The One Needful Thing *



“I am Greek Orthodox. --(that's still Christian). Imagine my relief.”

The foremost aspect to living an authentic existence is to be mindful of the 'one needful thing' our relationship to God. It is from this space we understand how our very beginning was established for this purpose to commune with our Lord to this end that we might be fully human body and soul.

Society with its self-espousing progressive movement encourages us to keep religious zeal to a respectable limit. Repeatedly concessions are made to a misshapen self interest and worldly ethos which  effectively chokes off zeal and compelling individuals to first marginalize and then neglect our first and natural love. Failing in our obligation to reciprocate this supernatural love from which we are fashioned we tragically turn way to the innovations of man. This materialist progressivism seeks to reduce human beings to beasts and the created cosmos to god. 

Modernity with all its sophistication seems unable to accept the "ontological superiority and existential uniqueness of man" (Yannaras). Misapplied loyalty to the respectability of man and the greater good this concession to this had not come without serious repercussions our fallen nature our disconnect from God our willful turning away has left the disease unchecked and untreated, resulting metastasis; a systemic and lethal condition of body and soul. Our souls are darkened, our intellect benighted, are passions ignited and fanned we remain unable to assess our true condition our spiritual illness. Conditioned to 'not see' we look only to the outward manifestation of the psychic pain, the preoccupation of somatic complaints and the  psychological pain of a fractured self (ego state if you prefer). The first and foremost entitlement, privilege and defense of a human beings is freedom of belief  and practice of religion. By this I am defining belief/religion as the human right endowed to us by our creator God to worship, praise and commune with Him. 

It matters little why we may neglect this labor because of our slothfulness, our avoidance, stigma or misunderstanding. The manner in which one chooses is the individual’s prerogative, implicit in such liberty, and will be to the betterment or detriment of each of us.  The fallout of such decisions and yearnings are evident in counseling centers and monasteries. If we incline our hearts to our Lord then even in times of personal tribulation and tragedy we know how to suffer well to bear all things and to cleave to God. Nothing escapes the eye of God.  Everything needs to bring us to the 'one needful thing' and we necessarily require conviction travel the path. Nothing is more unsavory then a cavalier approach to our Maker. Nothing creates more inner strife, more depression more psychosis then  either an unwillingness to seek out God or to search without a guide (the Church). Being a Christian is in name only is not much. Only an active Orthodox Christian can hope to find peace and joy and the much elusive healing. 

Disclaimer: 

I forsake all other religious persuasions as mere human inventions.  In truth Orthodoxy is not something manufactured or the brain child of men but revealed by God, Himself, in the Incarnate Person of Jesus Christ. The Holy Orthodox Church with its Divine Revelation was entrusted to His Holy Apostles, maintained intact and perfectly true by the Holy Spirit, even to us today. 

I humbly receive the Faith not as some fashioning of my own liking per say or emotional sentimentalism or aesthetic preference or of my estimation to be befitting for my reasoning. I am an Orthodox because God, Himself, summons all come to the Church and to believe in the doctrine and Faith He revealed.