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Eschatology, Orthodox Christianity, World Politics

Fr. Zechariah Lynch January 24, 2023

Understand the Signs of the Times

(part 1)
Below the reader will find a most
spiritually profitable talk given by
Archbishop Averky of blessed memory on
the teachings of St. Ignatius
(Brianchaninov). I have provided the text
“as is” below, it is taken from a collection
of Archbp. Averky’s works. The original
title is, “‘Salt is beguiling’ – a sign of the
approaching end: To the centenary of the
blessed repose of Bishop Ignatius
(Bryanchaninov).” I will be posting the
talk in two parts on this blog. I will simply
note that in the text below the words
“apostasy/retreat” are used as
synonyms and are, it seems, used in an
interchangeable manner.

Begin talk by Archbp. Averky-

“Our time is like the last. The salt is

overwhelming. In the highest pastors of
the Church there remains a weak, dark,
confused, misunderstanding by the
letter, killing the spiritual life in Christian
society, destroying Christianity, which is
a work, not a letter. It is hard to see to
whom the sheep of Christ have been
entrusted, or fallen into the hands of, to
whom their leadership and salvation has
been given! The wolves, clothed in
sheep’s skin, are and are known by their
works and fruits. But this is an assent of
God. Let those who exist in Judea flee to
the mountains!” – In these words our
great Russian luminary, ascetic and
spiritual writer, St. Ignatius
(Bryanchaninov), whose centennial since
his righteous death we commemorate
prayerfully in this year of 1967 († April
30, 1867), characterized contemporary
church life more than a hundred years
ago.

Is it not with far greater right that we can

repeat these formidable, cautionary
words of his in our day? For just in this
respect – in regard to the complete
spiritual and moral decay, which seems
to have already reached its extreme
limits, life in these last hundred years,
especially since the catastrophic
collapse of our Motherland-Russia, has
indeed gone far ahead.

Sad “progress,” clearly indicating, in the

Godly words of St. Ignatius, that the end
is approaching!..How much further can
we go, if those entrusted to guide human
souls to salvation lead them not to
salvation, but to eternal destruction?!

It is important for us that St. Ignatius,

who from his early youth sincerely strove
with all his soul for an authentic spiritual
and moral life and who himself was a
high example of such a life, writes this
not without reason, but having
experienced all this himself, as we know
from his wonderful biography. And the
conclusions of the disappointments and
distresses he personally experienced, on
this ground, he set forth in writing in
many places of his “Ascetic Experiences,”
“Ascetic Sermon,” “Letters to the laity,”
“An O!ering to Modern Monasticism,
“Father” and his other extant writings
are an invaluable library for anyone
interested in questions of spiritual and
moral life and, in particular, for those
who wish not only to philosophize (which
is often quite fruitless and unhelpful! ),
but to live the spiritual life as St. Ignatius
himself truly lived it. The writings of St.
Ignatius are especially valuable to us
because they are all written from his own
spiritual experience.

Having painted a positive picture of

spiritual and moral Christian life in a
number of his deeply edifying creations,
as it was reflected in the lives of God’s
saints, throughout Christian history, and
especially in the teachings of the saintly
ascetics of faith and piety of the first
centuries of Christianity, St. Ignatius
moves on to the end times, with signs of
these latter times already indicated in his
contemporary era (a hundred years and
more ago). What is valuable for us is that
St. Ignatius, as he himself emphasizes,
seeks answers and guidance for
everything from the ancient ascetics and
says little “from himself” and in his own
words, setting forth in his reasoning
their thoughts and sometimes quoting
word for word their sayings.

This is how, for example, he speaks of the

modern era in the “conclusion” of his
“Fatherland”: “From the spectacle
presented by antiquity, let us turn to the
spectacle presented by modernity. What
must we say of ourselves? How should
we live, how should we act? We find the
answer to these questions in the ancient
monks: they foreshadowed our situation;
they also foreshadowed the way of
action in this situation. “In the last time,”
said one of them: “those who will truly
work for God will prudently conceal
themselves from men, and will not
perform signs and wonders in their
midst, as at the present time. They will
walk in the way of doing, dissolved in
humility, and in the kingdom of heaven
they will be greater than the fathers who
were glorified by signs” (St. Niphont’s 4th
response). What thorough instruction,
what consolation for us in these
prophetic words of the signified and
spiritual father!”

This indication is extremely important!

From this the conclusion is clear: where
there is much noise, self-promotion, the
search for popularity, that is, where
there is clearly no humility, but an
apparent desire for glory, for the
exaltation of oneself in the eyes of others
by real or only by pu!ed up, imaginary,
imaginary works and merits, there is no
true pleasing to God.

What is there?

There is “hypocrisy alone,” St. Ignatius

quotes St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.

“Be afraid of this hypocrisy,” St. Ignatius

further instructs, “be afraid of hypocrisy,
first, in yourself, then – in others: be
afraid precisely because it is in the
character of the time and is capable of
infecting anyone at the slightest
deviation into frivolous behavior…
Pursue hypocrisy in yourself, driving it
out of yourself, away from the masses
infected by it, acting both intentionally
and unconsciously in the direction of it,
covering up serving the world by serving
God, seeking temporal goods by seeking
eternal goods, covering up a vicious life
and a soul totally committed to passions
in the guise of holiness. Here is one
extremely characteristic trait, especially
peculiar to our time, which as an
experienced expert in spiritual life, St.
Ignatius reveals, warning us against it.

The second feature, to which St. Ignatius

repeatedly points in his writings, is the
drying up of the gracious leaders of true
spiritual and moral life, and in connection
with this, which is especially important
for everyone sincerely seeking salvation
in our time to know and remember, is the
multiplication of false teachers, deceived
by demonic delusion and drawing the
whole world into this deception. We need
extreme caution, as St. Ignatius warns
us many times in his writings, “not to
mistake a wolf for a shepherd” and not to
trust lightly to someone who can ruin
your soul by leading it on a false path.
According to St. Ignatius, our time is a
time of extreme depletion of spiritual
mentors, and therefore it is no longer
possible to find a true “elder” as were the
elders-mentors of the first centuries of
Christianity, and it is much safer to be
guided by Holy Scripture and the writings
of the Father. Saint Ignatius himself
recalls, however, how much he su!ered
from an almost constant meeting with
spiritual “leaders, who were sick with
blindness and self-belief, and how many
bitter and grave shocks” he experienced
as a result.

The third characteristic feature of our

time is the extraordinary multiplication
of temptations of every kind, of all kinds,
which will all distract man from serving
God sincerely and without hypocrisy.

“Woe to the world because of the

temptations: for there is need to come
temptations” (Matthew 18:7), the Lord
proclaimed. And the coming of
temptations is God’s presupposition, and
the moral distress of temptations is
God’s presupposition. By the end of the
world the temptations must multiply and
multiply so much, that because
“lawlessness will abound” (Matt. 24:12)
and “when the Son of man cometh, shall
he find faith on earth? (Lk.18:8) – “the
Land of Israel” – the Church will be
“brought down by the sword” – by the
murderous violence of temptation – “and
quite empty” (Ezek.38:18).

It will be very di"cult to live according to

God. It is made so because it is
impossible for one who lives in the midst
and in the face of temptation not to be
a!ected by temptation. As ice loses its
hardness when exposed to heat and
turns into the softest water, so the heart,
which is full of good will, when it is
exposed to the influence of temptations,
especially constant ones, relaxes and
changes.

“Oh, wretched time! Oh, a calamitous

state! – St. Ignatius exclaims,
contemplating this pernicious spectacle
of temptations, – oh, a moral calamity,
unnoticeable to sensual people,
incomparably greater than all material,
loud calamities! Oh, a calamity that
begins in time and does not end in time,
but passes into eternity! Oh, the calamity
of calamities, understood only by true
Christians and true monks, unknown to
those whom it encompasses and
destroys!”

The golden words of St. Ignatius! We are

already facing all these countless and
varied temptations, which make it so
di"cult for modern people to live
according to God, and how many in our
time are clearly aware of the extreme
perniciousness of these temptations?
Shocking events are taking place in the
world before our eyes, such as the
bloody catastrophe that befell our
motherland Russia, the creation of
godless godless states, the open struggle
with God and the Church, the obvious
service of Satan, but many people, like
blind men, seem not to see any of this and
are even angry when it is pointed out to
them: “What are you saying? There’s
nothing special here! It’s always been like
that!” – and so forth. Just like this
spiritual blindness of almost the majority
of modern people, even those who call
themselves Christians (it’s scary to say:
there are quite a few Christian
clergymen among them! According to St.
Ignatius, this is a clear sign of the
departure that has already begun and is
rapidly progressing in our days, about
which St. Paul foretold in his Second
Epistle to the Solonians (2Sol.2:3). :3).

“The living according to God,” says St.

Ignatius, “is made very di"cult by the
vastness, the universality of the
Apostasy. The apostates, who multiply,
being called and presenting themselves
outwardly as “Christians” (!!!), will
prosecute true Christians; the multiplied
apostates will surround true Christians
with countless intrigues, will put up
countless obstacles to their good intent
to save and serve God, as St. Tikhon
Zadonsky notes. They will act against
God’s servants with the violence of
power, and slander, and devious
intrigues, and various deceptions, and
severe persecutions… In these latter
days a true monk (of course, this applies
not only to monks, but to all true
Christians!) will scarcely find any remote
and unknown shelter, in order to serve
God with some freedom, and not to be
drawn by the violence of apostasy and
apostates into the service of Satan.

Who, seeing all that is now going on in the

world – even to the point of openly
serving Satan – can say that this time has
not yet come? And it certainly has come,
if St. Ignatius more than 100 years ago
already wrote about its coming in his
time, indicating clear signs of it.

Here, for example, is how strongly and

vividly he writes about it: “The times, the
further on, the harder. Christianity, as a
spirit, unnoticeable to the fussy and
world-serving crowd, very noticeable to
those who pay attention to themselves, is
removed from the midst of humanity,
leaving it (the world) to its fall.

Here in these words it is very important

to notice that it is as if the Departure is
not seen, not noticed by those people,
who belong to the “world-serving crowd,
who are so vain, having given themselves
to serve this world, which lies under evil,
according to the word of the Apostle (1
John 5:19), that they have lost the
spiritual vision, and therefore everything
that happens in the world now seems to
them absolutely normal, something to be
reconciled with. And they are terribly
angry with those who try to open their
eyes, for it prevents them from living
quietly, in their pleasure.

And here is what St. Ignatius says next:

“The prophecy of Scripture is fulfilled
about the apostasy of the peoples who
have passed from paganism to
Christianity. The apostasy is foretold
with all the clarity of St. Scripture and
serves as evidence of how true and true
everything said in Scripture.

This is why a true, true believing

Christian cannot have any “panic” when
contemplating this gloomy picture of
apostasy, which some people fear quite
naively and unreasonably, preferring
therefore to “ignore” apostasy and keep
silent about it. A true Christian knows
from the words of Christ the Savior
Himself that all this “must be” (Mark 13:7;
Luke 21:9), and he should not close his
eyes to it, but be absolutely conscious of
what is going on, correctly estimate and
weigh all the events in which a digression
takes place, in order to know how to act,
in order not to be drawn into the current
of retreat, which can happen unnoticed
by him if he neglects and does not pay
enough attention.

For our guidance, St. Ignatius says:

“Retreat [Apostasy] is permitted by God:
do not try to stop it with your weak
hand…”.

What then? Does this mean that we have

to be reconciled to the Apostasy and “join
in” with it?

Far from it, of course not! This is what it

means: “Retreat, guard against it
yourself: and that is enough for you. Get
acquainted with the spirit of the time,
study it, so as to avoid its influence as far
as possible.

How important it is in our time to

remember, to carry in our minds and
hearts this most precious instruction of
our great Russian luminary!

This is why it is a crime to remain silent

about the Retreat, to lull ourselves and
others into thinking that everything is
quite safe, that there is nothing to worry
about. Although we are powerless to
“stop the Retreat with our weak hand,”
the duty of Christian love commands us
not only to “remove ourselves” and
“guard against it,” but also to protect and
warn our neighbors against it, if they
themselves do not see it or do not notice
it. Here we must always remember the
wonderful saying of one of the greatest
pillars of our Church, St. Gregory the
Theologian, that “God is betrayed by
silence. One cannot remain silent about
what is a matter of paramount
importance, as the work of saving the
souls of men!

Let us turn to the further thoughts of St.

Ignatius, which open our eyes to what is
now happening in the world: “Retreat has
begun to take place quickly, freely and
openly from a certain time. The
consequences must be most grievous.
God’s will be done!”

Do we not see this? For as recently as

comparatively recently it seemed utterly
impossible to see the utter
shamelessness in the religious and
moral life of men which is now being done
before our eyes, even to the point of
completely denying Christ and rejecting
all religious and moral foundations and
openly serving Satan. And not only the
secret, hidden, but also the overt, open
persecution, up to and including the
shedding of blood, against those who
profess the true faith of Christ has
become a formidable fact in our day. And
it is vain to draw any parallel between
this modern persecution of the faith of
Christ in all its forms and that which
existed at the dawn of Christianity. Then
the Christians were persecuted by
pagans who did not know the true God,
who did not know Christ, and now those
who know Christ and the high doctrine
He preached, who are often conscious
apostates from the faith of Christ, who
have sold their souls to Satan for worldly
goods, are persecuted furiously and
fiercely, maliciously.

It is horrifying to read further

prophecies of St. Ignatius, which are
being realized before our eyes in our
time: “May the merciful Lord cover a
remnant of those who believe in Him. But
this remnant is meager: it is becoming
scarcer and scarcer… The cause of
orthodox faith can be recognized as
approaching a decisive denouement…
One special grace of God can stop the
moral epidemic, stop it for a while,
because it is necessary to fulfill the
prophecy of Scripture. Judging by the
spirit of the times and the fermentation
of minds, we must assume that the
building of the Church, which has been
shaking for a long time, will shake
terribly and quickly. There is no one to
stop and oppose it. The measures of
support taken are borrowed from the
elements of a world hostile to the
Church, and will hasten her fall rather
than halt it.

It is as if these words were written from

nature in our day! For we are just now
witnessing this fearful and rapid
vacillation of the Church. And indeed, the
measures taken are borrowed not at all
from whence they should be taken – not
from the spiritual realm, but from the
same elements of a world hostile to the
Church – from the realm of human
passions, thinking not of what is divine,
but of what is human. And of course such
measures will not only not stop the fall of
the Church, but rather will hasten it.

“Listen to what you say,” some will say,

“what fall of the Church can we speak of
when we have such a decisive promise of
Christ as: “…I will build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against