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:
- 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.
Sadly, 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.
“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.”
Most people are statistically more likely to die in an automobile accident than from Covid-19 . So should everyone stop driving their cars to attend Church ? (following the logic of “If it saves just ONE life, it’s worth it …”)
John D – Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We have reposted it as an article and given original credit to PNP and to the original Website for ROCOR. This was excellent and so needed for all Orthodox Christians.
This was sent to me and passing along to You.Long, but covers it all. Pass this to the priest mentioned above.
Doxa to Theo, John
Dear Patristic Nectar Customers,
With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Irenei, we are pleased to share his recent homily entitled The Church Will Never Alter Her Beliefs or Practices Out of Fear, published on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Diocese of Great Brittain and Western Europe.
We share this homily with the hope that you are richly edified and encouraged by this timely and God-inspired message.
Thank you for your continued support.
The PNP Team
THE CHURCH WILL NEVER ALTER HER BELIEFS OR PRACTICES OUT OF FEAR
By Bishop Irenei
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. My dear brothers and sisters: we are living now in a moment that demands faith — and not faith in ourselves, or in our civil structures, in governments or in the wisdom of men. We are living in a moment that requires faith in God: the true God, the only God: the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And this is not chiefly because we are facing a specific peril from a virus or a pandemic. This is not the chief reason that faith is required of us. We do not diminish the seriousness of the situation in which the world finds itself now: the epidemic is a reality, and there are practical measures that all should take to combat its spread and minimise its impact. But we have been through pandemics before, as a race, as a society, as the Church. We are able to understand, through experience, the need for reaction as well as non-reaction; the necessity of seriousness as well as the necessity for calm. And we know, also from experience, that all trials pass, from the lesser to the great; and wherever one may deem that the present circumstances stand on that scale, one thing is certain: they shall pass, the Church shall remain, and God shall carry us forward.
No, the epidemic is not the reason that we live now in a moment that demands real faith. The reason for that necessity is fear. This world has shown, in these past few months, what really governs it — and it is not wisdom or compassion, or science, or truth. It is fear. For many years now the world has been cultivating this as its basic principle of operation: with increasing zeal, it functioned by determining what man should be afraid of, and who, and when — and has made into a norm the concept that the driving force in human life is to be the reaction to such fear. And so we have seen the human race grow accustomed to living in fear of everything: of war; of enemies known and imagined; of the economy; of other people; of history; of the past, and above all of the future; of loneliness; of society; of poverty, and of wealth; of ignorance, as well as of knowledge. The list could go on forever. Man has grown accustomed to being afraid — of everything. And society considers it second-nature now to live according to this fear: states and governments announce what we are to be afraid of, alter our modes of life based on frightened responses to that fear; and as soon as one momentary fear ceases to grip us entirely, another is provided to replace it.
It is therefore no surprise whatsoever that in the face of a hitherto unknown sickness, intense fear would be the response. This weakness has so worked its way into the hearts of mankind that it cannot help itself; and behold, we have seen how truly damaging fear becomes. In the face of an illness, we have seen fear turn brother against brother, society against society; we have seen the economies of whole nations destroyed, which means families left without the means to provide for themselves; we have seen fear upset the education of our children and young people; we have seen fear increase the rates of depression, domestic violence and even suicide to unknown heights — and again we must be clear: it is not a virus that has caused these things, it is fear.
And it is grounded, ultimately, in the one fear that a society without God cannot overcome: the fear of death. The virulent fear that eats away at human hearts is fuelled by the secular inability, or outright refusal, to see beyond death. The secular mind cannot see death as anything other than ‘the end’, and thus a thing to flee from as the utmost evil. For this reason, the avoidance of death is seen as the highest aim, the highest good — even if the result of this is a so-called ‘life’ utterly overwhelmed with fear, sorrow and grief. But I tell you this: death will never be avoided by fearfully clinging to fragments of life — not in the face of sin, nor in the face of a disease. Society today is constantly provoked to base its every decision on the dichotomy between life and death. But death is not the the opposite of life: the opposite of life is fear.
For this reason I say to you: we are living now in a moment that demands faith in the True God: the Father Who sent His only Son into the world and Who bestows His Spirit upon the faithful. A Christian, who takes his identity from his baptism into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, cannot shape his life on the fear of death: for our Lord has defeated death — this is the most central pillar of our Life in Christ! We are children of the God Who is Master over life and death, at Whose will death is transformed to life. It is thus that we heard in the Gospel reading today: entering into the city of Nain, Jesus encounters a widow weeping over the body of her dead son, her only child. The response of Christ is peaceful and divinely calm: He says to the woman merely, ‘Do not weep’, and then He turns to the corpse and says, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise’ — and the dead boy sits up and begins to speak (cf. Luke 7.13-15). God, Who is Love, raises up the dead child — for it is love that is the opposite of death, just as much as fear is the opposite of life.
It is interesting, then, that the word that St Luke uses to describe the reaction of the people who witnessed this miracle is in fact ‘fear’ (страх). He writes, as we heard: ‘Then fear came upon them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”, and “God has visited His people”’ (Luke 7.16). But here the Evangelist speaks of an entirely different kind of fear than that which we witness in our world today: the people surrounding Jesus are fearful — not with a terror or cowardice or anxiety in the face of the world, but with an awe in the power of God that surpasses their understanding. Their ‘fear’ is in their own lack of faith: that God Himself, the God Who raises the dead and brings life to the world, has been standing in their midst and they were too blind to see it — and now that they see it, that same awe propels them immediately to faith.
My brothers and sisters, this is the spirit that is required of you today. It is not enough simply to bear the name ‘Christian’ as a kind of affiliation or badge: we must live and think and breathe after the manner of Christ our God. We cannot watch Him conquer life, and then ourselves remain afraid of death. We cannot behold His sovereignty of all things, and then remain fearful of the world, or our future. We will not succumb to the temptation too many are following: to let fear even infect an understanding of God, so that the Holy Mysteries that He provides as the medicine of eternity and the gift of everlasting life — life! — are placed under suspicion, as if they might convey disease or death. Anathema! This is a sin, plainly and simply.
We as a Christian people are in no way against cooperating with governments and authorities in difficult times when their edicts are perhaps an annoyance but do not prevent us from maintaining our beliefs and living our Christian worshipping life in its fulness. But a right faith is a necessity now, and it is obtained through our obedience to the Church which is the living Body of this same Lord. The Church does not cower in fear before the temptations of this world: she is the rock upon which those stand, who will not be tossed about by them. Her teachings are sure and true, because they are God’s. Her practices are right and proper, because the Holy Spirit Himself has forged them and sanctified and blessed them. Her message is clear and unequivocal, and she does not bow before time, or history, or powers, or temptations. And so, my dear faithful, cling to her — and you, too, shall have this stability and strength. We will never change our beliefs or our practices out of fear, rather, we will enter our temples and get on with the business of conforming our lives to God’s, and finding there — and only there — our real salvation. Amen.