Page 80 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Church Traditions for a Christian Psychology

I am! I transgressed one commandment of In other words, ascetical struggle doesn’t just
the Master, and now I am deprived of eve- foster human flourishing in a secular sense, it
ry good thing. Most holy Paradise, planted also helps us become more like Christ.
because of me and shut because of Eve, pray
to him who made you and fashioned me,
that once more I be filled with your flowers.’ Gregory Jensen
Then the Saviour said to him, ‘I do not want
the creature which I fashioned to perish, but The Challenge of the “Fool
to be saved and come to knowledge of the
truth, because the one who comes to me I for Christ”
will in no way cast out.’
Because this building
In the context of the tradition of the Orthodox figured so prominently
Church, sin is less “a succumbing to something in Cold War era nightly
intrinsically evil” and more “a willful parti- news broadcasts, I came
cipation in any activity in such a manner as to associate it with the
to separate oneself from God.” I can, in other Soviet Union:
words, do even an otherwise objectively moral-
ly good act in such a way as to alienate myself It wasn’t until many
from God. Asceticism and liturgy together are years later that I lear-
central to the Christian life because our “proper ned that this is St Basil
response to the incarnation is to accept the in- Cathedral. I also lear-
1
vitation to a renewed beginning of synergy, to ned that the Basil who lends his name is not the
realign (with the constant help of grace) [our] fourth century church father, theologian and
own will to God’s” (Auxentios, p., 14). Asceti- philanthropist Basil the Great, but Blessed Basil
cism is not something added on to human life of Moscow the Fool-For-Christ (1468-1557).
as an afterthought; nor is it a divinely mandated
punishment for sin. Rather, together with mar- Born into a family of serfs, Basil of Moscow
riage and family, working and eating, ascetical was originally apprenticed to a shoemaker, but
struggle is something to which we have been at age 16, he “began the difficult exploit of foo-
called “from the beginning.” lishness for Christ.” One example of his folly
Prayer makes sense because we are concerned is that “in the winter’s harsh frost, he walked
with the restoration of our communion with about barefoot through the streets of Moscow.”
God. But, precisely because the damage to our A tireless preacher of God’s mercy, he often se-
relationship with God damages ALL our rela- cretly helped those “who were ashamed to ask
tionships, the other, bodily disciplines of the for alms.” Gentle as he was with those in need,
ascetical life—fasting, almsgiving, manual la- he was equally as harsh in “condemn[ing] tho-
bor—are also sensible. Sensible as well are those se who gave alms for selfish reason, not out of
virtues traditionally associated with the vows of compassion for the poor and destitute, but ho-
life in the Orthodox Church—poverty (material ping for an easy way to attract God’s blessings”
and social simplicity), chastity (respect for the on their lives. 2
limits of self and others), obedience (contem-
plative or prayerful attention to God and the A more contemporary and accessible illustrati-
world of persons, events and things) and stabili- on of the fool can be found in the Russian film
ty (vocational fidelity). Yes, the disciplines and Ostrov (Lungin, 2006). The protagonist of the
the virtues require from me acts of renunciati- film is a Russian Orthodox monk, Fr Anatolii,
on—I’ve got to give up something—but I give who as a young man during the World War II
up something in order to acquire something 1 Also called Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy
better. The spiritual disciplines and the mona- Theotokos on the Moat on Red Square in Moscow (Rus-
stic virtues foster my own personal growth, not sia), accessed 11/8/13
only morally but spiritually. 2 “Blessed Basil of Moscow the Fool-For-Christ,” ac-
cessed 11/8/13.

080