Faith or Fear?
The Third Covid Epistle
“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23
The Christian life is a life of faith. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). To believe that Jesus is the Son of God is to do the work of God (John 6:28, 29).
All that we do at church is done in faith that God is and has revealed Himself to us in His Son Jesus Christ. We leave our homes and come to Church and gather with our brethren in faith. We kiss the icons in faith. We kiss the cross in faith. We kiss the chalice in faith. We kiss the priest’s hand in faith. In faith, we lay down our lives as a living sacrifice to God, which is our rational worship (Rom 12:1) and put them in God’s hands. In Faith, we receive Holy Communion, and, in return, Christ imparts His life to us. All that we do at church is done in faith, walking by faith, and not by sight. And, of course, all that we do in life outside of church is to be done in faith, for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” and “without faith, it is impossible to please God” (cf. Rom. 11:6).
Christ himself depicts fear as being in direct opposition to faith. When He and the disciples were on the sea in a storm and He was asleep, the disciples awakened Him, saying, “Lord, save us: we perish!” His response is one we must take to heart: “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he calmed the sea. He said much the same to Peter when the apostle, attempting to walk on the sea in the storm, became afraid of the storm and began to sink. “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Faith in Christ and fear of life’s storms stand in opposition. Who has greater power: Christ, or the stormy sea of temptation Satan stirs up in this life? Where is our faith? Is it placed in Christ, our Savior, or is it placed in the storm and its ability to harm us? Christ the Lord clearly instructs us, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). At Great Compline, we lustily sing “God is with us, understand all ye nations and submit yourselves, for God is with us.” If we truly believe this, how can we be afraid of anything? God is with us. During the storm on Galilee, Christ reproached his disciples for their fear of the storm and their lack of faith in Him who was with them. In light of this, what does now He have to say to us now?
Despite the survival rate of more than 99%, the media has relentlessly whipped up a storm of fear over SARS-CoV-2 virus, and many Orthodox Christians are succumbing to fear. Compared to the gale of Bubonic Plague and the other great plagues of history, the virus looks like a stiff breeze generating a few whitecaps. But even if we were in the midst of a raging pandemic with people falling dead on the street, Christ would continue to speak as He speaks to us now: “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Did I not die and rise again? Did I not plunder Hades? Did I not ascend into heaven and keep your true life with me at God’s right hand? Do you not believe that I am good? that I love you? That I am working all things for your eternal well-being? Do you not believe the Psalmist, who wrote ‘You shall not fear the terror by night…A thousand shall fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you’ (Psalm 90)? Do you not believe My words? Why are you afraid? Your life is hidden with Me; it is not in this world to which you are clinging. ” Faith does not permit us to be afraid for our health when we come to church, even in the midst of a storm of plague.
Every day, we Orthodox Christians pray multiple times, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. In the services, we repeatedly commend ourselves, each other, and all our life unto Christ our God. We hereby acknowledge that our lives are His for Him to do whatever He wishes with; He has purchased us with the price of His precious blood, and our life is no longer ours to control. Thus, when we come to Church in time of plague, the question is not whether the chalice, or the spoon, the icons, the cross, or the priest’s hand could be the means of conveying illness. The question is, do we come with faith? “Whatever is not faith is of sin.” Do we come with faith in our good, loving God that He will give us at church what we need for our salvation and our eternal well-being? Does our faith include accepting the possibility that the Great Physician may prescribe sickness and even death for our body to heal our soul? Yes, we all generally want health and continued life on this earth, but, if we live by faith, we do not fear illness. Yes, we want to live, but we do not fear death.
Do we truly understand Pascha? Do we appreciate the power of Christ’s resurrection? Or is the troparion of the feast but empty words for us? “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” How can we sing this at Pascha and then quail in fear before a virus? Doing so, we reveal the weakness of our faith, and we betray the Orthodox Faith. The martyrs went to their deaths in the face of torture in the faith that their true life was hidden with Christ. They knew that they must die in this world, sooner or later. They knew that Christ’s resurrection was the ultimate defeat of death, and that they need not live in fear of it. If we are afraid now, Christ stands before us, reproaching us, “Why are you fearful, you of little faith?”
Why do we quail in fear before this virus? Do we not quail before the virus because of our lack of faith in Christ’s resurrection and because we are still attached to this world? Do we not fail to see our true life hidden with Christ at the right hand of God? Do we not still think of our life in terms of the earthly pleasures and earthly aspirations and so fear losing those things? As the Athonite saying puts it, “If you die before you die, when you die, you will not die.” If by faith in Christ we have detached ourselves from the world and live in confident expectation of the resurrection and Christ’s kingdom, this world holds no fear for us. But if we have not died with Christ to this world, if we still live attached to the world, we will live in fear of every turmoil of the world that threatens our comfort, and we will die spiritually when we die physically. Unless we repent of this lack of faith, we will sink in the face of the storm of fear whipped up by secular agendas and blasted full force on the media.
Your Servants,
THE BURNING BUSH BROTHERHOOD
September 7th + The Year Of Our Lord 2021