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Tell Me Who Your Saints Are, And I Will Tell You What Your Church IS
By Alexei Ilyich Osipov
In order to understand what one or another Christian Church is, it is enough, without even touching its doctrine, to look at its saints. The tree is known by its fruits, and any Church declares those people saints who embodied its ideal in their lives. A saint's canonization therefore reflects that Church's testimony not only about the Christian it is holding up as an example to follow, but it is also primarily the given Church's testimony about its own self. You can more accurately judge the authenticity, or false sanctity, of the Church itself by its saints.
Now, first of all, I will pause at the comparison between the saints of the largest Christian Churches—the [Roman] Catholic and the Orthodox Churches.
One of the major pillars of Catholic sanctity is St. Francis of Assisi (thirteenth century). His spiritual self-awareness is sufficiently clearly revealed from the following facts. One day, St. Francis prayed very long (the subject of his prayer is extraordinarily telling) "about two mercies." "The first is that I … could … experience all the sufferings that You, Sweetest Jesus, experienced in Your torturous passion. The second mercy … is that … I might feel … that boundless love with which You, the Son of God, burned." As we see, St. Francis was not troubled by a feeling of his own sinfulness, as all saints are; clearly seen here is his open pretension to equality with Christ in His sufferings and His love! During this prayer, St. Francis "felt himself completely become Jesus," and something happened to him that had never before happened in the history of the Church: painful, bleeding wounds (stigmata) appeared on him—the marks of "Jesus' sufferings."[1]
Here we must note that the nature of these stigmata is well known in psychiatry. Unceasing concentration of the attention on Christ's sufferings on the cross extremely arouse a person's nerves and psyche, and if practiced long enough, can evoke this phenomenon. There is nothing supernatural or miraculous here. In this "compassion" for Christ, there is not the true love about which the Lord spoke plainly: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (Jn. 14:21). To the contrary, the substitution of dreamy experiences of "compassion" for the struggle with one's own sinful passions is one of the most serious mistakes in spiritual life, which has lead, and still leads, ascetics to self-conceit and pride — obvious prelest, often connected with outright psychological disturbance (see the "sermon" of St. Francis to the birds, the wolf, the turtle-doves, the snakes, the flowers, etc.; his reverence before the fire, the stones, the worms). It is no wonder therefore that St. Francis claimed to redeem the sins of other people through his imitation of Christ.
Also telling is the life's goal that St. Francis set for himself: "I labored and want to labor … because this brings honor."[2] Isn't this why he said openly at the end of his life, "I am not aware of any sin on my part that I have not redeemed through confession and repentance"?[3] All this testifies to his ignorance of his own sins, his unworthiness before God—that is, to total spiritual catastrophe.
By contrast, we cite the moment before death from the life of St. Sisoes the Great (fifth century). "Surrounded at the moment of his death by the brothers, at that minute when he was as if conversing with unseen beings, the brothers' asked him, 'Father, tell us, with whom are you conversing?' Sisoes answered, 'They are angels who have come to take me, but I am praying them to leave me for a short time, in order to repent.' At this the brothers, knowing that Sisoes was perfect in the virtues, protested, 'You have no need to repent, father.' Sisoes replied, 'Truly, I do not know if I have even begun to repent.'"[4] This deep knowledge of one's own imperfection is the main distinguishing characteristic of all true saints.
Here are passages from the notes of Blessed Angela (thirteenth–fourteenth centuries).[5]
"The Holy Spirit," she writes, says to her, "My daughter, My sweetness … I love you very much." "I was with the apostles, and they saw Me with their physical eyes, but they did not feel Me as you do." Then, Angela reveals about herself, "I see in the darkness the Holy Trinity, and it seems to me that I am standing and abiding in the center of the Trinity, which I see in the darkness." She expressed her relationship to Jesus Christ, for example, in such words: "I could bring myself entirely into Jesus Christ." Or, "From His sweetness, and from the sorrow of His departure, I shouted and wanted to die." At this, she began to beat herself so badly that the nuns had to carry her out of the church.
One of the greatest Russian religious thinkers of the twentieth century, A. F. Losev, made a biting yet true assessment of Angela's "revelations." He writes, "The seductiveness and delusion of the flesh leads to the point where the Holy Spirit appears to Blessed Angela and whispers these amorous words: 'My daughter, My sweetness, My daughter, My temple, My daughter, my delight, love Me, for I love you greatly, much more than you love Me." The saint is in a sweet languor, and can't contain herself from this love. Her beloved keeps appearing, enflaming her body, heart, and blood. The cross of Christ appears to her as a marriage bed… What could be more contrary to the Byzantine-Muscovite austere and chaste asceticism as these continual blasphemous statements: 'My soul was received into the uncreated light and carried up,' these passionate gazes at the Cross of Christ, at the wounds of Christ, and at different parts of His Body, this forced evoking of bloody spots on her own body, and so on, and so forth? Finally, Christ embraces Angela with His arm which was nailed to the Cross, and she, outside herself with languor, torment, and happiness, says, "Sometimes, from this close embrace, it seems to my soul that it goes into the side of Christ. And the joy that it obtains there, and the light, cannot be retold. They are so great that sometimes I could not stand on my feet, but lay there, unable to speak... and my limbs would go numb."[6]
Another outstanding feature of Catholic sanctity is Catherine of Sienna (fourteenth century), raised by Pope Paul VI to the highest rank of saint—"Doctor of the Church." I will read a few notes about her taken from the Catholic book by Antonio Sicari, Portraits of Saints,[7] published in Russian. These citations (emphasized by me) require no comment.
Catherine was about twenty years old. "She felt that a decisive turnaround should happen in her life, and she continued piously praying to her Lord Jesus, repeating that beautiful, tender formula, which became customary to her: 'Unite with me by marriage in faith!'"
"One day Catherine had a vision: her divine Bridegroom, embracing her, drew her to Himself, but then took her heart out of her chest in order to give her another heart, more resembling His own."
One day, they said that she died. "She herself later said that her heart was torn by the force of divine love, that she had gone through death, and 'had seen the heavenly gates. But "Return, My child," said the Lord to me, "You need to return… I will bring you to the princes and rulers of the Church." "And the humble girl began to send her epistles throughout the whole world—long letters, which she dictated with amazing speed, often three or four at a time, and for various reasons, so that the secretaries could not keep up."
"In Catherine's letters the repeated and insistent use of the phrase, 'I want' particularly stands out." "Some say that in an ecstatic state, she even addressed the insistent words 'I want' to Christ."
From her correspondence with Pope Gregory XI, who she had convinced to return from Avignon to Rome: "I tell you from the name of Christ … I tell you, father, in Jesus Christ… Answer the call of the Holy Spirit which has addressed you."
She writes to the ruler of Milan, "About the Pope, to whom she is entrusted ('even if he were the devil in the flesh, I should not lift my head against him.')"
"To the King of France she writes: 'Do God's will, and my will.'"
No less telling are the "revelations" given to the "Doctor of the Church," Teresa of Avila (sixteenth century) also made known by Pope Paul VI. Before her death, she exclaims, "O my God, my Spouse, finally I shall see You!" This exceedingly strange exclamation is not accidental. It is the logical result of Teresa's whole "spiritual" exercise, the essence of which is revealed in the following fact.
She was so caught up in her "revelations," that she did not see the devil's delusion even in such an outrageous vision as the one cited below. (The Valaam elder, Schema-Abbot John, assessed her spiritual state as follows: "Instead of deification [theosis], a passionate person will become a dreamer, like the Catholic Teresa."[8])
After his many appearances, "Christ" says to Teresa, "From this day forward, you shall be My spouse… From now on, I am not only your Creator and God, but also your Spouse"[9] "Lord, that I either suffer with You, or die for You!" prayed Teresa and fell down, writes D. Merezhovsky, "in exhaustion from these caresses…" (I cannot cite any more.) It is no wonder, therefore, when Teresa admits, "My Beloved calls my soul with such a penetrating whistle, that I cannot but hear it. This call acts upon the soul so that it is exhausted from desire." It is no accident that the famous American psychologist William James assesses her mystical experience as follows: "The main idea of her religion seems to be an amatory flirtation—if one may say so without irreverence—between the devotee and the deity."[10]
Yet another illustration of sanctity in Catholicism is Therese of Lisieux ("The Little Flower," or "Of the Child Jesus"), who, in 1997, the centennial of her repose, was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by the "infallible" decision of Pope John Paul II. Here are several quotes from the spiritual biography of Therese, who only lived to the age of twenty-two, which eloquently witness to her spiritual state (The Story of a Soul [Paris, 1996]).
"During a conversation before my tonsure, I gave a report of the activities I intend to undertake in Carmel. ‘I came to save souls, and first of all, to pray for priests.'” Not having saved herself yet, she came to save others!
She seemingly writes about her unworthiness, but then adds, '"I always harbor the bold hope that I will become a great saint.… I thought that I was born for glory, and sought a path to its accomplishment. And the Lord God … revealed to me that my glory would not be visible to the mortal gaze, and the essence of it consisted in the fact that I would become a great saint!” (See St. Macarius the Great, who was called by his co-ascetics "an earthly god," who only prayed, "God cleanse me a sinner, for I have never done anything good in Thy sight.") Later Theresa writes something even more frank: "In the heart of my Mother the Church I will be Love … then I will be everything … and through this my dream will come true!”
This teaching of Therese's about spiritual love is telling in the extreme. "This was the kiss of love. I felt beloved and said, ‘I love You and entrust myself to You forever.' There was neither forgiveness, nor struggle, nor sacrifice; already, long ago, Jesus and little, poor Theresa looked at each other and understood everything.… This day brought not an exchange of views, but a mingling, when there are no longer two; and Theresa disappeared like a drop of water lost in the depths of the ocean." There is no need to comment on this dreamy romance of a poor girl, who the Catholic Church has—alas! called its "Doctor."
The methodical development of imagination is based in the experience of one of the pillars of Catholic mysticism, the founder of the order of Jesuits and great Catholic saint Ignatius of Loyola (sixteenth century).
His book Spiritual Exercises is a mainstay in Catholic monasteries, and insistently calls upon the Christian to imagine the Holy Trinity and the conversation of the Three Persons, Christ, the Mother of God, the Angels, and so on. This is all categorically forbidden by the saints of the Universal Church. They testify that when an ascetic begins to live in his fantasies, to look at himself in his own "films," and believe them, instead of fulfilling Christ's commandments and struggling with his passions, he comes to complete spiritual and emotional disturbance.
The authoritative collection of ascetical writings of the ancient Church, The Philokalia, decisively forbids such "spiritual exercises." Here are few quotes from that book.
St. Neilos of Sinai (fifth century) warns, "Do not desire to physically see the Angels or Powers, or Christ, that you may not lose your mind from accepting a wolf instead of a shepherd, and worshipping our adversaries, the demons."[11]
St. Symeon the New Theologian (ninth century), discusses those who while praying, "imagine heavenly blessings, the ranks of angels, or habitations of the saints," stating plainly that "this is a sign of prelest (delusion)." "They are deluded who are on that path, who see light with their physical eyes, smell fragrances with their sense of smell, hear voices with their ears, and suchlike."[12]
How right was that nobleman (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote about him), who, when seeing the Catholic book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis (fifteenth century) in his daughter's hands, tore it away from her, saying, "Stop playing romance with God." The examples cited above leave no doubt as to the reasonableness of these words. It is a great misfortune that in Catholicism, as we can see, people have ceased to differentiate between the spiritual and the emotional, sanctity and fantasy. This is the greatest calamity that can befall any Christian Church.
Notes:
1. M.V. Lodyzhensky, Unseen Light (St. Petersburg, 1915) 109.
2. St. Francis of Assisi. Works (Moscow, Franciscan publishers: 1995) 20; 145.
3. Lodyzhensky, 129.
4. Ibid., 133.
5. The Revelations of Blessed Angela (Moscow, 1918).
6. A. F. Losev, Sketch of Ancient Symbolism and Mythology (Moscow, 1930) 1:867–868.
7. Antonio Siccari, Portraits of Saints, (Milan, 1991).
8. Valaam Elder Schema-Abbot John (Alexeyev), Letters on the Spiritual Life (Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, 2007), 268.
9. D. C. Merezhkovsky, Spanish Mystics (Brussels, 1988), 88.
10. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2004), 304.
11. St. Neilos of Sinai, "153 Chapters On Prayer,"chap. 115, The Philokalia, 5:2 (Moscow, 1884), 237.
12. St. Symeon the New Theologian, "On Three Kinds of Prayer," The Philokalia (Moscow, 1900), 463–464.
Source: An excerpt from the article "Why Are We Orthodox?".
In his book, "The Diary of a Russian Priest", Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, a Russian Orthodox priest advised other Russians to read the works of Saint Thérèse as well as mentions St. Francis.
ReplyDeleteIn her book, "Light before Dusk", Helen Iswolsky describes the devotion among Russian Orthodox Christians to Saint Thérèse and the miracles received through her intercession.
Also, the Monks of New Skete have icons of Saints Francis and Clare in their chapel.
But, Gustavo, is this a good thing?
ReplyDeleteI am certainly doing things that I think are right, though perhaps I do not know of yet, for my own spirituality and of course, they are not good for me. These sorts of things are pointed out by my spiritual betters, especially my spiritual father and I try to correct them. I will not comment on the character of these monks or priests but whatever sanctity lies outside the Orthodox Church is not for us as examples, or so I would say. My inability to differentiate between wheat and chaff makes me look more and more at the holiness of the saints in the Orthodox Church rather than trying to (and most certainly failing at) discerning what sanctity lies outside the Church. That is God's prerogative, not mine.
John
Funny this story also recommended the story of Sts. Sophia, Faith, Hope, and Love, the later 3 of which were consecrated as brides of Christ by their mother! Maybe Alexei did not know of their story like you obviously do?
ReplyDeleteI caution that it may be regrettable to draw specific conclusions from the individual words of these heretical "saints," since almost always an Orthodox martyr or other saint can be referenced, who said the same things. A considerable number of early virgin-martyrs have made statements tantamount to what the heretical persons listed in the article have said about being a bride. It would be regrettable if a pious Orthodox were to embrace this article, then afterwards become disillusioned upon reading the same statements in the lives of Orthodox Saints.
ReplyDeleteBizarre episodes from the life of the "saint" Margaret-Mary Alacoque, which are un-Orthodox and disturbing, might be a better example, if we are looking for blameworthy examples.
I wonder if it might be sufficient to state that pronouncements of these heretical "saints" are ipso facto open to doubts and are questionable. The path declared by the words and lives of the true saints of the Orthodox Church is, by contrast, reliable and sure.
So the essential reactions of the nobleman and of Losev are well and good, but great caution is needed in the expression of our misgivings.
It should be made clear that there is nothing wrong per se with the title "bride of Christ." The delusional aspect is the romantic fantasies of these mystics, and the nature of their "calling" as brides of Christ. This you do not find in Orthodox hagiography. One would only need to compare the life of St. Katherine of Alexandria for example to see the difference, since she is the original "bride" acording to tradition, though her life was written very late.
ReplyDeleteLest I confuse anyone by my last comment, I should point out further that St Katherine of Alexandria, the original "bride", did not gain that title until the 15th century in manuscripts. And those manuscripts are not Orthodox, but it is first mentioned in the version of her life written by Jean Mielot at the request of Philip the Good of Burgundy.
ReplyDeleteThe author of the article failed to mention the episode from the Assis's life when he made one of his disciples to drag him along the steets for a great public show about how sinful he (Francis) was. This is nothing less than delusion. False pitey we see here = delusion = subjection to the Proud One (the Evil One) = false church.
ReplyDeleteMore on St Katherine of Alexandria and her "mystical marriage" can be read here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sacred-texts.com/journals/oc/pc-sca1.htm
There is a lot of delusional statements and actions in the writings of these mystics that can be included in volumes.
ReplyDeleteFor example, another interesting piece can be read about Thérèse of Lisieux that I read yesterday where she prays to the Holy Virgin that she wished she could have killed Muslims and heretics in the Inquisition (and this may include Orthodox): "0 Mother, how gladly I would have fought in the Crusades or later against the heretics."
Of course, this is not to deny that there are also some good things that can be useful for Orthodox, but this can be said about any non-Orthodox writings.
What do you think of some of the English mystics,as Julian of Norwich etc?
ReplyDeleteAs with most mystics, Julian's odd visions were received in a time of illness. She had semi-gnostic tendencies. She was extreme in her desire to suffer, with such quotes as: "I wanted to have every kind of pain, bodily and spiritual, which I should have if I died, every fear and temptation from devils, and every other kind of pain except the departure of the spirit." Sure some Church Fathers prayed for temptations when they had attained a state where they felt they were not progressing spiritually, but this was never for the sake of suffering, but to be humbled at a time of pride when they felt the possibility of falling into delusion themselves. I personally don't like how she often talks about the Holy Trinity as "mother" either. Her writings are more emotional than spiritual, which is something often confused by the Catholic mystics. Her so-called revelations also showed that there was really no hell, so in the end all will be saved.
ReplyDeleteIt's understandable that you Orthodox folks would look askance at some of these Catholic Saints but it seems like parts of the article simply pull quotes out of their writings and than judge their sanctity based on that. Just because St. Therese said that she wanted to be there with the Crusaders or that she wished to save souls doesn't mean that those particular statements in and of themselves disqualify them from being Saints.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is understandable that the Crusaders actions towards Orthodox was regrettable, it is hard for me to see how a little French Carmelite would have know that or, has she know how cruel they were, would have said such a thing. As for her saying she wanted to "save souls", after all, what is so wrong with that? Surely she didn't mean that she herself had any power to do so, but her intention was to live a life of heroic virtue and pray for God to save those souls.
For the record though, some of these people like Catherine of Siena even I as a Catholic have sort of steered clear from. As a Catholic, I wish Gregory Palamas were looked at seriously on my side. It is regrettable that to my knowledge he is not really recognized as a Saint. The whole Energies/Essences distinction just makes sense to me and Catholic Church, in my opinion at least, should look at it. Then again I might simply be drifting more towards becoming Orthodox myself.
I think "methodical development of the imagination" is the main problem. Prayer is to be without images and the mind is to be formless.
ReplyDeleteIs the "Spiritual Exercises" really a mainstay in Catholic monasteries?
Visions such as "seeing the Trinity" are obviously delusional.
Justin, Palamas apparently is recognized: The Catholic Cult of St. Gregory Palamas
ReplyDeleteOn that link you posted, I found this:
ReplyDelete"Since the learned Cardinal +Slipyj was unfailingly loyal to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, he must have had reliable evidence that St. Gregory abandoned his schismatic, anti-Filioque, anti-papacy stances before he died, or else Palamas could not be a saint,{6} since he had, for a time, knowingly and deliberately rejected the Catholic dogma of Filioque.{7} While this might not seem plausible to the Orthodox, I trust in the scholarship of righteous Cardinal +Slipyj and the acceptance of his findings by the Magisterium."
Not plausible, indeed...
John
Following up a little later after the fact, I would like to add my view as a former papist converted to Orthodoxy. The purpose of our lives is repentence. Nothing else can help us. Repentence means looking within ourselves and evaluating our state of soul. It is essential in understanding what that means. We are seperated from God because we are born in a state of disunion from God. Our disconnection from God is our state of self-will. Anyone that expresses a state of their own will againts God, no matter whether it seems like a sacrifice or self-torture, is fulfilling their own will. It becomes a fantasy. Anyone who lives a serious Orthodox life will know that the essence of living for Christ is denying oneself. That means that it's a painful process. That means that what we want for ourselves is not true to God. That is the essential aspect of truly living for God; we have to give up what we want and are comfortable with. Why? Because we have become a victim of human reasoning. And that is the essence of our weakness. We reason about our circumstances and make compromises. The papist saints all had an aspect of pride in the form of humility. From all I've read of the Orthodox saints, they never showed a view of self-righteousness in their faith. They just showed faith with a sincere sense of repentence.
ReplyDelete"[Julian of Norwich] was extreme in her desire to suffer...Sure some Church Fathers prayed for temptations when they had attained a state where they felt they were not progressing spiritually, but this was never for the sake of suffering, but to be humbled at a time of pride when they felt the possibility of falling into delusion themselves."
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree! St. John of the Ladder's account of the Prison shows many monks suffering, indeed with a great desire to suffer and to be destroyed. They often asked for their remains to be torn apart by dogs or discarded into the sea without proper burial, thus taking their disgrace beyond even this life. Now I would certainly take issue with a lot of this, because to me it seems to contradict the notion that salvation is for our bodies as well and that the body is in the image of God and must be treated with respect and reverence, hence why we do not burn bodies in the Church. But if I'm going to do that then I have to be willing that admit that perhaps St. John was wrong in his positive assessment of everything going on in the Prison. No saint is infallible, so there's no real issue for me. But the Prison does fit in with the assertion that the Orthodox path emphasizes one's only unworthiness rather than a delusional self-importance and presumption on the part of the Christian.
Redemptive suffering and the fundamental call of the Christian to die with Christ, even unto martyrdom as the faith's ultimate expression is a core value of the Christian faith. So I don't feel that the quote you've provided by Julian of Norwich is particularly contrary to want we would find with any number of Orthodox saints. I have personally read many accounts of Orthodox elders who prayed to be stricken with cancer or some mental illness so that they might suffer with Christ, and when they were given such a sickness they glorified God. Again, this might be some delusional strain within Orthodox that should be quashed, but I really don't know for certain. I guess we have to balance the desire to imitate Christ and to be so hated by this world that they kill us with the desire to experience God's healing hand on us and on the cosmos. There is something wrong with sickness and illness, as they are products of the fall, and Christ made his power known by healing sicknesses. So in some ways it seems nonsensical to pray for sicknesses when it seems that God's ultimate desire is to restore all things and to make them whole again. Sickness and death are products of sin, so to pray for sickness in order to suffer as Christ did seems contradictory and incorrect. Christ did not suffer from a physical ailment, but rather from the world's hatred because of his righteousness. We are called to perfectly incarnate and imitate the love that he displayed, and when we do this is will naturally follow that the world will hate us and we will suffer.
All of that to say that I am simply pointing out that there are many elements in Orthodox piety through the centuries into the present time which affirm a desire to suffer ailments, and the rest is just my own immediate and unfiltered reflections for considerations. If one is going to make a case against the post-schism Latin saints, I think one can make a better case by focusing specifically on the sentimentality which came to dominate occidental piety. It has a direct connection to the Reformation and the turns in American Christian piety toward a sentimental "personal Jesus", et cetera.
To touch on the other problematic aspect of the article, as other have noted, there is no real grounds to criticize the use of the "spousal" language with Christ by Theresa of Avila, as Orthodoxy is also full of such potentially erotic imagery, as it is derived from Holy Scripture and thus common to all of Christendom: Christ as the Bridegroom coming in at midnight to consummate the marriage bed, the Songs of Solomon, and even the words of the prophets of the Old Covenant describe God and fidelity to him in sexual/marital terms.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Alveus -
ReplyDeleteThe papist view of holiness is based on human reasoning which creates much contradictions in their minds. The Orthodox saints that did live in extreme circumstances and requested their bodies to be thrown to dogs or what have you were living in a state of theosis that we (not being in that state) cannot comprehend, so their (saints) comments are construed incorrectly. Also, we cannot stop here, but must provide the full scope of the situation. The monks never fulfilled their requests, but did perform funeral services with great honour. The saints' aversion to anything physical, including their bodies, was based on their great humility because of their close spiritual proximity to God inwhich they saw man's fallen state in its entire truth. So it's not that they despised the body which God created, but that they despised the corrupted state of the body.
The "core value of the Christian faith" is to repent and to have sin die in us. We are not living the natural state that God created for us – state of Adam and Eve. And we don't have to go through martyrdom (dying for Christ's sake) to reach a true union with God. Many Orthodox saints didn't meet a martyr's death. But, they did suffer the flesh (which includes above all self-will) and lived a daily martyr's condition of self-denial.
"I have personally read many accounts of Orthodox elders who prayed to be stricken with cancer or some mental illness so that they might suffer with Christ, and when they were given such a sickness they glorified God."
Where have you read that? Cancer is a disease that will kill the body. Any true Orthodox monk would pray to be given more time to repent. The saints did ask for physical ailments in order to kill whatever particular sin they were suffering under, but not a deadly disease. And what Orthodox monk would ask for mental illness when the point of repentance to God is based on having a strong mental clarity that can focus in prayer. Mental illness is a form of insanity. And you mention "suffer with Christ" again. NOBODY can suffer with Him. He is God and we can never have the same suffering. That's where the papist pseudo-saints show their pride. They wanted to feel as important as Christ and THAT is blasphemy. That's what brought Lucifer down.
" I guess we have to balance the desire to imitate Christ and to be so hated by this world that they kill us with the desire to experience God's healing hand on us and on the cosmos." - You're totally off track on that.
"So in some ways it seems nonsensical to pray for sicknesses when it seems that God's ultimate desire is to restore all things and to make them whole again."
With your above examples, I would certainly say that they are not an Orthodox example as far as what the saints showed. But, another factor that papists miss is that the ailments the saints suffered were in order to suffer the body so that the soul may grow stronger. Man cannot serve God and Mamman. We live in a state of the body(including the mind) which is superior to the natural state of the soul. When the body is weakened in suffering, but not in loss of life, the soul can become stronger. That's why we fast too – we deny our physical inclinations for the sake of God. "God's ultimate desire" is that we repent and make our will His will. The Canon of Repentance is an excellent example of how we should view ourselves.
"Sickness and death are products of sin, so to pray for sickness in order to suffer as Christ did seems contradictory and incorrect."
Again, we don't "suffer as Christ did". Are you the Creator that you can suffer as Christ did? That is the biggest papist theological misconception. That is the biggest error of the papist pseudo-saints. That is the biggest state of pride.
God can write straight with crooked lines.
ReplyDeleteSt. Francis' inspiration was about a democratic view of all mankind. His excesses, which he confessed at the last, were those of the Middle Ages. I would not draw too many conclusions from the writings of his promoters after his death.
In the Psalms God is said to be the father of orphans, the husband of widows. The restoration of Eden in the soul is part of Heaven. Although sexual love and delights are part of youth, I don't see why Jesus couldn't reward with a restored Genesis those who give all to Him...why should that bother any wholesome person without a dirty mind? He promised to wipe every single tear.
While I agree that picking and choosing pain is not only unwholesome but also a mockery of those who have no choice, many of such saints were part of the culture of their day and motivated by Love for God and the desire to please.
The greatest pleasure we can give God is meek and humble acceptance of the daily life He sends..."the just live by faith". There are so many jokes about religious people fasting and beating themselves, then being sensitive over the slightest contradiction or insult. Some are Yiddish jokes...I guess they got that told years ago!
I disagree with the view this article gives to St. Francis. If he had psychic illness, the Orthodox Saints have as well... They're very similar in their experiences.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this blog.