THREE QUESTIONS - THREE ANSWERS
ARE WE LIVING IN DIASPORA? By Archbishop Peter (L’Huillier) Although the term Diaspora is often used in Orthodox ecclesiastical milieus, it is difficult to find an accurate definition of its meaning. The literal translation of that term into English is Dispersion; however, one can find the word Diaspora in dictionaries with three closely related explanations: 1) the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian exile; 2) the Jews thus dispersed; 3) in the time of the Apostles, Jewish Christians who lived outside of Palestine. (Webster’s Dictionary) In the Old Testament, it firstly refers to the situation of the Israelite people in exile after the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. Later Jews are found everywhere around the Mediterranean Basin and in the Middle East up to Persia. But for all the Jews, the country of Israel was the Promised Land and the temple of Jerusalem was the only legitimate place of sacrifice. So we can understand the sadness of the Psalmist who proclaims: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth” (Psalm 137:4-6). For the believers in Christ, the position is different. They remember very especially the prophecy of Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their forefathers . . . But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people” (31:31-32, 33-34). This prophecy is obviously mentioned as fulfilled in the New Testament. It is quoted in the epistle to the Hebrews, 8:8-10, and is the theme of that entire letter. One of the most salient characteristics of the New Covenant is its universality based on the command of Christ before His Ascension: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
Fall 2003
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). Those words of Jesus were something so new that it took some time before their significance was fully understood and implemented. This was essentially, but not exclusively, the work of St. Paul, the Apostle of the Nations. He proclaimed the axiomatic principle of the absence of discrimination in the evangelical spreading: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In primitive Christianity, there was a strong consciousness of the fact that the Church was the messianic community of the end times and it is noteworthy that St. Peter, in his address to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, affirmed that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32. This expectation of the second coming of Christ is expressed in the last article of our Creed: “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” As it can be expected, this fundamental tenet of our Faith has been reflected not only in the thought, but also in Christian vocabulary even if, more than often believers ignore, or don’t pay attention to, this reality. Notwithstanding, the reading of Holy Scriptures and Patristic literature is evidence of this fact. For example, St. Peter addresses his first epistle: “To the exiles of the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (I Peter 1:1). Later, he calls the believers “aliens and exiles” (ibid 2:11). Such a terminology is common place among Christian writers of the early centuries. Besides, until now, we frequently use terms which, etymologically, refer to our condition on earth; it is sufficient to mention the word Parish, coming from the Greek verb Paroikein which means to sojourn in a place as a pilgrim. From what I have just expounded, it is obvious that the contemporary trend to use the term Diaspora to characterize the Orthodox communities established outside territories where the
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