The Way of Martha and the Way of MaryGraham, Stephen
Religion
The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary
Graham, Stephen
National characteristics, Russian; Russia -- Religion
“Beware of false prophets.” Both churches have gladly taken this phrase
to use against schismatics and dissenters.
“By their fruits ye shall know them.” This criterion the West has
adopted. Easternism may be said to regard the barren tree as holy. At
least, it never curses the barren.
The story of the wise man who built his house upon a rock has edified
the West.
To the story of the scribe who wished to follow Jesus, but who
apparently wished to do so and remain comfortable and well-off at the
same time, and to the story of the disciple who wished to bury his
father first, but to whom was said, “Let the dead bury their dead,” the
West has paid little or no attention, whilst the East has taken it to
himself.
The fact that Jesus sat down and ate with publicans and sinners is in
the spirit of the East; the West prefers ever the company of the just.
The West is glad to have the action of Jesus explained in the following
verse: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick.”
“Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses.” Alas, all
Western weal believes that it is founded on gold. If any good work is to
hand, the first thing is to raise a fund.
“When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak
...”: this has always been most helpful to persecuted nonconformists and
heretics.
“I came not to send peace, but a sword” is overlooked in the West. The
West thinks that Christ proclaimed peace. And the peace that was before
the Great War was thought to be a wonderful fruit of Christianity—the
peace of mutual jealousy and fear, the great commercial peace of the
twentieth century, that Kipling calls the “Peace of Dives”:
The whole wide earth is laid
In the peace that I have made;
And behold, I wait on thee to trouble it.
“He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for
My sake shall find it”: the West emphasises this thought. Carlyle gave
it great force in his gospel of work. “Forget your troubles,” says the
West; “throw yourself into work and lose yourself—then you’ll soon find
yourself.” The East will not work in that way.
“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden” has been comfort
to the West.
In the matter of healing on the Sabbath the Western is rather on the
side of the Jews.
The question, “Who is my mother and who are my brethren?” has not been
acceptable to the West. The West would have preferred Jesus to be a
model family man, not only loving mother and brothers and sisters, but
having a wife and children about him. The Eastern Church takes its stand
with the early Christians and the denial of earthly ties. Sometimes news
is brought of father or mother or brethren to the wonderful Russian
hermits such as Father Seraphim, but they coldly repel the tidings with
Christ’s words, “Whosoever doeth the will of God, the same is my brother
and sister and mother.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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