WE now face the question: Where does superstition end and true faith begin?

 

The Fathers have clear positions and teachings on this subject.

 

A person who follows (or rather believes that he follows) the teaching of Christ and simply goes to Church every Sunday, communes

at regular intervals, and makes use of Priests for Blessings of the Waters, anointments, etc., without exploring these things in greater depth, abiding in the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law—does such a person benefit in any particular way from Orthodoxy?

Next, another person who prays exclusively for the next life, for himself and for others, while being totally indifferent to this life—does he, again, benefit in any particular way from Orthodoxy?

The first tendency is personified by a parish Priest and those gathered around him with the aforementioned spirit, while the latter tendency is personified by a monastery Elder (usually an Archimandrite), who is retired and waiting to die, with a few monks around him.

To the extent that these two tendencies are not centered around purification and illumination, from a Patristic viewpoint they are at fault as to the thing they are pursuing.  On the other hand, to the extent that they are centered around purification, illumination and the implementation of the Orthodox Patristic ascetic regimen for the acquisition of noetic prayer, only then are things placed on a proper foundation.

These two tendencies incline towards opposite extremes.  They do not have a common axis.  The common axis that upholds Orthodoxy

and holds it together, its one and only axis, on all of the questions that concern Orthodoxy, and which puts everything on a correct foundation, when taken into account, is the axis: purification, illumination, deification.

The Fathers are not exclusively interested in what will happen to a person after his death; what is of primary interest to them is what a person will become in this life.

After death, there is no treatment of the mind, so the treatment must begin in this life; for “there is no repentance in Hades.”  This is why Orthodox theology is not other-worldly, futurological, or eschatological, but is purely this-worldly.  For the solicitude of Orthodoxy is for man in this world, in this life, not after death.

Now, why are purification and illumination necessary?  So that a person will go to Paradise and escape going to Hell?  Is that why we need them?  What constitutes purification and illumination, and why do the Orthodox seek after them?

In order for one to find the reason and give an answer to this question, he must have the basic key in his possession, which is:  All people on earth share the same end, from an Orthodox theological viewpoint.  Whether a person is Orthodox, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic or atheist, or whatever he may be (that is, every person on earth), he is destined to see the Glory of God.  He will see the Glory of God at the common end of mankind during the Second Coming of Christ.  All people will see the Glory (Uncreated Light) of God, and from this viewpoint they have the same end.

Everyone, of course, will see the Glory of God, but with one difference: The saved will see the Glory of God as a most sweet and never-setting Light, whereas the damned will see the same Glory of God as a consuming fire that will burn them.

That we will all see the Glory of God is a true and expected fact.  Beholding God—that is, His Glory, His Light—is something that will happen whether we want it or not.  The experience of this Light, however, will be different from one person to another.

Thus, the task of the Church and the clergy is not to help us to see this Glory, because this will come to pass one way or another.  The work of the Church is focused on how each person will see God, not on whether he will see God.

In other words, the task of the Church is to proclaim to people that there is a true God, that God is revealed as either Light or a consuming fire, and that all people will see God at the Second Coming of Christ, and to prepare its members so that they might see God not as fire, but as Light.