Mount Zion Ryan

and not like that Publican.

I’ve heard more than one person on my OXWOMS group say something like “Thank God I’m Orthodox,” and, although they didn’t say it, the implication was “…and not like those other Christians.”

It immediately brings to mind the parable/story of the Publican and the Pharisee.

9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18: 9-14)

There are ubiquitous pitfalls when converting to Orthodoxy and Phariseeism is certainly a common one. Archbishop Averky, of ROCOR,

clearly saw the two dangerous extremes in church life today, both of which involve ‘playing a role’ and not letting Orthodoxy penetrate deeply into the heart: on the one hand are the ecumenists, playing the “role” of brotherly-love at any price, no matter how great are the compromises demanded of them; and on the other, the elitists, playing the “role” of knowing better than anyone what Orthodoxy is, of constantly correcting and belittling all that do not agree with their “party.” These are the ones, Archbishop Averky explained, that act as though there is no one to defend the Church but themselves, and to defend it they adopt or borrow quite worldly elements and passions “which are hostile to the Church and will rather hasten its fall.”

How to avoid either extreme? First, we can avoid the ecumenist pitfall simply by “standing fast in the truth”: “wherever the inherited spiritual link of grace going back to the holy Apostles and their successors, the Apostolic men and Holy Fathers, has been broken, wherever various innovations have been introduced in faith and morals with the aim of ‘keeping in step with the times,’ of ‘progressing, ‘ of not getting out of date and of adapting to the demands and fashions of this world.., there can be no talk of the True Church.”

Secondly, in order to avoid formalism and phariseeism we must keep in mind that we Orthodox Christians of the last times “have neither the strength nor the authority to stop Apostasy, as Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) stresses: ‘Do not attempt to stop it with your weak hand.., But what then should we do? ‘Avoid it, protect yourself from it. and that is enough for you. Get to know the spirit of the times, study it so that you can avoid its influence whenever possible.”

We converts have a tendency to try and be most “orthodoxyist” Orthodox, which is sad. Fr. Thomas Hopko talked about this is one of his lectures (On Loving God). Fr. Thomas said he asked Elder Paisios about whether we should be “accommodating” and truncate the services or rigidly adhere to the Tradition. The elder said, “It doesn’t matter. You do what the people need to move closer to God.” [My horrible paraphrase, the original is much more interesting. Thanks to Karl for the fact checking]

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