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On pastoral serivce in general.

The above is the ideological foundation for pastoral service. Let us recall briefly this prerequisite for the pastoral guidance that takes place not in the desert, but in the world, and among people.

The world, as the unit, hostile to God and to that which is good, is a sphere lying in the evil, but the world as the empirical creation is not at all evil by itself. Man, even if fallen, nevertheless is the image of God: “I am the image of Thine inexpressible glory, even though I bear the scars of transgressions.” In the depths of the human soul, there can be whirlpools of sin, but man nevertheless remains the dear creation of God, which the pastor cannot but love, as he cannot but love the world — the empirical creation.

The pastoral activity, feeding (“paseniye” in Russian which philologically approaches the word “salvation” — “spaseniye”) is the internal construction of the Reign of God in man. This construction of the Reign of Christ, of the new Christian creature, is, of course, at the same time the struggle with the reign of the evil, with the forces of the evil in us. But good and evil are incomprehensible without freedom, about which was mentioned before. The good to which a pastor calls is only the free good. Good which is forced is not the good anymore. Good is only that, which is not distorted by evil, violence, coercion, and threats with infernal tortures. In good imposed by feelings of fear is easily seen the reflection of the bonfires of the inquisition.

These are the ideological prerequisites of the pastoral service. This service requires a very attentive attitude to itself, within its internal content. From a historical approach, it is clear that Orthodox Christian pastorhood differs qualitatively from the non-Christian types of the priestly service.

In paganism, the model of the cult priesthood rules. A cult priest, shaman, hierophant appears to be the mediator between man and the deity. He makes sacrifice, adjures, pleases the angered god, he bewitches human diseases, protects man from an evil fate. On the highest points of the heathen religious consciousness, where man rises to the level of the primitive religious experiences, a mystical religious feeling awakens. Here the leader of man in the sphere of mysterious revelations appears in the clergyman more strongly, in the appearance of religious knowledge, inaccessible to all people. A mystic, hierophant penetrates into those spheres, where there is no access to a common person or cult priest. In the mysteries, at the apexes of the pre-Christian religious consciousness, a melancholy about the authentic spirituality appears, but the religion of the masses cannot bestow it. The exoteric and esotery are typical of the paganism. In the mystical cults, both the priesthood and the initiated feel the approximation of the authentic Revelation more strongly and long for it. However, very small requirements for the spiritual leadership are applied to a priest. The concept of pastoral service yet did not mature in the paganism.

The priestly service is esteemed considerably higher in the Old Testament. Especially after the captivity of Israel, the priesthood, together with the priestly code, is connected with a number of responsibilities unknown to the paganism or only partly characteristic of its class of the cult priests. An Old Testament priest appears not only as a person who makes sacrifice; he is a judge, a teacher, and sometimes also a ruler. The Old Testament inherited the better elaboration of ethical standards. The most perfect moral code before Christ's advent was found precisely in the biblical priest. The Old Testament works out the concept of holiness, which other religions of the ancient world lack. The Biblical religious ideal gave the specific concept of righteousness, which is expressed in the execution of the legal orders. The ethics of law, of the standard, predominated in the Old Testament consciousness. It rose above the other ethical ideas of the antiquity, but it bore infirmity in itself as well. The law, as the sum of the commandments, which must be fulfilled for the justification, did not give strength for the performance of these commandments by itself. More than that, the law took away man’s hope, constantly pointing at his infirmity, imperfection and non-righteousness. “The infirmity of the law” was the theme of Apostle Paul’s sermon. The infirmity of man could not be healed by the infirmity of the law. Man remained the same distance from God, being unrighteous, together with existence of the ideal moral law. The law did not give power for the sanctification of the human spirit; it did not report the means for the achievement of that holiness, which it so clearly indicated.

The law taught good things, it revealed the deficiency of the virtues, but it also took away hope from man, who searched for this good, but who succumbed under the burden of the orders of the same law. Israel did not know any compassion to the sinner. The prophet Elias, who ardently loved God with perfect love, not only hated sin, but also hated the sinner. He burnt the prophets of Jezebel, was not merciful to creatures and people, he gave orders to elements and even to death, but did not feel mercy for those who had fallen.

The priesthood of the Old Testament is feebly before God and does not bring comfort to man the sinner. There are plenty of rules for rabbis about the uncleanliness of animals, andof man in different cases of his life, which generate the detailed code of various ablutions, purifications, pleasing, burnt offerings, etc., but they cannot draw man closer to God or God to the people. The strict concept of being chosen, circumcision as the sign of agreement with God, alienation from the other nations — here is that sphere of the religious- moral ideas, in which acts a priest of the Old Testament. All Israel consists of people and sons of God, but the notion about the adoption of man as the creation of God did not exist in the religion of the ancient Israelites. Only the blessedness of the New Testament brought a new revelation about the priesthood and present pastoral service to the people. Christ the Savior’s Gospel brought a new doctrine about man’s acceptance by God. Any person is a child of God and can call God “Father.” The sermon of the apostles gave man hope to take Communion of the Divine nature, what then in the theology of St. Athanasius, Gregory the Theologian and Gregory of Nyssa, Maxim the Confessor, Simeon New Theologian and Palama will develop into the final doctrine of similarity to God, the beginnings and roots of which go back to Plato and Plotinus. The Gospel gave the belief that we are new creatures in Christ. The act of God becoming man and the ascension of our nature above the angelic ranks inspires man in his Christian self-consciousness. The Christian humanism, contrary to pagan and revolutionary humanism, ennobles the concept of man in comparison with the heathen consciousness and that of Old Testament Israel. The edges, insurmountable for the heathens and the Israelites, are smoothed out with Christ. In the Realm of the Gospel, there is neither Greek nor Jew, nor male nor female, nor barbarian or Scythian (Gal 3:26-28). Christianity implies the joyful cosmos understanding, i.e., the full concept of the world, creature, and nature and, of course, man, this best creation of God, His image.

Therefore, both the priesthood and Christ's pastoral service substantially, qualitatively differ from the priesthood of the pagans and of Judaic Levites. A Priest of Christ is the Builder of Mysteries, the builder of the Body of Chris. He is called, and the others are called through him, to create the new Reign of Grace.

The priest of Christ is called to the sermon of adoption; to gathering together those separated sons of God, to the transformation of the world and of man. It is clear that not the perfection of the Evangelical morals or elaboration of the dogmatic truths compose the very important part of the Christianity. Most important is the God Man himself. “The great mystery of piety,” the mystery of God, manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16) lies in the basis of the Christian sermon, in our Eucharistic life, in our asceticism of becoming God-like, in our mysticism. God is not only the initial reason of the world and man, but also their final goal. The “Godly-material process” about which Vladimir Solovyev wrote in his time (“The Justification of the Good,” p. 196), is the sermon of the world perfection, about which only the One Who is the Creator of this world dared to teach. This determines the attitude of a Christian pastor towards the world and toward man, as was discussed in the previous chapter.

Man, in the company of whom the pastor is called to work, was and will be, in spite of all his sins and falls, — the dear creation of God. Therefore, an Orthodox pastor be encouraged faith in humanity, in its predestination for Communion of the Human God, Who relates to people by flesh, in the eternal council, through the words of St. Simeon the New Theologian (58-th Hymn).

Therefore, the chief pastoral means must be good news about salvation, the induction of faith in this salvation and sanctity, but not intimidation by mentioning infernal tortures. In his heart, a pastor must predetermine people to these tortures less, and must not dare to judge impudently.

Healing the evil in the world and man with the goodness and love must be more characteristic of pastoral activity than exposure and judgment. A pastor should have more care for salvation, than anticipation of the Dread Judgment and censure of all “heretics,” sinners, and those thinking differently. He must remember, thinking of the entire history of saints that a standard type for a righteous man and for a sinner does not exist at all: falls are possible from the apexes of holiness; repentance and revival are always possible in those depths of failure which seem hopeless to us. First, a pastor must especially remember that freedom reigns over the moral fate of man. In freedom there is always the danger of evil and sin, but freedom includes goodness, which will win. Christianity is the good news of freedom, which we must distinguish in essence from the preaching of revolutionary freedom, which is political and rebellious. This is freedom of spirit. Therefore, a pastor must worry a little less about the absolute character of his authority, but more about the persuasiveness of his truth. The criterion of the truth is in the truth itself. Forcing authority is not characteristic of Orthodoxy. A pastor must call people to the free acceptance of the truth, to personal subjugation to the burden and yoke of the Christian freedom.

In his “Advice to the Celibates” (53) Evagrius, monk says: “God created the sky and the earth and remembers about them. There is no angel, who could not have committed a sin; and there is no demon, evil according to the nature. Both of them God created with free will” (the Philocalia, volume 1, p. 645).