| [ life
after death ] |
 |
|
|
Hierarchy or church dictatorship ?
The
authority that the church leader should have over his flock, often,
regretfully, turns into dictatorship. I used intentionally the word
flock and not subjects, as in the Church, even tough there is
submission, yet there are no subjects. On the contrary, according to the
orthodox doctrine, the only subject is the leader himself. The Christ’s
statement is very categorical when He says “You know that the rulers of
the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise
authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must
be your slave” (Matthew 20, 25-27). Christ, the ideal Priest, is called
by John Golden Mouth “the servant of our salvation”. Every priest should
be like Him.
In human relationships the ugliest things are the
betrayal and the dictatorship. To order another man, means to rend from
his head the liberty wreath which was offered to him by Christ Himself.
As “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20, 28). The dictatorship is
contrary to the human nature, because we are the likeness and image of
God’s liberty and sovereignty. Therefore Christ as well, wanting to
preserve this principle, before giving to the disciples the power to
bind and to loose, washed them the feet, showing the way in which they
must prove their power.
The Gospel should enter into the Christians’
life; it is not only a gathering of metaphors and beautiful sayings.
Nowadays too there are such “Evangelic” priests. One of our
contemporaries from Greece, father Epiphanies, applied actually the
example of the feet’s washing. As he was a learned and very opened man,
many students used to come to him and confess the sins characteristic
for that age. But the elder did not say them to do bows, instead he took
them into his cell, put a wash-bowl with water and washed them the feet,
in silence. This was the punishment which father Epiphanies, used to
give for grave sins. Some of these youngsters confessed afterwards, that
even when their friends enticed them to amusements, they were avoiding
them, as they were ashamed that the elder could wash again their feet.
If all the priests had kept this elementary principle left by
Christ, then the Martin Luther’s reform wouldn’t have been ever needed
and the schools of “scientific atheism” wouldn’t have existed either.
We, however, don’t have to fall in this kind of excesses, but find a
solution, without cancelling the priesthood, because Christ has given us
the freedom but also the priesthood. For this reason we should make a
difference between the authority and the dictatorship. The authority and
the power has been given to the priests (I refer also to the chief
priests and bishops) in order to condemn the evil and to set up the
good. When this power, given by Christ, is abusively used and with other
aims, then it becomes dictatorship. By betraying the principles of
Christ, we are betraying Christ Himself. How the order and the
submission is possible, without that this degenerate into dictatorship?
The love makes everything possible: “A new command I give you: Love one
another.” John (13, 34).