Reflections on 'The Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan', Part 1
Do missionaries still exist?
I added some updates to the translation of the Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan this morning.
I stopped to collect all my materials and make sure I had PDF copies of the diaries in Russian—for some reason, I didn’t, but thankfully they were still available online at predanie.ru (thank you, guys, for such a valuable resource).
Some observations can be made from just the Prefaces, of which I have half-completed the review.
First, St. Nikolai was surrounded by remarkable people during his life. Not always surrounded in the literal sense--in fact, his life as a monk and a missionary was often one of profound loneliness. I have experienced some of that loneliness, though I am not a monk, nobody regards me as a missionary, and I am definitely not a saint.
No, St. Nikolai was not always surrounded literally. But he had contact with remarkable people, especially missionaries, both Orthodox Christian and others.
I wonder if any of those remarkable people still exist. I wonder if true Orthodox missionaries still exist, or if everyone in the world is truly caught up in survival, and noone has their hearts freed to care for a people distant.
St. Nikolai of Japan's akathist says, 'Rejoice, you who loved people far equally to those near.'
Do such people still exist?
I don't know. Perhaps I am the only one.
No matter, let's continue on and see what happens. Lord, bless.
--
While researching this book, I came across a VK post about St. Nikolai meeting Paul Sawabe, and someone left a nasty comment: 'Yeah, he convinced this one Jap, but the rest of them continued on with their eugenics programs. To hell with the Japanese.'
And I left a comment stating something like, 'I wonder what would happen if everyone said, 'To hell with [everyone else]'?
If all the Greeks and Russians had said, 'To hell with the Americans', then Orthodox Christianity might not exist in America at all, and I would have never encountered it.
If St. Nikolai had said, 'to hell with the Japanese', there might be no Church there.
If the Greeks had said, 'to hell with the Slavs', Sts. Cyril and Methodius might not have been sent to the Russians.
If the Apostles had said, 'to hell with the world', Christianity would never have exited Palestine, and remained a small Jewish sect, and probably destroyed in A.D. 70 along with Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, I get a similar response when I try to provoke people to care for the Russians, or to care for the Japanese, or to care about anything at all other than themselves.
'I've got my own problems, someone else will do it.'
Has 'the love of the Great Body' truly gone cold? Do we not care about unsaved people?
'But I only care about people around me!'
That is fine. You are a missionary where you are. Are you an effecgtive missionary where you are? Are you telling people about the faith? Are you demonstrating your faith? Is it living and active? Are people asking you what makes you different from those around you?
Evangelism is clearly happening--the Orthodox Church in America is the fastest-growing religion there--but I think that perhaps people are being forced into finding the Church out of desperation, rather than its members actively letting people know about this best-kept secret.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope that the Church will continue to grow, and that the selfishness of a few folks on Twitter and other social media, do not represent the feelings of the Church at large.
If they do, God help us.
God help us.
