Smart phones, video games, social media, etc…all symptoms of our dying traditions and culture. Technology can be a god thing, but if the technological industries do not begin to consider the bettering of humanity, then what good are they? I am not out to produce a moral pyramid of works by ranting about how we should not do this and not do that, rather, I would like to share a bit about what Orthodoxy calls the “ascetic life” since the ascetic life tends to deflect many of these modern and technological complexities.
“Asceticism is a strict, purposeful life, expressed in spiritual labors, that is, in prayer, contemplation, the directing of the mind toward God, frequently in conjunction with corresponding physical undertakings, and simultaneously with abstention from any negative activity and unnecessary natural satisfactions. This does not mean that asceticism must be the lot only of certain desert-dwellers or monks (“ascetics”). The Christian faith itself is built on self-denial, which to a certain degree is asceticism.” – Sergei Baikalov-Latyshev, From Orthodox Life, Vol. 27, No. 3
The Blessed Seraphim Rose specifically refers to having an “Orthodox ascetic worldview” in our day. He mentions how strengthening the Orthodox Church within America will be accomplished not by rationalizing the worship and other aspects of the faith through intellectual means, but through fully entering the ascetic life, a life of prayer, fasting, and shunning of worldliness (primarily modern culture). All throughout Seraphim Rose’s biography Not of This World, the author mentions how Fr. Rose sees America drawing deeper and deeper into the same worldliness that Russia fell into at the time communism took them over. He says that a “materialistic” worldview is being adopted by us just as it was in Russia.
Walking in the Light
A life of “sacrifice” can lead you to a higher calling in Christ. This sacrifice that God calls us to is not about sacrifice itself, but it is about enlightenment of spirit; it is about walking in what Christ calls “the light.
”What does it mean to walk in the light?
· Christ says that HE is the light: John 9:5, “I am the light of the world.”
· Saint Paul says in Ephesians 5:8, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
· Saint John says in 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from sin.”
As a Protestant I thought that to walk in the light meant to walk in knowledge and truth, to know the difference between good and evil and to know who God is in a constructive manner; that is, what He is like on a rational level that I can explain to everyone. After all, I am an “Evangelical!” What I did not discover as a modern Christian is how the Light of Christ is much more of an actual spiritual place than it is a spiritual concept, or string of concepts.
God desires that we come to a spiritual place with Him so as to experience a kingdom that is not so much about concepts as it is about enlightenment, about literally being able to walk in places that no one else can walk, but by those who are enlightened, thus “walking” in the Light, as Saint John puts it.
We are to LITERALLY walk the illuminated path. This does not mean that we are to just know doctrines, but this means that we are to literally labor with our “spiritual muscles,” the spiritual muscles that we work hard for in our spiritual gymnasium (Saint Paul likens our spiritual conditioning to that of an athlete in 2 Timothy 2:5). It means that we holistically walk, with our mind, heart, body…in nature itself. Everything gets connected. This is how the people of God become saints…they seize time itself, moments of spiritual opportunity, until these moments become one complete and ongoing lifestyle. The light of God’s saints with His Trinitarian nature connect all things together seamlessly.
It is our ‘Cross’ and ‘Persecution’ that We are Saved Through
“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” – Matthew 10:38
“ If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
– Luke 9:23Saint Gregory the Theologian (4th century) calls the Christian walk “Suffering Orthodoxy.” “He who wishes to serve God,” says St. Basil the Great (4th century), “must prepare his heart for tribulations.” The Orthodox Christian faith is a suffering faith (II Timothy 3:12), because through suffering we turn away from what Satan and his people have to tempt us with to what Christ has to freely give us!
Archbishop Averky Taushev (1906-1976), of Jordanville Monastery says “’Suffering Orthodoxy’ is why virtually all the righteous people we mentioned thus far were not spared persecution in one form or another: often, like Christ Himself, at the hands of the very ministers of the Church. The one who follows his own conscience and the teachings of the Lord may end up paying dearly. And this is true in all aspects of modern life – at times even in the areas of religion and Church.” (Orthodox Life – May-June, 1976, p.30)
Christ says Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Taking up your cross is to take up the path to heaven. Saint Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12: “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus WILL BE persecuted.”
Persecution is not just physical! In fact, much of persecution is spiritual and sociological. Christ explicitly states in the Beatitudes (many of our communities pray these during Liturgy) that “blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and slander you.” The devil is a professional at his game. He has been doing what he does for a very long time. He knew that at the first few centuries, he could persecute physically, and then repeat that process, but then in the last times, perhaps during apocalyptic times, he would have to switch the game and catapult the exclusion and slander weapons. It’s no coincidence, for instance, that it is the easiest time in world history to slander. Most everyone has a little slander machine right in the palm of their hand, now!
We walk in the light by actually walking in the dark, because this is where the light shines. This is why he says in the Psalter that the Word is a “lamp unto our feet.” He also uses the image of lamps in the Gospel account multiple times. He says in Luke 12:35: “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit.”
We use lamps to walk in dark places. This is walking in the light! It is not our Christian duty to find paradise on earth or to somehow create it. We are to be sojourners for Christ! Wherever we are in life, whether it is in a Christian atmosphere or a pagan, we are to shun worldliness in order to find Christ. As Blessed Augustine says, “Conquer yourself and the world lies at your feet.” We cannot live in the midst of temptation unless we are prepared to do battle, and this means to first conquer the enemy within us (our sinful desires) and this will naturally create a type of micro Christian community…that could actually grow into nationhood itself as we begin connecting with one another.
The Shunning of Worldliness and the Illuminated Life
Asceticism is about sacrificing liberty and pursuing communion with God. What does this look like in our lives?
The Jesus Prayer is one way to pass time. Other ways to gain the momentum of time and walk in the light is to meditate and contemplate on the experience, the very “work” that God is bringing us through. This is how we exercise our spiritual muscles, enabling us to walk in the light of the moment…seizing the moment without even thinking about what we need to do or say.
I believe God is always presenting us with spiritual opportunities to exercise our spirituality, but it is most naturally and most potently found within a “non-worldly” path, one that does not partake of constant trends and meaningless entertainments. We simply cannot repair and heal the disconnects within our souls if we are interrupted by worldly rhythms.
There simply is no room in our minds and hearts for any voluntary worldliness. In America, we are bombarded by worldliness, already. We are hit with commercials, billboards, crazy and perverted dress fashions, worldly music in most every store and restaurant, highly competitive sports and people constantly speaking of them…The list goes on!
To be walking in the light, therefore, is to walk in the kingdom with illumination! When we are living what we must call the “ascetic life,” we are walking in a totally different set of external string of events, be they “coincidences,” “accidents,” etc. So pursuing what most Americans would consider a “boring” life actually brings extremely exciting spiritual circumstances to a Christian’s life. I have heard the Protestant pastor, John Piper, call this ascetic pursuit by the name “Christian hedonism.” His theology is a topic for another day, but essentially what he says is what the early fathers teach (I don’t think he is even aware of this), and that is that we must learn how to find pleasure in suffering for Christ. It is of course a unique kind of pleasure, not directly connected to the flesh, but directly connected to our spirit.
Finally, the illuminated life, the life that completely “walks in the light” is a life that is not easily achieved. I understand that this life involves the pursuing of sainthood, not expecting to actually become a ‘canonized’ saint by the Church, but to press toward the attitude and zeal that the canonized saints had. This means being “in the spirit” as Saint Paul says. This means to be more involved with spiritual things than with worldly, to be what secular philosophers call “minimalists.” We live our personal bare minimum of luxury for a much greater cause “on earth as it is in heaven.” We gain the momentum of what we call “martyrdom” for Christ, constantly fleeing our self-centeredness for our own sanctification as well as for the sanctification of other people. This will indeed reflect in your personality. This topic deserve more attention that what is being said here, but your very personality will become much more valuable in Orthodox communities, enabling you to put off the mask, and take on the freedom of Christ that we spoke of in the last article in this blog site, “Orthodox Freedom.”
Thank You,
Reader Michael
