Orthodox Reflections

To read St. Dionysius’ Paschal Encyclical (261 AD) describing the Church’s response to the persecution and the plague that followed is to be confronted with the tragic reality that the Hierarchs of the Orthodox Church, in responding to the virus, have followed the path of the heathens, not the Christians, as described in St. Dionysius’ Encyclical.

Before reading the Encyclical, though, here is Met. Joseph’s of the justification for responding to the virus by mandating masks:

“From the outset of the pandemic, we have striven to avoid the extremes of overacting based on irrational fear and underreacting based on irresponsible zeal. We have tried to balance opening our churches for the people to receive the sacraments and utilizing the strategies asked of us to mitigate the risks of our people spreading the virus among themselves. From the outset, we have had clergy and laity attempting to pull us to one extreme or the other, but I believe we have stayed the course, and I have a clear conscience regarding the directives we have put in place during these trying and confusing times.”

St. Dionysius’ Paschal Encyclical (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI, p. 108-109):

“1. To other men, indeed, the present state of matters would not appear to offer a fit season for a festival: and this certainly is no festal time to them; nor, in sooth, is any other that to them. And I say this, not only of occasions manifestly sorrowful, but even or all occasions whatsoever which people might consider to be most joyous. And now certainly all things are turned to mourning, and all men are in grief, and lamentations resound through the city, by reason of the multitude of the dead and of those who are dying day by day. For as it is written in the case of the first-born of the Egyptians, so now too a great cry has arisen. “For there is not a house in which there is not one dead.” And would that even this were all!

“2. Many terrible calamities, it is true, have also befallen us before this. For first they drove us away; and though we were quite alone, and pursued by all, and in the way of being slain, we kept our festival, even at such a time. And every place that had been the scene of some of the successive sufferings which befell any of us, became a seat for our solemn assemblies—the field, the desert, the ship, the inn, the prison—all alike. The most gladsome festival of all, however, has been celebrated by those perfect martyrs who have sat down at the feast in heaven. And after these things war and famine surprised us. These were calamities which we shared, indeed, with the heathen. But we had also to bear by ourselves alone those ills with which they outraged us, and we had at the same time to sustain our part in those things which they either did to each other or suffered at each other’s hands; while again we rejoiced deeply in that peace of Christ which He imparted to us alone.

“3. And after we and they together had enjoyed a very brief season of rest, this pestilence next assailed us—a calamity truly more dreadful to them than all other objects of dread, and more intolerable than any other kind of trouble whatsoever; and a misfortune which, as a certain writer of their own declares, alone prevails over all hope. To us, however, it was not so; but in no less measure than other ills it proved an instrument for our training and probation. For it by no means kept aloof from us, although it spread with greatest violence among the heathen.

“4. Certainly very many of our brethren, while, in their exceeding love and brotherly-kindness, they did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them assiduously, and treated them for their healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully along with them, lading themselves with pains derived from others, and drawing upon themselves their neighbours’ diseases, and willingly taking over to their own persons the burden of the sufferings of those around them. And many who had thus cured others of their sicknesses, and restored them to strength, died themselves, having transferred to their own bodies the death that lay upon these. And that common saying, which else seemed always to be only a polite form of address, they expressed in actual fact then, as they departed this life, like the “of -scourings of all.” Yea, the very best of our brethren have departed this life in this manner, including some presbyters and some deacons, and among the people those who were in highest reputation: so that this very form of death, in virtue of the distinguished piety and the steadfast faith which were exhibited in it, appeared to come in nothing beneath martyrdom itself.

“5. And they took the bodies of the saints on their upturned hands, and on their bosoms, and closed their eyes, and shut their mouths. And carrying them in company, and laying them out decently, they clung to them, and embraced them, and prepared them duly with washing and with attire. And then in a little while after they had the same services done for themselves, as those who survived were ever following those who departed before them. But among the heathen all was the very reverse. For they thrust aside any who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died, steadily avoiding any kind of communication and intercourse with death; which, however, it was not easy for them altogether to escape, in spite of the many precautions they employed.”

One wonders if Metropolitan Joseph would say of the Alexandrian Christians, that they had “underreact[ed] based on irresponsible zeal”.

Brian – member of Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America

For an additional look at our American Bishops and their “sensible middle ground,” please see:

Are Orthodox Christian Bishops Afraid of COVID, the Government, or Both?

Why Are the Orthodox Fiddling While Earth Burns? An Open Letter to Bishops and Priests

COVID Lockdowns Prove New Christian Leaders Are Needed

Why Doesn’t the Church Stand Up for Human Nature in the Age of COVID?

Public Criticism of Orthodox Bishops by the Faithful – Responding to Letters from Priests

Why Won’t Orthodox Bishops Fight for California?

Orthodox Bishops – Accept You Were Duped on COVID and Move On

Lockdowns Kill – Why Do Orthodox Bishops Ignore the Victims?

Orthodox Bishops Join Politicians in COVID Hypocrisy

Christianity is Dangerous

Are Greek Orthodox Christians in Canada Fanatics?

For more on masks in church, please see:

A Theology of Fear

An Orthodox Christian MD Makes Sense of Faith and Masks

Will Your Mask in Church Save a Life?

Dying on Mask Mandate Hill