Month: October 2011

Dear Friends in Christ,

October is upon us already! The Fall season has begun, and the temperature is finally starting to drop here in North Carolina. September was a busy month, with the feast days of the Nativity of the Holy Theotokos (our parish feast) and the Holy Cross, along with the secular holiday of Labor Day. But those days have passed, and now we begin to prepare for Thanksgiving, the Nativity Fast, and the “Holiday Season,” hoping to accomplish all of our resolutions by the end of the year.

Nestled in October is the feast day of Saints Cyprian and Justina (October 2/15). Early martyrs, they contested sometime in the mid-third century. Their story is remarkable; Cyprian was a pagan sorcerer, while Justina was a pagan maiden who, having learned of the truth of Christ, converted and succeeded in bringing her parents to Christ as well. She endeavored to live a life of chastity and to remain unmarried, but she attracted the unwanted gaze of a local wealthy youth. He enticed Cyprian to perform magic to attract Justina to him.

Amazingly, although Cyprian was able to engage in all sorts of dark arts, he could not succeed in coercing Justina to succumb. Asking the demons why he failed, they remarked that it was because Justina signed herself with the Cross. Cyprian realized that the power of demons was nothing compared to Christ, and in a dramatic gesture, burned his magical books in front of the local bishop before being baptized. Eventually, he became a bishop, Justina a nun, and both were martyred for converting many to Christ, probably in the year AD 268.

In our present day, under the influence of science and rationalism, most people have ceased practicing outright sorcery (the rise of neopaganism notwithstanding), but magical thinking continues, often with a thin “scientific” veneer. The demons continue their work of assisting man to live autonomously and without faith in God, adjusting their methods to the times by taking a more subtle role in this age of skepticism. In this message, I will briefly cover four ways that people engage in magical thinking today.

Like Attracts Like. Made popular by books such as The Secret, New Thought is a belief system that teaches that reality is a manifestation of our thoughts. By thinking positively and visualizing what we want, we make these things a reality. Negative occurrences are a result of our negative thoughts. This New Age belief system claims to describe a scientific “Law” that can be learned and practiced. It ignores the fact that this world is fallen, and chaos reigns. We cannot always control what happens to us, but in Christ, we can face all challenges and trials with courage. We will not always know “why” bad things happen, but we will know that when we suffer, we are co-suffering with the Lord Himself, and thus suffering has meaning and purifies, and we are not alone in it.

Karma. An ancient Hindu belief, it is more commonly known in the West as the concept of “what goes around, comes around.” A system of cause and effect, it is assumed that man will have evil repaid by evil and good by good in a perfectly-balanced system. A person can thus keep track of his good and bad deeds, and create his own destiny; he can assure blessedness by being good. This is contrasted with a life of faith in Christ, where a person recognizes that he can never pay back the debt of even one sin, and must rely solely on the Grace given by Christ through the Cross. We are called to live a transfigured life, to repay curses with blessings, to pray for those who persecute us, and to be Christ to all in our lives. For instance, St. Justina saved the man who pursued her by praying for him when he was about to suffer a disastrous fall.

Modern Business Culture. Hard work is certainly a virtue, but in the modern business world, seminars and classes are routinely held (and often obligatory) which seek to produce better producers by creating a certain way of thinking and approaching things—the “can do” attitude. In this system, problems are the fault of mental and psychological blocks which can be overcome through coaching and the right attitude, by following the system taught in the seminar. Such events even contain quasi-spiritual exercises such as centering exercises, which seek to induce a relaxed and receptive state in the learner, and visualization exercises.

The Lord Told Me… Many Christians have developed a bad habit of assuming that any religious-sounding idea that enters the mind must be from God, and in a misguided desire to be obedient to God, they base their lives around these thoughts and hunches, and even off of dreams (which the Church Fathers have warned us to not pay attention to). These ideas are often an unoriginal mix of common sense solutions and self-serving purposes. God becomes an excuse and a justification for such people to do as they please. What is a simple coincidence is given meaning by ascribing it to God and His will. Instead of relying on the frequent reading of Scripture and consultation with the clergy and fellow believers, answers are found within, in a personalized way.

The root problem of all four examples of magical thinking is man-centeredness, rather than trusting in God and being obedient to His will. All of these philosophies present the solution to the problem of evil and failure as internal to the person, rather than external in Christ. Man is assumed to be in control of his own destiny, and the deception that he is an autonomous being is not challenged head-on. The solution is Christ, the God who came and suffered for our sake, in whom we must place our trust if we wish to be saved.

St. Cyprian learned that he could not alter the will of God or control his own destiny when the faith of a teenaged girl overpowered all the tricks of the many demons who assisted him. All of his effort to learn the secrets of success in this life evaporated in a most unexpected way. When people in modern times follow any of the above ways of magical thinking, they are setting themselves up for despair when things happen to them that are beyond their control. Being a member of a Church does not make one immune from these false philosophies, and indeed, especially in the last example, they use God, the Church, and religiosity as covers for their continued self-will.

Let us not follow any false philosophy that teaches the answer is within us, whether it appears religious or secular. Let us humbly approach the Lord in prayer and ask for the forgiveness of sins and the Grace necessary to have a relationship with Him. When we receive Grace, we will know we are not left alone to find the answers. We will find real transformation through Christ and through His body, the Church, where our fellow believers are there to stand with us in times of struggle.

In Christ,

Fr. Anastasios

Dear Friends in Christ,

Hurricane Irene came through the area of Eastern NC with a vengeance. Ironically, Irene means peace in Greek! I am grateful to God that none of our parishioners lost their lives—downed trees and flooding are truly dangerous. Property damage did affect our community, however. One family lost their home, having to ride out the storm in a treehouse as the waters rose. Another family lost their pier, and another had trees all over their backyard. I am sure that some of you reading this also experienced damage. If any of you reading this would like to share your experience with me, I’d appreciate hearing from you as well. I can be reached by email at gocraleigh@gmail.com and by telephone at (919) 827-4945.

Hurricane Irene went on to ravage New York. On Long Island, several of our families lost power and suffered inconveniences, but the real damage was in the Catskills, where our monastery dedicated to the Holy Ascension is located. While the monastery itself was spared, the entire town surrounding it was flooded out, and all the businesses and homes on the main road were significantly damaged. The local grocery store lost all of its stock, and will not be replenished for at least a month. To put things in perspective, the acting abbot of the monastery, Fr. Maximus, has to drive 30 minutes each way just to get food of any kind now. For those who have lost their appliances and homes, this only adds to the misery. Fr. Maximus reports that it is the worst flooding he has ever seen in New York in his lifetime.

A serious matter such as this provides a natural opportunity to discuss a serious matter. One of my friends is a Protestant minister in Greenville. His parish has perhaps two times the number of people that our parish does—in other words, it is small by Protestant standards. Their denomination has a crisis response team, and people from neighboring parishes flew in to North Carolina and did work for the people who were suffering. People in their local Church community helped each other, helped their neighbors, and even people they didn’t know to help them recover—out of love for them, and a desire to share Christ with them. One of our families was served by such a group of mobile responders from Arkansas.

Our parish has doubled in size since last year, and all indications are that the growth will continue—subject of course, to the will of God. However, we are still small. It’s not a surprise that when the main families have suffered debilitating loss, that some of the damage at the Church (which is minor, thank God) was not addressed immediately. It’s understandable that some families had to receive help from non-Orthodox volunteers, who are better organized and have the financial resources to do so. Our diocese did organize some relief for the people in the Catskills, as it did in Joplin and Alabama during the tornados, but to be honest, it probably would have been impossible for it to manage two crisis responses at the same time (i.e. New York and North Carolina). All of this is very logical and understandable.

However, what is it about our faith which is average, basic, or exists with an attitude of “just getting by?” The Church exploded in the early centuries for two reasons: the holiness of its members was so great that God worked miracles through them readily, and they had the mentality that we are a community that needs to work together and live together. Our community in Greenville is made up of people who live far and wide; we are spread out. That sometimes makes it hard for us to serve each other. Yet there are core families who live 90, 70, and 30 miles away who make the effort to serve the community of Greenville. At the same time, there are many families who live in Greenville who have come to the Church occasionally but never significantly contributed to the maintenance of the property or the charitable outreach of the Church. We see in some the early apostolic spirit of doing whatever it takes to keep the faith spreading, and we see in others a desire to attend the Church when it suits them, when they need comfort, or prayers for themselves, but when it is not convenient to them, they do not attend.

I do not imagine that this problem is unique to our Church community, but I want to emphasize that this recent crisis only highlights the fact that the Church will only be able to do good in the lives of its members and the community surrounding it in proportion to the effort that the members put in to it. A few families cannot bear the brunt of all operations at the Church all the time, and when crisis strikes, if these families are affected, the Church’s mission is impacted. The work of maintaining the Church property and of organizing and staffing its ministries needs to be more equitably distributed.
Again, it is perfectly understandable that a small parish would not be able to have the kind of response to a crisis that other Churches were able to do. However, we have the grace of God, and we can do amazing things with this blessing, so we cannot be content to be average. We’ve seen amazing things happen at our parish in the three years we have been here, so there should be no doubt that any effort put in to the Church will bear astonishing results many times over.
Instead of simply admonishing you all, dear readers, I wish to encourage you. Let me paint a vision of the future. In three years’ time, Nativity of the Holy Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church will be three times the current size it is now. It will have members local to Greenville, and members from far-flung areas of Eastern Carolina who come and are served by the Orthodox presence here. When a crisis occurs, not only will the Church be able to meet the needs of its members, but it is able to make a positive impact in the community, and after the next disaster is over, people will remember that our parish was on the front lines of the response.

Are you reading this and wondering what you can do to help? I frequently invite readers to attend the Church liturgies, because this is where our conversion and spiritual growth begins. However, there are some of you reading who have attended infrequently—please come regularly, and sign up for the property cleaning and maintenance schedule. Next, you can help us manage our clothing distribution program, so that we can perhaps offer it more frequently.
For those of you who have been hesitant to attend a service for whatever reason—come to the next charitable event, or give me a call and let’s discuss ways you could help out at the Church during the week as a first step. The bottom line is, we all expect the Church to be there for us when we need it, but we need to be there for the Church and for others when they need it, too. We can’t just rely on others, because there will be times when they cannot do it alone.
We’ve weathered this storm, but we have some steps that need to be taken to reach the vision outlined above. Take the first step today! We will travel this road together in Christ.

In Christ,

Fr. Anastasios