Movement 123

from the dead. This is the point of Hesychasm:
that God allows us to see with our very eyes the
uncreated Light of Mount Tabor. We are given a
foretaste of what Cod has in store for the world.
Thus our participation i n I iturgical I ife isn't about getting
an aesthetic high from the beauty of Orthodox
worship. lcons and incense are not about aesthetics
(the Russian Primary Chronicle aside!) - they are
about seeing and venerating the image of Cod in
the homeless person you meet, about discovering
in the smell of wet leaves a sign of the Kingdom of
God. The bride and groom are crowned in the wedding
liturgy, making them signs not only of our first
parents, but also of the return to Paradise that is our
goal in Christ. Cod has made our return to Paradise
possible. Freedom from what hinders us from loving
as Cod loves opens the gates of Paradise. In the
tradition of the desert fathers and mothers, this idea
is brought home most forcefully in the stories of
the wild beasts of the desert befriending the desert
ascetics. They have returned to Paradise, to the harmony
that existed before Adam's sin.
when the 'wide-open
prairies' of our heart
are freed from all
that makes them
uninhabitable,
we become free
to bear fruit
Such a life will be deeply marked by self-giving, for
Orthodox live in the paradox that we find fullness
of life through self-emptying, by having the mind
of Christ who emptied himself and took the form
of a servant (Philippians 2). However, self-emptying
doesn't lead to emptiness, but to life most full.
When the 'wide-open prairies' of our heart (to borrow
a phrase from the pseudo-Macarius) are freed
from all that makes them uninhabitable, then there
comes an openness, a creative fallowness, in which
we become free to bear fruit.
The great Russian spiritual elder St Seraphim of Sarov
(1759-1833) is said to have greeted visitors with the
salutation, 'My joy'. This joy is our goal: the joy of
seeing the world in love, through God's eyes, and
living accordingly. This is joy born of the light of
the Resurrectibn, and sustained in hope. Thus, even
when living in the tension between feast and fast,
we are called to live fully in this world that God has
given. ln Christ, Cod frees us to embrace the world
in joy and self-giving, in fullness of life. I
CrantWhite is Principal of the lnstitute for Orthodox
Christian Studies, Cambridge. A native of the United
States, he was educated at Harvard, Oxford, and the
tJniversity of Notre Dame. He has taught church history,
history of Christian-Jewish relations, history of liturgy, and
history of spirituality in the lJnited States, Finland, and
the lJnited Kingdom. He is an Eastern Orthodox layman.
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