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

An Orthodox priest recently responded to an article by scolding us for our callous disregard for human life. As a priest, he reminded us, it was his job to worry about the entire parish. If he got anyone killed, then he would answer for that before God. Therefore, he had to support the lockdown of his parish and conduct his services via livestreaming. It was simply too dangerous to allow anyone, especially the elderly, to attend services.

In response, we asked him the following questions:

Old Woman alone and sad

  • What is your responsibility before God for all those who are dying, particularly the elderly, feeling abandoned and alone without the comfort of clergy, family, and friends?
  • What is your responsibility before God for the Faithful who will leave the Church and live without the Grace of God in their lives? When they lost their jobs, when they lost their businesses, were you there for them? When their mental health unraveled and they contemplated suicide, where were you? The Church is a hospital for sick souls. When theirs were seriously ill, why was the hospital closed?
  • Young people almost never die from COVID, yet we are ruining their mental health. They are denied social lives and education. Even the Church forces them to wear masks and reinforces the general hysteria around them. Many young Orthodox will leave the Church and never return. What, Father, is your responsibility before God for them?
  • We hear from potential catechumens on a regular basis that even if they can attend a liturgy, they don’t feel welcome. With the masks and the social distancing in the parishes that are open, visitors walk in and then walk right back out the door. They can see people in masks shying away from each other at the grocery store. How is Church any different from the world? What is your responsibility for their souls, Father?
  • We have a confirmed epidemic of loneliness in our society, which is leading to all kinds of physical, spiritual and psychological effects.  What is your responsibility before God for your role in that, Father?

We did not get a response. We didn’t expect one. A doctor or a public health official might, legitimately, misunderstand human nature enough to believe a “lockdown” could succeed in improving public health rather than destroying it. As a priest of the Orthodox Church, however, he knew full well that an all-consuming emphasis on preserving physical life, at the exclusion of all else, was always destined to fail.

St. Theophan the Recluse (+1892) wrote In his book What the Spiritual Life Is and How to Attune Oneself to it:

“Human life is complex and many-sided. In it there is a side of the body, another of the soul, and another of the spirit. Each of these has its own faculties and needs, its own methods and their exercise and satisfaction. Only when all our faculties are in movement and all our needs are satisfied does a man live. But when only one little part of these faculties is in motion and only one little part of our needs is satisfied–such a life is no life… A man does not live in a human way unless everything, in him is in motion…. One must live as God created us, and when one does not live thus one can boldly say that he is not living at all” (p. 7).

It is true that COVID-19 is not particularly deadly at any age, but it is especially of little threat for the young and healthy. It is also true that like almost any other virus, there have been effective treatments from day one. And it is also true that naturally boosting the immune system helps protect people who are exposed from getting sick.

But even if none of that were true, even if COVID-19 were the Black Death, our locked down, distanced, and masked approach would still do more harm than good. Man is multi-dimensional. We are created to live life in community with others and together worship God in spirit and truth. Our current strategy to “fight” the virus is also fighting against man’s own nature as created by God. A cure that denies our own humanity will always be worse than any disease.

And the Orthodox should understand that best of anyone. We know what it truly means to be created in the image and likeness of God, who Himself exists as a Trinity of Persons. To live in fear and isolation, afraid of contact with our fellow man, is to not live at all.  But it is not what we know as Orthodox Christians that is the problem. Rather, it is that we are doing practically nothing with the special insights into humanity that God has given us. Most of our Orthodox Christian leaders keep silent, even as the world slides deeper into a Hellish abyss.

One Orthodox leader who is speaking out is Abbot Tryphon. He wrote the following in a recent article entitled The Church is THE Essential Institution:

Given the communal nature of the Church, it is particularly alarming our City, State, and Federal governments are using this Covid-19 pandemic to bar people from gathering in their temples for common worship. The importance of social interaction in the central square, as seen in traditional villages where the cafe life, together with the communal nature of the Church, were the primary source of fraternal interaction, demonstrate the danger facing a society that has ordered her people to remain apart, sequestered in their homes.

Isolated from others, the communal nature that is an important element in what it means to be human, is lost. As humans, we are meant to be together, for it is in our lives together that we grow in mind and spirit. It is in community that we learn to love God, and it is within the corporate gathering together for the Divine Liturgy, that we collectively hear the Word of God, and receive the Life-giving Body and Blood of Our Saviour.

It is clear that we have need for access to the food we need for physical sustenance, but the spiritual food needed for a healthy soul and body, makes the Church THE most essential institution in the land.

Covid Starving childrenSadly, not only are the Faithful being deprived of their spiritual food, but even just regular bodily food is getting harder to find. The United Nations warns that as many as 260 million people will be on the verge of starvation by year’s end. As the world suffers through more waves of lockdowns, many of the most vulnerable could starve to death long before they are ever affected by a virus.

I wonder, do their lives and their souls matter before God?

In Luke 12:48, Christ said, “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

Our clergy, our Faithful – to them much has been given. We can’t pretend that our silence is out of ignorance. And we will answer to God.

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