30 June 2021
Piety Verses Hypocrisy
Putting Aside all Hypocrisy and Living for Christ
How
easy it is to worship with all piety and correctness while standing in a
service within an Orthodox temple, yet make no effort to live Orthodoxy during
the rest of our week. If we are abusive towards our spouse, abrasive with a
coworker, and short tempered with a neighbor, all the piety and liturgical
correctness of our Sunday morning is of no value.
If
we cheat on our taxes, steal pens from the office, or refuse to point out an
error to a clerk who has failed to ring up an item, we will have reduced our
life in Christ to no more than membership in a club. If we walk past a child
who is being bullied, without intervening, we have become the bully. If we fail
to call the police when we hear a neighbor pleading with an abusive husband,
not wanting to get involved, we are a wife beater. If we smile at the racist
joke of a coworker, we are just as guilty of racism as he.
Being
a Christian is far more than adherence to a set of doctrines, or the adaptation
of liturgical forms of worship and piety. To be a follower of Christ is not
like joining the Elks Club, where paying your dues and attending meetings makes
you a member. Taking the name of the Saviour for ourselves, and calling
ourselves Christians, must mean that we imitate the Saviour's life. It must mean
that others see Christ in us, each and every hour of our day.
We
must be the neighborhood peacemaker, the one who is quick to forgive when
wronged, the person who is always looking for ways of being in service to
others. If we truly wish to be called a Christian, we must put aside hypocrisy
in all its forms, and live Christ. We must work towards changing the world,
just as did Saint Seraphim of Sarov, who told us that if we acquire peace in
our heart, we will save a thousand around us. Justice and peace does not come
with revolution, but comes when the hearts of men and women are transformed by
the Holy Spirit, and this change can only begin, when we put aside all
hypocrisy, and replace it with genuine, heartfelt commitment to Jesus Christ,
living in imitation of the Saviour.
Abbot Tryphon
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