On the State of Things…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

There is a hunger among us for something different, something better, something true, real, and good in ourselves and all the institutions of our culture. The desire is almost palpable in the air and the hunger is past the point of pain. Something is wrong and we’re not quite sure what it is. Consider this.

For years in the media, the arts, our schools, our businesses, our religious structures, and the greater culture we’ve been told that morals, truth, righteousness, and all good things are whatever a person decides is appropriate in their own world view.  By and large all of us have bought into this in one way or another, lured by the promise of freedom and the possibilities of a soul unlimited by even reasonable constraints. Ancient wisdom formed in the crucible of centuries of human experience has been discarded. We assume that technological progress is the same as the evolution of the human being. We thought we were being progressive and oriented towards a utopian future. Because we can make a better car we came to believe that we were also wiser, more enlightened, and better than the ideas and people who came before us.  Yet something is missing.

Slowly we’re discovering that we’ve succeeded in creating, instead of some brave new human,  a whole generation plus of self-centered individuals with a fetish for our own desires as civil rights and very little consideration for the world of people outside our own orbit. Our children are becoming little monsters and our politicians remain little children. We believe in nothing beyond the next pleasure and live without a past so we have no future. Our institutions reflect this and are the way they are because they are from us and we are in a very sorry state of things. Now we wonder what has happened and fear for the future.

We don’t need a new political party, a new product, a new corporation, or even a new government. We need a new worldview. And as Orthodox Christians it has to start with Christ and His church, the primal and over arching culture to which we are all supposed to belong.

To do this we will need to see our churches not simply as centers of worship, although true worship is at the heart of things, or places where we socialize or, God forbid, as ethnic centers where we sell goods to outsiders to keep the lights on. We need to see our communities as centers of Christian civilization and culture, bastions of holiness and light.  In these places we ourselves will learn, because we often are swept up into our broken culture’s vision, about our Faith as a worldview that impacts every bit of our existence and learn how to practice it and share it with the larger world. In worship we will set our hearts in their proper alignment. In learning we will discover truth that endures. In being community we will help each other along the pilgrim way. The renewal of a culture begins with the revival of the Church. If we want the world to shine with grace and glory we, each of us have to shine, and our churches must be ablaze as well. The world needs examples of the good things we proclaim, proof that there’s some kind of substantial hope. If we are not it then what?

I am convinced that today, somewhere a Saint is being made. Who it may be is not mine to know. God knows. Yet in this world of darkness it will be those transfigured people, Saints in the making, and transfigured churches, where the unconquered Light will shine and through them the world will be renewed. Let it be us.

 

 

It’s True…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

I do talk, and sing, and think, about Jesus. A lot. And I worry sometimes that people around me may not understand.

It’s definitely not about being smug or perfect. I’m not entitled to the first and anyone who’s known me for more than a day or two knows I’m not capable of the latter. Yet it’s not a scheme, either. It’s pretty tough to try to live an authentic Christian life as a get rich quick program or a sure winner for a popularity contest.  More than likely, especially in these days, trying to follow Christ is not going to get you a seat at the best restaurant in town or an invitation to the right party, or even for that matter the Democrat or Republican party,

Although some may think it so, it’s not an obsession. An obsession has pathology about it and if anything my attachment to Christ has made me less pathological, or at least better able to cope with my pathologies. I don’t need Jesus like a junkie needs a fix. Are there needs in my life that Jesus meets? Yes. Yet my walk with Christ is a communion not an addiction, two friends, as it were, walking together down the road.

And frankly I just find Jesus plain old smart. I look at his teachings, his way of life, and his call on humanity and it seems so wise and good. I imagine what the world would be like if everyone lived as Jesus did and when on those occasions I actually succeed in doing so myself I find a deep rest and sense of being a whole person.  If all people are thinking about when they consider Jesus is a way to get “saved” for some future I think they’re missing the great possibilities of life in the present with Jesus. Love God with your whole being. Love your neighbor as yourself. Live at peace, as best you can, with every human being. Don’t be overcome with the desire for wealth but rather share what you have with those who have less. Be captivated by the things that are eternal and be free of the things that never last. Live a moral life, avoiding human excesses like an athlete avoids carrying extra weights during a race. What better life could there be? Even if there were no heaven it would still be a good thing and because there is it’s a taste of that existence here.

Frankly when I see Jesus I want to be like him. It’s not because I hate myself it’s because I see in him the possibility for my best self, my truest humanity. To be a human in this world we need to have teachers and every one of us has them whether we acknowledge them or not. We need a guide to help us in every day of our life and I’m not sure I could find a better teacher than Jesus, or a better example of how to live in this world than him. Of course I don’t always live up to his ideals but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth the effort or that they aren’t good, or right, or true.

We human beings have this amazing power of choice. We’ve been given life and we can choose what we do with it. I like lots of things, gardens, music, sunny days, a good baseball game, the list could go on.  And the choices we make will naturally flow out of our life and into the world. I expect Vikings fans (our local football team) to talk about the Vikings. I expect artists to share their art. Grandmas have pictures of their grandchildren. What’s inside comes out. So it is with Jesus and me.

Again it’s not about being smug or perfect. It’s just my thing. It’s one of my joys. It’s a river of happiness that sometimes overflows its banks. You don’t have to listen or even approve. I hope you’re blessed by it, of course, but people are different and you can do what you want. As for me, I’m just going to keep on walking, and seeking, and pushing on through and stay as close to Jesus as I can.

Media Missing the Point…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

Sadly it happens all the time in coverage of religious or spiritual news. But at least somebody is trying to get the story right. Read the quote and then the rest of the article.

Let’s begin with the fact that the pope has always been “OK” with homosexuals.  In fact, by the demands of his own religion he is required to be much more than just “OK.”  The Christian faith teaches that every person is endowed by God with an inviolable dignity and therefore deserves our unconditional respect and love.