Ecclesiasticus I: Introducing Eastern Orthodoxy
Ecclesiasticus II: Orthodox Icons, Saints, Feasts and Prayer
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People
generally use the word freedom in order to describe two things:
the first and perhaps most persistent meaning of the term is simply lack
of subjection to any kind of ownership or tyrannical authority, the lack
of restriction of one’s actions, the absence of obstacles to self-determination
or personal choices, the right to make up one’s own mind with regard to
occupation, speech, assembly, religion and so on. Naturally, this kind
of freedom is entirely desirable and, in many ways, our very nation came
into being out of a deeply felt need for this. Although our democratic
system of government has experienced many pitfalls and defects, and throughout
the course of our history we have not always been able to achieve perfect
freedom in the sense just described, it is none the less true that few
would question the desirability for such freedom. Men are still willing
to make enormous sacrifices - their very lives at times - for the ideal
of freedom.
Christian
teaching lies at the very heart of such an ideal. And in spite of the
ups and downs of Church history, wherein even the Church has seemed to
be an accomplice to agencies and forces that would deny this kind of basic
right to the human race, it would be inaccurate to say that the Christian
Church in most of its classical forms teaches that men are not destined
to be free in this very sense. It is incompatible with Christian teaching
to maintain that man should be shackled with restrictions against his
personal freedom to pursue a way of life to his own choosing.
At
the same time it appears also that freedom is being increasingly applied
to a kind of license which says that man is not to be subjected to any
kind of restriction that is not to his liking. Even when the common good
demands the contrary he is somehow to be free to "do his own thing."
The blame for much of the disorder and confusion of our own times could
perhaps be laid to this concept of freedom: the near capitulation of our
legal system in face of demands for freedom to peddle pornography, to
sell drugs, to defy the law enforcement agencies of the cities, etc.
In
this particular article it is not our intention to dwell on the matter
of freedom as described above, making this a plea for law and order. Rather,
we wish to present a general account of the Orthodox Church’s understanding
of freedom, in light of Christ’s work of redemption, His "breaking
the chains of hell and overthrowing the tyranny of hades."
Jesus
said, "If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed;
And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" And
those who heard Him said, "We are Abraham’s seed, and we were never
in bondage to any man, how sayest thou, you shall be made free?"
And He answered, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin." (1 John 8:31-34)
He
said in another place, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you should
have known my Father also; and from henceforth you know Him, and have
seen Him." (John 14: 6-7)
Jesus
Christ is the truth about God and the truth about man, since He is both
God and man. God’s real nature is completely revealed in the Son of God,
the Incarnate Word, and the whole truth about man, his worth, value and
dignity, are realized and made manifest to man in the Son of Man, Jesus
of Nazareth. And since man’s fundamental sin was and is godlessness or
atheism, we then understand what is meant by the statement that "Christ
came into the world to save His people from their sins."
An
author once pointed out that, "Mankind is in bondage until Christ
sets men free." St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans says, "For
when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. But
what fruit had you then from those things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death. But now set free from sin and become
servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and as your end, life
everlasting." (6:20-22)
The
deepest and most fundamental of the Church’s understandings of freedom
is simply the freedom from sin and its wage or consequences. The understanding
that Christ has given to men a freedom that cannot be taken away, no matter
what the external circumstances of life may be, has provided the strength,
the dynamism, the very life of the Church in the different periods of
her bondage, her restrictions. There was the long three century persecution
of the Church by the Roman Empire, and the very martyrs were witnesses
and advocates of their freedom in Christ. The Moslem conquest and domination
of much of the world that had been Christian, and the reduction of Christians
to second-class citizenship, the restrictions against their proclaiming
the Gospel, brought no despair to those who knew Christ and His truth.
This lasted well into the nineteenth century in certain places. And in
our own twentieth century, restrictions and persecutions, perhaps
heavier
and more severe than in any other time, in Communist lands failed to extinguish
the light of Christian truth, and finally the most essential Christian
freedom.
It
is in Christ, as perfect Man, that man comes to the full realization of
what it means to be in the image and likeness of God. For man’s freedom
is an Icon, an image of the Divine Freedom itself.
It
is just when our freedom lies within the "opus Dei," the work
of God, that it does not cease to be true freedom. The "Let it be
to me according to thy word," of the Virgin at the Annunciation does
not come from a simple submission to His will, but that very acceptance
expresses the ultimate freedom of her being. In this sense, she was the
first fruits of the intervention of God into human time and history, the
first product of the Incarnation. She is the image of the Church, those
who receive the Word of God and keep it, of those who would lose their
life and gain it.
Christ,
in becoming Incarnate, has permitted us, not to imitate, but to relive
His life, to conform ourselves to His essence.
In
each Christian’s response to God, in saying, "let it be to me according
to Thy will," he identifies himself with the God-Man Christ, and
in this way, the Divine Will, freedom comes as an expression of one’s
own will. The will of God, His work, His freedom have become one’s own.
"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," says
St. Paul. (Galatians 2:20)
None
of the foregoing is said to diminish or to negate in any sense the validity
and importance of all human beings, especially Christians, to seek, to
work for freedom in the usual earthly, if you will, sense of the word:
social justice, equality, and the right to pursue, unrestricted, a better
life here and now for the human race. The Christian, if he takes his commitment
seriously, can never be guilty of putting restrictions in the path of
others, of coercing, of forcing. On the other hand, what has been said
is conceived as a reminder that much of the Christian world, my own Church,
has a long experience of this, has lived under repression in places where
freedom, justice, equality, and the right to differ, were given lip-service,
but were not realities. The hope of Christians, their consolation is based
on a higher freedom, which only God can give, which our Lord Jesus Christ
showed us.
From The Dawn
Newspaper of the Diocese of the South
Orthodox Church in America
October 1998
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