(Spirituality, Vol.8, July/August 2002, No. 43, pp.224-227)
The Orthodox tradition distinguishes three stages of the person in relation to God: the slave, the servant and the son/daughter.
The slave
The slave is motivated principally by fear: fear of punishment. A slave makes no decisions about anything; he is to be seen and not heard. He has no personal responsibility; that’s in the hands of others. His motto is to be quiet, do as he’s told, keep his head down and stay out of trouble.
Underneath the surface compliance there is resentment and hatred: why do I have to be like this, to do this work, to take orders from so-and-so? Why can’t I do what I like?
The slave will do as little as possible and get away with as much as possible. His morals are about keeping up appearances, and, above all, not getting caught. This results in a personality which is cunning and devious, and refuses to grow up and take responsibility for itself.
If we have these attitudes towards people, then we probably have them towards God, too.
It’s a mistake to assume, as free people do, that slaves always want freedom. A long period in slavery can lead to the internalization of the slave mentality, to wanting and preferring the security of slavery to the risk of freedom, and to actively and willingly participating in the perpetuation of his condition: fear of the insecurity and uncertainty that freedom would bring; fear of having to make choices and decisions, fear of responsibility, fear of growing up and being held accountable for decisions if freedom should ever come.
Colonialism is a psychological, not merely a political or social process. I believe that in Ireland we have a lot of the slave mentality as a by-product of a long period of colonial rule, of semi-slavery. We had, for example, the tenant-landlord relationship: external compliance and deference, doffing the cap to “Sir”, and reviling him behind his back; and something similar in relation to the clergy. Is the anger now directed against the clergy about abuses of power really anger of people against themselves for not having had the courage to speak out about it at the time? Is the present mood of resentment, of jumping on the bandwagon of negative criticism, a not too brave assertion of one’s courage?
In Ireland it is not so much Christian faith or even secular liberal ideas, but the mind of the cute hoor which summarizes much of our moral attitudes: what you can get away with; what will work, or do, for the moment; how to beat the system; …a hangover from the mentality of the colonized, not very different from that of the slave – keeping on the right side of the powers that be; watch to see what way the wind is blowing and then sail with it; run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
The slave mentality is present in our spirituality if we are driven by guilt. Guilt is a good servant but a bad master. Likewise with fear, or if we see God as a judge, distant, remote, and confess our sins ‘insofar as God sees me guilty.’ God sees us not as guilty (even if we are) but as forgiven.
The above mentality describes a relationship that God wants to lead us out of, as he led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. To leave people at the level of the slave is to belittle them, to show contempt for them, to consent to their living below their best, for example, by leaving people at the level of a merely functional religion which does not have an impact on relationships.
The servant
The servant has a self-seeking frame of mind. The question he asks is, ‘What’s in this for me? What do I get out of it?’ It was the question of Saint Peter, ‘What about us who have left everything and followed you?’ Are we so high-minded that such thoughts never cross our minds?
The servant has a legalistic frame of mind, goes by the book, follows the rules and takes no risks unless there is the clear expectation of a reward. “You keep the Rule and the Rule will keep you,” is what was said to many young religious on joining an Order. The servant will do what’s required and no more; he takes a minimalistic view of things. He’s watching the others to see if they’re getting more of a reward than he is – relativity. He may see the generous, willing volunteer as a naïve fool or perhaps a threat. His rule-based outlook is a good servant, but a bad master. We start with God as our ruler, and we end with rules as our God. Do you remember ‘How late can I be for Mass and still fulfil the obligation?’
If we have these attitudes towards people, then we probably have them towards God, too.
The law sets a basic requirement below which one should not go. Love goes further and asks the question ‘What more can I do?’ Jesus said, ‘I do not call you servants any longer… I call you friends.’ (John 15.15)
The (adult) son or daughter
Where the motive of the slave is fear and the servant is self-interest, that of the adult son or daughter is respect, loyalty, generosity, self-giving. We are (adult) children of God through faith and baptism.
Being a child of God means growing up, being responsible, making choices and taking decisions and being accountable for them. The prodigal son took the wrong decisions, but he remained a son all the same. ‘I tell you solemnly, everyone who commits sin is a slave. Now the slave’s place in the house is not assured, but the son’s place is assured.’ (John 8.34-35)
The child of God has the courage to speak openly, the loyalty to look beyond self to the needs of the other, being ready to walk the extra mile, to give without counting the cost.
The child of God is not bound by rules, not because s/he disobeys or ignores them, but because s/he goes beyond them. S/he does not say, ‘I make my own rules’ (that’s the attitude of the adolescent) but ‘I make the rules my own’ (that’s the attitude of an adult). S/he assimilates and interiorizes their meaning and purpose, so that while being faithful to their spirit s/he is able to be flexible with the letter… responsibly.
The child of God is able to think of freedom not only as freedom from but also, and more importantly, freedom for, e.g. freedom from selfishness, self-centeredness, self-satisfaction, self-sufficiency, self-indulgence, or a childish refusal to grow up and take responsibility for ourselves, to freedom for service to others.
The Russian Orthodox lay theologian, Alexei Khomiakov, summarized the above when he said, ‘The will of God is a curse for the slave, law for the servant, and freedom for the son of God’.
We are speaking here of a call to maturity, that maturity which is ‘the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4.13) Maturity means being willing to put the other first, to orientate the twin poles of our life, the self and the other, definitively towards the other.
Which of the three attitudes applies to you or me? To answer that question, ask if they apply to our relations with people. If they do, they probably apply to God also.
Conclusion
Where do we go from here? We probably are in some or all of the above three stages at most points of our life. It is also clear which stage God want us to move towards. God wants us to be his adult sons and daughters according to the pattern of Jesus his son, who is the image of the invisible God, true God and true Man, the pattern of a redeemed humanity and the bridge between God and man.
‘Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be called God’s children;
and that is what we are.
… we are already the children of God
but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed;
we shall be like him
because we shall see him as he really is’.
(1 John 3.1a, 2)
Through Jesus, God gave us the Lord’s Prayer as a daily reminder of that.