Shroro

The Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest - August, 2005

Reacting to the World Like the Saints of Old

By John Arnold

The Church throughout history, and in modern times has known periods of great wealth and power, unfortunately along with this, it has also brought corruption and spiritual degradation. The Byzantine empire, for example, was extremely rich and extremely powerful, it was also extremely corrupt and violent and the spiritual life was less than stellar. It was out of this atmosphere that St. Anthony sold all that he had, gave the money to the poor and moved out into the desert to commune with God.

But this is not limited to Byzantium, Rome has also seen great wealth and power, and likewise this brought with it corruption, violence (the Crusades) and spiritual degradation, but out of this grew the movement of (St.) Francis of Assisi who through his poverty and ascetic spirituality was able to revolutionize the Roman church and bring about a massive spiritual transformation, the effects of which can even be seen today, although quite faded.

We should not think however that this is limited to the ancient past. Today, especially in the Byzantine and Roman Churches, we see Bishops and Priests as well as lay people who are doing very well financially, while their Churches are falling into spiritual malaise. I have seen many from very poor dioceses living like kings and princes, being chauffered in new black Cadillacs, living in three and four story mansions and enjoying all the finest that the world has to offer materially, yet they wonder why people are complaining about a lack of spirituality amongst the priesthood and the episcopacy and why they go from spiritual father to spiritual father searching for holiness. I'm not saying that holiness isn't present in the clergy or laity; it's just very hard to find individuals who have not succumbed to the temptation to live a modern materialistic existence, rather I think they are sacrificing their spiritual responsibilities in pursuit of life's comforts.

This materialism cannot be blaimed on the Bishops or Priests or the Church, that is our fault. We live to accumulate more and more stuff, to own the latest technology, to drive the hot SUV, to wear the latest fashion trends, and yet where are we spiritually? Many view the Church as a "cultural club" or worse, a kind of masonic lodge, where connections are made to further their own narrow self-interests. We like Anthony and Francis need to move into the spiritual desert, not that we must all sell everything and go live as hermits in the desert or holy beggars on the streets, although the ideas behind monastic life are essential for every Christian, namely regular prayer, fasting, confession, and learning to keep our minds on Christ at all times, and not on our bills, or God forbid, what kind of car of DVD player we should buy. We need to reassess our priorities:

1. Why do we go to Church?
2. Are we living in a way that fosters spiritual life? Do we keep the fasts and pray during the Mass? Do we only attend on Sundays (or Easter and Christmas?)?
3. Is Church just a cultural club? Or a place where we hang with friends?
4. Is it just something you do because mom and dad did (do) it?
5. Do you ever read the Bible (or Lives of Saints) outside of Church?
6. Are we involved in ethnic or other rivalries?
7. Is the State of your soul the most important thing to you?

The point of going to Church to win our salvation and to live in loving union with God. This means that we must take our spiritual lives very seriously. We need to pray and develop our prayer, we need to fast when the Church (and our spiritual father) prescribes, We need to confess our sins to the priest and seek their advice for our spiritual guidance.