Aleksei Volchkov
A Blog of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University
Editors’ Note: What can contemporary liturgy offer to people affected by war? What can it provide to those who are traumatized, burned by pain, and crushed by tragic events? These reflections come from a priest ministering to a community where Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, and representatives of numerous other nationalities gather together in prayer.
There is a common idea about what it means to participate “correctly” in the Liturgy. In Orthodox discourse, one often hears that one should come to the Liturgy only after an inner purification; one should be free from sins, passions, and evil thoughts. Only then, it is said, does a person become “worthy” enough to participate in the Holy Eucharist.
Yet this idea can be deeply manipulative. It is often used in church rhetoric to underline the “unworthiness” of the laity and, by contrast, to highlight the “worthiness” of the hierarchy.
The truth is that none of us comes to the Liturgy in a state of purity. We come with our worries, doubts, and pain. We think about war, about tyrants, about the fate of our loved ones—about the cities we had to leave behind, and whether our children will ever see their grandparents again.
Worship is not a privilege reserved for the sinless.
Liturgy was not created for those who have already reached perfect calm, but for those who live amid a storm of emotions, including destructive ones: hatred, resentment, despair, a feeling of being betrayed, and the inability to forgive. We suffer, we are angry, we pity ourselves, we wish harm to others; and all of this is known to God.