This is the question that links a few articles I've read recently on gay marriage, women on Mt. Athos, and a Romanian Metropolitan receiving communion in a Byzantine Catholic Church. As is evident in the first article, liberals choose love over rules, conservatives the opposite. One can sense the attractiveness and seeming superior goodness that the liberals enjoy over conservatives. And indeed there are plenty of examples where a blind attention to rules can make one like the very unattractive, cruel, and mistaken Pharisees who had Christ killed. This gets a lot of mileage from liberals and effectively puts conservatives on the defensive.
A closer look at the Pharisees and the life of Christ would redeem rules and love in the truest of hearts and minds. But who to trust to provide this perspective? Our individual selves? This has resulted in the polarization of our nation. The conservative offensive is to bring up anarchy, chaos, crime, STD's, and the lazy depression and malaise, not to mention decrease in quality that "whatever floats your boat" brings.
I think "quality" is the key word. I sense that a focused examination of quality will provide humility, lack of judgementalism, and a positive motivation for individual improvement from all sides. We recognize the quality in the Publican who prayed for mercy, and the arrogance of the Pharisee who obeyed the rules. But we need to guard from reverse arrogance in being thankful that we aren't like that Pharisee. The Publican was deeply remorseful for his sins, not proud for not being like a Pharisee. And it is the Church, more than our individually flawed consciences that instructs us on sin and its remedy for the best quality of life. As an Orthodox Christian, I believe the Orthodox teaching on homosexuality, Communion, and the location of women provides the best atmosphere for growth in Christ-likeness, which is our salvation.
However, there are qualities to appreciate in certain people who for example, commit the sin of homosexuality. They may have engaged in an admirable amount of disciplined ascetic struggle. I admire Ian McClellan's portrayal of Gandalf. Mr. McLlellan is a traditional Shakespearean actor. I wonder though if we have too extreme a view of the ramifications of admiring a sinner. It is not an endorsement of their sin - likesaying 'gay people make the best actors/artists' would be. I have often wondered why comedians and actors tend to believe in being non-judgemental. Indeed they totally let themselves identify with who they are portraying, no matter what terrible sins they have done. There is a certain quality to this ability, and there are ironically Shakespearean rules about how to do it well.
Perhaps they are finding the essence of the character they are portraying according to the Ordo Theologiae, Person first, then activities, then essence. There isn't a homosexual essence because sin is without substance, and its effects are death. To portray an affected homosexual essence, which is done by some actors and by some homosexuals themselves, is to transgress into Person-killing caricature. Putting Person first enables economeia, which is not lawlessness or a ditching of established, legitmate rules. It is tailoring a cure to the limitations of the individual, with certain non-negotiables to protect from soul-destruction.
I cannot explain why homosexuality, communion with Catholics, and women on Mt. Athos in particular are ultimately destructive, but the Orthodox Church has preserved the Faith once delivered better than any alternative, and therefore I assume Closed Communion, cloistered monastics, though some monasteries are co-ed, and celibacy or heterosexual-marriage-only, has a lot to do with it. I don't trust myself to figure it out better than She, though I think a purified conscience instinctively knows that the alternatives are wrong.
However, one can transgress into Phariseeism when they assume that because I commune with the Orthodox Church, have a heterosexual marriage, or am a celibate monk on Mt. Athos, I am better than the sinners who don't. Quality is a mysterious word, and perhaps I need to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to be able to describe it better, or not. I believe ascetic struggle to gain a certain quality is the key, and maybe a gay Catholic actor who can convince audiences that he loves a girl is less lazy than I.
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