Mission Monthly – February 2000
“Whoever seeks eternal blessedness and desires it and strives to reach it will despise everything temporal, lest while seeking the temporal he be deprived of the eternal.”
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
Challenging words like these are always difficult to read. Is it sensible, normal or even possible to “despise everything temporal”? After all, didn’t God create the world for us to “till” and “fill”?
The key to understanding sayings like these, I believe, begins with a basic surrender to the teachings about the fall of Adam. In brief this means that we accept the consequence and condition of man’s fallen nature and his inability to naturally discern or act upon the will of God. When sharing the Orthodox Christian understanding of the inherent dangers associated with worldly pursuits most think it’s just weird; others go so far as to label it morbid. But what is so weird or morbid about taking caution when approaching the desires of the heart? There are so many pitfalls, both within ourselves and within the contexts in which we live, that who among us is bold enough to proclaim themselves perfectly able avoid the lure of materialism in this life? The question is, can we trust ourselves and our ability to make godly choices? Orthodox tradition has a very clear saying about this; “Any man who guides his own way has a fool for a guide.” Which brings us back to our original problem: if virtually every aspect of this life is temporary how can I despise this great gift, especially if I believe that it has been given by God Himself?
Human beings certainly are strangely confident when it comes to the praise of reason and self-determination. How easy it is to approach God when we want or “need” something. How quickly we can turn away from God even at the hint of disappointment or suffering. How cold we can become and how long it can take us to recover when our world is shaken, our agendas inconvenienced or our obedience challenged. These are sure signs that the treasures of our hearts are mislaid and that we are in need of repentance to regain our core eternal desire. As Orthodox Christians we affirm that the world is good as are the blessings of this life, but the fallen condition has restrictions, even on that which is good. Why else would the Lord Himself tell us, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matt. 7:14)?
Fr. Thomas Hopko explains that if we ever hope to have any confidence that our eternal desires are firmly established we must first have “courage to allow the Lord to speak, or rather, to hear the Lord when He speaks, and to follow Him.” He then goes on to say, “This is also quite painful. Our own will has to go. Our egocentric desires have to be denied. Our ideas about ourselves have to be abandoned. Our personal plans and projects have to be disguarded. Our agendas of action have to be thrown away. We have to say to God, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is ready.’ We have to respond to God, ‘Let it be to me according to Your word.’ And we have to mean it! If we do we will find our way. But if we fight it, and keep craving the [temporary], we will be miserable and unhappy. For the heart of the human person is made for God—for truth, for love, for life itself—and is inevitably unsatisfied, frustrated, confused, distressed, angered, bored, until it comes to rest in Him.”
How blessed it must be to rest in God, beginning with our willingness to first let go of all that is temporary and anything that may tempt us to idolatry. Beloved in Christ, it is always time to search for that which may be hindering our eternal blessedness. May God grant us this knowledge and the desire for repentance that today we may learn how to enjoy only that which is True and today prepare for our own entry into the blessed, eternal rest of the saints.