Mission Monthly – March 2004
“Let yourself die in striving rather than living in laziness. For those who die trying to keep the commandments are martyrs just as much as those who died for Christ’s faith.”
Saint Maximus the Confessor
Persecution may be a word more difficult to define than we think. Most Orthodox Christians are aware of the persecutions that occurred in the first three centuries of the Church’s history. Fewer are aware of the various theological persecutions that arose while the Church made Her way through the Age of the Ecumenical Councils. [For example, the St. Maximus mentioned above had his tongue cut out and his right hand cut off while defending the Church against the Monothelite heresy. As defended by St. Maximus, the Orthodox Church teaches that Jesus not only has two natures, both divine and human, He also has two wills, both divine and human.] Most Orthodox Christians (especially those of “Byzantine” heritage) are aware of the oppression and persecution the Church endured when the Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century; and I would hope that the vast majority of Orthodox Christians are aware of the great holocaust the Russian Orthodox Church bore under Communism for most of the 20th century.
There are some places today, Indonesia being one, where being a Christian could very well lead to death. Fr. Daniel Byantoro is a former Muslim from Indonesia who, to his peril, converted to Orthodox Christianity. While he is finishing a Doctoral studies program at Ohio State University it is my hope to have him visit our parish that we might hear directly from a man living under the threat of violence and death for his faith. In this country, however, Christians are not under the threat of physical violence or death for their faith in Jesus Christ.
The question I would pose here is, do we as Orthodox Christians of today feel or sense any kind of “persecution” from the freedom and relative ease of life with which we live here in America? Persecuted by freedom? One would hardly think so. This, however, is an argument that I am ready to pose because of the opportunity of choice that freedom affords her constituents. We are constituents of freedom, and unless a man is governed by any sort of moral or faith boundaries then his choices are really only restricted by opportunity, time or by what he can afford financially. Since most of us are educated and sophisticated enough to seek and find the opportunity, time and money to meet any need we may perceive in ourselves, what is it that is going to restrain us in our freedom when we are faced with ethical and moral temptations? Here, beloved, is our persecution: we live in a society that prides itself as free, but when this freedom includes choice without restraint, or when there is only a remnant of a common understanding of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, true vs. false, then a free society is persecuting itself by a confusion of values, and ultimately by the very freedom upon which it stands.
I heard on the radio today that the Freedom from Religion Foundation has won another case to have a placard of the Ten Commandments removed from public grounds in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. No, we are not being persecuted like Christians in Indonesia but we are being persecuted as our Christian way of life is ridiculed and marginalized by political correctness, by homosexual claims of discrimination, by those who claim that a woman’s right to choose is a “self-evident” entitlement, by those who place value on human life based on usefulness or accomplishment, even by those who say you will find fulfillment in another drink or in the next bed you sleep in. Has man triumphed in the glory of his freedom? Hardly! Man has been seduced and vanquished in the consumption of his own freedom.
St. Maximus calls those who simply try to keep the commandments “martyrs”. In our day, this is so true! St. Maximus lost his tongue and right hand defending Jesus. Keep the commandments? No wonder Christians are marginalized—many Orthodox Christians can’t even get to Liturgy on time! What then are we to do? I believe we need to admit to the difficulty of living even the most basic of Christian lives and then do something about it! The Church challenges us much more than just to “be a good person and try not to hurt anyone.” Each Lenten season is a new beginning to put more effort into the basics of our Orthodoxy. For example, enter into worship more than just on Sunday and be on time; be faithful to daily prayer and scripture reading; practice the fast and address each meal with thankfulness and moderation (without snacking in between!); avoid idle talk and mindless or improper entertainment; practice silence; learn not to respond to passionate impulses; take responsibility when someone is hurt by your words or actions; seek repentance and Confession; love and serve others with humility and joy; live and defend your faith at work, at school, when you are with family or friends and anytime you are tempted to compromise or keep silent. These and many other examples are the martyrdoms of our day. I would choose to live in freedom over any oppressive regime but we have to know that when freedom is coupled with virtually limitless choices and we are not truly ready die by the governing commandments of God we will most certainly die at the brutal hands of our freedom. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matt. 10:28).