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October 30, 2008
Martyrs Zenobius and Zenobia
Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord,
The following are thoughts I have been pondering for several weeks. I love you all, and simply felt a need to try to speak as a father to his children. Forgive me!
I love my father! Many of you have heard me say that the way my father expressed his love for me gave me total confidence in God our Father’s love for me. It has never occurred to me to question that Truth. As I grew older, less and less often did my father give me specifics on what to do and how to behave, but he relied more and more on my using the teaching and training that he and my mother had given to me and my brother as children. Without talking about it specifically, they taught Tim and me to love and respect each other immensely. Until I was married, when asked, I would always say my best friend was my brother. My father was always ready to respond to my questions and help me, however I needed help. With each passing year, I realize how blessed I have been to have a father like mine. I hope that I have reflected some of what he taught me to my own children.
We find ourselves in a very tumultuous time. I sense that I need to impart some thoughts as a father to his children – in this case, the pastor to his flock. Just as my father refrained from telling me what to do in specifics, I simply want to call to our collective memory things we have learned as children in the Kingdom of God. Economic events have shocked us all, and for some it is not just shock – jobs have been lost and people’s futures are up in the air. Concurrently, we are in the middle of a national election with a measure of serious consequences depending upon who is elected, both nationally and locally. We are very tempted to point fingers and say that the current financial crisis has one cause, maybe two. We are further tempted, in the middle of an election to pin those causes on one candidate or another, on one party or another, and to see one candidate or another as capable of solving our problems. In all cases, we should not fall victim to these temptations.
Regarding the financial morass we are in, a successful entrepreneur recently observed: “. . . when looking at the causes of our current mess, there is blood on the hands of almost everyone involved: people that took out mortgages they couldn't afford; people fraudulently applying for mortgages; dishonest mortgage brokers and mortgage bankers; greedy investment bankers; politicians lobbied by the financial services industry; misguided, if not stupid, politicians who made bad decisions and bad legislation. We didn't get into the current mess without lots and lots of people, companies, governmental bodies, etc. of every political persuasion working together to set the stage for the crisis. It may be comforting to point the finger at one party or another, one industry or another, one type of financial product or another, but it’s not accurate to say that it’s their fault. In fact, it’s all our fault. Culturally we have encouraged living beyond our means as individuals and as a country for too long. Now the bill has come due.”
While I am an expert in nothing, having spent years in the business world and now years in the priesthood, I find these observations very accurate. While much of the world still lives in abject poverty, many, many live far differently – not just most Americans, but also those from western European, Russia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and others. We live in a world of plenty, and many are driven by comfort and pleasure. We as Orthodox Christians are not immune to this passion. Many times we, like most others, have taken on unnecessary debt which has been fueled by unhealthy desires for things and experiences.
Our task as Orthodox is to return to moderation, financially speaking. Saving is good. Excessive debt is bad. Some would even say any debt is bad. Sharing is good. Planning is good. Living within our means is good. Buying discretionary items on credit is probably bad. Indulging unhealthy desires is always bad. If a deal is too good to be true, it probably has dangerous strings attached. Tithing is good. Alms-giving is good. Greed is bad. If we live prudently and moderately, our way of living can mitigate the effects from consequential effects of other’s misbehavior. However, we can never fully protect ourselves from them. As always, our only true and lasting protection is the Great Mercy of God, which is always and ever abundant.
Regarding our upcoming elections, it would be a mistake to think any candidate, national or local, will fix all our problems or destroy the republic. At least in our presidential race, we have two candidates that have many talents and strengths as well as nearly fatal flaws. At the end of each debate, the “truth checkers” point out how each distorted facts – neither escapes failure. And sometimes the truth checkers themselves overlook distortions, maybe purposely, maybe not. My comments do not mean that I think it doesn’t matter whom we vote for – I do think it matters. However, in the end, I believe every successful candidate once in office runs into a wall of obstacles that prevent the fulfillment of many if not most of the promises made. Further, as Christians, we have what might be called dual citizenship – both in the place we live AND in the Kingdom of Heaven. As Orthodox Christians, we understand that we already experience a foretaste of the Kingdom. As Orthodox Christians, our highest citizenship is the one in the Kingdom. And it is that citizenship that should inform and guide our citizenship in the place we live.
It is not my place to tell you for whom you should vote. I think it is part of my role as father to help you know how to make your decision. As with all of life, our decisions should be made with the mind of the Holy Fathers, who themselves knew the Triune God better than all. Some decisions, and votes, are simple. Others are not so. What have the lives of the Martyrs, the Holy ones, the saints revealed to us? What do the hymns of the Church encourage us to value? How has the beauty of the Church placed before us virtuous ones to emulate in our decisions? Certainly godly people can disagree, and do. But let us not be persuaded by modern cultural practices or expediency to satisfy our own selfish desires. Let us rather be shaped by our Faith, and by the One Who saves us.
For some, this year’s presidential decision is simple. For others, it is not. As you consider the candidates in every race and the various referenda proposed, I have two requests. First, seriously consider the full framework of your Faith in making your decision, and try to let that be your guide. Second, whatever your decision, respect the decision of others, particularly in the Church. In the end, our first allegiance should be to one another, for we are all citizens of heaven first. We share the very Body and Blood of the Incarnate One. As citizens of heaven, we are to be good citizens of the place where we live. That begins in the household of God.
Fr. John
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