Guest Blogger: Fr. John Parker

Fr John Parker is Rector of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in Mt Pleasant, SC.  He is a Trinity School for Ministry graduate and served on the staff at Church of the Holy Cross, Sullivans Island prior to his departure for the Orthodox Church.  Fr. John writes regularly for the Post & Courier.  To read more visit www.holyascension.blogspot.com.

“DENY THYSELF, TAKE UP THY CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME”

There is no Christianity without the biblical and ancient Spiritual Disciplines.

In the Orthodox Christian Lectionary, “Deny thyself…” is read two days in a row during this month of July, and so, it is a good time to remind ourselves of the utter importance of asceticism in the life of a Christian.  One of my teachers is fond of saying, in fact, “There is *no* Christianity without asceticism.”

This is a hard word, in a day and age when “Indulge thyself, cast off thy cross, and follow your bliss” is the overwhelmingly popular gospel, which, to be honest in the Name of Love, is Good News to absolutely no one either now or in the age to come.

Many Christians are ready to battle against any “effort” at all in the Christian life, preferring to quote Ephesians 2:8, but always without reading to the following verses 9 and 10. In light of this unfortunately misguided and unfounded battle between works and grace, it is important to say that our ascetical efforts are in no way purchasers of our salvation—none whatsoever.  We are indeed saved by grace.  But it is clear in the Scriptures that we shall be judged by our (good) works—and woe to us if we bury the Gospel by keeping it in our heads only.

We are indeed not saved by works, but the amazing thing is, there is no salvation without them.  To pray, to fast, to give alms, to make prostrations, to confess one’s sins to God before a priest, to establish and follow a rule of prayer—these are the outward and necessary signs of one’s devotion to Christ.  After all, Jesus did not say, “if you pray, if you fast, if you give alms…”.  Rather, it is clearly expected that one’s conversion to Christ and therefore one’s following Him inherently carries with it a new mode of life by which we are conformed to the image and restored to the likeness of God, by His grace *and our cooperation with it*.  To somehow believe otherwise is to give short shrift both to the Holy Scriptures and the teachings of the saints through the ages.

For those unfamiliar with the term, asceticism is a patristic-era Greek term which expresses St Paul’s ideas concerning the training of the Christian Athlete:  that each Christian is involved in a life-long battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Many have lost sight of the fact that this is indeed a spiritual battle, and that, according to our Savior, “he who endures to the end shall be saved.”  Even in this age of lasers and technologically based warfare, no war is won in an instant.  In the Epistles, we find comparisons of the Christian life to that of long-distance runners and boxers.  Just as they train for their feats, so do Christians for the Spiritual Life.

One of my teachers, Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, is quick to point out that in today’s world, we are not surprised at all that someone like Michael Phelps will train 8 hours a day for years on end to win the Olympics, but we expect answers to the most profound questions of life in a 4 sentence email, and I’ll add to that that we expect that our sanctity will be given to us in an instant—as if saying a certain sinner’s prayer one time in one place somehow is the be all/end all of the Christian life.

No, from Baptism in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to Christian Burial and the hearing of “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all that is contained therein”, the Christian is obliged by his love for God to Deny Himself, Take up his Cross, and Follow Christ, daily.  As His Beatitude, the Most-Blessed JONAH, the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America has recently said, “The ascetic life of self-denial is what helps us to be able to hear God in order to keep his commandments.”  He has also taught us that we cannot expect our witness of the Gospel to have any effect on the world if it is not rooted in the self-emptying of self-denial, in imitation of Jesus Christ.

The most basic, traditional ascetical or spiritual disciplines are found directly in the New Testament and include the following:  prayer, fasting, almsgiving, prostrations, the Jesus Prayer, confession, and communion.  For the sake of this short essay, I will give a sentence or two about each below.  May the Lord grant each of us not simply to know about these things, but to do them, for the sake of the training of our selves, souls, and bodies, to the end that we be united to Christ in restored communion with Him.

Prayer:  Our Lord said, “When you pray…”  The earliest traditions of the Christian Church included prayer at fixed times of the day, with fixed prayers, so that when we pray what we pray, we do so together.  Also, a fixed “rule of prayer” is most conducive to a regular discipline.  Michael Phelps does not wake up in the morning and decide whether or not he is going to swim.  He swims each day because he is a swimmer.  Prayers “of the Church” also help us to pray when we do not have words, and keep us from praying selfishly.

Fasting:  Jesus said, “When you fast…”  Christians since the first century have fasted from very specific things on very specific days.  For example:  on nearly every Wednesday and Friday, Christians abstain from meat, dairy, wine, and olive oil, remembering that Jesus was betrayed on Wednesday, and crucified on Friday.  Christians also fast from bedtime until receiving communion on Sundays and other days.  This reveals the true sense of the word “Breakfast” at least in English and Spanish.  The Lord’s own Flesh and Blood are our first meal on those days.  And then, there are the Lenten seasons, where fasting is a communal, not individual, effort.

Almsgiving:  literally, “do acts of mercy”.  Writing checks to help the needy is good and necessary, but finding the humanity in a homeless man or hungry woman and caring for them as an individual *person* is vital—perhaps moreso even for us than for them.  Once again, Jesus said, “When you give alms…”  Alms or Merciful acts are to be offered with no strings attached, without judgment or condemnation of those whom we serve, and with no expectation of even a thank you as a requisite part of daily Christian life.

Prostrations:  The Greek word for prostration is “metanoia”, which happens to be the New Testament term for “repentance”.  In numerous places in the Bible, folks fell down on their knees or faces before God.  The episode in the Garden of Gethsemane is a great example.  I often wondered why we sang so much about “We fall down and worship you Lord!”—but never fell down!

A metanoia—or prostration—is a kinesthetic exercise outwardly displaying humility before God.  The Orthodox Christian prostration is made thusly:  make the sign of the cross, and then fall down on one’s hands and knees, touching the forehead to the floor between one’s hands, and then back up onto one’s feet.  Sometimes prostrations are accompanied with the prayer, “O God, cleanse me a sinner, and have mercy on me.”  Prostrations are made many times each day during Great Lent—the 40 days prior to the Lord’s Resurrection, as well as any particular day except for Sundays, which are non-penitential because of their Resurrectional nature.

The Jesus Prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  This prayer which arose from the biblical episode of the Publican and the Pharisee, is perhaps the quintessential Orthodox Christian prayer, which also summarizes the whole Christian Gospel.  Most basically, however, it is the chief “arrow prayer” employed by Christians since the Desert Fathers of the late 3^rd century and later.  It can be prayed now and then, or is often prayed in tandem with a prayer rope (Greek “komboschini”) of any number of knots (33, 40, 100), praying the prayer on each knot—similar to the Roman Catholic rosary.

Confession:  James writes in his Epistle, “Therefore confess your sins to one another…that you may be healed.”  The history of “auricular” confession is long in the Christian Church.  In the early centuries, one confessed his sins in front of the parish.  Later, as a result of the growth of the Church and for obvious pastoral reasons, the priest became the representative of the whole congregation, as he is today, bound also to strict confidence.  In Orthodox Christian practice, the priest stands side-by-side with the penitent, facing the Gospel Book, Cross and/or Icon of Christ, as a witness, and not as a judge.  In my personal opinion, many people could save thousands of dollars on psychiatrists if they’d simply confess their sins in the context of the sacrament.  The Reformation and post-Reformation arguments about “not needing an intermediary” completely miss the point of confession, and don’t take seriously the authority Jesus gave to his apostles (and their successors) to bring reconciliation and absolution to the people.  Nor the communal nature of healing.  Confession has also always been a way that the Christian “examines himself” in order to partake worthily of the Lord’s Supper, with reference to St Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians.

Communion:  “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you.” And “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed”.  The Eucharist is *the primary place*, biblically speaking, that our Lord Jesus Christ meets us.  Though he does meet us in prayer, and though he does meet us in His Word-written (the Bible), his chief meeting place with us is in the sacrament of His Body and Blood.  This is clearly seen in Jesus’ encounter with Luke and Cleopas on the Road to Emmaus at the end of Luke’s Gospel, and it is abundantly clear in the New Testament, particularly in John 6.