The Agony of the Church (1917)Velimirović, Nikolaj
Religion
The Agony of the Church (1917)
Velimirović, Nikolaj
Christianity -- 20th century; Church
In conclusion let me repeat again: the wisdom of the Church has been
inclusive. Inclusive was the wisdom of her Founder, inclusive the wisdom
of her organisation and of her destination. Exclusiveness was the very
sickness and weakness of the Church. That is why we in the East in the
time of sickness of the Church looked neither towards Peter, nor Paul,
nor John, but towards the Holy Wisdom, the all-healing and
all-illuminating. For St Sophia in Constantinople, the temple dedicated
to Christ the Eternal, includes in itself the sanctuaries of Peter, Paul
and John; moreover, it is supported even by some pillars of Diana's
temple from Ephesus and has many other things, in style or material,
which belonged to the Paganism of old. Indeed, St Sophia has room and
heart even for Islam. The Mohamedans have been praising it as the best
of their sanctuaries!
I speak thus to you because I am sure you will not misunderstand me. And
because I know you, the British, to be a race of the world-wide spirit,
I dare to make this appeal to you.
Look to the Holy Wisdom! Look beyond Peter, and Paul, and John--through
them and still beyond them! Every Church has her prophet, her apostle,
her angel. Look now over them all to the very top of the pyramid, where
all the lines meet!
Either Christianity is one, or there is no Christianity. Either the
Church is universal, or there is no Church.
There lived once upon a time twelve men as different as any twelve men
could be. And the Holy Wisdom united all of them into one spiritual
body. Such was the first Church of the twelve, and such ought to be the
last Church of the milliards: different in all her parts, but cemented
by the Holy Wisdom into one glorious building. Christ, God's Holy
Wisdom, includes all of us, why should we exclude each other? He was
sent for the salvation of China and Japan and India as well as for that
of the Jews and Greeks. Well, let us quarrel no more about the
"circumcision" while a milliard of human beings are still waiting to
hear for the first time the name of Jesus Christ--yea, for the first
time after two thousand years! Let the present time be the new Pentecost
for us all. I speak to you, the British: don't look around you and wait;
it is yours to start. All the peoples of earth are looking towards you
and listening to you. Don't be too shy to start.
To start what? To start a revival of the primitive wisdom of the Church,
i.e. to confess and declare:
That Christianity in its integrity is one and indivisible;
That Christianity is not a precious stone preserved in a box called the
Church of England, or the Church of the East, or Rome, but that it is
the common good of mankind, destined for all continents and all races;
That there is no constituent of the present European civilisation, but
the Christian religion, which could stop the brutal struggle among men,
in one form or another, and guarantee a Godlike peace profitable for
the whole of mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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