A Western Catholic Commentary.
I am a Western (Latin) Rite Old Catholic bishop, and a friend of Ken's -- who is small church Orthodox.
+S.B.Bassett
Mar Kenat'el Huffman (priestly1.1@juno.com) wrote:
In the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, Spiritual Life,
Growth and Maturity (i.e. perfection) is understood in the Mystical (i.e. Sacramental) sense, and not in the Protestant Reformed (Mainline Denominations & Pentecostal/Charismatic sects) external and subjective sense.Indeed -- and Western Catholic thought is much closer to the Orthodox than to the Protestant view, and especially differs from the Calvinist.
The West tends to be less overtly Mystical than Orthodoxy -- in that we tend to follow Thomas Aquinas' Aristotelian formulation of the faith, which is excessively rationalistic. At base, however, we have to admit that the Faith is a Mystery, and there are propositions which must be
accepted as Revealed Faith, which totally resist logical analysis.
The Trinity is perhaps the largest of these -- it simply defies rationality how there can be one single God (The Creed says: "I believe in One God...") and yet 3 distinct persons. But to deny the Trinity is to deny Christianity itself.
Another is the Eucharist. It is equally far from rationality to believe that what was once ordinary bread and ordinary wine becomes the veritable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Himself. Yet all of Christendom fervently believed this until the 1500s, and the majority still do.
Our whole Life in Messiah is understood as the externalization
(i.e. working out) of our inward spiritual transformation through saving Grace.Western Catholicism understands "Grace" as the living outpouring of the power of God, not, as Protestants do, of "niceness' or God's passive benevolence. There are potential graces, but the Sacraments are very active graces, marking the soul, and helping the faithful move towards God.
We do not say that at this moment in time and at that very place we were saved.To a Western Catholic, to be "saved" means to be in the immediate presence of God in Heaven. We are not saved on this earth -- we, the living, are still the Pilgrim Church, on our way toward that divine end which the Father ordains for us.
If this were true of Salvation, then nothing more would take
place and perfection would be had and no works in Messiah would be necessitated, nor would the working out of such a Salvation be required of us.The Protestant idea of "once saved, always saved" is in direct conflict with the Western and Orthodox view. We cannot, by our very nature, reach perfection in this life. We can strive -- and must.
We are being saved, and have been sealed unto such an eventuality by the Holy Spirit upon our Baptism and Chrismation. In Baptism and Confirmation (Western term for Chrismation), the Grace of the Holy Spirit descends upon us, marks our immortal soul as belonging to God, and opens the possibility of salvation.
These are not mere "ordinances", or signs of some intellectual assent to a set of propositions. Nor are they theurgy -- by receiving these Sacraments, we do not compel God to save us, as some Protestant theology has it.
They are an outpouring of power and inspiration -- Baptism makes us Children of God, members of the New Israel, inheritors of the Patriarchs of old and of the Promise enunciated by the Prophets.
They do not make us holy or perfect -- but they help us on our journey toward Holiness and Perfection.
I may say I am redeemed from the Kingdom of Darkness unto the
Kingdom of Light, but still I am in the Sacramental process of being daily saved unto the Resurrection, at which time we all will have been actually and truly saved complete and immortal.Indeed, the Sacraments -- and especially Confession and the Eucharist -- liberate us from the bondage of sin, from the selfishness and self-absorbtion, the idolatry of ordinary life, and propel us toward God through Jesus Christ, His Son.
Jesus did not merely _SAY_ the Word of Salvation, but left a structure and tools to help us find the path to it. By reflection on the Sacraments, and its meaning, we find entry to the Wisdom He shared with us.
What is begun at conversion (i.e. planting of the Seed) is completed only in the Resurrection (i.e. the Harvest), and the Seal of the Holy Spirit (i.e. Charismation) is merely a transformative down payment which will lead us to eventual Salvation in the First Resurrection unto Life Immortal.The West agrees that the final transformation is in the Second Coming, the Final Judgment, and the Resurrection of all, which Christ promised in the Gospel.
This final state is what we call "Theosis".....fully being
transformed into the likeness of the Resurrected Son, and therefore completely participating in His divine nature by Grace through the obedience of FaithThe West does not use the word "theosis" (We should!), and tends to talk of the Holy Transformation in terms of the Second Coming of Christ -- it some future time. The Eastern Church does not use the Book of Revelations in its Liturgy or theology, so they do not share the Western obsession with the Last Things.
There are good historical reasons for this -- in the roughly thousand years between the Fall of Rome in the mid-5th Century, and the Fall of Constantinople in the mid-15th, the West suffered crisis after crisis -- from the Goths and Vandals to the Black Death. During this same period, the Eastern Church suffered no such apocalyptic crises -- Constantinople stood firm (A sack or two by Crusaders aside).
Lacking also the Imperial pretensions of the Western Church -- when the Western Roman Empire imploded, the only stable structure left was the Church -- the East turned inward. The Mohammedan conquest of the Middle East left all the Orthodox removed from civil power, and desperate to
preserve their ancient heritage and cultures against the depredations of the savage conquerors.
Thus the East has turned inward, toward mystical contemplation, and fervent piety. The depth of Eastern piety and emotional dedication to the Faith is a lesson that all we Westerners -- Catholic and Protestant alike -- could well take to heart.
...for Faith without such corresponding Works of obedient
righteousness in Messiah is a still-born assent to a set of beliefs, and not an ardent conviction which produces the Fruits of the Holy Spirit of Grace which is LifeIndeed -- St. James, in his Epistle, says that "Faith without good works is dead." Jesus makes that same point several times in the Gospel. It is not mere intellectual assent, it is not mere repetition of a verbal formula which saves, but the passionate acceptance and adherence to the Faith, and the passionate work of Christ, in loving work, to bring all humanity, and all the Universe to God as an offering.
Jesus says: "Not everyone who cries 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who _DOES_ the will of my Father." And the Will of the Father is that we love Him, and love our neighbor.
Good works are, indeed, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but they are also a necessity. Good works without Faith do not get us to Heaven -- but neither does "mouth Christianity" -- crying "I take Jesus as my Lord and Savior" without at the same time, showing the Love to others that He showed to us.
Therefore we see Living Faith and Works of Righteousness as a
synergistic working out of divine Grace within us and through us, ever bring us closer to the final state of Theosis. "For God became like us in order that we might become like Him."Amen, Alleluia!
Now how do we Orthodox Christians determine the stage of
spiritual growth of a fellow Saint as he or she works out their Salvation in fear and trembling?
In the West, we are a tad more pessimistic about the living, but feel justified in declaring some of the dead to be saints -- i.e. in Heaven, in the presence of the Father.
We determine these things Mystically also. Again, the West is a tad more practical. Aside from the acclamation of the people -- which we saw at the funeral of John Paul II, there is a careful and studious procedure to Canonization.
We ask the following questions too:
Do they fully participate in the Mysteries (i.e. Sacraments)?
Do they exhibit a selfless devotion to and does His Image radiate from them in words and deeds?
Do they serve His Image in others (i.e. the least of these His brethren)?
Does he or she obey God's Commandments and those given by His Son also?
Does this individual exhibit daily the inner work of Grace in their exterior life?
Notice the active verb: "Does"
Both East and West have contemplative Saints -- those who cut themselves off from the world to perfect their adoration of the One God, but they effect the world by their witness (and often complain that pilgrims will just not leave them alone to their contemplation).
Equally, both West and East have Saints who were actively in the world -- Cosmas and Damien, Physicians, Vincent de Paul and his work with the poor. In working out their own salvation, they are also working toward Theosis -- the union of God's created world with His Glory.
It is by these Fruits produced by the Seed of the Word planted within them at Baptism via Grace that we objectively determine spiritual growth and maturity.Indeed -- "by their fruits ye shall know them." And too often, the fruits of "mouth Christianity" are a nasty judgmentalism, and a tendency to preach hellfire & brimstone, not a loving service
to others.
Maturity does not mean moral or spiritual perfection in the final sense, but merely that the Saint has been seeking, knocking and finding.There is no perfection this side of Heaven -- Adam's Sin broke the perfection that God had ordained, and we live in the aftermath. The best we can do is what the heroic exemplars of the Faith have done in every generation form 30 AD onwards -- strive with all that is in us toward that perfection, knowing that we will only achieve it in Heaven.
The East does not accept Augustine of Hippo's doctrine of Original Sin -- that we all inherit the Sin of Adam. The rather say that Adam's Sin broke the perfection and the peace of God's creation, and that our natures, and the nature of the world are damaged because of that breakage. It is thus diametrically opposed to the Calvinist idea of Total Depravity, as well as its denial of Free Will.
That they have achieved that status before God and man in
which they are complete in their re-presentation of the Life, Death and Resurrection power of Messiah in their Life.We see some who appear to have come very close to that ideal, to that perfection -- Mother Theresa of Calcutta, for instance -- but the final crown of Glory is given in the presence of the Father.
Spiritual Perfection in our view means one is complete and appropriate for what God has called them to be and do. Thus one may be spiritually full grown from the womb (i.e. John the Baptist & Mary of Nazareth), or one may take years of personal struggle and self denial to achieve that summoned status in Messiah (i.e. Paul etc.). But
one sign is a growing sense of humility and a childlike sense of innocent tranquility in times of trial.Western ascetic Saints tend to get the Stigmata -- Christ's wounds. Eastern saints glow in the dark -- and the daytime. The West sees the path as struggle and warfare; The East as detachment from the world and its temptations.
Even so, we do not judge one another, but judge ourselves and continually seek to discern if we remain in Messiah. Saints are neither antiseptic ascetics, nor are they embroiled in matters which distract their goal.....they learn from Peter's sinking and keep their eye on the prize...all the while not becoming so heavenly minded that they are of no earthy use."Faith without good works is dead."
Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy is a Logical, Objective and
Practical spirituality in which it's Mystical (i.e. Sacramental) Life in Messiah is a balance of Mysticism (i.e. Internal contemplations of the Faith), Theology (i.e. Reasoned doctrines of the Faith) and Works (External expressions of the Faith). This Trinity of Orthodoxy is the
Fullness of the Divine Trinity being manifested in and through us by His transformative Holy Spirit of Grace and Love which enlivens, empowers and directs His One Holy Apostolic and Orthodox Catholic Church.Of which the Western Church is a part -- just as the East is.