The silence of the blind

Priest - about the optimism of Patriarch Kirill

Patriarch Kirill, on the day of the celebration of the memory of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on July 12, made another “optimistic” sermon in the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. Nothing new in this sermon sounded. But you listen and read these words and do not understand: do you sleep, are you raving, or is it all really reality? Do not get used to it.

All the time I think: maybe this is such a special language, maybe I missed the distress signal? Well, you can’t actually be in such a discord with reality, so as not to notice its monstrous state and such a really mournful state of affairs in the world around. Or can you? And if possible, what price is paid for this?

For years the same conversation. About the unprecedented revival, about firm steps along the path from the dark past to the unusually bright future, that difficult times have passed and here it is - the era of a happy present, in which temples and monasteries are opened, and they are filled with believers. " Really filled? Did “we went through the most terrible persecution, and our church was reborn, and our beloved Fatherland is being revived with it”?

You know how sometimes you want these messages that are not at all connected with what is happening today with the country and in the country, have been an encrypted signal that would say: open your eyes, wake up, we suffer a disaster, which has not yet been and, perhaps, will never be? We cannot speak directly, but we say in such a way that it is clear that this is not true, read the opposite.

But no. The pronouncing these enthusiastic words seems to sincerely believe in what he speaks. Even if for this you need to close your eyes to reality and pour out an outright fel, which is very pleasant to those who need to hear it, because there is no other reality for customers and attentive listeners of these knockers and cannot be. But what about the truth?

I am probably a naive person. In the early days, I waited and hoped that the princes of the Church would at least repeat what the predecessor of the current Patriarch, the late Alexy II during the war in Georgia in 2008, did. And he only did what he had to do as a shepherd and a Christian, he simply called for the cessation of bloodshed. Something prohibitively conflicting with the conscience of the priest and archpastor?

It’s strange to ask such questions, is it right? Strange.

And so I waited so naively, waiting for at least a quiet voice of the Church about the world, and the church administrators loudly blessed what they later called the “sacred war”, the protection of Orthodoxy, traditional values, the foundations of morality and God knows what else.

My naivety was supposed to end and, however, ended back in the 14th year, when the prayers from church amvons sounded for some reason about the cessation of civil strife. Seriously? Were Girkin and Pavlov (Motorola) citizens of a neighboring state and joined the armed confrontation with him?

Civil wars are not rare, but only active participants and instigators of what happened more than ten years ago were just people with passports of a completely different color. And this is no secret to anyone. Because they talked about this themselves. Therefore, who and where there were those conditional “8 years ago” is not a secret behind seven seals.

All this is now part of the story. A terrible story that is by no means fit with enthusiastic speeches about revival and formation. And these pronouncing, and not others that would be so needed, words also went down in history. At the site of the words of truth, peace and conscience are buzzing slogans of propaganda.

And from the church amvon - we are talking about “a good example of a good Christian”, about “not a random parishioner, mimicing under the religion of the majority, but a church man, sincerely believes.” So believed and church that the Church itself does not notice dozens and hundreds of tragedies for almost four years. Or do they all do not overshadow the fact that temples and monasteries are opening today?

What is happening, what caused this severe blindness and silence, why are speeches that cause bewilderment? Maybe this is the silence, which was also a sign of consent, has become the cost of all these contributions, restorations and discoveries? In the years, the past often from the amvones sounded the words that, they say, a meeting with Stalin was forced for the church, for its salvation.

Support for continuing the military conflict is also forced? Does this somehow save the church? From what? Many, many questions. I don’t know, I can't answer them. I want to wake up, but you understand that you have not been sleeping for a long time. And only numbness.