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HJ Clergy Corner: July 2006
SEEK THE TRUTH
Fr. Michael Pappas
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
San Francisco, California
By ironic providence, the film version of Dan Brown’s popular novel The Da Vinci Code was released in theaters at the same time the Church
celebrated the feastday of its greatest liberators and benefactors, Saints Constantine and Helen; Ironic providence, because the feastday
celebrates the power of truth and faith, while the film celebrates the power of fiction.
The Da Vinci Code’s literary classification, acknowledged by the author himself, is that of fiction. Thanks to the Emperor Constantine, the
legitimacy of the sources and facts contained in the novel also share the same classification.
Constantine the Great is credited with liberating Christianity from not one, but two types of persecution: martyrdom and heresy. By a
miraculous vision of the Holy Cross, which inspired victory in battle and ultimately put an end to blood martyrdom, the Constantine turned
the tide of over three centuries of brutal persecution against Christians. By embracing the Christian faith, moving the empire from Rome to
Byzantium and ideally seeking to create on earth an icon of the Kingdom of God in heaven, Constantine forged the rich and philanthropic
Christian civilization which endured for an unprecedented thousand years and profoundly impacted every subsequent civilization.
As liberating and exciting as this new found freedom and progress must have been, any thought that evil and persecution might be obliterated
in the process was an illusion. If anything, Christians would now suffer a subtler, yet potentially more lethal kind of persecution: heresy,
wrong teaching which attempted to bring division to the Body of Christ, the Church.
Constantine’s response to heresy, the concept of the Ecumenical Council, was perhaps his greatest gift to civilization. Interestingly, the
first Ecumenical Council, convened by Constantine at Nicea in the year 325 AD, deemed many of the sources and alleged facts advanced by Dan
Brown in the Da Vinci Code illegitimate. Indeed, the Holy Fathers of that First Ecumenical Council gave us the canon of the New Testament,
as we know it today, as well as the first confessional statements of the Creed, in response to such false teachings and to clarify the Truth
of the Orthodox Christian faith. Still, those same old heresies, which plagued the Church then, continue to rear their ugly heads today,
albeit expressing themselves in new and innovative forms. On this note, Mr. Brown cannot be credited with originality.
Commenting on the Da Vinci Code’s popularity, a BBC analyst made the profound observation that, “Once people cease believing in God, they
don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything.” If anything, The Da Vinci Code not only reveals humanity’s persistent tendency to reject
God’s invitation to enter into the only perfect relationship of truth and love, but more embarrassingly, it reveals the extent of human
gullibility.
Faith is not about advancing intellectual cleverness, but committing to relationship. Constantine’s greatest vision was best expressed in
his attempt to create the perfect relationship among human beings, and thus strengthen the Body of Christ!
Walking down San Francisco’s Union Street on the evening of the movie’s premier, I observed, with fascination, a line of people in front of
the theater, wrapped around the block, waiting in the cold, to purchase tickets, to see a movie which advances distorted notions about the
very faith which most of those patrons profess. That site gave me pause to pray for the day when such souls might translate their temporary
zeal at the box office into a lasting commitment to the timeless truths of faith celebrated by their churches. Until then, the Orthodox
Church will continue to pray with fervor for the illumination of all humanity and the ultimate power of truth and faith over fiction.
Fr. Michael Index
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