HEAVEN'S GATE?

by Fr. John Dresko

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God,

and this is the gate of heaven." (Gen. 28:17, spoken by Jacob, read for the Feasts of Mary)

Our lenten efforts have been rocked. At the very middle of Great Lent 1997, the world has intruded with the story of Heaven's Gate, a cult which preached that the body was something from which to be liberated. Thirty-nine people, including the leader, Marshall Heff Applewhite, took the teaching literally and committed suicide, to be freed from their bodies and be united with extraterrestrials in a UFO hovering behind the Hale-Bopp comet currently brightening our skies.

Such an event undoubtedly causes us to ponder our own faith by itself and in relation to others. Most people would conclude that the cult members were insane, despite the cold, calm and calculated method they used to leave this world. They certainly didn't fit the normal "picture" of insanity: they were talented, intelligent people who were very good at making a living designing and developing web pages for the Internet. The one thing about them that the world would definitely accept as a proof of their insanity is that they all left everything in this world to join the cult. They left families, jobs, money, houses, everything! One man who killed himself left a billion dollar real estate business to join. Indeed, to our world, that is insane.

The spiritual writers of the Church are unanimous in defining one of the greatest dangers of the spiritual life: prelest. Prelest is the complete spiritual delusion in which one can live. The delusion is so complete that bizarre behavior is considered normal and insanity becomes spirituality. It is safe to say that the members of Heaven's Gate were diseased with prelest.

Having said all that, however, there are a few things an Orthodox Christian must take from witnessing this tragic event. And there are more than a few similarities between the cult and the Church.

Even true Christians are considered 'insane' in this fallen world. Isn't what those cult members did, leaving family, friends, etc. to join the cult, exactly what Jesus said we all must do? "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me..." (Mt. 10:37) All of us are called to leave family and job behind to follow the Lord, some literally, some only by loving the Lord with all our heart so that He becomes present in our family and job.

How many people think that a Christian who is wealthy and philanthropic is crazy? Plenty. This world cannot understand why anyone would follow God if that meant that one would not be able to live their life just the way one wants. If my money is not mine, Whose is it? If my life is not mine, Whose is it? If my family is not mine, Whose is it?

The members of that cult were told to deny themselves and take up their cause. We are told to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Christ.

Even true Christians are called to die for their faith. It is called martyrdom, or witness. When a person believes the Word of God and follows that Word even unto death, we paint their picture, hang it on the walls of our churches, and call them 'saints.' The ultimate witness to a word is to die for it. However, the true martyr does not kill himself.

But we are also called to die in witness to Christ in ways that are even more difficult than physically dying. We are called to die to this world and the things of this world. We are called to live in the world, but not be of it. We must live for the Kingdom of Heaven. Our physical death is but one moment. The spiritual death we are called to is a moment to moment reality every single day of our life.

Even true Christians face death while trusting in redemption and reward. The cult members believed that when they died, they would be rewarded by uniting to a 'higher self' on a UFO with aliens. We believe that when we die, we will be resurrected by Christ to live in eternal bliss in a Kingdom prepared for us from before the ages.

So does that mean that we are just like those cult members? Hardly. Christians do not believe that the body is something to be cast off like some anchor keeping the 'soul' from achieving its true existence. Indeed, we believe in the resurrection of our body as well as our soul. All creation has been redeemed in Christ Jesus. Platonism is a philosophy and gnosticism a heresy which were both condemned by the early Church as part of the process of defining the Christian faith. God gives us our bodies for our salvation, not for our condemnation.

Christians also believe that salvation comes from God and not from UFOs and extraterrestrials. Our God is a living God and has given us His Son ­ the Word, and the Church, so that we might be saved from sin and death. While we wait in this world for the dawn of a New Creation, it will come from heaven and not from some other world.

Most importantly, we must understand that even though we are Christians, we also fall into prelest to one degree or another. We become deluded and fall away from the truth. We make our own images and likenesses of God and the Church. What makes an Orthodox Christian different in his prelest from the cult member in his, however, is that we can turn to the Church while the cult member can only turn to someone as deeply disturbed as himself. We can repent, while the cult member can only sink deeper into his delusion.

The Orthodox Church has never been a church essentially founded on the teachings of one person. We are not a "Chrysostomite" church, nor a "Basilian" church. Although we put great stock in the writings of the fathers and mothers of the Church, we always go back to the life of the Church herself to test and gauge those writings. When someone preaches anything, it is put to the test of the Church: do the fathers and mothers concur? Is it reflected in canon law? Is it prayed by the Church in her services? Is it part of the dogma of the Church? Is it scriptural? If it cannot stand up to the test, it is not Orthodox and therefore, not for our salvation. How wonderful that no one person has to carry the burden of defining salvation for us!

Each Orthodox Christian, in the spiritual tradition of the Church, is expected to have a spiritual guide: a father confessor, or a spiritual counselor. No one who truly seeks the Kingdom of God guides his own soul. We cannot be expected to be honest and objective enough in our own sin to guide ourselves. Even a priest who hears the confessions of his flock must have his own guide so that he not fall into delusion. If anyone, even someone wearing vestments (or even a miter!) preaches anything contrary to the gospel truth of the Lord Jesus Christ as manifested in the life of the Church, we are obligated to oppose it!

At the same time, a spiritual guide is not a 'guru,' someone who controls every aspect of our life. A spiritual guide is not someone who tells us what decisions to make, when to make them and why we must do what the guide states. For example, a spiritual guide would speak about the importance of fasting, but would not take each person and say, "You may eat this and not eat that, with a greater amount of this and a lesser amount of that, and go six hours and twelve minutes between meals." I am reminded of a friend who told me that one time he went to confession to Fr. John Meyendorff, of blessed memory, and confessed that he was very weak in his prayer life, sometimes not praying at all. Fr. John simply looked at him and said, "So well, you are a Christian, and a Christian must pray, you know!"

No, although the world may view someone who truly lives the Christian life as 'crazy,' and even though we are indeed called to die for our faith, and die in the hope of eternal life and redemption, we are not like those cult members. As Jacob said, there is a 'heaven's gate.' The gate was opened with the conception by Mary of the eternal Son of God and remains open in the life of the Church. Repentance from whatever delusions we live in is possible for the Christian seeking life everlasting. For the cult member, only further delusion awaits.

How sad that those poor souls could only turn to Marshall Applewhite. How happy that we can turn to the Church!