IDOLATRY IN THE YEAR 2015

     Today are we faithful Orthodox Christians or modern idolaters like much of the world, that is do we offer worship primarily to the Holy Trinity in the Church of Jesus Christ which is Holy Orthodoxy?  Is serving and worshiping the most important thrust of  our lives? Does our faith in Jesus Christ dominate our very being? If other things demand our constant attention then our faith is only an appendage to our life, and we must consider this, for if we are not worshiping God in spirit and truth then we are in need of understanding and reestablishing our priorities. It is blasphemous to make God number two to anyone, for there is one God, who is our Creator and Provider who alone is preeminent. But we need to sincerely assess our lives and determine where we stand before God, who will judge every one of us when we leave this world.

Words of a Saint, about 1900 AD

     “Idolatry in Christianity consists of self-love, ambition, worldly pleasures, gluttony, love of gain and adultery. It is this that has completely turned away our eyes and hearts from God and His heavenly country and has nailed us to the earth, rendering us to be earthly bound instead of heavenly.  It is this (idolatry) that has uprooted brotherly love and has set us against one another. Woe! Woe! unto us!”  (St. John of Kronstadt).

     St. John is talking about the general condition that existed over 100 years ago which has become even worse of late, because more people have forgotten God and man’s royal destination as members of His heavenly Kingdom. “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever unto ages of ages. Amen.”  When we were baptizede we agreed to have Christ as our Savior and King.  For Christ the Truth descended from heaven  to earth and established His Kingdom in the Church which He founded.

     Before Christ’s advent, both the Greeks of the east and the Latins of the west were gripped in the claws of idolatry, not knowing or worshiping the true God.  The powerful preaching of the Gospel of the Apostles eventually caused many of them to abandon themselves of pernicious idolatry and embrace the Gospel. This resulted  in the destruction of idols and the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom by preaching the Gospel which the Apostles vigorously planted everywhere replacing idolatry which had established  prominence in the worldly kingdom of the Devil.

Idolatry is the worship of an image of a person, place or thing as if it were God. If a person consistently venerates something closer to himself than God it then becomes an idol. Idolatry is a great insult and sin against God the Originator and Creator of all things visible and invisible. It is well known that idolatry, and all false religions were also permissive with no restrictions on sin so long as you worshiped the idol. Idolatry can become strongly rooted in the mind and hearts of misled men wherein are also  nestled  “self-love, ambition, worldly pleasures, gluttony, love of gain and adultery all being companions of idolatry.” Wherever unfortunate men prefer things to the true God, the practice of idolatry darkens their minds with ignorance and foolishness, causing them to be caught up with every type of sin and to live an iniquitous life. Idolatry may not be only something that we deliberately worship as God, for if only our ardent desire for material things is stronger than our desire for God, then we become idolaters. 

MARRIAGE:  MAN AND WOMAN

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself. For no man has ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh.  This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph. 5:25-32)

From a Saint:

“This is a great mystery; but 

I speak concerning Christ and the Church”

It is a great mystery when a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, The Apostle himself who has been raised to the third heaven and beheld many heavenly mysteries, calls the marriage of natural man on earth a great mystery. It is the mystery of love and life, and the only mystery that exceeds it is the mystery of Christ’s link with His Church. Christ calls himself the Bridegroom and the Church His Bride. Christ so loved the Church that He left His heavenly Father for her – though remaining equal with Him in unity of essence and divinity – and came down to earth and cleaved to His Church. He suffered for her sake that He might, by His Blood, cleanse her from sin and from all impurity and make her worthy to be called His Bride.  He warms the Church with His love, feeds her with His Blood, and enlivens, enlightens and adorns her with His Holy Spirit. As a man is to his wife, so Christ is to the Church.  

A woman obeys her husband, and the church obeys Christ. A man loves his wife as his own flesh, and Christ loves the Church as His own flesh. A man loves his wife as he does himself, and a wife is in awe of her husband.  Christ loves the Church as His own self, and the Church is in awe of Christ. As no one hates his own flesh but gives it warmth and food, so also Christ gives warmth and food to the Church as His own flesh. Each individual human soul is the bride of Christ the Husband, and the community of all the faithful is the Bride of Christ the Husband.

 The relationship of any one believer with Christ and that of the whole Church with Christ is essentially the same. Christ is the Head of that great Body that is called the Church, and which is part visible and in part invisible.

O, my brothers, this is a great mystery! It is revealed to us according to the measure of our love for Christ, and of our fear of His judgement.  (Prologue 2 p238)

WHAT A PITIABLE CONDITION!

“When the Son of Man comes will He find any faith on earth?”                                                                               (Luke 18:8)

     Christ our God came upon earth being the Godman, and through His zealous and faithful Apostles, His Church spread His Gospel throughout the world, as men believed and hastened to be baptized. Severe persecution made the Church grow more rapidly and the Jews, and Roman Empire were defeated in their attempts to destroy the Church. Cities and countries in the east and west and the Slavs embraced Orthodoxy and the faith overthrew the ancient world of idolatry. Mankind was gradually brought into the Church and as it increased daily. But almost two-thousand years later we have come to a pitiable condition that cntinues to grow worse. This is expressed as follows:

     “Among Christians both the sciences and literature have now become almost wholly worldly. The Gospel and religion are neglected, the lives of saints are being scoffed at, in general there is a kind of feverish worldly activity, while no one is thinking of pleasing God and the salvation of their souls. What a pitiable condition!”  (St. John of Kronstadt +1908).

     It is 107 years since St. John wrote these things and  conditions have become even worse. We must realize that we are living in this age of idolatry and disinterest in anything beneficial to our souls. We even have many who claim that we have no soul and are just matter.  They are unable to  sing: “Bless the Lord O my soul; ad all that is within me bless His holy name.” The bitter truth is that many of us have become materialists assuming that we and everything else comes from matter and returns back to matter for we are born and die and that’s ends everything.

     However, faith in Jesus Christ did not only begin  yesterday but began 2,000 years ago. Devoted Christians kept this torch of the Orthodox Faith burning brightly by their sacrifices and generous contribution to the Church. Highly intelligent, faithful and well educated Church Fathers have made enormous contributions, and have, over centuries, established without doubt that Jesus Christ is the God man and Head of His Church actively protecting His Body the Church. Fathers of Seven Ecumenical Synods accurately defended and defined the Faith.