Pussy Riot

Revisited

Bare chested woman cutting down the Memorial Cross in Kie

Freedom of Speech and the Sovereignty of God

I received a small number of criticisms regarding my previous essay on the subject of the Pussy Riot group. One woman went so far as to declare that I couldn’t possibly be a Christian, holding as I did, that the two year sentence was just and right. A man accused me of being against free speech because I did not think these women had a right to enter a sacred space (Christ the Saviour Cathedral) for the purpose of furthering their political agenda. I was also accused of not following Christ’s directive that we should be quick to forgive.

One of the problems, as I see it, is that many, including strong Christians, can not differentiate between forgiveness and justice. One can forgive someone, but the consequences of a wrong must still face justice.  You can’t expect a parent to constantly forgive a child who is abusive, for at some point a child must reap what he has sown. Otherwise you enable them to continue his destructive behavior, and the child is never going to be prone towards repentance. If we never let another reap what they’ve sown, we are killing them. Love and forgiveness must be balanced with justice.

Human rights are taken to the extreme if we see others as having the right to trample on the sacred. We should never defend any one’s right to defile the holy. And I am not just talking about the defilement of Orthodox churches, for synagogues, mosques, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist temples, as places of worship, should not have to be subjected to invasion by people bent on a pushing a political agenda. Both the Russian and French revolutions saw the ultimate result of this mind set, with the destruction of churches and holy sites in mass.Would anyone think a person had the right to enter a private home, screaming profanity in front of their children, because the person had the right of free speech? Surely not! Yet those who would see the Pussy Riot girls having a right to their vile and profane display in Moscow’s Patriarchal Cathedral, fail to see this building as being God’s house! 

We have entered a period in human history where personal freedom has elevated us all to being gods. In arriving at such a place we have replaced the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of man. Power, politics, and money have replaced the sublime conversations about the things of the spirit, because everyone had been lowered to the lowest common denominator. Everyone is empowered, and we are no longer accountable to God.

Finally, since my words will surely open up a flood of new criticism, I would like to offer the following words from the holy elder of our time, Saint Nikolai Velomirovich:

“Don’t argue with an atheist, don’t argue with an angry man, don’t argue with a bitter man. Don’t argue with an atheist because man is by nature devout. Don’t argue with an angry man because man is by nature peaceful and calm. If you argue with an angry man, you argue with the devil. Don’t argue with a bitter man because man is by nature grateful, and thankful to God. What you should do is by acts of love and mercy pray that God would enlighten the person. You are not going to convince them by argument and logic.”

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
 Tuesday August 21, 2012

12^th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Food without Oil

Afterfeast of the Transfiguration.

St. Emilian the Confessor, bishop of Cyzicus (820).
St. Philaret of Ichalka, Ivanovo (1913).
New Hieromartyr Joseph (1918).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas priest (1937).
New Hieromartyr Nicodemus (Krotov) archbishop of Kostroma and Galich (1938).
Venerable Gregory, iconographer of the Kiev Caves (12th c.).
Translation of the relics (1566) of Venerables Zosimas (1478) and Sabbatius (1435) of Solovki.
Second translation of the relics (1992) of Venerables Zosimas, Sabbatius, and Herman of Solovki.
St. Myron, bishop of Crete (350).
Martyrs Eleutherius and Leonides of Constantinople, and many infants with them.
Venerable Gregory of Sinai (Mt. Athos) (1346).
“Tolga” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1314).
Martyr Gormizdas of Persia (418).
New Martyr Triandaphyllus of Zagora in Thessaly (1680) (Greek).
Twelve Ascetics of Egypt (Greek).
Two Martyrs of Tyre (Greek).
Martyr Styracius (Greek).
New Martyr Anastasius (Spaso) of Radovishte in Strumica who suffered at Thessalonica (1794) (Greek).
St. Gregory, wonderworker of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
St. Zosimas the Sinaite of Tumana Monastery, Serbia (14th c.).
Monk-martyr Euthymius, abbot of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist at Garesja, Georgia (1804).

You can read the life of the saint in green, by click on the name.

THANK YOU, to all of you who have been able to contribute towards the support of the monastery. These difficult times of economic hardship have impacted the monastery, and those of you who have been able to donate, have been our lifeline. May God bless you for your generosity, and kindness.With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

2 Corinthians 5:15-21

¹⁵and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

¹⁶Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Mark 1:16-22

Four Fishermen Called as Disciples

¹⁶And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁷Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” ¹⁸They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

¹⁹When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. ²⁰And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.

Jesus Casts Out an Unclean Spirit

²¹Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. ²²And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.