April 06 Kandili Article
Detach from the World to Attach to God – By Fr. Lou Christopulos
As we are now well into Great Lent, allow me to focus on one of the most challenging aspects of our spiritual journeys – detachment. Detachment is living in the world but not being of the world. We know that the Greek word for saint, “ayios”, literally is “one removed from the earth.” To be “holy” (the general way “ayios” is translated) infers this detachment. This is a major theme of the desert fathers and mothers and a core theme of Orthodox Christian spirituality. In fact, it is mentioned in the second and third rungs of the thirty rungs of the spiritual ladder in St. John Climacus’ book, The Ladder of Divine Accent. This classic is read at Orthodox monasteries throughout the world annually during Great Lent. What does this detachment mean for you and me?
Detachment means to not allow the things of this world to become too important to us and to, in their place, choose God. Now, when we speak of things of this world, we also refer to people. Of everything within this world, people are of course the most important. More important, however, than either things or people, is God. Detachment, quite simply is about balance and having the proper priorities in life – God first, others second and things third. Simple to say, but not simple to do. Do we live our lives in terms of time, talents and treasures with these priorities? Our human tendency after the Fall of Adam and Eve is not to. The pre-Fall human tendency was to focus on our soul first and then the body, to focus on God first and everything else second. The Fall skewed this perspective. The body and its pleasures (the material world) became primary and the soul, (the Godly spiritual world) secondary. Detachment is about reversing the order to its original beauty – to focus first on God and His Kingdom and not on the kingdoms of this world.
Practically speaking, it means that we are to detach from the “things” this world offers. We are also challenged even to detach from people. As we relate to them, we do so in the context of God’s love. Therefore, their love or lack of love towards us is understood in the context of God’s eternal love for us. We of course love people with kindness, respect and care. To do so is to be Godly. However, when someone praises us for doing something (presumably) well, we detach – offering the praise to God. Conversely, when someone criticizes us, we accept it and then let it go, in humility to God. If we do not detach and hang on to either a praise or a curse (criticism), we are in danger of placing too much attention on either the praise or criticism of an imperfect person. This in turn can take us to either vanity – thinking of ourselves more than we should — or worthlessness — thinking of ourselves less than we should. I should add that it could also lead us to judgment and bitterness of the person judging us. We then place ourselves above them. The sin in these three cases is pride. It comes from claiming our worth based upon imperfect and worldly opinions. Detachment places our trust in the Perfect God who provides the context for relationships and love.
All people, all things are validated through their relationship with God, their creator. As we continue in our Lenten Journey, may we focus first – in everything – on our Loving Lord. May we live in this world but not be of this world. May we live as strangers knowing that God’s kingdom is not of this world. May we remember that it is His Love for us as our true Parent that validates us. If He is for us, no one can be against us!
Have a blessed remainder of Lent, Holy Week and a Glorious Pascha,
Fr. Lou
Our Religious Education Theme for the month of April is Church Architecture. We, once again will meet with church School Teachers, students, parents and individual adults on Sunday, April 2 in the Church at 9am. Religious Ed Packets will be prepared for distribution that day on our theme.