This is a talk given at St. Herman Orthodox Youth Conference on 24 December 2011 in Ottawa, Canada
CONTINUED FROM A PREVIOUS POST
“The unexamined life is not worth living…”1
As we talked about the various sacraments of the Church, you may have noticed that we kept saying the same thing and often using the very same words. I am not trying to talk in circles, but it may appear that way. Perhaps, this is because there is really only one sacrament - the sacrament of being in the Body of the Risen Christ, the sacrament of theosis. Every sacrament of the Church, every prayer, every rite and ritual, every reading and hymn has the goal of showing us the way and giving us the strength to be in the Body of Christ. Indeed, our very life - from the first “Blessed is our God…” to the last “Amen!” - has only one question: “Do you unite yourself to Christ?” - and only one correct answer: “I do unite myself to Christ!” These words are not only or even primarily a part of the Rite of Making of a Catechumen, but must resonate through the whole Christian life. It is this continuous union with Christ which allowed the Apostle Paul to say: “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20), and Saint John of Kronstadt to speak of his life in Christ. This is not some feel-good expression - his literally was a life in Christ. So, there is only one virtue - being in the Body of Christ. Likewise, there is really only one sin - being separated from Christ. Whatever in our lives makes us unlike Christ, distorts His image in us - that is the sin.
Unfortunately, very often the question of “what would Jesus do” becomes quite confusing. In fact, some people have such a two-dimensional picture of Christ in their minds that it becomes absolutely impossible to even imagine what this character would do when faced with a real four-dimensional world. But let us not forget that Christ took our human nature upon Himself not in order to sanctify two-dimensional icons of Himself, holy as they may be, but in order to heal, restore, and sanctify human nature - in all of its complexity. When Christ enters into us - in the same way that He entered into Apostle Paul, Saint John of Kronstadt, and all other Christian saints - this union affects the entirety of human life: our comings-in and goings-out, our prayers to God and conversations with friends, our partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ in Church and the everyday family supper.
According to Plato, Socrates once remarked that the unexamined life is not worth living. What is an unexamined life? Imagine doing absolutely nothing and just waiting for a day to end… one day, two days… Or imagine living from one party to another, from entertainment to entertainment, with nothing in between - well, work, school, the usual boring stuff, waiting for a year to hurry up and go by, so we can ring in a new one and go on that next vacation. Mechanical, thoughtless life on autopilot: eat-work-sleep. Now imagine thinking about God only once or twice a day, or once or twice a week, or even once or twice a year.
But what are we supposed to do, sing psalms in the shower? Well, that is not really such a bad idea. In any case, to my taste, this is better than singing the latest tune by Justin Bieber. But the larger point is that anything in life can and should be done with intention and prayer. And this is not only a matter of some inner spiritual condition, but also a very outward and visceral action. We are not a mechanical compilation of parts - body, soul, spirit - all put together with some screws and glue. Rather, we are wholesome beings: what our body does affects our soul, and the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Matt. 12:34; Luke 6:45).
Consider, for example, the words of Joshua, son of Sirach: “In all thy works, remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin” (7:40 DRA). This verse speaks of the whole human being - body, soul, and spirit. “In all thy works” - with your hands, feet, even your mouth; “remember your last end” - remember with your mind, let the memory of death guide your soul; “and thou shalt never sin” - your spiritual compass, that part of you which points toward God, will remain true.
Likewise, the Apostle Paul writes: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17 KJV). Sometimes, people interpret this verse as speaking not about prayer in the way that most people usually understand it - the act of communicating with God through worship, petitions, or contemplations - but as speaking about the highest levels of the art of noetic labors, and thus unattainable for most people just like the highest levels of most other arts. Perhaps, this is a valid interpretation - I don’t know; I have not achieved the highest levels of the noetic arts. But reading Paul’s epistle, another interpretation comes to mind. Is it not likely that the Apostle is speaking about the simple everyday things pertaining to the life of any Christian, simply about the Christian life and mindset? Here is the larger context (14-18):
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Of course, giving thanks could be seen as another one of the noetic arts, or it can be as simple as thanking God for everything - not only those things which seem pleasing to us, but also those which are as bitter as medicine and as painful as surgery. Indeed, a doctor takes a knife and cuts into our flesh, and yet we say, “Thank you, doctor!” and actually feel grateful, albeit sore for a while.
But let us take another look at the words of the Scripture: “in all thy works,” “ever follow,” “evermore,” “without ceasing,” “in every thing…” Is this not an admonition to pay careful attention to every single moment of our lives? Sounds daunting, does it not? In reality, this is rather simple and starts with very small steps. For example, many people use a telephone: they call their friends and family, answer when it is ringing - all without too much thought. Really, it is such a commonplace experience that we don’t think twice about it. I know one person who makes the sign of the cross every time before picking up the telephone. How beautiful and meaningful! How simple! - A pause, a short prayer, a realization that the interaction about to take place is within the sacred space and time of human life - life examined. We all take showers, right? I once read of a person who recited only one short verse from Psalm 50 (51 in Masoretic enumeration): “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (7 KJV). Again, how beautiful in its simplicity!
A life sanctified, a life as a sacrament - is this not what the Church teaches us? Our bodies and souls are washed in the waters of holy baptism; our cars and homes sanctified with holy water; our eyes, ears and mouths sealed with holy chrism - a Christian is a special vessel separated, set aside for service to God (cf. 1 Peter 2:9). Why do you think we wear a cross at all times? For the same reason that there is a cross on any church - to signify that this is not a barn or a warehouse, but a sacred temple of God. Clearly, in this short talk we cannot discuss a human life in any detail, but in conclusion, I would like to mention only two aspects of our daily routines which are already marked by the Church as sacred.
Mealtime
We all eat, often without giving much consideration to the act of eating - we get hungry, so we eat. However, eating is one of the most ancient sacred acts known to men. Through an act of eating, Adam and Eve fell away from God, and through an act of eating, Christ enters into us in Holy Communion. Cain and Abel offered food that they had raised as a sacrifice to God. Abraham fed the three divine visitors. When the prodigal son returned home, the father ordered that a meal be prepared. And the union of Christ and man is often symbolized by a feast.
We pray before and after each meal. Prayers mark the sacred and separate it from the profane. Thus, mealtime is sacred time, a sacred rite. Put simply, mealtime is an icon: earthly bread nourishes and sustains our bodies as Christ, the heavenly bread, nourishes and sustains our souls. Every meal is in some way sacramental inasmuch as it gives us a visible symbol of an invisible reality. And just as with painted images there are holy icons and then there are caricatures, so it is with meals - there are sacred and intentional times marked by prayer and then there are caricatures marked by gluttony and intemperance.
Daily Prayers
We sometimes feel that the sacred time in our day is the time of prayer. We treat prayer as some form of an obligation: 15 minutes for God, the rest of the day for ourselves. Indeed, we often misunderstand religious obligations and see them in the same way as we see our social obligations. Let’s take a look at taxes, for example: we give a certain portion of our income to the government because it needs funds for various programs, and we keep the rest for our own needs. Clearly, with God it cannot be the same. God does not actually need our tithes, and he does not need our prayers. On the contrary, we offer our first fruits to God in order that all of our earthly labors be sanctified. Everything we own and, by the way, everything we eat, is sacred because it is sacrificial - it has been sanctified by our offering of the first and best to God. Likewise, we offer morning and evening prayers to God in order that our whole day may be holy, peaceful and sinless. In other words, the sacred time of the day is not the time of prayer, but the time which is marked, framed, crowned by prayer - that is to say, the whole day itself. A good example may be a beautiful chalice: as sacred and beautiful as it may be, it’s what’s inside that matters. Or a beautiful temple - it is sanctified not by walls and ceilings or by gold and glitter, but by the presence of God; and without God, it is merely a museum of architecture and fine arts. Think about it next time when you want to hurry up and finish your prayers so that you can get on with your day.
Another important aspect of prayer is that it keeps us in touch with God, person to Person, reminds us that we are not alone, that that which we see is not all that there is. Of course, this only works if prayer is constant or at least frequent. Some may be surprised, but the early Christians did not have the Jordanville Prayer Book. Instead, they said much shorter prayer rules much more frequently - up to five times a day or more at specific hours. The earliest prayer rule probably consisted of the Lord’s Prayer.2 Perhaps, an interesting echo of the practice of short but frequent prayers can be found in our Evening Prayer Rule - the Prayer of Saint John Chrysostom with a short supplication for every hour of the day. It is unclear whether Saint John ever followed the rule of saying one petition every single hour of the day, or whether he did what we now do - read through the whole list in a few minutes, but our divine services also follow a set pattern throughout the day: the first hour (6 a.m.), the third hour (9 a.m.), the sixth hour (12 a.m.), the ninth hour (3 p.m.), and then vespers (6 p.m.).
The modern industrial world has been built in such a way that for most working people it would be impossible to recite a ten- or fifteen-minute prayer rule three or five times a day. But the ancients did not do this either. What if we tried to do what they did - the Lord’s Prayer? Or, perhaps, something even shorter - the Jesus Prayer? Could we do that five times a day?
* * *
If you are a Christian, then you do not believe that your life is an accident, a meaningless, purposeless, random collapse of a cosmic probability wave. You know that your purpose is to become the Body of Christ. You know that your life is a sacrament, not unlike the Eucharist. Grains of wheat grow from the earth, shaped and fashioned through much labor to be offered to God and to become His Body. Likewise a human life: taken from the earth, shaped and fashioned through much labor to become an offering to God and His Body. And just as there are differences in liturgical rites and traditions, different people found unique ways to live their lives as a sacred offering to God. Perhaps it is less important whether you sing psalms in the shower or not, recite the Lord’s Prayer three times a day or five - what is important is that you live your life as a sacrament, as an icon, and not as a caricature.
“ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ”—Plato, Apology 38a. Plato ascribed these words to Socrates, but, I suppose, it is rather impossible to know with any certitude that some of Plato’s own thoughts were not misrepresented as those of his famous teacher.
See Didache 8.
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