A Homily for the First Sunday of Great Lent: On Orthodoxy

Beloved brethren! It is natural that the beginning of our discourse on the Sunday of Orthodoxy should be the question: What is Orthodoxy?

Orthodoxy is true knowledge of God and true worship of God; Orthodoxy is the worship of God in spirit and truth; Orthodoxy is the glorification of God by true knowledge of Him and worship of Him; Orthodoxy is the glorification by God of man, the true servant of God, by the bestowal upon him of the grace of the All-holy Spirit. The Spirit is the glory of Christians (Jn. 7:39). Where there is no Spirit, there is no Orthodoxy.

There is no Orthodoxy in human teachings and reasonings: in them reigns false-named reason—the fruit of the fall. Orthodoxy is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, given by God to men for salvation. Where there is no Orthodoxy, there is no salvation. “Whoever wishes to be saved must, before all else, hold the Catholic faith, which, unless one preserves whole and undefiled, will perish forever without doubt.”

A precious treasure—the teaching of the Holy Spirit! It has been delivered in Holy Scripture and in Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church. A precious treasure—the teaching of the Holy Spirit! In it lies the pledge of our salvation. Precious, irreplaceable, beyond all comparison for each of us is our blessed lot in eternity: equally precious, equally beyond all price is the pledge of our blessedness—the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

So that the Church might preserve this pledge for us, the holy Church today counts out in all ears those teachings that have been born and issued by Satan, that are the expression of enmity toward God, that threaten our salvation and rob us of it. As of rapacious wolves, as of deadly serpents, as of thieves and murderers, the Church exposes these teachings; guarding us from them and calling out from perdition those deceived by them, it commits these teachings and those who stubbornly cling to them to anathema.

The word “anathema” means excommunication, rejection. When the Church commits a teaching to anathema, this means that the teaching contains blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and must be rejected and eliminated for salvation, as poison is eliminated from food. When a person is committed to anathema—this means that this person has adopted a blasphemous teaching irreversibly, deprives himself and those neighbors to whom he communicates his way of thinking of salvation. When a person resolves to abandon the blasphemous teaching and accept the teaching held by the Orthodox Church, then he is obliged, according to the rules of the Orthodox Church, to commit to anathema the false teaching which he hitherto held and which was destroying him, estranging him from God, keeping him in enmity toward God, in blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, in communion with Satan.

The meaning of anathema is the meaning of spiritual church healing against an illness in the human spirit, which causes eternal death. All human teachings cause eternal death that introduce their own reasoning, drawn from false-named reason, from carnal mindedness, this common possession of fallen spirits and men, into the teaching of God opened by God about God. Human reasoning introduced into the teaching of Christian faith is called heresy, and adherence to this teaching is called wrongbelief.

The Apostle numbers heresies among the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:20). They belong to the works of the flesh by their source, carnal mindedness, which is “death”, which is “hostility to God”, which “does not submit to God’s law, nor can it” (Rom. 8:6–7). They belong to the works of the flesh by their consequences. Alienating the human spirit from God, uniting it with the spirit of Satan by his chief sin—blasphemy—they subject it to enslavement by the passions as abandoned by God, as delivered to its own fallen nature. “Their senseless minds were darkened”, the Apostle says of the wise who turned away from true knowledge of God, “claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images”… “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom. 1:21–26). The passions of impurity are various lewd passions. The conduct of heresiarchs was debauched: Apollinarius had an adulterous connection, Eutyches was especially enslaved to the passion of avarice, Arius was debauched beyond belief. When his hymn, the Thalia, was begun to be read at the First Nicene Council, the Fathers of the Council stopped their ears, refused to hear the foul language that could never enter the mind of a pious man. The Thalia was burned. To the good fortune of Christianity, all copies of it were destroyed: we have only historical knowledge that this composition reeked of wild depravity. Similar to the Thalia are many writings of modern heresiarchs: in them terrible blasphemy is joined and mixed with expressions of terrible, inhuman depravity and blasphemy. Blessed are those who have never heard or read these belchings of hell. In reading them the union of the spirit of heresiarchs with the spirit of Satan becomes evident. Heresies, being a work of the flesh, the fruit of carnal mindedness, were invented by fallen spirits. “Flee from the godless heresies,” says the holy Ignatius the God-bearer, “for they are the invention of the devil, that evil, originless serpent.” This should not be surprising: the fallen spirits descended from the height of spiritual dignity; they fell into carnal mindedness more than men. Men have the possibility of transitioning from carnal mindedness to spiritual mindedness; fallen spirits are deprived of this possibility. Men are not so subject to the strong influence of carnal mindedness because in them natural goodness has not been destroyed, as in spirits, by the fall. In men good is mixed with evil, and therefore is unprofitable; in fallen spirits only evil reigns and acts. Carnal mindedness in the realm of spirits has achieved the broadest, complete development that it can attain. Their chief sin is frenzied hatred of God, expressed in terrible, unceasing blasphemy. They became arrogant above God Himself; the obedience to God, natural to creatures, they transformed into continuous resistance, into irreconcilable enmity. Therefore their fall is deep, and the wound of eternal death with which they are struck is incurable. Their essential passion is pride; they are dominated by monstrous and stupid vainglory; they find enjoyment in all kinds of sin, constantly wallow in them, passing from one sin to another. They crawl in avarice, in gluttony, in fornication. Not having the ability to commit carnal sins bodily, they commit them in fantasy and sensation; they have made the bodiless nature the vices that are proper to the flesh; they have developed in themselves these vices unnatural to them incomparably more than they can be developed among men. “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God… But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.” (Is. 14:12–15, 19).

The fallen spirits, containing within themselves the source of all sins, strive to involve men in all sins with the purpose and desire of their destruction. They involve us in various gratification of the flesh, in covetousness, in love of glory, depicting before us the objects of these passions with the most seductive depiction. In particular, they strive to involve us in pride, from which, as from seeds from plants, there spring up enmity toward God and blasphemy. The sin of blasphemy, which constitutes the essence of every heresy, is the gravest sin, being a sin that properly belongs to rejected spirits and constitutes their most distinctive characteristic. The fallen spirits strive to cover all sins with a respectable mask, called in ascetic patristic writings “justifications.”

They do this for the purpose of making men more easily seduced, more readily consent to the acceptance of sin. In exactly the same way they proceed with blasphemy: they strive to cover it with a magnificent name, pompous eloquence, exalted philosophy. A terrible instrument in the hands of spirits—heresy! They have destroyed through heresy entire nations, imperceptibly stealing from them Christianity, replacing Christianity with blasphemous teaching, adorning the deadly teaching with the name of purified, true, restored Christianity. Heresy is a sin committed chiefly in the mind. This sin, being accepted by the mind, is communicated to the spirit, spreads to the body, defiles our very body, which has the capacity to receive sanctification from communion with Divine grace and the capacity to become defiled and infected by communion with fallen spirits. This sin is little noticeable and little understood by those who do not know Christianity with precision, and therefore easily ensnares in its nets simplicity, ignorance, indifferent and superficial profession of Christianity. Even the venerable John the Hymnographer, Gerasimus of Jordan, and certain other servants of God were at times ensnared by heresy. If holy men, who conducted their lives in exclusive concern for salvation, could not at once understand blasphemy covered by a mask, what shall we say of those who conduct their lives in worldly cares, have insufficient, most insufficient understanding of the faith? How can they recognize deadly heresy when it presents itself to them adorned in the mask of wisdom, righteousness and holiness? Herein lies the reason why entire human societies and entire nations easily inclined under the yoke of heresy. For the same reason, it is very difficult to convert from heresy to Orthodoxy; much more difficult than from unbelief and idolatry. Heresies that approach closer to godlessness are more readily recognized and abandoned than heresies less distant from Orthodox faith, and therefore more covered. The Roman Emperor, equal of the Apostles, the great Constantine, wrote a letter to the holy Alexander, patriarch of Alexandria, exposer of the heresiarch Arius, exhorting him to cease the disputes, disrupting peace over “empty” words. By these words, which were called “empty”, the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ was denied, Christianity was abolished. Thus ignorance, even in a holy man, a zealot of piety, was deceived by the incomprehensible cunning of heresy. Heresy, being a grave sin, a mortal sin, is healed quickly and decisively as a sin of the mind by sincere, whole-hearted commitment of it to anathema. The holy John of the Ladder said: “The holy catholic Church receives heretics when they sincerely commit their heresy to anathema, and immediately deems them worthy of the Holy Mysteries, but those who have fallen into fornication, although they have confessed and abandoned their sin, the Church commands, according to the Apostolic canons, to be excommunicated from the Holy Mysteries for many years.” The impression made by carnal sin remains in man both after confession of sin and after its abandonment; the impression made by heresy is immediately destroyed upon its rejection. Sincere and decisive commitment of heresy to anathema is the remedy that completely and fully frees the soul from heresy. Without this remedy the poison of blasphemy remains in the human spirit and will not cease to shake it with perplexities and doubts produced by the unextinguished sympathy to heresy; thoughts remain that “raise themselves against” the mind of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), making salvation difficult for one held by them, held by disobedience and resistance to Christ, remaining in communion with Satan. The remedy of anathema has always been recognized by the holy Church as necessary against the terrible disease of heresy. When the blessed Theodore, bishop of Cyrrhos, appeared before the Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, desiring to defend himself against accusations brought against him, the Fathers first required of him that he commit to anathema the heresiarch Nestorius. Theodore, rejecting Nestorius, but not so decisively as the Church rejected him, wished to explain himself. The Fathers again required of him that he decisively, without reservations, commit to anathema Nestorius and his teaching. Theodore again expressed the desire to explain himself, but the Fathers again required anathema against Nestorius, threatening otherwise to recognize Theodore himself as a heretic. Theodore pronounced anathema against Nestorius and all the heretical teachings of that time. Then the Fathers glorified God, proclaimed Theodore an Orthodox pastor, and Theodore no longer required explanation, having expelled from his soul the causes that had aroused the need for explanation. Such is the relationship of the human spirit to the terrible disease of heresy.

Having heard today the solemn proclamation of spiritual healing, let us receive it with true understanding and, applying it to our souls, let us sincerely and decisively reject those destructive teachings which the Church will strike with anathema for our salvation. If we have always rejected them, let us be strengthened by the voice of the Church in our rejection of them. The spiritual freedom, lightness, strength, which we shall surely feel in ourselves, will bear witness to us of the correctness of the Church’s action and the truth of the teaching it proclaims.

The Church proclaims: “We bless and praise those who have captivated their reason in obedience to Divine revelation and have contended for it; those who resist the truth, if they have not repented before the Lord, who has waited for their conversion and repentance, if they have not been willing to follow Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the first Church, we excommunicate and anathematize.”

“To those who deny the existence of God and affirm that this world is self-existent, that all happens in it without God’s providence, by chance: anathema.”

“To those who say that God is not spirit but matter, who also do not recognize Him as righteous, merciful, wise, all-knowing, and who utter such blasphemies: anathema.”

“To those who dare to affirm that the Son of God is not of one substance and not of equal honor with the Father, and also the Holy Spirit, and who do not confess that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God: anathema.”

“To those who allow themselves to say that for our salvation and cleansing from sins, the coming into the world of the Son of God in the flesh, His voluntary sufferings, death, and resurrection were not necessary: anathema.”

“To those who do not receive the grace of redemption preached by the Gospel as the sole means of our justification before God: anathema.”

“To those who dare to say that the Most Pure Virgin Mary was not a Virgin before the Nativity, in the Nativity, and after the Nativity: anathema.”

“To those who do not believe that the Holy Spirit enlightened the prophets and Apostles, through them revealed to us the true path to salvation, attesting it by miracles, and that He even now dwells in the hearts of the faithful and true Christians, guiding them into all truth: anathema.”

“To those who deny the immortality of the soul, the end of the age, the future judgment, and eternal reward for virtues in heaven and condemnation for sins: anathema.”

“To those who reject the sacraments of the holy Church of Christ: anathema.”

“To those who reject the Councils of the holy Fathers and their Tradition, which accords with Divine revelation and is piously preserved by the Orthodox Catholic Church: anathema.”58

Divine Truth became incarnate so that He might save us, who are lost through the acceptance and assimilation of deadly falsehood. “If you abide in my word”, – she says, – if you receive my teaching and remain faithful to it, “you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (Jn 8:31–32) Only he who resolutely rejects, and will continually reject, all teachings devised and being devised by fallen spirits and men, teachings hostile to the teaching of Christ, to the teaching of God, threatening its wholeness and inviolability, can remain faithful to the teaching of Christ. The revealed teaching of God is preserved in unviolated wholeness solely and exclusively in the bosom of the Orthodox Eastern Church. Amen.

The Symbol of the Holy Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria. The Psalter with Interpretation

The Ladder. Homily 1

Life of Venerable Ephrem the Syrian

Fleury. Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 2, bk. 27, ch. 28

Ibid. Vol. 1, bk. 10, ch. 36 and bk. 11

First Epistle to the Galatians

Holy Ignatius the God-bearer. Epistle to the Philippians

Holy Basil the Great calls the fallen spirit the father of passionate fleshly infirmities. Prayers from Defilement, Canon-book

Venerable Abba Dorotheus. Instruction on Not Following One’s Own Judgment

Fleury. Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 1, bk. 10, ch. 42

“The Ladder”, Homily 15, Ch. 47

Canon 6 of the Council of Laodicea

Fleury. History of Christianity. Vol. 2, bk. 20, ch. 24

Service for Orthodoxy Sunday