When the Homily is about Immunology

We're all sticks and plaster on cement

Someone recently asked for my opinion about a...how shall I say...controversial... Orthodox priest/author/monk. For having read two amazingly contrasting reviews for this author's book would no doubt tend to give a new convert pause to wonder.

I fear there is a tendency - perhaps especially among converts - to ascribe a bit too much faith in anyone who happens to wear a cassock, or be a monk, or be a nun etc. As if every man or woman in black were a staretz. Sad news is, we have just as many wackos in our parishes and monasteries as the evangelicals do in their respective organizations. The only difference being is that we have the foundation of the Church and that the "wackos" (or as the case may be: the ocassional wacko belief of an otherwise spot on thinker, teacher, priest, monk, nun etc.) will not long remain apart of the House being built (Hopefullly). Or,at the very least as the House continues to age, future remodelers will smile at the silliness of the previous owners design and fix the problem - however minor it may have been. The House has been built this way since the beginning: consider the first big design planning commission in Jerusalem and then the seven others to follow.

The solid ground upon which the House is built is Christ Himself. The foundation poured by the Holy Spirit is composed of the Holy Scriptures, the teachings of the Apostles, and Holy Tradition which of course encompasses all of these things. The bishops, the priests, the nuns, the monks, even you and I make up the rest of the structure. And while yes, some of us (like myself) are little more than spackle...others are perhaps framing 2x4's that form walls that may or may not be loadbearing.

But just because someone may LOOK like a structural plank of wood claiming to mesh perfectly with and rest upon the Foundation, look carefully and always consider the House as a whole...that plank of wood may have termites. The House, St. Paul, tells us is the pillar and ground of Truth and no single 2x4 alone speaks for the House.

As a secondary note...those living outside of this House may examine the foundation and then set out to work on building their own house. We may of course pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for being in the first House, the True House (and really I understand the problem - you end up with the equivalent of suburban sprawl and a million houses that all look different), but we ought to be more interested in maintaining our own House rather than worrying so much about what others are building.

Remember, God can have rocks engage in Orthodoxy (right worship) as surely as you and me.