Orthodox Cosplay

I feel like I'm writing a lot about authenticity, and to a great extent that's because I'm still gathering my thoughts on several trends I've observed in the Church.  I saw an older (several years ago) discussion online yesterday that I thought hit the nail on the head regarding some of the issues that have concerned me of late.  The issue was what I have termed "monastic fetishism," and what others have observed as laity seeking a monastic type of life while not being monastics.

There is a sense in which this is perfectly healthy and not at all a concern.  Without more, wanting a fuller service schedule, wanting to live near a monastery to have access to such a service schedule, wanting a deeper spiritual life, greater asceticism, etc., are all good and worthy goals.  Burnout is real, and I do fear too many young Orthodox converts try to do too much too fast.  But absent other motivations, it is well and good to enter as deeply into the life of the Church as one is able, and certainly the fullest expression of the liturgical life of the Church is found in monasteries. Being close to a monastery, or visiting one as a retreat, or adopting some of the prayer life and liturgical life of monastics, is generally a good thing, and ought to be encouraged.

But there seems to me to be a secondary motivation that sometimes enters the picture.  In America, we do not have a well-formed spirituality that is common to the people.  We see this reflected in faddish pop-Christianity in such things as the Prayer of Jabez book and 40 Days of Purpose and so forth.  American Christians without access to the full treasury of the Church tend to grasp for meaning.  We do not take Holy Week off of work.  Stores don't close on feast days.  We are not, obviously, an Orthodox society, culturally speaking. And so we seek out deeper spiritual meaning because our culture is so utterly banal and spiritually impoverished.

This temptation to attempt a deeper spiritual life within a culture that doesn't really make room for it is worsened, it seems to me, when laypeople want to live as monastics, without taking the monastic tonsure and without entering into that life fully and completely.  That is, the danger is not wishing for a fuller spiritual life, but putting on the dressings of a fuller spiritual life without actually doing the work.  It is, as the person in the discussion I referenced above called it, "Orthodox LARPing."  Instead of actually living out the Orthodox life in humility and reverence where God has placed us (in the world), the temptation is to play dress-up and attempt to monasticize our little portion of the world because we think it makes us more holy.  And as I note above and have noted a lot of late, the problem with this is it is inauthentic.  Which is not to say it is utterly inauthentic.  Certainly people who attempt to live this way have good intentions and deeply desire holiness.  It is only to say that without taking the tonsure and entering into the life of a monk or nun, it is not fully authentic. There is some degree of self-deception involved.  And the problem with that is it tempts us to think we are holier simply by putting on the appearance of monasticism, when in fact, holiness for laypeople is more often found in service to those around us, loving, forgiving, and carrying the very same holiness that monks aspire to into the world and using it to serve Christ through our neighbor in the most mundane of ways.  

A former priest once told me "everyone wants to go to the chanter stand or the choir or serve on a committee before the chrism is even dry, but nobody ever wants the 'ministry' of taking out the trash or cleaning the toilets."  That same priest's son-in-law did those chores, faithfully, and literally for decades.  Most people never noticed, but things just got done and everyone sort of assumed it was someone's responsibility and it always got taken care of.  There is no glory in such a role in the eyes of men.  But there is much glory in God's eyes in simply serving the Church in such fashion, neither seeking recognition nor puffing one's self up over it.  

It is obviously a great thing if those things are done while saying the Jesus Prayer or after having done 30 prostrations during morning prayers or while attending every service every time the Church doors are open and while wearing a cassock and serving in the Church.  But it is no less a good work and no less spiritual to do them wearing khakis and still having dirt on one's hands from working in the yard or coming home from a hard day's work. 

It's simple

Orthodoxy is complicated, for sure.  There is a lot to learn, and with a 2000 plus year history, you will never learn all of it.  The theological formulations are such that converts have to "un-learn" as much as they have to learn, because we carry so many presuppositions into the Church with us, it often takes time to let go of them and let the Church speak to us and through us.

But in a very real sense, Orthodoxy is simple.  Simple to the point that the very word "Orthodoxy" is not really accurate.  "Orthodoxy" might be bound up in a set of beliefs, an ideology, things we think about Christ and His Church.  The truth is, the Orthodox faith is not simply believed, it is lived.  And the simple fact is, being Orthodox means living life as an Orthodox Christian, simply.

When I was about to be chrismated, an internet "friend" gave me some great advice.  He said "don't be a weirdo."  He didn't mean "don't act like an Orthodox Christian," because most people think we are weird enough as it is and he was aware of that.  What he meant was don't wear a cassock to cut the grass and swing a censer as you walk around the house.  That is, be as normal as an Orthodox Christian can be and still authentically live the faith.

As Orthodox Christians, many of the habits we have, the things we do, the things we wear, how we pray -- the "externals" to use a word my priest tends to disfavor because it carries some baggage with it -- ARE weird.  Objectively.  The world sees us doing them and wearing them and saying them and thinks "well, that's odd."  Or, too often, "they're odd."  But there is a balance between being a "normal" Orthodox Christian (which is to say, to be a baseline level of weirdo), and being what one famous Orthodox meme-maker refers to as "hyperdox."  I teach my children that the world already thinks we're weirdos.  And yet, I also teach them, by word and example, to take the faith seriously.  They often cover their heads in Church.  They own and use prayer ropes.  They attend the services.  They say their prayers.  And they live out the faith and identify in the world as Orthodox Christians.  And that is more than enough.  

Something the Orthodox Church offers that too many other traditions lack is authenticity.  So it seems to me that we ought to own the things that are of the Church and not shy away from them.  Wear your cross.  Own, use, and, if you wish, wear your prayer rope.  Go to the services.  Keep the fasts.  Keep the feasts.  Say your prayers.  Have your priest come and bless your house and your automobiles and your office and whatever else you would like to have blessed.  But own it.  Live it authentically.  We should neither shy away from the things of the Church, nor try to amplify them beyond the norm.  Having an Orthodox identity is a good thing.  But the faith is not merely something to which we assent, much less put on as a costume.  It is something we live.  We should live it authentically, humbly, and simply.