Message from Fr. Peter Andronache

Polls show that most Americans do not trust institutions or people in authority. This includes government, churches, teachers, law enforcement, and doctors. Much of that mistrust is understandable, but that does not mean that the environment it creates is good, especially for our spiritual lives. In the previous newsletter I outlined some of the reasons why it is not good to be the judges of our own spiritual lives. These included the temptation of self-justification, the pervasive tendency to relativism (taking “my truth” as the standard, rather than the Truth, the Way and the Life), and the inaccurate view we inevitably hold of ourselves (whether our judgment be too lenient or too harsh).

But Father, some may say, we don’t need to build trust with an actual person – we can read books, listen to sermons, watch YouTube videos. That’s enough. My answer to that is that those can all be good things, but they still don’t make up for having someone trusted in one’s life. Books and videos are intended for a wide audience. There will likely be things for us to learn, but there will be little about how to apply them to our particular circumstances. And even if sermons are directed more closely towards us, we are still liable to miss things that we should pay attention to. There is no one to say, as the bartender said when announcing closing time in 2002 when I was looking for places to watch the World Cup in Japan: “If you think this doesn’t apply to you, it applies to you.”  Seventeen years of sermons have taught me that such a call is needed much more often that we think.

So what is to be done? How do we learn to trust? The first step is to be willing to risk discomfort. This is a rather alien concept today, as illustrated by the following quote from a recent New York Post article about conversions to Orthodoxy:

Conversion means that he now must frequently attend confession, recite prescribed prayers, and endure extreme fasting, sometimes over 40-day stretches. Weekly services are also highly ritualized and regimented, and can last up to two hours. 

My first thought was that our Sunday services are two and a half hours on a regular basis. Presvytera’s was that the writer didn’t talk about Holy Week with the converts mentioned in the article. Snarkiness aside, the quote shows the chasm that exists between the general perception of a good life and the Orthodox life. 

Orthodox life is directed toward the kingdom of heaven. As such, the ultimate goal of our life is not ease and comfort in the present life. Indeed, in the Gospel of Luke the pleasures of life are given as a reason why we do not bear spiritual fruit (cf. Lk. 8:14). Instead, we are called to vigilance and spiritual labor. This is why we are enjoined to pick up our crosses and deny ourselves. This is why it is said that we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” This is why we are reminded that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”

For the purposes of overcoming mistrust and, in particular, finding someone from whom we are willing to accept correction, this means that we need to do two things:

1. Put in the effort to find such a person – someone devoted to Christ, someone who knows and lives within the tradition of the Orthodox Church, someone with some experience in the spiritual struggle, someone whom we can reasonably believe desires our salvation. .

2. Put in the effort to overcome the obstacles that would prevent us from revealing our true selves (as much as we are able to perceive ourselves)  to this person. These obstacles may be physical (e.g., distance, difficulty in communication) or spiritual (e.g., fear, shame, pride, self-righteousness).

I started each of the two points above with “put in the effort” because, especially today, I wanted to underline the fact that the process takes effort. That does not mean it is impossible. We do not need to find a saint, nor someone who reads minds or tells the future. We simply need to find a person of faith and approach them with faith, for when two or three are gathered in Christ’s name, He promised that He would be there. It is Christ who is ultimately the One we trust, but He asks of us the effort, humility, and courage to find someone to trust, someone to guide us. 

In today’s world, most people may be uncorrectable. Orthodox Christians should not be.

With love in Christ
+Fr. Peter