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St.
JOHN of Kronstadt
On the Joy of Being Orthodox
"Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"
(Jn.1: 47)
Our Lord Jesus Christ said this of a certain Nathanael, an Israelite
who dwelt in the Galilean town of Cana, when the latter, on
the advice of his friend Philip, went to meet Jesus Christ to
be assured whether He was the Messiah promised to Israel. Philip
said to Nathanael, "We have found him, of whom Moses in
the law, and the prophets, did write: Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph!" But Nathanael said to him, "Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip then said
to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming
toward Him, He said, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile!" Nathanael said to Him, "Whence knowest
Thou me?" Jesus answered him, saying, "Before that
Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw
thee," i.e., I knew all your thoughts, your faith, your
hope for the Messiah, your future ministry. The Lord Who knows
the hearts of men apparently touched the very heartstrings of
Nathanael, his inmost thoughts, desires, aspirations, showing
His divine omniscience plainly to him. Thus was Nathanael brought
to faith in Christ, and he cried out, "Rabbi, thou art
the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel!," and became
His disciple.
Why is it that during the Great Fast, on the day called the
"Sunday of Orthodoxy," it is this particular Gospel
which is prescribed to be read? Because the Lord's words to
Nathanael reveal the character of the true, or Orthodox, Christian
and, in general, the character of the true Church of Christ.
"Behold, an Israelite indeed," the Lord said of Nathanael,
"in whom is no guile," i.e., behold a man who rightly,
directly, firmly thinks, reasons, believes, hopes, speaks and
acts, since Nathanael directly, immediately believed in Jesus
Christ as the Son of God, and never wavered in his faith and
hope, never changed his mind concerning His divine Person. Should
not the true Christian be like him; should not the divinely
instituted society of Orthodox Christians also be such; should
not the Orthodox Church be such, and is it not such?
What high praise did He Who searches the hearts and reins render
unto Nathanael in the words: "Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!" What high praise there is for that
Christian of whom the Lord says, "Behold a Christian indeed,
in whom is no guile!," and for that Church of which the
Lord will say, "Behold a Church indeed, in which is no
guile, or vain human inventions, i.e., which is wholly true
in all its doctrines, mysteries, divine services, directives,
and its entire organization.
And just such men were our holy favorites of God; such has the
whole Orthodox Church been from the beginning up to now, as
is borne witness by an impartial history of the Church and by
God Himself through the divers signs and wonders wrought in
the Church. It is, as the Apostle says, "the pillar and
ground of Truth," it is "a glorious Church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing."
To preserve the Orthodox Faith rivers of the blood of the apostles,
the prophets and the martyrs were poured forth; and many tortures
were borne by the venerable fathers and other champions of the
Faith. But what about us, the children of the Orthodox Church?
Are we preserving this precious inheritance, the Orthodox Faith;
are we following its teachings, commandments, canons, rules,
counsel? Do we love to offer service to God? Are we renewed
thereby, are we hallowed each and every day, are we setting
ourselves aright, are we attaining the perfection which the
saints have reached? Are we becoming perfect in love for God
and our neighbors; do we cherish our Faith; do we regard the
mercy of God as the greatest thing, and that we have the good
fortune to belong to the Orthodox Church is the first and greatest
happiness in our life? What answer would we give to these questions
if we were to respond according to our conscience?
To our shame, we must admit that in many Orthodox Christians
the Orthodox Faith is not only absent in their heart, but it
is also not on their tongue; among them it has vanished entirely,
or has been turned into total indifference with regard to any
religion whatever--Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Mohammendan,
or pagan. We hear that one may please God in every religion,
i.e., that every religion is supposedly pleasing to God, and
that falsehood and truth, righteousness and unrighteousness
are matters about which God does not care.
This is what ignorance of their own Faith, ignorance of the
spirit and history of their Church, estrangement from its life
and divine services, has brought many to--an eclipse of any
understanding of Orthodoxy, heterodoxy and other religions!
The annals of modern events relate that somewhere in Russia
a certain headmaster, during the examination of his students,
referred to the story of the sacrifice of Isaac as stupid. This
is darkness, chaos, pernicious ignorance! The Christian, as
a member of the Church, must know his own Faith and strive to
live according to that Faith, to achieve salvation by means
of that Faith, because the enemies of our salvation never sleep;
they seek our destruction every hour and every day. The Orthodox
Christian must not dismiss his Faith as a concern merely of
certain people, or as a disposable toy appropriate only for
children, or something fit only, as it were, for the uneducated
common folk.
It would not be out of place to remind those who think thus
of the venerable antiquity of our Faith, which is contemporary
with the beginning of the human race, and of its direct origin
with Godl and that men of high birth, vocation. position and
gender lived and attained salvation in this Faith--glorious
kings and wise philosophers, law-givers and the greatest orators,
nobles and simple folk, rich and poor, men and women, the beauty
and glory of the human race. To the glory of the Orthodox Faith
one ought also to say that no other religion than the Orthodox
Faith is capable of bringing man to moral perfection or holiness
and the pleasing of God, as is shown by the history of the Church
and the incorrupt, wonder-working remains of the holy favorites
of God and the miraculous feats of the saints of the Orthodox
Church, whereby they became perfectly pleasing unto God, becoming
clairvoyant and working wonders even during their lifetime.
Thus must it be for the sane mind: only a perfect Faith with
all its divine powers, with the full spiritual armor of God,
is able to bring one to perfection, against the passion-fraught
flesh, the world and the devil.
And if now many even Orthodox Christians live badly, their manner
of life, even if truly ungodly, cannot in the least, of course,
be held against the Orthodox Faith, which is unshakable in its
principles of Truth and holiness, in accordance with the promise
of the Savior Himself and the testimony of history. Such people,
although they have departed from us, were not ours in essence,
but only in name...
Yea, my brethren, only the Orthodox Faith purifies and sanctifies
human nature which has been defiled by sin...Do you wish to
be assured of this? Read the history of the lives of the saints,
the history of the Church, and you will see this for yourselves.
You will see wolves transformed into lambs, fornicators into
angelic righteous men and women, misers into paragons of charity,
lovers of pleasure into ascetics; you will see people of power
and earthly grandeur and luxury in humble monastic garb...These
were true Christians indeed; these were angels in the flesh,
citizens of heaven while still on earth... This is what our
Orthodox Faith can do with those who sincerely hold to it and
follow its direction!
But why does it not produce such a salvific change within us?
Because of disbelief and lack of faith, flippancy, depravity
and unrepentance of heart, because of the passions which have
intensified and gained dominion over us, because we have withdrawn
from the Church, and because many are not in the least imbued
with the spirit and life of the Church, and many are only weakly,
only formally, insincerely, attached to it. Because all the
modern lusts have been engendered within us...For us to be genuine
Orthodox Christians, we must first of all have living, constant
fellowship with the Orthodox Church, i.e., participation in
its prayers, teachings, mysteries, we must earnestly study our
Faith and become imbued with it, live in its spirit, be guided
by its rules, commandments, precepts; and most important, we
must restore within us by true and profound repentance the image
of the true Orthodox Christian, according to the image of the
saints, ancient and recent, according to the model of our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, Who says: "I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you" (Jn. 13: 15),
that the Lord may also say to us, as He once said of Nathanael,
"Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"
Amen. |
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