One of the famous sayings to come from the tragedy of the Russian revolution was that religion was the opiate of the people. The Communist revolutionaries were convinced that the religion of the Russian people [was] keeping them slaves to the ruling class, the bourgoise, and they wanted to destroy everything that kept the people down. This was a natural outgrowth of that so-called Enlightenment that produced our current modernity: religion was the enemy. Well—and I don’t want to shock you—it turns out the Communists were right. What!? Yeah, religion really is the opiate of the people. In fact, Orthodoxy, the Orthodox Christian faith, is the cure for religion. I know what you’re thinking: “What is he talking about? I thought Orthodoxy was a religion.” Well, Fr. John Romanides says that “Orthodoxy is the cure for the sickness of religion,” but like any profound truth, this truth is usually immediately co-opted by the enemies of faith to say that all faith is bad, and as usual, this is completely wrong.

The struggle comes in pressing beyond the easy misunderstandings of either side of this revelation to the profound invitation contained within this truth, and that profound invitation is nothing less than a divine opportunity to come to know the uncreated God as the only true lover of mankind. But if you reject that invitation, you will come to know God as fire. Make no mistake, dear ones: we humans are going to know God. We’re going to come in contact with him. We’re going to be in his presence. In fact, we already are in his presence. The main focus of our labors in this life is the basic choice as to how we will receive him—as light or as fire.

Look at our gospel lesson in John 1:29-34:

At that time, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

St. John recognizes Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Notice, he doesn’t say “who takes away the sin of the world if we ask him to”—no. The Lord takes away the sin of the world. If you choose, out of your freedom, to keep your sins to yourself, then that’s your choice, but if you learn to embrace the One who takes away sin, you will be healed from the wounds of your soul. St. John recognizes the Lord existed before him, even though by birth John was six months older than Christ. John saw past this temporary date to the eternal existence of the Son of God before all time.

Then John adds the kicker that cures religion. He declares that Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit, because St. John saw the Spirit like a dove descend and remain on the Lord at his baptism. The Lord has come to radically change us from a merely religious life to a relationship that acclimates us to his presence forever, that the power of his presence is light to us rather than fire. Of those unprepared to live in his presence, it will be fire. And what better way to acclimate us to be the temple of God than to give us his Holy Spirit as the living, vivifying power within us? Just as the three Hebrew children were in the furnace in that Old Testament passage in Daniel 3, who look and see a fourth Man walking with them who looks like the Son of God, so we are called to be able to stand in the fire of God’s presence and be transformed.

Today, is this what your faith is preparing you for in your life? Are you still gripped by the sickness of religion that reduces our faith to a mere nostalgic repetition of old words? Or is this Orthodox Christian faith doing what it has done throughout the centuries? Transform your life into a fit temple of the Holy Spirit. This is precisely what is meant by the statement that Orthodoxy is the cure for religion, and this Orthodox way, this Orthodox lifestyle, is all about taking you from a life where faith is a hobby to a life where faith makes you a perfect home for God’s Spirit. Anything less isn’t normal Orthodoxy; anything less isn’t being Orthodox on purpose.