Maximus the Confessor (+662). This absolutely brilliant and profound commentary can be found in Vol. II of The Philokalia. 

The Seven Mysteries of the Lord's Prayer by St. Makarios of Corinth (+1805 Newrome Press). This wonderful commentary is embedded in a longer work that was written in order to exhort the faithful to recover the practice of frequent communion. This early treatise is behind our own 20th c. "eucharistic revival." Quoting St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Makarios lists the seven mysteries as: 1) Theology; 2) Adoption; 3) Equality With Angels; 4) Enjoyment of Eternal Life; 5) Restitution of Human Nature; 6) Abolition of the Law of Sin; 7) Destruction of the Tyranny of the Devil. Written in a warm style that emanates from deep faith.

Three Prayers - The Lord's Prayer/O Heavenly King/Prayer of St. Ephraim by Olivier Clement (SVS Press). Very insightful commentaries by one of the most renowned French Orthodox theologian of recent years. I believe that Clement died early in the 21st. c. All-embracing in his use of sources and knowledge, he was something of a French version of Fr. Alexander Schmemann. 

Our Father by Fr. Alexander Schmemann (SVS Press). This commentary is based on a series of short broadcasts that Fr. Schmemann gave over Radio Liberty to people living in the former Soviet Union. There are many references, therefore., to agnostics, unbelievers and militant atheists. Whatever Fr. Schmemann spoke or wrote is worth listening to or reading. And that is quite true for this brilliant commentary.

PRAYER - Encounter with the Living God by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev (SVS Press). Met. Hilarion is now one of the most prolific and distinguished theologians in the entire Orthodox world. He is a former student of Archbishop Kallistos Ware at Oxford. This book is about the concept and practice of prayer. It is meant to be something of a "primer," and I believe that that makes it all the more effective. Met. Hilarion's commentary is embedded in this book and is only about 25 pages long. But when a genuine theologian writes briefly, you find that almost every line has a particular and valuable insight.

I will probably continue using these sources for two or three more weeks.

The Awesome God and the Holy Angels

Dear Parish Faithful,

I have been reading a very interesting book entitled Angels [and Demons] - What Do We Really Know About Them. The book is already about twenty-five years old. The author is Peter Kreeft who is a philosopher teaching at Boston College and King's College (I am not certain if he is still teaching, as he is now eighty-three years old). He is also a deeply committed Roman Catholic, and a very prolific writer who has written at least eighty books.

 

On the whole, most of his books can be called "popular," meaning written in a way that make them quite accessible to a wide-ranging audience. At times, he can certainly display his skills as a philosopher when necessary. He is clearly a Christian apologist, that is one who writes in defense of the truthfulness and reasonableness of the Christian Faith. For many he is seen as something of a late twentieth - early twenty-first century American version of C.S. Lewis, a writer that Peter Kreeft greatly admires. 

He is also very much a Thomist, a Roman Catholic who is deeply inspired by the medieval theologian, Thomas Aquinas. I have only read about two or three of his books, and I do find them very insightful and "thought-provoking," as we like to say. As Orthodox, we would disagree with certain things he claims, but the point is he offers a very compelling case for basic Christian Truth.

Be that as it may, in this book I am reading about angels, he makes a slight digression to examine and critique the philosophy of materialism, the belief that only material reality exists. This come under a section in which he is answering the questions: Can you prove spirits exist? Can you prove materialism is untrue? He begins with three short statements:

1. Nonmaterialists don't demand of materialists that they prove matter is real. Why does the materialist demand that we prove that spirit is real?

2. We appeal to common experience. Most people experience both their bodies and their souls, or spirits, or minds.

3. Materialism is insulting. if it is true, we are only sophisticated animals or machines.

It is his fourth point, picking up from and developing point 3, that I find a bit more compelling and worthy of sharing as a strong philosophical argument against materialism:

4.  If you are a machine, then you can't change or control what you do any more than the environment of the earth can help evaporating water. All acts of thinking and choosing are nothing but movements of atoms, or material energy., like gravity or electricity. How then can some of these atom movements be true and others false? You don't say that the evaporation that happens on the surface of another lake is false. They simply both happen. So if acts of thinking are just material events that happen, like evaporation, it makes no sense to call some true and others false. In that case, it makes no sense to call the thought of materialism true and of nonmaterialism false. The theory contradicts itself; it undercuts itself. If it is true, nothing is true, including it. Matter is not true; matter is neither true nor false; matter just is. If nothing but matter exists, then nothing is true, including the thought of materialism. (Angels [and Demons], p. 48-49)

(As Orthodox, we are less inclined to say that "matter just is." We think of matter as also filled with the divine energies - and for this reason, matter cannot be manipulated for the wrong purposes - but as used in his argument, his statement makes a point). Materialism, of course, is atheistic, and therefore actually nihilistic, no matter how "optimistic" one is about life in this world. It is a bankrupt philosophy that cannot ascribe real meaning to anything. But materialists do not act like the materialist that Peter Kreeft analyzes. They seek meaning in life, as well as they love and have "moral values." But none of this can be philosophically defended. Thus, there is a real disconnect between a materialist worldview and the desire to live moral and meaningful lives.

On a very different subject, now that I am dealing with this book, Peter Kreeft takes on the question: Are angels comforting? He writes simply:

"In the end, yes, but not always in the beginning. All the current angel books seem to assume that angels are comforting. Yet every time a real angel appears in the Bible, he has to say "Fear not!" And angels do not use superfluous words. Like Jesus and unlike popular spiritualists and occultists, they are laconic."

But he then continues this specific question by examining and defining what is meant by religious "fear" as that word is associated with God in the Bible. Not in anyway capitulating to our contemporary inclinations toward superficiality — even when discussing "religion" or "spirituality," —  Kreeft writes:

Religious fear, or awe, is an essential ingredient of all true religion, yet it has been systematically exiled from modern, "psychologically correct" religion. What irony! — the thing the Bible calls the "beginning of wisdom" is the experience modern religious educators and liturgists deliberately remove or try to remove from our souls: fear and trembling, adoration and worship, the bent knee and the prone heart. The modern God "is something I can feel comfortable with." The God of the Bible, in contrast, is "a consuming fire." (see Psalm 104:4 and Heb. 12:29).

Rabbi Abraham Heschel, when told by a student that it must be gratifying to spend his life amid the "comforts of religion," replied, "God is not an uncle. God is not nice. God is an earthquake." The same applies to God's angels.

And of course "fear" does not mean "craven fear" or "fear of an evil tyrant." It means awe. But this is much more than "respect," which is how the biblical term fear  is usually interpreted today. No. You don't just "respect" God. You "respect" the value of money, or the power of an internal combustion engine, or the conventions of politeness. You smile politely and take account of it. Only a fool does that to God. Refusal to fall flat on your face proves that the God you have met is simply not the real God.

Angels (as distinct from devils - fallen angels) always do us good. They warn, rescue, guide, and enlighten. So the end result is indeed comforting. But not at first. True religion never begins in comfort. It begins in repentance and humility and fear." (Angels [and Demons], p. 62-63)

This is very important for us to realize today, as "therapeutic religion" is becoming pervasive. In this approach, even if not articulated openly, it is God who is serving us, rather than we who are serving God. But it is more important to experience the reality that Peter Kreeft is defending.  And this always brings us to the beauty and power of the Liturgy. 

We do not come to the Liturgy - at least primarily - to be comforted by God; rather we come to worship God in all of God's majesty, power, glory and beauty: Holy God! Holy Mighty! Holy Immortal! Have mercy on us! And before every Vespers service: "Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and our God!"   God is the "awesome God," but God is not a remote deity. God is simultaneously "Our Father." This balance - or paradox - is at the heart of the Orthodox understanding and experience of God.

St. Tikhon Condemns Racism During Epidemic, by Scott Kenworthy

Dear Parish Faithful,

As I have informed everyone in the past, our own parishioner, Dr. Scott Kenworthy, is working on a biography of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (+1925), one of the greatest figures of 20th century Orthodoxy.

Of late, Scott has been carefully studying St. Tikhon's ten-year stay in North America, where he worked hard to build up the Russian Orthodox mission here, that started with St. Herman of Alaska in 1794. He has discovered some fascinating material in St. Tikhon's sermons that have been recorded for posterity. Many of these sermons have been compiled and translated and are available now: St Tikhon of Moscow — Instructions & Teachings for the American Orthodox Faithful, 1898-1907. Scott wrote the Preface to these collected sermons. I have read most of them and they are consistently insightful on the theological, spiritual, and pastoral levels. A worthy collection for any Orthodox library.

In his studies of these sermons, Scott discovered a "gem" of a passage in which St. Tikhon, with true prescience, spoke eloquently on the issue of racism as he encountered it in the early 20th c. Scott then recently sent me this note that you may want to look into:

- Fr. Steven

____________

Fr Steven—

I developed my comments on St. Tikhon’s sermon into a little article, giving the context for his sermon (which I think makes it all the more powerful & timely):

Scott

Dr. Scott M. Kenworthy, Associate Professor
Dept of Comparative Religion
Miami University, Oxford OH 45056
Miami faculty profile
Academia.edu profile



ST. TIKHON CONDEMNS RACISM DURING EPIDEMIC

by Scott Kenworthy

In the midst of pandemic and protests over racial injustice, it is important to remember that the connection between disease and racism in North America is not a new one: Europeans extended their domination over the land and the indigenous populations that lived on it in large part through their decimation caused by diseases brought by the Europeans. St. Tikhon of Moscow, who was bishop in North America at the turn of the last century, observed this dynamic and condemned racism in no uncertain terms.

The concept of race that categorizes people according to skin color and physical differences is a modern one, inextricably connected to European colonial domination. Because it is a modern concept that developed largely outside the Orthodox world, to this day there have been few statements on race and racism made by universally recognized authoritative Orthodox voices. The challenge in the Orthodox world since the nineteenth century has been the growing connection between religious and national identity and therefore the problem of nationalism in the Church. It is especially important to pay attention to an explicit condemnation of racism by one of the greatest modern Orthodox saints.

St. Tikhon (Bellavin, 1865-1925) is best known as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in the midst of one of its darkest hours, during the Russian Revolution from 1917 to 1925. Earlier in his career he served as the sole bishop for the ethnically diverse fledgling North American Orthodox Church (from 1898 to 1907), where he made lasting contributions to American church life.

St. Tikhon condemned racism in a sermon delivered in San Francisco on August 5, 1900, after returning from a trip to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska so remote that no Orthodox bishop had ever visited [1]. The entire trip lasted 78 days and covered several thousand miles, much of it by kayak and traversing swampy tundra on foot. St. Tikhon observed how the natives struggled with the exploitative practices of the American trading companies. It was also a region that had been recently impacted by the sudden influx of white Americans using it as a route to the Klondike Gold Rush, who brought with them diseases that were new to the native Alaskans. On route to the settlement still called Russian Mission, Tikhon learned that the town had been struck by an influenza epidemic. In the following days St. Tikhon visited everyone in the town in their homes to pray for their recovery despite great risk to himself. That summer nearly three-quarters of the population perished, including the priest’s own wife and son [2].

The day after St. Tikhon returned to his episcopal see in San Francisco, he delivered one of his most powerful sermons. The sermon was subsequently published, and was described by one of his readers—his predecessor as bishop in North America Nikolai (Ziorov)—as so “eloquent and inspired” it moved him to action. In the sermon, Tikhon discussed the Gospel reading about the feeding of the 5,000, noting especially that Christ cared about the earthly needs and hunger of the people—and that he instructed his disciples to “give them something to eat” (Mt. 14: 16). Then St Tikhon told his listeners about his recent journey, and how the natives had been on the verge of starvation the previous winter only to be decimated by an epidemic “brought there by white people and from which the natives die quickly.”[3] The sermon thus highlighted the links between poverty, racial inequality, and disease.

St. Tikhon exhorted his listeners (and readers) to help, just as Christ had instructed his disciples to feed his hungry followers. It should not matter that the Alaskan natives belong to another race, St. Tikhon stated, and then explicitly condemned white supremacy: “That is not civilization, which is shamefully preached by others,” according to which “the white race should dominate the world,” much less that whites “wipe off the face of the earth other ‘colored’ races” or refuse to care for them in their suffering. On the contrary, St. Tikhon asserted, “true civilization consists in giving as many people as possible access to the benefits of life.” The truly civilized are those who use their privileges to “raise up to their level” those who are less fortunate.

St. Tikhon then explicitly rejected any form of racism: “Since all people originate from one person [i.e. Adam–SK], all are children of one Heavenly Father; all were redeemed by the most pure blood of Christ, in Whom ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free’ (Gal. 3:28).” In Christ, racial distinctions have been transcended, all are granted equality. “All are brothers and must love one another,” St. Tikhon said, and further declared that this equality should not only be theoretical, but must be expressed in action: “…must love one another—not only in words, but in deeds as well.” At a moment in America’s history when divisive forces are pulling Orthodox Christians in contrary directions, St Tikhon’s message is clear: not only are we to regard all people as brothers regardless of race and love them as such, but we are express that love by standing with those who are victims of racial injustice.

 ____________

[1] An English translation of the sermon can be found in St. Tikhon of Moscow, Instructions and Teachings for the American Faithful (1898-1907), translated and edited by Alex Maximov and David C. Ford (St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press, 2016), pp. 45-47. The correct date for the sermon is 23 July/5 August 1900. I have slightly modified the translation according to the Russian text.

[2] An account of the trip can be found in A. V. Popov, Amerikanskii period zhizni i deiatel’nosti sviatitelia TIkhona Moskovskogo, 1898-1907 gg. (St Petersburg: Satis, 2013), pp 73-87.

[3] Maximov and Ford translate povetrie as “social diseases”; although the word can be used with a metaphorical connotation, in this context its primary meaning (“pestilence” or “epidemic”) would be more appropriate.

Source: Public Orthodoxy