COUNT IT ALL JOY!In Eastern Orthodoxy, Lent is the "tithe of the year" - the time of repentance before forgiveness that is celebrated at Pascha, or Easter. Pascha is the culmination or central celebration in the Christian Church - in Orthodoxy it far outweighs Christmas, and rightfully so.
However, as a "recovering" Christian - I think that too much unhealthy emphasis has been placed on the topic of repentance, it's out of balance with the teachings of Christ.
Although I believe most Eastern Orthodox Christians would agree with this statement by a Saint of the Church:
"This life has been given you for repentance. Do not waste it on other things."
~ St. Isaac the Syrian
It is not in the spirit of what I hear when I read the words of Christ:
" I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
~ The Gospel According to St. John, Chapter 10, verse 10.
So it appears to me that Jesus might be suggesting that:
This life has been given you for joy. Do not waste it on other things.
Do not waste the gift of life on things like:
- Seemingly endless prayers of repentance
- Constant repetition of scripture that points to the fulfillment of salvation instead of the celebration of the fulfillment itself. (It's rather like spending hours staring at a five year old ultrasound image of your expected child - and neglecting the actual child that was born years ago!!)
- Asking the Lord for mercy 40 times - when it has obviously already been given in full measure
- Obsessive focus on the crucifixion and suffering of Christ, and not on living up to the full privilege of the meaning of the resurrection and accepting full responsibility for its power unleashed in our lives.
- Spending the 40 days of Lent focused on repentance - then spending only one week celebrating Pascha. (It's like spending one day a year celebrating your birthday and 364 days dreading your death!)
Now I know that many Orthodox may say that the purpose of the Liturgy is just that kind of celebration, and perhaps that's how it was originally intended - but the reality is - laughing and clapping in Church is seriously frowned upon, and in fact, frowning seems to be the general disposition of most Orthodox Christians. Apart from a few hours every Pascha - you won't see too much smiling at an Orthodox service.
Come on Orthodox Christians - you've been given life and joy that you might have it abundantly - come out of the churches and use it will you??
1 comment:
I hope you are well, Marty - haven't seen you in quite a while and decided I'd check in your blog. The journey through Great Lent, though, is not - or should not be - about miring oneself in a state of abject contrition, which is guilt-ridden and directionless. Repentance, as you know, is something else, for which "guild is not the only or even primary motive force. Repentance is directed, revivifying and a perpetual movement toward God. It is not the ceaseless self-flagellation of the totally depraved. Yes, Jesus is proclaiming this life is given us for joy; but how else will you even begin except by repenting? You don't have to look far in the Gospels from St. John 10:10 to find the teachings of Christ are replete with the indelible link between repentance and abundant earthly and eternal life. Some Orthodox Christians may "waste the gift of life" on those things you list because their hearts are not prepared to receive the gift inherent in them; but then, Great Lent ought to be a time of preparation for the Paschal Joy by living out one's own ascetic struggle, perhaps more fervently than the rest of the year. The bottom line, I think is that there is no joy as a prayerful being, a communal being, an ecclesial being, as a creature without genuine repentance because there is no act of the will in true humility through which the Holy Spirit works to renew and remake our awareness of ourselves, or God and those people and things around us. Sure people seem too morose, often deriving from false piety and a misunderstanding of repentance - so often spoken of as to become an empty pietistic bromide about which polite discussions are had, prayers made and talks given - widespread. But that grievous caricature of repentance and the consequent nullification, at least in part of the true spirit of Great Lent do not somehow diminish or dissolve the connection between repentance and joy Great Lent and the Paschal season (which does last until Ascension, as you know) typify. Revisitation of passages, repetition of prayers and focus on Christ's Passion - all parts of our liturgical cycle - do not diminish our joy, but keep us mindful (and it is true that we do not often remember) of why we can be joyous at all. If that is so, should we smile more, love more, laugh more, simply act more as Christ compels those who earnestly seek Him? Yes, and you are right to say so. You're familiar with much of this, but you don't mention it in your post. I share some of frustration that underlies what you've written, but the incongruity you note between the words of Christ and the stolid expressions of the "frozen chosen" in the Orthodox Church is, as you know, a gross generalization of the hearts and sensibilities of those people. You've specifically voiced disdain for superficial evocations of emotion in churches - the hyper-spritualized psycho-somatic curiosa that accompanies "Christian Entertainment" (your words) in some cases. A little more freedom to give expression of spiritual joy should be encouraged, I agree; but in any case authenticity, even if it means outward impassivity in the light of the Resurrection, should everywhere be the rule. What matters is that one's heart in true repentance is inflamed with the love of God their neighbor and all of Creation.
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