St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Crestwood, New York
May 17, 1997
St. Vladimir Seminary
Crestwood, New York
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
On behalf of the Board of Trustees and Faculty of the Seminary, I want to welcome all of our guests this afternoon. As always, it is a personal joy to have this opportunity to address our graduates as they prepare to leave this campus and begin to pursue new goals and face new challenges. It is my wish—indeed it is my prayer—that you who leave this venerable school leave as changed and new persons. It is my desire and hope that the precious gift of theology has been deeply implanted as a healthy seed in your minds and hearts. All of us who gather to celebrate with you today now look forward to this seed bearing much good fruit for the building up of the body of Christ.
We live in a time when there are many voices within the Church claiming to proclaim the Truth of Christ. So many of these voices try to maintain, explicitly or implicitly, that what they say and publish is the articulation of Orthodox thought and life which can only unite and strengthen the Church. Yet, who can deny that from these voices there has emerged a polarity within the Church. And who can deny that from this polarity the body of Christ is being divided and weakened.
Based on the life of the Holy Trinity the Church has always sought to maintain unity in diversity, and diversity in unity. This dynamic of Trinitarian and ecclesial life is now being undermined by the discordant sounds of self proclaimed prophetic voices and movements that seek to carry out their own narrow crusades. With each crusade comes the incomplete answers and cures for all the ills and disabilities of the Orthodox Church in this land and throughout the world. Consequently, the faithful of the Church—both clergy and laity—are subjected to simple solutions which in the end will crumble into dust.
Unity in diversity and its converse create a dynamic that can only exist when each voice is moored to a common vision and experience sustained by the Holy Spirit. Unless this mooring to the sanctifying Spirit exists, those voices calling the faithful back to the Scriptures, the Fathers and the Liturgy, will create a one-sidedness that is not part of the living tradition. Unless it is understood that the voice of Christ calls us beyond the political and ideological arenas of our time, the evangelical work of the Church will be reduced to an aggressive and polemical campaign that will be unable to transfigure the world.
The seed of theology implanted in each of you must be allowed to grow and mature so that all which pertains to proclaiming and revealing the Kingdom of God may be used properly. History continues to teach us that when theology is misused the doctrine of salvation is forged into a wedge which creates heresy and schism. It is Saint Gregory of Nazianzus who, in his “Discourse on Theology,” points out so clearly and emphatically that the mishandling of theology gives rise to division, which in turn creates an insensitivity to the Lord himself. Using Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Gregory goes on to say that division indicates the voice of Christ has been abandoned for the many claiming to be Paul, Cephas and Apollos. And from this abandonment emerges a zeal and energy that is not rooted in the Kingdom but in self love and self service.
As students who have received the seed of true doctrine, you are called to follow a path that requires the acquisition of divine illumination and sanctification. Some of you will be entrusted to lead others upon this path which ultimately brings all of us into the very life of the Holy Trinity. Heed carefully the words of King Solomon the Wise, “Do not swerve to the right or to the left, turn your foot away from evil” (Proverbs 4:27). Offer the fruit of this wonderful seed to the Church—to the faithful who must be nourished on the Word of Truth. Use what you have received to become humble servants who seek to bring all who are weary and burdened into the joy of the Master. As you mature in serving others, strive to emulate John the Baptist who empties himself so that the voice of the Bridegroom may increase (cf. Jn 4:30).
Dear graduates, cherish the seed you now carry. Allow it to grow in your minds and your hearts. May this seed bear fruit so that others may be drawn, from the words you speak and the lives you live, to the living Gospel.
Christ is Risen!