Chapter 7: And Yea are Witnesses of These Things

 Final chapter:

The church in its totality is a mission and through this mission projects the very essence of this message which is life. However, sometimes one is in need of reminders of what this mission is because the church sometimes has forgotten its “establishment” in the world. Mission should be the focus of the modern times. Two aspects that have become a constant failure is based on any substantial victory of other “world religions” and the failure to overcome the growth of secularism in our culture. The first being the fact that Christianity sees itself as being another “religion”. As for secularism nothing shows better than the confusion it has created amongst the Christians themselves which ranges from varieties of Christians who reject it and to others who embrace it. This is why Christians are confused in regards to mission in the modern time. Mission is thought of as being essential need of man. This comes from the idea that Christianity is another “religion” and by discerning this thought mission then somehow becomes a “necessity”. There exists this notion that religion needs to “defend” as Fr. Alexander calls it the “religious” and “spiritual values” that are being “attacked” by atheism and materialism. Conservative Christians are ready to give up the idea of mission as the preaching of the one, and replace it by a common front of all religions against this enemy being secularism. As paradox as this next statement will sound it must be lived out that in order to overcome secularism is the reality of surrendering to secularism. The surrender does not mean one is ought to give up creeds, symbols, traditions and customs but rather as Fr. Alexander puts it: “…in accepting the very function of religion in terms of promoting the secular value of help, be it help in character building, peace of mind, or assurance of eternal salvation. Page 109”. This is what Fr. Alexander is alluding to as the destruction of religion of our modern age. People “change” religions because it is never linked to truth but rather which religion can offer the most help or the fastest route to salvation. If this is what is understood as religion then the decline of religion will continue because as long as people understand religion as an appendix to the world then “religion” will cease to exist.

The second point that was mentioned previously was the acceptance of secularism. The important thing to understand from this is that mission is understood here primarily in terms of human solidarity. Christian mission is not only to preach Christ, but to be Christians in life and to see Christ in others. Secularism then can be understood as having been brought out of Christianity and the “revolution” it had gone through. The unfortunate part is that Christians do not embrace secularism but instead see it as the breaking away of the sacred and the profane. It is a tragedy because having tasted the good wine; man preferred and still prefers to return to water. Having seen the true light, instead they chose the light of their own logic. However, one must be careful because secularism in its broken form is a lie about the world. Many live in the world as if there were no God. Honesty to the gospel and the experience of every saint and every word of the liturgy demands exactly the opposite. As Father Alexander says “…to live in the world seeing everything in it as a revelation of God, a sign of His presence, the joy of His coming, the call to communion with Him, the hope for fulfillment in Him. Page 112”.

By way of conclusion Fr Alexander says that the only purpose to this book was to show that the two reductions of Christianity (religion and secularism) is not the only choice, that in fact it is a false dilemma. These final passages cannot be done justice as I will leave Fr. Alexander to conclude this chapter and book for us:

Since the day of Pentecost there is a seal, a ray, a sign of the Holy Spirit on everything for those who believe in Christ and know that He is the life of the world—and that in Him the world in its totality has become again a liturgy, a communion, an ascension. To accept secularism as the truth about the world is, therefore, to change the original Christian faith so deeply and so radically, that the question must be asked: do we really speak of the same Christ? Page 112.                

The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom—not because she possesses divinely instituted acts called "sacraments,” but because first of all she is the possibility given to man to see in and through this world the "world to come,” to see and to "live” it in Christ. It is only when in the darkness of this world we discern that Christ has already "filled all things with Himself” that these things, whatever they may be, are revealed and given to us full of meaning and beauty. A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him. And this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world’s return to Him who is the life of the world. Page 113.

A few quotes from chapter seven: 

There exist—such is the assumption—a basic religion, some basic "religious” and "spiritual values,” and they must be defended against atheism, materialism and other forms of irreligion. Not only "liberal” and "nondenominational,” but also the most conservative Christians are ready to give up the old idea of mission as the preaching of the one, true universal religion, opposed as such to all other religions, and replace it by a common front of all religions against the enemy: secularism. Page 108.    

But the tragedy is also a sin, because secularism is a lie about the world. "To live in the world as if there were no God!”—but honesty to the Gospel, to the whole Christian tradition, to the experience of every saint and every word of Christian liturgy demands exactly the opposite: to live in the world seeing everything in it as a revelation of God, a sign of His presence, the joy of His coming, the call to communion with Him, the hope for fulfillment in Him. Page 112.

It is only as we return from the light and the joy of Christ’s presence that we recover the world as a meaningful field of our Christian action, that we see the true reality of the world and thus discover what we must do. Christian mission is always at its beginning. It is today that I am sent back into the world in joy and peace, "having seen the true light,” having partaken of the Holy Spirit, having been a witness of divine Love. Page 113.