"Like
relics like myrrh": Pussy Riot as a vomiting antidote
to the lies in Christ’s name
[This article was written,
first of all, for the sisters and brothers in Christ]
Australia, 11.43 in the morning of 17th
of August 2012: I am typing these words just a few hours
before the public announcement of the sentence to
so-called punk-feminist group Pussy Riot. Whatever the
sentence will be it will not change anything in my
evaluation of the event which was called in the mass
media a “punk prayer in the Church of Christ the Saviour”
and therefore it does not matter when this article will
be finished. However, sooner is better because I want to
vomit all this out of my system. Precisely to vomit
– this word defines the purpose of my article much
more adequately than the word evaluate. One can
evaluate singular events: unsightly behaviour of certain
clergymen, the members of a congregation, congregations
as a whole, and even heresies. But the global scale of
the fake, of the lie in Christ’s name, one can only
sense intuitively and vomit out as a poison
before it is too late. The lie under the cover of the
holy things, especially the lie of priests has the
ability to unnoticeably but efficiently cloud the minds
of their own brethren: the believers who make the Body
of Christ – the Church.
I admit that the poison
polluted my system as well, preventing me from the
initial recognition of the meaning of the “punk prayer”.
When I first saw the video of young women dressed in
multicoloured joker’s clothes, jumping up and down in
front of the icons, my immediate reaction was “What a
nightmare! – How is it possible, why did no one throw
them out?” As an iconographer,
I have an acute sense of harmony and of how one is
obliged to conduct oneself in the church. However, even
at that time I did not sense anything blasphemous
happening. Something bizarre, absurd – certainly, mostly
because it was plain to see that “the jokers” did not
even know how to cross themselves properly and in which
direction to look. If I was there I would probably push
those jumping jokers out because it is not appropriate
to raise one’s legs and play guitars in the church. At
that time I did not notice the key to the event: in
which particular church that inappropriate action
was happening, so I could not recognize its symbolism.
Every Russian knows about the history of the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow: built to
honour the victory in the Great Patriotic War
1812 “… for the commemoration of unprecedented zeal,
faith, and love of Russian people for their Christian
Faith and their Motherland, and as an expression of our
gratitude to God’s providence which saved Russia from
the great peril”,
blown up in 1931 and rebuilt in 1994-97. Rebuilt, as it
has been repeated many times, and is still being
repeated, as a symbol of the revival of Russia.
Precisely for the restoration of this symbol of revival
I, being a student then, also donated a modest sum of
money. I remember my disappointment when I discovered
that the new cathedral was to be an exact copy of the
destroyed one, not a variation of esthetically far more
successful projects rejected by the emperor. I also
remember very well the moment when I for the first time
entered the new church. I was already an utterly
conscious Christian, i.e. a Christian by my own agonized
choice, living an active life within the Church. Already
while approaching the cathedral I felt that something
was very wrong. Closer – worse: its proportions and
details, brick work and reliefs looked fake.
Under its roof I was hit – I
cannot use any other word – by the outrageous, for any
minimally theologically educated person, depiction of
the so-called New Testament Trinity: God the
Father as an old man, God the Son as a baby, and the
Holy Spirit as a dove.
Hit not so much with its non-canonical image –
unfortunately, there are plenty of such non-canonical
depictions in churches all over Russia but with its
fakeness. “It is all lie, double-dealing, absurd” –
screamed the painting and the whole cathedral. Similar
depictions of the New Testament Trinity in other
churches scratched my eyes as well but it was clear
that, though they were made with theological ignorance
they were sincere, and the sincerity partially redeemed
the ignorant zeal. In the cathedral I sensed something
deadening, an unmistakable coldness of imitation. Its
whole mood was heavy and oppressing.
Despite my zeal as a
neophyte I have never retuned to the cathedral, in my
mind referring to it as the “Samovar”. Later I heard
about the fakes, i.e. plastic reliefs on its walls,
underground car parks, rooms rented for corporate
meetings – heard from someone and just waved it off: “It
is a slander – which car parks can be in the church?” I
waved it off because, although my understanding of the
holiness of the Church was not simplistic and naďve, I
had a certain naďve faith that the priests could not
consciously collaborate with the lie, at least most of
them. I explained the unpleasant impression created by
the cathedral with the bad tastes of the clergy and
their ignorance of true Christian art.
To
understand the dimension of the suddenly
fallen upon me realization, the last blow of which was
the “punk-prayer”, one must be clear about what an
Orthodox church (a building) means for a believer. There
are many books and articles about the theological basis
of church architecture, about the symbolism of its parts
(as well as depictions), and anyone interested can refer
to them. I will simply say: it is my deepest conviction
that absolutely everything in the Church (in the Church
as a community of believers and in a church as a
building), from the personal spiritual life of a
Christian to the life of the Church as a whole, is
measured by the Eucharist or the Sacrament of Holy
Communion. The Eucharist is the starting point and the
measure of everything and, if one keeps this in a mind,
then much becomes clear even without a detailed
knowledge of the symbols.
The sacrament of Holy
Communion is a literal communion with God – the
most extreme degree of closeness with God available to a
human being in this world – and for this sake every
church is built. Not for the purpose of reading the
Bible, singing hymns, socializing, etc but so all the
faithful can partake the Body and Blood of the Christ,
according to his commandment thus becoming the mystical
Body of the Christ. Everything in a church serves this
purpose of divinization, from its architecture to a
shape of a chandelier. Not a single depiction, not a
single item in a church can be a fake or a lie. We
believe that during the Liturgy not only the members of
a congregation are present but also the invisible
Church: Jesus Christ, angels, saints and because of this
we paint their depictions on the walls. We believe that
we ourselves together with them become a part of the
mystical Body of the Christ during the Eucharist – and
this very fact is reflected in the visible world when
the members of a congregation, while standing before the
altar, are included in the rows of saints on the walls.
It is very simple: we depict just as we believe and as
it is in reality, without a postmodern “as if”,
and exactly because of this it is prohibited to bring
anything artificial into the church including artificial
flowers – they are fake, an imitation of a real life. A
Christian cannot believe half-way: either one believes
and knows that in the sacrament of Communion she is
united with the Christ, or one does not believe and does
not know, and this impossibility of compromise and
simplicity of faith determines one’s attitude to oneself
and to the world.
If a Christian believes that
while partaking Holy Communion she becomes a vessel of
Jesus Christ, that her hands are the hands of Christ
then she will never be able to tolerate any dissonance
brought by semi-truth, semi-lies which in their essence
are just lies, grime and filth. The ability to hear “the
little bell” which signals about the fake at hand is
given by the grace of God in communion with the Body and
Blood of Christ who is Truth and Life. Being a gift of
grace, this little bell is in no way a believer’s
achievement. So, if we believe that a church is a house
of God how do we dare to pollute it with something that
has no affiliation with God and Eucharist? If we believe
that in communion we are united with Jesus Christ, if we
believe that the Sacrifice is taking place here and now
and that the Saviour is in the Cup on the Altar then how
can we allow in the same church the presence of
car parks, car washing services, banquet halls and other
inappropriate things? How is this possible that the
Altar and the Cup are just above a car park and other
“rooms” which have nothing to do with the Liturgy? To
say that they are “behind the wall or under the floor”
is Phariseeism and grime filth, much worse than an
honest answer “we are ashamed but we need the money”.
Why worse? – Because in the first case a priest is
lying, swapping the intuitive reaction of a healthy
conscience with a formal logic and thus conditions
his congregation not to recognize the filth. In the
second case he acknowledges that yes, it is filth.
I
admit that it is quite difficult to explain,
using logic only, why the car park under the church is
filth. Just as I am unable explain logically why I feel
like vomiting every time I witness the custom of
circulating a plate for donations precisely during the
Eucharist, after Our Father or, even worse, when
I see a table with a plate put in a close proximity to
the Cup: on this plate those who have just received Holy
Communion are somehow invited to place their money
immediately after receiving the Sacrament. I cannot say
anything regarding that, apart from one thing: if one
keeps in mind that everything in a church has symbolic
meaning then such a table with a plate is rightly
perceived as “a device to collect payment for the Body
and Blood of Christ”. Precisely the blasphemous
monstrosity of this symbol is responsible for the fact
that nothing could make me “pay” for communion, but I
have very much wanted to turn that table upside down.
Thus, my reasons for spiritual nausea are a bit
different from those of who are far from the Church but
somehow very angry with its materialistic orientation.
Far from the Church materialists are enraged with
Mercedes-Benz, expensive watches, mysterious “forced
donations” and abundant Church properties. I, being a
member of the Church, am enraged with how the
“gathering of donations” is conducted and also with a
formalistic logic of lies which provides a blasphemy
with a very digestible, humanely understandable
explanation “it is easier to collect a necessary sum
during the Eucharist and we must keep the church”. Thus
the church is placed above the Body and Blood of Christ
but only those who acutely feel what the Body and Blood
are can sense the sacrilege of this statement. The
formalistic logic says “perhaps it is not so bad – we
all know that we are not paying for communion” but the
conscience is illogically shouting “how dare you to
blaspheme!” and demands the sacrifice of “the decoration
of the church” for the Ultimate Sacrifice.
A
reader may start wondering what all this has
to do with Pussy Riot – perhaps because their
“punk-prayer” was yet another, just a very creative,
blasphemy? No, I do not think so; Pussy Riot has
something to do with it because their “punk-prayer” was
something like an earthquake which, bending and tilting
a building revealed exactly that “shit of God”
which I understand as “shit under an Orthodox mask”,
grime, filth which has been conducted in the house of
God by the people of God. The mask slid aside and the
stench within began to spread unobstructed.
The major source of the
current stench, in my opinion, is the eternal Russian
disease: reduction of Christianity to a tool of national
self-identification, a state cult and, as a consequence,
inevitable merging of the Church with state and
government. The heresy of Phyletism
(the primacy of national, political interests over the
universal Christian Church) takes amazingly variable
forms among Russians, and not just among the Orthodox
but also agnostics and even atheists. One can see this
heresy in action in Russian Orthodox churches in
Australia when new faces: Anglo-Saxons, Aboriginals,
Ethiopians and even Greeks are often told “this is a
Russian church, why did you come?” It is in the dreams
about the restoration of monarchy in Russia where
Orthodox Christianity plays precisely the role of the
source for the main dish. It is also found in the
endless statements of agnostics “we must unite and
support the Church otherwise Russians will be pushed
out by Asians and other nasty people”. It is also
found in atheists busily placing a candle in church, who
to the question “Why are you doing this? - you don’t
believe” answer angrily “What, aren’t we Russians?
– it is our tradition!” And last, it is Putin with a
sour face awkwardly crossing himself in “the major
cathedral of Russia” during the Easter service and then
on the New Year publicly stating that he is “a dragon,
born in the Year of the Dragon”. Many love mentioning
Orthodoxy when it is convenient, especially in
conjunction with “Russia – nationalism – enemies”. But
one who has Christ as a measure cannot feel anything but
acute shame and righteous anger when hearing such words.
Russia is bigger than the
Kingdom of Heaven and the monarch is bigger than Christ?
Sure, for nationalists, idol worshipers, agnostics,
atheists, bigger without a doubt but how can Christians
join with them in humiliating the Christ? And, the most
important, how can those with whose hands the Eucharist
is done join with them – how can they humiliate God,
that very God about transubstantiation of bread and wine
into whose Body and Blood they pray every Liturgy?
Duplicitous faith and lies have always
existed within the Church but particularly shamelessly
they popped out (at least for me) during the trial over
Pussy Riot.
From the prosecutor’s speech:
“vulgarly, cynically, challengingly moving in the
church”, “attempting to devalue preserved for
centuries and venerated traditions and dogmas”,
“dared to violate the equality and originality of
Russian Orthodox Church”, “threatening
sacramentality and not responding to calls”.
This is not the speech of a
believer or even of a nonbeliever who honestly studied
the specifics of the matter – this is the speech of a
parrot. These words could be said by a nationalist,
idol-worshiper, nonbeliever – by anyone who learnt that
Orthodoxy is “a national attribute” and the Church is
the conductor of a certain “state cult”. In a
non-Christian context these words are completely
natural. In a Christian context they are acidic,
shameful and farce-like.
The prosecutor’s words and
the trial are the real offence to the Christians, not
the “punk-prayer”, for one simple reason: the speech of
the prosecutor is absurd and a lie, the trial is a lie,
but the bishops of the Church are silent despite the
fact that the trial is using notions which make a sense
only inside the Church. The use of Church Council
decrees by the philistines to whom sacred equals
sacramental is to spit into the face of the
Church, just as “the tables for the payment for
communion”.
The defendant’s lawyer asks the question:
“Why do the banquets and corporate take place in the
Church of Christ the Saviour? Why can Boney M perform in
the church, jump up and down, shake and sing indecent
songs but the girls who sang the political song are
judged according to the Penal Code?”
Ah, how naďve this question
is and how easy to answer it using that formalistic
logic: the banquets and corporate take place not in the
church but in “halls and rooms” and “the punk-prayer”
took place in the church. No, dear logically thinking
sirs and ladies: the banquets occur exactly in the
church although in the underground, under the cupola
with the New Testament Trinity and very unlike
the communal meals in monasteries – those happen in
separate buildings away from the church and even if not
so far away then the monks and pilgrims eat there, for
the glory of God and accompanied by the reading of
prayers aloud, not by the chorus of "Ra-Ra-Rasputin" and
drunken speeches.
The question raised during the trial about
double standards is completely legitimate and I will
expand it, adding my personal questions which have been
torturing me for a long time.
Why is “the main cathedral
of Russia” a fake, namely a business-complex in the
shell of a cathedral? Why are you, the bishops of the
Russian Orthodox Church, not sensitive to sacrilege of
this kind?
Why in so many Russian
Orthodox churches is the Eucharist accompanied by the
rustle of banknotes and jingle of coins, and the
collection of donations is blasphemously joined with the
most sacred part of the Liturgy?
Why, despite the apostolic
rules which oblige every Christian who did not commit a
grave sin to partake communion during every Eucharist
without requiring a confession, in the Russian
Orthodox churches is communion only possible after a
compulsory confession, i.e., much more seldom than it is
prescribed by the Church canons?
A believer who wishes to act according to the apostolic
rules and their own spiritual needs is forced to make a
formal confession which is supposed to be the
Sacrament of Repentance which is independent from
the Sacrament of Communion. Why is the Sacrament of
Repentance being transformed into “a ticket for
communion”, i.e., a profanation of the Sacrament? Why is
the late Russian rule “to partake communion only after a
confession and many days of fasting” still being kept –
a rule which appeared during the extreme spiritual
decline of 19th century when Orthodox
Christians were forced, by the merger with the of state
and government with the Church, to confess and partake
communion once a year for the sole purpose of proving
their loyalty to the state (for which an official
certificate was given)? Why because of this rule are
modern Christians unable to unite with Jesus Christ as
often as they can and as it was commanded, while the
clergy partake of communion during every Liturgy?
Why was the completely pagan
statement of the “Orthodox Christian” Putin about his
belonging to “the family of dragons in the Year of a
Dragon” not judged by the Russian Orthodox Church
publicly so that its congregations would not be tempted
to deviate into paganism?
Why did you, the bishops of
the Russian Orthodox Church, not intervene in the trial
of the punk-group but preferred to keep silent while the
state, using the name of the Church and the name of the
Christ, i.e. polluting them, was prosecuting its and,
clearly, your own enemies? Why did you not intervene out
of Christian compassion for the defendants?
Because you will not answer me I will answer
myself. Whatever your motivations are there is only one
major reason: you behave like this because Jesus Christ
is no longer your measure and starting point, despite
your frequent, according to your status, communion. One
who truly has the Christ inside himself cannot lie or be
cowardly silent or, even worse, bar others’ way to the
Christ – he is simply unable to do so. He can make
mistakes, can hit an opponent in the ear like St.
Nicholas struck Arius if he feels that his faith is
offended (notice that he did it with his own hand and
for this action was thrown out of the Church Ecumenical
Council) but he will never lie saying that “business
does not happen in the church” and crawl before an
earthly king for the sake of “fortification of the
Church of the Heavenly King”. He will not. A Christian
may throw the punks out of the church and give them a
few punches on the way but he will never scream “burn
the witches” and never be silent, gloatingly watching
the trial-farce.
Your main cathedral is
worthy of you – the lie and fake from the beginning to
the end, grime filth covered by the superficial piety
and speculation on history, suspiciously resembling the
“Museum of Orthodoxy” in the novel Antichrist by
Vladimir Soloviev. “The symbol of the revival of Russia”
in reality is the symbol of its destruction. You know as
well as I do about the destruction of the architecture
of the old Moscow and about the destruction of Russian
culture but I do not recall that any of you ever
publicly judged the Russian government for the
deliberate destruction of the history and culture of the
people about whose good you like to speak so much. The
priceless architectural originals are being swapped with
the concrete soulless imitations-copies and true Russian
culture – with a stenchy fake but you are silent, silent
as long as the relative proportions of the façade are
being kept. You are not offended with this sanctioned by
the state obscenity, not even offended with the
obscenity coming directly from the state itself but you
are offended with “leg kicking in the church”.
I
do not know what people Pussy Riot are,
whether they believe in God or not but I know that God
can chose very “inappropriate” people as His tools. The
more I think about what happened the clearer it is to me
that the ‘punk prayer” was a sign whether His tools knew
about it or not.
There was no blasphemy – not
formally, not in content. Pussy Riot did not blaspheme
(i.e., attempted to insult or curse God), they did not
break the icons, did not destroyed crosses, did not
intrude the altar area. They conducted their “punk
prayer” in the one place where it was, as my Christian
sense tells me, completely appropriate – in the
imitation of the Orthodox church, a fake. This event
combined in itself the extremely inappropriate and
extremely appropriate, features which can be fully
understood only to those who are within the Church
tradition.
Despite their “inappropriate
appearance”, the participants were dressed according to
formal Church rules: head covers and wearing skirts (a
great comment on the Pharisee’s doctrine about the
special grace of skirts and head covers). They were
inappropriately standing with their backs toward the
altar but, if they were standing facing it than the “leg
kicking” would be a sacrilege – therefore their standing
with their backs toward the altar was pious and
appropriate. Addressing Theotokos (Our Lady) they
crossed themselves awkwardly – and Putin and company
standing in the same cathedral would come to a mind.
They shouted out the words which should have been
shouted by the Patriarch, any bishop, or a common
priest. They offended so many Orthodox with their
“swearing” but it was in fact a normal reaction of a
stunned person who faces something outrageously
inappropriate. Just like that I, after hearing from a
certain priest of the Russian Orthodox Church that “The
Old Testament should be thrown away because there is too
much nonsense there” said inside myself “Oh shit!”
Swearing not infrequently
comes from the lips of rarely swearing people when they
suddenly see an abyss broken open. I do not know if
these women can be called holy-fools but the shape and
content of their “punk prayer” was holy-foolishness
without a doubt. The “punk prayer” was thought through
to minuscule detail or more correctly not thought
through but intuitively guessed or given
(providentially) as a kind of a mirror or as a series of
mirrors. It has an answer to every accusation, even to
the “sacrilege of the order” “Theotokos, become a
feminist!” – it was a request, not an order as some are
trying to present it because these words were sung while
kneeling.
I understand the “punk
prayer” as a scream out of an unbearable existence in
lies and as an attempt to get rid of spiritual nausea.
Furthermore I myself many times experienced the desire
to scream, if not “shit of God” then something very
similar while seeing the obscenities inside the Church
which I mentioned above.
But
what if I am mistaken and the “punk prayer”
was in the reality hooliganism or even a provocation?
Nothing, absolutely nothing – holy fathers of the
ancient Church teach us that we must attribute to others
good intentions and, if we are mistaken, then to learn
something useful from a bad experience and God will
reward us a hundred times more. Even if it was a
provocation, it changes nothing in the sudden regaining
of my sight, or more correctly, in the sudden
improvement of my vision. Everything is very easy:
Christians should not concern themselves with
provocations, external enemies, secret societies because
we have our constant measure – Jesus Christ and our
desire to be with him. Even if we are told that our
following his commandments “will make the Church more
vulnerable” or “will weaken Russia”, etc we cannot be
guided by these considerations because they push us away
from Jesus Christ. If previously such sentences made me
think for a minute now they become nothing to me and for
that I bow down to Pussy Riot. The trial over them
showed what “shit of God” can become “a people of God”
if in its zeal it is ready to collaborate with whomever
available: nationalists, politicians, liars, and other
articulators of purely earthly interests. Christ demands
mercy, not-of-this-worldness, his, Christ’s, truth which
is insanity for this world. To think of him in these
earthly categories means to humiliate the Christ. It
puts the heavenly at the service of the earthly and God
at the service of human beings. This is a true
blasphemy, not “kicking legs up in the church”.
Anna Terentieva, 18th
of August 2012
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