Lenten Letters

"A church dictatorially directed by atheists is a spectacle that has not been seen for 2,000 years," lamented Alexander Solzhenitsyn last week. In an unpublished "Lenten Letter" that is widely circulating in Moscow, the famed novelist accused Patriarch Pimen, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, of abject submission to the Kremlin's antireligious policies.

Solzhenitsyn reproached the church hierarchy for compliance with such measures as the closing of churches, the repression of dissident priests and the ban on religious education for children. Even the ringing of church bells is forbidden: "Why should Russia be deprived of her most ancient adornment, her most beautiful voice?" Although critical of Orthodoxy's subservience to the state, Solzhenitsyn acknowledged that the church was hardly less obedient in czarist days. "Russian history might have been incomparably more humane and harmonious in the last few centuries," he wrote, "if the church had not surrendered its independence."

Until Solzhenitsyn's letter, no Soviet citizen of international stature had openly demanded religious freedom for Russia's estimated 60 million Orthodox Christians. The writer's concern with the fate of the church is, in fact, recent. Although he was baptized in childhood, his faith scarcely survived the eleven years of prison and exile he endured under Stalin. A year ago, however, Solzhenitsyn received first communion in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Solzhenitsyn dreams of building a church in Russia with the $79,000 Nobel Prize award he won in 1970. But the Soviet authorities have refused to allow him to receive the money, although he will apparently be permitted to receive the Nobel diploma and gold medal in Moscow next month. At the same time, his writings remain banned, while a campaign of vilification rages against him. In the face of these ordeals, Solzhenitsyn's faith seems to have given him a new serenity, which is reflected in a little-known prayer that may be regarded as another equally eloquent Lenten Letter from Solzhenitsyn*:

How easy it is to live with You,

O Lord.

How easy to believe in You. When my spirit is overwhelmed

within me, When even the keenest see no

further than the night, And know not what to do --

tomorrow,

You bestow on me the certitude That You exist and are mindful

of me. That all the paths of righteousness

are not barred.

As I ascend into the hill of earthly

glory, I turn back and gaze, astonished,

on the road

That led me here beyond despair, Where I too may reflect Your

radiance upon mankind.

All that I may yet reflect, You shall

accord me, A nd appoint others where I shall fail.

* Translation (c) 1 972 by Patricia Blake.

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