Apparitions in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church: Eastern Orthodox Reflections in Honor of the 90th Anniversary of Fatima PDF

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Apparitions in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church: Eastern Orthodox Reflections in Honor of the 90th Anniversary of Fatima Rev. Fr. Gregory Jensen, Ph.D. Abstract In these reflections in honor of the 90th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, I reflect on the place of apparitions and extraordinary ph...

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Apparitions in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church: Eastern Orthodox Reflections in Honor of the 90th Anniversary of Fatima

Rev. Fr. Gregory Jensen, Ph.D.

Abstract In these reflections in honor of the 90th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, I reflect on the place of apparitions and extraordinary phenomena in the tradition of the Orthodox Church. In this tradition, such things are approached with great caution, suspicion and even hostility. While expressing my own reservations about some of the excesses surrounding I conclude by arguing that to the degree that there is an Orthodox response to apparitions of the Theotokos at Fatima it is this: We must fall down before Christ and ask forgiveness of our manifold sins and transgressions. A devotion to the Theotokos, or any other member of that “great cloud of witnesses” that does not lead us such a sorrow for our sins and a renewed desire to more generously and sacrificially, love our neighbor, is simply not worthy of the name Christian.

Apparitions in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church: Eastern Orthodox Reflections in Honor of the 90 th Anniversary of Fatima

Introduction The subject I have been asked to speak on, “Apparitions in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church,” puts me in a rather odd position. The key term in the topic “apparitions” is simply unknown to the Orthodox theological lexicon. Additionally, while the Tradition knows of appearances of the Holy Theotokos, there is not a devotion to these appearances on the scale of what we see among Western Christian for Fatima. This does not mean that there is either an absence of Marian piety or of a living sense of her presence in the Orthodox Church. If appearances like that at Fatima do not play the same role in the East that they do in the West, there is no lack of myrrh streaming and wonder-working icons of the Theotokos in our parishes. On Friday’s during the Great Fast proceeding Pascha we sing the Akathist; during the Dormition (Assumption in the West) Fast, we celebrate daily the Paraklesis (Supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos), the Office of Consolation, in which we ask the Theotokos to intercede for us to her Son and Lord. Indeed in many parishes the Paraklesis (Supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos) is celebrated throughout the year on a weekly basis and in times of great need in the community. When you enter an Orthodox church, you are greeted by icons of Mary not only on the icon screen, but often in the narthex. If you choose to do so, you can stop, light a candle and say a prayer asking for her intercession. And there is of course there is the final petition in all our litanies in all the Divine Services: Commemorating our all-holy, pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, Mother of God and 1

Ever-Virgin Mary, with all the Saints, let us entrust ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God. For the Orthodox Christian the Most Holy Theotokos is our constant companion in both our liturgical and personal piety. Does this relative lack of emphasis of devotion to apparitions of Our Lady mean that such appearance have no place in life of Orthodox Christians? No, but we do exercise great care in understanding what is the role of apparitions and indeed of all “extraordinary phenomenon.” The rationale for this caution provides the basic theme for my presentation today. On the one hand apparitions of the Theotokos are an epiphany of Reality; God breaks through the conceit of our everyday life and makes Himself known to us through the ministry and presence of the Virgin Mary. On the other hand, however, because of Adam’s transgression, human beings have a tendency to flee from Reality. And if we cannot flee Reality, we twist it to fit our own agenda. But in our moments of lucidity when we allow ourselves to know ourselves as we are, then with Adam we able to sing: Wretch that I am, I have cast off the robe woven by God, disobeying your divine command, Lord, at the counsel of the enemy, and I am clothed now in fig leaves and in garments of skin. I am condemned to eat the bread of toil in the sweat of my brow, and the earth has been cursed so that it bears thorns and thistles for me. But, Lord, who in the last times were made flesh of a Virgin, call me back and bring me into Paradise again. Whether we are speaking about an apparition of the Virgin, a vision of one of the saints, a wonderworking icon, a miraculous cure wrought through a relic, or the ebb and flow of our own personal piety all of these are secondary. They only have meaning for us insofar as we hear in them this call to return to Paradise. We make this return in a two-fold manner. First it is through our participation in the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church that we 2

begin our return to Paradise. Unlike, for example magic where I try and bend natural and supernatural forces to my will, in sacraments and miracles I am challenged to surrender my desire to control or manipulate reality and instead to accept reality in an appreciative fashion.1 It is not without great anthropological importance that the central act of Christian worship is called the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving. Second, our surrender of power and control, and even the desire for power and control, is part and parcel of the ascetical life. It is this ascetical response, built on the Church’s liturgical and sacramental practice, which is at the heart of how, as an Orthodox Christian, Christ calls me understand not only apparitions but the whole fabric of life, natural and supernatural, secular and ecclesial, personal and social. As the Orthodox Church sings at Matins of Cheesefare Sunday, through apparitions of the Theotokos and the saints God declares that The arena of the virtues has been opened! Let all who wish to struggle for the prize, enter now; let them gird themselves for the noble contest of the fast; for those who strive rightly are justly crowned! Let us take up the Armor of the Cross and make war against the enemy. Let the Faith be our breastplate and our helmet the giving of alms; and let us use fasting as our sword, to cut away all evil from our heart. If we do this, we shall receive the True Crown at the Day of Judgment from Christ the King of All! My goal in what follow is to help you understand the ascetical response of the Eastern Church to apparitions. To do this I will first briefly sketch out the relationship between apparitions and repentance. Second, turning to the monastic witness as reflected in the Philokalia, I will argue with the neptic fathers that part of this call to repentance is the need to be cautious, even skeptical, about apparitions. Third, with this necessary skepticism in mind, I will offer an analysis of what it is we are trying, in a 1

Compare, Ronald L. Grimes, Beginning in Ritual Studies (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1982), 35- 51.

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positive manner, to accomplish through our asceticism. Fourth and finally, in a more ecumenical mode, I want to offer you some insight into what it has meant for me as an Orthodox Christian to reflect on Fatima. So, with the events of Fatima 90 years ago today in the background, let me try and construct for you something of the ascetical vision of the Eastern Church. A Call to Repentance Apparitions require an object which appears and a subject who perceives the object; there must be in other words an object that is revealed and one to whom it is revealed. Any examination of apparitions will necessarily therefore have psychological overtones. To ignore or minimize the psychological dimension of the question is not simply inappropriate but irresponsible. Approached psychologically, it would seem that, whatever might be the fine details of a theological analysis, the events that transpired between June and October of 1917 in Fatima, Portugal have played, and continue to play, a pivotal role in how many Christians understand not only themselves and their own spiritual lives but also the broader mission of the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, as our gathering here today suggests, Fatima has had an effect even of those Christian Churches and communities not in communion with Rome. Looking at the events surrounding Fatima, I am reminded of the words at the beginning of the Didache: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, your neighbour as yourself; and all things whatsoever you would should not occur to you, do not also do to another.”2 While not without some excesses the events of Fatima point us toward “the way of life.” Taking seriously the testimony of many, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Fatima embodies what John “The Didache: The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations,” New Advent, accessed October 11, 2007, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm. 2

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Hick describes as the “challenging call” of Jesus Christ. The hallmark of this call is “a radical change (metanoia), breaking us out of our ordinary self-enclosed existence to become part of God’s present and future kingdom.” Such a graced reformation and transformation of character is only possible if we are leave behind “a life centered in the self and its desire for possessions, wealth, status and power” and instead move toward “a new life centred in God” in which we live as “agent[s] of divine love.” The radical nature of this change necessarily cuts “through the normal web of self-concern,” since to follow Jesus means we must make “a choice between the true quality and style of life, found in a free and perhaps costly response to God,” on the one hand “and spiritual death within a stifling shell of self-concern” on the other.3 It is in the fundamental role of repentance in the Christian life that I see a convergence between the events of Fatima and the Marian piety of the Orthodox Church. Each in their own way asks us to focus our attention not simply on Mary, but on the mercy of God poured out in Jesus Christ that makes it possible for us to repent for our sins. Let me offer one example from the East. Toward the end the Akathist for the Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrov) the priest reads this prayer: O all-holy Virgin, Mother of the Lord of the hosts on high, Thou Queen of heaven and earth and almighty Defender of our country, accept from us Thine unworthy servants this song of praise and thanksgiving and bring our prayer up to the throne of Thy God and Son, that He be merciful towards our unrighteousness, and extend His grace to those who honour Thy name and venerate with faith and love Thy wonder-working ikon. While my Evangelical Christians brothers and sisters have made me uncomfortably aware of the rhetorical excess that is evident in the Akathist, but I would argue that, as with Fatima, it this prayer

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John Hick, An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent, 2nd edition. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 45.

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embodies a desire to take seriously Jesus’ command to us in the Gospel: Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels (Luke 9:23-26). Christians, Tertullian tells us, “are not ashamed that the Son of God was crucified. Hence [we] are shameless in a good sense through [our] contempt of shame, and foolish in a happy sense.” He continues: The crucifixion was indeed a shameful event, viewed humanly. Yes the Son of God died! This is to be believed precisely amid its being an offense to humanity. The Son was buried! He rose from the dead! This fact is made all the more poignant by seeming all the more absurd. But how could any of this be true if he Himself was not truly the One he made Himself known to be?4 Glory becomes shameful and what the world calls shame has becomes glorious. An offense brings pardon and the absurd makes know what is true. To grasp this, to say nothing of hearing in this a warrant for indifference to injustice and abuse, requires a “profound shift in human consciousness.” It is only with this transformation of awareness that I am able to grasp, however dimly, that “Christian salvation is no juridical abstraction but an Tertullian, “On the Flesh of Christ,” 5. Quoted in Mark (The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture): New Testament, vol II. Thomas C. Oden, and Christopher A. Hall, editors. (Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 114.

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actual and concrete change” in me. I must move from a life of “sinful self-centeredness,” through repentance to a life of “self-giving love in response to divine grace.”5 In the absent of this shift, and this is the great danger of our interest in apparitions, I am likely to fall into spiritual delusion. If left untreated this delusion can, and often does, become a spiritually based neurosis and even psychosis. Cognizant of this danger, the monastic witness, to whom we now will turn our attention, is less sanguine about the spiritual value of apparitions than we might ourselves be.

The Cautionary Witness of the Philokalia The fathers of the Philokalia warn us not to accept uncritically any apparition as being from God. Often apparitions are spiritual delusions or what St. Gregory of Sinai calls “illusory visions.” Since we all suffer to varying degrees from “self-conceit,” we all of us subject to delusions in the spiritual life.6 We need to guard as well against demonic visions and the influence of “false apostles, deceitful workers,” who pretend to be “apostles of Christ” and “ministers of righteousness.” Just as true visions participate sacramentally in the transforming presence of Christ in human history, so to delusions and false teachers share in the work of Satan who is able to “transform himself into an angel of light” to deceive the elect (see 2 Corinthians 11:13-15). What to many is the harshness of the monastic witness is simply a keen awareness of the difficulty, especially in the moment, of discerning between real apparitions and self-delusion and demonic visions. In the tradition of the Orthodox Church, faith and reason—human psychology—are always in need of sacramental transfiguration and ascetical purification before they can be trustworthy. For this reason and for the reason just stated in the ascetical tradition, the default response is that

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Hick, 46.

St Gregory Sinai. “On Commandments and Doctrine,” The Philokalia, Volume 4: The Complete Text; Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Markarios of Corinth. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware, translators. (London: Faber & Faber; New Ed edition, 1999), 249. 6

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apparitions and visions are not to be trusted. Indeed even if Christ Himself were to stand before me, the tradition counsels that I should greet His appearance with great caution, suspicion and even hostility. “Take care,” Evagrios counsels, “that the crafty demons do not deceive you with some vision; be on your guard, turn to prayer and ask God to show you if the intellection comes from Him and, if it does not, to dispel the illusion at once.” But he continues by telling us that the matter is not quite as simply as this. Sometimes, “the demons split into two groups.” When this happens and the monk calls “for help against one group, the other will come in the guise of angels and drive away the first” deceiving the monk into believing that “they have truly seen angels.” This is why the monk must cultivate “great humility and courage” since it is only in this way that can hope to “escape the power of demons.”7 Going even further than Evagrios, the fifth century spiritual father St. Diadochos of Photiki, tell us that If light or some fiery form should be seen by one pursuing the spiritual way he should not on any account accept such a vision: it is an obvious deceit of the enemy. Many indeed have had this experience and in their ignorance, have turned aside from the way of truth. Diadochos is not alone among Orthodox saints and spiritual fathers, including myself, in his practical advice to his spiritual children. He writes that “if ever God in His goodness were to send us some vision and we were to refuse it, our beloved Lord Jesus would not be angry with us.” Why? Because “He would know we were acting in this way because of the tricks of demons.”8 Evargrios the Solitary, “On Prayer,” in The Philokalia, Volume 1: The Complete Text; Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Markarios of Corinth. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware, translators. (London: Faber & Faber; New Ed edition, 1979), 66.

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Diadochos, in The Philokalia, Volume 1: The Complete Text; Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Markarios of Corinth. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware, translators. (London: Faber & Faber; New Ed edition, 1979), 264.

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The Human Person Sacramental Transformed and Ascetical Purified The monastic writers we’ve heard from are a sure and trustworthy witness to the spirituality of the Orthodox Church. What is important for us here is that their concern is not to evaluate the objective validity of an apparition but with the ascetical purification of the person. Why this emphasis? Again to borrow from the text of Matins on Cheesefare Sunday: Woe to you, my wretched soul! How did you not recognize the craftiness of the Enemy? How did you not perceive his deceit and envy? But you were darkened in mind and transgressed the commandment of the Maker. To overcome the deceit of the devil and to illumine our darken minds requires from us not only fasting, but that we learn to discipline the whole of our physiological and psychological life through obedience to the liturgical and sacramental practice of the Church. It is for this reason that the East approaches with great caution not only apparitions, but all extraordinary phenomena. It is also because of human frailty, complicated as it is by the Fall, that we value so highly the historical and contemporary monastic witness. For us monasticism is the standard for discernment. In the words of the Elder Joseph the Hesychast, it is men and women monastic who, through a strict ascetical life of prayer, fasting and obedience, have conquer the devil. How? By coming to know their “own weakness, passions and shortcomings.”9 Without this ascetical purification our spiritual lives tend to vacillate between being “sentimental,” on the one hand, and “rationalizing” on the other.10 The overemphasis on either undermines our ability “to see the beauty of God, to hear his harmony, to

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Joseph and Elder Joseph Monastic Wisdom: The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast (Florence, AZ: St Anthony Greek Orthodox Monastery, 1998), 50. 10

Compare, Archimandrite Placide (Deseille),”Stages of a Pilgrimage,” in Hieromonk Alexander (Golitizin), The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain: Contemporary Voices from the Holy Mountain (South Canaan, PA: St Tikhon;s Seminary Press, 1996), 66.

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perceive his fragrance, to taste his sweetness.”11 Because we are called to be vulnerable in the presence of God, the spiritual life requires great ascetical discipline. Such discipline is not only a spiritual work but also physical, psychological and social. We need an ascetical life that is both a personal work and a work of the whole Church since it is together that we seek to destroy anything that keeps us from standing without reservation open and vulnerable to God. In and through our ascetical practices we strive by grace and our own efforts “to see the form of Christ, to see all creation as having been recapitulate in him, and to see in all other persons the possibi...