How to begin
Where should the churching of a person begin who has come to believe in the existence of God and realised that inwardly he himself belongs to the Orthodox Church?
First of all, every Orthodox Christian must have faith, must know the foundations of the teaching of the Christian Church and understand them rightly, and must try to live according to that teaching.
To gain faith, it is not enough just to wear a cross, go into a church and light a candle.
Our Lord Jesus Christ often rebuked even the apostles themselves for little faith — they who had seen His many miracles and who, by the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit granted by Him, worked miracles themselves. “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20). True faith is the grace of God. This grace is given to one who sincerely thirsts to receive it. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).
For the desire to acquire faith to take root in a person's soul, he must realise that the question of union with God is not merely a question of “life and death,” but of eternal life and eternal death.
Clearly, every person has at least once in his life stopped to think and asked himself: who am I, what do I exist for, will there be anything after death?
Sadly, most people do not try to answer this question but are carried away by the cares of this world: some think only of new and expensive things, others do not want to give up their daily entertainments, and this most important question they either forget or put off serious thought about it until the future, until “some time later.”
It is terrible to think that this “later” may never come. The soul of a person filled only with worldly cares and weighed down drop by drop with a multitude of sins suffocates and dies. It can no longer receive anything truly spiritual; it no longer has the capacity even to wish to know God. It is sad that the number of such “dead souls” is growing unimaginably in our time.
But whoever does not stifle in himself the timid cry of the soul, lamenting its separation from the Creator, will sooner or later stand before the question: does God exist? If He exists, who is He, and in which Church is the right teaching about Him preserved?
When the Lord sees an ardent desire to receive answers to these questions, He will help the person and give him the opportunity to know the truth and be united with Christ, who Himself is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
It is noteworthy that by way of the mind, analysis and reasoning (especially relying on modern, accessible information) it is very easy to become convinced of God's existence. But such reasoned faith is only barren knowledge.
The chief instrument for knowing God is the human heart — a heart that feels and seeks. And if it is not filled to the brim with base passions, envy, malice and worldly sweetness, there will certainly be found in it at least a tiny “living” part that is able to sense God and to contain His love, able to become the beginning of the soul's salvation. An example of this is the thief who was crucified at Golgotha on Christ's right. Here is what the Gospel tells of it: “And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.”
“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:32–36, 39–43).
Such is the power of the Lord's love for His creature. In the last minutes of his life a feeling of repentance awoke in the thief's being: he believed in Jesus, crucified though innocent, and the Lord nailed to the cross forgave him all his sins and brought him into paradise first of all mankind. The merciful Lord will forgive us too all our sins — if we want it, if we are in time, if through our sins we do not lose the capacity for repentance and contrition and so kill our own soul.
