Day 13 – Maybe the Ancients Knew Better

The past few days have been eye-opening for me in regard to the attitude of the society in general toward the Orthodox Church. Attempting to remind our Orthodox Christian faithful of the safety of Holy Communion, our host parish became the recipient of viral (no pun intended) attacks on social media. These attacks ranged from mild name-calling to accusations of trying to kill our parishioners. So after nearly 100,000 views with hundreds of such comments, I decided to remove the post.

You may be wondering why I was not willing to stand up for the truth of the Church in the face of such hatred. Our Cathedral remains open for services, and inside the Church I continue to reassure the faithful that Holy Communion is safe. Outside the Cathedral doors, however, remains a different story. I turned to the ancient Church for inspiration.

The ancient church was no stranger to such hateful (and truly violent) attitudes from the pagan world, so how would the ancients have handled the question of Holy Communion during COVID19 using Facebook? Then I recalled that non-members were not allowed inside the Church. Holy Communion was a private affair for the faithful, despite calls outside the doors accusing us of being cannibals. I have a better appreciation for “The doors, the doors, is wisdom let us be attentive!”

Despite the efforts of the ancient Church to protect her faithful, many were martyred for the truth after refusing to halt their faithful practices, and that was despite the fact that the Eucharist was more or less secret. Today’s world is growing increasingly violent toward the Church, which the past few days have confirmed for me personally. I suppose eventually we will again be accused of dangerous and reckless behavior inside the walls of our Churches. Despite the efforts of the secular world, we will continue to live in faith. Maybe we will just remain a little more private like he ancient Church. Maybe they knew better.