ecumenism
Russia

A Thirst for Communion
An important figure of the Orthodox tradition reflects upon the challenges faced by his Church and ours–the questions of society, the risk of becoming a reality unto itself, and the need to encounter women and men–and describes how at the Meeting of Rimini he found companions for this shared journey.

by Sergej Capnin*

One morning in Rimini, I noted two girls, maybe high school aged, sitting on the floor with a newspaper in hand. It was the daily paper of the Meeting, with the principal events of the previous day. I slowed down, curious to see how long they would continue reading. Probably they would leaf through it rapidly, glancing at the titles and photographs, and then stop. Instead, they read one article after the other, slowly turning the pages. They found something interesting in it. I have to say that it was one of the things that most impressed me last summer: those two girls became for me the symbol of a profoundly Christian attitude toward life, in which faith and knowledge necessarily go hand in hand. The interest for what happens around us must be natural. It is an interest formed in childhood, and in youth grows through great encounters, rich in inspiration, in which the young person wants to become a participant. The experience I saw in Rimini is a true treasure from this point of view, for young people like this.
I have been teaching at Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University in Moscow for five years. It is a dynamically growing university for the humanities, where Orthodox young people from all the regions of Russia study. At the beginning of the year, I always ask my students what they read. For some time now, I have noted that they quote everything–Internet, blogs, radio, and television programs–but not newspapers. They do not even read books, neither Russian nor foreign authors. On the contrary, in Rimini I was struck to see that just the presentation of a volume on education, written by the director of a normal Catholic school, drew an audience of several thousand people. I was also struck that education was the topic, without texts prepared in advance or formal talks, but with impromptu contributions that freely developed reflections then and there.

Speaking to men and women. So then, what is the problem with Russia? Not so much that in our society all interest in reading is disappearing. The problem is that this reduction in reading, and more generally in the desire to know, is based on another cause. Even Orthodox youth perceive the Church as a reality unto itself, separate from society and contemporary culture. In the eyes of a good part of the Orthodox Christians, this “life unto itself” of the Church does not mean a supernatural dimension or a particular spiritual status. Rather, it is the pragmatic desire to evade the looming problems of society. It is the desire to close themselves into a comfortable world, in which in the course of two thousand years since the birth of Christ, saints and ascetics have already offered the answers to all our questions. For many Orthodox, the experience of the Church has to do first of all with a past that not so much supports as judges, in the sense of condemns, the present, and instead has nothing to do with the future.
Starting from this position, practically all theological questions are devoid of any interest, and even in the face of real life, an attitude of suspicion dominates. Everything that is more true, more interesting, is in the past. Holiness, devotion, ascesis, are all far-off things; there is no way to find them close to us. Today, we live in an era made only of surrogates. But here I would like to add another thing. In the past, and today, the goals and the tasks of the Christian announcement are revealed in a communion of prayer, without which it is impossible to witness to Christ. Speaking to women and men is indissolubly linked to the Church’s central task. If we do not address ourselves to women and men, not only the mission, but the very existence of the Church is impossible. All the forms of relationship among people and the forms of knowledge of the world that today we usually call mass media, develop from the thirst for communion that the Lord gave humanity as a precious gift. Today, however, human knowledge is becoming increasingly abstract, mediated, and theoretical. Only an encounter can change this situation, making knowledge concrete and efficacious. The desire to know the real world is a profoundly Christian aspiration. Knowledge, in the Scriptures, means entering into personal contact, having a concrete existential experience, leaving the sphere of abstract knowing. The method of knowledge of the Gospel is that proposed to us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed the pure in heart, for they shall see God”(Mt. 5:8).
 The experience of encounter that I have had in meeting you Catholics helps us in resolving important tasks of Christian education: seeing the “reality” of God in the life of society, and understanding that you are not alone. How does all this happen? In communion. In fact, with you, I saw that not only the Liturgy drew thousands of people, but also meetings centered on theological questions, meetings where social and political problems were discussed in a lively and open way, even among people engaged in politics on the national level who firmly espouse Christian positions. I found exhibits whose main goal was the formation of a Christian conception. It is an immense work, proposed to a very broad audience for the purpose of consolidating personal faith through communion and knowledge.

On a journey. I truly wish encounters like the Meeting could be possible in Russia, but foresee a series of difficulties. First of all, a situation has been created in which great events of a religious and ecclesiastical nature can only be organized with the participation of dioceses or synodal departments. Lay people have practically no possibility of acting autonomously. In the second place, interest in religious concerns is very weak. Not only that, but very few priests and lay people are able to speak to so many people. There is practically no experience of this type of contact. There is a need to prepare and educate people so they can do so. Finally, in the third place, the desire to gather together to see not a monastery, but an exhibit; to participate not in a pilgrimage, but at a round table; to speak not with monks, but with university professors... all this for many Russians is another planet.
All these questions do not mean that one should not try. How much time will be necessary? Over 30 years, as it took for the Meeting of Rimini to become what it is today? I hope not. In any case, it will be a long journey.

*Director of Žurnal Moskovskoj Patriarchii (Magazine of the Patriarchate of Moscow)