Why Nonviolence?

Christ is in our midst!

The Church is founded in the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
Peter was the first to declare this, and Jesus told him this can only be truly known to those whose hearts are open to God's revelation.  It cannot be known through "flesh and blood"- through any worldly wisdom or observation of phenomena or persuasive argument.
Likewise with Nonviolence.
You either get it or you dont.  Most dont, for it is a hard word.

Shortly after Jesus grounds the Church in Peter's inspired confession, Peter is rebuked more harshly than anyone for he returns to a worldly way of understanding power and knows Jesus by 'flesh and blood' alone:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."
-Matt. 16

There is only one reason for a Christian to embrace nonviolence: because it brings us into the Kingdom of Heaven with Christ our Lord.  Christ is the only source of freedom and joy, and there is no happiness without him.  He has made it clear that to be one with him- to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect- we must love our enemies and even give our lives for them in this love.
This is a hard word, but it is a word of joy and freedom too.
For we only find true and eternal life by embracing death.  This is the Christian paradox.

For all of his enthusiasm, Peter was a slow learner.  He is the quintessential disciple in that regard.  Shortly after declaring his devotion to Jesus his Master, Peter betrays him three times.  But even before this Peter fails to grasp the radical freedom and courage that union with God can bring:

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
   “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”
-Matt 26


If we would be truly free- truly united with Christ our Life, our Peace, our Joy- then we too must ascend the cross in our lives and allow events to "happen this way."
Nonviolence is a radical path, but it is not the source of pain, suffering, insecurity, and death.  It is the pinacle of faith in a God who commands Legions of Angels and can deliver us from any circumstance that is not for our salvation.  Nonviolence is ultimate freedom from the cares of this world, setting our minds on things above and experiencing the peace, joy, and freedom that the only Son of God knew and lived and walked in Himself.
 It is a hard word, but it is life giving word.

Glory to God who was baptized in the Jordan for our salvation!
-Mark Basil 

St Basil's Nonviolence

Happy New year!
January 1st is my Names Day, the Feast of St Basil the Great.
There is so much I love about St Basil; of course I have found consolation his infamous advice to the Church that Christian soldiers who kill in battle should be disciplined.  This demonstrates the obvious:  killing is always sinful.

St Basil wrote:

Our fathers did not consider killings committed in the course of wars to be classifiable as murders at all, on the score, it seems to me, of allowing a pardon to men fighting in defense of sobriety and piety. Perhaps, though, it might be advisable to refuse them communion for three years, on the ground that their hands are not clean.
-Canon 13 of the 92

As far as I am aware, the Church has never accepted Basil's holy council.  Is this any surprise?  Can you imagine the reaction among state and military leaders if Christian soldiers were disciplined for killing?  This is completely against the interests of worldly powers.  Bishops might actually be persecuted if they tried implementing this cannon which runs so contrary to national interests.
One might say that traditionally, the Church has chosen to disregard St Basil's recommended discipline for soldiers.
This raises an important question:   
What makes our Church Tradition Holy?
It is nothing other than the work of the Holy Spirit revealing the truth of Jesus Christ that sanctifies Church Tradition.  It is not enough for a teaching to stand the test of time, or even to receive wide-scale consensus among the bishops to establish it as Holy Tradition (though these are very helpful indicators).
Only Christ and Him Crucified makes Church Tradition holy.  Everything must be tested against the revelation of the God-man Jesus Christ.  Only where a teaching serves as a prism to the light of Christ, do we know it is a trustworthy part of Holy Tradition.

For centuries now the Church has failed to implement St Basil's council for the discipline of soldiers (where discipline should be understood as a posture of repentance for the healing of the spiritually wounded killer).  Nevertheless it is part of our Holy Tradition for it shines with the gospel of Jesus Christ, who became man and thus sanctified all human life.

St. Gregory the Theologian's praise of his friend St Basil the Great, after he fell asleep, reveals the Orthodox worldview alive in Basil and necessary for any Christian to respond to violence with love:
When Saint Basil was summoned by the emperor Valentius to admit the Arians to Communion, the prefect in charge, finding that soft words had no effect, said to him, “Are you mad, that you resist the will before which the whole world bows? Do you not dread the wrath of the emperor, nor exile, nor death?” “No,” said Basil calmly; “he who has nothing to lose need not dread loss of goods; you cannot exile me, for the whole earth is my home; as for death, it would be the greatest kindness you could bestow upon me; torments cannot harm me; one blow would end both my frail life and my sufferings.” The prefect answered, “Never has anyone dared to address me thus.” “Perhaps,” suggested Basil, “you never before measured your strength with a Christian bishop.” The emperor desisted from his commands.

Christ is born, making a nonviolent life possible

The Orthodox Church knows that war is evil- even the greatest evil.
This is of course true because it is the antithesis of the work of God in our midst, the antithesis of salvation:  Emanuel has come to reconcile Man who was estranged from God, and He has given us the minstry of reconciliation.  And so there is nothing more characteristically Christian than being a peacemaker.
War is the inversion of this- War is the tearing apart of creation pitting brothers against each other and destroying God's creation.  War is a fundamental betrayal of our Christian vocation.

War is a great evil, even the greatest evil, and yet I have also heard people add, "true, but it is a necessary evil."
This is a lie.
War is not necessary, for Christ is born!  The only sinless one has shown us that it is possible to live a life without resort to lethal violence under any circumstances.  But the cost of this sinlessness is very great- no less than our own lives.  Christ has shown us that sinlessness and absolute nonviolence is possible in this fallen world, however it will require the sacrifice of our very life to fulfill this calling.
War is only 'necessary' for those who refuse the cross, who refuse to enter the passion of our Lord, the sinless One.

War is not a necessary evil, for God has lived a perfect life in the flesh!
Nonviolence has not been tried and found wanting.
Nonviolence has been found difficult and left untried by most Christians.

Elder Porphyrios on Violence: Whom do we glorify?

I asked the Elder what his opinion was on the matter [of love and violence].  "The things are confused."  He went on to tell this parable:
"Once there was a monastery on a mountain, where the monks lived in peace... [Among the monks there was a novice who newly repented from a fierce life as a chief-robber, and an old monk he was to work with.]  One day the Abbot sent the two monks to chop wood from the mountain and bring it back to the monastery for the winter.  They set off wit their donkey, they reached the mountain, they chopped down the wood, loaded it up, but before they managed to set off robbers appeared before them.  They took the donkey with the wood and beat up the monks.  The chief-robber monk was enraged, but before he made any move whatsoever, he asked his companion:  'What do the books say we should do now?'
His companion replied, 'Nothing, Christ's law says that if someone slaps your face, you should turn the other cheek.'  The robbers left wit the stolen goods.  The monks also left empty-handed and beaten.  When the Abbot saw them he felt sorry, but he didn't say anything.  A few days later he sent them to the mountain again, with another donkey, but more-or-less the same thing happened again.  The Abbot was very thoughtful; he didn't know what to do.  But, since it was very cold, with a great deal of effort, he found a third beast, and sent them to the mountains yet again.  At the very moment when they were getting ready to leave the same robbers turned up again, they took the donkey and again they started to beat them up.
The chief-robber monk's indignation came to a head.  However, he again asked his companion, 'Quickly Elder, find out what the Scriptures tell us to do.'
His companion again said to him, 'Nothing, the law of Christ says patience and love towards enemies.'
The chief-robber monk was not satisfied and said to him, 'Think hard, aren't there any other scriptures that say something else?'
His companion answered, 'Well, there's also the Old Testament, with the Law of Moses.'
'And what does that law say?'
'It says an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'
'That's a good law,' said the chief-robber monk and landed a punch on one of the robbers, knocking him flat out.  The other robbers looked at him in surprise.  Then he ripped open his robes and showed them his very hairy chest.  'Do you know who I am?' he said to the terrified robbers.  'I am so-and-so the famous chief-robber, who became a monk.  If you don't want me to make mincemeat out of the lot of you, you had better leave us the loaded donkey and get cracking to bring us back the other two donkeys, which you stole, and make sure they're loaded with wood.'
The robbers complied with his order.  So, the two monks returned triumphantly to the monastery, with three loaded donkeys.  As soon as the Abbot saw them, he started crossing himself and glorifying Christ.  Then the chief-robber monk said to him, 'Don't glorify Christ, holy father, but glorify Moses.  We brought back all the stolen goods with the law of Moses, because if we had kept to Christ's law we would have returned both thrashed and empty handed.' "

Excerpt from "With Elder Porphyrios: A spiritual child remembers," by Constantine Yiannitsiotis

What God has Joined Together

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I have been thinking a lot about marriages.
My parents have an unusually good marriage; not only salvific but full of joy and they would even say a relatively easy marriage.  Their cooperation has birthed many acts of love and mercy.
In contrast I know of a marriage where the husband seems profoundly selfish and has systematically isolated his wife from her broader family and seems only content if she is his and his alone.  I think of other couples in which there are imbalanced power dynamics- one partner trying to dominate another, full of insecurities.  Many marriages seem to have these unhealthy characteristics.
I think of yet another couple, married for several decades.  The husband always loved his wife more than she loved him.  His love was manifest in an almost subservience to her will, and she willed to be done with the Christian faith; slowly but surely, her husband followed.  Now all their adult children have left Christ.

And so of course when I think of marriage I think of divorce.
A new friend recently divorced her husband because he changed his mind and didn't want to have kids.  Another friend is separated from her husband because he lacks compassion, and his family always treated her poorly.  Yet another friend divorced his wife because she was so verbally abusive he felt he was shrinking away to nothing.  Another friend divorced his wife because "she was crazy, literally."  She hurt herself and hurt him and didn't really love him.

Why is marrital fidelity the Christian ideal?

In light of all this suffering, why should couples not divorce?
Every situation needs to be carefully worked through with a skilled spiritual father or mother.  However I think it is because when two are joined together they become one flesh-- a new life exists, and to divorce is to kill that which God Himself created.  To suffer in marriage (always unjustly), is to suffer for love, to suffer for Christ, and to lose one's life in order to find it in one's nearest neighbour.


When I look at all these marriages full of sickness and brokenness, and all these divorces, I think I have learned that (in adition to Christians remembering marriage is martyrdom not self-fulfillment), our loyalty must FIRST be to Christ, and then to our spouse.
In the marriages that 'work', I often see one spouse surrendering healthy parts of their identity, or betraying their conscience "for the sake of the marriage."  I do not believe this is right.  We are not called to divorce, but neither are we called to make the marriage work as smoothly as possible.  We are called to be faithful to Christ.
I now believe that sometimes this will mean holding fast to a truth, or an attitude, or a behaviour that genuinely makes the marriage harder.  Perhaps even drives our spouse to dislike us more and maybe even want to separate.  Still, where our heart is purified in prayers and peace, we must choose to remain loyal to Christ before our spouse.  This is a very hard road and it is the cause of suffering.  But I believe it is not enough just to "avoid divorce" if it comes at the cost of betraying our conscience or our self-- which is to say Christ, the Truth, in us.

God help us.
-MB