«Πνευματική φαρέτρα τοῦ Ὀρθοδόξου Χριστιανοῦ»
BETWEEN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND ROMAN CATHOLICISM
THE GREAT SCHISM
Christianity was identical in the East and West until the IX c. A.D. The Christian faith, confessed and explained by the Seven Ecumenical Councils (Synods), was the same without any deviation on both sides. In other words Occidental Europe was Orthodox till the end of the VIII c. as the Bishops of the West and the Bishops of the East had participated at the Seven Ecumenical Councils on the same level and no one among them had pretended to a superiority or primacy. The Christian West had agreed to all the decisions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. It was only from the early IX c. that the West began to introduce innovations concerning dogmatic and ecclesiological principles.
The juridical primacy of the Pope.
The principal cause of the Schism was the unfounded claim of the Pope Nicolas I (858-867), Bishop of Rome, to have juridical primacy and to be considered superior to all the other Bishops of the East and the West. This monarchical claim, indeed, had been disputed in those days by the Archbishop of Reims Hinmcart, assisted by arguments based on Canon Law. (Vlas. Phidas, Ecclesiastic History, Athens 1973, p. 75).
This claim of the Bishop of Rome since the IX c. is not based on the Apostolic tradition. Actually since the first days of the Church, when the Apostles had to decide about an important problem, they gathered at a Synod (Council), they fasted, they prayed and decided all together, insprired by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 15.22 and 15.28): "Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church."
"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us."
This system, called synodic or conciliar, has remained intact in the Orthodox Church until now. No bishop is over the others. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is considered first in honour, but he has no right to decide separately from the other bishops, and he has not the infallibility, which rests only in the Ecumenical Council recognized by the whole Church (laymen and clergy) according to the text mentioned above: "Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church."
So the first and most important, and the most difficult to overcome, of all the differences which .separate the Orthodox Church from Roman Catholicism is this position of the Bishop of Rome based on the principle of his primacy and infallibility. Since the IX c. the Primacy of the Pope in the West has been based on a biblical text (Matt. 16.15-18) which was wrongly interpreted, and moreover no Ecumenical Council had ever propounded this later interpretation.
The exact interpretation of this text is the following: Jesus Christ had asked the Apostles: "Whom do men say that I the son of man am?" Simon Peter answered, being more spontaneous, in the name of the others: "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus added: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." The stone on which He should build His Church was not Peter as a person, (who had denied Him later three times), but Peter's confession of faith. That faith is that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. For tηηηηηηηηe cornerstone of the Church is not Peter as a person, but Christ Himself. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I. Cor. 3. XI).
Christ does not need a curate, or a unique delegate on earth, because as He promised: "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28.20). The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is operating continously in the world. St. Paul says to the Corinthians: "And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." (I. Cor. 10.4).
The Text of the Acts of the Apostles informs us that the history of the Church starts on the day of the Pentecost at Jerusalem and not in Rome. That day three thousand Jews repented and were baptized. So
the first Christian community was in Jerusalem. We must also not forget that St. Paul had founded the Christian community in Philippi and Corinth in Greece before the arrival of St. Peter at Rome.
Moreover, the practice of the Church had never granted a juridical primacy to the bishop of Rome during the first eight centuries. He enjoyed only a primacy of honour until the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451), which by its 28th canon granted the same primacy of honour to the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople (Second Rome). This primacy of honour was not addressed to the bishop as a person, but to the importance of the Church that he represented, on the basis of the number of their members and her works of charity. The nature of this primacy is called in Latin "PRIMUS INTER PARES" which means: "first among equals".
This later innovation (the juridical primacy of the Bishop of Rome) was the cause behind all the harm done by the Western Church. As the Papacy assumed worldly power in order to counter the Western Emperors, it became monarchical and thus there ensued the religious wars, the Crusades, and the Inquisition with all its horrors. Such events never took place in the Orthodox Church which guarded her profound spirituality. She followed the advice of St. Paul, who writes to Titus in order to give advice about the heretics: "A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth." (Titus 3.10-11). He did not give him advice to kill or to burn as the Medieval West did by deforming the spirit of the Church.
The infallibility of the Pope.
The dotrine of the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome, proclaimed only in 1870 by the Vatican Council represents a complete deformation to the Synodic or conciliar system, according to which the infallibility lies in the Church as a whole. The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Synods) had been accepted by the body of the Church (clergy and laymen) according to the first example of the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem: "Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church." (Acts 15.22).
This juridical primacy and "infallibility" of the Pope creates pres
sure and destroys the democratic spirit of the Church, hindering the unity of the world, for the big majority of the people revolt against this wrong doctrine. If the Pope really desires Christian unity, he must return to the apostolic tradition.
Deformation of the sources and the practice of the Church
The Orthodox Church is based on two sources: the biblical source (The Old and New Testaments) and the Holy Tradition (the apostolic teachings and practices, written and oral), which is followed according to the commandement of St. Paul: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." (2. Thess. 2.15). This Apostolic tradition written, and oral, has remained intact until our days only in the Orthodox Church, which is the real Universal Church. Roman Catholicism deformed this tradition and Protestantism denied it completely. This Christian tradition which lives continously in the Orthodox Church, during almost two thousand years, was defended by the Canons of the Seven Ecumenical Councils (Synods) and by the Canons of various local Councils, which were adopted and approved by the Ecumenical Councils. All these Canons (rules) of the Church constitute the correct practice of doctrine in the life of the believers; that is the truth presented in the Gospel, as it was transmitted by the Apostles and their successors, and as it was defended for ever by the Seven Ecumenical Councils. These Canons (rules) which settle the life of the faithful and the clergy do not constitute a human work, but a divine one, as the Ecumenical Councils were inspired by the Holy Spirit: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us", according to the first Apostolic Council in Jerusalem.
The decisions of the Ecumenical Councils (Synods) are considered as unchangeable as the Gospel, according to the 2nd Canon of the Counsil in Trullo (692), because they constitute the plenitude of the life in Christ, and lead to salvation. To those who revolt against the canons of the Church we can answer with the words of St. Paul, who tells us that everything must be done "with dignity and order". (I.Cor. 14.40). And this is how the Greek professor J. Carmiris analyses this practice: "As the Church is a divine institution, she possesses her own constitution equally divine, because it derives directly from Christ, her foun
der, and His Apostles and their successors inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is why the Church is not submitted to a human arbitrary will, she possesses an absolute authority." (J. Carmiris, Orthodox Ecclesiology, p. 520).
"Filioque"
The Roman Catholics have not only rejected many of the canons of the Church's practice, but they also dared deform the Nicene Creed, which contains the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. Since the time of Charlemagne the Western Church distorted the article about the Holy Spirit. Actually at the Council of Aix-La-Chapelle (809) the Franks officially inserted the "filioque" into the Nicene Creed. This innovation meant that the Holy Spirit does not proceed only from the Father, as is written in the Gospel, but from the Son as well. This insertion into the Nicene Creed is a heresy, as it distorts the biblical text: "The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father" (John 15.26). In accordance with this biblical text, the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (Synod) of Nicaea (325) established the Creed, which has since then remained intact in the Orthodox Church. This insertion ("filioque") into the Nicene Creed is so wrong, that Pope Leo III had actually protested at that time (809) by having inscribed intact the Nicene Creed (without the "filioque") on silver plaques and set up in Saint Peter's church with these words: "HAEC LEO POSUI AMORE ET CAUTELA ORTHODOXAE FIDEI": (I, Leo, place here for the love and the protection of the Orthodox faith). This very important reference is in VITA LEONIS, LIBER PONTIFICALIS, (Ed. Duchesne, T. II, p. 26) - (Greek ref. Vas. Stephanides, Ecclesiastic History, Athens 1970). But this protest of Pope Leo III was not sufficient. In a little while all the West gradually adopted the wrong teaching of the "filioque" (that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.).
This doctrine is wrong, because it contradicts the biblical text: (John 15.26), because it distorts the decision of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea which was inspired by the Holy Spirit, as were all the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils. It is also wrong because it distorts the function of the persons of the Holy Trinity by creating two sources of procession of the Holy Spirit, a docrine which leads to absurdity. By the doctrine of the "filioque" the Son-Word of God receives the same function with the Father, that is the procession of the Holy Spirit, and in this way becomes in His turn Father, thus He should give birth to another Son-Word, who in His turn gives birth to another Holy Spirit endlessly, which is completely absurd, and leads to the non-existence of God. This explanation of the heresy was for the first time mentioned by St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (during whose reign this problem arose in the West) in his Encyclical Letter to the Patriarchs and Bishops of the Eastern Church.
That is why the West has difficulty in understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Saint Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexnandria, who had participated at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (when he was deacon), explained this mystery by a comparison: The source - the river - and the water of the river.
The source of the river is the Father from whom proceeds the Holy Spirit.
The river is the Son, who sends the Holy Spirit after His volontary sacrifice on the Cross and His glorious resurrection. He had said to the Apostles before His Passion: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." (John 16.7).
The water of the river that we drink is the Holy Spirit who distributes grace and "gifts". So the three persons (entities, who have a real and individual existence), of the Holy Trinity are indivisible as this comparison shows: The source, the river, the water: all three are of the same essence, like the river's water. (The divine essence is incommunicable to the human beings. It is only the non-created "energies" of the Holy Trinity that are communicable to those who are sanctified by doing the will of God in their life, by believing in the right way and by participating correctly in the correct celebration of the Holy Sacraments).
The insertion of the "filioque" by Charlemagne was due to a wrong interpretation of Saint Augustine. But Saint Augustine had never learned Greek and he was never able to read the Greek Fathers who wrote before him, such as Saint Athanasius the Great, who wrote so much about the decisions of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. The Council of Nicaea that established the Creed, took place in 325, and the
conversion of St. Augustine to Christianity in 386. So he was not a contemporary of the Council of Nicaea, and as he did not know Greek he could not read the correct interpretation of the Fathers who had attended the Council, as could St. Athanasius the Great for instance. However, we cannot consider this wrong interpretation of St. Augustine (AU- GUSTINI, EX LIBRO XV DE TR1N1TATE) above the biblical text or above the Ecumenical Council, which as we have allready said is unchangeable. So the West should not hasitate in correcting the dogmatic error, and do what Pope Leo III had done in protesting against the "filioque", that is to write the Creed correctly and recite it as. was done before the council of Aix-La-Chapelle (809).
These two innovations, the juridical primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the insertion of the "filioque" in the Nicene Creed, led to the final Schism of the XI c. (1054), as the Apostolic Church could not admit these contradictions against the Gospel and the Holy Tradition which were difended by the Ecumenical Councils (Synods).
So after the VII Ecumenical Council (the last one) in 786, there were no more Ecumenical Councils at which Bishops of the West and Bishops of the East would participate at the same level according to the apostolic tradition. A gradual estrangement followed which led the Western Church to other diversions as the denial of the docrine's purity leads inevitably to other denials.
DISTORTIONS OF THE CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY SACRAMENTS
Baptism:
The word baptism derives from the Greek word "vaptizo" which means to immerse. Thus baptism must be an entire immersion in water as the practice of the church was from the beginning. This immersion symbolises the burial in the death of Jesus Christ as St. Paul says to the Romans: "Therefore we are buried with him into baptism by death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." (Rom 6.4-5). According to this teaching all the body of the candidate must be in contact with the water in the font, which
is the visible matter of the sacrament, in which the Holy Spirit is invisible. The ancient baptisteries dispersed all over Western Europe prove this fact, that baptism was celebrated by immersion and not by pouring a little water over the candidate's forehead. It is only since the XIV c. that the sprinkling of water was generalised in Western countries, whereas originally this use was adopted only for ill people when necessary.
In the Orthodox Church the sacrament is not accomplished by the priest, but the presence of the Holy Spirit that the priest invokes by special venerable prayers. The priest does not say: "I baptise you" as the Roman Catholics do, but" the servant of God is baptised".
As our Lord was immersed in the water of the Jordan (Matt. 3.16), the Orthodox baptism is celebrated by a threefold immersion in the name of the Holy Trinity. This threefold immersion symbolises the burial of the "old man", and the threefold emmersion symbolises the resurrection of the "new man".
Chrismation or Confirmation (Chrisma in Greek)
Another important sacrament is the Chrismation (Confirmation in the West) which grants us the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Since the early days of the Church this sacrament was celebrated just after baptism. The ecclesiastic writer of the Church Tertulianus (11 c.) says: "After the baptism of salvation we receive immediately the Holy Chrisma according to the old usage.'1 Neverthless, in the West after the Schism they separated the baptism from the chrismation and they give it to the baptised children only at the age of 7 to 10 years old. In this way they deprive the child from the gifts of the Holy Spirit during childhood, and they deprive it also from Holy Communion. Consequently if the child dies before confirmation, it passes away without Holy Communion. In the old days of the Church the believers received communion just after their baptism and Chrismation. So the Orthodox Church following the old tradition gives Holy Communion to the baptised babies, remembering the words of the Lord: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." (Luke 18.15-16).
These distortions are due to the rationalistic Western mind which requires that the child must have the reasoning in order to receive confirmation, whereas Orthodoxy believes in the revelation and the power of
the grace of god given as a gift. This rational way of thinking did great harm to the West, because it tried to explain the mysteries of God by means of Artistotelian logic, which is impossible. Logic has a certain field of activity. Beyond that we have the immensity of God's love and His eternity, something that human logic cannot attain. It is by the gift of grace that man can live this immensity with gratitude, without trying to grasp this mystery intellectually. This was the attitude by which the Fathers of the Church approached the mysteries of God, as St. John Chrysostom did, for instance.
The Holy Communion (Eucharist, from the Greek Eucharisto: to thank)
After the Schism the West distorted the sacrament of the Holy Communion. Instead of giving to the faithful the body and the blood of the Lord in the form of bread and wine, as He had given it Himself during the Last Supper, they deprive them of the blood and they give them only the body, and that not even in the form of leaven bread, as was the old practice, but in the form of a host (unleaven wafer).
The biblical text informs us how the Holy Communion was given in apostolic times: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matt. 26.26-29).
- "Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whose eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." (John 6.53-57).
- St. Paul also tells us: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in
remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he co me... Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworhtily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (1.Cor. X 1.23 - 30).
So we must use for the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (Communion) leaven bread, because the Last Supper took place on Thursday evening, which was not yet the day of "azymes" of the Hebrew religion. The use of normal bread was the practice of the ancient Church, and it was only in the X c. that some heresies influenced by Judaism started to use unleavened bread or "azymes". Even from the West we have the information that they used normal leavened bread for the sacrament of the Holy Communion:
"Panis usitatus". (DE SACRAMENTIS Cap. IV, 14).
The change ("metavoli") of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord is fulfilled by the priest's invocation of the Holy Spirit, which operates the transformation, and not by the priest himself. In the Orthodox Church the loaf of bread and the wine are offered by the faithful on the eve of the liturgy.
Christ offers us in the Holy Chalice "life" that is Himself, and thus the bread used for the sacrament must have "life" (with leaven) and not be dead (unleavened).
This sacrament is very important; it is the very heart of the Church as it unites us to the Lord as "the branches to the vine". It is He who says: "1 am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same brigeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15.5). And He adds: "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15, 6-7). In other words if we do not participate in this sacrament which
sanctifies us, we are like dry branches which do not bear any fruit, (fruit of sanctification) and are good only for fire.
This sacrament is a preparation in order to approach the Holy Chalice. The liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (written in the IV c. and based on the most ancient liturgy ever written, that of St. James, first bishop of Jerusalem, (1st. c. A.D.) contains the following sentence pronounced by the priest: "The Holy Gifts to the Saints."
We cannot then approach the Holy Chalice if we have not first purified our souls by the tears of repentance. That is why the sacrament of repentance is also called second baptism or "baptism of tears". St. Paul speaks with severity about this preparation in his epistle to the Corinthians. (I. Cor. XI. 27-29), in the passage mentioned above.
The sacrament of repentance is based on the following biblical text: When the Lord after His resurrection appeared to His Apostles through the closed doors, He told them: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John 20, 23).
This power given by the Lord to the Apostles was transmitted to the Bishops by the sacrament of the ordination, and to the priests who are authorized by the Bishop. In the Orthodox Church there is no confessional. One may confess in any convenient place in the Church, or elsewhere and there is no grille separating confessor and penitent. Thus advancing from one confession to the other the soul is fortified and can better resist temptations; for an Orthodox Chirstian is completely responsible on this earth. The absolution he receives is a consequence of his sincere repentance and it is not due to the intermediating prayers of the saints or to another factor.
The Saints are honoured in the Orthodox Church, because they glorified God by their martyrdom and their saintly life ("God is glorified in the life of the Saints": Ps. 67 (68), 35 and Ps. (89).7), and we entreat their mediating prayers, because, as is written, "The Lord heareth the prayer of the righteous." (Prov. 15.29). Neverthless, the Saints have no power to pardon sins. The absolution is given only through sincere per
sonal repentance, which is a free action, that gets its efficacy in the redeeming work of the Lord on the Cross.
In this way confession is considered as a training of the soul in order to become more and more powerful. The sacrament of repentance express a change of thinking and a resolution to walk according to the will of God.
As confession is a preparation of the soul to approach the Holy Chalice, fasting is a preparation of the body. The periods of fasting and the way of fasting have been arranged by apostolic rules since the beginning and they are still respected. In Western countries this old tradition has been too much relaxed. Fasting was a commandement of God to the first couple in paradise.
Ordination as a sacrament is based on the biblical text about the choice of the Apostles by the Lord (Matt. 10.1) (Luke, 10.1) (John 6.70) (Acts 2.1). In the Acts of the Apostles many passages show how the Apotles used to choose their successors: (Acts 6.6) (Acts 13.3) (Acts 20.28), as well as the Epistles of St. Paul (I. Tim. 4.14) (I. Tim. 5.22) (2. Tim. 1.6). The following text clearly shows this: "And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." (Acts 13.3). The text of the first Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy shows that this "laying of the hands" produced a certain gift: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." (I. Tim. 4,14). This gift produced by the "laying on of the hands" gives the priest the power to celebrate the Holy Sacraments, which are not valid if the priest is not properly ordained.
The Orthodox Church has married priests "presbyteros" (the elders), usually parochial clergy, and unmarried priests among whom the Bishops are selected. This double possibility of the Orthodox Church is a decision of an Ecumenical Council: (VI Council, XII canon). Those who are prepared for the Episcopate do not marry .Those who belong to the parochial clergy marry before their ordination. After ordination marriage is not permitted, although a widower priest is allowed to become bishop, because as widower-he is liberated from family obligations.
The Orthodox Church has three main grades of the Holy Orders according to the text of the Acts: the deacon, the presbyteros (parochial clergy), and the Bishop. The Cardinal's grade of Roman Catholicism is a later innovation. It does not exist in the biblical text. The Cardinal's grade weakens the Episcopate, as Cardinals are considered superior Bishops.
The marriage of the presbyteros (parochial clergy) is mentioned in the Epistle of St. Paul to Titus: "Ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed the: if any be blamless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children." (Titus 1. 5-6).
Marriage:
Marriage is not a human institution, but divine. In the biblical text of Genesis we read: "And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Gen. 2.18). And a little further on we read: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2.24). So marriage founded by God has a double purpose: the life in common (pshychosomatic union), and childbirth.
In the New Testament this divine institution becomes a sacrament, "a great mystery" as St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Ephesians in which he compares the sanctified union of a man and a woman to the mysterious union of Christ with the Church (the body of the believers). (Ephes. 5.32).
Since the beginning of Christianity marriage was a religious ceremony, as we are informed by archeological findings of early Christian art and the works of the Fathers. On the surface of a cup found in a cata- combe in Rome, we see Christ crowning and blessing a new couple. St. Ignatius of Antioch writes to St. Polycarpus (II c.): "Marriage must be celebrated according to the bishop's opinion, because this union must be based on the will of God and not on physical desire." And St. John Chrysostom says: "It is not the physical union, but the benediction of the Church which constitutes marriage."
It is the presence of the Holy Spirit (present in all the sacraments) which gives the benediction to the couple and transmits to them grace. The grace of God sanctifies the physical union transforming it into a
centre of moral perfection. Thus we are not allowed to dissolve this spiritual centre. This is the environment in which will be born and raised new Christians. It is the cell, which has the power to sanctify little by little the society.
The indissoluble character of marriage was given by the Lord Himself. When the Pharisees asked Him if divorce is permitted, He answered: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mat. 19.6).
And He added further on: "Whosoever shall put away his wife, - except it be for fornication, - and shall marry another, commiteth adultery." (Matt 19.9). This is why the Orthodox Church permits the divorce in the case mentioned by the Lord, in case of infidelity.
In the same biblical passage about marriage, there is a question about celibacy: "And there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." (Matt. 19.12). So celibacy in Christ is not for everybody, but for those who are able and who "receive" it in freedom. It is a gift of God to those who would accept to be detached completely from wordly things, in order to devote themselves completely to God. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians: "He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." (I. Cor. 7, 32-33). And he adds a little further on: "And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction." (I. Cor. 7.35).
This chaste celibacy is based on a fervent faith and on a spiritual asceticism, which is able, by the helping grace, to calm the instincts and passions, to make the soul more able to be united with God, and to receive the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is why the greatest ascetics of the Orthodox Church became very often the fighters for, and fervent defenders of the Church's truth against heresies of all kinds. So to take a vow of celibacy, without taking a vow of chastity, as happens in the West, has no meaning. The celibacy in Christ cannot be but a celibacy of chastity.
For the Orthodox people there are only two solutions to this subject: either the marriage is blessed by God, or chastity is accepted in a free way, a supernatural life, which is a gift of God. "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
The celibacy in Christ is not necessarily a monastic life. This asceticism can take place in society, according to the exemple of the Apostles and other saints of the Church. However in the Orthodox Church there are no monastic orders of laymen active in the material world.
The unction in olive oil is mentioned as a sacrament in one of the apostolic epistles. But this sacrament was offered to the sick for any illness, and it was not a preparation for death, as it was later in the West. Here is the biblical text: "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." (James 5.14-15) And also in the Gospel of St. Mark we see the Apostles in activity: "And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." (Mark 6.13). So the "extreme unction" of the Roman Catholics is not of the apostolic tradition.
The conception of Purgatory is a later innovation of Roman Catholicism. It did not exist at all in the apostolic tradition: The robber went directly from the cross to Paradise. (Luke 23.43) and (John 5.29). The idea of Purgatory takes the responsibility from the Christian on the earth. The truth is that we will be judged according to the acts we committed in full freedom and responsibility. (Matt 16.27) and (Rev. 22.12).
The immaculate conception of the Holy Virgin.
The Holy Virgin was not conceived without original sin, as was decided in the West in 1854 (by Pope Pius IX). The correct doctrine is that at the moment of the Annunciation, due to her great humility and her total obedience to the will of God she was liberated from the original
sin by the Holy Spirit which covered her. "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God." (Luke 1.35). And a little further on: "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." (Luke 1.38). This is why in the Orthodox Church the Holy Virgin is called "Panaghia": the All Holy, and "Theotokos": Mother of God. She gave birth to Christ, God-Man, the Saviour (IV Ecumenical Council of Calcedon). And being His Mother she prays for us constanly. She is our ambassador by her mediating prayers.
Let us hope that after the contacts in a spirit of charity which began on the 7th of December 1965 (the lifting of the reciprocal excommunication of 1054), we shall proceed towards an honest dialogue in a spirit of truth, which will lead to "the glorious day" of intercommunion. For we cannot approach the holy Chalice if we do not have the same faith, as the Acts of the Apostles inform us: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." (Acts 4.32). Amen.
PRAYER OF JESUS OR PRAYER OF THE HEART
"Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me", (or "Have mercy upon us".)
"Most Holy Mother of God save us"
Comments on this prayer that helps unity
"With the name of Jesus scourge the enemies, for neither in heaven nor upon earth does there exist a more powerful weapon." (St. John Climacus)
"My brethren, cry from the morning until the evening, and if possible, all the night, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us." This name is terrible for the demons, and drives away the passions and illnesses. So let us confirm ourselves in this." (St. John Chrysostom)
A GREAT MIRACLE GIVEN BY GOD ONLY TO THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
The ceremony of the Holy Light in Jerusalem:
This ceremony takes place in the Orthodox Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem in such a way that bewilders the soul of the'Christians.
On Easter Saturday, at noon, the Orthodox Patriarch, or any other Orthodox Archbishop, enters the Holy Sepulchre, recites special prayers and remains waiting. Sometimes the waiting is long, sometimes short. The crowd, in the darkened church, repeats continually with a loud voice: Lord, have mercy." (Kyrie eleison). At a certain moment the Holy Light flashes from the depth of the Holy Sepulchre in a supernatural way, miraculusly, and lights up the little lamp of olive oil put on the edge of it. The Patriarch (or Archbishop), after having read some prayers, lights up the two clusters of 33 candles he is holding, and begins to distribute the Holy Light to the multitude of pilgrims, who receive it with great emotion, accompanied with the peeling of bells, acclamations, and an unbridled enthusiasm.
The Holy Light is not only distributed by the Archbishop, but operates also by itself. It emits from the Holy Sepulchre having a gleam of a hew completely different from that of natural light. It sparkles, it fla- sches like lightning, it flies like a dove around the tabernacle of the Holy Sepulchre, and lights up the unlit lamps of olive oil hanging in front of it. It whirls from one side of the church to the other. It enters to some of the chapels inside the church, as for instance the chapel of the Calvery (at a higher level than the Holy Sepulchre) and lights up the little lamps. It lights up also the candles of certain pilgrims. In fact there are some very pious pilgrims who, every time they attended this ceremony, noticed that their candles lit up of their own accord!
This divine light also presents some peculiarities: As soon as it appears it has a bluish hew and does not burn. At the first moments of its
appearance, if it touches the face, or the mouth, or the hands, it does not burn. This is proof of its divine and supernatural origin. We must also take into consideration that the Holy Light appears only by the invocation of an Orthodox Archbishop. Each time that heterodox bishops tried to obtain it, they failed.
Once the Armenians paid the Turks, who then occupied the Holy Land, in order to obtain permission for their Patriarch to enter the Holy Sepulchre. The Orthodox Patriarch was standing sorrowfully with his flock at the exit of the church, near the left column, when the Holy Light split this column vertically and flashed near the Orthodox Patriarch.
A Moslem Muezin, called Tounom, who saw the miraculous event from an adjacent mosque, abandoned immediately the Moslem religion and became an Orthodox Christian. This event took place in 1549 under Sultan Mourad IV, when the Patriarch of Jerusalem was Sophrony II. (The mentioned split column still exists. It goes back to the XII c. The Orthodox pilgrims embrace it at the "place of the split" as they enter the church.).
The appearance, of the Holy Light is an event which occurs every year in front of thousands of visual witnesses. Nobody can deny it. On the contrary, this miracle can reinforce those who have lack of faith.
There are some very touching recent cases of some Jews, who believed in Christ after having seen the Holy Light, and who said to their compatriots: "Why are you still waiting for the Messaiah? The Mes- saiah came indeed."
Note: (Ref. about the mentioned date of the Armenian's failure in Anast. Pierios, "The Crisis of the Nations and the specific role of Hellenism" p. 106, Athens 1971, in Greek.) - The narrative about the Holy Light is translated from the Greek text of the Orthodox Foundation "APOSTOLOS VARNAVAS" in Athens, by Irene Economides. The Orthodox Easter is celebrated according to the old calender the first Sunday after t he full moon of Spring equinox (I. Ecumenical Council).
The split column of the XIIth c. from where sprung the Holy Light by miracle in 1549 at the entrance of the Orthodox Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem
ORTHODOX WITNESS or
PROMETHEUS UNBOUND
Translated from the original French by: Miss Ann-Marie Stewart
The little flags of different countries, were fluttering merrily in the fresh breeze, one summer morning, on the shore of the Gulf of Corinth. The location, a holiday camp on the North coast of the Peloponnese, where I was working as a guide-lecturer. As I looked at them I thought "Look, world unity on the move!" Hope mingled with exhilaration made my heart leap. Myself a Greek, seeing different nations meeting on Greek soil, soil which was soaked with the blood of heroes and martyrs, who had sacrificed all so that man might not degrade himself to the level of slave or beast.
From our first encounters I understood completely: these people were thirsting. They were seeking a spiritual fountain. However, I discovered the other side also: there were those who did not seek anything, those who hurled themselves blindly towards material pleasures. This was the total extination of human dignity. As a Greek at once sensed a great duty: the former must have their thirst quenched, the latter must be saved. I embarked on the task with enthusiasm. Whilst conducting guided tours I had the opportunity to make particular remarks which aroused peoples interest and engendered impassioned discussion. How often had I heard comments such as: "We are leaving happier than when we came", "You have brought us back to life".
During these private discussions I had been asked questions which disclosed a deep spiritual need. Before I was able to reply I had to search myself too. Thus it was that I discovered a great treasure: the faith of the Orthodox Church.
It all started for me with two questions: an atheist asked "If God is good, why does He allow evil to exist?" A Protestant asked" In the Orthodox Church is Holy Communion symbolic or actual?"
From that time onwards I have followed a spiritual path which after ten years has rendered me capable of giving an answer to a young American, who asked "Why do we exist?" This is the burning question for thousands if not millions of men on earth as it spins in space. Does a reason exist, or is all merely futility? Having discovered that a reason does exist, I should like to convey it. It is dishonest to allow contemporary nihilists to destroy civilization, and to remain silent once one has found a positive stance.
"God became Man in order to deify Man"
(St. Athanasius the Great IVth century).
The Greek pagan world had reached an impasse in spite of the sophistication of its philosophy. Already Sophocles in the "Antigone" had written that man could do anything except" conquer Death". God came to answer in a remarkable manner the lament of the poet. A series of miraculous events heralded the entrance of God into history, and directed him towards his goal,the salvation of man, the defeat of death, and the glorification of the universe.
"Death is the final enemy to be destroyed" (1. Cor. 15, 26),
"He who resurrected Jesus Christ from amongst the dead, will give life also to your mortal bodies, by means of his spirit which lives in you" (Rom. 8,11), as St. Paul tells us. Why this victory over death? In order that all might be united in God, "that God be all in all" (1. Cor. 15, 28). The entire material universe will be filled with God's glory, as St. Paul instructed us.
"This very creation will be released from the slavery of corruption, so that it may share in the glorious liberty of God's children" (Rom. 8,21).
What is this glorious liberty of God's children? It is that the children of God did the divine will in freedom not through fear, nor force, but freely through love for Him.
What is the nature of this Divine Will? St. Paul enlightens us: "It is that which is desired by God, namely your sanctification". (1. Thess. 4,3). In the "Epistle to the Hebrews" St. Paul shows us the way to this sanctification:
"God corrects us in our own best interest, so that we may share in His Holiness; all correction would seem at least initially to be a cause for sadness, not joy, only later does it secure the peaceful fruit of justice for those whom it has moulded." (Hebrews 12, 10-11).
Therefore we shall pass through sadness, through the "narrow gate" of self denial, "We shall struggle with perseverance in the course which is offered us". (Hebrews 12, 1), but the result of this effort will be the" fruit of peace".
"You will suffer in the world, but be brave, for I have conquered the world". (John 16,33). So speaks the conqueror of death, He who has endured the suffering of the cross to attain the glory of the resurrection.
It is only by following Him who conquered the world on the cross, and by living according to His Gospel, that one will pass from death into life. "God gave him the name which is above all other names, so that at the name
of Jesus' every knee should bow', in the heavens, on the earth, and beneath the earth, and that every tongue should proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philipp. 2,9) as St. Paul said to the Philippians. In the 'Acts of the Apostles' St. Peter states: "Salvation cannot be found elsewhere, nowhere beneath the sky does there exist another name given amongst men, by which we could be saved". (Act. 4,12). Thus it is that we are created to perfect our spirit, to pass through an ascetism which all can achieve with endurance, in whatever realm has been chosen for us by the wisdom of Divine Providence, in order to attain to the Divine Presence, "Parousia", which is made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His glorious resurrection. These two historical events (their actuality is proven by the spiritual change rendered in the Apostles after Pentecost and that of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, amongst others), demonstrate to us that the Heavens are again accessible to man, if he will follow the conqueror of death and of sin, since death was the consequence that resulted from sin, (Gen. 2, 17).
God said to the first man: "You shall not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, on the day you eat of it, you shall die". By that command, God wished to test the freedom of man and to show him that by cultivating virtue, he would be saved. However the first Adam disobeyed because of pride (this was the original sin) and was rewarded with death. Christ, the second Adam, obeyed His Father bravely to the point of death, even death on the cross, so He was without sin, having remained obedient to divine will to the end. This is why death could not contain Him and He was resurrected.
In Byzantine iconography, the risen Christ is depicted with the gate of death broken beneath His feet for ever. He extends His hand pierced by the nails to Adam and Eve who represent mankind, to help them out of the tomb. Those who will accept that hand and will follow the path which it indicates, shall be saved. By His bravery, the gate of heaven is open; it is up to us to have courage in our turn, and by cultivating virtue, fortified by the grace of His cross, be able to overleap that gate too. David sang prophetically:
"Doors lift up your lintels;
Stand up eternal doors!
So that the King of Glory might enter!
— Who is this King of Glory?
— The Eternal strong and powerful.
— The Eternal powerful in battle". (Psalms 24).
Grace is not a privilege reserved for the few, as many people in the West believe. It is a gift granted by God to those who desire it, no-one is compelled. God said: "Let he who desires follow me". He knocks at the door. It is enough to let Him in.
"Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter into his house, I will eat with him, and he with me. I shall bring the victor to sit with me on my throne, just as I who have conquered sit with my Father on His throne". (Rev. 3, 20-21). In this wonderful extract from the Revelation. He promises no't simply a supper, but invites us to an individual victory. The reward for our effort will be share one day in that glorious universe called by St. John in Revelation "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21). So salvation is a synthesis of correct faith and love expressed in work: "Faith which worketh by love". (Gal. 5,6).
The Vine and the Branches
In this journeying and effort for our "sanctification" we are not alone. Jesus Christ, before leaving the earth to sit "at the right hand of the Father" in heaven, left us the Holy Sacraments to unite us with him, to give us the strength to fight against all temptations, and to endow us with the courage to do the will of the Heavenly Father. (This participation of the sacrements must be correct according to the Orthodox Faith). "As the Father has sent me, so I send you", "as lambs among wolves" (John 20. 21).
We are sent into the world, without belonging to the world, to transform it, just as "leaven" moulds bread (1. Cor. 5,6). This transformation will be achieved not by the slaughter of wars, as happened in the West in the Middle Ages, but by teaching and good example. "Do not be conquered by evil, but be the conqueror of evil by good", St. Paul tells us (Rom. 12, 21). Is it possible to conquer evil by good? Is it not a fantasy? No it is not a fantasy on one condition; in order to become this "leaven", we must attach ourselves to Jesus Christ, the conqueror of the world, as the "branches" to the "vine"
He says to us "without me you can do nothing" (John, 15,6). Just as branches when detached from the vine do not bear fruit, but are useless for anything but firewood. He is the "vine", Christians are the "branches" (John 15). He unites us with Himself by the sacrement of Holy Communion. He nourishes us with His flesh and blood (John 6) to purify us and to strenghen us in our attempts to achieve the perfection both of ourselves and the world. He nourishes us in order to give us the strengh to run "the course which is prescribed for us". (Heb. 12,1). To each of us there is a course prescribed. At the end there awaits us a crown which is a share in the presence of God. "He who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 10, 22). Just as athletes training for a race in the stadium, deprive themselves of many things for a perishable crown, so much greater should be the spirit of self-denial displayed by Christians, who stand to gain the "imperishable crown", as St. Paul said to the Corinthians. (1. Cor. 9, 25).
What part does evil play in this great plan? This is the problem which seems most insoluble to atheists, in fact it is answered in the Gospels. Several explanations exist: one is that God does not want us to be virtuous mechanically, like robots. He has granted us freedom of choice. Since good necessitates a quality of heroism (presupposing as it does the defeat of selfishness), many people who cannot make this effort, prefer the easy way. Also the Devil and his demons, mentioned on numerous occasions in the Gospels, exist and do not leave men untroubled in the course of their effort.
St. Peter says that Satan "like a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1. Peter 5.8).
One of the duties of the Apostles was to rid men of demons. There is also the suffering which God permits in order to test our faith. A faith lived in ease would have no meaning. Jesus Christ said to those who followed Him: "If anyone wishes to walk in my footsteps, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me". (Mark 8.34). To clear land is not an easy task: it demands sweat. To clear one's soul and the souls of those who surround us requires tears, and sometimes a sacrifice to the extent of giving up one's own life. God prunes us as a tree is pruned "to bear more fruit" (John 15.2). We should not lose heart. We can attempt all things when God inspires us. "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4.13). "If God be for us, who can be against us?" wonders St. Paul. Jesus Christ "has left as conqueror and in order to conquer" (Rev. 6.12).
We must find once more the Martyr's strengh of faith, to save the world as it is. In Revelation, Jesus tells us: "Since you are warm and not cold, nor boiling, I shall vomit you from my mouth". (Rev. 3,16). He requires an active burning faith, in order to be active and efficient. "Be ardent of spirit" says St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 12,11). We must have fire in the soul
to be prepared for everything. "I have come to cast a fire over the earth, and what will I if it be already alight" (Luke 12,49), says Jesus with longing. He dreams of a new world which will emerge from His sacrifice: The world of the Pentecost which will continue until all is achieved; in this world there is no room for the lukewarm, nor can individual concessions be made. This is the world of the Absolute.
"I am the light of the world
he who follows me shall never walk in darkness but shall have the light of life" (John 8, 12).
The force of the Holy Scriptures.
I might be accused of relying too heavily on Sriptural quotations to support my spiritual discovery, but this is the only way since it is in this text that the "light of life" is located.
St. John Chrysostom one of the greatest Fathers of the Church of the IVth century, said that "Salvation is impossible without knowledge of Holy Scripture": I shall answer dissident voices who claim that there is a contradiction between the text of the Holy Bible and human reality, by mentioning a discovery of Darwin himself. Once on visiting a primitive tribe, he realised that they would require centuries to become civilized. When he paid a second visit to these primitive people he found them wholly changed. Passing missionaries had brought them the Holy Bible. Darwin was so moved that he made a donation to missionary work.
As for those who object that the Holy Bible is obsolete in the age of space travel, I bring to their attention the evidence of American a- stronauts, who, seeing from their little capsule the grand spectacle of the heavens, spontaneously sent as message to the world the first sentence of the Holy Bible: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth".
This material universe which the astronauts admired will be transformed into a universe of glory through Jesus Christ and those united with him (Rom. 8.21). The means of this struggle are as follows: prayer, knowledge of Holy Scripture, the Holy Sacraments and works of charity and pity. These were the means used by the first Christians to overcome the pagan world (Acts 2,42). The materialism of the present time is a new kind of paganism, and we must use the same means to overcome it.
The appeal of the Orthodox Faith to the modern world.
Three "evil spirits" of the nineteenth century have pushed the world to the brink of moral disaster where we now find ourselves: Marx who characterized the human dilema as the mere fulfilment of material needs, Freud who saw man as the slave of his physical appetites, and Nietzche who said "God is dead".
The first two were Jews, living wholly outside the Holy Spirit's gift of grace the third was rendered mentally incapacitated by a serious brain disturbance of which he died. It is time for the world to repent of having believed in their words and not in He who is the Life the Way and the Resurrection.
"Evil spirits cannot enter into the soul when it has been purified" (Matt. 12,43). These three evil spirits, the foulest demons of modern life, have been able to penetrate the souls of nations, who were not in a state of preparedness to resist. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, differing as they do from the original apostolic tradition, could not keep people on the sane path of holiness.
Where can we find a cure for this evil? Only through a life in Christ, which is only possible within the Orthodox Church, the true Mother Church. "One, Holy, Catholic (universal) and Apostolic" not distorted by the passage of time. The unique church in preserving intact Holy Tradition, and maintaining the Holy Sacraments in their pure and efficacious state.
For Orthodoxy the corner stone is not Peter as is held by Roman Catholics, but rather Christ Himself. The life of an aware Orthodox is a permanent watchfulness, permanent prayer and a permanent feeling of the divine presence. These benefits can be enjoyed as well by the layity. Christ awards this gift to every human beeing which is bound to Him by faith, the Holy Sacraments, good works and a heroic spiritual effort to cast off all other passions. He wants us to be brave, as He was when He drained the cup to the dregs. "Can you share in this cup which I shall drink?" (Matt. 20-22). Thus He asks us. The world, as we know it, is too accustomed to the easy and the good life. We have forgotten the "foolishness" of the cross, the worth of sacrifice. Is it not this an appeal to our era, where each one grasps for himself, an era where we have made material pleasures our God?
The body is temple of God's spirit.
"Those who have slandered Christianity through the ages, accused it of dismissing the body as a source of evil, of ceasing to recognise its inherent vigour and beauty as seen in the Greek Classical tradition. This is a
misunderstanding. Let us not forget that Christianity is the religion of the Incarnation of God. Since the Son of God was not afraid to clothe Himself in mortal flesh, what glory is attached to this material dwelling! Jesus Himself cared for the bodies of His followers, being mindful of their hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and healing all their ills.
If pagan antiquity was a testament to pride in a beautiful and heathy body, who else than the Church and the saints accord so much care and tendance to sick flesh? Today's body-worshippers should be invited to care for the sores of plague and cancer, which are braved each day by the sisters of charity."
These words come to us from a modern Doctor: Rene Biot. What perspective is offered by Orthodox wisdom about this matter? The body is not the material reality of man, but the external aspect of all his being. It is an expression of the power and splendour of the spirit. The body is the medium through which the spirit acts; the spirit inspires the body, the body reveals the spirit.
Christianity respects the body, provided that it is governed by the spirit. "God deigned to create the body with His own hand", says the Father of the Church Basil the Great. "The Son and Word of God became flesh to sanctify the human body" said Saint Athanasius the Great. Let us not forget that even "the hairs on our head are numbered". (Matt. 10,30). All of which proves the esteem accorded to the human body by God. Is it not this body that was glorified by the resurrection of Christ, that He raised to the Heavens and enthroned at the right hand of the Father? Christ's resurrection deified mortal flesh. St. Paul was the great preacher of this truth. In the sixth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he states the principle simply: "The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body". "All is allowed, but all is not necessarily profitable for me; all is allowed, but I shall not allow myself to become a slave to unworthy preoccupations. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food; God will destroy the one as the other. But the body is not meant for debauchery. It is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God who resurrected the Lord will use His power to resurrect us too. Do you not know that your bodies are the members of the body of Christ? How could I take the members of Christ's body and prostitute them? No indeed I could not: do you not know that he who attaches himself to a prostitute becomes one flesh with her? Did he not say: "for the two shall become as one flesh"? He who attaches himself to the Lord becomes one in spirit with Him. Avoid debauchery. Whatever
other sin a man commits is one external to the body; but he who gives himself over to debauchery, sins against his own body. Do you not realise that your body is a temple of the Holy Spiirit, which is in you and which you have received from God, and which does not belong to you yourselves? You have been ransomed at a great price. Therefore give glory to God in body and spirit." (1 Cor. 6,12-20). In the Epistle to the Romans, he defines once more: "So I urge you, brethren, by the sufferings of our Lord, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to Him, this will be on your part a reasonable act of worship. Do not adapt yourselves to this world, transform yourselves with renewed mental vigour, so that you can fathom what is the will of God; what is good acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12,1-2).
With these few words the great Apostle of the gentiles, both posed and resolved for ever the problem of the relation between the body and Spirit of God. Only today's sick mentality wishes to glorify all the abject passions and to direct youth into a deprivation whence it can better conquer the bastion which is called Greco-Christian civilization. And these people do not want to understand, or they pretend not to understand, the eternal truths which are acknowledged by all those doctors of whatever nationality, who are still in possession of their faculties.
In fact psycho-somatism is this very relation between the body and the spirit. Let us be mindful of what the Lord used to say to the sick in the first place: "your sins are forgiven" and immediately a physical cure followed. First the Lord healed the soul of the sick person and the physical cure was the natural consequence of this. We ought to keep in mind the little book of Doctor Carrel on prayer, in which he explains how the entire organism is involved in prayer even the glands, how prayer is the best way of maintaining physical harmony. Why does the Western world look to India for wonders today, instead of returning to the Mother-Church from which it became estranged since the eleventh century? The suffering of the Western soul today can only be healed by a reconciliation with God. The West should reach a state of self- abasement like that of the blind man in the Gospels who cried out on the wayside: "Son of David, have mercy on me a sinner". (Luke 18, 38).
Then the Lord who is full of pity for all sinners, will open His arms, He who poured out His blood for us on the cross, for them He will extend His nailed arms, to embrace and heal the West, torn by revolt almost ten centuries.
The problem of the redistribution of wealth.
This problem is only capable of solution within an Orthodox context, when it is honestly confronted.
Since Orthodox Christians share in the same Holy Chalice and are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, the accumulation of wealth would not seem to be a course open to them, with its egoistical tendencies. They belong to one spiritual community, and therefore feel a solidarity together as promoters of God's kingdom on earth.
The Father of the Church St. John Chrysostom (IVth century) calls the wealthy "the bankers of God". Such a wealthy person is the one that produces in abundance, an abundance which aught not to be only for himself but for voluntary distribution everywhere that necessity demands. Thus the problem does not reside in the non-possession of capital, but rather in its right use for the general good. An example of such use was the social work of the Father of the Church St. Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in the IVth century, who founded a centre of productive philanthropy (not merely charity to the poor); all the capital for this immense undertaking, the celebrated "Basilias" was voluntarily donated by the wealthy of his episcopal province. Marx was not the first to say that "property is theft": St. Basil the Great had said it in IVth century (meaning of course excessive and selfish property, not that which is necessary to live in the world).
In the Orthodox faith there are also those who possess nothing, who accept a voluntary poverty. These are those who enter monastic communities or hermitages in the desert, who have made vows of chastity, poverty and obedience (to their spiritual father). "Let those who can, (those who have received the gift to do so) follow this path." (Math 19,12). It presupposes faith unto death and a spiritual life of great purity: that is to say, poverty alone, without the two other conditions, is barren and useless.
Even for the worldly community: (the Orthodox society), the New Testament provides a model, that can give a proper perspective on material life. Such a life was that led by the first Christian communities, who were subject to the Apostles and who did not lack the essentials of life. "They continued in the teaching of the Apostles, in brotherly fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayer... All those who believed, lived together and held everything in common. They sold their material possessions and shared the profit among themselves, according to the needs of each. Every day they continued bravely going to the temple with one accord, they broke the bread in their homes and took their nourishment with simple joy of heart; they glorified God and received grace over all the people". (Acts 2,42-47). This text enables us to realise fulIy the necessary conditions for this shared existence. Namely a genuine apostolic faith, sharing in Holy Communion, prayer and the glorification of God by the faithful, and their daily presence in His temple. The worship must be a common act, by common assent, accompanied by openness of heart and joy. It must be without force, without atheism, without hardening of heart or hatred.
Such a communal system was first achieved in Greece to a remarkable extent under the Turkish Occupation. At this time certain village communities decided to base their economy upon Divine Will. These villages were located on the slopes of Mount Ossa, to the East of Mount Olympus, in Thassaly. Between these two mountains flows the lovely River Peneus celebrated in Greek Myth. The inhabitants had set up an indigenous local industry, the dyeing of thread with a dye that they themselves had devised, extracted from wild plants of the area, and exported in some amount to Europe and the Near East, a highly esteemed product (XVIIIth century). All the inhabitants were involved in the business, and each shared in the profits afterwards, commensurately with the degree of labour expended. The degree of public profit was filtered down to the individual. This is the first voluntary co-operative system in the world whose members were also bound by a spiritual bond: the Orthodox Faith which eradicates selfish inclinations. It is not without significance that at the head of the regulations of their co-operative was the following phrase of the Gospel: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them" (Matt. 18.20). The prosperity of these communities was very great, and we can still admire to-day the construction of these picturesque villages called "Ambelakia".
This is not the only example of sharing of the benefit of Greek communities during the Turkish occupation, there are others too, but less well- known.
Another case of sharing of the general benefit of business was that of the mercantile marine of certain small Greek islands in the XVIIIth century, such as Hydra at the end of the Saronic Gulf, to the South-West of Athens. Each member of the crew shared in the profit of the ship-owner as follows: his salary was divided into three parts, one going to his family, one for himself, while the third was retained as a share in the business. By this system the mercantile marine of Hydra developed considerably, so much so that its ships and crews were a powerful factor during the War of Independence in 1821 and contributed to the liberation of the country. One can see once more that the pro
verb "strength through unity" may be achieved in fact where there is good will. A perpetually continuing antagonism between employer and worker leads to nothing, or rather to destruction.
Unfortunately this sharing tradition in Greece, which is inherent in the character of her people, was not the basis of the country's economic system after independence. By contrast, all the systems of the West served as models, since the Great Powers who signed the Act of Independence imposed on Greece a foreign king from a European ruling house (Otho, son of Ludwig I of Bavaria). These so-called liberal systems contained pernicious antagonisms owing to a lack of true faith and of spiritual unity between employer and worker.
Nowadays, when the ideal of the European community is taking shape, we have a greet opportunity to recall this Christian ideal, which can become the basis of the future unity of Europe.
Bibliography
a) F. Boulanger, "Ambelakia, or the Hellenic Associations and Municipalties", Paris 1875 (in French).
b| J. L.S. Bartholdy "Journey to Greece made in the years 1803-1804", Paris, 1907 (in French), c) E. Pouqueville, "Journey in Greece", Paris 1826. (In French).
Τhe Orthodox mission and its fulfilment.
The constrictions of the human soul and the greater ones of its body hinder greatly its ability to admit eternal life and infinity. The earth's dwellers are like prisoners who view with extreme mistrust everything that apparently emanates from the "other side". Imprisoned in time and space, they cannot endure, by reason of retrogressive instinct or indolence, being beset by something from the other side of time and space, something eternal. They see such in- flunce as a form of attack and respond accordingly with aggression, given that the "worm" of time gnaws at man, who does not want eternity to intervene in his life. He finds it difficult to adapt to it. He considers that he is being forced by this intervention and that it is an unforgivable liberty. And sometimes his hardened heart revolts against eternity, because he sees that he is too small before it, sometimes he is filled with hate because he considers it from too human a perspective, too earthly, too material. Plunged by his corporeal limitations in matter, suspended by the force of gravity in time, and by a less specific force in space, his spirit being divorced from eternity, mortal man dare not venture the rough ways, those which lead from here to eternity, no bridge exists for him which spans the gulf from time to the timeless, since he lacks the strength with which to over leap it.
Surrounded on all sides by death, man mocks those who are convinced of his immortal and eternal nature. Immortal by nature of what, of his mortal body? Eternal by nature of what, his debilitated spirit? For man to be immortal, he must be aware of immortality in his depths. For him to be eternal, he must admit at the essence of his being the existence of the eternal. Otherwise, immortality and eternity are externally imposed conditions.
Even if at some point man possessed a sense of his own immortal nature, a recognition of his eternity, it can only be a remote recollection, made hazy by the overlloming weight of death.
In fact this recollection is weakened. We see and understand the matter through the structure and complex of our human form. The basic problem is how to revive this faint perception. How to inject life into our weakened recollection. Men alone cannot do it, nor can the gods of philosophy. God alone is able, since He, being immortal, became incarnate in human flesh and perception. And since He, although immortal, assumed the own acquaintative faculties of man. This is the real achievement of Christ's incarnation, when He became a God-Man. it is uniquely in Jesus and Him alone, that the immortal
and eternal nature of man is fully visible. Christ, God man, through His presence has bridged the gap between time and the timeless and has reconciled the incompatibilities. This is why man cannot feel himself to be truly immortal nor recognize his eternal nature outside a state of union with Christ, God- Man, functionally, and with His body: the Church. So for man, and mankind, Christ is the only way through time to eternity. It is only in the Church, the Orthodox church, that Christ, God-Man, is the only way, the guide to conduct from time to eternity, from mortality to immortality.
The eternal personality, the living essence of Christ, God-Man, is actually the Church. The Church is a continuous personality both divine and human, as is its spirit. The definition of the Church, its life, programme, methods, everything, pertains to the generous Presence of Christ, God-Man. Thus the mission of the Church is to bring together practically and personally all the faithful in the Person of Christ. They must transform their perception into Christ-orientated perception and their self-knowledge into knowledge in Christ. Their life must become a life in Christ through His aid. Likewise their soul must live in Christ through His assistance. Eventually it is not they who live, but Christ who lives in them. As St. Paul said to the Galatians: "I am crucified in Christ, no longer do live, but Christ lives in me". (Gal. 2,20).
The mission of the Church is to preserve for its members immortality and eternal life by enabling them to share in divine nature. This is achieved by means of god's energies which exist outside of creation, (non-created energies). The mission of the Church is to engender a certainty in each of its members that the new state of the human personality is immortal and eternal and not transient and impermanent; so that man is not static but a traveller on a road which leads from the mortal to the immortal from the temporal to the eternal.
The Church is an eternal entity, both divine and human, created within the limits of time and space. She is in the world, but not of it. She is in the world to raise it to celestial spheres whence she emanates. The Church is ecumenical, Catholic = (universal) divine-human, eternal. This is why it is an unpardonable blasphemy against Christ and the Holy Spirit to reduce it to a national institution, to limit its aims and methods to a narrow range, both temporal and confined on nationalistic lines. The aim of the Church is ecumenical and universal. As the Church provides an all-encompassing fold for mankind, so its aim is to incorporate all men in the Lord Jesus Christ, with no ethnic, racial, or social exceptions. "There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free,
man or woman, you are all one in Christ-Jesus." St. Paul said to the Galatians (Gal. 3,28). And in the Epistle to the Colossians he states, "Christ is all in all". (Col. 3,11).
The means of this divine-human union which encompasses all men in Jesus Christ has been given by the Church, by the Holy Sacraments and by divine-human works, like asceticism and the exercise of virtue. The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist encapsulates and delimits the method of Jesus and the means by which all men may be united. (In the celebration and sharing of faith in the appropriate manner). By this sacrament, man achieves a union with Christ and the faithful. Man can strengthen his attachment to this unity, by individual asceticism, divine-human virtues of faith, prayer, fasting, charity and pity, by these his sanctity is reinforced, his whole being lives in Jesus- Christ and he is one with the other members of Christ's holy body: the Church.
The Church is indivisible as is the person of God-Man, as the church is His body. Thus it is a basic mistake to split the divine-human organism, just as the Chuch is incapable of division, into smaller national units.
Many local Churches, in the course of their historical progress, have restricted their work to particular national aims. The Church was adapted to the temple, whereas the contrary is the correct course: the temple must be adapted to the Church. However, we know that these are the "tares" of our life in the Church, tares which the Lord does not pull up but allows to grow with the corn until the harvest (Matt. 13.29-30). We know too that the Lord taught us that these tares emanate from our enemy, the enemy of Christ, the devil (Matt. 13.25-8). But this knowledge is clearly vain unless it is transformed into prayer, that Christ may keep us in the future from becoming sowers and reapers of such tares. It is time, indeed, it is the last chance, for our ecclesiastical leaders to undrstand that they must stop believing that they are exclusively chained to national interest, and become bishops of the Church which is "One, Holy, Catholic: (Universal) and Apostolic" (Nicene Creed). The mission of the Church, assigned to it by Christ and brought to fulfilment by the Church Fathers, is to plant and cultivate in the soul of the people the feeling and knowledge that each member of the Orthodox Church is a Catholic (Universal) person, an eternal person and a person who is both human and divine, belonging to Christ and therefore kindred and servant of all men and all creatures. This is the aim of the Church assigned by Christ: any other aim belongs not to Christ but to the Anti-Christ.
(Extrac translated from the Greek in French by the author.) from "Man and God-Man" by the orthodox Serbian Archimandrite Justin Popovic, Professor of Dogmatics at the University of Belgrade 1935-45.
Nostalgia for the Orthodox faith in the West
Since the XlXth century certain minds in the West have begun to discover the truth of the Orthodox faith, such as the English Lord Guildford, who systematically studied the Holy Scriptures, the resolutions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, or the Catholic Franz Baader, who said that the true universal Church was in the East ("Der morgenlandische and der abendlandische katholizmus" Stuttgart, 1841 and G. Florovsky, "Ecumenism in the XlXth Century" Irenikon, 4th term 1954, p. 415).
Then follows the Catholic prelate Guettee, who defends the same position in his "History of the French Church" and in his "Memoirs". There was also Joseph Overbeck, professor at the Theological School in Bonn, who wrote many articles in German, English and Latin, and who even published "The Catholic Orthodox Review" in order to state the need not only for a return to the Orthodox faith but also for the establishment of the Orthodox faith in the West.
At the beginning of the XXth century the Englishman Sheridan in his book "The Greek Catholic Church" expresses the opinion that the Eastern Church is, for the moment and for the future, the same as of old: not petrified, but undergoing inner growth, without innovations, but providing salvation, free from suppressions, but capable of strengthening souls. And, he asks, is it not then the sole representative of the time of the Fathers of the Church and the Councils? Later, a great friend of the Orthodox faith and of Greece, Countess Loise de Riencourt, wrote a large number of articles to prove the superiority of the Orthodox faith to Catholicism. "The Orthodox faith of the Eastern world, she says, is wholly real, whereas Catholicism is wholly platonic."
One in particular who struggled and who was persecuted for his ideas was the Catholic Prince Maximilian of Saxony, who, after travelling in the Orthodox countries and closely studying their life, remarked that Orthodox believers have a great service to perform for the Church and for Christianity: they will be for ever the living witnesses of ancient Christian teaching and tradition (Prinz Max zu Sachsen, "Vorlesungen uber die orientalische Kirchenfrage", Freiburg, 1907).
The work of the Prince was seminal. After the First World War, the Orthodox faith begins to be better known in the West. It is seen not only as the guardian of the ancient tradition, but also as "the sign of unity and peace". What is admired about the Orthodox Church is the way in which it has kept the dogma, the character, the worship and the government of the ancient Church intact, without addition or suppression. In all this, from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity to the veneration of Saints and of the Mother of God, the East has remained faithful to the ancient tradition. This is a discovery which moves Western theologians, and which frightens them.
European scholars have commenced a systematic study of the treasures of the Orthodox faith. Catholics and Protestants, University professors and monks study dogmatics, liturgy, asceticism, canon law, iconography and hymnography, and translate Orthodox texts into their own languages as precious discoveries.
They set up scientific research centres, such as the famous Benedictine monastery at Chevetogne in Belgium, busied with the study of the Orthodox faith and the Greek Fathers, of Byzantine worship, iconography and music. They found special organisations for better acquaintance with the Orthodox Church, such as the English "Anglican and Eastern Churches Association" and "Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius" (St. Basil's House, 52, Ladbroke Grove, London W. 11).
Two bibliographical works containing the publications relevant to Orthodox studies have already been published in English: Henry Brandreth, "An Outline Guide of the Study of Eastern Christendom", London, S.P.C.K., 1951, and T. Andrews, "The Eastern Orthodox Church: A Bibliography", New York, 1953.
Some Western universities have founded a chair for Orthodox Studies. The Protestant professor Fritz Lieb held such a chair, as did the Catholic professor G. Wunderle, while the Orthodox professor Etienne Zankov taught at the University of Berlin. In the United States the Orthodox faith is studied at two universities: Columbia, where famous Russian professors taught, and Michigan State College, where the American (but Orthodox) professor Fotius Danahew currently teaches.
From America too there comes to us the witness of an American Byzan- tinist, John Thacher, who was director of the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Institute in Washington. In one of his lectures given at Halki, the Higher School
of Orthodox Theology at Constantinople, he said: "Orthodox believers wield a power greater than that of nuclear energy". (Author's Note : i.e. because, through the Holy Eucharist, they share in the non-created energies of the Creator Who is above creation).
Testimonials to the Orthodox faith of some Catholic professors and prelates
The German Catholic professor G. Wunderle has written in one of his books on Eastern Christianity: "The ideal goal of life according to the Christianity of the East is the supernatural transfiguration of earthly existence, the deification of man". He declares this truth to be manifest in the ascetic and mystical character of the Orthodox liturgy. The spirituality and God orientated nature of the clergy is pre-eminent in the Orthodox Church. In contrast to the legal preoccupations of the Western Church, in the Eastern Church one is aware of the "breath of the Holy Spirit and the communion of love". Whilst the Church is an organism at once divine and human, the divine takes precedence over and is served by the human element. Desire for the divine is evident in the mysticism of the Church in the Orient, the laity can profit from this and not merely monks or priests. We are all aiming to achieve a state of sanctity. This desire for sanctification is expressed by a longing for eternal life in Jesus Christ it reaches its apex in the living hope of the Final Judgement. The Oriental Christian is firmiy imbued with this certainty. At all times he is prepared for the sudden arrival of the Lord. He feels himself to be an alien on the face of the earth. One of the most profound tenets of Oriental Christianity is the belief that our mortal existence is that of an emigrant. Professor Wunderle also states that Oriental piety is not merely intellectual but encompasses the entire being and transforms it in Jesus Christ. The Oriental Church is centred on Christ who directs the process of deification and forms man as "a member of the body of Christ".
Another German Catholic theologian, Jules Tyciak, calls the West to repent and to return to the Eastern Church; the Church which is, as he says, the Church of the Spirit and of Love, the Church revealed and transfigured. He claims that the Orthodox Church is closer to the Early Church and contains a spring towards which the West must turn for nourishment. In addition the mystic and emotional charge possessed by Eastern Christians can liberate us from positivism and obsessive moralism. The world of glory, communion and love can help us overcome our literal and individualistic nature. "The Eastern Church shows us how Christian life is matured in the liturgy" says Tyciak.
In his book "The liturgy, source of Eastern piety" he writes: "The Christian in the East knows that the new world heralded by the sacraments exists, even when he declares his own unworthiness. Eastern Christians are receptive to the divine voice, hence their serenity and godliness, hence their patience and expectation in prayer. Since the sacraments constitute the only reality, they live in a holy and unworldly manner. They wish to be children of God, they long for the Kingdom of peace while patiently enduring this uncertain world of appearances. The answer we give to the question of what the image of the Eastern Christian betokens is that it is characterised by the authenticity of the child of God living the sacraments. But the mystery of God is the victory of life and of love. Eastern Christianity is fully conscious of the power of the love that saves. It is love conquering and resplendent. The Christian East has struggled and suffered for its faith in that world to this day. Its testimony comes from the blood of the martyrs which reveals the triumph of the Lord on the cross and the glory of His resurrection." Tyciak praises the dogmatic richness and sanctifying power of the Orthodox liturgy. Among the treasures of the Orthodox Church which he most admires are its profound mysticism, its emphasis on Christ and on eschatology and its persistence with tradition. This living tradition is its link with the Early Church. The tradition cannot stagnate or become inflexible when this ancient world with all its treasures forms a part of daily life for an entire ecclesiastical community. The Orthodox Church has been entrusted by Providence with the mission of preserving the spirit of the Early Church in the flock of the faithful who embody the Holy Spirit.
A German monk, K. Kirchhoff, a modern martyr in the sense that he was executed by the Nazis during the Second World War, has left us a great work: a translation of Orthodox hymns.
In his study of this subject he shows that the Orthodox creed is full of the Holy Spirit and that it is an admirable combination of dogma and of life; and he adds that the Byzantine hymns which comprise the liturgical year lead life towards the sublime. The Orthodox rite elevates, transforms and purifies us; we are reborn and renewed through the power of the Holy Spirit to which it gives us access.
The Joyful Mourning
Orthodox asceticism has also been of great interest to the West. The theologian J. Hausherr, Professor at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome, has written a 200 page study: "Penthos. The doctrine of compuction in Eastern Christianity". (Rome 1944).
What is compunction? It is an elevated state of spiritual concentration, it is a deep and enduring repentance of our inadequacy and our sins, a humble and sincere abasement before the infinity of God. It is an exercise of the soul which guides us to an eventual release from the grip of our passions and to self- control. The tears of repentance bathe the spirit, according to the Church Fathers. It is a second baptism. The soul, thus purified, draws nearer to the Spirit of God and to blessedness.
The incongruity is that compunction does not entail misery. The genuine ascetic lives within the shelter of God's peace. "That deep peace is associated with modesty, tears, an immense love of God, and boundless enthusiasm for good works", said the ascetic Evagrius the Pontian (+399 A.D.).
These tears of repentance are also tears of confidence and self-abandon to the care of God's providence. They resemble the sensation of well-being enjoyed by the sick man who feels himself to be cured although remnants of his suffering are yet evident about his person. This is how mourning in Christ can become a joyous mourning according to St. John of Climacus (525-600A.D.). So compunction becomes the way to true blessedness. Since when the words of the Lord have become clear "Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted". (Mat. 5,4).
St. Nile, another Orthodox ascetic, writes, "Sorrowing for one's sins brings a gentle sadness. It feeds the body and fills the soul to its depths with joy, it strenghens the heart and indeed the entire organism". St. Ammonas the fourth century disciple of St. Anthony said that tears stimulate joy, joy and strengh are the benefits which the soul provides". St. Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 A.D.) said that he who desires comfort, shall weep.
St. Isaac the Syrian another great mystic of the Orthodox faith, compared the sadness engendered by repentance with the pains of labour. At this important time Divine Grace gives birth to the soul in the image of God. This is not a sign of a feminine sensibility. Most ascetics were men, their will was firm and their lives display an enduring link between the gift of tears and the un shakeable will that they possessed.
Compunction frees us from passions which, while "strong", never cease to be a source of cowardice. This aceticism, however, does not exceed certain limits. The desert Fathers had a sense of the "measure" and held "discernment" to be a fundamental virtue. Everything in excess of the "measure" comes from demons. In this way true asceticism leads to spiritual and physical harmony. Repentance and compunction restore the equilibrium between the superior and the inferior life. Thus the great Orthodox ascetics were men balanced and complete.
Study of the character of these men reveals their optimism and realism, their enthousiasm and discernment, the resolution and gentleness of their spirit. Ambition and humility, desire for God and the spirit of sacrifice, neighbour-love and an absence of egotism, firm faith, complete sincerity and heart-felt integrity are all in abundant evidence. "Saint Anthony, the father of Orthodox asceticism, was never troubled. His soul was serene, his expression never dejected, his mind full of joy and his face married the tears of sincere compunction with the smile of heavenly peace." (St. Athanasius, Life of St. Anthony, Migne. 26, 940).
Extract form "Nostalgia of Orthodoxy" by the Greek Archimandrite P. Elias Mastroyannopoulos (Athens, 1956), translated by the author in French.
Testimony of Westerners Who have chosen recently the Orthodox Church
1. Andre Borrely is a layman, father of a family and professor of philosophy in a French lycee in Africa (the Ivory Coast). After his conversion to the Orthodox Church he wrote a very good book: "Near Me is Near the Fire" (Desclee de Brouwer, Paris, 1978). In this book, Andre Borely sets out the potential for a life of asceticism among the laity helped by the "Prayer of the Heart" which can lead to a renaissance that is not merely individual, but even of society, civilization and history itself. Such a spiritual inclination led to the Byzantine renaissance of the fourteenth century. This renaissance encompassed theology, a movement for social justice, and the artistic revival of the Paleologues, so admired today at Mistra, (near Sparta) in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Thessaloniki, and at Kariye (Chora) in Constantinople.
The sole aim of this spirituality is the internal contemplation and absorp
tion of the liturgy. Thus is formed the man of the liturgy, of the Eucharist, in other words man of the Spirit. It acts as a grip of conscience in baptism and in the contemplation of the Resurrection. Thus we come to the heart of the Church, the focal point of the transformation of history and the universe which was wrought by the Resurrection of Christ. This is a perpetual Pentecost. He who lives in this spirituality, has a heart that is kindled by the flame.
2. Professor John Bowcock teaches nuclear physics at Birmingham University and also works at the European Centre For Nuclear Research (C.E.R.N.) at Geneva. He claims that there is no inherent contradiction between science and religion. "Science is concerned with the material world, whereas the concern of religion is with the spriritual world..." He has noted the unbroken tradition of the Church from the time of the Fathers and the importance of spirituality in the Orthodox faith. His adherence to the Orthodox Church is quite recent.
3. C. Hiffler is a doctor. He says that he discovered the Orthodox faith throuhg the books of Russian theologians such as P. Evdokimov, O. Clement, etc. This discovery was like "a breath of fresh air" to him. He had found "the water of life". Everything about him took on a new dimension which he had not known of before. In the liturgy he discovered the beauty and certainty of the teaching as well as the enduring worth of "sanctity" and "divinity". As a doctor he understood that medicines are not a complete answer to the problems of the sick. For him the solution lies "in the embers": it is "the fire of Orthodoxy".
4. Rene Ehni, a well-known author, an old existentialist and friend of J.P. Sartre, was baptised into the Orthodox church in 1980 at Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, in Greece. Now he calls himself Nicolas. He had been to Greece several times, knew Patmos and Mount Athos, had talked to monks and finally came to Orthodoxy, which, as he says, is "the real world". When asked to give his opinion of Sartre's "chemin de la liberte" (way to freedom), he replied that in the West, freedom is meaning to do what one wants. This is why man is so shut up in himself. For the Orthodox true freedom is only available in faith, silence, and repentance before the mystery of the holy Liturgy which is the focus for a brilliant beauty. Freedom exists in the Orthodox liturgy because that is where the true doctrine is contained. Sartre sees the people as a mass, the people of the Liturgy are God's people.
5. Father Placide Deseille, formerly a Cistercian monk at the Trappist monastery at Bellefontaine, Begrolles en Mauges (Maine et Loire), and Pro
fessor of theology, became an Orthodox Archimandrite in Mount Athos in 1977 and now lives in France, as an Orthodox monk at the monastery of St. Antoine, St. Laurent en Royans, 2619, St. Jean en Royans.
After a long study of the texts of the Church Fathers and particularly the Orthodox sacrements, he understood the errors of the roman Church and attained the certain knowledge that the true Church of Christ endowed with rich spirituality, is the Orthodox church and that the Church of Rome is simply a strayed member of it.
For this reason he has travelled widely in Orthodox countries to acquaint himself at first hand with the Orthodox life, in Greece, Rumania, Serbia, and above all Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain in Greece. He claims that the Orthodox Church is not "Oriental" as some people call it, rather it is the enduring Church of Christ. Its tradition is that which was common to all Christians (Eastern and Western) in the first centuries after Christ and he who returns to Orthodoxy, returns to the source of faith.
Taken from the Greek review "Anaplassis" (Nov. Dec. 1981) transl. by the author in French.
6. Tatiana Goritcheva, professor of philosophy, one of the leading figures of the Christian rebirth in Leningrad (SOP No. 42-No. 54, 1981) was expelled from the Soviet Union in july 1981. She was born in 1947 of atheist parents, and at first belonged to the Communist youth organisation (Komsomol). Subsequently she passed through an existentialist phase, and next took up yoga. She encountered Orthodoxy at the age of 25. She tells us: "Existentialism brought me to an understanding of some truths about human perception and its independent worth. But it is only within a Christian context that we can come to appreciate these truths in their fundamental form; besides it is in Christianity that the real worth of human perception is first appreciated.... This inquiry could not lead to an indeterminate result, inevitably it has led me to the Ultimate."
Tatiana Goritcheva now lives in Frankfurt. She can be contacted via the Russian Church in Frankfurt-Industriehof 18 6, Frankfurt A.M. Main, Germany.
Note: Many young Westerners, even specialised in different sciences, are now Orthodox monks in various Monasteries of Mount Athos. They have discovered the Creator of "all things visible and invisible".
In Ancient Greek "icon" means "image". The Orthodox custom of using icons in places of worship goes back to Apostolic times. Indeed in religious tradition we hear that St. Luke painted several icons of the Holy Virgin, from his personal acquaintance with her. Some of these icons survive and can be seen today in Greece, where they are renowned for their miraculous powers.
Later, during (he Persecutions, when the Christians were forced to worship God in secret, they decorated the walls of the catacombs with frescoes portraying the Lord, or the Holy Virgin, or often Biblical scenes and symbols.
The most ancient portable icons which have survived are in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and date from the sixth century.
The Orthodox church favours icons instead of statues because statues occupy a concrete space. Therefore their effect is more material, closer to a pagan spirit. However the icon in Byzantine art is a spiritualized object. It is free from perspective and anatomical accuracy. There is no superfluous artistic detail to suggest the material world. Rather the Byzantine icon has great simplicity as its hallmark. This is combined with total abstraction and exquisite nobility.
The Holy figure thus portrayed is transformed. It has quit the world which can be perceived through the five senses. It belongs to a universe transfigured in glory, a new medium such as that which will come into being at the end of the world (Rev. 21), such as is seen in the living Orthodox faith, now evident in the life of those who participate correctly at sacraments.
The doctrinal value of the icon is correspondingly great, it is a symbol of the incarnation of the Saviour, God who became man to lead man to salvation.
The faithful prostrate themselves before icons to honour the figure of the saint which the icon portrays and not the material of which it is made (St. Basil the Great IVth c. A.D.).
The archetype of the face of the Saviour is imprinted on the cloth sent to the king Abgar of Edessa in Mesopotamia (The Holy Cloth) and the face of the Holy Virgin is derived from the first icon of St. Luke the Evangelist. All icons of them resemble these archetypes to a greater or a lesser extent.
A true icon must be painted in a condition of abstinence and of prayer.. Since the icon represents holy figures, it must be worked in a state of bodily and mental purity. The greater the holiness of the hand which paints the icon, the greater its miraculous powers.
Sometimes God Himself intervenes in the work of the painter and guides his hand. In such a case the icon is termed "ahiropoietos" (unworked by hand). It is created without human workmanship.
The Liturgy
In our time the Western world is increasingly interested in the liturgy of the Orthodox Church. Even the Decree of Vatican 2 (paragraph 15) on ecumenicism draws attention for Catholics to the richness of the liturgical tradition of Orthodoxy, above all to the Eucharist "the source of life for the
Church and the measure of heavenly glory, by means of which the faithfull united by the bishop may find closer access to God the Father by His Son, the incarnate Word, dead and glorified in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit".
St. John Chrysostom made this liturgy (fourth century). It is a simplfica- tion by this Father of the Church of a liturgy which St. Basil the Great (fourth century) had already simplified in turn, based on the first liturgy of St. James which was the first liturgy ever written, by St. James the first bishop of Jerusalem in the first Apostolic century of our era and which contains over- long prayers.
The glorifying nature of this liturgy is so immediately striking that one really has the impression that it is the heavenly liturgy described by St. John the Evangelist in the Revelation (chapters 4 and 5). The contemporary Russian theologian P. Evdokimov writes: "Above all the Revelation traces the great image of the Divine Liturgy celebrated in heaven by the unique High Priest, Christ surrounded by angels. The earthly liturgy is merely a way of participating in this eternal heavenly rite (Heb. 9,24) an immense "Doxology" (glorification) which the Son makes of the Father. It includes heaven and earth, as the "Sanctus" and the universal benediction resound from century to century". ("The Prayer of the Eastern Church").
This heavenly sensation in the liturgy is so strong that another Russian theologian Father Sergej Bulgakov has said that one has the impression that "heaven on earth" has arrived. It is precisely this impression which brought the envoys of Crown Prince Vladimir to Kiev.
This Russian prince, who later became St. Vladimir, had sent messengers throughout all the Christian countries of that period (tenth century) to find out in which country Christians glorified God in the most beautiful manner, to enable him to decide which religion to adopt on behalf of his subjects, who were yet pagan. When the messengers entered St. Sophia in Constantinople, capital of the medieval Greek Empire, the Byzantine empire, they assisted in the liturgy and they were so impressed by its grandiose beauty, that they reported to their prince, that only at Constantinople was God glorified in the best fashion. So it was that Vladimir became an Orthodox Christian and baptized his people in the rivers of Russia with the assistance of Orthodox missionaries (Chronicle of Nestor).
This liturgy lasts for nearly two hours and is divided into three sections: Matins or Orthros. This is the "Proscomidie": the preparation of the oblations (The Holy Gifts) offered by the people, which takes place in the Prothesis (the left side of the sanctuary) which symbolises the Crypt of Betlehem. This part of the liturgy signifies the period of the Lord's life on earth from His birth to the start of His public work. A hidden life of which the world did not know, except for His relatives. This is why the prayers of the priest in this section are not heard by the congregation.
The liturgy of the Catechumen: the start of the public work of Christ (entrance of the Gospel, lesson).
The liturgy of the faithful: the sharing of the passion, death, resurrection, ascencion and the eternal reign of Christ, by the celebration of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist which leads the faithful into the presence of God "Parousia" (by the participation at the non-created energies of the Holy Trinity).
This divine presence is sensed so strongly that many Westerners have become Orthodox after having assisted in the liturgy. Such is the case of a German woman, doctor of psychiatry who said to me "In the Orthodox liturgy I felt the vertical contact".
The Russian theologian P. Evdokimov writes: "In a certain sens the Revelation tells us that the world was created to become a liturgy, a doxology and adoration. During the liturgy it is not on himself, but on God, on His splendour, that man focusses his attention. He is not so much concerned to perfect himself as to contemplate the life of God. The flasching beam of His Philanthropy. This is the joy which in a detached manner, indirectly, reflects on the nature of man and changes it. Man must not add anything to the splendour of God, which is self-achieving. There must be times man must not search at any price any sort of aim, moments of pure adoration when His being blossoms without impediment, such was the attitude of King David who danced in front of the Ark". (II Kings 6, 16).
"The friends of the Betrothed can they grieve while the betrothed is with them?" (Mat. 9,15)... "But the friend of the Betrothed who remains there and who waits on him, is filled with joy when he hears the voice of the Betrothed". (John 3, 29).
"And finally these friends", as Chrysostom says, "are the witnesses of redoubtable and ineffable mysteries, so terrible and so strange that, according to liturgical expression, even the angels tremble, cover their eyes and are amazed before the unspeakable mystery of the crucified Love."
"The perfect (the perfect Christian) who is always occupied with the words, actions and thaughts of the Word of God, he is always living his days in Him, and all his days are Sundays". (Oregan, 3rd century A.D.)
"Such a perfection of spirit, a true believer and faithful, lives in the liturgy which carries him towards that other realm of which St. Augustin speaks in the profound and worthy words:
"We shall rest and we shall see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise...."
P. Evdokimov "Prayer of the Eastern Church"
"Orthodox worship seems modern and alive in each era, from the agrarian period to the electronic, and for each society from the most primitive to the most sophisticated and complex.
The tradition and the Theology of Orthodoxy demands of each believer the strength to continue after the end of the divine liturgy in church to another individual "liturgy", which gives him the ability to maintain Christ as a real presence in his daily life. So worship has a place in life, and fills it with its light full of hope and reveals the point and the ultimate aim of human existence".
This is an extract translated by the author in French from the preface to a Greek edition of P. Evdokimov's book "The Prayer of the Eastern Church". Published: Apost. Diaconia.
THE NICENE CREED OR THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
I believe in one God, Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and all things visible and invisible.
And in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all Ages. Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten not made, One in Essence with the Father, through Whom all things were made. Who for us men for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and became Man. And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried. And rose the third day according to the Scriptures. And ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead: Whose Kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who procedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke by the Prophets. In One Holy, Catholic (Universal) and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge One Baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the age to come. Amen.
This Creed was written at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea near Constantinople, (called today by the Turks Istanbul) in 325 A.D. President of the Council was Constantine the Great, founder of Constantinople, first Christian Capital of the World, and of the First Christian Empire of the World, the Byzantine Empire. He was son of St. Helena and because of his favorable behaviour towards the Christians (he was baptised also in the end of his life) he became Saint Constantine and we celebrate his memory with his mother's on 21st of May. He is he, who stopped the percecutions of the Christians by the edict of Milan in 313 A.D. The Nicene Creed was completed in the actual form by the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D.
Addresses in Germany for information about Orthodoxy:
- Dr. Wolfgang Kretchmer: professor psychiatrist in Tubingen (He became Orthodox and he writes Orthodox books in German. -Greek Orthodox Metropolit: D.. Benfoeffer-Strasse 2, Beuel- 5300 Bonn
-Dr. Arnold Bachaus, Priester, 2 Hamburg 76 Schwanenwik 31/11
- Pater Sergius Heitz, 4 Diisseldorf, Pattscheider Strasse 30
- Institut fur Orthodox Theologie der Universitat Munchen Gelschwi- ster - Scholl Platz 1, 800 Munchen 22 W. Germany Prof. Nikolaou and Prof. Fourlas
Μέ τήν εὐλογία τοῦ πατρός Δαμασκηνοῦ Γρηγοριάτου