What is the object of Christian
life? Many have asked this question and many have endeavoured to answer it, in
order to follow a true Christian life, according to Holy Scripture and the
Tradition of the Church. St Seraphim of Sarov gives an over-simplified exegesis
of the object of Christian life, which, nevertheless, gives a clear indication
of the spiritual tradition of the Orthodox Church.
Prayer, fasting, vigils, and
other Christian practices, although wholly good in themselves, certainly do not
in themselves constitute the end of our Christian life: they are but the
indispensable means for the attainment of that end. For the true end of the
Christian life is the acquiring of the Holy Spirit. As for fasts, vigils,
prayers, alms and other good works done in the name of Christ – these are the
means whereby we acquire the Holy Spirit. Note well that is it only those good
works which are done in the name of Christ that bring us the fruits of the Holy
Spirit. Other actions, even good ones, not done in the name of Christ, can
neither procure us a reward in the life of the age to come, nor win us the
grace of God in the present life. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ has said:
He that gathereth not with me, scattereth’ (Matt. Xii, 30). In other words,
there is for the Christian no such thing as an autonomous good: a work is good
in so far as it furthers our union with God, in so far as it makes grace ours.
The virtues are not the end but the means, or, rather, the symptoms, the
outward manifestations of the Christian life, the sole end of which is the
acquisition of grace.’[1]
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