Плоды экуменического древа. Экуменическое движение в экклезиологическом аспекте

«Repentance should be the soul of a prayer writes St. Ignatius, — without repentance it is dead, it has the fetid smell of an opinion proud and illusionary!... The essence of fulfilling the prayer rule is to fulfill it with attention. For through attention our spirit gains humbleness, and humbleness leads to repentance»⁶⁴. Humbleness is in regarding oneself the worst of all people, but do we find such opinion among Jews? It would be enough to get to know the teachings of Talmud to see the submissiveness of the Jews. «So said rabbi Shimon ben Jokhay: the world would not survive, if there are less than thirty pious men like Abraham in it. If there are thirty of them, then me and my son are the two of them. If there are twenty of them — me and my son are among them. If ten — me and my son are among them. If there are two of them — these are me and my son. And if one — that is me». (Bereshit raba, 25, 2)⁶⁵.

«None of the Jews worship God, — says St. John Chrysostom. — That is why I especially hate Synagogue and have repugnance towards it, for having prophets, the Judaists don't trust them; reading the Holy Scriptures, don't believe the evidence given in them, and this is characteristic of the people extremely malignant... So if you respect everything judaist what do you have in common with us? If the judaist belief is important and worthy of respect, then ours is false, and if ours is truthful, and it is in fact truthful, then theirs is full of deceive»⁶⁶.

His Eminence as well makes reference to the jewish writer of the XII-th century, talmudist Maymonid⁶⁷, who, speaking about the «secret name» of his god, blasphemously calls Christian names pet-names⁶⁸. Every Orthodox knows about this «secret» name from the lifestory of St. Sylvester⁶⁹, who having called the holy name of Jesus Christ resurrected the bull killed by a jewish rabbin. The latter did it by pronouncing the «secret name» of his god, but was not able to bring the bull back to life. And St. Sylvester not only succeeded in that with the help of Jesus, but even made the bull quiet and humble.

St. John Chrysostom brings up such question: «Should we on any account give welcome to the Judaists? On the contrary, we ought to keep away from them as from the infection dangerous to the whole Universe? What kind of evil is there they have not committed? Weren't there all the prophets to expose them? What ill-doing, what unlawful action haven't they eclipsed? Jesus entitled you with the honor to be His brother, and you return ignominy to Him, respecting His killers and crucifiers...»⁷⁰.

Interest in Judaism fully accords with the spirit of time and the official doctrine of Catholicism, which acknowledges the identity of jewish Mashiakh and «Jesus of the second coming». The Jews are acknowledged to be different from other peoples: they come to be not the result of a historical process, but a unique spiritual phenomenon in the history of mankind. The testament between the Jews and God is accepted as having never been dissolved (in contradiction to the evidence of the Gospels and the teachings of St. Apostles, which fully accords the foreseeing of the ancient Prophets)⁷¹.

Conclusion

A doctor’s proficiency is regarded from his ability to give the right diagnosis, and then prescribe certain treatment and hope on God’s help. But if the doctor instead of medicine gives poison to a sick man, then he becomes a killer and not a doctor. Thus a spiritual shepherd should be attentive to all the revelations of he in order to save his flock from the eternal downfall.

My task as a doctor’s one consists in saving the souls from hypochondriac neurosis, i.e. the disease of the nerve system which develops on the background of hypochondriac daydreaming, and as a Christian's — to save the nearest from heretic mislead. «For not all sins demand only advice and exhortation, — says St. John Chrysostom, ⁷² — no, there are some of them to be undone in the most decisive and urgent putting a stop to them... for some sins have a necessity in long-standing exhortation and some — in strict exposing»⁷³.

In psychiatry there is a term of anosognosic reaction⁷⁴, when a person doesn’t see, or better doesn't want to see his disease, neglecting the doctors' prescriptions. Suchlike sick are scared to say something justiful, concealing under an agreeable pretext their fears. They consider it beneath their dignity to argue about truthfulness and put themselves above it. It is well known that any disease has a spiritual origin. God created a man, having installed into his mind notions yes, yes and no, no, and all attempts to unite yes and no lead to psychological corruption.

Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!⁷⁵ — says the Lord. A shepherd must not only know how to heal the sheep, but how to protect them from wolfs as well. And if he unites sheep and wolfs in one flock under the pretext of love, he is not a shepherd, but a wolf under a sheep's skin.