Reclaim the Tradition

“Go forth a little way from the city, and behold the New City, the storehouse of piety, the common treasury of the wealthy … where disease is regarded in a religious light, and disaster is thought a blessing, and sympathy is put to the test.”

St. Gregory the Theologian’s Funeral Oration for St. Basil the Great

From the moment the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles, the chief corporal works of mercy were manifest in the Church. In the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the disciples of Christ are healing the sick and ministering to the poor. In Antioch the disciples were “first called Christians (Acts 11:25)” because it was there that the Lord’s command to go forth and preach among the Gentiles was carried out. Having now been worthy of the title Christian, the church in Antioch’s first act recorded in the scriptures was to respond to the prophetic revelation from Agabus that a great famine would cause severe famine throughout the whole world. The scripture reads, “Then the disciples, each according to his own ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Jerusalem (Acts 11:29).” About all of this, St. John Chrysostom says, “It was there that for the first time that men were accounted worthy of that name.”

St. Hermione, the daughter of St. Philip the Deacon, also had the gift of prophecy and devoted herself to apostolic laborers. In Ephesus she would establish a house where the sick would be cared for. As one of the Church’s earliest Holy Unmercenaries, she healed physical and spiritual illnesses freely in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The house that she established became a healing fountain of God’s grace for the sick and suffering brokenhearted ones of God.

Centuries later, God would raise up another mighty saint wherein this Holy Tradition would be manifest by the grace of the Holy Spirit in significant ways. Saint Basil was born in Asia Minor in the year 329 AD. Although he received the best secular education available at that time, his heart was always with the poor and destitute. Eventually, he forsook a brilliant career in the world to become a monk and finally a bishop.

Saint Basil, a remarkable theologian and liturgist, founded the Basiliad: a sprawling institution where the sick and the strangers alike found the care, attention, and love due to them as icons of Christ. According to many scholars, the Basiliad was the very first public hospital and marked an enormous advance in medicine. Additionally, Saint Basil ceaselessly advocated for the helpless and needy, saying in one of his orations to his audience: “How can I bring the sufferings of the poverty-stricken to your attention?” and in the same oration, “Come now, distribute your wealth lavishly, becoming honorable and glorious in your expenditures for the needy.”

Although this same merciful tradition has surfaced throughout Christian history, the Orthodox Church faced many obstacles to this expression of the faith after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. For over 450 years, the Orthodox Church faced the most unimaginable oppression beneath the brutal persecution of the Ottoman Empire. Given this historical, cultural and social context, it became nearly impossible to build and protect social institutions that well reflected the Basiliad. It was as if the enemies of Christ were working hard to prevent the Church from expressing God’s mercy to a suffering world as a means of undermining the faith. Following the bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Eastern Europe faced additional and similar challenges under Soviet Rule which, like the Ottomans, sought to prevent the Church from expressing Christ’s mercy to the suffering.

Despite this historical reality, there can certainly be found many examples of the Apostolic Faith in action among the poor, even if in humble ways. In the 20th century Saint Maria of Paris—unable to build up elaborate institutions, yet gripped by a love for the poor—gave her whole life to care for the needy and oppressed in Nazi-occupied Paris. In the end, she was martyred for this way of life. Commenting on the seemingly apocalyptic age she was living in during Nazi rule and World War II she states, “But our times are firmly in tune with Christianity in that suffering is part of their nature. They demolish and destroy in our hearts all that is stable, mature, hallowed by the ages and treasured by us. They help us genuinely and utterly to accept the vow of poverty, to seek no rule, but rather anarchy, the anarchic life of fools for Christ sake, seeking no monastic enclosure, but the complete absence of even the subtlest barrier which might separate the heart from the world and its wounds.”

With all of this in mind, Orthodox Christians today find themselves in a position to freely reclaim this tradition whereby the suffering are cared for and the brokenhearted are loved back to life by eucharistic communities that are daily fulfilling the commandments of Christ among their neighbors. The Neighborhood Resilience Project is an Orthodox Christian ministry dedicated to the pursuit of reclaiming this tradition. As espoused by the vision of Saint Basil, the Neighborhood Resilience Project was established by Orthodox Christians in dialogue with their suffering neighbors to inspire and develop a “New City” (to quote St. Gregory the Theologian’s funeral eulogy of St. Basil) in which the rhythm of life is characterized by grace filled action inspired by a eucharistic encounter with Christ.

Since the time of its formal inception in 2018, this ministry has established a free health center, fed the hungry by the thousands, facilitated community healing after gun violence and offered financial assistance to those in need. Like Saint Maria of Paris, we welcome the strangers and the homeless within our walls. Like the Apostles of the first century, we distribute food daily to the hungry. By the grace of God, we now serve approximately 20,000 people per year through all of our ministries combined. All of this is done while the Divine Services are offered daily, with pastoral care freely available to the community.

We invite you to join us in reclaiming the tradition. In order to do this much is required. In addition to a rich and fruitful spiritual life, training, education, experience, direction, financial support and even fellowship will all be required. The Neighborhood Resilience Project is committed to supporting Orthodox Christians in pursuing this element of Apostolic Tradition by offering various trainings, service retreats and convenings to help the faithful realize the calling that God has placed on their hearts to love their neighbor back to life. It will not so much require us Orthodox Christians to do something new as much as it will require us to do something old. With God’s help we can live as St. Hermione, St. Basil, St. Maria and others have, even if in some small way. This is indeed the fullness of truth. This is indeed the expression of the Aposotolic Faith. This is indeed our spiritual heritage. It is time to reclaim the tradition.

Through the prayers of Saint Basil the Great, May our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.