Human philosophies and the Gospel

“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1Cor 1:17-18)

“Jesus said: ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save (sosai) his soul (psychen) will lose (apolesei) it, but whoever loses his soul for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.’” (Mk 8:34-35)

Let us take notice of three words: soul (psyche), save (sosai), lose (apolesei).

Jesus emphasizes that we have to lose our soul, but not in some nirvana or Oriental meditations; we have to lose it for His sake and the Gospel’s. This is the essence of the first of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” (Mt 5:3) This loss of soul is, in fact, a putting off of the old self, it is its crucifixion with Christ (cf. Eph 4:22; Gal 2:20). If we are to bear witness to Christ and perform a mission, a certain problem arises concerning communication with people living in the world. Once they are converted, this problem disappears. People have always applied various philosophies to express the truths of faith. Unfortunately, many times the means was made into an end, or it led to a different aim and not to Christ and to full unity with Him. Therefore the Apostle calls: “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1Сor 2:4-5)

The foundation of our salvation is the reception of Christ connected with the remission of our sins through repentance and conversion. Whoever has Jesus has the assurance of salvation: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1Jn 5:12) Without conversion and reception of Christ nobody can become the child of God. “To all who did receive Him (Jesus), He gave the right to become children of God.” (Jn 1:12) This reception happens through conversion and repentance, that means, through the saving faith. Psychological practices or various philosophies are of no use here; they are rather a hindrance. The foundation of our salvation is Christ. There is no other foundation for salvation (cf. Acts 4:12). We are obliged to build our life upon this foundation (cf. 1Cor 3:11) and then we are obliged, too, to bear witness to Christ. Jesus must truly be “my Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28). So my lord must not be the sin, my pride, my dependences, my will, but He, Jesus – His will. He must have the first place in my personal life. Every day I have to seriously reckon with Him, to seek and do His will. To Him I have to give my sins and wilfulness, in prayer I have to stand in His light before His face, I have to love Him more than all things, people and even myself. He is my God. Therefore I have to love Him with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength.

To love God, to love Jesus, means that I am to lose my soul for His sake. Why? Because the poison of original sin is rooted in my soul. This manifests itself through pride (denial of God, self-divinization, constant seeking and preferring of my ego). Jesus says that I have to deny this ego, or myself. How? The Apostle says that we have to “constantly enter the death of Jesus” (cf. 2Cor 4:10f). What does it mean? It is a repeated process, not just a one-off act. However, that we may die for Jesus’ sake and the Gospel’s, first we have to know Jesus. This personal knowledge of Christ is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is not enough only to be converted, it is also necessary to receive the Holy Spirit in fullness and then to let ourselves be guided by Him. He is the Spirit of truth and life. The contrary is the spirit of lie and death. The greatest problem is original sin in us and the constant fight against it. Its power is in lie. Through sin we can then be easily enslaved by the spirit of lie. So our fight is not only against flesh and blood but mainly against the powers of darkness (cf. Eph 6:12). This fight takes place in our soul. “The natural man (psychikos) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. The spiritual man (pneumatikos) rightly discerns all things.” (1Cor 2:14-15) Today the promotion of formations based on psychologies, organized for religious, students of theology and priests, signifies only the development of the natural man (psychikos), de facto the old self. Admittedly, it is useful for us to know the maliciousness, cunning and weak points of the old self; however, without the knowledge of the psychology of the Gospel, which is connected with Christ’s cross, it is pointless. Modern psychology has its roots in occultism (Jung) and in moral impurity. Different kinds of psychoanalyses do not lead to conversion but kill the Spirit and the divine life.

Example: In Ukraine religious sisters are forced to go through so-called spiritual retreats which are based on modern psychological manipulation. The fruit is the loss of the saving faith and opening up to false principles similar to those which bind the soul by superstitions, horoscopes, conditiongrams, enneagrams etc. This leads to the enslavement of the soul by various unbiblical commands, such as: You can do this, You can’t do that. These substitutes for the denial of oneself – for the loss of one’s soul for Christ’s sake – lead to perdition. There is no conversion there, no deeper knowledge of Jesus in the Spirit and truth, no guidance to inner and true relationship with Jesus and to the loss of one’s soul for His sake, to the experiencing of the truth that our old self has been crucified with Christ. This is quite the contrary – the way of apostasy – development of the old self.

The essence of the Gospel is love – agape – but not love for sin, for impurity, for lie, for things, for oneself, for people, but pure love for Jesus. There is only one condition for the reception of this love – to lose one’s soul for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s. The loss of our soul for Christ’s sake is a putting off of our old self and a putting on of the new self. It means that we receive a new life style of a life of faith and walking in the Spirit.

Until recently so-called eternal philosophy (perennis) of St. Thomas Aquinas was emphasized. To be just, it did lead to logical thinking; however, it was not able to lead to the true essence, to the practical following of Christ, which is based on the loss of one’s soul for His sake and the Gospel’s. Unfortunately, it opened the door for intellectual pride, unfruitful academic discussions and even for pernicious pharisaism. One must admit that we can be saved even without this philosophy. Concerning other philosophies, admittedly, there are some grains of truth but these lead away from the very Truth, from Jesus. They build up and develop human pride and many times make the means into the end. St. Paul needed neither the baptized Aristotle nor Kant, nor Hegel, nor Heidegger, nor Chardin, nor Jung with Freud. St. Paul points out that these human wisdoms reject the essence of the Gospel, that is, Christ and His cross. The words of the cross are folly to them (cf. 1Cor 1:18). Who follows Christ, going the simple way of conversion and repentance, the one does not need these philosophies and psychologies. They are a hindrance on his way of following Christ, for they have nothing in common with true spiritual life and, moreover, are misleading. To pass on the truth of the Gospel, Christ’s disciple does not need human philosophies or psychologies. The Apostle says: “And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1Cor 2:4-5) Unfortunately, the present-day Church lacks this power of God. That is why modern theologians want to compensate for it with so-called stimulating methods of zen, yoga, modern psychologies and various philosophies. However, this way leads to apostasy from the saving faith, to the loss of Christ and loss of eternal life. The life philosophy of a Christian must be built purely on Christ and His Gospel. True wisdom (philosophy) consists in the fact that man seriously reckons with his death, with God’s Judgement, with eternity (heaven, hell) and in the first place with Christ who is the only One to give the remission of sins. This wisdom is connected with the denial of our self, with the carrying of our cross and with entering the death of Jesus. In the hour of our physical death no theology or philosophy will save us; only one thing will be decisive: whether I am in living communion with Jesus. Since we do not know when the hour of our death comes, in accordance with Jesus’ words we must be always ready. This is true wisdom and true life philosophy.

The complexity of life and spiritual battle cannot be expressed by God’s law only. We have to do our best in order to fulfil it; nevertheless, it will convict us of constant transgression against it. It is therefore necessary that we also have the Spirit who is behind God’s law. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:2)

Quoting from the Scripture in relation to certain situations may be misleading unless one has the Spirit of truth and discerns properly. Even the devil on the desert quoted the Scripture before Jesus, but in an inapt manner and with an evil intention. This manipulation is nowadays performed by many so-called theologians. Hundreds of thousands of souls are thus led to eternal perdition.

The following Jesus’ statement likewise leads to the divine wisdom: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Mt 6:33) Jesus does not say that we should accumulate knowledge and academic degrees. “Seeking” is a painful process. The word “first” shows us what is to be given the first place on our value scale. The word “first” has crucial significance: if students of theology first go through philosophical, psychological and so-called biblical preparatory courses, they eventually have no time and no strength to seek the kingdom of God.

Conclusion

The most pressing need and necessity today is to reform the formation of priests on the basis of discipleship, which is connected with the true following of Christ and with the loss of soul for His sake and the Gospel’s.

In Christ,

bishops of the orthodox Catholic Synod of the UGCC

+ Metod?j OSBM

+ Markian OSBM

+ Samuel OSBM

+ Eliáš OSBM

Pidhirtsi, 8th May 2009

Copy to:

-         The Holy Father Benedict XVI