Philosophy of Orthodox Pastoral Care (2)

Author: Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)

Evil Shepherdship

If the scribes and Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat, surrounded by the wall of the Law (Matt. 23:2), then how much more could they sit on the seat of the One Meek Shepherd and begin to rule the word of His truth in an unrighteous manner in His name…

This happened in the world. Wolves entered the flock of the Shepherd and began to scatter his sheep, and they are still scattering them, having settled in churches and nations.

False shepherding is the most painful scourge that wounds the Most Pure Body of Christ. No human sins can be compared with the sin of false shepherding.

The father of false shepherds is the devil, according to the word of Christ: “Your father is the devil” (John 8:44).

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ, the fragrance of the Gospel, the burning of the Apostles, is not His (Rom. 8:9), and whoever is not Christ’s, whose is he?

False shepherds, doing their own will (and not the will of Christ), following their passions and lusts, are the scourge of the Church. The fight against false shepherds is difficult, for by tearing them out, having eaten into the holy body of the Church, the body is wounded. But the fight against them is necessary – by prayer and action.

And the archpastors, “who are quick to lay on hands” (1 Tim. 5:22), are subject to special responsibility.

Fiery, terrible words are spoken by the Mouth of God through the prophets against the shepherds who do not shepherd God’s flock, who do not serve the One Shepherd. The prophets describe not only the complete indifference of pastors to the work of pastoral care, but also their criminality.

In war, the enemy strives most of all to take possession of the commanders of armies, to penetrate into headquarters, into the management of troops, in order to cause greater devastation in the ranks of the enemy by the betrayal of one person than by victory on the open field of battle. And in spiritual warfare, the enemy, opposing the Pastor, makes every effort to take possession of the pastors of the Church: first of all – bishops, priests, clergy, monks; further – teachers, writers, heads of state, parents, educators … in order to paralyze the power of the Church of the Lord through them and most conveniently bring about the destruction of humanity.

Having penetrated into the sacred cathedra, the enemy can cause greater devastation in the flock than by fighting in an alliance of militant atheists or through the decrees of an atheist government. To destroy from within is his goal… And so he approaches not only the sleeping but also the dozing pastors, and takes possession of their feelings, words and actions, gives them his spirit – a spirit from which people spiritually perish, ceasing to believe in the holy.

The enemy needs “salt to cease to be salty” (Matt. 5:13), so that Christians lose the spirit of God, pastors lose the One Shepherd (John 10:16).

In a priest, it is equally terrible: his glaring lawlessness, tempting many, – and indifference, unnoticeable to the eye, apathy towards the work of Christ, lukewarmness (Rev. 3:16), in which the priest (unnoticeably even to himself) takes the place of God and serves himself, and not God. Fulfills the form, the letter of the pastoral ministry, without having the content, the spirit of the pastor, without entering into the work accomplished in the world by the One Shepherd.

“The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ – this is how the Word of God describes the indifference of the priests, – ‘And the teachers of the law did not know Me, and the shepherds fell away from Me’ (Jer. 10:21).

“Many shepherds have spoiled My vineyard, they have trampled down My plot; They have made My beloved plot a desolate wilderness, they have made it a wilderness, and it cries desolate before Me; The whole earth is desolate, because no man lays it to heart’ (Jer. 12:10–11).

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! says the Lord” (Jer. 23:1).

“Howl, O shepherds, and wail, and cast yourselves into the dust, O leaders of the flock: for your days of slaughter and of being scattered abroad are fulfilled; and you shall fall like a precious vessel. And there shall be no refuge for the shepherds, nor any relief for the leaders of the flock” (Jer. 25:34-35).

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who feed their own selves! Should not shepherds feed the flock? You have eaten the fat, and clothed yourself with the wool, and have slaughtered the fatlings, but have not fed the flock. They have not strengthened the weak, nor healed the sick sheep, nor bound up the broken ones, nor brought back the driven ones, nor sought for the lost ones; but have ruled them with violence and cruelty. So they are scattered without a shepherd, and being scattered, they become food for every beast of the field. My sheep go astray upon every mountain and upon every high hill; and my sheep are scattered upon all the face of the earth; and no one knows them, nor does any one seek them. Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD. As I live, says the Lord GOD, because my sheep have been left for a spoil, and because there is no shepherd, my sheep have become food for every beast of the field, and my shepherds have not sought my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep; therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and will require my sheep at their hand, and will not let them feed the sheep any more; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; but I will pluck my sheep out of their mouth, and they shall not be food for them…” (Ezek. 34).

The holier the place, the more terrible the abomination of desolation in it. And since the holiest place on earth is the Holy Orthodox Church, founded on the Rock – Christ and on the apostles and holy fathers – sons and brothers of Christ (Matt. 12:50), then it is easiest for the enemy (as strange as it may seem at first glance) to wreak havoc in it.

Every sacred rite is a great spiritual reality, the embodiment of the Spirit of Truth. As such, it is never “neutral”, but carries either Eternal Life or eternal death. External, formal, soulless use of sacred objects, actions and words, gives birth to and accumulates deadly negative energy in the world. A person who wears it out becomes a servant of the Antichrist. Adorned with gold and high ranks, but lacking the repentant burning of the heart, love and prayer, one can truly say in the words of the Apocalypse: “You think you are rich… but you are poor and blind and naked. Try to buy from me gold refined in the fire” (Rev. 3:17-18).

A cleansing fiery disaster has befallen the Russian Church. It is impossible to exhaust the depth of the Lord’s Providence. But the disaster befalls people for the sake of their salvation, and the Lord opens the sight of human sins, following the sending of the saving disaster.

Of course, the entire Orthodox people are responsible both for the fall of Orthodoxy in people and for the falling away from Orthodoxy of many souls. But most responsible are those who knew more than the common people. These people are the priests: bishops, priests, deacons.

Appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ to be mediators between Him, the One Shepherd, and the sheep of His flock, they, for the most part, turned out to be a wall between the Light of Christ and the people. “God will smite you, whitewashed wall!” the Apostle Paul prophetically exclaimed to the high priest (Acts 23:3). And indeed, both this high priest and many others in the history of churches and nations were “whitewashed walls,” painted, decorous (in their outward appearance) walls between God and God’s people.

Stealing the key of understanding, they “would not go in themselves, nor let others in” (Matt. 23:13). Straining out the gnat of ritual and formalism, they swallowed the camel of Christ’s truth and mercy, simplicity and humility.

Not living according to one’s faith is worse than living according to one’s unbelief. No atheist can bring so much harm to the Church of Christ and bring such devastation to the Church’s enclosure as an evil, self-seeking priest, to whom the terrible grace of performing the sacraments and wearing sacred vestments has been given and from whom it has not been taken away. It is they, these priests and bishops, who will say to the Lord at the Judgment: “Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and done many miracles? (Matthew 7:22-23). ​​And the Meek Lord will say to them: “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity.” Such “workers of iniquity” are all the clergy who replace Christ’s gracious pastorate with a graceless priesthood. Service to the people – dominion over the people. Who look not at the thin, but at the fat sheep, who rejoice not at sinners who repent (Luke 15:7-10), but at the righteous, who do not have and do not feel the need for repentance, if these righteous abundantly support the earthly life of the pastor-priest, who performs the sacred rites of the Church, like a pagan ritual, without faith, mercy, love, heartfelt prayer, service to God in Spirit and Truth.

The Orthodox Church with all its sacred rites and rules is a great field of the spirit and a growing force of life for those who have the will and calling for true pastoral service. But this same wonderful Church becomes a stone not only of stumbling, but also of fall for anyone who approaches it not in the spirit of Christ’s Priesthood and Christ’s Kingdom. Purifying gold, the fire of God’s Sacraments burns the straw…

It is easy for a weak human soul to be carried away by the semblance of priesthood, the external performance of “rites”, the musicality of singing, the beauty of words and decoration – the whole structure, the whole corporeality of the Church, which, not being inspired and animated by the Spirit of Christ, becomes blasphemy, representing the dead, unresurrected Body of Christ… Here is lawlessness, which has its own mystery (Rev. 7:5). And this is truly that “abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing where it should not (let the reader understand)”, of which the Savior spoke, and which to this day does not allow many to accept His Light.

Unworthy pastors lose the power to perform the sacraments themselves. They are invisibly bound by the angelic hand, which performs the Holy Offering of the faithful. The Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is trampled upon and desecrated not only by “magicians” (for whose sake the Church has stopped giving Holy Communion into the hands of the laity), but also by unworthy clergy who, both in their lives and during church services, have neither faith nor the will to be in the Lord, and for the Lord to be in them.

This is a priesthood without grace, about which St. John Chrysostom said in the words: “I do not think many priests will be saved.” This is “professionalism,” a profanation of the sacred. Life and the Word of God reveal with terrifying reality that pastors sometimes became not only below the pastoral level, but also below the human level.

Without accepting the One Shepherd, could they be pastors? Without experiencing the intercession of the Face of God for themselves, can they intercede for others?

The people, sanctified by their faith, from the sacred Mysteries they performed, were darkened, seeing their life, coming into contact with their interests. There are few souls in the world, enlightened by the spirit of Christ’s wisdom, who, seeing temptation in a priest, are not tempted about Christ, are not tempted about the Church, but penetrate even more ardently to Christ, love His Church even more ardently, and with greater zeal try to serve the One, Whose betrayal they see before them.

The majority of “believers” waver in faith from the slightest temptation, not only in the Church, but even in God, in His power and authority. These people are easy to depart from the Church. They are “babies in faith.” They cannot be judged harshly. They must be helped, protected.

That is why, truly, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).

The priesthood is a great power of sanctification (“a reservoir of grace”, in the words of Fr. John of Kronstadt), but it can also be a great power of temptation in the world.

Evil pastoral care can also be exercised by those who are given any power over a person: parents, guardians, leaders, rulers, bosses, teachers, educators, scientists, doctors, writers, doctors, journalists, artists… Each in his own sphere, not enlightened by the light of Christ, is a conductor of the devil’s lies, a persecutor of God’s Truth in the world and in man.

The kingdom of the “second death” (i.e. spiritual – Rev. 20:14) proselytes in the same way as the kingdom of Life – even much more persistently, for it is rude and insolent. The second death has many servants in the world, conscious and unconscious. If the earth were left with only its earthly preachers, the earth would have turned into hell long ago. But – the Creator gave Himself as the first Evangelist of the earth, in the person of His Only Begotten Son, and He, the Lamb slain for this before all ages, Crucified under Pontius Pilate and under the priests-shepherds Anna and Caiaphas, Himself proclaims His Truth in the world. And no whispers and cries of evil in the world can drown out His voice, diminish His love.

The love of God, like the Light of the Sun, falls on all humanity, and if some flee from the life-giving sun into their dark and damp cellars of thoughts and feelings – is the Sun of Truth, shining “over the evil and over the good,” to blame for this? Some signs of false pastoralism:

1. Greed, practical materialism, conditioning prayer or the Sacraments on monetary reward, which is a sin and a perversion of the Kingdom of God.

2. Pomp, splendor, theatricality… The angel warned St. Hermas about false shepherds with the words: “Look, Hermas, where there is pomp, there is flattery” – i.e. a lie before God. Orthodox worship is not “pomp” or “theatricality”, but a prayerful and reverent symbolic reality, singing to God with voice, colors and movement – surrendering to God of all the flesh of this world. Only through a heart burning with love for God and for people does Orthodox symbolism find its right to the truth, becomes a heavenly reality.

3. Fawning on the powerful, the rich. Disdainful attitude towards the poor and inconspicuous people. “Seeing faces”.

Timidity and false meekness before exposing the sin of the powerful of this world. Anger and rudeness towards the unresponsive and dependent people.

4. Preaching any earthly values ​​and heights in the temple; being carried away outside the temple by any indirect deed or idea to the detriment of the direct pastoral work of healing souls and bringing them to the One Shepherd. Irreverence in the temple.

5. Seeking glory and honor for oneself, vanity. Signs of atheism: “How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” Signs of pastoral faith: “Whoever seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (John 5:44, 7:18).

6. Neglect of the human soul… “A hireling is not a shepherd, whose sheep are not his own; he sees a wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them; but the hireling flees, because the hireling does not care for the sheep” (John 10:12-13).

(to be continued)

Source in Russian: Philosophy of the Orthodox Pastoral Service: (Path and Action) / Clergyman. – Berlin: Published by the Parish of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in Berlin, 1935. – 166 p.

Note about the author: Archbishop John (in the world, Prince Dmitry Alexeevich Shakhovskoy; August 23 [September 5], 1902, Moscow – May 30, 1989, Santa Barbara, California, USA) – Bishop of the Orthodox Church in America, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America. Preacher, writer, poet. Author of numerous religious works, some of which have been published in translation in English, German, Serbian, Italian and Japanese.