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Now, what is wrong with this? Don’t we all believe
that we should allow God to transform us in every aspect of our lives?
Of course we do. The problem is that these Christ-followers, perhaps
with the best of intentions, have asked a false question, set up a false
choice. As Orthodox Christians, we understand that we cannot choose
between “being the Church” and “going to church.” The Church is not only
an invisible, mystical union. It is a physical body of believers, who
are bound together as a holy community in communion with God and His
saints.
While this trend saddens me, it does not surprise me. The temptation of
individualism has a long history, and as we know it is supported in
countless ways by our culture. But the true calling of Christ and His
Church offers us a very different path.
There is a Greek word that contains the essence of this truth. That word
is koinonia. Koinonia means community, in its most profound and
mysterious sense, and it is in community that we find the truth of who
we are and how we should live. It is in God’s community, in koinonia,
that we find our life as persons.
Orthodox Christianity offers us an alternative to the isolation of
individualism – it offers us true personhood. What does this mean? What
is the difference between individualism and personhood? The great
Orthodox teacher Bishop Kallistos Ware gives us an eloquent answer: “The
human person is created for relationship.” True personhood is not found
in individuals – it is found in community.
At the heart of this teaching is our affirmation that we are created in
the image of God. And as Christians, we proclaim that when we say “God,”
we mean the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We understand
that God Himself is not in isolation. “God is love,” we read in 1 John
4:8. God is love because God Himself is community. Bishop Kallistos goes
on to say, “God is not a unit, but a union. God is love in the sense of
shared love, the mutual love of three Persons in one. God is shared
love, not self-love. God is openness, exchange, solidarity,
self-giving.”
Brothers and sisters, we can only truly understand ourselves, we can
only lay claim to the image of God within us, when we recognize that
like God the truth of our identities are centered in community. The
truth of our very nature demands that we fully embrace our relationships
with others. This is the key to personhood according to the Trinitarian
image. Not isolated self-awareness, but relationship in mutual love.
Remember the words of Christ in His prayer to the Father at the Last
Supper: “That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in
You; that they also may be one in Us.” The mutual love of the Holy
Trinity is the model for our human personhood. We are here on earth to
reproduce within time the love that passes in eternity between Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
How different this understanding of life is from the thin gruel offered
by the cult of individualism. But still, we all feel the call of
selfishness, of putting ourselves first. This shouldn’t surprise us.
Like I said, the temptation of individualism has a long history—in fact,
it goes all the way back to our beginnings. The essence of the fall of
Adam and Eve in Paradise was the rejection of relationship. When God
asked Adam if he had eaten the fruit of the tree, what did he say? “The
woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And what did Eve say? “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Adam and Eve
each chose to think only of themselves, of their own needs. They each
chose selfishly, and sought to place the blame for their act on someone
else.
But we have received a different invitation. God is asking us to join
with others, and with himself, in holy fellowship—to come alongside our
fellow believers and dedicate ourselves to training in the life of
Christ.
Of course, there is one great challenge in living as part of a
community. Can you guess what it is? That’s right—other people! Why is
it so tempting for us to isolate ourselves, to avoid church, to want to
flee from any relationship that might make demands on us? Because when
we become involved with others, we will be hurt. There’s no getting away
from it. Relationship means pain. It means people will hurt us, and we
will hurt them.
C. S. Lewis put it well:
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will
certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of
keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an
animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid
all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your
selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it
will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable,
impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to
the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where
you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell.
If you believe you can protect yourself from pain by holding back, by
not engaging with others, you are lying to yourself. We must engage, we
must commit, we must come together. We must love. And we will all suffer
for it, and cause suffering to others. If you want to live, there is no
other way.
We can begin by getting anything that might hinder this bonding out in
the open. Forgiveness isn’t just about saying the words, or going
through the motions. And it isn’t about excusing or justifying someone’s
actions, pretending that they didn’t really cause you pain. True
forgiveness means recognizing that someone has sinned against you, and
choosing to love that person anyway.
This is our goal – bringing about the breakthrough of the Kingdom of
Heaven in to our world. This is what God is calling you to be part of.
This is why He wants you to choose to be part of His Church, of this
holy community. Remember the saying: “The only thing we can do alone is
go to hell.” But together, we can transform our lives by transforming
our relationships. We can become more than individuals – we can become
true persons in the image of God. We can become saints. Fr. Alexander
Schmemann once said, “The saint is the only true revolutionary in this
world.”
This reflection is adapted from a speech originally written for Fr.
Christopher Metropulos of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Ft.
Lauderdale, FL, and SCOBA's Orthodox Christian Network. Learn more about
the powerful ministries of OCN on their website, www.myocn.net.
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