The Orthodox Faith

protopresbyter
Thomas Hopko
Volume I – Doctrine and Scripture
Sources of Christian Doctrine
Revelation
Tradition
Bible
The Liturgy
The Councils
The Fathers
The Saints
Canons
Church Art
The Symbol of Faith
Nicene Creed
Faith
God
Creation
Angels and Evil Spirits
Man
Sin
Jesus Christ
Son of God
Incarnation
Redemption
Resurrection
Ascension
Judgment
Kingdom of God
Holy Spirit
Church
Sacraments
Eternal Life
The Holy Trinity
The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
The Holy Trinity Revealed
Wrong Doctrines of the Trinity
One God, One Father
One God: One Divine Nature and Being
One God: One Divine Action and Will
One God: One Divine Knowledge and Love
The Three Divine Persons
The Holy Trinity in Creation
The Holy Trinity in Salvation
The Holy Trinity in the Church
The Holy Trinity in the Sacraments
The Holy Trinity in Christian Life
The Holy Trinity in Eternal Life
The Bible
Bible
Word of God
Authorship
Interpretation
Old Testament
Law
History
Wisdom
Psalms
Prophets
New Testament
Gospels
Saint Mark
Saint Matthew
Saint Luke
Saint John
Acts of the Apostles
Letters of Saint Paul
Romans
First Corinthians
Second Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Phillippians
Colossians
Thessalonians
Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
Letters of Saint James
Letters of Saint Peter
Letters of Saint John
Letter of Saint Jude
Book of Revelation
Salvation History
Word and Spirit
Pre-History
Abraham
Passover
Kingship
Priesthood
Prophecy
Holiness
Resources
Selected Bibliography
Doctrine Questions and Reflections for Discussion
Doctrine Answers and Reflections for Discussion
Volume II – Worship
The Church Building
Church Building
Altar Table
Oblation Table
Icons
Sign of the Cross
Vestments
Christian Symbols
The Sacraments
The Sacraments
Baptism
Chrismation
Holy Eucharist
Penance
Holy Unction
Marriage
Holy Orders
Funeral
Monasticism
The Daily Cycles of Prayer
Prayer
Vespers
Matins
Hours, Compline and Nocturne
The Church Year
Church Year
Pre-Lent
Great Lent
Lenten Fasting
Lenten Services
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
Sundays of Lent
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
Holy Week
Holy Thursday
Holy Friday
Holy Saturday
Easter Sunday: The Holy Pascha
Post-Easter Sundays
Ascension
Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Nativity of Christ
Epiphany
Meeting of the Lord
Transfiguration
Annunciation
Nativity of the Theotokos
Entrance of the Theotokos to the Temple
Dormition of the Theotokos
Elevation of the Cross
Other Feasts
The Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy
Prothesis
Blessed is the Kingdom
Great Litany
Antiphons
Small Entrance
Epistle
Gospel
Fervent Supplication
Offertory: Great Entrance
Love and Faith
Eucharistic Canon: Anaphora
Epiklesis
Rememberances
Our Father
Communion
Thanksgiving
Benediction and Dismissal
Volume III – Church History
Introduction
First Century
Christ and the Apostles
The Church
Second Century
The Persecutions
The Apostolic Fathers
The Apologists
Protecting the Church from Falsehood and Heresy
The Quartodeciman Controversy
Church Order and Liturgy
Third Century
Persecution
The Lapsed
Development of Theology
Liturgical Development
Fourth Century
Constantine
The Donatist Schism
Arianism
The First Ecumenical Council
Saint Athanasius and his defence of Nicea
New Heresies
The Second Ecumenical Council
Monasticism
Saint John Chrysostom
Fifth Century
Inner Struggles
Third Ecumenical Council
The Robber Council
The Fourth Ecumenical Council
The Monophysites
The Henotikon
Canons of the Councils
The West
Saint Augustine
Saint John Cassian
Pope Saint Leo the Great
Sixth Century
Emperor Justinian I and the Non-Chalcedonians
The Fifth Ecumenical Council
The Oriental Orthodox Churches
Emperor Justinian I and Reform
Five Patriarchates
The West
Seventh Century
Monoenergism / Monothelitism
Saint Maximus the Confessor and Saint Martin of Rome
The Sixth Ecumenical Council
The Council of Trullo or the Quinisext Council
Theological Writings
Relations with Rome
The Rise of Islam
Eighth Century
Iconoclasm
Emperor Leo III the Isaurian
Emperor Constantine V Copronymos
The Seventh Ecumenical Council
The West
The Carolingian Renaissance
Ninth Century
The End of Iconoclasm
Saints Cyril and Methodius-“Evangelizers of the Slavs and
Equal to the Apostles”
The Papacy
Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople
Liturgical Developments
New Law Code
The West
Tenth Century
Cultural Renaissance
Church and State
Bulgaria
Saint Vladimir of Kiev
The West
Eleventh Century
The Great Schism
Pope Gregory VII
The First Crusade
Kievan Russia
Saints Boris and Gleb
Yaroslav the Wise and Saint Anna of Novgorod
Other Developments East and West
Twelfth Century
Major Trends
Kievan Russia
Serbia
The West
Thirteenth Century
The Fourth Crusade
The Second Council of Lyons
Serbia and Bulgaria
Russia
The West
Fourteenth Century
Saint Gregory Palamas
Essence and Energies
John Cantakuzenos
Emperor John V Paleologos and Rome
Russia
The Rise of Moscow
Saint Sergius of Radonezh
Saint Stephen of Perm
Saint Andrei Rublev
The Serbs
The Bulgarians
The West
Fifteenth Century
The Great Schism in the Papacy, and the Conciliar Movement
The Council of Florence
The Fall of Byzantium
The Establishment of the Rum Milet
Russia
The Rise of the Muscovite State
The Rise of the Possessors and the Non-Possessors
Other Developments in the West
Sixteenth Century
Russia
The Victory of the Possessors
Ivan the Terrible
Tsar Theodore
The Union of Brest-Litovsk
The West
The Protestant Reformation
The Catholic Counter-Reformation
Patriarch Jeremias II and the Dialogue with the Lutherans
The Greek Orthodox under the Ottoman Turks
Seventeenth Century
Russia
The Time of Troubles
Tsar Michael Romanov and Patriarch Philaret (Romanov)
The Nikonian Reforms
The Council of 1666–1667
The Old Believer Schism
Russian Saints in the 17th century
The Unia
Saint Peter Mogila
Cyril Lukaris
The Greek Church under the Turks
The West
Eighteenth Century
The Greek Church
Saint Cosmas Aitolos
Saint Makarios of Corinth
Saint Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain
Two other important saints of Greece
Russia
The Holy Governing Synod
Saint Xenia of Saint Petersburg
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
Saint Paisy Velichkovsky
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow
Mission to Alaska
The West
Nineteenth Century
Russia: Spiritual Renewal
The Elders of Optina
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
Russia: Missionary Activity
Siberia
Japan
Alaska
Kronstadt
The Spread of Orthodoxy in the Lower 48 States in America
Conversion of the Uniates
The Serbs
The Syrians
The Greeks
Eastern Europe and Greece
Western Europe and America
The Second Great Awakening
Rise of the Social Gospel
Responses to the Social Gospel
Roman Catholicism
Relations between the Churches East and West
Twentieth Century
Orthodoxy in America, Part One: From the Russian Mission to
the OCA
Archbishop Tikhon
Saint Tikhon’s Overarching Plan
1907–1917
The Russian-American Archdiocese after the Bolshevik
Revolution
The American Metropolia
Pressure from Moscow
American Destiny
Development of the Metropolia
Metropolitan Ireney
American Autocephaly
Canonization of Saint Herman
Aftermath of the Autocephaly
Continuing Development of the OCA
Orthodoxy in America, Part Two: Other Orthodox Jurisdictions
The Greek Orthodox in America
The Serbian Orthodox in America
The Romanian Orthodox in America
The Syrian Orthodox in America
The Ukrainian Orthodox in America
The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox in America
The Albanian Orthodox in America
The Bulgarian Orthodox in America
The American Orthodox Catholic Church
Further efforts at Orthodox unity in America
SCOBA
The “Ligonier” Meeting
The Orthodox Church in Russia
1900 to 1917
The Council of Moscow, 1917–1918
Patriarch Tikhon (r. 1917–1925)
The Living Church
Russian Emigration to Western Europe
The Era of Most Severe Persecution
Relative Freedom during the Second World War
The Return of Persecution
Churchmen Appeal to the Soviet Authorities
Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn
Patriarch Pimen
Glasnost, and Freedom to Rebuild
Patriarch Alexei II
Patriarch Kirill
Japanese Autonomy
The Church in Greece
The Ecumenical Patriarchate
Patriarch Athenagoras
The Proposed Great Council
Various Troubles
Patriarch Bartholomew
Other Orthodox Churches
Serbia
Romania
Syria and Lebanon
Jerusalem
Africa
Poland
The Czech Republic and Slovakia
Albania
Bulgaria
Ukraine
Georgia
Finland
Western Europe
Ecumenical Movement
Beginnings in the Early 20th Century
The World Council of Churches
Protestant Fundamentalism and Protestant Liberalism
Protestant Neo-Evangelicalism
Major denominational mergers among Protestants
The Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement
The Roman Catholic Church
Vatican II Council
Pope John Paul II
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Francis
Resources
History Questions and Reflections for Discussion
History Answers and Reflections for Discussion
Volume IV – Spirituality
Orthodox Spirituality
Spirituality
God
Christ
The Holy Spirit
Man
Sin
The Devil
The World and the Flesh
The Church
The Sacraments
The Kingdom of God
The Beatitudes
The Beatitudes
Poverty in Spirit
Blessed Mourning
Meekness
Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
Mercy
Purity in Heart
Peacemakers
Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake
Rejoice and Be Glad
The Virtues
The Virtues
Faith
Hope
Knowledge
Wisdom
Honesty
Humility
Obedience
Patience
Courage
Faithfulness
Self-Control
Kindness
Gratitude
The Greatest Virtue is Love
God is Love
Love of God
Love of Neighbor
The New Commandment
Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving
Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer
Intercessory Prayer
Unceasing Prayer
The Jesus Prayer
Liturgical Prayer
Meditation
Prayer in the Spirit
Fasting
Almsgiving
Sexuality, Marriage, and Family
Sexuality
Marriage
Family
Sickness, Suffering, and Death
Sickness
Suffering
Death
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Final Judgment
Heaven and Hell
Resources
Spirituality Questions and Reflections for Discussion
Spirituality Answers and Reflections for Discussion
Введение
Содержание
Preface
Preface
Some elders once visited Abba Anthony, and Abba Joseph was with them.
The elder mentioned a verse from Scripture, wishing to put them to the test. He
began to ask, starting with the least of them, what this verse was about and
each one began to speak according to his own ability. But the elder said to each
one: “You have not discovered it yet.” Last of all he said to Abba Joseph: “You
then, what do you say this phrase is about?” “I do not know,” he replied-so
Abba Anthony said: ”Because he said, ‘I do not know,’ Abba Joseph has indeed
discovered the way.”
During the last years of his life, the late Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko
was fond of carrying with him a copy of The Arena, by Saint Ignatius -
Brianchaninov, and a print-out of the thirty-eight sayings of Saint Anthony the
Great from the Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers, from which the
above quotation is taken. Being himself deeply rooted in the rich scriptural,
patristic, and historical soil of the Orthodox faith, Father Tom saw both texts as
fundamental to the Christian life. He knew through his own experience what
Saint Anthony was trying to convey to the elders that came to see him: that
knowledge of God is best attained, not through study and discourse-though
these have their place-but through the experience of living in Christ, which
requires great humility and great love.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the series The Orthodox
Faith, one of the earliest publications written by Father Tom, the first volume
of which came out in 1971. This deceptively labeled “elementary handbook” on
the Orthodox Church has been used by thousands, from casual enquirers to
catechumens to lifelong Church members, as both a catechesis and basic
reference tool on Orthodox Christianity.
Yet the series has always been more than a simple set of reference
manuals, precisely because it is the fruit of the living faith and understanding
of tradition of its author, which give the work its sense of immediacy and zeal.
Over forty-five years after their first appearance, these volumes continue to
fulfill a dual purpose. First, they provide a rich base of introductory
information on many aspects of Orthodoxy: Church doctrine and its
development, Holy Scripture, liturgical practices, the spiritual life, etc. But,
beyond this, through the rousing voice of Father Tom, they remind us that our
life in the Church-in Christ-means more than a vain repetition of ritual by a
group of individuals.
Writing about the Liturgy, Father Tom writes:
The Divine Liturgy is not an act of personal piety. It is not a prayer
service. It is not merely one of the sacraments. The Divine Liturgy is the one
common sacrament of the very being of the Church itself. It is the one
sacramental manifestation of the essence of the Church as the Community of
God in heaven and on earth. It is the one unique sacramental revelation of the
Church as the mystical Body and Bride of Christ.
And so, it is more than fitting that these books be given an update in
design and content after so many years of faithful service. Father Tom had
plans to revise and update all four volumes of this series. But alas, with his
final illness and death in March, 2015, this was not to be.
Significantly, however, Father Tom, working together with Dr. David Ford
of Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, was able to complete one important piece of that
plan, namely, a fully re-worked Church history volume. The revised and
expanded Volume 3: Church History of this series contains the fruit of that
labor, containing greatly enhanced coverage of major events in the history of
the Church, from the Church’s birth at Pentecost through the arrival of
Orthodoxy to the Americas in the eighteenth century and into the early twenty-
first. This new edition of Church History also includes theological and
historical developments occurring in the West during the same periods.
Of course, in today’s digital era, there are more considerations to take
account of when updating content. These volumes will also be available for
download in digital formats. Additionally, in an effort to provide more
interactivity and the possibility for continual updates, the Department of
Christian Education of the Orthodox Church in America has created a section
on the OCA’s website offering discussion questions and points for reflection.
To view and download these resources as they become available, please visit:
oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith.
My hope is that these volumes will continue to inspire those who have
made use of them over the years and will serve as an introduction to the
Orthodox Faith for a new generation of seekers and learners who are willing to
enter into the experience of God by following the example provided by
Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko and his words.
†Tikhon Archbishop of Washington Metropolitan of All America and
Canada
protopresbyter Thomas Hopko
The Orthodox Faith
Volume I – Doctrine and Scripture
Sources of Christian Doctrine
Revelation
Every morning at its Matins Service the Orthodox Church proclaims:
“God is the Lord and has revealed Himself unto us; blessed is He who comes in
the name of the Lord” (Ps 118.26–27). The first foundation of Christian
doctrine is found in this biblical line: God has revealed Himself to us.
God has shown Himself to His creatures. He has not disclosed His very
innermost being, for this innermost essence of God cannot be grasped by
creatures. But God has truly shown what men can see and understand of His
divine nature and will.
The fullness and perfection of God’s self-revelation is found in His Son
Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the gradual and partial revelation of God in the
Old Testament. Jesus is the one truly “blessed .?.?. Who comes in the name of
the Lord.”
The first title given to Jesus by the people is that of Rabbi, which literally
means teacher. In the English New Testament the word Master also issued in
relation to Jesus in the sense of one who teaches, such as a schoolmaster or
holder of a master’s degree. Jesus’ followers are also called disciples, which
literally means students or pupils.
Jesus came to men first of all as the Teacher sent from God. He teaches the
will of God and makes God known to men. He reveals fully-as fully as men can
grasp-the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.
The coming of Jesus as teacher is one aspect of his being Christ the
Messiah. The word Christ in Greek is the word for the Hebrew Messiah which
means the Anointed of God. For when the messiah would come, it was foretold,
men would be “taught by God” (Is 54.13, Jn 6.45).
Jesus comes to men as the divine teacher. He claimed on many occasions
that his words were those of God. He spoke as ‘one having authority’ not like
the normal Jewish teachers (Mt 7.29). And he accused those who rejected his
teachings as rejecting God Himself.
He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And he
who sees me sees Him who sent me. I have come as light into the world .?.?. for
I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself
given me commandment what to speak. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father
has bidden me (Jn?12.44–50).
Jesus taught men not only by his words, but also by his actions; and indeed
by his very own person. He referred to himself as the Truth (Jn 14.6) and as the
Light (Jn 8.12). He showed himself not merely to be speaking God’s words, but
to be himself the Living Word of God in human flesh, the Logos who is eternal
and uncreated, but who has become man as Jesus of Nazareth in order to make
God known to the world.
In the beginning was the Word [Logos] and the Word was with God and the
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through
him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He
was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him
not.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we
have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father.
And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law
came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of
the Father, he has made him known.
(See Jn 1.1–18; the Easter Liturgy Gospel Reading in the Orthodox
Church.)
Jesus, the divine Word of God in human flesh, comes to teach men by his
presence, his words and his deeds. His disciples are sent into the world to
proclaim Him and His Gospel, which means literally the “glad tidings” or the
“good news” of the Kingdom of God. Those whom Jesus sends are called the
apostles, which means literally “those who are sent.” The apostles are directly
inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (Jn 15.26), to “make disciples
of all nations” teaching them what Christ has commanded (Mt 28.19).
The early Church, we are told, “devoted themselves to the apostles’
doctrine” (Acts 2.42). Doctrine as a word simply means teaching or instruction.
The apostles’ doctrine is the doctrine of Jesus and becomes the doctrine of the
Christian Church. It is received by the disciples of every age and generation as
the very doctrine of God. It is proclaimed everywhere and always as the
doctrine of eternal life through which all men and the whole world are
enlightened and saved.
At this point it must be mentioned that although God’s self-revelation in
history through the chosen people of Israel-the revelation which culminates in
the coming of Christ the Messiah-is of primary importance, it is also the
doctrine of the Christian Church that all genuine strivings of men after the truth
are fulfilled in Christ. Every genuine insight into the meaning of life finds its
perfection in the Christian Gospel. Thus, the holy fathers of the Church taught
that the yearnings of pagan religions and the wisdom of many philosophers are
also capable of serving to prepare men for the doctrines of Jesus and are indeed
valid and genuine ways to the one Truth of God.
In this way Christians considered certain Greek philosophers to have been
enlightened by God to serve the cause of Truth and to lead men to fullness of
life in God since the Word and Wisdom of God is revealed to all men and is
found in all men who in the purity of their minds and hearts have been inspired
by the Divine Light, which enlightens every man who comes into this world.
This Divine Light is the word of God, Jesus of Nazareth in human flesh, the
perfection and fullness of God’s self-revelation to the world.
It cannot be overstressed that divine revelation in the Old Testament, in
the Church of the New Testament, in the lives of the saints, in the wisdom of
the fathers, in the beauty of creation .?.?. and most fully and perfectly in Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, is the revelation of God Himself. God has spoken. God
has acted. God has manifested Himself and continues to manifest Himself in
the lives of His people.
If we want to hear God’s voice and see God’s actions of self-revelation in
the world, we must purify our minds and hearts from everything that is wicked
and false. We must strive to love the truth, to love one another, and to love
everything in God’s good creation. According to the Orthodox faith,
purification from falsehood and sin is the way to the knowledge of God. If we
open ourselves to divine grace and purify ourselves from all evils, then it is
certain that we will be able to interpret the scriptures properly and come into
living communion with the true and living God who has revealed Himself and
continues to reveal Himself to those who love Him.
Tradition
The ongoing life of God’s People is called Holy Tradition. The Holy
Tradition of the Old Testament is expressed in the Old Testamental part of the
Bible and in the ongoing life of the People of Israel until the birth of Christ.
This tradition is fulfilled, completed and transcended in the time of the
Messiah and in the Christian Church.
The New Testamental or Christian Tradition is also called the apostolic
tradition and the tradition of the Church. The central written part of this
tradition is the New Testamental writings in the Bible. The gospels and the
other writings of the apostolic church form the heart of the Christian tradition
and are the main written source and inspiration of all that developed in later
ages.
This Christian tradition is given over from people to people, through space
and time. Tradition as a word means exactly this: it is that which is “passed on”
and “given over” from one to another. Holy Tradition is, therefore, that which is
passed on and given over within the Church from the time of Christ’s apostles
right down to the present day.
Although containing many written documents, Holy Tradition is not at all
limited to what is written; it is not merely a body of literature. It is, on the
contrary, the total life and experience of the entire Church transferred from
place to place and from generation to generation. Tradition is the very life of
the Church itself as it is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Not everything in the Church belongs to its Holy Tradition for not
everything in the Church is done by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and not
everything in the Church pertains essentially and necessarily to the Kingdom
Of God. Some things in the Church are just temporal and temporary things,
merely human customs and traditions of no eternal and everlasting value. Such
things in themselves are not sinful or wrong. On the contrary, they may be very
positive and very helpful to the life of the Church as long as they are not taken
to be what they are not. Thus, it is very important in the Church to make the
distinction between traditions which are merely earthly and human and passing
away and the genuine Holy Tradition which pertains to the heavenly and eternal
Kingdom of God.
It is also important to recognize that there are also things in the Church
which not only do not belong to Holy Tradition, but which are not even to be
counted among its positive human traditions. These things which are just sinful
and wrong are brought into the life of the Church from the evil world. The
Church in its human form, as an earthly institution, is not immune to the sins of
its unholy members. These deviations and errors which creep into the life of the
Church stand under the judgment and condemnation of the authentic and
genuine Holy Tradition which comes from God.
Among the elements which make up the Holy Tradition of the Church, the
Bible holds the first place. Next comes the Church’s liturgical life and its
prayer, then its dogmatic decisions and the acts of its approved churchly
councils, the writings of the church fathers, the lives of the saints, the canon
laws, and finally the iconographic tradition together with the other inspired
forms of creative artistic expression such as music and architecture. All of the
elements of Holy Tradition are organically linked together in real life. None of
them stands alone. None may be separated or isolated from the other or from
the wholeness of the life of the Church. All come alive in the actual living of
the life of the Church in every age and generation, in every time and place. As
the Church continues to live by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Tradition of the Church will continue to grow and develop. This process will go
on until the establishment of the Kingdom of God at the end of the ages.
Bible
The written record of God’s revelation is the Bible, which means the book,
or the books. The Bible is also called the Holy Scriptures. Scripture as a word
simply means writings.
The Bible was written over thousands of years by many different people. It
is divided into two testaments or covenants. These words signify agreements,
pacts, or we might say, ‘deals.’ The two basic covenants are the old and the
new; each has its own scriptures. As a book, the Bible contains many different
kinds of writings: law, prophecy, history, poetry, stories, aphorisms, prayers,
letters and symbolical visions.
The Old Testament
The Old Testament scripture begins with the five books of the Law called
the Pentateuch, which means the five books; also called the Torah, which
means the Law. Sometimes these books are also called the Books of Moses
since they are centered on the exodus and the Mosaic laws.
In the Old Testament there are also books of the history of Israel; books
called the Wisdom books such as the Psalms, Proverbs, and the Book of Job;
and books of the prophecies which carry the names of the Old Testament
prophets. A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God by direct divine
inspiration. Only secondarily does the word prophet mean one who foretells the
future.
The Orthodox Church also numbers among the genuine books of the Old
Testament the so-called apocryphal books, meaning literally the secret or
hidden writings. Other Christians put these books in a secondary place or reject
completely their being of divine inspiration.
The New Testament
The center of the New Testament part of the Bible is the four gospels of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who are called the four evangelists, which
means those who wrote the gospels. Gospel in Greek is evangelion which
means the “glad tidings” or the “good news.”
In the New Testament scripture there is also the book of the Acts of the
Apostles, written by Saint Luke. There are fourteen letters called the epistles
(which simply means letters) of the Apostle Paul, though perhaps some, such as
the Letter to the Hebrews, were not written directly by him. Three letters are
also ascribed to the apostle John; two to the apostle Peter; and one each to the
apostles James and Jude. Finally there is the Book of Revelation, also called the
Apocalypse, which is ascribed to Saint John as well.
For the Orthodox, the Bible is the main written source of divine doctrine
since God Himself inspired its writing by His Holy Spirit (see 2Tim 3.16 and
2Pet 1.20). This is the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible, namely that men
inspired by God wrote the words which are truly their own human words-all
words are human!-but which nevertheless may be called all together the Word
of God. Thus, the Bible is the Word of God in written form because it contains
not merely the thoughts and experiences of men, but the very self-revelation of
God.
The center of the Bible as the written Word of God in human form is the
person of the Living Word of God in human form, Jesus Christ. All parts of the
Bible are interpreted in the Orthodox Church in the light of Christ since
everything in the Bible leads up to Christ and speaks about Him (Lk 24.44).
This fact is symbolized in the Orthodox Church by the fact that only the book
of the four gospels is enthroned on the altars of our churches and not the entire
Bible. This is so because everything in the Bible is fulfilled in Christ.
The Liturgy
When the Church, which means literally the gathering or assembly of
people who are called together to perform a specific task, assembles as God’s
People to worship, this gathering is called the liturgy of the Church. As a word,
liturgy means the common work or action of a particular group of people for the
sake of all. Thus the divine liturgy of the Christian Church means the common
work of God done by the people of God.
The liturgy of the Old Testament people was the official worship in the
temple of Jerusalem according to the Mosaic Law, as well as the annual feasts
and fasts and the private prayers and services held by the Israelites at home or
in the synagogues. Synagogues by definition are houses of gathering; they are
not temples since, according to the Law, there was just the one temple in
Jerusalem where the priestly worship was conducted. In the synagogues the
Israelites gathered for prayer and scriptural study, preaching, and
contemplation of the Word of God.
In the New Testament Church the liturgy is centered in the person of
Christ and is primarily a “christening” of the Old Testament liturgical life. The
Christian Church retains the liturgical life of the Old Testament in a new and
eternal perspective. Thus, the prayers of the Old Testament, the scriptures and
the psalms, are read and sung in the light of Christ. The sacrifice of the Body
and Blood of Christ replaces the Old Testament sacrifices in the temple. And
the Lord’s Day, Sunday, replaces the old Jewish sabbath which is Saturday.
The Jewish feasts also take on new meaning in the Christian Church, with
the central feast of Passover, for example, becoming the celebration of Christ’s
death and resurrection; and the feast of Pentecost becoming the celebration of
the coming of the Holy Spirit, which fulfills the Old Testamental Law. The
Christian liturgical year is also patterned after the Old Testamental prototype.
From the basic foundation of the Old Testament liturgy, the Church
developed its own sacramental life with baptism in the name of the Holy
Trinity, chrismation, holy communion, marriage, repentance, healing, and the
Churchly ministry and priesthood taking on specifically Christian forms and
meaning. In addition, a great wealth of specifically Christian prayers, hymns,
and blessings were developed, together with specifically Christian feasts and
celebrations in remembrance of New Testamental events and saints.
The living experience of the Christian sacramental and liturgical life is a
primary source of Christian doctrine. In the liturgy of the Church, the Bible and
the Holy Tradition come alive and are given to the living experience of the
Christian people. Thus, through prayer and sacramental worship, men are
“taught by God” as it was predicted for the messianic age (Jn 6.45).
In addition to the living experience of the liturgy, the texts of the services
and sacraments provide a written source of doctrine in that they may be studied
and contemplated by one who desires an understanding of Christian teachings.
According to the common opinion of the Orthodox Church, the sacramental and
liturgical texts-the hymns, blessings, prayers, symbols, and rituals-contain no
formal errors or deformations of the Christian faith and can be trusted
absolutely to reveal the genuine doctrine of the Orthodox Church. It may well
be that some of the historical information contained in church feasts is
inaccurate or merely symbolical, but there is no question in the Church that the
doctrinal and spiritual meaning of all of the feasts is genuine and authentic and
provides true experience and knowledge of God.
The Councils
As the Church progressed through history it was faced with many difficult
decisions. The Church always settled difficulties and made decisions by
reaching a consensus of opinion among all the believers inspired by God who
were led by their appointed leaders, first the apostles and then the bishops.
The first church council in history was held in the apostolic church to
decide the conditions under which the gentiles, that is, the non-Jews, could
enter the Christian Church (see Acts 15). From that time on, all through history
councils were held on every level of church life to make important decisions.
Bishops met regularly with their priests, also called presbyters or elders, and
people. It became the practice, and even the law, very early in church history
that bishops in given regions should meet in councils held on a regular basis.
At times in church history, councils of all of the bishops in the church
were called. All the bishops were not able to attend these councils, of course,
and not all such councils were automatically approved and accepted by the
Church in its Holy Tradition. In the Orthodox Church only seven such councils,
some of which were actually quite small in terms of the number of bishops
attending, have received the universal approval of the entire Church in all times
and places. These councils have been termed the Seven Ecumenical Councils
(see table below).
The dogmatic definitions (dogma means official teaching) and the canon
laws of the ecumenical councils are understood to be inspired by God and to be
expressive of His will for men. Thus, they are essential sources of Orthodox
Christian doctrine.
Besides the seven ecumenical councils, there are other local church
councils whose decisions have also received the approval of all Orthodox
Churches in the world, and so are considered to be genuine expressions of the
Orthodox faith and life. The decisions of these councils are mostly of a moral
or structural character. Nevertheless, they too reveal the teaching of the
Orthodox Church.
The Seven Ecumenical Councils
Formulated the First Part of the Creed, defining the
Nicea 1 325
divinity of the Son of God

Constantinople Formulated the Second Part of the Creed, defining the
381
I divinity of the Holy Spirit

Defined Christ as the Incarnate Word of God and Mary as
Ephesus 431
Theotokos

Defined Christ as Perfect God and Perfect Man in One
Chalcedon 451
Person

Constantinople
553 Reconfirmed the Doctrines of the Trinity and of Christ
II

Constantinople Affirmed the True Humanity of Jesus by insisting upon the
680
III reality of His human will and action

Affirmed the propriety of icons as genuine expressions of
Nicea II 787
the Christian Faith
The Fathers
There are in the Church a number of saints who were theologians and
spiritual teachers who defended and explained the doctrines of the Christian
Faith. These saints are called the holy fathers of the Church and their teachings
are called the patristic teachings (patristic is from the Greek word for father).
Some of the holy fathers are called apologists because they defended the
Christian teachings against those outside the Church who ridiculed the faith.
Their writings are called apologies which means “answers” or “defenses.”
Others of the holy fathers defended the Christian faith against certain
members of the Church who deformed the truth and life of Christianity by
choosing certain parts of the Christian revelation and doctrine while denying
other aspects. Those who deformed the Christian faith in this way and thereby
destroyed the integrity of the Christian Church are called the heretics, and their
doctrines are called heresies. By definition heresy means “choice,” and a
heretic is one who chooses what he wants according to his own ideas and
opinions, selecting certain parts of the Christian Tradition while rejecting
others. By his actions, a heretic not only destroys the fullness of the Christian
truth but also divides the life of the Church and causes division in the
community.
Generally speaking, the Orthodox tradition regards the teachers of heresies
as not merely being mistaken or ignorant or misguided; it accuses them of
being actively aware of their actions and therefore sinful. A person merely
misguided or mistaken or teaching what he believes to be the truth without
being challenged or opposed as to his possible errors is not considered to be a
heretic in the true sense of the word. Many of the saints and even the holy
fathers have elements in their teachings which Christians of later times have
considered as being false or inaccurate. This, of course, does not make them
heretics.
Not all of the holy fathers were defenders against falsehood or heresy.
Some of them were simply the very positive teachers of the Christian faith,
developing and explaining its meaning in a deeper and fuller way. Others were
teachers of the spiritual life, giving instruction to the faithful about the
meaning and method of communion with God through prayer and Christian
living. Those teachers who concentrated on the struggle of spiritual life are
called the ascetical fathers, asceticism being the exercise and training of the
“spiritual athletes”; and those who concentrated on the way of spiritual
communion with God are called the mystical fathers, mysticism being defined
as the genuine, experiential union with the Divine.
All of the holy fathers, whether they are classified as theological, pastoral,
ascetical or mystical gave their teachings from the sources of their own living
Christian experience. They defended and described and explained the
theological doctrines and ways of spiritual life from their own living
knowledge of these realities. They blended together the brilliance of the
intellect with the purity of the soul and the righteousness of life. This is what
makes them the holy fathers of the Church.
The writings of the Church Fathers are not infallible, and it has even been
said that in any given one of them some things could be found which could be
questioned in the light of the fullness of the Tradition of the Church.
Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the writings of the Fathers which are built upon
the biblical and liturgical foundations of Christian faith and life have great
authority within the Orthodox Church and are primary sources for the discovery
of the Church’s doctrine.
The writings of some of those fathers who have received the universal
approval and praise of the Church through the ages are of particular
importance, such as those of Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, Athanasius
of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Theologian, John
Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Maximus the Confessor,
John of Damascus, Photius of Constantinople, and Gregory Palamas; and those
of the ascetical and spiritual fathers such as Anthony of Egypt, Macarius of
Egypt, John of the Ladder, Isaac of Syria, Ephraim of Syria, Simeon the New
Theologian, and others.
Sometimes it is difficult for us to read the writings of the fathers of the
Church since their problems were often complicated and their manner of
writing very different in style from our own. Also most of the spiritual and
ascetical writings are put in the monastic setting and have to be transposed in
order to be understandable and usable to those of us who are not monks or nuns.
Nevertheless, it is important to read the writings of the fathers directly. One
should do so slowly, a little at a time, with careful thought and consideration
and without making quick and capricious conclusions .?.?. the same way that
one would read the Bible. Among the church fathers, Saint John Chrysostom’s
writings are very clear and direct and can be read by many with great profit if
the proper care is given. Also the Philokalia-an anthology of spiritual writings-
exists in English, at least in part, and with proper care, it can be helpful to a
mature Christian in search of deeper insights into the spiritual life.
The Saints
The doctrine of the Church comes alive in the lives of the true believers,
the saints. The saints are those who literally share the holiness of God. “Be
holy, for I your God am holy” (Lev 11.44; 1Pet 1.16). The lives of the saints
bear witness to the authenticity and truth of the Christian gospel, the sure gift
of God’s holiness to men.
In the Church there are different classifications of saints. In addition to the
holy fathers who are quite specifically glorified for their teaching, there are a
number of classifications of the various types of holy people according to the
particular aspects of their holiness.
Thus, there are the apostles who are sent to proclaim the Christian faith,
the evangelists who specifically announce and even write down the gospels, the
prophets who are directly inspired to speak God’s word to men. There are the
confessors who suffer for the faith and the martyrs who die for it. There are the
so-called “holy ones,” the saints from among the monks and nuns; and the
“righteous,” those from among the lay people.
In addition, the church service books have a special title for saints from
among the ordained clergy and another special title for the holy rulers and
statesmen. Also there is the strange classification of the fools for Christ’s sake.
These are they who through their total disregard for the things that people
consider so necessary-clothes, food, money, houses, security, public reputation,
etc.-have been able to witness without compromise to the Christian Gospel of
the Kingdom of Heaven. They take their name from the sentence of the Apostle
Paul: “We are fools for Christ’s sake” (1Cor 4.10; 3.18).
There are volumes on lives of the saints in the Orthodox tradition. They
may be used very fruitfully for the discovery of the meaning of the Christian
faith and life. In these “lives” the Christian vision of God, man, and the world
stands out very clearly. Because these volumes were written down in times
quite different from our own, it is necessary to read them carefully to
distinguish the essential points from the artificial and sometimes even fanciful
embellishments which are often contained in them. In the Middle Ages, for
instance, it was customary to pattern the lives of saints after literary works of
previous times and even to dress up the lives of the lesser known saints after
the manner of earlier saints of the same type. It also was the custom to add
many elements, particularly supernatural and miraculous events of the most
extraordinary sort, to confirm the true holiness of the saint, to gain strength for
his spiritual goodness and truth, and to foster imitation of his virtues in the
lives of the hearers and readers. In many cases the miraculous is added to stress
the ethical righteousness and innocence of the saint in the face of his detractors.
Generally speaking, it does not take much effort to distinguish the sound
kernel of truth in the lives of the saints from the additions made in the spirit of
piety and enthusiasm of the later periods; and the effort should be made to see
the essential truth which the lives contain. Also, the fact that elements of a
miraculous nature were added to the lives of saints during medieval times for
the purposes of edification, entertainment, and even amusement should not lead
to the conclusion that all things miraculous in the lives of the saints are
invented for literary or moralizing purposes. Again, a careful reading of the
lives of the saints will almost always reveal what is authentic and true in the
realm of the miraculous. Also, the point has been rightly made that men can
learn almost as much about the real meaning of Christianity from the legends
of the saints produced within the tradition of the Church as from the authentic
lives themselves.
Canons
There are canon laws of ecumenical councils, of provincial and local
councils, and of individual church fathers which have been received by the
entire Orthodox Church as normative for Christian doctrine and practice. As a
word canon means literally rule or norm or measure of judging. In this sense
the canon laws are not positive laws in the juridical sense and cannot be easily
identified with laws as understood and operative in human jurisprudence.
The canons of the Church are distinguished first between those of a
dogmatic or doctrinal nature and those of a practical, ethical, or structural
character. They are then further distinguished between those which may be
changed and altered and those which are unchangeable and may not be altered
under any conditions.
The dogmatic canons are those council definitions which speak about an
article of the Christian faith; for example, the nature and person of Jesus Christ.
Although such canons may be explained and developed in new and different
words, particularly as the Church Tradition grows and moves through time,
their essential meaning remains eternal and unchanging.
Some canons of a moral and ethical character also belong to those which
cannot be changed. These are the moral canons whose meaning is absolute and
eternal and whose violation can in no way be justified. The canons which forbid
the sale of Church sacraments are of this kind.
There are, in addition, canons of a quite practical nature which may be
changed and which, in fact, have been changed in the course of the life of the
Church. There are also those which may be changed but which remain in force
since the Church has shown the desire to retain them. An example of the former
type is the canon which requires the priests of the church to be ordained to
office only after reaching thirty years of age. It might be said that although this
type of canon remains normative and does set a certain ideal which
theoretically may still be of value, the needs of the Church have led to its
violation in actual life. The canon which requires that the bishops of the Church
be unmarried is of the latter type.
It is not always clear which canons express essential marks of Christian
life and which do not. There are often periods of controversy over certain
canons as to their applicability in given times and conditions. These factors,
however, should not lead the members of the Church to dismay or to the
temptation either to enforce all canons blindly with identical force and value or
to dismiss all the canons as meaningless and insignificant.
In the first place, the canons are “of the Church” and therefore cannot
possibly be understood as “positive laws” in a juridical sense; secondly, the
canons are certainly not exhaustive, and do not cover every possible aspect of
Church faith and life; thirdly, the canons were produced for the most part in
response to some particular dogmatic or moral question or deviation in the
Church life and so usually bear the marks of some particular controversy in
history which has conditioned not merely their particular formulation, but
indeed their very existence.
Taken by themselves, the canon laws of the Church can be misleading and
frustrating, and therefore superficial people will say “either enforce them all or
discard them completely.” But taken as a whole within the wholeness of
Orthodox life-theological, historical, canonical, and spiritual-these canons do
assume their proper place and purpose and show themselves to be a rich source
for discovering the living Truth of God in the Church. In viewing the canons of
the Church, the key factors are Christian knowledge and wisdom, which are
borne from technical study and spiritual depth. There is no other “key” to their
usage; and any other way would be according to the Orthodox faith both
unorthodox and unchristian.
Church Art
The Orthodox Church has a rich tradition of iconography as well as other
church arts: music, architecture, sculpture, needlework, poetry, etc. This artistic
tradition is based on the Orthodox Christian doctrine of human creativity
rooted in God’s love for man and the world in creation.
Because man is created in the image and likeness of God, and because God
so loved man and the world as to create, save, and glorify them by His own
coming in Christ and the Holy Spirit, the artistic expressions of man and the
blessings and inspirations of God merge into a holy artistic creativity which
truly expresses the deepest truths of the Christian vision of God, man, and
nature.
The icon is Orthodoxy’s highest artistic achievement. It is a gospel
proclamation, a doctrinal teaching, and a spiritual inspiration in colors and
lines.
The traditional Orthodox icon is not a holy picture. It is not a pictorial
portrayal of some Christian saint or event in a “photocopy” way. It is, on the
contrary, the expression of the eternal and divine reality, significance, and
purpose of the given person or event depicted. In the gracious freedom of the
divine inspiration, the icon depicts its subject as at the same time both human
and yet “full of God,” earthly and yet heavenly, physical and yet spiritual,
“bearing the cross” and yet full of grace, light, peace, and joy.
In this way the icon expresses a deeper “realism” than that which would be
shown in the simple reproduction of the physical externals of the historic
person or happening. Thus, in their own unique way the various types of
Orthodox icons, through their form and style and manner of depiction as well
as through their actual contents and use in the Church, are an inexhaustible
source of revelation of the Orthodox doctrine and faith.
Musical expression may be added to the icon as a source of discovering
the Orthodox Christian worldview. Here, however, there is greater difficulty
because of the loss in recent years of the liturgical and spiritual meaning of
music in the Church. Just as the theological meaning of the traditional
Orthodox icon is being rediscovered, so is the traditional doctrinal significance
of Orthodox music. The process in the latter case, however, is much slower,
much more difficult, and much less evident to the average person.
The traditional Orthodox architecture also expresses the doctrine of the
Church, particularly in its emphasis on “God with us” and the complete
communion of men and the world with God in Christ. The use of domed
ceilings, the shape and layout of the buildings, the placing of the icons, the use
of vestments, etc., all express the teachings of the Church. The traditional
Orthodox church architecture and artwork are expressions of the Orthodox
Christian doctrines of creation, salvation, and eternal life.
It is a very important spiritual exercise for Christians to study the holy
icons and the hymns of the Church’s liturgy. One can learn much about God and
His gracious actions among men by a careful and prayerful contemplation of
the artistic expressions of Church doctrine and life (see Worship).
The Symbol of Faith
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed should be called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
since it was formally drawn up at the first ecumenical council in Nicea (325)
and at the second ecumenical council in Constantinople (381).
The word creed comes from the Latin credo which means “I believe.” In
the Orthodox Church the creed is usually called The Symbol of Faith which
means literally the “bringing together” and the “expression” or “confession” of
the faith.
In the early Church there were many different forms of the Christian
confession of faith; many different “creeds.” These creeds were always used
originally in relation to baptism. Before being baptized a person had to state
what he believed. The earliest Christian creed was probably the simple
confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, i.e., the Messiah; and that the Christ
is Lord. By publicly confessing this belief, the person could be baptized into
Christ, dying and rising with Him into the New Life of the Kingdom of God in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
As time passed different places had different credal statements, all
professing the identical faith, yet using different forms and expressions, with
different degrees of detail and emphasis. These credal forms usually became
more detailed and elaborate in those areas where questions about the faith had
arisen and heresies had developed.
In the fourth century a great controversy developed in Christendom about
the nature of the Son of God (also called in the Scripture the Word or Logos).
Some said that the Son of God is a creature like everything else made by God.
Others contended that the Son of God is eternal, divine, and uncreated. Many
councils met and made many statements of faith about the nature of the Son of
God. The controversy raged throughout the entire Christian world.
It was the definition of the council which the Emperor Constantine called
in the city of Nicea in the year 325 which was ultimately accepted by the
Orthodox Church as the proper Symbol of Faith. This council is now called the
first ecumenical council, and this is what it said:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light;
true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by
whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down
from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and
became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered,
and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall
come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall
have no end.
Following the controversy about the Son of God, the Divine Word, and
essentially connected with it, was the dispute about the Holy Spirit. The
following definition of the Council in Constantinople in 381, which has come
to be known as the second ecumenical council was added to the Nicene
statement:
And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who
proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is
worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. In one Holy, Catholic,
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 world to come. Amen.
This whole Symbol of Faith was ultimately adopted throughout the entire
Church. It was put into the first person form “I believe” and used for the formal
and official confession of faith made by a person (or his sponsor-godparent) at
his baptism. It is also used as the formal statement of faith by a non-Orthodox
Christian entering the communion of the Orthodox Church. In the same way the
creed became part of the life of Orthodox Christians and an essential element
of the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church at which each person formally
and officially accepts and renews his baptism and membership in the Church.
Thus, the Symbol of Faith is the only part of the liturgy (repeated in another
form just before Holy Communion) which is in the first person. All other songs
and prayers of the liturgy are plural, beginning with “we”. Only the credal
statement begins with “I.” This, as we shall see, is because faith is first
personal, and only then corporate and communal.
To be an Orthodox Christian is to affirm the Orthodox Christian faith-not
merely the words, but the essential meaning of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan
symbol of faith. It means as well to affirm all that this statement implies, and
all that has been expressly developed from it and built upon it in the history of
the Orthodox Church over the centuries down to the present day.
Faith
I believe…
Faith is the foundation of Christian life. It is the fundamental virtue of
Abraham, the forefather of Israel and the Christian Church. “Abraham believed
the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen?15.6).
Jesus begins his ministry with the same command for faith.
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, “The
time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the
gospel” (Mk 1:15).
All through his life Jesus was calling for faith; faith in himself, faith in
God his Father, faith in the Gospel, faith in the Kingdom of God. The
fundamental condition of the Christian life is faith, for with faith come hope
and love and every good work and every good gift and power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the doctrine of Christ, the apostles, and the Church.
In the Scriptures faith is classically defined as “the assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11.1).
There are basically two aspects to faith; one might even say two meanings
of faith. The first is faith “in” someone or something, faith as the recognition of
these persons or things as real, true, genuine, and valuable; for example, faith
in God, in Christ, in the Holy Trinity, in the Church. The second is faith in the
sense of trust or reliance. In this sense, for example, one would not merely
believe in God, in his existence, goodness, and truth; but one would believe
God, trust his word, rely upon his presence, depend securely and with
conviction upon his promises. For Christians both types of faith are necessary.
One must believe in certain things with mind, heart, and soul; and then live by
them in the course of everyday life.
Faith is sometimes opposed to reason, and belief to knowledge. According
to Orthodoxy, faith and reason, belief and knowledge, are indeed two different
things. They are two different things, however, which always belong together
and which may never be opposed to each other or separated from each other.
In the first place one cannot believe anything which he does not already
somehow know. A person cannot possibly believe in something he knows
nothing about. Secondly, what one believes in and trusts must be reasonable. If
asked to believe in the divinity of a cow, or to place one’s trust in a wooden
idol, one would refuse on the basis that it is not reasonable to do so. Thus, faith
must have its reasons, it must be built upon knowledge, it must never be blind.
Thirdly, knowledge itself is often built upon faith. One cannot come to
knowledge through absolute skepticism. If anything is known at all, it is
because there exists a certain faith in man’s knowing possibilities and a real
trust that the objects of knowledge are really “showing themselves” and that the
mind and the senses are not acting deceitfully. Also, in relation to almost all
written words, particularly those which relate to history, the reader is called to
an act of faith. He must believe that the author is telling the truth; and,
therefore, he must have certain knowledge and certain reasons for giving his
trust.
Very often it is only when one does give his trust and does believe
something that one is able to “go further,” so to speak, and to come finally to
knowledge of his own and to the understanding of things he would never have
understood before. It is true to say that certain things always remain obscure
and meaningless unless they are viewed in the light of faith which then
provides a way of explaining and understanding their existence and meaning.
Thus, for example, the phenomena of suffering and death would be understood
differently by one who believes in Christ than by one who believes in some
other religion or philosophy or in none at all.
Faith is always personal. Each person must believe for himself. No one
can believe for another. Many people may believe and trust the same things
because of a unity of their knowledge, reason, experience and convictions.
There can be a community of faith and a unity of faith. But this community and
unity necessarily begins and rests upon the confession of personal faith.
For this reason the Symbol of Faith in the Orthodox Church-not only at
baptisms and official rituals of joining the Church, but also in common prayers
and in the Divine Liturgy-always remains in the first person. If we can pray,
offer, sing, praise, ask, bless, rejoice, and commend ourselves and each other to
God in the Church and as the Church, it is only because each one of us can say
honestly, sincerely, and with prayerful conviction: “Lord, I believe .?.?.”-
adding, as one must, the words of the man in the gospel-“.?.?. help thou my
unbelief” (Mk 9.24).
In order for our faith to be genuine, we must express it in everyday life.
We must act according to our faith and prove it by the goodness and power of
God acting in our lives. This does not mean that we “tempt God” or “put God to
the test” by doing foolish and unnecessary things just for the sake of seeing if
God will participate in our foolishness. But it does mean that if we live by faith
in our pursuit of righteousness, we can demonstrate the fact that God will be
with us, helping and guiding us in every way.
For faith to grow and become stronger, it must be used. Each person
should live according to the measure of faith which he has, however small,
weak and imperfect it might be. By acting according to one’s faith, trust in God
and the certitude of God’s presence is given, and with the help of God many
things which were never before imagined become possible.
God
... One God, the Father Almighty…
The fundamental faith of the Christian Church is in the one true and living
God.
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one God; and you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And
these words which I command you this day shall be placed upon your heart, and
you shall teach them to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when
you rise .?.?.” (Deut 6.4–8).
These words from the Law of Moses are quoted by Christ as the first and
greatest commandment (Mk 12.29). They follow upon the listing of the Ten
Commandments which begin, “I am the Lord your God .?.?. you shall have no
other gods besides me” (Deut 5.6–7).
The one Lord and God of Israel revealed to man the mystery of his name.
And Moses said “.?.?. if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say
to them?”
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say to the people
of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent
me to you: this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout
all generations’” (Ex 3.13–15).
God’s name is Yahweh which means I AM WHO I AM; or I AM WHAT I
AM; or I AM WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; or simply I AM. He is the true and
living God, the only God. He is faithful and true to his people. He reveals to
them His divine and holy Word. He gives to them his divine and holy Spirit. He
is called Adonai: the Lord; and his holy name of Yahweh is never mentioned by
the people because of its awesome sacredness. Only the high priest, and only
once a year, and only in the holy of holies of the Jerusalem Temple dared to
utter the divine name of Yahweh. On all other occasions Yahweh is addressed as
the Almighty Lord, as the Most High God, as the Lord God of Hosts.
According to the Scriptures and the experience of the saints of both the old
and new testaments, Yahweh is absolutely holy. This means literally that He is
absolutely different and unlike anything or anyone else that exists (Holy
literally means totally separated, different, other).
According to the Biblical-Orthodox tradition, even to say that “God
exists” must be qualified by the affirmation that He is so unique and so perfect
that His existence cannot be compared to any other. In this sense God is “above
existence” or “above being.” Thus, there would be great reluctance according to
Orthodox doctrine to say that God “is” as everything else “is” or that God is
simply the “supreme being” in the same chain of “being” as everything else
that is.
In this same sense the Orthodox doctrine holds that God’s unity or oneness
is also not merely equivalent to the mathematical or philosophical concept of
“one”; nor is his life, goodness, wisdom, and all powers and virtues ascribed to
Him merely equivalent to any idea, even the greatest idea, which man can have
about such reality.
However, having warned about an overly-clear or overly-positivistic
concept or idea of God, the Orthodox Church-on the basis of the living
experience of God in the saints-still makes the following affirmations: God
may certainly be said to exist perfectly and absolutely as the one who is perfect
and absolute life, goodness, truth, love, wisdom, knowledge, unity, purity, joy,
simplicity; the perfection and superperfection of everything that man knows as
holy, true, and good. It is this very God who is confessed formally in the
Liturgy of St John Chrysostom as “.?.?. God, ineffable, inconceivable,
invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same.”
It is this God-the Yahweh of Israel-whom Jesus Christ has claimed to be
His Father. God Almighty is known as “Father” through His son Jesus Christ.
Jesus taught man to call the Almighty Lord God of Hosts by the title of Father.
Before Jesus no one dared to pray to God with the intimate name of Father. It
was Jesus who said, “Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven .?.?.”
Jesus could call God Father because He is God’s only-begotten Son.
Christians can call God Father because through Christ they receive the Holy
Spirit and become themselves sons of God.
For when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman,
born under the Law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons [or, so that we all might be made sons]. And because you are
sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba!
Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then
an heir [of the Kingdom of God]
(Gal 4.4–7, The Christmas Epistle Reading in the Orthodox Church)
Thus no man is naturally a son of God and no man can easily call God
Father. We can only do so because of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And
so we say in the Orthodox Divine Liturgy:
And make us worthy, O Master, that with boldness and without
condemnation, we may dare to call upon Thee, the Heavenly God as Father and
to say: Our Father, who art in heaven .?.?.
In contemplating the revelation of God our Father in the life of His people
in the Old Testament and in the life of the Church in the New Testament,
certain attributes and properties of God can be grasped by men. First of all, it
can be clearly seen that God is Love, and that in all of His actions in and toward
the world, God the Father expresses His nature as Love through Christ and the
Holy Spirit.
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is
born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God
is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His
only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the
expiation for our sins.
So we know and believe that love God has for us. God is love, and he who
abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him
(1Jn 4.7–16).
.?.?. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
which has been given to us (Rom 5.5).
Being the God who is Love, our Father in heaven does all that He can for
the life and salvation of man and the world. He does this because He is merciful
and kind, longsuffering and compassionate, willing to forgive and to pardon
man’s sins so that man might share in the life and love of God. These gracious
attributes of God are recalled in the scriptural psalmody normally chanted at
the beginning of the divine liturgy in the Church.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! And forget not all His benefits! Who forgives all
your iniquity, who heals all your diseases! The Lord is compassionate and
merciful, long suffering and of great goodness! (Ps 103).
Creation
Maker of Heaven and Earth…
The Orthodox Church believes that God the Father is the “Creator of
Heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.”
To create means to make out of nothing; to bring into existence that which
before did not exist; or, to quote the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom once more:
“to bring from non-existence into being.”
The Orthodox doctrine of creation is that God has brought everything and
everyone which exists from non-existence into being. The Scriptural
description of creation is given primarily in the first chapter of Genesis. The
main doctrinal point about creation is that God alone is uncreated and ever-
existing. Everything which exists besides God was created by Him. God,
however, did not create everything individually and all at once, so to speak. He
created the first foundations of existence, and then over periods of time
(perhaps millions of years, see 2Pet 3.8) this first foundation of existence-by
the power which God had given to it-brought forth the other creatures of God:
Let the earth put forth vegetation .?.?. let the waters bring forth swarms of
living creatures .?.?. let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their
kinds .?.?. (Gen 1.19, 20, 24)
Thus, although God is certainly the creator of everything. He acts
gradually in time and by means of things previously made by Him to which He
has given life-producing potencies and powers.
According to the Orthodox Faith, everything that God makes is “very
good”: the heavens, the earth, the plants, the animals, and finally man himself
(Gen 1.31). God is pleased with creation and has made it for no other purpose
than to participate in His own divine, uncreated existence and to live by His
own divine “breath of life” (Gen 1.30; 2.7).
By the Word of the Lord
the heavens were made,
and all their host by the
breath (or Spirit) of His mouth.
He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
He put the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord,
let all the inhabitants of the world
stand in awe of Him!
For He spoke, and it came to be
He commanded, and it was made!
(Ps 33.6–9)
In the above-quoted verses as well as in the account of Genesis we must
notice the presence and action of God’s Word and God’s Spirit. God the Father
makes all that exists by means of His Divine Word-“for He spoke and it came
to be”-and by His Divine Spirit who “moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen
1.2). We see already a glimpse of the Holy Trinity to be fully revealed in the
New Testament when the Word becomes flesh and when the Holy Spirit comes
personally to the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost.
We must make special notice as well of the goodness of the created
physical world. There is no dualism in Orthodox Christianity. There is no
teaching that “spirit” is good and “matter” is bad, that “heaven” is good and the
“earth” is evil. God loves His entire material creation with His eternal love and,
as we shall see, when the physical creation is mined by sin He does everything
in His power to save it.
Loving the whole of His good creation, God the Father dwells within the
world that He has made because of His goodness and love for man. The
omnipresence of God is one of the divine attributes of the Creator particularly
stressed in Orthodox Christian teaching. This fact is directly affirmed in the
prayer to the Spirit of God which is used as the opening prayer of Orthodox
worship:
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere
and fillest all things. Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life! Come and abide
in us. And cleanse us from every impurity. And save our souls, O Good One!
The fact that Christians pray: Our Father who art in heaven .?.?. (or,
literally, “in the heavens”) is also an affirmation of the fact that God is present
everywhere, for wherever men move on the face of the earth, over the seas or in
the air, the heavens surround them with the presence of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ, in order to have men realize that the true God, His Father, is not bound
to one or another particular place, as were the pagan gods, teaches men to pray
to the Father “in the heavens.” For the one true and living God is present to all,
over all, embracing and encompassing all with His heavenly care and
protection. The God who is “over all” is also “through all and in all” (Eph 4.5).
By His Word and His Holy Spirit, God “fills all in all” (Eph 1.10, 23).
Thus, the Apostle Paul also proclaimed to the Athenians, that whether men
realize it or not, “in Him we live and move and have our being,” for “He is not
far from each one of us” (Acts 17.27–28). It is this fact of God’s omnipresence
in His creation, and our own presence in and to Him, that is witnessed to so
beautifully in Psalm 139:
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from Thy Presence?
If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, Thou art there
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea,
even there Thy hand shall lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to Thee, the night is bright as the day;
for darkness is as light with Thee!
(Ps 139.7–12)
Angels and Evil Spirits
All things visible and invisible…
In addition to the visible, physical creation there is an invisible world
created by God. The Bible sometimes calls it “the heavens” and other times
refers to it as “above the heavens.” Whatever its symbolical description in the
Holy Scriptures, the invisible world is definitely not part of the physical,
material universe. It does not exist in space; it has no physical dimensions. And
so it cannot be located, and it has no “place” which can be “reached” by travel
within the galaxies of the spatial, locatable “places” of the physically created
universe.
However, the fact that the invisible, created world is purely spiritual and is
not discoverable on a map of the created material spaces makes it no less real
or truly existing. The invisible creation exists as different from the created
material universe and, of course, as totally different from the uncreated,
absolutely super-divine existence of the uncreated God.
Invisible created reality consists of the hosts of bodiless powers,
generally-and somewhat incorrectly-called the angels.
Angels
Angels (which means literally “messengers”) are, strictly speaking, but
one rank of the incorporeal or bodiless powers of the invisible world.
According to Orthodox Scripture and Tradition there are nine ranks of
bodiless powers or the Hosts (Sabaoth means literally “armies” or “choirs” or
“ranks”). There are angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues,
dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. The latter are described as
offering continual adoration and glory to God with the incessant and ever-
resounding cry of Holy! Holy! Holy! (Is 6.3; Rev 4.8). Those in the middle of
the above listing are little-known to men while the angels and archangels are
seen as the active workers, warriors, and messengers of Yahweh relative to this
world. Thus, angels and archangels are seen to struggle against spiritual evil
and to mediate between God and the world. They appear in various forms to
men in both the Old and New Testaments as well as in the life of the Church.
The angels are those who bring the power and presence of God and who are
messengers of His word for the salvation of the world. The best-known of the
angels are Gabriel (which means literally “man of God”), the bearer of the good
news of Christ’s birth (Dan 8.16; 9.21; Lk 1.19, 26), and Michael (which means
literally “who is like God”), the chief warrior of the spiritual armies of God
(Dan 11.13; 12.1; Jude 9; Rev 12.7).
Generally speaking the appearances of the bodiless powers to men are
described in a physical way (“six-winged, many-eyed”; or in the “form of a
man”). However, it must be clearly understood that these are merely symbolical
descriptions. By nature and definition the angels have no bodies and no
material properties of any sort. They are strictly spiritual beings.
Evil Spirits
In addition to the created spiritual powers who do the will of God, there
are, according to the Orthodox faith, those who rebel against Him and do evil.
These are the demons or devils (which means literally those who “pull apart”
and destroy) who are also known both in the Old and New Testaments as well
as in the lives of the saints of the Church.
Satan (which means literally the enemy or the adversary) is one proper
name for the devil, the leader of the evil spirits. He is identified in the serpent
symbol of Gen 3 and as the tempter of both Job and Jesus (Job 1.6; Mk 1.33).
He is labelled by Christ as a deceiver and liar, the “father of lies” (Jn 8.44) and
the “prince of this world” (Jn 12.31; 14.30; 16.11). He has “fallen from heaven”
together with his evil angels to do battle with God and his servants (Lk 10.18;
Is 14.12). It is this same Satan who “entered Judas” to effect the betrayal and
destruction of Christ (Lk 22.3).
The apostles of Christ and the saints of the Church knew from direct
experience Satan’s powers against man for Man’s own destruction. They knew
as well Satan’s lack of power and his own ultimate destruction when man is
with God, filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ. According to Orthodox doctrine
there is no middle road between God and Satan. Ultimately, and at any given
moment, man is either with God or the devil, serving one or the other.
The ultimate victory belongs to God and to those with Him. Satan and his
hosts are finally destroyed. Without this recognition-and still more-the
experience of this reality of the cosmic spiritual struggle (God and Satan, the
good angels and the evil angels), one cannot truly be called an Orthodox
Christian who sees and lives according to the deepest realities of life. Once
again, however, it must be clearly noted that the devil is not a “red-suited
gentleman” nor any other type of grossly-physical tempter. He is a subtle,
intelligent spirit who acts mostly by deceit and hidden actions, having as his
greatest victory man’s disbelief in his existence and power. Thus, the devil
attacks “head-on” only those whom he can deceive in no other way: Jesus and
the greatest of the saints. For the greatest part of his warfare he is only too
satisfied to remain concealed and to act by indirect methods and means.
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a
roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1Pet 5.8).
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but
against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this
present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places (Eph 6.11–12).
Man
Man is God’s special creature. He is the only one “created in the image
and likeness of God” (Gen 1.26). He is created by God from the dust at the end
of the process of creation (the “sixth day”) and by the special will of God. He is
made to breathe “the breath of life” (Gen 2.7), to know God, to have dominion
over all that God has made.
God created humans as male and female (Gen. 1.27; 2.21) in order “to be
fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1.28). Thus, according to Orthodox doctrine
sexuality belongs to the creation which God calls “very good” (Gen 1.31), and
in itself it is in no way sinful or perverse. It belongs to the very nature of
humanity directly willed by God.
As the image of God, ruler over creation and co-creator with the Uncreated
Maker, man has the task to “reflect” God in creation; to make His presence, His
will and His powers spread throughout the universe; to transform all that exists
into the paradise of God. In this sense man is definitely created for a destiny
higher than the bodiless powers of heaven, the angels. This conviction is
affirmed by Orthodox Christianity not only because of the Scriptural emphasis
on man as made in God’s image to rule creation, which is not said about angels;
but it is also directly affirmed because it is written of Jesus Christ, Who is truly
the perfect man and the Last Adam (1Cor 15.45) that “God has highly exalted
him and bestowed upon him the name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father” (Phil 2.10–11).
It follows from belief in Jesus that man is created for a life far superior to
that of any creature, even the angels who glorify God and serve the cause of
man’s salvation. It is precisely this conviction which is affirmed when the
Church hails Mary the Mother of Christ as “more honorable than the cherubim
and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim.” For what is glorified as
already accomplished in the human Mary is precisely what is expected and
hoped for by all men “who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11.28).
Thus we see the great dignity of man according to the Christian faith. We
see man as the “most important” of God’s creatures, the one for whom “all
things visible and invisible” have been created by God.
It is the Orthodox doctrine that one can understand and appreciate what it
means to be human only in the light of the full revelation of Jesus Christ. Being
the Divine Word and Son of God in human flesh, Jesus reveals the real meaning
of manhood. As the Perfect Man and the Last Adam, the “man from heaven,”
Jesus gives us the proper interpretation of the story of creation given in the
book of Genesis. For as the Apostle Paul has written, Adam finds his
significance as “the type (or figure) of the one who was to come,” namely Jesus
Christ (Rom 5.14).
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last
Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first but the
physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of
dust; the second man (Christ) is from heaven .?.?. Just as we have borne the
image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven
(1Cor 15.45–49).
According to Orthodox theology, to bear the image of God is to be like
Christ, the uncreated Image of God, and to share in all of the spiritual attributes
of divinity. It is, in the words of the holy fathers, to become by divine grace all
that God Himself is by nature. If God is a free, spiritual, personal Being, so
human beings, male and female, are to be the same. If God is so powerful and
creative, having dominion over all creation, so human creatures, made in His
image and according to His likeness, are also to exercise dominion in the
world. If God exercises dominion and authority not by tyranny and oppression,
but by loving kindness and service, so are His creatures to do likewise. If God
Himself is love, mercy, compassion and care in all things, so must His
creatures, made to be like Him, also be the same. And finally, if God lives
forever in eternal life, never dying, but always existing in perfectly joyful and
harmonious beauty and happiness with all of creation, so too are human beings
made for everlasting life in joyful and harmonious communion with God and
the whole of creation.
According to Orthodox doctrine, human being and life is never completed
and finished in its development and growth because it is made in the image and
according to the likeness of God. God’s being and life are inexhaustible and
boundless. As the Divine Archetype has no limits to His divinity, so the human
image has no limits to its humanity, to what it can become by the grace of its
Creator. Human nature, therefore, is created by God to grow and develop
through participation in the nature of God for all eternity. Man is made to
become ever more Godlike forever, even in the Kingdom of God at the end of
this age, when Christ will come again in glory to raise the dead and give life to
those who love Him.
Thus the holy fathers of the Orthodox faith taught that whatever stage of
maturity and development man attains and achieves, whatever his power,
wisdom, mercy, knowledge, love, there continually remains before him an
infinity of ever-greater fullness of life in the most blessed Trinity to be
participated in and lived. The fact that human nature progresses eternally in
perfection within the nature of God constitutes the meaning of life for man, and
remains forever the source of his joy and gladness for all eternity.
It must be mentioned at this point as well that according to Orthodox
Christian doctrine, the fact that humans are created male and female is the
direct will of God and is essential for proper human life and activity as
reflective of God. In a word, human sexuality is a necessary element in human
being and life as made in the image of God. This does not mean that there is
any sort of sexuality in God, but it does mean that human life must be sexual-
male and female-if it will be what God Himself has made it to be.
Man and woman, male and female, are created by God to live together in a
union of being, life and love. The man is to be the leader in human activities,
the one reflecting Christ as the new and perfect Adam. The woman is to be
man’s “helpmeet,” the “mother of all living” (Gen 2.18; 3.20). Symbolized in
the relationship of Mary and the Church, the New Eve, to Christ, the New
Adam, as the one who inspires man’s life and completes his being and fulfills
his life, the woman is not man’s instrument or tool. She is a person in her own
right, a sharer of the nature of God, a necessary complement to man. There can
be no man without woman-no Adam without Eve; just as there can be no
woman without man. The two exist together in perfect communion and
harmony for the fulfillment of human nature and life.
The differences between men and women are real and irreducible. They
are not limited to biological or physical differences. They are rather different
“modes of existence” within one and the same humanity; just as, we might say,
the Son and the Holy Spirit are different “modes of existence” within one and
the same divinity, together with God the Father. The male and female are to be
in spiritual as well as bodily union. They are to express together, in one and the
same humanity, all of the virtues and powers that belong to human nature as
made in the image and according to the likeness of God. There are no virtues or
powers that belong to man, and not to woman; nor to woman and not to man.
All are called to spiritual perfection in truth and in love, indeed in all of the
divine virtues of God given to His creatures.
The hostilities and competitions between man and woman that exist in the
present world are not due to their respective “modes of existence” as created by
God. They are due rather to sin. There should be no tyranny of men over
women; no oppression, no servitude. Just as there should be no striving of
women to be men, and to hold the male position in the order of creation. There
should be rather a harmony and unity within the community of being with its
natural created order and distinctions. The oneness of nature with the
distinction of various modes of being within Divinity, the Most Holy Trinity.
For in the Divinity of the Trinity itself there is a perfect unity of nature and
being, with real distinctions between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
as to how each of the Divine Persons lives and expresses the common nature of
God. There is an order in the Trinity. There is even a hierarchy if we do not take
this term to mean some difference in nature between the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, but merely the way in which the Divine Persons relate to one another
and to man and the world. For in the Trinity itself the Father alone is the
“source of divinity.” The Son is the expression of the Father and is “subject” to
Him. And the Holy Spirit, of one essence and fully equal with the Father and
the Son, is the “third” Person who fulfills the will of the Father and the Son.
The Three Divine Persons are perfectly equal. This is a dogma of the Church.
But they are not the same, and there is an ordered relation between them in
which there are “priorities” in being and acting which not only do not destroy
the perfection and perfect unity of the Godhead, but even allow it and make it
to be perfect and divine (see “The Holy Trinity,” below). It is the Trinitarian
Life of God which is the Divine Archetype and Pattern for the being and acting
of male and female within the order of creation.
Sin
The word sin means literally “missing the mark.” It means the failure to
be what one should be and to do what one should do.
Originally man was made to be the created image of God, to live in union
with God’s divine life, and to rule over all creation. Man’s failure in this task is
his sin which has also been called his fall.
The “fall” of man means that man failed in his God-given vocation. This is
the meaning of Gen 3. Man was seduced by evil (the serpent) into believing
that he could be “like God” by his own will and effort.
In the Orthodox tradition the eating of the “tree of the knowledge of good
and evil” is generally interpreted as man’s actual taste of evil, his literal
experience of evil as such. Sometimes, this eating is also interpreted (as by
Saint Gregory the Theologian) as man’s attempt to go beyond what was
possible for him; his attempt to do that which was not yet within his power to
realize.
Whatever the details of the various interpretations of the Genesis story, it
is the clear doctrine of Orthodoxy that man has failed in his original vocation.
He disobeyed God’s command through pride, jealousy and the lack of humble
gratitude to God by yielding to the temptation of Satan. Thus man sinned. He
“missed the mark” of his calling. He transgressed the Law of God (see 1Jn 3.4).
And so he ruined both himself and the creation which he was given to care for
and to cultivate. By his sin-and his sins-man brings himself and all creation
under the rule of evil and death.
In the Bible and in Orthodox theology these elements always go together:
sin, evil, the devil, suffering and death. There is never one without the other,
and all are the common result of man’s rebellion against God and his loss of
communion with Him. This is the primary meaning of Genesis 3 and the
chapters which follow until the calling of Abraham. Sin begets still more sin
and even greater evil. It brings cosmic disharmony, the ultimate corruption and
death of everyone and everything. Man still remains the created image of God-
this cannot be changed-but he fails to keep his image pure and to retain the
divine likeness. He defiles his humanity with evil, perverts it and deforms it so
that it cannot be the pure reflection of God that it was meant to be. The world
also remains good, indeed “very good,” but it shares the sorry consequences of
its created master’s sin and suffers with him in mortal agony and corruption.
Thus, through man’s sin the whole world falls under the rule of Satan and “lies
in wickedness” (1Jn 5.19; see also Rom 5.12).
The Genesis story is the divinely-inspired description in symbolic terms of
man’s primordial and original possibilities and failures. It reveals that man’s
potency for eternal growth and development in God was turned instead into
man’s multiplication and cultivation of wickedness and his transformation of
creation into the devil’s princedom, a cosmic cemetery “groaning in travail”
until saved once more by God (Rom 8.19–23). All the children of Adam, i.e. all
who belong to the human race, share in this tragic fate. Even those born this
very minute as images of God into a world essentially good are thrown
immediately into a deathbound universe, ruled by the devil and filled with the
wicked fruit of generations of his evil servants.
This is the fundamental message: man and the world need to be saved.
God gives the promise of salvation from the very beginning, the promise which
begins to be fulfilled in history in the person of Abraham, the father of Israel,
the forefather of Christ.
And the Lord said .?.?. to Abram [later named Abraham] “I will make you
a great nation .?.?. and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed”
(Gen 12.3; also 22.15).
Abraham believed God; and from him came the people of Israel from
whom, according to the flesh, came Jesus Christ the Saviour and Lord of
Creation (see Lk 1.55, 73; Rom 4; Gal 3).
The entire history of the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Jesus. All
that happened to the chosen children of Abraham happened in view of the
eventual and final destruction of sin and death by Christ. The covenants of God
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel which
means “the one who struggles with God”); the twelve tribes of Israel; the story
of Joseph; the passover, exodus and reception of God’s Law by Moses; the
entrance into the promised land by Joshua; the founding of Jerusalem and the
building of the temple by David and Solomon; the judges, kings, prophets and
priests; everything in the Old Testament history of God’s chosen people finds
its final purpose and meaning in the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension
and glorification of God’s only Son Jesus the Messiah. He is the one who
comes from the Father to save the people from their sins, to open their tombs
and to grant eternal life to all creation.
Jesus Christ
And In One Lord Jesus Christ .?.?.
The fundamental confession of Christians about their Master is this: Jesus
Christ is Lord. It begins in the gospel when Jesus himself asks his disciples
who they think that He is:
But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ,
the Son of the Living God” (Mt 16.16).
Jesus is the Christ. This is the first act of faith which men must make
about Him. At His birth, the child of Mary is given the name Jesus, which
means literally Saviour (in Hebrew Joshua, the name also of Moses’ successor
who crossed the Jordan River and led the chosen people into the promised
land). “You will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”
(Mt 1.21; Lk 1.31). It is this Jesus who is the Christ, which means the Anointed,
the Messiah of Israel. Jesus is the Messiah, the one promised to the world
through Abraham and his children.
But who is the Messiah? This is the second question, one also asked by
Christ in the gospels-this time not to his disciples, but to those who were
taunting him and trying to catch him in his words. “Who is the Messiah?” he
asked them, not because they could answer or really wished to know, but in
order to silence them and to begin the inauguration of “the hour” for which he
had come: the hour of the world’s salvation.
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a
question saying, “What do you think of the Christ [i.e., the Messiah]? Whose
Son is he?
They said to him, “The Son of David.”
He said to them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls
him Lord, saying The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I put thy
enemies under thy feet” (Ps 110). If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his
son?”
And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone
dare to ask him any more questions.
(Mt 22.41–46)
After Jesus’ resurrection, inspired by the same Holy Spirit who inspired
David, the apostles and all members of the Church understood the meaning of
his words. Jesus is the Christ. And the Christ is the Lord. This is the mystery of
Jesus Christ the Messiah, namely that He is the One and Only Lord, identified
with the God Yahweh of the Old Testament.
We saw already how Yahweh was always called Adonai, the Lord, by the
people of Israel. In the Greek Bible the very word Yahweh was not even
written. Instead, where the word Yahweh was written in Hebrew, and where the
Jews said Adonai, the Lord, the Greek Bible simply wrote Kyrios-the Lord.
Thus, the Son of David, which was another way of saying the Messiah, is called
Kyrios, the Lord.
For the Jews, and indeed for the first Christians, the term Lord was proper
to God alone: “God is the Lord and has revealed Himself unto us” (Ps 11.8).
This Lord and God is Yahweh; and it is Jesus the Messiah as well. For although
Jesus claims that “the Father is greater than I” (Jn 14.28), he claims as well: “I
and the Father are one” (Jn 10.30).
Believing in “One Lord Jesus Christ” is the prime confession of faith for
which the first Christians were willing to die. For it is the confession which
claims the identity of Jesus with the Most High God.
Son of God
The only-begotten Son of God .?.?.
Jesus is one with God as His only-begotten Son. This is the gospel
proclamation formulated by the holy fathers of the Nicene Council in the
following way:
.?.?. 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. Of one essence with the Father. Through whom all things were made
.?.?.
These lines speak about the Son of God, also called the Word or Logos of
God, before his birth in human flesh from the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
There is but one eternal Son of God. He is called the Only-begotten, which
means the only one born of God the Father. Begotten as a word simply means
born or generated.
The Son of God is born from the Father “before all ages”; that is, before
creation, before the commencement of time. Time has its beginning in creation.
God exists before time, in an eternally timeless existence without beginning or
end.
Eternity as a word does not mean endless time. It means the condition of
no time at all-no past or future, just a constant present. For God there is no past
or future. For God, all is now.
In the eternal “now” of God, before the creation of the world, God the
Father gave birth to his only-begotten Son in what can only be termed an
eternal, timeless, always presently-existing generation. This means that
although the Son is “begotten of the Father” and comes forth from the Father,
his coming forth is eternal. Thus, there never was a “time” when there was no
Son of God. This is specifically what the heretic Arius taught. It is the doctrine
formally condemned by the first ecumenical council.
Although born of the Father and having his origin in Him, the only-
begotten Son always existed, or rather more accurately always “exists” as
uncreated, eternal and divine. Thus, the Gospel of Saint John says:
In the beginning was the Word [the Logos-Son], and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God (Jn 1.1).
As the eternally-born of God and always existing with the Father in the
“timeless generation,” the Son is truly “Light of Light, True God of True God.”
For God is Light and what is born of Him must be Light. And God is True God,
and what is born of Him must be True God.
We know from the created order of things that what is born must be
essentially the same as what gives birth. If one comes from the very being of
another, one must be the very same thing. He cannot be essentially different.
Thus, men give birth to men, and birds to birds, fish to fish, flowers to flowers.
If God, then, in the super-abundant fullness and perfection of His divine
being gives birth to a Son, the Son must be the same as the Father in all things-
except, of course, in the fact of his being the Son.
Thus, if the Father is divinely and eternally perfect, true, wise, good,
loving, and all of the things that we know God is: “ineffable, inconceivable,
invisible, ever-existing and eternally the same” (to quote this text of the
Liturgy once more), then the Son must be all of these things as well. To think
that what is born of God must be less than God, says one saint of the Church, is
to dishonor to God.
The Son is “begotten not made, of one essence with the Father.” “Begotten
not made” may also be put “born and not created.” Everything which exists
besides God is created by Him: all things visible and invisible. But the Son of
God is not a creature. He was not created by God or made by Him. He was born,
begotten, generated from the very being and nature of the Father. It belongs to
the very nature of God-to God as God-according to divine revelation as
understood by the Orthodox, that God is an eternal Father by nature, and that
He should always have with Him his eternal, uncreated Son.
It belongs to the very nature of God that He should be such a being if He is
truly and perfectly divine. It belongs to God’s very divine nature that He should
not be eternally alone in his divinity, but that His very being as Love and
Goodness should naturally “overflow itself” and “reproduce itself” in the
generation of a divine Son: the “Son of His Love” as the Apostle Paul has
called him (Col 1.13, inaccurately translated in English).
Thus, there is an abyss drawn between the created and the uncreated,
between God and everything else which God has made out of nothing. The Son
of God, born of the Father before all ages, is not created. He was not made out
of nothing. He was eternally begotten from the divine being of the Father. He
belongs “on the side of God.”
Having been born and not made, the Son of God is what God is. The
expression of one essence simply means this: what God the Father is, so also-is
the Son of God. Essence is from the Latin word esse which means to be. The
essence of a thing answers the question, What is it? What the Father is, the Son
is. The Father is divine, the Son is divine. The Father is eternal, the Son is
eternal. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated. The Father is God and
the Son is God. This is what men confess when they say “the only-begotten Son
of God .?.?. of one essence with the Father.”
Being always with the Father, the Son is also one life, one will, one power
and one action with Him. Whatever the Father is, the Son is; and so whatever
the Father does, the Son does as well. The original act of God outside of His
divine existence is the act of creation. The Father is creator of heaven and
earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in the act of creation, as-we
confess in the Symbol of Faith, the Son is the one by whom all things were
made.
The Son acts in creation as the one who accomplishes the Father’s will.
The divine act of creation-and, indeed, every action toward the world in
revelation, salvation, and glorification-is willed by the Father and
accomplished by the Son (we will speak of the Holy Spirit below) in one
identical divine action. Thus, we have the Genesis account of God creating
through His divine word (“God said .?.?.”), and in the Gospel of St John the
following specific revelation:
“He [the Word-Son] was in the beginning with God [the Father]; all
things were made through [or by] him and without him was not anything made
that was made” (Jn 1.2–3).
This is the exact doctrine of the Apostle Paul as well:
.?.?. in him [the Son] all things were created, in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers-
all things were created through him and for him. He is before an things and in
him all things hold together (Col 1.16–17).
Thus, the eternal Son of God is confessed as the one “by whom all things
were made” (Heb 1.2; 2.10; Rom 11.36).
The Symbol of Faith continues: .?.?. Who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary and became man .?.?.
The divine Son of God was born in human flesh for the salvation of the
world. This is the central doctrine of the Orthodox Christian Faith; the entire
life of Christians is built upon this fact.
The Symbol of Faith stresses that it is “for us men and for our salvation”
that the Son of God has come. This is the most critical biblical doctrine, that
“God so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3.16, quoted at
each Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom at the center of the eucharistic
prayer).
Because of His perfect love, God sent forth His Son into the world. God
knew in the very act of creation that to have a world at all would require the
incarnation of His Son in human flesh. Incarnation as a word means
“enfleshment” in the sense of taking on the wholeness of human nature, body
and soul.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth;
we have beheld his glory, glory as the only-begotten Son of the Father. And
from his fullness have we all received grace upon grace” (Jn 1.14–16).
... came down from heaven…
The affirmation that the Son came “down from heaven” also should not be
interpreted in the sense that before the incarnation the Son of God was totally
absent from the world. The Son was always “in the world” for the “world was
made through Him” (Jn 1.10). He was always present in the world for He is
personally the life and the light of man (1Jn 4).
As “created in the image and likeness of God,” every man-just by being a
man-is already a reflection of the divine Son, who is Himself the uncreated
image of God (Col 1.15; Heb 1.3). Thus, the Son, or Word, or Image, or
Radiance of God, as He is called in Scriptures, was always “in the world” by
being always present in every of his “created images,” not only as their creator,
but also as the one whose very being all creatures are made to share and to
reflect. Thus, in his incarnation, the Son comes personally to the world and
becomes Himself a man. But even before the incarnation He was always in the
world by the presence and power of his creative actions in his creatures,
particularly in man.
In addition to this, it is also Orthodox doctrine that the manifestation of
God to the saints of the Old Testament, the so-called theophanies (which means
divine manifestations), were manifestations of the Father, by, through and in
his Son or Logos. Thus, for example, the manifestations to Moses, Elias or
Isaiah are mediated by God’s divine and uncreated Son.
It is the Orthodox teaching as well that the Word of God which came to the
Old Testament prophets and saints, and the very words of the Old Testament
Law of Moses, which are called in Hebrew the “words” and not as we say in
English, the “commandments”, are also revelations of God by his Son, the
Divine Word. Thus, for example, we have Old Testamental witness to the
revelation of God’s Word, such as that of the Prophet Isaiah, in almost the same
personalistic form as is found in the Christian gospel:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not
thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the
sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my
mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I
propose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Is 55.10–11).
Thus, before His personal birth of the Virgin Mary as the man Jesus, the
divine Son and Word of God was in the world by His presence and action in
creation, particularly in man. He was present and active; also in the theophanies
to the Old Testament saints; and in the words of the law and the prophets, both
oral and scriptural.
Incarnation
And He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and
became man .?.?.
The divine Son of God was born as a man from the Virgin Mary by the
power of the Holy Spirit (Mt 1; Lk 1). The Church teaches that the virgin birth
is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Is 7.14), and that it is as well the
fulfillment of the longings of all men for salvation which are found in all
religions and philosophies in human history. Only God can save the world. Man
alone cannot do it because it is man himself who must be saved. Therefore,
according to Orthodox doctrine, the virgin birth is necessary not at all because
of a false idolization of virginity as such or because of a sinful repulsion to
normal human sexuality. Nor is it necessary as some would contend to give
“added weight” to the moral teachings of Jesus. The virgin birth is understood
as a necessity because the one who is born must not be merely a man like all
others needing salvation. The Saviour of the world cannot merely be one of the
race of Adam born of the flesh like all of the others. He must be “not of this
world” in order to save the world.
Jesus is born from the Virgin Mary because he is the divine Son of God,
the Saviour of the world. It is the formal teaching of the Orthodox Church that
Jesus is not a “mere man” like all other men. He is indeed a real man, a whole
and perfectly complete man with a human mind, soul and body. But he is the
man which the Son and Word of God has become. Thus, the Church formally
confesses that Mary should properly be called Theotokos, which means literally
“the one who gives birth to God.” For the one born of Mary is, as the Orthodox
Church sings at Christmas: “.?.?. he who from all eternity is God.”
Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One, and the earth offers
a cave to the Unapproachable One! Angels, with shepherds, glorify Him! The
wise men journey with the star! Since for our sake the eternal God was born as
a little child! (Kontakion of the Nativity)
Jesus of Nazareth is God, or, more accurately, the divine Son of God in
human flesh. He is a true man in every way. He was born. He grew up in
obedience to his parents. He increased in wisdom and stature (Lk 2.51–52). He
had a family life with “brethren” (Mk 3.31–34), who according to Orthodox
doctrine were not children born of Mary who is confessed as “ever-virgin,” but
were either cousins or children of Joseph.
As a man Jesus experienced all normal and natural human experiences
such as growth and development, ignorance and learning, hunger, thirst,
fatigue, sorrow, pain, and disappointment. He also knew human temptation,
suffering, and death. He took these things upon himself “for us men and for our
salvation.”
Since, therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise
partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has
the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of
death were subject to lifelong bondage. For surely it was not with angels that
he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be
made like his brethren in every respect .?.?. to make expiation for the sins of the
people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to
help those who are tempted (Heb 2.9–18).
Christ has entered the world becoming like all men in all things except sin.
He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled,
he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted
to him [God the Father] who judges justly (1?Pet 2.22; Heb 4.15).
Jesus was tempted, but he did not sin. He was perfect in every way,
absolutely obedient to God the Father; speaking His words, doing His works,
and accomplishing His will. As a man, Jesus fulfilled his role perfectly as the
Perfect Man, the new and final Adam. He did all things that man fails to do,
being in everything the most perfect human response to the divine initiative of
God toward creation. In this sense, the Son of God as man “recapitulated” the
life of Adam, i.e., the entire human race, bringing man and his world back to
God the Father and allowing for a new beginning of life free from the power of
sin, the devil, and death.
As the Saviour-Messiah, Christ fulfilled as well all of the prophecies and
expectations of the Old Testament, fulfilling and crowning in final and absolute
perfection all that was begun in Israel for human and cosmic salvation. Thus,
Christ is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, the completion of the Law
of Moses, the fulfillment of the prophets and Himself the Final Prophet, the
King and the Teacher, the one Great High Priest of Salvation and the Perfect
Sacrificial Victim, the New Passover and the Bestower of the Holy Spirit upon
all creation.
It is in this role as Messiah-King of Israel and Saviour of the world that
Christ insisted upon His identity with God the Father and called Himself the
Way, the Truth, and the Life: the Resurrection and the Life, the Light of the
World, the Bread of Life, the Door to the Sheepfold, the Good Shepherd, the
Heavenly Son of Man, the Son of God, and God Himself, the I AM (Gospel of
Saint John).
Defense of the Doctrine of Incarnation
In the Orthodox Church the central fact of the Christian faith, that the Son
of God has appeared on earth as a real man, born of the Virgin Mary in order to
die and rise again to give life to the world, has been expressed and defended in
many different ways. The first preaching and the first defense of the faith
consisted in maintaining that Jesus of Nazareth is in truth the Messiah of Israel,
and that the Messiah Himself-the Christ-is indeed truly Lord and God in human
form. The first Christians, beginning with the apostles, had to insist on the fact
that not only is Jesus truly the Christ and the Son of God, but that He has truly
lived and died and risen from the dead in the flesh, as a true human being.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess
Jesus is not of God (1Jn 4.2).
For many deceivers have gone into the world, men who will not
acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh .?.?. (2Jn 7).
In the early years of the Christian faith, the defenders of the faith-the
apologists and martyrs-had as their central witness and task the defense of the
doctrine that Jesus, being the Son of God in human flesh, has lived on earth, has
died, has been raised by the Father, and has been glorified as the only King and
Lord and God of the world.
The Ecumenical Councils
In the third and fourth centuries attempts were made to teach that although
Jesus is truly the incarnate Son and Word of God, that the Son and Word
Himself is not fully and totally divine, but a creature-even the most exalted
creature-but a creature made by God like everything else that was made. This
was the teaching of the Arians. Against this teaching, the fathers, such as
Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, his brother, Gregory of Nyssa, and
Gregory the Theologian of Nazianzus defended the definition of faith of the
first and second ecumenical councils which held that the Son and Word of God-
incarnate in human form as Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah-Christ of Israel-is
not a creature, but is truly divine with the same divinity as God the Father and
the Holy Spirit. This was the defense of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity which
preserved for the Church of all ages the faith that Jesus is indeed the divine Son
of God, of one essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one of the Holy
Trinity.
At the same time, in the fourth century, it was also necessary for the
Church to reject the teaching of a certain Appolinarius, who claimed that
although Jesus was indeed the incarnate Son and Word of God, the incarnation
consisted in the Word merely taking a human body and not the fullness of
human nature. This was the doctrine that Jesus had no real human soul, no
human mind, no human spirit, but that the divine Son of God, who exists
eternally with the Father and the Spirit, merely dwelt in a human body, in
human flesh, as in a temple. It is for this reason that every official doctrinal
statement in the Orthodox Church, including all of the statements of the
ecumenical councils, always insists that the Son of God became man of the
Virgin Mary with a rational soul and body; in other words, that the Son of God
really became human in the full meaning of the word and that Jesus Christ was
and is a real human being, having and being everything that every human being
has and is. This is nothing other than the teaching of the Gospels and the New
Testament scriptures generally.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
partook of the same nature .?.?. [being] made like His brethren in every respect
.?.?. (Heb 2.14–17)
The Nestorian Controversy
In the fifth century a long and difficult controversy developed over the
true understanding of the person and nature of Jesus Christ. The third
ecumenical council in Ephesus in 431, following the teaching of Saint Cyril of
Alexandria, was most concerned to defend the fact that the One who was born
of the Virgin Mary was no one other than the divine Son of God in human flesh.
It was necessary to defend this fact most explicitly because some in the Church,
following Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, were teaching that the
Virgin Mary should not be called Theotokos-a term already used in the
Church’s theology-because it was claimed that the Virgin gave birth to the man
Jesus whom the Son of God had become in the incarnation, and not to the Son
Himself. In this view it was held that there is a division between the Son of God
born in eternity from God the Father and the Son of Man born from the Virgin
in Bethlehem; and that although there is certainly a real “connection” between
them, Mary merely gave birth to the man. As such, it was held, Mary could be
called Theotokos only by some sort of symbolic and overly-pious stretching of
the word, but that it is rather dogmatically accurate to call her Christotokos (the
one who gave birth to the Messiah) or Anthropotokos (the one who gave birth
to the Man that the Son of God has become in the incarnation).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the fathers of the council in Ephesus
rejected the Nestorian doctrine and claimed that the term Theotokos for the
Virgin Mary is completely and totally accurate and must be retained if the
Christian faith is to be properly confessed and the Christian life properly lived.
The term must be defended because there can be no division of any sort
between the eternal Son and Word of God, begotten of the Father before all
ages, and Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary. Mary’s child is the eternal and divine
Son of God. He-and no one else-was born of her as a child. He-and no one else-
was incarnate in human flesh from her. He-and no one else-became man in the
manger in Bethlehem. There can be no “connection” or “conjunction” between
God’s Son and Mary’s Son because they are in fact one and the same person.
God’s Son was born of Mary. God’s Son is divine; He is God. Therefore, Mary
gave birth to God in the flesh, to God as a man. Therefore, Mary is truly
Theotokos. The battle cry of St Cyril and the Council in Ephesus was just this:
The Son of God and the Son of Man-one Son!
The Council of Chalcedon
This teaching about Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, was further
elaborated and explained by the definition of the fourth ecumenical council in
Chalcedon in 451. This was necessary because there was a tendency to stress
the divine nature of Christ to such an extent that His true human nature was
underplayed to the point almost of being rejected. At the fourth council the
well-known formulation was made which says that Jesus Christ, the incarnate
Son and Word of God is one person (or hypostasis) having two full and
complete natures: human and divine. Inspired particularly by the letter of Saint
Leo, the Pope of Rome, the fourth council insisted that Jesus is exactly what
God the Father is in relation to His divinity. This was a direct reference to the
Nicene Creed which claims that the Son of God is “of one essence with the
Father,” which simply means that what God the Father is, the Son is also: Light
from Light, True God from True God. And the council insisted as well that in
the incarnation the Son of God became exactly what all human beings are,
confessing that Jesus Christ is also “of one essence” with all human beings in
respect to His humanity. This doctrine was and is defended as teaching nothing
other than the apostolic faith as recorded in the Gospels and the New Testament
writings, for example, those of the Apostle Paul:
.?.?. though He was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not count equality with
God a thing to be clung to, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant,
being found in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled
Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2.6–8; See
also Heb 1–2, Jn 1).
The critical words in the definition of faith of the Council of Chalcedon
are the following:
Following the holy fathers we teach with one voice that the Son of God
and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be confessed as one and the same [Person], and
He is perfect in Divinity and perfect in Humanity, true God and true Man, of a
rational soul and [human] body consisting, of one essence with the Father as
touching His Divinity and of one essence with us as touching His Humanity;
made in all things like unto us, with the exception of sin only; begotten of His
Father before all ages according to His Divinity: but in these last days, for us
men and for our salvation, born [into the world] of the Virgin Mary, Theotokos,
according to His Humanity. This one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-
begotten Son [of God] must be confessed to be in two natures, without mixture
and without change, without separation and without division [i.e., without
fusing together Divinity and Humanity so that the proper characteristics of each
are changed or lost; and also without separating them in such a way that there
might be considered to be two Sons and not One Son only] and that without the
distinction of natures being removed by such union, but rather that the peculiar
property of each nature being preserved and being united in one Person and
Hypostasis, not separated or divided into two persons, but one and the same
Son and only begotten, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Prophets of
old have spoken concerning Him [e.g., the Immanuel of Is 7.14], and as Jesus
Christ has taught us, and as the Creed of the fathers has delivered to us.
A number of Christians did not accept the Council of Chalcedon and broke
communion with those who did accept it. They did so because they thought that
the council had in fact resurrected the wrong doctrine of Nestorius by insisting
on the “two natures” after the incarnation, however strongly and firmly the
“union” of the two natures was insisted upon. These Christians were called the
monophysites (from the term meaning “one nature” after the incarnation), and
they continue until today in separation from the Chalcedonian Orthodox in the
Coptic, Ethiopian and Armenian churches. Hopefully, one day, by God’s grace,
this dispute will be resolved and those who adhere to Chalcedon the Eastern
Orthodox Christians, as well as the traditional Roman Catholics and
Protestants-will come to a unity of faith with those who reject Chalcedon in
regard to its explication of the union of the divine and the human in the one
person of Christ our Lord. Whatever the future may hold by God’s grace,
however, it is still the firm teaching of the Orthodox Church that the Council of
Chalcedon is in strict adherence with the anti-Nestorian doctrines of Saint Cyril
and the third ecumenical council in Ephesus. The virtue of the fourth council,
in the Orthodox view, is that it defines very clearly the fact that when the Son
of God was born as a man from the Virgin Mary, Theotokos, He did not cease to
be God or change in His Divinity, while becoming a complete and perfect man
in His incarnate Humanity. For salvation itself requires the perfect union of
Divinity and Humanity in the one Person of Jesus Christ; 21 union where God
is God and Man is Man, and yet where the two become one in perfect unity:
without fusion or change, and without division or separation.
Emperor Justinian and the 5th Ecumenical Council
In the sixth century, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian wanted to reaffirm
the fact that the followers of the council of Chalcedon really believed that Jesus
Christ is the incarnate Son and Word of God, one of the Holy Trinity. He
wanted to do this primarily to convince those who did not accept the fourth
council that its definition did not reintroduce the error of Nestorius. To do this,
the Emperor called the council now known as the fifth ecumenical council in
Constantinople in 553 which further served to clarify the Orthodox position in
regard to the person and action of Christ. The following are some of the key
texts of this council:
If anyone understands the expression “one Person only of our Lord Jesus
Christ” in this sense, that it is the union of many hypostases [or persons], and
if he thus attempts to introduce into the mystery of Christ two hypostases or two
persons, and after having introduced two persons speaks of one Person only in
the sense of dignity, honor or worship .?.?. [and] shall calumniate the holy
council of Chalcedon, pretending that it used this expression [one hypostasis
and person] in this impious sense .?.?. let him be anathema.
If anyone shall not call in a true acceptation .?.?. the holy, glorious and
ever-virgin Mary, the Theotokos .?.?. believing that she bare only a simple man
and that God the Word was not incarnate of her .?.?. [and] shall calumniate the
holy synod of Chalcedon as though it has asserted the Virgin to be Theotokos
according to the impious sense .?.?. let him be anathema.
If anyone using the expression “in two natures” does not confess that our
one Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed in the divinity and in the humanity, so
as to designate by that expression a difference of the natures of which an
ineffable union is made without confusion, in which neither the nature of the
Word was changed into that of the flesh, nor that of the flesh into that of the
Word, for each remained what it was by nature, the union being hypostatic [i.e.,
in the one Person]; but shall take the expression to divide the parties .?.?. let
him be anathema.
If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in
the flesh is true Gad and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity, let him
be anathema.
To further emphasize the point that the Chalcedonian Council was truly
orthodox, the Emperor Justinian wrote a doctrinal hymn which is still sung in
the Orthodox Church at every divine liturgy. It confesses the Lord Jesus Christ
as perfect God and perfect man.
Only-begotten Son and Word of God,
Who for our salvation willed to be incarnate of
the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary,
Who without change became man and was crucified,
Who is one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with
the Father and the Holy Spirit,
O Christ our God, trampling down death by death,
Save us!
The Monothelite Controversy
In the seventh century the question ofhow to understand, define and
confess the person and action of Jesus Christ continued to cause divisions
among the believers. Some now said that after the Son of God became man, He
had just one activity and will-the theandric activity and will of the Word-made-
flesh. These people, called monothelites, insisted that the One Person of Christ,
in uniting the natures of God and Man in His One Person, fused together the
human and divine will and activity in such a way that they no longer could be
distinguished.
The sixth ecumenical council met in Constantinople in 680–681.
Following the teachings of St Maximus the Confessor who was imprisoned and
tortured for his doctrines, it decreed that just as Christ is really fully divine and
fully human, the perfect union of Divinity and Humanity in one Person, so also
He must have both a real human activity and will and a real divine activity and
will according to each of His natures and that these two wills and activities,
like the natures themselves, should not be understood to be fused or mingled
together into one so as to lose their proper natural characteristics and
properties. This decision was based on the fact that since the Son of God
remained fully divine in the incarnation, He must continue to have His proper
divine activity and will; and that since He became fully human in the
incarnation He must also have a complete and perfect human activity and will;
and that the salvation of mankind requires that the distinction but not the
division or separation of each of these respective activities and wills remain in
the incarnate Saviour. The following is part of the definition of faith of the
sixth council:
.?.?. in Him are two natural wills and two natural operations without
division, without fusion, without change and without separation according to
the teaching of the holy fathers. And these two natural wills are not contrary to
one another (God forbid!) .?.?. but His human will follows, and not as resisting
and reluctant, but rather as subject to His divine and omnipotent will .?.?. For
as His most holy and immaculate animated flesh was not destroyed because it
was deified but continued in its own state and nature, so also His human will,
although deified, was not suppressed, but was rather preserved .?.?. We glorify
two natural operations .?.?. in the same Lord Jesus Christ our true God, that is
to say a divine operation [or action] and a human operation
.?.?. For we will not admit one natural operation in God and in the
creature. .?.?. believing our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of the Trinity, and after
the incarnation our true God we say that His two natures shone forth in His one
hypostasis [or person] in which He both performed the miracles and endured
the sufferings .?.?. Wherefore we confess two wills and two operations
concurring most fitly in Him for the salvation of the human race.
lconoclastic Controversy
In the eighth and ninth centuries the question of the person and nature of
Christ continued in the controversy over the veneration of the holy icons in the
Church. At this time many were found, including emperors and secular rulers,
who claimed that the veneration of icons is wrong because it is the sin of
idolatry. They claimed that as God is invisible and has commanded in the Old
Testament law that men are not to make “graven images,” so it is wrong to
depict and to honor images of Christ and the saints.
The defenders of the veneration of the holy icons, led by Saints John
Damascene and Theodore Studion, claimed that the central point of the
Christian faith is that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” and that
“we have beheld His glory” (Jn 1.14). Referring to the holy scriptures they
insisted that belief in the incarnation of the Son of God calls for the veneration
of icons since Jesus Christ is a real man with a real human soul and body, and
as such can be depicted. They said that those who were against the holy icons
reduced the incarnation to a “fantasy” and denied the true humanity of the Son
of God in His coming to man. Thus they made reference to the words of Jesus
Himself in His dialogue with Philip:
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long. and yet you do not know
me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show
us the Father?’”
(Jn 14.8–9).
The defenders of the propriety of icon veneration also referred to the
apostolic writings of Saint John and Saint Paul:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands
concerning the Word of Life the Life was made manifest, and we saw it .?.?.
(1Jn 1.1–2).
.?.?. the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep
them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the
likeness [in Greek: eikon] of God (2Cor 4.4).
He is the image [eikon] of the invisible God, the first born of all creation;
for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth .?.?. all things were
created through Him and for Him .?.?. for in Him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell .?.?. (Colossians 1.15–20).
In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets,
but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the heir
of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the reflection of
the glory of God and the express image of His person, upholding the universe
by the word of His power .?.?. (Hebrews 1.1–3).
The seventh ecumenical council in Nicea in 787 officially declared that
the Christian faith is to be proclaimed “in words and images.” And while
making clear the teaching that holy icons may be made; that they are not to be
worshipped-for only God Himself is worthy of worship-but are to be venerated
and honored; the seventh council also made the following statement about
Christ in reference to the veneration of icons:
.?.?. we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us,
whether in writing or verbally, one of which is the making of pictorial
representations, agreeable to the history of the preaching of the Gospel, a
tradition useful in many respects, but especially in this, that so the incarnation
of the Word of God is shone forth in real and not merely in phantasy, for these
have mutual indications and without doubt have also mutual significations.
In later times the doctrines of the real divinity and real humanity of Jesus
Christ was witnessed and defended by such saints as Simeon the New
Theologian (d. 1022) and Gregory Palamas, the Archbishop of Thessalonika (d.
1359) in their teachings about the real sanctification and deification of man
through living communion with God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit in
the Church. In and through Christ, the Word incarnate, human persons can be
filled with the Spirit of God and can be in genuine communion with God the
Father, participating in the uncreated being, life and light of the Most Blessed
Trinity. If Jesus Christ were not true God and true Man, this would be
impossible. But it is not impossible. It is man’s experience of salvation and
redemption in the life of the Church of Christ.
Redemption
And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and
was buried.
Although Jesus did not sin and did not have to suffer and die, he
voluntarily took upon himself the sins of the world and voluntarily gave
himself up to suffering and death for the sake of salvation. This was his task as
the Messiah-Saviour:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good tidings to the afflicted
.?.?. to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to those who are bound .?.?. to comfort all who mourn
.?.?. to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of
mourning” (Is 61.1–3).
And at the same time, Jesus had to do this as the suffering servant of
Yahweh-God.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised. and we
esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and by his
stripes [i.e., wounds] we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own
way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like
a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before his shearers is dumb, so
he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgement he was taken away .?.?. And they made his
grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done
no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord [Yahweh] to bruise him; he has put him to
grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he
shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; he shall
see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall
the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he
shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was
numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many [or the multitude]
and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Is 53)
These words of the prophet Isaiah written centuries before the birth of
Jesus tell the story of his Messianic mission. It began officially before the eyes
of all in his baptism by John in the Jordan. By allowing himself to be baptized
with the sinners though he had no sin, Jesus shows that he accepts his calling to
be identified with the sinners: “the Beloved” of the Father and “the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1.29; Mat 3.17).
Jesus begins to teach, and on the very day and at that very moment when
his disciples first confess him to be the Messiah, “the Christ, the Son of the
Living God,” Jesus tells immediately of his mission to “go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things .?.?. and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Mt
16.16–23; Mk 8.29–33). The apostles are greatly upset by this. Jesus then
immediately shows them his divinity by being transfigured before them in
divine glory on the mountain in the presence of Moses and Elijah. He then tells
them once more: “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and
they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day” (Mt 17.1–23; Mk 9.1–
9).
The powers of evil multiplied against Christ at the end: “The kings of the
earth counsel together against the Lord and His Christ” (Ps 2.2). They were
looking for causes to kill him. The formal reason was blasphemy, “because you,
being a man, make yourself God” (Jn 10.31–38). Yet the deep reasons were
more personal: Jesus told men the truth and revealed their stubbornness,
foolishness, hypocrisy, and sin. For this reason every sinner, hardened in his
sins and refusing to repent, wishes and causes the crucifixion of Christ.
The death of Jesus came at the hands of the religious and political leaders
of his time, with the approval of the masses: when Caiaphas was high priest,
“under Pontius Pilate.” He was “crucified for us .?.?. and suffered and was
buried” in order to be with us in our sufferings and death which we brought
upon ourselves because of our sins: “for the wages of sin are death” (Rom
6.23). In this sense the Apostle Paul writes of Jesus that “having become a
curse for us” (Gal 3.13), “for our sake he (God the Father) made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”
(2Cor 5.21).
The sufferings and death of Christ in obedience to the Father reveals the
super-abundant divine love of God for his creation. For when all was sinful,
cursed, and dead, Christ became sin, a curse, and dead for us-though he himself
never ceased to be the righteousness and blessedness and life of God Himself.
It is to this depth, of which lower and more base cannot be discovered or
imagined, that Christ has humiliated himself “for us men and for our
salvation.” For being God, he became man; and being man, he became a slave;
and being a slave, he became dead and not only dead, but dead on a cross. From
this deepest degradation of God flows the eternal exaltation of man. This is the
pivotal doctrine of the Orthodox Christian faith, expressed over and again in
many ways throughout the history of the Orthodox Church. It is the doctrine of
the atonement-for we are made to be “at one” with God. It is the doctrine of
redemption-for we are redeemed, i.e., “bought with a price,” the great price of
the blood of God (Acts 20.28; 1Cor 6.20).
Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus who,
though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant [slave], being born
in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has
highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father (Phil 2.5–11).
In contemplating the saving and redeeming action of Christ, it has become
traditional to emphasize three aspects which in reality are not divided, and
cannot be; but which in theory (i.e., in the vision of Christ’s being.and activity
as the Saviour of the world) may be distinguished. The first of these three
aspects of the redeeming work of Christ is the fact that Jesus saves mankind by
providing the perfect image and example of human life as filled with the grace
and power of God.
Jesus, the Perfect Image of Human Life
Christ is the incarnate Word of God. He is the Teacher and Master sent by
God to the world. He is the embodiment of God Himself in human form. He is
“the image of the invisible God” (Col 1.15). In Him “the fullness of divinity
dwells bodily” (Col 2.9). The person who sees Jesus sees God the Father (Jn
14.9). He is the “reflection of the glory of God and the express image of His
person” (Heb 1.3). He is the “light of the world” who “enlightens every man
.?.?. coming into the world” (Jn 8.12, 1.9). To be saved by Jesus Christ is first
of all to be enlightened by Him; to see Him as the Light, and to see all things in
the light of Him. It is to know Him as “the Truth” (Jn 14.6); and to know the
truth in Him.
And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free (Jn?8.31).
When one is saved by God in Christ one comes to the knowledge of the
truth, fulfilling God’s desire for His creatures, for “God our Saviour .?.?.
desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Tim
2.4). In saving God’s world, Jesus Christ enlightens God’s creatures by the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the
Father and is sent into the world through Christ.
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will pray the
Father, and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the
Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor
knows Him; you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will be in you (Jn
14.15–17).
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said
to you .?.?. (Jn 15.26).
When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth .?.?.
(Jn 16.13).
The first aspect of salvation in Christ, therefore, is to be enlightened by
Him and to know the truth about God and man by the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, which God gives through Him to those who believe.
This is witnessed to in the apostolic writings of Saints John and Paul:
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is
from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we
impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit,
interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. .?.?. For who has
known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ (1Cor 2.13–16).
For [God] has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of
His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the
fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.
.?.?. To me .?.?. this grace was given .?.?. to make all men see what is the plan
of the mystery hidden for ages in God .?.?. that through the church the manifold
wisdom of God might now be made known .?.?. (Eph 1.8–10; 3.9).
For I want .?.?. that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit
together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the
knowledge of God’s mystery in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge (Col 2.1–3).
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you know all things I
write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it,
and know that no lie is of the truth. .?.?. but the anointing which you received
from Him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you;
as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true and is no lie, just as
it has taught you, abide in Him. .?.?. And by this we know that He abides in us,
by the Spirit which He has given to us (1Jn 2.20–27; 3.24).
The first aspect of man’s salvation by God in Christ is, therefore, the
ability and power to see, to know, to believe and to love the truth of God in
Christ, who is the Truth, by the Spirit of Truth. It is the gift of knowledge and
wisdom, of illumination and enlightenment, it is the condition of being “taught
by God” as foretold by the prophets and fulfilled by Christ (Is 54.13; Jer 31.33–
34; Jn 6.45). Thus, in the Orthodox Church, the entrance into the saving life of
the Church through baptism and chrismation is called “holy illumination.”
For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Christ (2Cor 4.6).
Jesus, the Reconciler of Man with God
The second aspect of Christ’s one, indivisible act of salvation of man and
his world is the accomplishment of man’s reconciliation with God the Father
through the forgiveness of sins. This is the redemption and atonement strictly
speaking, the release from sins, and the punishment due to sins; the being made
“at one” with God.
While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man-though perhaps for a good man
one will dare even to die. But God shows His love for us in that while we were
yet sinners Christ died for us. Since therefore we are now made righteous by
His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if
while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much
more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. Not only so, but
we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received our reconciliation (Rom 5.6–11).
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed
away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, God
was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses
against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (2Cor 5.17–
19).
The forgiveness of sins is one of the signs of the coming of the Christ, the
Messiah, as foretold in the Old Testament:
.?.?. they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest, says the Lord;
for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer
31.34).
Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Lamb
that is slain that through Him all sins might be forgiven. He is also the great
high priest, who offers the perfect sacrifice by which man is purged from his
sins and cleansed from his iniquities. Jesus offers, as high priest, the perfect
sacrifice of His own very life, His own body, as the Lamb of God, upon the tree
of the cross.
For to this you have been called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving
you an example that you should follow in His steps. He committed no sin; no
guile was found on His lips. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return;
when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He trusted to Him who judges justly.
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were
straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Pastor and Bishop of your
souls (1Pet 2.22–25).
The high-priestly offering and sacrifice of the Son of God to His eternal
Father is described in great detail in the Letter to the Hebrews in the New
Testament scriptures.
In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with
loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was
heard for His godly fear. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through
what He suffered, and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal
salvation to all who obey Him, being designated a high priest by God,
according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5.7–10).
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have
come .?.?. He entered once for all into the Holy Place [not made by hands, i.e.,
the Presence of God] taking .?.?. His own blood, thus securing an eternal
redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and
bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a
death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first
covenant (Heb 9.11–15).
According to the scriptures, man’s sins and the sins of the whole world are
forgiven and pardoned by the sacrifice of Christ, by the offering of His life-His
body and His blood, which is the “blood of God” (Acts 20.28)-upon the cross.
This is the “redemption,” the “ransom,” the “expiation,” the “propitiation”
spoken about in the scriptures which had to be made so that man could be “at
one” with God. Christ “paid the price” which was necessary to be paid for the
world to be pardoned and cleansed of all iniquities and sins (1Cor 6.20; 7.23).
In the history of Christian doctrine there has been great debate over the
question of to whom Christ “pays the price” for the ransom of the world and the
salvation of mankind. Some have said that the “payment” was made to the
devil. This is the view that the devil received certain “rights” over man and his
world because of man’s sin. In his rebellion against God, man “sold himself to
the devil” thus allowing the Evil One to become the “prince of this world” (Jn
12.31). Christ comes to pay the debt to the devil and to release man from his
control by sacrificing Himself upon the cross.
Others say that Christ’s “payment” on behalf of man had to be made to
God the Father. This is the view which interprets Christ’s sacrificial death on
the cross as the proper punishment that had to be paid to satisfy God’s wrath
over the human race. God was insulted by man’s sin. His law was broken and
His righteousness was offended. Man had to pay the penalty for his sin by
offering the proper punishment. But no amount of human punishment could
satisfy God’s justice because God’s justice is divine. Thus the Son of God had
to be born into the world and receive the punishment that was rightly to be
placed on men. He had to die in order for God to receive proper satisfaction for
man’s offenses against Him. Christ substituted Himself on our behalf and died
for our sins, offering His blood as the satisfying sacrifice for the sins of the
world. By dying on the cross in place of sinful man, Christ pays the full and
total payment for man’s sins. God’s wrath is removed. Man’s insult is punished.
The world is reconciled with its Creator.
Commenting on this question about to whom Christ “pays the price” for
man’s salvation, St Gregory the Theologian in the fourth century wrote the
following in his second Easter Oration:
Now we are to examine another fact and dogma, neglected by most people,
but in my judgment well worth enquiring into. To whom was that Blood offered
that was shed for us, and why was It shed? I mean the precious and famous
Blood of our God and High Priest and Sacrifice.
We were detained in bondage by the Evil One, sold under sin, and
receiving pleasure in exchange for wickedness. Now, since a ransom belongs
only to him who holds in bondage, I ask to whom was this offered, and for what
cause?
If to the Evil One, fie upon the outrage! If the robber receives ransom, not
only from God, but a ransom which consists of God Himself, and has such an
illustrious payment for his tyranny, then it would have been right for him to
have left us alone altogether!
But if to God the Father, I ask first, how? For it was not by Him that we
were being oppressed. And next, on what principle did the Blood of His only-
begotten Son delight the Father, who would not receive even Isaac, when he
was being sacrificed by his father, [Abraham], but changed the sacrifice by
putting a ram in the place of the human victim? (see Gen 22).
Is it not evident that the Father accepts Him, but neither asked for Him nor
demanded Him; but on account of the incarnation, and because Humanity must
be sanctified by the Humanity of God, that He might deliver us Himself, and
overcome the tyrant [i.e., the devil] and draw us to Himself by the mediation of
His Son who also arranged this to the honor of the Father, whom it is manifest
He obeys in all things.
In Orthodox theology generally it can be said that the language of
“payment” and “ransom” is rather understood as a metaphorical and symbolical
way of saying that Christ has done all things necessary to save and redeem
mankind enslaved to the devil, sin and death, and under the wrath of God. He
“paid the price,” not in some legalistic or juridical or economic meaning. He
“paid the price” not to the devil whose rights over man were won by deceit and
tyranny. He “paid the price” not to God the Father in the sense that God
delights in His sufferings and received “satisfaction” from His creatures in
Him. He “paid the price” rather, we might say, to Reality Itself. He “paid the
price” to create the conditions in and through which man might receive the
forgiveness of sins and eternal life by dying and rising again in Him to newness
of life (see Rom 5–8; Gal 2–4).
By dying on the cross and rising from the dead, Jesus Christ cleansed the
world from evil and sin. He defeated the devil “in his own territory” and on
“his own terms.” The “wages of sin is death” (Rom 6.23). So the Son of God
became man and took upon Himself the sins of the world and died a voluntary
death. By His sinless and innocent death accomplished entirely by His free will
– and not by physical, moral, or juridical necessity – He made death to die and
to become itself the source and the way into life eternal. This is what the
Church sings on the feast of the Resurrection, the New Passover in Christ, the
new Paschal Lamb, who is risen from the dead:
Christ is risen from the dead!
Trampling down death by death!
And upon those in the tombs bestowing life!
(Easter Troparion)
And this is how the Church prays at the divine liturgy of Saint Basil the
Great:
He was God before the ages, yet He appeared on earth and lived among
men, becoming incarnate of a holy Virgin;
He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being likened to the
body of our lowliness, that He might liken us to the image of His Glory.
For as by man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so it pleased
Thine Only-begotten Son, who was in the bosom of Thee, the God and Father,
who was born of a woman, the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, who was
born under the law to condemn sin in His flesh, so that those who were dead in
Adam might be made alive in Thy Christ Himself.
He lived in this world and gave commandments of salvation; releasing us
from the delusions of idolatry, He brought us to knowledge of Thee, the true
God and Father. He obtained us for His own chosen people, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation.
Having cleansed us in water, and sanctified us with the Holy Spirit, He
gave Himself as a ransom to death, in which we were held captive, sold under
sin.
Descending through the cross into Sheol – that He might fill all things
with Himself – He loosed the pangs of death. He arose on the third day, having
made for all flesh a path to the resurrection from the dead, since it was not
possible for the Author of Life to be a victim of corruption. So He became the
first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the first-born of the dead, that He
might be Himself truly the first in all things .?.?.
(Eucharistic Prayer of the Liturgy of St Basil)
Jesus, the Destroyer of Death
The third and final aspect of the saving and redeeming action of Christ,
therefore, is the deepest and most comprehensive. It is the destruction of death
by Christ’s own death. It is the transformation of death itself into an act of life.
It is the recreation of Sheol-the spiritual condition of being dead-into the
paradise of God. Thus, in and through the death of Jesus Christ, death is made
to. die. In Him, who is the Resurrection and the Life, man cannot die, but lives
forever with God.
Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who
sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from
death into life (Jn 5.24
I am the Resurrection and the Life! He who believes in me, though he die,
yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (Jn
11.25–26).
It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at
the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us! Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? .?.?. For I am sure that neither death, not life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, not powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8.34–39).
For in Him the whole fullness of divinity dwells bodily, and you have come
to fullness of life in Him .?.?. and you were buried with Him in baptism, in
which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God who
raised Him from the dead. And you were dead in trespasses .?.?. God made alive
together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having cancelled the
bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this He set aside, nailing it
to the cross. He disarmed the [demonic] principalities and powers and made a
public example of them, triumphing over them .?.?. for you have died, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 2.9 ff.)
This is the doctrine of the New Testament scriptures, repeated over and
again in many ways in the tradition of the Church: in its sacraments,
hymnology, theology, iconography. Christ’s victory over death is man’s release
from sins and man’s victory over enslavement to the devil because in and
through Christ’s death man dies and is born again to eternal life. In his death
sins are no longer counted. In his death the devil no longer holds him. In his
death he is born again to newness of life and is liberated from all that is evil,
false, demonic and sinful. In a word, he is freed from all that is dead by dying
and rising again in and with Jesus.
But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels,
crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the
grace of God He might taste death for every one. .?.?. Since therefore the
children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same
nature, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death,
that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to
lifelong bondage (Heb 2.9–15).
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those
who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a Man has come also
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all
be made alive. [ .?.?. ] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
(1Cor 15.20 ff; 56–57).
Resurrection
And He rose again from the dead on the third day, according to the
Scriptures .?.?.
Christ is risen from the dead! This is the main proclamation of the
Christian faith. It forms the heart of the Church’s preaching, worship and
spiritual life. “.?.?. if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain
and your faith is in vain” (1Cor 15.14).
In the first sermon ever preached in the history of the Christian Church,
the Apostle Peter began his proclamation:
Men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man attended to you
by God with mighty works and signs and wonders which God did to him in your
midst, as you yourself know-this Jesus delivered up according to a definite plan
and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men. But God raised Him up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was
not possible for Him to be held by it (Acts 2.22–24).
Jesus had the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up again:
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, that I
may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.
I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again; this
charge I have received from My Father (Jn 10.17–18).
According to Orthodox doctrine there is no competition of “lives” between
God and Jesus, and no competition of “powers.” The power of God and the
power of Jesus, the life of God and the life of Jesus, are one and the same
power and life. To say that God has raised Christ, and that Christ has been
raised by his own power is to say essentially the same thing. “For as the Father
has life in himself,” says Christ, so he has granted the Son also to have life in
himself” (Jn 5.26). “I and the Father are one”(Jn 10.30).
The Scriptural stress that God has raised up Jesus only emphasizes once
more that Christ has given His life, that He has laid it down fully, that He has
offered it whole and without reservation to God-Who then gave it back in His
resurrection from the dead.
The Orthodox Church believes in Christ’s real death and His actual
resurrection. Resurrection, however, does not simply mean bodily resuscitation.
Neither the Gospel nor the Church teaches that Jesus was lying dead and then
was biologically revived and walked around in the same way that He did before
He was killed. In a word, the Gospel does not say that the angel moved the
stone from the tomb in order to let Jesus out. The angel moved the stone to
reveal that Jesus was not there (Mk 16; Mt 28).
In His resurrection Jesus is in a new and glorious form. He appears in
different places immediately. He is difficult to recognize (Lk 24.16; Jn 20.14).
He eats and drinks to show that He is not a ghost (Lk 24.30, 39). He allows
himself to be touched (Jn 20.27, 21.9). And yet He appears in the midst of
disciples, “the doors being shut” (Jn 20.19, 26). And he “vanishes out of their
sight” (Lk 24.31). Christ indeed is risen, but His resurrected humanity is full of
life and divinity. It is humanity in the new form of the eternal life of the
Kingdom of God.
So it is with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable, what
is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raked in glory. It is sown
in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a
spiritual body.
Thus, it is written, the first man Adam became a living being; the last
Adam [i.e. Christ] became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which
is first but the physical, then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from
heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the
man from heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have home the
image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven
(1Cor 15.42–50).
The resurrection of Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection of all
humanity. It is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, “according to the
Scriptures” where it is written, “For Thou doest not give me up unto Sheol [that
is, the realm of death], or let Thy Godly one see corruption” (Ps 16.10; Acts
2.25–36). In Christ all expectations and hopes are filled: O Death, where is your
sting? O Sheol, where is your victory? (Hos 13.14).
He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears
from all faces .?.?. It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have
waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation” (Is 25.8–9).
Come, let us return to the Lord: For He has torn, that He may heal us; He
has stricken, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the
third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him (Hos 6.1–2).
Thus says the Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and raise you
from your graves, O my people .?.?. And you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I
will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live .?.?. (Ezek 37.12–14).
On Death and Resurrection in Christ
Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him.
Yesterday I died with Him; today I am made alive with Him.
Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him.
Yesterday I died with Him; today I am made alive with Him.
Yesterday I was buried with Him; today I am raised up with Him.
Let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us .?.?. ourselves, the
possession most precious to God and most proper.
Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us.
Let us become Divine for His sake, since for us He became Man.
He assumed the worse that He might give us the better.
He became poor that by His poverty we might become rich.
He accepted the form of a servant that we might win back our freedom.
He came down that we might be lifted up.
He was tempted that through Him we might conquer.
He was dishonored that He might glorify us.
He died that He might save us.
He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were thrown down
through the fall of sin.
Let us give all, offer all, to Him who gave Himself a Ransom and
Reconciliation for us.
We needed an incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live.
We were put to death together with Him that we might be cleansed.
We rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him.
We were glorified with Him because we rose again with Him.
A few drops of Blood recreate the whole of creation!
-St Gregory the Theologian, Easter Orations
Ascension
and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father .?.?.
After His resurrection from the dead Jesus appeared to men for a period of
forty days after which He “was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right
hand of God” (Mk 16.19; see also Lk 24.50 and Acts 1.9–11).
The ascension of Jesus Christ is the final act of His earthly mission of
salvation. The Son of God comes “down from heaven” to do the work which the
Father gives Him to do; and having accomplished all things, He returns to the
Father bearing for all eternity the wounded and glorified humanity which He
has assumed (see e.g. Jn 17).
The doctrinal meaning of the ascension is the glorification of human
nature, the reunion of man with God. It is indeed, the very penetration of man
into the inexhaustible depths of divinity.
We have seen already that “the heavens” is the symbolical expression in
the Bible for the uncreated, immaterial, divine “realm of God” as one saint of
the Church has called it. To say that Jesus is “exalted at the right hand of God”
as Saint Peter preached in the first Christian sermon (Acts 2.33) means exactly
this: that man has been restored to communion with God, to a union which is,
according to Orthodox doctrine, far greater and more perfect than that given to
man in his original creation (see Eph 1–2).
Man was created with the potential to be a “partaker of the divine nature,”
to refer to the Apostle Peter once more (2Pet 1.4). It is this participation in
divinity, called theosis (which literally means deification or divinization) in
Orthodox theology, that the ascension of Christ has fulfilled for humanity. The
symbolical expression of the “sitting at the right hand” of God means nothing
other than this. It does not mean that somewhere in the created universe the
physical Jesus is sitting in a material throne.
The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of Christ’s ascension in terms of the
Jerusalem Temple. Just as the high priests of Israel entered the “holy of holies”
to offer sacrifice to God on behalf of themselves and the people, so Christ the
one, eternal and perfect High Priest offers Himself on the cross to God as the
one eternal, and perfect, Sacrifice, not for Himself but for all sinful men. As a
man, Christ enters (once and for all) into the one eternal and perfect Holy of
Holies: the very “Presence of God in the heavens.”
.?.?. we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God .?.?. (Heb 4.14)
For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless,
unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. .?.?. He has no
need like those high priests to offer sacrifice daily, first for his own sins and
then for those of the people; he did this once and for all when he offered up
himself.
Now, the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest,
one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a
minister in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which is set up not by man but
by the Lord (Heb 7.26; 8.2).
For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of
the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our
behalf (Heb 9.24).
.?.?. when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat
down at the right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a
stool for his feet (Heb 10.12–13; Ps 110.1).
Thus, the ascension of Christ is seen as man’s first entry into that divine
glorification for which He was originally created. The entry is made possible
by the exaltation of the divine Son who emptied Himself in human flesh in
perfect self-offering to God.
Judgment
and He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead .?.?.
This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come the same way
as you saw him go into heaven (Acts 1.11).
These words of the angels are addressed to the apostles at the ascension of
the Lord. Christ will come again in glory, “not to deal with sin, but to save
those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9.28).
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,
with the archangels’ call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the
dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be
caught up in the cloud to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be
with the Lord (1 Thess 4.16–17, the Epistle reading of the Orthodox funeral
service).
The coming of the Lord at the end of the ages will be the Day of Judgment,
the Day of the Lord foretold in the Old Testament and predicted by Jesus
himself (e.g. Dan 7; Mt 24). The exact time of the end is not foretold, not even
by Jesus, so that men would always be prepared by constant vigil and good
works.
The very presence of Christ as the Truth and the Light is itself the
judgment of the world. In this sense all men and the whole world are already
judged or, more accurately, already live in the full presence of that reality-
Christ and His works-by which they will be ultimately judged. With Christ now
revealed, there is no longer any excuse for ignorance and sin (Jn 9.39).
At this point it is necessary to note that at the final judgment there will be
those “on the left hand” who will go into “the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels” (Mt 25.41; Rev 20). That this is the case is no fault of God’s. It
is the fault only of men, for “as I hear, I judge and My judgment is just,” says
the Lord (Jn 5.30).
God takes no “pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek 18.22). He
“desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth”” (1Tim
2.4). He does everything in His power so that salvation and eternal life would
be available and possible for all. There is nothing more that God can do.
Everything now depends on man. If some men refuse the gift of life in
communion with God, the Lord can only honor this refusal and respect the
freedom of His creatures which He Himself has given and will not take back.
God allows men to live “with the devil and his angels” if they so desire. Even
in this He is loving and just. For if God’s presence as the “consuming fire”
(Heb 12.29) and the “unapproachable light” (1Tim 6.16) which delights those
who love Him only produces hatred and anguish in those who do not “love His
appearing” (2Tim 4.8), there is nothing that God can do except either to destroy
His sinful creatures completely, or to destroy Himself. But God will exist and
will allow His creatures to exist. He also will not hide His Face forever.
The doctrine of eternal hell, therefore, does not mean that God actively
tortures people by some unloving and perverse means. It does not mean that
God takes delight in the punishment and pain of His people whom He loves.
Neither does it mean that God “separates Himself” from His people, thus
causing them anguish in this separation (for indeed if people hate God,
separation would be welcome, and not abhorred!). It means rather that God
continues to allow all people, saints and sinners alike, to exist forever. All are
raised from the dead into everlasting life: “those who have done good, to the
resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5.29). In the end, God will be “all and in all”
(1Cor 15.28). For those who love God, resurrection from the dead and the
presence of God will be paradise. For those who hate God, resurrection from
the dead and the presence of God will be hell. This is the teaching of the fathers
of the Church.
There is sprung up a light for the righteous, and its partner is joyful
gladness. And the light of the righteous is everlasting .?.?.
One light alone let us shun-that which is the offspring of the sorrowful fire
.?.?.
For I know a cleansing fire which Christ came to send upon the earth, and
He Himself is called a Fire. This Fire takes away whatsoever is material and of
evil quality; and this He desires to kindle with all speed .?.?
I know also a fire which is not cleansing, but avenging .?.?. which He
pours down on all sinners .?.?. that which is prepared for the devil and his
angels .?.?. that which proceeds from the Face of the Lord and shall burn up His
enemies round about .?.?. the unquenchable fire which .?.?. is eternal for the
wicked. For all these belong to the destroying power, though some may prefer
even in this place to take a more merciful view of this fire, worthily of Him
who chastises.
(Saint Gregory the Theologian)
.?.?. those who find themselves in Gehenna will be chastised with the
scourge of love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! For those
who understand that they have sinned against love undergo greater sufferings
than those produced of the most fearful tortures. The sorrow which takes hold of
the heart which has sinned against love is more piercing than any other pain. It
is not right to say that sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God .?.?. But
love acts in two different ways, as suffering in the reproved, and as joy in the
blessed.
(Saint Isaac of Syria)
Thus, man’s final judgment and eternal destiny depends solely on whether
or not man loves God and his brethren. It depends on whether or not man loves
the light more than the darkness-or the darkness more than the light. It depends,
we might say, on whether or not man loves Love and Light Itself; whether or
not man loves Life-which is God Himself; the God revealed in creation, in all
things, in the “least of the brethren.”
The conditions of the final judgment are already known. Christ has given
them Himself with absolute clarity.
When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him,
then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the
nations and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the
goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand, “Come, O
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave
me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed
me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry
and feed Thee, or thirsty and give Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a
stranger and welcome Thee, or naked and clothe Thee? And when did we see
Thee sick or in prison and visit Thee?”
And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of
the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
Then He will say to those at His left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and
you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger
and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in
prison and you did not visit me.”
Then they also will answer, “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?”
Then He will answer them, ““Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of
the least of these, you did it not to me.” And they will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
(Mt 25.31–46, Gospel reading for Meatfare Sunday)
It is Christ who will judge, not God the Father. Christ has received the
power of judgment “because He is the Son of Man” (Jn 5.27). Thus, man and
the world are not judged by God “sitting on a cloud,” as it were, but by One
who is truly a man, the One who has suffered every temptation of this world
and has emerged victorious. The world is judged by Him who was Himself
hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, in prison, wounded, and yet the salvation of
all. As the Crucified One, Christ has justly achieved the authority to make
judgment for He alone has been the perfectly obedient servant of the Father
who knows the depths of human tragedy by His own experience.
For He will render to every man according to his works: to those who by
patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give
eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey
wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress
for every human being who does evil .?.?. but glory and honor and peace for
every one who does good .?.?. for God shows no partiality. All who have sinned
without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the
law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the
doers of the law who will be justified (Rom 2.6ff).
Kingdom of God
And of His kingdom there will be no end .?.?.
Jesus is the royal Son of David, of whom it was prophesied by the angel at
His birth:
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord
will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house
of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end (Lk 1.32–33).
Through His sufferings as the Christ, Jesus achieved everlasting kingship
and lordship over all creation. He has become “King of kings and Lord of
lords,” sharing this title with God the Father Himself (Deut 10.17; Dan 2.47;
Rev 19.16). As a man, Jesus Christ is King of the Kingdom of God.
Christ came for no other reason than to bring God’s kingdom to men. His
very first public words are exactly those of His forerunner, John the Baptist:
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3.2, 4.17).
All through His life Jesus spoke of the kingdom. In the sermons such as
the Sermon on the Mount and the many parables, He told of the everlasting
kingdom.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven .?.?.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
He who does these commandments and teaches them shall be called great
in the kingdom of heaven.
But seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all
things will be yours as well.
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
(Mt 5–7)
The mustard seed, the leaven, the pearl of great price, the lost coin, the
treasure in the field, the fishing net, the wedding feast, the banquet, the house
of the Father, the vineyard .?.?. all are signs of the kingdom which Jesus has
come to bring. And on the night of His last supper with the disciples He tells
the apostles openly:
You are those who have continued with me in my trials; as My Father
appointed a kingdom for Me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink
at My table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel (Lk 22: 28–30; Reading of the Vigil of Holy Thursday).
Christ’s kingdom is “not of this world” (Jn 18.31). He says this to Pontius
Pilate when being mocked as king, revealing in this humiliation His genuine
divine kingship. The Kingdom of God, which Christ will rule, will come with
power at the end of time when the Lord will fill all creation and will be truly
“all, and in all” (Col 3.11). The Church, which in popular Orthodox doctrine is
called the Kingdom of God on earth, has already mysteriously been given this
experience. In the Church, Christ is already acknowledged, glorified, and
served, as the only king and lord; and His Holy Spirit, whom the saints of the
Church have identified with the Kingdom of God, is already given to the world
in the Church with full graciousness and power.
The Kingdom of God, therefore, is a Divine Reality. It is the reality of
God’s presence among men through Christ and the Holy Spirit. “For the
Kingdom of God .?.?. means .?.?. peace and joy and righteousness in the Holy
Spirit” (Rom 14.17). The Kingdom of God as a spiritual, divine reality is given
to men by Christ in the Church. It is celebrated and participated in the
sacramental mysteries of the faith. It is witnessed to in the scriptures, the
councils, the canons, and the saints. It will become the universal, final cosmic
reality for the whole of creation at the end of the ages when Christ comes in
glory to fill all things with Himself by the Holy Spirit, that God might be “all
and in all” (1Cor 15.28).
Holy Spirit
And in the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the
Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and
glorified, who spoke by the prophets .?.?.
The Holy Spirit bears the title of Lord with God the Father and Christ the
Son. He is the Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ. He is eternal, uncreated, and
divine; always existing with the Father and the Son; perpetually worshipped
and glorified with them in the oneness of the Holy Trinity.
Just like the Son, there was no time when there was no Holy Spirit. The
Spirit is before creation. He comes forth from God, as does the Son, in a
timeless, eternal procession. “He proceeds from the Father,” in eternity in a
divinely instantaneous and perpetual movement (Jn 15.26).
Orthodox doctrine confesses that God the Father is the eternal origin and
source of the Spirit, just as He is the source of the Son. Yet, the Church affirms
as well that the manner of the Father’s possession and production of the Spirit
and the Son differ according to the difference between the Son being “born,”
and the Spirit “proceeding.” There have been many attempts-by holy men
inspired by God and with a genuine experience of His Trinitarian life to explain
the distinction between the procession of the Spirit and the begetting or
generation of the Son. For us it is enough to see that the difference between the
two lies in the distinction between the divine persons and actions of the Son
and the Spirit in relation to the Father, and so as well to each other and to the
world. It is necessary to note further that all words and concepts about God and
divinity, including those of “procession” and “generation” must give way
before the mystical vision of the actual Divine Reality which they express. God
may somehow be grasped by men as He has chosen to reveal Himself.
However, the essence of His Triune existence remains-and will always remain-
essentially inconceivable and inexpressible to created minds and lips. This does
not mean that words about God are meaningless. It only means that they are
inadequate to the Reality which they seek to express .?.?.
At this point also it is necessary to note that the Roman and Protestant
churches differ in their credal statement about God by adding that the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father “and the Son” (filioque)-a doctrinal addition
unacceptable to Orthodoxy since it is both unscriptural and inconsistent with
the Orthodox vision of God.
With the affirmation of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and the necessity of
worshipping and glorifying him with the Father and the Son, the Orthodox
Church affirms that the Divine Reality, called also the Deity or the Godhead in
the Orthodox Tradition, is the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is essentially one in his eternal existence with the Father
and the Son; and so, in every action of God toward the world, the Holy Spirit is
necessarily acting. Thus, in the Genesis account of creation it is written: “The
Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen 1.2). It is this same
Spirit who is the “breath of life” for all living things and particularly for man,
made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1.30; 2.7). Generally speaking the
Spirit in Hebrew is called the “breath” or the “wind” of Yahweh. It is He who
makes everything alive, the “Giver of life” Who upholds and sustains the
universe in its existence and life (e.g. Ps 104.29; Job 33.4).
The Holy Spirit is also he who inspires the saints to speak God’s word and
to do God’s will. He anoints the prophets, priests, and kings of the Old
Testament; and “in the fullness of time” it is this same Spirit who “descends
and remains” on Jesus of Nazareth, making him the Messiah (anointed) of God
and manifesting him as such to the world. Thus, in the New Testament at the
first epiphany (which means literally showing forth or manifestation) of Christ
as the Messiah-his baptism by John in the Jordan-the Holy Spirit is revealed as
descending and resting upon him “as a dove from heaven” (Jn 1.32; Lk 3.22,
see also Mt 3.16 and Mk 1.9). It is important to note, both here and in the
account of the Spirit’s coming on the Day of Pentecost, as well as in other
places in the Scriptures, that the words “as” and “like” are used in order to
avoid an incorrect “physical” interpretation of the events recorded where the
Bible itself is literally speaking in quite a symbolical and metaphorical way.
Jesus begins His public work after His baptism, and immediately refers
Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah directly to Himself: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me .?.?.” (Is 61.1; Lk 4.18).
All the days of his life Jesus is “full of the Holy Spirit”-preaching,
teaching, healing, casting out devils and accomplishing every sign and wonder
of his messiahship by the Spirit’s power (Lk 4.11). It is written that even his
self-offering to God on the cross is made “through the eternal Spirit” (Heb
9.14). And it is through the same divine Spirit that he and all men with him are
risen from the dead (Ezek 37.1–4).
On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples of Christ
in the form of “tongues as of fire,” with the sound “like that of a mighty
rushing wind” (Acts 2.1–4). We note once more the use of “as” and “like.” The
coming of the Spirit on Pentecost is the final fulfillment of Christ’s earthly
messianic mission, the beginning of the Christian Church. It is the fulfillment
of the Old Testamental prophecy that in the time of the messiah-king, the Spirit
of God will be “poured out on all flesh” (Joel 2.28; Acts 1.14). It is the
condition of the age of the final and everlasting covenant of perfect mercy and
peace (Ezek 34.37; Jer 31–33; Is 11.42, 44, 61).
The Christian Church lives by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit alone is the
guarantee of God’s Kingdom on earth. He is the sole guarantee that God’s life
and truth and love are with men. Only by the Holy Spirit can man and the world
fulfill that for which they were created by God. All of God’s actions toward
man and the world-in creation, salvation and final glorification-are from the
Father through the Son (Word) in the Holy Spirit; and all of man’s capabilities
of response to God are in the same Spirit, through the same Son to the same
Father.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who
raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies through the
Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8.11).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
When the Spirit of Truth comes he will guide you into all the Truth; for he
will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he
will declare to you the things that are to come (Jn 16:13; see also Jn 14:25; Jn
15:26).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of divine sonship.
For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. For you did not receive
the Spirit of slavery. .?.?. but you received the Spirit of sonship. When we cry
“Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we
are children of God (Rom 8.14; also Gal 4.6).
The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of the new and everlasting
covenant between God and man, the seal and guarantee of the Kingdom of God,
the power of the divine indwelling of God in man.
.?.?. you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but
with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human
hearts. .?.?. our sufficiency is from God who has qualified us to be ministers of
a new covenant, not in written code but in the Spirit, for the written code kills,
but the Spirit gives life (2Cor 3.2–6).
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in
you .?.?. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are (1Cor 3.16; also
Rom 6.19).
.?.?. through him [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners but you are fellow citizens
with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation
of apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in
whom the whole structure is joined together and grows in a holy temple in the
Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit
(Eph 2.18–22; also 1Pet 2.4–9).
In the Holy Spirit men have the possibility of receiving every gift from
God, of sharing His divine nature and life, of doing what Christ has done by
fulfilling His “new commandment” to love one another even as He has loved
us, “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
which He has given us” (Rom 5.5).
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control .?.?. . And those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the
Spirit .?.?. he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal
5.22–25; 6.8).
Church
In one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church .?.?.
Church as a word means those called as a particular people to perform a
particular task. The Christian Church is the assembly of God’s chosen people
called to keep his word and to do his will and his work in the world and in the
heavenly kingdom.
In the Scriptures the Church is called the Body of Christ (Rom 12; 1Cor
10, 12; Col 1) and the Bride of Christ (Eph 5; Rev 21). It is likened as well to
God’s living Temple (Eph 2; 1Pet 2) and is called “the pillar and bulwark of
Truth” (1Tim 3.15).
One Church
The Church is one because God is one, and because Christ and the Holy
Spirit are one. There can only be one Church and not many. And this one
Church, because its unity depends on God, Christ, and the Spirit, may never be
broken. Thus, according to Orthodox doctrine, the Church is indivisible; men
may be in it or out of it, but they may not divide it.
According to Orthodox teaching, the unity of the Church is man’s free
unity in the truth and love of God. Such unity is not brought about or
established by any human authority or juridical power, but by God alone. To the
extent that men are in the truth and love of God, they are members of His
Church.
Orthodox Christians believe that in the historical Orthodox Church there
exists the full possibility of participating totally in the Church of God, and that
only sins and false human choices (heresies) put men outside of this unity. In
non-Orthodox Christian groups the Orthodox claim that there are certain formal
obstacles, varying in different groups, which, if accepted and followed by men,
will prevent their perfect unity with God and will thus destroy the genuine
unity of the Church (e.g., the papacy in the Roman Church).
Within the unity of the Church man is what he is created to be and can
grow for eternity in divine life in communion with God through Christ in the
Holy Spirit. The unity of the Church is not broken by time or space and is not
limited merely to those alive upon the earth. The unity of the Church is the
unity of the Blessed Trinity and of all of those who live with God: the holy
angels, the righteous dead, and those who live upon the earth according to the
commandments of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Church
The Church is holy because God is holy, and because Christ and the Holy
Spirit are holy. The holiness of the Church comes from God. The members of
the Church are holy to the extent that they live in communion with God.
Within the earthly Church, people participate in God’s holiness. Sin and
error separate them from this divine holiness as it does from the divine unity.
Thus, the earthly members and institutions of the Church cannot be identified
as such with the Church as holy.
The faith and life of the Church on earth is expressed in its doctrines,
sacraments, scriptures, services, and saints which maintain the Church’s
essential unity, and which can certainly be affirmed as “holy” because of God’s
presence and action in them.
Catholic Church
The Church is also catholic because of its relation to God, Christ, and the
Holy Spirit. The word catholic means full, complete, whole, with nothing
lacking. God alone is full and total reality; in God alone is there nothing
lacking.
Sometimes the catholicity of the Church is understood in terms of the
Church’s universality throughout time and space. While it is true that the
Church is universal-for all men at all times and in all places-this universality is
not the real meaning of the term “catholic” when it is used to define the
Church. The term “catholic” as originally used to define the Church (as early as
the first decades of the second century) was a definition of quality rather than
quantity. Calling the Church catholic means to define how it is, namely, full
and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking.
Even before the Church was spread over the world, it was defined as
catholic. The original Jerusalem Church of the apostles, or the early city-
churches of Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, or Rome, were catholic. These churches
were catholic-as is each and every Orthodox church today-because nothing
essential was lacking for them to be the genuine Church of Christ. God Himself
is fully revealed and present in each church through Christ and the Holy Spirit,
acting in the local community of believers with its apostolic doctrine, ministry
(hierarchy), and sacraments, thus requiring nothing to be added to it in order
for it to participate fully in the Kingdom of God.
To believe in the Church as catholic, therefore, is to express the conviction
that the fullness of God is present in the Church and that nothing of the
“abundant life” that Christ gives to the world in the Spirit is lacking to it (Jn
10.10). It is to confess exactly that the Church is indeed “the fullness of him
who fills all in all” (Eph 1.23; also Col 2.10).
Apostolic Church
The word apostolic describes that which has a mission, that which has
“been sent” to accomplish a task.
Christ and the Holy Spirit are both “apostolic” because both have been
sent by the Father to the World. It is not only repeated in the Scripture on
numerous occasions how Christ has been sent by the Father, and the Spirit sent
through Christ from the Father, but it also has been recorded explicitly that
Christ is “the apostle .?.?. of our confession” (Heb 3.1).
As Christ was sent from God, so Christ Himself chose and sent His
apostles. “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you .?.?. receive ye the
Holy Spirit,” the risen Christ says to His disciples. Thus, the apostles go out to
the world, becoming the first foundation of the Christian Church.
In this sense, then, the Church is called apostolic: first, as it is built upon
Christ and the Holy Spirit sent from God and upon those apostles who were
sent by Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit; and secondly, as the Church in its
earthly members is itself sent by God to bear witness to His Kingdom, to keep
His word and to do His will and His works in this world.
Orthodox Christians believe in the Church as they believe in God and
Christ and the Holy Spirit. Faith in the Church is part of the creedal statement
of Christian believers. The Church is herself an object of faith as the divine
reality of the Kingdom of God given to men by Christ and the Holy Spirit; the
divine community founded by Christ against which “the gates of hell shall not
prevail” (Mt 16.18).
The Church, and faith in the Church, is an essential element of Christian
doctrine and life. Without the Church as a divine, mystical, sacramental, and
spiritual reality, in the midst of the fallen and sinful world there can be no full
and perfect communion with God. The Church is God’s gift to the world. It is
the gift of salvation, of knowledge and enlightenment, of the forgiveness of
sins, of the victory over darkness and death. It is the gift of communion with
God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. This gift is given totally, once and for
all, with no reservations on God’s part. It remains forever, until the close of the
ages: invincible and indestructible. Men may sin and fight against the Church,
believers may fall away and be separated from the Church, but the Church
itself, the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1Tim 3.15) remains forever.
.?.?. [God] has put all things under His [Christ’s] feet and has made Him
the head over all things for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him
who fills all in all.
.?.?. for through Him we .?.?. have access in one Spirit, to the Father. So
then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow-citizens
with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in
whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the
Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit.
.?.?. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the
Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that
she might be holy and without blemish .?.?. This is a Great Mystery .?.?. Christ
and the Church .?.?.
(Eph 1.21–23; 2.19–22; 5.25–32)
Sacraments
I confess one baptism for the remission of sins
The way of entry into the Christian Church is by baptism in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28.19; the Baptismal
Gospel reading in the Orthodox Church).
Baptism as a word means immersion or submersion in water. It was
practiced in the Old Testament and even in some pagan religions as the sign of
death and re-birth. Thus, John the Baptist was baptizing as the sign of new life
and repentance which means literally a change of mind, and so of desires and
actions in preparation of the coming of the Kingdom of God in Christ.
In the Church, the meaning of baptism is death and rebirth in Christ. It is
the personal experience of Easter given to each man, the real possibility to die
and to be “born anew” (Jn 3.3).
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a
death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His
(Rom 6.3–5; Baptismal Epistle reading in the Orthodox Church; See also Col
2.12; 3.1).
The baptismal experience is the fundamental Christian experience, the
primary condition for the whole of Christian life. Everything in the Church has
its origin and context in baptism for everything in the Church originates and
lives by the resurrection of Christ. Thus, following baptism comes “the seal of
the gift of the Holy Spirit,” the mystery (sacrament) of chrismation which is
man’s personal experience of Pentecost. And the completion and fulfillment of
these fundamental Christian mysteries comes in the mystery of Holy
Communion with God in the divine liturgy of the Church.
Only persons who are committed to Christ in the Orthodox Church through
baptism and chrismation may offer and receive the holy eucharist in the
Orthodox Church. The holy eucharist is Holy Communion. As such it is not just
a “means of sanctification” for individual believers, a means through which
private persons gain “communion” with God according to their own private
consciences, beliefs and practices. It is rather the all-embracing act of Holy
Communion of many persons having the same faith, the same hope, the same
baptism. It is the corporate act of many persons having one mind, one heart,
one mouth in the service of the one God and Lord, in the one Christ and the one
Holy Spirit.
To participate in Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church is to identify
oneself fully with all of the members of the Orthodox faith, living and dead;
and to identify oneself fully with every aspect of the Orthodox Church: its
history, councils, canons, dogmas, disciplines. It is to “take on oneself” the
direct and concrete responsibility for everyone and everything connected in and
with the Orthodox tradition and to profess responsibility for the everyday life
of the Orthodox Church. It is to say before God and men that one is willing to
be judged, in time and eternity, for what the Orthodox Church is and for what
the Orthodox Church stands for in the midst of the earth.
Entering into the “Holy Communion” of the Orthodox Church through
baptism and chrismation, one lives according to the life of the Church in every
possible way. One is first of all faithful to the doctrine and discipline of the
Church by faithful communion with the hierarchy of the Church who are those
members of the Body sacramentally responsible for the teachings and practices
of the Church; the sacramental images of the Church’s identity and continuity
in all places and all times. When one enters into the community of marriage, a
union of one man and one woman forever according to the teaching of Jesus
Christ, this union is sanctified and made eternal and divine in the sacramental
mystery of matrimony in the Church. When one is sick and suffering, he “calls
for the priests of the Church” to “pray over him, anointing him with oil” in the
sacramental mystery of holy unction (cf. Jas 5.4). When one sins and falls away
from the life of the Church, one returns to the “Holy Communion” of the divine
community by the sacramental mystery of confession and repentance. And
when one dies, he is returned to his Creator in the midst of the Church, with the
prayers and intercessions of the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ and the
Spirit. Thus the entire life of the person is lived in and with the Church as the
life of fullness and newness in God Himself, the Church which is the mystical
presence of God’s Kingdom which is not of this world.
The confession of “one baptism for the remission of sins,” therefore, is the
confession of the total newness of life given to men in the Church because
Christ is risen.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will
appear with Him in glory (Col 3.1–4).
Thus, in the Church, the whole of life is the one which begins in the new
birth of baptism, the “life hid with Christ in God.” All of the mysteries of the
Christian faith are contained in this new life. Everything in the Church flows
out of the waters of baptism: the remission of sins and life eternal.
Eternal Life
I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world [ages]
to come.
The Orthodox Church does not believe merely in the immortality of the
soul, and in the goodness and ultimate salvation of only spiritual reality.
Following the Scriptures, Orthodox Christians believe in the goodness of the
human body and of all material and physical creation. Thus, in its faith in
resurrection and eternal life, the Orthodox Church looks not to some “other
world” for salvation, but to this very world so loved by God, resurrected and
glorified by Him, tilled with His own divine presence.
At the end of the ages God will reveal His presence and will fill all
creation with Himself. For those who love Him it will be paradise. For those
who hate Him it will be hell. And all physical creation, together with the
righteous, will rejoice and be glad in His coming.
The wilderness and the solitary places will be glad; the desert shall
rejoice and blossom in abundance (Is 35.1).
For behold I create new heavens and a new earth says the Lord, and the
former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice
forever in that which I create, for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her
people a joy (Is 65.17–18).
The visions of the prophets and those of the Christian apostles about
things to come are one and the same:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the
dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be His
people, and God himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from
their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor
crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21.1–
5).
When the Kingdom of God fills all creation, all things will be made new.
This world will again be that paradise for which it was originally created. This
is the Orthodox doctrine of the final fate of man and his universe.
It is sometimes argued, however, that this world will be totally destroyed
and that God will create everything new “out of nothing” by the act of a second
creation. Those who hold this opinion appeal to such texts as that found in the
second letter of Saint Peter:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will
pass away .?.?. and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and
the works that are upon it will be burned up (2Pet 3.10).
Because the Bible never speaks about a “second creation” and because it
continually and consistently witnesses that God loves the world which He has
made and does everything that He can to save it, the Orthodox Tradition never
interprets such scriptural texts as teaching the actual annihilation of creation by
God. It understands such texts as speaking metaphorically of the great
catastrophe which creation must endure, including even the righteous, in order
for it to be cleansed, purified, made perfect, and saved. It teaches as well that
there is an “eternal fire” for the ungodly, an eternal condition of their being
destroyed. But in any case the “trial by fire” which “destroys the ungodly” is in
no way understood by the Orthodox in the sense that creation is doomed to total
destruction, despised by the loving Lord who created it and called it “very
good” (Gen 1.31; also 1Cor 3.13–15; Heb 12.25–29; Is 66; Rev 20–22).
The Holy Trinity
The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not merely an “article of faith” which
men are called to “believe.” It is not simply a dogma which the Church requires
its good members to “accept on faith.” Neither is the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity the invention of scholars and academicians, the result of intellectual
speculation and philosophical thinking.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity arises from man’s deepest experiences
with God. It comes from the genuine living knowledge of those who have come
to know God in faith.
The paragraphs which follow are intended to show something of what God
has revealed of Himself to the saints of the Church. To grasp the words and
concepts of the doctrine of the Trinity is one thing; to know the Living Reality
of God behind these words and concepts is something else. We must work and
pray so that we might pass beyond every word and concept about God and to
come to know Him for ourselves in our own living union with Him: “The
Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit” (Eph 2: 18–22).
The Holy Trinity Revealed
In the Old Testament we find Yahweh, the one Lord and God, acting
toward the world through His Word and His Spirit. In the New Testament the
“Word becomes flesh” (Jn 1.14). As Jesus of Nazareth, the only-begotten Son
of God becomes man. And the Holy Spirit, who is in Jesus making him the
Christ, is poured forth from God upon all flesh (Acts 2.17).
One cannot read the Bible nor the history of the Church without being
struck by the numerous references to God the Father, the Son (Word) of God
and the Holy Spirit. The New Testament record, and the life of the Orthodox
Church is absolutely incomprehensible and meaningless without constant
affirmation of the existence, interrelation and interaction of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit towards each other and towards man and the world.
Wrong Doctrines of the Trinity
The main question for the Church to answer about God is that of the
relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. According to
Orthodox Tradition, there are a number of wrong doctrines which must be
rejected
One wrong doctrine is that the Father alone is God and that the Son and the
Holy Spirit are creatures, made “from nothing” like angels, men and the world.
The Church answers that the Son and the Holy Spirit are not creatures, but are
uncreated and divine with the Father, and they act with the Father in the divine
act of creation of all that exists.
Another wrong doctrine is that God in Himself is One God who merely
appears in different forms to the world: Now as the Father, then as the Son, and
still again as the Holy Spirit. The Church answers once more that the Son and
Word is “in the beginning with God” (Jn 1.12) as is the Holy Spirit, and that the
Three are eternally distinct. The Son is “of God” and the Spirit is “of God.” The
Son and the Spirit are not merely aspects of God, without, so to speak, a life
and existence of their own. How strange it would be to imagine, for example,
that when the Son becomes man and prays to his Father and acts in obedience
to Him, it is all an illusion with no reality in fact, a sort of divine presentation
played before the world with no reason or truth for it at all!
A third wrong doctrine is that God is one, and that the Son and the Spirit
are merely names for relations which God has with Himself. Thus, the Thought
and Speech of God is called the Son, while the Life and Action of God is called
the Spirit; but in fact-in genuine actuality-there are no such “realities in
themselves” as the Son of God and the Spirit of God. Both are just metaphors
for mere aspects of God. Again, however, in such a doctrine the Son and the
Spirit have no existence and no life of their own. They are not real, but are
mere illusions.
Still another wrong doctrine is that the Father is one God, the Son is
another God, and the Holy Spirit still another God. There cannot be “three
gods,” says the Church, and certainly not “gods” who are created or made. Still
less can there be “three gods” of whom the Father is “higher” and the others
“lower.” For there to be more than one God, or “degrees of divinity” are both
contradictions which cannot be defended, either by divine revelation or by
logical thinking.
Thus, the Church teaches that while there is only One God, yet there are
Three who are God-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-perfectly united and
never divided yet not merged into one with no proper distinction. How then
does the Church defend its doctrine that God is both One and yet Three?
One God, One Father
First of all, it is the Church’s teaching and its deepest experience that there
is only one God because there is only one Father.
In the Bible the term “God” with very few exceptions is used primarily as
a name for the Father. Thus, the Son is the “Son of God,” and the Spirit is the
“Spirit of God.” The Son is born from the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from
the Father-both in the same timeless and eternal action of the Father’s own
being.
In this view, the Son and the Spirit are both one with God and in no way
separated from Him. Thus, the Divine Unity consists of the Father, with His
Son and His Spirit distinct from Himself and yet perfectly united together in
Him.
One God: One Divine Nature and Being
What the Father is, the Son and the Spirit are also. This is the Church’s
teaching. The Son, born of the Father, and the Spirit, proceeding from Him,
share the divine nature with God, being “of one essence” with Him.
Thus, as the Father is “ineffable, inconceivable, invisible,
incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same” (Divine Liturgy of
Saint John Chrysostom), so the Son and the Spirit are exactly the same. Every
attribute of divinity which belongs to God the Father-life, love, wisdom, truth,
blessedness, holiness, power, purity, joy-belongs equally as well to the Son and
the Holy Spirit. The being, nature, essence, existence and life of God the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit are absolutely and identically one and the same.
One God: One Divine Action and Will
Since the being of the Holy Trinity is one, whatever the Father wills, the
Son and the Holy Spirit will also. What the Father does, the Son and the Holy
Spirit do also. There is no will and no action of God the Father which is not at
the same time the will and action of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In Himself, in eternity, as well as towards the world in creation, revelation,
incarnation, redemption, sanctification, and glorification-the will and action of
the Trinity are one: from the divine Father, through the divine Son, in the divine
Holy Spirit. Every action of God is the action of the Three. No one person of
the Trinity acts independently of or in isolation from the others. The action of
each is the action of all; the action of all is the action of each. And the divine
action is essentially one.
One God: One Divine Knowledge and Love
Since each person of the Trinity is one with the others, each knows the
same Truth and exercises the same Love. The knowledge of each is the
knowledge of all, and the Love of each is the Love of all.
If taken in distinction, each person of the Trinity knows and loves the
others with such absolute perfection, knowledge, and love that there is nothing
unknown and nothing unloved of each in the others, and all in all. Thus, if the
creaturely knowledge of men can unite minds in full unanimity, and if the
creaturely love of men can bring the divided together into one heart and one
soul and even one flesh, how incomparably more perfect and absolutely uniting
must be the oneness when the Knowers and Lovers are eternal and divine.
The Three Divine Persons
In Orthodox terminology the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are called
three divine persons. Person is defined here simply as the subject of existence
and life-hypostasis in the traditional church language.
As the being, essence or nature of a reality answers the question “what?”,
the person of a reality answers the question “which one?” or “who?” Thus,
when we ask “What is God?” we answer that God is the divine, perfect, eternal,
absolute .?.?. and when we ask “Who is God?” we answer that God is the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The saints of the Church have explained this tri-unity of God by using
such an example from worldly existence. We see three men. “What are they?”
we ask. “They are human beings,” we answer. Each is man, possessing the same
humanity and the same human nature defined in a certain way: created,
temporal, physical, rational, etc. In what they are, the three men are one. But in
who they are, they are three, each absolutely unique and distinct from the
others. Each man in his own unique way is distinctly a man. One man is not the
other, though each man is still human with one and the same human nature and
form.
Turning to God, we may ask in the same way: “What is it?” In reply we
say that it is God defined as absolute perfection: “ineffable, inconceivable,
invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing, and eternally the same.” We then
ask, “Who is it?”, and we answer that it is the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. In who God is, there are three persons who are each absolutely unique
and distinct. Each is not the other, though each is still divine with the same
divine nature and form. Therefore, while being one in what they are; the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit are Three in who they are. And because of what
and who they are-namely, uncreated, divine persons-they are undivided and
perfectly united in their timeless, spaceless, sizeless, shapeless super-essential
existence, as well as in their one divine life, knowledge, love, goodness, power,
will, action, etc.
Thus, according to the Orthodox Tradition, it is the mystery of God that
there are Three who are divine; Three who live and act by one and the same
divine perfection, yet each according to his own personal distinctness and
uniqueness. Thus it is said that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each
divine with the same divinity, yet each in his own divine way. And as the
uncreated divinity has three divine subjects, so each divine action has three
divine actors; there are three divine aspects to every action of God, yet the
action remains one and the same.
We discover, therefore, one God the Father Almighty with His one unique
Son (Image and Word) and His one Holy Spirit. There is one living God with
His one perfect divine Life, who is personally the Son, with His one Spirit of
Life. There is one True God with His one divine Truth, who is personally the
Son, with His one Spirit of Truth. There is one wise and loving God with His
one Wisdom and Love, who is personally the Son, with His one Spirit of
Wisdom and Love. The examples could go on indefinitely: the one divine
Father personifying every aspect of His divinity in His one divine Son, who is
personally activated by His one divine Spirit. We will see the living
implications of the Trinity as we survey the activity of God in his actions
toward man and the world.
The Holy Trinity in Creation
God the Father created the world through the Son (Word) in the Holy
Spirit. The Word of God is present in all that exists, making it to exist by the
power of the Spirit. Thus, according to Orthodox doctrine, the universe itself is
a revelation of God in the Word and the Spirit. The Word is in all that exists,
causing it to be, and the Spirit is in all that exists as the power of its being and
life.
This is most evident in God’s special creature, man. Man is made in the
image of God, and so he bears within him the unique likeness of God which is
eternally and perfectly expressed in the divine Son of God, the Uncreated and
Absolute Image of the Father. Thus, man is “logical”; that is, he participates in
God’s Logos (the Son and Word) and so is free, knowing, loving, reflecting on
the creaturely level the very nature of God as the uncreated Son does on the
level of divinity.
Man also is ”spiritual”; he is the special temple of God’s Spirit. The
Breath of God’s Life is breathed into him in the most special way. Thus, among
creatures man alone is empowered to imitate God and to participate in His life.
Man has the competence and ability to become a Son of God, mirroring the
eternal Son, reflecting the divine nature because he is inspired by the Holy
Spirit as is no other creature. Thus, one saint of the Church has said that for
man to be a man, he must have the Spirit of God in him. Only then can he
fulfill his humanity; only then can he be made a true Son of God, likened to
him who is only-begotten.
On the most basic level of creation, therefore, we see the Trinitarian
dimensions of the being and action of God: the Word and the Spirit of God
enter man and the world to allow them to be and to become that for which the
Father has willed their existence.
The Holy Trinity in Salvation
With man’s failure to fulfill himself in his created uniqueness, God
undertakes the special action of salvation. The Father sends forth His Son
(Word) and His Spirit in yet another mission. The Word and the Spirit come to
the Old Testament saints to make known the Father. The Word, as it were,
incarnates himself in the Law (in Hebrew called the “words”) which is inspired
by the Spirit. The Spirit inspires the prophets to proclaim the Word of God.
Thus, the Law and the Prophets are revelations of God in His Word and His
Spirit. They are partial revelations, “shadows” (as the New Testament calls
them), prefiguring the total revelation of the “fullness of time” and preparing
its coming.
When the time is fulfilled and the world is made ready, the Word and the
Spirit come once more-no longer by their mere action and power, but now in
their own persons, dwelling personally in the world.
The Word becomes flesh. The only-begotten Son is born as a man, Jesus of
Nazareth. And the Spirit who is in him is given to all men to make them also
sons of the Father in an eternal development of attaining His perfection by
growing forever “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph
4.13).
Thus, in the New Testament we have the full epiphany of God, the full
manifestation of the Holy Trinity: the Father through the Son in the Spirit to us;
and we in the Spirit through the Son to the Father.
The Holy Trinity in the Church
The life of the Church is the life of men in the Holy Trinity. In the Church
all become one in Christ, all put on the deified humanity of the Son of God.
“For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3.27).
The unity of the Church is the unity of many into one, the one Body of Christ,
the one living temple of God, the one people and family of God.
Within the one body there are many individual members. Many “living
stones” constitute the living temple. Many brothers and sisters make up the one
family of which God is the Father. The unique diversity of each member of the
one Body of Christ is guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Each
unique person is inspired by the Spirit to be a true man, a true son of God in his
own distinct way. Thus, as the Body of the Church is one in Christ, the one
Holy Spirit gives to each member the possibility of fulfilling himself in God
and so of being one with all others in calling God “Father” (See 1Cor 12).
The Church, then, as the perfect unity of many persons into one fully
united organism, is a reflection of the Trinity itself. For the Church, being
many unique and distinct persons, is called to be one mind, one heart, one soul
and one body in the one Truth and Love of God Himself. The calling of the
Church to be one in all things is the prototype of the vocation of all mankind
which was originally created by God as many persons in one nature, ultimately
destined by God for ever-more-perfect growth in free unity of Truth and Love,
in the life of God’s Kingdom.
The Holy Trinity in the Sacraments
The sacraments of the Church portray the Trinitarian character of the life
of God and man. Each person is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the one
humanity of Christ. Being baptized, each person is given the “seal of the gift of
the Holy Spirit” of God in chrismation to be a “christ”, i.e. an anointed son of
God to live the life of Christ.
In marriage the unity of two into one makes the new unity a reflection of
the unity of the Trinity, and the unity of Christ and the Church. For the family
of many persons united in one truth and love is indeed the created
manifestation of the one family of God’s Kingdom, and of God Himself, the
Blessed Trinity.
In penance once more we renew our new life as sons of the Father through
the grace of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, forgiven and reunited into
the unity of God in His Church.
In holy unction the Spirit anoints the sufferer to suffer and die in Christ
and so to be healed and made alive with the Father for eternity.
The priesthood itself, the ministry of the Church, is nothing other than the
concrete manifestation in the Church of the presence of Christ by the same
Holy Spirit who makes accessible to all men the action of the Father and the
way to everlasting communion in and with Him.
Finally, the “mystery of mysteries,” the Holy Eucharist, is the actual
experience of all Christian people led to communion with God the Father by the
power of the Holy Spirit through Christ the Son who is present in the Word of
the Gospel and in the Passover Meal of His Body and Blood eaten in
remembrance of Him. The very movement of the Divine Liturgy-towards the
Father through Christ the Word and the Lamb, in the power of the Holy Spirit-is
the living sacramental symbol of our eternal movement in and toward God, the
Blessed Trinity.
Even Christian prayer is the revelation of the Trinity, accomplished within
the third person of the Godhead. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, men can call God
“our Father” only because of the Son who has taught them and enabled them to
do so. Thus, the true prayer of Christians is not the calling out of our souls in
earthly isolation to a far-away God. It is the prayer in us of the divine Son of
God made to His Father, accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit who himself is
also divine.
For we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba! Father!
The Spirit itself bears witness that we are children of God .?.?. for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself intercedes for us .?.?.
(Rom 8.15–16, 26).
The Holy Trinity in Christian Life
The new commandment of Christian life is “to be perfect as your heavenly
Father is perfect” (Mt 5.48). It is to love as Christ Himself has loved. “This is
My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15.12).
Men cannot live the Christian life of divine love in imitation of God’s
perfection without the grace of the Holy Spirit. With the power of God,
however, what is impossible to men becomes possible. “For with God all things
are possible” (Mk 10.27).
The Christian life is the life of God accomplished in men by the Spirit of
Christ. Men can live as Christ has lived, doing the things that He did and
becoming sons of God in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, once
more, the Christian life is a Trinitarian life.
By the Holy Spirit given by God through Christ, men can share the life, the
love, the truth, the freedom, the goodness, the holiness, the wisdom, the
knowledge of God Himself. It is this conviction and experience which has
caused the development in the Orthodox Church of the affirmation of the fact
that the essence of Christianity is “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit” and the
“deification” of man by the grace of God, the so-called theosis.
The saints of the Church are unanimous in their claim that Christian life is
the participation in the life of the Blessed Trinity in the most genuine and
realistic way. It is the life of men becoming divine. In the smallest aspects of
everyday life Christians are called to live the life of God the Father, which is
communicated to them by Christ, the Son of God, and made possible for them
by the Holy Spirit who lives and acts within them.
The Holy Trinity in Eternal Life
At the end of the ages Christ will come in the glory of God the Father, He
will make the Father known throughout all creation. The Holy Spirit will fill all
things and enable all to be in union with God through Christ for eternity. Again
we have the presence and action of the Holy Trinity.
What we know and experience now in the world as members of the Church
will be manifested in power in the life of the kingdom to come. The essence of
life everlasting is the life of the Holy Trinity, the same eternal life given to us
already in the mystery of faith.
And I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
[Christ] are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun .?.?. for the
glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb [Christ] is the light thereof .?.?.
And the throne of God and the Lamb [Christ] shall be in it, and his
servants shall see him .?.?. and they shall see his face .?.?.
And the Spirit and the Bride [the Church] say Come!
(Rev 21.22; 22.3, 17)
In the eternal life of the Kingdom of God, the Holy Trinity will fill all
creation: the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Every man enlightened
by Christ in the Spirit will know the invisible Father. “And this is eternal life,
that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent” (Jn 17.3). Such knowledge is possible only by the indwelling of the Spirit
of God, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1.23; 2.22).
Come O Ye People! Let us adore the Three-Personal Godhead, the Son in
the Father with the Holy Spirit.
For before all time the Father gave birth to the Son, co-eternal and co-
enthroned with Himself.
And the Holy Spirit was in the Father, glorified with the Son.
Adoring One Power, One Essence, One Divinity, let us cry:
O Holy God who made all things by the Son through the cooperation of the
Holy Spirit!
O Holy Mighty through whom we know the Father and through whom the
Holy Spirit comes ino the world!
O Holy Immortal, the Spirit, the Comforter, who proceeds from the Father
and rests in the Son!
O Most Holy Trinity! Glory to Thee!
(The Vespers of Pentecost)
The Bible
Bible
The Bible is the book of sacred writings of God’s People of the Old and
New Testaments.
The People of God of the Old Testament were the Jews, the descendants of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel (Gen
32.28). These people are also called the Hebrews. They remain forever as God’s
chosen people for from them “according to the flesh” Christ, the Son of God,
was born (Rom 9.5). This Son of God is Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah-King of
Israel and the Savior of the world (See Mt 1–2, Lk 1–2, Rom 8.3, Gal 4.4, Heb
1–5). The Old Testamental writings of the People of Israel remain forever as
the Word of God for all who believe in God and wish to know His divine Truth
and to do His divine Will.
The People of God of the New Testament are the Christians-those who
believe in Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” and who belong to
the Church which He has founded upon faith in Himself (See Mt 16.13–20).
The People of God of the New Testament also have their holy writings which
bear witness to Christ and which are affirmed to be the Word of God.
Thus, the Bible as a book, or a collection of many books, has two main
parts. It has the Old Testament writings which prepare the world for the coming
of Christ, and, it has the New Testament writings which testify to the fact that
Christ has come and has saved the world.
Word of God
The Bible is called the written Word of God. This does not mean that the
Bible fell from heaven ready made. Neither does this mean that God dictated
the Bible word for word to men who were merely His passive instruments. It
means that God has revealed Himself as the true and living God to His People,
and that as one aspect of His divine self-revelation God inspired His People to
produce scriptures, i.e., writings which constitute the true and genuine
expressions of His Truth and His Will for His People and for the whole world.
The words of the Bible are human words, for indeed, all words are human.
They are human words, however, which God Himself inspired to be written in
order to remain as the scriptural witness to Himself. As human words, the
words of the Bible contain all of the marks of the men who wrote them, and of
the time and the culture in which they were written. Nevertheless, in the full
integrity of their human condition and form, the words of the Bible are truly the
very Word of God.
The Bible is truly the Word of God in human form because its origin is not
in man but in God, Who willed and inspired its creation. In this sense, the Bible
is not like any other book. In the Bible, in and through the words of men, one
finds the self-revelation of God and can come to a true and genuine knowledge
of Him and His will and purpose for man and the world. In and through the
Bible, human persons can enter into communion with God.
All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be
complete, equipped for every good work (2Tim 3.16–17).
It is the faith of the Orthodox Church that the Bible, as the divinely-
inspired Word of God in the words of men, contains no formal errors or inner
contradictions concerning the relationship between God and the world. There
may be incidental inaccuracies of a non-essential character in the Bible. But the
eternal spiritual and doctrinal message of God, presented in the Bible in many
different ways, remains perfectly consistent, authentic, and true.
Authorship
The Bible has many different human authors. Some books of the Bible do
not indicate in any way who wrote them. Other books bear the names of persons
to whom authorship is ascribed. In some cases it is perfectly clear that the
indicated author is in fact the person who actually wrote the book with his own
hands. In other cases it is as clear that the author of the book had another
person do the actual writing of his work in the manner of a secretary. In still
other cases it is the Tradition of the Church, and not seldom the opinion of
biblical scholars, that the indicated author of a given book of the Bible is not
the person (or persons) who wrote it, but the person who originally inspired its
writing, whose name is then attached to it as its author.
In a number of instances the Tradition of the Church is not clear about the
authorship of certain books of the Bible, and in many cases biblical scholars
present innumerable theories about authorship which they then debate among
themselves. It is impossible to establish the authorship of any book of the Bible
by scholarship, however, since historical and literary studies are relative by
nature.
Because the Orthodox Church teaches that the entire Bible is inspired by
God Who in this sense is its one original author, the Church Tradition considers
the identity of the human authors as incidental to the correct interpretation and
proper significance of the books of the Bible for the believing community. In
no case would the Church admit that the identity of the author determines the
authenticity or validity of a book which is viewed as part of the Bible, and
under no circumstances would it be admitted that the value or the proper
understanding and use of any book of the Bible in the Church depends on the
human writer alone.
Interpretation
The Bible is the book of sacred writings for God’s People, the Church. It
was produced in the Church, by and for the Church, under divine inspiration as
an essential part of the total reality of God’s covenant relationship with His
People. It is the authentic Word of God for those who belong to God’s chosen
assembly of believers, to the Israel of old and to the Church of Christ today and
forever.
The Bible lives in the Church. It comes alive in the Church and has the
most profound divine meaning for those who are members of the community
which God has established, in which He dwells, and to which, through His
Word and His Spirit, He has given Himself for participation, communion and
life everlasting. Outside of the total life and experience of the community of
faith, which is the Church of Christ, “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1Tim
3.15) no one can truly understand and correctly interpret the Bible.
First of all you must understand that no prophecy of scripture is a matter
of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy came by the impulse of man,
but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God (2Pet 1.20).
Scholars of the Bible can help men to understand its divine contents and
meaning. Through their archeological, historical, and literary studies they can
offer much light to the words of the scriptures. But by themselves and by their
academic work alone, no men can produce the proper interpretation of the
Bible. Only Christ, the living and personal Word of God, Who comes from the
Father and lives in His Church through the Holy Spirit, can make God known
and can give the right understanding of the scriptural Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word
was God.?.?.?. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace
and truth.?.?.?. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known (Jn 1.1–18).
Jesus Christ, the Word of God in human flesh, alone makes God known.
And Jesus, besides being Himself the living incarnation of God, the living
fulfillment of the law and the prophets (Mt 5.17), is also the One by whom the
Bible is rightly interpreted.
And [being risen from the dead] He said to them, “O foolish men and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that
the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?”
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in
all the scriptures the things concerning Himself (Lk?24.25–27).
And He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you, while I
was still with you, that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and the
prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to
understand the scriptures.?.?.?. (Lk 24.44–45; also Jn 5.45–47).
Jesus Christ remains forever in His Church by the Holy Spirit to open
men’s minds to understand the Bible (Jn 14.26, 16.13). Only within Christ’s
Church, in the community of faith, of grace, and of truth, can men filled with
the Holy Spirit understand the meaning and purpose of the Bible’s holy words.
Thus, speaking about those who do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the
apostle Paul contends that when they read the Bible a “veil” hides its true
meaning from them “because only through Christ is it taken away” (2Cor 3.14).
Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds; but
when a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all [i.e. believers
in Christ] with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, .?.?. we refuse to practice cunning or
to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would
commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if
our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case
the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them
from seeing the light of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God (2Cor
3.15–4.4).
In the New Testament, Christ not only provides the correct interpretation
of the Bible, He also allows the believers themselves to be directly enlightened
by the Holy Spirit and to be themselves “the letter from Christ. … written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on
tablets of human hearts” (2Cor 3.3). Thus is fulfilled the prediction of the old
covenant that in the time of the Messiah “they all shall be taught of God” by
direct divine inspiration and instruction (Jn 6.45, Is 54.13, Ezek 36.26, Jer
31.31, Joel 2.28, Mic 4.2, et al.). It is only within the living Tradition of the
Church under the direct inspiration of Christ’s Spirit that the proper
interpretation of the Bible can be made.
Old Testament
Law
The first part of the Bible is called the Torah, which means the Law. It is
also called the Pentateuch which means the five books. These books are also
called the Books of Moses. They include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy. The events described in these books, from the calling of
Abraham to the death of Moses, probably took place sometime in the second
millennium before Christ (2000–1200 BC).
The Book of Genesis contains the pre-history of the people of Israel. It
begins with the story of the creation of the world, the fall of Adam and Eve and
the subsequent, quite sinful, history of the children of Adam. It then tells of
God’s call and promise of salvation to Abraham, and the story of Isaac and
Jacob, whom God named Israel, ending with the settlement of the twelve tribes
of Israel-the families of the twelve sons of Jacob-in Egypt, during the time of
Joseph’s favor with the Egyptian Pharaoh. In traditional Church language,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called the patriarchs.
The Book of Exodus relates the deliverance of the people of Israel by
Moses from the slavery in Egypt to which they were subjected after the death
of Joseph. It tells of the revelation of God to Moses of His divine name of
Yahweh-I AM WHO I AM (3.14). It gives the account of the passover and the
exodus, and the journey of the Israelites, led by God, through the desert. Also,
in this book is the narrative of God’s gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses
on Mount Sinai, and the other laws which God gave to Moses concerning the
moral and ritual conduct of His People.
The Book of Leviticus is a further book of laws, primarily concerned with
the priestly and ritual offices of the people which were conducted by men taken
from the tribe of Levi.
The Book of Numbers concerns itself primarily with a census of the
people. It also contains laws given by God to Moses, and further narratives
about the movement of God’s People through the wilderness to the land which
God promised them.
The Book of Deuteronomy, which means the “second law,” is again
primarily a law code in which is told again the story of the Ten Commandments
and the institution of the Mosaic laws of moral and ritual conduct. It ends with
Moses’ blessing of the people, and his vision of the promised land into which
Joshua would lead God’s People after his death, the account of which ends the
Books of Moses.
Scholars tell us that the Law was not written by the personal hand of
Moses and that the books show evidence of being the result of a number of oral
and written traditions transmitted among the People of Israel, containing
material of later periods. Nevertheless, in the Tradition of Israel and of the
Christian Church, the Law remains essentially connected with Moses, the great
man of God to whom “the Lord used to speak .?.?. face to face, as a man speaks
to his friend” (Ex 33.11).
The Ten Commandments
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above. or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them: for I the
LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing
steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD
will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and
do all your work: but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it
you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant,
or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates;
for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth. the sea. and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day; therefore, the LORD blessed the sabbath day
and hallowed it.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land
which the Lord your God gives you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your
neighbor’s wife, or his man servant, or his maidservant, or his ox. or his ass, or
anything that is your neighbor’s.
(Ex 20.1–17)
History
Following the Law in the Bible are those books which are called historical.
They cover the history of Israel from the settlement in the promised land of
Canaan to the first centuries before Christ. They include Joshua, Judges, Ruth,
1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther,
as well as 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, and 1 and 2Maccabees, which in the
English Bible includes 3Maccabees.
In the biblical listing of the Orthodox Church, which is generally that of
the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, 1 and 2 Samuel are
called 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Kings are called 3 and 4 Kings. Also, the so-
called apocryphal books, listed above after Esther, are considered by the
Orthodox as genuine parts of the Bible. The Old Testament apocrypha is a body
of writings considered by the non-Orthodox to be of close association with the
Bible, but not actually part of its official canonical contents.
The Book of Joshua begins with the People of Israel crossing over the
Jordan River and into the promised land led by Joshua, the successor of Moses.
It tells of the victories of the Israelites over the local inhabitants, and the
settlement of the twelve tribes in the territories appointed to each by Moses.
The Book of Judges tells of the period when the Israelites were ruled by
the “judges” whom God appointed, the most famous being Ehud, Deborah,
Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. During this period, the Israelites were often
unfaithful to God and given to evil. They were constantly at war with
themselves and their neighbors. The book ends with the line: “In those days
there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his eyes” (Judg
23.25).
The Book of Ruth is a very short story of the Moabite woman whom God
blessed to be the wife of Boaz, the great-grandmother of David the King.
The books of Samuel and Kings begin with the birth of Samuel, the
prophet whom God chose to anoint Saul as the first king of Israel. Until Saul
there was no king, for God Himself was to be King for His People. Yet Israel
wished to be “like all the nations” and God yielded, with reluctance, to their
desires (Sam 8). Saul soon became evil and God sent Samuel to anoint David,
the shepherd boy, as king in his place. Saul was enraged and made war against
David, but David was merciful to him though he could easily have killed him.
During this whole time, the Israelites were constantly at war. Saul finally killed
himself rather than be taken in battle, and David became the only king. Having
subdued all of his enemies, both within Israel and without, David established a
glorious kingdom centered in Jerusalem, the city which he built. David’s son,
Solomon, favored by God with great wisdom, enlarged his father’s kingdom
and built the great temple for God on Mount Zion. The kingship of David and
Solomon lasted from 1000–422 BC.
No sooner had Solomon died, than the kingdom collapsed. Two rival states
emerged, Israel and Judah, which were constantly at war with each other and
with those around them. This was a time of great decadence and evil that lasted
for about three hundred years and ended with the Babylonian Captivity (587–
539 BC). It was the time of Elijah and many of the great prophets of God.
Babylon was captured by the Persians led by Cyrus and Darius who
restored the Israelites to their homeland. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell
of the resettlement of the Jews, and of the rebuilding and the reopening of the
temple in Jerusalem.
The two books of Chronicles date from this same period and may well
have been compiled by Ezra, although scholars consider them as the work of
third century authors, perhaps the same who wrote Ezra and Nehemiah. The
Chronicles cover the history of Israel from Adam to the time of Cyrus. They
contain numerous genealogies, and show particular interest in David and the
Kings as well as in the temple and the priesthood. In the Septuagint Bible the
Chronicles are called Paralipomena which means “that which has been left
out,” thus indicating their purpose as being to fill in what has been excluded
from the earlier historical books of the Bible.
The Book of Esther, and those of 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, and 1 and
2Maccabees which, as we have said, are included in the Bible in the Orthodox
Church, bring the history of Israel down to New Testament times. They tell of
the reorganization of the Jewish community around the temple, the cult and the
law as a mere remnant of the great nation, or nations of Israel and Judah, which
existed before the time of exile; a struggling remnant constantly in subjugation
to external powers. It is mostly the case that the historical books of the Bible
were written well after the events described in them actually took place.
Wisdom
The books of the Bible which are commonly called the Wisdom books
include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, as well
as the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, and the
Wisdom of Solomon from the so-called apocrypha.
The Book of Job, usually dated sometime at the period of exile, is the
story of righteous suffering in which the sufferer pleads his cause before God
only to “repent in dust and ashes” (42.6) upon seeing the Lord for himself and
being confronted by Him with His own defense of His unspeakable and
unfathomable majesty. Selections from this book are read on the first days of
Holy Week in the Orthodox Church because they deal with the most profound
problem facing believers, the problem of suffering, which is brought to its
ultimate completion in Christ who is not merely the most perfect of “suffering
innocents,” but indeed the Suffering God in human flesh.
The Book of Proverbs, called the “proverbs of Solomon,” undoubtedly
comes from Solomon’s time, although scholars place some of the proverbs at a
much later date and tell us that the book was put in its present form only after
the Babylonian exile. The proverbs are short sayings concerning the proper
conduct of wise and righteous persons. They are read in their entirety at the
weekday Vesper services of the Church during Great Lent. Selections from the
Proverbs are also read at the vigils of a number of feasts of the Church since for
Christians the Wisdom of God is personified and embodied in Christ.
Ecclesiastes is a book of common-sense meditations on the vanity of life
in this world and the wisdom of fearing God and keeping His commandments
which is “the whole duty of man” (11.3). It is traditionally ascribed to
Solomon, the Preacher. Scholars place the book in the third century before
Christ, however, and find in its message a hellenistic spirit taken over by the
Jews in diaspora among the gentile nations.
The same hellenistic spirit and influences of Greek philosophy, but to a
much greater degree, are found in both the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach and
the Wisdom of Solomon which come from the same period, the very eve of
New Testament times. Of the three books just mentioned, only the Wisdom of
Solomon, which is considered to be the last of them written, is read liturgically
in the Orthodox Church.
The Song of Solomon-also called the Song of Songs or Canticle of
Canticles-is considered by scholars as a Canaanite wedding hymn of uncertain
date. In Orthodox Church Tradition it is interpreted as a mystical love story
between man’s soul and God. Christian saints of East and West, such as
Gregory of Nyssa and Bernard of Clairvaux, have given such a meaning to the
book which is in line with the biblical tradition of viewing the interrelationship
of God and His People as that of conjugal love (See Hos, Jer 2–3, Eph 5, Rev
21–22). This book is never read in the liturgical services of the Orthodox
Church, although certain lines from it are traditionally sung in the Russian
Orthodox Church when the bride approaches her bridegroom in the church
before the celebration of their marriage.
Although not technically a “wisdom” book, mention may be made at this
point of The Prayer of Manasseh from the so-called apocrypha. This penitential
prayer of the King of Judah, which for the Orthodox is part of the Bible, is
included in the Great Compline service of the Orthodox Church.
Psalms
The Psalms are the divinely-inspired songs of the People of Israel. They
are traditionally called the “psalms of David,” although many of them most
certainly come from other authors of much later times. The enumeration and
the wording of the psalms differ in various scriptural traditions. The Orthodox
Church follows the Septuagint version of the psalter and for this reason the
numbers and not seldom the texts of certain psalms are different in Orthodox
service books from what they are in the Bibles which are translated from the
Hebrew.
In the Orthodox Church, the entire psalter is divided into twenty sections
and is chanted each week in those monasteries and churches which perform the
entire liturgical office. Various psalms and verses of psalms are used in all
liturgical services of the Orthodox Church (see Worship).
Virtually all states of man’s soul before God are found expressed in the
psalms: praising, thanking, blessing, rejoicing, petitioning, repenting,
lamenting, questioning and even complaining. Many of the psalms are centered
in the cultic rituals of the Jerusalem temple and the Davidic kingship. Others
recount God’s saving actions in Israelite history. Still others carry prophetic
utterances about events yet to come, particularly those of the messianic age.
Thus, for example, we find Christ quoting Psalm 8 in reference to His
triumphal entry into Jerusalem; Psalm 110 in reference to his own mysterious
divinity; and Psalm 22, when, hanging upon the cross, He cries out with the
words of the psalm in which is described His crucifixion and his ultimate
salvation of the world (See Mt 21.16, 22.44, 27.46).
In the Orthodox Church all of the psalms are understood as having their
deepest and most genuine spiritual meaning in terms of Christ and His mission
of eternal salvation. Thus, for example, the psalms which refer to the king are
sung in the Church in reference to Christ’s exaltation and glorification at the
right hand of God. The psalms which refer to Israel’s deliverance are sung in
reference to Christ’s redemption of the whole world. The psalms calling for
victory over the enemies in battle refer to the only real Enemy, the devil, and
all of his wicked works which Christ has come to destroy. Babylon thus
signifies the realm of Satan, and Jerusalem, the eternal Kingdom of God. The
psalms which lament the innocent suffering of the righteous are sung as the
plea of the Lord Himself and all those with Him who are the “poor and needy”
who will rise up to rule the earth on the day of God’s terrible judgment. Thus,
the psalter remains forever as the divinely-inspired song book of prayer and
worship for all of God’s People, and most especially for those who belong to
the Messiah whose words the psalms are in their deepest and most divine
significance.
Liturgical Division of the Psalter (Kathisma)
Psalms 1–8
Psalms 9–17
Psalms 18–24
Psalms 25–32
Psalms 33–37
Psalms 38–46
Psalms 47–55
Psalms 56–64
Psalms 65–70
Psalms 71–77
Psalms 78–85
Psalms 86–91
Psalms 92–101
Psalms 102–105
Psalms 106–109
Psalms 110–118
Psalm 119
Psalms 120–134
Psalms 135–143
Psalms 144–150
Prophets
There are sixteen books in the Bible called by the names of the prophets
although not necessarily written by their hands. A prophet is one who speaks by
the direct inspiration of God; only secondarily does the word mean one who
foretells the future. Four of the prophetic books are those of the so-called major
prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
Most scholars believe that the book of Isaiah is the work of more than one
author. It covers the period from the middle of the eighth century before Christ
to the time of the Babylonian exile. It tells of the impending doom upon the
people of God for their wickedness and infidelity to the Lord. And it foretells
the mercy of God upon His People, as well as the gentiles, in the time of His
redemption in the messianic age. The famous vision of the prophet in chapter
six is included in the eucharistic prayers of the Orthodox Church. Of central
importance in Isaiah are the prophecies in the first part of the book, especially
chapters six to twelve, concerning the coming of the Messiah-King; and the
prophecies at the end of the book, about the salvation of all creation in the
suffering servant of the Lord. The entire book of Isaiah is read in the Church
during Great Lent, and many selections are read at the vigils of the great feasts
of the Church. In the New Testament scriptures there are innumerable
quotations of the prophecy of Isaiah made in reference to John the Baptist, and
most especially to Christ Himself.
The book of Jeremiah covers the period of the seventh century before
Christ and, like Isaiah, prophecies the Lord’s wrath upon His sinful people.
Jeremiah, a most reluctant prophet, suffered greatly at the hands of the people
and was constantly persecuted for his proclamation of the Word of the Lord.
The book is referred to many times in the New Testament. The messianic
prophecies of salvation in Jeremiah are often read in the festal services of the
Church. The books of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah from the apocrypha go
together with this prophetic book in the Orthodox version of the Bible.
The book of Ezekiel, who was a priest as well as a prophet, is dated at the
time of the Babylonian Captivity. Once again, the prophet is directly concerned
with God’s righteous anger over the sins of His People, making specific
reference to the presence-and the departure-of the Lord’s glory in the Jerusalem
Temple. Ezekiel, however, like all of the prophets, is not without hope in the
mercy of God. The moving passage about God’s resurrection of the “dry bones”
of dead Israel through the breathing in of His Holy Spirit is read over the tomb
of Christ at the Great Saturday service of the Orthodox Church.
The prophecy of Daniel, read in the Church at the vigil of Easter, is
concerned with the faithfulness of the Jews to their God in the time of forced
apostasy. Scholars consider this book among the latest written in the Old
Testament, much after the time of the Babylonian captivity in which the story
is placed. Central among the book’s messages is the redemption of Israel in the
victorious coming of the heavenly Son of Man, who, in the New Testament, is
identified with Christ. It is the apocalyptic character of the book-apocalyptic
meaning that which refers to the final revelation of God and His ultimate
judgment over all creation-which accounts for the placement of Daniel at a date
close to New Testament times. The Song of the Three Youths which goes
together with Daniel and which is placed by the non-Orthodox among the
apocryphal writings, forms a genuine part of the Bible in the Orthodox Church,
as do the books of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon, also part of Daniel. The
Song of the Youths is part of the matinal office in the Orthodox Church.
Among the books of the so-called minor prophets, Amos and Hosea are the
earliest, coming, like the first part of Isaiah, from the middle of the eighth
century before Christ. Amos is the great proclaimer of the justice of God
against the injustices of His People. Hosea tells of the unwavering love of God
which will ultimately triumph over the adulterous harlotry of His People who
unfaithfully lust after false gods. The book of Micah dates from approximately
the same period and is very similar in content to Isaiah. In Micah is found the
prophecy of the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem (5.2–4).
Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah are dated in the later part of the seventh
century before Christ. They imitate Jeremiah, prophesying the wrath of a good
and just God upon a wicked and unjust people. Like Jeremiah, they also foretell
the restoration of Israel by the merciful Lord.
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and perhaps Obadiah, belong to the period of
the return of God’s People from exile. Zechariah is famous for the oracle of the
appearance of the Savior-King, “triumphant and victorious as he is, humble and
riding on an ass?.?.?.” (9.9) which referred to Christ’s triumphal entry into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Malachi, who is ferocious against the sins of the
priests, is the last of the prophets before John the Baptist whose coming he
foretells, as did the others, to usher in the “great and terrible day of the Lord”
(3.1, 4.5) when “the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings”
(4.2), a reference made, according to Christians, explicitly to their Lord.
The prophecy of Joel, quoted by Saint Peter in reference to the coming of
the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), belongs to the apocalyptic
style of Daniel as it speaks of the final acts of God in the days of the Lord’s
“great and terrible” appearance when He will execute justice and restore the
fortunes of His People, delivering “all who call upon the name of the Lord”
(2.31–32).
The book of Jonah is most likely a prophetic allegory intended to foretell
the Lord’s salvation of the gentiles in the time of His final messianic presence
in the world. It was probably written in post-exilic times. It is read in its
entirety in the Church at the Easter vigil of Great Saturday as it was directly
referred to by Christ Himself as the sign of His messianic mission in the world
(Mt 12.38, Lk 11.29).
It must be mentioned at this point, that the variation in names found in
English for the prophets, as well as for other persons and places in the
scriptures, comes from the different Hebrew and Greek language traditions of
the Bible. The Orthodox sources most often tend to follow the Greek. Thus, for
example, Elijah becomes Elias, Hosea becomes Osee, Habakkuk becomes
Avvakum, Jonah becomes Jonas, etc. Once again we must mention as well that
according to Christians, the entire Old Testament finds it deepest meaning and
its most perfect fulfillment in the coming of Christ and in the life of His
Church.
New Testament
Gospels
The first books of the New Testament scriptures are the four gospels of
Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The word gospel literally means good
news or glad tidings. The gospels tell of the life and teaching of Jesus, but none
of them is a biography in the classical sense of the word. The gospels were not
written merely to tell the story of Jesus. They were written by the disciples of
Christ, who were filled with the Holy Spirit after the Lord’s resurrection, to
bear witness to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the promised Messiah-
Christ of Israel and the Savior of the world.
In the Orthodox Church, it is not the entire Bible, but only the book of the
four gospels which is perpetually enthroned upon the altar table in the church
building. This is a testimony to the fact that the life of the Church is centered in
Christ, the living fulfillment of the law and the prophets, who abides
perpetually in the midst of His People, the Church, through the presence of the
Holy Spirit.
The gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic
gospels, which means that they “look the same”. These three gospels are very
similar in content and form and are most probably interrelated textually in
some way, exactly how being an ongoing debate among scriptural scholars.
They each were written sometime in the beginning of the second half of the
first century, and the texts of each of them, as that of St John, have come down
to us in Greek, the language in which they were written, with the possible
exception of Matthew which may have been written originally in Aramaic, the
language of Jesus.
Each of the synoptic gospels follows basically the same narrative. Each
begins with Jesus’ baptism by John and His preaching in Galilee. Each centers
on the apostles’ confession of Jesus as the promised Messiah of God, with the
corresponding event of the transfiguration, and the announcement by Christ of
His need to suffer and die and be raised again on the third day. And each
concludes with the account of the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of
the Lord.
Saint Mark
The gospel of Saint Mark is the shortest, and perhaps the first written, of
the gospels, although this is a matter of debate. Its author was not one of the
twelve apostles and it is the common view that this gospel presents the
“tradition” of Saint Peter. The gospel begins immediately with Jesus’ baptism,
the call of the apostles, and the preaching of Jesus accompanied by his works of
forgiveness and healing. In this gospel, as in all of them, Jesus is revealed from
the very beginning by His authoritative words and His miraculous works as the
Holy One of God, the divine Son of Man, Who was crucified and is risen from
the dead, thus bringing to the world the Kingdom of God.
Saint Matthew
The gospel of Saint Matthew, who was one of the twelve apostles, is
considered by some to be the earliest written gospel. There is also the opinion
that it was originally written in Aramaic and not in the Greek text which has
remained in the Church. It is a commonly-held view that the gospel of Saint
Matthew was written for the Jewish Christians to show from the scriptures of
the Old Testament, that Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham, is truly the
Christ, the bearer of God’s Kingdom to men.
The gospel of Saint Matthew abounds with references to the Old
Testament. It begins with the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham and the story
of Christ’s birth from the Virgin in Bethlehem. Then recounting the baptism of
Jesus and the temptations in the wilderness, it proceeds to the call of the
disciples and the preaching and works of Christ.
The gospel of Saint Matthew contains the longest and most detailed record
of Christ’s teachings in the so-called Sermon on the Mount (5–7). Generally, in
the Orthodox Church, it is the text of the gospel of Saint Matthew which is used
most consistently in liturgical worship, e.g., the version of the beatitudes and
the Lord’s Prayer. Only this gospel contains the commission of the Lord to His
apostles after the resurrection, “to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28.19).
Saint Luke
The gospel of Saint Luke, who was not one of the twelve apostles but one
of the original disciples, a physician known for his association with the apostle
Paul, claims to be an “orderly account .?.?. delivered by those who from the
beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word” (1.1–4). Together with
the book of Acts, also written by Saint Luke for a certain Theophilus, this
gospel forms the most complete “history” of Christ and the early Christian
Church that we have.
The gospel of Saint Luke, alone among the four canonical gospels, has a
complete account of the birth of both Jesus and John the Baptist. Traditionally,
the source for these events recorded by Saint Luke is considered to be Mary, the
mother of Christ. We must mention at this point that in addition to the four
gospels called “canonical” in that they alone have been accepted by the Church
as genuine witnesses to the true life and teachings of Christ, there exist many
other writings from the early Christian era which tell about Jesus, and
especially His childhood, which have not been accepted by the Church as
authentic and true. These writings are often called apocryphal (not to be
confused with the so-called apocrypha of the Old Testament), or the
pseudoepigrapha which literally means “false writings.”
Saint Luke’s gospel is noted for the detail of its narrative, and especially
for its record of Christ’s great concern for the poor and for the sinful. Certain
parables warning against the dangers of riches and self-righteousness, and
revealing the great mercy of God to sinners, are found only in the gospel of
Saint Luke, for example, those of the publican and the pharisee, the prodigal
son, and Lazarus and the rich man, There is also a very great emphasis in this
gospel on the Kingdom of God which Christ has brought to the world and which
He gives to those who continue with Him in His sufferings.
The post-resurrection account of the Lord’s presence to the two disciples
on the road to Ernmaeus in which only one of the disciples is named, an
account found only in Saint Luke’s gospel, gives rise to the tradition that the
unnamed disciple was Luke himself.
Saint John
The gospel of Saint John is very different from the synoptic gospels. It is
undoubtedly the latest written, being the work of the beloved disciple and
apostle of the Lord at the end of his life near the close of the first century. In
most Orthodox versions of the Bible, this gospel is printed before the others as
it is the one which is first read in the Church’s lectionary beginning at the
divine Liturgy on Easter night.
The gospel of Saint John begins with its famous prologue which identifies
Jesus of Nazareth with the divine Word of God of the Old Testament, the Word
of God Who was ‘in the beginning with God,’ Who ‘is God,’ the One through
Whom ‘all things were made’ (1.1–3). This Word of God ‘became flesh,’ and as
Jesus, the Son of God, He makes God known to men and grants to all who
believe in Him the power of partaking of His own fulness of grace and truth and
of becoming themselves ‘children of God’ (1.14ff).
From the first pages of this gospel, following the prologue, in the account
of Jesus’ baptism and His calling of the apostles, Jesus is presented as God’s
only begotten Son, the Messiah and the Lord. Throughout the gospel, He is
identified as well, in various ways, with the God of the Old Testament,
receiving the dd vine name of I AM together with the Yahweh of Moses and the
prophets and psalms.
The gospel of Saint John, following the prologue, may be divided into two
main parts. The first part is the so-called book of ‘signs,’ the record of a
number of Jesus’ miracles with detailed ‘commentary’ about their significance
in signifying Him as Messiah and Lord (2–11). Because the “signs” all have a
deeply spiritual and sacramental significance for believers in Christ, with
almost all of them dealing with water, wine, bread, light, the salvation of the
nations, the separation from the synagogue, the forgiveness of sins, the healing
of infirmities and the resurrection of the dead, it is sometimes thought that the
gospel of Saint John was expressly written as a ‘theological gospel’ for those
who were newly initiated into the life of the Church through the sacramental
mysteries of baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the eucharist. In any case,
because of the contents of the book of ‘signs,’ as well as the long discourses of
Christ about His relationship to God the Father, the Holy Spirit and the
members of His faithful flock, in the latter part of the gospel, the apostle and
evangelist John has traditionally been honored in the Church with the title of
The Theologian.
The latter half of Saint John’s gospel concerns the passion of Christ and its
meaning for the world (11–21). Here most explicitly, in long discourses coming
from the mouth of the Lord Himself, the doctrines of Christ’s person and work
are most deeply explained. As we have just mentioned, here Christ relates
Himself to God the Father, to the Holy Spirit and to His community of
believers in clear and certain terms. He is one with God, Who as Father is
greater than He, Whose words He speaks, Whose works He accomplishes and
Whose will He performs. And through the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the
Father to bear witness to Him in the world, He remains abiding forever in those
who are His through their faith and co-service of God.
The account of the passion in Saint John’s gospel differs slightly from that
of the synoptic gospels and is considered by many, in this instance, to be a
certain clarification or correction. There are also accounts of the resurrection
given which are recorded only in this gospel. The final chapter of the book is
traditionally considered to be an addition following the first ending of the
gospel, to affirm the reinstatement of the apostle Peter to the leadership of the
apostolic community after his three denials of the Lord at the time of His
passion. It may have been a necessary inclusion to offset a certain lack of
confidence in Saint Peter by some members of the Church.
In the Tradition of the Orthodox Church, a tradition often expressed in the
Church’s iconography, the four gospels are considered to be symbolized in the
images of the ‘four living creatures’ of the biblical apocalypse, the lion, the ox,
the man and the eagle, with the most classical interpretation connecting
Matthew with the man, Luke with the ox, Mark with the lion and John with the
eagle (Ezek 1.10, Rev 4.7). The four gospels, taken together, but each with its
own unique style and form, remain forever as the scriptural center of the
Orthodox Church.
Acts of the Apostles
The book of the Acts of the Apostles was written by Saint Luke toward the
end of the first century, as the second part of his history for Theophilus about
Christ and His Church. The book begins with an account of the Lord’s
ascension and the election of Matthias to take the place of Judas as a member
of the twelve apostles. Then follows the record of the events of the day of
Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Christ
empowering them to preach the gospel of new life in the resurrected Savior to
the people of Jerusalem.
The first chapters of the book tell the story of the first days of the Church
in Jerusalem and provide us with a vivid picture of the primitive Christian
community being built up through the work of the apostles. It tells of the
people being baptized and endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit through
repentance and faith in Christ, and continuing steadfast in their devotion “to the
apostles’ doctrine and fellowship (communion), to the breaking of the bread
and the prayers” (2.42).
Following the description of the martyrdom of the deacon Stephen, the
first to give his life for Christ, Acts tells of the conversion of the persecutor
Saul into the zealous apostle Paul, and records the events by which the first
gentiles were brought into the Church by the direct action of God. There then
follows an account of the first missionary activities of Saints Paul and
Barnabas, and the famous fifteenth chapter in which the first council of the
Church in Jerusalem is described, the council which established the conditions
under which the gentiles could enter the Church relative to the Mosaic law
which all of the Jewish Christians were then keeping.
The final half of the book describes the missionary activities of the apostle
Paul through Syria and Cilicia, into Macedonia and Greece and back again
through Ephesus to Jerusalem. It then gives the account of Saint Paul’s arrest in
Jerusalem, and his defense before the authorities there. The book ends with the
description of Saint Paul’s journey to Rome for trial, closing with the
information that “he lived there two whole years .?.?. preaching the Kingdom
of God and teaching about the Lord quite openly and unhindered” to those who
came to him in his house of arrest (28.30).
The book of the Acts of the Apostles forms the apostolic lectionary of the
Church’s Liturgy during the time from Easter to Pentecost. Selections from it
are also read at other feasts of the Church, e.g., Saint Stephen’s Day. It is also
the custom of the Church to read the book of Acts over the tomb of Christ on
Good Friday, and over the body of a deceased priest at the wake prior to his
burial.
Letters of Saint Paul
Fourteen letters, also called epistles, which are ascribed to the apostle Paul
are included in the holy scriptures of the New Testament Church. We will
comment on the letters in the order in which they are normally printed in the
English Bible and read in the Church’s liturgical year.
Romans
The letter to the Romans was written by Saint Paul from Corinth sometime
at the end of the fifties of the first century. It is one of the most formal and
detailed expositions of the doctrinal teaching of Saint Paul that we have. It is
not one of the easier parts of the scripture to understand without careful study.
In this letter, the apostle Paul writes about the relationship of the Christian
faith to the unbelievers, particularly the unbelieving Jews. The apostle upholds
the validity and holiness of the Mosaic law while passionately defending the
doctrine that salvation comes only in Christ, by faith and by grace. He
discourses powerfully about the meaning of union with Christ through baptism
and the gift of the Holy Spirit. He urges great humility on the part of the gentile
Christians toward Israel, and calls with great pathos and love for the regrafting
of the unbelieving Jews to the genuine community of God which is in Christ
Who is Himself from Israel “according to the flesh” (9.5) for the sake of its
salvation and that of all the world.
The end of the letter is a long exhortation concerning the proper behavior
of Christians, finally closing with a long list of personal greetings from the
apostle and his co-workers, including one Tertius, the actual writer of the letter,
to many members of the Roman Church, urging, once more, steadfastness of
faith.
The letter to the Romans is read in the Church’s liturgical lectionary
during the first weeks following the feast of Pentecost. Selections from it are
also read on various other liturgical occasions, one of which, for example, is
the sacramental liturgy of baptism and chrismation (6.3–11).
First Corinthians
The first Christian community in Corinth, was noted neither for its inner
peace and harmony, nor for the exemplary moral behavior of its members. The
two letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians which we have in the New
Testament, written in the mid-fifties of the first century, are filled not only with
doctrinal and ethical teachings, the answers to concrete questions and
problems, but also with no little scolding and chastisement by the author, as
well as numerous defenses of his own apostolic authority. These letters clearly
demonstrate the fact that the first Christians were not all saints, and that the
early Church experienced no fewer difficulties than the Church does today or at
any time in its history in the world.
After a short greeting and word of gratitude to God for the grace given to
the Corinthians, the first letter begins with Saint Paul’s appeal for unity in the
Church. There are deep disagreements and dissensions among the members of
the community, and the apostle urges all to be fully united in the crucified
Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit in Whom there can be no divisions at all
(1–3) He then defends his apostleship generally and his fatherhood of the
Corinthian Church in particular, both of which were being attacked by some
members of the Church. (4) Next, he deals with the problem on sexual
immorality among members of the community and the matter of their going to
court before pagan judges (5–6). After this comes Saint Paul’s counsel about
Christian marriage and his advice concerning the eating of food offered to idols
(7–8). Then once again he defends his apostleship, stressing the fact that he has
always supported himself materially and has burdened no one.
The divisions and troubles in the Corinthian community were most
concretely expressed at the eucharistic gatherings of the Church. There was
general disrespect and abuse of the Body and Blood of Christ, and the practice
had developed where each clique was having its own separate meal. These
divisions were caused in no small part by the fact that some of the community
had certain spiritual gifts, for example, that of praising God in unknown
tongues, which they considered as signs of their superiority over others. There
also was trouble caused by women in the Church, who were using their new
freedom in Christ for disruption and disorder.
In his letter Saint Paul urges respect and discernment for the holy
eucharist as the central realization of the unity of the Church, coming from
Christ, Himself. He warns against divisions in the Church because of the
various spiritual gifts, urging the absolute unity of the Church as the one body
of Christ which has many members and many gifts for the edification of all. He
insists on the absolute primacy and superiority of love over every virtue and
gift, without which all else is made void and is destroyed. He tempers those
who had the gift of praising God in strange tongues, a gift which was obviously
presenting a most acute problem, and calls for the exercise of all gifts and most
particularly the simple and direct teaching of the Word of God in the Church.
He appeals to the women to maintain themselves in dress and behavior proper
to Christians. And finally he insists that “all things should be done decently and
in order” (10–14).
The first letter to the Corinthians ends with a long discourse about the
meaning of the resurrection of the dead in Christ which is the center of the
Christian faith and preaching. The apostle closes with an appeal for money for
the poor, and promising a visit, he once again insists on the absolute necessity
of strength of faith, humble service and most especially, love.
Second Corinthians
The entire second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians is a detailed
enumeration and description of his sufferings and trials in the apostolate of
Christ. In this letter, the apostle once again defends himself before the
Corinthians, some of whom were reacting very badly to him and to his
guidance and instruction in the faith. He defends the “pain” that, he is causing
these people because of his exhortations and admonitions to them concerning
their beliefs and. Behavior, and he calls them to listen to him and to follow him
in his life in Christ.
Of special interest in the second letter, in addition to the detailed record of
Saint Paul’s activities and all that he had to bear for the gospel of Christ, is the
doctrine of the apostle concerning the relationship of Christians with God
through Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Church. Worthy of special note also, is
the apostolic teaching about the significance of the scriptures for the Christians
(3–4) and the teaching about contributions, of money for the work of the
Church. (9) The closing line of the second letter to the Corinthians, which, like
all epistles, forms part of the Church’s lectionary, is used in the divine liturgies
of the Orthodox Church during the eucharistic canon.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God (the Father), and
the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2Corinthians 13.14)
Saint Paul’s Hymn to Love
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have,
and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant
or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it
does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues,
they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is
imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the
imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish
ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So
faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1Corinthians 13)
Galatians
The letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians, most likely the southern
Galatians (Lystra, Derbe, Iconium), was sent from Antioch in the early fifties.
In this most vehement epistle, the apostle Paul expresses his profound anger
and distress at the fact that the Galatians, who had received the genuine gospel
of Christ from him, had been seduced into practicing “another gospel” which
held that man’s salvation requires the ritual observance of the Old Testament
law, including the practice of circumcision.
The heart of this letter to the “foolish Galatians” (3.1) is Saint Paul’s
uncompromising defense of the fact -that his gospel is not his but Christ’s, the
gospel of salvation not by the law, but by grace and faith in the crucified Savior
Who gives the Holy Spirit to all who believe. The apostle stresses the fact that
in Christ and the Spirit there is freedom from slavery to the flesh, slavery to the
elemental spirits of the universe, and slavery to the ritual requirements of the
law through which no one can be saved. For the true “Israel of God” (6.16) in
Christ and the Spirit, there is perfect freedom, divine sonship and a new
creation. Those “who are led by the Spirit .?.?. are not under the law” (5.18).
The letter to the Galatians is included in the Church’s liturgical lectionary,
with the famous lines from the fourth chapter being the epistle reading of the
Orthodox Church at the divine liturgy of Christmas (4.4–7). This letter also
provides the Church with the verse which is sung at the solemn procession of
the liturgy of baptism and chrismation, and which also replaces the Thrice-
Holy Hymn at the divine liturgies of the great feasts of the Church which were
once celebrations of the entrance of the catechumens into the sacramental life
of the Church (see Worship, “Baptism”).
For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal
3.27).
Ephesians
The letters of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are
called the captivity epistles since they are held to have been written by the
apostle from his house arrest in Rome around 60 A.D. In some early sources,
the letter to the Ephesians does not contain the words “who are at Ephesus,”
thus leading some to think of the epistle as a general letter meant for all of the
churches.
Saint Paul’s purpose in the letter to the Ephesians is to share his “insight
into the mystery of Christ” (3.4) and “to make all men see what is the plan of
the for ages in God Who created all things .?.?.” (3.9) In the first part of the
letter, the apostle attempts to describe the mystery. He uses many words in long
sentences, overflowing with adjectives, in his effort to accomplish his task.
Defying a neat outline, the main points of the message are clear.
The plan of God for Christ, before the foundation of the world, is “to unite
all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth” (1.10) The plan is
accomplished through the crucifixion, resurrection and glorification of Christ
at the right hand of God. The fruits of God’s plan are given freely to all men by
God’s free gift of grace, to Jews and gentiles alike, who believe-in the Lord.
They are given in the One Holy Spirit, in the One Church of Christ, “which is
His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (1.23). In the Church of
Christ, with each part of the body knit together and functioning properly in
harmony and unity, man grows up in truth and in love “to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ” (4.12–16). He gains access to God the Father
through Christ in the Spirit thus becoming “a holy temple of the Lord .?.?. a
dwelling place of God” (2.18–22), “filled with all the fullness, of God” (3.19).
In the second part of the letter, Saint Paul spells out the implications of the
“great mystery .?.?. Christ and the Church” (5.32). He urges sound doctrine and
love, a true conversion of life, a complete end to all impurity and immorality
and a total commitment to spiritual battle. He addresses the Church as a whole;
husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. He calls all to
“put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness” (4.24).
The letter to the Ephesians finds its place in the liturgical lectionary of the
Church, with the well-known lines from the sixth chapter being the epistle
reading at the sacramental celebration of marriage (5.21–33).
Phillippians
As we have mentioned, the letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians was
written at the time of his confinement in Rome. It is a most intimate letter of
the apostle to those whom he sincerely loved in the Lord, those who were his
faithful partners in the gospel “from the first day until now” (1.5). In this letter,
Saint Paul exposes the most personal feelings of his mind and heart as he sees
the approaching end of his life. He also praises the Philippian Church as a
model Christian community in every way, encouraging and inspiring its
beloved members whom he calls his “joy and crown” (4.1) with prayers that
their “love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment,”
so that they “may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for
the day of Christ, filled with all the fruits of righteousness which come through
Jesus Christ for the praise and glory of God” (1.10–11).
Of special significance in the letter to the Philippians, besides the mention
of “bishops and deacons” (1.1), which hints at the developing structure of the
Church, is Saint Paul’s famous passage about the self-emptying (kenosis) of
Christ which is the epistle reading for the feasts of the Nativity and and
Dormition of the Theotokos in the Orthodox Church, and which has been so
influential for Christian spiritual life, particularly in Russia.
Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who,
though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant (slave), and being
born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled
Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God
has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every
name .?.?. (2.5–9).
Like all Pauline epistles, the letter to Phillipians has its place in the
Church’s normal lectionary.
Colossians
It is believed that the letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians, written, as we
have said, from Rome, was expressly intended to instruct the faithful in
Colossae in the true Christian gospel in the face of certain heretical teachings
which were threatening the community there. It appears that some form of
gnosticism and angel worship had crept into the Colossian Church.
Gnosticism was an early Christian heresy which, in all of its various
forms, denied the goodness of material, bodily reality, and therefore, the
genuine incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ in human flesh. It
made of the Christian faith a type of dualistic, spiritualistic philosophy which
pretended to provide a secret knowledge of the divine by way of intellectual
mysticism. Gnosis, as a word, means knowledge.
In his letter, Saint Paul stresses that he indeed wishes the Colossians to be
“filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding” (1.9), and that indeed it is true that in Christ “are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2.3). The real point of the Christian
gospel, however, is that in Christ, through whom and for whom all things were
created (1.16), “the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily” (2.9). It is only
through the incarnation of Christ and His death on the cross and His
resurrection from the dead, in the most real way, that salvation is given to men.
It is given in the Church, through baptism; the Church which is itself Christ’s
“body” (1.24, 2.19).
Thus, the apostle insists to the Colossians that Christ is superior to all
angels, having “disarmed the principalities and powers (i.e., the angels)…
triumphing over them on the cross” (2.15). He warns them, therefore “to see to
it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and vain deceit, according to
human traditions, according to the elemental spirits of the uni-verse and not
according to Christ” (2.8). He warns as well that they should “let no one
disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his
stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind .?.?.” (2.18)
The content and style of the letter to the Colossians is very similar to
Ephesians. Following the doctrinal instructions of the letter, their spiritual
implications for the believer are spelled out with moral exhortations for a life
lived in conformity to Christ and in total service to Him. Like the other letters
of Saint Paul, the letter to Colossians is read in its turn in the liturgical services
of the Church.
Thessalonians
It is generally agreed that Saint Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians are
the first of the apostle’s epistles, and are also the earliest written documents of
the New Testament scriptures. They were most likely sent from Corinth, at the
end of the forties, in response to the report brought from Timothy that certain
difficulties had arisen in the Thessalonian Church about the second coming of
Christ and the resurrection of the dead.
In both of his letters to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul repeats the same
doctrine. He urges patient steadfastness of faith and continual love and service
to the Lord and the brethren in the face of the many persecutions and trials
which were confronting the faithful. He affirms that the Lord will come “like a
thief in the night” (1 Thess 5.2) when all satanic attacks against the faith have
been completed. But in the meantime, the Christians must continue “to do their
work in quietness” (2 Thess 3.12) without panic or fear, and without laziness or
idleness into which some had fallen because of their belief in the Lord’s
immediate return.
Concerning the resurrection from the dead, the apostle teaches that as
Jesus truly rose, so will all “those who have fallen asleep” (Thess 4.14).
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven .?.?. and the dead in Christ
will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord (1 Thess. 4.16–17).
This entire passage (1 Thess 4.16–17) is the epistle reading at the funeral
liturgy in the Orthodox Church. Both letters to the Thessalonians are included
in the liturgical lectionary during the Church year.
Timothy
The letters of Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral
epistles. Although some modern scholars consider these letters as documents of
the early second century, primarily because of the developed picture of Church
structure which they present, Orthodox Church Tradition defends the letters as
authentic epistles of Saint Paul from his house arrest in Rome in the early
sixties of the first century.
The two letters to Timothy are of similar contents, having the same
purpose to teach “how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is
the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1Tim 3.15).
In his first letter to Timothy, Saint Paul urges his “true child in the faith”
(1.2), who was in Ephesus, to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience” (1.18–19). He urges that prayers “be made for all men” by the
Church (2.1) and that “good doctrine” be preserved and propagated, most
particularly in times of difficulties and defections from the true faith (4.6, 6.3).
In the letter, the apostle counsels all in proper Christian belief and behavior,
giving special advice, both professional and personal, to his co-worker Timothy
whom he counsels not to neglect the gift which he received “when the elders
laid their hands” upon him (4.14).
The main body of the first letter to Timothy describes in detail the
requirements for the pastoral offices of bishop, deacon and presbyter (priest or
elder), and offers special instructions concerning the widows and slaves. The
rules concerning the pastoral ministries have remained in the Orthodox Church,
being formally incorporated into its canonical regulations.
Of special note in the first letter to Timothy is Saint Paul’s confession of
sinfulness which has become part of the pre-communion prayers of the
Orthodox Church.
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first (1Tim 1.15).
In his second letter to Timothy, Saint Paul again urges his “beloved child”
to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my
hands” (1.2, 6). He stresses the absolute necessity for “sound doctrine” in the
Church, calling for a firm struggle against “godless chatter” and the “disputing
over words” (2.14,16) particularly in “times of stress” when the gospel is
attacked by men of “corrupt mind and counterfeit faith” who are merely
“holding the form of religion but denying the power of it” (3.1–8). As in his
first letter, the apostle specifically mentions the need for the firm adherence to
the scriptures (3.15).
The expression of Saint Paul in this letter, that the leaders of the Church
must be found “rightly handling the word of truth” (2.15), has become the
formal liturgical prayer of the Orthodox Church for its bishops.
Titus
Saint Paul’s letter to Titus in Crete is a shorter version of his two letters to
Timothy. The author outlines the moral requirements of the bishop in the
Church and urges the pastor always to “teach what befits sound doctrine” (1.9,
2.1). It tells how both the leaders and the faithful members of the Church
should behave.
Sections of the letter to Titus about the appearance of “the grace of God
.?.?. for the salvation of all men .?.?. by the washing of regeneration and
renewal in the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior” (2.11–3.7) comprise the Church’s epistle reading for the
feast of the Epiphany.
Generally speaking, each of the pastoral epistles is included in the
Church’s continual epistle lectionary, coming in the Church year just before the
beginning of Great Lent.
Philemon
In his letter to Philemon written from his Roman imprisonment, Saint Paul
appeals to his “beloved fellow worker” (1.1) to receive back his runaway slave
Onesimus who had become a Christian, “no longer as a slave, but as a beloved
brother .?.?. both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (16) He asks Philemon to
“receive him as you would receive me” (17) and offers to pay whatever debts
Onesimus may have towards his master.
Hebrews
Virtually none of the modern scriptural scholars think that Saint Paul is
the author of the letter to the Hebrews. The question of the exact authorship of
this epistle was questioned early in Church Tradition with the general
consensus being that the inspiration and doctrine of the letter is certainly Saint
Paul’s, but that perhaps the actual writer of the letter was one of Saint Paul’s
disciples. The letter is dated in the second half of the first century and is
usually read in the Church as being “of the holy apostle Paul.”
The letter to the Hebrews begins with the clear teaching about the divinity
of Christ, affirming that God, Who “in many and various ways .?.?. spoke of
old to our fathers” has “in these last days .?.?. spoken to us by a Son, Whom He
appointed the heir of all things, through Whom He also created the world”
(1.1–2).
He (the Son of God) reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of
His nature (or person), upholding the universe by the word of His power (1.3).
Christ, the divine Son of God, was made man as the “apostle and high
priest of our confession” (3.1), “the great shepherd of the sheep” (13: 20), “the
pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (12.2), whom God sent to “taste of death for
everyone” (2.9).
He Himself .?.?. partook of the same nature (of human flesh and blood),
that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that.is,
the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to
lifelong bondage .?.?. (being) made like His brethren in every respect, so that
He might become a merciful and faithful highpriest in the service of God, to
make expiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself has suffered
and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted (2.14–18).
The main theme of the letter to the Hebrews is to compare the sacrifice of
Christ to the sacrifices of the priests of the Old Testament. The Old Testament
priests made continual sacrifices of animals for themselves and the sins of the
people, entering into the sanctuary of the Jerusalem temple. Christ makes the
perfect and eternal sacrifice of Himself upon the cross, once and for all, for the
sins of the people and not for Himself, entering into the heavenly sanctuary, not
made by hands, “to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (9.24). This is
the perfect and all fulfilling sacrifice of the one perfect high priest of God Who
was prefigured in the mysterious person of Melchizedek, in the Old Testament,
as well as in the ritual priesthood of the Levites under the old law which was
“but a shadow of the good things to come” and not yet the “true form of these
realities” (10.1, See Gen 14, Ex 29, Lev 16, Ps 110).
Through the perfect sacrifice of Christ, the believers receive forgiveness
of sins and are “made perfect” (11.40), being led and disciplined by God
Himself Who gives His Holy Spirit that through their sufferings in imitation of
Christ, His people “may share in His holiness” (12.10). This is effected, once
again, not by the ritual works of the law which “made nothing perfect” (7.19),
but by faith in God, without which “it is impossible to please Him” (11.6).
The letter to the Hebrews, which is read in the Orthodox Church at the
divine liturgies during Great Lent, ends with the author’s appeal to all to “be
grateful for receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken” and to “offer to God
acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire”
(12.28). It calls as well for love, faith, purity, generosity, strength, obedience
and joy among all who believe in “Jesus Christ (Who) is the same yesterday
and today and for ever” (13.8).
Letters of Saint James
According to Church Tradition, the letter of James was written not by
either of the apostles, but by the “brother of the Lord” who was the first bishop
of the Church in Jerusalem (see Acts 15, Gal 1.19). The letter is addressed to
the “twelve tribes in the dispersion” which most probably means the Christians
not of the Jerusalem Church.
The main purpose of the letter of James is to urge Christians to be
steadfast in faith and to do those works which are called for by the “perfect
law” of Christ which is the “law of liberty” (1.25, 2.12). It aims to correct the
false opinion that because Christians are freed from the ritual works of the
Mosaic law through faith in Christ, they need not do any good works
whatsoever and are not subject to any law at all. Thus, the author writes very
clearly against the doctrine of salvation by “faith alone” without the good
works that the believer must necessarily perform if his faith is genuine.
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not
works. Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of
daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,”
without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith
by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show
you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons
believe-and shudder. Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he
offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with
his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled
which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness;” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is
justified by works and not by faith alone (2.14–24).
First among the good works which the letter insists upon most vehemently
is the work of honoring and serving the poor and lowly without partiality and
selfish greed which is the cause of all wars and injustices among men (2.1–7).
The author is passionately opposed to any “friendship with the world” which
makes man an “enemy of God” because of covetousness (4.1–4). He calls the
rich to “weep and howl for the miseries which are coming” to them because of
the “luxuries and pleasures” which they have attained at the expense of others
whom they have exploited (5.1–6).
Together with his despising of wealth, James teaches the absolute
necessity of “bridling the tongue,” the “little member” which is a “fire” that
man uses to boast, slander, condemn, swear, lie and speak evil against his
brethren, “staining the whole body” and “setting aflame the whole cycle of
nature” (3.1–12).
If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but
deceives his heart, this man’s religion is in vain. Religion that is pure and
undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in
their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world (1.26–27).
The teaching of the letter of James that “every good gift and perfect gift is
from above coming down from the Father of lights” (1.17) has become part of
the dismissal prayer of the divine liturgies of the Orthodox Church. The letter
of James also provides the Church with the first epistle reading for its
sacrament of the unction of the sick.
Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing
praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the presbyters (elders) of the
Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him
up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your
sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed (5.13–16).
Letters of Saint Peter
Most modern scholars do not think that Saint Peter actually wrote the two
letters called by his name. They consider the first letter as coming from the end
of the first century and the second letter from the first half of the second
century. The Tradition of the Church, however, maintains the testimony of the
letters themselves, ascribing them to the foremost leader of Christ’s apostles
writing from “Babylon,” which was the early Church’s name for Rome, on the
eve of his martyrdom there in the latter half of the first century (see 1Pet 5.13,
2Pet 1.14).
The first letter of Saint Peter is a passionate plea to all of “God’s People”
to be strong in their sufferings in imitation of Christ and together with Him,
maintaining “good conduct among the Gentiles,” subjecting themselves without
malice or vindictiveness to “every human institution for the Lord’s sake”
(2.11–13).
Special instructions and exhortations to godliness are addressed first to the
whole Church which is a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s
own people” (2.9), and then in turn to the slaves (2.18), to the husbands and
wives (3.1–7) and to the presbyters [elders] whom the author, as a “fellow
presbyter and a witness of the sufferings of Christ,” calls to “tend the flock of
God .?.?. not by constraint, but willingly, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not
as domineering over those in [their] charge, but being examples to the flock”
(5.1–4).
Throughout the letter, the analogy is constantly drawn between the
sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of Christians which is for their salvation.
But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have
God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ suffered for
you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. He committed
no sin; no guile was found on His lips. When He was reviled, He did not revile
in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He trusted to Him Who
judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might
die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For
you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and
Guardian [literally Bishop] of your souls (2.20–25).
The second letter of Saint Peter is sometimes considered to be a sermon
addressed to those who were newly baptized into the Christian faith. The author
wishes before his death to “arouse .?.?. by way of reminder” (1.13, 3.1) what
God has done for those who are called, that they might “escape from the
corruption that is in the world through passion, and become partakers of the
divine nature” (1.3–4). He warns against the appearance of “false prophets” and
“scoffers” who would lead the elect astray by their “destructive heresies” and
denials of “the Master who bought them” thus causing them to fall back to a
life of sin and ignorance as “the dog turns back to his own vomit and the sow is
washed only to wallow once more in the mire” (2.1–22, 3.1–7). The author
makes special warning against the perversion of the holy scriptures, both those
of the Old Testament and those of Saint Paul, “which the ignorant and unstable
twist to their own destruction” (3.16, 1.20).
The third chapter of the second letter of Saint Peter is sometimes wrongly
interpreted as teaching the total destruction of creation by God at the end of the
world. The Orthodox interpretation is that it is only sin and evil that will be
“dissolved with fire” on the “day of God,” and that the “new heavens and a new
earth in which righteousness dwells” wilt be the same “very good” world of
God’s original creation, but purified, renewed and purged of all that is contrary
to His divine goodness and holiness (3.8–13).
The reminiscence in the second letter of Saint Peter about the
transfiguration of Christ is the epistle reading at the Church’s feast of this
sacred event (1.16–18). Readings from both letters are found in the Church’s
lectionary, with selections from the first letter being read at the vigil of the
feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
Letters of Saint John
The three letters of Saint John were written by the Lord’s beloved apostle
who also wrote the fourth gospel. They were written at the close of the first
century and have as their general theme a fervent polemic against the heretical
“antichrists” who were changing the doctrines of Christ and denying His
genuine appearance “in the flesh” for the salvation of the world, denying
thereby both “the Father and the Son” (l Jn 2.22, 4.3, 2Jn 7).
The first letter of Saint John is the simplest and deepest exposition of the
Christian faith that exists. Its clarity concerning the Holy Trinity and the
Christian life of truth and of love in communion with God makes it
understandable without difficulty to anyone who reads it. It is the best place to
begin a study of the Christian faith generally, and the Bible in particular.The
first letter begins in the same way as Saint John’s gospel to which it is most
similar in its entire content and style.
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands,
concerning the Word of Life .?.?. we proclaim also to you, so that you may have
communion with us; and our communion is with the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete (1.1–14).
The first letter of Saint John proclaims that Jesus is truly “the Christ,” the
Messiah and Son of God who has come “in the flesh” to the world as “the
expiation of our sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world” (2.2). Those who believe in Christ and are in communion with Him and
His Father have the forgiveness of sins and the possibility not to sin any more
(1.5–2.12). They “walk in the same way in which He walked” (2.6) being the
“children of God” (3.1, 5.1). They know the truth by the direct inspiration of
God through the anointment [chrisma] of the Holy Spirit (2.20–26; 6.7). They
keep the commandments of God, the first and greatest of which is love, and so
they are already recipients of eternal life, already possessing the indwelling of
God the Father and Christ the Son “by the Spirit which He has given us” (2.24–
3.24).
born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God
is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God has sent
His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the expiation of our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God
abides in us and His love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given
us of His own Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His
Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,
God abides in him and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for
us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in
him (14.7–16).
The hatred of others is the sure sign that one does not love God (4.20) and
is “in the darkness still” (2.9–11). The one who hates his brother is “a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (3.15). Those
who love God are hated by the world which is in the power of the evil one”
(5.19, 2.15–17).
The first letter of Saint John is part of the Church’s lectionary, with special
selections from it being read at the feast of the apostle John.
The second letter of Saint John is addressed to the “elect lady and her
children” which is obviously the Church of God and its members. Again the
truth of Christ is stressed and the commandment of love is emphasized.
And this is love, that we follow His commandments; this is the
commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love. For
many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the
coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the
antichrist. Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for,
but may win a full reward. Anyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the
doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both
the Father and the Son (6–9).
The third letter of Saint John is addressed to a certain Gaius praising him
for the “truth of his life” (3) and “urging him not to Imitate evil but imitate
good” (11). “No greater joy can I have than this”, writes the beloved apostle,
“to hear that my children follow the truth” (4).
Letter of Saint Jude
It has been questioned whether “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the
brother of James” who wrote the letter of Saint Jude is the “Judas, the brother
of James” (Lk 6.16, Acts 1.13), one of the twelve apostles, “not Iscariot” (Jn
14.22). In the Tradition of the Church, the two have usually been identified as
the same person.
The letter of Saint Jude is a general epistle which the author “found it
necessary to write to those who are called,” appealing to them “to contend for
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (1–3).
For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were
designated for condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our
God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ (4).
These “scoffers,” some of whom the faithful may be able to save “by
snatching them out of the fire” (23), are those who “defile the flesh, reject
authority and revile the glorious ones” (8). They are those who follow their
“ungodly passions … [and] set up divisions, worldly people devoid of the
Spirit” (18–19) who have entered the Church,
Jude commands those who are faithful to resist the ungodly.
But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your holy faith; pray in the Holy
Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life.?.?.?. (21).
Of special interest in the letter, which is sometimes read in Church, is the
mention of the archangel Michael (9), as well as the evil angels “that did not
keep their own position but left their proper dwelling (with God) and have been
kept by Him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the
great day” (6). Generally speaking, there is a definite apocalyptic tone to the
letter of Saint Jude.
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse which means that
which has been disclosed, and also called the Revelation to Saint John, is
traditionally considered to be the work of the Lord’s apostle who later wrote the
fourth gospel and the letters. It is dated in the middle of the last half of the first
century.
Saint John received his vision “on the island called Patmos.” He was “in
the Spirit on the Lord’s day” when he received God’s command to write the
letters “to the seven churches of Asia” (1.4–10). Each of the seven messages
contains the words of Christ for the specific church (2–4).
Following the seven letters in the book of Revelation, the apostle records
his vision of God on His throne in heaven being hymned unceasingly by angels,
the “living creatures”, and the “twenty four elders”: “Holy, holy, holy, is the
Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come” (4).
There then follows the prophecies of the seven seals and the seven angels
(5–11), and the visions of the “women clothed with the sun” and Michael and
his angels engaged in battle with the “dragon” (12). Next come the images of
the “beast rising from the sea” and the “other beast rising from the earth” (13).
Then comes the vision of the Lamb and those who are saved by God, with the
angels coming to earth from heaven bearing their “bowls of wrath” (14–16).
The image of the “great harlot” follows (17), with the final prophecy about the
“downfall of great Babylon” (18). The end of the book of Revelation describes
the wonderful vision of salvation, with the multitude of those “blessed .?.?. who
are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” in the midst of the great
celestial assembly of angels who sing glory to God and to Jesus, His word and
His Lamb, the Alpha and the Omega, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. It
is the image of the Kingdom of God and of Christ, the Heavenly Jerusalem
foretold by the prophets of old in which the righteous shall reign forever with
God (19–22).
Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and
exalt and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and the
Bride (the Church) has made herself ready.?.?.?. (19.6–7).
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away.?.?.?. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming
down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and
I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is
with men. He will dwell with them and they shall be His People, and God
Himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and
death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain
anymore, for the former things have passed away” (21.1–4).
And He Who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new”
(21.5).
It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To
the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of life. He who
conquers shall have this inheritance, and I will be his God and he shall be My
son (21.6–7).
There was a certain hesitation on the part of the early Church to include
the book of Revelation in the canonical scriptures of the New Testament. The
reason for this was obviously the great difficulty of interpreting the apocalyptic
symbols of the book. Nevertheless, since the document carried the name of the
apostle John, and since it was inspired by the Holy Spirit for the instruction and
edification of the Church, it came to be the last book listed in the Bible,
although it is never read liturgically in the Orthodox Church.
It is indeed difficult to interpret the book of Revelation, especially if one
is unfamiliar with the images and symbols of the apocalyptic writings of the
Bible, that is the Old Testament, and of the Judeo-Christian Tradition. There
exists, however, a traditional approach to the interpretation of the book within
the Church which offers insight into its meaning for the faithful.
The wrong method of interpreting the book of Revelation is to give some
sort of exclusive meaning to its many visions, equating them with specific,
concrete historical events and persons, and to fail to understand the symbolical
significance of the many images which are used by the author following
biblical and traditional sources.
First of all, the letters to the seven churches have both a historical and a
universal meaning. The messages are clear and remain relevant to situations
which have always existed in the Church and which exist today. For example,
many older churches in all ages of history can he identified with the Church of
Ephesus. Those under persecution can be compared with the Church in Smyrna.
And not a few-perhaps some in America right now-can be judged with the
Church in Laodicea. The seven letters remain forever as “prototypical” of
churches that will exist until Christ’s kingdom comes.
The visions and prophecies of the main body of the book of Revelation
present great difficulties, but mostly to those interpreters who would attempt to
apply them to one or another historical event or person. If the general vision
and prophecy of the book is seen as revealing the correlation between events
“in heaven” and events “on earth,” between God and man, between the powers
of goodness and the powers of evil, then, though many difficulties obviously
remain, some will also immediately disappear.
In the book of Revelation, one comes to understand that the Kingdom of
God is always over all and before all. One sees as well that the battle between
the righteous and the evil is perpetually being waged. There are always the
faithful who belong to the Lamb, being crowned and robed by Him for their
victories. There are always the “beasts” and the “dragons” which need to be
defeated. The “great harlot” and the “great Babylon” are forever to be
destroyed. The “heavenly Jerusalem” is perpetually coming, and one day it will
come and the final victory will be complete.
One notices as well that there is a universality and finality about the
symbols and images of the book of Revelation, a meaning to be applied to them
which has already been revealed in the scriptures of the Old Testament. Thus,
for example, the image of Babylon stands for every society which fights against
God, every body of persons united in wickedness and fleshliness. The image of
harlotry universally applies as well to all who are corrupted by their passions
and lusts, unfaithful to God Who has made them and loves them. The symbolic
numerology also remains constant, with the number 666 (13.18), for example,
symbolizing total depravity, unlike 7 which is the symbol of fulness; and the
number 144,000 (14.3) being the symbol of total completion and the full
number of the saved, the result of the multiplication of 12 times 12-the number
of the tribes of Israel and the apostles of Christ. Thus, through the images of
the book of Revelation, a depth of penetration into universal spiritual realities
is disclosed which is greater than any particular earthly reality. The insight into
the meaning of the book depends on the inspiration of God and the purity of
heart of those who have eyes to see and ears to hear and minds willing and able
to understand.
In the Orthodox Church, the book of Revelation has great liturgical
significance. The worship of the Church has traditionally, quite consciously,
been patterned after the divine and eternal realities revealed in this book. The
prayer of the Church and its mystical celebration are one with the prayer and
celebration of the kingdom of heaven. Thus, in Church, with the angels and
saints, through Christ the Word and the Lamb, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the
faithful believers of the assembly of the saved offer perpetual adoration to God
the Father Almighty.
The book of Revelation, although never read in the Orthodox Church,
bears witness to the divine reality which is the Church’s own very life.
The Spirit and the Bride [the Church] say, “Come.” And let him who hears
say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the
water of life without price.
“Surely I am coming soon” [says Jesus, the Lord].
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (22.17, 20)
Salvation History
Word and Spirit
It is the constant testimony of the Bible and the Church that God acts
toward the world through His Word and His Spirit.
God created all things by His Word and His Spirit. He created man in His
divine image and likeness to partake of His Word and to live by His Spirit. All
of the holy people of God received the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles all proclaimed the Word which came to them
from God by the Spirit of God. The law of Moses and the prophets, the psalms
and all the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God,
written and interpreted by men through the Spirit of God. Always and
everywhere in the Bible and in the Church, God reveals Himself and acts in
man and the world by His Word and His Spirit.
The central affirmation of the Christian Faith and the very essence of its
gospel and life is that the Word of God became man as Jesus of Nazareth, the
Messiah of Israel and the Lord and Savior of the world. Jesus of Nazareth is the
divine Word of God in human form. He is the personal Word of God Who was
“in the beginning with God,” the Word “by whom all things were made” (Jn
1.2). He is the uncreated Word of God according to Whose image all men are
created. He is the Word of God Who came to the patriarchs and prophets and
Who is incarnate in the Bible in scriptural form. He is the Word of God Who
died on the cross and is risen from the dead. He is the Head of the Church
which is His Body, and the King of the Kingdom of God. He is the Word of God
with Whom and through Whom the Holy Spirit comes to the world.
The Holy Spirit of God comes personally to men from the Father through
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God. He comes to those who believe in
Christ and belong to Him through faith and repentance and baptism in His
Church. He is the Spirit Who descended upon the disciples on Pentecost, who
also is the One by whose power the world was created and continued to exist.
He is the Spirit breathed into men by God to make them live according to His
divine likeness. He is the Spirit Who inspired the Law, and the prophets and the
entire holy scripture, providing for its production and preservation, as well as
for its interpretation ir the life of the faithful. He is the same Holy Spirit Who
abides in the Church, making possible the fulness of its sacramental and
spiritual life. He is the Spirit of God Who, by His presence with men in the
world, is the pledge and the promise of God’s Kingdom to come. He is the Holy
Spirit of God Who will one day, on the Day of the Lord, fill all creation with
the presence of God.
Thus, the entire creation, the salvation and glorification of the world, the
whole of what we call “salvation history,” depends on God and His Word and
His Spirit, the Most Holy Trinity, Who in the Church and in the Kingdom, “fills
all in all” (Eph 1.23).
Pre-History
The Bible begins with the story of creation and the making of man.
Although the Bible often lists the generations of men from the creation of
Adam (Chron 1.1, Lk 4.38), the history of salvation, in the most proper sense,
begins with Abraham, the forefather of Israel and the first ancestor of Christ,
“according to the flesh.”
The story of creation, and specifically of Adam and Eve, gives the divine
revelation about the absolute sovereignty of God over all of creation. It tells of
the goodness of all things that exist, and the superiority of man over other
beings. It shows how the origin of evil does not lie in God but in His most
perfect creature whose free act of sin brought wickedness and death to the
world.
The chapters of Genesis 1–11 are called the “prehistory” of salvation
because with little exception, such as that of the righteous Noah, these chapters
are almost exclusively the record of sin. They begin with man’s original
rebellion against God, and tell of the first act of man’s children as being
brotherly murder. They record God’s sadness in creating the world when He
“saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of his heart was only evil continually,” and that the earth was
“corrupt .?.?. filled with violence .?.?. for all flesh had corrupted their way
upon the earth” (Gen 6.5–12). They end with the symbolic account of the
ultimate impudence of men who sought “to make a name for themselves” by
building “a tower with its top in the heavens” (Gen 11.4). Through the story of
the tower of Babel is shown the prideful arrogance of man which results in the
division of the nations and the scattering of men “over the face of all the earth”
(Gen 11.9).
The pre-history of salvation, the story of sin, is the original counter-
symbol of salvation in Christ. The events of these first chapters of the Bible,
before the calling of Abraham, find their proper interpretation in the saving
events of the coming of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the new and final
covenant of God with His People.
Christ is the True Adam. The original Adam was merely “a type of him
who was to come” (Rom 5.14).
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul;” the last
Adam [Christ] became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is
first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a
man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are
those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of
heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear
the image of the man of heaven (1Cor 15.21–22, 45–49).
The word Adam in Hebrew comes from “adamah” which means earth. The
word Christ, in Hebrew, Messiah, means the “anointed” of God. As Christ is the
new Adam, so His mother Mary is the new Eve, for she is the true “mother of
all living,” which is the meaning of the name given to the original “helper” of
man (Gen 3.20). The biblical symbolism continues with the Church of Christ
being the true “ark of salvation” in which “every living thing” is saved (Gen
6.14, 1Pet 3.20–22). And the events of Pentecost reverse the tragedy of Babel,
when through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church of Christ, all
national divisions are overcome and all men “from over the face of all the
earth” are brought into unity by God in Christ.
Thus the pre-history of man’s sin is the counter-symbol of his
righteousness in God which is realized in Christ, the “child of Abraham” in
whose children all of the families of the earth are blessed by God (Gen 12.3).
Abraham
Salvation history, properly so-called, begins with Abram, whom God
named Abraham which means “father of a multitude.” Abraham was the first
patriarch of the people of Israel. The word patriarch means “the father of the
people.” In the person and life of Abraham, the central events of the salvation
of the world by Christ in the New Testament have been prefigured.
God made the first promise of His salvation of all the people of the earth
to Abraham, with whom He also made His covenant to be faithful forever.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and kindred and your
father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great
nation, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing .?.?. and in
you all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12.1–3, See also 17.1–8,
22.1–18).
The fulfillment of the promise to Abraham comes in Jesus Christ. He is
the descendent of Israel’s first father in whom all the families of the earth are
blessed. Thus, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, sings at her time of waiting for the
Savior’s birth, that all generations will call her blessed because the fulfillment
has come from God “as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his
posterity forever” (Lk 1.55, see also Zachariah’s Song in Lk 1.67–79). All
through the New Testament the claim is made that God’s promise to Abraham
is fulfilled in Jesus.
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not
say, “And to off springs,” referring to many; but, referring to one, “And to your
offspring,” which is Christ (Gal 3.16).
The faith of Abraham is prototypical of al those who in Christ are saved by
faith. The New Testament stresses faith as necessary for salvation. The model
for this faith is Abraham.
Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen
15.6, Rom 4.3).
Abraham’s faith was united to his works, and was expressed in his works.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son
Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and
faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says,
“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness;” and he
was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by
faith alone (Jas 2.21–24).
God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his beloved son
Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham believed and trusted in God. He obeyed his
will, and went to the mountain to slay his child. God stopped him and placed a
ram in Isaac’s place saying “for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you
have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen 22.12). Then once
more God made the promise that “by your descendants shall all of the nations
of the earth be blessed?.?.?.” (Gen 22.18).
The sacrifice of Isaac is not only a testimony to Abraham’s faith. It is also
the original sign that God Himself does what He does not allow the first and
foremost of His People to do. No ram is put in the place of God’s Son, His only
Son Jesus, when He is sacrificed on the cross for the sins of the world.
The perfect priesthood of Christ is also prefigured in Abraham’s life. It is
the priesthood of Melchizedek, the King of Peace. It is the priesthood in which
the offering is bread and wine. It is the priesthood which is before that of the
Levites, and the one which is that of the Messiah, Who is “a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110.4, Heb 5–10).
So also Christ did not exalt Himself to be made a high priest, but was
appointed by Him Who said to Him, “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten
thee”; as He says also in another place, “Thou art a priest for ever, after the
order of Melchizedek.”
In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with
loud cries and tears, to Him Who was able to save Him from death, and He was
heard for His godly fear. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through
what He suffered; and being made perfect He became the source of eternal
salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God a high priest after the
order of Melchizedek (Heb 5.5–10).
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met
Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; and to him
Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of
his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is king
of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a
priest for ever (Heb 7.1–3).
The most sublime of the New Testament revelations, that of the Holy
Trinity, was also prefigured in Abraham’s life. This is the famous visit of the
three angels of God to Abraham under the oaks of Mamre.
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door
of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to
meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if I have found
favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought,
and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of
bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on .?.?.
since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said”
(Gen 18.1–5).
Abraham addresses the three angels as one, calling them Lord. They eat in
his presence and foretell the birth of Isaac from Sarah in her old age. In this
visitation of God to Abraham, the Orthodox Church sees the prefiguration of
the full revelation of the Holy Trinity in the New Testament.
Because there can be no depiction of God the Father and the Holy Spirit in
human form, Orthodox iconography has traditionally painted the Holy Trinity
in the form of the three angels who came to Abraham. The most famous icon of
the Holy Trinity, the one often used in the Church on the feast of Pentecost, is
that of Saint Andrew Rublev, a disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh in Russia
in the fourteenth century.
Thus the salvation of the world which has come in Christ was prefigured
in the life of Abraham, as well as the Christian doctrine about faith and works
and the Christian revelations about the sacrifice, the priesthood, and even the
most Holy Trinity. Truly in Abraham every aspect of the final covenant in
Christ the Messiah was foreshadowed and foretold.
Passover
The central event of the entire Old Testament history is the passover and
exodus.
Abraham’s son Isaac was the father of Jacob whom God named Israel
which means &rldquo;he who strives with God” (Gen 32.28). God renewed His
promise to Isaac and Jacob, and continued the covenant with them that He had
made with Abraham.
Jacob had twelve sons who became the leaders of the twelve tribes or
houses of Israel. The sons of Jacob sold their youngest brother Joseph into
slavery in Egypt. With the help of God, Joseph gained the favor of the Egyptian
pharaoh and became a great man in Egypt. In a time of famine, Joseph’s
brothers came to Egypt for food. Joseph recognized them and brought all of the
people of Israel into Egypt with him. When Joseph died, the people of Israel
were put into slavery by the Egyptians for four hundred years (See Gen 24–50).
God raised up Moses to lead His people out of bondage in Egypt. He
appeared to Moses in the burning bush and revealed His Name to him.
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them,
‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his
name?’ what shall I say to them?”
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say to the people
of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord
(Yahweh), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the
God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be
remembered throughout all generations” (Ex 3.14–15).
Moses returned to Egypt and after many trials with the Egyptian pharaoh
and after many plagues, which God sent upon the Egyptians, he led the people
of Israel out of slavery. The exodus, which means the escape or the departure,
from Egypt took place on the night called the passover.
God, through Moses, ordered the Israelites to select lambs, to kill them
and place some blood on the two doorposts and the lintel of their houses.
Standing up, clothed and ready to escape, they were to eat the lambs in the
night.
In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your
feet and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat in haste. It is the Lord’s
passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for
you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over
you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of
Egypt. This day shall be a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the
Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance forever
(Ex 12.11–13).
Thus, the passover and exodus took place. At midnight the Lord slew the
Egyptian firstborn. The houses marked with blood were spared when the Lord
passed over. During the tumult, the Israelites began to escape. They made their
exodus through the Red Sea. By this time, the Egyptian horsemen were in
pursuit. At the sea, Moses prayed to God. He lifted his rod over the waters and
“The Lord drove the sea back by a strong East wind all night, and made the sea
dry land .?.?. ” (Ex 14.21) The Israelites passed through the sea on foot. The
pursuing chariots of the Egyptians were caught in the waters and were drowned.
And Israel saw the great work, which the Lord did against the Egyptians,
and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in His servant
Moses (Ex 14.31).
In the wilderness on the other side of the sea, the people of Israel began to
complain. There was no food and drink in the desert. Moses prayed to the Lord,
Who provided water for the people to drink and manna, the “bread from
heaven,” for the people to eat (Ex 15–16). God led the people through the desert
by a cloud and a pillar of fire.
On Mount Sinai, Moses received the Ten Commandments and the laws of
morality and worship from the Lord Who “used to speak to Moses face to face,
as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex 33.11). Moses was allowed to behold the
glory of the Lord in the smoke and clouds on the mountaintop and he himself
shone with the majesty of God (Ex 34.29).
Moses was not granted to cross the Jordan and to enter the promised land.
He died and was buried near Mount Nebo in the land of Moab. This is where he
had looked across the Jordan River into the land where his successor Joshua
would lead the people.
The passover and exodus was the central event in Israelite history. It was
remembered in all generations as the great sign of God’s fidelity and favor to
His People. It was sung about in the psalms and recalled by the prophets. It was
celebrated annually together with Pentecost, as the chief celebration of the
People of God. And, consequently, it was also the main event of the Old
Testament to be fulfilled perfectly and eternally in the time of Christ, the
Messiah of God.
In Jesus Christ the ultimate meaning and universal purpose of the passover
and exodus are revealed and accomplished. Jesus Christ is Himself the New
Passover. He is the Passover Lamb, which is slain for the deliverance and
liberation of all men and the whole world from the powers of evil. The real
“pharaoh” is the devil. He holds all men in slavery. The real deliverer is Jesus.
He leads the people from the captivity of sin and death into the “promised
land” of the Kingdom of God.
As the people pass through the wilderness of life in this world, they are fed
by Jesus, the true Bread of Life, the true “bread from heaven.”
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave
you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which came down from heaven, and gives life to the
world.”
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who
believes in me shall never thirst.”
“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and
they died. This is the bread, which comes down from heaven that a man may
eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if
any one eats of this meal, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give
for the life of the world is my flesh.”
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has 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 who eats my flesh and drinks my
blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live
because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the
bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he
who eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6.25–59).
Jesus is not only the true “bread from heaven,” He is also the true “living
water.” He is the One Whom, if men drink of Him, they will never thirst again.
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me,
as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
(Jn 7.37)
“.?.?.?whoever drinks of the Water that I shall give him will become in
him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4.14).
Saint Paul, speaking of the exodus and the rock, which Moses struck, from
which the spring of water flowed, says plainly that this refers to Christ.
I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and
all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in
the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual
drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock which followed them, and the
Rock was Christ. (1Cor 10.1–4)
Thus it is that Jesus Christ fulfilled the passover and exodus in the events
of His life. This fulfillment came to its climax at the time of His crucifixion
and resurrection. Jesus was killed at the feast of the passover to show that the
old passover has been completed and the new passover has begun. When the
paschal lamb was being killed in the temple, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was being
crucified on the cross outside the city.
When the great day of the passover, which that year was the Sabbath, was
being observed as the rest from work, Jesus lay dead, resting from all His work,
in the tomb. When the “day after Sabbath” dawned, the first day of the week,
the day of God’s original creation, Jesus arose from the dead.
All of this took place that the New Passover and New Exodus could be
effected, not from Egypt into Canaan, but from death to life, from wickedness
to righteousness, from darkness to light, from earth to heaven, from the tyranny
of the devil to the glorious freedom of the Kingdom of God. The death and
resurrection of Christ is the true passover-exodus of the People of God. Those
who are marked with Christ’s blood are spared from the visitation of death.
Jesus inaugurated the celebration of the new passover at the last supper
with His disciples, which was the paschal meal. He told them that no longer
would they keep the passover feast in remembrance of the old exodus. They
now would keep the paschal celebration in remembrance of Him.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord
Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given
thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body which is broken for you. Do this
in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1Cor 2.23–26; see also Mat 26.26–
29, Mk 14.22–25, Lk 22.14–19).
In the same letter, Saint Paul also says:
.?.?. Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore,
celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1Cor 5.7–8).
Of great importance also in the new passover of Christ is the new gift of
God’s law, the law not written on tablets of stone, but on human hearts by the
very Holy Spirit of God (See 2Cor 3, Jer 31.31–34, Ezek 36.26–27, Joel 2.28–
29).
The giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai is fulfilled in the time of
the Messiah in the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Disciples of Christ in the
upper room on the feast of Pentecost. In the Old Testament, this was the
festival of the reception of the law, fifty days after the passover (Acts 2). Thus,
once again, in the time of the Messiah, the old event is completed in the new
and final one: the exterior law of Moses is completed by the interior law of
Christ, the “perfect law, the law of liberty” (Jas 1.25, 2.12), the “law of the
Holy Spirit” (Rom 8.2).
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law
of sin and death. For God had done (in Christ) what the law (of Moses),
weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin .?.?. in order that the just requirements of the law (of
Moses) might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit (Rom 8.2–4, See also 2Cor 3, Gal 3–5).
Thus the apostle John writes: “For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1.17).
Within the total fulfillment and perfection of the passover-exodus of the
Old Testament in the time of the Messiah, it must be noted as well that the
crossing of the Jordan into the promised land corresponds to baptism in Christ
into the Kingdom of God. Also worthy of note is the symbolic fact that the one
who actually crossed the Jordan and brought the people into the “land flowing
with milk and honey,” was not Moses but Joshua, whose name in Greek is
Jesus, thus prefiguring the One Who was to come of the same name, which
means Savior, the One Who began His messianic mission of bringing the
Kingdom of God by His baptism in the Jordan River.
Thus, every aspect of the old passover-exodus is completed in Christ,
perfectly, totally and forever. All of this is renewed and relived in the Church of
Christ each year on Easter and Pentecost, and on each Sunday, the Day of the
Lord. Whenever the Church gathers, it celebrates the perfect passover of Christ
the Lamb of God, Who is also the divine I AM Who exists eternally with God
the Father and the Holy Spirit, Who was slain for the life of the world.
Kingship
In the Old Testament, God was to be the King of His People. But wishing
to be like the other nations, the Israelites asked the Lord for a human king.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at
Ramah, and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your
ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations.” But the thing
displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” And Samuel
prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Hearken to the voice of the
people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have
rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds which they
have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day,
forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then,
hearken to their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the
ways of the king who shah reign over them” (1Sam 8.4–9).
So Samuel recounted to the people all that would happen to them if they
lived like the other nations having a man as their king. The king would send
their sons to war. He would put all the people to work for him. He would take
their best animals and crops. He would make the people his slaves.
“And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have
chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” But the
people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No! but we will
have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king
may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And when Samuel
had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord.
And the Lord said to Samuel, “Hearken to their voice, and make them a king”
(1Sam 8.18–22).
Israel received its king. The first was Saul who became demented. The
second was David the Shepherd who ruled well. The third was Solomon who
was known for his wisdom and who built the temple to God in Jerusalem. But
then there was a division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and strife among
them because of their sins, which resulted in a succession of captivities to
various foreign powers from which the people never finally escaped.
The psalms and prophets of the Old Testament constantly recalled God’s
people to the reality that only the Lord is king. He alone is the True Shepherd of
His People. He alone is the One Who rules and Who is to be served and obeyed.
I will extol Thee, my God and King,
and bless Thy name for ever and ever.
Every day I will bless Thee,
and praise Thy name for ever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and His greatness is unsearchable,
All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O Lord, and all Thy saints shall
bless Thee!
They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom and tell of Thy power,
to make known to the sons of men Thy mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of Thy kingdom.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and Thy dominion endures throughout all generations.
(Ps 145.1–3, 10–13)
The prophets called all of the earthly kings, the “shepherds of Israel,” to
repentance before the divine King of heaven, but their words were mostly to no
avail.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the
shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says
the Lord God: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!
Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with
the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. The weak
you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have
not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not
sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were
scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the wild
beasts. My sheep were scattered over all the mountains and on every high hill;
my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or
seek for them” (Ezek 34.1–6).
The psalms and the prophets of the Old Testament also foretold the time
when God would rule His People directly. He would be the shepherd of all
nations, ruling through the Messiah-King Who would come from the house of
David, the King of Whose kingdom there would be no end.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government will be upon His shoulder,
and His name will be called
“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end,
upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom,
to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this (Is 4.6–7).
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for
David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall
execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called:
‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (Jer 23.5–6).
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in travail has brought forth;
then the rest of his brethren shall return
to the people of Israel.
And He shall stand and feed His flock
in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now
He shall be great
to the ends of the earth (Mic 5.2–4)
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep,
and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his
sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue
them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and
thick darkness.
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down,
says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I
will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the
strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice (Ezek 34.11–12, 15–16).
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on an ass,
on a colt the foal of an ass.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and He shall command peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth (Zech 9.9–10).
The king of the final kingdom of God is Jesus Christ. He is the One
Shepherd and Lord. He is the One “of whose kingdom there will be no end.”
Thus, the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary at the announcement of His birth:
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord
God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1.32–
33).
All of His life, Jesus was preparing the everlasting Kingdom of God. He
came to bring this Kingdom to men. He is the Son of David, Who will reign
forever. He is the One Who announces the gospel of the Kingdom of God (Mt
4.23, 9.35).
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, He
answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is
in the midst of you” (Lk 17.20–21).
The Kingdom of God is in the midst of men when Christ is present. He
Himself is the King Who gives the Kingdom of God to those who are this.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom” (Lk 12.32).
You are those who have continued with Me in My trials; as My Father
appointed a kingdom for Me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink
at My table in My kingdom .?.?. Lk 22.28–30).
All of the preaching and parables of Christ concerning the Kingdom of
God speak of Himself as the King. Those who believe in Jesus and obey Him
will reign with Him in His Kingdom which has been prepared “ from the
foundation of the world” for those who love Him (Mt 25.34). His Kingdom is
the everlasting kingdom which is “not of this world,” but of God the Father (Jn
18.36).
The gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Christ place Him in His role as
King, All of the mockery and torment of Jesus is given to Him as the “King of
the Jews.” This was the accusation against Him and the title nailed to the cross.
Thus, the irony is complete as the scriptures are fulfilled in the words of Pilate
when, after Jesus had sat down on the judgment seat, Pilate proclaimed to the
people, “Behold, your king!” (Jn 19.14).
Jesus is the King. He is one with God, the “King of kings and Lord of
lords” (1Tim 6.5). He is the One “highly exalted” over all principalities and
powers, the One before Whom every knee shall bow “In heaven, and on earth
and under the earth” (Phil 2.9–11, also Eph 1.20–23). He is the One Who, at the
end of the ages when He “comes in His kingdom” with all the heavenly powers,
will destroy every evil, and rule over all creation forever as the prophets
predicted.
.?.?. and the Lamb (Christ) will conquer them [the wicked], for He is Lord
of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and
faithful (Rev 17.14).
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it
is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His
eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a
name inscribed which no one knows but Himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in
blood, and the name by which He is called is The Word of God. And the armies
of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed Him on white horses.
From His mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations, and He
will rule them with a rod of iron He will tread the wine press of the fury of the
wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a name
inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19.11–16).
Then He showed me the river of the water of Life, bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street
of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds
of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall worship Him; they
shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be
no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light,
and they shall reign for ever and ever (Rev 22.1–5).
Priesthood
When speaking of Abraham, we mentioned how Jesus Christ is the “priest
forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” As the “priest for ever,” Jesus
is also the completion and fulfillment of the Old Testament priesthood of the
Levites.
In the Old Testament, God ordered Moses to build the tabernacle with a
sanctuary for worship and sacrifice.
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst,
According to all that I show you concerning the tabernacle, and all of its
furniture, so you shall make it (Ex 25.8–9).
In the tabernacle there was a sanctuary surrounded by a court yard. Within
the sanctuary was the “most holy place.” A special ark was built to hold the
tables of the covenant law surrounded by two cherubim. The ark was kept in the
most holy place. Above the ark of the covenant was the mercy seat from which
Moses would speak to the people (Ex 25.14–22).
In the sanctuary, special tables were placed which held “plates and dishes
for incense” and “flagons and bowls with which to pour libations.”
.?.?.of pure gold you shall make them. And you shall set the bread of the
Presence on the table before me always (Ex 25.28–30).
There also was the golden altar upon which the animal sacrifices were
offered.
A lampstand of gold, with “seven lamps for it” which were lighted with
pure olive oil, was placed in the sanctuary. And between the various part of the
tabernacle, curtains were hung.
And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine
twined linen; in skilled work shall it be made, with cherubim; and you shall
hang it upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, upon
four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the
ark of the testimony in thither within the veil; and the veil shall separate for
you the holy place from the most holy. You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark
of the testimony in the most holy place. And you shall set the table outside the
veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table;
and you shall put the table on the north side. And you shall make a screen for
the door of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen,
embroidered with needlework. And you shall make for the screen five pillars of
acacia, and overlay them with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall
cast five bases of bronze for them. You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five
cubits long and five cubits broad; the altar shall be a square, and its height
shall be three cubits. And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its
horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze (Ex
26.31–27.2).
The priests of the tabernacle were to be the Levites, the men from the tribe
of Levi.
Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from
among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests .?.?. (Ex 28.1)
God commanded that special vestments be made for the priests to wear
when serving in the sanctuary (Ex 28). He also ordered that special oil be
blended for the anointing of all of the utensils of the tabernacle, as well as for
the anointing of the priests. He also ordered special incense to be made for
burning in the holy place.
.?.?. you shall consecrate them [the furniture and utensils], that they may
be holy; whatever touches them will become holy. And you shall anoint Aaron
and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. And you
shall say to the people of Israel, “This is my holy anointing oil throughout your
generations.” (Ex 30.29–31)
And the incense which you shall make according to its composition, you
shall not make for yourselves; it shall be for you holy to the Lord (Ex 30.37).
God also provided a very detailed code concerning worship and the
offering of the various sacrifices. He explained which animals should be
selected and how they should be killed. He told which offerings should be made
on which occasions and for what purposes. He gave instructions about offerings
for peace and for praise, for thanksgiving and mercy, for forgiveness of sins
and reconciliation with God in times of transgression. He also told which feasts
should be observed, when they should be kept and how they should be
celebrated, The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are
filled with such specific and detailed instructions.
While passing through the desert and into the promised land, the People of
God carried the tabernacle with them. They set it up in each place where they
camped. Finally, after the crossing of the Jordan River and the settlement in
Canaan, the city of Jerusalem was established by David the king. David’s son
Solomon was then commanded by God to build the temple in which the
worship of God would take place and the ritual sacrifices would be offered.
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out
of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel .?.?. he
began to build the house of the Lord (1 Kg 6.1).
The house of the Lord was of the same pattern as Moses’ tabernacle. It had
the outer court, the inner sanctuary and the most holy place in which the ark of
the covenant was kept. It had the altars for incense, libations and burnt
offerings. It had the lampstands and the table for the bread of the Presence. It
had all of the utensils and vestments necessary for the service of the Lord (see
1 Kg 6–8).
When Solomon finished building the temple (c. 960 BC), he conducted a
great celebration of dedication.
Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in
the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings
of the cherubim.
There was nothing in the ark except the two tab lets of stone, which Moses
put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel,
when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. And when the priests came out
of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could
not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the
house of the Lord. Then Solomon said, “The Lord has set the sun in the
heavens, but has said that He would dwell in thick darkness. I have built thee an
exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in for ever” (1 Kg 8.6, 9–13).
Solomon then blessed the people and addressed them concerning the
building of the temple which the Lord promised David that his son would build.
He then offered a long prayer of dedication, asking God to be with the people
and to receive their prayers offered in the temple.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest
heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! Yet
have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my
God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which Thy servant prays before
Thee this day; that Thine eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the
place of which Thou hast said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that Thou mayest
hearken to the prayer which Thy servant offers toward this place. And hearken
Thou to the supplication of Thy servant and of Thy people Israel, when they
pray toward this place; yea, hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place; and when
Thou hearest, forgive” (1 Kg 8.27–30).
Thus, the temple which Solomon built to the Lord became the sole place
for the formal worship and the priestly sacrifices of the People of God. The
temple was destroyed during the time of Babylonian captivity, and was restored
in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah only to be defiled again by foreign invaders,
and finally destroyed completely by the Romans in the year 70 AD.
It was prophesied in the Old Testament that the time would come when the
glory of the Lord would fill all creation. It was foretold that in the time of the
Messianic King, God would dwell in men as in His holy temple. The ritual
sacrifices of the temple would cease, as the perfect and everlasting covenant of
mercy and peace would be accomplished between God and man (see Isa 55.3,
61.1–11, 66.18–23, Jer 31.31–34. Ezek 34.22–31, 37.24–28).
When Jesus came, the new and everlasting covenant between God and man
was established forever. The temple of God became the body of Christ, which
was the assembly of His people filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Indeed, one
of the accusations against Jesus at the time of His crucifixion was that He said
that He would destroy the temple in Jerusalem.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In
the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and
the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, He drove
them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and He poured out the
coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And Ne told those
who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s
house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal
for thy house will consume me.” The Jews then said to Him, “What sign have
you to show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six
years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But He spoke
of the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His
disciples remembered that He had said this; and they believed the scripture and
the word which Jesus had spoken (Jn 2.13–22).
Now the chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against
Jesus that they might put Him to death, but they found none, though many false
witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, “This fellow said,
‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.’” And the
high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that
these men testify against you?” But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to
Him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of
God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see
the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of
heaven” (Mt 26.59–64).
In Christ, the Messiah, human persons become the temple of the Living
God. The deacon Stephen, the first Christian martyr, bore witness to this and
died for his testimony (see Acts 7.44–59). The apostle Paul also taught this
explicitly, as did the apostle Peter.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near
in the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has
broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law of
commandments and ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in
place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body
through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And He came and
preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for
through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no
longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole
structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom
you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph 2.13–
22).
you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple
is holy, and that temple you are (1Cor 3.16–17).
Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight
chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a
stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in Him will not
be put to shame” (1Pet 2.4–6).
Jesus Christ is not only the living temple of God-God Himself in human
flesh-through whom all men become God’s temple in the Holy Spirit; Jesus is
also the one great high priest and the one perfect sacrificial offering, Who
assumes and fulfills the entire Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament which
was merely a “shadow” of the “reality” to come. Upon the cross, Jesus
sacrificed Himself. He rose from the dead and entered the sanctuary in heaven.
After this, there is no other priesthood and no other sacrifice well-pleasing to
God (see Heb 6–10).
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have
come, then through the greater and more perfect tabernacle (not made with
hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the Holy place,
taking not the blood of goats and calves but His own blood, thus securing an
eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of
goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9.11–14).
For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of
the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our
behalf. Nor was it to offer Himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy
Place yearly with blood not his own; for then He would have had to suffer
repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has appeared once
for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And just
as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time,
not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Hint (Heb
9.24–28).
Consequently, when Christ came into die world, He said, “Sacrifices and
offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt
offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘lo, I have
come to do thy will, O God,’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” When
He said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and
offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to
the law), then He added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first
in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest
stands daily at His service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice
for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, then to wait until His enemies
should be made a stool for His feet. For by a single offering He has perfected
for all time those who are sanctified (Heb 10.5–14).
In the Church of Christ, there is only one priesthood and one sacrifice. It is
the priesthood of Jesus and the sacrifice of the Cross. The entire Church of
Christ is a “royal priesthood” (1Pet 2.4). The ordained clergy of the Church
exists to manifest and realize the unique priesthood of Jesus in the community
which is the “body of Christ” (1Cor 12.27).
In the Kingdom of God, Christ, the great High Priest and Lamb will rule.
He Who “was dead and is alive again” (Rev 2.8) will govern all creation which
will be the dwelling place of God.
And I saw no temple in the heavenly city, for its temple is the Lord God the
Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon
it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall
the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and
its gates shall never be shut by day-and there shall be no night there; they shall
bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean shall
enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those
who are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev 21.22–27).
Thus, the Old Testament temple, the priesthood and the sacrifices are all
fulfilled in Christ Who is Himself the Temple and the Priest and the Sacrificed
Lamb of the Kingdom of God which exists for His People whom He has made
“a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (Rev 1.16, 6.10).
Prophecy
The Old Testament is filled with prophecy. Prophecy means the direct
inspiration of God to speak His words to the world. There were many prophets
in the Old Testament, not only those whose names are given to the prophetic
books of the Bible, but many others, including Moses, Elijah, Samuel and
Nathan.
In the Old Testament, many prophecies were made concerning the history
and destiny of the people of Israel and of the whole human race. Usually the
prophecies told what God would do in response to the wickedness and
unfaithfulness of His People. The prophecies foretold the tragedies coming to
Israel because of the sins of the People. They also foretold the ultimate mercy
and forgiveness of God Who is faithful to His promises, Who will not be angry
forever, but Who will restore the fortunes of His People and bring all nations to
His everlasting Kingdom.
The ultimate act of God’s mercy and compassion is His sending of His Son
as the Messiah of Israel. Jesus, as we have seen, is the final King of God’s
Kingdom which reigns forever. He is the great high priest Who brings
completion and perfection to man’s priestly sacrifices to God. He is also the
last and final Prophet Who ushers in the time when God creates a whole people
of prophets, a whole assembly of those who are taught directly by God to know
His Will and to speak His Words in the world.
Thus, in the Gospel of Saint John, it is recorded that the people recognized
Jesus not merely as a prophet or one of the prophets, but as the final Prophet
Whom God would send at the end of the ages.
When the people saw the sign which He had done [the feeding of the five
thousand], they said, “This is indeed the Prophet Who is come into the world!”
(Jn 6.14)
When they heard these words (about the living water), some of the people
said, “This is really the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ” (Jn 7.40).
Saint Peter refers to the same appearance of Christ as the Prophet, in his
preaching to the people outside the temple in Jerusalem.
Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your
brethren as He raised me up. You shall listen to Him in whatever He tells you.
And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be
destroyed from the people” (Acts 3.22–23).
Jesus is “that prophet” whom Moses spoke about in the Old Law (Dt
18.15). But even Moses and all the prophets of old did not realize that “that
prophet” would be the divine Son and the uncreated Word of God in human
flesh.
Jesus, as the final Prophet, is more than a prophet. He is radically different
from the prophets of old. He is the “teacher come from God” (Jn 3.2), Who
“speaks as one having authority” (Mt 7.24, Mk 1.22), Who speaks not His own
words, but the words of the Father Who sent Him (Jn 14: 24). But He is even
more than this because He is Himself the divine Word of God in human flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and
the life was the light of men (Jn 1.1–4).
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we
have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father (Jn 1.14).
And from His fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law
was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one
has ever seen God; the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made
Him known (Jn 1.16–18).
As the Word of God in human flesh, Jesus fulfills the prophecy of the great
prophets of old who wrote that in the Messiah’s time, all men would be taught
directly by God.
For a brief moment I forsook you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,
says the Lord, your Redeemer.
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
All your sons shall be taught by the Lord,
And great shall be the prosperity of your sons.
In righteousness you shall be established;
you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
and from terror, for it shall not come near you
(Is 54.7–8, 10, 13–14).
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon
their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no
longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying “Know
the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more (Jer 31.33–34).
As the Prophet and the incarnate Word of God, Jesus is the Way, the Truth,
the Life, and the Light of the world.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes
to the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My
Father also; henceforth you know Him and have seen Him” (Jn 14.6–7).
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who
follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8.12).
Jesus shares His gift of prophecy with all who belong to Him. He gives the
Holy Spirit to all of His disciples that they too might know the Father and
speak His words and be themselves “the light of the world.”
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do
men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to
all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Mt 5.14–16).
.?.?. and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to
bear testimony before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you up, do not
be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say
will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of
your Father speaking through you (Mt 10.18–20).
The full possibility for men to prophesy is given in the gift of the Holy
Spirit Who came to Christ’s disciples on Pentecost and continues to come upon
all who in the Church are baptized into Christ. This full outpouring of the Spirit
of God on all flesh was itself prophesied by Joel in the Old Testament. Thus
once again, the apostle Peter bears witness:
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them,
“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and
give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is
only the third hour of the day: but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.’”
(Acts 2.14–18)
The apostle Paul concurs with Peter as he insists that prophecy is the first
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church of the Messiah.
Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that
you may prophesy (1Cor 14.1).
In the Kingdom of God, all prophecy will cease, for the final and perfect
presence of God will be given. Then Christ, the Word of God, will be present in
all of His divine glory, manifesting God the Father to the whole of creation.
Holiness
The God of the Old Testament was the Holy God. The word holy means
separate, different, unlike anything else that exists.
The Holy God of the Old Testament revealed Himself to His chosen people
who were able to behold His glory. The glory of the Lord was a special divine
manifestation of the Person and Presence of God. It consisted in the vision of
light, majesty and beauty and was accompanied by the voice of the Lord and
His holy angels. It created in the persons who observed it overwhelming
feelings of fear and fascination, as well as profound convictions of peace, well-
being, and joy.
In this way did Moses experience the Holy God in His divine glory on
Horeb, the mountain of God., before the passover, and in the wilderness after
the exodus from Egypt.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush; and he looked, and to, the bush was burning, yet it was not
consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burnt.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called
to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And He said, “Here am I.” Then He
said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on
which you are standing is holy ground.” And He said, “I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Ex 3.2–6).
Moses said, “I pray thee, show me thy glory.” And He said, “I will make
all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name ‘The
Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. But,” He said, “you cannot see My face; for man
shall not see Me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me
where you shall stand upon the rock; and while My glory passes by I will put
you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed
by; then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face
shall not be seen” (Ex 33.18–23).
Other select persons of the Old Testament also experienced the presence of
divine holiness and the glory of God. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, and
Ezekiel had such experiences, as did Isaiah whose classic vision has become a
standard part of the Church’s liturgical prayer.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above Him stood the
seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he
covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; and the whole earth is full of his
glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who
called, and the house was filled with smoke, And I said: “Woe is me! For I am
lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then flew one
of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken
with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this
has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” And I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall 1 send, and who will go for
us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Is 6.1–8)
The psalms also sing of the holiness of God and proclaim that all creation
speaks of God’s glory (see Ps 8, 19, 93, 104, 148, et al.).
The main teaching of the Old Testament and the foundation of all of its
life was that God’s people should share in His holiness. This was the purpose of
the entire Law of Moses in its commandments of morality and worship.
For I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy,
for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that
crawls upon the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of
Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy (Lev 11.44–
45).
The people were to be holy and to gain the wisdom and righteousness of
God through their service and worship of Him. All of the so-called Wisdom
writings of the Old Testament, and all of the teachings of the prophets and
psalms are centered around this same fundamental fact: God’s people should
acquire and express the holiness, wisdom, glory, and righteousness of God
Himself. This, and nothing else is the meaning and purpose of man’s life as
created and guided by God.
The ultimate perfection of God’s purpose for man is fulfilled in Christ. He
alone is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. He alone is the “Holy One
of God” (Mk 1.24, Lk 1.35, 4.34). He alone is perfectly righteous and wholly
without sin. Thus, Saint Peter speaks of Jesus to the people after the event of
Pentecost.
The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,
glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence
of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you denied the Holy and
Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the
Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses (Acts
3.13–15).
The apostle Paul concurs with the teaching of Peter by referring to Christ
not merely as holy, righteous and wise, but as Himself the very holiness,
righteousness and wisdom of God Himself in human flesh.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom,
our righteousness, and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written,
“Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord” (1Cor 1.22–24, 30–31).
The glory of God is revealed in the person of Christ. This is the consistent
witness of the apostles who beheld the “Kingdom of God come with power” on
the mountain of the Transfiguration (see Mt 17.1–6, Mk 9.2–7, Lk 9.28–36).
And the Word became flesh and dwell among us, full of grace and truth; we
have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father (Jn 1.14).
Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with
such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses’ face because of its
brightness, fading as this was, will not the dispensation of the Spirit be
attended with greater splendor? For if there was splendor in the dispensation of
condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor.
Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at
all, because of the splendor that surpasses it. For if what faded away came with
splendor, what is permanent must have much more splendor. Since we have such
a hope, we are very bold.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord who is the Spirit.
For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has
shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ (2Cor 3.7, 18, 4.6).
In and through Christ, by means of the Holy Spirit, all men can share in
the glory of God and become participants in God’s own holiness.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His glory and
excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great
promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the
world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature (2Pet 1.3–
4).
The participation of men in the “nature of God” already begins in the
Church of Christ, the final fruit of the salvation history of the Old Testament.
In the Church, the Kingdom of God is present which is “righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14.17). In the Church of Christ already
begins that perpetual praise of the Holy God which exists now in the heavens
and will fill all creation when Christ comes in the glory of His Kingdom at the
end of the ages.
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is to come! (Rev 4.8b).
And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord,
the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants
what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon.” Blessed is he who
keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (Rev 22.6–7).
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous
still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my
recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who
wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they
may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and
fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and every one who loves and practices
falsehood. I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the
churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star (Rev
22.11–16).
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord be with all the saints. Amen (Rev
22.20–21).
Resources
Arseniev, Nicholas, Revelation of Life Eternal, St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 1962.
Barrois, Georges A., The Face of Christ in the Old Testament, St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974.
Bulgakov, Sergius, The Orthodox Church, London, Centenary, 1935. Also
available in paperback from the American Review of Eastern Orthodoxy, New
York, n.d.
Cabasilas, Nicholas, The Life in Christ, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press,
1974.
Lossky, Vladimir, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, London,
James Clarke, 1957.
The Vision of God, London, Faith Press, 1963.
In the Image and Likeness of God, St. Vladimir’s Press, 1974.
Meyendorff, John, The Orthodox Church, New York, Pantheon Books,
1962.
Orthodoxy and Catholicity, New York, Sheed and Ward, 1966.
Christ in Eastern Christian Thought, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1975.
Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600–1700), Chicago,
The University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Schmemann, Alexander, For the Life of the World (Sacraments and
Orthodoxy), St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974.
Of Water and the Spirit, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974.
Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church, New York, Pelican, 1963.
SELECTED ARTICLES FROM SAINT VLADIMIR’S THEOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
Afanasiev, Nicholas, “The Canons of the Church: Changeable or
Unchangeable”, SVQ, XI,2,1967.
Athenagoras, Metropolitan (Kokkinakis), “Tradition and Traditions”, SVQ,
VII,3,1963.
Basil, Archbishop (Krivosheine), “Is a New Orthodox `Confession of
Faith’ Necessary?”, SVQ, XI,2,1967.
Barrois, George, “The Antinomy of Tradition”, SVQ, XIII,4,1969.
Bobrinskovy, Boris, “Ascension and Liturgy”, SVQ, 111,4,1959.
Bogolepov, Alexander, “Which Councils are Recognized as Ecumenical?”,
SVQ, VII,2,1963.
Clement, Olivier, “Science and Faith”, SVQ, X,3,1966.
Florovsky, Georges, “On the Tree of the Cross”, SVQ, OS1, 1953.
“And Ascended into Heaven….”, SVQ, OS2,1954.
Hopko, Thomas, “The Bible in the Orthodox Church”, SVQ, XIV,1–2,1970.
Kesich, Veselin, “Criticism, the Gospel and the Church”, SVQ, X,3,1966.
“Research and Prejudice”, SVQ, XIV,1–2,1970.
Kniazeff, Alexei, “The Great Sign of the Heavenly Kingdom and Its
Advent in Power” (On the Theotokos), SVQ, XII,1–2,1969.
Koulomzin, Nicholas, “Images of the Church in Saint Paul’s Epistles”,
SVQ, XIV,1–2,1970.
Meyendorff, John, “Historical Relativism and Authority in Christian
Dogma”, SVQ, X1,2,1967.
“The Orthodox Concept of the Church”, SVQ, VI, 2,1962.
“Tradition and Traditions”, SVQ, VI,3,1962.
“Doctrine of Grace in St. Gregory Palamas”, SVQ, S2,1954.
Romanides, John, “Original Sin According to St. Paul”, SVQ, OS4,1–
2,1955–56.
Schmemann, Alexander, “Ecclesiological Notes”, SVQ, X1,1,1967.
Verhovskoy, Serge, “The Highest Authority in the Church”, SVQ, IV,2–
3,1960.
“Procession of the Holy Spirit according to the Orthodox Doctrine of the
Holy Trinity”, SVQ, OS2,1953.
“Some Theological Reflections on Chalcedon”, SVQ, 11,1,1958.
Doctrine Questions and Reflections for Discussion
Introduction
When Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko of blessed memory was in the
process of revising his series The Orthodox Faith, he requested the Department
of Christian Education of the Orthodox Church in America, which had
originally published the series, to create questions to accompany the texts of
each volume. The following questions are the fulfillment of his request for the
Doctrine and Scripture volume of the series.
There are questions for each chapter of this volume, based on the text.
They can be used to review or further consider the material in the chapter. A
page number follows each question to show the part of the text it’s based on.
A separate document gives numbered answers. We would suggest that a
discussion leader, after the group has read a chapter, give each participant a
copy of the questions for that chapter. They can then answer them together. The
leader can have a copy of the answer pages for that chapter to check answers if
need be (though most of the answers should easily be found in the chapter text.)
A reader going through the book on his or her own can use the questions and
answers in whatever way is most helpful.
Some of the answers also offer points for reflection. Father Thomas
always liked to reflect further on things as he taught, and we hope readers will
want to do the same. Most of all we hope that many people will use and benefit
from the revised edition of Father Thomas’ wonderful gift to the Church, his
series The Orthodox Faith.
Department of Christian Education Orthodox Church in America
Chapter 1: Sources of Christian Doctrine
What prophecy does the prophet Isaiah make concerning the Messiah that
has to do with Jesus Christ’s title of Rabbi? (pp. 18–19)
What was the attitude of the Church Fathers toward pagan religions and
various philosophers? (p. 21)
Do all things in the Church have eternal and lasting value? (p. 22)
What element comes first among those that make up Holy Tradition? (p.
23)
What is the primary meaning of the word prophet? (p. 24)
Why is the book of the Four Gospels, rather than the whole Bible,
enthroned on the altar of every Orthodox Church? (p. 26)
How is the Liturgy of the New Testament Church a “christening” of the
Old Testament liturgical life? (p. 26)
What is an apologist? (p. 30)
Why do the writings of the Church Fathers have authority in the Church?
(p. 31)
What are some characteristics of the unusual group of saints known as
fools for Christ’s sake? (p. 33)
Are all canons unchangeable? (p. 35)
How is an icon different from a holy picture? (pp. 37–8)
Chapter 2: The Symbol of Faith
What was probably the earliest Christian creed? (p. 40)
Why is the Symbol of Faith (the Creed) said in the first person, unlike
other prayers? (p. 44)
Why would the Orthodox Church be reluctant to call god the Supreme
Being? (p. 47)
Does the Orthodox Church teach that God created everything individually
and all at once? (p. 50)
How is Psalm 139 related to the prayer O Heavenly King? (p. 51–2)
Why is it slightly incorrect to call all the bodiless powers angels? (p. 53)
In what way is our human destiny higher than that of the bodiless powers?
(p. 57)
What limits our ability as human beings to become more and more
Godlike? (p. 58)
How is the life of the Holy Trinity a Divine Pattern for the life of men and
women in God’s creation? (p. 61)
How are the words eternity and now related? (p. 66)
Is it correct to say that Jesus Christ’s presence in our world begins when
the Virgin Mary gives birth to Him? (pp. 71–2)
Why is the Virgin Birth necessary? (p. 73)
What truth was the Emperor Justinian putting forth in the hymn he wrote
in the 6th century? (pp. 82–3)
What is the basic point made by the defenders of icon veneration? (p. 85)
What event is the “official” beginning of Jesus Christ’s Messianic
mission? (p. 89)
Why is our entrance into the life of the Church by baptism and
chrismation called holy illumination? (p. 93)
How did Jesus Christ make death itself become “the source and the way
into life eternal?” (p.98)
How do the words of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel tell us what the
Resurrection of Christ, and our own resurrected life, will be like? (p. 104)
What does Saint Gregory the Theologian’s Easter Oration say is God’s
most precious possession? (p. 105)
How does Saint Gregory say the whole of creation is recreated? (p.105)
What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ, after His ascension, sat down
at the right hand of God? (pp. 106, 108)
Why are human beings not told the exact time of “the end” of all things?
(p. 108)
What are the “two different ways” in which God’s love acts, according to
Saint Isaac of Syria? (p. 110)
Who will be the Judge in the final judgment of human beings? (p. 112)
On what basis does the Orthodox Church disagree with the Protestant and
Roman Catholic creedal statement that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father and the Son? (p. 116)
Father Hopko writes that the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is the
fulfillment of one thing, and the beginning of another. What are these two
things? (p. 118)
What does the word catholic mean? (p. 122)
How does I Timothy 3: 15 describe the Church? (p. 124)
How does the Orthodox Church interpret 2 Peter 3: 10? (p. 129)
Chapter 3: The Holy Trinity
How can we come to know God for ourselves in our own living union with
Him? (p.133)
Is it correct to say that the Son and the Holy Spirit are “made from
nothing”? (p. 134)
When we say that God is absolute perfection, we are saying what He is.
How do we tell who He is? (p. 137)
How does the word logical relate to human beings and the Son of God? (p.
139)
How are human beings, alone among God’s creatures, empowered “to
imitate God and to participate in His life”?
Chapter 4: The Bible
When we call the Bible the written Word of God, what are two things we
do not mean? (p. 148)
Why does the Church Tradition consider the identity of the Bible’s authors
to be “incidental to the correct interpretation and proper significance” of the
Biblical books? (p.150)
Chapter 5: Old Testament
With what person is the Old Testament law essentially connected? (p. 157
Were the historical books of the Old Testament written soon after the
events they describe? (p. 161)
What does the word apocalyptic mean? (p. 167)
Why is the entire book of Jonah read at the Easter vigil of Great Saturday?
(p. 168)
Chapter 6: New Testament
In what way are the four Gospels more than biographies of Jesus Christ?
(p. 172)
What does the Gospel of Matthew intend to show to Jewish Christians? (p.
174)
Why is it traditionally believed that the unnamed disciple on the road to
Emmaeus (in Luke 24: 13–35) is Saint Luke? (p.175)
What title is given to the apostle and evangelist John? (p. 177)
What attitude toward the Old Testament Law of Moses does Saint Paul
express in the Letter to the Romans? (p. 180)
What words in the Letter to the Philippians indicate the growing structure
of the Church? (p. 187)
What is the main theme of the Letter to the Hebrews? (p. 194)
What does the second letter of Saint Peter teach about God’s actions
toward creation at the end of the world? (p. 198)
How does the Orthodox Church interpret the image of Babylon in the Book
of Revelation? (p. 205)
What does Father Hopko say is the meaning of the 144,000 in Revelation
14: 3? (p. 206)
Chapter 7: Salvation History
What does Romans 5: 14 say about the original Adam and the True Adam?
(p. 210)
What event in Abraham’s life prefigures the Holy Trinity? (p. 214)
What comparison does Jesus Christ make between Himself and the manna
the Jews ate in the wilderness? (p. 218)
What does Saint Paul say about the rock struck by Moses during the
exodus of the Jews from Egypt? (p. 219)
What event in the time of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, fulfills the giving of
the law to Moses (p. 221)
How does Revelation 17: 24 describe the Lamb? (p. 228)
The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. What has now
become God’s temple, according to I Corinthians 3: 16–17? (p. 235)
Hebrews 9: 11–14 calls Jesus Christ the “high priest” who sacrifices “not
the blood of goats and calves but His own blood.” What does His sacrifice
achieve for us? (p. 236)
What public action of Jesus Christ makes the people call Him “the Prophet
Who is come into the world”? (p. 239)
Why will prophecy cease in the Kingdom of God? (p. 242)
According to 2 Peter 1: 3–4, what promise has been given, in and through
Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit, to all of us? (p. 247)
Doctrine Answers and Reflections for Discussion
Chapter 1: Sources of Christian Doctrine
Isaiah said that men (meaning all human beings) would be “taught by
God.”
They said that the yearnings of pagan religions and the wisdom of many
philosophers could be valid and genuine paths to the Truth of God. Saint Basil
the Great said that in pagan writings truth could be perceived “as it were in
shadows and in mirrors” He advised young men, whose minds were not yet
mature, to “receive those words from pagan authors which contain suggestions
of the virtues.” This would prepare their minds to understand, later, the truly
precious words of the Holy Scriptures, which lead to salvation.
No; some things are temporal and temporary, and don’t pertain to God’s
Kingdom.
The Bible comes first.
Primarily, the word prophet describes a person who speaks the Word of
God by direct divine inspiration. Secondarily it describes one who foretells the
future.
Everything in the Bible (law, history, wisdom and prophecy) prepares us
for Jesus Christ. Therefore the Gospels, which tell us how He fulfilled that
preparation, are enthroned on the altar.
The Church’s liturgy, which means the common work of prayer and
worship, retains the liturgical life of the Old Testament, but in a new and
eternal perspective.
An apologist is one who offers answers about, or defends, something.
Some Church Fathers wrote what are called apologies, meaning explanations or
defenses of the Christian faith.
The Church Fathers lived as Christians are called to live. With
righteousness of life they combined purity of soul and intellectual brilliance.
This gives them great authority, though the Church does not claim that they are
infallible.
The fools for Christ’s sake had no regard for things considered by most of
us to be basic necessities-food, clothing, shelter-or for social reputation and
status. Some of them “spoke truth to power” in risky ways; many were often
treated with hostility.
No. Canons of a moral and ethical character don’t change. Those of a
practical nature sometimes do.
An icon, unlike a holy picture, is not a pictorial representation. It has a
deeper realism, and depicts a person or event as earthly and yet heavenly,
physical and yet spiritual.
Chapter 2: The Symbol of Faith (the Creed)
The earliest creed was probably the simple confession that Jesus Christ is
Messiah and Lord.
The Symbol of Faith, the Creed, is said in the first person because each
person must believe for himself or herself. The community of faith begins with
and rests upon each member’s personal confession of faith.
God is above existence, above being. Therefore the Orthodox Church
would be reluctant to use the term “supreme being” because it implies that God
is merely the greatest in the chain of “being” to which everything and everyone
belongs.
No. God created the first foundations of existence. Then, over periods of
time-perhaps millions of years-through His power these foundations brought
forth other elements of His creation.
The prayer addresses the Spirit of God, “who art everywhere and fillest all
things.” Similarly, Psalm 139 expresses God’s omnipresence, as well as His
constant care for us.
There are nine ranks of bodiless powers; angels are just one of these ranks.
The Scriptures tell us that our destiny, being made in God’s image, is to
rule creation. Nothing like this is said about angels. We are created for a life
superior to that of any creature, including the angels who glorify God and serve
the cause of our salvation. We do not become angels when we die; we are
forever different from angels.
There are no limits to the divinity of our Creator, and by His grace there
are no limits to what we, in our humanity, can become. We have been created to
grow and develop, through participation in the nature of God, for all eternity.
The three Persons of the Holy Trinity, while perfectly equal, are not the
same. They are in complete unity of nature and being. Yet there are distinctions
as to how each Person lives and expresses the common nature of God.
Similarly, men and women are completely equal and are called to spiritual
perfection, of which they both are capable. Yet they are two different “modes of
existence” within one and the same humanity just as the Three Persons of the
Trinity are three different “modes of existence” within one and the same
divinity.
Though we may think of the word eternity as meaning endless time, it
actually means the condition of no time at all. Therefore, for God, there is no
past or future; all time is now. This means, for example, that there has never
been a time when the Son of God was not-His coming forth from the Father is
eternal. This is why the Church had to condemn the teachings of Arius, who
said that there had been a time when there was no Son of God.
No, because “the world was made through Him” (Jn 1:10) and He was
always present, and active, as the “life and light of man” (I Jn 4). When the Old
Testament saints experienced divine manifestations (Moses, for example) or
when God’s word was revealed to them (as in Isaiah 55: 10–11), these were
revelations of God by His Son, the Divine Word.
To save the world, the Messiah could not be someone in need of salvation
like everyone else. The Savior had to be “not of this world” and must be able to
overcome death. This doesn’t alter the fact that He became a real and perfect
man.
The hymn expresses the truth that Jesus Christ is both perfect God and
perfect man.
The defenders of icons said that because God became a true man of flesh
and blood (which we call the Incarnation), it was appropriate to depict Him. In
fact, to deny the possibility of depicting Him was to deny the truth of His
having come to us as a man.
The event is Christ’s baptism in the Jordan by John.
In baptism and chrismation we enter into the saving life of the Church. We
are enlightened and enabled to see, believe and love the Truth of God. The
Church calls this enlightenment holy illumination.
Romans 6: 23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. By taking our sins on
Himself and then dying a sinless death of His own free will, not through any
necessity, Jesus Christ defeated the power of death. In that way He made death
the source and the way into life eternal.
Ezekiel says that God will open the graves and raise up those buried in
them. The raised people will receive God’s Spirit and live. This is exactly what
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for us.
We are His most precious possession.
It is recreated with “a few drops of Blood”-the Blood of the crucified
Christ, shed for our salvation.
It means that Christ has completed His work on earth and is reunited with
His Father in heaven, bearing the wounded and glorified humanity which He
assumed. Through this, we human beings are restored to communion with God.
Not being told the time of “the end” is a gift to us-it allows us to be
vigilant and to be constant in our good works. That way we will be prepared for
the end no matter when it comes.
Saint Isaac says that God’s love acts as suffering in “the reproved”-those
who have sinned against love–and as joy in the blessed, who have loved God.
We will be judged by Christ, by One who has fully shared our life and
knows its sorrows, temptations and difficulties. Some people who don’t know
much about Christianity fail to understand this, and ask how God can fairly
judge us when He is reigning “up there” and we are struggling “down here.”
Father Hopko makes the important point that we are not judged by God “sitting
on a cloud” but by Christ who suffered every human hardship yet emerged
victorious.
John 15: 26 says that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father” and this
is our Orthodox understanding.
Pentecost was the fulfillment of Christ’s earthly mission and the beginning
of the Christian Church.
Catholic means full and complete, lacking nothing.
The Church is called “the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”
This passage is not describing total annihilation of God’s creation, which
He loves and wants to save. Rather it is telling of a catastrophe that all of
creation will have to endure in order to be purified, cleansed and saved. It also
tells of eternal fire in which the ungodly will suffer.
Chapter 3: The Holy Trinity
We can do this through work and prayer, passing beyond words and
concepts about God and coming to know Him for ourselves.
No, because the Son and the Spirit are not creatures. Like God the Father,
they are uncreated.
If we ask who God is, the answer is that He is the Holy Trinity: Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Human beings are logical in that they participate in God’s Logos–His Son
and Word. They reflect God’s nature on the creaturely level as the Logos does
on the divine level.
We have this special empowerment because we are given the gift of being
inspired by the Holy Spirit, unlike every other creature.
Chapter 4: The Bible
We do not mean that it fell from heaven ready made, and we do not mean
that it was dictated by God to men who were just His passive instruments.
Rather, God inspired His People to produce the Scriptures.
This is because the Church considers the Bible to be entirely inspired by
God; in that sense He is its original author. The identity of the human author
doesn’t determine the authenticity or validity of a book which is considered to
be part of the Bible.
Chapter 5: Old Testament
Moses.
No. In most cases they were written well after the events they describe.
Apocalyptic means that which refers to the final revelation of God and His
judgment over all creation.
Christ referred to the book of Jonah as the sign of His messianic mission
in the world. On Holy Saturday we are preparing to celebrate His rising from
the dead, and the salvation offered to all people-the fulfillment of His mission.
Chapter 6: New Testament
The gospels were written not just to tell the story of Jesus’ life. His Spirit-
filled disciples wrote to bear witness that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah
and Savior of the world.
The Gospel of Matthew is intended to show that Jesus Christ (son of
David, son of Abraham) is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures and
is truly the Christ.
Because the second disciple on the road is not named, it is assumed that he
is Luke, the writer of the gospel.
He is called the Theologian.
While upholding the validity and holiness of the Mosaic Law, Saint Paul
defends the doctrine that salvation comes only in Jesus Christ, by faith and by
grace.
The words “bishops and deacons” indicate the growing structure of the
Church.
The main theme is a comparison of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to the
sacrifices of the Old Testament priests.
The teaching is that the “new heavens and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells” will be purged of all that is contrary to God’s divine
goodness and holiness, and will be “very good” as was the first creation. The
only things “dissolved with fire” will be evil and sin.
The image of Babylon has a universal application-it stands for every
society which fights against God and for every body of persons united in
wickedness and fleshliness.
Father Hopko says that the number 144,000 is the symbol of total
completion and of the full number of the saved.
Chapter 7: Salvation History
The first Adam was a type (a figure which anticipates a greater figure to
come) of the True Adam, Jesus Christ-the One who was to come. The first was
from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
The event was the visit of three angels of God to Abraham under the oaks
of Mamre. Here again, the event “prefigures” something great to come-the
revelation of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus says that the Jews who ate manna in the wilderness still died. But He
is the Living Bread from heaven, and those who eat it will not die but will live
forever.
Saint Paul says that the rock was Christ; Jesus Christ is the Living Water
as well as the Living Bread.
The giving of the law to Moses is fulfilled in the giving of the Holy Spirit
to Christ’s Disciples on Pentecost.
He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
We, God’s people, are now God’s temple.
Christ’s sacrifice secured an eternal redemption.
The public action was “the sign which He had done”–the feeding of the
5000.
In the Kingdom, the final and perfect presence of God, which had been
prophesied, will actually be given.
The promise is that we can become partakers of the divine nature,
participants in God’s own holiness.
Volume II – Worship
The Church Building
Church Building
In the long history of the Orthodox Church a definite style of church
architecture has developed. This style is characterized by the attempt to reveal
the fundamental experience of Orthodox Christianity: God is with us.
The fact that Christ the Immanuel (which translated means “God with us”)
has come, determines the form of the Orthodox church building. God is with
man in Christ through the Holy Spirit. The dwelling place of God is with man.
“The Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands,” says Saint Stephen
quoting the Old Testament prophets. Saint Paul says that men are the temples
of God:
“Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure is
joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom you also are
built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2.21–22).
The words of Saint Peter are very much the same.
“Come to him [Christ] to that living stone .?.?. and like living stones be
yourselves built into a spiritual house .?.?. to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Pet 2.4–5).
“We are the temple of the living God .?.?.” (2Cor 6.16). And it is exactly
this conviction and experience that Orthodox Church architecture wishes to
convey.
Orthodox Church architecture reveals that God is with men, dwelling in
them and living in them through Christ and the Spirit. It does so by using the
dome or the vaulted ceiling to crown the Christian church building, the house
of the Church which is the People of God. Unlike the pointed arches which
point to God far up in the heavens, the dome or the spacious all-embracing
ceiling gives the impression that in the Kingdom of God, and in the Church,
Christ “unites all things in himself, things in heaven and things on earth,” (Eph
1.10) and that in Him we are all “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3.19).
The interior of the Orthodox Church building is particularly styled to give
the experience of the unity of all things in God. It is not constructed to
reproduce the upper room of the Last Supper, nor to be simply a meeting hall
for men whose life exists solely within the bounds of this earth. The church
building is patterned after the image of God’s Kingdom in the Book of
Revelation. Before us is the altar table on which Christ is enthroned, both as the
Word of God in the Gospels and as the Lamb of God in the eucharistic sacrifice.
Around the table are the angels and saints, the servants of the Word and the
Lamb who glorify him-and through him, God the Father-in the perpetual
adoration inspired by the Holy Spirit. The faithful Christians on earth who
already belong to that holy assembly “.?.?. fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God .?.?.” (Eph 2.19) enter into the eternal
worship of God’s Kingdom in the Church. Thus, in Orthodox practice the
vestibule symbolizes this world. The nave is the place of the Church understood
as the assembly and people of God. The altar area, called the sanctuary or the
holy place, stands for the Kingdom of God.
Altar Table
We have mentioned how the entire church building is centered around the
altar table. The altar table does not merely symbolize the table of the last
supper. It is the symbolic and mystical presence of the heavenly throne and
table of the Kingdom of God; the table of Christ the Word, the Lamb and the
King of the ever-lasting life of God’s glorified dominion over all of creation.
The Book of the Gospels is perpetually enthroned on the altar table. It is
on the altar table that we offer the &rldquo;bloodless sacrifice” of Christ to the
Father. And from the altar table we receive the Bread of Life, the Body and
Blood of the Lord’s Passover Supper. This table is the “table of God’s
Kingdom” (Lk 13.29).
In Orthodox Tradition the altar table is often carved wood or stone. It is
usually vested with colorful material to show its divine and heavenly character.
It should always be a simple table of proportional dimensions, often a perfect
cube, and is always free-standing so that it may be encircled.
On the altar table one always finds the antimension. This is the cloth
depicting Christ in the tomb which contains the signature of the bishop and is
the permission for the local community to gather as the Church. “Antimension”
means literally “instead of the table.” Since the bishop is the proper pastor of
the Church, the antimension is used instead of the bishop’s own table which is,
obviously, in his own church building, the cathedral-the place where the bishop
has his chair (cathedra).
The antimension usually contains a relic (normally a part of the body) of a
saint which shows that the Church is built on the blood of the martyrs and the
lives of God’s holy people. This custom comes from the early Church practice
of gathering and celebrating the eucharist on the graves of those who have lived
and died for the Christian faith. Usually, a relic of a saint is embedded in the
altar table itself as well.
Also on the altar table there is a tabernacle, often in the shape of a church
building, which is a repository for the gifts of holy communion that are
reserved for the sick and the dying. Behind the altar table there is usually a
seven-branched candle stand which comes from the Old Testamental tradition
of the Jewish temple. Generally speaking, the Jerusalem temple is highly
valued in the Orthodox Christian tradition of worship and church construction
as a “prototype” of the true worship “in spirit and truth” of the Kingdom of God
(Jn 4.23).
Oblation Table
As we face the altar area the table of oblation on which the bread and wine
are prepared for the liturgy stands on the left side of the altar table. The
chalice-the cup for the wine-and the diskos-the round plate, elevated on a stand,
for the bread-are kept on this table. These vessels are normally decorated with
iconographic engravings, Christian symbols, and the sign of the cross.
On this table there is also a special liturgical knife-symbolically called the
spear-which is used for cutting the eucharistic bread, and a liturgical spoon for
administering holy communion to the people. There are also special covers for
the chalice and diskos and a cruciform piece of metal called the star which
holds the cover over the eucharistic bread on the diskos. A sponge and cloths
for drying the chalice after the liturgy are also usually kept here. The oblation
table is decorated in a manner similar to that of the altar table.
Above the table of oblation (the table on which the gifts for holy
communion are prepared), which stands in the altar area to the left of the altar
table, one might find various icons. A favorite one is that of Christ praying in
Gethsemene: ‘Let this cup pass.?.?.?.’ Another is that of the Nativity, although
this is due to a symbolical interpretation of the Divine Liturgy which is not
indicative of the fundamental liturgical tradition of the Church.
Icons
In the Orthodox Church the icons bear witness to the reality of God’s
presence with us in the mystery of faith. The icons are not just human pictures
or visual aids to contemplation and prayer. They are the witnesses of the
presence of the Kingdom of God to us, and so of our own presence to the
Kingdom of God in the Church. It is the Orthodox faith that icons are not only
permissible, but are spiritually necessary because “the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us” (Jn 1.14). Christ is truly man and, as man, truly the “icon of
the invisible God” (Col 1.15; 1Cor 11.7; 2Cor 4.4).
The iconostasis or icon screen in the Orthodox Church exists to show our
unity with Christ, his mother and all the angels and saints. It exists to show our
unity with God. The altar table, which stands for the Banquet Table of the
Kingdom of God, is placed behind the so-called royal gates, between the icons
of the Theotokos and Child and the glorified Christ, showing that everything
which happens to us in the Church happens in history between those “two
comings” of Christ: between his coming as the Saviour born of Mary and His
coming at the end of the age as the King and the Judge.
The icons on the royal gates witness to the presence of Christ’s good news,
the gospel of salvation. The four evangelists who recorded the gospels appear,
and often also an icon of the Annunciation, the first proclamation of the gospel
in the world. In Greek the gospel is the evangelion, the authors of the gospels
the evangelistoi, the annunciation the evangelismos.
Over the doors we have the icon of Christ’s Mystical Supper with his
disciples, the icon of the central mystery of the Christian faith and the unity of
the Church in the world. It is the visual witness that we too are partakers in the
“marriage supper of the lamb” (Rev 19.9), that we too are blessed by Christ “to
eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Lk 22.30), blessed to “eat bread in
the Kingdom of God” (Lk 14.15).
Over and around the central gates are icons of the saints. The deacon’s
doors in the first row (for the servants of the altar) usually have icons depicting
deacons or angels, God’s servants. The first row also has an icon of the person
or event in whose honor the given building is dedicated, along with other
prominent saints or events. Depending on the size of the iconostasis, there may
be rows of icons of the apostles, the major feasts of the Church, the prophets
and other holy people blessed by God, all crowned on the top by the cross of
Christ.
In recent centuries the iconostasis in most Orthodox churches became very
ornate and developed into a virtual wall, dividing the faithful from the holy
altar rather than uniting them with it. In recent years this development has
happily been altered in many places. The iconostasis in many church buildings
now gives first place to the icons themselves and has become once more an
icon “stand” or “screen” (stasis) rather than a solid partition.
Besides the iconostasis, Orthodox Church buildings often have icons or
frescoes on the walls and ceilings. The “canon” of Church design is to have the
icon of Christ the Almighty in the center of the building, and the icon of the
Theotokos with Christ appearing within her found over the altar area. This
latter icon is called the “image of the Church” since Mary is herself the
prototype of the entire assembly of believers in whom Christ must dwell. In the
altar area it is also traditional to put icons of the saints who composed Church
liturgies and hymns. Directly behind the altar table there is usually an image of
Christ in glory-enthroned or transfigured or resurrecting, and sometimes
offering the eucharistic gifts.
Sign of the Cross
Also found on the altar table is a small hand cross used for blessing and
for veneration by the faithful. The sign of the cross is used throughout the
church building: on the holy vessels, stands, tables, and vestments.
The cross is the central symbol for Christians, not only as the instrument
of the world’s salvation by the crucified Christ, but also as the constant witness
to the fact-that men cannot be Christians unless they live with the cross as the
very content of their lives in this world. “If any man would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk 8.34).
For these reasons Christians place upon themselves the sign of the cross.
The Orthodox place their first two fingers and thumb together to form a sign of
the Triune God and cross themselves from the head to the breast and from
shoulder to shoulder, right to left. This unique and all-embracing symbol shows
that the cross is the inspiration, power and indeed the very content of our lives
as Christians; and that man’s mind, heart and strength must be given to the love
of God and man.
Vestments
In the Orthodox Church the clergy vest in special clothing for the
liturgical services. There are two fundamental Christian vestments, the first of
which is the baptismal robe. This robe, which is worn by bishops and priests at
the service of holy communion and which should always be white, is the “robe
of salvation”: the white garment in which every Christian is clothed on his day
of baptism, symbolizing the new humanity of Jesus and life in the Kingdom of
God (Rev 7.9ff).
The second fundamental vestment for Christian clergy is the stole or
epitrachelion which goes around the neck and shoulders. It is the sign of the
pastoral office and was originally made of wool to symbolize the sheep-that is,
the members of the flock of Christ-for whom the pastors are responsible. Both
bishops and priests wear this vestment when they are exercising their pastoral
office, witnessing to the fact that the ministers of the Church live and act solely
for the members of Christ’s flock.
As the Church developed through history the vestments of the clergy grew
more numerous. Special cuffs for deacons, priests, and bishops were added to
keep the sleeves of the vestments out of the way of the celebrants during the
divine services. When putting on their cuffs, the clergy read lines from the
psalms reminding them that their hands belong to God.
A special belt was added as well to hold the vestments in place. When
putting on the belt the clergy say psalms which remind them that it is God who
“girds them with strength” to fulfill their service. Only the bishops and priests
wear the liturgical belt.
All orders of the clergy wear a special outer garment. Deacons, sub-
deacons, and readers wear a robe called a sticharion. It is probably the
baptismal garment, decorated and made more elaborate. Deacon and sub-
deacons also wear a stole called the orarion, probably originally a piece of
material upon which were inscribed the liturgical litanies and prayers (orare
means to pray). The deacon still holds up the orarion in a position of prayer
when he intones his parts of the divine services. The sub-deacon’s orarion is
placed around his back in the sign of the cross.
Priests wear their white baptismal robe over which they have their pastoral
stole, cuffs and belt. They also wear a large garment called a phelonion which
covers their entire body in the back and goes below their waist in front. This
vestment was probably developed from the formal garments of the early
Christian era and, under the inspiration of the Bible, came to be identified with
the calling of the priestly life. When putting on his phelonion, the priest says
the lines of Psalm 132:
Thy priests, O Lord, shall clothe themselves in righteousness, and the
saints shall rejoice with joy always now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
The bishops traditionally probably also wore the phelonion over which
they placed the omophorion, the sign of their episcopal office as leading pastor
of the local church. When the Christian empire was captured by the Turks in the
fifteenth century, however, the Christian bishops of the East were given civil
rule over all Christians under Turkish domination. At that time, since there was
no longer a Christian empire, the bishops adopted the imperial insignia and
began to dress as the Christian civil rulers used to dress. Thus, they began to
wear the sakkos, the imperial robe, and the mitre, the imperial crown. They also
began to stand upon the orlets (the eagle) during the divine services and to
carry the staff which symbolized more their secular power than their pastoral
office. At that time as well, the word despota (vladyko or master)-a title for
temporal rather than spiritual power-was used in addressing the bishops, and
the clergy began to grow long hair which was also a sign of earthly rule in
former times. In the seventeenth century, during the reform of Patriarch Nikon,
the Russian Church adopted these same forms for its bishops.
In the Church some of these new insignia were “spiritualized” and given a
Biblical meaning. Thus, the mitres became signs of Christian victory, for the
saints receive their crowns and reign with Christ (Rev 4.4). The eagle became
the sign of the flight to the heavenly Jerusalem since it is the classical Biblical
symbol of Saint John and the fourth gospel (Rev 4.7; Ezek 1.10). The staff
became the symbol of Aaron’s rod (Ex 4.2), and so on. It should be understood,
however, that these particular insignia of the bishop’s office are of later and
more accidental development in the Church.
In relation to the bishop’s service in the Orthodox Church, the use of two
special candelabra with which the bishop blesses the faithful also developed.
One of these candelabra holds three candles (trikiri – on right) while the other
holds two candles (dikiri – on left). These candelabra stand for the two
fundamental mysteries of the Orthodox faith: that the Godhead is three Divine
Persons; and that Jesus Christ, the Saviour, has two natures, being both perfect
God and perfect man.
Bishops and priests in the Orthodox Church also wear other special
garments. There are, first of all, two pieces of cloth: one square (nabedrennik)
and one diamond-shaped (epigonation or palitsa). The former is worn only by
priests as a sign of distinction, while the latter is always worn by bishops and is
given to some priests as a special distinction of service. Probably these cloths
were originally “liturgical towels.” Their symbolical meaning is that of
spiritual strength: the sword of faith and the Word of God. They hang at the
sides of their wearers during divine services.
There are also clerical hats which carry special meaning in some Orthodox
Churches-the pointed hat (skufya) and the cylindrical one (kamilavka). The
kamilavka is normally worn by all Greek priests, but only by some clergy in
other national Orthodox churches as a special distinction. The kamilavka may
be black or purple; monks, and by extansion all bishops, wear it with a black
veil. The skufya is worn by monks and, in the Russian tradition, by some of the
married clergy as a special distinction, in which case the hat is usually purple.
Also in the Russian tradition certain married clergy are given the honor of
wearing a mitre during liturgical services. In other Orthodox churches the mitre
is reserved only for bishops and abbots of monasteries (archimandrites).
Generally speaking, especially in the West, the use of clerical headwear is
declining in the Orthodox Church.
Finally, it must be mentioned that bishops and priests wear the cross. The
bishops also wear the image of Mary and the Child (panagia-the “all holy”). In
the Russian tradition all priests wear the cross. In other churches it is worn
liturgically only by those priests given the special right to do so as a sign of
distinction.
As the various details of clerical vestments evolved through history, they
became very complex and even somewhat exaggerated. The general trend in the
Church today is toward simplification. We can almost certainly look forward to
a continual evolution in Church vestments which will lead the Church to
practices more in line with the original Christian biblical and sacramental
inspiration.
The Orthodox Church is quite firm in its insistence that liturgical vesting
is essential to normal liturgical worship, experienced as the realization of
communion with the glorious Kingdom of God, a Kingdom which is yet to
come but which is also already with us in the mystery of Christ’s Church.
Christian Symbols
The Orthodox Church abounds with the use of symbols. These symbols are
those realities which have the power and competence of manifesting God to
men, signs which carry us beyond ourselves and themselves into the genuine
union and knowledge of things eternal and divine.
Among the Christian symbols we have already mentioned are the icons,
the sign of the cross, and the vestments of liturgical celebration. In addition, we
can mention the use of various colors which have their particular significance,
as well as the use of light, normally the natural light of candles, which leads us
to Christ, the Light of the world and of the Kingdom of God. Generally
speaking, light is a universal symbol for the mystical presence of God as the
True, the Beautiful and the Good. This is witnessed in almost all religions,
philosophies, and artistic expressions.
The Orthodox Church follows the Bible in its use of incense (Ex?30.8, Ps
141.2; Lk 1.9; Rev 8.3). Incense is the symbol of the rising of prayers, of
spiritual sacrifice and of the sweet-smelling fragrance of the Kingdom of God.
The Church also uses bread, wine, wheat, oil, water, flowers and fruits as
signs of God’s love, mercy, goodness, life and the very presence given to man
in creation and salvation. Indeed, all elements of creation find the “truth” of
their very being and existence as expressions and manifestations of God, as
“symbols” of his presence and action in the world for man. This is the reason
for their use in this way in the Church.
Among the more graphic Christian symbols in the Church are the initials
and letters of Christ’s name; the triangle of the Trinity; the circle of eternity;
the fish which stands for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour; the eye of God’s
omnipresence; the anchor of hope; the rock of faith; the flame of God’s
consuming presence; the vine which Jesus named himself-“I am the vine, you
are the branches” (Jn 15.5); the alpha and the omega (Rev 1.8); the crown and
staff of Christ’s kingship; and many others-all of which indicate some aspect of
the saving presence and action of God in the world.
The use of symbols is a mode of revelation and communion which passes
beyond that of mere verbal or intellectual communication. The death of
symbols comes when they are artificially invented, rationally explained, or
reduced to mere “illustrations” whose meaning is not immediately grasped by
man on the level of his living spiritual vision and experience.
The Sacraments
The Sacraments
The sacraments in the Orthodox Church are officially called the “holy
mysteries.” Usually seven sacraments are counted: baptism, chrismation (or
confirmation), holy eucharist, penance, matrimony, holy orders and the unction
of the sick.
The practice of counting the sacraments was adopted in the Orthodox
Church from the Roman Catholics. It is not an ancient practice of the Church
and, in many ways, it tends to be misleading since it appears that there are just
seven specific rites which are “sacraments” and that all other aspects of the life
of the Church are essentially different from these particular actions. The more
ancient and traditional practice of the Orthodox Church is to consider
everything which is in and of the Church as sacramental or mystical.
The Church may be defined as the new life in Christ. It is man’s life lived
by the Holy Spirit in union with God. All aspects of the new life of the Church
participate in the mystery of salvation. In Christ and the Holy Spirit everything
which is sinful and dead becomes holy and alive by the power of God the
Father. And so in Christ and the Holy Spirit everything in the Church becomes
a sacrament, an element of the mystery of the Kingdom of God as it is already
being experienced in the life of this world.
Viewing the Church as the new and eternal life of the Kingdom of God
given to man by God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, we understand
first of all that for life to exist there must be birth. The birth into the eternal life
of God is the mystery of baptism. But birth is not enough for living; there must
be the ongoing possibility of life: its power, energy and force. Thus, the
mystery of chrismation is the gift of the power to live the life of Christ which is
born in man by baptism. It is the gift of the “all-holy and good and life-creating
Spirit” to man.
Life also must be sustained. This is normally done by eating and drinking.
Food is the nourishment which keeps us alive. It is man’s communion with
creation which keeps him existing. But, naturally speaking, our normal eating
and drinking does not keep us alive forever. Our natural communion with the
world is a communion to death. We need eating and drinking of a special food
which nourishes us for eternal life. This food is the “mystical supper of the Son
of God,” the body and blood of Christ, the mystery of the holy eucharist-the
communion to Life Itself.
For life to be truly perfect, holy and good, there must also be a particular
mystery about marriage and the bearing of children. In this world all who are
born are born to die, and even the most perfect of human love stands under the
condemnation: “.?.?. until death do you part.” The mystery of Christian
marriage transforms human love, childbearing, and family communities into
realities of eternal proportion and significance. In marriage we are blessed by
God for unending friendship and love. We are blessed so that the fruit of our
love, the begetting of our children and the life of our families will be not “unto
death” but unto life everlasting.
Until the final establishment of the Kingdom of God, our life remains
under the attack of its demonic enemies: sin, sickness, suffering, sorrow and
death. The mystery of penance is the remedy for spiritual sickness. It allows us
to turn again to God, to be taken back, to be forgiven and to be received once
more into the life of God from which our sins have separated us. And the
mystery of holy unction is the remedy for our physical sickness which is the
power of sin over our bodies, our inevitable union with suffering and death.
Holy unction allows us to be healed; to suffer, not “unto death” but, once more,
unto life everlasting. It is the incorporation of our wounds into the life-creating
cross of Christ.
The mystery, finally, which allows the perfection of divine life to be ours
in all of its fullness and power in this world is the mystery of the Church itself.
And most specifically within the Church, we have the mystery of holy orders:
the sacrament of priesthood, ministry, teaching and pastoral care. The clergy of
the church-bishops, priests, and deacons-exist for no other purpose than to
make manifest, present and powerful in the Church the divine life of the
Kingdom of God to all men while still living in this world.
Thus, from birth to death, in good times and bad, in every aspect of
worldly existence, real life-life as God has created and saved and sanctified it
to be-is given to us in the Church. This is Christ’s express purpose and wish,
the very object of his coming to the world: “I came that they may have life, and
have it abundantly” (Jn 10.10).
The Church as the gift of life eternal is by its very nature, in its fullness
and entirety, a mystical and sacramental reality. It is the life of the Kingdom of
God given already to those who believe. And thus, within the Church,
everything we do-our prayers, blessings, good works, thoughts, actions-
everything participates in the life which has no end. In this sense everything
which is in the Church and of the Church is a sacrament of the Kingdom of
God.
Baptism
The practice of baptism as a religious symbol did not begin with Jesus.
Baptism, which means literally the immersion in water, was practiced among
the people of the Old Testament as well as the people who belonged to pagan
religions. The universal meaning of baptism is that of “starting anew,” of dying
to an old, way of life and being born again into a new way of life. Thus,
baptism was always connected with repentance which means a moral
conversion, a “change of mind,” a change in living from something old and bad
to something new and good.
Thus, in the Gospel we find John the Baptist baptizing the people as a sign
of repentance in preparation for the Kingdom of God which was coming to men
with Christ the Messiah. Christ himself was baptized by John not because he
was sinful and needed to repent, but because in allowing himself to be baptized
he showed that indeed he was God’s “Beloved Son,” the Saviour and Messiah,
the “Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world” (See Mt 3, Mk
1, Lk 3, Jn 1–3).
In the Christian Church the practice of baptism takes on a new and
particular significance. It no longer remains merely a sign of moral change and
spiritual rebirth. It becomes very specifically the act of a person’s death and
resurrection in and with Jesus. Christian baptism is man’s participation in the
event of Easter. It is a “new birth by water and the Holy Spirit” into the
Kingdom of God (Jn 3.5).
Baptism in the Church begins with the rejection of Satan and the
acceptance of Christ. Before being baptized, a person-or his sponsors or
godparents for him-officially proclaims the symbol of Christian faith, the
Creed. Because the godparent speaks on behalf of the child, sponsors his
entrance into the Church and “receives” the child out of the baptismal waters
into the Church and cares for his spiritual life, the godparent himself must be a
member of the Church.
After the proclamation of faith, the baptismal water is prayed over and
blessed as the sign of the goodness of God’s creation. The person to be baptized
is also prayed over and blessed with sanctified oil as the sign that his creation
by God is holy and good. And then, after the solemn proclamation of “Alleluia”
(from Hebrew, meaning “God be praised”), the person is immersed three times
in the water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Through the act of immersion, the baptized person dies to this world and is
born again in the resurrection of Christ into eternal life. He is clothed with the
“garments of salvation” symbolized by the white baptismal robe which is the
“new humanity” of Jesus himself who is the new and heavenly Adam (See Jn 3,
Rom 5, 1Cor 15). Thus, the words of the Apostle Paul are chanted as the newly-
baptized is led in procession around the baptismal font three times as the
symbol of his procession to the Kingdom of God and his entrance into eternal
life: “For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Alleluia” (Gal 3.27).
In ancient times this procession was made from the baptistery to the
church where the newly-baptized received Holy Communion at the celebration
of the Divine Liturgy. Baptisms were normally done in connection with the
Easter Liturgy; our present procession around the church building on Easter
night is nothing more than our remembrance that we are baptized, that we have
left the life of this world to enter the eternal life of the Risen Christ in the
Kingdom of God. This new life is given to us in the life of the Church, most
specifically in the Divine Liturgy.
Before the baptismal procession and the reading of the Epistle and the
Gospel is fulfilled in the reception of Holy Communion, however, the newly-
baptized is given the gift of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Chrismation.
Chrismation
In the sacrament of Chrismation we receive “the seal of the gift of the
Holy Spirit” (See Rom 8, 1Cor 6, 2Cor 1.21–22). If baptism is our personal
participation in Easter-the death and resurrection of Christ, then chrismation is
our personal participation in Pentecost-the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us.
The sacrament of chrismation, also called confirmation, is always done in
the Orthodox Church together with baptism. Just as Easter has no meaning for
the world without Pentecost, so baptism has no meaning for the Christian
without chrismation. In this understanding and practice, the Orthodox Church
differs from the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches where the two
sacraments are often separated and given other interpretations than those found
in traditional Orthodoxy.
Chrismation, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is performed in the Orthodox
Church by anointing all parts of the person’s body with the special oil called
holy chrism. This oil, also called myrrh is prepared by the bishops of the
Church on Holy Thursday. It is used in chrismation to show that the gift of the
Spirit was originally given to men through the apostles of Christ, whose formal
successors in the world are the bishops of the Church (see Acts 8.14; 19.1–7).
In chrismation a person is given the “power from on high” (Acts 1–2), the
gift of the Spirit of God, in order to live the new life received in baptism. He is
anointed, just as Christ the Messiah is the Anointed One of God. He becomes-
as the fathers of the Church dared to put it-a “christ” together with Jesus. Thus,
through chrismation we become a “christ,” a son of God, a person upon whom
the Holy Spirit dwells, a person in whom the Holy Spirit lives and acts-as long
as we want him and cooperate with his powerful and holy inspiration.
Thus, it is only after our chrismation that the baptismal procession is made
and that we hear the epistle and the gospel of our salvation and illumination in
Christ.
After the baptism and chrismation the person newly-received into God’s
family is tonsured. The tonsure, which is the cutting of hair from the head in
the sign of the cross, is the sign that the person completely offers himself to
God-hair being the symbol of strength (Jud 16.17). Thus, until the fifteenth
century the clergy of the Orthodox Church-the “professional Christians,” so to
speak-wore the tonsure all their lives to show that their strength was in God.
The Rite of Churching
Together with being baptized and chrismated, the new-born child is also
“churched.” The rite of churching imitates the offering of male children to the
temple according to the law of the Old Testament, particularly the offering of
Christ on the fortieth day after his birth (Lk?2.22). Because of this fact,
baptism in the Orthodox tradition came to be prescribed for. the fortieth day or
thereabouts. In the New Testament Church both male and female children are
formally presented to God in the Church with special prayers at this time.
Also at this time, once more in imitation of Old Testament practice, the
mother of the new-born child is also “churched.” Here we have the specific
example of the purification ritual of Jesus’ mother Mary (Lk 2.22). In the
Orthodox tradition the churching of the mother is her re-entry into the
assembly of God’s people after her participation with God in the holy act of
birth and after her separation from the Liturgy during her confinement. Thus,
the mother is blessed to enter once more into communion with the mystery of
Christ’s Body and Blood in the Divine Liturgy of the Church from which she
has been necessarily absent.
The new mother should be churched before the baptism of her infant so
that she can be present at the sacramental entrance of her child into the
Kingdom of Christ. The official service book indicates that this should be done.
It is also the Orthodox tradition that the mysteries of baptism and
chrismation, called officially “holy illumination,” are fulfilled in the
immediate reception by the “newly-enlightened” of Holy Communion in the
eucharistic liturgy of the Church. This is the case with infants as well as adults.
The Epistle of Baptism-Chrismation
we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a
death like his, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might
be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For He who has died
is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also
live with Him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never
die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. The death He died he died
to sin, once for all, but the life He lives he lives to God. So you also must
consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6.3–11)
The Gospel of Baptism-Chrismation
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus
had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him; but some
doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, to the close of the age.” (Mt 28.16–20)
Holy Eucharist
The Holy Eucharist is called the “sacrament of sacraments” in the
Orthodox tradition. It is also called the “sacrament of the Church.” The
eucharist is the center of the Church’s life. Everything in the Church leads to
the eucharist, and all things flow from it. It is the completion of all of the
Church’s sacraments-the source and the goal of all of the Church’s doctrines
and institutions.
As with baptism, it must be noted that the eucharistic meal was not
invented by Christ. Such holy ritual meals existed in the Old Testament and in
pagan religions. Generally speaking the “dinner” remains even today as one of
the main ritual and symbolic events in the life of man.
The Christian eucharist is a meal specifically connected with the Passover
meal of the Old Testament. At the end of his life Christ, the Jewish Messiah,
ate the Passover meal with his disciples. Originally a ritual supper in
commemoration of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the
Passover meal was transformed by Christ into an act done in remembrance of
him: of His life, death and resurrection as the new and eternal Passover Lamb
who frees men from the slavery of evil, ignorance and death and transfers them
into the everlasting life of the Kingdom of God.
At the supper Christ took the bread and the wine and ordered his disciples
to eat and drink it as his own Body and Blood. This action thus became the
center of the Christian life, the experience of the presence of the Risen Christ in
the midst of his People (see Mt 26; Mk 14; Lk 22; Jn 6 and 13; Acts 2.41–47;
1Cor 10–11).
As a word, the term eucharist means thanksgiving. This name is given to
the sacred meal-not only to the elements of bread and wine, but to the whole act
of gathering, praying, reading the Holy Scriptures and proclaiming God’s Word,
remembering Christ and eating and drinking his Body and Blood in communion
with him and with God the Father, by the Holy Spirit. The word eucharist is
used because the all-embracing meaning of the Lord’s Banquet is that of
thanksgiving to God in Christ and the Holy Spirit for all that he has done in
making, saving and glorifying the world.
The sacrament of the eucharist is also called holy communion since it is
the mystical communion of men with God, with each other, and with all men
and all things in him through Christ and the Spirit. The eucharistic liturgy is
celebrated in the Church every Sunday, the Day of the Lord, as well as on feast
days. Except in monasteries, it is rarely celebrated daily. Holy Communion is
forbidden to all Orthodox Christians on the week days of Great Lent except in
the special communion of the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified Gifts (see below)
because of its joyful and resurrectional character. The eucharist is always given
to all members of the Church, including infants who are baptized and
confirmed. It is always given in both forms-bread and wine. It is strictly
understood as being the real presence of Christ, His true Body and Blood
mystically present in the bread and wine which are offered to the Father in his
name and consecrated by the divine Spirit of God.
In the history of Christian thought, various ways were developed to try to
explain how the bread and the wine become the Body and Blood of Christ in the
eucharistic liturgy. Quite unfortunately, these explanations often became too
rationalistic and too closely connected with certain human philosophies.
One of the most unfortunate developments took place when men began to
debate the reality of Christ’s Body and Blood in the eucharist. While some said
that the eucharistic gifts of bread and wine were the real Body and Blood of
Christ, others said that the gifts were not real, but merely the symbolic or
mystical presence of the Body and Blood. The tragedy in both of these
approaches is that what is real came to be opposed to what is symbolic or
mystical.
The Orthodox Church denies the doctrine that the Body and the Blood of
the eucharist are merely intellectual or psychological symbols of Christ’s Body
and Blood. If this doctrine were true, when the liturgy is celebrated and holy
communion is given, the people would be called merely to think about Jesus
and to commune with him “in their hearts.” In this way, the eucharist would be
reduced to a simple memorial meal of the Lord’s last supper, and the union
with God through its reception would come only on the level of thought or
psychological recollection.
On the other hand, however, the Orthodox tradition does use the term
“symbols” for the eucharistic gifts. It calls, the service a “mystery” and the
sacrifice of the liturgy a “spiritual and bloodless sacrifice.” These terms are
used by the holy fathers and the liturgy itself.
The Orthodox Church uses such expressions because in Orthodoxy what is
real is not opposed to what is symbolical or mystical or spiritual. On the
contrary! In the Orthodox view, all of reality-the world and man himself-is real
to the extent that it is symbolical and mystical, to the extent that reality itself
must reveal and manifest God to us. Thus, the eucharist in the Orthodox Church
is understood to be the genuine Body and Blood of Christ precisely because
bread and wine are the mysteries and symbols of God’s true and genuine
presence and manifestation to us in Christ. Thus, by eating and drinking the
bread and wine which are mystically consecrated by the Holy Spirit, we have
genuine communion with God through Christ who is himself “the bread of life”
(Jn 6.34, 41).
I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the
world is my flesh (Jn 6.51).
Thus, the bread of the eucharist is Christ’s flesh, and Christ’s flesh is the
eucharistic bread. The two are brought together into one. The word
“symbolical” in Orthodox terminology means exactly this: “to bring together
into one.”
Thus we read the words of the Apostle Paul:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord
Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given
thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body which is broken for you. Do this
in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as you drink it, in
remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death, until He comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread
and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body
and blood of the Lord (1Cor 11.23–26).
The mystery of the holy eucharist defies analysis and explanation in
purely rational and logical terms. For the eucharist-and Christ Himself-is
indeed a mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven which, as Jesus has told us, is “not
of this world.” The eucharist-because it belongs to God’s Kingdom-is truly free
from the earth-born “logic” of fallen humanity.
Penance
The sacrament of penance is our formal act of reconciliation with God in
the Church when sin has severed us from the Church’s life. Because penance is
the way to communion with God when that communion has been broken by sin,
it is often referred to in Church Tradition as the renewal of baptism, or as the
reestablishment of that condition of life with God which was given to men in
the basic sacraments of inauguration into the Christian life.
Not every sin requires the necessity of formal penance through
sacramental ritual. This is obvious because Christians are never completely
without sin. Certain grave sins or the prolonged separation from Holy
Communion, however, do call for the act of sacramental penance. Also,
Christians living in communion with Christ are expected to make use of this
sacrament periodically in order to humble themselves consciously before God
and to receive guidance in the Christian life from their pastor in the Church. It
is the teaching of the Orthodox Church that sacramental penance is necessary
for those receiving Holy Communion when they have committed grave sins or
when they have been separated from the eucharistic meal for a long time.
The sacrament of penance exists in the Church to allow for the repentance
and reconversion of Christians who have fallen away from the life of faith.
There are three main elements to the act of formal penance. The first is a
sincere sorrow for sins and for the breaking of communion with God. The
second is an open and heartfelt confession of sins. At one time this confession
was done publicly before all men in the midst of the Church, but in recent times
it is usually done only in the presence of the pastor of the Church who stands in
behalf of all. The third element of penance is the formal prayer of absolution
through which the forgiveness of God through Christ is sacramentally bestowed
upon the repentant sinner.
The fulfillment of penance consists in the reception of Holy Communion
and the genuine reconciliation of the repentant sinner with God and all men
according to the commandments of Christ. From this there obviously follows
the necessity of a sincere attempt by the penitent to refrain from sin and to
remain in faithful obedience to God and in uprightness of life before Him and
all people.
The sacrament of penance, like all sacraments, is an element of the life of
the Church which presupposes a firm belief and conviction that Christ himself
is present in the Church through his Holy Spirit. A person without the
experience of Christ in the Church will not understand the meaning of
sacramental penance and the need for the open and public confession of sins.
When the Church is experienced as the new life in Christ and as the genuine
communion with God in his kingdom already present with men in sacrament
and mystery, then not only will sacramental penance and the confession of sins
be understood, but it will be cherished as the great mystery of God which it is:
the unique possibility for reunion with God through the forgiveness of Christ
who has come to save sinners who confess their sins and who sincerely desire
to change their lives according to the ways which he himself has given.
In a word, the Orthodox Church strictly adheres to the teaching of the
Bible that only God can forgive sins, that he does so through Christ in the
Church, that his conditions are genuine repentance and the promise of change
which are witnessed by confession; and that confession, by definition, is the
open and public acknowledgment of sin before God and all mankind.
Holy Unction
Christ came to the world to “bear the infirmities” of men. One of the signs
of his divine messiahship was to heal the sick. The power of healing remains in
the Church since Christ himself remains in the Church through the Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of the unction of the sick is the Church’s specific prayer for
healing. If the faith of the believers is strong enough, and if it is the will of
God, there is every reason to believe that the Lord can heal those who are
diseased.
Is any among you sick, let him call for the presbyters of the church, and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the
prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he
has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one
another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (Jas 5.14–16; see also
Mk 6.13).
The sacrament of anointing is a “sobornal” sacrament in the traditional
Orthodox practice. This means that as many of the faithful as possible are
gathered to participate in the prayers. The rite itself calls for seven priests,
seven readings from the epistles and gospels, seven prayers and seven
anointings with oil specifically blessed for the service. Although it is not
always possible to perform the sacrament in this way, the normal procedure is
still to gather together as many priests and people as possible.
The express purpose of the sacrament of holy unction is healing and
forgiveness. Since it is not always the will of God that there should be physical
healing, the prayer of Christ that God’s will be done always remains as the
proper context of the sacrament. In addition, it is the clear intention of the
sacrament that through the anointing of the sick body the sufferings of the
person should be sanctified and united to the sufferings of Christ. In this way,
the wounds of the flesh are consecrated, and strength is given that the suffering
of the diseased person may not be unto the death of his soul, but for eternal
salvation in the resurrection and life of the Kingdom of God.
It is indeed the case that death inevitably comes to man. All must die, even
those who in this life are given a reprieve through healing in order to have more
time on the earth. Thus, the healing of the sick is not itself a final goal, but is
merely “instrumental” in that it is given by God as a sign of his mercy and as a
grace for the further opportunity of man to live for him and for others in the
life of this world.
In the case where a person is obviously in the final moments of his earthly
life, the Church has special prayers for the “separation of soul and body.” Thus,
it is clear that the sacrament of holy unction is for the sick-both the physically
and mentally sick-and is not reserved for the moment of death. The sacrament
of unction is not the “last rites” as is sometimes thought; the ritual of the
anointing itself in no way indicates that it should be administered merely in
“extreme” cases. Holy unction is the sacrament of the spiritual, physical, and
mental healing of a sick person whatever the nature or the gravity of the illness
may be.
Marriage
Marriage was not invented or instituted by Christ. The Lord, however,
gave a very specific meaning and significance to human marriage. Following
the Old Testament Law, but going beyond its formal precepts in His messianic
perfection, Jesus taught the uniqueness of human marriage as the most perfect
natural expression of God’s love for men, and of his own love for the Church.
According to Christ, in order for the love of a man and woman to be that
which God has: perfectly created it to be, it must be unique, indestructible,
unending and divine. The Lord himself has not only given this teaching, but he
also gives the power to fulfill it in the sacrament of Christian marriage in the
Church.
In the sacrament of marriage, a man and a woman are given the possibility
to become one spirit and one flesh in a way which no human love can provide
by itself. In Christian marriage the Holy Spirit is given so that what is begun on
earth does not “part in death” but is fulfilled and continues most perfectly in
the Kingdom of God.
For centuries there was no particular ritual for marriage in the Church. The
two Christians expressed their mutual love in the Church and received the
blessing of God upon their union which was sealed in the holy eucharist of
Christ. Through the Church’s formal recognition of the couple’s unity, and its
incorporation into the Body of Christ, the marriage became Christian; that is, it
became the created image of the divine love of God which is eternal, unique,
indivisible and unending.
When a special ritual was developed in the Church for the sacrament of
marriage, it was patterned after the sacrament of baptism-chrismation. The
couple is addressed in a way similar to that of the individual in baptism. They
confess their faith and their love of God. They are led into the Church in
procession.
They are prayed over and blessed. They listen to God’s Word. They are
crowned with the crowns of God’s glory to be his children and witnesses
(martyrs) in this world, and heirs of the everlasting life of his Kingdom. They
fulfill their marriage, as all sacraments are fulfilled, by their reception together
of holy communion in the Church.
There is no “legalism” in the Orthodox sacrament of marriage. It is not a
juridical contract. It contains no vows or oaths. It is, in essence, the “baptizing
and confirming” of human love in God by Christ in the Holy Spirit. It is the
deification of human love in the divine perfection and unity of the eternal
Kingdom of God as revealed and given to man in the Church.
The Christian sacrament of marriage is obviously available only to those
who belong to the Church; that is, only for baptized communicants. This
remains the strict teaching and practice of the Orthodox Church today. Because
of the tragedy of Christian disunity, however, an Orthodox may be married in
the Church with a baptized non-Orthodox Christian on the condition that both
members of the marriage sincerely work and pray for their full unity in Christ,
without any coercion or forceful domination by either one over the other. An
Orthodox Christian who enters the married state with a non-Orthodox Christian
must have the sacramental prayers and blessings of the Church in order to
remain a member of the Orthodox Church and a participant in the sacrament of
holy communion.
According to the Orthodox teaching, only one marriage can contain the
perfect meaning and significance which Christ has given to this reality. Thus,
the Orthodox Christian tradition encourages widows and widowers to remain
faithful to their spouses who are dead to this world but alive in Christ. The
Orthodox tradition also, by the same principle, considers temporary “living
together,” casual sexual relations, sexual relations with many different people,
sexual relations between members of the same sex, and the breakdown of
marriages in separation and divorce, all as contrary to the human perfection
revealed by God in Christ. Through penance, however, and with the sincere
confession of sins and the genuine promise of a good life together, the
Orthodox Church does have a service of second marriage for those who have
not been able to fulfill the ideal conditions of marriage as taught by Christ. It is
the practice of the Church as well not to exclude members of second marriages
from the sacrament of holy communion if they desire sincerely to be in
eucharistic fellowship with God, and if they fulfill all other conditions for
participation in the life of the Church.
Because of the realization of the need for Christ in every aspect of human
life, and because, as well, it is the firm Christian conviction that nothing
should, or even can, be done perfectly without Christ or without his presence
and power in the Church by the Holy Spirit, two Christians cannot begin to live
together and to share each other’s life in total unity-spiritually, physically,
intellectually, socially, economically-without first placing that unity into the
eternity of the Kingdom of God through the sacrament of marriage in the
Church.
According to the Orthodox teaching as expressed in the sacramental rite of
marriage, the creation of children, and the care and love for them within the
context of the family, is the normal fulfillment of the love of a man and woman
in Christ. In this way, marriage is the human expression of the creative and
caring love of God, the perfect Love of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity
which overflows in the creation and care for the world.
This conviction that human love, imitative of divine love, should overflow
itself in the creation and care for others does not mean that the procreation of
children is in itself the sole purpose of marriage and the unique and exclusive
justification and legitimization of its existence. Neither does it mean that a
childless couple cannot live a truly Christian life together. It does mean,
however, that the conscious choice by a married couple not to have a family for
reasons of personal comfort and accommodation, the desire for luxury and
freedom, the fear of responsibility, the refusal of sharing material possessions,
the hatred of children, etc., is not Christian, and can in no way be considered as
consonant with the biblical, moral and sacramental teachings and experience of
the Orthodox Church about the meaning of life, love and marriage.
In light of the perspective offered above, the control of the conception of
children in marriage is a very delicate matter, discouraged in principle and
considered as perhaps possible only with the most careful examination of
conscience, prayer and pastoral guidance.
The abortion of a child already conceived is strictly forbidden in the
Orthodox Church, and cannot be justified in any way, except perhaps with the
greatest moral risk and with the most serious penitence in the most extreme
cases such as that of irreparable damage to the mother or her probable death in
the act of childbirth. In such extreme situations, the mother alone must take
upon herself the decision, and all must be prepared to stand before God for the
action, asking His divine mercy.
Holy Orders
It is the conviction of the Orthodox that Christ is the only priest, pastor
and teacher of the Christian Church. He alone guides and rules his people. He
alone forgives sins and offers communion with God, his Father.
It is also the Orthodox conviction that Christ has not abandoned his
people, but that he remains with his Church as its living and unique head.
Christ remains present and active in the Church through his Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of holy orders in the Christian Church is the objective
guarantee of the perpetual presence of Christ with his people. The bishops,
priests, and deacons of the Church have no other function or service than to
manifest the presence and action of Christ to his people. In this sense, the
clergy do not act in behalf of Christ or instead of Christ as though he himself
were absent. They are neither vicars of Christ, nor substitutes for Christ nor
representatives of Christ.
Christ is present now, always, and forever in his Church. The sacramental
ministry of the Church-the bishops, priests, and deacons-receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit to manifest Christ in the Spirit to men. Thus, through His chosen
ministers, Christ exercises and realizes His unique and exclusive function as
priest, perpetually offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice to the Father on
behalf of His human brothers and sisters. Through His ministers in the Church,
Christ also acts as teacher, Himself proclaiming the divine words of the Father
to men. He acts as the good shepherd, the one pastor who guides His flock. He
acts as the forgiver and healer, remitting sins and curing the ills of men-
physical, mental and spiritual. He acts as bishop, overseeing the community
which He has gathered for Himself (1Pet 2.25). He acts as deacon (which
means servant or minister) for He alone is the suffering servant of the Father
Who has come “not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom
for many” (Mt 20.28).
The sacrament of holy orders takes its name from the fact that the bishops,
priests and deacons give order to the Church. They guarantee the continuity and
unity of the Church from age to age and from place to place from the time of
Christ and the apostles until the establishment of God’s Kingdom in eternity.
As the apostles received the special gift of God to go forth and to make
Christ present to men in all of the manifold aspects of his person and work, so
the clergy of the Church receive the gift of God’s Spirit to maintain and to
manifest Christ’s presence and action in the churches.
It is the doctrine of the Church that the clergy must strive to fulfill the
grace given to them with the gift of the “laying on of hands” in the most perfect
way possible. But it is also the doctrine of the Church that the reality and
effectiveness of the sacraments of the Church ministered by the clergy do not
depend upon the personal virtue of the ministers, but upon the presence of
Christ who acts in his Church by the Holy Spirit.
Bishops
The bishops are the leading members of the clergy in the sense that they
have the responsibility and the service of maintaining the unity of the Church
throughout the world by insuring the truth and unity of the faith. and practice of
their respective churches with all of the others. Thus, the bishops represent
their particular churches or dioceses to the other churches or dioceses, just as
they represent the Universal Church to their own particular priests, deacons,
and people.
In the Orthodox Church, the office of bishop is the leading Church
ministry. The word bishop (episkopos, in Greek) means overseer. Each of the
bishops has exactly the same service to perform. No bishop is “over any other
bishop in the Church” and, indeed, the bishop himself is not “over” his church,
hut is himself within and of the Church as one of its members. He is the one
who is responsible and answerable before God and man for the life of his
particular church community.
All bishops of the Orthodox Church are bishops of a particular
geographical territory called a diocese. They usually receive their title from the
main city in the territory. A bishop of the chief city of a region which has
within it other bishops with their own particular dioceses is usually called the
metropolitan or archbishop. “Metropolitan” merely means “bishop of the
metropolis,” the main city. The title of archbishop means “leading bishop” of
an area, but sometimes the title is given to certain bishops for personal or
honorary reasons. The title of patriarch belongs to the bishop of the capitol city
of a region containing other metropolitanates and dioceses. Today this usually
means a national church.
When the bishops of an area meet in council, as they must do periodically
according to Church Law, the metropolitan presides; or in the case of a large
territory or national church, the patriarch. Once again, however, it must be
clearly understood that sacramentally all bishops are identical and equal. None
is “higher” than the others as far as their sacramental position is concerned;
none is “over” the others as far as their life in the Church is concerned.
In purely human and practical matters, the metropolitans and patriarchs
guide and preside over areas greater than their own particular dioceses, but they
are not superior or more powerful as far as their bishop’s office is concerned.
No bishop in Orthodoxy is considered infallible. None has any “powers” over
or apart from his priests, deacons and people or the other bishops. All are
servants of Christ and the Church.
Since the sixth century it has been the rule in the Orthodox Church that the
bishops be single men or widowers. They are also usually in at least the first
degree of monastic orders.
Priests
The priests of the Church, also called presbyters, are those who assist the
bishop in his work. In the present day, the priests normally exercise the
function of pastors of the local churches or parishes, a function which was
normally done by the bishops in early times. The priests head the local
congregations of Christians. They preside at the celebration of the liturgy. They
teach, preach, counsel and exercise the ministries of forgiveness and healing.
The priests in the Church are assigned by the bishop and belong to the
specific congregations which they serve. No one receives the gift of the
priesthood personally or individually. Apart from his bishop and his own
particular parish community, the priest has no “powers” and, indeed, no
services to perform. Thus, on the altar table of each Christian community
headed by the priest as pastor, there is the cloth called the antimension signed
by the bishop which is the permission to the community to gather and to act as
the Church of God. Without the antimension, the priest and his people cannot
function legitimately, and the actions of the assembly cannot be considered as
being authentically “of the Church.”
In the Orthodox Church a married man may be ordained to the priesthood.
His marriage, however, must be the first for both him and his wife, and he may
not remarry and continue in his ministry if his wife should die. If a single man
is ordained, he may not marry and retain his service.
Deacons
The deacons of the Church originally assisted the bishops in good deeds
and works of charity. In recent centuries the diaconate has become almost
exclusively a liturgical function in which the deacons assist at the celebration
of the divine liturgy and other Church services. In more recent times, the
diaconate has been extended to many as a permanent position for full or part-
time service to the work of the Church. In the office of deacon, the men may
now not only assist the priest and bishop in liturgical services, but will often
head educational programs and youth groups, do hospital visitation and
missionary work and conduct projects of social welfare. In these cases the
deacons are not necessarily taken from the professional schools of theology, but
are chosen directly from the local parish community. The Church’s rules about
marriage are the same for the deacons as they are for the priests.
In addition to the bishops, priests and deacons who comprise the central
ordained ministries in the Church, the Orthodox tradition also has special
blessings for the particular ministries of sub-deacons and readers. In the early
church there were also special prayers and blessings for other Church
ministries such as exorcists, doorkeepers, deaconesses, and lay-preachers; the
latter still function in some churches today. Also in most churches today there
are special ceremonies of blessing and installation of lay workers in the Church
such as members of the parish council, catechists, choir singers and leaders of
various organizations and projects.
Funeral
The funeral service in the Orthodox Church, although not considered as
specifically sacramental, belongs among the special liturgical rites of the
People of God.
We have already seen that the Church has a particular sacramental service
for the consecration of human suffering, and special prayers for the departure
of the soul from the body in death. When a person dies, the Church serves a
special vigil over the lifeless body, called traditionally the parastasis or
panikhida, both of which mean a “watch” or an “all-night vigil.”
The funeral vigil has the basic form of Matins. It begins with the normal
Trisagion Prayers and the chanting of Psalm 91, followed by the special Great
Litany for the dead. Alleluia replaces God is the Lord, as in Great Lent, and
leads into the singing of the funeral troparion.
The troparion and the kontakion of the dead, as all hymns of the funeral
vigil, meditate on the tragedy of death and the mercy of God, and petition
eternal life for the person who is “fallen asleep.”
Thou only Creator Who with wisdom profound mercifully orderest all
things, and givest unto all that which is useful, give rest, O Lord, to the soul of
Thy servant who has fallen asleep, for he has placed his trust in Thee, our
Maker and Fashioner and our God (Troparion).
With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the soul of Thy servant where
sickness and sorrow are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting
(Kontakion).
Psalm 119, the verbal icon of the righteous man who has total trust in God
and total devotion and love for his Divine Law-the verbal icon of Jesus Christ-
is chanted over the departed, with its praises and supplications for life in God.
It is this same psalm which is chanted over the tomb of Christ on Great Friday.
It is the psalm which sings of the victory of righteousness and life over
wickedness and death.
My soul cleaves to the dust, give me life according to Thy word (119.25).
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; and give me life in Thy ways
(119.37).
Behold, I long for Thy precepts; in Thy righteousness give me life (119.40).
Thy testimonies are righteousness forever; give me understanding that I
may live (119.144).
Plead my cause, and redeem me; give me life according to Thy promise
(119.154).
This entire psalm together with the verses and prayers that go with it, the
canon hymns of the service, and the special funeral songs of Saint John of
Damascus all are a meditation on life and death. They are, in the context of the
new life of the Risen Christ who reigns in the Church, a lesson of serious
instruction for those who are immune to the full tragedy of sin and its “wages”
which are death.
Sometimes men criticize the funeral vigil for its supposed morbidity and
gloom; they say that there should be more words of resurrection and life. Yet
the vigil itself is not the Church’s “final word” about death. It is simply the
solemn contemplation upon death’s tragic character, its horrid reality and its
power as that of sin and alienation from God. The realization of these facts,
which particularly in the modern age is so strikingly absent, is the absolute
condition for the full appreciation and celebration of the victorious resurrection
of Christ and his gracious gift of eternal life to mankind. Without such a
preparatory meditation on death, it is doubtful whether the Christian Gospel of
Life can be understandable at all.
Thus it is not at all ironic that the same Saint John of Damascus who wrote
the joyful canon sung by the Church on Easter Night is also the author of the
Church’s songs of death, which are indeed unyielding in their gravity and
uncompromising in their bluntness and realism about the inevitable fact of the
final fate of fallen human existence.
What earthly sweetness remains unmixed with grief? What glory stands
immutable on the earth? All things are but feeble shadows, all things are most
deluding dreams, yet one moment only, and death shall supplant them all. But in
the light of Thy countenance, O Christ, and in the sweetness of Thy beauty, give
rest to him whom Thou hast chosen, for as much as Thou lovest mankind.
I weep and lament when I think upon death, and behold our beauty created
in the likeness of God lying in the tomb disfigured, bereft of glory and form. O
the marvel of it! What is this mystery concerning us? Why have we been
delivered to corruption? Why have we been wedded unto death? Truly, as it is
written, by the command of God Who giveth the departed rest (Funeral
Hymns).
As the funeral service is now nornally served, the Beatitudes are chanted
after the canon and the hymns of Saint John, with prayer verses inserted
between them on behalf of the dead. The epistle reading is from First
Thessalonians (4.13–17). The gospel reading is from Saint John (5.24–30). A
sermon is preached and the people are dismissed after giving their “final kiss”
with the singing of the final funeral song: Eternal Memory.
It has to be noted here that this song, contrary to the common
understanding of it, is the supplication that God would remember the dead, for
in the Bible it is God’s “eternal memory” which keeps man alive. Sheol or
Hades or the Pit, the biblical realm of the dead also called Abaddon, is the
condition of forsakenness and forgottenness by God. It is the situation of non-
life since in such a condition no one can praise the Lord; and the praise of the
Lord is the only content and purpose of man’s life; it is the very reason for his
existence. Thus, this most famous and final of the Orthodox funeral hymns is
the prayer that the departed be eternally alive in the “eternal rest” of the
“eternal memory” of God-all of which is made possible and actual by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the destruction of the Pit of Death by the
splendor of Divine Righteousness and Life (see Ps 88; Hos 13.14; 1Cor 15; Eph
4.9; Phil 2.5–11; 1Pet 3).
The vigil of the dead should normally be fulfilled in the eucharistic liturgy
in which the faithful meet the Risen Lord, and all those who are alive in him, in
the glory of his Kingdom of Life. The fact that the funeral vigil, in recent years,
has lost its preparatory character and has simply been transformed into the
funeral service itself, separated from the eucharistic liturgy, is a sad fact which
allows neither for the proper appreciation of the vigil itself nor for the full
Christian vision of the meaning of life, death and resurrection in Christ, the
Church and the Kingdom of God.
The fact that the Divine Liturgy, when it is preserved with the funeral
vigil, is served before it and is made into something mournful, converted into a
“requiem mass” offered “on behalf of the dead,” is also an innovation of recent
centuries under old Roman Catholic influence which further distorts the
Christian understanding and experience of death in Christ.
Monasticism
Although not considered as one of the sacraments of the Church since it is
not essential to the Christian life as such and is not a necessary element for the
very existence of God’s People, monasticism has played an important role in
Christian history and is highly valued by the Orthodox Church.
In the Orthodox Tradition the monastic calling is considered to be a
personal gift of God to the individual soul for his salvation and service to the
Body of Christ. The monastic vocation is the calling to personal repentance in a
life dedicated solely to God. The ultimate Christian virtue of love is sought by
the monk or nun primarily through prayer and fasting, and through the exercise
of the Christian virtues of poverty, chastity, humility and obedience.
The monastic Christian does not normally exercise any particular ministry
in the Church such as that of priest, pastor, teacher, nurse or social worker. The
monk is normally a layman and not a cleric, with each monastery having only
enough clergy to care for the liturgical and sacramental needs of the
community itself.
In Orthodox Christian history many missionaries, teachers and bishops
have come from men with monastic vocations. For centuries the bishops have
been traditionally selected from among the monks. These additional callings,
however, are considered to be acts of God’s will expressed in his people, and
are not the purpose or intention of the monastic vocation as such. Indeed, one
must enter a monastery only in order to repent of his sins, to serve God and to
save his soul according to the ideals of monastic ascetism. The ceremony of
monastic profession indicates this very clearly. Thus, for example, Saint
Herman of Alaska was first dedicated to the monastic life, and only then, in
obedience to his spiritual father, left his solitude to become a great missionary.
The Monastic Ranks
The Orthodox monastic tradition has four classical ranks that apply
equally to men and to women. The first step is that of novice, which in church
terminology is called the rank of obedience. At this first stage the candidate for
monastic profession simply lives in the monastery under the direction of a
spiritual father or mother.
The second step is that of riasa-bearer, which means that the person is
more formally accepted into the community, and is given the right to wear the
monastic robe, called the riasa. At this stage the candidate is not yet fully
committed to the monastic life.
The third rank is that of the small schema which means that the person is a
professed monastic. He or she now receives a new name and wears the
monastic schema (a cloth with the sign of the cross), the veil and the mantle
(mantia). At this stage the person pledges to remain in the monastic community
in perpetual obedience to the spiritual leader and to the head of the monastery,
called the abbot or abbess (igoumenos or igoumenia). The service of
profession, in addition to the hymns and prayers, includes a long series of
formal questioning about the authenticity of the calling, the tonsuring (i.e., the
cutting of the hair), and the vesting in the full monastic clothing.
The final rank of the monastic order is that of the great schema. This last
step is reserved for very few, since it is the expression of the most strict
observance of the monastic ideals, demanding normally a state of life in total
seclusion in perpetual prayer and contemplation. With this final profession a
new name is again received, and a new monastic insignia-the great schema-is
worn.
In the Orthodox tradition there is no prescribed length of time that a
person must remain in one or another of the monastic ranks. This is so because
of the radically personal character of the vocation. Thus, some persons may
progress rapidly to profession, while others may take years, and still others
may never be formally professed while still remaining within the monastic
community. The decision in these matters is made individually in each case by
the spiritual director and the head of the community.
Types of Monasticism
Although the Orthodox Church does not have religious orders as the Latin
Church does, there are in Orthodoxy different styles of monastic life, both
individually and in community. Generally speaking some monasteries may be
more liturgically oriented, while others may be more ascetic, while still others
may have a certain mystical tradition, and others be more inclined to spiritual
guidance and openness to the world for the purpose of care and counseling.
These various styles of monasticism, which take both a personal as well as a
corporate form, are not formally predetermined or officially legislated. They
are the result of organic development under the living grace of God.
In addition to the various spiritual styles of monastic life, three formal
types of organization may be mentioned. The first is that of coenobitic
monasticism. In this type all members of the community do all things in
common. The second form is called idiorhythmic in which the monks or nuns
pray together liturgically, but work and eat individually or in small groups. In
this type of monasticism the persons may even psalmodize and do the offices
separately, coming together only for the eucharistic liturgy, and even then,
perhaps, only on certain occasions. Finally, there is the eremitic type of
monasticism where the individual monks or nuns are actually hermits, also
called anchorites or recluses. They live in total individual seclusion and never
join in the liturgical prayer of the community, except again perhaps on the most
solemn occasions. In the rarest of cases it may even happen that the Holy
Eucharist is brought to the monk or nun who remains perpetually alone.
In the Orthodox Church today in the Western world there are only a few
communities with a genuinely monastic life. In the traditional Orthodox
countries monasticism still thrives, although with greatly reduced numbers due
to the political and spiritual conditions. In recent years, in some places, there
has been a renewed interest in monasticism, particularly among the more
educated members of the Church.
The Daily Cycles of Prayer
Prayer
Prayer is essential to Christian life. Jesus Christ himself prayed and taught
men to pray. One who does not pray to God cannot be a follower of Christ.
In the Orthodox Church all prayer is Trinitarian. We pray in the Holy
Spirit, through Jesus the Son of God, and in his name, to God the Father. We
call God “our Father” because Jesus has taught us and enabled us to do so. We
have the capability of addressing God as Father because we are made sons of
God by the Holy Spirit (see Rom 8).
In the Church we also address prayers to Christ and the Holy Spirit, the
Divine Persons who are one with God the Father and exist eternally in perfect
unity with him, sharing his divine being and will.
In the Church we also pray to the saints-not in the same way as we pray to
the Persons of the Holy Trinity, but as our helpers, intercessors, and fellow-
members of the Church who are already glorified with God in his divine
presence. Foremost among the saints and first among the mere humans who are
glorified in God’s Kingdom is Mary, the Theotokos and Queen of Heaven, the
leader among our saintly intercessors before God. We can also pray to the holy
angels to plead our cause before God.
In the traditional catechism of the Church three types of prayer are listed:
asking, thanking, and praising. We can add a fourth type which can be called
lamenting before God, questioning him about the conditions of life and the
meaning of our existence, particularly in times of tragedy and confusion. We
very often find all four kinds of prayer in the Bible.
Sometimes prayer is defined as a dialogue with God. This definition is
sufficient if we remember that it is a dialogue of silence, carried on in the quiet
of our hearts. In the Orthodox Church a more ancient and traditional definition
of prayer calls it the lifting of the mind and heart to God, the standing in his
presence, the constant awareness and remembrance of his name, his existence,
his power and his love. This is the kind of prayer which is also called “walking
in the presence of God.”
The purpose of prayer is to have communion with God and to be made
capable of accomplishing his will. Christians pray to enable themselves to
know God and to do his commandments. Unless a person is willing to change
himself and to conform himself to Christ in the fulfillment of his
commandments, he has no reason or purpose to pray. According to the saints, it
is even spiritually dangerous to pray to God without the intention of responding
and moving along the path that prayer will take us.
Praying is not merely repeating the words of prayers. Saying prayers is not
the same as praying. Prayer should be done secretly, briefly, regularly, without
many words, with trust in God that he hears, and with the willingness to do
what God shows us to do (see Mt 6.5–15; Lk 11 and 18; Jn 14–17).
The Orthodox Church follows the Old Testament practice of having formal
prayers according to the hours of the day. Christians are urged to pray regularly
in the morning, evening and at meal times, as well as to have a brief prayer
which can be repeated throughout the day under any and all circumstances.
Many people use the Jesus Prayer for this purpose: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Of course, the form of the prayer is
secondary and may vary from person to person. It is the power of the prayer to
bring us to God, and to strengthen us in doing his divine will that is essential.
The prayers of a person at home differ from those in church, since
personal prayer is not the same as the communal prayer of the Church. The two
types of prayer are different and should not be confused.
When we go to church to pray, we do not go there to say our private
prayers. Our private prayers should be said at home, in our room, in secret, and
not in church (Mt 6.5–6). This does not mean that we do not bring our personal
cares, desires, troubles, questions and joys to the prayer of the Church. We
certainly can, and we do. But we bring ourselves and our concerns to church to
unite them to the prayer of the Church, to the eternal prayer of Christ, the
Mother of God, the saints and the brothers and sisters of our own particular
church community.
In church we pray with others, and we should therefore discipline
ourselves to pray all together as one body in the unity of one mind, one heart
and one soul. Once again this does not mean that our prayers in church should
cease to be personal and unique; we must definitely put ourselves into our
churchly prayer. In the Church, however, each one must put his own person
with his own personal uniqueness into the common prayer of Christ with his
Body. This is what enriches the prayer of the Church and makes it meaningful
and beautiful and, we might even say, “easy” to perform. The difficulty of
many church services is that they are prayers of isolated individuals who are
only physically, and not spiritually, united together.
The formal Church services are normally rather long in the Orthodox
Church. This is so because we go to church not merely to pray. We go to church
to be together, to sing together, to meditate on the meaning of the faith together,
to learn together and to have union and communion together with God. This is
particularly true of the Divine Liturgy of the Church (see “The Divine Liturgy,”
below). If a person wants merely to pray in the silence of his heart, he need not-
and, indeed, he should not go to the church services for this purpose. The
church services are not designed for silent prayer. They exist for the prayerful
fellowship of all God’s people with each other, with Christ and with God.
Vespers
In the Orthodox Church the liturgical day begins in the evening with the
setting of the sun. This practice follows the Biblical account of creation: “And
there was evening and there was morning, one day” (Gen 1.5).
The Vespers service in the Church always begins with the chanting of the
evening psalm: “.?.?. the sun knows it’s time for setting, Thou makest darkness
and it is night .?.?.” (Ps 104.19–20). This psalm, which glorifies God’s creation
of the world, is man’s very first act of worship, for man first of all meets God
as Creator.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, O Lord my God, Thou art very great .?.?.
O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them
all. The earth is full of Thy creatures (Ps 104.24).
Following the psalm, the Great Litany, the opening petition of all liturgical
services of the Church is intoned. In it we pray to the Lord for everyone and
everything.
Following this litany a number of psalms are chanted, a different group
each evening. These psalms normally are omitted in parish churches though
they are done in monasteries. On the eve of Sunday, however, sections of the
first psalm and the other psalms which are chanted to begin the week are
usually sung even in parish churches.
Psalm 141 is always sung at Vespers. During this psalm the evening
incense is offered:
Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me. Hear me, O Lord.
Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense.
And let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice. Hear me, O
Lord (Ps 141.1–2).
At this point special hymns are sung for the particular day. If it be a
Church feast: songs in honor of the celebration are sung. On Saturday evenings,
the eve of the Lord’s Day, these hymns always praise Christ’s resurrection from
the dead.
The special hymns normally end with a song called a Theotokion which
honors Mary, the Mother of Christ. Following this, the vesperal hymn is sung.
If it be a special feast or the eve of Sunday, the celebrant will come to the
center or the church building with lighted candles and incense. This hymn
belongs to every Vespers service.
O Gladsome Light of the holy glory of the Immortal Father, heavenly, holy,
blessed Jesus Christ. Now we have come to the setting of the sun and behold the
light of evening. We praise God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For it is right at
all times to worship Thee with voices of praise, O Son of God and Giver of Life,
therefore all the world glorifies Thee.
Christ is praised as the Light which illumines man’s darkness, the Light of
the world and of the Kingdom of God which shall have no evening (Is 60.20,
Rev 21.25).
A verse from the Psalms, the prokeimenon, follows-a different one for
each day, announcing the day’s spiritual theme. If it be a special day, three
readings from the Old Testament are included. Then more evening prayers and
petitions follow with additional hymns for the particular day, all of which end
with the chanting of the Song of Saint Simeon:
Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word,
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation: which Thou hast prepared before the
face of all people. A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and to be the glory of
Thy people Israel (Lk 1.29–32).
After proclaiming our own vision of Christ, the Light and Salvation of the
world, we say the prayers of the Thrice-Holy (trisagion) through to the Our
Father. We sing the main theme song of the day, called the Troparion, and we
are dismissed with the usual benediction.
The service of Vespers takes us through creation, sin, and salvation in
Christ. It leads us to the meditation of God’s word and the glorification of his
love for men. It instructs us and allows us to praise God for the particular
events or persons whose memory is celebrated and made present to us in the
Church. It prepares us for the sleep of the night and the dawn of the new day to
come. On the evening before the Divine Liturgy, it begins our movement into
the most perfect communion with God in the sacramental mysteries.
Matins
The morning service of the Church is called Matins. It opens with the
reading of six morning psalms and the intoning of the Great Litany. After this,
verses of Psalm 118 are sung:
God is the Lord and has revealed himself unto us.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
The Troparion is then sung and, if it be a monastery, various groups of
psalms which differ each day are read. Once again there are hymns on the
theme of the particular day. On major feast days, special praises and psalms are
sung, which on the Lord’s Day sing of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. On
major feasts and on Sundays, the Gospel is also read.
After the Gospel there is a long intercessory prayer followed by a set of
hymns and readings called the Canon. These songs are based on the Old
Testamental canticles and conclude with the song of Mary, the so-called
Magnificat (Lk 1.46–55). The Great Doxology is chanted followed by the
morning litanies. The troparion is also repeated once again before the
congregation is dismissed to begin the activities of the day.
The Matins service of the Church unites the elements of morning
psalmody and prayer with meditation on the Biblical canticles, the Gospel
reading, and the particular theme of the day in the given verses and hymns. The
themes of God’s revelation and light are also always central to the morning
service of the Church. Sometimes, particularly in churches of the Russian
tradition, the Matins and the Vespers services are combined to form a long vigil
service. On special feast days, the blessing of bread, wheat, wine, and oil is
added to the Vespers, even when it is served separately from Matins. The
faithful partake of the blessed food and are anointed with the oil as a sign of
God’s mercy and grace.
Hours, Compline and Nocturne
In addition to the liturgical services of Vespers and Matins, there are also
the services of the Hours, Compline, and Nocturne. These services are chanted
in monasteries but are seldom used in parish churches except perhaps during
Lent and Holy Week, and on special feast days.
The services of Hours are called the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth. These
“hours” conform generally to the hours of six and nine in the morning, noon,
and three in the afternoon. The services consist mostly of psalms which are
generally related to the events in the passion of Christ which took place at that
particular hour of the day. The Third Hour also refers to the coming of the Holy
Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost.
The troparia of the given day or of the feast being celebrated are added to
the Hours. During the first days of Holy Week as well as on certain major
feasts, the Gospel is also read during the Hours. On days when there is no
Divine Liturgy, the so-called Typical Psalms which include elements of the
Divine Liturgy such as the liturgical psalms, the Beatitudes, and the Creed are
read after the Ninth Hour.
Compline is called the “after-dinner” service of the Church. Its name, both
in Greek and Slavonic, indicates this. It is a service of psalms and prayers to be
read following the evening meal; after Vespers has been served. On days when
Vespers is connected to the Divine Liturgy, such as the eves of Christmas and
Epiphany, Great Compline is added to Matins to form a Vigil service. During
the first week of Great Lent, the Penitential Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is
read at the Compline Service.
Nocturne is the midnight service of the Church. In monasteries it usually
begins the all-night vigil of the monks. It contains a number of psalms together
with the normal prayers found in other services, such as the call to worship, the
Thrice-Holy, the Our Father, the Troparion, etc. Its theme is obviously the night
and the need for vigilance. In the parishes, it is known almost exclusively as the
service preceding Easter Matins at which the winding-sheet depicting the dead
Saviour is taken from the tomb and is placed on the altar table.
The Church Year
Church Year
Although the first of September is considered the start of the Church year,
according to the Orthodox Church calendar, the real liturgical center of the
annual cycle of Orthodox worship is the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. All
elements of Orthodox liturgical piety point to and flow from Easter, the
celebration of the New Christian Passover. Even the “fixed feasts” of the
Church such as Christmas and Epiphany which are celebrated according to a
fixed date on the calendar take their liturgical form and inspiration from the
Paschal feast.
The Easter cycle of worship begins with the season of Great Lent,
preceded by the special pre-lenten Sundays. The lenten order of worship fulfills
itself in Holy Week and the Great Day of Christ”s Resurrection. Following
Easter there are the fifty days of paschal celebration until the feast of
Pentecost. Every week of the year is then considered in the Church”s worship
as a “Sunday after Pentecost.” The weeks are counted in this way (First Sunday,
Second Sunday, etc.) until the pre-lenten season begins again when the weeks
are given their name and central content of worship in view of the annual return
of Easter.
There are two special liturgical books for the Easter cycle of worship, the
Lenten Triodion and the Easter Triodion (literally the Flower Triodion), which
is also called the Pentecostarion. These books are called Triodions because of
the “three odes” which are often sung during the church services of these
seasons.
The Sundays and weeks following Pentecost also have their special book
called the Octoechos which literally means the “eight tones.” The Octoechos
contains the services for each day of the week. Sunday is always dedicated to
the Resurrection of Christ. Wednesdays and Fridays commemorate Christ’s
suffering and crucifixion. Monday’s theme is the “bodiless powers”the angels.
Tuesday is dedicated to the memory of John the Baptist, Thursday to the
apostles and Saint Nicholas, and Saturday to the Theotokos with the memory of
the departed.
On each day of the week, beginning with the eve of the Lord’s Day, the
services are sung in the same “tone” or musical melody. There are eight sets of
services in eight different “tones” (hence, the name Octoechos), sung in a
revolving pattern throughout the year. Thus, for example, on the 2nd Sunday
after Pentecost there would be Tone 1; the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 2;
the 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 3, and so on until the 10th Sunday which
is again Tone 1. This cycle of “tones” exists for every week of the year,
although when the lenten season approaches the emphasis falls once more upon
the preparation for the celebration of Easter.
In addition to the Easter cycle of worship with the “weeks after
Pentecost,” and existing together with it, is the Church’s worship for each
particular day of the year, each of which is dedicated to certain saints or sacred
events. Each month has a special liturgical book called the Menaion which
contains the specific service for each day of that month. The solemnity of the
day is proportionate to the importance and popularity of the given saints or
events to be commemorated.
There are twelve major feast days of the Church which are universally
celebrated: the Nativity, Epiphany, Presentation to the Temple (called the
“Meeting of the Lord”) and Transfiguration of Christ; the Nativity,
Annunciation, Presentation to the Temple and Dormition of Mary; the
Exaltation of the Cross; and, from the Paschal cycle, the feast of the Lord’s
entry into Jerusalem, the feast of the Lord’s Ascension and the feast of
Pentecost. Easter is not counted among the twelve major feasts of the Church
since it is considered by itself as “the feast of feasts.”
Different Orthodox churches emphasize the other days of the year
according to their particular relevancy and significance. Thus, the day of Saint
Sergius would be greatly celebrated in Russia, Saint Spiridon in Greece, and
Saint Herman in America. Some days, such as Saints Peter and Paul, Saint
Nicholas, and Saint Michael, also enjoy a universal popularity in the church.
Major Feasts of the Church
September 8 The Nativity of Mary the Theotokos
September 14 The Exaltation of the Cross
November 21 The Presentation of the Theotokos to the Temple
December 25 The Nativity of Christ
January 6 The Epiphany: The Baptism of Christ
February 2 The Meeting of Christ in the Temple
March 25 The Annunciation
August 6 The Transfiguration of Christ
August 15 The Dormition of the Theotokos
Calculated according to the Spring Equinox and the Jewish Passover
Palm Sunday The Entry into Jerusalem
PASCHA Christ’s Resurrection
Ascension The Ascension of Christ
Pentecost The Descent of the Holy Spirit
The feast of Christmas has its own cycle of prayer patterned after Easter.
There is a forty-day lent preceding it and a post-feast celebration following it.
The feasts of Mary’s Dormition and Saints Peter and Paul also have traditional
lenten preparations of shorter duration. Most of the major feasts have a
prefestal preparation of liturgical prayer, and a post-festal glorification. This
means that the feast is called to mind and is glorified in the Church’s liturgical
services in anticipation of its coming and is also celebrated in songs and
prayers for some days in the Church after its passing.
Pre-Lent
The paschal season of the Church is preceded by the season of Great Lent,
which is itself preceded by its own liturgical preparation. The first sign of the
approach of Great Lent comes five Sundays before its beginning. On this
Sunday the Gospel reading is about Zacchaeus the tax-collector. It tells how
Christ brought salvation to the sinful man and how his life was greatly changed
simply because he “sought to see who Jesus was” (Lk 19.3). The desire and
effort to see Jesus begins the entire movement through lent towards Easter. It is
the first movement of salvation.
The following Sunday is that of the Publican and the Pharisee. The focus
here is on the two men who went to the Temple to pray-one a pharisee who was
a very decent and righteous man of religion, the other a publican who was a
truly sinful tax-collector who was cheating the people. The first, although
genuinely righteous, boasted before God and was condemned, according to
Christ. The second, although genuinely sinful, begged for mercy, received it,
and was justified by God (Lk 18.9). The meditation here is that we have neither
the religious piety of the pharisee nor the repentance of the publican by which
alone we can be saved. We are called to see ourselves as we really are in the
light of Christ’s teaching, and to beg for mercy.
The next Sunday in the preparation for Great Lent is the Sunday of the
Prodigal Son. Hearing the parable of Christ about God’s loving forgiveness, we
are called to “come to ourselves” as did the prodigal son, to see ourselves as
being “in a far country” far from the Father’s house, and to make the movement
of return to God. We are given every assurance by the Master that the Father
will receive us with joy and gladness. We must only “arise and go,” confessing
our selfinflicted and sinful separation from that “home” where we truly belong
(Lk 15.11–24).
The next Sunday is called Meatfare Sunday since it is officially the last
day before Easter for eating meat. It commemorates Christ’s parable of the Last
Judgment (Mt 25.31–46). We are reminded this day that it is not enough for us
to see Jesus, to see ourselves as we are, and to come home to God as his
prodigal sons. We must also be his sons by following Christ, his only-begotten
divine Son, and by seeing Christ in every man and by serving Christ through
them. Our salvation and final judgment will depend upon our deeds, not merely
on our intentions or even on the mercies of God devoid of our own personal
cooperation and obedience.
.?.?. for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave
Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed
Me, I was sick and in prison and you visited Me. For truly I say to you, if you
did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me (Mt 25).
We are saved not merely by prayer and fasting, not by “religious
exercises” alone. We are saved by serving Christ through his people, the goal
toward which all piety and prayer is ultimately directed.
Finally, on the eve of Great Lent, the day called Cheesefare Sunday and
Forgiveness Sunday, we sing of Adam’s exile from paradise. We identify
ourselves with Adam, lamenting our loss of the beauty, dignity and delight of
our original creation, mourning our corruption in sin. We also hear on this day
the Lord’s teaching about fasting and forgiveness, and we enter the season of
the fast forgiving one another so that God will forgive us.
If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you;
but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father
forgive you your trespasses (Mt 6.14–18).
Great Lent
The season of Great Lent is the time of preparation for the feast of the
Resurrection of Christ. It is the living symbol of man’s entire life which is to be
fulfilled in his own resurrection from the dead with Christ. It is a time of
renewed devotion: of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is a time of repentance,
a real renewal of our minds, hearts and deeds in conformity with Christ and his
teachings. It is the time, most of all, of our return to the great commandments
of loving God and our neighbors.
In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent is not a season of morbidity and
gloominess. On the contrary, it is a time of joyfulness and purification. We are
called to “anoint our faces” and to “cleanse our bodies as we cleanse our souls.”
The very first hymns of the very first service of Great Lent set the proper tone
of the season:
Let us begin the lenten time with delight .?.?. let us fast from passions as
we fast from food, taking pleasure in the good words of the Spirit, that we may
be granted to see the holy passion of Christ our God and his holy Pascha,
spiritually rejoicing.
Thy grace has arisen upon us, O Lord, the illumination of our souls has
shown forth; behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the time of
repentance (Vespers Hymns).
It is our repentance that God desires, not our remorse. We sorrow for our
sins, but we do so in the joy of God’s mercy. We mortify our flesh, but we do so
in the joy of our resurrection into life everlasting. We make ready for the
resurrection during Great Lent, both Christ’s Resurrection and our own.
Lenten Fasting
A special word must be said about fasting during lent. Generally speaking,
fasting is an essential element of the Christian life. Christ fasted and taught
men to fast. Blessed fasting is done in secret, without ostentation or accusation
of others (Mt 6.16; Rom 14). It has as its goal the purification of our lives, the
liberation of our souls and bodies from sin, the strengthening of our human
powers of love for God and man, the enlightening of our entire being for
communion with the Blessed Trinity.
The Orthodox rules for lenten fasting are the monastic rules. No meat is
allowed after Meatfare Sunday, and no eggs or dairy products after Cheesefare
Sunday. These rules exist not as a Pharisaic “burden too hard to bear” (Lk
11.46), but as an ideal to be striven for; not as an end in themselves, but as a
means to spiritual perfection crowned in love. The lenten services themselves
continually remind us of this.
Let us fast with a fast pleasing to the Lord. This is the true fast: the casting
off of evil, the bridling of the tongue, the cutting off of anger, the cessation of
lusts, evil talking, lies and cursing. The stopping of these is the fast true and
acceptable (Monday Vespers of the First Week).
The lenten services also make the undeniable point that we should not
pride ourselves with external fasting since the devil also never eats!
The ascetic fast of Great Lent continues from Meatfare Sunday to Easter
Sunday, and is broken only after the Paschal Divine Liturgy. Knowing the great
effort to which they are called, Christians should make every effort to fast as
well as they can, in secret, so that God would see and bless them openly with a
holy life. Each person must do his best in the light of the given ideal.
In addition to the ascetic fasting of the lenten season, the Orthodox alone
among Christians also practice what is known as eucharistic or liturgical
fasting. This fasting does not refer to the normal abstinence in preparation for
receiving the holy eucharist; it means fasting from the holy eucharist itself.
During the week days of Great Lent the regular eucharistic Divine Liturgy
is not celebrated in Orthodox churches since the Divine Liturgy is always a
paschal celebration of communion with the Risen Lord. Because the lenten
season is one of preparation for the Lord’s Resurrection through the
remembrance of sin and separation from God, the liturgical order of the Church
eliminates the eucharistic service on the weekdays of lent. Instead the non-
eucharistic services are extended with additional scripture readings and
hymnology of a lenten character. In order that the faithful would not be entirely
deprived of Holy Communion on the lenten days, however, the Liturgy of the
Presanctified Gifts is celebrated on Wednesday and Friday evenings.
Even during Great Lent, Saturday (the Sabbath Day) and Sunday (the
Lord’s Day) remain eucharistic days, and the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. On
Saturdays it is the normal Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, usually with
prayers for the dead. On Sundays it is the longer Liturgy of Saint Basil the
Great.
The well-known teaching that Saturdays and Sundays are never days of
fasting in the Orthodox Church, an issue emphasized centuries ago when
controversy arose with the Latin Church, refers only to this eucharistic-
liturgical fast. During Great Lent, even though the eucharistic fast is broken on
Saturdays and Sundays, the ascetical fast continues through the weekends since
this fasting is an extended effort made from Meatfare Sunday right to Easter
itself.
Lenten Services
The weekday services of Great Lent are characterized by special lenten
melodies of a penitential character. The royal gates to the altar area remain
closed to signify man’s separation through sin from the Kingdom of God. The
church vesting is of a somber color, usually purple. The daily troparia are also
of an intercessory character, entreating God through his saints to have mercy on
us sinners.
At the Matins the long Alleluia replaces the psalm: God is the Lord .?.?.
the Psalmody is increased. The hymnology refers to the lenten effort. Scripture
readings from Genesis and Proverbs are added to Vespers, and the Prophecy of
Isaiah to the Sixth Hour. Each of these books is read nearly in its entirety
during the lenten period. Epistle and gospel readings are absent because there
are no Divine Liturgies.
At all of the lenten services the Prayer of Saint Ephraim of Syria is read. It
supplicates God for those virtues especially necessary to the Christian life.
O Lord and Master of my life: take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-
heartedness, lust of power and idle talk.
But grant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Thy
servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my
brother, for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.
The Vespers service which begins the lenten season is called the Vespers
of Forgiveness. It is customary at this service for the faithful to ask forgiveness
and to forgive each other. At the Compline services of the first week of lent the
Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read. This is a long series of penitential
verses based on Biblical themes, to each of which the people respond: Have
mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. This canon is repeated at Matins on
Thursday of the fifth week.
On Friday evening of this same fifth week, the Akathistos Hymn to the
Mother of God is sung; and the Saturday Divine Liturgy also honors the
Theotokos.
The first Saturday of Great Lent is dedicated to the memory of Saint
Theodore of Tyre. The second, third, and fourth Saturdays are called Memorial
Saturdays since they are dedicated to the remembrance of the dead.
On Memorial Saturdays the liturgical hymns pray universally for all of the
departed, and the Matins for the dead, popularly called the parastasis or
panikhida, is served with specific mention of the deceased by name. Litanies
and prayers are also added to the Divine Liturgy at which the scripture readings
refer to the dead and their salvation by Christ.
Saturday, even during the non-lenten season, is the Church’s day for
remembering the dead. This is so because Saturday, the Sabbath Day, stands as
the day which God blessed for life in this world. Because of sin, however, this
day now symbolizes all of earthly life as naturally fulfilled in death. Even
Christ the Lord lay dead on the Sabbath Day, “resting from all of his works”
and “trampling down death by death.” Thus, in the New Testament Church of
Christ, Saturday becomes the proper day for remembering the dead and for
offering prayers for their eternal salvation.
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
As we already have seen, the eucharistic Divine Liturgy is not celebrated
in the Orthodox Church on lenten weekdays. In order for the faithful to sustain
their lenten effort by participation in Holy Communion, the Liturgy of the
Presanctified Gifts is served. The service is an ancient one in the Orthodox
Church. We officially hear about it in the canons of the seventh century, which
obviously indicates its development at a much earlier date.
On all days of the holy fast of Lent, except on the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day,
and the holy day of the Annunciation, the Liturgy of the Presanctified is to be
served (Canon 52, Quinisext, 692).
The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is an evening service. It is the
solemn lenten Vespers with the administration of Holy Communion added to it.
There is no consecration of the eucharistic gifts at the presanctified liturgy.
Holy Communion is given from the eucharistic gifts sanctified on the previous
Sunday at the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, unless, of course, the feast of
the Annunciation should intervene; hence its name of “presanctified.”
The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served on Wednesday and Friday
evenings, although some churches may celebrate it only on one of these days. It
comes in the evening after a day of spiritual preparation and total abstinence.
The faithful who are unable to make the effort of total fasting because of
weakness or work, however, normally eat a light lenten meal in the early
morning.
During the psalms of Vespers, the presanctified gifts are prepared for
communion. They are transferred from the altar table where they have been
reserved since the Divine Liturgy, and are placed on the table of oblation. After
the evening hymn, the Old Testamental scriptures of Genesis and Proverbs are
read, between which the celebrant blesses the kneeling congregation with a
lighted candle and the words: “The Light of Christ illumines all,” indicating
that all wisdom is given by Christ in the Church through the scriptures and
sacraments. This blessing was originally directed primarily to the
catechumens-those preparing to be baptized on Easter-who attended the service
only to the time of the communion of the faithful.
After the readings, the evening Psalm 141 is solemnly sung once again
with the offering of incense. Then, after the litanies of intercession and those at
which the catechumens were dismissed in former days, the presanctified
eucharistic gifts are brought to the altar in a solemn, silent procession. The
song of the entrance calls the faithful to communion.
Now the heavenly powers [i.e., the angels] do minister invisibly with us.
For behold the King of Glory enters. Behold the mystical sacrifice, all fulfilled,
is ushered in.
Let us with faith and love draw near that we may be partakers of
everlasting life. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.
After the litany and prayers, the Our Father is sung and the faithful receive
Holy Communion to the chanting of the verse from Psalm 34: “O taste and see
how good is the Lord. Alleluia.” The post-communion hymns are sung and the
faithful depart with a prayer to God who “has brought us to these all-holy days
for the cleansing of carnal passions,” that he will bless us “to fight the good
fight, to accomplish the course of the fast, and to attain unto and to adore the
holy resurrection” of Christ.
The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is traditionally considered to be the
work of the sixth-century pope, Saint Gregory of Rome. The present service,
however, is obviously the inspired liturgical creation of Christian Byzantium
Sundays of Lent
Each of the Sundays of Great Lent has its own special theme. The first
Sunday is called the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. It is a historical feast
commemorating the return of the icons to the churches in the year 843 after the
heresy of iconoclasm was overcome. The spiritual theme of the day is first of
all the victory of the True Faith. “This is the victory that overcomes the world,
our faith” (1Jn 5.4). Secondly, the icons of the saints bear witness that man,
“created in the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1.26), becomes holy and
godlike through the purification of himself as God’s living image.
The Second Sunday of Lent is the commemoration of Saint Gregory
Palamas. It was Saint Gregory (d.1359) who bore living witness that men can
become divine through the grace of God in the Holy Spirit; and that even in this
life, by prayer and fasting, human beings can become participants of the
uncreated light of God’s divine glory.
The Third Sunday of Lent is that of the Veneration of the Cross. The cross
stands in the midst of the church in the middle of the lenten season not merely
to remind men of Christ’s redemption and to keep before them the goal of their
efforts, but also to be venerated as that reality by which man must live to be
saved. “He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”
(Mt 10.38). For in the Cross of Christ Crucified lies both “the power of God
and the wisdom of God” for those being saved (1Cor 1.24).
The Fourth Sunday of Lent is dedicated to Saint John of the Ladder
(Climacus), the author of the work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. The abbot of
Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai (6th century) stands as a witness
to the violent effort needed for entrance into God’s Kingdom (Mt 10: 12). The
spiritual struggle of the Christian life is a real one, “not against flesh and blood,
but against .?.?. the rulers of the present darkness .?.?. the hosts of wickedness
in heavenly places?.?.?.” (Eph 6.12). St John encourages the faithful in their
efforts for, according to the Lord, only “he who endures to the end will be
saved” (Mt 24.13).
The Fifth Sunday recalls the memory of Saint Mary of Egypt, the
repentant harlot. Mary tells us, first of all, that no amount of sin and
wickedness can keep a person from God if he truly repents. Christ himself has
come “to call sinners to repentance” and to save them from their sins (Lk 5.32).
In addition, Saint Mary tells us that it is never too late in life-or in Lent-to
repent. Christ will gladly receive all who come to him even at the eleventh hour
of their lives. But their coming must be in serious and sincere repentance.
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
The week following the Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt is called Palm or
Branch Week. At the Tuesday services of this week the Church recalls that
Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died and that the Lord is going to raise him from the
dead (Jn 11). As the days continue toward Saturday, the Church, in its hymns
and verses, continues to follow Christ towards Bethany to the tomb of Lazarus.
On Friday evening, the eve of the celebration of the Resurrection of Lazarus,
the “great and saving forty days” of Great Lent are formally brought to an end:
Having accomplished the forty days for the benefit of our souls, we pray to
Thee, O Lover of Man, that we may see the holy week of Thy passion, that in it
we may glorify Thy greatness and Thine unspeakable plan of salvation for our
sake .?.?. (Vespers Hymn).
Lazarus Saturday is a paschal celebration. It is the only time in the entire
Church Year that the resurrectional service of Sunday is celebrated on another
day. At the liturgy of Lazarus Saturday, the Church glorifies Christ as “the
Resurrection and the Life” who, by raising Lazarus, has confirmed the
universal resurrection of mankind even before His own suffering and death.
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy passion, Thou didst confirm
the universal resurrection, O Christ God! Like the children with the branches of
victory, we cry out to Thee, O Vanquisher of Death: Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! (Troparion).
Christ -the Joy, the Truth and the Light of All, the Life of the world and its
Resurrection-has appeared in his goodness to those on earth. He has become
the Image of our Resurrection, granting divine forgiveness to all (Kontakion).
At the Divine Liturgy of Lazarus Saturday the baptismal verse from
Galatians: As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal
3.27) replaces the Thrice-holy Hymn thus indicating the resurrectional
character of the celebration, and the fact that Lazarus Saturday was once among
the few great baptismal days in the Orthodox Church Year.
Because of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, Christ was hailed by
the masses as the long-expected Messiah-King of Israel. Thus, in fulfillment of
the prophecies of the Old Testament, He entered Jerusalem, the City of the
King, riding on the colt of an ass (Zech 9.9; Jn 12.12). The crowds greeted Him
with branches in their hands and called out to Him with shouts of praise:
Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The Son of David!
The King of Israel! Because of this glorification by the people, the priests and
scribes were finally driven “to destroy Him, to put Him to death” (Lk 19.47;
Jn?11.53, 12.10).
The feast of Christ’s triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday, is one
of the twelve major feasts of the Church. The services of this Sunday follow
directly from those of Lazarus Saturday. The church building continues to be
vested in resurrectional splendor, filled with hymns which continually repeat
the Hosanna offered to Christ as the Messiah-King who comes in the name of
God the Father for the salvation of the world.
The main troparion of Palm Sunday is the same one sung on Lazarus
Saturday. It is sung at all of the services, and is used at the Divine Liturgy as
the third antiphon which follows the other special psalm verses which are sung
as the liturgical antiphons in the place of those normally used. The second
troparion of the feast, as well as the kontakion and the other verses and hymns,
all continue to glorify Christ’s triumphal manifestation “six days before the
Passover” when he will give himself at the Supper and on the Cross for the life
of the world.
Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. Let us all take
up Thy cross and say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest! (First Verse of Vespers).
When we were buried with Thee in baptism, O Christ God, we were made
worthy of eternal life by Thy resurrection. Now we praise Thee and sing:
Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!
(Second Troparion).
Sitting on Thy throne in heaven, and carried on a foal on earth, O Christ
God, accept the praise of angels and the songs of children who sing: BIessed is
he who comes to recall Adam! (Kontakion).
At the vigil of the feast of Palm Sunday the prophecies of the Old
Testament about the Messiah-King are read together with the Gospel accounts
of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. At Matins branches are blessed which the
people carry throughout the celebration as the sign of their own glorification of
Jesus as Saviour and King. These branches are usually palms, or, in the Slavic
churches, pussy willows which came to be customary because of their
availability and their early blossoming in the springtime.
As the people carry their branches and sing their songs to the Lord on
Palm Sunday, they are judged together with the Jerusalem crowd. For it was the
very same voices which cried Hosanna to Christ, which, a few days later, cried
Crucify Him! Thus in the liturgy of the Church the lives of men continue to be
judged as they hail Christ with the “branches of victory” and enter together
with Him into the days of His “voluntary passion.”
Holy Week
In the Orthodox Church the last week of Christ’s life is officially called
Passion Week. In popular terminology it is called Holy Week. Each day is
designated in the service books as “great and holy.” There are special services
every day of the week which are fulfilled in all churches. Earthly life ceases for
the faithful as they “go up with the Lord to Jerusalem” (Matins of Great and
Holy Monday).
Each day of Holy Week has its own particular theme. The theme of
Monday is that of the sterile fig tree which yields no fruit and is condemned.
Tuesday the accent is on the vigilance of the wise virgins who, unlike their
foolish sisters, were ready when the Lord came to them. Wednesday the focus is
on the fallen woman who repents. Great emphasis is made in the liturgical
services to compare the woman, a sinful harlot who is saved, to Judas, a chosen
apostle who is lost. The one gives her wealth to Christ and kisses his feet; the
other betrays Christ for money with a kiss.
On each of these three days the Gospel is read at the Hours, as well as at
the Vespers when the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served. The Old
Testamental readings are from Exodus, Job, and the Prophets. The Gospel is
also read at the Matins services which are traditionally called the
“Bridegroom” services because the general theme of each of these days is the
end of the world and the judgment of Christ. It is the common practice to serve
the Bridegroom services at night.
Behold, the bridegroom comes in the middle of the night and blessed is the
servant whom he shall find watching, and unworthy the servant whom he shall
find heedless. Take care then, O my soul, and be not weighed down by sleep that
you will not be given over unto death and be excluded from the Kingdom. But
rise up and call out: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou O God, by the Theotokos have
mercy on us (Troparion of the First Three Days).
During the first three days of Holy Week, the Church prescribes that the
entire Four Gospels be read at the Hours up to the point in each where the
passion of Christ begins. Although this is not usually possible in parish
churches, an attempt is sometimes made to read at least one complete Gospel,
privately or in common, before Holy Thursday.
Holy Thursday
The vigil on the eve of Holy Thursday is dedicated exclusively to the
Passover Supper which Christ celebrated with his twelve apostles. The main
theme of the day is the meal itself at which Christ commanded that the
Passover of the New Covenant be eaten in remembrance of Himself, of His
body broken and His blood shed for the remission of sins. In addition, Judas’
betrayal and Christ’s washing of His disciples feet is also central to the
liturgical commemoration of the day.
In cathedral churches it is the custom for the bishop to re-enact the foot
washing in a special ceremony following the Divine Liturgy. At the vigil of
Holy Thursday, the Gospel of Saint Luke about the Lord’s Supper is read. At
the Divine Liturgy the Gospel is a composite of all the evangelists’ accounts of
the same event. The hymns and the readings of the day also all refer to the
same central mystery.
When Thy glorious disciples were enlightened at the washing of their feet
before the supper, then the impious Judas was darkened by the disease of
avarice, and to the lawless judges he betrayed Thee, the Righteous Judge.
Behold, O lover of money, this man because of avarice hanged himself. Flee
from the insatiable desire which dared such things against the Master! O Lord
who deals righteously with all, glory to Thee (Troparion of Holy Thursday).
In the regions of the Master, at the Table of Immortality, in the high place,
with minds lifted up, come, O ye faithful, let us eat with delight (Ninth Ode of
the Canon of Matins).
The Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil is served on Holy Thursday in
connection with Vespers. The long gospel of the Last Supper is read following
the readings from Exodus, Job, Isaiah and the first letter of the Apostle Paul to
the Corinthians (1Cor 11). The following hymn replaces the Cherubic Hymn of
the offertory of the liturgy, and serves as well as the Communion and Post-
Communion Hymns.
Of Thy mystical supper, O Son of God, accept me today a communicant, for
I will not speak of Thy mystery to thine enemies, neither like Judas will I give
Thee a kiss, but like the thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy
kingdom.
The liturgical celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday is not
merely the annual remembrance of the institution of the sacrament of Holy
Communion. Indeed the very event of the Passover Meal itself was not merely
the last-minute action by the Lord to “institute” the central sacrament of the
Christian Faith before His passion and death. On the contrary, the entire
mission of Christ, and indeed the very purpose for the creation of the world in
the first place, is so that God’s beloved creature, made in His own divine image
and likeness, could be in the most intimate communion with Him for eternity,
sitting at table with Him, eating and drinking in His unending kingdom. Thus,
Christ the Son of God speaks to His apostles at the supper, and to all men who
hear His words and believe in Him and the Father who sent Him:
Fear not, little flock, it is Your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom (Lk 12.32).
You are those who have continued with Me in My trials; as My Father
appointed a Kingdom for Me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and
drink at My table in My Kingdom .?.?. (Lk 22.28–31).
In a real sense, therefore, it is true to say that the body broken and the
blood spilled spoken of by Christ at His last supper with the disciples was not
merely an anticipation and preview of what was yet to come; but that what was
yet to come-the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension
into heaven-came to pass precisely so that men could be blessed by God to be
in holy communion with him forever, eating and drinking at the mystical table
of His kingdom of which there will be no end.
Thus the “Mystical Supper of the Son of God” which is continually
celebrated in the Divine Liturgy of the Christian Church, is the very essence of
what life in God’s Kingdom will be for eternity.
Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God (Lk?14.15).
Blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
(Rev 19.9).
Holy Friday
Matins of Holy Friday are generally celebrated on Thursday night. The
main feature of this service is the reading of twelve selections from the
Gospels, all of which are accounts of the passion of Christ. The first of these
twelve readings is Jn 13.31–18.1. It is Christ’s long discourse with his apostles
that ends with the so-called high priestly prayer. The final gospel tells of the
sealing of the tomb and the setting of the watch (Mt 27.62–66).
The twelve Gospel readings of Christ’s passion are placed between the
various parts of the service. The hymnology is all related to the sufferings of
the Saviour and borrows heavily from the Gospels and the prophetic scriptures
and psalms. The Lord’s beatitudes are added to the service after the sixth
gospel reading, and there is special emphasis given to the salvation of the thief
who acknowledged Christ’s Kingdom.
The Hours of Holy Friday repeat the Gospels of Christ’s passion with the
addition at each Hour of readings from Old Testamental prophecies concerning
man’s redemption, and from letters of Saint Paul relative to man’s salvation
through the sufferings of Christ. The psalms used are also of a special prophetic
character, e.g., Ps 2, 5, 22, 109, 139, et al.
There is no Divine Liturgy on Good Friday for the same obvious reason
that forbids the celebration of the eucharist on the fasting days of lent (see
“Lenten Fasting,” below).
Holy Saturday
The first service belonging to Holy Saturday-called in the Church the
Blessed Sabbath-is the Vespers of Good Friday. It is usually celebrated in the
mid-afternoon to commemorate the burial of Jesus.
Before the service begins, a “tomb” is erected in the middle of the church
building and is decorated with flowers. Also a special icon which is painted on
cloth (in Greek, epitaphios; in Slavonic, plaschanitsa) depicting the dead
Saviour is placed on the altar table. In English this icon is often called the
winding-sheet.
Vespers begins as usual with hymns about the suffering and death of
Christ. After the entrance with the Gospel Book and the singing of Gladsome
Light, selections from Exodus, Job, and Isaiah 52 are read. An epistle reading
from First Corinthians (1.18–31) is added, and the Gospel is read once more
with selections from each of the four accounts of Christ’s crucifixion and
burial. The prokeimena and alleluia verses are psalm lines, heard often already
in the Good Friday services, prophetic in their meaning:
They divided my garments among them and for my raiment they cast lots
(Psalm 22.18).
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me (Ps 22.1).
Thou hast put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep (Ps
88.6).
After more hymns glorifying the death of Christ, while the choir sings the
dismissal song of Saint Simeon, the priest vests fully in his dark-colored robes
and incenses the winding-sheet which still lies upon the altar table. Then, after
the Our Father, while the people sing the troparion of the day, the priest circles
the altar table with the winding-sheet carried above his head and places it into
the tomb for veneration by the faithful.
The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy most pure body from the
Tree, wrapped It in fine linen and anointed It with spices, and placed It in a new
tomb (Troparion of Holy Saturday).
The Matins of Holy Saturday are?usually celebrated on Friday night. They
begin in the normal way with the singing of God is the Lord, the troparion The
Noble Joseph, and the following troparia:
When Thou didst descend to death O Life Immortal, Thou didst slay hell
with the splendor of Thy Godhead! And when from the depths Thou didst raise
the dead, all the powers of heaven cried out: O Giver of Life! Christ our God!
Glory to Thee!
The angel standing by the grave cried out to the women: Myrrh is proper
for the dead, but Christ has shown himself a stranger to corruption.
In place of the regular psalm reading the entire Psalm 119 is read with a
verse praising the dead Saviour chanted between each of its lines. This
particular psalm is the verbal icon of Jesus, the righteous man whose life is in
the hands of God and who, therefore, cannot remain dead. The Praises, as the
verses are called, glorify God as “the Resurrection and the Life,” and marvel at
his humble condescension into death.
There is in the person of Jesus Christ the perfect unification of the perfect
love of man toward God and the perfect love of God toward man. It is this
divine human love which is contemplated and praised over the tomb of the
Savior. As the reading progresses the Praises become shorter, and gradually
more concentrated on the final victory of the Lord, thus coming to their proper
conclusion:
I long for Thy salvation, O Lord, Thy law is my delight (Ps 119.174).
The mind is affrighted at Thy dread and strange burial.
Let me live, that I may praise Thee, and let Thy ordinances help me
(119.175).
The women with spices came early at dawn to anoint Thee.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep, seek Thy servant, for I do not forget
Thy commandments (119.176).
By Thy resurrection grant peace to the Church and salvation to Thy
people!
After the final glorification of the Trinity, the church building is lighted
and the first announcement of the women coming to the tomb resounds through
the congregation as the celebrant censes the entire church. Here for the first
time comes the clear proclamation of the good news of salvation in Christ’s
resurrection.
The canon song of Matins continues to praise Christ’s victory over death
by His own death, and uses each of the Old Testamental canticles as a
prefigurative image of man’s final salvation through Jesus. Here for the first
time there emerges the indication that this Sabbath this particular Saturday on
which Christ lay dead-is truly the most blessed seventh day that ever existed.
This is the day when Christ rests from His work of recreating the world. This is
the day when the Word of God “through Whom all things were made” (Jn 1.3)
rests as a dead man in the grave, saving the world of His own creation and
opening the graves:
This is the most blessed Sabbath on which Christ sleeps, but to rise again
on the third day (Kontakion and Oikos).
Again, the canon ends on the final note of the victory of Christ.
Lament not for Me, Mother, beholding Me in the grave, the son whom you
have born in seedless conception, for I will arise and be glorified, and will
exalt with glory, unceasingly as God, all those who with faith and love glorify
you (Ninth Ode of the Canon).
As more verses of praise are sung, the celebrant again vests fully in his
somber vestments and, as the great doxology is chanted, he once more censes
the tomb of the Savior. Then, while the congregation with lighted candles
continually repeats the song of the Thrice Holy, the faithful-led by their pastor
carrying the Gospel Book with the winding-sheet of Christ held over his head-
go in procession around the outside of the church building. This procession
bears witness to the total victory of Christ over the powers of darkness and
death. The whole universe is cleansed, redeemed and restored by the entrance
of the Life of the World into death.
As the procession returns to the church building, the troparia are sung once
again, and the prophecy of Ezekiel about the “dry bones” of Israel is chanted
with great solemnity:
“And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, O my
people. And I will put my spirit within you and you shall live?.?.?.” (Ezek 37.1–
14).
With the victorious lines of the psalms calling God to arise, to lift up his
hands, to scatter his enemies and to let the righteous rejoice; and with the
repeated singing of Alleluia, the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians is
read: “Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed” (1Cor 5.6–8). The Gospel
about the sealing of the tomb is read once more, and the service is ended with
intercession and benediction.
The Vespers and Matins of the Blessed Sabbath, together with the Divine
Liturgy which follows, form a masterpiece of the Orthodox liturgical tradition.
These services are not at all a dramatic re-enactment of the historical death and
burial of Christ. Neither are they a kind of ritual reproduction of scenes of the
Gospel. They are, rather, the deepest spiritual and liturgical penetration into the
eternal meaning of the saving events of Christ, viewed and praised already with
the full knowledge of their divine significance and power.
The Church does not pretend, as it were, that it does not know what will
happen with the crucified Jesus. It does not sorrow and mourn over the Lord as
if the Church itself were not the very creation which has been produced from
his wounded sides and from the depths of his tomb. All through the services the
victory of Christ is contemplated and the resurrection is proclaimed. For it is
indeed only in the light of the victorious resurrection that the deepest divine
and eternal meaning of the events of Christ’s passion and death can be
genuinely grasped, adequately appreciated and properly glorified and praised.
On Holy Saturday itself, Vespers are served with the Divine Liturgy of
Saint Basil the Great. This service already belongs to the Passover Sunday. It
begins in the normal way with the evening psalm, the litany, the hymns
following the evening Psalm 141 and the entrance with the singing of the
vesperal hymn, Gladsome Light. The celebrant stands at the tomb in which lies
the winding-sheet with the image of the Savior in the sleep of death.
Following the evening entrance which is made with the Book of the
Gospels, fifteen readings from the Old Testament scriptures are read, all of
which relate to God’s work of creation and salvation which has been summed
up and fulfilled in the coming of the predicted Messiah. Besides the readings in
Genesis about creation, and the passover-exodus of the Israelites in the days of
Moses in Exodus, there are selections from the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, Daniel, Zephaniah, and Jonah as well as from Joshua and the Books
of Kings, the Canticles of Moses, and of the Three Youths found in Daniel are
chanted as well.
After the Old Testament readings the celebrant intones the normal
liturgical exclamation for the singing of the Thrice-Holy Hymn, but in its place
the baptismal verse from Galatians is sung: As many as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia (Gal 3.27).
As usual in the Divine Liturgy the epistle reading follows at this point. It
is the normal baptismal selection of the Orthodox Church (Rom 6.3–11). “If we
have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with
him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6.5).
At this time the royal gates are closed, and the celebrants and altar servers
change their robes from the dark vestments of the passion into the bright
vestments of Christ’s victory over death. At this time all vestings of the church
appointments are also changed into the color signifying Christ’s triumph over
sin, the devil and death. This revesting takes place while the people sing the
verses of Psalm 82: “Arise O Lord and judge the earth, for to Thee belong all
the nations.”
After the solemn chanting of the psalm verses, to which are often added
the hymn glorifying Christ as the New Passover, the Living Sacrifice who is
slain, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; the celebrants
emerge from the altar to announce over the tomb of Christ the glad tidings of
his victorious triumph over death and his command to the apostles: “Make
disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded?.?.?.” (Mt?28.1.20). This Gospel text is also the reading of the
baptismal ceremony of the Orthodox Church.
The Divine Liturgy then continues in the brilliance of Christ’s destruction
of death. The following song replaces the Cherubic Hymn of the offertory:
Let all mortal flesh keep silent and in fear and trembling stand, pondering
nothing earthly-minded. For the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords comes to
be slain, to give himself as food to the faithful.
Before him go the ranks of angels: all the principalities and powers, the
many-eyed cherubim and the six-winged seraphim, covering their faces,
singing the hymn: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
In place of the Hymn to the Theotokos, the ninth ode of the matinal canon
is sung once again: “Lament not for Me, Mother .?.?. for I will arise” (see
above). The communion hymn is the line of the psalm: “The Lord awoke as one
asleep, and arose saving us” (Ps 78.65).
The Divine Liturgy is fulfilled in the communion with him who lies dead
in his human body, and yet is enthroned eternally with God the Father; the one
who, as the Creator and Life of the World, destroys death by his life-creating
death. His tomb-which still stands in the center of the church-is shown to be, as
the Liturgy calls it: the fountain of our resurrection.
Originally this Liturgy was the Easter baptismal liturgy of Christians. It
remains today as the annual experience for every Christian of his own dying
and rising with the Lord.
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over Him (Rom 6.8–9).
Christ lies dead, yet he is alive. He is in the tomb, but already he is
“trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”
There is nothing more to do now but to live through the evening of the Blessed
Sabbath on which Christ sleeps, awaiting the midnight hour when the Day of
our Lord will begin to dawn upon us, and the night full of light will come when
we will proclaim with the angel: “He is risen, he is not here; see the tomb
where they laid him” (Mk 16.6).
Easter Sunday: The Holy Pascha
A little before midnight on the Blessed Sabbath the Nocturne service is
chanted. The celebrant goes to the tomb and removes the winding-sheet. He
carries it through the royal doors and places it on the altar table where it
remains for forty days until the day of Ascension.
At midnight the Easter procession begins. The people leave the church
building singing:
The angels in heaven, O Christ our Savior, sing of Thy resurrection. Make
us on earth also worthy to hymn Thee with a pure heart.
The procession circles the church building and returns to the closed doors
of the front of the church. This procession of the Christians on Easter night
recalls the original baptismal procession from the darkness and death of this
world to the light and the life of the Kingdom of God. It is the procession of the
holy passover, from death unto life, from earth unto heaven, from this age to
the age to come which will never end.
Before the closed doors of the church building, the resurrection of Christ
is announced. Sometimes the Gospel is read which tells of the empty tomb. The
celebrant intones the blessing to the “holy, consubstantial, life-creating and
undivided Trinity.” The Easter troparion is sung for the first time, together with
the verses of Psalm 68 which will begin all of the Church services during the
Easter season.
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee
from before his face!
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon
those in the tombs bestowing life (Troparion).
This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
The people re-enter the church building and continue the service of Easter
Matins which is entirely sung.
The canon hymns of Christ’s resurrection, ascribed to Saint John of
Damascus, are chanted with the troparion of the feast as the constantly
recurring refrain. The building is decorated with flowers and lights. The
vestments are the bright robes of the resurrection. The Easter icon stands in the
center of the church showing Christ destroying the gates of hell and freeing
Adam and Eve from the captivity of death. It is the image of the Victor
“trampling down death by his own death.” There is the continual singing and
censing of the icons and the people, with the constant proclamation of the
celebrant: Christ is risen! The faithful continually respond: Indeed He is risen!
It is the day of resurrection ! Let us be illumined for the feast! Pascha! The
Pascha of the Lord! From death unto life, and from earth unto heaven has
Christ our God led us! Singing the song of victory: Christ is risen from the
dead! (First Ode of the Easter Canon).
Following the canon, the paschal verses are sung, and at the conclusion of
the Easter Matins, the Easter Hours are also sung. In general, nothing is simply
read in the Church services of Easter: everything is fully sung with the joyful
melodies of the feast.
At the end of the Hours, before the Divine Liturgy, the celebrant solemnly
proclaims the famous Paschal Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom. This sermon
is an invitation to all of the faithful to forget their sins and to join fully in the
feast of the resurrection of Christ. Taken literally, the sermon is the formal
invitation offered to all members of the Church to come and to receive Holy
Communion, partaking of Christ, the Passover Lamb, whose table is now being
set in the midst of the Church. In some parishes the sermon is literally obeyed,
and all of the faithful receive the eucharistic gifts of the Passover Supper of
Easter night.
The Easter Divine Liturgy begins immediately with the singing once more
of the festal troparion with the verses of Psalm 68. Special psalm verses also
comprise the antiphons of the liturgy, through which the faithful praise and
glorify the salvation of God:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Sing of his name, give glory
to His praise.
Let all the earth worship Thee and praise Thee! Let it praise Thy name, O
most High!
That we may know Thy way upon the earth and Thy salvation among all
nations.
Let the people thank Thee, O God! Let all the people give thanks to Thee.
The troparion is repeated over and over again. The baptismal line from
Galatians replaces the Thrice-Holy Hymn. The epistle reading is the first nine
verses of the Book of Acts. The gospel reading is the first seventeen verses of
the Gospel of Saint John. The proclamation of the Word of God takes the
faithful back again to the beginning, and announces God’s creation and re-
creation of the world through the living Word of God, his Son Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God .?.?. all things were made through him .?.?. In Him was life and the
life was the light of men.?.?.?.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth . .?.
we have beheld His glory, glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, and
from His fullness have we all received grace upon grace (Jn 1.1–17).
The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom continues, crowned in holy
communion with the Passover Lamb at his banquet table in God’s Kingdom.
Again and again the troparion of the Resurrection is sung while the faithful
partake of Him “Who was dead and is alive again” (Rev 2.8).
In the Orthodox Church the feast of Easter is officially called Pascha, the
word which means the Passover. It is the new Passover of the new and
everlasting covenant foretold by the prophets of old. It is the eternal Passover
from death to life and from earth to heaven. It is the Day of the Lord
proclaimed by God’s holy prophets, “the day which the Lord has made” for His
judgment over all creation, the day of His final and everlasting victory. It is the
Day of the Kingdom of God, the day “which has no night” for “its light is the
Lamb” (Rev 21.22–25).
The celebration of Easter in the Orthodox Church, therefore, is once again
not merely an historical reenactment of the event of Christ’s Resurrection as
narrated in the gospels. It is not a dramatic representation of the first Easter
morning. There is no “sunrise service” since the Easter Matins and the Divine
Liturgy are celebrated together in the first dark hours of the first day of the
week in order to give men the experience of the “new creation” of the world,
and to allow them to enter mystically into the New Jerusalem which shines
eternally with the glorious light of Christ, overcoming the perpetual night of
evil and destroying the darkness of this mortal and sinful world:
Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The glory of the Lord has shone upon
you! Exult and be glad O Zion! Be radiant O Pure Theotokos, in the
Resurrection of your Son!
This is one of the main Easter hymns in the Orthodox Church. It is
inspired by Isaiah’s prophecy and the final chapters of the Book of Revelation,
for it is exactly tile New Creation, the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, the
Kingdom of God, the Day of the Lord, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb with His
Bride which is celebrated and realized and experienced in the Holy Spirit on the
Holy Night of Easter in the Orthodox Church.
Post-Easter Sundays
Saint Thomas Sunday: Antipascha
Every day during the week of Easter, called Bright Week by the Church,
the paschal services are celebrated in all their splendor. The Easter baptismal
procession is repeated daily. The royal gates of the sanctuary remain open. The
joy of the Resurrection and the gift of the Kingdom of eternal life continue to
abound. Then, at the end of the week, on Saturday evening, the second Sunday
after Easter is celebrated in remembrance of the appearance of Christ to the
Apostle Thomas “after eight days” (Jn 20.26).
It is important to note that the number eight has symbolical significance in
both Jewish and Christian spiritual tradition. It signifies more than completion
and fullness; it signifies the Kingdom of God and the life of the world to come
since seven is the number of earthly time. The sabbath, the seventh day, is the
blessed day of rest in this world, the final day of the week. The “first day of the
week,” the day “after Sabbath”; stressed in all of the gospels as the day of
Christ’s Resurrection (Mk 16.1, Mt 28.1, Lk 24.1, Jn 20.1, 19), is therefore also
“the eighth day,” the day beyond the confines of this world, the day which
stands for the life of the world to come, the day of the eternal rest of the
Kingdom of God (see Heb 4).
The Sunday after Easter, called the Second Sunday, is thus the eighth day
of the paschal celebration, the last day of Bright Week. It is therefore called the
Antipascha, and it was only on this day in the early church that the newly-
baptized Christians removed their robes and entered once again into the life of
this world.
In the Church services the stress is on the Apostle Thomas’ vision of
Christ and the significance of the day comes to us in the words of the gospel:
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put
out your hand, and place it in My side; do not be faithless, but believing.”
Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you
believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and
yet believe” (Jn 20.27–29).
We have not seen Christ with our physical eyes nor touched His risen body
with our physical hands, yet in the Holy Spirit we have seen and touched and
tasted the Word of Life (1Jn 1.1–4), and so we believe.
At each of the daily services until Ascension Day we sing the Easter
Troparion. At each of the Sunday services beginning with Antipascha, we sing
the Easter canon and hymns, and repeat the celebration of the “first day of the
week” on which Christ rose from the dead. At all of the liturgies the epistle
readings are taken from the Book of Acts telling us of the first Christians who
lived in communion with the Risen Lord. All of the gospel readings are taken
from the Gospel of Saint John, considered by many to be a gospel written
particularly for those who are newly-baptized into the new life of the Kingdom
of God through death and new birth in Christ, in the name of the Holy Trinity.
The reason for this opinion is that all of the “signs”-as the miracles in Saint
John’s Gospel are called-deal with sacramental themes involving water: wine
and bread. Thus, each of the Sundays after Thomas Sunday with the exception
of the third, is dedicated to the memory of one of these “signs.”
The Myrrhbearing Women
The third Sunday after Pascha is dedicated to the myrrhbearing women
who cared for the body of the Saviour at his death and who were the first
witnesses of His Resurrection. The three troparia of Holy Friday are sung once
again and from the theme of the day:
The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy most pure body from the
Tree, wrapped it in fine linen and anointed it with spices, and placed it in a new
tomb.
When Thou didst descend to death, O Life Immortal, Thou didst slay hell
with the splendor of Thy Godhead.
The angel came to the myrrhbearing women at the tomb and said: Myrrh is
fitting for the dead, but Christ has shown Himself a stranger to corruption! So
proclaim: The Lord is risen, granting the world great mercy.
The Paralytic
The fourth Sunday is dedicated to Christ’s healing of the paralytic (Jn 5).
The man is healed by Christ while waiting to be put down into the pool of
water. Through baptism in the church we, too, are healed and saved by Christ
for eternal life. Thus, in the church, we are told, together with the paralytic, “to
sin no more that nothing worse befall you” (Jn 5.14).
The Feast of Mid-Pentecost
In the middle of this fourth week, the middle day between Easter and
Pentecost is solemnly celebrated. It is called the feast of Mid-Pentecost, at
which Christ, “in the middle of the feast” teaches men of his saving mission
and offers to all “the waters of immortality” (Jn 7.14). Again we are reminded
of the Master’s presence and his saving promise: “If anyone is thirsty let him
come to Me and drink” (Jn 7.37). We think also once again of our death and
resurrection with Christ in our baptism, and our reception of the Holy Spirit
from him in our chrismation. We “look back to one, and anticipate the other” as
one of the hymns of the feast puts it. We know that we belong to that kingdom
of the Risen Christ where “the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him
who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price”
(Rev 22.17; Is 55.1).
In the middle of the feast, O Saviour, fill my thirsting soul with the waters
of godliness, as Thou didst cry unto all: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me
and drink! O Christ God, Fountain of life, glory to Thee! (Troparion).
Christ God, the Creator and Master of all, cried to all in the midst of the
feast of the law: Come and drink the water of immortality! We fall before Thee
and faithfully cry: Grant us Thy bounties, for Thou art the Fountain of our life!
(Kontakion).
The Samaritan Woman
The fifth Sunday after Easter deals with the woman of Samaria with whom
Christ spoke at Jacob’s Well (Jn 4). Again the theme is the “living water” and
the recognition of Jesus as God’s Messiah (Jn 4.10–11; 25–26). We are
reminded of our new life in Him, of our own drinking of the “living water,” of
our own true worship of God in the Christian messianic age “in Spirit and in
Truth” (Jn 4.23–24). We see as well that salvation is offered to all: Jews and
Gentiles, men and women, saints and sinners.
The Blind Man
The sixth Sunday commemorates the healing of the man blind from birth
(Jn 9). We are identified with that man who came to see and to believe in Jesus
as the Son of God. The Lord has anointed our eyes with his own divine hands
and washed them with the waters of our baptism (Jn 9.6–11).
Jesus used clay of spittle and told the man to wash in the waters of Siloam.
He did so because it was the Sabbath day on which spitting, clay-making and
washing were strictly forbidden. By breaking these ritual laws of the Jews,
Jesus showed that He is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath, and, as such, that He is
equal to God the Father Who alone, according to Jewish tradition, works on the
Sabbath day in running His world.
There is scandal over the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath day. He
is separated from the synagogue because of his faith in Christ. The entire
Church follows this man in his fate, knowing that it is those who do not see
Jesus as the Lord who are really blind and still in their sins (Jn 9.41). The
others have the light of life and can see and know the Son of God, for “you have
seen Him, and it is He who speaks to you” (Jn 9.37).
I come to Thee, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes, and call to
Thee in repentance: Thou art the most radiant Light of those in darkness!
(Kontakion).
Ascension
Jesus did not live with His disciples after His resurrection as He had
before His death. Filled with the glory of His divinity, He appeared at different
times and places to His people, assuring them that it was He, truly alive in His
risen and glorified body.
To them He presented Himself alive after His passion by many proofs,
appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God (Acts
1.3).
It should be noted that the time span of forty days is used many times in
the Bible and signifies a temporal period of completeness and sufficiency (Gen
7.17; Ex 16.35, 24.18; Judg 3.11; 1Sam 17.16; 1 Kg 19.8; Jon 3.4; Mt 4.2).
On the fortieth day after His passover, Jesus ascended into heaven to be
glorified on the right hand of God (Acts 1.9–11; Mk 16.19; Lk?24.51). The
ascension of Christ is His final physical departure from this world after the
resurrection. It is the formal completion of His mission in this world as the
Messianic Saviour. It is His glorious return to the Father Who had sent Him
into the world to accomplish the work that He had given him to do (Jn 17.4–5).
.?.?. and lifting His hands He blessed them. While blessing them, He
parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they returned to
Jerusalem with great joy (Lk 24.51–52).
The Church’s celebration of the ascension, as all such festal celebrations,
is not merely the remembrance of an event in Christ’s life. Indeed, the
ascension itself is not to be understood as though it were simply the
supernatural event of a man floating up and away into the skies. The holy
scripture stresses Christ’s physical departure and His glorification with God the
Father, together with the great joy which His disciples had as they received the
promise of the Holy Spirit Who was to come to assure the Lord’s presence with
them, enabling them to be His witnesses to the ends of earth (Lk 24.48–53;
Acts 1.8–11; Mt 28.20; Mk 16.16–14).
In the Church the believers in Christ celebrate these very same realities
with the conviction that it is for them and for all men that Christ’s departure
from this world has taken place. The Lord leaves in order to be glorified with
God the Father and to glorify us with himself. He goes in order to “prepare a
place” for and to take us also into the blessedness of God’s presence. He goes to
open the way for all flesh into the “heavenly sanctuary .?.?. the Holy Place not
made by hands” (see Hebrews 8–10). He goes in order send the Holy Spirit,
Who proceeds from the Father to bear witness to Him and His gospel in the
world, making Him powerfully present in the lives of disciples.
The liturgical hymns of the feast of the Ascension sing of all of these
things. The antiphonal verses of the Divine Liturgy are taken from Psalms 47,
48, and 49. The troparion of the feast which is sung at the small entrance is also
used as the post-communion hymn.
Thou hast ascended in glory O Christ our God, granting joy to Thy
disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing they were
assured that Thou art the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world! (Troparion).
When Thou didst fulfill the dispensation for our sake, and didst unite earth
to heaven, Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from
those who love Thee, but remaining with them and crying: I am with you and no
one will be against you! (Kontakion).
Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit
In the Old Testament Pentecost was the feast which occurred fifty days
after Passover. As the passover feast celebrated the exodus of the Israelites
from the slavery of Egypt, so Pentecost celebrated God’s gift of the ten
commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.
In the new covenant of the Messiah, the passover event takes on its new
meaning as the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, the “exodus” of
men from this sinful world to the Kingdom of God. And in the New Testament
as well, the pentecostal feast is fulfilled and made new by the coming of the
“new law,” the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ.
When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place.
And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it
filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues
as of fire, distributed as resting upon each one of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit .?.?. (Acts 2.1–4).
The Holy Spirit that Christ had promised to his disciples came on the day
of Pentecost (Jn 14.26, 15.26; Lk 24.49; Acts 1.5). The apostles received “the
power from on high,” and they began to preach and bear witness to Jesus as the
risen Christ, the King and the Lord. This moment has traditionally been called
the birthday of the Church.
In the liturgical services of the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy
Spirit is celebrated together with the full revelation of the divine Trinity:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Godhead is manifested with
the Spirit’s coming to man, and the Church hymns celebrate this manifestation
as the final act of God’s self-disclosure and self-donation to the world of His
creation. For this reason Pentecost Sunday is also called Trinity Day in the
Orthodox tradition. Often on this day the icon of the Holy Trinity-particularly
that of the three angelic figures who appeared to Abraham, the forefather of the
Christian faith-is placed in the center of the church. This icon is used with the
traditional pentecostal icon which shows the tongues of fire hovering over
Mary and the Twelve Apostles, the original prototype of the Church, who are
themselves sitting in unity surrounding a symbolic image of “cosmos,” the
world.
On Pentecost we have the final fulfillment of the mission of Jesus Christ
and the first beginning of the messianic age of the Kingdom of God mystically
present in this world in the Church of the Messiah. For this reason the fiftieth
day stands as the beginning of the era which is beyond the limitations of this
world, fifty being that number which stands for eternal and heavenly
fulfillment in Jewish and Christian mystical piety: seven times seven, plus one.
Thus, Pentecost is called an apocalyptic day, which means the day of final
revelation. It is also called an eschatological day, which means the day of the
final and perfect end (in Greek eschaton means the end). For when the Messiah
comes and the Lord’s Day is at hand, the “last days” are inaugurated in which
“God declares: .?.?. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”; This is the
ancient prophecy to which the Apostle Peter refers in the first sermon of the
Christian Church which was preached on the first Sunday of Pentecost (Acts 2:
1 7; Joel 2: 28–32).
Once again it must be noted that the feast of Pentecost is not simply the
celebration of an event which took place centuries ago. It is the celebration of
what must happen and does happen to us in the Church today. We all have died
and risen with the Messiah-King, and we all have received his Most Holy
Spirit. We are the “temples of the Holy Spirit.” God’s Spirit dwells in us (Rom
8; 1Cor 2–3, 12; 2Cor 3; Gal 5; Eph 2–3). We, by our own membership in the
Church, have received “the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” in the sacrament
of chrismation. Pentecost has happened to us.
The Divine Liturgy of Pentecost recalls our baptism into Christ with the
verse from Galatians again replacing the Thrice-Holy Hymn. Special verses
from the psalms also replace the usual antiphonal psalms of the liturgy. The
epistle and gospel readings tell of the Spirit’s coming to men. The kontakion
sings of the reversal of Babel as God unites the nations into the unity of his
Spirit. The troparion proclaims the gathering of the whole universe into God’s
net through the work of the inspired apostles. The hymns “O Heavenly King”
and “We have seen the True Light” are sung for the first time since Easter,
calling the Holy Spirit to “come and abide in us,” and proclaiming that “we
have received the heavenly Spirit.” The church building is decorated with
flowers and the green leaves of the summer to show that God’s divine Breath
comes to renew all creation as the “life-creating Spirit.” In Hebrew the word
for Spirit, breath and wind is the same word, ruah.
Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, who hast revealed the fishermen as
most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit: through them Thou didst
draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, Glory to Thee (Troparion).
When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, he divided the
nations. But when he distributed the tongues of fire, he called all to unity.
Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-Holy Spirit! (Kontakion).
The Great Vespers of Pentecost evening features three long prayers at
which the faithful kneel for the first time since Easter. The Monday after
Pentecost is the feast of the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox Church, and the Sunday
after Pentecost is the feast of All Saints. This is the logical liturgical sequence
since the coming of the Holy Spirit is fulfilled in men by their becoming saints,
and this is the very purpose of the creation and salvation of the world. “Thus
says the Lord: Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I your God am
holy” (Lev 11.44–45, 1Pet 1.15–16).
Nativity of Christ
The celebration of the feast of the Nativity of Christ in the Orthodox
Church is patterned after the celebration of the feast of the Lord’s Resurrection.
A fast of forty days precedes the feast, with special preparatory days
announcing the approaching birth of the Saviour. Thus, on Saint Andrew’s Day
(November 30) and Saint Nicholas Day (December 6) songs are sung to
announce the coming birthday of the Lord:
Adorn yourself, O Cavern. Make ready, O Manger. O Shepherds and
wisemen, bring your gifts and bear witness. For the Virgin is coming bearing
Christ in her womb (Vesperal Hymn of Saint Nicholas Day).
On the eve of Christmas, the Royal Hours are read and the Divine Liturgy
of Saint Basil is served with Vespers. At these services the Old Testament
prophecies of Christ’s birth are chanted, emphasizing the prophecy of Micah
which foretells Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Saviour, and the prophecies
of Isaiah about the appearance and character of the Messiah:
The Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and
bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel, which translated is, God with us
(Is 7.14–15).
God is with us, understand all ye nations, and submit yourselves, for God
is with us (Is 8.9).
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government
shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His
government and peace there will be no end (Is 9.6–7).
The Vigil of Christmas begins with Great Compline, highlighted once
again by the solemn chanting of God is with us and the words of the prophecy
of Isaiah. At Compline there is also the singing of the Troparion and Kontakion
of the feast along with the special hymns glorifying the Saviour’s birth. There
are also the special long litanies of intercession and the solemn blessing of the
five loaves of bread together with the wheat and the wine of which the faithful
partake and the oil with which they are anointed. This part of the festal vigil,
which is done on all great feasts, is called the litya (in Greek, the artoklasia or
the breaking of the bread).
At the beginning of the Christmas Matins, which together with Compline
form the Christmas Vigil, the six matinal psalms begin as usual with the words:
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will among men” (Lk
2.14).
At the Christmas services these words of the angelic song are normally
sung with great solemnity rather than being chanted as at the daily service. The
Christmas Matins proceed as usual. The gospel reading from Matthew (1.18–
25) tells of the birth of Christ, and all of the hymns and verses glorify His
appearance on earth:
Christ is born, glorify Him. Christ is from heaven, go to meet Him. Christ
is on earth, be ye lifted up. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing out with
gladness, all ye people. For He is glorified (First Ode of the Christmas Canon).
The Christmas Liturgy begins with psalms of glorification and praise. The
troparion and kontakion mark the entrance with the Book of the Gospels. The
baptismal line from Galatians 3.27 once again replaces the Thrice-Holy. The
Epistle reading is from Galatians:
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God, you
are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir (Gal 4.4–7).
The Gospel reading is the familiar Christmas story from Matthew (2.1–
12), and the liturgy continues in the normal fashion. A specific two-day
celebration follows, dedicated to Mary the Theotokos and Saint Stephen, the
First Martyr. The period of Christmas rejoicing extends to Epiphany during
which time the Christmas songs are sung and fasting and kneeling in prayer are
not called for by the Church.
The feast of Christmas is formally entitled the Nativity in the Flesh of our
Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. At Christmas we celebrate the birth as
a man of the Son of God, the one who together with the Father and the Holy
Spirit is truly God from all eternity. Thus, we sing in the Church.
Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One, and the earth offers
a cave to the Unapproachable One! Angels, with shepherds, glorify Him! The
wise men journey with the star! Since for our sake the Eternal God is born as a
little child (Kontakion).
The feast of Christmas was not a separate Church feast for the first four
centuries of Christian history. It was celebrated with Epiphany in the one great
feast of God’s appearance on earth in the form of the human Messiah of Israel.
The Nativity began to be celebrated as such on the twenty-fifth of December in
order to offset the pagan festival of the Invincible Sun which occurred on that
day. It was established by the Church quite consciously as an attempt to defeat
the false religion of the heathens. Thus, we discover the troparion of the feast
making a polemic against the worship of the sun and the stars and calling for
the adoration of Christ, the True Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4.2), who is
Himself worshiped by all of the elements of nature.
Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone to the world the light of
wisdom! For by it, those who worshiped the stars were taught by a star to adore
Thee, the Sun of Righteousness and to know Thee, the Orient from on high [Lk
1.78, translated as Dawn or Day spring]. O Lord, glory to Thee! (Troparion).
Thus, the feast of Christmas is the celebration of the world’s salvation
through the Son of God who became man for our sake that, through him, we
might ourselves become divine, sons of God the Father by the indwelling of his
Holy Spirit in us.
Epiphany
The sixth of January is the feast of the Epiphany. Originally it was the one
Christian feast of the “shining forth” of God to the world in the human form of
Jesus of Nazareth. It included the celebration of Christ’s birth, the adoration of
the Wisemen, and all of the childhood events of Christ such as His
circumcision and presentation to the temple as well as His baptism by John in
the Jordan. There seems to be little doubt that this feast, like Easter and
Pentecost, was understood as the fulfillment of a previous Jewish festival, in
this case the Feast of Lights.
Epiphany means shining forth or manifestation. The feast is often called,
as it is in the Orthodox service books, Theophany, which means the shining
forth and manifestation of God. The emphasis in the present day celebration is
on the appearance of Jesus as the human Messiah of Israel and the divine Son
of God, One of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Thus, in the baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus identifies Himself with
sinners as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1.29), the
“Beloved” of the Father whose messianic task it is to redeem men from their
sins (Lk 3.21, Mk 1.35). And he is revealed as well as One of the Divine
Trinity, testified to by the voice of the Father, and by the Spirit in the form of a
dove. This is the central epiphany glorified in the main hymns of the feast:
When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan the worship of the Trinity
was made manifest! For the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, calling
Thee his Beloved Son. And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the
truthfulness of his Word. O Christ our God, who hast revealed Thyself and hast
enlightened the world, glory to Thee (Troparion).
Today Thou hast appeared to the universe, and Thy Light, O Lord, has
shone on us, who with understanding praise Thee: Thou hast come and revealed
Thyself, O Light Unapproachable! (Kontakion).
The services of Epiphany are set up exactly as those of Christmas,
although historically it was most certainly Christmas which was made to
imitate Epiphany since it was established later. Once again the Royal Hours and
the Liturgy of Saint Basil are celebrated together with Vespers on the eve of the
feast; and the Vigil is made up of Great Compline and Matins.
The prophecies of Epiphany repeat the God is with us from Isaiah and
stress the foretelling of the Messiah as well as the coming of His forerunner,
John the Baptist:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord,
make His path straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill
brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall
be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Is 40.3–5; Lk 3.4–
6).
Once more special psalms are sung to begin the Divine Liturgy of the
feast, and the baptismal line of Galatians 3.27 replaces the song of the Thrice-
Holy. The gospel readings of all the Epiphany services tell of the Lord’s
baptism by John in the Jordan River. The epistle reading of the Divine Liturgy
tells of the consequences of the Lord’s appearing which is the divine epiphany.
For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us
to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright and
godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem
us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are
zealous for good deeds (Titus 2.11–14).
The main feature of the feast of the Epiphany is the Great Blessing of
Water. It is prescribed to follow both the Divine Liturgy of the eve of the feast
and the Divine Liturgy of the day itself. Usually it is done just once in parish
churches at the time when most people can be present. It begins with the
singing of special hymns and the censing of the water which has been placed in
the center of the church building. Surrounded by candles and flowers, this water
stands for the beautiful world of God’s original creation and ultimate
glorification by Christ in the Kingdom of God. Sometimes this service of
blessing is done out of doors at a place where the water is flowing naturally.
The voice of the Lord cries over the waters, saying: Come all ye, receive
the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of the fear of God,
even Christ who is made manifest.
Today the nature of water is sanctified. Jordan is divided in two, and turns
back the stream of its waters, beholding the Master being baptized.
As a man Thou didst come to that river, O Christ our King, and dost hasten
O Good One, to receive the baptism of a servant at the hands of the Forerunner
[John], because of our sins, O Lover of Man (Hymns of the Great Blessing of
Waters).
Following are three readings from the Prophecy of Isaiah concerning the
messianic age:
Let the thirsty wilderness be glad, let the desert rejoice, let it blossom as a
rose, let it blossom abundantly, let everything rejoice .?.?. (Is?35.1–10).
Go to that water, O you who thirst, and as many as have no money, let them
eat and drink without price, both wine and fat .?.?. (Is?55.1–13).
With joy draw the water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall
you say: Confess ye unto the Lord and call upon his Name; declare his glorious
deeds .?.?. his Name is exalted .?.?. Hymn the Name of the Lord .?.?. Rejoice
and exult .?.?. (Is 12.3.6).
After the epistle (1Cor 1.10–14) and the gospel reading (Mk 1.9–11) the
special great litany is chanted invoking the grace of the Holy Spirit upon the
water and upon those who will partake of it. It ends with the great prayer of the
cosmic glorification of God in which Christ is called upon to sanctify the water,
and all men and all creation, by the manifestation of his saving and sanctifying
divine presence by the indwelling of the Holy and Good and Life-creating
Spirit.
As the troparion of the feast is sung, the celebrant immerses the Cross into
the water three times and then proceeds to sprinkle the water in the four
directions of the world. He then blesses the people and their homes with the
sanctified water which stands for the salvation of all men and all creation
which Christ has effected by his “epiphany” in the flesh for the life of the
world.
Sometimes people think that the blessing of water and the practice of
drinking it and sprinkling it over everyone and everything is a “paganism”
which has falsely entered the Christian Church. We know, however, that this
ritual was practiced by the People of God in the Old Testament, and that in the
Christian Church it has a very special and important significance.
It is the faith of Christians that since the Son of God has taken human
flesh and has been immersed in the streams of the Jordan, all matter is
sanctified and made pure in Him, purged of its death-dealing qualities inherited
from the devil and the wickedness of men. In the Lord’s epiphany all creation
becomes good again, indeed “very good,” the way that God Himself made it
and proclaimed it to be in the beginning when “the Spirit of God was moving
over the face of the waters” (Gen 1.2) and when the “Breath of Life” was
breathing in man and in everything that God made (Gen 1.30; 2.7).
The world and everything in it is indeed “very good” (Gen 1.31) and when
it becomes polluted, corrupted and dead, God saves it once more by effecting
the “new creation” in Christ, his divine Son and our Lord by the grace of the
Holy Spirit (Gal 6.15). This is what is celebrated on Epiphany, particularly in
the Great Blessing of Water. The consecration of the waters on this feast places
the entire world-through its “prime element” of watering the perspective of the
cosmic creation, sanctification, and glorification of the Kingdom of God in
Christ arid the Spirit. It tells us that man and the world were indeed created and
saved in order to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3.19), the
“fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1.22). It tells us that Christ, in Who in
“the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” is and shall be truly “all, and in all”
(Col 2.9, 3.11). It tells us as well that the “new heavens and the new earth”
which God has promised through His prophets and apostles (Is 66.2; 2 Peter
3.13; Rev 21.1) are truly “with us” already now in the mystery of Christ and
His Church.
Thus, the sanctification and sprinkling of the Epiphany water is no pagan
ritual. It is the expression of the most central fact of the Christian vision of
man, his life and his world. It is the liturgical testimony that the vocation and
destiny of creation is to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3.19).
Meeting of the Lord
Forty days after Christ was born He was presented to God in the Jerusalem
Temple according to the Mosaic Law. At this time as well His mother Mary
underwent the ritual purification and offered the sacrifices as prescribed in the
Law. Thus, forty days after Christmas, on the second of February, the Church
celebrates the feast of the presentation called the Meeting (or Presentation or
Reception) of the Lord.
The meeting of Christ by the elder Simeon and the prophetess Anna (Lk
2.22–36) is the main event of the feast of Christ’s presentation in the Temple. It
was “revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before
he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Lk 2.26) and, inspired by the same Spirit, he
came to the Temple where he met the new-born Messiah, took Him in his arms
and said the words which are now chanted each evening at the end of the
Orthodox Vespers service:
Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy
word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared in the
presence of all peoples, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory
to Thy people Israel (Lk 2.29–32).
At this time as well Simeon predicted that Jesus would be the “sign which
is spoken against” and that He would cause “the fall and the rising of many in
Israel.” He also foretold Mary’s sufferings because of her son (Luke 22.34–35).
Anna also was present and, giving thanks to God “she spoke of Jesus to all who
were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Lk 2.38).
In the service of the feast of the Meeting of the Lord, the fact emphasized
is that Christ, the Son and Word of God through Whom the world was created,
now is held as an infant in Simeon’s hands; this same Son of God, the Giver of
the Law, now Himself fulfills the Law, carried in arms as a human child.
Receive him, O Simeon, whom Moses on Mount Sinai beheld in the
darkness as the Giver of the Law. Receive him as a babe now obeying the Law.
For he it is of whom the Law and the Prophets have spoken, incarnate for our
sake and saving mankind. Come let us adore him!
Let the door of heaven open today, for the Eternal Word of the Father,
without giving up his divinity, has been incarnate of the Virgin in time. And as
a babe of forty days he is voluntarily brought by his mother to the Temple,
according to the Law. And the elder Simeon takes him in his arms and cries
out: Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have
seen Thy salvation, O Lord, who has come to save the human race-glory to
Thee! (Vespers Verses of the Feast).
The Vespers and Matins of the feast of the Meeting of the Lord are filled
with hymns on this theme. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated with the lines from
the canticle of Mary forming the prokeimenon and the words of Simeon being
the verses for the Alleluia. The gospel readings tell of the meeting, while the
Old Testament readings at Vespers refer to the Law of the purification in
Leviticus, the vision of Isaiah in the Temple of the Thrice-Holy Lord, and the
gift of faith to the Egyptians prophesied by Isaiah when the light of the Lord
shall be a “revelation to the Gentiles” (Lk 2.32).
The celebration of the Meeting of the Lord in the church is not merely a
historical commemoration. Inspired by the same Holy Spirit as Simeon, and led
by the same Spirit into the Church of the Messiah, the members of the Church
also can claim their own “meeting” with the Lord, and so also can witness that
they too can “depart in peace” since their eyes have seen the salvation of God
in the person of his Christ.
Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, Full of Grace! From you shone the Sun of
Righteousness, Christ our God, enlightening those who sat in darkness! Rejoice
and be glad, O righteous elder; you accepted in your arms the Redeemer of our
souls who grants us the resurrection (Troparion).
By Thy nativity, Thou didst sanctify the Virgin’s womb. And didst bless
Simeon’s hands, O Christ our God. Now Thou hast come and saved us through
love. Grant peace to all Orthodox Christians, O only Lover of man (Kontakion).
It is customary in many churches to bless candles on the feast of the
Meeting of the Lord.
Transfiguration
The transfiguration of Christ is one of the central events recorded in the
gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized by His apostles as “the
Christ [Messiah], the Son of the Living God,” He told them that “He must go
up to Jerusalem and suffer many things .?.?. and be killed and on the third day
be raised” (Mt 16). The announcement of Christ’s approaching passion and
death was met with indignation by the disciples. And then, after rebuking them,
the Lord took Peter, James, and John “up to a high mountain”-by tradition
Mount Tabor-and was “transfigured before them.”
.?.?. and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as
snow and behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.
And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish I will
make three booths here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He
was still speaking when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from
the cloud said, “This is My Beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased; listen
to Him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces with awe. But
Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they
lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming
down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the
Son of Man is raised from the dead” (Mt?17.1–92, see also Mk 9.1–9; Lk 9.28–
36; 2Pet 1.16–18).
The Jewish Festival of Booths was a feast of the dwelling of God with
men, and the transfiguration of Christ reveals how this dwelling takes place in
and through the Messiah, the Son of God in human flesh. There is little doubt
that Christ’s transfiguration took place at the time of the Festival of Booths,
and that the celebration of the event in the Christian Church became the New
Testamental fulfillment of the Old Testamental feast in a way similar to the
feasts of Passover and Pentecost.
In the Transfiguration, the apostles see the glory of the Kingdom of God
present in majesty in the person of Christ they see that “in Him, indeed, all the
fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” that “in Him the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily” (Col 1.19, 2.9). They see this before the crucifixion so that in
the resurrection they might know Who it is Who has suffered for them, and
what it is that this one, Who is God, has prepared for those who love Him. This
is what the Church celebrates in the feast of the Transfiguration.
Thou wast transfigured on the mount. O Christ God, revealing Thy glory to
Thy disciples as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light shine upon us
sinners. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee
(Troparion).
On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples
beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold
Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and
would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father
(Kontakion).
Besides the fundamental meaning which the event of the Transfiguration
has in the context of the life and mission of Christ, and in addition to the theme
of the glory of God which is revealed in all of its divine splendor in the face of
the Saviour, the presence of Moses and Elijah is also of great significance for
the understanding and celebration of the feast. Many of the hymns refer to
these two leading figures of the Old Covenant as do the three scripture readings
of Vespers which tell of the manifestation of the glory of God to these holy men
of old (Ex 24.12–18; 33.11–34.8; 1 Kg 19.3–16).
Moses and Elijah, according to the liturgical verses, are not only the
greatest figures of the Old Testament who now come to worship the Son of God
in glory, they also are not merely two of the holy men to whom God has
revealed himself in the prefigurative theophanies of the Old Covenant of Israel.
These two figures actually stand for the Old Testament itself: Moses for the
Law and Elijah for the Prophets. And Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and
the Prophets (Mt 5.17).
They also stand for the living and dead, for Moses died and his burial
place is known, while Elijah was taken alive into heaven in order to appear
again to announce the time of God’s salvation in Christ the Messiah.
Thus, in appearing with Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration, Moses and
Elijah show that the Messiah Saviour is here, and that He is the Son of God to
Whom the Father Himself bears witness, the Lord of all creation, of the Old
and New Testaments, of the living and the dead. The Transfiguration of Christ
in itself is the fulfillment of all of the theophanies and manifestations of God, a
fulfillment made perfect and complete in the person of Christ. The
Transfiguration of Christ reveals to us our ultimate destiny as Christians, the
ultimate destiny of all men and all creation to be transformed and glorified by
the majestic splendor of God Himself.
There is little doubt that the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ belonged
first to the pre-Easter season of the Church. It was perhaps celebrated on one of
the Sundays of Lent, for besides certain historical evidence and the fact that
today St Gregory Palamas, the great teacher of the Transfiguration of Christ, is
commemorated during Lent, the event itself is one which is definitely
connected with the approaching death and resurrection of the Saviour.
.?.?. for when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand
that Thy suffering was voluntary (Kontakion).
The feast of the Transfiguration is presently celebrated on the sixth of
August, probably for some historical reason. The summer celebration of the
feast, however, has lent itself very well to the theme of transfiguration. The
blessing of grapes, as well as other fruits and vegetables on this day is the most
beautiful and adequate sign of the final transfiguration of all things in Christ. It
signifies the ultimate flowering and fruitfulness of all creation in the paradise
of God’s unending Kingdom of Life where all will he transformed by the glory
of the Lord.
Annunciation
The feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary comes nine months
before Christmas on the twenty-fifth of March. It is the celebration of the
announcing of the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary as recorded in the Gospel
of Saint Luke.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee
named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said,
“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the
saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the
angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call
His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High;
and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will
reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there will be no
end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?”
And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power
of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child to be born will be
called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old
age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was
called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” And Mary said,
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your
word.” And the angel departed from her (Lk 1.26–38).
The services of the feast of the Annunciation, the Matins and the Divine
Liturgy, stress again and again the joyous news of the salvation of men in the
birth of the Saviour.
Today is the beginning of our salvation, the revelation of the eternal
mystery. The Son of God becomes the Son of the virgin, as Gabriel announces
the coming of Grace. Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: Rejoice, O
Full of Grace, the Lord is with you (Troparion).
A special feature of this feast is the Matinal Canon which has the character
of a dialogue between the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. Also among
the more popular elements of the feast is the Magnification which has the form
of our own salutation to the virgin mother with the words of the archangel:
With the voice of the archangel we cry to Thee, O Pure One: Rejoice, O
Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee! (Magnification).
The celebration of the Annunciation, therefore, is the feast of our own
reception of the glad tidings of salvation, and our own glorification of the
maiden Mary who becomes the Mother of God in the flesh.
Because the feast of the Annunciation normally comes during the season
of Great Lent, the manner of celebration varies from year to year depending
upon the particular day on which it falls. If the feast comes on a weekday of
Lent, which is the most common case, the Divine Liturgy of the feast is served
in the evening with Vespers and thus is celebrated after a full day of total
abstinence. When this happens, the fasting rules for the Liturgy of the
Presanctified Gifts are followed. The Divine Liturgy of the Annunciation is the
only celebration of the eucharistic liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom allowed on
a weekday of Great Lent.
Nativity of the Theotokos
In addition to the celebration of the Annunciation, there are three major
feasts in the Church honoring Mary, the Theotokos. The first of these is the
feast of her nativity which is kept on the eighth of September.
The record of the birth of Mary is not found in the Bible. The traditional
account of the event is taken from the apocryphal writings which are not part of
the New Testament scriptures. The traditional teaching which is celebrated in
the hymns and verses of the festal liturgy is that Joachim and Anna were a
pious Jewish couple who were among the small and faithful remnant-“the poor
and the needy”-who were awaiting the promised messiah. The couple was old
and childless. They prayed earnestly to the Lord for a child, since among the
Jews barrenness was a sign of God’s disfavor. In answer to their prayers, and as
the reward of their unwavering fidelity to God, the elderly couple was blessed
with the child who was destined, because of her own personal goodness and
holiness, to become the Mother of the Messiah-Christ.
Your nativity, O Virgin, has proclaimed joy to the whole universe. The Sun
of Righteousness, Christ our God, has shone from you, O Theotokos. By
annulling the curse he bestowed a blessing. By destroying death he has granted
us eternal life (Troparion).
By your nativity, O most pure virgin, Joachim and Anna are freed from
barrenness; Adam and Eve from the corruption of death. And we, your people,
freed from the guilt of sin, celebrate and sing to you: The barren woman gives
birth to the Theotokos, the Nourisher of our Life (Kontakion).
The fact that there is no Biblical verification of the facts of Mary’s birth is
incidental to the meaning of the feast. Even if the actual background of the
event as celebrated in the Church is questionable from an historical point of
view, the divine meaning of it “for us men and for our salvation” is obvious.
There had to be one born of human flesh and blood who would be spiritually
capable of being the Mother of Christ, and she herself had to be born into the
world of persons who were spiritually capable of being her parents.
The feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, therefore, is a glorification of
Mary’s birth, of Mary herself and of her righteous parents. It is a celebration as
well of the very first preparation of the salvation of the world. For the “Vessel
of Light,” the “Book of the Word of Life,” the “Door to the Orient,” the
“Throne of Wisdom” is being prepared on earth by God Himself in the birth of
the holy girl-child Mary.
The verses of the feast are filled with titles for Mary such as those in the
quotations above. They are inspired by the message of the Bible, both the Old
and New Testaments. The specific Biblical readings of the feast give
indications of this.
At Vespers the three Old Testamental readings are “mariological” in their
New Testamental interpretation. Thus, Jacob’s Ladder which unites heaven and
earth and the place which is named “the house of God” and the “gate of
heaven” (Gen 28.10–17) are taken, to indicate the union of God with men which
is realized most fully and perfectly-both spiritually and physically-in Mary the
Theotokos, Bearer of God. So also the vision of the temple with the “door ‘to
the East’” perpetually closed and filled with the “glory of the Lord” symbolizes
Mary, called in the hymns of the feast “the living temple of God filled with the
divine Glory” (Ezek 43.27–44.4). Mary is also identified with the “house”
which the Divine Wisdom has built for himself according to the reading from
Proverbs 9.1–11.
The Gospel reading of Matins is the one read at all feasts of the
Theotokos, the famous Magnificat from Saint Luke in which Mary says: “My
soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has
regarded the low estate of his handmaiden, for behold, henceforth all
generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1.47).
The epistle reading of the Divine Liturgy is the famous passage about the
coming of the Son of God in “the form of a servant, being born in the likeness
of man” (Phil 2.5–11) and the gospel reading is that which is always read for
feasts of the Theotokos-the woman in the crowd glorifies the Mother of Jesus,
and the Lord himself responds that the same blessedness which his mother
receives is for all “who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11.27–28).
Thus, on the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, as on all liturgical
celebrations of Christ’s Mother, we proclaim and celebrate that through God’s
graciousness to mankind every Christian receives what the Theotokos receives,
the “great mercy” which is given to human persons because of Christ’s birth
from the Virgin.
Entrance of the Theotokos to the Temple
The second great feast of the Theotokos is the celebration of her entrance
as a child into the Jerusalem Temple which is commemorated on the twenty-
first of November. Like the feast of her nativity, this feast of Mary is without
direct biblical and historical reference. But like the nativity, it is a feast filled
with important spiritual significance for the Christian believer.
The texts of the service tells how Mary was brought as a small child to the
temple by her parents in order to be raised there among the virgins consecrated
to the service of the Lord until the time of their betrothal in marriage.
According to Church tradition, Mary was solemnly received by the temple
community which was headed by the priest Zacharias, the father of John the
Baptist. She was led to the holy place to be “nourished” there by the angels in
order to become herself the “holy of holies” of God, the living sanctuary and
temple of the Divine child who was to be born in her.
There is no doubt that the verses of the Old Testamental Psalm 45, used
extensively in the services of the feast, provided a great inspiration for the
celebration of Mary’s consecration to the service of God in the Jerusalem
Temple.
Hear, O Daughter, and consider and incline your ear; forget your people
and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your
Lord, bow to him .?.?.
The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes, in many-
colored robes she is led to her king, with her virgin companions, her escort, in
her train.
With joy and gladness they are led along, as they enter the palace of the
king.
Instead of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in
all the earth. I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations,
therefore, the peoples will praise you forever and ever (Ps?45.10–17).
The Orthodox Church understands these words of the psalm to be a
prophecy directly related to Mary the Theotokos. According to the Gospel of
Saint Luke which is read at the Vigil of each of her feasts, Mary herself speaks
the following words:
My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for
He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. For behold, hence-forth all
generations shall call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things
for me and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from
generation to generation (Lk 1.47–50).
The main theme of the feast of Mary’s entrance to the Temple, repeated
many times in the liturgical services, is the fact that she enters the Temple to
become herself the living temple of God, thus inaugurating the New Testament
in which are fulfilled the prophecies of old that “the dwelling of God is with
man” and that the human person is the sole proper dwelling place of the Divine
Presence (Ezek 37.27; Jn 14.15–23; Acts 7.47; 2Cor 6.11; Eph 2.18–22; 1Pet
2.4; Rev 22.1–4).
Today is the preview of the good will of God, of the preaching of the
salvation of mankind. The Virgin appears in the temple of God, in anticipation
proclaiming Christ to all. Let us rejoice and sing to her: Rejoice, O Divine
Fulfillment of the Creator’s dispensation (Troparion).
The most pure Temple of the Saviour, the precious Chamber and Virgin, the
Sacred Treasure of the Glory of God, is presented today to the house of the
Lord. She brings with her the grace of the Spirit, which the angels of God do
praise. Truly this woman is the Abode of Heaven! (Kontakion).
The fortieth chapter of Exodus about the building of the tabernacle is read
at Vespers, together with passages from the First Book of Kings and the
Prophecy of Ezekiel. Each one of these readings all end with exactly the same
line, “for the glory of the Lord filled the house [tabernacle] of the Lord God
Almighty” (Ex 40.35; 1 Kg 8.11; Ezek 44.4).
Once again on this feast, the Old Testament readings are interpreted as
symbols of the Mother of God. This “glory of the Lord” is referred to the
Mother of Christ and it “fills” her and all people after her who “hear the word
of God and keep it” as the Gospel of the festal liturgy proclaims (Lk 11.37–28).
The epistle reading at the Divine Liturgy also proclaims this very same theme
(Heb 9.1–7).
Thus, the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple is the
feast which celebrates the end of the physical temple in Jerusalem as the
dwelling place of God. When the child Mary enters the temple, the time of the
temple comes to an end and the “preview of the good will of God” is shown
forth. On this feast we celebrate-in the person of Christ’s mother-that we too
are the house and tabernacle of the Lord.
.?.?. We are the temple of the living God, as God said, “I will live in them
and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”
(2Cor 6.16; Is 52.11).
Dormition of the Theotokos
The feast of the Dormition or Falling-asleep of the Theotokos is celebrated
on the fifteenth of August, preceded by a two-week fast. This feast, which is
also sometimes called the Assumption, commemorates the death, resurrection
and glorification of Christ’s mother. It proclaims that Mary has been
“assumed” by God into the heavenly kingdom of Christ in the fullness of her
spiritual and bodily existence.
As with the nativity of the Virgin and the feast of her entrance to the
temple, there are no biblical or historical sources for this feast. The Tradition of
the Church is that Mary died as all people die, not “voluntarily” as her Son, but
by the necessity of her mortal human nature which is indivisibly bound up with
the corruption of this world.
The Orthodox Church teaches that Mary is without personal sins. In the
Gospel of the feast, however, in the liturgical services and in the Dormition
icon, the Church proclaims as well that Mary truly needed to be saved by Christ
as all human persons are saved from the trials, sufferings and death of this
world; and that having truly died, she was raised up by her Son as the Mother of
Life and participates already in the eternal life of paradise which is prepared
and promised to all who “hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk11.27–28).
In giving birth, you preserved your virginity. In falling asleep you did not
forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life,
and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death (Troparion).
Neither the tomb, nor death, could hold the Theotokos, who is constant in
prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions. For being the Mother of Life, she
was translated to life, by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb (Kontakion).
The services of the feast repeat the main theme, that the Mother of Life
has “passed over into the heavenly joy, into the divine gladness and unending
delight” of the Kingdom of her Son (Vesperal hymn). The Old Testament
readings, as well as the gospel readings for the Vigil and the Divine Liturgy, are
exactly the same as those for the feast of the Virgin’s nativity and her entrance
into the Temple. Thus, at the Vigil we again hear Mary say: “My soul magnifies
the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1.47). At the Divine
Liturgy we hear the letter to the Philippians where Saint Paul speaks of the self-
emptying of Christ who condescends to human servitude and ignoble death in
order to be “highly exalted by God his Father” (Phil 2.5–11). And once again
we hear in the Gospel that Mary’s blessedness belongs to all who “hear the
word of God and keep it” (Lk 11.27–28).
Thus, the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos is the celebration of the
fact that all men are “highly exalted” in the blessedness of the victorious
Christ, and that this high exaltation has already been accomplished in Mary the
Theotokos. The feast of the Dormition is the sign, the guarantee, and the
celebration that Mary’s fate is, the destiny of all those of “low estate” whose
souls magnify the Lord, whose spirits rejoice in God the Saviour, whose lives
are totally dedicated to hearing and keeping the Word of God which is given to
men in Mary’s child, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.
Finally it must be stressed that, in all of the feasts of the Virgin Mother of
God in the Church, the Orthodox Christians celebrate facts of their own lives in
Christ and the Holy Spirit. What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate
her holy life of humility, obedience, and love. With her all people will be
“blessed” to be “more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more
glorious than the seraphim” if they follow her example. All will have Christ
born in them by the Holy Spirit. All will become temples of the living God. All
will share in the eternal life of His Kingdom who live the life that Mary lived.
In this sense everything that is praised and glorified in Mary is a sign of
what is offered to all persons in the life of the Church. It is for this reason that
Mary, with the divine child Jesus within her, is called in the Orthodox Tradition
the Image of the Church. For the assembly of the saved is those in whom Christ
dwells.
It is the custom in some churches to bless flowers on the feast of the
Dormition of the Holy Theotokos.
Elevation of the Cross
The Elevation of the Cross, celebrated on the fourteenth of September,
commemorates the finding of Christ’s Cross by Saint Helen, the mother of the
Emperor Constantine in the fourth century; and, after it was taken by the
Persians, of its recovery by the Emperor Heraclius in the seventh century at
which time it was “elevated” in the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem.
From this latter event the “universal elevation” of the Cross was celebrated
annually in all of the churches of the Christian Empire.
The day of the Elevation of the Cross became, as it were, the national
holiday of the Eastern Christian Empire similar to the Fourth of July in the
United States. The Cross, the official emblem of the Empire which was placed
on all public buildings and uniforms, was officially elevated on this day by the
bishops and priests. They blessed the four directions of the universe with the
Cross, while the faithful repeated the chanting of “Lord have mercy.” This
ritual is still done in the churches today after the solemn presentation and
elevation of the Cross at the end of the Vigil service of the holy day following
the Great Doxology of Matins.
The troparion of the feast which was, one might say, the “national anthem”
sung on all public occasions in the Christian Empires of Byzantium and Russia,
originally petitioned God to save the people, to grant victory in war and to
preserve the empire “by the virtue of the Cross.” Today the troparion, and all
the hymns of the day, are “spiritualized” as the “adversaries” become the
spiritually wicked and sinful including the devil and his armies, and “Orthodox
Christians” replace the names of ruling officials of the Empire.
O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victories to
the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries; and by the virtue of Thy Cross,
preserve Thy habitation (Troparion).
As Thou was mercifully crucified for our sake, grant mercy to those who
are called by Thy name; make all Orthodox Christians glad by Thy power,
granting them victories over their adversaries, by bestowing on them the
invincible trophy, Thy weapon of peace (Kontakion).
The holy day of the Elevation of the Cross, although it has an obviously
“political” origin, has a place of great significance in the Church today. It
remains with us as a day of fasting and prayer, a day when we recall that the
Cross is the only sign worthy of our total allegiance, and that our salvation
comes not by “victories” of any earthly sort but by the only true and lasting
victory of the crucifixion of Christ and our co-crucifixion with him.
When we elevate the Cross and bow down before it in veneration and
worship to God, we proclaim that we belong to the Kingdom “not of this
world,” and that our only true and enduring citizenship is with the saints in the
“city of God” (Eph 2.19; Heb 11.10; Rev 21–22).
The first Old Testamental reading of the Vespers of the day tells of the
“tree” which changes the bitter waters into sweetness-the symbol of the Tree of
the Cross (Ex 15.22–16.1). The second reading reminds us that the Lord
chastens and corrects those whom He loves and that Divine Wisdom is “a Tree
of life to those who lay hold upon her and trust in her, as in the Lord” (Prov
3.11–18). Again the reference is to the Cross which is, as the epistle reading of
the day proclaims, “to those who are called .?.?. the power of God and the
wisdom of God” (1Cor 1.24).
The third Old Testament reading is from the Prophecy of Isaiah which tells
of the “city of the Lord” where both Jews and Gentiles will live together and
“shall bow themselves down” at the place of God’s feet and “shall know that I
the Lord am Thy Saviour and Thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Israel” (Is
60.11–16). Here we have the direct reference to God’s city where men shall
worship at His feet; and together with the psalm line repeated constantly during
the services which calls us to “bow before His footstool,” we have once again
the reference to the Holy Cross (Ps 99.5, 110.1, et al.).
Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy
resurrection, we glorify (Hymn of Veneration before the Cross).
This central hymn of the Elevation of the Cross which lasts for eight days
in the Church is sung many times. It replaces the Thrice-Holy of the Divine
Liturgy. The normal antiphons are also replaced by special verses from the
psalms which have direct reference to Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross (Ps 22,
74, 99). At the Matins, in the gospel reading from Saint John, Christ says that
when He is elevated on the Cross He will draw all men to Himself (Jn 12.28–
36). The long gospel reading at the Divine Liturgy is the passion account from
this same gospel.
Thus, at the Elevation of the Cross the Christians make their official
rededication to the crucified Lord and pledge their undivided allegiance to Him
by the adoration of His holy feet nailed to the life-creating Cross. This is the
meaning of this holy day of fasting and repentance in the Church today.
Other Feasts
On each day of the year the Orthodox Church commemorates certain
saints or sacred events in its history. In addition to the twelve major feast days
mentioned above, the entire Orthodox Church celebrates a number of other
days with special liturgical and spiritual solemnity.
First among the feasts universally celebrated by all the Orthodox are those
of Saint John the Baptist (on left) of whom Christ has said that “among those
born of women there has arisen none greater” (Mt 11.11; Lk 7.28).
The feasts of the apostles are also celebrated in all the churches,
particularly the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (on right) which is preceded by a
prescribed fasting period.
Certain other saints are especially venerated throughout the world as well,
such as Saints Nicholas (on left) and George, the Prophet Elias and the
Archangel Michael, together with the hierarchs, Saints Basil the Great, John
Chrysostom, and Gregory the Theologian.
Each local church also has its own particularly holy days. In the Greek
Church Saints Spiridon, Demetrios, Nektarios, and others are highly venerated,
just as Saints Sergius, Seraphim, Tikhon, and Vladimir are in the Russian
Church; Saint Sava (on right) in the Serbian Church; and Saint Herman in the
American Church.
In addition to those special festal days of the particular national churches,
there exists also the practice for certain cities, towns and monasteries to have
liturgical celebrations of holy persons or events proper to their own particular
interests and desires. Thus there exist certain saints, for example, which are
celebrated with great solemnity in just a very few places in the Church, perhaps
even in just one particular place where they have a special importance for the
faithful.
It is necessary to note that in the Orthodox Church the liturgical feasts are
not “institutions” which are legislated by some ecclesiastical authority apart
from the interest and consent of the people. The feasts of the Church, and even
the canonization of saints, always follows from the living devotion of the
Christian people. If there were no popular interest and veneration of a certain
holy person, there would be no official canonization and no liturgical festival
established in his or her honor. Once a person is recognized as a saint, however,
and it is agreed that God himself is presenting this person as a living witness to
himself and his Kingdom, then the Church hierarchy will set the day of the
feast and will compose the proper liturgical service and hymns to be used in the
celebration. The frequency and fervor of the celebration will then depend solely
upon the will of the people, and once established the feast could only disappear
organically, in a way similar to its appearance. It would not, and indeed it really
could not be “disestablished” by the decree of any church authority.
The Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy
The word liturgy means common work or common action. The Divine
Liturgy is the common work of the Orthodox Church. It is the official action of
the Church formally gathered together as the chosen People of God. The word
church, as we remember, means a gathering or assembly of people specifically
chosen and called apart to perform a particular task.
The Divine Liturgy is the common action of Orthodox Christians officially
gathered to constitute the Orthodox Church. It is the action of the Church
assembled by God in order to be together in one community to worship, to pray,
to sing, to hear God’s Word, to be instructed in God’s commandments, to offer
itself with thanksgiving in Christ to God the Father, and to have the living
experience of God’s eternal kingdom through communion with the same Christ
Who is present in his people by the Holy Spirit.
The Divine Liturgy is always done by Orthodox Christians on the Lord’s
Day which is Sunday, the “day after Sabbath” which is symbolic of the first day
of creation and the last day-or as it is called in Holy Tradition, the eighth day-
of the Kingdom of God. This is the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead,
the day of God’s judgment and victory predicted by the prophets, the Day of the
Lord which inaugurates the presence and the power of the “kingdom to come”
already now within the life of this present world.
The Divine Liturgy is also celebrated by the Church on special feast days.
It is usually celebrated daily in monasteries, and in some large cathedrals and
parish churches, with the exception of the week days of Great Lent when it is
not served because of its paschal character.
As the common action of the People of God, the Divine Liturgy may be
celebrated only once on any given day in an Orthodox Christian community.
All of the members of the Church must be gathered together with their pastor in
one place at one time. This includes even small children and infants who
participate fully in the communion of the liturgy from the day of their entrance
into the Church through baptism and chrismation. Always everyone, always
together. This is the traditional expression of the Orthodox Church about the
Divine Liturgy.
Because of its common character, the Divine Liturgy may never be
celebrated privately by the clergy alone. It may never be served just for some
and not for others, but for all. It may never be served merely for some private
purposes or some specific or exclusive intentions. Thus there may be, and
usually are, special petitions at the Divine Liturgy for the sick or the departed,
or for some very particular purposes or projects, but there is never a Divine
Liturgy which is done exclusively for private individuals or specific isolated
purposes or intentions. The Divine Liturgy is always “on behalf of all and for
all.”
Because the Divine Liturgy exists for no other reason than to be the
official all-inclusive act of prayer, worship, teaching, and communion of the
entire Church in heaven and on earth, it may not be considered merely as one
devotion among many, not even the highest or the greatest. The Divine Liturgy
is not an act of personal piety. It is not a prayer service. It is not merely one of
the sacraments. The Divine Liturgy is the one common sacrament of the very
being of the Church itself. It is the one sacramental manifestation of the
essence of the Church as the Community of God in heaven and on earth. It is
the one unique sacramental revelation of the Church as the mystical Body and
Bride of Christ.
As the central mystical action of the whole church, the Divine Liturgy is
always resurrectional in spirit. It is always the manifestation to his people of
the Risen Christ. It is always an outpouring of the life-creating Spirit. It is
always communion with God the Father. The Divine Liturgy, therefore, is never
mournful or penitential. It is never the expression of the darkness and death of
this world. It is always the expression and the experience of the eternal life of
the Kingdom of the Blessed Trinity.
The Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Orthodox Church is called the
Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. It is a shorter liturgy than the so-called
Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great that is used only ten times during the Church
Year. These two liturgies probably received their present form after the ninth
century. It is not the case that they were written exactly as they now stand by
the saints whose names they carry. It is quite certain, however, that the
eucharistic prayers of each of these liturgies were formulated as early as the
fourth and fifth centuries when these saints lived and worked in the Church.
The Divine Liturgy has two main parts. The first part is the gathering,
called the synaxis. It has its origin in the synagogue gatherings of the Old
Testament, and is centered in the proclamation and meditation of the Word of
God. The second part of the Divine Liturgy is the eucharistic sacrifice. It has its
origin in the Old Testament temple worship, the priestly sacrifices of the
People of God; and in the central saving event of the Old Testament, the
Passover (Pascha).
In the New Testament Church Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God, and
it is the Christian gospels and apostolic writings which are proclaimed and
meditated at the first part of the Divine Liturgy. And in the New Testament
Church, the central saving event is the one perfect, eternal and all-sufficient
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the one great High Priest who is also the Lamb of God
slain for the salvation of the world, the New Passover. At the Divine Liturgy the
faithful Christians participate in the voluntary self-offering of Christ to the
Father, accomplished once and for all upon the Cross by the power of the Holy
Spirit. In and through this unique sacrifice of Christ, the faithful Christians
receive Holy Communion with God.
For centuries it was the practice of the Church to admit all persons to the
first part of the Divine Liturgy, while reserving the second part strictly for
those who were formally committed to Christ through baptism and chrismation
in the Church. Non-baptized persons were not permitted even to witness the
offering and receiving of Holy Communion by the faithful Christians. Thus the
first part of the Divine Liturgy came to be called the Liturgy of the
Catechumens, that is, the liturgy of those who were receiving instructions in the
Christian Faith in order to become members of the Church through baptism and
chrismation. It also came to be called, for obvious reasons, the Liturgy of the
Word. The second part of the Divine Liturgy came to be called the Liturgy of
the Faithful.
Although it is generally the practice in the Orthodox Church today to
allow non-Orthodox Christians, and even non-Christians, to witness the Liturgy
of the Faithful, it is still the practice to reserve actual participation in the
sacrament of Holy Communion only to members of the Orthodox Church who
are fully committed to the life and teachings of the Orthodox Faith as
preserved, proclaimed and practiced by the Church throughout its history.
In the commentary on the Divine Liturgy which follows, we will
concentrate our attention on what happens to the Church at its “common
action.” By doing this we will attempt to penetrate the fundamental and
essential meaning of the liturgy for man, his life and his world. This will be a
definite departure from the interpretation of the Divine Liturgy which treats the
service as if it were a drama enacted by the clergy and “attended” by the
people, in which each part stands for some aspect of Christ’s life and work
(e.g., the prothesis stands for Christ’s birth, the small entrance for the
beginning of his public ministry, the gospel for his preaching, the great
entrance for Palm Sunday, etc.). This latter type of interpretation of the Divine
Liturgy is an invention, which, although perhaps interesting and inspiring for
some, is nevertheless completely alien to the genuine meaning and purpose of
the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church.
Prothesis
Blessed is the Kingdom
To bless the Kingdom of God means to love it as one’s most precious
possession. The response of the people to the proclamation of blessing by the
priest is with the word Amen, which means so be it. This is the solemn
affirmation that indeed the blessing of God’s Kingdom is fitting and proper. It
is the official confirmation that this Kingdom is indeed the “pearl of great
price” for the faithful, which once having found it, they will love it and serve it
and desire to have it forever (Lk 13.14).
Only the Divine Liturgy and the other sacraments and services of the
Church which were originally integrated into the eucharistic celebration, such
as baptism, chrismation, and marriage begin with the solemn blessing of the
Kingdom of God.
Great Litany
After the opening proclamation, the Great Litany is chanted. This litany
begins every liturgical service of the Orthodox Church, as well as virtually all
sacraments and special services. It is the all-embracing prayer of the Church
for everyone and everything. It consists of petitions to which the people
respond: Lord have mercy.
The Great Litany begins with prayers “in peace” and “for peace.” The
people then proceed in the litany to pray for their eternal salvation; for the
welfare of God’s churches and for the union of all; for the faithful and God-
fearing of the particular community; for the bishops, priests, deacons and all
the people of the Church; for the nation and its institutions for which all are
responsible: the president, civil authorities and armed forces; for the given city
and country and for all cities and countries; for good weather and abundant
crops; for travelers, for the sick, the suffering and those in captivity.
Finally, after asking God for the deliverance from everything harmful and
negative and for his divine help, salvation, mercy and protection, the people
remember the Theotokos and all the saints and commend themselves and each
other and all their life to Christ their God.
The Great Litany then ends with a doxology proper to the Holy Trinity to
whom are due all glory, honor and worship forever. Once more the prayer is
completed by the Amen of the people.
Antiphons
After the Great Litany, psalm verses are chanted proper to the particular
occasion. These psalm verses are called the antiphons because they were, and
sometimes still are sung by the people in two choirs, each responding
antiphonally to the other. There are three sets of antiphons at each Divine
Liturgy.
Historically the antiphons were chanted by the people in solemn
procession to the church where the Divine Liturgy of the day was to be
celebrated. Today, although they are now part of the service itself, they still
form the joyful preparation for entrance into the worship of Christ through the
Word of the Gospel and the offering and receiving of Holy Communion.
The psalms normally sung as the antiphons at the Divine Liturgy of the
Lord’s Day are Psalms 103 and 146. On feast days other psalms are used with
particular relevance to the special celebration. To these psalm verses, refrains
are added proper to the occasion.
Following the second antiphon, a hymn by the Emperor Justinian, Only-
begotten Son, is always sung. It is a hymn of faith in the divinity of Christ and
his incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection as “one of the Holy Trinity” for
the salvation of men.
In addition to the two sets of antiphons and the singing of Only-begotten
Son, which belong to every Divine Liturgy, a third antiphon is chanted which
on normal Sundays in most Orthodox Churches is the Beatitudes of Christ’s
Sermon on the Mount according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew (Mt 5.3–12).
The Beatitudes are sung with the refrain taken from the words of the Good
Thief on the Cross: Remember us, O Lord, when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom
(Lk 23.42). On festal occasions special psalm verses with the singing of the
Troparion of the day constitute the third antiphon at the Divine Liturgy.
Small Entrance
During the singing of the third antiphon, whether it be the Beatitudes or
the Troparion of the day, the so-called Small Entrance is made. The Small
Entrance is the solemn procession of the clergy to the altar led by the Book of
the Gospels. If the bishop is celebrating, the Gospel Book is brought out to him
in the center of the church in the midst of the people where he has been
standing from the beginning of the liturgy.
After the exclamation: “Wisdom! Let Us Attend!” the clergy enter the
royal gates of the iconostasis while all sing the Hymn of Entrance:
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ. O Son of God .?.?.
Save us who sing unto Thee: Alleluia.
A special line is added before the final phrase of the entrance hymn at each
liturgy, proper to the celebration. Thus, for example, on the Lord’s Day this line
would always be, “Who rose from the dead.”
If the priest is serving the Divine Liturgy alone, or with a deacon, the
Small Entrance is made by the clergy circling the altar table and coming to the
middle of the church with the Gospel Book in order to enter through the royal
gates of the iconostasis accompanied by the Hymn of Entrance.
The Small Entrance is the first significant movement of the Divine
Liturgy. It follows the primary liturgical action which is the gathering of the
faithful into the one community of the Church of God. The Small Entrance is
the movement of the entire Church through its Head Jesus Christ, in the person
of the celebrant, to the altar which symbolizes the Kingdom of God. It is the
movement made possible by the Gospel of Christ, the Way to the Kingdom. It
can only be accomplished by following Jesus, the Living Word of God in
human flesh (Jn 1.1–18).
There can be no approach to God the Father but through Christ, the Son of
God (Jn 14.6). There can be no communion with God the Father except by the
fulfillment of his commandments which are given by Jesus and proclaimed in
the words of his Gospel. Thus it is the Gospel of Christ, the Son and Word of
God, which takes us into the realm of the Father and into the eternal life of the
Blessed Trinity whose Kingdom we enter and experience in the Divine Liturgy
of the Church.
Technically speaking, the Small Entrance is not completed when the
clergy enter the sanctuary and stand before the altar table. It is completed only
with the singing of the Thrice-Holy Hymn during which the clergy proceed to
the place behind the altar table (called the High Place), at which time the chief
celebrant turns and blesses the people with the solemn biblical greeting: “Peace
be, unto all!”
While the clergy are still before the altar table, the people sing the troparia
and kontakia of the day. These are hymns which praise the saving events or
holy persons celebrated liturgically at the particular gathering. On Sundays
these songs always praise Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
While these hymns are being sung, the celebrant of the liturgy prays
before the altar for the general absolution and forgiveness of sins of the entire
assembly so that all of the people might be made worthy by God “to stand
before the glory of Thy holy altar and to offer worship and praise which are due
unto Thee.” There then follows the singing of the Thrice-Holy Hymn of the
angels which perpetually resounds in the presence of the Kingdom of God.
“Holy God! Holy Mighty! Holy Immortal! Have mercy on us!” (Is 6.1–5).
This version of the Thrice-Holy Hymn is of very ancient origin. It is a
hymn to the Holy Trinity in whose presence the Christians now find themselves
at the liturgy. It is within the presence of the Kingdom of God that men are
made competent by Christ and the Holy Spirit to hear, to understand and to do
the Word of God which will be announced to them from the throne of the
Father.
Epistle
During the solemn singing of the Thrice-Holy Hymn to the Most Holy
Trinity, the clergy proceed to the High Place behind the altar table, blessing
Christ who “sits upon the throne of glory, upon the cherubim. .?.?.” From this
place, as we have already mentioned, the celebrant turns and blesses the people
with the Peace of Christ. After the Peace is returned, the Epistle of the Divine
Liturgy is chanted, usually by a layman of the Church or one in the minor order
of Reader.
The epistle reading in traditional Church language is called the apostle or
the apostolic reading. This is so since the reading may be taken from the Acts
of the Apostles as well as from one of the apostolic letters of the New
Testament scriptures. The word epistle means letter. We should note here that
the only book of the New Testament writings which is not read liturgically in
the Orthodox Church is the Book of Revelation because of its apocalyptic
character.
There is a series of epistle readings prescribed in regular order for each
day of the Church Year, with the exception of the week days of Great Lent when
the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated. There are also special epistle readings
prescribed for particular Church celebrations. Thus at any given Divine Liturgy
more than one epistle lesson may be chanted.
Before the actual reading of the epistle, an appointed verse from the
Psalter is sung called the prokeimenon, which literally means, “that which goes
before.” As usual, the prokeimenon, with its verse, is suited to the particular
liturgy and prepares the people to listen to the Word of God.
Gospel
A reading from one or more of the four Christian Gospels follows the
reading of the epistle at the Divine Liturgy. In between these two proclamations
of the Word of God, Alleluia is solemnly chanted, once more interspersed by
verses from the Psalms. At this time incense is also offered, with the incensing
of the Gospel Book, the icons, the reader and all of the people.
The Alleluia and the incensing at this moment in the Divine Liturgy
signify the very presence of God with his People, teaching them himself
through Christ the Word and the Holy Spirit (Jn 6.45). God is with men in the
Church, revealing himself and his Holy Will to the world. The Gospel is God’s
glad tidings of salvation, his official good news to mankind. It contains and
proclaims his presence and his power among men.
The proclamation of the Gospel in the Church is a sacramental act. It is a
form of man’s communion with God. It is an element of the liturgical mystery
in and through which God is united with his People, and his People with him.
Just as for the epistle readings, there are prescribed readings from the
Gospels for each liturgical day of the year, as well as special readings for
particular Church celebrations. Thus, once more, there may be several different
readings from the Gospels at any given Divine Liturgy.
Following the proclamation of the Word of God through the words of the
Holy Gospel, a liturgical sermon or homily is preached. The sermon normally
proclaims, and not seldom explains, the significance of the Divine Word
received at the particular liturgy for the life of the People of God and the
destiny of the world. In Orthodox Tradition, the sermon is an essential part of
the eucharistic liturgy and participates in its general sacramental character.
Fervent Supplication
Following the readings from the holy scriptures and the liturgical sermon,
the Liturgy of the Word, also called the Liturgy of the Catechumens, comes to
an end with the so-called Litany of Fervent Supplication. This litany is the one
through which the people pray for their own particular needs, as well as those
of the entire Church, their neighbors, their country and the entire world.
At this time the intercessions are not made generally, as in the Great
Litany, but very specifically on behalf of all persons in need of God’s blessings,
strength and guidance. Thus prayers are made for the sick, the suffering, the
needy, the afflicted and the departed by name; as well as for such specific
things as national guidance, deliverance from some particular threat, etc. Also
at this time special prayers of thanksgiving and praise may be offered in
response to some particular blessing of God. Because the offertory will follow,
prayers are also made at the end of the litany “for those who bring offerings
and do good work” in the particular community.
After the completion of the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the
catechumens are prayed for and dismissed from the Divine Liturgy since, as not
yet baptized, they are not competent to offer and to receive the eucharistic
gifts. In the early Church all those under penance for their sins, and all who for
one reason or another were not receiving Holy Communion, also left the
liturgical gathering at this time.
At present the dismissal of the catechumens has become only theoretically
significant since it is not the case that non-communicants, or even the non-
baptized, leave the gathering for the eucharistic part of the service which, we
have noted, is still officially called the Liturgy of the Faithful.
After the prayer that God would illumine the catechumens with the Gospel
of Truth and unite them to his Holy Church, granting them “in due time the
laver of regeneration, the remission of sins and the robe of incorruption” in
baptism; and after their theoretical dismissal from the liturgy, two prayers are
read for the faithful who are already members of the Church, that God would
hear their prayers and would make them worthy to offer and to receive the gifts
of Holy Communion:
And enable us also whom Thou hast placed in this Thy service by the
power of the Holy Spirit, blamelessly and without offence, in the pure witness of
our conscience to call upon Thee?.?.?.
.?.?. to worship Thee blamelessly with fear and with love, and to partake
without condemnation of Thy Holy Mysteries, and to be accounted worthy of
Thy Heavenly Kingdom.?.?.?.
Offertory: Great Entrance
It is now time for the sacrificial offering to God. There is only one true
and acceptable offering with which God is pleased. It is the offering of Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God Who offers Himself eternally to the Father for the sins
of the world.
In Christ men can offer themselves and each other and all men and the
entire world to God. Christ has united all things in Himself, and has taken all
things upon Himself. Thus, in and through Him, men can offer all that they are,
and all that they have, to God the Father. They can do this because they are in
Christ, and have received the Holy Spirit from Him.
At this moment in the Divine Liturgy the celebrant prays for himself,
confessing his personal unworthiness and affirming that the only Priest of the
Church is Jesus:
For Thou art the One who offers and the One who is offered, the One who
receives and the One who is given, O Christ our God .?.?.
The altar table, the icons and all of the people are incensed once again as
the Cherubic Hymn is sung:
Let us who mystically represent the cherubim and sing the Thrice-holy
Hymn to the life-creating Trinity, now lay aside all earthly cares.
The Gifts of bread and wine which stand for Christ, and in him, for all men
and the entire world of God’s creation-for Life itself-are now offered to God.
They are carried in solemn procession from the table of oblation, into the
middle of the church, and through the royal doors of the iconostasis to the altar
table. This procession is called the Great Entrance as distinct from the Small
Entrance that was made earlier with the Book of the Gospels. In some Orthodox
Churches the offertory procession of the Great Entrance is made around the
entire nave of the church building, and so it is actually of greater length and
solemnity than the small procession with the Gospel Book.
During the offertory procession of the Great Entrance, the celebrant once
again prays to God on behalf of all with the prayer of the Crucified Thief:
“Remember, O Lord in Thy Kingdom.” The bread and wine are placed on the
altar table and the people conclude the Cherubic Hymn:
That we may receive the King of all who comes invisibly upborne by the
angelic hosts. Alleluia.
At this time the celebrant quietly recites verses which call to remembrance
the absolute perfection and total sufficiency of Christ and His self-offering. For
the Lord Who “fills all things” with Himself makes even His tomb “the
fountain of our resurrection.”
The Cherubic Hymn and the meditative verses of the celebrant just
mentioned are a late addition to the Divine Liturgy. They were added in the
imperial era of Byzantium in order to enhance the essential liturgical act of the
offertory which is the movement of the Church offering itself to God the Father
through its Head, High Priest and King Jesus Christ who is also the Suffering
Servant, the Lamb of God and the New Passover; the sole sufficient sacrifice
which is perfect, total and fully acceptable to the Father.
In the liturgical offertory, the faithful give themselves in sacrifice to God
together with Christ. They do so through the Holy Spirit as those who have died
and risen with Christ in baptism. In order for the liturgical act of offering to be
genuine and true, it must be the living expression of the Church’s constant and
total self-offering to God. If each member of the Church is not in perpetual
sacrifice with Christ to the Father and is not “bearing his cross” by the power of
the Spirit, the offertory entrance of the Divine Liturgy becomes a sterile
symbol devoid of reality. As such it is done not as a movement towards God,
but unto condemnation and judgment.
Thus, once again a litany is chanted and a prayer is made that God would
be merciful, because of the sacrifice of Christ, and would accept His people and
their offering in spite of their sins; and would allow them worthily to offer the
Gifts and to receive Holy Communion with God.
O Lord God Almighty, who alone art holy, who acceptest the sacrifice of
praise from those who call upon Thee with their whole heart. Accept also the
prayer of us sinners, and bear it to Thy holy altar, enabling us to offer unto
Thee gifts and spiritual sacrifices for our sins and for the errors of the people.
Make us worthy to find grace in Thy sight that our sacrifice may be acceptable
unto Thee, and that the Good Spirit of Grace may dwell upon us, and upon these
Gifts here offered, and upon all Thy People .?.?.
At this time in the Divine Liturgy the gifts of money for the work of the
Church, the propagation of the Gospel and the assistance of the poor and the
needy are collected and offered to God.
Love and Faith
Before the Divine Liturgy can proceed further, there are two conditions
which must be fulfilled by the faithful. These are the solemn expressions of
love and of faith which are essential to the Christian life, and without which
there can be no self-offering and no communion with God. Therefore at this
time the proclamation is made from the altar: “Let us love one another that
with one mind we may confess” .?.?. the faithful people continue .?.?. “Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in essence and undivided.”
Love is the foundation of life. This is the fundamental Christian truth.
Without love there can be no life, no truth and no communion with God, for
God is Love (1Jn 4.8,16). Thus Jesus Christ has taught that the whole Old
Testament Law and the Prophets depend on the two great commandments of
love for God and men, and He has given his own “new commandment” that His
disciples should love “even as I have loved you” (Jn 13.34).
Thus at the Divine Liturgy the Christians are continually called to love.
The outward expression of this love in the liturgy today is the kiss of peace
exchanged by the celebrating clergy, which in times past was certainly
exchanged among the faithful people as well. Without this love, the liturgy
cannot go on.
Following the call to love, the Symbol of Faith, also called the Creed, is
chanted. The traditional introduction to the recitation of the creed in the liturgy
is the exclamation: “The Doors! The Doors! In wisdom, let us attend!” The
doors referred to here are the doors of the church building, and not the doors of
the iconostasis as some have been known to think, since this is a call to assure
that all catechumens and non-communicants have left, and that now no one
may enter or leave the liturgical assembly. The historical reason for such an
exclamation in the Divine Liturgy was not only that order might be kept in the
church, but that the Creed might be pronounced only by those who had already
officially pronounced it at baptism, and continued to confess it within the life
of the Church.
The recitation of the Symbol of Faith at the Divine Liturgy stands as the
official acknowledgment and formal acceptance by each individual member of
the Church of his or her own baptism, chrismation and membership in the Body
of Christ. The recitation of the Creed is the only place in the Divine Liturgy,
with the exception of the very similar pre-communion confession of faith,
where the first person pronoun is used. All through the liturgy the community
prays in the plural we. Only here does each person confess for himself his own
personal faith: I believe.
No person can believe for another. Each must believe for himself. A
person who believes in God, in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the Church, in
baptism and in life eternal, in short, a person who affirms and accepts his
baptismal membership in the Church, is competent to participate in the Divine
Liturgy. A person who cannot do this, cannot participate. He simply is not able
to, since this specific faith is the specific requirement for membership in the
Orthodox Church and for participation in its Divine Liturgy. Without this faith,
the movement of the liturgy cannot proceed further. With it, and its official
acknowledgment in the chanting of the Creed, the liturgical action goes on.
It is the custom in the Church for the clergy to fan the eucharistic gifts
during the singing of the Creed. This fanning was an act of veneration used
toward the earthly emperor in the Byzantine period, during which time it was
incorporated into the Church’s liturgy, and used as an act of veneration toward
the “presences” of the Heavenly King in the midst of His People, namely
towards the book of the Gospels and the eucharistic gifts. (In some churches
special liturgical fans are carried by the altar servers at all processions and
expositions of the Gospel book and the eucharistic gifts.)
Eucharistic Canon: Anaphora
Now begins the part of the Divine Liturgy called the eucharistic canon. It
is also called the anaphora, which means the lifting-up or the elevation. At this
time the gifts of bread and wine which have been offered on the altar are lifted
up from the altar to God the Father, and receive divine sanctification by the
Holy Spirit who comes to change them into the very Body and Blood of Christ.
The general form of the eucharistic canon is that of the Old Testamental
Passover ritual, now fulfilled and perfected in the new and everlasting covenant
of God with men in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Messiah, “our
Paschal Lamb Who has been sacrificed” (1?Cor 4.7; See also Heb 5–10). Thus
the eucharistic anaphora begins:
Let us stand aright! Let us stand with fear! Let us attend! That we may
offer the Holy Oblation in peace.
The people respond: A mercy of peace! A sacrifice of praise!
The Holy Oblation is Christ, the Son of God who has become the Son of
Man in order to offer Himself to His Father for the life of the world. In His own
person Jesus is the perfect peace offering which alone brings God’s reconciling
mercy. This is undoubtedly the meaning of the expression a mercy of peace,
which has been a source of confusion for people over the years in all liturgical
languages.
In addition to being the perfect peace offering, Jesus is also the only
adequate sacrifice of praise which men can offer to God. There is nothing
comparable in men to the graciousness of God. There is nothing with which
men can worthily thank and praise the Creator. This is so even if men would not
be sinners. Thus God himself provides men with their own most perfect
sacrifice of praise. The Son of God becomes genuinely human so that human
persons could have one of their own nature sufficiently adequate to the holiness
and graciousness of God. Again this is Christ, the sacrifice of praise.
Thus, in Christ, all is fulfilled and accomplished. In Him the entire
sacrificial system of the Old Testament, which is itself the image of the
universal striving of men to be worthy of God, is fulfilled. All possible
offerings are embodied and perfected in the offering of Christ on the Cross. He
is the offering for peace and reconciliation and forgiveness. He is the sacrifice
for supplication, thanksgiving and praise. In Him all of men’s sins and
impurities are forgiven. In Him all of men’s positive aspirations are fulfilled.
In Him, and in him alone, are all of men’s ways to God, and God’s ways to
men, brought into one Holy Communion. Through Him alone do men have
access to the Father in one Holy Spirit (Eph 2.18; Also Jn 14, 2Cor 5, Col 1).
The celebrant now addresses the congregation with the Trinitarian blessing
of the Apostle Paul (2Cor 13.14). This is the more elaborate Christian
salutation than the simple Peace (Shalom) of the Old Testament:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father,and the
communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
And the people respond: And with your spirit.
The grace of Christ comes first. In this grace is contained the fullness of
the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit. The celebrant offers this
entire abundant outpouring of the inner life of the Holy Trinity to the People of
God. And they in turn respond with the prayer that this “fullness of God” would
be with his spirit as well.
The eucharistic dialogue continues:
Let us lift up our hearts!
We lift them up unto the Lord!
Let us give thanks unto the Lord!
It is meet and right to worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;
the Trinity one in essence and undivided.
As men in Christ lift up the eucharistic gifts, they lift up their hearts as
well. In the Bible the heart of man stands for his whole being and life. Thus in
the anaphora, as the Apostle Paul has stated, the whole man is taken up into that
realm where Christ is now seated at the right hand of God.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is
hid with Christ in God (Col 3.1–3).
The manner of lifting up oneself to God is through thanksgiving. The word
eucharist in Greek means thanksgiving. The eucharistic Divine Liturgy is
preeminently the action of lifting up one’s heart and giving thanks to God for
all that He has done for man and the world in Christ and the Holy Spirit:
creation, salvation and eternal glorification.
The original sin of man, the origin of all of his trouble, corruption and
ultimate death, is his failure to give thanks to God. The restoration of
communion with God, and with all creation in him, is through thanksgiving in
Christ. Jesus is the only man truly grateful, humble and obedient to God. In
him, as the only Beloved Son of God and the only perfect Adam, all men can
lift up their hearts and give thanks to the Lord: “For there is .?.?. one mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for
all?.?.?.” (1Tim 2.5).
It should be noted here that the affirmation “it is meet and right” is
expanded into a longer form only in the Slavic tradition of the Church. In other
churches it remains in this simple and more ancient form.
With hearts lifted up to the Lord, and thanksgiving rendered to God, the
prayer of the eucharistic canon continues:
It is meet and right to sing of Thee, to bless Thee, to praise Thee, to give
thanks to Thee and to worship Thee in every place of Thy dominion. For Thou
art God ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and
eternally the same, Thou and Thine only-begotten Son and Thy Holy Spirit.
Thou it was who brought us from non-existence into being, and when we had
fallen away, didst raise us up again, and didst not cease to do all things until
Thou hadst brought us up to heaven and hadst endowed us with Thy Kingdom
which is to come. For all these things we give thanks to Thee, and to Thine
only-begotten Son and to Thy Holy Spirit; for all things of which we know and
of which we know not, whether manifest or unseen; and we thank Thee for this
liturgy which Thou hast found worthy to accept at our hands, though there
stand by Thee thousands of archangels and hosts of angels, the Cherubim and
the Seraphim, six-winged, many eyed, who soar aloft, borne on their pinions,
singing the triumphant hymn, shouting, proclaiming and saying:
Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the
Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
At this point in the Divine Liturgy man’s thanksgiving to God the Father
for all that he has done in Christ and the Spirit is brought to its climax. The
man in God remembers all things and is grateful to God. His remembrance and
his thanksgiving take him into the very Presence of the Kingdom to the Throne
of the Father to sing the Thrice-Holy Hymn with the angelic choirs (Is 6.1–5).
Through Christ and the Holy Spirit, the man of faith is transported in spirit
to be with his Lord. The limitations of this age are left behind through grateful
remembrance of Christ and his accomplishment of salvation. Thus the
eucharistic prayer continues with the whole focus of attention brought to that
One Man and that one night in which the Divine Son gave himself as food for
the faithful, offering himself in sacrifice for the life of the world.
With these blessed powers, O Master, Who lovest mankind, we also cry
aloud and say: Holy art Thou and all-holy, Thou and Thine only-begotten Son
and Thy Holy Spirit! Holy art Thou and all-holy, and magnificent is Thy glory!
Who hast so loved Thy world as to give Thine only-begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Who when He had
come and had fulfilled all the dispensation for us. in the night in which He was
given up-or rather gave Himself up for the life of the world-He took bread in
His holy, pure and blameless hands; and when He had given thanks and blessed
it, and hallowed it and broken it, He gave it to his holy disciples and apostles
saying:
Take! Eat! This is My Body which is broken for you for the remission of
sins. Amen.
And likewise after supper, He took the cup saying: Drink of it all of you!
This is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many
for the remission of sins! Amen.
Remembering this saving commandment and all those things which have
come to pass for us: the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the
ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand of God the Father, the
second and glorious coming.
Thine own of Thine own we Offer unto Thee, in behalf of all and for all!
As the celebrant intones these last words which proclaim that all that is
offered to the Father is already his-for every creature and all of creation are his,
together with the Beloved Son and the Holy Spirit who are uncreated and
divine-the eucharistic gifts are lifted up and elevated towards the heavens. It is
the sign that the faithful Christians have been exalted together with their Lord
into the Kingdom of God.
For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands .?.?. but into
heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf .?.?. we have
been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all
.?.?. for when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat
down at the right hand of God .?.?. for by a single offering He has perfected for
all time those who are sanctified (Heb 9.24, 10.10–14).
Heaven and earth are now blended into one, filled with the glory of God.
The ages past and the ages still to come are brought into unity. The night, the
supper, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the ascension, the kingdom to
come-all merge together in the eucharistic moment of the Divine Liturgy. Man
is with God in a holy communion which is “not of this world.” All boundaries
of time and of space are utterly broken. All walls of division are totally
destroyed. Man’s sins are forgiven in Christ, his impurities are cleansed, his
corruption is healed. His mortal nature is restored to immortality with God. His
created humanity is filled with the Uncreated Divinity of the All-Holy Trinity.
It only remains now to seal this action by the invocation of the Spirit of God.
Epiklesis
After the elevation of the eucharistic gifts to the Father, the celebrant of
the Divine Liturgy prays for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, and upon all of
the people, and to change (or as the Liturgy of Saint Basil says, to show) the
bread and wine offered in remembrance of Christ to be the very Body and
Blood of the Lord.
The prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit is considered by the Orthodox
to be an essential part of the Divine Liturgy. It is called the epiklesis, which
means literally the calling upon or the invocation.
The Orthodox Church believes, as it prays, that the Holy Spirit is always
“everywhere and fills all things.” The invocation of the Holy Spirit at the
Divine Liturgy is the solemn affirmation that everything in life which is
positive and good is accomplished by the Spirit of God. Creation, salvation,
eternal glorification; the entire work of God in making and saving the world is
accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who dwelt in Jesus
making him the Christ. He is the one by whom Christ was incarnate of the
Virgin Mary. He is the one who led Christ to the cross as the innocent Victim,
the one who raised Him from the dead as the triumphant Victor.
He is the one who guarantees the indwelling of God with men in the Holy
Communion of the Church and in the life of the Kingdom to come.
Again we offer unto Thee this reasonable and bloodless worship, and we
ask Thee, and pray Thee, and supplicate Thee: Send down Thy Holy Spirit upon
us and upon these gifts here offered. And make this bread the precious Body of
Thy Christ.
And that which is in this cup, the precious Blood of Thy Christ.
Making the change by the Holy Spirit.
That these gifts may be to those who partake for the purification of soul,
for remission of sins, for the communion of the Holy Spirit, for the fulfillment
of the Kingdom of Heaven; for boldness towards Thee, and not for judgment or
condemnation.
In the Orthodox Churches of the Slavic tradition, the Prayer of the Third
Hour is added to the epiklesis. It is a prayer asking the Lord to send the Holy
Spirit to the Church right now as He did “at the third hour” to His holy apostles
and disciples on Pentecost. This prayer was added to emphasize the necessity of
the Holy Spirit in the sacramental action of the Divine Liturgy, and to affirm
that nothing at all may be done in Christ without the specific intervention of the
Spirit of God.
Rememberances
The holy eucharist is offered in remembrance of Christ. “Do this in
remembrance of Me.” Remembering Christ, and offering all things to God in
and through Him, the Church is filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. At
the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Spirit comes “upon us and upon the gifts here
offered.” Everything is filled with the Kingdom of God. In God’s Kingdom
nothing is forgotten. All is remembered, and is thereby made alive. Thus, at
this moment in the Divine Liturgy the faithful, remembering Christ, remember
all men and all things in him, especially Christ’s mother, the Holy Theotokos,
and all of the saints.
It is important to note here that as the Divine Liturgy is the real presence
and power of the unique saving event of Christ for His people in all of its
manifold elements and aspects, it is always offered for all who need to be
saved. Thus the liturgical sacrifice is offered for Mary and all of the saints, as
well as for the whole Church and the entire universe of God’s creation.
Again we offer unto Thee this reasonable worship for those who have
fallen asleep in the faith: ancestors, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles,
preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit
made perfect in faith.
And especially for our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious
Lady, Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary.
While the choir sings a hymn to the Theotokos, which often changes
during the Church Year according to the various seasons and celebrations, the
celebrant incenses the consecrated gifts and continues to ask God to remember
John the Baptist, the saints of the day, the departed faithful, the whole Church
and the entire world. Following the specific remembrance of the bishop of the
given church, the people sum up all of the remembrances with the words: “And
all mankind!”
There then follow even more prayers asking God to remember the city, the
country, the travelers, the sick, the suffering, the captives, the benefactors of
the Church, those who themselves “remember the poor” and all of the people.
There is also the provision made at this point in the liturgy for remembering by
name persons in need of special mercy from God.
In the Liturgy of Saint Basil, which is generally much longer and much
more detailed than that of Saint John Chrysostom the remembrances are very
specific and numerous, going on for more than three pages in the liturgical
service book.
It is necessary to remember once again that remembrance in the Orthodox
Church, and particularly the remembrance of God and by God, has a very
special meaning. According to the Orthodox Faith, expressed and revealed in
the Bible and the Liturgy, divine remembrance means glory and life, while
divine forgetfulness means corruption and death. In Christ, God remembers
man and his world. Remembering Christ, man remembers God and his
Kingdom. Thus the remembrances of the Divine Liturgy are themselves a form
of living communion between heaven and earth (see “Funerals,” above).
Our Father
Following the remembrances of the Divine Liturgy, the people pray to God
to allow them to worship “with one mouth and one heart.” They then wish each
other “the mercies of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ”; and, “having
remembered all of the saints,” they sing the litany in which they beg God to
receive the eucharistic gifts “upon His holy, heavenly and ideal altar,” and to
“send down in return his divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Ending the litany with the prayer for “the unity of the Faith and the
Communion of the Holy Spirit,” the faithful commend their lives to Christ
asking to be made worthy “with boldness and without condemnation to dare to
call upon the Heavenly God as Father and to say: ‘Our Father, Who art in
heaven. .?.?’.”
In the Old Testament the People of God did not dare to address God in
prayer with the intimate name of Father. Only in Christ and because of Christ
can men have such boldness. Only Christians can properly use the Lord’s
Prayer that was taught to them by the Son of God. Only those who have died
and risen with Christ in baptism, and have received the power to become sons
of God by the Holy Spirit in chrismation are enabled to approach the All-
mighty God Most High as their Father (Jn 1.12; Mt 6.9; Rom 8.14; Gal 4.4).
In the early Church the Lord’s Prayer was taught to people only after they
had become members of Christ through baptism and chrismation. Just before
receiving the gifts of Holy Communion “for remission of sins, for forgiveness
of transgressions, for the communion of the Holy Spirit and for the inheritance
of the Kingdom of Heaven,” the faithful who have become children of God in
Christ and the Spirit exercise their gift of divine sonship in the Saviour. They
dare pray to God as to their very own Father.
Communion
After the Our Father, the children of God receive Holy Communion. The
celebrant again offers the Peace of Christ to the people, and with bowed heads
they pray together for their worthy participation in Holy Communion. The
celebrant prays that Christ Himself would come to distribute His Body and
Blood.
Attend O Lord Jesus Christ our God, out of Thy holy dwelling place, from
the throne of the glory of Thy kingdom and come to sanctify us, O Thou who
sittest on high with the Father and art here invisibly present with us, and by Thy
mighty hand impart unto us Thy most pure Body and precious Blood, and
through us to all of the people.
The consecrated Lamb is then elevated with the proclamation: “Holy
Things are for the holy!” The people respond: “One is Holy! One is the Lord
Jesus Christ! To the glory of God the Father, Amen.” The celebrant then breaks
the Lamb into four pieces according to the way it was cut at the prothesis.
One piece of the sanctified bread (IC) is put into the chalice together with
a cup of hot water which symbolizes the living character of the Risen Christ
whose body and soul are reunited and filled with the Holy Spirit in the glorified
life of the Kingdom of God.
The clergy then receive Holy Communion from the bread (XC), and drink
from the consecrated cup. While the clergy participate in the Holy Mysteries,
the people sing a special communion verse that changes according to the
celebration. They may sing other hymns proper to the season as well, especially
if the communion of the clergy takes a long time.
The faithful people receive Holy Communion on a spoon. They are given
both the consecrated bread (NIKA), and the sanctified wine. The communion of
the faithful is always from the gifts offered and sanctified at the given Divine
Liturgy. Holy Communion is never taken from any “reserve.” As we have
mentioned, all who are members of the Church through the sacraments of
baptism and chrismation, including small children and infants, may partake of
Holy Communion.
During the communion of the faithful the people sing: Receive the Body
of Christ, Taste the Fountain of Immortality, Alleluia. Before the reception of
Holy Communion generally, the following prayer is recited by all. It is each
person’s act of personal commitment to Christ, with faith in Him and the
Sacred Mysteries of His Church.
I believe O Lord and I confess that Thou art truly the Christ, the Son of the
Living God, who camest into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first
(see 1Tim 1.15).
I believe also that this is truly Thine own most pure Body, and that this is
truly Thine own most precious Blood. Therefore I pray Thee: Have mercy upon
me and forgive me my transgressions.
And make me worthy to partake without condemnation of Thy most pure
Mysteries, for the remission of sins and unto life everlasting.
Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a
communicant. For I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither
like Judas will I give Thee a kiss; but like the thief will I confess Thee:
“Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.”
мая the communion of Thy Holy Mysteries be neither to my judgment, nor
to my condemnation, O Lord, but to the healing of soul and body.
Following Holy Communion in some churches it is the custom of the
people to take some bread and wine. This helps them to receive the holy gifts,
and to have something more to eat since they have been fasting.
Thanksgiving
After the communion of the people, the celebrant blesses them with the
words: “O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance.” The people sing
in response:
We have seen the True Light! We have received the Heavenly Spirit! We
have found the True Faith! Worshiping the Undivided Trinity, Who has saved
us.
The celebrant then blesses the faithful with the eucharistic chalice in
which the gifts not received are still present, as he takes them to the table of
oblation where the youngest member of the clergy consumes them. During the
removal of the consecrated gifts the people sing:
Let our mouths be filled with Thy praise O Lord, that we may sing of Thy
glory; for Thou hast made us worthy to partake of Thy Holy, Divine, Immortal
and Life-creating Mysteries. Keep us in Thy holiness, that all the day we may
meditate upon Thy righteousness. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
A litany of thanksgiving is then sung to the Lord with prayers of gratitude
that he has blessed his people with participation in the “heavenly and immortal
mysteries.” The prayers also ask God to keep the whole day “perfect, holy,
peaceful and sinless;” that through the reception of Holy Communion, God
would “make straight our path, strengthen us all in Thy fear; guard our lives,
make firm our steps.?.?.?.”
The songs and prayers following Holy Communion in the Divine Liturgy,
as all parts of the holy service, presuppose that the members of the Church are
partaking in the eucharistic mysteries and are receiving the gifts of Christ’s
Body and Blood. The offertory, the anaphora, the epiklesis, the remembrances,
the Our Father, and the communion itself all affirm the active participation of
the faithful.
Thus it is obvious from the text of the Divine Liturgy as it is always
served in the Orthodox Church that the reception of Holy Communion on the
part of the people is a regular and normal part of the liturgy and the life of
Christians. It is not to be reserved for special days or seasons, but is to be done
prayerfully and carefully at all times when the Divine Liturgy is celebrated.
It may happen that all members of the Church are not prepared to receive
Holy Communion at the Divine Liturgy. It is even reasonable to expect that this
will often be the case, given the present conditions of life and the great number
of people who are just nominally Christians. However, be that as it may, it must
be very forcefully affirmed, without any reservations or doubts, that the
prayers, hymns and actions of the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church
presuppose the regular and normal participation of all of the people in Holy
Communion; and that the failure on the part of the faithful to receive the Holy
Mysteries of Christ is to deprive the Divine Liturgy of its essential meaning
and purpose.
Benediction and Dismissal
After giving thanks to God for His gift of Holy Communion, the people
are commanded by the celebrant of the liturgy to depart in peace. They respond
to this command with the words: “In the Name of the Lord.”
A final prayer is read in the center of the Church, or at the icon of Christ,
called the ambo prayer, in which the priest asks God’s blessing and peace upon
all of his people, the Church and the world. In this prayer the believers also
affirm with the Apostle James that “every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of Lights” (Jas 1.17). Following this
prayer which gives God “glory, thanksgiving, and worship,” the people sing
three times: “Blessed be the Name of the Lord henceforth and forevermore.”
At this point the pastor of the community normally makes his
announcements, greets his people and gives them his own personal blessing.
The final benediction of the Divine Liturgy is then pronounced following the
exclamation of glory to Christ as “our God and our Hope.”
The final liturgical blessing is the blessing of Christ. It always begins on
the Lord’s Day with reference to His resurrection from the dead. On other days
other references may be made to some saving aspect of the Lord’s person and
work. In this final benediction the mercy and salvation of Christ, the Lover of
Men, is called down upon his people through the intercessions of the Theotokos
and Ever-virgin Mary, and by the prayers of the saints of the day, the saint
whose liturgy is served, the saints of the particular church, as well as all other
saints especially venerated by the local community, such, for example, as Saint
Herman of Alaska in the American Church.
After the final benediction, the people venerate the Cross held by the
celebrant, and receive pieces of the bread from which the eucharistic offering
was taken at the beginning of the liturgy. This bread is called the antidoron
which means literally “in place of the gifts”, since it used to be given only to
those who did not actually receive Holy Communion at the liturgy. Today
usually all of the people take pieces of this bread for themselves, as well as for
others absent from church.
The act of dismissal in the Divine Liturgy is as much a liturgical and
sacramental action as was the original act of gathering. It is the final critical
step of the entire movement of the liturgy. In their dismissal from the liturgical
gathering, the People of God are commanded to go forth in peace into the world
to bear witness to the Kingdom of God of which they were partakers in the
Liturgy of the Church. They are commanded to take everything that they have
seen and heard and experienced within the Church and to make it alive in their
own persons within the life of this world. Only in this way can the presence and
power of the Kingdom of God which is “not of this world” extend out of the
Church and into the lives of men.
Those who have seen the True Light, who have received the Heavenly
Spirit, who have found the True Faith at the liturgy of the Church; those who
have partaken of the holy, divine, immortal and life-creating mysteries of
Christ, become competent to make the very same proclamation and testimony
that was made by the apostles and by all true Christians in every age and
generation. It is for this reason that the Church of God and its Divine Liturgy
exist.
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands,
concerning the Word of Life-the Life was manifest and we saw it, and testify to
it, and proclaim to you the Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was
made manifest to us-that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to
you, so that you may have communion with us; and our communion is with the
Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing that your joy may be
full (1Jn 1.14).
The Divine Liturgy. Official translation of the Orthodox Church in
America, New York, 1967.
The Festal Menaion. Translated from the original Greek by Mother Mary
and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, London, 1969.
Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church. Translated
by Isabel F. Hapgood, Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, New York,
1956.
Cabasilas, Nicholas, A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, Translated by
J. M. Hussey and P. A. McNulty, with an introduction by R. M. French, London,
SPCK, 1960.
Danielou, Jean, The Bible and the Liturgy, University of Notre Dame
Press, Notre Dame, 1956.
Meyendorff, John, Marriage: An Orthodox Perspective, 2nd Edition St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1975.
Ouspensky, L. and Lossky, V., The Meaning of Icons, Olten, 1952.
Schmemann, A., Introduction to Liturgical Theology, Translated by A.
Moorhouse, The Faith Press, London, 1966.
For the Life of the World; Sacraments and Orthodoxy, St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1973.
Great Lent, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1969.
Of Water and the Spirit, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1975.
Liturgy and Life, Department of Religious Education, Orthodox Church in
BOOKLETS ON WORSHIP published by The Department of Religious
Education of The Orthodox Church in America
The Great Blessing of Water. Translation by Bishop Dmitri. Introduction
by Father Thomas Hopko.
Forgiveness Sunday Vespers. Introduction by Father Alexander
Schmemann.
Great Lent. Father Alexander Schmemann.
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Introduction by Father Thomas Hopko.
Holy. Week. Father Alexander Schmemann.
The Passion Gospels. Introduction by Father Paul Lazor.
Great and Holy Friday Vespers. Introduction by Father Paul Lazor.
The Praises. Introduction by Father John Meyendorff.
Great and Holy Saturday. Vespers and Liturgy.
The Vespers of Pentecost. Translated by Bishop Dmitri.
Baptism. Introduction by Father Paul Lazor.
Holy Matrimony. Introduction by Father John Meyendorff.
We Return to God. Child’s preparation for confession by Constance
Tarasar.
We Praise God. The Divine Liturgy in pictures for children.
The Divine Liturgy. Students’ Edition.
If We Confess Our Sins. Adult’s preparation for confession by Father
Thomas Hopko.
Orthodox Tracts, Sets 1, II and IV (Numbers 1–20; 31–40) also deal
exclusively with themes of worship.
Volume III – Church History
Introduction
Volume 3 of The Orthodox Faith, entitled Church History, is a succinct
overview of Christian history century by century. It presents the most important
historical events, leading personalities, and significant doctrinal, liturgical,
spiritual, and ecclesiastical developments in the Eastern Orthodox Church,
giving the traditional Orthodox perspectives on the historical data. It also
includes major events, personalities, and developments in the Christian West,
both Roman Catholic and Reformed. The century by century format allows the
reader to see what was happening at the same time in different places. The
recent centuries that deal with Orthodoxy in North America, and especially
with the pre-history and history of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), are
treated at greater length because of their nearness to us in time and place, their
complexity and importance, and the variety of interpretations that exist today
about what occurred. As an OCA publication, this volume provides the OCA’s
understanding and interpretation of the historical events.
First Century
Christ and the Apostles
The first century of the Christian era begins with the birth of Jesus Christ
from the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. Christ lived, preached, did mighty acts,
was crucified, rose again, and ascended into Heaven in the first several decades
of the first century. After His Ascension into Heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit
upon Christ’s disciples on the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2), empowering them to
take Christ’s Gospel to the ends of the known world.
During His life on earth, Jesus selected disciples-first the Twelve (Mt
10.2–4) and then the Seventy (Lk 10.1). He trained them to be the leaders of
His Church. After Pentecost, the Apostles preached the Gospel of Christ far and
wide. We do not know exactly where all the Apostles traveled, but we know a
good deal about the missionary journeys of Saint Paul, which are recorded in
the Book of Acts (chs. 13–28). In his extensive travels Saint Paul founded many
churches in Asia Minor and Greece. All the Twelve Apostles (including Saint
Matthias, who took Judas’s place-Acts 1.15–26) except Saint John, as well as
many of the Seventy, died as martyrs for their faith in Christ.
The Gospels and Epistles, and all of the 27 writings which the Church
eventually selected to be the New Testament Scriptures, were written in the
first century. Also in this time, Christian communities were established in the
main cities of Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Egypt, and even as far as
Armenia and India.
Because the Church in Antioch was growing so much, Saints Paul and
Barnabas went there to preach and teach. It was there that the followers of
Christ were first called Christians (Acts 11.19–30). Also, this Church sent forth
Saints Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13.1). Antioch
probably surpassed Jerusalem as the leading Christian center by the time the
Christians fled from Jerusalem shortly before the outbreak of the Jewish Revolt
against the Romans in 66 A.D.
The Church was also established in Rome. The natural prestige of the
Church in Rome as the capital of the Empire was enhanced when the two
greatest Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, were both martyred there under
Emperor Nero around 67 A.D. Their graves became important places of
pilgrimage, and their common feastday (June 29) was established in the Church
by the middle of the second century.
Though the first Christians were Jews, the early Christians wrote in Greek,
the prevalent language in the Roman Empire. Even the Church in Rome used
Greek until the beginning of the third century.
The Church
The Christian Church was at first an urban phenomenon which only later
spread to the rural areas. It was composed mainly of people from what we
would call today the “middle classes” of society. It is not true that Christianity
gained its foothold in the world primarily among uneducated and backward
people who were looking for heavenly consolation in the face of oppressive and
unbearable living conditions on earth.
The most important decision the Church had to make during the first
century was whether non-Jewish people (Gentiles) could be received into the
Church by faith in Christ without being required to follow the ritual
requirements of the Mosaic Law, including circumcision. Based on Saint Paul’s
understanding of the Old Testament, and on Saint Peter’s testimony about how
the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit even
while Peter was still speaking to them (Acts 10 and 11), the first council of the
Church, held in Jerusalem in about 49 A.D., decided that Gentile converts
would not be subject to the Mosaic Law (Acts 15). Held under the leadership of
Saint James, the Brother of the Lord and the first Bishop of Jerusalem, this
council is considered the prototype of all subsequent Church councils.
While the Christian Church entered Roman imperial society “under the
veil” of Judaism, quite soon it became separated from the Jewish faith. The
Church embraced all those, of whatever ethnic background, who through belief
in Jesus as Lord and Christ, and through repentance from sin, were incorporated
into Christ’s Body, the Church, through Baptism. After Baptism, with the
laying on of hands of an Apostle or one ordained by an Apostle, the new
Christians received the gift of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2.37–39 and 8.14–17),
and then participated in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Holy
Eucharist.
The separation of the Church from Judaism was made sharper when the
Roman army in 70 A.D. crushed the revolt of the Jews against the rule of
Rome. The Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple, putting an end to the worship
and animal sacrifice (at first done in the Tabernacle, and then in the Temple)
that was central to Judaism since the time of Moses. For the Christians, the
destruction of the Temple was the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy (Mt 24.1–2),
and the final proof that the Lord Jesus had indeed given the Kingdom to all
those who believed in Him, both Jews and Gentiles.
The Church was founded in each place as a local community. It often met
in private houses, such as that of Saints Priscilla and Aquila-first in Ephesus
(1Cor 16.19) and then in Rome (Rom 16.3–5). These early congregations were
led by those called bishops (overseers) or presbyters (elders) who received the
laying-on-of-hands (ordination) from the Apostles (see Acts 14.23). As the
Apostles themselves were called to spread the Gospel throughout the whole
world, they did not serve as bishops, i.e., local leaders, of any particular
Christian community in any place.
Each of the early Christian communities had its own unique character and
challenges, as the New Testament writings reveal. Each church had great
concern for the others, and they were all called to teach the same doctrines and
to practice the same virtues, living together the same life of fellowship and
sacramental worship in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Saint Luke writes that the
first Church in Jerusalem “continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and
communion, in the breaking of the bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2.42). The
bonds of love and faith were so strong among the first Christians that they “had
all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them
among all, as anyone had need” (Acts 2.44–45).
Thus, the preaching and interpretation of God’s gospel in Jesus, the basic
structure of the Church, and the essential character of Christian worship were
all firmly in place by the end of the first century.
Second Century
The Persecutions
The second century saw the further development and expansion of the
Christian Faith, and more widespread persecution of the Church by the Roman
imperial authorities, for whom Christianity was an “illegal religion.” The
Christians were criminals in the eyes of the Romans, not only religiously, but
also politically. They transgressed the laws of the state in that they refused to
honor the earthly emperor as lord and god, which was required of them as
inhabitants of the Empire. The Christians prayed for the civil authorities and
gave “honor to whom honor is due” (Rom 13.1–7; 1Tim 2.1–3; Mk 12.13–17),
but they refused to give the earthly king the glory and worship which was due
to God, and to his Christ, alone. Thus Roman law declared: It is not lawful to be
a Christian.
One of the earliest reports about Christianity to appear in non-Christian
writings is found in the correspondence between Pliny the Younger, the Roman
governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, and Emperor Trajan (r. 98–117). This
correspondence reveals that Christianity was indeed proscribed, and though
Christians should not be sought out and were innocent of the gross charges
against them-such as the sacrifice of children and the eating of human flesh (a
misunderstanding of the Eucharist, which was conducted in “secret meetings”)-
the Christians nevertheless were to be executed when seized, if they refused to
renounce their Faith.
The persecution of Christians in the second century was largely localized,
occurring sporadically and at varying locations according to what was allowed
or authorized by the local imperial authorities. The account of The Martyrs of
Vienne and Lyons in Gaul gives a vivid description of one such outbreak of
persecution, in about the year 177.
Nevertheless, the persecutions were widespread, and the Christians were
generally hated even by the most tolerant and open-minded of the Roman
rulers. They were despised mostly, it seems, for what was considered their
stubbornness and intolerance due to their exclusive devotion to Jesus Christ as
Lord. They were persecuted also for what was considered to be the political
danger they posed to the unity of the imperial society, especially as their
numbers steadily grew.
The Apostolic Fathers
Among the most famous of the Christian leaders and martyrs of the second
century were the bishops Saint Clement of Rome (d. c. 102), Saint Ignatius of
Antioch (d. c. 110), and Saint Polycarp of Smyrna (d. c. 157). Their writings,
along with the Didache (the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles), the Epistle of
Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the stirring Account of the Martyrdom
of Saint Polycarp, which strongly attests to the veneration of martyrs and their
relics, comprise the literature known as the Apostolic Fathers. Written in the
years immediately after the era of the original Apostles, these invaluable
writings provide a fascinating glimpse into what the Church believed, how it
was structured, and how the Christians lived and worshiped in these early years.
As such, these writings can be considered the sequel to the Book of Acts, and to
the New Testament writings in general.
The Apologists
While the literature of the Apostolic Fathers was addressed to Christians
for their instruction and edification, other Church leaders of the second century
were writing to the outside world, explaining and defending Christianity-
especially to those who were persecuting Christians out of misunderstanding
and ignorance. These writings are called Apologies, or Defenses of the Faith,
and their authors are called Apologists. The leading Apologists were the
philosopher Saint Justin Martyr (d.c. 165); Saint Quadratus of Athens;
Athenagoras of Athens; Saint Melito, Bishop of Sardis (d.c. 190); Saint
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch (d.c. 190); and Minucius Felix of western North
Africa (d.c. 235). Often writing directly to the Roman emperor, the Apologists
did much to help Christianity gain intellectual and social “respectability” in the
greater Roman society.
Many of the Apologists also wrote essays and other things for the Church.
Saint Melito of Sardis, for example, wrote a magnificent and long liturgical
poem called “On Pascha.” In it we find wording almost identical to some of the
language in the hymns for Great and Holy Friday. He writes about the Lord’s
crucifixion:
He who hung the earth is hanging.
He who fixed the heavens in place has been fixed in place.
He who laid the foundations of the universe has been laid on a tree.
The Master has been profaned.
God has been murdered (ch. 96).
Protecting the Church from Falsehood and Heresy
Near the end of the first century and on into the second century, many
false writings about Christ were produced. Some of these were the so-called
apocryphal writings (not to be confused with the Old Testament Apocrypha), or
pseudepigrapha (see volume one on Scripture). These writings, each one
usually bearing the name of an Apostle or another prominent New Testament
figure in an attempt to give it more authority, introduced into Christian circles
many fanciful, legendary stories about the childhood of Christ, the life of the
Virgin Mary, and the activities of the Apostles.
Together with the pseudepigrapha, there also appeared the false teachings
of Gnosticism, a group of related heresies which sought to transform
Christianity into a kind of spiritualistic, dualistic, and intellectualistic
philosophy (see Scripture). The first of the great Church Fathers, Saint
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (c. 130-c. 200), wrote a monumental work called
Against Heresies, which powerfully refuted the various forms of Gnosticism.
In this work, Saint Irenaeus emphasized three crucial ways by which to
distinguish heretical groups from true Christian Churches. First, all the true
Churches, no matter where they are located, hold the same basic doctrines,
known together as the rule of faith. In contrast, the various Gnostic groups
disagree among themselves in their beliefs.
Second, all the authentic Churches can trace their origins back to one of
the original Apostles, with their bishops coming down in direct descent from
that Apostle; this is known as apostolic succession. The Gnostic groups,
however, could not claim a similar lineage back to the Apostles.
Third, whereas the various Gnostic groups each had their own writings
which they followed, the true Churches only considered the Gospels according
to the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to be divinely inspired. Saint
Irenaeus’s strong affirmation of these four Gospels helped to solidify the first
crucial step in the very long and tremendously important process by which the
organized Church selected the 27 books which would eventually comprise the
New Testament Scriptures. In this canonization process the Church had to
determine which of the many writings circulating among the various Christian
communities were to be accepted as Scripture, and which ones were to be
rejected.
The canonization process was not completed until the end of the 4th
century. In fact, the earliest list of exactly the 27 New Testament books that we
have today was not compiled until in 367 A.D. This list, drawn up by Saint
Athanasius the Great, was based on the usage of his Church in Alexandria,
Egypt.
Another dangerous threat to the stability and integrity of the Church in the
2nd century arose in about the year 160 in central Asia Minor-the sect known as
Montanism. This strict, rigorist, fundamentalistic group arose partly in protest
to what was perceived as a growing laxity of spiritual fervor and moral purity
among the majority of Christians. Like many such groups throughout Christian
history, they were overly apocalyptic, being convinced that Christ would return
in their own day. And they also had an over-emphasis on supernatural
manifestations such as prophecy, and probably also speaking in tongues.
Montanism was founded by a man named Montanus, who claimed that he
and his two prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, were the chosen instruments
for the dawning of the End Times and a new, purer, more spiritually advanced
Age of the Spirit. However, they prophesied in a strange, frenzied way, contrary
to Saint Paul’s injunctions in 1Cor 14.32–33 and 40. Also, some of their
“prophetic” messages contradicted the Gospels and Saint Paul’s epistles-for
instance, they forbade fleeing from persecution (violating Christ’s words in Mt
24.16); and they strictly prohibited second marriages (superseding Saint Paul’s
words in 1Cor 7.9 and 1Tim 5.14). For these reasons, and also because of the
movement’s judgmentalism and divisiveness, the Church condemned
Montanism in several local councils in Asia Minor by the year 200.
The Quartodeciman Controversy
We also find near the end of the second century the first time occasion
when the bishop of Rome tried to exert his authority over a group of Christians
living outside of his area of jurisdiction-Rome and the surrounding region. This
occurred in about 190, when Pope Victor I (ruled 189–199), the first Latin-
speaking bishop of Rome, attempted to excommunicate the Christians in Asia
Minor who were celebrating Pascha on the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan,
no matter what day of the week it fell on. Hence these Christians came to be
known as Quartodecimans (i.e., the “Fourteeners”).
Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. 340), the first great Church historian, in
his History of the Church, reports that a number of bishops, including Saint
Irenaeus of Lyons, “very sternly rebuked Victor” for this action, even though
they agreed with him that Pascha should always be celebrated on a Sunday.
Victor’s announcement of excommunication was ignored by the
Quartodecimans, who continued their custom. When the First Ecumenical
Council, in 325, mandated that all the Churches celebrate Pascha at the same
time, most of the remaining “Quartodecimans” aligned their practice with that
of the rest of the universal Church.
Church Order and Liturgy
In the writings of The Apostolic Fathers, the Apologists, and other early
Fathers like Saint Irenaeus, it is seen that, at least by the middle of the second
century, each local Christian Church was headed by one bishop who presided
over a “college” of presbyters or elders, and who guided the more socially-
oriented work of the deacons. Thus Saint lgnatius of Antioch writes in his
letters:
I exhort you to strive to do all things in harmony with God: the bishop is to
preside in the place of God, while the presbyters are to function as the council
of the apostles, and the deacons, who are most dear to me, are entrusted with
the ministry [diakonia; i.e., good works] of Jesus Christ (Letter to Magnesians
6.1).
Take care, then, to partake of one Eucharist; for one is the Flesh of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and one the cup to unite us with His Blood, and one altar,
just as there is one bishop assisted by the presbytery and the deacons, my
fellow servants (Letter to Philadelphians 4).
Where the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus
Christ is, there is the catholic Church (Letter to Smyrneans 8.2).
Saint Ignatius was the first to use the term catholic to describe the Church.
It is an adjective of quality that tells how every authentic Church is-namely,
full, perfect, complete, and whole, with nothing lacking of the fullness of the
grace, truth, and holiness of God.
To comment on one more of these early writings, the Didache is a kind of
brief manual on Christian living and various Church practices compiled
probably by the middle of the second century, but including material most
likely coming from as early as the late first century. It contains several
passages relating to Baptism and the Eucharist:
Baptize as follows: after explaining all of these points, baptize in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in running water. But if you
do not have running water, use whatever is available.?.?.?. And prior to
baptism, both he who is baptizing and he who is being baptized should fast,
along with any others who can (Didache 7.1–4).
Let no one eat and drink of your Eucharist except those who are baptized
in the name of the Lord (Didache 9.5).
On the Lord’s own Day [i.e., Sunday], assemble in common to break bread
and give thanks [i.e., the Eucharist; the word itself means ‘thanksgiving’]; but
first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. However, no one
quarreling with his brother may join your assembly until they are reconciled;
for your sacrifice must not be defiled (Didache 14.1–2).
An early description of Christian worship,
by Saint Justin Martyr, c. 155 AD
And on the day which is called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the
country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the
writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits.
Then, when the reader has concluded, the president verbally instructs and
exhorts us to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and
pray. And as I said before, when we have ended our prayer, bread and wine and
water are brought. And the president in like manner offers up prayers and
thanksgivings according to his ability, and the people give their assent by
saying ‘Amen.’ And there is a distribution to each and a partaking by everyone
of the Eucharist, and to those who are absent a portion is brought by the
deacons.
And those who are well-to-do and willing give as they choose, each as he
himself purposes. The collection is then deposited with the president, who
supports orphans and widows, and those who are in want owing to sickness or
any other cause, and those who are in prison, and strangers who are sojourning
with us. In a word, he takes care of all those who are in need.
Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is
the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and
matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from
the dead.
(First Apology 67)
Third Century
Persecution
The third century opened with relatively widespread persecution of
Christians under Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211). The Passion of
Saints Perpetua and Felicitas vividly recounts the victorious suffering of some
of those who were martyred in Carthage (western North Africa) at this time.
Also in this wave of persecution, in Alexandria in Egypt, Origen’s father, Saint
Leonides, was martyred. And when Clement, the head of the important
catechetical school there, fled the city, the brilliant and fervently pious Origen
was appointed by Bishop Demetrius to be the head of the school, even though
he was only about 18 years old.
The Christian Church lived in relative peace from the death of Septimius
Severus to the time of Emperor Decius (r. 249–251). But very soon after Decius
came to power, he inaugurated an intense persecution of Christians throughout
the whole empire. This wave of persecution ended with his death in 251, but
another wave began in 257 under Emperor Valerian (r. 253–260). In these
times, not only were the Christians forced to sacrifice to the imperial gods, but
also the higher clergy were specifically sought out to be executed, in the
erroneous expectation that by eliminating the Church’s leaders, Christianity
would wither and die.
Then, after Valerian’s death, his son, Emperor Gallienus (r. 260–268),
stopped the policy of general persecution, and the Christians once more lived in
relative peace, until the beginning of the next century. During this period, there
was ongoing, steady growth in Church membership, which perhaps reached up
to ten percent of the population in the Empire by the year 300-or about
6,000,000.
The Lapsed
The persecutions by Decius and Valerian, as well as the peaceful times
which preceded and followed, brought a great interior crisis to the Christian
Church in the third century. The question arose about how to care for the
“lapsed”-Christians who had denied Christ under the threat of torture and
execution, but who afterwards wanted to return to the Church. This sin of
apostasy, as well as the sins of murder and adultery, were considered the three
most heinous sins, and many in the Church thought that it was entirely
inappropriate, if not downright impossible, for the Church, as the pure Bride of
Christ, to offer the possibility of repentance and forgiveness for such sins.
Hence, they felt that such sinners must endure lifelong excommunication.
Gradually, however, through the first half of the third century, most of the
bishops were realizing that as the Body of Christ, the All-Merciful One Who
came “not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Mt 9.13), the Church
must allow for the possibility of heartfelt repentance for even the worst of sins.
They were careful to stipulate, though, that such repentance must be worked out
through a lengthy period of penitence, after which absolution and restoration to
Eucharistic communion would be given through the proper channels under the
authority of the bishops.
Many rigorists in the Church, however, refused to accept this pastoral
decision. They preferred a concept of the Church as “the society of the pure”
rather than as “the hospital for sinners.” One such figure was the illustrious
Carthaginian theologian and Apologist, Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220), known as
“the Father of Latin theology” for his prolific, insightful writings on many
topics. But he always had rigorist tendencies. This made him susceptible to the
claims of the Montanists, whom he joined in about 205, despite their having
been officially condemned by several Church councils. Very sadly, he died
outside the Church.
Another rigorist who objected to the Church offering the possibility of
repentance for the worst sins was Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 235), a leading priest
and theologian in Rome. He felt strongly that Bishop Zephyrinus (r. 198–217)
of Rome and his successor Bishop Callistus (r. 217–222) were too “soft on sin”
since they held a more lenient view.
Hippolytus also accused these two of being too “soft on heresy,” as they
were slow to condemn the teaching of Sabellius, another priest in Rome.
Sabellius taught that “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit” were just three
different names for God, rather than being the Three Persons of the Holy
Trinity. As a result, in 217 Hippolytus refused to recognize the newly elected
Callistus as the legitimate bishop of Rome and started his own church. Thus he
became the first of over twenty different anti-popes in the history of the Roman
Church.
But as it happened, some time after 230, both Hippolytus and Bishop
Pontianus (r. 230–235) of Rome, during a brief period of persecution, were sent
to the mines in Sardinia, where they were reconciled before their deaths. This is
what made it possible for Hippolytus to be recognized as Saint Hippolytus.
After the Decian Persecution, a new rigorist sect arose in opposition to the
Church’s policy of offering repentance to those who had lapsed and denied
Christ during that period of persecution. This was Novatianism, founded by
Novatian, a leading priest of Rome who led his followers into schism upon
refusing to accept the authority of the newly elected Bishop Cornelius (r. 251–
253), who favored mercy towards the lapsed if they were sincerely repentant.
The virulent sect of Novatianism spread quickly through the Empire; it was
still in existence in the 5th century.
The greatest defender of the Catholic Church at this time was Saint
Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (c. 200–258), who strenuously opposed the so-
called “pure Church” of the Novatianists-and especially the divisiveness of that
movement. Although a great reader of Tertullian (most of whose works were
written before he became a Montanist), Saint Cyprian defended the Catholic
Church, with Her unbroken apostolic succession of bishops, against the newly
formed spiritualistic “churches” of the rigorists, or maximalists. He stated in
one of his most famous works, entitled On the Unity of the Church, which he
wrote to prevent schism occurring in his own church:
Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the
Faith? Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the
Church, when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, and
sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying, ‘There is one body and one spirit, one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God’ [Eph 4.4]?
And this unity we ought firmly to hold and assert, especially those of us
who are bishops, who preside in the Church, that we may also prove the
episcopacy itself to be one and undivided.?.?.?. The episcopacy is one, each
part of which is held wholly by each one. The Church also is one.?.?.?.
Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress is
separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who who forsakes the
Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane;
he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father who does not have the
Church for his mother (On the Unity of the Church 4–6).
Saint Cyprian also strongly resisted the second attempt by a bishop of
Rome to dictate to a Church beyond her territory. This occurred when Bishop
Stephen I (r. 254–257) tried to force the Church of Carthage to receive converts
from schismatic or heretical Christian groups by anointing with oil, or even just
by a statement of faith, rather than by baptism, as long as the heretical baptism
had been done with the proper form. Cyprian, taking a more rigorist stance on
this issue, insisted that any sacraments done by those outside the canonical
Church have no validity whatsoever; as he said, “How can he who does not
have the Spirit impart the Spirit?”
While the Church through the centuries has generally taken Stephen’s
approach on this difficult issue, Cyprian was certainly right in resisting Rome’s
pretension to have authority over the Church of Carthage. As he said
concerning such jurisdictional matters, “None of us claims to be a bishop of
bishops or resorts to tyranny to obtain the consent of his brethren. Each bishop
in the fullness of his freedom and his authority retains the right to think for
himself; he is not subject to any other and he does not judge others.” And as in
the time of Bishop Victor’s attempt to force the Quartodecimans to accept
Roman practice, strong protests were raised by bishops from across the Empire
against Bishop Stephen’s imperious attitude.
Development of Theology
The third century also witnessed the emergence of the first formal school
of Christian theology. It was located in Africa-in Alexandria, Egypt. Founded in
about 180 A.D. by Pantaenus, a converted Stoic philosopher, the school was
developed and strengthened by Clement (d. c. 215), and crowned by the
outstanding theologian and scholar Origen (c. 185–254). Whereas Tertullian
strongly rejected any alliance between “Athens and Jerusalem”-that is, between
pagan philosophy and Christian revelation-the Alexandrians insisted that Greek
philosophy was preparation for the Christian Gospel. They affirmed that the
glimmers of truth discerned by the great pagan philosophers, poets, and
dramatists all point to, and are fulfilled and completed by, the truth of the
Christian Faith. Hence, Christianity can be seen to be the Highest Philosophy,
the culmination of all human philosophical endeavor. Thus, Origen wrote to his
illustrious disciple Saint Gregory the Wonderworker (c. 213-c. 270),
I desire you to take from the philosophy of the Greeks what may serve as a
course of study or a preparation for Christianity, and from geometry and
astronomy what may serve to explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all
that the philosophers say about geometry and music, grammar, rhetoric, and
astronomy, we may say about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity.
The work of Origen was phenomenal. He wrote numberless treatises on
many themes. He is known as the “Father of Biblical Criticism” for the
Hexapla, his monumental, six-fold, critical (meaning trying to determine the
most accurate text) edition of the Old Testament, and for his commentaries on
most of the books of the Bible. He is also known as the “Father of Systematic
Theology,” mostly for his work called On First Principles, the first of its kind,
in which he systematically treated all the major doctrines of the Christian
Faith. In general, his work laid the foundation for virtually all subsequent
theological scholarship in the Greek Church.
However, in some of his works Origen made use of various problematic
Platonistic teachings as he tried to explain certain mysteries of the Faith which
the Church had not yet officially clarified. In time, these Platonistic
speculations led to various heresies, mostly among certain monks who
considered some of these questionable teachings to be dogma. As this problem
increased, by the middle of the 6th century, out of a pastoral concern to put an
end to these divisive heresies, the Church took the drastic step of condemning
Origen himself, as well as his erroneous teachings, at the Fifth Ecumenical
Council in the year 553.
Among the major theologians of the third century who also must be
mentioned are Saint Dionysius the Great, Bishop of Alexandria (d. 264); Saint
Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesarea in Cappadocia (d.c. 270);
and Saint Methodius, Bishop of Olympus in western Asia Minor (d. 311). Saint
Dionysius, the dynamic bishop of Alexandria from 247 until his death in 264,
was noted for his efforts in helping to end disputes of various kinds among and
within the Churches around the Mediterranean Basin. He led the opposition to
the heretical teachings of Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, and may have
died at the first council in Antioch that condemned Paul’s erroneous
speculations about the Holy Trinity and about Christ.
It is interesting to note that when Paul did not cease his erroneous
teachings, a subsequent council in Antioch, held in 268, reaffirmed the
condemnation of his speculations and deposed him as bishop. However, he
refused to give up the episcopal throne and residence. Finally, in 272 the
Church appealed to Emperor Aurelian (r. 270–275), who had recently won back
Antioch from the Kingdom of Palmyra, to remove Paul by force. This he did,
after conferring with “the bishops of the religion in Italy and Rome” (as
presumably impartial judges, as reported by Bishop Eusebius in his History of
the Church VII.30.19), who assured him that the Church in the East had indeed
acted properly in deposing Paul.
This was apparently the first time the Church ever appealed to the civil
authorities for assistance. It is perhaps a sign of the Church’s growing
&lquo;self-confidence” regarding its place and stature in Roman society that it
would make such a request from the emperor, who just as easily could have
been persecuting Christians. It also can be seen as prophetic of the alliance of
the Church with the State that will gradually develop during the fourth century.
Concerning Saint Gregory the Wonderworker, it is said that upon his return
to his hometown of Neocaesarea after his five years in Palestine, there were
only 17 Christians; but at his death, after being bishop for about 30 years, there
were only 17 pagans. Though Gregory was converted to Christianity by Origen,
and though Origen was his teacher for five years, there is no evidence of
Origen’s problematic, misleading speculations in Gregory’s writings.
And Saint Methodius, a prolific writer and important theologian, was one
of the first Christian leaders to point out and refute various erroneous
speculations in Origen’s works. Methodius’s only work which comes down to
us in its entirety is called The Symposium, or the Banquet of the Ten Virgins.
Interestingly, this treatise contains an especially positive understanding of
marriage and marital relations, even though its overarching theme is praise for
a life of consecrated virginity. He died as a martyr near the end of the
Diocletian Persecution.
Writings also exist from the third century which give many insights into
the canonical and liturgical life of the Church in this era. These are the so-
called Teachings of the Apostles from Syria, and the Apostolic Tradition of
Saint Hippolytus of Rome, the last Church leader in the West who wrote in
Greek. The former gives regulations concerning the hierarchical offices and the
sacramental practices in the Church of Syria, and it describes the liturgical
assembly. The latter gives similar information, in a more lengthy and detailed
way, about the Church in Rome-though it probably also reflects influence from
Alexandria. It contains the text of the oldest fixed Eucharistic prayer in Church
history that we possess, as well as the form for the sacraments of Baptism,
Chrismation, and Ordination.
Baptism and Chrismation in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus
And when he who is to be baptized goes down to the water, let him who
baptizes lay a hand on him, saying thus: “Dost thou believe in God the Father
Almighty?”
And he who is being baptized shall say: “I believe.”
Let him forthwith baptize him once, having laid his hand upon his head.
And after this, let him say: “Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, Who was crucified in the
days of Pontius Pilate; and died and was buried; and He rose the third day
living from the dead; and ascended into heaven; and sat down at the right hand
of the Father; and will come to judge the living and the dead?”
And when he says: “I believe,” let him baptize him the second time.
And again let him say:
“Dost thou believe in the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church, and the
resurrection of the flesh?”
And he who is being baptized shall say: “I believe.”
And so let him baptize him the third time.
And afterwards when he comes up from the water, he shall be anointed by
the presbyter with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying:
“I anoint thee with holy oil in the Name of Jesus Christ.”
And so each one drying himself with a towel, they shall now put on their
clothes, and after this let them be together in the assembly (Church).
And the Bishop shall lay his hand upon them, invoking and saying:
“O Lord God, who didst count these Thy servants worthy of deserving the
forgiveness of sins by the laver of regeneration, make them worthy to be filled
with Thy Holy Spirit and send upon them Thy grace, that they may serve Thee
according to Thy will, for to Thee is the glory, to the Father and to the Son with
the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church, both now and ever and world without end.
Amen.”
After this, pouring the consecrated oil from his hand and laying his hand
on his head, he shall say:
“I anoint thee with holy oil in God the Father Almighty and Christ Jesus
and the Holy Spirit.”
And sealing him on the forehead, he shall give him the kiss of peace and
say: “The Lord be with you.”
And he who has been sealed shall say: “And with thy spirit.”
And so he shall do to each one severally.
Thenceforward they shall pray together with all the people. But they shall
not previously pray with the faithful before they have undergone all these
things.
And after the prayers, let them give the kiss of peace.
Eucharist in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus
Celebrant: “The Lord be with you.”
People: “And with thy spirit.”
Celebrant: “Lift up your hearts.”
People: “We have them in the Lord.”
Celebrant: “Let us give thanks to the Lord.”
People: “That is proper and right.”
Celebrant: “We thank Thee God through Thy beloved servant Jesus Christ
Whom Thou hast sent in the latter times to be our Savior and Redeemer and the
messenger of Thy counsel, the Logos Who went out from Thee, through Whom
Thou hast created all things, Whom Thou wast pleased to send out from heaven
into the womb of the Virgin, and in her body He became incarnate and was
shown to be Thy Son born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin. In order to
fulfill Thy will and to make ready for Thee a holy people, He spread out His
hands when He suffered in order that He might free from sufferings those who
have reached faith in Thee.
“And when He gave Himself over to voluntary suffering, in order to
destroy death, and to break the bonds of the devil, and to tread down hell, and
to illuminate the righteous, and to set up the boundary stone, and to reveal the
Resurrection, He took bread, gave thanks, and said: ‘Take, eat, this is My body
which is broken for you.’ In the same manner also He took the cup, and said:
‘This is My blood which is poured out for you. As often as you do this you keep
My memory.’
“When we remember His death and His resurrection in this way, we bring
to Thee the bread and the cup, and give thanks to Thee, because Thou hast
thought us worthy to stand before Thee and to serve Thee as priests.
“And we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst send down Thy Holy Spirit on
the sacrifice of the Church. Unite them, and grant to all the saints who partake
in the sacrifice, that they may be filled with the Holy Spirit, that they may be
strengthened in faith in the truth, in order that we may praise and laud Thee
through Thy servant, Jesus Christ, through Whom praise and honor be to Thee
in Thy Holy Church now and forevermore. Amen.”
Fourth Century
Constantine
Early in the fourth century began the longest and most extensive
persecution ever waged against the Church. It was started in 303 by Emperor
Diocletian (r. 284–305), at the urging of his deputy emperor in the East,
Galerius, who began to suspect the loyalty and valor of the Christian soldiers in
the military. During this nine-year persecution, soldier-martyrs like Saint
George of Nicomedia proved their courage in enduring fearsome tortures and
death on behalf of the true emperor, the King of Glory. Among the other more
well-known martyrs of this period are Saint Katherine the Greatmartyr of
Alexandria; Saint Panteleimon of Nicomedia; Saint Demetrius the Greatmartyr
of Thessalonica and his friend Saint Nestor; Saints Agapia, Chionia, and Irene
of Aquileia; and the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia.
After Diocletian abdicated the throne in 305, Galerius became the
Emperor in the East. He continued the attack against Christianity until he was
on his deathbed, when he asked the Christians to pray for him. After his death
in 311, his former deputy emperor, Maximin, renewed the persecution for
another year, until he was overthrown by Licinius.
Meanwhile, Constantine was proclaimed emperor in the West in York,
England, in 306, upon the death of his father, the deputy emperor Constantius.
In 312, as Constantine was moving with his troops towards Rome to fight
against Maxentius, the tyrannical ruler there, he had a vision or a dream that
dramatically changed the course of history. He saw in the sky the Cross or
Labarum (Chi Rho: XP) of Christ with the words, “In this sign, conquer.” He
placed this Christian symbol on his troops’ tunics and shields, and they won the
battle-known as the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
With this Christ-inspired victory, Constantine not only became the sole
emperor in the West; he also became a stronger believer in the God of the
Christians. So he acted very quickly to bring the era of persecution of
Christians to an official end. In February of 313, Constantine met Licinius, the
ruler of the Eastern half of the empire, in Milan. Together they issued the Edict
of Milan giving freedom to Christians to practice their Faith in the empire-as
well as affirming general religious freedom for everyone. Now recognized as a
legal entity, the Church expanded and flourished greatly during the 4th century-
so much so that in the last decade of the century, Emperor Saint Theodosius the
Great (r. 379–395), with advice from Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (c. 339–
397), made Christianity the official state religion of the Empire.
In about 320, the eastern emperor Licinius began persecuting Christians in
the military. The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and the Greatmartyr Theodore
Stratelates died for Christ in this time. Partly because of this betrayal by
Licinius of the Edict of Milan, Constantine led his troops against him. By 324
Constantine had defeated Licinius, thus becoming sole emperor of the whole
empire, both East and West.
Excerpts from the Edict of Milan
When with happy auspices I, Constantinus Augustus, and I, Licinius
Augustus, had arrived at Milan, and were enquiring into all matters that
concerned the advantage and benefits of the public, among the other measures
directed to the general good, or rather as questions of highest priority, we
decided to establish rules by which respect and reverence for the Deity would
be secured, i.e, to give the Christians, and all others, liberty to follow whatever
form of worship they chose, so that whatsoever divine and heavenly powers
that exist might be enabled to show favor to us and to all who live under our
authority.?.?.?. we have given the said Christians free and absolute permission
to practice their own form of worship.?.?.?.
With regard to the Christians, we also give this further ruling. In the letter
sent earlier to Your Dedicatedness, precise instructions were laid down at an
earlier date with reference to their places where earlier on it was their habit to
meet. We now decree that if it should appear that any persons have bought these
places either from our treasury or from some other source, they must restore
them to these same Christians without payment and without any demand for
compensation, and there must be no negligence or hesitation. .?.?. All this
property is to be handed over to the Christian body immediately, by energetic
action on your part, without any delay.
And since the aforesaid Christians not only possessed those places where
it was their habit to meet, but are known to have possessed other places also,
belonging not to individuals but to the legal estate of the whole body, i.e., of the
Christians, all this property, in accordance with the law set forth above, you
will order to be restored without any argument whatever to the aforesaid
Christians.
In the next year Emperor Constantine had a dream which he believed was
given to him by God, directing him to build a magnificent Christian city at the
site of the ancient town of Byzantium. Very strategically located at the
crossroads of Europe and Asia, this city was officially dedicated in 330 as
Constantinople (meaning “City of Constantine”), the new imperial capital. The
emperor helped to build churches there, in particular the Church of the Holy
Apostles, where he was buried upon his death in 337.
Another highlight of his reign was the visit of his mother, Saint Helen, to
Palestine. There she made pilgrimage to the holy sites of Christ’s life. With
divine guidance she made a discovery that inflamed the heart of the Christian
world. Near the hill of Golgotha outside Jerusalem, she found the True Cross on
which Christ was crucified. Constantine helped to build churches at some of
these sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem quickly
became a great center of pilgrimage for the entire Christian world.
The era of Constantine is sometimes seen in the West as the beginning of
the corruption of the pure Christianity of the Early Church. During the fourth
century, millions more people become Christians, many of whom may not have
had the spiritual fervor of the early Christians. But for Orthodox Christians, the
great importance of Constantine is that with his conversion to the true faith,
what was only a seemingly impossible dream now became possible: namely,
the conversion of the entire society-the whole empire-to Christ.
Constantine not only allowed the Church to operate freely; he also
specifically helped it in many ways. He restored or made restitution for
properties that Christians had lost during the Diocletian Persecution. He
sponsored copies of the Scriptures to be produced. He helped many churches to
be built. He entrusted the Church with substantial amounts of tax revenue to
use for charitable work. He gave the Lateran Palace to the bishop of Rome to be
his residence. And he made it easier for the populace to attend church on
Sunday by making it a weekly holiday-thus forming, along with Saturday (the
Sabbath), the weekend which we still have. This was not an arbitrary decision
on his part; rather, he was honoring Sunday as “the Lord’s Day,” the day of
Christian worship from the very beginning (Rev 1.10; Acts 20.7; 1Cor 16.2;
also Saint Justin Martyr, First Apology 67).
In addition, Constantine began to bring Christian influence into the law
code. In 316 a law was passed prohibiting branding criminals on the face
“because man is made in God’s image.” He ended the special taxation of single
people (which Augustus Caesar had instituted to try to reverse a downward
trend in the population of Italy in his day), thus honoring the Christian practice
of consecrated virginity. Constantine also made grants of money to poor
families to help them support their children, thus discouraging the practice of
exposure of infants by parents who felt they could not provide for them. And he
exempted Christian clergy from every form of civic duty-so that, in his words,
“they will be completely free to serve their own law at all times. In thus
rendering wholehearted service to the Deity, it is evident that they will be
making an immense contribution to the welfare of the community”” (Eusebius,
History of the Church 10.5).
Another typical Western view is that Constantine initiated the process
whereby the Eastern Church became subject to and dominated by the Emperor-
a state of affairs called caesaropapism. In reality, while there were some
notable exceptions, most of the time the Eastern Church functioned in harmony
with the State in a relationship known as symphonia. In this arrangement, the
Church was responsible for the spiritual welfare of the people, while the
Emperor was responsible for their physical and material well-being. The
Emperor had the responsibility to defend and protect the realm; thus he was
also seen as defending and protecting the Faith of the realm. But this did not
mean that he was dominating the Church. Rather, he was helping to assure that
it could continue to function in peace.
The emperor sometimes recognized the need to help the Church to resolve
internal disputes. At such times he would use his authority to summon Church
councils. Thus, it was an emperor or empress who called each of the Seven
Great Ecumenical Councils (called “Ecumenical” because they were received
by the entire Church). But this does not mean that the State was interfering in
its life. Rather, the emperor or empress acted in collaboration with Church
leaders in calling these councils, and allowed the Church to reach its own
decisions during the councils.
Sadly, however, some emperors did use their authority to support heretical
teachings. The most prominent and grievous example is the era of the six
Iconoclastic emperors in the 8th and 9th centuries.
For all of Constantine’s great efforts on behalf of the Christian Church and
in promoting its influence in his vast domain, and for his own repentance and
life of faith, he is revered in the Eastern Church as Saint Constantine the Great,
Equal-to-the-Apostles. He and his illustrious mother, Saint Helen, are honored
together on мая 21. Interestingly, he is not considered a saint in the Roman
Catholic Church, no doubt partly because of his permanent removal of the
imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople.
The Donatist Schism
Though the Church was free from external persecution in the era of
Constantine, inner troubles soon arose to disturb its peace. First, there was the
Donatist Schism that erupted in western North Africa. This was a schism
between those who supported a certain Majorinus-soon afterwards succeeded
by Donatus-to be the bishop of Carthage, and those who supported the regularly
elected bishop, Caecilian. The Donatists opposed Bishop Caecilian because he
was willing to grant the possibility of repentance to those who had lapsed
during the Diocletian Persecution, and because one of the bishops who
consecrated him allegedly had surrendered holy books to the authorities.
In an attempt to help the Church resolve this conflict, Constantine
summoned the parties to Rome to appear before a commission led by Pope
Miltiades. When this commission decided in favor of Bishop Caecilian, the
Donatists refused to accept the judgment. They complained to Constantine that
the matter had been judged too hastily and by too few other bishops. Yielding
to their request to reopen the case, the emperor summoned a much larger
council to address the problem. This Council of Arles (in Gaul-modern day
France) in 314 also decided against the Donatists.
But still the Donatists refused to be reconciled with Bishop Caecilian, and
in 316 Constantine resorted to the use of force to try to bring the schism to an
end. Unfortunately, this gave the movement an aura of martyrdom. Fueled by
the anti-Roman feelings of the native Berber population of the region, the
schism became more deeply entrenched than ever.
Constantine stopped using force against the Donatists in 321, but the
schism continued into the next century. The Church in western North Africa
never fully recovered from this grievous schism, so that when the Muslims
swept across this region in the 7th century, there was little resistance from the
Christians, and Christianity was virtually obliterated there.
Arianism
Shortly after the beginning of the Donatist schism, the Arian controversy
arose. Arius, an Alexandrian presbyter, began teaching some time before 318
that the Logos, the Word of God who became man-Jesus Christ-is not the divine
Son of God. For Arius, the Son of God is not the pre-existent, eternally
existing, uncreated Second Person of the Holy Trinity, but a created being-
created out of nothing, like everything else, by God the Father.
According to Arius, God is not the uncreated Holy Trinity. Rather, God is
the Father, the Creator, alone. For Arius, God the Father created His Logos, or
Word, or Son, as the first and greatest of His creatures. This Logos then earned
the right to be worshiped as God because of His constant devotion to the Father.
Thus the Son became God’s instrument for the salvation of the world, being
born as the man Jesus. Hence, for Arius, Jesus Christ is not the uncreated,
divine Son of God having exactly the same uncreated divine nature that God the
Father has. Rather, He is a created being, as is the Holy Spirit.
Saint Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria (r. 312–328), tried to convince
Arius to stop this teaching that directly subverted the Bible and the traditional
teaching and worship of the Church. But Arius refused to desist. Instead, he
appealed far and wide for support. He found his most powerful ally in Eusebius,
Bishop of Nicomedia, his former classmate in the Christian school at Antioch
led by Saint Lucian (d. 312). Ironically, it was this Arian-sympathizing Bishop
Eusebius who eventually became the court theologian to Emperor Constantine
in his later years, and who baptized him on his deathbed in 337.
The First Ecumenical Council
Soon after Emperor Constantine took up residence in Nicomedia, the
eastern capital, after his victory over Licinius, he was chagrined to learn of this
new controversy that was troubling the whole Eastern Church. So, with the
advice of St Hosius, Bishop of Spain (c. 257–357), his theological advisor, he
summoned the largest council of bishops ever held up to that point. It opened
on мая 20, 325, in the city of Nicea, near Nicomedia. Constantine himself gave
the opening address. According to tradition, 318 bishops were in attendance,
including the famous and greatly beloved Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in
Lycia, and Saint Spyridon, Bishop of Tremithus in Cyprus.
This council, known now as the First Ecumenical Council, decreed that the
Logos, the Word and Son of God, is uncreated, ever-existent, and fully divine.
He is begotten-that is, “born” or generated-from the Father, and not made or
created by Him. He is of one essence (in Greek, homoousios) with the Father.
He is true God of true God, the Word of God by Whom all things were made (Jn
1.3; Heb 1.2). It is this uncreated, only-begotten, divine Son of God Who
became man from the Virgin Mary as Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel and
the Savior of the world.
The Council of Nicea also decreed a number of canons (i.e., Church
regulations) concerning various issues of order and discipline in the Church.
Canon 6 confirmed the jurisdictional authority of Alexandria over Egypt and
the neighboring regions of Libya and Pentapolis, “since the like is customary
for the Bishop of Rome also [meaning that the Roman Church, in a
corresponding way, had jurisdictional authority only over Rome and its
neighboring territory-at that time, most likely central Italy]. Likewise in
Antioch and the other provinces let the Churches retain their privileges.” This
canon clearly ratifies the ancient practice of the Churches in the major cities
each having full jurisdictional authority only over the surrounding region.
Concerning the lapsed, Canon 11 offered the possibility of restoration to
Eucharistic communion, but only after a period of 12 years of heartfelt
contrition, in three stages:
Concerning those who have fallen without compulsion, without the
spoiling of their property, without danger or the like, as happened during the
tyranny of Licinius, this Synod declares that, though they have deserved no
mercy, they shall be dealt with mercifully. Those who were previously
communicants, if they heartily repent, shall spend three years among the
hearers; for seven years they shall be prostrators; and for two years they shall
join the people in prayers, but still as yet without receiving the Eucharistic
gifts.
Canon 20 prohibited the practice of penitential kneeling during the
Church’s Sunday Liturgy, as well as during the entire Pentecostarion season.
The Nicene Council also established guidelines for determining the date of
the annual celebration of Pascha-thus helping to bring the Quartodecimans’
practice to an end.
Finally, this council affirmed once and for all, at least for the Eastern
Churches, the propriety of allowing married men to be ordained as deacons,
presbyters, and at that time even bishops, and to still have a normal married
life. While the Roman Church during the 4th century began trying to force its
clergy to be celibate, it was not until the 12th century that it was finally able to
enforce this rule.
Saint Athanasius and his defence of Nicea
The doctrinal definition of the Nicene Council was not universally
accepted throughout the Church for a long time. The Arian controversy raged
for over five more decades, and because several Christian emperors in this
period gave their support to the Arianizers, the defenders of the Nicene Faith
were greatly persecuted. With imperial support, Church councils were held in
Milan, Sirmium, Rimini, Seleucia, and elsewhere, to try to articulate the
mystery of Christ’s divinity and humanity, but all with varying degrees of
Arian influence.
Saint Athanasius (c. 298–373) attended the Nicene Council as a deacon of
the Church in Alexandria. Though only 27 years old, he was a leader at that
council in promoting the crucial word homoousios as most fitting to affirm the
truth that the Son of God has the same uncreated divine nature as God the
Father.
Athanasius became Bishop of Alexandria in 328, upon the death of Saint
Alexander. As the anti-Nicene party, led by Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia,
gained strength, Bishop Athanasius was one of the first to be attacked through
slander and intrigue. This group managed to get him exiled from his see in 335.
Altogether, this fearless champion of Nicene Orthodoxy suffered exile five
times for his valiant and eloquent defense of the Christian Faith. Near the end
of his life, his pastoral, forgiving outreach to his former enemies greatly helped
to bring Arianism to an end. For all this and more, he is revered in Church
Tradition as Saint Athanasius the Great.
New Heresies
Compounding the problems for the Church in these middle decades of the
4th century, new heresies arose. One was Macedonianism-named after
Macedonius, an archbishop of Constantinople. The Macedonians accepted the
Nicene declaration about Christ being “of one essence with the Father,” but
they denied that the Holy Spirit was fully divine, saying that He was a created
being. Because of this belittling of the Spirit, this group was also called the
Pneumatomachians (meaning “fighters against the Spirit”).
The Church Father who led the battle against this heresy was Saint Basil
the Great (c. 330–379). In his work called On the Holy Spirit, he refuted
Macedonianism by pointing out from the Holy Scriptures and the sacramental
life of the Church all the things that the Holy Spirit does as the “the Spirit of
God” and “the Spirit of Christ.” Following Saint Athanasius in his Letters to
Serapion, Saint Basil never called the Holy Spirit “God.” The first holy father
to do this was Saint Gregory the Theologian.
Saint Basil is also remembered for his wise and firm guidance of the
rapidly growing monastic movement, thus keeping it safely within the confines
of the Church. His Longer and Shorter Rule, written for the monastic
movement, emphasized the communal form of monasticism-as he writes,
“since man is by nature a social creature”-with each monastery headed by its
abbot, under the authority of the local bishop.
Another new heresy was Apollinarianism, which originated with the
speculations of Apollinaris of Laodicea about how Christ can be both divine
and human at the same time. He deduced that when the pre-eternal Word of
God, the Logos, entered the body of Jesus, the Logos took the place of Jesus’
soul. In such a scheme, Jesus is denied having full and complete humanity.
Saint Gregory the Theologian (c. 330–389), Bishop of Sasima and then of
Constantinople refuted Apollinarianism. As he declared, whatever belongs to
human nature that Christ did not take to Himself has not been saved and healed.
If Jesus had no human soul, He simply was not a human being, and humanity is
not saved.
Saint Gregory, Saint Basil the Great’s best friend, is also remembered for
finally refuting the Arians by his brilliant and beautiful preaching that won him
the title “The Theologian.” This title has been given to only two others in the
history of the Church: Saint John the Theologian, the Apostle and Evangelist,
and Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022).
The Second Ecumenical Council
Emperor Theodosius the Great came to the imperial throne of the eastern
part of the Roman Empire in 379. A strong supporter of the Nicene Faith, he
wanted to help the Church finally put an end to the various forms of Arianism
which had cropped up since the Council of Nicea. He also understood that
Macedonianism and Apollinarianism had to be addressed. In 381 he called a
Church council in Constantinople which would come to be known as the
Second Ecumenical Council.
This council condemned all forms of Arianizing doctrines by reaffirming
the doctrinal statement, or creed, which had been proclaimed at the Nicene
Council. It also condemned Macedonianism, and proclaimed the divinity of the
Holy Spirit in a paragraph added to the Creed of Nicea. It is this Creed, the
combined work of the first two Ecumenical Councils, which Orthodox
Christians we recite at baptismal services and the Divine Liturgy. Also known
as the Symbol of Faith, it is the most important Christian creed ever written.
This council also condemned the teachings of Apollinaris.
The canons adopted at this council reaffirmed the fundamental principle of
Church organization-that each region is self-governing:
The bishops are not to go beyond their dioceses to churches lying outside
of their bounds, nor bring confusion on the churches. But let the Bishop of
Alexandria, according to the canons, alone administer the affairs of Egypt. And
let the bishops of the East manage the East alone, with the privileges of the
Church in Antioch, which are mentioned in the canons of Nicea, being
preserved. And let the bishops of the Asian Diocese [i.e., western Asia Minor]
administer the Asian affairs only; and the Pontic bishops [in northcentral Asia
Minor] only Pontic matters; and the Thracian bishops [in Thrace; directly west
of Constantinople] only Thracian affairs.?.?.?. it is evident that the synod of
every province will administer the affairs of that particular province, as was
decreed at Nicea (Canon 2).
Canon 3 from this council is also significant:
The Bishop of Constantinople, however, shall have the prerogative of
honor after the Bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is New Rome.
This canon affirmed that the Church in Constantinople, the new imperial
capital called “New Rome,” would naturally assume leading importance,
though the Church in Old Rome would retain its traditional position as “first
among equals.”
At this time the bishop of Old Rome was Pope Damasus (r. 366–384), who
was intent on extending the power of his see as much as possible. He rejected
this canon, despite its assurance that Old Rome still had “the prerogative of
honor.” This is a clear sign of a growing difference in basic understanding of
the Church between East and West, which will be a major cause of the Great
Schism of 1054.
Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint Gregory of Nyssa-the other of the
three great Cappadocian Fathers, along with his older brother, Saint Basil the
Great-and Saint Meletios, Bishop of Antioch, were leaders at the Second
Ecumenical Council.
In the 4th century, the Eucharistic prayers of the two most prominent
liturgies of the Eastern Church-the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, and
the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (d.
407)-were substantially formulated. The catechetical sermons of Saint John
Chrysostom, together with those of Saint Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (d. 386),
show that the sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation were being celebrated in
the fourth century almost exactly as they are done in the Orthodox Church
today.
By this time, the 40-Day Great Lent and the Feast of Pascha (Easter) were
well established. And the Feast of the Nativity of Christ (Christmas) was
separated from the Feast of Theophany (Epiphany), thus becoming a separate
feast of the Church (see Worship).
Monasticism
With the end of the era of persecution and the rapid growth of Christianity
in the cities, many Christians, both men and women, were drawn to wilderness
areas to serve God alone, and to fight the devil. Some lived completely in
isolation as hermits. Others lived near famous elders to be led by their spiritual
guidance. And still others gathered together to live in communities-the first
monasteries.
The ascetical life led by the monastics came to be seen as a white,
bloodless martyrdom, marked by constant dying to one’s passions and desires.
Not rejecting the world as something evil, the monastics served the world in the
most effective way possible-by their constant prayer for the whole world, and
by giving spiritual counsel to those who came to visit them.
Monasticism began in Egypt in the 3rd century. Saint Paul of Thebes (c.
230–340) was apparently the first hermit in the Egyptian desert. He was seen by
Saint Anthony the Great (c. 250–356), the one traditionally considered to be the
founder of monasticism, who lived in isolation for many years before allowing
disciples to begin living around him. The very vivid and dramatic Life of
Anthony, written by Saint Athanasius the Great, did much to popularize
monasticism, especially in Western Europe. The 38 “sayings” of Anthony in
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers remain to this day a superb teaching of the
Christian spiritual life.
The Life of Saint Martin of Tours (d. 397), written by Sulpicius Severus,
was intentionally modeled on the Life of Anthony. Saint Martin was a Roman
soldier who became a Christian after beholding a vision of Christ in which the
Lord commended him for giving half his cloak to a cold beggar. Together with
Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315–367), who is known as the “Saint Athanasius of
the West” for his ardent defense of the Nicene Faith, Saint Martin established
the first monastery in Gaul (modern-day France).
Communal, or cenobitic, monasticism was founded in Egypt by Saint
Pachomius (c. 290–346). His monastic Rule greatly influenced Saint Basil the
Great, as well as Saint John Cassian (c. 360–435), who founded two
monasteries in southern Gaul with the ethos of Egyptian monasticism, as well
as Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-c. 550), whose Rule guided nearly all of
Western monasticism for some 500 years.
One of the first monks to write about the spiritual and ascetical life was
Saint Macarius the Great (c. 300–390) of Egypt. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies,
traditionally ascribed to him or his disciples, are some of the most powerful
spiritual treatises ever written. Evagrius of Ponticus (346–399), a disciple of
Saint Macarius, also wrote important spiritual works, but some of his writing is
considered to be tinged with Origenistic teachings.
Saint John Chrysostom
Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) lived for several years as a monk in
the caves near his hometown of Antioch. However, he so injured his health
through his severe asceticism that he came back into the city to live. Eventually
he was ordained as a presbyter and given the major preaching duties in the
cathedral in Antioch. Having been trained in rhetoric by Libanius of Antioch,
one of the last great pagan rhetoricians of the ancient world, John flourished as
a preacher, coming to be known as the Golden-Mouth (this is what
“Chrysostom” means).
Many of Saint John’s sermons were preached in series as he went through
various books of the Bible verse by verse. He eloquently interpreted and
explained the texts with great practical wisdom and deeply penetrating spiritual
fervor. Hence he is honored in the Church as not only the greatest preacher who
ever lived, but also as the greatest Biblical commentator in the Eastern Church.
In 398 Saint John was made Archbishop of Constantinople. Partly because
he alienated Empress Eudoxia, and many others, through his forthright
preaching against luxury and ostentation, he was unjustly deposed and exiled to
eastern Asia Minor in 404. In his many years of preaching he had said much
about accepting and bearing innocent suffering patiently and nobly. Especially
in these years of exile, he practiced what he preached. He wrote many letters
from exile, including many to his closest friend and co-worker, the Deaconess
Saint Olympias, encouraging her to stand firm in hope.
He died in 407 on a forced march to a place of further exile, near modern
Abkhazia. In spite of all his unjust trials and suffering, his last words were
“Glory to God for all things!”
In 438 his relics were brought to Constantinople in triumph. When his
coffin was brought into the Great Church there, his voice was said to have rung
out, “Peace be with you all!”
Fifth Century
Inner Struggles
In the first decades of the fifth century, when Alexandria and
Constantinople were continuing their feud over their respective positions in the
Church and in the Empire, Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople (r. 428–
431), made known his refusal to honor Mary, Christ’s mother, with the
traditional title of Theotokos. He claimed that the one born from Mary is not
the Logos Himself, but merely the “man” in whom the eternal Logos of God
came to dwell. Thus, Mary could not properly be called “Theotokos,” which
means “the one who gave birth to God,” but only either “Christotokos,”
meaning “the one who gave birth to Christ,” or “anthropotokos,” meaning ‘the
one who gave birth to a man’-i.e., the man Jesus, to whom the Logos was
joined.
Saint Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria (r. 412–444), with the active support of
Pope Celestine of Rome, forcefully rejected the teaching of Nestorius, claiming
that it is indeed proper to call Mary Theotokos since the one born from her
“according to the flesh” is none other than the divine Logos of God. The only-
begotten Son of God was “begotten of the Father before all ages”; and He it was
“Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was
incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man” (The
Nicene Creed). Thus, the Son of God and the Son of Mary is one and the same
Son.
Third Ecumenical Council
Nestorius and his followers refused to yield to Saint Cyril’s appeals for
repentance. Thus, in 431, in the city of Ephesus, a Church council was
summoned by Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450) to resolve the issue. On the
first day, Nestorius, supported by only ten bishops, still refused to change his
mind, so he was condemned by Saint Cyril and his group of 57 bishops, and by
Bishop Memnon of Ephesus and his group of 52 bishops. This decision,
however, was not accepted by Bishop John of Antioch and his group of 30
bishops, who arrived at the council four days after it started-having been
delayed in their travels. They maintained their support for Nestorius, who had
previously been an outstanding preacher in Antioch.
The controversy was not resolved until two years later, when Bishop John
and Saint Cyril signed the Formulary of Peace of 433, in which the
condemnation of Nestorius was reaffirmed, but with language that more clearly
honored the typically Antiochian emphasis on the full reality of Christ’s
humanity. The Council of 431 (along with the Formulary of Peace of 433)
subsequently became known as the Third Ecumenical Council.
The Robber Council
Unfortunately, not everyone was satisfied with the results of the Third
Ecumenical Council and the Formulary of Peace. In particular, Saint Cyril’s
more extreme followers resented the fact that he had not insisted on one
particular phrase concerning Christ: the “one nature of the Word of God
Incarnate.” Saint Cyril occasionally had used this phrase, but he had never
insisted upon it, perhaps realizing that the term “one nature” could imply that
Christ does not have a full human nature. The more extreme Alexandrians,
however, feared that by not using it, the Nestorian tendency to overemphasize
Christ’s two natures, and especially His humanity-to the point of giving it an
independent existence (a personal center of being, or hypostasis)-which would
make Jesus two different persons (the Son of God and the Son of Mary), would
not be fully rejected.
An uneasy peace was maintained until Saint Cyril’s death in 444. But he
was succeeded as bishop of Alexandria by Dioscorus, another fiery
Alexandrian, who wished to attain full recognition of the phrase “one nature of
the Word of God Incarnate.” His associate, Eutyches, even went so far as to say
“Christ’s humanity is different from ours.”
With the support of Emperor Theodosius II, Dioscorus arranged a major
council to be held in Ephesus in 449, which affirmed the extreme Alexandrian
position that the divinity of Christ virtually eclipsed or even destroyed His
humanity. Pope Saint Leo of Rome (r. 440–461) had sent to the council a
doctrinal statement, called Leo’s Tome, which strongly affirmed the ongoing
reality of the two natures of Christ-one fully divine, and one fully human. But
Dioscorus was so much in control of the council that Leo’s Tome was not even
allowed to be read there, and bishops suspected of Nestorian tendencies were
deposed. When Leo heard later what had happened, he exclaimed that it was a
“latrocinium,” a Council of Robbers.
There was widespread resistance to this council, and yet it was the law for
the Church and the Empire as long as Emperor Theodosius lived and did not
change his mind. Providentially for the Orthodox, in July of the very next year
(450), he fell from his horse and died. This brought his distinguished and
extremely pious elder sister, Saint Pulcheria, to the throne, along with her
distinguished consort, a retired military general who would become Saint
Marcian. This Pulcheria had been a champion of the Theotokos during the
controversy with Nestorius; it was partly due to her efforts that popular
devotion to the Theotokos increased in the first half of the fifth century.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council
Together, in 451, Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria called another
general council, this time on a far broader scale, to give the Church the
opportunity to resolve the differences while still being completely faithful to
the Nicene Creed. This illustrious council became known as the Fourth
Ecumenical Council. With 630 bishops in attendance, it was the largest of all
seven of the Ecumenical Councils. It was held in Chalcedon, not far from
Constantinople, in Asia Minor.
This council defended the teaching of Saint Cyril on the “hypostatic
union” of Christ’s divine and human natures as expressed at the Council of
Ephesus of 431. It also expressed the Antiochian emphasis on the genuine
humanity of Jesus as expressed in the Formulary of Peace, as well as the
Roman emphasis on the ongoing distinctiveness of the fully divine and fully
human natures of Christ, as expressed in the language of Leo’s Tome. Indeed,
when Leo’s Tome was read, all the bishops were reported to have cried out,
“Peter has spoken through Leo!” But the Pope’s statement was not the last
word. It also was subjected to scrutiny by the fathers at the Council, who
decided to select parts of it to be woven into the Council’s final doctrinal
definition.
The Chalcedonian Definition states that Jesus Christ is indeed the Logos
incarnate, the very Son of God “begotten of the Father before all ages” (Nicene
Creed). It reaffirms that the Virgin Mary is truly Theotokos, since the one born
from her “according to the flesh” in Bethlehem is the uncreated, divine Son of
God, one of the Holy Trinity. In His human birth, the Council declared, the
Word of God took to Himself the whole of humanity, becoming a real man in
every way, but without sin. Thus, according to the Chalcedonian Definition,
Jesus of Nazareth is one person or hypostasis in two natures-human and divine-
united “without change, without confusion, without division, without
separation.” He is fully human. He is fully divine. He is perfect God and perfect
man. As God, He is “of one essence” (homoousios) with God the Father and the
Holy Spirit. And as man, He is “of one essence” (homoousios) with all human
beings, as the Formulary of Peace had declared.
The union of divinity and humanity in Christ is called the hypostatic
union. This expression means that in the one, unique person, or divine
hypostasis, of Christ, divine nature and human nature are united in such a way
that they are neither changed, nor confused, nor separated, nor divided. Christ
is one Person Who is both human and divine. One and the same divine person
(or hypostasis) is the Son of God and the Son of Mary.
The Monophysites
The Definition of the Council of Chalcedon was not accepted by the
extreme disciples of Saint Cyril of Alexandria, nor by those who later came to
be associated with them. These Christians were called by the Chalcedonians
Monophysites, because of their insistence on Saint Cyril’s phrase “one nature
of the Word of God Incarnate” (“one nature” in Greek is “mia physis”). Hence
they rejected the Chalcedonian Definition, which speaks of Christ being “in two
natures.”
The supporters of Chalcedon claimed and still claim that the Chalcedonian
Definition is fully in accord with the thought of Saint Cyril, who did not insist
on the Monophysites’ hallmark phrase “one nature of the Word of God
Incarnate” in his letters to Nestorius, or at the Council of Ephesus, or in the
Formulary of Peace. And from other things he wrote, it is clear that when he
used this problematic phrase, his actual meaning was “one hypostasis of the
Word of God Incarnate,” which is just what Chalcedon proclaimed and
defended.
The Henotikon
In 482 Emperor Zeno, with the support of Patriarch Acacius of
Constantinople, issued an imperial edict called the Henotikon (coming from the
Greek word meaning “unity” or “union”), which was designed to bring
reconciliation between those who accepted the Council of Chalcedon and those
who rejected it. The Henotikon strongly affirmed the first three Ecumenical
Councils, avoided any mention of one or two natures in Christ, and
anathematized “anyone who has held or holds any other opinion, either now or
at any other time, whether at Chalcedon or at any synod whatsoever.”
The Henotikon mollified the moderate Monophysites, who continued to
stay in communion with the Chalcedonian Byzantines-for as yet there had been
no actual schism in the Church. But it infuriated the Roman Church, since it
certainly did place a question mark over the Council of Chalcedon, at which the
Tome of their beloved Saint Leo was so influential. In 484 Pope Felix of Rome
(r. 483–492) excommunicated all the Churches of the East on account of their
acceptance of the Henotikon. This began the so-called Acacian Schism between
Rome and the East, which lasted until 518.
Canons of the Councils
The Third and Fourth Ecumenical Councils adopted a number of canons of
a disciplinary and practical nature. The Council of Ephesus forbade the
composition of a “different faith” from that of the first two councils (Canon 7).
This canon has been used by the Orthodox in opposition to the addition of the
word filioque to the Creed as it came to be used in the Western Churches. This
Council also reaffirmed the ancient independent jurisdictional status of the
Church of Cyprus against attempts by the Church of Antioch to hold
ordinations there (Canon 8). The Council of Chalcedon, in basically repeating
Canon 3 from the Second Ecumenical Council, gave to Constantinople, the New
Rome, “equal privileges with the old imperial Rome” because the new capital
city was “honored with the emperor and the senate” (Canon 28). The Roman
Church, however, fearing that this canon would interfere with her growing
aspirations to have universal authority over the whole Church, did not accept
this canon of the Council of Chalcedon.
The West
Saint Augustine
The Western Church was dominated intellectually and spiritually by the
towering figure of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (r. 386–430), near
Carthage in western North Africa. Living in a kind of communal monasticism
with friends on his estate, Augustine wrote massively in Latin. His City of God
was the most extensive Christian reflection on human history and its ultimate
destiny ever written up to that point. His Scriptural commentaries and his many
letters have provided practical guidance for many generations of Western
Christians. And his remarkably intimate Confessions became a model for many
more such introspective spiritual analyses.
Many of his writings were taken up with fighting three virulent heresies-
Donatism, the rigorist sect of western North Africa similar to Novatianism;
Manicheanism, a strictly dualist movement from Asia Minor; and Pelagianism,
promoted by a British monk named Pelagius, who asserted that man could be
saved by his own virtue, without the assistance of divine grace. In the heat of
the polemics with these heterodox movements, Augustine did not always avoid
the temptation of taking his position to the opposite extreme.
This happened most conspicuously in his anti-Pelagian writings, in which
he said that man, due to the grievous calamity of Adam’s Fall, so far from
being able to save himself, cannot even do anything good. Because his free will
has become totally depraved due to this “original sin” of Adam, man cannot
participate in his own salvation, so God must do everything.
These presuppositions led with inexorable logic to what would become
known as the doctrine of double predestination. As stated many years later in
the Westminster Confession (1646) of the Presbyterian Church, “By the decree
of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are
predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting
death.” Such a view is in stark contrast to the Orthodox understanding of
synergism, in which God and man-whose free will, though damaged, was not
totally corrupted at the Fall-cooperate together in the work of salvation, which
God longingly desires for every human being (cf. 1Tim 2.4).
Another problematic side to Augustine, from the Orthodox point of view,
is his philosophical speculation about the Holy Trinity, in which he suggests
that the Holy Spirit is the love that binds the Father and the Son. Such
speculation creates some of the philosophical underpinning for the filioque,
which appeared in Spain in the next century.
In addition, his claim that marital relations can never occur without the sin
of concupiscence darkened in the West the traditional understanding of the full
goodness of human sexuality and marriage (as seen at the Council of Nicea).
This skepticism/pessimism regarding sexuality is reflected in the mandatory
clerical celibacy practiced in the Roman Catholic Church to this day.
Saint John Cassian
In southern France, Saint John Cassian (c. 360-c. 435) established two
monasteries based on the pattern of the Egyptian monasticism of the Desert
Fathers and Mothers, with whom he had spent much time earlier in his life. In
his most highly acclaimed works, The Conferences and The Institutes, he
conveys the wisdom he learned from the monastics of Egypt, including their
understanding of the mystery of synergism.
Saint John Cassian writing on synergism
And therefore it is laid down by all the catholic fathers who have taught
perfection of heart not by empty disputes of words, but in deed and act, that the
first stage in the Divine gift is for each man to be inflamed with the desire for
everything that is good, but in such a way that the choice of free will is open to
either side. The second stage in Divine grace is for the aforesaid practices of
virtue to be able to be performed, but in such a way that the possibilities of the
will are not destroyed. The third stage also belongs to the gifts of God, so that it
may be held by the persistence of the goodness already acquired, and in such a
way that the liberty may not be surrendered and experience bondage. For the
God of all must be held to work in all, so as to incite, protect, and strengthen,
but not to take away the freedom of the will which He Himself has once given.
If, however, any more subtle further human argumentation and reasoning
seems opposed to this interpretation, it should be avoided, rather than brought
forward to the destruction of the faith (for we do not gain faith from
understanding, but understanding from faith, as it is written, “Except ye
believe, ye will not understand” [Is 7.9]). For how God works all things in us
and yet everything can be ascribed to free will, cannot be fully grasped by the
mind and reason of man.
(The Conferences, XIII.18)
Many monasteries, sketes, and hermitages based on the Egyptian model
sprang up and flourished in the mountains and valleys of eastern and southern
France in the 5th and 6th centuries. The lives of nearly thirty saints in this
setting were compiled near the end of the 6th century by Saint Gregory of
Tours.
Pope Saint Leo the Great
In 452 Pope Saint Leo proved to be a skillful diplomat as he convinced
Attila the Hun not to sack the city of Rome. Thereafter, the imperial
government in Rome continued to weaken, until it was taken over by Germanic
invaders from the north in 476. This maed the end of close political
connections between East and West. Though political unity was restored
temporarily under Emperor Justinian I in the next century, the political,
cultural, and linguistic disunity that prevailed after his death was a major factor
in the eventual schism in the 11th century between the Roman, Latin-speaking
Church in the West and the Greek-speaking Patriarchates of the East.
Pope Leo also played a major role in the ongoing story of the gradual
extension of Papal power in Western Europe. In 444 he deprived the archbishop
of the city of Arles in France, who was then Metropolitan Saint Hilary of Arles,
of his status as a metropolitan, thus consolidating Roman authority over this
part of France. He also obtained from the Western Emperor Valentinian III a
decree granting the Roman Church supreme authority over the Churches in all
of Western Europe. However, it would take many more centuries of overcoming
strong opposition in virtually every part of Western Europe before Rome could
fully put this edict into effect.
Sixth Century
Emperor Justinian I and the Non-Chalcedonians
The 6th century was dominated by the person and policies of the Emperor
Saint Justinian I (r. 527–565). Perhaps the greatest of all the Byzantine
emperors, he was also an outstanding theologian. He correctly understood the
relationship between the Church and the State to be one of unity and
cooperation, or symphonia, between the priesthood (which “concerns things
divine”) and the empire (which “presides over morals”).
Justinian’s goals were to completely reunite the Empire both politically
and religiously, by regaining the western part of the empire from the Germanic
Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric, and by winning back the Monophysites, or Non-
Chalcedonians, to the Orthodox Faith proclaimed at the Council of Chalcedon.
Reconciliation with the Roman Church had already been accomplished in 518
by his predecessor, his uncle Emperor Justin I (r. 518–527), who brought the era
of the Henotikon and the Acacian Schism to an end by strongly endorsing the
Council of Chalcedon. An annual commemoration, on July 16, of the Fathers of
the Chalcedonian council was added to the Church calendar at that time.
Justinian accomplished his first goal through the efforts of his armies, led
by the great general Belisarius-although within three years after Justinian’s
death, the Lombards had taken back much of Italy. But he failed in his second
goal, even though his attempts were bold and persistent.
Justinian’s main attempt to win back the Non-Chalcedonians to the
Orthodox Church was through the official condemnation of three theologians
who had been quite popular in the East, but who had been connected with
Nestorius. The first of these, Bishop Theodore of Mopsuestia, had been
Nestorius’s teacher; he died in 428, three years before Nestorius was
condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council. The other two, Bishop Theodoret
of Cyrrus and Bishop Ibas of Edessa, originally had been supporters of
Nestorius at the Third Council and therefore had been condemned and deposed
at the Robber Council of 449. But at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at
Chalcedon, after agreeing to the condemnation of Nestorius they were restored
to their bishoprics. By an imperial decree in 544, and by the decision of the
major council held in 553-the Fifth Ecumenical Council, also known as the
Second Council of Constantinople-Justinian formally condemned the so-called
Three Chapters. These chapters were the objectionable, pro-Nestorian writings
of Theodoret of Cyrrus and lbas of Edessa, along with the writings and the
person of Theodore of Mopsuestia.
The Fifth Ecumenical Council
In addition to rejecting the unorthodox, ambiguous writings listed in the
Three Chapters, the Fathers of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, with great
pastoral concern, strove to find a way to remain faithful to the teachings of the
Council of Chalcedon while Non-Chalcedonians. In a long series of statements,
the Council affirmed, without ambiguity, the traditional Orthodox
understanding that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is “one of the Holy Trinity,”
one and the same divine person (hypostasis) Who has united personally
(hypostatically) in Himself the two natures of divinity and humanity, without
fusing them together and without allowing their separation in any way. In these
statements, the Council several times permitted the use of characteristic
Monophysite/Non-Chalcedonian language, including the hallmark phrase “one
nature of the Word of God Incarnate,” as long as this language is interpreted in
an Orthodox way, as explained by the Council.
The Fifth Council also officially condemned the problematic teachings of
Origen (d. 254) and his 6th-century disciples who taught and practiced a
“spiritualistic” version of Christianity which contained many unorthodox
doctrines. For instance, they taught that Christ was the only created spirit who
did not become material through sin; that men’s souls were pre-existent spirits;
and that all of Creation, including the demons, will ultimately be saved through
its spiritualization by God in Christ the Savior.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches
Very sadly, despite the Henotikon, the condemnation of the Three
Chapters, and the other efforts of the Fifth Council to win back the Non-
Chalcedonians, they were not reunited to the Byzantine Church. By 553, their
alternate ecclesiastical hierarchical structure was already quite firmly
established-a process which actually had not begun until the decade of the 530s.
The Non-Chalcedonians generally felt that the efforts of the Fifth Council were
too little, too late. Apparently they never became convinced that Chalcedon was
faithful to the thought of Saint Cyril. Even though Chalcedon reaffirmed the
Third Council’s condemnation of Nestorius, the Non-Chalcedonians always
suspected that the Chalcedonian Definition tended towards Nestorianism.
One major reason for their suspicion was that Chalcedon also had restored
several bishops to their thrones who had been deposed at the Robber Council-
bishops who at one time did have pro-Nestorian leanings, especially Bishop
Theodoret of Cyrrus and Bishop Ibas of Edessa. Even though the pro-Nestorian
writings of these two bishops were condemned at the Fifth Council, this was
not enough to satisfy the Monophysites.
The disagreement was never settled, despite further efforts on the part of
the Byzantines to win back the non-Chalcedonians in the next century. And
while there have been encouraging discussions between the two sides in recent
times (beginning in the 1960s), in which basic doctrinal agreement seems to
have been established, the dissenters from the Chalcedonian decision remain
separated from the Orthodox Church.
Today, the Non-Chalcedonian Churches are generally known as the
Oriental Orthodox Churches. They are the Coptic Church of Egypt, the
Ethiopian Church, the Syrian Jacobite Church, the Syrian (Malankara) Church
of India, and the Armenian Church.
Emperor Justinian I and Reform
By Justinian’s time most of the citizens of the Empire had accepted
Christianity, but there were still some strong pockets of resistance to the
Gospel. Justinian’s reign saw a concerted attack against the remnants of
Hellenistic paganism in the empire. The University of Athens was closed in
529, and exclusively Christian learning and culture were promoted. Justinian
also undertook a massive codification of the laws of the Empire, which became
known as the Code of Justinian. In its introduction, the emperor made his own
personal declaration of his faith in Christ.
Justinian built many church buildings in the imperial city and throughout
the empire, particularly in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and at Saint Catherine’s
Monastery on Mount Sinai. His greatest creation was the temple in
Constantinople dedicated to Christ the Wisdom of God-the magnificent Church
of the Hagia Sophia, with the largest dome ever built, even to this day.
Iconography, engraving, and mosaic work flourished during this time. The
basilicas of Ravenna, with their famous mosaic iconographic frescoes, were
built in this era (Ravenna, in northeastern Italy, would long be the main seat of
Byzantine imperial authority in the West during this period of barbarian
conquests).
Many liturgical hymns were written, including the Christmas kontakion
and many other kontakia by Saint Romanos the Hymnographer (early 6th
century), a deacon in Constantinople, who was one of the most gifted
hymnographers of all time. It is said that Emperor Justinian himself wrote the
hymn “Only-begotten Son,” which is still sung at the synaxis of the divine
liturgies in the Orthodox Church.
The 6th century witnessed a certain establishment and stabilization of
liturgical worship throughout the Eastern Christian world, particularly because
the liturgical practices of the imperial city of Constantinople were being
accepted voluntarily by other cities throughout the empire. The Church of
Constantinople began to use certain liturgical feasts already in use in the
Palestinian centers of Church life. These feasts were the Nativity and the
Dormition of the Theotokos, and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. It is
also likely that the feast of the Transfiguration was celebrated in
Constantinople by this time.
In addition to the festal celebrations of the capital city that spread
throughout the Eastern empire, such elements as the formal liturgical
entrances, and the chanting of the Trisagion in the Divine Liturgy, were added.
The convergence of several factors caused numerous changes in the
Church’s liturgical ritual and piety. These factors were the rise of the
Constantinopolitan Church as the model for other churches; the development of
the imperial churchly ritual; the appearance of the mystical theology expressed
in the writings published under the name of Saint Dionysius the Aeropagite;
and the attempts of the Church and State to reconcile the Non-Chalcedonians.
At this time the practices of the Church of Constantinople were combined
with the original Jewish-Christian worship of the early Church, the rule of
prayer which had developed in the Christian monasteries, and the liturgical
practices of the Church in Jerusalem, to form the first great synthesis of
liturgical worship in Orthodox history.
Five Patriarchates
In the sixth century, Constantinople, in the minds of Eastern Christians,
was firmly established as the primary see in the Christian pentarchy, even
though the see of Rome was still technically considered the “first among
equals.” Emperor Justinian called the pentarchy-the great original patriarchates
of Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem-the “five senses
of the universe.”
The title “ecumenical” was given to all the chief offices in the imperial
city. When Saint John the Faster (r. 582–595), the Patriarch of Constantinople,
assumed the title of “Ecumenical Patriarch,” the designation was adamantly
opposed by Pope Saint Gregory the Great of Rome (r. 590–604) as being
extremely arrogant and unbecoming of any Christian bishop, including the
bishop of Rome. This is the same Saint Gregory whose name is traditionally
connected with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts which the Orthodox
celebrate on the weekdays of Great Lent (see Worship).
The West
Saint Gregory the Great
In the West, the power and prestige of the Roman Papacy increased
dramatically under Saint Gregory the Great. In the midst of a general
breakdown of civil authority in the face of the invasion of the Lombards, he led
the Church in organizing the economic, social, political, and even military
affairs of Italy. He successfully negotiated a separate peace with the Lombards,
thus effectively setting aside the authority of the Byzantine exarch of Ravenna.
Personally very humble, he was also a skilled practical theologian. His Book of
Pastoral Rule would have great influence in the Western Church.
Saint Gregory is also particularly remembered for writing the Dialogues,
which relate the lives and miracles of a number of Italian saints (hence he is
known in the Orthodox Church as Saint Gregory Dialogus). He is also
remembered for sending Saint Augustine of Canterbury and about forty
companions to England, where they firmly established Latin-speaking
Christianity centered in Canterbury, which is the seat of the head of the
Anglican Church to this day.
Saint Benedict of Nursia and his Monastic Rule
Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-c. 550) founded an important monastery
at Monte Cassino in Italy. His Monastic Rule, in which he drew freely from the
Rule of Saint Basil the Great among other sources, would become the single
guiding regulation for Western monasticism for the next five hundred years.
This moderate, balanced Rule for cenobitic (communal) monasticism continues
to guide the Benedictine Order within the Roman Catholic Church to this day.
From the Prologue of the Monastic Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia
Therefore we must establish a school of the Lord’s service, in the founding
of which we hope to stipulate nothing that is harsh or burdensome. But if, for
good reason, for the amendment of evil habits or for the preservation of charity,
there be some strictness of discipline, do not be at once dismayed and run away
from the way of salvation, of which the entrance must be narrow.
Rather, as we progress in our monastic life and in faith, our hearts will be
enlarged, and we will run with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of
God’s commandments. Hence, by never abandoning His rule, and by
persevering in His teaching in the monastery until death, we will share by
patience in the sufferings of Christ, that we may deserve to be partakers also of
His Kingdom. Amen.
Other Leading Saints
Among the leading saints of this century, mention also must be made of
Saint Columba (c. 521–597), a great missionary in Scotland and Ireland; and
Saint Sabas (439–532), who built on the preliminary work of the
wonderworking Saint Euthymius the Great (377–473) in establishing what
would become the leading monastery of Palestine. A stronghold of
Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, the Monastery of Saint Sabas is still in existence
today.
The Filioque
In Spain, most likely at the Council of Toledo in 589, the word filioque
(meaning “and the Son”) was added by the Spanish Church to the Nicene-
Constantinopolitan Creed: “And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” This action was
taken to further emphasize the divinity of Christ to the Visigoths, Arian
Christians who first invaded Spain in the previous century. Their ancestors had
been converted to Arian Christianity (which denied Christ’s full divinity) by
Bishop Ulfilas (c. 311–383), known as the Apostle to the Goths.
However, it was a serious offense for a local council to unilaterally alter
the universally accepted Creed which had been written by the first two
Ecumenical Councils. And asserting that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father and the Son seriously distorts the traditional understanding of the Holy
Trinity. So, as we will see, the addition of “and the Son” (filioque) to the Creed
in reference to the procession of the Holy Spirit will have grave consequences
in later Church history.
Seventh Century
Monoenergism / Monothelitism
In the year 610, a new emperor took the imperial throne, and a new
patriarch took the ecclesiastical throne of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) and Patriarch Sergius (r. 610–638) became
close friends and collaborators. Together they led the State and the Church for
almost thirty years. And they were very eager to reunite the western and eastern
parts of the Empire both religiously and politically.
In another major effort to heal the schism with the Monophysites/Non-
Chalcedonians, Patriarch Sergius proposed the idea that in the hypostatic union
of the two natures of Christ, there must be one divine-human (theandric)
energy-hence, this view came to be known as “Monoenergism.” This formula
appealed to the moderate Non-Chalcedonians, with their continued emphasis on
“the one nature of the Word of God Incarnate”-since having one nature would
imply having one energy. And for the Chalcedonians, it did seem to make sense
that since the Word of God has only one (divine) hypostasis, He must act with
only one energy, operation, or action.
Support for Sergius’s new formula was strengthened by the fact that the
concept of “one theandric energy” appeared in the writings attributed to Saint
Dionysius the Areopagite. Most probably Sergius got the idea from this source.
By now these writings, which first appeared among moderate Monophysites
early in the previous century, had become very popular with both
Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians. These writings would come to have
great influence on the liturgical piety of the Church through their symbolical
explanations of the rituals of worship.
For a time, it appeared that the “monoenergistic” formula would be
successful in winning back the Non-Chalcedonians. In 632, in Erzerum, a
council of 193 Greek and Armenian (Monophysite) bishops was held which
formally recognized the Council of Chalcedon on the basis of the
“monoenergistic” interpretation. And in 633, the new Chalcedonian patriarch of
Alexandria, named Cyrus, succeeded in getting a number of leading Egyptian
Non-Chalcedonians to agree to accept the Council of Chalcedon on the basis of
the “monoenergistic” formula.
Unexpectedly, even the Nestorians of Persia were drawn to the formula,
since the teachers of Nestorius had said that the two natures (though really
implying two hypostases) of Christ were united by the one activity, or energy,
of their union in Christ. In 628, Emperor Heraclius, in the midst of his military
campaign against the Persians, participated, along with his court, in the
celebration of the Divine Liturgy and received the Holy Eucharist with the
Nestorian Catholicos of Persia, Isoyabh II.
The Syrian and Palestinian Non-Chalcedonians were less excited by the
“monoenergistic” plan of reunion, though the Monastery of Saint John Maron,
near Emesa, accepted it. These monks and their followers eventually fled to the
mountains of Lebanon to escape persecution, and in 1182 they joined Roman
Catholicism. To this day their descendants are known as Maronites; they are the
largest Christian group in the modern state of Lebanon.
Apparently there was no opposition raised against the “monoenergistic”
formula from any of the Chalcedonians until 633. In that year the elderly and
highly esteemed monk Saint Sophronius (c. 560–638) implored Cyrus, the
Patriarch of Alexandria, not to promote it. Sophronius was convinced that
something vital and intrinsic to human nature was being denied to Jesus Christ
in the assertion that He has only one divine-human energy.
Cyrus was not convinced by Sophronius. But when the determined monk
appealed personally to Patriarch Sergius, the patriarch became willing to
reconsider the issue. In a letter to Pope Honorius of Rome (r. 625–638),
Patriarch Sergius suggested that instead of asserting that there is only one
energy in Christ, perhaps it might be more accurate to say that He has only one
will.
Honorius eagerly took up Sergius’s hint about one will in Christ. He wrote
back saying that there would be no need to talk about one or two energies in
Christ if everyone would agree that there is only one will in Christ. So he is the
first one to explicitly declare that there is only one will in Christ. This view,
however well-intentioned and seemingly reasonable as it may have been, will
be condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council, held in Constantinople in 680–
681, as the heresy of Monothelitism.
Sergius, convinced that Monothelitism is closer to the truth than
Monoenergism, was delighted with Honorius’s reply. In 638, in collaboration
with Abbot Pyrrhus, who followed him as Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius
convinced Emperor Heraclius to proclaim the Monothelite doctrine in an
imperial decree. The doctrine was endorsed by two Church councils in
Constantinople, in 638 and 639. This doctrine became the law of the Church
and State until it was condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council.
Meanwhile, the elderly monk Sophronius, who had become Patriarch of
Jerusalem (r. 634–638), was convinced that Monothelitism is just as erroneous
as Monoenergism, but he was not able to deter either Patriarch Sergius or Pope
Honorius from promoting the Monothelite position. However, he inspired his
brilliant follower, Saint Maximus the Confessor (580–662), to take up the
struggle.
Saint Maximus the Confessor and Saint Martin of
Rome
Saint Maximus, from an old aristocratic family of Constantinople, had
been an imperial secretary to Emperor Heraclius before becoming a monk in
614. In western North Africa in 645, Maximus convinced the deposed and
exiled Patriarch Pyrrhus of Constantinople of the error of Monothelitism. By
the next year he was in Rome, where he so strongly convinced Pope Theodore
(r. 642–649) of the error that the Pope broke communion with the Monothelite
Patriarch Paul of Constantinople. And in 649, Maximus inspired the new Pope
Saint Martin (r. 649–655) to hold a council in Rome which solemnly
condemned both Monoenergism and Monothelitism.
What was wrong with Monothelitism? Saint Maximus and Saint Martin,
together with their staunch supporters, insisted that both Christ’s divine nature
and his human nature each have its own proper energy (or activity) and
capability/power to will. Christ, in His divine nature, has the same fullness of
the divine will, energy, action, operation, and power which the Father and the
Holy Spirit also have. And in His human nature, Christ has the same fullness of
the human will, energy, action, operation, and power which every other human
being has. He must have this key element in human nature, or else, as Saint
Gregory the Theologian said in refuting Apollinarianism, “What He has not
assumed has not been healed (or saved). ”
Christ has indeed healed and saved every aspect of human nature,
including the natural human will, because He assumed every element/aspect of
human nature when he became Incarnate. And it is through His genuinely
human action, voluntarily submitting his natural human will to His divine will
(the will of God), that Jesus Christ, as the new and final Adam, freely accepted
crucifixion to liberate all of humanity from sin and death (see Doctrine).
Saint Maximus and Saint Martin suffered greatly for opposing the
Monothelite position. They were both arrested by the imperial authorities and
brought to Constantinople, where they were tried on false charges, condemned,
imprisoned, and exiled. Saint Maximus even had his right hand and his tongue
cut off by the imperial powers, who were determined to force the
Chalcedonians and the Non-Chalcedonians into theological agreement.
Ironically, by then real reconciliation between the two sides had been made
virtually impossible by the Arab conquests, which in effect sealed off Egypt,
Palestine, and Syria from the Byzantine world, preventing the possibility of
further theological discussion.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council
The doctrine of Saint Sophronius, Saint Maximus, and Saint Martin
prevailed at the Third Council of Constantinople, known as the Sixth
Ecumenical Council, held in 680–681. This council verified their teaching and
condemned Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople and his successors Pyrrhus,
Paul, and Peter, as well as Pope Honorius of Rome, together with all who
defended the false doctrine about Jesus that deprived Him of His genuine
humanity. Pope Saint Agatho of Rome (r. 678–681) did much to prepare the
way for this council and its decision, whereby communion between Rome and
the Eastern Churches was restored.
The Council of Trullo or the Quinisext Council
In 692, just eleven years after the Sixth Ecumenical Council was held,
another major council of Eastern bishops was held in the imperial palace called
Trullo in Constantinople-hence the name, the Council of Trullo. This Council
made no doctrinal proclamations; rather, it issued 102 canonical regulations on
a wide variety of topics.
This council is probably more often called the Quinisext Council (meaning
“fifth-sixth”), because its canonical legislation is understood as having
completed the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils, neither of which had
passed any canons. So its rulings are held by the Orthodox Church to be at the
same level of authority as the canons passed by the first four Ecumenical
Councils.
Some of these 102 canons were previously included in Justinian’s civil
legislation. Others concerned early practices of the Church which had not
previously been put into formal Church law.
Some of these canons reveal differences in practices between the Roman
and the Eastern Churches. For example, Canon 13 states:
Since we know it to be handed down as a rule of the Roman Church that
those who are deemed worthy to be advanced to the diaconate or presbyterate
should promise no longer to cohabit with their wives, we, preserving the ancient
rule and apostolic perfection and order, will that the lawful marriages of men
who are in holy orders be from this time forward firm, by no means dissolving
their union with their wives nor depriving them of their mutual intercourse at a
convenient time .?.?. lest we should injuriously affect marriage constituted by
God and blessed by His presence, as the Gospel says, “What God has joined
together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19.6); and as the Apostle says,
“Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled” (Heb 13.4); and again, “Are
you bound to a wife? Seek not to be loosed” (1Cor 7.27).
Canon 102 of the Quinisext Council, on pastoral care as the cure of
souls
It behooves those who have received from God the power to loose and
bind, to consider the type and the degree of the sin, and the readiness of the
sinner for repentance, and to apply medicine suitable for the disease, lest if he
is undiscerning in each of these respects he should fail in healing the sick man.
For the disease of sin is not simple, but complex, and can take many different
forms, and it germinates many mischievous offshoots, from which much evil is
diffused, and it proceeds further until it is stopped by the power of the
physician. Wherefore the one who professes the science of spiritual medicine
ought first of all to consider the disposition of the one who has sinned, and to
see whether he tends towards health or, on the contrary, provokes himself to
disease by his own behavior. .?.?.
For the whole account is between God and the one to whom the pastoral
rule has been delivered, to lead back the wandering sheep and to cure that
which is wounded by the serpent. The pastor must neither cast the sheep down
into the depths of despair, nor loosen the bridle thus leading them to a dissolute
way of life. Rather, by some way or other, either by means of sternness and
astringency, or by greater softness and milder medicines, the pastor must resist
the sickness and exert himself for the healing of the ulcer, examining the fruits
of the man’s repentance and wisely managing him-for all men are called to
higher illumination.
The Roman Church, however, continued to try to enforce celibacy upon all
her priests, though she was not able to do so fully until about the 12th century.
Canon 6 of the Quinisext Council reaffirmed the rule that unmarried
priests, deacons, and subdeacons may not marry after their ordination. The
council also reinforced the law dating from Justinian’s time that only celibates,
normally taken from among the monks, may serve in the office of the bishop
(Canons 12 and 48). And this council set the ages for ordination to the offices
of deacon, priest, and bishop (Canons 14 and 15).
In general, the council reaffirmed the traditional churchly discipline
regarding the clergy, such as their strict exclusion from direct participation in
the political, military, and economic affairs of this world. This can be seen in
varying ways in Canons 9, 10, 24, 27, 34, and 50.
This council also called for the “penalty of murder” for those who “give
drugs for procuring abortion and those who take them to kill the fetus” (Canon
91).
Theological Writings
Besides his deep and profound theological writings, Saint Maximus the
Confessor also wrote much on spiritual and ascetical themes. His most famous
spiritual work is probably the Four Centuries on Love, which is included in the
Philokalia, the greatest collection of spiritual writings of Eastern Orthodoxy.
There is more written by Saint Maximus in the Philokalia than by any other
writer.
At about the same time, Saint John Climacus (d. 649), abbot of the
Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, wrote one of the greatest, classic
works on the spiritual life, called The Ladder of Divine Ascent. This book was
held in such high esteem that it gave John his last name, for “Climacus” means
“of the Ladder.”
During his long campaign against the Persians, Emperor Heraclius
recovered the True Cross of Christ, which the Persians had taken from
Jerusalem in 614. On March 21, 631, he solemnly brought it to Golgotha in
Jerusalem. This action dramatically helped to spread the celebration of the
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14) throughout the Christian
Empire; until then this feast was celebrated mostly only in Jerusalem (see
Worship).
The Quinisext Council decreed that on the weekdays of Great Lent the
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts should be served instead of the Eucharistic
Divine Liturgy (Canon 52). It called for Christians to honor Christ’s
resurrection by refraining from penitential kneeling on Sundays (Canon 90).
This council forbade all laymen except the Emperor from entering the
sanctuary of the church building (Canon 69), and it forbade the sacramental
marriage of Orthodox Christians with non-Orthodox (Canon 72). It enjoined
those who sing in church to refrain from “undisciplined vociferations” and
from using “any melodies which are incongruous and unsuitable for the
Church” (Canon 75). And it called for the excommunication of people who for
no good reason miss the Divine Liturgy for “three consecutive Sundays”
(Canon 80).
Canon 55 of the Quinisext Council reveals a significant difference in
practice between East and West concerning fasting during Great Lent, and it
mandates that the Roman Church must correct her non-traditional custom:
Since we understand that in the city of the Romans, in the holy fast of Lent
they fast on the Saturdays [meaning abstinence from all food, and no
celebration of the Divine Liturgy], contrary to the ecclesiastical observance
which is traditional, it seemed good to the holy synod that also in the Church of
the Romans the canon [Canon 66 of the ancient Apostolic Canons] shall
immovably stand fast which says: “If any cleric shall be found to fast on a
Sunday or Saturday (except on one occasion only [i.e., Great and Holy
Saturday]) he is to be deposed; and if he is a layman he shall be cut off.”
Another difference in practice between East and West is discussed in
Canon 82, which addresses how Christ is to be depicted in the holy icons:
In some pictures of the venerable icons, a lamb is painted to which the
Precursor [i.e., Saint John the Baptist] points his finger, which is received as a
type of grace, indicating beforehand through the Law, our true Lamb, Christ
our God. Considering therefore the ancient types and shadows to be symbols of
the truth and patterns given to the Church, we prefer ‘grace and truth’ [Jn
1.17], receiving it as the fulfillment of the Law. In order therefore that ‘that
which is perfect’ may be delineated to the eyes of all, at least in colored
expression, we decree that the figure in human form of the Lamb who takes
away the sin of the world, Christ our God, be henceforth exhibited in images,
instead of the ancient lamb, so that all may understand by means of it the
depths of the humiliation of the Word of God, and that we may recall to our
memory His life in the flesh, His passion and salutary death, and His
redemption which was wrought for the whole world
This canon will become even more relevant in the next century, in the era
of Iconoclasm, for here is clear proof of the Church’s official acceptance of
iconography-in a declaration from the second half, so to speak, of the Sixth
Ecumenical Council.
Relations with Rome
No doubt due, to a great extent, to the canons of the Quinisext Council
mentioned above that show some of the differences in ecclesiastical practices
between the Roman and the Eastern Churches, the Roman Church did not
accept this council, and never has to this day. To the Roman Church, these
canons represented an independent spirit on the part of the Eastern Churches
that conflicted with her desire to bring all the Churches of the world under her
authority.
Perhaps sensing this desire on the part of the Roman Church, the Fathers
of the Quinisext Council felt obliged to reaffirm the independent position of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople vis-à-vis the Church of Rome. This they did in
Canon 36, which basically repeats Canon 3 from the Second Ecumenical
Council and Canon 28 from the Fourth Ecumenical Council:
Renewing the enactment by the 150 Fathers assembled at the God-
protected and imperial city, and those of the 630 who met at Chalcedon, we
decree that the see of Constantinople shall have equal privileges with the see of
Old Rome, and shall be as highly regarded in ecclesiastical matters as that is,
and shall be second after it.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council had restored communion between Rome
and the Eastern Churches, but Rome’s rejection of its sequel, the Quinisext
Council, reveals that there were still major tensions between the two great
halves of Christianity. These tensions will be very much exacerbated in the next
century with the rise of Iconoclasm in the East, and with the rise of the
Carolingian dynasty, and the Roman Church’s alliance with it, in the West.
The Rise of Islam
The seventh century also witnessed the rise of Islam, founded by an
Arabian mystic named Mohammed (c. 570–632), who initiated the Moslem era
by his flight, along with his closest followers, from Mecca to Medina in 622.
For centuries the various tribes in Arabia had fought against one another, but
Mohammed was able to unite them under the dual banner of Arab brotherhood
and the religion called Islam, which means “subjugation.”
After Mohammed’s death in 632, the movement was consolidated further
by Abu Bakr (r. 632–634). Then the second caliph (meaning “successor”),
Omar (r. 634–644), led the Arabs in conquering all of Egypt, Palestine, Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Persia by the time of his death in 644. These conquests
reduced the Byzantine Empire to basically only Asia Minor and Greece. Nearly
all of the non-Chalcedonian Christians were now living under Islamic rule, and
all possibility for further dialogue between them and the Byzantine
Chalcedonians was cut off, as mentioned above.
The Muslims continued their conquest across northern Africa through the
rest of the 7th century, and in 714 they invaded Spain. They would not be
driven entirely out of Spain until 1492.
Eighth Century
Iconoclasm
Emperor Leo III the Isaurian
During the winter of 717–718, an Arab fleet of 1800 vessels put
Constantinople under siege. The new emperor, Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741),
a brilliant military commander from eastern Asia Minor, used the secret
weapon called “Greek fire” to drive away the Arabs, thus saving Europe from
the advancing Mohammedans.
The new emperor, now a popular hero, initiated a number of military,
economic, and administrative reforms. Then he turned his attention to the
Church, which he blamed for the various problems of the Empire. He had
particular animosity towards the monks, who now numbered at least 100,000-a
very large number of men who were lost from military and civil service, and
the growing monastic estates were free from taxation.
When a dispute about the icons, raised by certain bishops from the eastern
provinces of Asia Minor, came to his attention, he took the opportunity to exert
his own authority over the Church. Beginning in 726, he issued a number of
edicts against the icons and their veneration, for in his opinion they were being
worshiped as idols.
It was true that various superstitious abuses had arisen involving icons,
and there had always been a certain hesitation about them among a minority in
the Church who feared the possibility of idolatry. Since the main thrust of
Iconoclasm originated in the eastern provinces of Asia Minor, the part of the
Empire closest to the Islamic lands, it is probable that Islam, with its
condemnation of pictorial religious art, played a role in influencing the views
of the Iconoclasts. And for Scriptural support, the Iconoclasts invoked the
second of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image” (Ex 20.4).
The majority in the Church, including many of the great Church Fathers,
defended the icons as important aids in personal and corporate spiritual life and
worship. As noted above, the Council of Trullo in 692 affirmed the propriety of
making and venerating icons of Christ. Nevertheless, Emperor Leo pressed on
with his program, despite the willingness of many Christians, especially the
monks, to shed their blood in defense of the holy images-and despite the
indignant reaction of the Church of Rome, which held a council in 731 that
condemned and excommunicated the Iconoclasts (literally, “icon-breakers”).
The defenders of the icons, called Iconodules, were led theologically by
Saint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople (r. 715–730), who was deposed
and exiled when he refused to reject the icons, and by Saint?John of Damascus
(c. 652–749), a great Church Father who extensively quoted previous Fathers in
his famous three treatises in defense of the icons, called On the Holy Images.
Saint John was able to speak out relatively freely because he was a monk at the
Saint Sabas Monastery in?Palestine, a land which had been under the control of
the Arabs since 636.
Saint John’s main point is that icons of Christ are entirely appropriate
since He, the Son of God, really took human flesh and became man. Thus He
can be depicted in that flesh. Saint John states,
In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted.
But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of
the God whom I see. I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter
who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who
worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring
[proskynesis = veneration] the matter which wrought my salvation! (On the
Holy Images 1.16).
Saint John carefully distinguishes the relative worship, or-much better to
say-the veneration (proskynesis) of the icons, the relics of the saints, the Cross,
and the Gospel Book, from the highest degree of worship (latreia) due to God
alone. And he reminds the Iconoclasts that the same Lord Who commanded
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven ” (Ex 20.4) so that such a thing
would not be worshiped as an idol (Ex 20.5), also commanded that golden
cherubim be crafted to hover over the mercy seat in the Tabernacle (Ex 25.18–
22). He also points out that according to the Holy Scriptures, Christ is the
“image (literally, icon-eikon) of God” (2Cor 4.4; also Col 1.15).
Emperor Leo perhaps was eventually influenced by the strong popular
reaction against his Iconoclastic decrees, for he did not actively persecute the
Iconodules in the later years of his reign. For political reasons, he allowed
freedom to the Christians in southern Italy, then still under Byzantine control,
to venerate the icons. Many Iconodules fled there in this era, where
considerable Byzantine influence is evident to this day.
Emperor Constantine V Copronymos
Emperor Leo’s son and successor, Emperor Constantine V Copronymos (r.
741–775), took a much harsher stance against the icons and their defenders.
Even daring to call himself “emperor and priest,” he was more determined than
his father had been to subject the Church to his own will. He styled himself a
theologian, and attempted to present a well-reasoned, theologically informed
case against the icons. He systematically pursued the official policy of
Iconoclasm, removing Iconodules from the episcopacy and replacing them with
Iconoclasts.
By 753 he felt ready to move definitively at the highest theological and
ecclesiastical level. He called a major Church council which he intended to be
the Seventh Ecumenical Council. It met the next year in Constantinople, with
338 bishops in attendance-all of whom were under severe imperial pressure to
support the Iconoclastic position.
This Iconoclastic Council of 754 condemned the making and venerating of
icons. The bishops at the council declared that they were only following the
first six Ecumenical Councils, and indeed, all of Holy Tradition-though quite
obviously, they were ignoring Canon 82 promulgated by the Quinisext Council
in 692.
In trying to make sophisticated theological arguments, the Iconoclastic
Council asserted that icons of Christ either are Monophysitic (mixing the
divine and human natures, if their defenders say that Christ Himself is depicted
in the icons), or Nestorian (separating Christ’s divine nature from His
humanity, if it is stated that only His human nature and not His divine nature is
being depicted). In conclusion, the council decreed:
Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, we declare
unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that there shall be rejected and
removed and cursed out of the Christian Church every likeness which is made
out of any material and color whatever by the evil art of painters.
It seems that the chief Christological mistake of this council was that it
did not properly distinguish between Christ’s divine nature and His (divine)
hypostasis. The icons do depict Christ in His human nature, which He has
forever joined inseparably to Himself through union with His divine Person or
hypostasis. But of course the icons do not depict His divine nature, which
forever remains invisible and uncircumscribable.
The theology expressed at this false council also reflects a dualistic streak
haunting Christianity in various ways through the centuries, which denies the
full goodness of the material order. In addition to calling iconography “the evil
art of painters,” this council also labeled it “a dead art, discovered by the
heathen,” and “lifeless pictures with material colors which are of no value.” It
said Christians are forbidden “to imitate the customs of the demon-
worshippers, and to insult the saints .?.?. by common dead matter.” And it
slanderously accused the iconographer of working “from sinful love of gain
.?.?. with his polluted hands.”
Such a negative view of matter cannot help but undermine a proper
understanding of the Incarnation of Christ-and hence, of the very nature and
scope of salvation itself. As Bishop Kallistos Ware observes,
The Iconoclasts, by repudiating all representations of God, failed to take
full account of the Incarnation. They fell, as so many puritans have done, into a
kind of dualism. Regarding matter as a defilement, they wanted a religion freed
from all contact with what is material; for they thought that what is spiritual
must be non-material. But this is to betray the Incarnation, by allowing no
place to Christ’s humanity, to His body; it is to forget that our body as well as
our soul must be saved and transfigured. The Iconoclast controversy is thus
closely linked to the earlier disputes about Christ’s person. It was not merely a
controversy about religious art, but about the Incarnation, about human
salvation, about the salvation of the entire material cosmos.
Many in the Church refused to accept the decisions of the Iconoclastic
Council. As a result, they were viciously persecuted by the imperial authorities.
The time between 762 and 775 is known as the “decade of blood” since
hundreds of Christians, mostly monks, were imprisoned, tortured, and even
killed for harboring and honoring icons.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council
In 787, during the reign of the Empress Irene (r. 780–802), who favored
icon veneration, a major council was held in Nicea which defined the legitimate
and proper use of icons in the Church. This council, the true Seventh
Ecumenical Council, followed the theology of Saint John of Damascus in
affirming the propriety of the icons. It proclaimed that icons “should be set
forth” in the churches and in private homes and in public places.
In the 22 canons promulgated by this council, relics are stipulated to be in
every church (Canon 7); all monasteries are to be restored (Canon 13); mixed
monasteries (with a men’s part and a women’s part on the same property) are
allowed to continue to exist, but no new ones may be established (Canon 20);
and the buying of church office (simony) is condemned (Canon 5).
In celebrating the decisions of this council, Father Alexander Schmemann
declares:
Everything in the world and the world itself has taken on a new meaning in
the Incarnation of God. Everything has become open to sanctification; matter
itself has become a channel of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
From the proclamation of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
To make our confession short, we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical
traditions handed down to us, whether in writing or verbally, one of which is
the making of pictorial representations, in conformity with the history of the
preaching of the Gospel, a tradition useful in many respects, but especially in
this, that the Incarnation of the Word of God is shown forth as real and not
merely illusory.?.?.?.
We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired
authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as
we all know, the Holy Spirit dwells in her), define with all certitude and
accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the
venerable and holy images, in painting and mosaics, as well as in other
appropriate materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on
the sacred vessels, and on the vestments and on hangings, and in pictures both
in houses and in public places. These holy images should depict the figure of
our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, and of our spotless Lady, the Mother of
God, and of the honorable Angels and of all Saints, and of all pious people. For
by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so
much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to
a longing after them. And to these should be given due salutation and honorable
reverence (aspasmon kai timetiken proskynesis), but not indeed that true
worship of faith (latreia) which pertains alone to the divine nature. .?.?. For the
honor which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents,
and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject [hypostasis] represented.
.?.?. Anathema to those who do not venerate the holy and venerable images.
Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols.
This Christological definition of icons and their veneration forms the
substance of the dogma promulgated by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. The
whole Christological dispute, in fact, comes to a climax with this council, which
gave it its final ‘cosmic’ meaning.
With rejoicing, the Church acclaimed Empress Irene and her son
Constantine as “a new Constantine and a new Helen.” However, Irene did not
prove to be a praiseworthy empress for the rest of her rule, for in the year 797
she had her son Constantine blinded so that she might continue to rule by
herself. After ruling five more years, she was ousted in a coup d’etat and
exiled.
As we will see, the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 did not bring
Iconoclasm to a permanent end. Tragically, it will arise again in the next
century.
Saint John of Damascus was also responsible for very significant liturgical
developments in the eighth century. He wrote many liturgical hymns still sung
in the Church, such as the Canon of Easter Matins, and some of the hymns sung
at the Orthodox funeral service. He is considered to be the original composer of
the Octoechos, the collection of hymns sung in the Church using eight different
melodies, one per week on a rotating basis throughout the year (see Worship).
Saint John is also the author of the first systematic treatise of Orthodox
Christian doctrine, called the Complete Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. This
treatise forms the third part of his trilogy, The Fount of Knowledge.
Saint Cosmas the Melodist, Bishop of Maiuma (c. 675-c. 751), Saint John
of Damascus’s adopted brother and a very accomplished hymnwriter, also was
active in this era. Fourteen of his canons for various feasts of the Church year
were incorporated into the liturgical services of the Eastern Church.
Saint Andrew of Crete, Archbishop of of Gortyna (c. 660–740), wrote the
lengthy penitential canon which is still sung in the Orthodox Church during the
first week and then in the fifth week of Great Lent.
The feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple was introduced
in Constantinople. According to Saint Andrew of Crete, the feast was already
being celebrated in Jerusalem as early as the sixth century. By the eighth
century, it had found its place in the universal calendar of the Orthodox Church.
The West
In the West in the eighth century, barbarian tribes in northern Europe
continued to be converted to Christianity. The greatest missionary in this time
was Saint Boniface, the Apostle to Germany (680–754). Working on behalf of
the Roman Church, he eventually missionized much of northern Germany, and
reformed the whole Frankish Church along Roman lines.
During this century the Roman Church turned away from the Byzantine
Empire for support, allying itself instead with the newly emerging dynasty of
the Franks. This northern tribe, which gave their name to the nation of France,
was led by three remarkable leaders in the eighth century: Charles Martel (r.
723–741), who led the army that stopped the advance of the Arabs in western
Europe at the famous Battle of Poitiers in 732; Pepin III the Short (r. 741–768),
who gave the Roman Church vast tracts of land in central Italy in return for its
favor and support; and especially Charlemagne (Charles the Great) (r. 768–
814), who was anointed and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III
on Christmas Day in the year 800.
Ever since Emperor Constantine the Great had permanently moved the
imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople, the Roman Church had felt
somehow abandoned, if not betrayed. Then it felt threatened when
Constantinople began claiming, at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, to be
the “New Rome.” Such feelings only increased with the fall of Rome to the
barbarians in 476. Ever since Pope Saint Gregory the Great (r. 590–604) had
negotiated a separate peace with the Lombards, the Roman Church had been
operating basically independently from Byzantium, fending for itself. When
Iconoclasm broke out in the East, the Papacy was given another reason to
distrust the Byzantines.
However, in turning to the Franks for protection and support, the Roman
Church opened itself to foreign influences which would alienate the two halves
of Christendom much further from each other. Three of the most important of
these developments were the large tracts of land given to the Church by King
Pepin III-the Papal States-that the Papacy would rule administratively as an
independent temporal power up until the 19th century; the acquiring of a
certain militaristic spirit that would lead to the Crusades, with some Popes even
leading armies in battle; and the eventual acceptance of the addition of the
filioque in the Nicene Creed, which to this day, along with the dogma of papal
infallibility, is probably the single greatest theological difference between
Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
The Carolingian Renaissance
Through his conquests in France, Germany, Spain, and modern day
Hungary, Charlemagne created what would be the largest empire in Europe
from the fall of Rome in 476 until the time of Napoleon. From his capital in
Aachen, he actively promoted higher learning through his patronage of the
many scholars at his palace and the remarkable library there. He invited Alcuin
(c. 740–804), a prodigious scholar and able representative of the Christian
culture of Northumbria, England, to join his court in 781; this remarkable
churchman of wide-ranging interests did much to enrich the flowering of
learning and refined culture in this period in the West.
Charlemagne took a lively interest in ecclesiastical affairs. He called a
series of sixteen Church councils all held in Frankfurt, Germany, and he
promoted various reforms in the Frankish Church, including liturgical
standardization based on Roman practices.
In 792 Charlemagne sent his Carolingian Books (Libri Carolini) to Pope
Hadrian I (r. 772–795), which attacked not only the Iconoclastic Council of 754
for outlawing the icons, but also the Council of Nicea of 787 for allowing
excessive reverence for the icons. This charge was apparently partly based on a
faulty Latin translation of the decree of that council which did not properly
distinguish between the veneration (proskynesis; veneratio in Latin) of the
icons, and the worship, or adoration, given to God alone (latreia; adoratio in
Latin).
A big reason for Charlemagne’s attack against the Eastern Church was to
discredit the Eastern empire and its emperor so that he himself could be
recognized as the sole ruler in Christendom. In his vision of the new Holy
Roman Empire Charlemagne wanted to include all of the East together with all
of the West in what he believed was the legitimate continuation of the ancient
Roman Empire, overriding the fact that the Roman Empire still existed in the
eastern half of the ancient Empire.
Charlemagne also played a major role in the sad story of the addition of
the filioque into the Nicene Creed. He had grown up with the filioque, and
urged the Roman Church to accept it. Pope Leo III (r. 795–816) resisted its
imposition in Rome to such an extent that he had the original Creed engraved
on silver tablets prominently displayed in Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.
However, he allowed the Frankish Church to use it. Eventually, the Roman
Church yielded to the Germanic pressure and accepted the filioque-using it for
the first time in public worship in 1014. The Byzantine Church actually had
dropped the pope’s name from the diptychs five years before, when Pope
Sergius wrote a confession of faith that included the filioque. This was the first
specific step towards the Great Schism of 1054.
Ninth Century
The End of Iconoclasm
In 811, the Byzantine army, led by Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811),
was ambushed in Bulgaria, and the Emperor was killed in the devastating
defeat. Not since Emperor Valens died at the hands of the Goths at Adrianople
in 378 had a Byzantine emperor been killed in battle.
Two years later, a new line of imperial rulers emerged who once again
attacked both the veneration and the venerators of the holy images. Again the
icons were blamed for the various troubles of the Empire, especially the
setbacks in warfare with the Bulgarians.
In 815, Emperor Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820) ordered the icons in the
churches to be placed above the reach of the faithful so that they could not be
honored and kissed. Everyone in the Church knew that a second wave of
persecution against the icons and their venerators was starting. In defiance of
the order, on Palm Sunday in 815, Saint Theodore the Studite (759–826), the
abbot of the great Studion Monastery in Constantinople, led a public procession
with the holy icons. For this he was sent into exile. He would be the main
theological champion of the icons during the second wave of Iconoclasm,
through his important work entitled On the Holy Icons.
Persecution of the Iconodules was as fierce at times during the next
twenty-seven years as it had been in the previous century. Not until 842 was the
persecution brought to an end. And just as it was a woman-Empress Irene-who
ended the first wave of Iconoclasm after coming to the throne upon the death of
her husband, Emperor Leo IV the Khazar (r. 775–780), as regent for their son
who was too young to rule, so again it is a woman-Empress Saint Theodora-
who brings the second wave of persecution against the icons to an end when she
comes to the throne upon the death of her husband, Emperor Theophilus (r.
829–842), to rule as regent for their young son Michael III.
Empress Theodora worked quickly to restore the icons. In March of 843,
John the Grammarian, Iconoclastic Patriarch of Constantinople and advisor to
Emperor Theophilus, was deposed and replaced with Methodius, who had spent
seven years in prison for his defense of the icons. And immediately, at a local
council in Constantinople, the icons were restored, and a huge, triumphant
procession with the holy images took place on the first Sunday of Great Lent in
that year-March 11, 843. This great event, known as the Triumph of Orthodoxy,
has been celebrated ever since in the Orthodox Church on the first Sunday of
Great Lent-known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
Hymns from Vespers for the Sunday of Orthodoxy
Thou who art uncircumscribed, O Master, in Thy divine nature, wast
pleased in the last times to take flesh and be circumscribed; and in assuming
flesh, Thou hast also taken on Thyself all its distinctive properties. Therefore
we depict the likeness of Thine outward form, venerating it with an honor that
is relative. So we are exalted to the love of Thee, and following the holy
traditions handed down by the Apostles, from Thine icon we receive the grace
of healing.
As a precious adornment the Church of Christ has received the venerable
and holy icons of the Savior Christ, of God’s Mother and of all the saints.
Celebrating now their triumphant restoration, she is made bright with grace and
splendor.?.?.?.
The grace of truth has shone forth upon us; the mysteries darkly prefigured
in the times of old have now been openly fulfilled. For behold, the Church is
clothed in a beauty that surpasses all things earthly, through the icon of the
incarnate Christ that was foreshadowed by the ark of testimony [Ex 25.22].
This is the safeguard of the Orthodox Faith; for if we hold fast to the icon of the
Savior whom we worship, we shall not go astray.?.?.?.
Saints Cyril and Methodius-“Evangelizers of the
Slavs and Equal to the Apostles”
In the middle of the ninth century, Saint Prince Rastislav (r. 846–870), the
ruler of the Slav state of Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), sent a request to
Byzantium asking for missionaries to bring the Christian Faith to his people in
their own language. Frankish missionaries using Latin had already been at work
in his land, but he realized that the Faith would be much more meaningful to
his people if they could have the Scriptures and the liturgical services in their
native tongue. He also wanted to strengthen the alliance his nation had recently
formed with Byzantium, against possible encroachment by the Frankish Holy
Roman Empire directly to the west of his realm.
In response to Prince Rastislav’s request, Emperor Michael III (r. 842–
867) and Patriarch Saint Photius the Great of Constantinople sent two devout
and well-educated brothers named Constantine and Methodius as missionaries
to Moravia. From an aristocratic family, these brothers had grown up in
Thessalonica, where many Slavs lived, from whom they learned the Slavic
language. They even had already done some preliminary work in trying to
develop an alphabet for that language. And they had previous diplomatic and
missionary experience. So they were ideal candidates for the mission to the
Slavs.
Before arriving in Moravia in 863, Constantine had finished developing
the first alphabet for the Slavic language. Called Glagolitic, it had highly
unusual characters, unlike those of any other language. In Moravia the brothers
used this alphabet in translating Church books into the Slavic language, which
came to be known as Old Church Slavonic. They taught the alphabet and
literacy, introduced the use of Slavonic in the Church services, and began
training men for the diaconate and priesthood as the first step in raising up a
native clergy for the Moravian Church.
The mission of Constantine and Methodius created hostilities with the
Frankish missionaries from the Latin Church who had come to Moravia earlier.
These missionaries insisted that Church services should only be done in Latin,
and that only Latin (Roman) customs and traditions should be used by the
Slavic Christians.
In 867 the brothers traveled to Venice with some of their Moravian
disciples, hoping to find a bishop to ordain these disciples as priests and
deacons. In Venice they were sharply opposed by Latin clergy who insist that
the services may only be celebrated in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. In response,
Constantine called this the “Three-Language Heresy”; he quoted 1Corinthians
14 in defense of the use of the vernacular language in the Church services.
At this point the brothers were invited to Rome by Pope Nicholas, who
was anxious to bring the Greek mission to the Moravians under his control. By
the time they arrived, however, Nicholas had died, but they were received with
great acclaim by his successor, Pope Hadrian II (r. 867–872). Pope Hadrian
allowed the brothers to celebrate the Roman liturgy in the Slavonic language,
and at least once he participated in such a service.
Constantine died early in 869, while still visiting Rome. Shortly before his
death he became a monk, taking the name of Cyril. It is by this name that he is
known as a saint of the Church. Before he died he begged his brother to
continue the holy work among the Slavs. Methodius promised to do so.
Soon thereafter, Methodius was consecrated by Pope Hadrian as
Archbishop of Pannonia and Moravia, with full authorization to continue using
Slavonic in the Church services. However, when Archbishop Methodius
returned to Moravia, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Frankish-Germanic
clergy with the support of Rastislav’s successor, the pro-German usurper
Sventopulk, and Louis the German, the Holy Roman Emperor. In 873, when
Pope John VIII (r. 872–882) learned what had happened to Archbishop
Methodius, he demanded and managed to obtain his release. But the Roman
Church was unwilling to give much direct support to Methodius, for fear of
offending the expanding Frankish and Germanic powers.
Despite repeated harassment by the German clergy, Methodius continued
to promote Church life in the Slavonic language in Moravia for twelve more
years, until his death in 885. Then Sventopulk moved fiercely against
Methodius’s many disciples. Most of them were arrested, exiled, or even sold
into slavery. Some of them, including a number of exceptionally talented
missionaries, escaped into Bulgaria.
Led by their leader, Saint Khan Boris (r. 852–889), the Bulgarians had
embraced the Christian Faith in 865 at the hands of Greek clergy from
Byzantium. The Bulgarian Christians were delighted when Methodius’s
disciples entered their land, bringing the services in Slavonic, which they much
more readily understood than Greek. In 893, the Bulgarians officially adopted
Slavonic as the official language of both their Church and State.
Saints Clement and Naum did outstanding missionary work among the
Bulgarians. Most likely it was another of Saint Methodius’s disciples,
Constantine of Preslav, who developed a second alphabet for the Slavonic
language, based on letters mostly adapted from the Greek alphabet, making it
more readily accessible than the Glagolitic alphabet. Constantine named his
alphabet Cyrillic in honor of St Cyril, and it is this alphabet which continues to
this day to serve the nations of Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, and
Byelorussia, as well as the Czech, Slovak, and Polish Orthodox Christians.
The Papacy
In alliance with Charlemagne and his successors, the Roman popes
managed to extend their authority in Western Europe. By the middle of the
ninth century, Pope Nicholas I (r. 858–867) succeeded in gaining direct control
over the entire Western Church by suppressing the local metropolitans and
making all bishops in the West directly subject to the Roman see. In this effort,
he made use of the False Decretals, documents that were later decisively
proved to be forgeries, which claimed that Emperor Constantine the Great in
the fourth century had given extensive powers and privileges to the Bishop of
Rome. It was claimed that these powers included having governmental control
over large territories in central Italy which later came to be called the Papal
States. This particular forgery was the so-called Donation of Constantine.
Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople
In Constantinople there were two parties struggling for power in both
ecclesiastical and civil affairs-the so-called zealots or conservatives, and the
moderates. In 858, in an effort to provide a leader capable of restoring peace to
the Church, Photius was elected to be the new patriarch, succeeding Ignatius,
who had been unjustly deposed. As the brilliant, popular, highly distinguished
professor of philosophy at the University in Constantinople, Photius was an
excellent choice, even though he was still a layman. He was ordained and
quickly elevated to the patriarchal office.
The extremists of the so-called conservative party were not satisfied. They
appealed to the Church of Rome, using the good name of the former patriarch
Ignatius-who had accepted his forced retirement for the good of the Church-
against Photius and the imperial government which confirmed his election.
Pope Nicholas I proceeded to seize this opportunity to interfere in the affairs of
the Church of Constantinople, in order to try to demonstrate that the Papacy
had legitimate authority over the Eastern Churches as well as the Church in the
West. To make this point, he decided to try to have Ignatius restored as
patriarch of Constantinople.
In 861 a council was held in Constantinople to resolve the dispute. With
the papal legates who presided over the council in full agreement, this council
decided that Photius was indeed the rightful patriarch. However, when the
legates returned to Rome, Pope Nicholas rejected their decision, since it was
not the result that he desired. He held a council in Rome in 863, which
presumed to have Photius deposed-along with all the clergy he had ordained in
the preceding five years!-and Ignatius was proclaimed as the legitimate
patriarch of Constantinople. As proof that the Papacy really had no legitimate
authority over the Eastern Churches, the decrees of this council were ignored
throughout the East. Patriarch Photius did not even deign to give Pope Nicholas
a reply.
Four years later, in 867, Photius finally responded by calling a major
council of five hundred bishops meeting in Constantinople. This council
condemned Pope Nicholas and declared him to be deposed for interfering in the
internal affairs of the Church of Constantinople-and also for interfering in the
affairs of the new Bulgarian Church. This council also made the first official
condemnation by the Eastern Church of the addition of the filioque to the
Nicene Creed.
Later in 867, Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886) usurped the throne from
Emperor Michael III, who was assassinated. In order to win the support of
Rome for this usurpation, Basil reinstated Ignatius as patriarch, which did
indeed heal the breach between Rome and Constantinople that had existed since
863. And in 869–870 a council was held in Constantinople, known as the
Ignatian Council, which affirmed Ignatius as patriarch and condemned Photius,
who was sent into exile. However, Pope Hadrian (r. 867–872) was not entirely
pleased with this council, because it refused to give the Bulgarian Church over
to the authority of Rome.
By 873, Emperor Basil no longer felt such a need for the approval of
Rome, and his favor was turning to the moderates in Constantinople. So Photius
was brought out of exile, and was made the tutor for the emperor’s two sons.
Photius and Ignatius became reconciled, to such an extent that before Ignatius
died in 877, he stipulated that he wanted Photius to succeed him as patriarch.
So in that year Photius returned to the patriarchal throne, and soon led the
effort by which Patriarch Ignatius was glorified as a saint.
In 879 a huge council, known as the Photian Council, took place in
Constantinople. Once again papal legates were in attendance, and again they
agreed with the council’s decisions. The council affirmed Photius as the
legitimate patriarch, nullifying the decisions of the previous councils of 863 in
Rome and 869–870 in Constantinople. It also reaffirmed Rome’s position as the
first among equals among the great patriarchates, but without having
jurisdictional authority over the East. The Nicene Creed without the filioque
was affirmed, and the Council of Nicea of 787 was officially recognized as the
Seventh Ecumenical Council.
Pope John VIII (r. 872–882) was not pleased with this council’s decisions,
but for the sake of peace in the Church he accepted them. For nearly two
centuries this council was considered by Rome to be the Eighth Ecumenical
Council.
Photius was officially canonized a saint by the Orthodox Church in the
tenth century. She honors him with exceptional regard as Saint Photius the
Great, one of the Three Pillars of Orthodoxy (along with Saint Gregory Palamas
and Saint Mark of Ephesus). He was a man of many talents. An excellent
diplomat in political affairs, he was also a great theologian who wrote
extensively. His powerful critique of the filioque, the improper and
theologically erroneous addition to the Nicene Creed, has remained the basic
Orthodox refutation of this innovation ever since. He was a compiler and
reviewer of both classical and patristic writings. As a brilliant scholar and
professor as well as a leading churchman, he dominated the cultural flowering
in Byzantium in the years after the restoration of the icons in 843. And we
recall that he also guided the mission to the Slavs by sending Saints Cyril and
Methodius to Moravia in 863.
In relations with the West, Saint Photius defended the authentic Church
Tradition in confrontation with the exaggerated claims and unwarranted
interference of Pope Nicholas, while ultimately preserving unity with the
Roman Church and Pope John VIII. However, he will long be remembered
disparagingly in the West for his stubborn resistance to Papal claims. The break
in relations between the Western and Eastern Churches from 863 to 867,
initiated by the Council of Rome which condemned him, is still known in the
West as the “Photian Schism”-i.e., blaming Photius for the schism. Only in the
last half century or so has he been acknowledged at least by some in the West
as a great bishop with personal humility and wisdom. He was one of the
greatest bishops in Christian history.
In the ninth century another great saint, Saint Theodore of Studion, was
involved with a number of liturgical developments. The service books for Great
Lent and Easter, the Lenten Triodion and the Flower Triodion (also called the
Pentecostarion), are almost totally the work of the Studite monks, among the
most famous of whom was Saint Joseph the Hymnographer. The liturgical
typikon, the order of worship in the Studion Monastery, has been the normative
order of worship for the entire Orthodox Church since the ninth century. As
abbot of the Studion Monastery in Constantinople, the leading monastery in the
Empire of his day, he had ultimate authority over about a hundred thousand
monks throughout the Empire.
Also dating from the ninth century is a copy of the Divine Liturgy of Saint
John Chrysostom which has the Liturgy of the Faithful in virtually the exact
form in which it is celebrated in the Orthodox Church today.
New Law Code
Near the end of the ninth century, a famous new law code was published
by Emperor Basil I. In its introduction, called the Epanagoge, the system
known as “symphonia”-the harmonious cooperation between the Church and
State-is eloquently reaffirmed, with extremely high standards of moral probity,
personal sanctity, and theological wisdom placed upon both the patriarch of
Constantinople and the emperor. For example, the patriarch is to “lead
unbelievers into adopting the Faith, astounding them with the splendor and
glory and wondrousness of his own devotion”; and the emperor “must be of the
highest perfection in Orthodoxy and piety.”
The West
Generally speaking, the 9th century was one of the most significant
centuries in Church history. It was a period of renaissance in the East after 843,
while in the West it was one of increasing centralization around the Roman
Papacy, especially through the efforts of Pope Nicholas I. The most important
theologian in the West in this century was John Scot Erigena (d. 877), who
brought the strong influence of the Eastern theology of Saint Dionysius the
Areopagite and Saint Maximus the Confessor into the Western Church.
However, he interpreted the mystical writings attributed to Saint Dionysius
along Neo-Platonic lines.
Tenth Century
Cultural Renaissance
In the East in the 10th century, there was a general continuation of the
cultural renaissance of the ninth century. The writings of the Church Fathers
were collected and key excerpts compiled in works known as florilegia. For the
first time, Lives of the Saints were collected and paraphrased in an elegant
style for liturgical usage; this was done by Saint Symeon Metaphrastes (i.e., the
Translator).
In 960 Saint Athanasius of Mount Athos (d. 1003) founded the Great
Lavra, the first large cenobitic (communal) monastery on Mount Athos. The
way was thus opened for the development of the great monastic republic on the
Holy Mountain that flourishes to this day. His work was strongly supported by
two emperors: Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) and John I Tzimiskes (r. 969–
976).
Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), for many years the abbot
of the Monastery of Saint Mamas in Constantinople, wrote many influential
treatises, especially emphasizing the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in
Christians, the vision of the Uncreated Light, and ongoing repentance with
tears. He is regarded as one of the most important mystical theologians of all
time. His prominence is seen in the fact that he is one of only three figures in
the Church who are called “the Theologian”-the other two being St John the
Evangelist and St Gregory of Nazianzus. In the 14th century Saint Gregory
Palamas will build upon the work of this wonderful saint who walked with God
with profound intimacy and who described his experiences with the living God
with powerful, poetic eloquence.
From the Hymns of Divine Love by Saint Symeon the New Theologian
Master, how shall I express Your strange marvels,
how shall I relate with words the depth of Your judgments
which You accomplish each day in us, Your servants?
How do You not cast Your eyes on the infinite number of my sins
and not take into account the actions of my malice, O Master?
But You have mercy, You protect me, You enlighten and nourish me
as if I carried out all Your commands, O my Savior.
Not only do You take pity on me, but, still more,
You grant me leave to remain in the presence
of Your glory, of Your power, of Your majesty.
You talk with me and You address words of immortality
to the one who is weak, lowly, unworthy to live.
How do You cover my sullied soul with light
and render it divine light, immaculate?
How do You invest with light my miserable hands
which, by sinning, I have sullied with the stains of sin?
How do you transform my lips by the ray of Your Divinity,
from unclean, making them holy?
And my filthy tongue, O Christ, how do You purify it
and give it a share in the eating of Your flesh?
How do You condescend to see me and to let me see You,
to let me hold You in my hands, You who hold all things,
You who the celestial armies cannot contemplate,
inaccessible even to Moses, the first of the prophets?
For he was not judged worthy to see Your face,
nor was any other man, to avoid that he die.
You therefore the only incomprehensible, the only inexpressible,
that no one can contain, inaccessible to all,
to hold You, to embrace You, to see You, to eat You,
to possess You in my heart, O Christ, how am I judged worthy of it?
How am I not consumed, but divided between joy and fear
and singing, O Christ, Your boundless love for man?
(Hymn 19)
Church and State
The tenth century saw the increasing interpenetration of the ecclesiastical
and civil aspects of Byzantine society. The Church received greater control
over such matters as marriage and the family. For example, a church blessing-
regulated by Orthodox canon law-came to be required for a marriage to be
acknowledged as valid by the civil authorities. At the same time, the Church
became more concerned with establishing “minimum requirements” for
marriage.
This can be seen vividly in the so-called “fourth marriage dispute.” In 906
the patriarch of Constantinople Nicholas Mystikos (r. 901–907, 912–925), a
disciple of Saint Photios the Great, refused to grant a fourth marriage to
Emperor Leo VI (r. 886–912), whose first three wives all died young without
bearing an heir to the throne. For Patriarch Nicholas’s refusal to recognize
Emperor Leo’s fourth marriage, he was deposed. He was restored as patriarch
upon the emperor’s death in 912.
In 920 a council in Constantinople declared that the Church would never
grant a fourth marriage to anyone. The Church’s theology of marriage upholds
perpetual monogamy as its standard-a union of one man and one woman which
is not destroyed even by death. Remarriage, even of widows and widowers,
does not conform to this standard, even though it may be accepted as a
concession to human weakness. With the “fourth marriage dispute,” however,
attention comes to focus on the minimum-hence the misleading notion that the
Orthodox Church “allows” three marriages to its faithful.
At the same time, the beginning of the 10th century witnessed for the first
time the “rite of crowning” as a separate marriage service apart from the
context of the Divine Liturgy. Civil law now established the practice of “legal
marriage” apart from the sacramental marriage of the Church. It also
established a special secular form for the adoption of children which was also
previously done only by the action of the Church.
Bulgaria
Khan Boris’s son and successor Symeon (r. 893–927) did much to
strengthen Orthodoxy in his land, promoting Slavonic culture through
sponsoring schools, libraries, and much translation work of the Church Fathers
into Slavonic. He gained recognition from Byzantium as being the Emperor, or
Tsar, of Bulgaria, and the archbishop of the Bulgarian Church was granted the
title of Patriarch. This was highly significant, since this was the first new
patriarchate to be established beyond the original five-Rome, Constantinople,
Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
At Tsar Symeon’s death, his saintly and mild son Peter (r. 927–969)
assumed the throne. During his long and peaceful reign, Orthodoxy penetrated
deeper into the society of the nation, particularly through the establishment of
monasteries in the countryside.
The leading monastic in this time was the famous Saint John of Rila (c.
880–946). He was one of several northern Macedonian hermits who found
solitude in the mountains and became great ascetics and miracle-workers. Later
in life they established cenobitic monasteries for their disciples. These
monasteries had great impact on the spiritual life of the Bulgarians. Probably
because Orthodox culture spread from Bulgaria into Russia in the decades after
his death, Saint John of Rila became especially well-known in Russia. He is
considered to be the patron saint of Bulgaria (Feastday, Oct. 19).
Unfortunately, the dualist heresy of Bogomilism also arose in Bulgaria
during Peter’s reign. After Peter’s death, the power of the Bulgarian state began
to decline.
Saint Vladimir of Kiev
Prince Vladimir of Kiev (r. 978–1015) ruled a domain that stretched from
beyond Novgorod in the north to beyond Kiev in the south. He understood the
importance of religion not only for the spiritual life of his people, but also for
their political, social, and cultural advancement. At first he promoted devotion
to the ancient gods and goddesses of the Slavs, such as Perun, Khors, Dazh’bog,
Stribog, Simar’gl, and Mokosh.
But in 986 he began to take interest in the religions of other lands-Islam in
Old Bulgaria, Judaism in Khazaria, Roman Catholicism in the Holy Roman
Empire, and Greek Orthodox Christianity in Byzantium. In the following year,
he sent emissaries to see for themselves these various religions in action. Their
report upon their return to Kiev is given in the Russian Primary Chronicle (the
earliest written historical account of the Slavs, traditionally attributed to Saint
Nestor, a monk in the Kievan Caves Monastery who died in the early 12th
century):
‘When we journeyed among the Bulgars, we beheld how they worship in
their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The Bulgar bows, sits
down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no happiness
among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful stench. Their religion is
not good. Then we went among the Germans, and saw them performing many
ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no glory there. Then we went to
Greece, and the Greeks (including the Emperor himself) led us to the edifices
where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or
on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a
loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and
their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot
forget that beauty.’
Then the Chronicle relates, “Then the boyars [the noblemen] spoke to
Vladimir and said, ‘If the Greek faith were evil, it would not have been adopted
by your grandmother Olga who was wiser than all other men.’ Vladimir then
inquired where they should all accept baptism, and they replied that the
decision rested with him.”
Having made up his mind to adopt Orthodox Christianity for himself and
his people, Vladimir took an armed force to the Byzantine city of Cherson on
the Crimean Peninsula, and besieged and captured it. Then he sent a message to
Emperor Basil II of Byzantium (r. 976–1025) and his brother Constantine VIII,
asking for the hand of their sister Princess Anna in marriage. They replied, “It
is not proper for Christians to marry pagans. If you are baptized, you shall have
her as your wife, inherit the kingdom of God, and be our companion in the
Faith. Unless you do so, however, we cannot give you our sister in marriage.”
Vladimir responded, saying that he had already given some study to the Greeks’
Faith and was ready to be baptized. The Greeks replied, telling Vladimir to
come to Constantinople to be baptized. But when he then requested that he be
baptized in Cherson by priests brought by Anna herself, they acceded to his
wishes.
According to the Chronicle, before Anna and the priests arrived in
Cherson, the prince contracted a very serious eye disease. But when he was
baptized, taking the name Basil, not only did he receive spiritual healing, but
his physical ailment was also miraculously healed-much as Saint Paul received
back his sight when he was baptized by Ananias after being blinded by the
vision of Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9.17–19). A few days later,
Prince Vladimir was united with Anna in marriage.
Upon his return to Kiev, his capital city, in the spring of the year 988, the
people of the city and the surrounding countryside joyfully accepted to be
baptized in the Dniepr River in the new Faith of their beloved prince. Thus
began the history of the Orthodox Church in the lands of Rus’.
Beginning with his baptism, Vladimir experienced a genuine spiritual
conversion. He put aside his many concubines and his otherwise wild and
violent way of life, and lived in sober and respectful monogamy with Princess
Anna. Together they did much to establish Christian principles in their realm,
and to enlighten their subjects with the Orthodox Faith. For his personal and
official acts of righteousness as a Christian prince, Vladimir has been glorified
as a saint of the Church, as “Equal-to-the-Apostles, Enlightener of the Russian
Lands.”
Saint Vladimir’s grandmother, the great Princess Olga (d. 969), was the
wife of Igor, the ruler of the Kievan state. Upon Igor’s death in 945, Olga ruled
as regent for their son, Svatoslav, until he assumed power in 961. In about 957,
Olga accepted the Christian Faith and was baptized, probably in
Constantinople. She also is recognized as a saint of the Church-like her
illustrious grandson, as “Equal to the Apostles.”
The feast of the Protection of the Theotokos (October 1) comes from the
10th century. Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ (d. 956) saw a vision of the
Theotokos interceding before God and protecting the praying people of
Constantinople with her veil (omophorion) during the time of an attack on the
city by the pagan Slavs. Ironically, this feast, which has been detached from its
historical roots and is now celebrated primarily as the feast of the presence of
Mary in the midst of the Church, is kept as a popular celebration almost solely
by the churches of Slavic tradition.
The West
In the later 9th century and all through the 10th century, the West
experienced one of the darkest periods in its history. New waves of invasions,
especially by Vikings and Muslim Arabs, destroyed the relative security of the
empire created by Charlemagne. The Church suffered from the domination of
lay lords. Communication with the East was virtually cut off, partly because of
the Arabs’ power in the Mediterranean emanating from their strongholds in
Crete and Sicily. In 996 the first German was elected as pope of Rome, with the
name Gregory V.
In 910 the Monastery of Cluny was founded in Burgundy in eastern
France, by William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine. Under its first abbot, Berno
of Baume (d. 927), high standards of monastic observance were set and
followed-including a return to the strict Benedictine Rule first established by
Saint Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century, independence from lay control, and
economic self-sufficiency. By the time of Berno’s death, several neighboring
monasteries had adopted Cluny’s standards, and under Berno’s gifted
successors, especially Saint Odo (r. 927–942) and Saint Odilo (r. 998–1048),
hundreds of monasteries, especially in France and Italy, adopted these reforms.
These “Cluniac houses” became a major force for general reform in the entire
Western Church in the 11th century.
Eleventh Century
The Great Schism
In 1009 Pope Sergius of Rome wrote a confession of faith which included
the filioque in the Nicene Creed. Because of this, the Church of Constantinople
removed his name and that of the Roman Church from the diptychs (the official
list of sister churches and bishops who are liturgically commemorated by a
given church). Then in 1014, the Roman Church, after resisting for over 200
years Germanic pressure to adopt the filioque, finally used this addition to the
Creed in public worship for the first time-at the coronation of Henry II as Holy
Roman Emperor. Ironically, forty years later the Latin Christians would accuse
the Greek Christians of being heretical for not using the filioque.
As we have seen, tensions between the two great halves of the Christian
world had been simmering for many years, with roots going back to the early
centuries of the Church. The two different languages-Greek in the East and
Latin in the West-reflected differences in basic worldview, which contributed to
different approaches in theology. The Latins tended to use philosophical, legal,
and juridical concepts and categories in an attempt to make the mysteries of the
Faith more comprehensible to the human mind, while the Greeks tended to
more readily accept the paradoxical, ineffable mysteries of the Faith as being
ultimately far beyond the limits of human logic and understanding. And the
Greeks, more than the Romans, stressed the crucial importance of having a
vibrant, dynamic experience and relationship with the living God, in order to
better understand the Holy Scriptures and the mysteries of the Faith. Also, the
loss of the political unity of the Empire was a huge factor in disrupting
communication between East and West. And the rivalry between the Holy
Roman Empire in the West and the Byzantine Empire in the East exacerbated
the rift.
From the Eastern Orthodox perspective, however, the biggest single reason
for the Great Schism was the reassertion of Papal claims to have jurisdictional
authority over all the Churches of Christendom. Ever since Bishop Victor of
Rome near the end of the second century tried to dictate to the Quartodeciman
Christians of Asia Minor concerning the dating of Pascha, a succession of
strong Roman bishops, as we have seen, steadily promoted Papal claims over
Churches beyond the Roman Church’s geographic territory, even though this
was in violation of the original pattern of each bishop having jurisdictional
authority over his own geographic territory-a pattern clearly affirmed in the
canons of the first four Ecumenical Councils. Gradually the Papacy did manage
to gain at least nominal authority over all the churches of Western Europe, as
we have also seen, by the time of the powerful Pope Nicholas I in the middle of
the 9th century.
In the middle of the 11th century, after a long period of weakness and
decadence in the Papacy, there occurred an intense period of reform. This
reform movement strove mightily to bring an end to widespread moral abuses
among the clergy-especially the crime of simony (buying church office), and
the practice of clergy who were supposed to be celibate living with concubines.
Partly in an effort to deal with these problems, the reformers accomplished a
dramatic centralization and expansion of the power of the Papacy.
The reforming movement began with the appointment by the Germanic
Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (r. 1039–1056) of a fellow German named
Bruno as Pope Leo IX (r. 1048–1054). Along with Leo’s efforts to increase the
power of the Papacy in Western Europe, it’s not surprising that this particularly
strong pope would also have been interested in extending Papal influence in the
East. At the same time, the fiery Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael
Cerularius (r. 1043–1058), was determined to resist all attempts by the Roman
Church to impose its will upon the Eastern Church.
The “showdown” came as a result of the Norman invasion of southern
Italy beginning in 1016, and the subsequent suppression of Greek practices in
the churches in this region where there was strong Byzantine influence.
Patriarch Michael retaliated by trying to force the Latin churches in
Constantinople to use Greek practices-especially leavened instead of
unleavened bread (azymes) in the Eucharist. And Archbishop Leo of Ochrid
wrote a comprehensive critique of the Latin beliefs and practices divergent
from those of the Eastern Church-especially the filioque, mandatory clerical
celibacy, and the use of azymes in the Eucharist.
In response, Pope Leo sent to Constantinople a delegation led by Cardinal
Humbert of Silva Candida (d. 1061), a fiery and fiercely anti-Byzantine
personality who tried to press Roman claims to their fullest extent. After a cold
initial reception, at which Humbert refused to greet the Patriarch with the
customary protocol, Michael refused to deal with him any longer. After waiting
about two months in the capital, on July 16, 1054, Humbert strode into the great
cathedral of Hagia Sophia during a service and placed on the altar a bull of
excommunication against “Patriarch Michael and all his followers.” In a day or
two, he and his fellow legates left for home. Michael, in his turn,
excommunicated Humbert “and all those responsible” for the bull of
excommunication against him.
Very interestingly, Pope Leo IX died soon after Humbert left Rome for
Constantinople, but before Humbert issued the bull of excommunication. And
Leo’s successor was not elected until near the end of the year. So it would seem
that the next pope, Victor II (r. late 1054–1057), could easily have revoked
Humbert’s action, but he did not choose to do so. And while relations between
some of the Eastern Churches with Rome continued to be relatively friendly for
quite some time, the reality and extent of the schism gradually deepened and
spread, until the sack of Constantinople and its conquest by the Latin knights of
the Fourth Crusade in 1204 increased the mutual animosity to such a degree
that future efforts at reconciliation had virtually no chance to succeed.
As we know, the Roman Catholic Church is still not in communion with
the Orthodox Churches, even though in 1965 Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical
Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the mutual anathemas of 1054.
Pope Gregory VII
The reforming spirit of the Roman Papacy in the 11th century reached its
height under Hildebrand who, as Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–1085), firmly
established the Papacy as a secular power. In a document called the Dictatus
papae, he advocated the most extreme interpretation as yet of Papal authority
in both church and state: “the Roman pontiff alone is to be called universal” (or
“ecumenical”); “he alone can depose or reinstate bishops”; “he alone may use
the imperial insignia”; “the pope is the only one whose feet are to be kissed by
all princes”; “he may depose emperors”; “he himself may be judged by no
one”; “to this see the most important cases of every Church should be
submitted”; “the Roman Church has never erred, nor ever, by the witness of
Scripture, shall err to all eternity”; “the Roman pontiff, if canonically ordained,
is undoubtedly sanctified by the merits of St Peter.”
These radical claims were put severely to the test during Pope Gregory’s
monumental struggle against lay investiture (the practice of secular lords,
princes, and kings appointing their own priests, bishops, and abbots) in Western
Europe. This struggle clearly demonstrated the fact that the Papacy’s authority
over the churches of Western Europe was far from secure even in the latter part
of the 11th century. For after Pope Gregory forbade lay investiture in 1075, his
edict was met with violent opposition in England, France, and Germany-where
nobles, according to the feudal system of strict allegiance of servants to one’s
lord, were quite used to appointing their own priests for the chapels and
churches on their lands, and kings felt it was their right to appoint their own
bishops and abbots for the bishoprics and monasteries in their realms.
In Germany, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (r. 1056–1106) held two
Church synods which attempted to depose Gregory from the Papacy for his
interference in what he claimed were his own affairs. In 1077, Gregory
responded by excommunicating Henry. The emperor then was stung with
remorse. Traveling to the Pope’s castle retreat of Canossa in the mountains of
central Italy to beg forgiveness, Henry stood for three days outside in the snow
doing penitence. But in 1080, Henry set up an anti-pope, since Gregory had
acknowledged Henry’s rival, Rudolf of Swabia, as Holy Roman Emperor. Henry
then marched on Rome, which he captured after a two-year siege, with Pope
Gregory fleeing to Salerno, where he died in 1085.
The First Crusade
In 1074 the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078)
suggested to Pope Gregory VII that there might be a possibility of reunion
between their two Churches in exchange for military aid against the Islamic
Seljuk Turks. Three years before, at Mantzikert in eastern Asia Minor, the
Byzantine army had suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of these Turks,
who were then able to spread into nearly all of the heartland of Asia Minor.
In response to this idea, Pope Gregory offered to launch a crusade to
liberate the Christians of the East, in return for acknowledgment of Papal
supremacy. This crusade was not actually undertaken, probably largely because
of Gregory’s desperate struggle over lay investiture. But the idea for the
Crusades had been set in motion, and the typical pattern for East-West relations
which lasted for nearly 400 years was begun.
The First Crusade was launched by Pope Urban II (r. 1088–1099) at the
request of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Comnenos (r. 1081–1118) for
knights to fight against the Seljuk Turks. After their victory at Mantzikert in
1071, the Turks captured Antioch in 1085 and Nicea in 1092, thus coming quite
close to Constantinople itself. The Pope agreed to try to raise a military force to
help the emperor.
However, it was not the quest to drive the Turks out of Asia Minor that
fired the imagination of Western Europe. Rather, it was the call by Pope Urban
to free the Holy Land from the infidel Muslim Arabs that rallied thousands of
Western knights to set out on the First Crusade. On November 27, 1095, at
Clermont in south central France, in a rousing and impassioned speech
delivered in French, the pope convinced the great churchmen and nobles of
Europe that the Holy Land must be liberated. The response was electrifying:
cries of ‘Deus le volt’ (‘God wills it’) filled the air. The First Crusade was
launched.
The Crusaders were able to capture Antioch from the Turks in 1098, and in
the next year they won Jerusalem from the Arabs. But they slaughtered so many
of the Muslim residents of the city that the Muslims have been embittered
against the West to this day.
The Latin knights proceeded to carve out four kingdoms for themselves in
the Middle East-Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem-all of which claimed
independence from Byzantium. Latin patriarchs were set up in Jerusalem and
Antioch, challenging the authority of the Orthodox patriarchs there (as well as
the Non-Chalcedonian Jacobite patriarch in Antioch). During the next century
the Byzantines tried sporadically to win control of these areas from the Latins,
but without success. By 1291, all these kingdoms had fallen back to the
Muslims.
Kievan Russia
In Kievan Russia in the 11th century the new Christian Faith was
flourishing. Saint Anthony (d. 1073) founded the famous Monastery of the
Caves in Kiev, the Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra. Saint Theodosius (d. 1074), its
greatest saint, came to be called the “Founder of Russian monasticism.” Saint
Theodosius followed the example of the humble Christ of the gospels in an
evangelical form of spiritual life. This form has come to be known as Russian
kenoticism, which means a life of self-emptying humility and love for the
brethren (cf. Phil 2.6). The Kievan Monastery of the Caves was a major center
of Christian charity and social concern, as well as of spiritual and intellectual
labor and enlightenment.
Saints Boris and Gleb
Among the saints of Kiev are numbered the brothers Boris and Gleb, sons
of Saint Vladimir. They refused to fight their elder brother Sviatopolk in a
power struggle after the death of their father in 1015. Although they could have
fought against Sviatopolk, and were undoubtedly encouraged to do so by their
warriors, the two young brothers refused to fight, so as not to take up arms
against their brother, and in order to save the lives of many on both sides. As
“Passion-Bearers,” turning the other cheek to endure completely innocent
suffering, and laying down their lives so that others might live, Saints Boris
and Gleb were canonized by the Russian Church in 1020-just five years after
their deaths. These first Russian saints have been venerated and loved with
special devotion by their fellow Russians to this day.
Yaroslav the Wise and Saint Anna of Novgorod
Yaroslav (978–1054) was another son of Saint Vladimir. He became the
Grand Prince of Kiev in 1019 upon defeating the wicked Sviatopolk in battle.
He ruled well for 35 years until his death in 1054. During his reign Kiev
flourished as a major center of trade, and his building program made his capital
the grandest city in Europe, after Constantinople. His crowning achievement
was the construction of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia that still stands today. He
also assembled many translators to continue the work of rendering the vast
treasure of theological writings and hymnography of the Greeks into Slavonic.
And in his time, Russian princes and princesses began marrying into many of
the royal families of Western Europe.
Prince Yaroslav’s wife is a saint in the Church-she is venerated as Saint
Anna of Novgorod. She was the daughter of the first Christian king of Sweden,
King Olaf Sketkonung. She took an active part along with her husband in the
rule of their domain, sometimes even entering into battle with him, and at other
times helping to arrange peace treaties with enemies of the state. They had
seven sons and three daughters, all of whom the great orator Hilarion, who later
became the Metropolitan of Kiev, declared to be devoted to the Christian Faith.
One of them, Vladimir, is also a saint in the Church. Shortly before she died,
the princess took the monastic schema and entered the monastery that she and
her husband had built in Kiev, manifesting thereby her deep piety and humility.
Other Developments East and West
Near the end of this century, Blessed Theophylact, Bishop of Ochrid (r.
1090–1109), a Greek missionary bishop in southwestern Bulgaria, was writing
voluminous commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, making much use of the
commentaries by St John Chrysostom as he did so. And in Byzantium there
arose renewed interest in pagan antiquity, led by such men as Michael Psellus
(c. 1019-c. 1078), who favored the philosophy of Plato, and John Italos (c.
1025–1082), who favored the thought of Aristotle. This flowering of
“Byzantine humanism” did not have a deleterious effect on the life of the
Church, unlike what happened in the West in later centuries during the
Renaissance, especially in the realm of Church art. Psellus also wrote a
fascinating insider’s history of the reigns of the fourteen Byzantine rulers who
ruled during his lifetime.
Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), the most important theologian in the
West in his time, was producing his extremely influential theological
discourses. These writings contain the so-called “ontological proof” for the
existence of God, a defense of the doctrine of the filioque, and the so-called
“satisfaction theory” of the atonement. In this theory it was contended that the
death of Christ on the Cross was the adequate payment of the punishment that
fallen man deserved that was necessary to satisfy the justice and wrath of God
the Father. This innovative speculation, reflecting to some extent popular
notions of chivalry at that time in Western Europe, came to prevail in much of
Western Christianity, especially conservative Protestantism, to this day.
Twelfth Century
Major Trends
The 12th century saw the continuing struggle of the illustrious Comneni
imperial dynasty in Constantinople against the crusading Latins from the West
and the encroaching Muslim Turks from the East. Emperor Alexius I Comnenus
(r. 1081–1118) officially proclaimed Mount Athos as the center of Orthodox
monasticism. His son and successor, John (r. 1118–1143), ruled so well that he
became known as Kalojohn (“John the Good”), and his wife, a Hungarian
princess, was so devout in her Orthodox faith that she came to be venerated as
Saint Irene of Hungary. Emperor Manuel Comnenus (r. 1143–1180) continued
promoting the arts, but both of his marriages were with Western princesses, and
his unwise favoritism of Venetian merchants eventually helped lead to a violent
backlash with the sacking of the Latin quarter in Constantinople in 1182. In
retaliation, the Latins sacked the city of Thessalonica in 1185.
Early in the 12th century, at the command of Emperor Alexius I,
Euthymius Zigabenus produced his Dogmatic Panoply, a refutation of all the
heresies both ancient and recent. Much of what we know about Bogomilism,
the major dualist heresy that arose in Bulgaria in the 10th century, comes from
this work. He also wrote extensive commentaries on the Psalms, the Four
Gospels, and the Epistles of Saint Paul.
Art and architecture developed in the twelfth century with such classical
Byzantine monuments as the Church of Saint Luke and the Church of Daphni,
both near Athens, with their outstanding mosaics.
Kievan Russia
Christianity in Kievan Russia continued to expand and develop. A fire in
Kiev in 1124 is reported to have destroyed six hundred church edifices-an
indication of the great development of this cosmopolitan city which had
become a leading center of European and Byzantine culture and trade. Early in
this century, Prince Vladimir II Monomakh (1053–1125), a great grandson of
Saint Vladimir and a grandson of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus of
Byzantium, wrote his famous autobiography called his Testament, or Charge to
My Children, a document intended to guide his sons in their lives as Christian
leaders.
The Russian Primary Chronicle, the seminal document which records the
basic history of the Kievan state, with special emphasis on the coming and
spreading of Orthodox Christianity, began to be compiled by the monk Nestor
of the Monastery of the Kievan Caves. Saint Alypius (d. 1114), the “Father of
Russian iconography,” also lived in this period. Some of the greatest
architectural and iconographic achievements of Novgorod, Vladimir, Suzdal,
and Pskov come from this time.
Serbia
The 12th century witnessed the emergence of the nation of Serbia through
the efforts of the Grand Zupan Stephan Nemanya (1113–1200). Nemanya’s
third son, Rastko (c. 1175–1235), at the age of 17, fled the life of the court to
become a monk on Mount Athos. In monasticism he was given the name Sava,
after Saint Sabbas of Jerusalem. He was destined to become the great national
saint and leader of the Serbian people as the first archbishop of Serbia.
In 1196 Stephan Nemanya abdicated the throne and joined his son Sava on
Mount Athos. There he was tonsured a monk with the name of Simeon. The
Byzantine emperor Isaakios II Angelos gave the Serbian father and son the
monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos, which remains today the Serbian
monastery on the Holy Mountain. Some time after Saint Sava’s father died in
1200, his relics began exuding myrrh, and they began to flow with myrrh again
after Saint Sava took them to Serbia in 1208. Hence, when he was glorified as a
saint by the Church, he was given the name Saint Simeon the Myrrh-flowing.
The West
In Western Europe the great Cistercian monastic reform movement of the
Benedictine Order (now known as the Trappists) arose. This movement’s
greatest representative, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), was an ascetical,
mystical theologian and church activist of aristocratic background. He
promoted the Second Crusade (of 1147), and theologically he fought against
Peter Abelard (1079–1142), another important early Scholastic theologian and
author of the famous Sic et Non. The Carthusian movement of intensely
contemplative, semi-eremetic monasticism, founded in 1084 by Bruno,
expanded rapidly in this era.
Together with the centralizing of Papal power and the victory of the
Papacy over the secular rulers in the controversy over lay investiture, the 12th
century also saw the rise of the Victorine school of Augustinian theology, led
by Hugo (d. 1141) and Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173). Another major
Scholastic theologian, Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160), wrote his very influential
Sentences in the 1150s.
On the more popular level, the Waldensian movement arose in the 1170s,
led by a merchant of Lyons named Valdes. This very energetic layman
emphasized itinerant, Scripture-based lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and
works of charity. The various Waldensian groups suffered various forms of
persecution at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church during the succeeding
centuries. Finally in the 16th century, most of them merged with various
Protestant groups.
Also, the dualist heretical movement known as the Cathari arose in
Germany around 1140, under the influence of Bogomilism from Eastern
Europe. By around 1200 the Cathari had grown and spread to such an extent
that they were the principal target of the Inquisition that was instituted in the
early 13th century. In southern France these heretics were known as
Albigensians.
In 1147, the Second Crusade was launched with the goal of winning back
the Crusader Kingdom of Edessa which had fallen to the Muslims. Preached by
Bernard of Clairvaux, this crusade was led by King Louis VII of France and
Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III. These Crusaders further alienated the
Byzantines by their uncouth behavior. At the same time, the Westerners had
learned to hate the Greeks, considering them to be deceitful, and their Church
heretical. The chronicler Odo of Deuil listed the various practices and beliefs of
the Greek Christians now scorned by the Westerners, and he recorded their
willingness to kill the Greeks as heretics. More and more, the Latins dreamed
of seizing Constantinople for themselves, and they were urged to do so by some
of their own clergy.
Meanwhile, the Greek Church’s consternation at the extension of Papal
claims was eloquently expressed in a letter by Archbishop Nicetas of
Nicomedia written to Bishop Anselm of Havelberg, in Germany.
Archbishop Nicetas of Nicomedia writing to Bishop Anselm of
Havelberg
My dearest brother, we do not deny to the Roman Church the primacy
among the five sister Patriarchates, and we recognize her right to the most
honorable seat at an Ecumenical Council. But she separated herself from us by
her own deeds, when she assumed a monarchy which does not belong to her
office.?.?.?. How shall we accept decrees from her that have been issued
without consulting us, and even without our knowledge?
If the Roman pontiff, seated on the lofty throne of his glory, wishes to
thunder at us from on high, and if he wishes to judge us and even to rule us and
our churches, not by taking counsel with us but at his own arbitrary pleasure,
what kind of brotherhood or even what kind of parenthood can this be? We
would be the slaves of such a church, and the Roman see would not be the pious
mother of sons but a hard and imperious mistress of slaves.?.?.?. In such a case
what could have been the use of the Scriptures? The writings and the teachings
of the Fathers would be useless. The authority of the Roman pontiff would
nullify the value of all because he would be the only bishop, the sole teacher
and master.
Thirteenth Century
The Fourth Crusade
The 13th century began with what is generally considered to be the final
sealing of the schism between East and West, when the knights of the Fourth
Crusade brutally sacked Constantinople during the first three days of Holy
Week in 1204. They pillaged Hagia Sophia and other churches, desecrating the
altars and stealing countless relics and other holy objects. The Crusaders took
control of the city. A Latin, Thomas Morosini, was named Patriarch of
Constantinople; and a Frank, Baldwin of Flanders, was named “Emperor of
Byzantium.” Now, for the first time, the entire Latin West became a deeply
hated enemy in the minds of the Greek people.
Most of the Byzantines regrouped in northwestern Asia Minor, in what
they called the Empire of Nicea. They were led by the capable new Emperor
Theodore I Laskaris (r. 1204–1222), who was succeeded by his saintly son-in-
law, Emperor Saint John III Doukas Vatatzes (r. 1222–1254). By 1261, Emperor
Michael VIII Paleologos (r. 1259–1282) was able to regain Constantinople
from the Latins. Even though the Byzantine Empire lasted for almost another
200 years, she never fully recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade
and the 57 years of Latin rule in her capital city.
The Second Council of Lyons
In the early 1270s the Byzantines were threatened by the Serbs, the
Bulgarians, and especially the Latin state of Achaia, in Greece, led by the
Sicilian Norman, Charles of Anjou. And the Seljuk Turks, who had occupied
most of Asia Minor in the previous two centuries, were an ongoing threat. In
response to these pressures, Emperor Michael VIII appealed for support to
Pope Gregory X (r. 1271–1276), who opposed Charles’ designs on
Constantinople. Michael suggested that in return for military assistance, the
Greek Church would accept the authority of the Papacy.
The reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches, therefore, was the major
issue discussed at the Second Council of Lyons, which met in 1274 at Pope
Gregory’s request. The Greek delegation brought letters accepting Papal
authority and various Roman Catholic articles of faith, including the filioque
clause in the Nicene Creed. It was at this council that for the first time the
Western Church proclaimed that the filioque must be accepted as dogma. The
Union agreement that restored communion between the two Churches
stipulated that the Greeks could retain their liturgical rites and customs. The
council also attempted to launch another Crusade to the Holy Land, and it
established the practice of all the Roman cardinals meeting in a closed
conclave during the entire process of electing a new pope.
When Emperor Michael VIII attempted to impose the so-called Union of
Lyons upon the Byzantine Church, it was met with great resistance. When
Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople refused to sign the agreement, he was
deposed and replaced with John Beccus, who was the head of the minority party
in Constantinople that favored the Union. But after Michael died in 1282,
Beccus was quickly deposed, Joseph was restored to the patriarchal throne, and
the Union of Lyons was officially renounced. Popular opposition to Emperor
Michael was so strong that he was denied a church burial.
Remarkably, Michael retained his loyalty to the Union of Lyons even
though in 1281 the new Pope Martin IV (r. 1281–1285) excommunicated him as
part of the Pope’s plan to assist Charles of Anjou, one of his major supporters,
in attacking and conquering the Byzantine Empire. But that plan, and the
Council of Lyons’ plan to launch a new Crusade to the Holy Land, both came to
naught.
Serbia and Bulgaria
In 1219 Saint Sava of Serbia went to Nicea to obtain the approval and
blessing of the Church of Constantinople for an independent national church for
the Serbs. Sava himself was consecrated as the first “Archbishop of the Serbian
lands” by Manuel, Patriarch of Constantinople, in the presence of Emperor
Theodore I Laskaris. On Ascension Day in 1220, at a national assembly of the
Serbs held at the Zicha monastery, the newly-consecrated Archbishop Sava
crowned his older brother, the grand zhupan Stephan, as the first “King of all
the Serbian lands” (he is known as Saint Stephan the First-Crowned). And
Archbishop Sava established the headquarters of the new Serbian Church at
Zicha.
In 1233, after designating his trusted fellow monk, Father Arsenije (also
later recognized as a saint), to be his successor as head of the Serbian Church,
and leaving him in charge of the affairs of the Church, Archbishop Sava set off
on a long pilgrimage and good will trip all across the Middle East. His mission
was to visit holy places, and to meet with fellow Christians and share with them
the story of the Serbian people becoming united in Holy Orthodoxy.
Saint Sava first went to Jerusalem, then to Alexandria, and through the
Egyptian heartland of the Desert Fathers of long ago. Then he went to Cairo,
where his warmth and generosity to the poor and the blind melted the hearts of
the Muslim sultan and the Muslim population (while there he also gave large
donations to several Coptic churches and institutions). Then he made a
pilgrimage to Mount Sinai and the famous Monastery of Saint Katherine.
Then this indefatigable ambassador for Serbian Orthodoxy returned to
Jerusalem and the Holy Land, visiting for a second time the illustrious
monastery founded by his patron saint, Saint Sabbas the Great. Then he
undertook an exceptionally dangerous journey to Baghdad, where he was
received respectfully by the Sultan of Iraq, and where he visited the Patriarch
of the Assyro-Chaldean (Nestorian) Church. From there he went to Antioch, to
visit the patriarch there, and the monastery of Saint Symeon the Stylite. Then
he went north to Armenia, to Kurdistan, and then westward across Seljuk-
Turkey.
Finally he reached Nicea. While there he persuaded the patriarch and the
emperor to recognize the reestablishment of the Patriarchate of the Bulgarian
Church. Then he traveled to Trnovo, the Bulgarian capital, where he shared the
good news of the official recognition of the restoration of the Bulgarian
Patriarchate.
While still in Trnovo, before he could return to his beloved homeland,
Saint Sava died-on January 14, 1235. He had given his Church and nation a life
of outstanding devotion and leadership, having been sustained by the Lord
through many grave trials and difficulties.
His body was taken back to Serbia, and placed at the royal monastery of
Mileseva, where his relics were a source of great spiritual strength for the
Serbian people. These relics were burned by the Ottoman Turks in 1595.
With the advance of Serbian King Miliutin (r. 1282–1321) and his army
across the Sar Mountains into northern Macedonia, which opened the way for
Serbian expansion southward down the entire Balkan Peninsula, the Serbian
state once and for all shifted its main attention away from Rome and towards
Byzantium. In fact, Miliutin is credited with strongly resisting the efforts of
Byzantine Emperor Michael Paleologos to impose Roman Catholicism on the
Balkans after the Union of Lyons in 1274.
Russia
In the 13th century Kieven Rus was overwhelmed by the Mongolian
invasion. The Tatar Yoke fell over the land when Khan Batu, a grandson of the
Mongolian conqueror Ghengis Khan, led the four hundred thousand horsemen
of the Golden Horde into the Russian lands in 1237. The Kievan state collapsed
in 1240.
In 1231 Alexander Nevsky (1219–1263) became the prince of Novgorod.
This independent, large city-republic in the northwest had its own unique form
of republican government, as well as its own particular spiritual, architectural,
and iconographic traditions. In 1240, at the age of only 21, Alexander led the
Russians in a victorious battle at the Neva River against the Roman Catholic
Swedes, who were invading from the northwest at this moment of terrible crisis
in Russia. In 1242 he led the successful resistance against another invading
force from the West-this time, the Teutonic Knights from modern-day northern
Germany, Lithuanian, and Latvia.
After these two brilliant victories, Alexander was pressured by many of
his fellow Russian princes to raise up a counterattack against the Tatars. But he
wisely understood that the Tatars were far too strong for the Russians to drive
out. In addition, he knew that the Westerners were a much greater threat to the
integrity of the Orthodox Church than were the Tatars, for the Swedes and the
Germans would have imposed their Roman Catholicism upon the Russians,
while the Tatars allowed the Church the freedom to carry on basically without
restriction, and even with a certain amount of protection.
In 1247, Prince Alexander traveled to Khan Batu’s headquarters at Sarai,
in the Volga Delta, humbly seeking mercy for the Russian people from the
Tatars. Alexander agreed to pay annual tribute to the Khan in order to have
peace for his people. He returned with the title of Grand Prince of Kiev, and the
responsibility to assure that all the Russian princes paid the tribute money and
remained subservient to the Tatars. Several times his fellow Russians tried to
revolt, but each time the uprising was crushed by the Tatars, and each time
Prince Alexander traveled to Sarai to beg the Khan that there be no further
reprisals.
Alexander died in 1263 at the age of 44. In 1380 he was glorified as a saint
by the Russian Church for his personal holiness, his military bravery, and his
practical wisdom and diplomacy-all of which he dedicated selflessly to the
service of his people as a true Christian statesman.
Saint Alexander Nevsky was ably supported by Metropolitan Cyril of Kiev
(r. 1242–1281), a native Russian (nearly all the previous metropolitans of Kiev
had been Greek). This cooperation between the grand prince and the
metropolitan laid the foundation for the close Church-State relations that
existed in Russia until the 20th century.
The West
The 13th century has been called the “greatest of centuries” in the Western
Church. The strong Pope Innocent III (r. 1198–1216) succeeded in upholding
the prestige and power of the Papacy. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215
defined the official doctrines of the Western Church. The remarkable Francis of
Assisi (c. 1181–1226) founded his Franciscan Order (OFM) with its first great
members Anthony of Padua (c. 1190–1231) and the major theologians
Bonaventure (c. 1217–1274) and John Duns Scotus (c. 1265–1308). And in
theological studies, it was the golden age of Scholastism.
By the beginning of the 13th century the University of Paris had taken
shape; it was given its statutes by the illustrious Pope Innocent III in 1215. It
was the first of many universities arising in western Europe, where theology
was taught and studied in a scholastic manner as the “Queen of the Sciences.”
In about 1217 the Spaniard Dominic (c. 1174–1221) founded the
Dominican Order of Preachers (OP). The great Scholastic theologian Albertus
Magnus (c. 1200–1280) and his famous disciple Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–
1274), the greatest of all the Scholastic teachers, were two of its most
illustrious early members. Aquinas’s vast, monumental Summa Theologiae
dominated official Roman Catholic theology until the Second Vatican Council
in the 1960s. The controversial German mystical theologian Meister Eckhart (c.
1260-c. 1328) was also a member of the Dominican Order.
Around 1233 Pope Gregory IX (r. 1227–1241) established the Inquisition
to seek out and punish heretics-often using the death penalty-with full-time
Papal inquisitors appointed mainly from the recently founded Dominican and
Franciscan Orders.
With the support of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Carmelite Order
(OCC) took shape at the beginning of the 13th century among a group of Latin-
speaking hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. A number of
smaller religious groups also emerged during this century in the Latin Church.
Fourteenth Century
Saint Gregory Palamas
The 14th century was the time of the Palamite controversy in the Eastern
Church. St Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), a monk of Mount Athos, was a
practitioner of the method of prayer called hesychasm (hesychia means
‘silence’). This method of prayer is centered in the continuous repetition of the
name of Jesus, usually in the form of the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” And a rigorous bodily discipline-
emphasizing certain sitting postures and breathing techniques-is employed in
order to help unite the mind and heart in God. Through the use of this method
of prayer, the hesychast monks claimed to experience genuine communion with
God, including sometimes a vision of the Uncreated Light of Divinity such as
that seen by Moses on Mount Sinai, and by the Apostles Peter, James, and John
at the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor.
In 1330 Barlaam the Calabrian, an Italo-Greek monk raised in an Orthodox
family in southern Italy but educated in the Scholastic spirit prevailing in
Western Europe at that time, came to Constantinople and accepted a chair in
philosophy at the University of Constantinople. Barlaam, along with a number
of other Byzantine humanists who were highly influenced by Western
philosophical and theological ideas, ridiculed the practice of hesychastic
prayer. They denied the possibility for human beings to be in direct, genuine
communion with God.
Essence and Energies
In 1337 Gregory Palamas confronted Barlaam’s position and began his
defense of hesychasm and the various contemplative practices of the Athonite
monks. He confirmed the Orthodox doctrine that man can truly know God and
can enter into living communion and relationship with Him through Christ and
the Holy Spirit in the Church. He explained that the Essence (or Super-Essence)
of God is utterly unknowable and incomprehensible, while at the same time, the
actions, operations, or Energies of God, which are also uncreated and fully
divine (such as the Divine Light), are communicated to people by divine grace
and are open to human knowledge and experience. This is what is meant when
Christians are said to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2Pet 1.4).
A local council held in 1341 in Constantinople upheld Gregory’s teaching.
Amid ten more years of political turmoil and theological controversy, local
councils held in 1347 and in 1351 reaffirmed Gregory’s position as that of the
Bible and the whole Tradition of the Orthodox Church. From that time this
crucial theological distinction between the divine Super-Essence and the divine
Energies became an official part of the doctrine of the Orthodox Church.
Saint Nicholas Cabasilas Writing on the Eucharist
Yet I have not mentioned the greatest thing of all. The Master is present
with His servants not only to that extent, but He imparts of His own. He not
only gives them a hand, but He has given us His whole Self. Wherefore we are
the temple of the living God; our members are Christ’s members, whose Head
the Cherubim adore. These very feet, these hands, depend on His Heart.
What then can you meditate upon with greater profit and pleasure than
these things? For when we examine them, and these thoughts prevail in the
soul, no evil thoughts will gain entry into us. Then it will come about that, as
we learn of His benefits, we will increase in longing for our Benefactor. When
we thus greatly love Him we become keepers of His commandments and
participants in His purpose, for as He says, ‘he who loves Me will keep My
commandments’ (Jn 14.15, 21).
Besides, when we recognize how great is our worth, we shall not readily
betray it. We will not endure being slaves to a runaway slave when we have
found out that a kingdom is ours. We shall not open our mouth in evil speech
when we recollect the sacred banquet and that Blood which has reddened our
tongue. How can we use our eyes to look on that which is not seemly when we
have enjoyed such awesome Mysteries? We shall not move our feet nor stretch
forth our hands to any wicked thing if the recollection of these things is active
in our souls. Since they our members of Christ, they are sacred-as it were, a
vial containing His Blood. Nay, rather, they are wholly clothed with the Savior
Himself, not like a garment which we wear or the skin with which we are born,
but much more, in that this clothing is far more closely united to those who
wear it than their very bones.
(The Life in Christ, Sixth Book, parts 3 and 4)
Saint Gregory Palamas also served the Church as Archbishop of
Thessalonica from 1350 until his death in 1359. Just nine years after his repose,
he was glorified as a saint of the Church, with the second Sunday in Great Lent
being dedicated to him in addition to November 14, the day of his death. This
double annual commemoration underlines how important this great Church
Father is in the mystical/theological tradition of the Orthodox Church.
Saint Nicholas Cabasilas (c. 1322-c. 1390), an important lay follower of
Saint Gregory Palamas, wrote a very popular work called The Life in Christ
which emphasizes the centrality of the Mysteries, or Sacraments, of the Church
in the spiritual life of the people. For Saint Nicholas, partaking of the Holy
Eucharist after proper preparation can be for any Christian-not only the
monastics-the most profound moment of mystical communion with the Living
Lord. Saint Nicholas also wrote a highly respected commentary on the Divine
Liturgy.
John Cantakuzenos
The 14th century in Byzantium was also dominated by the remarkable
John VI Cantakuzenos (c. 1295–1383). He was a close friend and advisor of
Emperor Andronicos Paleologos (r. 1328–1341). In 1347, after a six-year civil
war, he agreed to rule as co-emperor with John V Paleologos (r. 1341–1391),
who was Andronicos’s son. A capable theologian, John Cantakuzenos called
and presided at the Third Palamite Council in 1351.
Cantakuzenos also actively encouraged Byzantine theologians to learn
Latin in order to carefully study the Scholastic writings emerging from Western
Europe, in anticipation of a non-politically motivated theological dialogue with
the Roman Catholics that he hoped would lead to the reunion of the Eastern and
Western Churches. He and his group hoped that such reunion would be based on
the one Faith of the undivided Church of the first thousand years, rather than on
the Eastern Church being pressured into accepting Papal authority in order to
receive military help against the enemies of the Byzantine Empire. Sadly, such
an unpressured dialogue never took place between the Roman Catholic and
Orthodox Churches until the second half of the twentieth century.
Emperor John V Paleologos and Rome
The longest ruling Byzantine emperor of the fourteenth century, John V
Paleologos (r. 1341–1391), continued to hope that the West would come to the
aid of the Greeks in the face of the ever-increasing expansion of the realm of
the Ottoman Turks that arose in northwestern Asia Minor in the 1280s. In 1369
John personally entered into communion with the Roman Church, though
without making an attempt at formal Church union. This act also produced no
lasting results, either for the ecclesiastical or political destiny of
Constantinople.
Russia
The Rise of Moscow
The town of Moscow is first mentioned in the historical records in 1147.
At first a small trading post, it grew rather quickly due to its strategic location
on both east-west and north-south trade routes. After being destroyed by the
Tatar invaders in 1238, it was rebuilt and strengthened by Prince Daniel, son of
Saint Alexander Nevsky. It grew further under Daniel’s son George, and then
under his second son, John Kalita (r. 1328–1341).
For almost 200 more years Moscow was governed by a succession of
prudent, shrewd, efficient rulers who were determined to unite the feuding
Russian principalities under her authority, with the long-range goal of
overthrowing the Tatar yoke. These rulers offered refuge to people fleeing from
the Tatar domains to the south, and they learned how to deal skillfully with the
Tatar overlords.
With Kievan Rus’ almost entirely devastated by the Tatars, and with the
gradual strengthening and expansion of the Muscovite state, it was perhaps
inevitable that eventually the Church would move her headquarters from Kiev
to Moscow. This happened in 1325 under St Metropolitan Peter (r. 1281–1326),
who immediately began construction of the magnificent Cathedral of the
Dormition (Uspenski Sobor) in the Kremlin in Moscow. This church remains to
this day the main cathedral for the entire Russian Orthodox Church.
Saint Sergius of Radonezh
The great Saint Sergius was born in 1314 in the northern city of Rostov the
Great. His godly parents, Kirill and Mary, were of aristocratic background. His
father was a confidant of the prince of Rostov, with whom he traveled when the
prince negotiated with the Tatar Golden Horde. In 1328, as Prince John Kalita
of Moscow began the process of annexing Rostov, Sergius’s family moved
much closer to Moscow, to the town of Radonezh.
Sergius showed a calling to the ascetic, spiritual life from his earliest
days. After his parents entered monasticism later in life and died shortly
thereafter-they are venerated as Saints Kirill and Mary in the Russian Church-
he and his older brother Stephen selected an isolated spot in the dense forest
near Radonezh, where they began a life of seclusion and prayer. After a year or
two, Stephen returned to “civilization” due to the rigors of life in the
wilderness, while Sergius stayed on alone in his forest paradise.
After a few more years, several others joined Sergius in the little monastic
community that he dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The number of monks stayed
at around twelve for several more years, until in 1347 a rich and famous abbot
from Smolensk named Simon came and asked to be received into the
community as a simple monk. His gift of money was used to build a new
church.
At this point many more came to join the community, and Sergius, very
reluctantly, accepted to be officially named the abbot. Yet even after being
made abbot, he still continued to serve his monks by chopping wood, drawing
water, and making clothes for them, allowing them to copy manuscripts and
paint icons. He was a strict ascetic, a practitioner of silent prayer, and a mystic
graced with divine visions and living communion with God.
In 1354 word came from the hesychastic Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos of
Constantinople that the community should become organized as a cenobitic
(communal) monastery. As the Russian Church was still part of the Patriarchate
of Constantinople in the 14th century, Saint Sergius felt obliged to agree to this
change, which was also urged upon him by Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of
Moscow (r. 1353–1378).
Over the years the monastery continued to grow. Eventually it became
recognized as the center of Russian monasticism. And as would happen many
times as monastics formed communities further and further into the wilderness
to the north and east, settlers came to live around the monastery, and a sizable
town developed.
Saint Sergius became so well known as a holy, humble man of God that he
was often consulted by Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and other
prominent leaders of the country. One of these, Saint Dimitri Donskoi, Grand
Prince of Moscow (r. 1360–1389), rebuilt the walls of Moscow in defiance of
the Tatar overlords. When the Tatars, in response, amassed a huge military
force to march towards Moscow, Dimitri rallied nearly all the Russian princes
to join him in raising a large number of warriors to defend their lands.
At the moment of final decision, Grand Prince Dimitri consulted Saint
Sergius, who advised him to advance towards the Tatars, to meet them in battle
across the Don River in the Tatars’ heartland in the open steppes. The forces
met at the Battle of Kulikovo Pole, on September 8, 1380. Miraculously, the
outnumbered Russian forces prevailed. This victory marked the beginning of
the end of the Tatar overlordship, even though the Russians had to continue
paying tribute to them until 1480.
The legacy of Saint Sergius to Russia and the Orthodox Church is
immeasurable. His direct disciples founded nearly thirty monastic centers in
northern Russia around which lands were settled and developed. Between 1400
and 1600, some 250 monasteries were established either through the direct or
indirect inspiration of Saint Sergius. The mystical spiritual life of the Russian
Church, as well as the interrelation between the Church and the socio-political
life of the Russian nation in later times, were rooted in the person and work of
the illustrious and exceptionally beloved Saint Sergius of Radonezh.
Saint Stephen of Perm
A contemporary and friend of Saint Sergius, Saint Stephen of Perm (1340–
1396), was a learned bishop who undertook missionary work among the Zyrian
tribes living just west of the Ural Mountains. Saint Stephen created an alphabet
for the Zyrian language, and translated numerous Church writings into this
language. Thus he continued the Byzantine tradition of fostering Church life in
the vernacular in new regions, and he laid the spiritual foundations for the
future missionary work of the Russian Church among the Siberian tribes, and
later in China, Japan, and Alaska.
Saint Andrei Rublev
Saint Andrei Rublev (d.c. 1430), the greatest Russian iconographer and
perhaps the greatest iconographer in Orthodox history, did his marvelous work
at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. He was a monk of
the Holy Trinity Monastery founded by Saint Sergius of Radonezh. Much
influenced by the illustrious Byzantine iconographer Theophanes the Greek,
Saint Andrei worked together with his friend Daniel the Black.
Rublev’s most famous work is the icon of the Holy Trinity, painted for the
iconostasis of the new church built at his monastery. This profoundly moving
icon depicts, in a perfect harmony of colors and lines, the Three Angels who
visited Abraham and Sarah (Gen 18). During this same period there was a
renaissance of Church art in the Byzantine Empire, with many famous frescoes
and mosaics coming from this time.
The Serbs
Under Tsar Stephen Dushan (r. 1331–1355), who grew up in
Constantinople until the age of 13, the Serbian kingdom reached its greatest
heights, encompassing nearly the entire Balkan Peninsula. In 1345, with the
approval of the archbishop of Ochrid, the Patriarch of Bulgaria, and
representatives of Mount Athos, Dushan raised the Serbian archbishop to the
rank of patriarch, with his headquarters at Pec. He took the title “Patriarch of
the Serbs and the Greeks.”
On Easter Sunday of the next year, at a national assembly held at Skopjle,
Dushan was crowned by the new patriarch as emperor (tsar). Tsar Stephen saw
himself as the legitimate, natural successor to the Byzantine emperor, since that
empire had become so weak, and his had become so strong. At the time of his
death, he was actually preparing to launch an attack against the imperial City.
This unilateral double “presumption” by the Serbs naturally scandalized
the Byzantines, who excommunicated the Serbian tsar and his religious leaders.
But by 1370, with the Serbian Empire in serious decline after the death of Tsar
Stephen Dushan in 1355, the excommunications were lifted, and in 1375 the
Serbian patriarchate was recognized by Constantinople.
With their defeat at the momentous Battle of Kosovo on June 15, 1389,
despite the heroic leadership of Saint Lazor, their prince, the Serbs fell under
the yoke of the Ottoman Turks. On the eve of the great battle, Saint Lazor led
his troops in receiving the Holy Eucharist, in a Liturgy during which they all
dedicated themselves to die as martyrs in defense of their Church and their
nation at the hands of the much more numerous Ottomans. Serbia was then
completely integrated into the Ottoman realm. The Serbs did not regain their
independence until 1830.
The Bulgarians
The Second Bulgarian Empire, which had begun in 1187 with the
successful overthrow of Byzantine rule by the brothers Peter and Asen, came to
an end in 1330 when the Serbs absorbed Bulgaria into her rising Empire. Still,
during most of the rest of the 14th century, the Bulgarians maintained a rich
cultural and religious life. The Bulgarian monastery of Zoographos on Mount
Athos was established in this century.
Patriarch Euthymios (r. 1375–1393), the last Bulgarian patriarch before
the Ottoman conquest ended the Bulgarian patriarchate for the second time,
ardently promoted hesychastic mystical prayer. He also initiated and led a great
pan-Slavic literary revival, based on a return to the original Greek sources and
to the original translation work of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
On July 17, 1393, the Bulgarians were vanquished in battle by the Ottoman
Turks. Bulgaria, like Serbia, became completely integrated into the Ottoman
realm. The Bulgarians did not regain their independence until the early 20th
century.
Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos of Constantinople (r. 1353–1354 and 1364–
1376) consolidated the adoption by his Church of the monastic typikon of the
Saint Sabbas Monastery in the Holy Land. This helped stabilize the Church’s
worship patterns to such an extent that the order of worship in the Church in the
14th century was virtually the same as it is today.
In his Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas gave a
symbolical interpretation of the liturgy that is still applicable today. The
liturgical commentaries of Saint Symeon of Thessalonica (d. 1429), which also
provide detailed information about Church worship, are also still relevant.
Saint Symeon’s writings reveal that at this time in the marriage service,
the Holy Eucharist was still being given to the bride and groom if they were
Orthodox Christians, and the blessed “common cup” was given only to those
who were not allowed to receive Holy Communion in the Church. And for the
first time, the prothesis (proskomedia), as a separate rite preceding the liturgy
of the Word, appeared in the liturgical books.
The West
The West in the 14th century saw the “Babylonian Captivity” of the
Papacy in Avignon, France (1309–1377), when the Papacy became virtually
subject to the kings of France. Then, in the very next year after the return of the
Papacy to Rome, the “Great Papal Schism” began, with two rivals claiming to
be the legitimate Pope. And from 1409 to 1414 there were three rivals all
claiming to be the true Pope. These humiliating developments helped lead to
the rise of the Conciliar Movement, which became a powerful force in the
Western Church in the next century.
Catherine of Sienna (c. 1347–1380), a remarkable Italian mystic,
theologian, and advisor to Pope Gregory XI (r. 1370–1378), lived in the 14th
century, as did John Wycliffe (c. 1330–1384), the forerunner of the Protestant
Reformation in England. Other important mystical writers of this century were
Walter Hilton (c. 1343–1396), Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-after 1416), and the
anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, all of whom were English.
In Holland, Geert Groote (1340–1384) founded the popular and influential
group of “secular” (i.e., non-monastic) priests and laity called the Brethren of
the Common Life. This movement was part of a general revival and deepening
of the spiritual life called the Devotio Moderna (Modern Devotion). The Dutch
mystical writer Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) was probably the greatest
representative of this movement in the 14th century. Emphasizing as it did the
importance of Christian community, heartfelt devotion to Christ, and
theological writing in the vernacular, as well as criticizing various abuses in the
Church life of the time, this movement can be seen as a precursor to the
Protestant Reformation.
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) completed his timeless masterpiece The
Divine Comedy in the last years of his life. Also in the early part of the 14th
century, the famous painter Giotto (c. 1267–1337) began the revolutionary
devolvement of religious art in the West away from traditional Byzantine
iconographic patterns and towards a more humanistic, naturalistic realism that
remained prominent in Western religious art until the 20th century.
Fifteenth Century
The Great Schism in the Papacy, and the Conciliar
Movement
The West in the early decades of the 15th century was in turmoil over the
relationship between the Papacy and Church councils. Some held that the
Papacy was supreme. Others held that the authority of the Church councils
supersedes that of the Pope of Rome.
We have already mentioned the beginning of the Papal Schism in 1378,
with two men claiming to be the legitimate Pope. In 1409, in order the settle
the issue, the Council of Pisa met. This council deposed the two papal
claimants and elected a new man, Alexander V, to be the true Pope. However,
the two claimants, Gregory XII and Benedict XIII, refused to abandon their
claims, so now there were three men claiming to be the real Pope.
This state of affairs convinced the supporters of the Conciliar Movement
all the more that another council had to be called to bring an end to this
confusion and furor surrounding the Papacy. As a result, in 1414 the Council of
Constance met, which would become the pinnacle of the Conciliar Movement.
This council, held in southern Germany, deposed all three claimants and then
elected Martin V (r. 1417–1431) to be the one and only Pope.
This council, the 16th in the listing of ecumenical councils of the Roman
Church, also asserted that even the Pope is to be subject to the dictates of an
ecumenical council:
This Ecumenical Council has received immediate authority from our Lord
Jesus Christ; and every member of the Church, not excepting the Pope, must
obey the Council in all matters pertaining to faith, the putting down of schism,
and ecclesiastical reform. If, contrary to this canon, the Pope or anyone else
refuses to receive this, or any other Ecumenical Council, he shall be sentenced
to penance, and when necessary even be visited with legal punishment.
And to further assert the authority of the council over that of the Papacy,
the Council of Constance mandated that future councils would be held
according to a regular schedule, rather than relying on the good will of the Pope
to call one whenever he so desired.
In 1431, shortly before he died, Pope Martin V called a council to meet in
Basel, Switzerland, according to the timetable set by the Council of Constance.
But his successor, Pope Eugenius IV (r. 1431–1447), was determined to resist
the authority of this council and to reassert Papal supremacy in the Roman
Church.
The Council of Florence
In 1438, as the Council of Basle continued to meet, the Byzantine Emperor
John VIII (r. 1425–1448) made a fervent appeal to the West for military aid
against the Ottoman Turks, who by now had reduced the size of the Byzantine
Empire to little more than the city of Constantinople. Independently, both the
Council of Basle and Pope Eugenius offered to pay for the Greeks to come and
negotiate the basis for a restoration of communion between the Eastern
Churches and the Church of Rome, in return for military aid.
Understandably, Emperor John VIII and Patriarch Joseph II of
Constantinople were much more accustomed to dealing directly with the
Bishop of Old Rome rather than with a council-especially a council that the
Pope was resisting! So, very fatefully, they decided to meet with the Pope
instead of with the Council of Basle. This decision in itself gave a great boost
to the prestige and authority of the Papacy over against the Conciliar
Movement.
Pope Eugenius, in order to directly assert his authority over the Council of
Basle, summoned it to Ferrara in Italy, which also made it easier for the Greeks
to get there. Most of the bishops attending in Basle refused to obey the
summons of the Pope. Undeterred, he went on with his small council in Ferrara,
and received there the Greek delegation of about 700 people. Early in 1439, this
council was moved to Florence, since the merchants there offered to pay its
expenses.
The Greek delegation was strongly pressured by both the Emperor and the
Patriarch to accede to Rome’s terms for reunion, whatever they might be. So,
after long and sometimes bitter debating, the Greeks finally agreed to accept:
a strong declaration of the Pope as “the true vicar of Christ, the head of the
whole Church, the father and teacher of all Christians”;
a declaration that the filioque, “this truth of faith, must be believed and
received by all”-and specifically, that the Holy Spirit “proceeds eternally” from
both the Father and the Son “as from one principle”;
a statement of the medieval Western concept of Purgatory, including the
assertion that the souls of unbaptized infants “go down immediately to hell to
be punished”;
the allowance for either unleavened bread (azymes; the Latin custom) or
leavened bread (the Orthodox custom) to be used in the Eucharist.
Under severe pressure from the Emperor and the Patriarch, every bishop in
the Greek delegation signed this so-called “Decree for the Greeks” promulgated
at the Council of Florence-all except Saint Mark, Bishop of Ephesus. When told
that Mark had refused to sign, Pope Eugenius is reputed to have said, “Then we
have accomplished nothing.” For he knew that Mark’s resistance to the forced
union would be the focal point for its eventual rejection by nearly the entire
Orthodox world. And indeed, for his courageous resistance to this unjust union,
and for his eloquent defense of Orthodoxy over against the errors of Latin
Scholastic theology-especially their positions on the filioque and purgatory-he
is popularly venerated in the Orthodox Church as one of the Three Pillars of
Orthodoxy, along with Saint Photios the Great and Saint Gregory Palamas, who
also fought valiantly against Latin aberrations of the Faith.
When the Greek Metropolitan Isidore of Kiev and All Russia, one of the
major architects of the Union of Florence, traveled to Moscow to try to impose
the Union there, he was run out of the city, barely escaping with his life.
Returning to the West, he was eventually made a cardinal in the Roman Church.
Before Saint Mark of Ephesus died in 1444, he entrusted the leadership of
the anti-Union party in Constantinople to a prominent, scholarly monk named
George Scholarios, who would become Patriarch Gennadios, the first patriarch
of Constantinople under the Ottoman Turks. He is remembered in the Orthodox
Church as St Gennadios, Patriarch of Constantinople (Feastday, August 31).
The Union of Florence was not publicly proclaimed in the Eastern Church
until December 12, 1452, in the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople,
as the Turks were amassing their forces to begin their siege of the city. Even at
that most desperate moment, there was so much popular resistance to the Union
that most of the people stood behind George Scholarios, who publicly
denounced the so-called “Union Liturgy” held that day. The duke Notaras
echoed the opinion of many when he cried out, “We would prefer to see the
Turkish turban in our City than the Latin tiara.”
The Fall of Byzantium
On мая 29, 1453, the Ottoman Turks, under their sultan Mohammed II (or
Mehmet; r. 1451–1481), captured the city of Constantinople after a furious
siege of six weeks. Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque, and the city
eventually became known as Istanbul. This marked the tragic end of the
Roman/Byzantine Empire-an empire that had lasted almost 1500 years.
The Ottomans went on to completely subjugate Serbia in 1459,
incorporating it directly into their realm. The same happened with Greece in
1459–1460, and Bosnia in 1463. Moldavia managed to resist Ottoman
encroachment during the long and illustrious rule of Stephen the Great (r.
1457–1504), but after his death his realm, and the other &rldquo;Transdanubian
Provinces” of Wallachia and Transylvania (regions in modern-day Romania),
all became vassal states of the Turks. And Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were
taken by the Ottomans from the decaying Arabian Mamluk Dynasty by 1520.
From then on, for nearly 400 years the Ottoman Turks would hold sway over
the Orthodox Christians in almost all the lands of the former East Roman
(Byzantine) Empire.
The Establishment of the Rum Milet
In ruling these vast formerly Christian regions, the Ottomans basically
followed the pattern of the Arabs after they conquered so many Christian lands
beginning in the decade of the 630s. This pattern was to allow the Christians, as
a tolerated minority, to maintain their basic way of life under the leadership of
their patriarch, who governed the Christians in his territory as an ethnarch-that
is, as ruler of the ethnic minority, or in other words, as ruler of “a nation within
a nation.”
Under the Ottomans, the Patriarch of Constantinople quite naturally was
made the ethnarch over all the Christians in the realm. This “nation within a
nation” was called the Rum milet, the Roman people-since the Turks fully
understood that the Byzantines were the perpetuators of the Roman Empire and
hence were still Romans, as indeed they still called themselves.
The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror (r. 1451–1481) was not bent
on destroying the very advanced civilization that he had conquered. Rather, he
wanted to build upon it, so that his new empire would be the grandest in the
world. Hence, he wanted to make sure that the Christians in his realm would
contribute positively to the well-being of the Empire.
So concerned was he to assure the continued peaceful existence of the
Christians in his newly conquered territory that he personally selected George
Scholarios, the head of the anti-Union party in Constantinople, to be the new
patriarch (the former one had fled to Italy in 1451). But in the days following
the fall of the city, Scholarios disappeared. Agents were sent out, and he was
found as a slave in the hands of a rich Turkish merchant in Adrianopolis, in
nearby Thrace.
Scholarios was brought back to Constantinople, where the Sultan
personally invested him with the patriarchal office on the Day of Theophany,
January 6, 1454. According to Sir Steven Runciman, “The Sultan handed him
the insignia of his office, the robes, the pastoral staff, and the pectoral cross, a
new one made of silver-gilt. As he invested the Patriarch, he uttered the
formula: ‘Be Patriarch, with good fortune, and be assured of our friendship,
keeping all the privileges that the Patriarchs before you enjoyed.’” Patriarch
Gennadios also received a magnificent horse and a handsome gift of gold from
the Sultan.
The Patriarchal law-courts alone had penal jurisdiction over the clergy,
and over the laity they had full jurisdiction in all affairs which had a religious
connotation, such as marriages, divorces, guardianship of minors, and last wills
and testaments. If both disputants were Orthodox, the Patriarchal courts had the
right to try any commercial/civil case.
A greatly enlarged Church bureaucracy gradually developed to deal with
the increased responsibilities of the Patriarch-Ethnarch, especially in the realm
of legal matters. Many lay financiers and lay judges were eventually brought
into this growing ecclesiastical administration.
The Sultan expected the Patriarch-Ethnarch to make sure that the
Christians of the realm paid their taxes and did not revolt. As long as the
Christians were cooperative, the Muslims allowed them freedom of worship,
basically respecting them as “People of the Book.”
At this point the bishops, and clergy generally, began to dress publicly like
Turkish judges, with the riasson and the cylindrical hat. And in church the
bishops adopted the vesting and insignia of the Byzantine rulers, such as the
mitre, sakkos, and long hair.
However, the Christians were still never allowed to forget that they were a
captive people. They could only build new churches or repair old ones with
special permission, which was usually denied. They could make no public
display of their Faith-no ringing of church bells, no outdoor processions or
services, no attempting to share their Faith with non-Christians. They had to
wear a distinctive costume, and except for the Patriarch they were forbidden
from riding on horseback. And worst of all, they had to endure the seizure of
their young sons to be enrolled in the elite Janissary regiment in the Ottoman
military, which also meant being forced to accept Islam and live a life of
celibacy.
Russia
The Rise of the Muscovite State
As the Byzantine Empire was falling to the Ottoman Turks, the seeds of
the coming Russian Empire were taking root in Moscow. Saint Dimitry
Donskoi was succeeded as Grand Prince of Moscow by three outstanding
leaders in the 15th century: Basil I (or Vasili; r. 1389–1425), Basil II (r. 1425–
1462), and Ivan III (r. 1462–1505).
These rulers were convinced that God had chosen them to lead the
Russians in overthrowing the Tatar yoke, and in defending Orthodoxy. They
moved cautiously and deliberately to consolidate and expand the power of the
Muscovite state. Chiefly through diplomatic negotiations, leading to purchases
and annexations, they gradually acquired authority over the neighboring towns
and provinces. They, and probably the majority of the people, understood that a
strong centralized political state was necessary to unite all the Russians in their
resistance to the Tatars, and to protect the land from other enemies to the west.
In 1472 Grand Prince Ivan III married Sophia Paleologa, the niece of
Emperor Constantine XI, the last of the Byzantine emperors. Now Ivan was
directly connected with the last imperial dynasty of New Rome. He took as his
coat of arms the Byzantine two-headed eagle.
In 1479 Ivan succeeded in incorporating the greatly important city-state of
Novgorod near the Baltic Sea into the Muscovite state. The unification of the
central and northern principalities was given a great boost by this annexation,
but it came at a high price. For the Muscovites, suspicious of Novgorod’s active
trading relations with Western Europe, closed down the city-state’s connections
with the West. As Nicolas Zernov explains in The Russians and Their Church,
“The door into Europe was shut, foreign trade came to a standstill, and the
spirit of freedom and enterprise so prominently displayed by the people of
Novgorod was extinguished.”
In 1480, the very next year, Ivan felt Russia was strong enough to stop
paying the annual tribute money to the Tatars. In 1498, he was crowned by
Metropolitan Simon of Moscow as “Tsar [Russian for ‘caesar’], Grand Prince
and Autocrat of All the Russias.” The metropolitan charged him “to care for all
souls and for all Orthodox Christendom.”
By now, all the elements were essentially in place for the ideology of
Moscow as the “Third Rome.”
The Rise of the Possessors and the Non-Possessors
In 15th-century Russia, two quite different approaches to the monastic
life, and to the relationship between the Church and the State, gradually took
shape. The leaders of the two “parties”-both of whom shared the legacy of Saint
Sergius of Radonezh, and both of whom are canonized saints of the Church-
were Nil Sorsky (1433–1508) and Joseph of Volotsk (1439–1515).
Saint Nil (Nilus) led the party of the “Non-Possessors.” The monastics of
this persuasion mostly lived beyond the Volga River, thus they were sometimes
called the “Transvolgans.” Preferring the semi-eremitic life in small sketes, the
Non-Possessors believed that monasteries should not own and rule over large
estates. They held that the Church should be free from the direct influence and
control of the State, and strongly opposed the right of the State to execute
heretics. They defended poverty as the chief virtue, with humility and spiritual
freedom pervading the contemplative, silent, and reclusive life of the monks.
They were the inheritors of the mystical, hesychastic, and kenotic traditions of
Saint Sergius and the anchorites of the Kievan Caves Monastery.
The “Possessors” were led by Saint Joseph. Hence, they were sometimes
called the Josephites. Preferring large cenobitic monasteries, they believed that
it was appropriate for monasteries to own large estates, including serfs, as this
would provide income for building and maintaining their large establishments,
as well as providing income to distribute to the poor. They held that the Church
and State should be in close relationship, and that the Church should serve the
social and political needs of the emerging Russian nation. They endorsed the
right of the State to execute heretics. They emphasized a life of rigorous ascetic
discipline and active social service among the people, which would be rooted in
the strict observance of liturgical rituals.
In most of these tendencies the Possessors also followed the tradition of
Saint Sergius. Both Saint Sergius and Metropolitan Alexis of Moscow had
played a prominent role in Russian social and political life of the previous
century-as seen especially in the vision and work of St Theodosius of the
Kievan Caves Monastery.
Although the spirit of the Non-Possessors was never totally eliminated
from the life of the Russian people, it was the way of the Possessors which
would dominate Russian ecclesiastical and national development until the early
19th century.
Other Developments in the West
Besides the Conciliar Movement, other movements grew among various
elements of the population in Western Europe, many of which contributed in
one way or another to the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation early in the
following century. One particularly noteworthy “proto-Reformer” was the
Bohemian (Czech) churchman and patriot, Jan Hus (c. 1372–1415). Greatly
influenced by the writings of the Englishman John Wycliffe (d. 1384), he
preached in the Czech language, including making vitriolic denunciations of
the widespread immorality of the clergy. He urged that the liturgy be celebrated
in the vernacular languages and that the cup no longer be withheld from the
laity in the Eucharist. He also advocated a conciliar view of Church
government. For these reasons (all of which Orthodox Christians would
affirm), and because he was perceived as a political threat, he was burned at the
stake by the Council of Constance on July 6, 1415.
The Brethren of the Common Life continued to flourish, especially in
providing free education in many parts of the Netherlands and Germany.
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471), author of The Imitation of Christ, a
devotional book immensely popular to this day, was one of its more famous
members.
In the 15th century the Renaissance was in full swing in Western Europe,
with its center at Florence, where the arts were greatly encouraged through the
lavish patronage of the famous Medici family. The paintings of Fra Angelico
(c. 1395–1455) of Florence, a devout Dominican monk, reveal the growing
extent to which Western religious art was abandoning traditional iconographic
styles for much more humanistic portrayals. The seminal work of the
celebrated sculptor Donatello (c. 1385–1466) greatly promoted sculpture
(which by its three-dimensional nature is more humanistic than iconography)
as a vehicle for religious art.
The Florentine Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) was a particularly fiery
preacher in the Dominican monastic order. Claiming to have received special
revelations from God, he prophesied an impending divine chastisement of the
morally corrupt church and society. For his reforming efforts he was executed
on charges of schism and heresy in 1498.
The illustrious Italian artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
flourished in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Sixteenth Century
Russia
The Victory of the Possessors
In Russia in the 16th century, the “Third Rome” theory became a political
reality. In 1511, only one year after Moscow’s annexation of the important
northwestern city of Pskov, the elderly, scholarly monk Philotheus of Pskov
informed the Muscovite Tsar Basil III (r. 1505–1533) of his vision, based on
the book of Daniel, that the Russian tsardom was to be the final earthly reign of
God’s People.
According to Philotheus, the first Rome had fallen through heresy, and the
second Rome, Constantinople, had fallen through sin. The third Rome,
Moscow, was standing. And according to his interpretation of Daniel 2.44, it
was the rising Muscovite tsardom that would be the kingdom that the “God of
Heaven” was raising up which “shall never be destroyed . . . and it will stand
forever.” Hence, he proclaimed with prophetic confidence that there would
never be a fourth Rome.
The Monk Philotheus on Moscow as the Third Rome
It is through the supreme, all-powerful and all-supporting right hand of
God that emperors reign .?.?. and It has raised thee, most Serene and Supreme
Sovereign and Grand Prince, Orthodox Christian Tsar and Lord of all, who art
the holder of the dominions of the holy thrones of God, of the sacred, universal
and apostolic Churches of the most holy Mother of God .?.?. instead of Rome
and Constantinople.?.?.?. Now there shines through the universe, like the sun in
heaven, the Third Rome, of thy sovereign Empire and of the holy synodal
apostolic Church, which is in the Orthodox Christian Faith.?.?.?. Observe and
see to it, most pious Tsar, that all the Christian empires unite with thine own.
For two Romes have fallen, but the third stands, and a fourth there will not be;
for thy Christian Tsardom will not pass to any other, according to the mighty
word of God.
Such a dramatic formulation of this powerful political/religious ideology,
articulated by a devout monk of the Church, indicates to what extent the way
was prepared for the development of an intimate alliance between Church and
State in the Russian Empire.
The strengthening of this alliance was greatly hastened beginning in 1521,
when Tsar Basil III presented the Church with a difficult dilemma. After many
years of marriage, Basil’s wife had not given him any children. So he appealed
to the Church for a divorce, in order to marry another who would presumably
provide an heir to assure a peaceful succession to the throne. But in the Russian
Church, barrenness was not a legitimate reason for divorce. Holding fast to the
traditions, Metropolitan Varlaam of Moscow refused to allow the tsar to get
divorced and remarried.
However, some in the Church, mostly following the Possessor philosophy
of close relations between Church and State, felt that in this specific,
extraordinary case, the strictness of the canons could be modified through
pastoral economia, and an exception could be made, in the interest of ensuring
that there would be a peaceful succession to the throne after Tsar Basil III’s
death. One of those who openly promoted this view was the monk Daniel, a
leading Josephite.
In 1522, Metropolitan Varlaam was forcibly retired to a monastery, and
Daniel was made the Metropolitan of Moscow. In the next year, he celebrated
the wedding of Tsar Basil III to Yelena Glinskaya. Seven years later, in 1530,
the future tsar Ivan IV, “the Terrible,” was born of this marriage.
Once the Possessors came to political favor and power, they strove to
suppress the Non-Possessors. For example, Saint Maxim the Greek (d. 1556), a
skilled librarian from Mount Athos who had been invited by Tsar Basil III to
come to Russia to help with translation and revision of the service books, was
placed in confinement for twenty years for his support of the Non-Possessor
position.
As Pierre Kovalevsky writes in Saint Sergius and Russian Spirituality,
“The sketes beyond the Volga were closed, and the nationalist tendency
definitely took the upper hand over the contemplatives. The idea of Russia as a
‘Third Rome,’ the protector of Eastern Christians, degenerated very quickly
into Moscow as the ‘Third Rome,’ which was the only one to profess [true]
Orthodoxy, and which considered all other people to be tainted with heresy.”
Ivan the Terrible
Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (r. 1533–1584) established his reign on the
foundation of the “Third Rome” ideology. He was crowned tsar in January of
1547. One month later he married Anastasia Romanova. As long as she lived,
she had a salutary influence upon her impetuous, emotionally unstable husband.
She bore him six children, but only two of them survived to adulthood.
Later in 1547, a huge fire in Moscow destroyed much of the city. To help
in the rebuilding process, Ivan invited numerous technicians, printers, and
physicians from the West. In 1550 a National Assembly was called, which
approved a new legal code, allowing for extensive local self-government.
Three major local Church councils were held between 1547 and 1551. At
the first two, forty-five saints from throughout Russia were glorified. And at
the third one, known as the Council of One Hundred Chapters (Stoglav), many
necessary reforms were instituted. This council proclaimed the ritual practices
of the Russian Church to be superior to those of the other Orthodox Churches.
In 1552, Tsar Ivan conquered the Tatar Khannate of Kazan. In celebration
of this victory, the great church on Red Square in Moscow, dedicated to Saint
Basil the Blessed Fool for Christ, was built, with Oriental influence in its
architecture. It became a national symbol of Russia.
In 1555 the missionary archdiocese of Kazan was established. According
to Dimitry Pospielovsky in The Orthodox Church in the History of Russia,
“Ivan’s missionary guidelines for the conquered Tatar kingdoms of Kazan and
Astrakhan stipulated that conversions were to be only voluntary, by education
and conviction, not by coercion.” Saint Gury (or Gurias; d. 1563), the bishop of
Kazan, was influential in missionary outreach.
In these years Ivan accepted the guidance of a humble, country parish
priest named Father Sylvester, who composed a tremendously popular practical
guidebook for Christian family life called Domostroi (The Home-Builder).
Tragically, these “thirteen good years” came to an end in 1560. Ominously,
one year before, having fallen under the influence of his courtiers who resented
the high standing held by Father Sylvester, the simple country priest, Ivan
ordered him to leave Moscow. The next year, on August 7, 1560, his beloved
young wife suddenly died. He suspected that she had been poisoned.
Thereafter Ivan fell increasingly back to certain cruel tendencies of his
youth. According to Nicolas Zernov, “No longer checked by her good influence,
he plunged again into the dark passions and lusts of his early years. Ivan
removed, one after another, by execution or exile, his gifted civil and military
collaborators and surrounded himself with a crowd of base and unscrupulous
men who drove him further along the road of moral disintegration.”
In 1563, Saint Metropolitan Makary (r. 1542–1563) died. He had written
twelve volumes called Monthly Readings, a vast collection of commentaries on
the Bible, the lives of the saints, sermons, and other material for spiritual
reading. He also had had a calming influence on Tsar Ivan. But when he died,
according to Pospielovsky, “Ivan’s paranoia lost all restraints.” Then, as Zernov
relates, “Haunted by fear and suspicion, he embarked in 1564 on a social
revolution which in many ways resembled the totalitarianism of the twentieth
century.”
Tsar Ivan ruthlessly persecuted his enemies as he subjected both the
Church and the State to his direct, personal control. Among his many victims
was Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow (r. 1565–1568), who, after numerous
unfruitful private consultations with Ivan, dared to deny Holy Communion to
the bloodthirsty tsar, openly rebuking him for his persecution of his own
innocent people. The tsar had Philip imprisoned, and later strangled.
The last years of Ivan’s reign were filled with unrelieved misery as he
continued to oppress and persecute all those he imagined were his enemies
among his own people. After marrying for a fifth time, and after killing his son
and heir, Ivan V, in a fit of rage, he finally died, in 1584.
Tsar Theodore
Ivan IV was succeeded by his younger son, Theodore (r. 1584–1598), a
man with limited mental capacities. But his people loved him for his deep,
simple faith and gentle disposition that were like a balm to the nation after the
turmoil and terror of his father’s reign. Early on many mornings the people of
Moscow would be roused by hearing their tsar ringing the bells of the Kremlin
cathedral.
In 1587 the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremias II (r. 1572–1579, 1580–
1584, 1585–1595), came to Moscow in quest of aid for his Church suffering
under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks. Seeing this as their opportunity for
Moscow to be made a patriarchate, the Russians invited Jeremias to be their
patriarch. Apparently he considered the offer for some time, but in January of
1589, in the midst of his second long winter in Moscow, he recognized Job, the
Metropolitan of Moscow, as the first Patriarch of All Russia.
The installation document of the new patriarch repeated almost verbatim
the prophecy of Philotheus of Pskov about Moscow as the “Third Rome.” Thus
the theory, which had become practice under Basil III, was now officially
affirmed by the highest ranking prelate in the Orthodox Church.
In 1593 the Russian Church received approval of its new status as a
patriarchate from the patriarchs of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch. The
Russians accepted their new patriarchate being placed fifth in honor after the
four ancient Orthodox patriarchates.
The Union of Brest-Litovsk
Ever since 1386, the lands that would become modern Ukraine were part
of the Roman Catholic kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. Subject to over two
centuries of Roman Catholic influence and manipulation, the Orthodox Church
in this region gradually grew weaker. The new ruler of Poland-Lithuania, the
ardently Roman Catholic King Sigismund III Vasa (r. 1587–1632), ordered the
Jesuits to increase their propagandizing efforts among the Orthodox in this
region, which was known in Western Europe as Ruthenia.
In 1589 Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople, on his return home from
Moscow, tried to bring order and reform to the Church there, but some of the
bishops resented his interference. Meanwhile, the Poles were promising the
Orthodox bishops privileges equal to those of the Polish bishops, including
being seated in the Polish Senate, if they would acknowledge the supremacy of
the Roman Papacy.
In 1596, at the Council of Brest-Litovsk, nine of the eleven Ruthenian
Orthodox bishops formally accepted union with the Roman Church, with the
agreement that the Orthodox would be allowed to maintain all their liturgical
rites and customs. This arrangement, built upon the decisions of the Council of
Florence in 1439, was contemptuously rejected by many of the Orthodox
faithful.
The Orthodox who resisted the forced imposition of this “Unia”
arrangement were given much support in their struggle by the Cossack
brotherhoods-groups of vigilantes and frontiersmen which formed in defiance
of the Polish overlordship of the Ukraine.
In 1619 Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem secretly consecrated seven
Orthodox bishops in Kiev, in defiance of the Unia. This enabled the Orthodox
to reestablish some semblance of regular Church life, especially in eastern
Ukraine. But the Unia would continue to hold sway in western Ukraine, and
eventually in the traditionally Orthodox lands that would be absorbed by the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Uniate Christians were steadily subjected to Latinizing influence. The
hierarchical, clerical, and academic leadership of their Church was dominated
by the discipline and doctrine of the Roman Papacy.
The West
The Protestant Reformation
As the culmination of centuries of calls for reform of various abuses
within the Roman Church, the Protestant Reformation exploded across western
and central Europe in the decade of the 1520s. Martin Luther (1483–1546), an
Augustinian monk, precipitated the Reformation when he nailed his Ninety-
Five Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, in the German
province of Saxony, in 1517. This document was a list of demands for reform,
mostly concerning the sale of indulgences (certificates granting full or partial
remission of punishment for sins which have already been forgiven). At that
point Luther did not envision breaking away from the Roman Church, but when
he was officially excommunicated by the Papacy on January 3, 1521, the break
became final.
Fueled by anti-Papal, nationalistic feelings among princes and commoners
that were fanned by several provocative treatises written by Luther in 1520, in
which he attacked Papal supremacy, clerical celibacy, and many other Latin
doctrines and practices, the Reformation spread with remarkable speed. John
Calvin (1509–1564) of France, Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) of Switzerland, and
Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Holland led the Reformation movement on the
European continent. King Henry VIII of England (r. 1509–1547), after a long
struggle with the Papacy over his request for a divorce from his wife, Catherine
of Aragon, on the grounds of childlessness, made himself head of the Church in
England-which became known as the Church of England, or the Anglican
Church-by the Act of Supremacy in 1534. And John Knox (c. 1517–1572)
brought the Calvinist faith to Scotland, in the form of Presbyterianism.
The basic Protestant position to this day is founded on the doctrine of
justification by grace through faith alone, with salvation understood as a gift
from God given at one moment, rather than as an ongoing process with God and
man cooperating together in the work of salvation (Phil 2.12–13). Protestants
believe that the Bible is the sole churchly authority that can be interpreted
directly by each believer through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The
sacramental life of the Church is reduced to baptism and the Lord’s Supper
understood mainly as symbolic actions.
The Catholic Counter-Reformation
In response to the challenge of the Protestant Reformation, and spurred by
its demands for widespread ecclesiastical reform, the Roman Church held the
Council of Trent (1545–1547, 1551–1552, 1562–1563). While instituting many
needed practical reforms, it also officially reaffirmed the aberrant Medieval
doctrines and practices of purgatory, indulgences, transubstantiation of the
bread and wine in the Eucharist, communion for the laity with the bread only,
the mass as a repropitiating sacrifice of Christ made to the Father, and extreme
unction (whereby the sacrament of healing with holy oil became last rites for
the dying). The Council of Trent also reinforced the supremacy of the Pope of
Rome and the authority of the Church hierarchy, denying to the laity any role in
the governance of the Church or in Christian teaching.
The Council of Trent, in addition, claimed that grace is a “created effect”
or “created entity”-thus affirming the Latin doctrine that human beings can
have no real, direct communion, or fellowship, or relationship with God. This
understanding of the spiritual life is in direct contradiction to the Orthodox
understanding that through the uncreated energies of God, human beings are
called and enabled to have real, direct communion with God-as affirmed in the
teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas and his coworkers.
The Roman Counter-Reformation was led by the Jesuits, members of the
Society of Jesus, founded in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491–1556). This
monastic order was dedicated to direct service in complete obedience to the
Papacy, with emphasis on doing mission work beyond Europe. Francis Xavier
(1506–1552), one of the original seven Jesuits, conducted extensive mission
work in Portuguese Goa, the Molucca Islands, Ceylon, and Japan. The Dutch
Jesuit, Peter Canisius (1521–1597), led the Counter-Reformation in Germany,
writing his famous Catechism which became a standard text of post-
Reformation Catholicism. This catechism was translated into Slavonic and used
by many Eastern Christians, both Orthodox and Uniate.
In Spain the mystical writers Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) and John of the
Cross (1542–1591) led the reform of the monastic life of the Carmelite Order
of the Roman Church. In Geneva, the Catholic bishop of the city, Francis de
Sales (1567–1622), wrote his influential works providing guidance in the
spiritual life. During this same time the famous Italian artist Titian (c. 1487–
1576) created religious paintings “fraught with tragic emotion,” and the greatly
influential Italian musician Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) produced his grandiose
musical compositions which were used in the Roman Church.
The most famous of the Renaissance painters was the Italian, Raphael
(1483–1520). His friend Michaelangelo (1475–1564) executed his magnificent
frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican at the behest of Pope
Julius II (r. 1503–1513).
Patriarch Jeremias II and the Dialogue with the
Lutherans
From about 1575 to 1581 a noteworthy correspondence and theological
dialogue took place between the leading Lutheran theologians, teaching at the
University of Tubingen in Germany, and Patriarch Jeremias II of
Constantinople. The dialogue was initiated by the Lutherans, who were eager to
gain an ally in their opposition to the Roman Papacy. They hoped that their
Protestant theology, as summarized in a Greek translation of the Augsburg
Confession of 1530, would find favor with the Patriarch. However, the
Patriarch, with assistance from advisors, pointed out many theological errors in
the Augsburg Confession. The dialogue collapsed principally on the issue of the
role of the Church Fathers in the proper interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
Such careful, extended theological dialogue would not take place again
between Protestants and the Orthodox until 1716, when some Non-Juror
Anglicans entered into theological discussion with representatives of the
Patriarchate of Alexandria who were visiting London. Tsar Peter I of Russia (r.
1689–1725) even took interest in this dialogue, but it ended when it was
denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the grounds that the Non-Jurors
were in schism from the Anglican Church.
The next substantial ecumenical dialogue would not occur until the middle
of the nineteenth century, when certain Anglican theologians of the Oxford
Movement showed much interest in the Church of Russia. Orthodoxy was very
ably described and defended in this unofficial dialogue by the distinguished lay
theologian, Alexei Khomiakov (1804–1860).
The Greek Orthodox under the Ottoman Turks
During the 16th century, life for the Orthodox under the Ottoman Turks
became more difficult. For example, in 1520 Sultan Selim I threatened to annex
all the churches. In 1586, Sultan Murad III arbitrarily annexed the Church of
the Pammacaristos that served as the headquarters for the Patriarch in
Constantinople. In humiliation, the Patriarch was given the use of a small
church owned by the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
In 1601 the Patriarch was allowed to rebuild the Church of Saint George in
the heart of the Phanar district of Constantinople. This church has remained the
seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople to this day.
As early as 1466 an aspirant to the patriarchal throne offered the sultan a
large bribe to make him the new patriarch. From then on the patriarchal office
increasingly became the object of bribery, as well as intrigue among various
factions vying for power within the Christian community. Interference in the
life of the Church also came from Protestant and Roman Catholic ambassadors
and chaplains attached to diplomatic missions in Constantinople.
Accounts of some twenty martyrdoms have come down to us from this
century. The most famous of these martyrs is Saint Philothei of Athens, who
was born into the wealthy and illustrious Venizelos family in Athens in 1522.
After enduring with Christ-like patience and grace a very difficult marriage and
being left a widow at the age of nineteen, she became a nun. Some years later,
in response to seeing Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle in a vision, she
built two women’s monasteries dedicated to him. She had a hospital built in
connection with one of these monasteries, as well as a hostel for the poor. She
also gave shelter to a number of women who had been taken captive by
Muslims from various parts of the Empire. Irate Muslims stormed into her
monastery one day and beat her severely. Eventually, in 1589, she died from the
wounds she received that day.
Seventeenth Century
Russia
The Time of Troubles
With the death of the saintly, slow-witted Tsar Theodore in 1598, the
dynasty of the House of Rurik, which had ruled Russia since 860, came to an
end. With the support of Saint Job, Patriarch of Moscow, a National Assembly
elected Boris Godunov, Theodore’s brother-in-law who had acted as the chief
administrator of the government during Theodore’s reign, as the new tsar.
Boris’s reign began well enough, but in 1601 a severe famine struck the
land, accompanied by epidemics. His measures to alleviate the suffering were
insufficient, and in the midst of the disorders, rumors began to spread
throughout Russia that there was a male of the House of Rurik who was still
alive. In 1591, the last heir, Tsarevich Dimitry, died under strange
circumstances at the age of nine. Now, a young man claiming to be this
Dimitry, and claiming to be the rightful heir to the throne, was gathering a
following. He would become known as the “Pretender.”
As this false Dimitry began to pose a threat to Boris Godunov, the tsar
panicked. He responded to this threat with a campaign of terror against real and
imagined enemies in his own government-much as his mentor, Ivan IV, had
done. In the midst of the struggle, he collapsed and died, in 1605.
Tsar Boris’s death paved the way for the imposter to take control of the
government. After ruling for about a year, he was murdered in a coup d’etat
organized by a group of boyars (aristocrats) led by Basil Shuisky, who became
the new tsar.
The Time of Troubles continued during Tsar Basil’s four-year rule, as a
second False Dimitri arose and set up a rival government in the town of
Tushino. Then the Poles and the Swedes invaded, intent on seizing as much
territory as possible from the Russians in this moment of extreme weakness.
Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery became the symbol of national resistance
to the Western invaders, as this holy place endured a 16-month siege at the
hands of the Polish army. Miraculously, the walled monastery withstood the
siege, which included bombardment from 63 cannons.
At the height of the confusion and turmoil, Tsar Basil, deserted by his
army and his allies after his forces were defeated by the Poles, was forced to
abdicate, and the boyars formed a seven-man provisional government. Then,
when the Poles captured Smolensk, the fortress city that guarded the road to
Moscow, the terrified and self-serving boyars decided to capitulate to the Poles,
in the hope of gaining privileges for themselves in return. In negotiations with
Polish King Sigismund III, they selected a young son of King Sigismund,
named Wladyslaw, as the new tsar, and opened the gates of the Kremlin to the
Polish army.
Saint Patriarch Germogen (r. 1606–1612) was put under house arrest in the
Kremlin by the Poles, but he was still able to send letters all across the nation
urging the people to reclaim their homeland. For his efforts, the Poles starved
him to death.
Energized by a vision of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, who urged him to take
the lead in saving the nation, a wealthy butcher from Nizhni-Novgorod named
Kuzma Minin organized a citizens’ army that drove the Poles out of Russia by
the end of 1612. This brought to an end the stormy Time of Troubles.
Tsar Michael Romanov and Patriarch Philaret
(Romanov)
Early in 1613 in Moscow, sixteen-year-old Michael Romanov, a
grandnephew of Tsar IV’s first wife, Anastasia Romanova, was elected to be the
new tsar by the largest and most representative National Assembly ever held in
Russia. This marked the beginning of the Romanov Dynasty, which ruled
Russia until Tsar Nicholas II abdicated early in 1917. In 1619, Michael
Romanov’s father, Philaret, who had been Metropolitan of Rostov, was made
Patriarch of Moscow. Father and son ruled the tightening alliance of Church
and State together.
The Nikonian Reforms
When Tsar Michael Romanov died in 1645, he was succeeded by his son,
Alexis (r. 1645–1676), who was 16 when he took the throne. By now a new
generation of reform-minded young priests had risen up who believed that
spiritual revival would come through liturgical reform-including standardizing
the various liturgical books, correcting various copying and translation errors,
and celebrating the services whole and entire. In 1652, Tsar Alexis selected one
of these energetic priests, the popular and talented-but forceful and rigorous-
Nikon, Metropolitan of Novgorod, to be the new patriarch of Russia.
Along with most of the other reforming clergy, Nikon at first was a firm
believer in Moscow as the Third Rome-as guardian of the full purity of the
Orthodox Faith. But before becoming Metropolitan of Novgorod, Nikon had
spent several years as abbot of an illustrious monastery in Moscow. It was in
this time that he met several prelates from the Greek Church, especially
Patriarch Paisius of Jerusalem, who visited Moscow from time to time seeking
support from the Russian Church and State. These Greek churchmen helped
him to see that it was very much in the interest of pan-Orthodox unity that the
Russians bring their liturgical practices more closely in line with those of the
Greek Church. This would also make the Russians more aware of the plight of
the Greek Church suffering under the Turkish yoke, and hence more willing to
come to their aid. Tsar Alexis strongly supported this program.
At the beginning of Great Lent in 1653, Patriarch Nikon began his reforms
of church practices, bringing them into alignment with Greek practices. Among
many other things, he issued injunctions that the sign of the cross must be made
with three fingers instead of two, and that during Saint Ephraim’s Prayer, the
sixteen full prostrations that the Russians were used to making must be
changed to four full prostrations and twelve bows from the waist.
Archpriest Avvakum, another leader of the reform-minded clergy, along
with many others, responded to the liturgical changes mandated by Patriarch
Nikon with great consternation, even shock. For one thing, the two-fingered
sign of the Cross had been confirmed by the great Stoglav Council of 1551 (the
Council of the Hundred Chapters), with anathemas against any other practice.
Also, the Russians were convinced that the Greeks were the ones who had
departed from the pristine purity of the Faith-through their scandalous
willingness to capitulate to Roman Catholicism at the Council of Lyons in 1274
and the Council of Florence in 1439. Besides this, the Russians were generally
scandalized at the liturgical laxity demonstrated by the Greek churchmen
visiting Moscow, who were not used to the very lengthy Russian services and
the meticulous attention to liturgical detail observed reverently by the
Russians. This added to the suspicions of Father Avvakum and his group.
In promoting the liturgical reforms, Nikon’s brash self-confidence led him
to underestimate the opposition that his blunt, bludgeoning injunctions
provoked. While the bulk of the people went along grudgingly with his
demands, the reforming priests and their lay supporters declared, according to
Nicolas Zernov, that “in no circumstances would they give up their belief in the
superiority of Moscow tradition over that of other branches of the Eastern
Church.”
This stubborn resistance to his plans infuriated Patriarch Nikon. He was
staggered by this defiant disobedience to the Patriarchate. This provoked him to
his second big mistake-trying to stamp out the dissent by force. The leading
dissenters, according to Zernov, “were arrested, ill-treated, unfrocked, and sent
into exile. All these measures were useless?.?.?. persecution only inflamed
their zeal and strengthened their conviction that Nikon was a traitor, a false
shepherd, to be opposed to the end by all faithful Christians.”
Patriarch Nikon continued to promote his campaign for liturgical reform
through the end of 1656. Then in January of 1657, Tsar Alexis returned from
battles against the Poles to find Moscow seething with discontent against
Patriarch Nikon. The Tsar cooled in his support of Nikon, ordering him to
restore to communion one of the most out-spoken and prominent opponents of
the reform, Father Ivan Neronov, who had been imprisoned in a monastery in
1653. Nikon obeyed, allowing him to use the old service books, and even
saying, “Both are good. It doesn’t matter; use whichever books you wish.”
From this point on, the Patriarch seemed to lose heart in the campaign for
reform, turning to building new monasteries and churches.
Then, on July 10, 1658, Nikon uttered public complaints against the Tsar
at the end of a divine liturgy, and announced his intention to retire from the
Patriarchate, probably expecting the Tsar to rush to him to apologize. However,
Tsar Alexis only sent two boyars to assure the patriarch of his continuing
friendship.
The petulant Patriarch, unsatisfied with this response by the Tsar,
remained true to his threat, and retired to a monastery, but without officially
resigning from the Patriarchate. For eight years he played for time, neither
resigning nor taking up his duties again.
Many consultations were held, including with various Eastern Patriarchs.
Several councils were held, but still Nikon remained aloof, and the Church
remained in a kind of limbo. Finally, in the Spring of 1666, Tsar Alexis
summoned a major council of all the Russian bishops, which reaffirmed the
new service books but did not condemn the old books as heretical. On this
basis, many of the clergy who opposed the reforms accepted them. Those who
still rejected them, such as Avvacum, were again anathematized. This council
went on to address many of the concerns of all the reformers-matters of
pastoral care, proper maintenance of the churches, proper records being kept,
proper celebration of services (including yedinoglasno-only one voice being
heard at a time), etc.
The Council of 1666–1667
However, the issue of the Patriarchate still remained unsettled. The Tsar
felt that the presence of the other Orthodox Patriarchs was necessary to decide
the issue. So he invited them all to come to Moscow for another council. Two
of them came-Patriarch Paisius of Alexandria and Patriarch Makarios of
Antioch. Once they arrived, the council began, in November of 1666.
The main figure at the council was the Metropolitan of Gaza, Paisius
Ligarides. This man, who ironically had formerly been one of Nikon’s most
ardent supporters, now turned fiercely against him, and was his chief accuser
during this council.
The council addressed the issue of the Patriarchate first. After a month of
deliberations, Nikon, the very man who instituted the reforms which this
council was to endorse once and for all, was found guilty of unlawfully
deserting the Patriarchal throne and showing great disrespect to the Tsar. He
was deposed, defrocked, and confined to a monastery 350 miles north of
Moscow, and a new patriarch was elected-Joasaph II. Nikon’s ignominious fall
helped to make possible the fall of the Patriarchate itself in the time of Tsar
Peter the Great.
Second, the revered Council of Moscow of 1551 (the Stoglav) was
officially renounced, since that council had declared the Russian Church to be
the standard and pattern for all of worldwide Orthodoxy. According to Zernov,
“Hard pressed by the arguments of Metropolitan Paisius of Gaza, the Russian
bishops reluctantly signed the following statement: ‘We declare the Council of
1551 to be no Council at all, and its decisions not binding, because the
Metropolitan, Makary, and those with him acted and made their decisions in
ignorance, without reason, and quite arbitrarily, for they had not consulted the
Ecumenical Patriarch.’” This Metropolitan Makary was canonized as a saint in
1988 by the Russian Church.
Third, contemporary Greek liturgical practices were affirmed, and the old
Russian practices in disagreement with the Greek usages were condemned as
heretical. Ironically, this was in direct opposition to a letter sent by Patriarch
Paisius of Constantinople and 28 other Greek bishops to Moscow in 1655.
And fourth, all those refusing to accept the liturgical reforms were not
only anathematized, but handed over to the secular authorities for punishment
as heretics.
The Old Believer Schism
True to their word, Avvakum and his group of dissenters refused to obey
the dictates of this council, and the Old Believer Schism became a deep and
bitter reality, lasting to the present day. During the time of Tsar Peter the Great
(r. 1689–1725), whom many of the Old Believers considered to be Antichrist,
up to one-third of all Russian Orthodox Christians-many of them among the
most pious, most dedicated Christians in the land-were associated with the Old
Believer movement.
Avvakum was sent into exile in the north of Russia. In 1682 he was burned
alive, along with three of his closest associates, on the charge of blasphemies
uttered against the Tsar and his household. Many other Old Believers were
persecuted by the Church and State, which only deepened their antagonism. In
their desire to preserve pure and unchanged the rituals of the Russian Church of
the mid-17th century, the Old Believers have succeeded in preserving ancient
Russian forms of iconography and liturgical chant which otherwise would
likely have been lost. Most of them have resisted all attempts at reconciliation
ever since.
Russian Saints in the 17th century
Besides Saint Patriarch Germogen, the Russians’ heroic defense of their
Faith and nation during and immediately after the Time of Troubles was
epitomized by Saint Juliana Lazarevskaya (d. 1604), a housewife of the lower
nobility who sacrificed herself and her possessions for the poor and needy; the
resourceful Saint Dionysius, Abbot of the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius
Monastery; and Saint Dorothy of Kashin, a wealthy widow who restored and
led as abbess the women’s monastery in her town. Later in the century, Saint
Theodosius of Chernigov (d. 1696) was a particularly effective and beloved
abbot of various monasteries before becoming Bishop of Chernigov. Saint
Dmitry, Bishop of Rostov (d. 1709), compiled a vast collection of Saints’ Lives
that is still the standard in the Russian Church.
The Unia
During the seventeenth century, in the south of Russia, the Unia continued
in force, although large amounts of territory were won back by the Russians
from the Poles. The Cossack-led lay brotherhoods in Ukraine and Galicia
served Orthodoxy well during this time by their resolute resistance to the
Uniate movement. Among these lay leaders were Constantine Ostrozhskii (d.
1608) and Milety Smotritsky, who wrote his Lamentations of the Eastern
Church in 1610.
In 1620, Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem secretly consecrated seven
bishops for the Orthodox in defiance of the Unia, without approval from the
Roman Catholic government. This greatly aided the survival of the Orthodox
Church in these years.
The Orthodox resistance to the efforts of the Uniates to force them to
accept the dominion of the Papacy was epitomized by two holy abbots of
monasteries in western Ukraine: Saint Athanasius of Brest (d. 1646), and Saint
Job of Pochaev (d. 1651).
Saint Peter Mogila
In 1632 Wladyslaw IV, the successor to King Sigismund of Poland, gave
permission for the Orthodox to elect their own metropolitan of Kiev. Peter
Mogila (1597–1646), the head of the Orthodox theological school that had been
founded in 1615 at the Kievan Caves Monastery, was chosen. Mogila was
fiercely opposed to the Roman Church and the Unia, but he had been trained in
Latin schools and had a deep respect for Latin scholastic educational methods.
He introduced these methods into the school at the Kievan Caves Monastery,
including the use of Latin in the classroom. This school would become the
Kievan Academy, the most influential institution of theological education in all
of Russia, the training ground of many bishops and seminary professors. Also
through Mogila’s many written works, including a Slavic translation of the
famous catechism of the Jesuit Peter Canisius (1521–1597) and a priest’s
Service Book, significant Latin influences entered the Orthodox Church in
doctrinal formulation and liturgical practice.
Mogila’s writings were judged acceptable by the Orthodox bishops in a
council in Kiev in 1640. And in 1642, a council in Jassy, in Moldavia, approved
a modified version of Mogila’s Confession of Faith. However, even in its
modified form, Bishop Kallistos Ware calls this confession the most Latin-
influenced document ever endorsed by a council of the Orthodox Church.
Together with the westernization forced upon the Russian Church through Tsar
Peter the Great’s policies, Mogila’s writings and educational practices were a
primary cause of a certain “captivity” to Western influences for some two
hundred years in the theology and piety of the Orthodox people of Russia,
Ukraine, and Romania. Nevertheless, he was recently canonized as a saint by
the Churches in Ukraine, Romania, and Poland.
Cyril Lukaris
Cyril Lukaris (1572–1638) served as patriarch of Alexandria (r. 1601–
1620), and then as patriarch of Constantinople-in five separate periods between
1620 and 1638-under the Ottoman Turks before they finally strangled him on
false charges of treason. In his ongoing struggle against Roman Catholicism,
beginning in his homeland of Crete, during his education at the Orthodox
school in Venice and then at the University of Padua, and in teaching at
Orthodox schools in Poland and Ukraine, he was drawn to Protestantism
through friendships with various Calvinists. As Patriarch of Alexandria, and
then as Patriarch of Constantinople, he became convinced that his flock,
suffering under the oppressive hand of the Ottoman Turks, needed rejuvenation
that he thought could come through imbibing the enthusiasm, doctrines, and
practices of Protestantism.
This is the context in which he wrote his brief Confession of Faith in 1629
that was almost entirely saturated with Calvinist thought. It was forthrightly
condemned by the same church councils in Kiev and Jassy which upheld the
orthodoxy of Peter Mogila’s catechism and service books.
In 1672 the Council of Bethlehem/Jerusalem endorsed the Confession of
Faith written by Patriarch Dositheos of Jerusalem (r. 1669–1707), which he
drew up as a point-by-point refutation of Lukaris’s creed. Unfortunately, this
confession also reflects the typical tendency among Orthodox theologians in
these years to use Protestant arguments against Roman Catholicism and
Catholic arguments against Protestantism. Its last eight chapters are heavily
influenced by Roman Catholicism.
The Greek Church under the Turks
In the seventeenth century, the Greek Church continued to suffer
oppression and stultification under the heavy hand of Turkish rule. The
Bulgarian Church had lost her patriarch and her independence with the Turkish
conquest, and Greek influence-most of it unwelcome-increased over the
Bulgarian and other Balkan churches. Due to infighting among various groups
vying for power within the Christian milet, the interference of Roman Catholic
and Protestant diplomats, and the willingness of the Turks to accept, and then
expect, bribe money for the acquisition of various church offices, there was
much corruption, instability, and strife within the Church administration. For
example, between the years 1596 and 1696, there were 61 times when there was
a turnover in the office of the Patriarch-with 31 different men involved.
The West
In Western Europe, during the terribly devastating Thirty Years War
(1618–1648), fought mostly in Germany between Roman Catholics and
Protestants, about one third of the population of the German principalities was
decimated. This war started to convince many people that creedal, “revealed”
religion had to be rejected-or at least its adherents had to learn not to use force
in trying to spread their faith. This realization eventually contributed much to
the rise and popularity of Deism, beginning with the work of Lord Herbert
(1583–1648) in England. This decidedly non-creedal, generic form of natural
religion played an important role in the formation of the United States of
America in the following century.
Germany also saw the rise of Pietism, a kind of heartfelt Protestant
spirituality and practice that arose at least partly in reaction to the so-called
Lutheran Scholasticism that developed after the initial dramatic rise of
Lutheranism in the previous century. A Lutheran pastor in Frankfurt, Philip
Jakob Spener (1635–1705), is considered to be the founder of the Pietistic
Movement. He began holding devotional meetings twice weekly in his home,
centered in prayer and Bible study. In 1675 he published his landmark Pia
Desideria (Pious Considerations), in which he urged intensified study of the
Bible on the part of the laity, greater encouragement of the laity to grow in faith
and love and to exercise their spiritual gifts, and a revival of preaching
emphasizing practical edification of the faithful rather than discourses on finer
theological points. He and his close associate August Hermann Francke (1663–
1727) helped to found the University of Halle in 1694 for the training of
ministers along Pietist lines.
While Pietism subtly and Deism more dramatically began minimizing
doctrinal differences among the various Christian groups during the 17th
century, sharply delineated creedal religion still held sway in most of Europe
and in the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English colonies in the New World.
In the thirteen colonies along the Atlantic seaboard that would become the
U.S.A., Puritan Calvinist theocracy prevailed at first in Massachusetts,
Congregationalism in Connecticut and New Hampshire, the Dutch Reformed
Church in New York, Presbyterianism in New Jersey, Swedish Lutheranism in
Delaware, Roman Catholicism in Maryland, and Anglicanism in Virginia, the
Carolinas, and Georgia.
Full religious toleration prevailed first in the colonies of Rhode Island and
Pennsylvania-both of which were founded on this basis during the 17th century.
Rhode Island was established in 1635 by Roger Williams (1603–1683), who
championed the right of every person to worship God “according to the dictates
of his own conscience.” The colony of Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woods) was
founded in 1682 by William Penn (1644–1718), a follower of the English
mystic George Fox (1624–1691), the founder of Quakerism (officially, the
Society of Friends); Pennsylvania is still known as the Quaker State. Fox
emphasized experiencing through silent meditation the “Inner Light of Christ”
within one’s soul.
In England, the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 was an
epochal event in the history of the English Bible. In 1646 the Puritan Oliver
Cromwell (1599–1658) led a coup d’état against King Charles I, who was
executed in 1649. Cromwell established a kind of military dictatorship in
England that lasted until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The heavily
Calvinistic Westminster Confession, endorsed by the Scottish Parliament in
1647 and the British Parliament a year later, became the law of the land, until
1660.
In France, the Roman Catholic Church was troubled by Jansenism, a
rigorist (i.e., moralistic and legalistic) movement based on the anti-Pelagian
writings of Saint Augustine-especially his emphasis on the irresistible grace of
God given only to the elect. The important French theologian and
mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was its most famous convert.
One of Jansenism’s most powerful opponents was Saint Vincent de Paul
(c. 1580–1660). He co-founded along with Saint Louise de Marillac the Sisters
of Charity, the first women’s religious order without confinement to convents
devoted to the care of the sick and the poor. Vincent was partly inspired by
Saint Francis de Sales (1567–1622), Bishop of Geneva from 1602, who wrote
Introduction to the Devout Life, a famous book of spiritual guidance for
laypeople living in the midst of worldly distractions.
Eighteenth Century
The Greek Church
Life under the Islamic Turks continued to be very difficult for the
Christians living in the Ottoman Empire. Although some Serbs managed to
emigrate to Austria and Hungary where they were allowed to have their own
dioceses, this was the darkest hour for those Christians who remained under
Turkish control.
Yet this was also a time of renewed hope, as seen in the lives of three very
remarkable saints who lived in Greece.
Saint Cosmas Aitolos
Plus Saint Cosmas Aitolos (1714–1779) has been called Equal-to-the-
Apostles, Apostle to the Poor, and Father of the Greek Nation. From a family of
poor weavers, and basically self-taught, he lived as a monk on Mount Athos for
seventeen years. Then he felt compelled by God to leave the Holy Mountain in
order to rally the discouraged Greeks and Albanians suffering now for three
hundred years under Turkish oppression, and to strengthen them in their
Orthodox Faith.
Receiving the blessing of Patriarch Sophronios II of Constantinople to do
this, Saint Cosmas undertook three apostolic journeys as an itinerant preacher
throughout central and northern Greece, the Greek Islands, Epiros, and Albania.
Sometimes he would be followed by hundreds, even thousands, of villagers.
His life and preaching were marked by great humility. Once he said to the
people, “Not only am I not worthy to teach you, but I am not even worthy to
kiss your feet, for each of you is worth more than the entire world.” He was not
a worker of miracles in the physical realm, but through his love, humility, and
exhortation, many broken relationships were miraculously healed.
He instigated the founding of over 200 schools by urging the elders in the
various towns and villages to get one started. His promotion of Christian
education significantly raised the educational level of all of Greece, which
helped sustain the strength of the Orthodox Faith, and helped lay the
groundwork for the overthrow of the Turkish yoke in Greece in the 1820s.
Typically he would come into a town or village and say to the gathered
crowds, “So, my children, to safeguard your Faith, and the freedom of your
homeland, take care to establish without fail a Greek school in which your
children will learn all that you are ignorant of.” And again, “My beloved
children in Christ, bravely and fearlessly preserve our Holy Faith and the
language of our Fathers, because both of these characterize our most beloved
homeland, and without them our nation is destroyed. Don’t be discouraged, my
brethren; Divine Providence will one day send heavenly salvation to gladden
your hearts and eliminate this dreadful state in which we find ourselves.” He
prophesied correctly (at least for central and southern Greece) that “freedom
will come in the third generation. Your grandchildren will see it.”
Saint Cosmas was highly respected by many of the Turkish people living
in Greece, but he was perceived as a political threat by some of the authorities.
Executed by the Turks in Berat, Albania, in 1779, he is one of the hundreds of
“New Martyrs” for Christ who died at the hands of the Ottomans.
Saint Makarios of Corinth
Saint Makarios of Corinth (1731–1805) was of aristocratic background. As
a young man he was a volunteer school teacher in Corinth, his birthplace, for
six years. Then, though still a layman, he was unanimously selected by laity
and clergy to be the new archbishop of Corinth.
As bishop, he immediately began improving the state of the Church under
his care by more strictly applying the canons regarding Church life. For
instance, he prohibited priests from taking part in political affairs, and he
strictly honored the canonical age for clerical ordinations. He distributed
catechisms to all his priests, discharged all illiterate priests, and sent ordinands
to monasteries for training. He also urged the wealthy to donate large baptismal
basins to the churches, so that children could be baptized properly. He planned
to establish schools throughout his archbishopric, but was prevented from
doing so by the Russo-Turkish War in 1768, which ended his episcopacy in
Corinth.
After his episcopacy, he went to live on Mount Athos as a monk. Here he
devoted much time to editing and writing. In this way he made great
contributions to the life of the Church.
While on Mount Athos, he helped to found the Kollyvades Movement.
This was a group of fervent defenders of traditional Orthodoxy. Its formation
was in response to the innovation of the Skete of Saint Anne on Mount Athos of
holding memorial services for the dead on Sundays-which seemed to the
Kollyvades to be a violation of the spirit of Sunday as the day for the
celebration every week of the Resurrection of Christ. The Kollyvades (from
‘kollyva,’ the boiled wheat eaten after such memorial services) were first called
this derogatorily by the innovators.
The dispute spread to other sketes of the Holy Mountain and assumed
dangerous proportions, with the innovators insulting and persecuting the
traditionalists. Eventually, after much conflict and indecision, the new practice
was accepted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Many of the Kollyvades party also espoused more frequent partaking of
Holy Communion, since for centuries it had become very widespread practice
that people were communing only two or three times a year. The Kollyvades
saw this as symptomatic of the severe decline in the spiritual life of the people
in this era. In 1777 St Makarios published a book called Concerning Continual
Communion of the Divine Mysteries. In 1783, Saint Nikodemos gave this book
its final form. Appealing to the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the canons of the
Church, Saint Makarios and Saint Nikodemos in this book specifically refute
13 reasons typically given as to why the Eucharist should be received so
infrequently. The book was met with much resistance, before it was finally
generally accepted.
The Kollyvades group also revived and cultivated an interest in
hesychastic, mystical prayer, which had fallen into relative oblivion. Saints
Makarios and Nikodemos helped very much to revive hesychasm in their own
day through their publication of the Philokalia-the highly renowned
compilation of selected spiritual writings from the 4th through the 15th
centuries. In their introduction, the editors say that they have compiled the
work from various old manuscripts “found scattered in dark holes and corners.”
To this day, the Philokalia is considered among the Orthodox as the greatest
anthology of spiritual wisdom ever published.
Some particularly noteworthy writings in the Philokalia
Saint Mark the Ascetic, “On Those who Think that They are Made
Righteous by Works” (5th century)
Saint Diodochos of Photiki, “On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination”
(5th century)
Saint Maximos the Confessor, “Four Hundred Texts on Love” (7th
century)
Saint John of Damaskos, “On the Virtues and the Vices” (8th century)
Saint Symeon Metaphrastes, “Paraphrase of the Homilies of St Makarios
of Egypt” (11th century)
Nikitas Stethatos, “On the Inner Nature of Things and on the Purification
of the Intellect” (11th century)
Saint Peter of Damaskos, “A Treasury of Divine Knowledge” (12th
century)
Saint Gregory of Sinai, “On Stillness” (14th century)
Saint Gregory Palamas, “In Defense of Those who Devoutly Practice a
Life of Stillness” (14th century)
Makarios went to Smyrna to raise money to publish the Philokalia, along
with Concerning Continual Communion and the Evergenitos (a large collection
of lives and sayings of the Desert Fathers, which has deeply influenced
monastic spirituality). Saints Makarios and Nikodemos also collaborated in
compiling The Extant Works of Saint Symeon the New Theologian.
Saint Makarios also contributed to the publication of a new
martyrologium, consisting of the Lives of 75 Orthodox new martyrs who
suffered under the Ottoman Turks between 1492 and 1794. He played a role in
directly encouraging some of the new martyrs through being a father confessor
to a number of Greeks who had been converted in one way or another to Islam,
but then returned to the Christian Faith and wanted to atone for their apostasy
by martyrdom.
Many of the Kollyvades left Mount Athos due to the persecution there.
According to Constantine Cavarnos, they “scattered all over Greece, especially
the Aegean Islands, becoming spiritual awakeners and reformers through their
sermons, personal counsels, the establishment of monasteries that developed
into luminous centers of spiritual life, and their exemplary Christian character
and way of life.”
Saint Makarios was one of the Kollyvades who left the Holy Mountain,
eventually settling in a hermitage on the island of Chios. There he lived in
peace from 1790 until his death in 1805.
Saint Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain
St Nikodemos (1749–1809) was born on Naxos in the Cyclades Islands to
pious parents; his mother eventually became a nun. He was wonderfully pious
and intellectually brilliant, with a nearly photographic memory. His first
teacher was the brother of Saint Cosmas the Aitolian. In 1775 he became a
monk on Mount Athos, where he lived at several monasteries and sketes. He
even left Athos for a while to live on a small island near Euboea.
Often working together with Saint Makarios of Corinth, Saint Nikodemos
devoted most of his life to writing, editing, and translating. His works include a
modern Greek translation of the commentaries by Blessed Theophylact of
Ochrid on the 14 Epistles of Saint Paul and on the 7 Catholic Epistles; a
modern Greek translation of the Psalms, with extended commentary; the
Philokalia and Evergenitos, already mentioned; and the works of Saint Symeon
the New Theologian, already mentioned. He also edited the works of St
Gregory Palamas, but the manuscript, except for the introduction by
Nikodemos and a few parts, was lost in Vienna.
Saint Nikodemos also revised a book on spiritual guidance called The
Spiritual Exercises, written by a Roman Catholic priest named Lorenzo
Scupoli, which he published with the title Unseen Warfare. He also produced
The Rudder, a compilation of the canons of the Church, with commentary in
demotic (popular) Greek. And as previously mentioned, he revised Saint
Makarios’s Concerning Continual Communion. He also wrote many
hymnological works, especially akoluthias and canons for saints.
In addition, Saint Nikodemos wrote a book giving guidance to priests for
how to be an effective spiritual father, especially through proper use of the
Sacrament of Confession. Unfortunately, this book, entitled Exomologetarion,
or A Manual of Confession, reflects considerable Roman Catholic influence, as
seen in its tendency towards legalism concerning penances to be given for
confessed and absolved sins, and in its apparent acceptance of the Anselmian
sacrificial theory of atonement, with Christ’s sufferings in bearing the sins of
the world on the Cross understood as appeasing the wrath of God the Father
against all of fallen mankind engulfed in sin.
Two other important saints of Greece
Saint Athanasios Parios (c. 1722–1813), was another leading churchman of
this era. A disciple of Saint Makarios, he wrote this saint’s biography. Saint
Athanasios was also deeply influenced by the revival of hesychasm. He taught
at the Academy on Mount Athos, then in Thessaloniki, then on Chios for 25
years. There he had strong influence on hundreds of Greek youths. He loved to
bring forth the wisdom of the great Eastern Fathers of the Church, and he
especially tried to revive interest in the works of Saint Gregory Palamas.
Saint Nikephoros of Chios (1750–1821) was another important Greek saint
in this era. He taught at the famous school at Chios for 20 years, until 1802,
when he became abbot of the Monastery called Nea Mone on Chios. After Saint
Makarios of Corinth died, Saint Nikephoros wrote hymns honoring him.
Russia
The Holy Governing Synod
The eighteenth century was a period of grave difficulty for the Orthodox
Church in Russia. Peter I (the Great) (r. 1689–1725), taking the title of
“emperor,” ruled Russia with an iron hand. He became fascinated with Western
Europe, especially its advancements in scientific and military technology, and
he encouraged the introduction and spread of such technology in Russia. He
built the new city of Saint Petersburg on filled in swampland by the Baltic Sea
to be Russia’s celebrated “Window to the West.”
As part of his effort to modernize his nation through Westernization, Peter
forced the Russian Orthodox Church to accept a radical structural
reorganization based on the model of the various Protestant State-Churches in
Scandinavia and England. After Patriarch Adrian died in 1700, Peter kept
delaying giving his approval for the election of a new patriarch. Finally, in
1721, he issued the Ecclesiastical Regulation. Written by a very Protestant-
leaning Ukrainian bishop named Theophan Prokopovich (1681–1738), this
document officially abolished the patriarchate of the Russian Church. A
standing synod of bishops, priests, and laymen was established in place of the
patriarchal office as the highest ruling body in the Church.
All the members of the Holy Synod were appointed by the emperor and
were subject to him through its overseer, a government official called the ober-
prokurator. A Government-supervised diocesan consistory was set up in each
diocese, having more authority than the bishop of the diocese. In effect, the
Church administration became an arm of the State. The priests became a kind
of caste of lower-order civil administrators.
This radical violation of traditional, canonical Orthodox Church order in
Russia-imposed on the church by the emperor-was formally ratified and
recognized by the other Eastern patriarchs. This arrangement lasted until 1917,
when the patriarchate was officially reestablished at the All-Russian Church
Council of Moscow of 1917–1918.
The “Western captivity” of the Russian Church deepened in the 18th
century as the seminaries and academies fell more and more under Latinizing
influence emanating from the Academy of Kiev. As among the Orthodox
suffering under the Turkish yoke, leading churchmen in Russia also tended to
be either pro-Roman or pro-Protestant, with those of the pro-Roman school
using Roman Catholic arguments against Protestant influences, and those on
the other side using Protestant arguments against Roman Catholic influences.
Very few on either side plumbed the depths of the Patristic Tradition in order to
critique the errors of both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Hence, the
living Tradition of the Church was very much obscured through historical
circumstances in this era.
Saint Xenia of Saint Petersburg
By God’s providence, Saint Petersburg, Emperor Peter I’s new
westernized, secularized capital city, was not without at least one particularly
powerful witness to the truth of the Gospel. Xenia Grigorievna (c. 1730-c.
1800) appeared to have been living a carefree, comfortable, happy life with her
husband, an imperial chorister, when suddenly her husband died at a drinking
party. She was 26 years old at the time. Stricken with grief at the loss of her
husband, she was doubly mournful because they had not been living a Christ-
centered life, and her husband had died without having partaken of the holy
mysteries of Confession and the Eucharist. She agonized for the soul of her
beloved spouse.
Giving to the poor nearly everything she possessed, and giving her house
to a friend, she disappeared from the city for eight years. It was said later that
she spent those years living with a sisterhood of ascetics, under the guidance of
a holy elder. Then just as suddenly, she reappeared in Saint Petersburg, where
she walked the streets of the poorest part of the city, the Storona district, and
slept in a field under the open sky. She clothed herself in one of her husband’s
old uniforms, and from that time on, she took his name, Andrei Theodorovich,
as her own. After some time she was granted the gift of clairvoyance, by which
she helped many residents of the Storona.
She continued this remarkable way of life for 37 years, until her death at
the age of 71. Countless miracles have taken place through her intercessions.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
The most well-known saint of the Russian Church in the 18th century was
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724–1783). Tikhon was a gentle, sensitive, scholarly
monk who became the ruling bishop of the vast southern diocese of Voronezh in
1763. He poured his heart and soul into reviving the church life in this diocese,
beginning with educating and guiding the clergy, many of whom could scarcely
even read, and many were very lax in their fulfillment of their pastoral duties.
All of this was reflective of the abnormality of the Church being directly
subjected to the State. Exhausted and frustrated from all his efforts and little to
show for it in his eyes, Saint Tikhon asked for and was granted retirement from
active episcopal work after only four years and four months in the Voronezh
Diocese.
For the last 16 years of his life he lived in retirement at a monastery across
the Don River. In these years he immersed himself deeply in the Holy
Scriptures and the writings of the Church Fathers, especially Saint John
Chrysostom. He knew and appreciated, as well, the Pietist writers of the
Christian West, who were calling for and writing about a meaningful living
relationship with the Living God, over against the barren intellectualism of
both Tridentine Catholicism and Calvinistic Protestantism. Saint Tikhon wrote
many books giving practical guidance for living the Christian life, including
Journey to Heaven and On True Christianity. Through letter-writing he
provided spiritual direction and pastoral counseling to many.
Saint Paisy Velichkovsky
Paisy Velichkovsky (1722–1794) was born into a priestly family in
Poltava, in eastern Ukraine. A deeply religious child, he entered the illustrious
school at Kiev at the age of 13. However, four years later he fled from there,
having explained to the Rector, “I hear only the names of pagan gods and wise
men-Cicero, Aristotle, and Plato. By learning their wisdom people of today
have become blinded to the end and have digressed from the true way.
Intellectuals utter words, but internally, they are filled with darkness and
gloom, for their wisdom is of the world only. Not seeing any purpose to such
learning, and fearing how I myself cannot but be corrupted by it, I have left it.”
After wandering from place to place for seven years, Paisy reached Mount
Athos, where he stayed for about 17 years. Not finding a spiritual father there
who could guide him in his quest for direct communion with the living God
through hesychastic prayer, he began collecting and translating various writings
of the ascetical and mystical Church Fathers. The Fathers themselves became
his spiritual fathers through their writings.
In 1763 Saint Paisy left Mount Athos with 63 fellow monks, all speakers
of the Slavonic and/or Moldavian languages. Reaching Moldavia, they
presented themselves to the Metropolitan of Jassy, who gave them a deserted
monastery at Dragomira, which they quickly restored.
Twelve years later, due to the eastward expansion of the Roman Catholic
Austro-Hungarian Empire, Saint Paisy and his by now 350 monks fled to the
east, where they were eventually given the Niamets Monastery to restore and
revive. It was here that Saint Paisy completed his translation into Slavonic of
an abridged version of the Philokalia, compiled by Saints Makarios and
Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain.
Saint Paisy’s role in restoring the hesychastic tradition in Romania and the
Slavic lands cannot be overemphasized. He was one of the first to reemphasize
the role of the staretz, or spiritual elder, as a guide in the spiritual/mystical life.
This kind of spiritual eldership had fallen into nearly complete oblivion for
almost 250 years, ever since the victory of the Possessors over the Non-
Possessors in Russia in the 1520s. And besides restoring and/or rejuvenating
three monasteries in Moldavia, including leading a community of some 500
monks at Niamets, he so inspired his followers with love for Christ and with a
missionary spirit to spread the teaching about hesychastic prayer-this glorious
way to intensely experience deep spiritual communion with the Living God-
that after his death, hundreds of his followers, carrying his Slavonic translation
of the Philokalia, streamed into Russia and spread his approach to the monastic
life far and wide.
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow
The leading Russian hierarch of the century was Metropolitan Platon
(Levshin) of Moscow (1737–1812). He was an especially eloquent preacher; his
collected works include about 500 of his sermons. He wrote a catechism for use
by the clergy, and another one for children. More tolerant of the Old Believers
than most of his contemporaries, he was the first to allow them to have their
own chapels in Moscow, and he formalized the arrangement known as the
Yedinoverie (one faith) whereby the Old Believers, upon reconciliation with the
Church of Russia, were allowed to continue to worship according to their old
rites-though very few of them accepted this offer. He was also the first to write
a history of the Russian Church.
Mission to Alaska
During the 18th century Russian missionaries began to move across
Siberia towards the Pacific Ocean. In 1794 ten monks from the Valaam
Monastery in Russian Finland and two other nearby monasteries arrived on the
island of Kodiak in Alaska. These first Orthodox missionaries to North
America were pleasantly surprised to find nearly all of the Native Americans
quite eager to accept the Orthodox Faith. In fact, many of them had already
been baptized by laymen working for the Russian American fur-trading
Company.
The missionaries were careful to honor the local religion and culture as
much as possible, especially as the natives’ basic worldview was in many ways
already oriented towards the sacramental, tradition-based worldview of
Orthodoxy. This very much helps explain how it was that some 12,000 natives
were baptized and/or chrismated by the missionaries in their first two years
there.
The missionaries also proved to be ardent champions of the human rights
of the natives, who were often abused by the managers of the Russian-
American Company. At the same time, many of the fur-traders married native
women, and a distinctive creole, Aleut culture gradually developed.
One of the first ten missionaries, Saint Juvenaly of Lake Iliamna, left
Kodiak to spread the Faith on the Kenai Peninsula of the mainland, and beyond.
He was martyred by natives in 1797, thus becoming the Protomartyr of North
America.
Another member of this first missionary party was Saint Herman of
Alaska, a deeply pious, hesychastic monk who eventually settled in a hermitage
on tiny Spruce Island, near Kodiak Island. His gentle compassion and care for
the natives won their hearts. With his glorification as a saint by the newly
formed Orthodox Church in America in 1970, he became North America’s first
officially canonized saint.
The West
The 18th century in the West was a time of spiritual revival, especially
through the spreading of various Pietist movements. In 1722 Count Nikolaus
von Zinzendorf (1700–1760), a godson of Philip Spener, welcomed a group of
descendants of the Bohemian Brethren from Austria to settle on one of his
estates, called Herrnhut, in Moravia. Thus began what would become the
Moravians, a Pietistic group that emphasized intense personal devotion to Jesus
Christ as Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer.
Moravians immigrating to America contributed much to the First Great
Awakening, a widespread spiritual revival occurring in the English colonies on
the Atlantic seaboard from the 1720s through the 1740s. An indefatigable,
dynamic traveling evangelist from England named George Whitefield (1714–
1770), and America’s greatest theologian of the 18th century, Jonathan Edwards
(1703–1758), were the principal leaders actively promoting this revival, which
cut across denominational barriers as Protestants of all sorts shared similar
experiences of dramatic conversion to Christ.
An Anglican priest named John Wesley (1703–1791) was the leader of
Methodism, a form of Pietism arising within the Church of England that began
among a group of spiritually zealous students at Oxford University in the
1730s-one of whom had been George Whitefield. These students were seen to
be so methodical in their approach to the Christian life that they were
disparagingly called Methodists.
Wesley wanted his movement to foster and promote spiritual renewal
within the Church of England, but in organizing annual conferences for his
followers in the 1750s, he in effect laid the foundation for a new Christian
denomination. The Methodist Episcopal Church was officially created in
America in 1784. In England, the Methodists broke most of their ties with the
Anglican Church by 1795, four years after Wesley’s death. John Wesley’s
brother Charles (1707–1788) was a gifted, prolific hymn-writer whose 5500
hymns provided inspiration and cohesion for the Methodist movement and
beyond.
At the same time, Deism was growing more popular, mostly among
intellectuals, in Europe and America. Deism flourished in this era of the so-
called Enlightenment, when man’s natural reason was exalted above belief in
the supernatural. Deists still held to a belief in God as Creator of the universe,
but they generally believed that, like a cosmic Clockmaker who fashioned and
wound up the great clock of Creation and then let it go on ticking on its own,
God had little or nothing to do with the ongoing affairs of the world. However,
most American Deists, such as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and
Thomas Jefferson, attributed the American colonies’ victory over Great Britain
to the working of God’s Providence-or as Washington said, “the propitious
smiles of Heaven.”
The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711–1776) and the Prussian
philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) developed a philosophy which
removed God, freedom, and immortality from the realm of human reason. To
them, true Christianity was a religion of personal faith and ethical action,
without mystical spiritual experience. Their work would have considerable
influence in the development of Liberal Protestantism in the next century.
Among the most influential spiritual achievements of Western
Christendom in this century was the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–
1750), George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791).
The Roman Catholic Church in the eighteenth century continued to
promote active mission work, especially in Africa, the Far East, and Latin
America, including the American Southwest, where the celebrated Franciscan
missionary Junipero Serra (1713–1784) established a number of missions along
what is today the coast of southern California. However, a great conflict with
the Enlightenment spirit and with growing nationalist and popularist forces led
to the violently anti-clerical French Revolution that erupted in 1789.
In 1773 the Jesuit order was dissolved by Pope Clement XIV under secular
pressures-though they were restored by the Papacy in 1814. Ironically, many
Jesuits found refuge in the Russia of Empress Catherine II (the Great) (r. 1762–
1796). Herself a devotee of the French Enlightenment spirit, she closed more
than three fourths of the monasteries in Russia during her reign.
Nineteenth Century
Russia: Spiritual Renewal
The seeds of spiritual renewal, planted in the previous century especially
through the work of Saint Paisy Velichkovsky, blossomed in Russia in the 19th
century, even though the Church continued to live under the domination of the
State. While the Church was subject to strict governmental control and
censorship, and while there was no patriarch and no church councils during the
entire century, the life of faith continued to show itself in the lives of the
Russian saints, missionaries, theologians, and writers of the period.
Many of the disciples of Saint Paisy Velichkovsky in Moldavia returned to
Russia in 1801 after the new young Tsar Alexander I (r. 1801–1825) granted
political pardon to those who had fled from Russia in the previous years. These
disciples spread the ideals and practices of the Non-Possessors-contemplation
and mysticism (hesychasm) in hermitages and small monasteries (sketes),
spiritual eldership, healing and prophetic gifts, and missionary zeal-all of
which had been virtually submerged in Russia ever since the victory of the
Possessors in the 16th century. It has been said of Saint Paisy that he “was for
Russian monasticism at the end of the eighteenth and in the nineteenth
centuries, as well as for contemporary monks living a true monastic life, the
same as Saint Anthony the Great was for the Egyptian monks and the desert
dwellers of the Levant. From him stems also that great tradition of Optina
elders, headed by Hieromonk Leonid.”
The Elders of Optina
The Optina Pustyn Monastery had dwindled to almost nothing by the end
of the 18th century, but Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, seeing its potential,
sent a disciple of Saint Paisy, named Avramy, to go there and direct the
rebuilding process. The first in the illustrious line of holy, clairvoyant Optina
elders (startsi) was Elder Leonid (1768–1841), who came there in 1829 after
spending some time at the Monastery of Valaam which had sent the famous
missionary team to Alaska, including Saint Herman. Elder Leonid suffered
great persecution from his fellow monks, who were not used to the practice of
spiritual eldership, and who perhaps resented the many visitors who came to
the holy elder seeking spiritual guidance. Eventually Metropolitan Philaret of
Kiev intervened to defend him.
At his death, Elder Leonid was followed by Saint Makary (1788–1860) in
the office of staretz at Optina. An intellectual from the gentry class, Makary,
according to John Dunlap, “carried on a vast correspondence with laymen and
clergy from all over Russia. It was during Makary’s tenure as staretz that the
Russian intelligensia began to flock to Optina, finding there the light which
eluded them in Western philosophy and social action movements.”
Under the protection and patronage of the imposing Metropolitan Philaret
of Moscow (r. 1821–1867), Saint Makary worked along with the famous
Slavophile philosopher Ivan Kireevsky (1806–1856) and several excellent
Patristic scholars and translators to publish in Russian a number of Patristic
writings by Saint Isaac the Syrian, Saints Barsanuphius and John, Saint Mark
the Ascetic, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Theodore the Studite, Saint
Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory of Sinai, and others. Saint Makary
wrote to one of his spiritual children, “I have told you nothing that is an
invention of my own. All of what I say comes from the writings of the Fathers.”
Saint Amvrosy (1812–1891) succeeded Saint Makary as staretz of Optina
in 1865, after Saint Makary groomed him for this office during the many years
he served as Saint Makary’s cell attendant. Amvrosy was so impressive as a
spiritual teacher and living saint that the great Orthodox Christian novelist
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) modeled Elder Zossima in his masterwork,
The Brothers Karamazov, upon him. Dostoevsky wrote that he also was inspired
particularly by Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk of the previous century.
The great line of spiritual eldership at Optina continued into the 20th
century with Elder Joseph (1837–1911), who had been Saint Amvrosy’s cell
attendant for many years, Elder Anatoly (d. 1922), and Elder Nektary (d. 1928).
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
Probably the greatest Russian saint of the 19th century, who has been
called by some the greatest saint in all of Russian Church history, was Saint
Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833). Saint Seraphim became a monk at the age of
19. He lived for many years by himself in a hut he built in the woods near the
Sarov monastery, devoting himself to intense prayer, fasting, and spiritual
exercise. He continued living there for several years even after being terribly
beaten by robbers, who later repented after he forgave them.
In 1810 the abbot of the monastery ordered Saint Seraphim to return to the
monastery where he continued his life of seclusion and silence, reading through
the New Testament once a week, and being granted many spiritual visions. In
1825 he opened the doors of his enclosure to receive visitors, whom he greeted
with the radiant joy of the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit. Soon the
crowds of visitors were so great that he moved to the Near Hermitage, where he
continued to minister to the massive stream of pilgrims-people from all walks
of life, rich and poor, high-born and low-born-coming for healing and spiritual
guidance. In his spiritual instructions St Seraphim identified the purpose of the
Christian life as “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.”
From Saint Seraphim’s conversation with Nicholas Motovilov, a
married layman
And Father Seraphim continued, “When the Spirit of God comes down and
confers upon a person the fullness of His presence, the human soul, as does
anything else that He may touch, overflows with an inexpressible joy.?.?.?.
“Yet however comforting this joy which you now feel in your heart may
be, it can never compare with that joy of which the Lord Himself spoke through
the mouth of His Apostle when he said, ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those
who love Him’ (1Cor 2.9).
“We have been given a mere foretaste of that joy right now; and if it has
filled our souls with such a sweetness, well-being, and happiness, then what
shall we say of that joy which is prepared in Heaven for those who mourn here
on earth? You too have shed enough tears in your life here on earth, and just
look at the joy with which the Lord now consoles you!”
Other leading figures
Within this movement of spiritual renewal were two bishop-monks who
were especially noteworthy teachers of the ascetic life and the practice of the
Jesus Prayer: Saint lgnaty Brianchaninov (1807–1867) and Saint Theophan the
Recluse (1815–1894). Saint Ignaty is most well remembered for writing the
famous Arena: An Offering to Contemporary Monasticism. He intended this
work to be his last words to monks everywhere, but much of it is relevant for
laypeople. In it he faithfully transmits the teachings of the Holy Fathers. As he
says in his foreword to the work, “The teaching I offer is taken entirely from
the sacred teaching of the holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church.” He draws
especially upon Saint John of the Ladder, Saint Isaac the Syrian, and Saints
Barsanuphius and John. He includes quotations from ascetic writers of every
century, including his own-men such as Saint Seraphim of Sarov and Elder
Leonid of Optina.
Like Saint Ignaty and Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, Saint Theophan the
Recluse also retired from active episcopal service to devote himself more
entirely to prayer, contemplation, and writing letters and books. He wrote many
works on the spiritual life, including The Path to Salvation, and The Spiritual
Life and How to be Attuned to It which consists of a series of letters written to a
young woman in the world who was one of his spiritual daughters. His greatest
contribution was making a complete translation of the Philokalia into
contemporary Russian.
Two other extremely popular spiritual writings in circulation in Russia in
the latter half of the 19th century were The Way of the Pilgrim and The Pilgrim
Continues His Way. They are a series of travel narratives written by an
anonymous pilgrim who wandered across Russia, practicing the Jesus Prayer,
which he first learned from a staretz. He then amplified his understanding
through reading the Philokalia. He was advised to repeat the Jesus Prayer
thousands of times a day.
The two leading Russian theologians of the 19th century were the great
churchman Saint Philaret (Drozdev), Metropolitan of Moscow (r. 1821–1867)
and the layman Alexei Khomiakov (1804–1860). In 1840 Saint Philaret
oversaw a reform of seminary education at the Moscow Academy, with all
subjects now to be taught in Russian instead of Latin, and with more emphasis
on Patristics. As mentioned above, his active support made possible the very
significant Patristic publishing efforts led by Elder Makary of Optina and Ivan
Kireevsky. He was a key figure in the beginning of the “return to the Fathers”
in mid-19th century Russia, and the turning away from the Latin Scholasticism
which had strongly influenced Russian theological education ever since Peter
Moghila founded the Kiev Academy in the early 17th century.
Khomiakov’s writings-such as the famous essay “The Church is One”-
were not originally published in Russia due to government censorship.
Considered to be one of the most original and creative of modern theologians,
Khomiakov was among the first to “discover” the traditional Patristic patterns
of Orthodox theology and spiritual life. He encouraged Orthodox thinkers to
break away from the “Western captivity” of scholastic theology and to meet the
intellectual and spiritual world of the West with a sound knowledge and
experience of the genuine Orthodox Tradition.
Besides Dostoevsky, another very important Russian novelist of the
nineteenth century, who also wove profound spiritual themes into his novels
and short stories, was Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). His majestic War and Peace,
about Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, is considered by some to be the
greatest novel ever written. However, in his later years, in actively pursuing his
burning interest in social reform, and in reaction to what he perceived as dry
formalism in the Orthodox Church, he became convinced that the moral
precepts given by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, and working towards
establishing a just society based upon brotherly love, were the essence of the -
Gospel, rather than Christ’s Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Second
Coming. He was excommunicated by the Russian Church in 1901 for his
rejection of the authentic Christian teaching-as seen, for example, in his own
edited revision of the New Testament.
In addition to Kireevsky, Khomiakov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, several
other Russian religious thinkers/philosophers, such as Vladimir Soloviev
(1853–1900), Nikolai Fedorov (1829–1903), and the brothers Sergei
Troubetskoy (d. 1905) and Evgeny Troubetskoy (d. 1920), made important
contributions to the intellectual and spiritual life of the nation. While
attempting to create a distinctly Russian form of philosophy, incorporating
certain elements from Russian Orthodoxy, these thinkers remained essentially
Western-oriented in their basic approach. Still, they helped many of their
fellow Russian intellectuals-especially among the Russian emigre community
who fled to the West in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917-to return
to their Orthodox roots.
Russia: Missionary Activity
Siberia
The nineteenth century in Russia, as in the West, was a missionary century.
The priest Makary Glukharev (1792–1847) dedicated his life to the
evangelization of the Siberian tribes. The lay professor, Nikolai Ilminsky
(1822–1892), translated the Scriptures and Church books of the Orthodox Faith
into some of the languages of these peoples. The theological academy founded
in 1842 in Kazan, at the ‘Gateway to Siberia,’ became the center of the
missionary activity of the Russian Church to the animistic Siberian tribes
(some of whom were being converted to Buddhism by monks from Tibet), and
to the Muslims living in the south-central parts of the Russian Empire. In the
Kazan area alone, in 1903, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in 22 different
languages or dialects.
Japan
The first Russian missionary to Japan, Saint Nikolai Kasatkin of Japan
(1836–1912), spent six years mastering the Japanese language, and proceeded
to convert thousands of Japanese to the Orthodox Faith-despite several periods
of persecution by the Japanese government. At his death, as Japan’s first
Orthodox bishop, he left a self-governing local church of about 33,000
members, with the Scriptures and liturgical books in the native language, and a
number of native pastors. The impressive stone cathedral he had built in Tokyo,
affectionately called Nikolai-Do (Nikolai’s house), still is a prominent
architectural presence in the city.
Alaska
In 1970, the Orthodox Church in America glorified its first saint: Saint
Herman of Alaska (c. 1758–1837), who was one of the first ten monastic
missionaries who arrived on Kodiak Island in 1794. The memory of his
extraordinary holiness, expressed by his self-emptying love and care for the
Alaskan people-especially in the face of exploitation and abuse of the natives
by the Russian-American (fur-trading) Company-and by various miracles
accomplished through his prayers, had been kept strongly alive by the
descendants of the Aleuts with whom he lived and labored in Kodiak and on
nearby Spruce Island.
From Saint Herman’s conversation with 25 Russian naval officers
“And do you love God?” the Elder then asked.
All replied: “Of course, we love God. How can one not love God?”
“And I, a sinful one, for more than forty years have been striving to love
God, and I cannot say that I perfectly love Him,” answered Father Herman; and
he began to show how one should love God, “If we love someone,” he said, “we
always think of him, strive to please him, and day and night our heart is
occupied with this. Is this the way you, gentlemen, love God? Do you often turn
to Him, do you always think of Him, do you always pray to Him and fulfill His
holy commandments?” It had to be acknowledged that they did not!
“For our good, for our happiness,” concluded the Elder, “at least let us
make a promise to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this
minute we shall strive to love God above all, and fulfill His holy will!”
Behold what an intelligent, superb conversation Father Herman conducted
in society. Without doubt this conversation must have imprinted itself on the
hearts of his listeners for their whole life!
Saint Peter the Aleut was a young Aleut Orthodox Christian working for
the Russian-American Company. He was one of a party of fourteen fur-hunters
sailing near San Francisco whose boat was commandeered in 1815 by the
Spanish authorities in the area. Imprisoned by the governor, and threatened
with death by the Roman Catholic priest at the mission there if they did not
accept Catholicism, all the Aleuts remained true to their Orthodox Faith.
According to the eyewitness account of one of these Aleuts, Peter was then
cruelly tortured until he died from loss of blood. (The others then were
released.) Canonized in 1980 by the Orthodox Church in America, Saint Peter
is the first Orthodox martyr of the lower 48 states.
In 1977, Father John Veniaminov (1797–1879) was glorified as a saint by
the Church of Russia as “Saint Innocent of Moscow, Enlightener of the Aleuts
and Apostle to America.” As a young priest, he traveled from Irkutsk in central
Siberia with his pregnant wife, his son, his mother-in-law, and his brother to
begin mission work on the island of Unalaska in the Aleutian chain in 1824.
During his pastoral ministry there, after first creating an alphabet for the Aleut
language out of Slavonic characters, he translated a number of Scriptural and
liturgical texts into the Aleut language. He also wrote a lengthy catechetical
book in the Aleut language and in Russian, called The Indication of the Way to
the Kingdom of Heaven.
Saint Innocent was a very fine administrator, carpenter, clock and organ
maker, and naturalist, besides being a superb teacher, linguist, and pastor. In
1840, one year after his wife Catherine died, he became the first Bishop of
Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands, with his headquarters in Sitka, Alaska,
where he built Saint Michael’s Cathedral and a seminary. As bishop he made
pastoral journeys of many months and thousands of miles by kayak and dogsled
to visit the widely scattered communities of his far-flung diocese. In 1867 he
was elected Metropolitan of Moscow. As metropolitan, he continued his
interest in mission work by establishing the Russian Missionary Society to
raise funds for the support of missions.
At the time of the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, Saint
Innocent recommended that all the clergy who did not know the English
language be sent home and replaced by those knowing English, and he urged
that English be the standard language of the Orthodox Church in America. He
urged that seminaries be established for training American-born men to
become priests, and he recommended that the headquarters of the Church in
America be moved from Sitka to San Francisco. All of this reveals his vision
for the growth of Orthodoxy in North America as an indigenous, English-
speaking Church.
Saint Jacob Netsvetov (1802–1864) was another outstanding missionary-
priest in Russian America. Born to a Russian father and an Aleut mother, he
became the first native American to be ordained as an Orthodox priest, upon his
completion of seminary training in Irkutsk. Sent back to the island of Atka, his
birthplace, in the western Aleutian Archipelago, for 17 years he faithfully
ministered there and all across his far-flung “parish” stretching for 2000 miles
all the way to the Kurile Islands of northern Japan.
In 1844/1845, when Bishop Innocent opened the Mission to the lower
Yukon Delta and Kuskokwim River Basin of the Alaskan mainland, he
entrusted it to Saint Jacob, who labored for 18 years among the Eskimo and
Athabascan peoples. Like his mentor Saint Innocent, Saint Jacob was an
excellent linguist, translator, and naturalist. A major highlight of his ministry,
as recorded in his fascinating journal, was his success in 1852 among the
Athabascan Indians along the Innoko River, when he baptized hundreds and
narrowly averted a tribal war. In “retirement” he ministered to the Tlingit
Indians in the area around Sitka, where he died.
Kronstadt
Saint John of Kronstadt (1829–1908) was an outstanding example of what
can be called a “home missionary.” Originally he wanted to be a missionary to
eastern Siberia, but he came to realize that there were many in his own region
around Saint Petersburg who were very poor and very much in need of the
Church’s ministry to soul and body. As a parish priest in the naval city of
Kronstadt across the bay from Saint Petersburg, he became famous throughout
Russia as a brilliant preacher, healer of the sick, protector of orphans and the
poor, teacher of children, ardently loving pastor of his flock, faithful servant at
the altar (serving Liturgy every day, at which up to 5000 would attend,
necessitating the practice of group confession), and prophet to the nation. His
insistence on regular participation in the holy sacraments by those who came to
pray with him in his parish helped lead to the Eucharistic revival among
Russian Orthodox Christians in the 20th century.
The famous “House of Industry” which Saint John founded in Kronstadt
included a free elementary school, a carpentry teaching-workshop, a drawing
class, a women’s workshop for sewing, a workshop for shoemaking, a library
for children, a zoological collection, a military gymnasium, and a bookshop for
children and adults. His powerful and insightful spiritual counsels, as given in
his diary, have been published with the title My Life in Christ.
The Spread of Orthodoxy in the Lower 48 States in
America
The latter part of the 19th century saw the arrival and growth of the
Orthodox Church in America’s “Lower 48.” Thousands of immigrants,
especially in the years after 1880, came to the New World from the traditional
Orthodox homelands of the Old World, seeking economic opportunity. Pan-
Orthodox communities developed in Galveston, Texas (perhaps as early as
1862); New Orleans (1865); San Francisco (1867); Pittsburgh (1891); and
various other places. The parish in New Orleans was given some of its churchly
vessels by the Russian tsar Alexander II (r. 1855–1881).
In 1870 the first bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Alaska and the
Aleutian Islands was named-Bishop John (Mitropolsky). In 1872 Bishop John
moved the center of the diocese from Sitka to San Francisco, to much more
readily reach out to the general American public with the story and presence of
Holy Orthodoxy. Fluent in English, he was also a well-trained theologian, and
until he returned to Russia in 1876, he wrote much in the local press about
Orthodoxy. He also wrote a substantial study of the religious environment of
the contemporary American society of his day, entitled From the History of
Religious Sects in America.
Also in 1870, Nicholas Bjerring (1831–1900), a Danish Roman Catholic
married layman teaching in Baltimore, Maryland, converted to Orthodoxy, was
ordained a priest in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was sent to open a kind of
embassy chapel in New York City. Father Bjerring translated many liturgical
works into English from German, and made great efforts, including publishing
for a few years a magazine about Orthodoxy, to make the people of New York
(especially Episcopalians) familiar with the faith and worship of the Orthodox
Church. Unfortunately, funding for the chapel was withdrawn in 1883 by a
decision of the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia. Father Bjerring had to
close it, and very sadly, he left the Orthodox Church shortly thereafter. The next
Orthodox church to be established in New York City was Holy Trinity Greek
Orthodox Church, founded in 1891.
Conversion of the Uniates
In 1878, Saint Alexis Toth (1853–1909) was ordained as a priest of the
Byzantine Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, in Slovakia. After serving for
some time as Director of the Prešov Seminary, where he also taught Church
History and Canon Law, he was sent in 1889 to Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a
missionary priest to serve the Uniate immigrants there. However, when he
reported to the local Latin-rite Roman Catholic Bishop John Ireland, upon his
arrival in the city, he was rudely rejected. Two years later, he did what he said
was “something which I had carried in my heart for a long time, for which my
soul longed: that is, to become Orthodox.” In 1891 Bishop Vladimir
(Sokolovsky; r. 1888–1891), head of the Russian mission-diocese, personally
received Saint Alexis and his 361 parishioners into the Orthodox Church.
Soon thereafter, Saint Alexis was invited to serve the Uniate parish in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. After receiving the approximately 500
parishioners’ unanimous decision to become Orthodox, he began his 16 years of
ministry there, until his death in 1909. In these years, enduring strong
opposition from both Eastern- and Latin-rite Roman Catholics, he guided some
29,000 Uniates in 17 parishes, mostly in Pennsylvania, New York, and
Connecticut, into Orthodoxy.
In 1994 the mitred Archpriest Alexis was glorified as a saint, with the title
“Confessor and Defender of Orthodoxy in America,” in services held at Saint
Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.
The Serbs
Attracted by the California Gold Rush, Serbian immigrants began arriving
in California in 1850. Some of them became involved in the Russian Orthodox
parish in San Francisco established in the 1860s. This was where a Serbian-
American child named Sebastian Dabovich (1863–1940) was baptized. In 1892
he became the first native-born American to be ordained as an Orthodox priest.
Two years later he built Saint Sava Orthodox Church, the first Serbian
Orthodox church in America, in the gold-mining town of Jackson, California.
In мая 2015, Sebastian was canonized by the Serbian Church and became the
first American-born saint of the Orthodox Church.
The 1890s also saw the beginnings of the Holy Resurrection Serbian
Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago; this would become the “Mother Church” for
the Serbian immigrants in America. Also, the first Orthodox church to be
established in Cleveland, Ohio, a city that would come to have many Orthodox
churches, was Saint Theodosius Cathedral, founded in 1896 by the Serbian
Orthodox.
The Syrians
In 1895 the community of Syrian Orthodox immigrants in New York City
invited Father Raphael Hawaweeny (1860–1915), a Syrian by birth who had
joined the Church of Russia and was then teaching at the missionary
seminary/academy in Kazan, Russia, to come and be their priest. He accepted
this offer after making it clear to these Syrians that for him to come, they
would have to accept the authority of the Russian Administration in America,
since he was a Russian clergyman. Thus began 20 years of fruitful ministry to
the Syrian Orthodox scattered all across the United States and Mexico,
including founding 30 parishes, until his death in 1915. In 1904 he was
consecrated as the Bishop of Brooklyn in the first Orthodox episcopal
consecration in the New World. He was glorified as a saint in 2000 by the
Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the Antiochian Archdiocese in
America, at services also held at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery.
The Greeks
As with the Syrians, Greeks began emigrating to America in large
numbers after about 1890. Before then, in the 1860s, earlier Greek immigrants,
along with some Russian, Serbian, and Syrian immigrants, had been active in
establishing the Holy Trinity parish in New Orleans. Before the turn of the
century Greek immigrants had established two churches in New York City, two
in Chicago, and one in Lowell, Massachusetts.
These parishes were established without reference to the Russian
Administration. Priests were sent to these parishes, upon the request of the
immigrants, by either the Church of Greece or the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
depending on which part of the Old Country the immigrants originally came
from.
Eastern Europe and Greece
In the 19th century, the traditionally Orthodox lands of Serbia, Romania,
and central and southern Greece gained liberation from the Turkish yoke. The
Greek Revolution broke out in February of 1821 with the invasion into
Moldavia from southwestern Russia led by Alexandros Ypsilantis, who was the
Captain-General of the top secret, conspiratorial Society of Friends. However,
the revolt did not gain widespread popular support until one hierarch gave his
blessing for it. That man was Metropolitan Germanos of Old Patras, who raised
the standard of revolt on March 25, 1821; this date has been celebrated ever
since as Greek Independence Day. With the reluctantly given aid of Britain,
France, and Russia, the Turks were finally expelled from central and southern
Greece by 1829. Northern Greece, however, had to wait until the Balkan War of
1912 to gain its freedom. And of course, Constantinople (Istanbul), Asia Minor
(Turkey), and Thrace (European Turkey) remain in the hands of the Turks to
this day.
The patriarch of Constantinople at the time of the revolt, Saint Gregory V
(r. 1797–1798, 1806–1810, and 1818–1821), and twelve metropolitans, along
with as many as 30,000 Greeks in and around Constantinople, were murdered
by the Turks when the news of the revolt reached the capital. The patriarch was
hung from the gates of the Church of Saint George, his headquarters in the
Phanar district of Constantinople, on the morning of Holy Pascha, April 10,
1821. He is commemorated as Hieromartyr Saint Gregory V.
At a council in Nauplion in the Peloponnesus in 1833, the Church in newly
liberated Greece declared herself to be autocephalous from the Patriarchate of
Constantinople. This status was accepted and confirmed by Constantinople in
1850. With free Greece now under the rule of the Bavarian King Otto
(beginning in 1831), the reorganized Church of Greece was structured along the
lines of the Protestant State-Churches in northern Europe. Meanwhile, the
patriarchal theological seminary on the island of Halki, near Constantinople,
was founded in 1844.
With the liberation of Serbia and Romania from the Ottoman Turks also by
about 1830, five self-governing dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church and
two dioceses of Romanian Church were set up beyond the boundaries of the
Ottoman Empire. This gave them the welcomed freedom to use the Serbian and
Romanian languages in their services, after many years of enforced
Hellenization of their churches under the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Within the Empire, the Bulgarian people sought and obtained permission
from the Turks to have their own separate church jurisdiction in 1870. The
Bulgarians also had been governed by Greek bishops appointed by the patriarch
of Constantinople, and they resented the forced Hellenization of their church
life.
However, in 1872, at an important Church council held in Constantinople,
any attempt to establish a separate Church administration on the basis of
ethnicity or nationality was officially condemned as the heresy of phyletism.
When the Bulgarian Christians refused to accept this ruling, the Church of
Constantinople excommunicated them, thus creating the so-called Bulgarian
Schism. This rupture in relations lasted until 1945, when an independent
Bulgarian Church was established within the territorial boundaries of Bulgaria
as they stood at the end of World War II. In 1953 the Bulgarian Church regained
her patriarchate, which had been lost in 1393 when the Ottoman Turks
conquered Bulgaria.
A leading saint of this era in the Eastern Church was Saint Nektarios of
Aegina (1846–1920). As Archbishop of Pentapolis in Libya he was known for
his evangelical preaching and manner of life, characterized by humility,
simplicity, poverty, and love for the brethren. He was being groomed to succeed
Patriarch Sophronios of Alexandria as head of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
However, when he was slandered by envious fellow hierarchs and others, the
patriarch believed the slander and exiled him out of the Alexandrian
patriarchate. He found refuge in Athens, where he served as a “holy preacher”
and headed the Rizarios Academy for 15 years before retiring to the island of
Aegina. There he restored and shepherded a women’s monastery. Many
miracles have occurred through his relics and his many appearances to the
faithful since his death.
Another remarkable saint of this period was Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia
(1840–1924), an exceptionally holy priest-monk who lived in a Christian
enclave in central Asia Minor surrounded by Turks. As there was no doctor in
the area, everyone came to him for healing, both Christians and Muslims, and
many were healed through his prayers.
Western Europe and America
The Protestant West in the 19th century was generally characterized by
greatly expanded missionary efforts and liberal theology, along with the rise of
the powerful Social Gospel Movement in America. Protestant and Roman
Catholic missionaries worked together with government administrators as the
various nations of western Europe carved up Africa and parts of Asia, the East
Indies, and the Pacific islands in their colonial conquests.
In Protestant theology, this was the era of rationalistic reinterpretations of
the Gospel accounts using the so-called “scientific methods” of historical and
biblical criticism. This movement was begun by the Hegelian German scholar
David Strauss (1808–1874) with his very controversial book called The Life of
Jesus (1836), in which he denied the historicity of all the supernatural elements
in the four Gospels. This movement peaked with the publication in 1910 of the
famous, and also very controversial, The Quest of the Historical Jesus by
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965), the famous theologian and medical missionary
to French Equatorial Africa.
Generally speaking, in these years in the West, Protestantism (with the
exception of Anglicanism) emphasized either emotional experience
(Evangelicalism/Pietism/the Holiness Movement), or rigid dogmatic
conservatism (the beginnings of Christian Fundamentalism, usually Calvinistic
in doctrinal orientation), or liberal theology expressed especially in social
action (the Social Gospel), rather than being centered in the traditional
theology and liturgical/sacramental life of historic Christianity.
The Second Great Awakening
In the first decades of the 19th century, America-especially New England,
upstate New York, and the Tennessee-Kentucky-Ohio frontier-experienced the
Second Great Awakening. This was a wave of Protestant, evangelistic
revivalism, centered in a new phenomenon known as the “camp-meeting,”
which could last for a week or more. These stirring events featured outdoor
preaching, congregational singing, calls for repentance, and fervent prayer,
sometimes led by women. Thousands were converted to faith in Christ in these
meetings, and several new denominations coalesced in these years. The largest
of these was the Disciples of Christ, arising from the Restorationist Movement
led by the Presbyterian clergyman Barton Stone (1772–1844), leader of the
noteworthy Cane Ridge Revival of 1801 in Kentucky, and by the Presbyterian
pastor Thomas Campbell (1763–1854) and his son Alexander Campbell (1788–
1866) in western Pennsylvania. The Baptist movement, characterized by
hundreds of small churches led by local farmer-preachers, also was given great
impetus by the Second Great Awakening.
Charles Finney (1792–1875), a young Presbyterian lawyer who was
converted to Christ on October 10, 1821, was the leading traveling evangelist
during the Second Great Awakening, followed by Lyman Beecher (1775–1863).
In his preaching Finney emphasized the need to combine spiritual growth with
active social work, such as participating in the great social movements of his
day. In 1835 he became professor of theology, teaching a moderate form of
Calvinism, at the newly founded Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. This
remarkable school, America’s first coeducational college, became “the
abolitionist hotbed of the country.” It was a major stop on the Underground
Railroad, helping slaves fleeing from the South.
Rise of the Social Gospel
Politically-minded liberal Christians in America, along with socially-
minded evangelical Christians, became greatly involved in interdenominational
causes for social justice and moral reform such as the Abolitionist Movement,
which helped lead to President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
on Jan. 1, 1863; the Women’s Rights Movement, which helped lead to the 19th
Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote, in 1920;
and the Temperance Movement, which helped lead to the 18th Amendment to
the Constitution, outlawing the manufacture, importation, and sale of all
alcoholic beverages, in 1919. These movements, along with the work of urban
ministry groups like the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), founded
by George Williams in London in 1844, and the Salvation Army, founded by
William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865, all were various aspects of the
Social Gospel Movement.
Another aspect of the Social Gospel was the so-called “Gospel of Wealth,”
espoused by the wealthy business magnate Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). In a
seminal essay, written in 1889, entitled “Wealth,” he claimed it was God’s will
for a few individuals to gain tremendous wealth so they could administer their
fortunes during their lifetimes for the public good. He especially advocated the
establishment of institutions, such as colleges, libraries, concert halls, and
philanthropic foundations.
Responses to the Social Gospel
Many conservative Christians, especially in the American South, tended to
maintain a more individualistic understanding of the Christian Faith, at the
expense of participation in social justice efforts. As an example, most southern
Christians defended slavery-on the basis of what they understood as being a
literal reading of the Bible, among other things.
In England, the Oxford Movement arose in the 1830s within the Anglican
Church partly in reaction to the spread of Liberalism in theology. John Henry
Newman (1801–1890) was the leader of this movement, which was shaped
theologically more by the early Church Fathers than by the Schoolmen of
medieval western Europe. A great emphasis within the Movement was a
restoration of higher standards of worship. Several of its leaders, including
Newman, eventually joined the Roman Catholic Church.
Roman Catholicism
In 1854, Pope Pius IX (r. 1846–1878) officially promulgated the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. This doctrine, strongly
promoted by the Franciscans, had been adamantly opposed by the Dominican
Order when it was first proposed in the 13th century. It teaches that Mary’s
conception from her parents had to be supernaturally free from original sin so
that she could grow up to be Christ’s mother (see Doctrine).
In 1870, the First Vatican Council reaffirmed the doctrines of the Council
of Trent, and officially, for the first time in history, legislated the dogma of the
infallibility of the pope of Rome. This dogma declares that when the pope
speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith or morals, his decision is binding on all
Catholics-since it is considered to be infallible. This Vatican dogma states that
the infallibility of the pope is binding even if, when he speaks ex cathedra, he
is speaking “from himself and not from the consensus of the church.”
This very controversial doctrine was opposed by many at the Vatican I
Council, and some Roman Catholic bishops broke away from communion with
the Roman Church on this issue. They and their followers became known as the
Old Catholics. In America, one such group, the Polish National Catholic
Church, declared its independence from Rome in 1897, at a convention held in
Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Also during the long reign of Pope Pius IX, the Papacy lost the last of its
so-called Papal States. By 1861 only the city of Rome was left under the direct
governance of the Papacy, and by 1870 Rome itself was lost. At that point the
Papacy withdrew into the Vatican City within the city of Rome.
France was blessed with the lives of two remarkable saints in this century:
the famous Curé d’Ars, Saint John-Baptiste Vianney (1786–1859), and Saint
Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897). The Curé d’Ars was a simple parish priest in
the small town of Ars whose spiritual guidance attracted thousands of pilgrims
from all walks of life. Saint Thérèse, having dedicated herself as a child to the
attainment of religious perfection, entered a Carmelite convent at the age of 15.
She died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, but not before writing, at the
command of her superiors, her autobiography entitled The History of a Soul.
She attained such holiness that many miracles have been attributed to her
prayers.
In America, the Roman Catholic Church expanded greatly throughout the
19th century, mainly through massive immigration from Ireland, Germany,
Italy, Poland, French Canada, and Mexico. By 1850 the Roman Church had
become the single largest Christian group in America, with 1.6 million
adherents. By 1860 that number almost doubled. The widespread Roman
Catholic parochial school system began to take shape in the 1840s, in
opposition to the spread of the Protestant-oriented public school system; it was
strongly in place by the turn of the century.
Relations between the Churches East and West
William Palmer (1811–1879), a professor at Magdalen College, Oxford,
pursued a serious interest in the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1840 and 1842 he
visited Russia to explore possibilities of intercommunion between the Anglican
and Orthodox Churches. His work, Notes of a Visit to the Russian Church in the
Years 1840, 1841, was edited by John Henry Newman and published in 1882.
Palmer had a long correspondence with the important Russian lay theologian,
Alexei Khomiakov. He actually inquired into being officially received into the
Russian Church, but he was troubled by the fact that the Russian Church would
have accepted him by chrismation while the Greek Church would have required
him to be baptized. In 1855 he joined the Roman Catholic Church instead.
In 1848, in response to overtures directed to the Orthodox by Pope Pius
IX, the Eastern Patriarchs issued an encyclical letter in which the understanding
of the conciliar as well as the hierarchical nature of the Orthodox Church is
clearly professed. This letter also includes a long list of Roman Catholic errors
that the Orthodox have always rejected, most especially the unilateral addition
of the filioque to the Nicene Creed. Signed by all the patriarchs of the Orthodox
Church, together with 29 bishops, and fully endorsed by Saint Philaret,
Metropolitan of Moscow, the encyclical letter of 1848 is considered to be the
most authoritative doctrinal statement in modern Orthodox Church history.
In 1895, a similar encyclical letter was issued by the Patriarchate of
Constantinople in response to a similar overture by Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–
1903).
Twentieth Century
Orthodoxy in America, Part One: From the Russian
Mission to the OCA
Archbishop Tikhon
In 1898, Bishop Tikhon (Belavin) (1866–1925) became the head of the
Mission Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska of the Russian Orthodox
Church. In 1900, the name of this diocese was changed to the Diocese of the
Aleutian Islands and North America. In 1905, the Holy Synod of the Russian
Church elevated the diocese to the rank of archdiocese, with Bishop Tikhon
becoming an Archbishop.
In 1904, the headquarters of the American archdiocese were moved from
San Francisco to New York City, to the newly built Saint Nicholas Cathedral in
upper Manhattan. In 1905, Saint Tikhon’s Monastery and orphanage were
founded at South Canaan, Pennsylvania, through the enterprising vision and
hard work of Father Arseny (Chagovtsov) (1866–1945), the monk-priest of the
parish in nearby маяfield, Pennsylvania, who later became Archbishop Arseny
of Winnipeg.
The First All-American Sobor (Council) of the Church in America took
place in 1907, in маяfield, Pennsylvania. Under Saint Tikhon’s initiative and
guidance, each parish sent not only their priest, but also a lay delegate to this
sobor. The theme of the sobor was “How to Spread the Mission.”
Saint Tikhon’s Overarching Plan
When all the bishops of the Russian Church were asked their opinions in
1905 regarding Church reform, Archbishop Tikhon stated that the American
archdiocese should become a basically self-governing Orthodox Church made
up of all Orthodox Christians of all nationalities, using the American civil
calendar (i.e., the Gregorian Calendar), and eventually using the English
language for its church services and activities. English translations of the main
liturgical services of the Church had already been done by then, and in 1906 the
landmark service book compiled and translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood
was published. Archbishop Tikhon and Bishop Raphael were strongly supported
in their advocacy of the use of English by Fr Ingram Nathaniel Irvine (1849–
1921), a former Episcopalian priest who converted to Orthodoxy in 1905 and
was ordained an Orthodox priest in that same year. Saint Tikhon assigned him
to “English work” in the American Mission.
Saint Tikhon’s plan for the gradual development of an autonomous
American Church included a hierarchy drawn from all the different ethnic
Orthodox peoples. In 1904, Fr Raphael Hawaweeny (1860–1915), the Syrian
archimandrite who had been shepherding the Arabic-speaking parishes in
America since 1895 under the oversight of the Russian Diocesan
Administration, was consecrated as Bishop of Brooklyn, auxiliary bishop to
Archbishop Tikhon. His consecration in New York City was the first Orthodox
episcopal consecration in the New World. In 2000, at a ceremony at Saint
Tikhon’s Monastery, Bishop Raphael was glorified as a saint, with the
designation “Bishop of Brooklyn, Shepherd of the Lost Sheep of North
America.”
A similar plan was set for the consecration of a bishop from among the
Serbian clergy in America, who would be responsible for the pastoral care of
the Serbian Orthodox Christians scattered across North America. With this goal
in mind, in 1905, Father Sebastian Dabovich (1863–1940), after being made an
archimandrite, was appointed as “Administrator of the Serbian branch of the
Orthodox Church in America,” with his headquarters at the Holy Resurrection
Church in Chicago.
In an effort to extend this overarching plan to include the Greeks in
America, in 1912 Fr Michael Andreades, a priest of Greek extraction and Dean
of the West Coast parishes of the Russian Mission Archdiocese, traveled to
Constantinople to request the Ecumenical Patriarch to send a Greek bishop to
America, who would serve as head of the Greek-American parishes, all to be
gathered within the Mission Archdiocese. Unfortunately, nothing came of this
overture.
In further efforts to extend Archbishop Tikhon’s original plan, in 1916 the
former Byzantine-rite Catholic priest Father Alexander Dzubay (1857–1933)
was consecrated as Bishop Stephen of Pittsburgh, with special responsibility
for bringing the Carpatho-Russians who were still Byzantine-rite Catholics
(Uniates) into the Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, this mission was
unsuccessful, and in disappointment Bishop Stephen returned to his Uniate
roots in 1924.
In 1919, at the Second All-American Sobor, held in Cleveland, Ohio,
Archimandrite Theophan (Fan) Noli (1882–1965) was elected to be bishop of
the Albanian parishes in America, and Archimandrite Mardary Uskokovich
(1889–1935) was elected to be bishop of the Serbian parishes. However, with
the Church in Russia in turmoil in the midst of the Bolshevik Revolution and
the ensuing civil war, official ecclesiastical approval for these two
consecrations never came.
This sobor also discussed positively the possibility of forming a ‘mission’
for Ukrainian immigrants, similar to that of the Serbs and the Albanians.
Unfortunately, the Archbishop at that time, Archbishop Alexander
(Nemolovsky), did not encourage further development of this idea.
Thus it was the plan to develop a unified hierarchy that would serve the
pastoral needs of all the various ethnic immigrant groups in North America.
Already in 1905, however, a “Hellenic Eastern Orthodox Church” was
incorporated in the state of New York completely independent of the Russian
Orthodox hierarchy in America. This was done even though at the time there
was no Greek bishop in the country and no plans for a specifically Greek-
American diocese-although there were already 29 Greek parishes in America
by 1906.
1907–1917
After Archbishop Tikhon was transferred to a diocese in Russia in the
Spring of 1907, the American diocese was headed by Archbishop Platon
(Rozhdestvensky) (1866–1934; r. 1907–1914 and 1922–1934). One of the
highlights of his tenure was moving the ecclesiastical seminary, called St
Platon’s, from Minneapolis to Tenafly, New Jersey (across the river from
Manhattan), in 1912, so that it could be much closer to the central
administration of the archdiocese. He served as Archbishop of the American
Church until 1914, when he was recalled to Russia to serve as a bishop there.
He was succeeded by Archbishop Evdokim (1869–1935; r. 1914–1917).
From Saint Tikhon’s last sermon preached in America, at Saint
Nicholas Cathedral, New York City, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, 1907
But it is not enough, brethren, to only celebrate “The Triumph of
Orthodoxy.” It is necessary for us personally to promote and contribute to this
triumph. And for this we must reverently preserve the Orthodox Faith, standing
firm in it in spite of the fact that we live in a non-Orthodox country, and not
pleading as an excuse for our apostasy that “it is not the old land here but
America, a free country, and therefore it is impossible to follow everything that
the Church requires.” As if the word of Christ is only suitable for the old land
and not for the entire world! As if the Church of Christ is not “catholic”! As if
the Orthodox Faith did not “establish the universe”!
Furthermore, while faithfully preserving the Orthodox Faith, everyone
must also take care to spread it among the non-Orthodox. Christ the Savior said
that having lit the candle, men do not put it under a bushel but on a candlestick
so that it gives light to all (Mt 5.15). The light of the Orthodox Faith has not
been lit to shine only for a small circle of people. No, the Orthodox Church is
catholic; she remembers the commandment of her Founder, “Go ye into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature and teach all nations” (Mk
16.15; Mt 28.19).
We must share our spiritual richness, truth, light, and joy with others who
do not have these blessings. And this duty does not only lay upon the pastors
and the missionaries but on the lay persons as well, since the Church of Christ,
according to the wise comparison of the Holy Apostle Paul, is the body, and
every member takes part in the life of the body. By means of all sorts of
mutually binding bonds which are formed and strengthened through the action
of every member according to his capacity, the great Church body receives an
increase unto the edifying of itself (Eph 4.16).
In the first centuries it was not only the pastors who were tortured, but lay
persons as well-men, women, and even children. And it was lay people likewise
who enlightened the heathen and fought heresies. And now in the same way, the
spreading of the Faith should be a matter that is personal, heartfelt, and dear to
each one of us. Every member of the Church must take an active part in it-some
by personal podvig spreading the Good News, some by material donations and
service to “the needs of the holy persons,” and some by profuse prayer to the
Lord that He “keep His Church firm and multiply it”-and concerning those
unaware of Christ, that He would “proclaim the word of truth to them, open to
them the Gospel of Truth, and join them to the Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church.” I have told this numerous times to my flock. And today, upon my
departing from this land, I once more command all of you to preserve and act
upon this, and especially you brethren of this holy temple.?.?.?.
Farewell to you, this country! For some you are the motherland, the place
of birth; for others you gave shelter, work, and well-being. Some received the
freedom to profess the right Faith in your liberal land.?.?.?.
Let God’s blessing be upon this country, this city, and this temple. And let
“the blessing of the Lord, with grace and love for man,” rest upon you all, “now
and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”
Father Leonid Turkevich (1876–1965), the future Metropolitan Leonty,
rector of the Seminary in Minneapolis and then in Tenafly, became the Dean of
Saint Nicholas Cathedral in New York City. He wrote many articles during this
period about the destiny of the American missionary archdiocese to become a
self-governing Orthodox Church. Along with Archbishop Evdokim and Father
Alexander Kukulevsky (1873–1963), he represented the American diocese at
the great Russian Church Council of 1917–1918.
The Russian-American Archdiocese after the
Bolshevik Revolution
With the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the Russian Mission
Archdiocese in America was thrown into confusion. Archbishop Alexander
(Nemolovsky) (r. 1917–1922), who succeeded Archbishop Evdokim in 1917,
was having great difficulty in helping the Archdiocese to adjust to the new
conditions, especially the loss of all financial support from the Russian Church
and State. When Archbishop Platon returned to America in 1921, Archbishop
Alexander asked him to take over as head of the Russian Administration. At the
Third All-American Sobor of the American archdiocese, held in Pittsburgh in
1922, Archbishop Platon was accepted to lead the Church once again.
John Kedrovsky, a priest serving in the Russian-American Mission who
was suspended in 1918 for attempting to subvert Archbishop Alexander’s
authority, returned to America from Russia in 1923 as a “bishop” of the Soviet-
mandated and manipulated “Living Church.” He demanded, and received by
legal action, possession of a number of Russian Church properties, including
the leading church of the archdiocese, Saint Nicholas Cathedral in New York
City. His actions brought further confusion, turmoil, and financial woes to the
archdiocese.
The Church suffered another major blow at this time when it was
considered necessary to close the seminary in Tenafly, New Jersey, in 1924; its
properties and library were sold. There would be no Orthodox seminary in
North America for the next 14 years.
In 1924, the Fourth All-American Sobor of the Russian-American
Archdiocese was held in Detroit, Michigan. This sobor, on the basis of
Patriarch Tikhon’s decree of November 20, 1920 (No. 362)-which declared that
all dioceses of the Russian Church cut off from the Moscow Patriarchate should
govern themselves and carry on their church life under local supervision-
declared that the archdiocese would be a self-governing metropolitanate,
maintaining only a spiritual bond with the Church in Russia, until such time as
normal relations could be resumed with the Russian Church. Archbishop Platon
was officially installed as the metropolitan, and the Church came to be called
the American Metropolia. It was legally incorporated as the Russian Orthodox
Greek Catholic Church of America.
The American Metropolia
In 1926, Metropolitan Platon met with members of the Russian Synod in
Exile to discuss the problems involved with caring for the Russian Orthodox
Christians in the “diaspora”-meaning everywhere in the world beyond the
boundaries of the Soviet Union. By this time, many new Russian immigrants
had come to America and joined the American Metropolia. When the Synod in
Exile attempted to extend its jurisdiction over the American Metropolia,
Metropolitan Platon objected. Thus, he and his Church were “suspended” by the
Synod in Exile in 1929.
At this same time, Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) (d. 1946), head of a
number of parishes in Western Europe established by Russian immigrants, also
met with the bishops of the Synod in Exile. He likewise was “suspended” by
them for refusing to recognize their alleged jurisdiction over all Russian
Orthodox Christians outside of Russia.
Pressure from Moscow
In the 1930s, pressure was applied by Moscow upon the American
Metropolia, as well as upon the Western European Exarchate under
Metropolitan Evlogy. In 1933, Archbishop Benjamin (Fedchenkoff) (1880–
1961) came to America from the USSR demanding the Metropolia’s allegiance
to the Moscow Patriarchate. The fact that a pledge of allegiance to the Soviet
State was also demanded showed that the Russian Church was not really free,
which made it impossible for the American Metropolia to enter into normal
relations with it. In response, in 1934 the Church in Russia officially declared
the Metropolia to be illegal, and opened the Exarchate of the Moscow
Patriarchate in America, headed by Archbishop Benjamin. Most of the Russian-
American parishes remained faithful to the Metropolia, rather than joining
either this new exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate or the Russian Synod in
Exile.
In the same year, Metropolitan Platon died. He was succeeded by
Archbishop Theophilus (Pashkovsky) (r. 1934–1950), who was elected primate
at the Fifth All-American Sobor of the Metropolia, held in Cleveland, Ohio.
American Destiny
In 1937, the Sixth All-American Sobor of the American Metropolia,
meeting in New York City, affirmed a “moral” relationship with the Russian
Synod in Exile, which restored intercommunion between the two bodies.
However, when the Metropolia tried to have closer relations with the
Patriarchate of Moscow during World War II, the Synod in Exile disapproved.
In 1946, when the Synod renewed its claim to have governance over all the
Russian Orthodox in America, this “moral” relationship, including
intercommunion, was broken.
The Sixth All-American Sobor also mandated the establishment of two
theological schools-Saint Vladimir’s in New York City as a graduate school of
Orthodox theology, and Saint Tikhon’s as a pastoral school at Saint Tikhon’s
Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. Both schools opened in 1938.
The Seventh All-American Sobor of the Metropolia, meeting in Cleveland
in 1946, requested of the Moscow Patriarchate that there be a close spiritual
relationship linking the two bodies. But when, once again, demands were made
from Moscow for loyalty to the Soviet government, the “spiritual” relationship
was not realized.
In 1950, upon the death of Metropolitan Theophilus, the Eighth All-
American Sobor of the Metropolia, meeting in New York City, unanimously
proclaimed as primate Archbishop Leonty (Turkevich) (1876–1965; r. 1950–
1965), one of the original leaders of the American missionary diocese. He had
been the dean of the seminary in Minneapolis, and then in Tenafly, New Jersey.
After the death of his wife in 1933, he served as bishop of Chicago.
Also in 1950, the Russian Synod in Exile set up its worldwide
headquarters in New York City. Meanwhile, the Moscow Patriarchate was
applying its strongest pressure for the reestablishment of its authority over the
Metropolia, which it continued to call “illegal.” In response, at this Eighth
Sobor, before his election as metropolitan, Archbishop Leonty made a speech
reaffirming the specifically American destiny of the Church which had been
planted in the New World by the Church of Russia more than a century and a
half earlier. The Archbishop declared, “We will follow our line-the foundation
of an administratively self-governing Orthodox Church in America.”
Development of the Metropolia
The 1950s and ’60s were difficult years in the American Metropolia.
Internal disputes arose concerning the theological and spiritual development of
the Church; for example, many began to desire a more adequate church life.
There was an eagerness for administrative and liturgical reform that generally
took the form of struggles between the clergy and the laity over their respective
rights and privileges. By the end of the ’60s, however, a consensus was
developing among the majority of priests and people for the implementation of
proper liturgical worship, administrative order, and spiritual development in
the Metropolia.
The theological schools by this time were firmly established. Saint
Tikhon’s Seminary had developed considerably, while Saint Vladimir’s
received a number of famous European professors-Nicholas Arseniev (d. 1977),
Alexander Bogolepov (d. 1980), George Fedotov (1886–1951), Father Georges
Florovsky (1893–1979), Serge Verhovskoy (1907–1986), Father Alexander
Schmemann (1921–1983), and Father John Meyendorff (1926–1992). In 1967,
Saint Vladimir’s received from the State of New York the right to grant the
Bachelor of Divinity degree (now the Master of Divinity).
In 1960, the Romanian Episcopate, led by Bishop Valerian (Trifa) (1914–
1987; r. 1958–1982), formally affiliated with the American Metropolia.
Metropolitan Ireney
Metropolitan Leonty died in мая of 1965. At the Twelfth All-American
Sobor of the American Metropolia, held later that year, Archbishop Ireney
(Bekish) (r. 1965–1977), the acting administrator of the Metropolia, was made
the new Metropolitan.
Immediately upon his elevation, Metropolitan Ireney addressed a letter to
the primates of all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches, pleading for an
urgent discussion about the confused jurisdictional situation of Orthodoxy in
America. His appeal went unanswered. His requests made to various Orthodox
patriarchs for an audience to discuss the Church in America were also refused.
Metropolitan Ireney presided at the Thirteenth All-American Sobor of the
American Metropolia in 1967, where the feeling ran high for action to declare
the Metropolia to be the self-governing Orthodox Church in America without
recourse to or even recognition by any patriarchate across the seas. Although no
official action was taken, a “straw vote” of the council showed the
overwhelming majority of delegates ready to drop the word “Russian” from the
name of the Church in America, and to carry on officially as a Church in and
for America.
American Autocephaly
In the late 1960s, informal talks began between representatives of the
Moscow Patriarchate and the American Metropolia, usually at ecumenical
gatherings, about the American problem. Official negotiations to settle the
difficulties between the two Churches began in 1969. The official delegates of
the American Metropolia-Archbishop Kiprian of Philadelphia, and Fathers
Joseph Pishtey, John Skvir, Alexander Schmemann, and John Meyendorff-
insisted upon a totally self-governing status for the Metropolia, with the
complete removal of all ecclesiastical authority of the Russian Church from
American territory.
After long and difficult negotiations, with many hesitations and
compromises, and many meetings and discussions within both Churches over
this complex and sensitive issue, on March 31, 1970, Metropolitan Ireney and
Metropolitan Nikodim, head of the External Affairs Department of the Moscow
Patriarchate, signed the agreement whereby the Russian Church would
recognize the American Metropolia as the fully autocephalous (independent)
“Orthodox Church in America” (OCA). Some 40 of its parishes, however,
wished to stay under Moscow’s control, so they were allowed to join the
Patriarchal Diocese established by Archbishop Benjamin in 1934.
On April 10, 1970, six days before his death, Patriarch Alexei I, together
with 14 bishops of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church, signed the official
tomos proclaiming the Metropolia to be the autocephalous Orthodox Church in
America (OCA).
From the Tomos of Autocephaly for the OCA
The Holy Russian Orthodox Church, striving for the good of the Church,
has directed her efforts toward the normalization of relations among the
various ecclesiastical jurisdictions in America, particularly by negotiating with
the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America, concerning the
possibility of granting autocephaly to this Church in the hope that this might
serve the good of the Orthodox Church in America and the glory of God.
In her striving for the peace of Christ, which has universal significance for
the life of man; desiring to build a peaceful and creative church life, and to
suppress scandalous ecclesiastical divisions; hoping that this act would be
beneficial to the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ and would make
possible the development among the local parts of the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church of such relations which would be founded on the firm ties of
the one Orthodox Faith and the love that the Lord Jesus Christ willed; keeping
in mind that this act would serve the welfare of universal, mutual cooperation;
taking into consideration the petition of the Bishops’ Council of the Russian
Orthodox Greek Catholic Metropolitanate of North America, which expressed
the opinion and desire of all her faithful children; acknowledging as good for
Orthodoxy in America the independent and self-sustaining existence of said
Metropolitanate, which now represents a mature ecclesiastical organism
possessing all that is necessary for successful further growth. Our Humility
together with the Sacred Synod and all the venerable Hierarchs of the Russian
Orthodox Church, who have signified their agreement in writing, having
examined the said petition, in sincere love grant autocephaly to the Russian
Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America, that is, the right of a fully
independent ordering of church life in accordance with the divine and sacred
Canons and the ecclesiastical practices and customs of the One, Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church inherited from the Fathers; for which purpose this
Patriarchal and Synodal Tomos is directed to His Beatitude, IRENEY,
Archbishop of New York, Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in
America, Metropolitan of All-America and Canada.?.?.?.
Confirming the Autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic
Church in America, we bless her to call herself The Holy Autocephalous
Orthodox Church in America; we acknowledge and proclaim her our Sister
Church, and we invite all local Orthodox Churches and their Primates and their
faithful children to acknowledge her as such and to include her in the dyptichs
in accordance with the Canons of the Church, the traditions of the Fathers and
ecclesiastical practice.
The newly-established local Orthodox Autocephalous Church in America
should abide in brotherly relations with all the Orthodox Churches and their
Primates as well as with their bishops, clergy and pious flock, who are in
America and who for the time being preserve their de facto existing canonical
and jurisdictional dependence on their national Churches and their Primates.
With profound, sincere joy, We announce this to the Fullness of the Church
and We do not cease thanking the All-Gracious Almighty God, who directs all
in the world by His right hand for the good and the salvation of mankind, for
the successful and final formation of Autocephaly, and we entreat the all-
powerful blessing of God upon the younger Sister in the family of local
Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in
America.
мая the Consubstantial and Life-creating and Undivided Trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, acting on Its own wondrous providence, send down on the
Archpastors, Pastors and Faithful Children of the Holy Autocephalous
Orthodox American Church Its heavenly, unfailing help, and may It bless with
success all her future endeavors for the good of the Holy Church.
At the Fourteenth All-American Sobor of the American Metropolia, held
at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, on October 20–22,
1970, the tomos of autocephaly-which had been formally received on behalf of
the American Church by a delegation of churchmen led by Bishop Theodosius
(Lazor) of Sitka, Alaska-was officially read and the event was solemnly
celebrated. The new status of the Church was accepted and affirmed by the
members of the council by a vote of 301 to 7, with 2 abstentions. This council
thus became the First All-American Council of the autocephalous Orthodox
Church in America.
In 1971, the Second All-American Council of the new Church, also held at
Saint Tikhon’s, adopted the official governing statute of the Church. It also
accepted the Albanian diocese that had been led by Bishop Theophan (Noli),
and was now headed by Bishop Stephen (Lasko), into the Orthodox Church in
America.
Canonization of Saint Herman
h6C
On August 9, 1970, the OCA celebrated the canonization of its first saint,
Father Herman of Alaska. A member of the first group of missionary monks to
come to Alaska in 1794 from the Valaam Monastery, Saint Herman, a simple
lay monk, remained among the Alaskan people as their protector, teacher, and
intercessor before God until his death in 1836. The canonization ceremonies,
attended by Archbishop Paaveli of the Finnish Orthodox Church, took place in
Kodiak, Alaska.
Two years later, under the heavenly patronage of Saint Herman, the Saint
Herman’s Pastoral School was established in Anchorage to train native Alaskan
clergy. In the next year it was moved to Kodiak.
Aftermath of the Autocephaly
The act of recognition by the Moscow Patriarchate of its former
missionary diocese in the New World as an autocephalous Orthodox Church, as
of 2013, had still not been officially accepted by all of the Orthodox Churches
worldwide. Only the Churches of Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Georgia, the Czech
Lands, Slovakia, and Finland had issued official statements of recognition.
From the beginning, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, its American
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, and the other Greek-speaking Churches
worldwide strongly opposed and condemned the act of autocephaly.
Nevertheless, all Orthodox Churches, including the Patriarchate of
Constantinople and the other Greek-speaking Churches, remained in full
sacramental and spiritual communion with the Orthodox Church in America.
Continuing Development of the OCA
In 1972, the Orthodox Church in America opened its Mexican Exarchate,
headed by Bishop José Cortes y Olmos (1923–1983). Raised in the Roman
Catholic Church, he joined the Mexican National Catholic Church in 1951. This
group, independent from the Roman Church, was proclaimed the Mexican
National Catholic Church in 1928 by the president of the country in the
aftermath of the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910; its creation, colored
by political overtones, was indicative of a broader movement of independence
from subjection to the Church of Rome. Bishop José became the head of that
church in 1961. Then, after considerable study of Orthodoxy, he and his entire
church appealed to the newly formed OCA to accept them. After Bishop José’s
death in 1983, he was not replaced until Archimandrite Alejo (Pacheco-Vera)
was consecrated as Bishop of Mexico by Metropolitan Herman and other
bishops of the OCA in 2005.
In 1976, most of the Bulgarian Orthodox in America-about 15 parishes-
were received into the OCA with their Archbishop Kirill (Yonchev) (1920–
2007), who was made the OCA Bishop of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.
He led the diocese until his death in 2007. He was succeeded by Bishop
Melchizedek (Pleska) (b. 1942).
At the Fifth All-American Council, held in Montreal, Canada, in October
1977, Metropolitan Ireney, due to reasons of health, resigned as Primate of the
Orthodox Church in America. As no candidate for the office of Metropolitan
received the necessary two-thirds vote for election on the first ballot, the
assembly nominated two American-born bishops as candidates: Bishop Dmitri
(Royster) (1923–2011) of the Diocese of Hartford and New England, and
Bishop Theodosius (Lazor) (b. 1933) of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and West
Virginia. Bishop Theodosius was subsequently elected by the Synod of Bishops
to succeed Metropolitan Ireney as ruling hierarch, thus becoming the first
American-born bishop to hold the office of Primate of the Orthodox Church in
America.
Some of the highlights during Metropolitan Theodosius’s tenure were the
canonization of Saint Innocent, Apostle to America, by the Church of Russia in
1977; the authorization in 1988 by the State of Pennsylvania for Saint Tikhon’s
Seminary to grant the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree; the canonization of
Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre in 1994 at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery; and the
canonization of Saint Raphael of Brooklyn in 2000, also held aaint Saint
Tikhon’s Monastery.
In 2002, Metropolitan Theodosius retired for health reasons. At the
Thirteenth All-American Council, held in Orlando, Florida, in that year,
Archbishop Herman (Swaiko) (b. 1932) was elected to be the new metropolitan.
He served until 2008, when he was forced to retire due to a financial scandal.
He was succeeded by Bishop Jonah (Paffhausen) (b. 1959), who only 11 days
after becoming Bishop of the South was elected to be the new metropolitan at
the Fifteenth All-American Council, held in Pittsburgh in November of 2008.
Metropolitan Jonah was the first convert to lead the OCA.
In November of 2011 the Sixteenth All-American Council was held in
Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. The theme for the council was “The
Household of Faith.” This was the first All-American Council or Sobor to be
held west of the Mississippi River. This allowed for the largest delegation from
Alaska ever to attend one of these councils and sobors.
On July 6, 2012, Metropolitan Jonah retired in the midst of controversy.
He was followed by the new Metropolitan Tikhon (Mollard) (b. 1966), who had
been Archbishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania.
Metropolitan Tikhon was elected to be the new metropolitan at the specially
called one-day Seventeenth All-American Council, held in Parma, Ohio, on
November 13, 2012.
Orthodoxy in America, Part Two: Other Orthodox
Jurisdictions
The Greek Orthodox in America
The numbers of ethnic Greeks immigrating to America increased
dramatically after 1890. Some 400,000 Greeks arrived from Greece in the years
from 1891 to 1921, and another 200,000 Greeks came from Asia Minor. Most
of these immigrants were single men eager to earn enough money to get
married and support a family; many of them returned to the Old Country to
marry and get established there after earning enough money in America to do
so.
While most of these immigrants came to the United States for economic
rather than spiritual reasons, they were very interested in maintaining their
Greek identity and culture, which for most of them included the Orthodox
Church (the same can be said for all the various ethnic immigrant groups
coming from traditionally Orthodox lands). This interest strongly helped
promote the efforts that led to the founding of about 150 Greek Orthodox
parishes across the United States and Canada by 1918.
These parishes were almost all founded by laymen on their own initiative-
organizing some kind of Hellenic society, buying property, building a church,
and then seeking a priest. If most of the immigrants in any locale were from
Greece, they would request a priest from the Church of Greece; if most of them
came from Asia Minor, they would ask the Patriarchate of Constantinople to
send them a priest. Apparently this pattern continued even after the Patriarchate
of Constantinople officially gave authority over the ethnically Greek parishes
in America to the Church of Greece through an official tomos issued in 1908.
The Greek Orthodox in America for the most part organized parishes
without any reference to the already established Russian-American
Archdiocese. The records in the OCA archives reveal only one instance when
Greeks asked the Russian Administration for a priest, and only six times was a
request made for an antimension (the “altar cloth” needed for the celebration of
the Holy Eucharist). The official lists of parishes of the Russian Archdiocese in
1906, 1911, and 1918 include no churches of Greek ethnic background.
Many of the more traditionally-minded Greeks in America were
disappointed that the Church of Greece never sent a bishop to organize the
scattered, independent-minded, ethnically Greek parishes until 1918. Finally, in
that year, Archbishop Meletios (Metaxakis) (1871–1935) of the Church of
Greece came and began the organizational work which led to the official
establishment of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America in 1922.
This development was given full ratification by the new Ecumenical Patriarch,
who by then was the same Meletios (Metaxakis).
Four regional bishoprics were set up-centered in Boston, Chicago, San
Francisco, and New York City-all under the leadership of Archbishop
Alexander (Demoglou) of New York. The regional bishops were to be elected
by the local clergy and faithful, and to be approved by the Ecumenical
Patriarchate in Constantinople (by now, called Istanbul, Turkey)-hence making
the Greek Archdiocese in America an autonomous jurisdiction.
However, there was much confusion caused by Metropolitan Germanos
(Troianos) during his few years in America (he left in 1922) as he urged
parishes to stay loyal to the Church of Greece. Several years later, Metropolitan
Vasilios (Komvopoulos) did the same thing, but more effectively, as he
established the Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of the United States and
Canada, which had about 50 parishes by 1929. The other 133 Greek parishes at
that time remained attached to the Greek Archdiocese of North and South
America led by Archbishop Alexander.
All the feuding among the Greek-Americans was exacerbated by their
differing intense political views, with some siding with the Royalists back in
Greece (supporters of King Constantine I, King Alexander I, and King George
II), and others supporting Eleftherios Venizelos, the Prime Minister (from 1910
to 1915, then from 1917–1920, then for one month in 1924, and finally from
1929–1932).
In 1930, Metropolitan Damaskinos of Corinth was sent as an exarch by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate to bring to an end the feuding among the Greek-
Americans. Through his strength of character and shrewd diplomacy,
Metropolitan Damaskinos managed to unite nearly all the Greek parishes under
the leadership of a new Archbishop from Corfu, the dynamic and visionary
Athenagoras (Spyrou) (1886–1972), who was Metropolitan Damaskinos’s
personal choice for the position. The regional bishoprics were eliminated (the
bishops became auxiliaries to Archbishop Athenagoras), and the autonomous
status of the Greek Archdiocese was lost, as all the Greek churches in America
were brought under the direct supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
In 1933, Archbishop Athenagoras approached Metropolitan Platon of the
Russian-American Metropolia with the idea of founding a pan-Orthodox
seminary in America. Metropolitan Platon was open to this possibility, but after
his death in the next year, his successor, Metropolitan Theophilus, rejected the
idea. With that, Athenagoras worked on his own to establish a seminary for the
Greek Orthodox in America. Thus, in 1937, the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
Theological School was opened in Pomfret, Connecticut. It was moved to a
prime site in Brookline, Massachusetts, overlooking the city of Boston, in
1946.
Archbishop Athenagoras served in America until his installation as
Patriarch of Constantinople in 1949. He did much to bolster the financial
foundation of his Archdiocese, and to make Orthodoxy more visible in
America. Other highlights of his period of leadership were the founding of the
charitable organization called the Ladies’ Philoptochos Society, the
establishment of a national periodical called The Orthodox Observer, and the
founding of Saint Basil’s Teachers’ College in Garrison, New York, along with
the founding of the theological school in Pomfret.
Archbishop Athenagoras was succeeded by Archbishop Michael
(Konstantinides) (1892–1958; r. 1950–1958), who led the Archdiocese until his
death in 1958. He founded the very successful Greek Orthodox Youth of
America (GOYA) in 1951, and by 1958 there were some 250 member groups.
Under his leadership, the annual income for the national church increased
nearly six-fold. A national Sunday School program was established, with an all-
English curriculum. And formal recognition was gained for Orthodoxy as being
the “Fourth Major Faith” in America, along with Catholicism, Protestantism,
and Judaism.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople appointed Archbishop Iakovos
(Koukouzis) (1911–2005; r. 1959–1995) to succeed Archbishop Michael. The
new primate of the Greek-American Archdiocese quickly established himself
as the leading figure in Eastern Orthodoxy in America through his participation
in the social and political affairs and the ceremonies of the nation.
Archbishop Iakovos was criticized by some in America for being
inconsistent in his positions concerning Orthodox unity in the New World. A
number in his own archdiocese-mostly recent immigrants-attacked him for his
ostensibly pro-American, anti-Greek actions. In reality, the diplomatic
Archbishop continued to foster the Greek identity of his archdiocese, following
official instructions sent from Constantinople, while keeping close contacts
also with the Church of Greece, enhancing the archdiocese’s presence in
America, and fostering efforts towards Orthodox unity in America.
Along this line, Archbishop Iakovos maintained friendly relations with all
the Orthodox jurisdictions in North America. He was one of the founders in
1960 of the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA),
and he was elected its first chairman.
Under his leadership the Archdiocese continued to thrive, and to become
more visible on the American scene. He encouraged successful Hellenic-
American professionals to become more actively involved in church affairs. He
developed a property on the Greek island of Zakynthos into the renowned
camping and retreat center known as Ionian Village. And through a new charter
for the Archdiocese instituted in 1977, regional bishoprics again were set up,
giving the formerly auxiliary bishops their own territories to care for, but with
the entire Archdiocese still under the authority of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople.
Archbishop Iakovos led the Greek Archdiocese until his retirement in
1995. He was followed until 1998 by Archbishop Spyridon (Papageorge) (b.
1944), who was forced to retire due to his unpopular leadership. Archbishop
Dimitrios (Trakatellis) (b. 1928) succeeded Archbishop Spyridon in 1999, and
continued to lead his Church in 2013 as a much beloved hierarch.
The Greek Archdiocese is the largest of all the Orthodox jurisdictions in
North America. Several small, Greek, schismatic Old Calendarist groups,
however, also exist in America.
The Serbian Orthodox in America
In 1906 there were six Serbian parishes in America, overseen by
Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich (1863–1940) in cooperation with the
Russian Missionary Diocese. In 1918, the list of parishes under the Russian
Administration included 19 Serbian parishes. However, relations between the
Serbs and the Russians had been tenuous during the preceding years.
As noted above, Archimandrite Mardary (Uskokovich) was elected by the
Russian Missionary Archdiocese in 1919 to be an auxiliary bishop responsible
for the ethnically Serbian parishes. But as the Russian Administration in
America failed to receive approval for this consecration from the Church in
Russia, the Serbian-Americans went ahead with their efforts to have their own
diocese under the authority of the Church in Serbia.
Saint Nikolai of Zicha (1881–1956), then a priest of the Church in Serbia,
traveled in Great Britain and the United States in 1915 and 1916, giving talks to
raise support for the Kingdom of Serbia, which at that time was in the midst of
the Great War (WW I). In 1921, Saint Nikolai, by then the Bishop of Zicha in
Serbia, again came to America. He, along with Archimandrite Mardary as his
deputy, was sent by the Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije. Saint Nikolai stayed about
six months, again giving many public lectures, before returning to Serbia. After
WW II, during which he suffered for about a year in the Nazi prison camp at
Dachau, Saint Nikolai found asylum in the United States, as he was definitely
not welcome in the new Soviet satellite state of Yugoslavia under the
Communist government headed by Marshall Tito. This is how it happened that
Saint Nikolai spent the last five years of his life at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery
and Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, where he taught-in English-and
served as rector of the seminary. He died in his cell there in 1956.
Father Mardary stayed on in America, serving as a parish priest in
Chicago, and doing much of the organizational work for the emerging Serbian
diocese in America, including purchasing with his own funds the St Sava
Monastery site in Libertyville, Illinois.
In 1926, Archimandrite Mardary was called back to Belgrade to be
consecrated by Patriarch Dimitrije as bishop and head of the Serbian Eastern
Orthodox Diocese of America and Canada. Three weeks after his return to the
U.S. in the following year, Bishop Mardary convened the first Church
Assembly, in Chicago. Despite a gradually worsening case of tuberculosis,
Bishop Mardary served the diocese well, until his death in 1935 at the age of
46. In мая 2015, in recognition of his tireless efforts and pastoral care of his
spiritual flock, Mandary was canonized a saint alongside Sebastian (Dabovich).
In 1963, the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Church of Serbia, under the
new Patriarch Germanus, divided the Serbian jurisdiction in North America
into three new dioceses (Eastern America, Western America, and Canada). In
the following year three bishops were elected-Sava, Firmilian, and Gregory-to
rule these dioceses, all under the authority of the Church in Serbia.
However, the ruling hierarch of the American Serbian Church, Bishop
Dionisije (Milivojevich)-Bishop Mardary’s successor-regarded these
developments as a Communist-inspired plot to keep the American Serbs under
closer watch. So he broke all ties with the Serbian Patriarchate, which then
defrocked him. Undeterred, he gathered together a large number of parishes
that agreed with him, and thus the Free Serbian Orthodox Church in America
was founded. The rest of the Serbian-Americans carried on as members of the
three new dioceses, under the authority of the Church of Serbia.
A period of bitter strife between the two jurisdictions followed, lasting
until about 1975. Preliminary reconciliation was achieved in 1988. The process
was completed by 1992, after the fall of Communism in Yugoslavia, when
Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church visited North America and
formally reunited the two groups.
In 1991, Bishop Christopher (Kovacevich) (1928–2010), head of the
diocese of Eastern America and the first American-born bishop to serve the
Serbian Church in America, was elected by the Assembly of Bishops of the
Church of Serbia to be the Metropolitan of the Serbian Church in North
America. In 2010, Metropolitan Christopher died, and as of the beginning of
2013 none of the five Serbian bishops in America had been made Metropolitan
of the Serbian Church in America. By 2010, the American Serbian jurisdiction
included two additional dioceses- Midwestern America, and Canada. The
Serbian Church continued to support the Saint Sava School of Theology, a
small coeducational school of theology in Libertyville, Illinois, which granted a
B.A. in religious studies/priestly formation.
The Romanian Orthodox in America
The first parish in North America founded by Romanian Orthodox
immigrants was organized in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1902. The first
Romanian parish in the United States was established by laity in Cleveland,
Ohio, in 1904. In the next year, the Metropolitan of Transylvania sent Father
Moise Balea to be the parish’s first priest and to minister to Romanian
immigrants in other cities. Altogether he helped to establish about 20
Romanian Orthodox parishes in North America.
By 1918 there were about 30 Romanian parishes in the U.S. and Canada,
but only three of these (in Hamilton, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Rayville,
Saskatchewan) were within the jurisdiction of the Russian Missionary Diocese.
The others were associated either with the Metropolitan of Moldava or the
Metropolitan of Transylvania in the Old Country.
In 1929, at a general congress of Romanian Orthodox clergy and laity held
in Detroit, Michigan, an autonomous missionary episcopate was formed, to be
under the canonical jurisdiction of the Church of Romania. This resolution was
accepted in the next year by the Romanian Patriarchate, which officially
established the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America. Then in 1935, the
Holy Synod of the Church in Romania elected and consecrated Archimandrite
Polycarp (Morusca) (1883–1958) as the first bishop of the new episcopate.
On July 4, 1935, Bishop Polycarp was enthroned during the Congress of
the Romanian Episcopate, which was again held in Detroit. This congress also
adopted a corporate statute for the episcopate.
During his four years in America, Bishop Polycarp was able to heal
various factional disputes among the Romanian parishes. He also laid the
foundations for many church organizations, and supervised the acquisition of
the Vatra, a property northwest of Detroit, and the establishment there of the
headquarters of the Romanian Episcopate.
In 1939, after formally dedicating the headquarters, Bishop Polycarp
returned to Romania for a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Church there, but
the outbreak of World War II prevented his return to the U.S. After the war, he
was prevented by the new Communist government of Romania from returning
to his ministry in the States. He was held as a political prisoner by the
Communists until his death in 1958.
Meanwhile, the Communist government tried to take over the American
Episcopate, but its efforts were thwarted, largely through the diligent work of
Father John Trutza, pastor of Saint Mary’s Church in Cleveland from 1928 to
his death in 1954. In 1951 the Episcopate, meeting in council, declared itself to
be completely independent from the Church in Romania in both administrative
and spiritual matters. The council then elected Viorel D. Trifa (1914–1987), a
lay theologian, to be the bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of
America.
In the following year, the bishop-elect was consecrated with the name
Valerian in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by three Ukrainian bishops who were
not recognized by the other Orthodox. Under Bishop Valerian the Episcopate
entered a new era of activity, even as he came under continuous attack, first in
the media and then in the courts, for allegedly having conspired with the Nazis.
In 1960 the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America was received into
the American Metropolia, the successor administration to the Russian
Missionary Archdiocese, as an ethnic diocese. Archbishop Valerian was made a
member of the Holy Synod of the Metropolia, becoming Archbishop of Detroit
and Michigan. Then, in the next year, the bishops of the Metropolia consecrated
Archbishop Valerian again, to remove any doubts about his priestly ordination
or episcopal consecration. In 1970, when the American Metropolia gained its
autocephaly from the Church of Russia, the Romanian Episcopate continued
within the new OCA.
In 1982, because of the controversy surrounding him, Archbishop Valerian
decided it would be best for his American flock if he left the United States. He
found refuge in Portugal, where he died in 1987. He was succeeded by
Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp) (b. 1940). In 2002, Bishop Irineu (Duvlea) (b.
1962) was consecrated as Bishop of Dearborn Heights to serve as an auxiliary
bishop to Archbishop Nathaniel. Archbishop Nathaniel and Bishop Irineu were
still leading the Romanian Episcopate within the OCA in 2013.
Not all of the Romanian parishes followed Archbishop Valerian in the
fully autonomous Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America created in 1951.
Some decided to remain within the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Romania,
which in 1950 established the Romanian Orthodox Missionary Episcopate in
America. The Romanian Patriarchate selected an American citizen, Father
Andrei Moldovan, as the first bishop to lead the new Missionary Episcopate.
After his consecration in Romania, Bishop Moldovan returned to the U.S. and
organized parishes loyal to the new Missionary Episcopate. Subsequently,
Bishop Moldovan was succeeded by Bishop Victorin.
By a decision in 1974 of the Holy Synod of the Church of Romania, the
Missionary Episcopate was elevated to the status of an autonomous
Archdiocese, along with the elevation of the ruling bishop, Bishop Victorin, to
the dignity of Archbishop. The name selected for the new archdiocese was the
Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Canada. In 2002
Archimandrite Nicolae (Condrea) (b. 1967) was made the new Archbishop of
this jurisdiction, with his headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. He was still serving
in 2013.
The Syrian Orthodox in America
From 1895 to 1915, Saint Raphael (Hawaweeny) (1860–1915) served first
as a priest, and then as a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Mission, taking
pastoral care of the Arabic-speaking Orthodox in North America. His
consecration as bishop in 1904 was the first Orthodox episcopal consecration
held in the New World, as we noted above. During his 20 years of ministry in
America, Bishop Raphael helped to organize 30 parishes. Two years after his
death, he was succeeded by Bishop Aftimios (Ofiesh) (1880–1971; r. 1917–
1931).
Bishop Aftimios’s authority was rejected by Metropolitan Germanos
(Shehadi) of Seleucia and Baalbek in Lebanon, who had been in America since
1915. He falsely claimed that he had authority from the Patriarch of Antioch to
gather and organize Arabic-speaking parishes to be governed directly by the
Patriarchate of Antioch. In 1918 he incorporated his own new diocese as the
Syrian Holy Orthodox Greek Catholic Mission in North America, which also
included some Ukrainian parishes in Canada. Still, the majority of the Syrian
parishes (at least 23 of them) remained faithful to Bishop Aftimios. Bishop
Aftimios’s parishes became known as the “Russy” parishes, while Metropolitan
Germanos’s were called the “Antacky” parishes.
In 1922, in response to the growing schism between the “Russy” and
“Antacky” parishes, and with the Russian Archdiocese still in turmoil after the
Bolshevik Revolution, the Patriarchate of Antioch sent a delegation to America
consisting of Metropolitan Gerasimos (Messara), Archimandrite Victor (Abo-
Assaley), and Archdeacon Antony (Bashir) (1898–1966) to help reorganize and
reunite the Syrian factions. In 1924, Archimandrite Victor was consecrated as
bishop to lead all the Syrian Orthodox in America, and this Antiochian
Archdiocese came to be seen as the “legitimate” Syrian jurisdiction among a
large number of the Syrians. Bishop Victor continued to lead this jurisdiction
until his death in 1934.
A substantial number of the “Russy” Syro-Arab parishes, however,
remained faithful to Archbishop Aftimios (Ofiesh). He remained at least the
nominal head of these Syro-Arab parishes under the authority of the Russian
Administration in America until 1931, when he was replaced by Bishop
Emmanuel (Abo-Hatab), who had been consecrated as bishop of Montreal and
auxiliary to Archbishop Aftimios in 1927.
When Archbishop Aftimios abandoned his episcopal rank and got married
in 1933, and upon Bishop Emmanuel’s death in 1933 and Bishop Victor’s death
in 1934, and with Metropolitan Germanos’s return to Lebanon in 1933, most of
the Syro-Arab parishes gathered under the leadership of Father Antony Bashir,
who in 1936 was consecrated as bishop of the Antiochian Archdiocese under
the authority of the Patriarchate of Antioch. However, some of the Antiochian
parishes-mostly the former “Russy” parishes-followed the newly consecrated
Bishop Samuel (David) of Toledo (d. 1958) into a new, separate diocese that
also operated under the direction of the Church of Antioch.
Metropolitan Antony (Bashir) was one of the most outstanding bishops in
the history of the American Orthodox Church. Ordained a priest in 1922, he
served as a missionary among Syrian Orthodox Christians for 14 years until he
was made the Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, which
since 1931 had operated separately from the Russian mission. He was a pioneer
in encouraging the use of English in liturgical worship, and was an outspoken
supporter of jurisdictional unity among all the Orthodox in the New World. In
1960 he became a founder and leading member of the Standing Conference of
Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA).
Upon his death in 1966, Metropolitan Antony was succeeded by the
youthful and dynamic Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) (1931–2014). In 1975, the
schism with the Toledo group, then headed by Metropolitan Michael (Shaheen)
(d. 1992), was healed, with Michael becoming Archbishop of Toledo and the
Midwest within the united Antiochian Archdiocese.
In 1979 Metropolitan Philip purchased a property near Ligonier,
Pennsylvania, that would become the elaborate camping and retreat center
known as Antiochian Village. In 1987 he received nearly 2000 converts from
the Evangelical Orthodox Church, led by Peter Gillquist, Jack Sparks, Jon
Braun, Gordon Walker, and other former leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ.
In 2013, Metropolitan Philip still headed the Antiochian Archdiocese of
North America, which in 2003 received “self-rule” status from the Patriarchate
of Antioch. In addition to the metropolitan, the archdiocese was being guided
by eight auxiliary bishops. And at that time, the Archdiocese had about 250
parishes and missions, compared with about 65 parishes in 1966, when
Metropolitan Philip began his long tenure as metropolitan.
The Ukrainian Orthodox in America
The so-called American Metropolia of the Ukrainian Autocephalous
Orthodox Church (UAOC) had its beginnings in 1915, when Bishop Germanos
(Shehadi) from Lebanon gathered under his care a number of parishes, mostly
in western Canada, where thousands of Ukrainians had recently immigrated.
From 1924 this group was led by Archbishop John (Theodorovich) (d. 1971),
who had been consecrated by the non-canonical Ukrainian Autocephalous
Orthodox Church (UAOC) that had been formed in Ukraine in 1921. (This
group on their own authority consecrated a number of priests to be their own
bishops.) Archbishop John, a skilled administrator, was an ardent Ukrainian
patriot who helped expand his church through appealing to the nationalism of
Ukrainians who were delighted with the establishment in 1918 of an
independent government in Ukraine, free from Russian control.
Another group of Ukrainians, more moderate and wanting to be part of
canonical Orthodoxy, formed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America
(UOCA) in 1929. These Ukrainians had been Uniates (Byzantine-rite Catholics)
who left the Unia in large part due to the American Roman Catholic Church’s
refusal to allow a married priesthood. Led by Bishop Bogdan (Spylka) (d.
1965), this jurisdiction came under the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1937.
Most of the parishes of both of these groups merged in 1950, forming the
new, independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. (UOC-USA). This
new jurisdiction was led by the then Metropolitan John (Theodorovich), who in
1949 had submitted to reconsecration as bishop. However, his jurisdiction was
still not recognized as being canonical by the other Orthodox Churches. This
was partly because one of the bishops who reconsecrated Bishop John, Bishop
Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) (1898–1993), had been made a bishop in 1942 in Ukraine
by the newly resurrected yet still non-canonical Autocephalous Orthodox
Church in Ukraine (UAOC). Metropolitan John ruled the UOC-USA until his
death in 1971.
Metropolitan John was succeeded by the then Metropolitan Mstyslav, who
led the church until 1990, when he became Patriarch of the UAOC in Ukraine.
The new metropolitan succeeding Mstyslav in America was Metropolitan
Vsevelod (Maidansky). Also in 1990, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of
Canada (UOCC) was received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate, under the
leadership of Metropolitan Wasyly (Fedak) (r. 1978–2005).
Metropolitan Wasyly’s successor, Metropolitan John (Stinka) (b. 1935),
was elected at the Twenty-First Sobor (Council) of the UOCC held in 2005.
Metropolitan John retired as the presiding hierarch in 2012, and was followed
by Metropolitan Yurij (Kalistchuk) (b. 1951). The Metropolitanate also has one
vicar bishop as an auxiliary, and two territorial bishops.
Back in 1950, however, Bishop Bogdan refused to join the newly unified
UOC-USA, for it was still considered non-canonical by worldwide Orthodoxy.
Along with about two dozen parishes, he remained loyal to the Patriarchate of
Constantinople. Partly due to his advancing age, Bishop Bogdan’s group
gradually lost more and more parishes to the UOC-USA. Nevertheless, he was a
founding member of SCOBA in 1960.
After Bishop Bogdan’s death in 1965, he was succeeded in 1967 by Father
Andrei Kuschak (d. 1986), who was elected as bishop by six parishes of the
Ukrainians still under Constantinople. Father Andrei was consecrated to the
episcopacy by Archbishop Iakovos (Koukouzis) and other bishops of the Greek
Archdiocese of North and South America. Bishop Andrei then administered
about a dozen parishes.
In 1996, the self-proclaimed autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church of
the USA (UOC-USA) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America (under
Constantinople since 1937) were finally united under the leadership of
Metropolitan Constantine (Buggan) (1936–2012). For the first time, nearly all
the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians in America were unified and in canonical
Orthodoxy, within the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The name Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of the USA was kept for the combined body.
In 2012, Metropolitan Constantine died, and was succeeded by Archbishop
Antony (Scharba). In 2013, the UOC-USA had about 85 parishes, and a
seminary, Saint Sophia’s, in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.
At the time of the merger in 1996, fourteen parishes of the UOC-USA
refused to accept the reconciliation, and instead chose to reestablish ties with
the Mother Church in Ukraine. These parishes came under the authority of the
self-proclaimed autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan
Patriarchate (UOC-KP).
The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox in America
Less than half of the Carpatho-Russian, Byzantine-rite Catholics (Uniates)
immigrating to America had returned to their Orthodox roots by the late 1920s.
Yet many who remained Byzantine-rite were still disgruntled at the Latinizing
efforts of the Latin-rite hierarchy in the U.S.-especially the prohibition of
married clergy. This was the context in which Father Orestes Chornock (1883–
1977) led 37 Uniate parishes into Orthodoxy in the 1930s.
Father Orestes Chornock, born in the Transcarpathian area of central
Europe, immigrated to America after his marriage and ordination to the
priesthood. In 1911, he was installed as priest of Saint John the Baptist
Carpatho-Russian Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut,
where he remained until 1947.
In 1924, the Vatican sent Bishop Basil Takach to enforce Latinization on
the Greek Catholic Church in America, particularly in regard to the prohibition
of married clergy. Various clergy and laity, led by Father Orestes, repeatedly
protested against this attack on their religious heritage.
In 1936, with Father Orestes and his brother-in-law Father Peter Molchany
providing leadership, the foundation was laid for a new Greek Catholic diocese
independent of Bishop Takach, yet still loyal to Rome. But the Vatican refused
to accept this arrangement, so by the fall of 1938 those in the new diocese
declared their final break from the Roman Church. Two weeks later they were
excommunicated by the Papacy.
The new diocese was accepted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Father Orestes was made the first bishop of this new Carpatho-Russian diocese.
He was consecrated in Constantinople, and installed in Bridgeport by
Archbishop Athenagoras of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America.
During his first year, Bishop Orestes supported the founding of a national
Carpatho-Russian youth organization called American Carpatho-Russian Youth
(ACRY), and convened the diocese’s first convention, in Johnstown,
Pennsylvania. In 1940, Bishop Orestes led in the formation of a diocesan
seminary in New York City; this Christ the Savior Seminary was moved to
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1951. The headquarters of the diocese were also
moved from Bridgeport to Johnstown, in 1947.
In its first decade of existence, the diocese endured many lawsuits over
church property. The Roman Church claimed ownership of its properties on
behalf of those who remained loyal to the Unia. The results of these lawsuits
depended largely upon how the original charters of the parishes were worded.
In 1965 the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate honored Bishop
Orestes for his service by elevating him to the dignity of Metropolitan.
Metropolitan Orestes died in 1977. He was succeeded by Bishop John (Martin)
(1931–1984). Upon Bishop John’s death in 1984, Bishop Nicholas (Smisko)
(1936–2011) became the third hierarch to lead the diocese. In 1997 he was
elevated to the rank of metropolitan by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Then in
2011 Metropolitan Nicholas died; he was succeeded by Bishop Gregory (Tatsis)
(b. 1958).
In 2013 the diocese had 72 regular parishes and 13 mission parishes, along
with Christ the Savior Seminary in Johnstown.
The Albanian Orthodox in America
In 1908, Theophan (Fan) (Noli) (1882–1965) , an Albanian, was ordained
to the priesthood by Archbishop Platon, Archbishop Tikhon’s successor as head
of the Russian Missionary Diocese, to be the leader of the Albanian Orthodox
community in Boston-which was the earliest Albanian immigrant community
in North America. He translated the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom into
modern Albanian, and conducted the services in that language for the first time
anywhere in the world.
In the 1918 list of parishes of the Russian Diocese in America, we find
four Albanian churches listed, with “Rev. F. S. Noli” given as the pastor of
Saint George Church in Boston. In that year, Bishop Alexander, Metropolitan
Evdokim’s successor, raised Father Theophan to the rank of mitred
archimandrite and appointed him as Administrator of the Albanian Orthodox
Mission in America. At the Second All-American Sobor of the Russian Diocese
in America, held in Cleveland in 1919, Archimandrite Theophan was elected to
be bishop over the Albanian parishes. However, approval for this consecration
never came from the Church in Moscow, as we have noted.
In 1932, after about a dozen years spent in Albania (where he served for a
short time as Prime Minister) and then in exile in Germany, Noli returned to
the U.S. as a bishop, but without official authorization to oversee the Albanian
parishes in America. As a result, several of the 15 parishes at that time stayed
aloof from him. In 1949 these few parishes were accepted by the Patriarchate of
Constantinople under the leadership of Bishop Mark (Lipa). This new
jurisdiction was called the Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America.
Archbishop Theophan was soon generally accepted as the legitimate leader
of the Albanian Orthodox parishes which stayed loyal to him. During his long
tenure, until his death in 1965, Metropolitan Theophan translated eight service
books from Greek into English for his flock, and he was one of the most
outspoken of the Orthodox hierarchs in America for Orthodox unity here. He
even called for the establishment of a patriarchate for the American Church.
Bishop Stephen (Lasko) was appointed by the Church in Albania in 1965
to be Metropolitan Theophan’s successor. In 1971 Bishop Stephen led his flock
into the newly formed Orthodox Church in America (OCA), within which it
became a distinct diocese. This move finally resolved the canonical status of
the majority of Albanian parishes in America. In 2013, the Albanian diocese of
the OCA, under the leadership of Bishop Nikon of New England, had about a
dozen parishes.
Meanwhile, Bishop Mark’s diocese continued its existence within the
Patriarchate of Constantinople. After the fall of the extremely atheistic
Communist government in Albania in 1990, this very small group of parishes
helped significantly with the restoration of the Church in Albania, which had
been virtually destroyed by the Communists. In 2013 this jurisdiction was led
by Bishop Ilia (Katre), who began his tenure in 1982.
The Bulgarian Orthodox in America
Bulgarian immigration to America became significant after 1903, when
several thousand Bulgarians arrived as the result of an insurrection in
Macedonia. Being quite scattered, they generally attended Russian churches,
although as early as 1907 the first Bulgarian parish was established in Madison,
Illinois. Gradually, other parishes were formed, and apparently, in 1909, a small
Mission was organized for them within the Russian Missionary Diocese.
However, in the 1918 listing of the parishes of the Russian Diocese in America
there is only one parish that is designated as “Boulgarian”-in Toronto, Ontario.
In 1922, the five Bulgarian parishes in North America came under the care
of the Mother Church in Sofia, Bulgaria. Bishop Andrey (Velichky) became the
first bishop for this diocese in 1938.
In 1949, the Russian Church in Exile oversaw the establishment of several
parishes for recent Bulgarian immigrants. In 1976, most of the parishes of this
Bulgarian Church in Exile joined the Orthodox Church in America (OCA),
becoming a constituent diocese of the OCA. Its hierarch, Bishop Kyrill
(Yonchev) (1920–2007), became the OCA’s Bishop of Pittsburgh (r. 1976–
2007). At that time the Bulgarian diocese consisted of about 15 parishes. In
2013, it had about 20 parishes under the leadership of Bishop Alexander
(Golitzin) of Pittsburgh (b. 1948), who was consecrated as Bishop of Toledo
and the Bulgarian Diocese of the OCA in 2012.
Those Bulgarian parishes that resisted coming into the OCA remained
within the Patriarchate of Bulgaria. This jurisdiction, called the Bulgarian
Orthodox Diocese of the United States, Canada, and Australia, had 29 parishes
in the United States and Canada in 2013, having been enlarged by the addition
of several parishes of the Christ the Savior Brotherhood that joined it in 2000.
In 2013 this jurisdiction continued to be led by Metropolitan Joseph (Bosakov),
with Bishop Daniil (Trendafilov) (b. 1972) as vicar bishop.
The American Orthodox Catholic Church
There was also an intriguing but very short-lived attempt beginning in
1927 to provide English-speaking Orthodox Americans with their own
jurisdiction, called the American Orthodox Catholic Church. Technically this
diocese was to be within the Russian Metropolia, but this connection proved to
be very tenuous as its leaders actually foresaw an administratively independent
Church, eventually to embrace all the Orthodox in America. This effort was led
by Archbishop Aftimios (Ofiesh), who as Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny’s
successor was the head of the Syro-Arab parishes under the Russian
Administration (though some parishes had already accepted the leadership of
Bishop Victor [Abu-Asaley]). Strongly encouraged and aided by two converts
to Orthodoxy, Father Michael Gelsinger and Father Boris Burden, Archbishop
Aftimios actually in some ways was building upon the “English work” initiated
by Father Nathaniel Irvine back in 1905 under Archbishop Tikhon.
This “jurisdiction” was first brought into existence through “a solemn
Act” signed by Metropolitan Platon himself, as well as by Aftimios,
Archbishop of Brooklyn; Theophilos, Bishop of Chicago; Amphilochy, Bishop
of Alaska; Arseny, Bishop of Winnipeg; and Alexey, Bishop of San Francisco.
For a short while the new jurisdiction published the Orthodox Catholic
Review which ardently espoused Orthodox unity in America. However, this
experiment never really had widespread support, and within a year or two it
began to fade. It was brought to an end in 1933 when Archbishop Aftimios
retired from the episcopacy and got married.
From an article in the Orthodox Catholic Review, April-мая, 1927, by
Archbishop Aftimios of Brooklyn
With a possible three million or even greater number of Her
communicants residing in North America, the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic
and Apostolic Church should be one of the major religious bodies in America.
That it is not is due solely to the failure of its responsible leaders to come
together as one Orthodox Catholic body for the organization of the Church in
this country. Though the Orthodox Church boasts a litany in Her daily Divine
Service beseeching God “for the peace of the churches and the union of them
all,” She is Herself in America the most outstanding horrible example of the
disastrous effects of disunion, disorder, secret strife, and open warfare that this
country of divided and warring sects can offer.
It is true that She is at one and at peace on questions of faith, teaching, and
liturgical practice. One would suppose that, therefore, She should find united
ecclesiastical organization and administration an easy adjustment. It would
seem that, given unity and uniformity of faith, teaching, rite, and practice,
Orthodoxy in America ought to present a most edifying example of that Unity
for which all Christian bodies are so loudly calling and for which they are so
blindly seeking.
On the contrary, there is no central organization to which all the Orthodox
of all racial, national, or linguistic derivation in America yield obedience.
There are seven nationalities represented in American Orthodoxy, and these are
divided into eighteen distinct groups of churches without any coordinating
organization, and almost without any pretense of harmony or cooperation
among them. It is time that Orthodoxy in America should take serious note of
the causes and effects of its divided condition, and consider the steps necessary
to bring about unity and progress for the future of the Holy Eastern Orthodox
Catholic and Apostolic Church and Faith in the New World.?.?.?.
The safety and salvation of thousands of the faithful committed to our
trust rests with our defense of the Church and Faith in this country and abroad
from the errors and disasters of internal division and external interference and
false alliance. Let the Orthodox of America unite for their common Faith and
Church at all costs and begin to do the work that lies before them in this land.
In spite of all obstacles the Power and Grace of God in our Holy Eastern
Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church can prevail.
Further efforts at Orthodox unity in America
Besides Archbishop Athenagoras’s overture to Metropolitan Platon about
founding a single Orthodox seminary for all the ethnic groups in America, there
were several other attempts to forge greater unity among the Orthodox in
America. In 1937, the first proposal for a pan-Orthodox council of bishops in
America was made by Metropolitan Anthony of the Antiochian Archdiocese,
along with support from Archbishop Athenagoras, in a letter written to
Metropolitan Theophilus of the Metropolia. Despite the merits of this proposal,
however, Metropolitan Theophilus refused to accept it. His continued
association with the Karlovtsy Synod (see “Russian Orthodox Church Outside
Russia,” below) apparently obstructed this collaboration.
In 1941, Archbishop Athenagoras proposed, in another letter written to
Metropolitan Theophilus, that an all-English, pan-Orthodox magazine be
started. But again, there was no positive response from Metropolitan
Theophilus to this idea.
In 1943, the short-lived Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary
Jurisdictions in America was established, much through the efforts of Father
Michael Gelsinger, who had joined the Antiochian Archdiocese, and Father
Boris Burden, who had joined the Russian Patriarchal jurisdiction. The original
impetus for this association was to assure that the religion of Orthodox
servicemen would be officially recognized by the U.S. Armed Forces (which
would entail a kind of official recognition of Orthodoxy by the whole American
government). The association was comprised of Archbishop Athenagoras of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, under the Ecumenical Patriarch; Metropolitan
Antony (Bashir) of the Syrian Archdiocese, under the Patriarchate of Antioch;
Bishop Benjamin of the Russian Patriarchal jurisdiction; Bishop Dionisije of
the Serbian Orthodox diocese, under the Patriarchate of Serbia; Bishop Bogdan
(Spilka) of the Ukrainian diocese, under the Ecumenical Patriarchate; and
Bishop Orestes (Chornock), head of the Carpatho-Russian diocese, also under
the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Since the Metropolia was not in affiliation with a
Mother Church in the Old Country, it was not part of this organization.
The organization faltered and collapsed for a variety of reasons, but
according to Father Thomas FitzGerald, “its significance cannot be diminished.
It was the first formal association of Orthodox bishops in the United States.
The establishment of the federation was an indication that the old barriers of
language, politics, and cultural suspicion could be overcome and that issues of
common concern could be addressed. Bringing together in a consultative body
the primates of six jurisdictions, the federation was an important association
that indicated a growing recognition of the critical need for cooperation and the
common resolution of problems. As we shall see, the federation provided a
historical precedent for the establishment of the Standing Conference of
Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA) in 1960.”
In 1956, the Orthodox Christian Education Commission (OCEC) was
founded by Sophie Koulomzin (1903–2000) of the Metropolia, along with
representatives from four other jurisdictions-Greek, Carpatho-Russian, Syrian,
and Ukrainian-to coordinate Church school efforts among the various Orthodox
groups in America. Having formal recognition by SCOBA ever since that
body’s founding, this pan-Orthodox ministry was still active in 2013,
continuing to produce educational materials for Orthodox church schools.
SCOBA
In March of 1960, Archbishop Iakovos, head of the Greek Orthodox in
North America, hosted a meeting of the primates of all the canonical Orthodox
jurisdictions in the United States to discuss the possibility of closer
cooperation. On June 7 in the same year, the Standing Conference of Canonical
Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) was established. Although it was
founded as a consultative group with no canonical jurisdiction or authority,
SCOBA provided a symbol of Orthodox unity in the New World, and it gave a
structure for the coordination of inter-Orthodox activities. The most fruitful of
the projects carried on under the official auspices of SCOBA in its first 15
years were the Campus Commission for work among college students-
supervising the organization known as the Orthodox Christian Fellowship-and
the Orthodox Christian Education Commission.
In 1992, the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) was
formed by SCOBA. This organization has proven to be remarkably effective in
raising and distributing aid to the poor and suffering of the world, both
Orthodox and non-Orthodox. By 2013, the IOCC had gained an outstanding
reputation for effectiveness in this field, having efficiently distributed millions
of dollars worth of aid in many areas around the world.
In 1994, the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) was formed by
SCOBA, incorporating the Mission Center of the Greek Archdiocese (founded
in 1985), with headquarters in St Augustine, Florida. By 2013 the Mission
Center was supporting up to about 20 full-time missionaries, in Africa, Eastern
Europe, and elsewhere. It was also sending out up to 14 short-term mission
teams every summer, in fields such as Christian education, construction of
church buildings, and medical assistance.
The “Ligonier” Meeting
Also in 1994, for the first time, all the bishops of the canonical
jurisdictions in North America met together, at Antiochian Village near
Ligonier, Pennsylvania, at the initiative of SCOBA. This unprecedented
meeting was hosted by Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese,
chaired by Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Archdiocese, and moderated by
Metropolitan Theodosius of the OCA.
During this three-day conference the bishops formally rejected the
understanding of the Orthodox in North America as being in “diaspora,” and
resolved to work concretely towards administrative unity. To proceed with their
work on an ongoing basis, they resolved to meet annually as an ‘Episcopal
Assembly.’ They also resolved to emphasize cooperative efforts to promote
mission work in this land.
However, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew rejected the proceedings,
with stern reprimands to the Greek Orthodox and other American bishops
within the Ecumenical Patriarchate who participated. This halted any further
efforts towards administrative unity on the part of the bishops in America,
although they did meet again as a group in 2001 in Washington, D.C., and once
more in 2006 in Chicago.
The vision for the establishment of jurisdictional unity in North America
was rekindled in June of 2009 when Patriarch Bartholomew, meeting with
representatives of all the worldwide autocephalous Churches, mandated that in
each of 12 distinct regions around the world that have not been traditionally
Orthodox lands, an “episcopal assembly” would be held, which would include
all the canonical bishops in each area.
The bishops in North and Central America met in their episcopal assembly
for the first time in New York City in мая of 2010. This episcopal assembly
established a variety of committees to work out various inconsistencies in
pastoral practice among the jurisdictions. It also brought the various SCOBA
ministries under its oversight. It requested that Mexico be placed with Central
America in a separate episcopal assembly, and that Canada have its own
episcopal assembly. And it agreed to meet annually, in preparation for the Great
and Holy Council which, it is hoped, will finally bring an end to the
jurisdictional confusion and discord in America.
This Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central
America held its second annual meeting in мая of 2011, and its third annual
meeting in September of 2012. Both of these conferences were held in Chicago.
The Orthodox Church in Russia
1900 to 1917
The period from 1900 to 1917 in Russia was a time of spiritual rebirth and
ecclesiastical reform. Calls for various reforms after almost 200 years of State
control of the Church were heard among clergy and laity in the early 1880s.
These reform-minded people were especially concerned to see the restoration
of the voice of the laity in the Church, the end of the practice of moving
bishops frequently from diocese to diocese, the reduction of the power of
government consistories (supervisory boards) in each diocese, and the
establishment of conciliarity (sobornost) at all levels of Church administration.
In 1905 an imperial decree granted religious freedom in Russia, ending
centuries of official State suppression of all religions except Orthodoxy. This
was welcomed by the majority of Church people, such as seen in an open letter
supporting the decree issued by 32 priests in Saint Petersburg. This letter also
called for “a return to the traditional canonical order, based on self-governance
and independence of the Church from the State. This can only be achieved by
the convocation of a Council of the whole Russian Church.”
In preparation for such a council, Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894–1917)
authorized the formation of a Pre-Conciliar Commission in 1906. The year
before, the Holy Synod had asked all the Russian bishops for their
recommendations concerning Church reform. Sixty-one out of 63 diocesan
bishops responded in favor of significant reform.
However, in April of 1907, Tsar Nicholas changed his mind, for political
reasons, about allowing the Church to hold a great council. The work of the
Pre-Conciliar Commission was halted.
At this time Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra were coming under the
influence of a shadowy lay figure with hypnotic healing powers named Gregory
Rasputin (1869–1916). Posing as an authentic Orthodox staretz (spiritual
elder), he was actually a Khlyst sectarian who had been condemned as a heretic
in Tobolsk. Especially because he was able to give relief to the royal couple’s
hemophiliac son, the Tsarevich Alexis, he was eventually granted great
influence in the affairs of the Royal Family and the Church, to the discredit of
both. He was assassinated in December of 1916.
On March 2, 1917, under great pressure for political and ecclesiastical
reform, and with Russia suffering severe military setbacks in the Great War,
Tsar Nicholas abdicated. A provisional democratic government was set up, led
by Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970), which allowed the Church again to
undertake preparations for the long anticipated All-Russian Council.
The Council of Moscow, 1917–1918
After much debate, it was decided that each diocese would send delegates
to the Council from among the clergy and the laity-as at the First All-American
Sobor in маяfield, Pennsylvania, in 1907-to sit in council with the bishops, who
would make the final decisions in matters of Church doctrine and practice. In
August of 1917, in the shadow of the impending Bolshevik Revolution, the
Council convened in Moscow-rather than in Saint Petersburg, the headquarters
of the Holy Synod ever since the Patriarchate was abolished under Emperor
Peter I in 1721. This in itself indicated a strong desire on the part of the Church
to return to its traditional patterns of life and organization before the era of the
Petrine Reform.
The Council ’s most momentous act was to restore the patriarchate to the
Russian Church. On the morning of November 6, 1917, after vigil and prayer,
an elderly monk drew the name of one of the three elected nominees from a
chalice in front of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. The name of
Archbishop Tikhon (1866–1925) was drawn. Hence, the former primate of the
American archdiocese became the first patriarch of the Russian Orthodox
Church since Patriarch Adrian died in 1700.
The Council continued to meet for nearly a year longer, despite the
opposition of the Bolsheviks, and a number of significant reforms were passed
before it had to close. These included the formation of a standing Synod of
Bishops, and a Higher Church Council with lay participation to assist the
Patriarch; bishops in every diocese to be elected by diocesan councils
comprised of clergy and laity; bishops normally to be allowed to stay in their
original diocese for life; sermons to be given at all services in the vernacular
language; the restoration of internal autonomy to the monasteries; and women
being encouraged to become members of parish councils.
Unfortunately, the Soviet oppression of the Church prevented many of
these reforms from being put into practice. Interestingly, the dioceses which
were able to elect their own bishops were most often the ones who stayed loyal
to the Patriarchate during the years of Communist rule.
Patriarch Tikhon (r. 1917–1925)
From the very beginning, Patriarch Tikhon struggled to defend the life and
organization of the Church in the face of fierce persecution by the Bolsheviks.
At almost the same time that Saint Tikhon was selected as the new patriarch,
Saint John Kochurov (1871–1917), who as a newly ordained priest had served
for 12 years as head of the parish in Chicago, Illinois, became the first priest to
die as a martyr at the hands of the Bolsheviks. In 1994 the Russian Church
glorified him as “First Hieromartyr under the Bolshevik Yoke.”
On January 19, 1918, with the full approval of the Great Council in
Moscow which continued to meet, Patriarch Tikhon excommunicated and
anathematized all “the enemies of the Church.” He cried out to them,
“Madmen, recover your senses! Cease your bloody vengeance. Your actions are
not only cruel, they are satanic.”
This action increased the fury of the revolutionaries against the Church,
which they despised for its close alliance with the hated Tsarist regime that
they had dedicated their lives to overthrowing. According to James
Cunningham, “On January 23, 1918, they issued a decree which separated the
Church from the State, took away all schools from the Church, expropriated all
ecclesiastical properties, suspended all government subsidies to Church
organizations, denied the Church its status as a legal entity, and totally
secularized the state.”
Two days later, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev (1848–1918) became the
first bishop to be executed by the revolutionaries. During the course of the next
three years, at least 28 bishops were murdered, thousands of clergy were
imprisoned or killed, and some 12,000 laymen were killed for religious
activities. On the night of July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas and his entire
immediate family were treacherously and shamefully executed at Ekaterinburg;
and the next night Grand Duchess Elizabeth (1864–1918) and other members of
the extended Royal Family were murdered near Alapaevsk. They all were
recognized as saints among the new martyrs, confessors, and passion-bearers of
Russia by the Russian Church in 2000.
On мая 12, 1922, Patriarch Tikhon was imprisoned for his refusal to give
up consecrated Church vessels which the government demanded during that
time of famine and civil war, ostensibly to sell to help feed the poor. He had
offered the unconsecrated treasures of the Church to the Bolsheviks, and he had
promised as well to raise money for the afflicted through free will offerings of
the faithful that would equal the amount which the government was demanding,
as long as such offerings would be distributed to the people directly by the
Church. He was released from prison in June of 1923, upon making a statement
of loyalty to the Soviet government-a step he felt he had to take for the good of
the Church.
In his struggles and trials, the patriarch tried to follow a path of political
neutrality while defending the rights of the Church. He died in 1925 under
mysterious circumstances in a hospital in Moscow, as a confessor for the Faith.
In 1989, Patriarch Tikhon was canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate as “Saint
Tikhon the Confessor, Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia, and Enlightener of
North America.”
The Living Church
Patriarch Tikhon also had to struggle against the Living Church, a group of
liberal churchmen supporting the Soviet regime, some quite enthusiastically,
who took over the patriarchal administration. This usurpation, fully endorsed if
not actually instigated by the Bolsheviks, was begun shortly after Patriarch
Tikhon was imprisoned in мая of 1922. The Living Church was recognized by
the Soviet State as the official Russian Church, and it was used by the State
against those remaining faithful to Patriarch Tikhon. This group of
“Renovationists” tried to change various teachings and practices of the
Orthodox Church, such as allowing bishops to be married; the Renovationists
were hailed by some in the West as bearers of the Reformation in Russia.
At first the Living Church gained some widespread support. But when it
held a council in мая of 1923 that attempted to depose Patriarch Tikhon, many
of its supporters were alienated. At that point the Soviets realized that the
Living Church would not work as a means to bring the Orthodox Church as a
whole under their control. So they stopped supporting it, and by the late 1920s
its influence had greatly waned, though elements of it lingered on into the
1940s.
Russian Emigration to Western Europe
Quite a number of young Russian intellectuals, at first enamored with
leftist political ideology, made their way “from Marxism to Idealism” and on to
an affirmation of the Orthodox Faith. Some of them, such as the philosopher P.
B. Struve (1870–1944), the theological writer and professor of dogmatics
Archpriest Sergei N. Bulgakov (1871–1944), the existentially-oriented
religious philosopher and editor Nicholas A. Berdyaev (1874–1948), the
essayist S. L. Frank (1877–1950), and the religious historian George P. Fedotov
(1886–1951), became leading figures in the Russian émigré community in
Western Europe that coalesced in the early 1920s. Some one million Russians,
mostly intellectuals and professionals, fled from Russia in the throes of the
Bolshevik Revolution and afterwards. This remarkable group produced some
10,000 books and 200 journals in many different fields in the years between the
two World Wars.
These Orthodox Christians did much, through their writing and speaking,
to introduce to Western Europe the riches of Orthodox thought and life. The
academic center of this Orthodox flowering in the West was the Saint Sergius
Institute in Paris, founded in 1925.
The Era of Most Severe Persecution
With the death of Patriarch Tikhon in 1925, the Church in Russia entered
its darkest hour. Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) (1867–1944) served as
Deputy Locum Tenens of the Moscow Patriarchate from 1927 to 1943. This was
the time of Stalin’s purges, when literally millions of people, including
thousands of clergy, were imprisoned, exiled, and killed. Stalin’s constitution
of 1936 officially called for “freedom of religion and freedom of anti-religious
propaganda,” yet hundreds of churches, monasteries, and schools were closed.
What little Church life still remaining was limited exclusively to liturgical
services. The persecution of the Church by the State was fierce and relentless.
Relative Freedom during the Second World War
A period of relative freedom came to the Russian Church during the
Second World War. The government needed the Church’s support for the war
effort against Hitler. In return for rallying the people to fight for the fatherland,
the Russian Church received concessions from the State. Many churches,
monasteries, and schools were reopened. In 1943, Stalin allowed the Church to
hold a council, which officially elected Metropolitan Sergius as patriarch. Upon
Patriarch Sergius’s death in 1944, Metropolitan Alexei (Simansky) (r. 1945–
1970) was elected to replace him at another council, solemnly conducted in the
presence of a host of foreign ecclesiastical dignitaries.
The Return of Persecution
In the late 1950s and early “60s, the Soviet State under Nikita Khrushchev
again began to severely persecute the Orthodox Church in Russia. There were
no violent purges as in the Stalin era; rather, this new persecution came in the
form of “administrative” measures with supposedly legal foundation. There
was the closing of schools and churches-from 22,000 churches open in 1960 to
7,000 in 1964. There was heavy taxation and restricted registration of clergy.
And severe punishments were meted out against churchmen for trivial or
nonexistent “crimes.”
In 1961, new decrees of the government gravely limited the powers of the
parish priests by giving all legal and administrative authority in the churches to
the lay councils, the “twenty” members required by Soviet law for the
formation of a local corporation with the right to request a church building for
worship. The pastors were thus reduced to mere liturgical functionaries who
had no official authority to do any further ministry among their flocks.
All of these “administrative” measures were an attempt to destroy
religious faith-which, according to Marxist doctrine, should long ago have died
a natural death in the USSR. Official atheist propaganda of the period shows a
grave concern over the persistence of religion in the land.
Churchmen Appeal to the Soviet Authorities
Because the leading members of the hierarchy of the Russian Church were
silent and passive in the face of this new persecution of the Church by the State,
voices of protest began to arise from various Church members in what became
known as the Dissident Movement. The most powerful appeals for just and
proper action concerning the Church came from Archbishop Yermogen of
Kaluga and the priests Nikolai Eshliman (1928–1985) and Gleb Yakunin (b.
1934). These spokesmen on behalf of the rights of the Russian Church sent
open letters of criticism to both Church and State officials in December, 1965.
These letters appealed to Soviet law that technically allowed for religious
freedom, as well as to the statutes of the Russian Orthodox Church promulgated
at its council in 1945. As a result, together with a number of lesser known
colleagues, these priests were deprived of their ecclesiastical positions.
Nevertheless, agitation among the clergy and laymen for reform in the Russian
Church, for strong leadership and just treatment, continued until the fall of the
Soviet government in 1991.
Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn
In addition to churchmen, men from academic and literary fields also
made appeals in the name of faith and freedom in Russia. Boris Pasternak
(1890–1960) and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), both Nobel Prize
winning authors and Christian believers, were in this number. Solzhenitsyn
addressed his famous Lenten Letter to Patriarch Pimen in 1972. This letter was
extremely critical of the policies and actions of the Russian Church in the face
of State control. It received great international attention, and caused much
controversy within the Russian Church. It received, however, no official
response from the Moscow Patriarchate.
Patriarch Pimen
After the death of Patriarch Alexei I in 1970, Archbishop Pimen (Izvekov)
(r. 1971–1989) was chosen as primate of the Russian Church at its council in
1971. This same council officially confirmed the administrative decrees of the
State, promulgated in 1961, which at that time had been strongly opposed by
many of the parish clergy. Patriarch Pimen, who made visits to the other
patriarchates while patriarch of Russia, was silent in response to all criticism of
Church leadership in Russia. He continued the policies of cooperation with the
Soviet authorities that had been followed by Patriarchs Sergius and Alexei
before him-including refusing to admit the existence of State persecution of the
Church in Russia.
Glasnost, and Freedom to Rebuild
Preparations for the celebration of the millennium of the Christianization
of Kievan Rus’ in 1988 coincided with a general relaxation of the
authoritarianism of the previous decades, under Premier Mikhail Gorbachev”s
policy of glasnost (openness). The Church gained more freedoms as the Iron
Curtain began to fall. Once it collapsed, in 1991, the Church was free to recover
and rebuild.
Patriarch Alexei II
After Patriarch Pimen’s death in 1989, Metropolitan Alexei (Ridiger),
from Estonia, was elected the new Patriarch. He guided the Church through the
new post-Soviet era when millions of Orthodox came back to the Church,
thousands of churches and monasteries were reopened and refurbished, and a
new national constitution provided for full freedom for the Church, now fully
recognized as a legal entity. The Church was greatly challenged in this time
with ministering to so many new members, with very strained relations with
the Uniates, especially in western Ukraine, and with various ultra-conservative
right-wing groups.
Patriarch Kirill
A month after Patriarch Alexei’s death in December of 2008, Metropolitan
Kirill (Gundyayev) (b. 1946) was elected as the new Patriarch of Moscow and
All Russia. By 2010 he had taken steps to develop closer relations with the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, including supporting the 12 Orthodox ecclesiastical
assemblies that Patriarch Bartholomew was setting up around the world.
Metropolitan Kirill continued to lead the Patrarchate of Moscow and All Russia
in 2013.
Japanese Autonomy
Among the last acts of Patriarch Alexei I was the official declaration in
1970 of the autonomy of the Orthodox Church in Japan. Bishop Vladimir
(Nagosky) (1922–1997), the American-born primate of the Japanese Church,
which had been affiliated with the American Metropolia since World War II,
was made Metropolitan of Tokyo. The Moscow Patriarchate reserved the right
to confirm the election of the Japanese primate and to participate in his
consecration, but in all other respects the Church in Japan became self-
governing. At the time of Japanese autonomy, the founder of the Church in
Japan, Archbishop Nikolai (Kasatkin) (1836–1912), was glorified as a saint by
the Russian Church.
In 1972, Metropolitan Vladimir returned to the United States, and the
native-born, American-educated Metropolitan Theodosius (Nagashima) (1935–
1999) replaced him as primate of the Japanese Church. He was followed by
Metropolitan Daniel (Nushiro) (b. 1938), who was born into a Japanese
Orthodox family. Installed by Patriarch Alexei II of the Church of Russia in
2000, Metropolitan Daniel was still guiding the Japanese Church in 2013. It
numbers about 30,000 faithful.
The Church in Greece
In 1907, Father Eusebios Matthopoulos (1849–1929) founded the Zoe
Brotherhood in Greece, an organization dedicated to the “enlightenment” and
“reevangelization” of Christian Greece. The Brotherhood founded thousands of
Sunday schools and study groups. However, it also brought some Protestant
doctrines, practices, and forms of piety into the life of many Greek Orthodox
Christians.
The first quarter of the century saw the influx of many Greeks from the
Turkish territories into Greece, particularly at the time of the Greco-Turkish
War of 1919–1923 in which Greece was defeated by the newly emerging
Republic of Turkey led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938). In this era the
Patriarchate of Constantinople lost a vast number of members, many of whom
emigrated to other places, including the New World. This natural emigration
was forcefully increased by the so-called “population exchange” of 1923–1924.
As stipulated by the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, signed by all the major
European powers, Greece agreed to deport as many Turks as possible to Turkey,
and Turkey in turn agreed to deport as many Greeks as possible to Greece and
the Greek islands.
This was deemed the best solution to the recurring animosity between the
Greeks and Turks in Turkey. But it was a violent measure in itself; hundreds
lost their lives in the forced marches of this population exchange. At the age of
83, Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia (1840–1924) successfully shepherded some
480 families from Cappadocia, in central Turkey, to the Greek islands in the
population exchange. He died on one of the Aegean islands forty days after his
arrival there, just as he had predicted.
In 1923 the Church of Greece adopted the Revised Julian Calendar, and the
State banned the use of the old Julian Calendar everywhere except on Mount
Athos. This led to the rise of several Old Calendarist groups which were
persecuted by the State. This persecution added to the strength of these groups,
which exist to the present day in schism from the Church.
Christians in Greece suffered persecution during the civil war (1944–
1948) between Royalists and Communists. Then, the coup of the military junta
in 1967, as well as its subsequent overthrow in 1974, brought turmoil in Church
affairs, particularly at the hierarchical level.
In recent times, the Church has shown leadership in supporting new
Orthodox communities in Africa, and in reaching out to the youth of modern
Greece. In 2013 the ruling hierarch of the Church of Greece was Archbishop
Ieronymos (Liapis) (b. 1938), who followed the popular Archbishop
Christodoulos (Paraskevaidis) (r. 1998–2008).
The Ecumenical Patriarchate
Patriarch Athenagoras
From 1948 to 1972 the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was led
by the imposing figure of Patriarch Athenagoras (1886–1972). This world
famous hierarch was concerned primarily with the survival of his patriarchate
in Turkey, and with ecumenical activity. In January of 1964, in Jerusalem, the
patriarch met with Pope Paul VI of the Roman Catholic Church. This was the
first meeting between the primates of the Orthodox and Roman Churches since
1439 at the Council of Florence. In December of 1965, they issued statements
nullifying the anathemas of 1054 (see Eleventh Century), thus signaling an era
of friendship between the Churches in the mutual quest for complete unity in
truth and love. The two prelates met again in 1967 in Constantinople and in
Rome. Patriarch Athenagoras also met personally with leaders of the Church of
England and the World Council of Churches.
For his bold words and deeds directed toward Christian unity-particularly
in his relations with the Roman Church-Patriarch Athenagoras was both
admired and attacked. While being virtually identified with the whole of
Orthodoxy in the minds of most non-Orthodox people, the patriarch was
severely criticized by some members of the Orthodox Church for acting
independently and irresponsibly, without proper consultation with the leaders
of all the Orthodox Churches. Others in the Church, primarily in the Church of
Greece, on Mount Athos, and in America, criticized not merely the manner of
the Patriarch’s actions, but also the actions themselves, as betraying the
Orthodox Faith.
The Proposed Great Council
In 1961, Patriarch Athenagoras called the first conference of
representatives of all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches to discuss the
common problems facing the Orthodox, and to begin serious preparations for
the calling of a Great Council of the Orthodox Church-a proposed council
which had been discussed for decades. This conference was held on the island
of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.
In 1967, the Ecumenical Patriarchate refused to place the problem of the
Orthodox jurisdictions in America on the agenda of the pan-Orthodox
conference held that year in Switzerland. The request was made by the Standing
Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (see SCOBA,
above).
Since then, there have been four specifically designated Pre-Conciliar
Conferences-at Chambésy, a suburb of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1976; at Rhodes
in 1982; at Chambésy in 1986; and again at Chambesy in 2009. It was at this
last conference that the plan was first proposed for the meeting of assemblies
of bishops of all canonical jurisdictions in regions not traditionally Orthodox.
Various Troubles
The Ecumenical Patriarchate continued to have trouble with the Turkish
government. The hasty election of Patriarch Demetrios (Papadopoulos) (r.
1972–1991), to succeed Athenagoras in 1972, showed the continuing power of
the Turkish authorities over the affairs of the Orthodox Church within its
territory. The patriarchal seminary on the Island of Halki was closed in 1971
because of new Turkish regulations.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate also was engaged in controversy with the
Church of Greece over the jurisdiction of dioceses in the “new lands” of
northern Greece. And many of the monks on Mount Athos continued to express
their discontent with the Constantinopolitan leadership because of its
ecumenical policies and activities. (From about 6500 at the beginning of the
century, the number of monks on Mount Athos dwindled to about 1500 by
1960. Since then, there has been a steady revival in numbers and spiritual life
on the Holy Mountain, thanks to an infusion of young monks from around the
world.)
Patriarch Bartholomew
Patriarch Demetrios was succeeded by Patriarch Bartholomew
(Archontonis) (b. 1940) in 1991. Patriarch Bartholomew has been so involved
with ecological concerns that he has been nicknamed “the Green Patriarch.” At
his initiative, the Chambésy conference of 2009 proposed the formation of
episcopal assemblies in each of 12 regions not traditionally Orthodox, as
mentioned above. These assemblies first met during 2010, and continued to
have annual assemblies into 2013.
Other Orthodox Churches
Serbia
The Orthodox Church in Serbia declared its autocephaly in 1832, after the
success of the Serbian Revolution against the Ottoman Turks. This status was
officially recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1879. In 1920 the Serbian
patriarchate-which was lost in 1459, regained in 1557, and lost again in 1766-
was restored, with its headquarters located in the capital city of Belgrade. In
this same year of 1920, the Church was officially separated from the State.
During World War II, the Serbian Church suffered terribly at the hands of
the Croatian Ustashi, in alliance with the German Nazis. Patriarch Gavrilo
(Dozich) (1881–1950), as well as Saint Nikolai Velimirovich, were incarcerated
in the Nazi prison camp at Dachau, and some 800,000 Serbians were uprooted
or massacred by the Ustashi. Sometimes they were killed for refusing to
convert to Roman Catholicism.
From 1945 to 1990, the Church in Serbia (Yugoslavia) continued to suffer
persecution under the Communist regime established by Marshal Tito (1892–
1980). In 1990, when the Soviet era came to an end, Patriarch Pavle
(Stojchevich) (r. 1990–2009) publicly apologized for any collaboration with the
Communists, and offered to step down from office. This offer was rejected by
the Church, and he continued as the Patriarch until his death in 2009. He was
succeeded by Patriarch Irenej (Gavrilovich) (b. 1930), who continued to rule
the Church of Serbia in 2013.
In 2010 the Serbian Church glorified as saints two famous Serbian
ascetics: Father Justin Popovich (1894–1979) of the Chelije Monastery, and
Father Simeon Popovich (1854–1941) of the Dajbabe Monastery.
Romania
The Romanian Orthodox Church declared its autocephaly in 1859, when
the modern Romanian nation was formed. This status was officially recognized
by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1885. In 1925, the Romanian Church
received a patriarch for the first time, with his headquarters located in the
capital city of Bucharest. To this day this Church remains the state-church of
Romania, which is the most thoroughly Orthodox nation in the world.
Liturgical services are done in the modern Romanian language.
The Romanian Christians suffered much during the Communist era after
WWII. The persecution was moderated by the fact that the Church was firmly
under State control, and because of close personal relationships between some
of the Communist and Orthodox leaders. Unlike the Soviet government in
Russia, the Romanian government was not determined to create an atheist state
and society.
Freedom for the Church came at the end of 1989 with the fall of the brutal
dictator Nicolae Ceause?cu (1918–1989). Patriarch Teoctist (Arăpașu) (r. 1986–
2007) resigned under pressure for alleged collusion with the Ceause?cu regime,
but he was reinstated by the Holy Synod of the Church in April of 1990.
In мая of 1999, Pope John Paul II visited Romania at the invitation of
Patriarch Teoctist. This was in all probability the first time any Roman bishop
ever visited Romania.
Upon Patriarch Teoctist’s death in 2007, he was succeeded by Patriarch
Daniel (Ciobotea) (b. 1951), who continued to rule the Church of Romania in
2013.
According to the census of 2011, the Church of Romania had over 16
million adherents, who made up about 86% of the population.
Syria and Lebanon
In 1899 the Antiochian Patriarchate in the Middle East received its first
Arab primate since 1724, with considerable help from the Russians. This was
Patriarch Meletius II (Doumani), who ruled until 1906. At present, all the
higher clergy are Arabs.
In 1942 a youth movement was started, called simply the Orthodox Youth
Movement. Comprised mostly of laity, it has been especially important in
bringing new vitality to the Church in Syria and Lebanon. The group has been
active in book publishing and in various forms of social outreach. Their work
was especially appreciated during the long years of civil war from 1975 to
1990.
Patriarch Ignatius (Hazim) IV (1921–2012), who was a member of the
Orthodox Youth Movement along with others who have become bishops of the
Church, began his reign as Patriarch of Antioch in 1979. In 1988 he founded the
University of Balamand, which now has oversight of the Saint John of
Damascus School of Theology (founded in 1970), the patriarchate’s only
seminary for training priests.
In 2012 Patrarch Ignatius died. He was succeeded by Patriarch John X
(Yazigi) (b. 1955).
Jerusalem
The Patriarchate in Jerusalem continues to the present to have a Greek
primate, who must be a member of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre that
is responsible for the upkeep of the holy sites in the Holy Land. A council of
Arab priests and laymen was formed in 1911 to participate in Church
government.
While the Church hierarchy is still predominantly Greek, the faithful are
predominantly Arabs living in the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. This has
been a source of discontent among the Arab Orthodox, as they have felt that
their particular needs have not been sufficiently addressed by the Greek
hierarchy.
In 2013 the patriarch of Jerusalem was Patriarch Theophilos
(Giannopoulos) III (b. 1952).
Africa
For centuries, the ministry of the Patriarchate of Alexandria was mostly
confined to a relatively small Greek community in Egypt that was surrounded
by Copts, who have had their own (Non-Chalcedonian) Church since the 6th
century, and also by Muslims since they took over the country in the mid-7th
century.
In the late 1800s, the character of the Patriarchate began to change, as
Greek and Lebanese merchants fanned out across the continent, sometimes
establishing churches on their own. Jurisdictional confusion was avoided by a
general agreement made in the 1920s that all Orthodox churches in Africa
would be included within the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
In the 20th century, the Patriarchate also made efforts to nurture
Orthodoxy among Africans living south of the Sahara Desert. These efforts
were aided by the Churches in Greece and Cyprus, which in the early 1970s
built the Archbishop Makarios Seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, to serve all of East
Africa.
In the 1920s several native Africans in Kenya discovered the Orthodox
Church through their own studies, and gathered followers. In 1946, the
Orthodox Christians in Kenya and Uganda were officially received into the
Patriarchate of Alexandria. In 1973, four bishops were consecrated for the
Orthodox in East Africa, including two of the group’s original leaders-Reuben
Spartas Mukasa (1899–1988) and Theodore Nankyamas. Mukasa had first been
ordained as a priest in 1932 by a bishop of the non-canonical African Orthodox
Church that originated in America in the 1920s under Marcus Garvey.
From 1997 to 2004, Patriarch Petros (Papapetrou) VII (1949–2004) guided
the expansion of his Church all across Africa, including into some Arab
Muslim countries. His ministry was tragically cut short when he was killed in a
helicopter crash that also took the life of the dynamic bishop of Madagascar,
Bishop Nektarios. Patriarch Petros was succeeded by Patriarch Theodoros II
(Choreftakis) (b. 1954) in 2004. He continued to rule this Patriarchate in 2013.
While the patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa has continued to be a
Greek, in 2013 there were several native African bishops, including the
dynamic Metropolitan Ieronymos (Muzeeyi) of Mwanza, Tanzania (b. 1963).
Poland
The Orthodox Church in Poland received autocephaly from the
Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1924. This was recognized by the Church of Russia
in 1948.
When the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland after WWII, the Polish
Orthodox Church lost about 80% of its membership.
After political freedom came to Poland in 1991, ending its status as a
satellite state of the Soviet Union, the new government granted the Orthodox
Church equal legal status with the predominant Roman Catholic Church. This
law also allowed the Orthodox to reclaim properties previously seized by the
Roman Church.
Since 1998 the Polish Church has been led by Metropolitan Sava
(Hrycuniak) (b. 1938). In 2013 the membership of the Polish Church was
estimated at about 600,000, spread across seven archdioceses, including one in
South America centered in Rio de Janeiro.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia
By 1925, there were two dioceses of Orthodox Christians in
Czechoslovakia, both under the authority of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In
1942, during WWII, the especially effective and beloved bishop of the Czech
diocese, Bishop Gorazd (Pavlik) (1879–1942), a former Roman Catholic priest,
was executed by the German Nazi occupiers, along with hundreds of clergy and
laity, and the Czech Orthodox Church was outlawed. Bishop Gorazd was
glorified as a New Martyr by the Church in Serbia in 1961.
After WWII, the restored Czech diocese, along with the Diocese of Presov
in Slovakia, came under the authority of the Church of Russia. In 1951, the
Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia was granted autocephaly by the Church of
Russia.
This was not recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but after
the fall of Communism and the establishment in 1993 of the separate nations of
Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and
Slovakia was recognized as autocephalous by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This
happened in 1998, as a unilateral action taken by the Ecumenical Patriarchate
solely on its own accord (i.e., without reference to the previous autocephaly
granted by the Church of Russia).
In 2013, Metropolitan Christopher (Pulets) (b. 1953) was the ruling
hierarch of this Church, having succeeded Metropolitan Nicholas (1927–2006)
in 2006. As of 2013 there were 82 parishes in the Czech Republic and 90 in
Slovakia.
Albania
The Albanian Church in the motherland was granted autocephaly in 1937
by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1939, after Fascist Italy occupied the
country, an attempt was made to unite the Albanian Orthodox Church with the
Church of Rome, but this failed.
In 1945, with Albania falling to the Communists, the Church was subject
to various forms of persecution. Beginning in 1967, the Communist
government of Albania began subjecting the Christians and Muslims to the
most intense persecution anywhere, as it tried to establish a completely
atheistic state and society.
In 1991, after the fall of the Communist regime, the Ecumenical Patriarch
appointed Anastasios (Yannoulatos) (b. 1929) as patriarchal exarch. In the next
year he was made Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania, along with three other
diocesan metropolitans, all of Greek descent. The civil authorities strongly
opposed this development for nationalistic reasons. They finally accepted the
arrangement after two of the Greek metropolitans were replaced with native-
born Albanians, and a synod was formed that officially elected Anastasios as
primate.
The Church in Albania has made a miraculous recovery under the
energetic, mission- and social-minded leadership of Archbishop Anastasios. He
was still leading the Church in 2013.
As of 2013, the Albanian Church had 909 parishes and about 500,000
faithful.
Bulgaria
In 1870 the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire gained permission from the
sultan to have their own churches, to be under an exarchate of the Church of
Constantinople. A Church council held in Constantinople two years later
condemned this development as the heresy of phyletism (or ethnicism; defined
as setting up any church based on the ethnicity of its members). When the
Bulgarians refused to yield, they were excommunicated, and the so-called
“Bulgarian Schism ” began.
Reconciliation was not achieved until 1945, when the Patriarchate of
Constantinople recognized an independent Bulgarian Church within the
boundaries of the modern Bulgarian nation. In 1953 the Bulgarian Church
proclaimed Metropolitan Cyril of Sofia as patriarch, thus restoring the office
that was lost in 1393 when the Bulgarians became subject to the Ottoman
Turks. Constantinople officially recognized the Patriarchate of Bulgaria in
1961.
Patriarch Maxim (Minkov) (1914–2012) shepherded the Bulgarian flock
from 1971 until his death in 2012. With the collapse of the Communist
government, in the early 1990s some of the parishes broke away from Patriarch
Maxim, accusing him of collaboration with the former regime. They organized
themselves into an Alternate Synod. Reconciliation had still not been achieved
by 2013.
Patriarch Maxim died in November of 2012. In February of 2013, he was
succeeded by Patriarch Neofit (Dimitrov) (b. 1945), who had been the
Metropolitan of Ruse (Rousse) in Bulgaria. An expert Church musician and
erudite theologian, he was known to have had a close relationship with
Patriarch Maxim.
The Bulgarian Church had about 6.5 million members as of 2013, with an
additional 1.5 to 2 million scattered in other parts of the world.
Ukraine
The Church in Ukraine, the original heartland of Orthodoxy in the lands of
Rus, has been within the Patriarchate of Moscow since 1686, but there was
always a yearning among many of the Ukrainian Orthodox to have their own
autocephalous Church. When an independent Ukrainian state emerged after
WW I, a self-proclaimed independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was also
established, at an assembly in Kiev in 1921. But since no bishops could be
found to endorse the movement, the delegates decided to have priests
(presbyters) consecrate their own bishops.
The resulting “self-consecrated” Ukrainian hierarchy was never accepted
by worldwide Orthodoxy. Yet in the 1920s this non-canonical Ukrainian
Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) flourished, with some 2500 priests
and 2000 parishes. In the 1930s Stalin completely suppressed this Church. It
was revived in the German occupation during WW II, this time with an
episcopacy with a legitimate apostolic succession, but after the war Stalin
suppressed it again.
Negotiations between the Ukrainian “self-consecrated” jurisdiction and
the Patriarchate of Constantinople developed in the 1970s, but without clear
and conclusive results.
As an independent nation of Ukraine was again being established as the
Iron Curtain was collapsing, the UAOC was again revived, though still without
recognition by the other Orthodox Churches worldwide. By 1992, this group
had about 1500 parishes, but it was split into two parts. Among the 5500
Ukrainian parishes still under the Moscow Patriarchate, there was also a split,
with some of them proclaiming themselves to be independent.
At the same time, the Eastern-rite Greek Catholics (Uniates) in Ukraine
had about 2700 parishes. These parishes had been either closed or forced to
become Orthodox by Stalin. With the fall of the Soviet regime, they were free
to return to Eastern-rite Catholicism. There was still much antagonism on this
account in 2013 between the Orthodox and the Eastern-rite Catholics.
Georgia
According to tradition, the Apostle Andrew was the first missionary to
preach Christianity in what is today the Republic of Georgia in the region of the
Caucasus Mountains east of the Black Sea. Around the year 330, a woman from
Cappadocia in central Asia Minor named Nino (or Nina) came to Georgia as a
missionary. Having brought King Mirian and Queen Nana to the Christian
Faith, the entire country became Christian. Thus Georgia became the second
Christian nation, after Armenia (in about 300). Saint Nina of Georgia is the
patronal saint of the nation.
Through the centuries the culture and society of Georgia have been deeply
penetrated with Orthodox Christianity, enabling the people to stay firm in their
Faith during periods of rule by Zoroastrian Persians and Muslim Arabs,
Mongols, and Ottoman Turks. Ten years after Georgia became absorbed into
the Russian Empire in 1801, the Church was subordinated to the Russian
Church. The Church regained its autocephaly in 1917, but in the Soviet era it
experienced drastically severe persecution. From 2455 churches in 1921, there
were only 25 left open in 1977, along with only four small monasteries.
Beginning in 1977, the Georgian Church has revived greatly under the
leadership of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia (Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili) II (b. 1933),
sparked by his open critique of Soviet ideology. By 2003 there were 550
parishes with 1100 clergy, along with 65 monasteries. In 2013 about 80% of the
population was Orthodox, with the Church still being led by Catholicos-
Patriarch Ilia.
As of 2013, the Church in Georgia had about 3.6 million members, who
made up about 84% of the population, according to the 2002 census. The
Church has about 33 dioceses, with some 550 parishes served by 730 priests.
Finland
In 1918 the Orthodox Church of Finland became the second “established”
(State-supported) Church in Finland, after the Lutheran Church. Due to heavy
pressure from the State, the Finnish Church is the only Orthodox Church that
always celebrates Pascha on the same date as Western Easter.
In 1923 the Church in Finland was granted a fully autonomous status by
the Patriarchate of Constantinople, although this was not accepted until 1957 by
the Church of Russia, which had missionized the region in the Middle Ages.
The local bishops of the Finnish Church are elected by the general assembly of
clergy and laity; only the Archbishop’s election must be ratified by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate.
After WWII, when eastern Finland (Karelia) was annexed by the Soviet
Union, 75% of the Orthodox there fled to the western part of the country, where
the government generously helped them restore normal church life. The New
Valamo Monastery has become a place of pilgrimage for the whole nation, and
in many other ways the small Orthodox Church contributes to the religious and
cultural life of Finland.
Archbishop Paavali (Paul) (Olmari) (r. 1960–1987) was an especially
beloved primate of the Church of Finland. He was followed by Archbishop John
(Rinne) (r. 1987–2001), who was a convert from Lutheranism. He was the first
western convert to become the head of any Orthodox Church in the world. Upon
his death, Archbishop John was followed by Archbishop Leo (Makkonen) (b.
1948). Archbishop Leo was still leading his Church in 2013.
The Orthodox Church of Finland had about 60,000 members as of 2013,
out of a total population of over 5 million.
Western Europe
Russian Exarchate of Western Europe within the Ecumenical
Patriarchate
During the 1920s, the Moscow Patriarchate demanded a pledge of loyalty
to the Soviet regime from the Russian Church in Western Europe. Metropolitan
Evlogy (Georgievsky) (1868–1946; r. 1921–1946), appointed by Patriarch
Tikhon of Moscow, refused to comply, and appealed to Constantinople. Thus, in
1931, the Russian Church in Western Europe became an exarchate of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople. Many famous Russian churchmen and
theologians were in this exarchate led by Metropolitan Evlogy, who in 1925
founded the Saint Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris.
This spiritual and academic institute became the center of Orthodox
learning in the West, where such notable men were gathered as Father Sergei
Bulgakov (1871–1944); Father Vasily Zenkovsky (1881–1962); Bishop Kassian
(Bezobrazov) (1892–1965); Archmandrite Cyprian (Kern) (1899–1960); Father
Nicholas Afanasiev (1893–1966); Father Georges Florovsky (1893–1979), who
became dean of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary in New York and later taught at
Holy Cross Theological School in Brookline; and Professor Anton Kartashev
(1875–1960), who was the last (de facto) oberprokuror of the Holy Synod of the
Russian Church, serving under the very short-lived provisional government led
by Alexander Kerensky. Kartashev helped organize and served as secretary of
the great Russian Church Council held in Moscow in 1917–1918.
Mention also must be made of the Russian priests Father Alexander
Elchaninoff (1881–1934) and Father Sergei Chetverikoff (1880–1959).
Working in France along with many of the professors of the Saint Sergius
Institute, they labored closely with the Russian Student Christian Movement,
which did important work among Russian émigrés during this period.
In 1965 the Russian Exarchate of Western Europe was made a vicariate,
but in 1999 its status was restored as an exarchate. In recent times the primates
of this jurisdiction have been Archbishop George (Tarassov) (r. 1960–1981),
Archbishop George (Wagner) (r. 1981–1993), Archbishop Serge (Konovalov) (r.
1993–2003), and Archbishop Gabriel (de Vylder), a Belgian, who was still
leading this Church in 2013. Its parishes number about 100, with 40 in France
and the others scattered across most of Western Europe and Britain, especially
in Scandinavia.
The Moscow Patriarchate continued to operate its exarchate in Western
Europe, with Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh (1914–2003) in
London and Archbishop Basil (Krivosheine) (1900–1985) in Brussels as its
most well-known leaders. Metropolitan Anthony was nationally recognized in
Great Britain for his teaching, writing, and radio broadcasts, while Archbishop
Basil was a renowned Patristics scholar.
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR)
Immediately following the Bolshevik Revolution, a group of Russian
emigre churchmen, together with leading monarchist laymen, formed
themselves into the Russian Orthodox Synod in Exile, also called the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR). This group, led by Metropolitan
Antony (Khrapovitsky) (1863–1936), established its center in Sremski-
Karlovtsy in Serbia, where it received the right to function independently from
the local ecclesiastical hierarchy. Because of its location in Sremski-Karlovtsy,
the group also received the name Karlovtsy Synod.
In 1930, ROCOR founded Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New
York, which in 2013 was this body’s largest monastery. In 1948, Holy Trinity
Seminary opened on the monastery grounds; this institution continued serving
in 2013 as ROCOR’s only seminary.
Except for the years from 1937 to 1946, ROCOR and the (Russian)
Metropolia in America were not in communion, and both groups remained
alienated from the Moscow Patriarchate-until 1970, when the Metropolia was
granted autocephaly by Moscow and became the OCA. Under Metropolitan
Philaret (Voznesensky) (r. 1964–1985) and Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov) (r.
1986–2001), ROCOR continued to defend and propagate strict anti-ecumenical
and anti-New Calendar views.
From 1962 until his death in 1966, the renowned wonderworker and
clairvoyant elder Saint John (Maximovitch) (1896–1966) was the ROCOR
Archbishop of San Francisco. He was glorified as a saint by ROCOR in 1994.
Under Metropolitan Laurus (Skurla) (r. 2001–2008), relations improved
considerably between ROCOR and the Patriarchate of Moscow, leading to full
reconciliation in мая of 2007, with ROCOR continuing its independent
administrative existence. By 2013, there were still a number of its parishes
which had not accepted the reconciliation and hence remained in schism.
Other Orthodox Dioceses in Western Europe
In 1922 Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios (Metaxakis) (1871–1935)
established the Diocese of Thyateira to care for all the Greek Orthodox
Christians living in Western and Central Europe. Beginning in 1988 and
continuing into 2013, this body has been headed by Gregorios (Theocharous),
Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain, and Exarch of Western Europe,
Ireland and Malta. In 2013 this jurisdiction had about 100 parishes in Great
Britain, along with the celebrated Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, founded
in 1959 in Essex, England, by Father Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896–1993), the
most famous disciple of Saint Silouan of Mount Athos (1866–1938).
About 20 former Anglican parishes joined the Antiochian Orthodox
Church in the 1990s. From 2008 to 2012, these parishes were under the care of
Metropolitan John (Yazigi) of Western and Central Europe, residing in Paris.
Now known as the Antiochian Archdiocese of Europe, this jurisdiction
also has parishes in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, as well as France. By
January of 2013, a successor had not yet been appointed to follow Metropolitan
John, who was elected to be the new Patriarch of Antioch in December of 2012.
Metropolitan Laurus was succeeded in 2008 by Metropolitan Hilarion
(Kapral). Born in Alberta, Canada, in 1948, he continued to lead his Church in
2013.
Significant numbers of Serbian and Romanian parishes also existed in
Britain and Western Europe in 2013.
Ecumenical Movement
Beginnings in the Early 20th Century
The movement for closer cooperation among the many various Christian
groups, which began among Protestants in the 19th century, developed more
strongly in the first quarter of the 20th century with the establishment of the
International Missionary Council in Edinburgh in 1910. In 1920, Metropolitan
Dorotheus, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, issued an
encyclical letter entitled “Unto All Churches of Christ Wheresoever They Be.”
Calling for “a closer relationship and a mutual understanding” among all the
different Christian groups, this letter sparked the chain of events that
eventually led to the formation of the World Council of Churches.
The World Council of Churches
In 1948, the World Council of Churches was formed in Amsterdam from
the Faith and Order and Life and Work movements which met in Western
Europe in the 1920s and ’30s. Throughout the process there was substantial
Orthodox participation, led by the outstanding historian and theologian, Father
Georges Florovsky (1893–1979). The Roman Catholic Church refused to take
part in the founding of the WCC, along with many conservative Protestant and
Pentecostal denominations.
By the time of the second worldwide assembly of the WCC, held in 1954
in Evanston, Illinois, the Orthodox patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria,
and Antioch; the autocephalous Church of Greece; the Russian-American
Metropolia; and the Romanian Episcopate in America all had become official
members of the WCC. During this period, the leaders of the Russian Exarchate
in Western Europe, as well as certain Russians who remained faithful to
Moscow such as Vladimir Lossky (1903–1958) and Nicolas Zernov (1898–
1980), also played a major role in ecumenical activity.
In 1961, at the third worldwide assembly of the WCC in New Delhi, India,
the Churches of Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland joined the WCC. The
Russian Church in the ’60s was extremely active ecumenically, being led in this
area by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) (1929–1978), head of the Office of
External Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate. This activity was greatly curtailed
in the ‘70s, most likely due to the changing political needs of the Soviet
government, which continued to dominate official Church policy.
One major highlight for Orthodox involvement in the WCC came in 1982
with the publication of the Baptism, Eucharist, Ministry (BEM) document. This
work shows very substantial Orthodox influence, especially concerning the real
presence of the Holy Spirit in baptism, the real presence of Christ in the
Eucharist, and the three-fold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon.
Nevertheless, in the 1980s and ’90s, it became increasingly difficult for
the Orthodox representatives in the WCC to make the voice of Orthodoxy
clearly and unambiguously heard, since there were less than 20 Orthodox
member Churches, but up to more than 300 Protestant bodies, all with an equal
vote. Mounting frustration over this situation was manifested by the Georgian
and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches dropping their membership in the WCC in
1997 and 1998 respectively, while the Russian Church suspended active
membership in 1998.
To address the concerns of the Orthodox, a special Commission was
established at the eighth worldwide assembly of the WCC, held in Harare,
Zimbabwe, in 1998. At the next worldwide assembly, held in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, in 2006, the Commission’s recommendations were adopted, including a
shift to decision-making based on “consensus-building” rather than by
“democratic” voting.
The tenth worldwide assembly of the WCC was scheduled to be held in
Busan, Korea, in November of 2013, to be attended by delegates from each of
the 349 Churches that now make up the WCC.
Besides participation in the WCC, many of the Orthodox Churches have
participated in various bi-lateral dialogues, such as with the Oriental Orthodox
Churches (of Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia, and India; sometimes called the
Non-Chalcedonian Churches), the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican
Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Reformed Churches. In the U.S. there
was also a dialogue with Evangelical Christians. These dialogues were still in
existence with varying degrees of activity in 2013.
As a whole, the Orthodox continued to stress the top priority of faith and
order in the ecumenical dialogue, and to insist on full-fledged unity in the
Orthodox Faith as the condition for full Christian unity and sacramental
intercommunion. The bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)
issued an official encyclical on this issue in 1973.
Protestant Fundamentalism and Protestant
Liberalism
In the late 19th century and on into the 20th century, many conservative
Protestants felt challenged, even shaken, by certain developing strands of
thought and action that seemed to undermine traditional faith in the Gospel-
especially Darwinism, German Biblical Criticism, and the American
philosophical school known as Pragmatism. The Process Philosophy developed
by Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) eventually led, in the 1980s, to the
radically non-traditional Process Theology, according to which God is in a
process of development along with all of Creation, which is held to be co-
eternal with God.
In response to the many various forms of Protestant Liberalism and
secular humanism/modernism, a movement arose within conservative
Protestantism in America in the early 20th century known as Protestant
Fundamentalism. The Movement’s specific roots can be traced to the
publication and widespread distribution of a series of 90 essays in 12 volumes
entitled The Fundamentals. Published between 1910 and 1915, this project was
financed by a wealthy California oilman, Lyman Stewart, and his brother
Milton. The various authors, some of them quite well-known scholars such as
James Orr (1844–1913) of Scotland and Benjamin B. Warfield (1851–1921),
drew upon the previous work of the annual Niagara Bible Conferences; the
work of the great urban evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899), founder of
the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago; and the Scofield Reference Bible,
annotated by C. I. Scofield (1843–1921) and published by Oxford University
Press in 1909.
About a third of these essays defended the Bible against German higher
Biblical criticism, another third presented basic traditional Protestant doctrines,
and the rest of them included personal testimonies, practical applications of
Christian teaching, appeals for missions and evangelism, and attacks on various
“isms” such as Liberalism, Modernism, Secular Humanism, and Darwinism.
Presented as a united conservative “testimony to the truth,” some three million
of the volumes were sent free of charge to Protestant religious workers all over
the world.
The World’s Christian Fundamentals Association, organized in
Philadelphia in 1919 by a group of interdenominational Protestants, urged the
founding of “Bible-based” institutes and colleges to offer a clear alternative to
the growing liberalism in the denominational seminaries and colleges. The new
schools were to preserve the non-negotiable, foundational, fundamental truths
of Christianity: the Virgin Birth of Christ, His miracles, His sacrificial atoning
death, His real resurrection, His Second Coming, the Last Judgment, and the
eternal existence of heaven and hell. The famous Dallas Theological Seminary
and Bob Jones University were founded in the 1920s as part of this movement.
In 1922, the nationally known liberal Baptist preacher, Harry Emerson
Fosdick (1878–1969), preached his most famous sermon, entitled “Shall the
Fundamentalists Win?” in which he challenged their belief in the Virgin Birth,
the inerrancy of the Scriptures, and the literal Second Coming of Christ. He
argued for the necessity of interdenominational Christian fellowship that is
“intellectually hospitable, open-minded, liberty-loving, fair, and tolerant.”
In 1923 J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937), professor of New Testament at
Princeton Seminary, published Christianity and Liberalism, in which he
defended Protestant orthodoxy in the face of the growing challenges of
liberalism. In this book he argued that liberal Christianity and historic
Christianity were two entirely different religions. In 1929 he and other
traditionally-minded professors left Princeton Seminary to establish the
Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. And in 1936 he led a
conservative group that left the Presbyterian Church and founded a new
denomination-the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Protestant Neo-Evangelicalism
In the 1940s, a new generation of young preachers and scholars from
within conservative, fundamentalist Protestantism began calling for “a new
Fundamentalism” that would reject Fundamentalism’s historic anti-
intellectualism, divisiveness, lack of social conscience, and uncritical alliance
with political conservatism. Major developments in this rise of Neo-
Evangelicalism were the establishment in 1942 of the National Association of
Evangelicals; the publication of Carl F. H. Henry’s The Uneasy Conscience of
Modern Fundamentalism (1947); the founding in 1947 of Fuller Theological
Seminary in Pasadena, California; the founding of Campus Crusade for Christ
by Bill Bright (1921–2003) in 1951; the launching in 1955 of the periodical
Christianity Today; and the rising popularity of a dynamic young traveling
evangelist named Billy Graham (b. 1918).
Neo-Evangelicalism continued strongly in this period, while the
increasingly liberal “mainline” Protestant denominations were losing members
in greater and greater numbers. Besides Billy Graham, Rex Humbard (1919–
2007) and J. Vernon McGee (1904–1988) were leading evangelical preachers,
while the traveling evangelists Oral Roberts (1918–2009) and Jimmy Swaggart
(b. 1935) preached the Pentecostal message to broader and broader audiences.
In general, the evangelicalism of the latter half of the twentieth century and
into the 21st century included much more emphasis on involvement in social
action work.
The early years of the 21st century saw continuing development of the
megachurch movement-the rise of numerous, mostly evangelical and
Pentecostal churches each with a stated membership of over 2000-though by
2013 this movement seemed to be tapering off. The mainline denominations
continued to decline in membership.
Major denominational mergers among Protestants
While small splinter groups of mostly conservative Protestants continued
to be formed throughout the twentieth century, there also were a number of
significant mergers of smaller denominations into larger, united Churches. For
example, the United Methodist Church was formed in 1968 with the merger of
the Evangelical Brethren Church with the much larger Methodist Church. In
1939 the northern and southern wings of the Methodist Church had rejoined
after about 80 years of separation resulting from the Civil War. The Protestant
Methodist Church also participated in this reconciliation in 1939. The
Evangelical Brethren Church also resulted from a previous merger, when the
Church of the United Brethren and the Evangelical Church joined together in
1946.
In 1957, the United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed through the
merger of the Congregational Christian Churches with the Evangelical and
Reformed Church. At least four previous mergers had occurred to create these
two Churches that merged to form the UCC.
In 1983 the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (UPCUSA) began the
merger process with the Presbyterian Church in the US (PCUS) to form the
Presbyterian Church (USA), known as the PCUSA.
In 1987, the largest Lutheran body in the U.S., called the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), was formed through an amalgamation of
the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the
Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.
The United Church of Canada, the largest Protestant body in Canada, was
formed in 1925 as a blend of Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, and
Evangelical United Brethren Churches. The United Church of Canada took its
final shape in 1968, when the Canada Conference of the Evangelical United
Brethren joined it.
Mention must also be made of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU),
first begun in 1962. This has been a very serious, ongoing effort to forge at
least some degree of unity among nine mainline Protestant Churches: the
Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA), the Episcopal Church, the United
Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ (UCC), the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion), the Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church, and the International Council of Christian
Churches.
In the 1980s, rather than continuing to press for full integration of the
ecclesiastical structures of these denominations, the COCU movement shifted
to the more realistic goals of intercommunion, mutual recognition of
ordination, and increased joint fellowship and service. In 1989 a definitive
plan, called “Churches in Covenant Communion: The Church of Christ
Uniting,” was offered along this line for consideration by the nine member
Churches. In January of 2002, this plan resulted in the establishment of full
intercommunion among the nine member Churches, in a relationship that was
officially named Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC).
The Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement
The most dramatic development within Protestantism in the early years of
the twentieth century was the rise of Pentecostalism. This movement placed
great emphasis on the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 12.8–10), especially
including speaking in unknown languages (tongues).
Pentecostalism arose most directly out of the Holiness Movement within
American Methodism, with the emphasis by America’s first major female
evangelist and theologian Phoebe Palmer (1807–1874) upon the spiritual
experience of “entire sanctification” which she called the “Baptism in the
Spirit” (but without speaking in tongues). This experience was also emphasized
among Methodists by the National Campmeeting Association for the
Promotion of Christian Holiness, founded in 1867.
William E. Boardman (1810–1886), a Presbyterian minister, published The
Higher Christian Life in 1859, thus spreading to non-Methodists the idea of
sanctification as a second work of grace, subsequent to the experience of
justification by faith.
The early Pentecostal leaders, such as Benjamin Hardin Irwin (1854– ? );
founder of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association in 1898 in Anderson, South
Carolina); Charles Harrison Mason (1866–1961; co-founder of the Church of
God in Christ); Charles Fox Parham (1873–1929; founder of the Bethel Bible
School near Topeka, Kansas); and William J. Seymour (1870–1922; initiator of
the world famous, bi-racial Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from 1906 to
1909), all emphasized a third distinct experience, after justification and
sanctification-that of being “baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire,”
accompanied by speaking in unknown tongues.
The largest Pentecostal body in America was the Assemblies of God,
formed in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914. This group claimed nearly three
million members in the U.S. in 2013, and some sixty million worldwide. Most
Pentecostals in the U.S., however, were scattered among over three hundred
denominations, or are members of innumerable completely independent
congregations.
Beginning in 1959, the Charismatic Movement took a more modernized,
more sophisticated, more middle-class based, and less legalistic form of
Pentecostalism into nearly all of the major Protestant denominations. This
movement began with Reverend Dennis Bennett (1917–1991), an Episcopalian
priest in California, who received the “Baptism in the Spirit” in a private home
meeting, and who was dismissed from his parish after preaching about his
experience. He then took over a dying parish in Seattle, Washington, which he
rejuvenated through his emphasis on the “Baptism of the Spirit” and the
operation of the nine gifts of the Spirit. The movement quickly spread to other
mainline denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church, which it
suddenly swept into in 1967 beginning at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh,
and very shortly thereafter at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana.
Oral Roberts (1918–2009), raised in the Pentecostal Holiness
denomination, greatly broadened his base of support and his scope of ministry
when he became an ordained United Methodist preacher in 1970. Oral Roberts
University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, founded by Oral Roberts in 1963, was the
world’s first Charismatic Christian college. A Graduate School of Theology
was added in 1976.
Demos Shakarian (1913–1993), a wealthy Armenian-American dairyman
from California, together with Oral Roberts, founded in 1951 the Full Gospel
Businessmen’s Fellowship International, which spread quickly among classic
Pentecostals and later among Charismatic Christian businessmen. Beginning in
the 1960s, this group, with its monthly meetings of businessmen and the Voice
magazine published monthly, has served to a large extent as “the organizational
cohesion for the Charismatic Movement.” In 2013 it had about 7,000 local
chapters in 142 countries around the world. Since 1993, its international
president has been Richard Shakarian, son of Demos Shakarian.
The Roman Catholic Church
The dynamic leadership of Pope Leo XIII (1810–1903; r. 1878–1903)
brought the Roman Catholic Church into the 20th century with a new and
strong commitment to work in the midst of contemporary issues and struggles,
rather than tending to romantize the past (especially the 18th century, up until
the French Revolution) as the bygone days of glory for the Church. Pope Leo
and his successors (Pope Pius X; r. 1903–1914; Pope Benedict XV; r. 1914–
1922; and Pope Pius XI; r. 1922–1939) urged Catholics to get involved in social
action and political affairs. Some Catholic political parties and labor unions
were formed, as well as religious orders dedicated to social work.
In response to intellectualist criticisms of the Church, Pope Leo and his
successors affirmed Thomism as the official Roman Catholic doctrinal
standard, with its assertion that there is no opposition between religious faith
and empirical science.
During WW II the Papacy, under Pope Pius XII (1876–1958; r. 1939–
1958), maintained relations with all the warring nations. Pope Pius was later
criticized for not speaking out against the Nazi atrocities committed against the
Jews. It was also Pope Pius XII who proclaimed the doctrine of the bodily
Assumption of Mary as dogma, in 1950.
Vatican II Council
In 1959, Pope John XXIII (r. 1958–1963) announced the convocation of an
“ecumenical council” of the Roman Catholic Church. This council, called
Vatican II, was opened in 1962 by Pope John. Upon his death in 1963, Pope
Paul VI (r. 1963–1978) followed him. The Council continued under Pope Paul’s
leadership until it finished its work in 1965. Attended by nearly all the Roman
Catholic bishops worldwide, and with many non-Catholic observers also in
attendance, the Vatican II Council published many official documents
concerning all aspects of Roman Catholic life.
Vatican II precipitated great changes in the Roman Church, and the post-
conciliar period has been one of much confusion and conflict. All Roman
Catholic Churches everywhere were strongly urged to begin celebrating the
mass and the other services in the local vernacular languages rather than always
in Latin. From the Orthodox point of view, this was a very long overdue
change. But this development also precipitated new, modern translations of the
services which, in the opinion of many, often tended to diminish the grandeur
and doctrinal integrity of the original Latin services.
While Vatican II fostered a greater emphasis on the conciliar nature of the
Church yet still being under Papal authority, in some quarters there was radical
questioning of the Papal system of ecclesiastical authority. The Vatican II
Council also prompted the enthusiastic entrance of many Roman Catholics into
ecumenical activity.
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005; r. 1978–2005) was the first Polish pope,
and the first non-Italian pope since the 1520s. He was the most well-traveled
pope ever, visiting 129 nations during his long tenure. This, along with his
prolific writings and compelling presence, raised the prestige of the Papacy
worldwide. He maintained a generally conservative stance in the face of
Liberation Theology, which emphasized social work to and political-even
revolutionary-involvement with the poor and oppressed, and he opposed the
priesthood being open to married men (in most cases), or to women, or to
active homosexuals. He also is credited with helping to bring down the
Communist government in his native Poland in 1989.
Pope Benedict XVI
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (b. 1927), former Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith (from 1981 to 2005; this is the Papacy’s office
charged with protecting and defending Christian dogma), was elected to
succeed Pope John Paul II in 2005. He took the name Benedict XVI. By 2013
Pope Benedict had established himself as a worthy successor to John Paul II,
having continued his predecessor’s basic approach to the Christian life, and to
the responsibilities of the Papal office.
In at least one way, however, he showed himself to be more conservative
than John Paul II. Whereas under John Paul II, the old Latin (Tridentine) Mass
was only allowed upon petitioning the local bishop, Pope Benedict in 2007
declared that any local priest has the authority to hold a Tridentine Mass. He
also declared that generally speaking, the Latin Mass should be made available
whenever it is requested.
Like John Paul II, Pope Benedict made significant overtures to the
Orthodox Church. But also like his predecessor, he did not suggest that there
might be a substantial reconsideration of the nature of Papal authority,
including the Papacy’s claims to worldwide jurisdiction over all Christians.
This issue remains the most fundamental obstacle to any possible
reconciliation between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in
the future.
Pope Francis
In February of 2013, Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly stepped down from
the Papacy, citing his declining health. He was succeeded in the next month by
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (b. 1936), an Argentine, who was the
Archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013. He becomes the 266th Pope in
the history of the Roman episcopacy, and the first ever from the Western
Hemisphere. Even though a Jesuit, the new pope took the name Francis, after
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), the founder of the Franciscan Order.
Pope Francis was welcomed with great optimism and excitement. He is
known for his simple way of life and his concern for the poor, while also
remaining firm in his support of traditional Roman Catholic theological and
moral teachings.
Resources
Autocephaly, (Documents and Commentary on the autocephaly of the
Orthodox Church in America). Tuckahoe, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 1971.
Curtiss, John Shelton. The Russian Church and the Soviet State 1917–
1950. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954.
Every, George. The Byzantine Patriarchate 451–1204. London: S.P.C.K.,
1962.
Fletcher, William C. A Study in Survival, The Church in Russia, 1927–
1943. London: S.P.C.K., 1965.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity. New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1953.
Meyendorff, John. The Orthodox Church. New York: Pantheon Books,
1962.
Ostrogorsky, George. History of the Byzantine State. New Brunswick, New
Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1957.
Schmemann, Alexander. The Historical Road of East-ern Orthodoxy. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.
Struve, Nikita. Christians in Contemporary Russia. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1967.
Swan, Jane. A Biography of Patriarch Tikhon. Jordanville, New York: Holy
Trinity Monastery, 1964.
Ushimaru, Proclus Yasuo. Bishop Innocent – Founder of American
Orthodoxy. Bridgeport, Conn.: Metropolitan Council Publications Committee,
1964.
Ware, Timothy (Father Kallistos). The Orthodox Church. Baltimore,
Maryland: Penguin Books, 1964.
Zernov, Nicolas. The Russians and Their Church. London: S.P.C.K., 1964.
History Questions and Reflections for Discussion
Introduction
Church History volume of the series.
There are questions for each chapter of this volume, for each century from
the first to the twentieth. They can be used to review the material in the chapter,
and page numbers follow each question to show where it came from.
copy of the questions for that chapter. They can then answer them together. The
leader can have a copy of the answer pages for that chapter to check answers if
need be (though most of the answers should easily be found in the chapter text.)
A reader going through the book on his or her own can use the questions and
answers in whatever way is most helpful.
Some of the answers also offer points for reflection. Father Thomas
always liked to reflect further on things as he taught, and we hope readers will
want to do the same. Most of all we hope that many people will use and benefit
from the revised edition of Father Thomas’ wonderful gift to the Church, his
series The Orthodox Faith.
Department of Christian Education
Orthodox Church in America
First century
How many of the 27 writings selected by the Church to be the New
Testament were written in the first century? In what language were they
written? (p 20)
Did most of the early Christians come from rural and impoverished
backgrounds? (p 20)
Did the first-century Church require non-Jewish members (Gentiles) to
follow the Mosaic Law? (p 21)
Second century
Roman law declared, “It is not lawful to be a Christian.” Why was this so?
(p 23)
In what 3 ways did Saint Irenaeus distinguish true Christian Churches
from heretical groups? (pp 26–27)
What are some features of Christian worship as described by Saint Justin
Martyr (155 AD) that continue to be part of our liturgical life today? (p 30)
Third century
Who were the “lapsed” and how did the Church care for them? (p 32)
How did Origen view pagan philosophy? (p 36)
In what ways is Hippolytus’ description of baptism similar to present
practice? (pp 39–40)
Fourth century
How did Constantine&rsquos dream or vision influence him to issue the
Edict of Milan? (p 44)
How did Constantine form what we know as the weekend? (pp 46–47)
What was the main teaching of Arius/Arianism? (p 49)
Why did Saint Basil emphasize the communal form of monasticism? (p
53)
Did monastics reject or turn their backs on the world as evil? (pp 56–57)
Fifth century
Who was Saint Pulcheria and how did she influence Orthodox worship?
(pp 61–62)
What was the teaching of the Monophysites? (p 63)
How did Saint Augustine’s view of marital relations differ from the
traditional view of marriage and sexual relations reflected at the Council of
Nicaea? (p 66)
Sixth century
What is the Code of Justinian? (p 72)
Who created the “Monastic Rule” that would guide monasticism in the
Roman Catholic Church for the next 500 years? (p 75)
Why did the Spanish Church add the words “and the Son” (the phrase
known as the filioque) to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed? (pp 76–77)
Seventh century
How did Saint Maximus the Confessor respond to the popular ideas called
Monothelitism and Monoenergism? (p 82)
What significant ruling about clergy marriage came at the
Trullo/Quinisext Council? (p 84)
How does Canon 102 of the Qunisext Council direct the pastor to deal with
a penitent? (p 85)
How did the Arab Conquest affect efforts by Chalcedonians and non-
Chalcedonians to discuss and resolve their differences? (p 90)
Eighth century
What was the major objection of the Iconoclasts to the veneration of icons,
and how did Saint John of Damascus address it in his treatises called On the
Holy Images? (pp 92–93)
How did the emperor Charlemagne have an impact on the understanding of
icon veneration and the inclusion of the filioque in the Creed? (p 101)
Ninth century
What do Empress Irene (8th century) and Empress Theodora (9th century)
have in common? (p 104)
Why did Prince Rastislav seek Byzantine missionaries to bring the
Christian faith to his Moravian people? (pp 105–106)
What contributions did the Studion Monastery make to our order of
worship? (p 112)
Tenth century
What changes concerning marriage came about in the 10th century? (p
117)
Why was it significant that the Archbishop of Bulgaria was granted the
title of Patriarch? (p 118)
What similar experience did Saint Paul and Saint Vladimir have? (pp 120–
121)
Eleventh century
Other than the filioque, what issues enlarged the divide between the
Eastern and Western Churches in the 11th century? (p 124)
What dramatic, decisive event took place in 1054 in Constantinople? (pp
125–126)
What was the original purpose of the Crusades, as called for by Pope
Urban? (p 128)
What are “Passion-Bearers” and how were Saints Boris and Gleb
examples? (p 129)
Twelfth century
What official proclamation concerning Mount Athos was made during the
12th century? (p 133)
With what name was the Serbian ruler Stephan Nemanya glorified as a
saint by the Church, and why? (p 135)
Thirteenth century
How did the Fourth Crusade deepen the split between the Eastern and
Western Churches? (p 139)
For what purpose did Saint Sava travel through the Middle East, Europe
and the Holy Land? (pp 141–142)
Why did Saint Alexander Nevsky consider the Swedes and Germans a
greater threat to the Orthodox Church than the Tatars? (p 143)
What 3 orders of Western monasticism were founded in this century? (pp
144–145)
Fourteenth century
What did Saint Gregory Palamas teach about the possibility for human
beings to know God? (p 148)
How did Saint John Cantakuzenos want Byzantine theologians to prepare
for dialog with Roman Catholic theologians? (p 150)
Why were the Orthodox Church’s headquarters moved from Kiev to
Moscow? (p 152)
How did Saint Sergius of Radonezh influence Russian monasticism? (p
154)
Fifteenth century
The Council of Florence was an attempt to unite the Eastern and Western
Churches. What were some conditions of this unity? (pp 161–162)
What is the Rum Milet? (p 164)
What is the Possessors and Non-Possessors controversy? (p 167–168)
Sixteenth century
What 2 events probably turned Tsar Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) toward
certain cruel tendencies he had as a youth?
What is the basic Protestant doctrine of salvation? (pp 178–179)
How were the claims of the Council of Trent in opposition to the teachings
of Saint Gregory Palamas? (p 179)
Who was Saint Philothei of Athens? (p 182)
Seventeenth century
Who were the Old Believers? (p 189–190)
Why did 2 Church councils condemn the Confession of Faith written by
Cyril Lukaris? (pp 192–193)
What was Deism, and why did it emerge? (p 194)
Eighteenth century
Why did Saint Cosmas Aitolos undertake 3 apostolic journeys? (p 197–
198)
What is the Philokalia and what spiritual quality did Saint Gregory of
Sinai and Saint Gregory Palamas emphasize in their writings about this work?
(pp 200–201)
What did Saint Tikhon appreciate in the Pietist writings of the Christian
West? (p 207)
What was the attitude of the Russian Orthodox missionaries toward the
native Alaskan culture and religion? (p 209)
Nineteenth century
Upon what 2 monks did Dostoevsky model his character Elder Zossima in
his masterwork The Brothers Karamazov? (p 215)
What did Saint Seraphim emphasize in conversing with Nicholas
Motovilov? (p 216)
In what 2 languages did Saint Innocent write his Indication of the Way to
the Kingdom of Heaven? (p 222)
What “first” took place in San Francisco, CA in 1892? (p 226)
How did Father Raphael Hawaweeny contribute to the growth of the
Orthodox faith? (p 227)
What is the “Gospel of Wealth” and with whom is it closely associated? (p
232)
What controversial decisions were made by the Roman Catholic Church in
the second half of the 19th century? (p 233)
Twentieth century (into the early Twenty-First)
Saint Tikhon gave his last sermon in the United States in 1907. What did
he say was the duty of lay people as well as pastors and missionaries? (p 241)
At the 8th All-American Sobor (Council) in 1950, Archbishop (later
Metropolitan) Leonty made a statement about the Church in America that was
fulfilled 20 years later. What did he say? (p 246)
What were some of the ways Archbishop Athenagoras helped the Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese of America advance and grow? (p 257)
How did Saint Nicholas of Zicha, a priest of the Church in Serbia, spend
the final five years of his life? (p 259)
Bishop Polycarp was the first bishop of the new Romanian Orthodox
Episcopate of America, elected in 1935. Besides healing internal disputes and
laying the foundations for several Church organizations, what center did he
establish? (p 262)
In what way was Syrian-born Metropolitan Antony (Bashir) a “pioneer”
and to what did he give outspoken support? (p 266)
In 1929 a group of Ukrainians who had been Byzantine-Rite Catholics
formed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America. What was the significant
reason for their leaving Roman Catholicism? (p 267)
In 1940 Bishop Orestes (Chornock) led in the formation of a seminary for
the Carpatho-Russian Diocese. What is its name, and where is it located? (p
270)
Father (later Archbishop) Theophan Noli conducted the Divine Liturgy in
a certain language for the first time anywhere in the world. What language was
it, and how did this “first” come about? (p 271)
Why were the years 1949 and 1976 notable for Bulgarian Orthodox
immigrants to the United States? (p 273)
What organizations are OCEC, SCOBA, IOCC and OCMC? (pp 277–278)
An assembly of canonical Orthodox bishops of North and Central America
first met in New York City in 2010. They agreed to meet annually to prepare for
what event? (p 279)
Why might restoring the Patriarchate be called the “most momentous act”
of the Council of Moscow in 1917–18? (pp 281–282)
How did the fall of Communism in 1991 change previous decades of
“administrative persecution” of the Russian Church? (p 289)
What official declaration was made by Patriarch Alexei in 1970
concerning the Japanese Orthodox Church, and who was glorified as a saint at
this time? (pp 289–290)
How did the Greco-Turkish War (1919–23) and the Treaty of Lausanne
(1923) affect the population of the area overseen by the Patriarchate of
Constantinople? (pp 290–291)
Why is the present Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew known as the
“Green Patriarch?” (p 294)
Who are the two recently glorified saints of the Serbian Church? (p 295)
The Romanian Church was harshly persecuted by the Communists. What
fact slightly moderated the suffering of that Church, as compared to the Church
in Russia? (p 295)
According to the 2011 census, what percentage of the Romanian
population is Orthodox? (p 296)
What are two notable activities of the Orthodox Youth Movement, which
brought new vitality to the Church in Syria and Lebanon? (p 296)
Patriarch Ignatius Hazim was a member of the Orthodox Youth
Movement. What institution did he found in 1988? (p 296)
What Patriarchate encompasses all the Orthodox churches in Africa? (p
297)
In 1991 the Polish government granted the Orthodox Church equal status
with the predominant Roman Catholic Church. What did this enable the
Orthodox Church to do? (p 299)
What was the legal status of the Czech Orthodox Church during the Nazi
occupation? (p 299)
What leader helped the severely persecuted Albanian Church make a
remarkable recovery when Communism fell in 1991? (p 300)
In 1953 the Bulgarian Church restored something that had been lost since
1393. What was it? (p 301)
What change came about for Eastern-Rite Catholics in Ukraine after the
fall of the Soviet regime? (p 302)
Harshly persecuted in Soviet times, the Georgian Church has recently had
excellent leaders. What percentage of the present Georgian population is
Orthodox? (p 303)
What are the 2 established (State-sponsored) Churches in Finland? (p 304)
Archbishop John (Rinne) was head of the Finnish Orthodox Church from
1987 to 2001. What was noteworthy about him? (p 304)
What is Saint Sergius Institute? (p 305)
What group has sometimes been known as the Karlovtsy Synod? (p 306)
What significant reconciliation was reached in 2007? (p 307)
What well-known Orthodox monastery is located in Essex, England? (pp
307–308)
What is the significance of the letter written by Metropolitan Dorotheus of
the Patriarchate of Constantinople, entitled “Unto All Churches of Christendom
Wheresoever They Be”? (p 308)
What does the Orthodox Church as a whole see as a condition for
sacramental communion with other Christian groups? (p 310)
Billy Graham was a leading member of the younger generation of
preachers and scholars calling for a “new fundamentalism.” What did they
object to in historic fundamentalism? (p 313)
What is a main emphasis of Pentecostalism? (p 315)
What new emphasis did the popes of the early 20th century encourage in
the Roman Catholic Church? (p 318)
Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI made overtures of
reconciliation to the Orthodox Church. What remains as the most basic
obstacle? (p 320)
What was unique about Pope Francis’ background? (p 320)
History Answers and Reflections for Discussion
First Century
All were written in the first century and all were written in Greek, which
was the predominant language of the Roman Empire. This is why the Orthodox
Church continues to use the Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint.
No, the Church developed largely in urban areas and from among the
middle classes. Some members, like Joanna the wife of Chuza, had prominent
places in society.
No. The Council of Jerusalem, in about 49 AD, decided that Gentile
converts would not be subject to Mosaic Law. This Council is the prototype for
all Church Councils that followed.
Second Century
The Christians, though they dutifully prayed for the civil authorities,
refused to honor the emperor as a god, which was required of inhabitants of the
Empire.
All true Churches share these things: They (a) hold the same basic
doctrines, (b) trace their origins back to one of the original apostles with their
line of bishops coming from that apostle, (c) consider only the four Gospels
according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to be divinely inspired.
Gathering on Sunday, reading from Scripture, prayers of thanksgiving,
distribution of the Eucharist and collection for the needy.
Third Century
The “lapsed” were those Christians who denied Christ under threat of
torture and persecution. Though some felt that the Church could and should
never excuse this, most bishops came to realize that the Church must allow for
the possibility of heartfelt repentance even for the worst of sins.
Origen believed that whatever partial truths were discerned by pagan
philosophers pointed to and were fulfilled in the truth of the Christian faith.
Water, affirmations of personal belief, anointing with oil, new clothing,
sealing with consecrated oil.
Fourth Century
Constantine had a great military victory after of a vision of the Cross of
Christ in the sky with the words “In this sign conquer.” His belief in the
Christian God deepened, and he issued the edict, giving Christians freedom to
practice their faith.
He made Sunday a holiday so that people could more easily attend church,
and along with the established Saturday Sabbath it became the weekend. (For
reflection: Though some think of Sunday as the sabbath, Orthodoxy sees every
Sunday as the day of Resurrection, the Lord’s Day. Saturday is the sabbath, the
seventh day, on which God rested.)
Arius taught that the Son of God is a created being and not the eternal and
ever-existing second Person of the Trinity. The First Ecumenical Council,
called by Constantine at Nicaea, confirmed that the Word and Son of God is
uncreated, ever-existent, and fully divine. (For reflection: The divinity of Christ
was not an “idea” imposed on the Church by Constantine for political reasons,
as the book The Da Vinci Code claims. Christ’s divinity was stated as fact in the
Gospels and in the letters of Saint Paul, the latter being written no more than
30 years after the Lord’s death. See, for example, John 1: 1, 14 and Philippians
2: 9–11.)
Saint Basil said that “man is by nature a social creature.”
No, they didn’t reject the world, but chose to serve God and humanity by
praying constantly for the whole world, and by offering spiritual counsel.
Fifth Century
Saint Pulcheria was the elder sister of Emperor Theodosius II. She became
empress after her brother’s death and championed the veneration of Mary, the
Mother of God, using the traditional title of Theotokos.
The Monophysites rejected the Council of Chalcedon and taught that
Christ has one rather than two (united) natures.
Saint Augustine wrote that sexual relations cannot take place without the
sin of lust. This attitude is the basis of the Roman Church’s insistence on
clerical celibacy.
Sixth Century
Emperor Justinian oversaw a massive codification of the laws of the
Empire. It was known as the Code of Justinian, and in it he declared his
Christian faith.
Saint Benedict of Nursia.
The addition was meant to emphasize Christ’s divinity to the invading
Visigoths, who were Arians, denying Christ’s full divinity. But it distorts the
traditional understanding that the Son and Holy Spirit both proceed from the
Father, as stated in the Nicene Creed.
Seventh Century
Saint Maximus insisted that Jesus Christ’s divine nature and human nature
each had their own will and energy rather that one united will and one united
energy. Christ had the same fullness of human will, energy, action, operation
and power as every other human being has. Only by fully assuming these
human elements could He save them. This view was upheld at the Sixth
Ecumenical Council.
The Council affirmed that entering holy orders should not dissolve their
marriages, as the Roman Church was requiring.
Canon 102 states: “The pastor must neither cast the sheep down to the
depths of despair, nor loosen the bridle thus leading them to a dissolute way of
life.” In other words the pastor must employ both discernment and mercy when
dealing with a penitent.
The Arab conquest isolated the non-Chalcedonian Churches, thus
preventing attempts to meet with the Chalcedonian Churches.
Eighth Century
The iconoclasts considered icons to be idols. Saint John of Damascus
countered that in former times God could not be depicted, having neither form
nor body, but since the Incarnation-God being seen in the flesh-we can depict
the God whom we see.
The emperor objected to icon veneration based on a faulty Latin
translation of the documents from the Second Council of Nicaea, which gave
the mistaken impression that icons were to be adored. He had grown up with
the filioque and used his position to promulgate the addition of the filioque in
the Western Church.
Ninth Century
Both women ended waves of persecution against those who venerated
icons. The Church’s celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy began with the
huge public procession, led by Empress Saint Theodora, restoring the icons to
their proper place in Orthodox worship.
Prince Rastislav realized that the faith would be most meaningful to the
people if presented in their native language rather than in the Latin of the
Frankish missionaries who were already at work in his land.
The monks of the Studion Monastery developed service books for Great
Lent and Pascha, as well as the liturgical typicon, which continues to be the
normative order of worship for the entire Orthodox Church.
Tenth Century
The Rite of Crowning began to be served apart from the Divine Liturgy;
legal marriage was established as a civil entity apart from the sacramental
marriage of the Church; no fourth marriages would be granted.
This was the first Patriarchate to be established beyond the original five of
Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.
When Saint Vladimir was baptized he was cured of a serious eye disease,
just as St. Paul’s sight was restored when he was baptized by Ananias. (For
reflection: How do St. Paul’s words “For we walk by faith and not by sight” in
2Corinthians 5relate to these experiences of restored physical sight?)
Eleventh Century
Different languages reflected differing world views; differing approaches
to theology; papal claims of authority over all the Churches of Christendom.
(For reflection: What are some steps that could be taken to restore unity?)
Mutual excommunication between Cardinal Humbert, Pope Leo’s
delegate, and Michael, the Patriarch of Constantinople.
To liberate the Holy Land from the Muslim Arabs.
Passion Bearers maintain their faith while enduring undeserved suffering.
Saints Boris and Gleb refused to fight their elder brother in a power struggle
and thereby saved the lives of many on both sides of the dispute.
Twelfth Century
The Emperor proclaimed Mount Athos as the center of Orthodox
monasticism.
He was given the name Saint Simeon the Myrrh-Flowing because after his
death his relics began exuding myrrh.
The Archbishop wrote to protest the excessive claims of primacy by the
Papal See.
Thirteenth Century
Constantinople was brutally sacked during the first three days of Holy
Week in 1204.
He wished to share the story of the Christianization of the Serbian people
with other Christians, but also impressed many Muslim leaders with his
generosity and care for the poor.
While the Tatars offered a certain amount of freedom and protection to the
Orthodox Church, the Swedes and Germans would have imposed their Roman
Catholic faith on the Orthodox.
The Franciscan, Dominican, and Carmelite orders.
Fourteenth Century
Saint Gregory taught that God’s Essence or Super-Essence is unknowable.
But the divine actions, operations or Energies of God are communicated to
people by divine grace and are open to human knowledge and experience. This
is the meaning of the phrase “partakers of the Divine nature” in 2 Peter 1:4.
He encouraged Byzantine theologians to learn Latin and study the
Scholastic writings emerging from Western Europe.
Kievan Rus had been nearly devastated by the Tatars, while the Muscovite
state was growing and getting stronger.
Russian monasticism grew dramatically during the time of Saint Sergius
of Radonezh, producing a tremendous and long-lasting effect on the culture and
piety of Russia. (For reflection: What personal qualities of Saint Sergius
contributed to the effect he had on Russian culture and piety?)
Fifteenth Century
The conditions included acceptance of papal authority, the filioque, the
allowance of leavened as well as unleavened bread in the Eucharist and a
statement of the Western concept of Purgatory. Saint Mark of Ephesus
courageously resisted this union, leading to its eventual rejection by the entire
Orthodox Church.
The Christians under Ottoman rule were a “tolerated minority” with
certain privileges. The Patriarch was the ethnarch, the ruler of an ethnic
minority. This was the Rum Milet or Roman people-a “nation within a nation.”
Even with limited privileges the Christians were subject to many humiliating
restrictions as a captive people.
The controversy resulted from concern about the possession of property
and material goods by monastic communities. Possessors felt that monastic
communities cold own large estates and have a close relationship with the
State. Non-Possessors held to a more semi-eremitic life, favoring small sketes
and minimal involvement with the State.
Sixteenth Century
Jealous courtiers convinced Ivan to dismiss Father Sylvester, who had
given him good guidance. In addition, his beloved wife died, having possibly
been poisoned.
The Protestant position was founded on the doctrine of justification by
grace through faith alone, with salvation understood as a gift from God given at
one moment rather than being an ongoing process of cooperation between God
and His people. (For reflection: How do the verses I Corinthians 1: 18 and
Philippians 2: 13 relate to the idea of salvation being a cooperative process?)
The Council of Trent supported the Latin doctrine that human beings can
have no real, direct communion, fellowship or relationship with God. Grace, in
this understanding, is a “created effect” or “created effort.” The Orthodox
understanding, championed by Saint Gregory Palamas, is that through the
uncreated Energies of God, human beings are called and enabled to have real,
direct communion with Him.
Saint Philothei was a member of a prominent Greek family. As a widow,
and then a nun, she built two monasteries, a hospital and a hostel. She also
sheltered women escaping Muslim oppressors. She later died from injuries
inflicted by those oppressors.
Seventeenth Century
The Old Believers were members of the Russian Orthodox Church who
reacted to the attempts of Patriarch Nikon to alter the practices of the Russian
Church and bring them in line with those of the Greek Church. Without the Old
Believers’ efforts some forms of ancient Russian iconography and liturgical
chant would have been lost.
Lukaris believed that the oppressed Church would be rejuvenated by
taking on attitudes and practices of Protestantism. His Confession of Faith was
nearly saturated with Calvinist thought.
Deism emerged as a result of the devastation and displacement caused by
the Thirty Years War, fought between Roman Catholics and Protestants, largely
in Germany. Disillusioned with creedal religion, many people turned to Deism,
a non-creedal generic form of natural religion. In the following years its
popularity would continue to grow in Europe and America.
Eighteenth Century
He wanted to rally the discouraged Greeks and Albanians who were
suffering under Turkish oppression and to strengthen them in their Orthodox
faith.
The Philokalia is the highly-regarded compilation of selected spiritual
writings from the 4th through the 15th centuries. Both saints emphasized
stillness as a spiritual quality.
He appreciated their call for a meaningful relationship with the Living
God, which he found more compatible than the intellectualism of Tridentine
Catholicism and Calvinistic Protestantism.
They were careful to honor the local culture and religion as much as
possible, especially because the natives’ basic worldview was already oriented
towards the sacramental, tradition-based worldview of Orthodoxy. (For
reflection: One example of honoring the local culture was that Saint Innocent
learned several native languages and devised an alphabet. He then could
translate holy texts into words the people readily understood, rather than
insisting that they learn and be taught only in Russian. What effect might his
efforts have had on their embrace of the faith?)
Nineteenth Century
Elder Zossima is modeled on Saint Amvrossy and Saint Tikhon of
Zadonsk.
The conversation was about the joy that comes upon a person through the
fullness of the Holy Spirit’s presence. But this joy is only a foretaste of
heavenly joy.
In Aleut and Russian.
Father Deacon Sebastian Dabovich, a Serb, was the first American-born
man ordained to the Orthodox priesthood in North America. Later he replaced
Saint Alexis Toth as priest of Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Minneapolis.
Syrian by birth, Father Raphael was invited by the Syrian Orthodox in
New York City to come to the US and be their priest. This was the beginning of
20 years of fruitful ministry in North America. He was consecrated as bishop of
Brooklyn in the first Orthodox episcopal consecration in the New World. He
founded 20 parishes and was glorified as a saint in 2000.
The “Gospel of Wealth” claims that God wills for a few people to gain
immense wealth so they can use it for the public good. It’s closely associated
with Andrew Carnegie.
In 1854 the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary; in
1870 the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope.
Twentieth Century (into the early Twenty-First)
Saint Tikhon said the duty was to “share our spiritual richness, truth, light
and joy with others who do not have these blessings.” He added that the
Church, according to Saint Paul, is a body, and every member takes part in the
life of the body. (For reflection: How well and effectively are we in the Church
carrying out Saint Tikhon’s message today?)
He said, “We will follow our line-the foundation of an administratively
self-governing Orthodox Church in America.” On March 31, 1970, a signed
agreement stated that the Russian Church would recognize the Metropolia as
the fully autocephalous Orthodox Church in America. In April of that year,
Patriarch Alexei I signed the official tomos.
Archbishop Athenagoras established the women’s charitable organization
Philoptochos, bolstered the Archdiocese’s financial foundation, started the
Orthodox Observer newspaper, and established Saint Basil’s Teachers College
in Garrison, New York. He also hoped to start a pan-Orthodox seminary, but
this didn’t work out. Instead he established Holy Cross Theological School in
Massachusetts.
Saint Nikolai spent those years teaching, in English, at Saint Tikhon’s
Seminary.
Bishop Polycarp established the Vatra in Michigan, headquarters of the
Episcopate.
Metropolitan Antony was a pioneer in the use of English in the Liturgy
and gave outspoken support to unity among all Orthodox in the New World.
The Roman Catholic Church’s refusal to allow a married priesthood.
Christ the Savior Seminary is in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Archbishop Theophan conducted the Liturgy in Albanian for the first time.
He had translated it, and several other services, into Albanian. Notably, he also
called strongly for Orthodox unity.
In 1949 the Russian Church in Exile established parishes these
immigrants; in 1976 most of these parishes joined the Orthodox Church in
America.
OCEC is the Orthodox Christian Education Commission, which produces
pan-Orthodox curriculum for church schools. SCOBA is the Standing
Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America. IOCC is International
Orthodox Christian Charities. OCMC is the Orthodox Christian Mission Center.
They would prepare for the future Great and Holy Council.
There had not been a Patriarchate since the 1700’s, when Emperor Peter I,
known as Peter the Great, abolished the position. Thus the restoration was a
return to the Church’s traditional pattern of life and organization. The Council’s
important decisions included having lay participation in decisions, having
sermons given in the vernacular, internal autonomy for monasteries, providing
stability by having bishops stay in one diocese for life, and encouragement of
women’s membership on parish councils.
Millions of people returned to the Church, monasteries and churches were
reopened and refurbished, and the Church regained its status as a legal entity.
The Japanese Church was declared autonomous, or self-governing.
Archbishop Nikolai Kasatkin, the found of the Church in Japan, was glorified
as a saint.
The Greek defeat led many Greeks to emigrate, some to the New World.
The Treaty of Lausanne stipulated that Turkey deport as many Greeks as
possible to Greece and the Greek islands, and that Greece deport as many Turks
as possible to Turkey. This was seen as a way of reducing the recurring
animosity between the two peoples, but in the forced marches many lives were
lost.
Patriarch Bartholomew is deeply and publicly involved in ecumenical
issues.
Father Justin Popovich and Father Simeon Popovich.
The Romanian government, unlike that of Soviet Russia, was not
determined to create an atheist state and society.
86%. Romania is the most thoroughly Orthodox nation in the world.
Book publishing and social outreach are two of the group’s notable
activities.
The University of Balamand, which also oversees the training of priests at
the Saint John of Damascus School of Theology.
The Patriarchate of Alexandria.
The Orthodox Church was able to retrieve properties previously seized by
the Roman Catholic Church.
It was outlawed.
Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos has done remarkable work in building
up the Orthodox Church in Albania.
The office of Patriarch of the Bulgarian Church, which had been lost when
the Bulgarians became subject to the Ottoman Turks, was restored.
They became free to return to Eastern-Rite Catholicism, after having had
their parishes closed, or having been forced to become Orthodox by the Soviet
government under Joseph Stalin. (For reflection: This is a reminder that not
only the Orthodox suffered under the Soviet regime. The Church’s prayers are
for the whole world because all human beings share both suffering and joy.)
84%.
The Lutheran Church and the much smaller Orthodox Church.
As a convert from Lutheranism, Archbishop John was the first Western
convert to become the head of any Orthodox Church in the world. (For
reflection: What did Archbishop John find in Orthodox Christianity that led him
to embrace not only the faith but a very responsible position?)
Founded in 1925, Saint Sergius Theological Institute in Paris was both a
spiritual and academic institute. It became the center of Orthodox learning in
the West.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, or ROCOR.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was reconciled with the
Patriarchate of Moscow.
The Monastery of Saint John the Baptist. It was founded by Father
Sophrony Sakharov, the most famous disciple of Saint Silouan of Mount Athos.
The letter called for closer understanding among all Christian groups, and
was a spark to events leading to the formation of the World Council of
Churches in Amsterdam in 1948.
Sacramental communion would be based on full-fledged unity in the
Orthodox faith.
They objected to its anti-intellectualism, divisiveness, lack of social
conscience, and unquestioning alliance with political conservatism.
Pentecostalism stresses the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially
speaking in unknown languages or tongues. (For reflection: The Orthodox
perspective on speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, is that while it is not ruled
out as a gift of the Holy Spirit, it is also not considered one of the more
important gifts. The Church has always relied on the words of Saint Paul: “...in
church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct
others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (I Corinthians 14: 18.))
They urged involvement in contemporary social action and political
affairs.
The most basic obstacle is the papacy’s claim of worldwide jurisdiction
over all Christians.
Pope Francis was the first pope to come from the Western Hemisphere.
Volume IV – Spirituality
Orthodox Spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality in the Orthodox Church means the everyday activity of life in
communion with God. The term spirituality refers not merely to the activity of
man’s spirit alone, his mind, heart and soul, but it refers as well to the whole of
man’s life as inspired and guided by the Spirit of God. Every act of a Christian
must be a spiritual act. Every thought must be spiritual, every word, every
deed, every activity of the body, every action of the person. This means that all
that a person thinks, says and does must be inspired and guided by the Holy
Spirit so that the will of God the Father might be accomplished as revealed and
taught by Jesus Christ the Son of God.
.?.. whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1Cor 10.31).
Doing all things to the glory of God is the meaning and substance of life
for a human being. This “doing” is what Christian spirituality is about.
God
Christian spirituality is centered in God; in fact, its very goal is
communion with God, which is attainable through the accomplishment of His
will. To be what God wants us to be and to do what God want us to do is the
sole meaning of our human existence. The fulfillment of the prayer “Thy will
be done” is the heart and soul of all spiritual effort and activity.
In the Old Testament law, it is written:
I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I
am holy (Lev 11:44).
In the New Testament, the first letter of Saint Peter refers to this
fundamental command of God.
.?.?. as He who called you is holy, be holy yourself in all your conduct;
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1Pet 1:16).
That human beings should be holy by sharing in the happiness of God
Himself is the meaning of union with God. All are “called to be saints” (Rom
1.7) by becoming “partakers of the nature of God” (2Pet 1.1). This is what
Jesus meant when He said in Sermon on the Mount, “You, therefore, must be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5.48).
The teaching that man must be holy and perfect like God Himself through
the accomplishment of the will of God is the central teaching of the Orthodox
Christian faith. This teaching has been stated in many different ways in the
Orthodox spiritual tradition. Saint Maximus the Confessor (7th c.) said it this
way: “Man is called to become by divine grace all that God Himself is by
nature.” This means very simply that God wills and helps His creatures to be
like He is, and that is the purpose of their being and life. As God is holy, man
must be holy. As God is perfect, man must be perfect, pure, merciful, patient,
kind, gentle, free, self-determining, ever-existing, and always, for eternity, the
absolute superabundant realization of everything good in inexhaustible fullness
and richness .?.?. so man must be this way as well, ever growing and
developing in divine perfection and virtue for all eternity by the will and power
of God Himself. The perfection of man is his growth in the unending perfection
of God.
Christ
Christian spirituality is centered in Christ. Jesus Christ is the divine Son of
God who was born as a man of the Virgin Mary in order to give man eternal life
in communion with God His Father.
In Jesus Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col 2.9). In
Him is the “fullness” of “grace and truth” (Jn 1.16–17) and “all the fullness of
God” (Col 1.19). When one sees and knows Jesus, one sees and knows God the
Father (Jn 8.19, 14.7–9). When one is in communion with Jesus, one is in
abiding union with God (cf. Jn 17, Eph 2, Rom 8, 1Jn 1).
The goal of human life is to be continually “in Christ.” When one is “in
Christ,” according to Saint John, one does God’s will and cannot sin.
You know that He [Jesus] appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is
no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has either seen Him or
knows Him.?.?.?. he who does right is righteous, as He is righteous.?.?.?. No
one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin
because he is born of God. By this it may be seen who are the children of God,
and who are the children of the devil; whoever does not do right is not of God,
nor he who does not love his brother (1Jn 3.4–10).
Jesus Christ is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14.6). He speaks the
words of God. He does the work of God. The person who obeys Christ and
follows His way and does what He does, loves God and accomplishes His will.
To do this is the essence of spiritual life. Jesus has come that we may be like
Him and do in our own lives, by His grace, what He Himself has done.
Truly, truly I say to you, He who believes in Me will also do the works that
I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father (Jn
14.12).
The Holy Spirit
A person can abide in Christ, accomplish His commandments and be in
communion with God the Father only by the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit in his life. Spiritual life is life in and by the Holy Spirit of God.
If you love Me [says Christ], you will keep My commandments. And I will
pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees
Him nor knows Him; you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you
(Jn 14.15–17).
When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.?.?.?.
He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that
the Father has is Mine .?.?. (Jn 16.12–15).
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and is sent into the world
through Christ so that human persons can fulfill God’s will in their lives and be
like Christ. The spiritual fathers of the Orthodox Church say that the Holy
Spirit makes people to be “christs,” that is, the “anointed” children of God.
This also is the teaching of the apostles in the New Testament writings:
But you have been anointed by the Holy One and you know all things .?.?.
and the unction [chrisma] you have received from Him abides in you .?.?. His
anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has
taught you, abide in Him. .?.?. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the
Spirit which He has given us. .?.?. By this we know that we abide in Him and He
in us, because He has given us of His own Spirit (1Jn 2.20–27, 3.24, 4.13).
This teaching of Saint John is the same teaching as that of Saint Paul.
.?.?. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
which has been given to us. .?.?. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ
does Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although your
bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who
raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also
through His Spirit which dwells in you .?.?. for if you live according to the flesh
you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom 5.5, 8.1ff;
cf. 1Cor 2, 6, 12–14; Gal 5).
It is the classical teaching of the Orthodox Church, made popular in recent
times by Saint Seraphim of Sarov (19th c.), that the very essence of Christian
spiritual life, the very essence of life itself, is the “acquisition of the Holy
Spirit of God.” Without the Holy Spirit, there is no true life for man.
In spite of our sinfulness, in spite of the darkness surrounding our souls,
the Grace of the Holy Spirit, conferred by baptism in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, still shines in our hearts with the
inextinguishable light of Christ .?.?. and when the sinner turns to the way of
repentance the light smooths away every trace of the sins committed, clothing
the former sinner in the garments of incorruption, spun of the Grace of the Holy
Spirit. It is this acquisition of the Holy Spirit about which I have been
speaking?.?.?. (Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Conversation with Motovilov).
Man
Man, according to the scriptures, is created “in the likeness of God” (Gen
1.26–27). To be like God, through the gift of God, is the essence of man’s being
and life. In the scriptures it says that God breathed into man, the “breath [or
spirit] of life” (Gen 2.7). This divine teaching has given rise to the
understanding in the Orthodox Church that man cannot be truly human, truly
himself, without the Spirit of God. Thus Saint Irenaeus (3rd c.) said in his well-
known saying, often quoted by Orthodox authors, that “man is body, soul, and
Holy Spirit.” This means that for man to fulfil himself as created in the image
and likeness of God-that is, to be like Christ who is the perfect. divine, and
uncreated Image of God-man must be the temple of God’s Spirit. If man is not
the temple of God’s Spirit, then the only alternative is that he is the temple of
the evil spirit. There is no middle way. Man is either in an unending process of
life and growth in union with God by the Holy Spirit, or else he is an unending
process of decomposition and death by returning to the dust of nothingness out
of which he was formed, by the destructive power of the devil. This is how the
Orthodox spiritual tradition interprets the “two ways” of the Mosaic law:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing and curse, therefore choose life that you and
your descendants may live, loving the Lord, obeying His voice and cleaving to
Him, for that means life to you (Dt 30.19–20).
It is this same teaching that the Apostle Paul gives in his doctrine of the
“two laws” at work in the life of man.
For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members
another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of
sin which dwells in my members. .?.?. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. .?.?. For those who live
according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, hut those who
live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the
mind on the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 7.14–8.17).
Every human being is confronted with these two possibilities, ultimately
the only two possibilities of human existence. Either a person chooses life by
the grace of God and the power of the Spirit-the “abundant” and “eternal life”
given by God in creation and salvation through Jesus Christ-or the person
chooses death. The whole pathos of human existence consists in this choice,
whether a person is aware of it or not. Christian spiritual life depends on the
conscious choice of the “way of life.” To “choose life” and to walk in the “way
of life” is the way that man shows himself to be in the image and likeness of
God.
For by the hands of the Father, that is by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man,
and not merely a part of man, was made in the likeness of God .?.?. for the
perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul, receiving the
Spirit of the Father and the fleshly nature which was also moulded after the
image of God .?.?. the man becomes spiritual and perfect because of the
outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness
of God.
If in a man the Spirit is not united to the soul, this man is imperfect. He
remains animal and carnal. He continues to have the image of God in his flesh,
but he does not receive the divine likeness through the Holy Spirit (Saint
Irenaeus, 2nd c., Against Heresies).
Sin
Sin, according to the scriptures is “lawlessness” and “wrongdoing” (1Jn
3.4, 5.17). To do wrong and to be unrighteous is to sin. In the Greek language
the word sin originally meant “missing the mark,” that is, moving in the wrong
direction, toward the wrong aims and goals. It means choosing and going in the
way of death, and not the way of life.
There are many scriptural expressions for sin, all of which presuppose a
primordial rightness and goodness. The word fall indicates a movement down
and away from an original high and lofty state. The word stain reveals that
there was once an original purity that has been defiled. The word transgression
means a movement against that which is primarily right. The word guilt reveals
prior innocence. The words estrangement and alienation indicate that one was
first “at home,” living in a sound and wholesome condition. The word deviation
means that one has gone off his original way.
There are no words for sin which do not reveal in their very utterance that
sin is an unnatural state of man, a condition brought about by the destruction,
distortion, and loss of something good which was originally present. Every sin
and wickedness exists only because man’s being and life are naturally positive
and good. Every evil and sin act only as “parasites” on that which is primarily
perfect and whole. Thus, in the Orthodox tradition, sin is not considered to be a
normal and natural part of human being and life. To be human and to be a
sinner is contradictory. Rather, to be truly human is to be righteous, pure,
truthful, and good.
Spiritual life, in this sense, consists of only one thing: not to sin. Not to sin
is to be like God and His Son Jesus Christ. It is the goal of human life.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You
know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one
who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has either seen Him nor known Him.
Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as He is
righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the
devil. No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he
cannot sin because he is born of God. By this it may be seen who are children of
God, and who are children of the devil; whoever does not do right is not of God,
nor he who does not love his brother (1Jn 3.4–10).
Not to sin is the goal of human life. But in fact all people do sin. It is for
this reason that the possibility to be freed from sin and to overcome sin comes
through the saving work of Christ, who forgives the sins of the world.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him
a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing this to you so
that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the expiation for our sins, and not
for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. …by this we may be sure
that we are in Him: he who says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way
in which He walked (1Jn 1.8–2.6).
The Devil
The scriptures and the lives of God’s saints bear witness to the existence
of the devil. The devil is a fallen bodiless spirit, an angel created by God for
His service and praise. Together with the devil are his hosts of wicked angelic
powers who have rebelled against the goodness of God and seek to pervert and
destroy God’s good creation.
How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Day Star, son of Dawn!
And the angels which did not keep their own position but left their proper
dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the
judgment of the great day?.?.?. (Jude 6, cf. 2Pet 2.4).
.?.?. the devil and satan, the deceiver of the world-he was thrown down to
the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Rev 12.9).
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus speaks of the devil whom He called
“prince of this world” (Jn 12.31, 14.30, 16.11) in this way:
He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the
truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his
own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (Jn?8.44).
The devil and his multitude of evil spirits, “the principalities .?.?. the
powers .?.?. the world rulers of this present darkness .?.?. the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in heavenly places” (Eph 6.12) war against man seeking to destroy
him by ensnaring him in sin.
Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking
someone to devour (1Pet 5.8).
Christ has destroyed the power of the devil. He came into the world
precisely for this reason. If one is “in Christ” he is led out of temptation and
delivered from the evil one. If one is in Christ, the evil, who is also called
Satan, which means the Adversary who “disguises himself as an angel of light”
(2Cor 11.14), cannot deceive or harm him. To be victorious over the alluring
and deceiving temptations of the devil is the goal of spiritual life.
The World and the Flesh
In the scriptures and in the spiritual tradition of the Church, the expression
“the world” has two different meanings. In the first, “the world” is the
expression of all of God’s creation. As such it is the product of God’s goodness
and the object of His love.
According to the scriptures, God creates the world and all that is in it. He
creates the heavens and the earth as the declaration of His glory (Ps 19.1). He
creates all living things, crowned by the formation of man in His own image
and likeness. According to the scriptural record, God called His creation “good
.?.?. very good” (Gen 1.12, 18, 25, 31). And according to the Gospel, Christ has
come as the “savior of the world” (Lk 2.11, Jn 4.42).
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent His Son
into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him (Jn 3.16–17).
In addition to this positive scriptural understanding of “the world,” there is
also a negative use of the expression which has caused confusion about the
proper understanding of Christian faith and life. This negative use of the term
“the world” is presented not as God’s object of love, but as creation in rebellion
against God. Thus Christ spoke:
If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If
you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of
the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (Jn
15.18–19; cf. Jas 4.4).
Saint John continues to speak of the enmity between Christ and “the
world” in his first letter where he gives the following commandment to
Christians.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the
world. And the world passes away and the lust of it; but he who does the will of
God abides forever (1Jn 2.15–17).
The same ambiguity as that concerning “the world” exists with the
expression “the flesh.” In some instances, the term flesh is used in a positive
sense meaning the fullness of human existence, man himself. Thus it is written
about the incarnation of Christ that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1.14). It is also written that on the day of
Pentecost, God poured out His Holy Spirit “on all flesh” (Acts 2.17, Joel 2.28).
The word “flesh” in this sense carries no negative meaning at all. Rather it is
the affirmation of the positive character of created material and physical being,
exemplified by Christ who “became flesh” and commands men to “eat of my
flesh” (Jn 6.53–56).
In the scriptures again, particularly in the writings of Saint Paul, the
expression “the flesh” is used in the same negative way as “the world.” It is
employed as the catchword for godless and unspiritual existence.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of
the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things
of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it
does not submit to God’s Law, indeed it cannot please God (Rom 8.5–8).
Here, for Saint Paul, the term “flesh” is not a synonym for man’s body
which is good, and the apostle makes this perfectly clear in his writings.
The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body. … Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? .?.?. Do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy. Spirit within you, which you
have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify
God in your body (1Cor 6.13–20).
In the spiritual tradition of the Church the ambiguity about “the world”
and “the flesh” is treated carefully. It has been explained without confusion by
the spiritual teachers and proclaimed clearly in the Church’s sacraments. God’s
good creation is not evil. Material existence is not evil. Man’s fleshly body is
not evil. Only sinful passions and lusts are evil. They are evil because they treat
the created world and the fleshly body of man as ends in themselves, as objects
of idolatrous adoration and godless desire. They are evil because, as Saint
Augustine puts it, they express the “worship of the creature rather than the
Creator.”
By nature the soul is without sinful passion. Passions are something added
to the soul by its fault .?.?. The natural state of the soul is luminous and pure
through absorbing the divine light .?.?.
The state contrary to nature .?.?. is found in passionate men who serve
passions.
When you hear that it is necessary to withdraw from the world .?.?. to
purify yourself from what is of the world, you must understand the term world.
“World” is a collective name embracing what are called passions. When we
speak of passions collectively, we call them the world.?.?.?. the world is carnal
life and minding of the flesh (Saint Isaac of Syria, 6th c., Spiritual Training).
The Church
The new and abundant life given by God to man through Christ and the
Holy Spirit in creation and redemption is the life of the Christian Church. The
life of the Church is the life originally willed for man and his world by God. It
is the life of God Himself originally given in creation. It is the spiritual life.
One should not think of the spiritual life of the Church as some
particularly special kind of “religious life” different from life itself as we have
received it in our creation by God. There are not “two lives,” one “natural” and
one “religious.” There is only one life that is real, genuine and true. It is life
with God, the life of the Church. Any other life is not life at all: it is the way of
death.
What differentiates the life of the Church from the life of “this world,”
also called life “according to the flesh,” is only evil and sin. Everything
positive is created life, which God has called “good .?.?. very good,” is what is
saved and sanctified in the life of the Church. Only falsehood and wickedness
are excluded, certainly not creation itself.
In the Orthodox tradition, the Church is called the Kingdom of God on
earth, “the re-creation of the world” (Saint Gregory of Nyssa, 4th c., On the
Canticles). In the New Testament it is also called the “new creation” (2Cor
5.17), the Body and Bride of Christ Himself (Rom 12.5; 1Cor 12.27; Eph
5.23ff; Rev 21.1ff).
.?.?. God has put all things under the feet of Christ and has made Him the
head over all things for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who
fills all in all (1Tim 3.15).
The Apostle Paul also refers to “the household of God, which is the church
of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1Tim 3.15).
Genuine life, true and real life in perfection and abundance, is found only
in the Church of Christ. People who are not formally in the Church are living
truly and genuinely only to the extent that they follow the law of God “written
on their hearts” by the Spirit of God in creation (Rom 1.12–16), which is the
same law clearly revealed and given in Christ and the Church. And those people
who are formally members of the Church are living truly and genuinely only to
the extent that they actually live the life of the Church. For the sad fact exists
that one may be formally a member of the Church and still live according to the
law of the flesh, the law of sin and death, and not of Christ. The spiritual life,
therefore, consists in actually living the life of the Church.
The Sacraments
The spiritual life of the Church is given to men in the sacraments. The
sacraments are called the holy mysteries, and the entire life of the Church is
considered to be mystical and sacramental.
The new life in Christ, the genuine life of God, is given to man in baptism,
the new birth and new creation of man in Christ by the Spirit of God. In
baptism the person who rejects Satan and all of his evil works and accepts
Christ and the gift of eternal life, dies and rises again with Jesus to “newness of
life.”
we too might walk in newness of life. .?.?. So you also must consider yourselves
as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6.3–11; cf. also Col 2–3,
Gal 3).
The new life in Christ Jesus given in baptism-a perpetually dying and
rising daily with Jesus-is made possible in man by “the seal of the gift of the
Holy Spirit” in the mystery of chrismation (cf. 2Cor 1.22, Eph 1.13).
Chrismation follows baptism, and is essentially connected to it, as the Holy
Spirit comes with Christ, Pentecost comes with Easter, and life comes with
birth. There is no new life in the new humanity of divine childhood in Jesus
without the life-creating Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit in chrismation who
makes possible and powerful the spiritual life into which men are born in
Christian baptism.
The new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Church is nourished and
sustained in the mystery of the eucharist-Holy Communion. The “mystical
supper of the Son of God” is the center of the spiritual life. For Christians there
is no life at all without it:
I am the bread of life .?.?. if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever;
and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.
Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My flesh and drinks My
blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is
food indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My
blood abides in Me and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live
because of the Father, so He who eats Me will live because of Me .?.?. he who
eats this bread will live forever (Jn 6.32ff).
When a person falls away from the life of God in the Church, he or she
may be reunited to Christ by the mystery of reconciliation through penitential
confession. The abundant mercy of God abides in the Church by the presence of
Christ, and the Lord who “desires not the death of a sinner” but that he might
“turn from his wickedness and live” (Ez 18.32, 33.14) will forgive those who
come to Him in repentance (cf. Jn 6.37). Continual repentance for sin is a
central element in the spiritual life of men who choose life in God, but
continue, inevitably, to sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, Christ is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him
a liar and His word is not in us (1Jn 1.8).
In this life still bound by the sin of the world, man inevitably suffers and
dies. His outward nature is wasting away while his new nature in Christ is being
perfected. The mystery of the anointing of man’s suffering soul and body is the
sanctification of man’s “perishable nature” that his “mortal nature” might “put
on immortality” (1Cor 15.51ff). Through holy unction a person is given the
grace of the Spirit to make his suffering and death an act of victory and life.
If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall
also reign with Him .?.?. (2Tim 2.11; cf. Jas 4.13ff).
In this life as well, God has created human beings in His divine image and
likeness as male and female. The union in love between one man and one
woman forever is the created expression of the perfect love of God for His
creatures. The mystery of marriage is the human image of the “great mystery”
of “Christ and the Church” (Eph 6.21–33). In the sacrament of marriage, human
love is made eternal and divine by the grace of Christ’s Spirit. There is no
parting in death, but fulfillment in the Kingdom of God.
All of the sacramental mysteries of the Church are effected in the Church
through the sacrament of the ordained priesthood. The bishops and priests are
the ministers within the community who guarantee the reality of the mystical
life of the Church in all times and places. Through the ordained ministers
within the communion of the Church, Christ Himself is present and powerful in
the fullness of His saving activity.
The Kingdom of God
God’s gift of eternal life in Christ and the Holy Spirit is the Kingdom of
God. Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God to the world through the Spirit in
the Church. Spiritual life is life-already now-in the Kingdom of God.
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms; provide yourselves with purses
that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no
thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is there will
your heart be also (Lk 12.32–34).
To live already now in the Kingdom of God is to live in freedom from sin
and death in the gracious life of Christ and the Church. A person who has died
to sin with Christ in baptism and has been sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit
in chrismation and who participates in Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist
is already a member of the Kingdom of God.
.?.?. for through Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then
you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but are fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the
whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph
2.18–22).
The Church is called the Kingdom of God on earth; and the presence and
power of the Kingdom is identified with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who
abides in the faithful bringing to them the presence and power of God the
Father through His Son Jesus Christ.
Thus the Apostle Paul has said, “The Kingdom of God is .?.?.
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; he who thus serves Christ is
acceptable to God and approved by men” (Rom 14.17–18). And Saint Gregory
of Nyssa (4th c.) citing the earlier tradition of Christians said simply: “The
Kingdom of God is the Holy Spirit.?.?.?. The Kingdom of the Father and the
Unction of the Son.” It has always been understood in the spiritual tradition of
the Orthodox Church that to the measure with which one is filled with the Spirit
of God, to that same measure he is united with Christ and is in communion with
the Father, becoming His child and a member of His Kingdom. Thus it is the
teaching that the “acquisition of the Holy Spirit” in “seeking first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness” (Mt 6.33) is the sole purpose and content of
man’s spiritual life. It is for this, and this alone, that man has been created by
God.
Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the
desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are
against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other.?.?.?. Now the works of
the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, murder,
drunkenness, carousing, and the like.?.?.?. those who do such things shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God (Gal 5.16–21).
The Beatitudes
The Beatitudes
In the Gospel writings, the beatitudes introduce the teachings of Jesus and
are traditionally considered to contain the most concise summary of the
spiritual life of man. In the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, the beatitudes are chanted
when the Book of the Gospels is carried in solemn procession to the sanctuary
to be proclaimed as the Word of God to the faithful. Thus it is the clear
teaching of the Gospel and the Church that one enters into the mysteries of
Christ and the Kingdom of God only by way of following the Lord’s teachings
in the beatitudes.
And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be
satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds
of evil against you falsely on My account.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
(Mt 5.2–12; cf. Lk 6.20–26)
Poverty in Spirit
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt
5.3). This first beatitude is the fundamental condition for all man’s spiritual
progress and growth. Before everything else, if a person wants to live the life of
God, he must be poor in spirit.
To be poor in spirit is to recognize clearly that one has nothing which he
has not received from God, that one is nothing except by the grace of God. This
blessed poverty is called “spiritual” in Saint Matthew’s Gospel because, first of
all, it is an attitude of mind and heart, a conviction of the soul. It is the
condition of man in total emptiness and openness before God, primarily in
relation to the things of the Spirit, that is, to understanding and insight, to will
and desire.
To be poor in spirit is to be devoid of all pride and trust in the power of
one’s own spirit. It is to be freed from all reliance on one’s own ideas, opinions
and desires. It is to be liberated from the “vain imaginations” of one’s own
heart (Jer 23.17, Rom 1.21). For as the holy Virgin Mary, the perfect model of
poverty in spirit, has sung in her magnificent song:
God has shown strength with His arm,
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And has exalted the humble and meek,
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty (Lk 1.51–54).
Jesus Himself was poor, not only in body but in spirit. Not only was the
Lord a poor man, without “place to lay His head” (Mt 8.20) but His physical
poverty was the direct result of His perfect poverty of spirit.
Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but
only what He sees the Father doing .?.?. I can do nothing on my own authority
.?.?. (Jn 5.19, 30).
If a person wishes to embark on the spiritual life, he must abandon all
things and follow Christ in poverty of spirit. To be poor in spirit is simply to be
wholly set free from the sinful lusts of this world.
If anyone loves this world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is
of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the
will of God abides forever (1Jn 2.15–17).
The first revelation of the will of God is that His creatures must be poor in
spirit. The violation of this spiritual attitude is the original sin and the source of
all sorrows.
Blessed Mourning
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mt 5.4). This
is the second beatitude, and it logically follows the first. If one is poor in spirit,
liberated from the spiritual and physical lusts of this world, he will necessarily
mourn and weep over the conditions of man.
The poor in spirit know how foolish and sad it is to be caught by sin, to be
victimized by falsehood and evil, to be wedded to destruction and death.
Viewing the realities of this world without God, the world captivated by its own
vain imaginations, the world thinking itself rich and prosperous and needing
nothing but in fact “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked” (Rev 3.17), the
spiritually poor man can only mourn. Knowing what could be from God, and
what is actually with God, he will mourn and weep like the prophets over sinful
Israel, like Jesus over the corpse of Lazarus and the city of Jerusalem (Jn 11.35,
Mt 23.37), like Jesus Himself in the garden, confronted by His own cup of
suffering which was so senseless and cruel.
Blessed mourning for sin is essential to the spiritual life. But in the victory
of Christ, it is not morbid or joyless. On the contrary, it is filled with hope, with
gladness and with light.
As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were
grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss
through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and
brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness
this godly grief has produced in you .?.?. (2?Cor 7.9–11).
In his writings, Saint John Climacus (7th c.) follows this teaching of Saint
Paul. It is the classical teaching of the Christian spiritual tradition. The end of
blessed mourning is not despondency or remorse, it is repentance and salvation.
It is the “mourning which causes joy.”
Mourning, according to God, is sadness of soul and the disposition of a
sorrowing heart which ever madly seeks for that which it thirsts?.?.?.
Mourning is a golden spur in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and
all ties?.?.?.
Keep a firm hold of the blessed joy-grief of holy mourning and do not stop
working at it until it raises you high above the things of this world and presents
you pure to Christ.
The fruit of morbid mourning is vain glory and self-esteem, but the fruit
of blessed mourning is comfort.
He who is clothed in blessed and grace-given mourning .?.?. knows the
spiritual laughter of the soul.
My friends, God does not ask or desire that man should mourn from
sorrow of heart, but rather out of love for Him he should rejoice with spiritual
laughter.
When I consider the actual nature of compunction, I am amazed at how
that which is called mourning and grief should contain joy and gladness within
it, like honey in the comb (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 7).
“So do not make a passion the remedy against passion,” says Saint Nilus
of Sinai, “est you anger .?.?. Him who granted you this blessing [of mourning
and tears]. For in shedding tears for their sins many people forget the purpose
of tears, and getting into a frenzy, they go astray” (Saint Nilus of Sinai, 5th c.,
Texts on Prayer).
Meekness
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt 5.5). Meekness
is an essential possession of the spiritual person. Jesus Himself was meek.
All things have been delivered to me by My Father; and no one knows the
Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and any one
to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from
Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For
My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Mt 11.27–30).
The apostles of Christ taught meekness. Saint Paul mentions it in all his
writings and Saint James insists upon it.
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show
his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish
ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom is
not such as it comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For
where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile
practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open
to reason, full of mercy and good fruits .?.?. (Jas 3.13–17).
To be meek means to be gentle and kind, to be empty of all selfishness and
earthly ambition. It means, in a word, never to return evil for evil, but always in
everything to overcome evil by good (cf. Rom 12.14–21).
Meekness means to distrust and reject every thought and action of external
coercion and violence, which in any case can never produce fruitful, genuine
and lasting results.
Meekness is to have the firm and calm conviction that the good is more
powerful than evil, and that the good ultimately is always victorious.
To refer once more to Saint John Climacus:
Meekness is an unchangeable state of mind which remains the same in
honor and dishonor. Meekness is the rock overlooking the sea of irritability
which breaks all the waves that dash against it, remaining itself unmoved.
Meekness is the buttress of patience, the mother of love and the foundation of
wisdom, for it is said, “The Lord will teach the meek His way” (Ps 24.9). It
prepares the forgiveness of sins; it is boldness in prayer, an abode of the Holy
Spirit. “But to whom shall I look,” says the Lord, “to him who is meek and quiet
and trembles at my word” (Is 66.2). In meek hearts the Lord finds rest, but a
turbulent soul is the seat of the devil (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 24).
Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be satisfied” (Mt 5.6). Strictly speaking, this beatitude of the Lord blesses, not
the righteous, but the seekers of righteousness. It is those who are hungry and
thirsty for what is just and good who receive the blessings of God, who also
says:
Do not be anxious, saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we
wear?” For the heathen seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows
that you need them all. But seek first His kingdom and its righteousness, and all
these things shall be yours as well (Mt 6.31–33).
Man’s life consists in seeking, in hungering and in thirsting for
righteousness. This is the spiritual teaching of the scriptures and the saints. The
satisfaction and rest comes from God, but is a satisfaction and rest which itself
always and for eternity becomes the basis of a new hunger and thirst. This is
not in contradiction to Christ’s teaching that “he who comes to Me shall not
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (Jn 6.35). It is rather the
affirmation that the “inquiet” of man’s heart, as Saint Augustine (5th c.) has
said, is created “toward God,” and that the “rest” which is found in Him is
itself, as Saint Maximus (7th c.) has said, an “ever-dynamic rest,” always
growing and developing in ever greater union with the uncontainable and
inexhaustible richness and fullness of divine being and life.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (4th c.) said it this way:
.?.?. the human mind .?.?. constantly flowing and dispersing to whatever
pleases the senses .?.?. will never have any notable force in its progress
towards the True Good [i.e. God].
For it is impossible for our human nature ever to stop moving; it has been
made of its Creator ever to keep changing. Hence when we prevent it from
using its energy on trifles, and keep it on all sides from doing what it should
not, it must necessarily move in a straight path towards truth (On Virginity).
Thus, in a certain sense, it [our humanity] is constantly being created,
ever changing for the better in its growth in perfection; along these lines no
limit can be envisaged, nor can its progressive growth in perfection be limited
by any term. In this way, in its state of perfection, no matter how great and
perfect it may be, it is merely the beginning of a greater and superior stage
(Commentary on the Song of Songs).
This spiritual teaching means that the truly spiritual person will not
merely move from unrighteousness to righteousness, but will move for all
eternity in God to ever-greater righteousness and perfection, The hunger and
thirst in this way is an essential characteristic of the living soul of the righteous
person; it is the essential dynamic of spiritual life. The Apostle Paul has given
this very doctrine:
.?.?. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward
to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded?.?.?. (Phil
3.13–16).
And we all, with unveiled faces, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being
changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord who is the spirit (2Cor 3.18).
There is no satisfaction for man’s spirit but God. It is the satisfaction of
perpetual growth in union with God. To hunger and thirst for God, “for the
living God” (Ps 42.2) is spiritual life. To be filled and contented with anything
else is death for the soul.
Mercy
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5.7). To be
merciful is to be like God, for “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Ps 103.8).
The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a
God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin?.?.?.” (Ex 34.6–7). This
also is the teaching of Christ in His Sermon on the Mount:
.?.?. love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return;
and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for
He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is
merciful (Lk 6.35–36). (Exodus 34:6–7)
To be merciful does not mean to justify falsehood and sin. It does not
mean to be tolerant of foolishness and evil. It does not mean to overlook
injustice and iniquity. God is not this way, and does not do this.
To be merciful means to have compassion on evil-doers and to sympathize
with those who are caught in the bonds of sin. It means to forego every self-
righteousness and every self-justification in comparison with others. It means
to refuse to condemn whose who do wrong, but to forgive those who harm and
destroy, both themselves and others. It is to say with utter seriousness, “forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt 6.12).
According to Jesus, the spiritual person will be merciful because he
himself is in need of mercy. The spiritual person will be merciful because he
knows that he himself is a sinful man in need of God’s mercy and help. There is
no one without sin, no one who can claim righteousness before God. If one
claims to have no sin, says Saint John, he is a liar, and makes God a liar as well
(1Jn 1.10,2.4). The spiritual person, because he is in union with God,
acknowledges his sin and his need for forgiveness from God and from men. He
cannot condemn others for he knows, but for the grace of Christ, that he
himself stands unworthy and condemned.
If Thou O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, who could stand? But there is
forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayst be feared (Ps 130.3–4).
The merciful person is merciful toward himself as well as others. This
does not mean that he makes light of his sins and takes God’s forgiveness for
granted. It means rather that he does not plague himself with neurotic guilt and
remorse, surrendering to sinful scruples which are the death of the soul. It
means that he trusts in the loving-kindness of God and knows, as Saint Paul has
said, that no works of his own will ever deliver him from the need of God’s
mercy and love.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this not your own
doing, it is the gift of God-not because of works, lest any man boast. For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2.8–10).
Thus it is the continual reception of the mercy of God and nothing else
which empowers the soul to good works. And it is only the merciful who attain
mercy from God. For all eternity man will be at the disposal of God’s mercy. At
whatever stage of development he will reach, man’s prayer will always remain
the central prayer of the Church: Lord have mercy on me a sinner! The holier
the person, the greater is his sense of sinful unworthiness, the stronger is his
dependence on the mercy of God, and the more he is merciful to the
weaknesses of others.
Purity in Heart
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5.8). Purity of
heart means to be free of all wicked motivations and sinful intentions, and to
have no unworthy interests and self-seeking desires. It means to be totally free
from anything which blinds and darkens the mind so that it cannot see things
clearly and honestly. It means to be totally liberated from anything which
captivates and darkens the soul so that it cannot reflect and shine with the pure
light of God.
In another place in His Sermon on the Mount, the Lord has said:
The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your body will be
full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
(Mt 7.22–23).
The pure in heart are those whose eyes are sound. The pure in heart are
those who can say with the psalmist:
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life.
Thou hast said, “Seek ye My face!”
My heart says to Thee,
“Thy face, O Lord, do I seek.”
Hide not Thy face from me (Ps 27).
To seek but one thing, the face of the Lord, is purity of heart. To will but
one thing, the light of the Lord in the depth of one’s soul, is to live in utter
purity. It is for this reason that Christ’s mother Mary is the image of perfect
purity. The holy Virgin is “all-pure” not merely because of her bodily
continence, but also because of her spiritual soundness. Her heart was pure. Her
mind was sane. Her soul magnified the Lord. Her spirit rejoiced in God her
Savior. Her body was His spiritual temple. For this reason God regarded her
humility and did great things for her. For this reason all generations call her
blessed. For this reason she is “full of grace” and the Lord is with her. For she,
in her simple purity, could say to God: “Let it be to me according to Your
word” (cf. Lk 1).
In the spiritual tradition of the Orthodox Church, purity of heart is an
essential condition for union with God. When man’s heart is purified from all
evil, it naturally shines with the light of God, since God dwells in the soul. This
is the doctrine of the saints as expressed by Saint Gregory of Nyssa.
.?.?. the man who purifies the eye of his soul will enjoy an immediate
vision of God .?.?. it is the same lesson taught by the Word [i.e. Christ] when
He said, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17.21).
This teaches us that the man who purifies his heart of every passionate
impulse will see the image of the divine nature in his own beauty.
You must then wash away, by a life of virtue, the dirt which has clung to
your heart like plaster, and then your divine beauty will once again shine forth
(On the Beatitudes, Sermon 6).
The Apostle Paul has said the same thing in his pastoral letters.
To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and faithless nothing is
pure; their minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but
they deny Him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any
good deed (Titus 1.15–16).
If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel of
noble use, consecrated and useful to the master .?.?. ready for any good work.
So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love and peace,
along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart (2Tim 2.21–22).
Peacemakers
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”
(Mt 5.9).
Christ, the “prince of peace,” (Is 9.6) gives the peace of God to those who
believe in Him.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I
give to you (Jn 14.27).
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace (Jn 16.33).
This is the peace which St Paul lists as one of the “fruits of the Holy
Spirit” (Gal 5.22); the “peace of God which passes all understanding” (Phil
4.7). It is peace understood as “the liberation from passions, which cannot be
attained without the action of the Holy Spirit” (Saint Mark the Ascetic, 4th c.,
Two Centuries on Spiritual Law). The peacemakers are those who have the
peace of God in themselves and spread this peace to those around them. This
peace, first of all, is the freedom from all anxiety and fear. It is the peace of
those who are not anxious about their lives, about what they shall eat and drink,
about what they shall wear (cf. Mt 6.25–33). It is the peace with which men’s
hearts are not troubled nor afraid of anything (cf. Jn 14.27). It is the peace
which exists in men even in the most terrible of human situations, in suffering
and in death. It is the peace which is in the one who can say:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? As it is
written, “For Thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as
sheep to be slaughtered” (Ps 44.22).
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who
loved us. For I am sure neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8.35–39).
The inner peace of God is not the absence of external conflict. The
peacemakers of God are not those who are freed from terrific struggles in life,
or those who can cause the absence and disappearance of strife among men.
Christ Himself did not do this. On the contrary, the Prince of Peace Himself,
the Lord who gives strength and peace to His people (Ps 29.11), has claimed
that He Himself will be the cause of much conflict among men.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to
bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a
daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or
mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter
more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who does not take up his cross and
follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it; and he who
loses his life for My sake will find it (Mt 10.34–39; Lk 12.49–53).
The blessed peacemaker is the one who bears witness to Christ and takes
up his cross and loses his life for the Lord without fear or anxiety. He is the one
who enters every human conflict until the end of time, fortified by the peace of
God. He is the one who does not deny the Lord or compromise His truth by the
exercise of violence, but bears witness by his own peace in the midst of
conflict, the peace which is “not as the world gives” (Jn 14.27). Thus, the
peacemaker does not provoke others to irritation or violence, except by the
truth and love of his life, and leaves all vengeance to the Lord. He is the one
who follows Jesus in overcoming evil only by good.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved,
never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written,
“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Lev 19.18, Deut 32.35). No,
“if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so
doing you will heap burning coals upon his head” (Prov 25.21– 22). Do not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom 12.18–21).
In making peace, the peacemaker himself is a son of God like the Lord
Jesus Himself, who paradoxically and inevitably is the cause of much scandal
and strife (cf. Lk 2.34–35, 7.23, 21.18).
Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute
you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake” (Mt 5.10–11). In
saying these words, Christ promised that those who would follow Him would
certainly be persecuted. This is a central prediction of the Gospel and an
essential condition of those who accept it.
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his
master.’ If they persecute Me, they will persecute you; if they have kept My
word, they will keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on My account,
because they do not know Him who sent Me (Jn 15.20–21).
True Christians will always be persecuted for Christ’s sake. They will be
persecuted with Christ and like Christ, for the truth that they speak and the
good that they do. The persecutions may not always be physical, but they will
always be spiritual and psychological. They will always be mindless, unjust,
violent, and “without cause” (Ps 69.4, Jn 15.25). They will always be painful
and the cause of much suffering. For “indeed all who desire to live a godly life
in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2Tim 3.12).
A person embarking on the spiritual life must expect persecution and
slander. He must be wary, however, of any false persecution complex, and must
be absolutely certain that the suffering he meets is solely “for righteousness’
sake” and not because of his own weaknesses and sins. The apostolic scripture
makes this precise warning:
For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering
unjustly. For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it, you
take it patiently. But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently,
you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ
suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. If
you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit
of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or
a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God (1Pet 2.19–21,
4.14–16).
The suffering of Christians must be accepted gladly, with mercy and love
to those who inflict it. Here once again is the Lord’s own example, as well as
that of His prophets, apostles, martyrs and saints. As Christ said, “Father,
forgive them .?.?.” (Lk 23.34), while hanging on the Cross; and as the first
martyr Stephen prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7.60),
while being stoned, so all those who follow God’s righteousness must forgive
their offenders “from their hearts” (cf. Mt 18.35).
But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who
strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away
your cloak do not withhold your coat as well .?.?. Love your enemies, and do
good, and give, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and
you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and selfish.
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be
judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be
forgiven; give, and it will be given to you .?.?. (Lk 6.27–38).
The generous and loving forgiveness of the persecuted for the persecutors
is an essential condition of the spiritual life. Without it, all suffering “for
righteousness’ sake” is in vain, and does not lead to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Rejoice and Be Glad
“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven .?.?.”
(Mt 5.11). Joy is an essential element of the spiritual life, and is one of the
“fruits of the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5.22). There is no genuine spirituality without
joy. From the first pages of the Gospel, until the very end, the apostles of
Christ, with Mary His mother and all Christians, are continually rejoicing in the
salvation which Jesus has given.
By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be
my disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you; abide in My
love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have
kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have
spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (Jn
15.8–11).
.?.?. your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you .?.?.
ask and you will receive that your joy may be full (Jn 16.22–24).
Christian joy is not earthly happiness, pleasure or fun. It is the “joy in
believing” (Rom 15.13). It is the joy of knowing the freedom of truth in the
love of God (cf. Jn 8.32). It is the joy of being made worthy to “share in
Christ’s sufferings” (1Pet 4.13).
By His great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s
power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer
various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold
which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen Him, you love Him,
though you do not now see Him you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable
and exalted joy (1Pet 1.3–8).
Spiritual joy goes together with spiritual suffering. It is wrong to think
that joy comes only at the end when the suffering is over. Joy in Christ goes
together with suffering in Christ. They co-exist and are dependent on each other
for their power and strength. As blessed mourning over sin is the mourning that
comes with the joy of salvation, so suffering in the flesh, in this world, is
consonant with-and in a real sense is even caused by-the unspeakable joy of
salvation. Thus Saint James can say that Christians should “count it all joy”
when they “meet various trials,” knowing that the “full effect” of their steadfast
faith is that they may be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas 1.2–3).
And this is the firm conviction of Saint Paul as well.
.?.?. we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we
rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not
disappoint us, because God’s love his been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Rom 5.2–5).
It is the spiritual joy of Christians, the joy of the martyrs, which, more
than anything else, is the invincible witness to the truth of the Christian faith
and the genuineness of the Christian spiritual life.
The Virtues
The Virtues
In addition to the beatitudes of Jesus, there are many fruits of the Holy
Spirit enumerated in the apostolic scriptures and referred to in the writings of
the saints of the Church. These fruits of the Spirit are often called the Christian
virtues, which literally means those powers and possessions of the mind and the
heart which all men should have if they are truly human, fulfilling themselves
as created in the image and likeness of God.
Generally speaking, all of the human virtues are attributes of God Himself.
They are the characteristics of Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God in human
flesh. They are the divine properties which should be in all human persons by
the gift of God in creation and salvation through Christ.
It has been said, and it is true, that the Christian virtues are not all
particularly “Christian” in the sense that only Christians know about them and
are committed to attain them. Most, if not all, of the Christian virtues have
been honored, respected and recommended by all great teachers of the spiritual
life. This in no way detracts from their Christian value and truth, for Christ and
His apostles and saints have not taught and practiced something other than that
which all men should teach and practice. As the fulfillment of all positive
human aspirations and desires, it is quite understandable that Jesus Christ, the
perfect “man from heaven” and “final Adam” (1Cor 15.45–47, Rom 5.14),
should fulfill and realize in Himself that which all men of wisdom and good-
will have sought for and desired in their minds and hearts, enlightened by God.
For in truth, whatever is found in man to be good and beautiful and true, is
found there because of God and is from God. This is the case, whether it is
realized or not, “for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas 1.17), and it is Christ Himself, the
eternal Son and Word of God, who is the light and the life of every man who
has ever lived and been enlightened on this earth (cf. Jn 1: 1–10). Thus the
Apostle Paul has counseled Christ’s faithful:
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is
just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about those things (Phil
4.8).
As we “think about those things,” we will refer to the teaching of the
apostle himself, and to all of the apostles and teachers of the Christian faith
who have been enlightened and inspired by God through the Lord Jesus Christ,
by the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.
Faith
The foundation of all Christian virtue and life is faith. Faith is the natural
possession of all men who are wise and virtuous. For if a person lacks faith in
man’s ability to know, to do good and to find meaning in life; if he does not
believe that this is possible, profitable and worthy of man’s efforts, then
nothing wise or virtuous can be achieved. The striking characteristic of all
prophets of doom, apostles of despair and preachers of absurdity is the absence
of faith in man’s capabilities for goodness and truth, and the absence of faith in
the meaning and value of life. It is also an absence of faith in God.
Faith in God is the fundamental virtue of all the saints (cf. Heb 11). The
prototype of the believer in God is Abraham, the father of Israel.
The promise to Abraham and his descendents that they should inherit the
world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
That is why righteousness depends on faith in order to guarantee it to all
his descendents .?.?. who share the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us
all .?.?. in the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, he grew
strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to
do what He had promised. That is why his faith was “reckoned to him as
righteousness” (Gen 15.6). But the words “it was reckoned to him,” were
written not for his sake only, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who
believe in Him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death
for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Rom 4.13–25).
Faith in God is fundamental for the spiritual life. And to believe in God is
to believe in His Son Jesus Christ as well.
Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.
[.?.?.] Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; or else believe
Me for the sake of My works themselves (Jn 14.1–11).
Faith in Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” is the center of
the Christian life and the foundation of the Church (Mt 16.16). It is the source
of all wisdom, power and virtue. It is the means by which man can know and do
all things, for “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9.23, Mt
17.20).
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless
it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you
are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing (Jn 15.4–5).
Faith, first of all, is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things not seen” (Heb 11.1). It is confidence in the spiritual capabilities of man
and in the goodness and power of God. It is intellectual assent and existential
everyday trust in the promises and gifts of God, given to the world in creation
and in salvation in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Faith itself is a “gift of God”
given to all and accepted by the poor in spirit and the pure in heart, who are
open to the activity of God in their lives (Eph 2.8).
Genuine faith is not a blind leap in the dark, an irrational and unreasonable
acceptance of the unreasonable and the absurd. Genuine faith is eminently
reasonable; it is rooted and grounded in man’s reasonable nature as made in the
image of God. Not to believe, according to the scriptures and the saints, is the
epitome of absurdity and foolishness.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
to see if there are any that act wisely that seek after God.
(Pss 14.1–2, 53.1–2)
Man was made to have faith in God. Not to believe in God is a perversion
of human nature and the cause of all evils. The weakness and absence of faith
in God is rooted in sin, impurity and pride. It is never simply the result of an
intellectual mistake or mental confusion. It is always the result of the
suppression of the truth through wickedness, the exchange of God’s truth for a
lie, the refusal, consciously or unconsciously, to acknowledge God with honor
and thanksgiving (cf. Rom 1).
You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall see, but never
perceive. For this people’s heart has drawn dull, and their ears are heavy of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their
eyes and bear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn to Me to
heal them (Is 6.9–10, Mt 13.14–15).
The spiritual person lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me” (Gal 2.20). The spiritual person is the one who, by the
grace of God’s Spirit, is faithful in all things.
Hope
The virtue of hope goes together with the power of faith. The patriarch
Abraham “in hope believed against hope that he should be the father of many
nations” (Rom 4.18). And hope, like faith, is in that which is not seen.
For in this hope we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who
hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it
with patience (Rom 8.24–25).
Hope is the assurance of the good outcome of our lives lived by faith in
God. Hope is the power of certain conviction that the life built on faith will
produce its fruits. Hope is the confidence that, despite all darkness and sin, the
light of the loving forgiveness of God is upon us to do with us and for us what
we ourselves cannot do.
Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and shield. Yea our hearts are
glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Thy steadfast love, O Lord
be upon us, even as we hope in Thee (Ps 33.20–22).
The opposite of hope is despondency and despair. According to the
spiritual tradition of the Church, the state of despondency and despair is the
most grievous and horrible condition that a person can be in. It is the worst and
most harmful of the sinful states possible for the soul.
The loss of hope is the worst possible state because without hope, nothing
else is possible; certainly not faith. If a person is faithless, he can be chastised
and convinced. If a person is proud, he can be humbled; impure, he can be
cleansed; weak, he can be strengthened; wicked, he can be made righteous. But
if a person is despondent and despairing, the very condition of his sickness is
such that his heart and soul are dead and unresponsive to the grace of God and
the support of his brothers.
.?.?. the force of despondence .?.?. overwhelms him and oppresses his
soul; and this is a taste of hell because it produces a thousand temptations:
confusion, irritation, protesting and bewailing one’s lot, wrong thoughts,
wandering from place to place, and so on (Saint Isaac of Syria, 6th c.,
Directions on Spiritual Training).
The demon of despondency, which is called the “noon-day demon” (Ps
91.6) is more grievous than all others. .?.?. It arouses in him vexation against
the place and mode of life itself and his work, adding that there is no more love
among the brethren, and no one to comfort him. .?.?. Then it provokes in him a
longing for other places .?.?. (Evagrius of Pontus, 4th c., To Anatolius: On
Eight Thoughts).
The only remedy for despair is humility and patience, the steadfast
holding to the life of faith, even without conviction or feeling. It is the
simplification of life by going through each day, one day at a time, with the
continual observances, however external, of scriptural reading, liturgical
worship, fasting, prayer, and work. In the advice of Saint Benedict (6th c), it is
to remain stable in one’s place, and to “do what you are doing” as well as you
can, with all possible attention. In the advice of Saint Seraphim (19th c.), it is
to visit with spiritual friends, with those who are hopeful, merciful, joyful and
strong. It is to stand fast to the end while passing through aridity and darkness,
until the light of blessed hope and comfort are found. There is no other way,
and “those who find it are few” (Mt 7.14). But when one “fights and conquers
against despondency and despair, this struggle is followed by a peaceful state
and the soul becomes filled with ineffable joy” (Evagrius, To Anatolius: On
Eight Thoughts).
When we are attacked by the demon of despondency-the most grievous of
all, but who more than all makes the soul experienced-let us divide our soul in
two, and making one part the comforter and the other part the comforted, let us
sow seeds of good hope in ourselves, singing with David the psalmist: “Why are
you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God;
for I will again praise Him, my help and my God” (Ps 42.5; Evagrius of Pontus,
To Anatolius: Texts on Active Life).
Sometimes people think that a certain “lack of hope” is a Christian virtue.
They think that by proclaiming that “all is lost” they please God by their
humility and sorrow over sins, their own and those of the world. They think that
the more they concentrate on the evils of men, the more they exalt the strength
of the wicked, the more they sigh and say, “There is no help for us in God!”, the
more righteous and pious they become. But this is all wrong. It has nothing to
do with the patient suffering at the hands of the wicked, and the patient struggle
against the powers of evil that the righteous must endure, being absolutely
certain of their ultimate and total victory in God, the source of their strength
and their hope.
It is no virtue to feel weak and helpless in the presence of the wicked. It is
no virtue to consider oneself totally at the mercy of evil and sin. It is a virtue
rather to be always “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation” knowing and
believing that the final victory is God’s (Rom 12.12).
Knowledge
Faith and hope go together with knowledge. They are built on knowledge
and lead to knowledge. For what is “not seen” is believed and hoped on the
basis of what is seen. And the understanding of what is seen depends on belief
and hope in what is not seen. One’s belief and hope in the ability to know, to
trust his senses, his mind and the revelation of his God, are the foundations of
all knowledge.
Man was created to know God; not only to believe in Him and to hope in
Him, but to know Him and so to love Him and to serve Him. Knowledge of God
is the aim and goal of man’s life, the purpose of his creation by God.
And this is eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom Thou hast sent.
O Righteous Father, the world has not known Thee; and these know that
Thou hast sent Me. I made known to them Thy name, and I will make it known,
that the love with which Thou has loved Me may be in them, and I in them (Jn
17.3, 25–26).
Faith, given as a gift by God, results in the knowledge of God. The Lord
desires that man would “know the truth,” and so become free from all
blindness, ignorance and sin (Jn 8.32). This is the central teaching of the Lord
Jesus Christ, of the law and the prophets of the Old Testament and of the
apostles and teachers of the Church.
That men might know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight,
receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice and equity, that
prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth
.?.?. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom
and instruction (Prov 1.1–7).
In all of his letters, the Apostle Paul prays that the faithful would “be
filled with the knowledge of Christ’s will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing
fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” since “God
our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth” (Col 1.8–9, 1Tim 2.4).
In all of his writings, the apostle insists as well that the faithful have “all
the riches of knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ in whom are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” and that the “spiritual man” has “the
mind of the Lord .?.?. the mind of Christ” (Col 2.2–3; 1Cor 2.6–16).
The Apostle John gives the same doctrine as Saint Paul when he claims
that the “Spirit of Truth” whom Christ has given in order to “teach you all
things” and to “guide you into all the truth” (Jn 14.26, 16.13), is truly living in
the midst of the believers.
.?.?. you have been anointed by the Holy One and you know all things. I
write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it,
and know that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus
is the Christ?
I write this to you about those who would deceive you; but the anointing
which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that any one
should teach you; as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true,
and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him (1Jn 2.20–29).
This teaching of Saint John is in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah,
quoted directly by Jesus Himself, that in the Messianic Age of the new
covenant church, “.?.?.?they shall all be taught by God” (Jn 6.45; Is 54.13).
In the spiritual tradition of the Church, the knowledge of God and His
truth is the main goal of life. “For what meaning would there be for creation,”
asks Saint Athanasius the Great (4th c.), “if man should not know God?” (On
the Incarnation, Book 1). Knowledge of God, indeed knowledge itself,
according to the scriptures and the saints, is not mere “knowledge about,” the
abstract knowledge of information and rational propositions, devoid of living
experience. Knowledge is primarily and essentially an existential union, a
cleaving together of the spiritual man and the object of his knowledge. Saint
Gregory of Nyssa (4th c.) has said, “The Lord does not say that it is blessed to
know something about God, but rather to possess God in oneself.” (On the
Beatitudes, Sermon 6) The possession of God within the mind and heart is the
true knowledge of God. It comes through faith and repentance in the life of the
Church. It comes essentially through the gracious purification from all sinful
passions. Saint John of the Ladder (6th c.) has written:
The growth of fear is the beginning of love, but a complete state of purity
is the foundation of all divine knowledge.
He who has perfectly united his feelings to God is mystically led by Him
to an understanding of His words. But without union one cannot speak about
God.
The engrafted Word (Jas 1.21) perfects purity .?.?. and the disciple of
divine knowledge is illumined. .?.?. but he who has not come to know God
merely speculates.
Purity makes a theologian [i.e. one who knows God], who of himself
grasps the teachings of the Trinity (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 30).
The listing of knowledge among the virtues of man is critically important
because in the present time there exists the widespread conviction that man is
condemned to ignorance in the areas of religion and spiritual life. While most
people would grant that knowledge is possible in the realm of natural sciences,
they would deny genuine knowledge in the realm of the Spirit. They would say
that one can know the things of this physical world but cannot know the
mysteries of God, and God Himself. Thus religion becomes a matter of
personal choice and subjective taste, devoid of any pretension to objective truth
and genuine knowledge. As we have seen, this is precisely not the teaching of
the Scriptures and the saints.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be
known of God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since
the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely His eternal power and
deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are
without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or
give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless
minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged
the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or
animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they
exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen (Rom 1.18–25).
Wisdom
The virtue of wisdom differs from knowledge in that wisdom is normally
understood as the immediate insight into things, the practical understanding
and grasping of what is true and right in its living expression and form. The
wise man is the one who sees clearly and deeply into the mysteries of God. He
is the one who can give concrete advice in the everyday affairs of life, the one
who can point out the will of God to man who is confronted by actual problems
and decisions. He is the one, who like Jesus, knows not only what is in God, but
“what is in man” (cf. Jn 2.25).
In the Old Testament, a whole body of literature developed concerning the
theme of divine wisdom. (See Doctrine & Scripture, Part 2.) The Psalms,
Proverbs and other wisdom writings such as Ecclesiastes, and the Wisdom of
Solomon and Jesus, Son of Sirach show clearly what wisdom is, and what it is
to be wise.
Does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights beside the way, in the paths she takes her stand; beside the
gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
“To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the sons of men. O simple ones,
learn prudence; O foolish men, pay attention. Hear, for I will speak noble
things, and from my lips will come what is right; for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or
crooked in them.
They are all straight to him who understands and right to those who find
knowledge.
Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice
gold; for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot
compare with her.
I, wisdom, dwell in prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.The
fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom, I have insight, I have strength” (Prov
8.1–14).
In the New Testament, divine wisdom is found in Jesus Christ, who is
Himself, “the wisdom of God” (1Cor 1.24).
.?.?. among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom
of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we
impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages
for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But, as it is written, “what
no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived, what God has
prepared for those who love Him” (Is 64.4, 65.17) God has revealed to us
through the Spirit.?.?.?. And we impart this in words not taught by human
wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who
possess the Spirit (1Cor 2.6–15).
In the holy Scriptures, the Spirit of the Lord is called “the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and
the fear of the Lord” (Is 11.2). It is this Spirit that the Lord gives to those who
believe in Him.
For God has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of
His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for
the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on
earth.
For this reason .?.?. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering
you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him,
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know the hope to
which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the
saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe
.?.?.
For this reason I, Paul have written .?.?. to make all men see what is the
plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through
the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known .?.?. (Eph
1.9–10,19–19,3.1–10).
In the Church, as Saint Paul says, the divine wisdom is given to the
spiritual person. The wise man, who possesses the Spirit of God, can show forth
the “knowledge of salvation to His people .?.?. to give light to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace”
(Lk 1.77–79). The opposite of divine wisdom is sinful foolishness which brings
man to calamity, sorrow, ruin and death (cf. Prov 10–14). In the spiritual life of
the Church, it is the wise men, the spiritual masters and saintly teachers, who
have gained divine wisdom and so are made competent to direct and guide the
destiny of men’s immortal souls. It is for this reason that all men should submit
themselves to their instruction and rule.
Honesty
The wise man who has knowledge lives according to the truth through a
totally honest life. Honesty means first of all, to speak the truth and never to
“bear false witness” (Ex 20.16).
There are six things which the Lord hates, seven which are an abomination
to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood, a
heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to do evil, a false
witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers
(Prov 6.16–19; cf. 11.1, 12.17, 17.4, 21.28, 25.14, 18).
This basic scriptural teaching is also that of the apostles.
For we pray to God that you may not do what is wrong .?.?. but that you
may do what is honest .?.?. for we cannot do anything against the truth, but
only for the truth (2Cor 13.7–8).
Honesty also means to act truly and openly, without pretense, or the
presentation of a false image of oneself. It means, in a word, not to be a
hypocrite.
Above all things, Christ the Lord hated and condemned hypocrisy, lying
and deceit. He accused the devil himself, first and foremost, of being a deceiver
and liar, pretending to be other than he is, presenting himself and his teaching
as totally other than the falsehood and wickedness that they actually are (cf. Jn
8.44–47). This is the way of all the false prophets, and of the antichrist himself.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not
acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver
and the antichrist (2Jn 7).
Take heed that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name
saying “I am the Christ,” and they will lead you astray. .?.?. and many false
prophets will arise and lead many astray. .?.?. For false Christs and false
prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if
possible, even the elect (Mt 24.4, 11, 24).
In His fierce condemnation of the evil of the scribes, pharisees and
lawyers, Christ was most violent against their hypocrisy. Of all the evils of
men, the most vile in the sight of the Lord is undoubtedly hypocrisy.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside
of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of extortion and rapacity. You
blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside
also may be clean.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like
whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of
dead men’s bones and all impurity. So you also outwardly appear righteous to
men, but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Mt 23.25–28).
The spiritual person is not a hypocrite. He shows himself honestly for
what he is, and does not pretend to be what he is not. He reveals himself to all
exactly as he actually is. He does not say or do anything that would lead people
to have a false impression of him or of anyone or anything. He is utterly honest
and pure in all that he thinks, says and does, knowing that God sees all and
judges with righteousness all those who “walk in integrity” (cf. Ps 26.1, 11).
Humility
In the Orthodox tradition, humility has often been called the “mother of all
virtues,” and pride has been named “the cause of all sin.” The wise and honest
person is the one who is humble.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the spoils
with the proud.
A man’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will retain
honor (Prov 16.18, 16.19, 29.23).
According to the Gospel, in the Song of the Virgin, the Lord scatters the
proud in the imagination of their hearts and exalts those who are humble and
meek (cf. Lk 1.51–52). This is the exact teaching of Jesus.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted (Lk 14.11, 18.14, Prov 3.34).
Humility does not mean degradation or remorse. It does not mean
effecting some sort of demeaning external behavior. It does not mean
considering oneself as the most vile and loathsome of creatures. Christ Himself
was humble and He did not do this. God Himself, according to the spiritual
tradition of the Church, has perfect humility, and He certainly does not act in
this way.
Genuine humility means to see reality as it actually is in God. It means to
know oneself and others as known by God-a power, according to Saint Isaac,
greater than that of raising the dead! The humble lay aside all vanity and
conceit in the service of the least of God’s creatures, and to consider no good
act as beneath one’s dignity and honor. Humility is to know oneself, without the
grace of God, as dust, sinful and dead.
God is humble because He cares about the least: the birds in the air, the
grass in the fields, the worst of sinners (cf. Mt 6.25–30). Christ is humble
because He associates with the lowly, becoming the slave of all in taking on
Himself the sins of the world.
If I then, your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should
do as I have done to you (Jn 13.14–15).
You know that the rulers of the pagans lord it over them, and their great
men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever
would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first
among you must be your slave; even as the Son of Man came not to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mt 20.25–28).
All Christians are to follow the example of Christ in His divine humility.
Saint Paul teaches:
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better
than yourselves. Let each of you look not to his own interests, but also to the
interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ
Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled
Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God
has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father (Phil 2.3–11).
The exaltation of Jesus as a man depended entirely on His self-emptying
humility. True greatness, divine greatness, is the ability to be the least and to
the least with the absolute certitude that it is externally and divinely important,
that it is an imitation of God Himself.
True humility for the sinful man is to know that indeed, according to one’s
own possibilities and gifts, each one is truly the first and greatest of sinners (cf.
1Tim 1.15), for each one has sinned in his own way “like no other man” (Saint
Andrew of Crete, 7th c., Penitential Canon). The truly humble person is the one
who, confessing his sins, is “faithful over little,” and doing so, is exalted by the
Lord and is “set over much.” Only such a person will “enter into the joy of his
Master” (Mt 25.14–23, Lk 19.17).
Obedience
In speaking of Christ’s humility, Saint Paul said that Jesus was obedient to
God His Father “unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2.8). In truth, Jesus
obeyed God in all that He did.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of Him
who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing
of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day (Jn 6.38–39).
All that Jesus has and is, He has received from God the Father. From all
eternity, the Son has listened to the Father in order to do His work and to
accomplish His will. The will of God is that the Son should become a man, take
up the sins of the world and die in the flesh in order to raise the dead that
“nothing would be lost.” Jesus has accomplished this in divine and perfect
obedience, giving the example to all.
My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as
I will, but as Thou wilt .?.?. if this cannot pass until I drink it, Thy will be done
(Mt 26.39, 42).
There is no degradation in obedience to God, nothing shameful or
demeaning. On the contrary, to do the will of God is glory and life. It is the
highest dignity of man, his greatest joy and delight (cf. Ps 119). It is the way of
perfection for all, even for the man Jesus Himself.
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered,
and being made perfect He became the source of salvation to all who obey Him
(Heb 5.8–9).
Disobedience to God and His Son Jesus Christ is the source of all sin.
Refusal to submit to God in all things is the cause of all sorrow and death.
Those who hear the Gospel and fail to enter into the eternal rest of God, do so
only “because of disobedience” (Heb 5–6, cf. Deut 4.29–31).
In the Orthodox spiritual tradition, obedience is a basic virtue: obedience
to the Lord, to the Gospel, to the Church (Mt 18.17), to the leaders of the
Church (Heb 13.7), to one’s parents and elders, to “every ordinance of man”
(1Pet 2.13, Rom 13.1), “to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 6.21).
There is no spiritual life without obedience, no freedom or liberation from
sinful passions and lusts. To submit to God’s discipline in all of its human
forms, is the only way to obtain “the glorious liberty of the children of God”
(Rom 8.21). God disciplines us as His children out of His great love for us. “He
disciplines us for our good, that we might share His holiness” (cf. Heb 12.3–
11). Our obedience to God’s commandments and discipline is the exclusive
sign of our love for Him and His Son.
He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and
he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest
Myself to him.… If a man loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will
love him, and we will come and make our home with him. He who does not love
Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the
Father’s who sent Me (Jn 14.21–24).
Patience
To be obedient in all things to God requires the virtue of patience. Saint
Paul lists this virtue as one of the “fruits of the Spirit” (Gal 5.22). Christ
Himself in His humble obedience to God was exceedingly patient.
To be patient literally means to suffer and endure. It means to wait on the
Lord through all tribulations and trials with courage and hope. It means to put
up with ones self and others, growing gradually in the grace of God through the
daily effort to keep His commandments and to accomplish His will. Only those
who are patient, according to Christ, bring forth fruit from the seeds of God’s
Word that are sown in their hearts.
And as for that in the good soil, they are these who, hearing the Word, hold
it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience (Lk
8.15).
In times of persecution, when Christians are delivered up to answer for
Christ, being “hated by all for My name’s sake,” the Lord counsels His
followers: “in patience, possess ye your souls,” which means, “through your
endurance you will gain your lives” (Lk 21.19).
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the
farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it
receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for
the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble .?.?. against one another,
that you may not be condemned; behold the Judge is standing at the doors. As
an example of suffering and patience .?.?. take the prophets who spoke in the
name of the Lord. Behold, we call those happy who were steadfast. You have
heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how
the Lord is compassionate and merciful (Jas 5.7–11).
Too often people embarking on the spiritual life forget that patience is a
virtue, and that, because of man’s freedom, the effort to cleanse one’s life from
sin is tiresome and long. Everything is expected at once, with little striving and
small effort.
Too often, also, people who wish to be patient forget that the virtue is a
grace of God and a fruit of the Spirit. They think that they can attain patience
with themselves and with others by will power alone; by rationalizations and
human considerations. Such people never find peace for their souls.
The virtue of patience is found in the steadfast endurance given by God. It
is the power to “stay on the cross” no matter what, doing only the will of the
Lord. Patience is united with faith, hope, love, humility and obedience, which
alone brings the strength to go on. It must be renewed daily through fasting,
prayer and communion with God in the Church. It is found when one trains
oneself to remember God, to abide in Christ and to see all things in the light of
the Kingdom of God. If one wishes to be patient, one must be united with
Christ and live by the power of the Spirit. According to the spiritual teachers,
there is no other way.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is
faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the
temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure
it (1Cor 10.13).
Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never
permit the righteous to be moved (Ps 55.22; cf. 1Pet 5.7).
Courage
The virtue of courage and strength must accompany patience. Only the one
who has courage can truly be patient in all things. To be courageous means
simply not to be afraid. Many times in the Gospels, Christ speaks of this virtue
and commands it to His disciples, In so doing, He follows the Old Testament
example.
The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yea, wait for
the Lord! (Pss 27.1,14; 31.24).
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom.
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear; fear Him
who, after He has killed, has the power to cast into bell, yes, I tell you, fear
Him! (Lk 12.32,4–5).
In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome
the world (Jn 16.33).
The apostles were utterly courageous, and counseled all men to follow
their example.
Be vigilant, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong (1Cor
16.13).
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole
armor of God that you will be able to stand .?.?. (Eph 6.10).
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus .?.?. Take
your share of sufferings as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2Tim 2.1–3; cf. Heb
11.32–38).
The virtue of courage is expressed not only in times of persecution and
suffering, but also in the face of ridicule and disdain. It is expressed as well
simply, in the, smallest, most common things of everyday life. In Christ’s
parable of the talents, the man with little lost even the little that he had and was
cast into out darkness because he failed to use his small gift through lack of
courage: “and I was afraid and hid your talent in the ground” (Mt 25.25–30).
The person with courage faces all things with strength and lives ever day, in
every little thing, with the power of Christ. To be “faithful in little” is a sign of
great courage. The saints were eminently courageous in their lives and
considered this virtue to be central in the spiritual life.
Courage, according to Saint Gregory of Sinai, is the first of the “four
original virtues,” one of the four parent virtues which contain and constitute all
others (Saint Gregory of Sinai, 14th c., Instructions to Hesychasts).
If you wish to make a right beginning in your spiritual activity, first
prepare yourself for the temptations that will befall you. For the devil has the
habit of visiting with terrible temptations those whom he sees starting a
righteous life with ardent faith.?.?.?. Therefore prepare yourself to meet
courageously the temptations which will surely assail you, and only then begin
to practice them (Saint Isaac of Syria, 6th c., Directions on Spiritual Training).
If you pursue virtue .?.?. you are most likely to be attacked much by fear
.?.?. such a person should make every effort to overcome cowardice, that
daughter of unbelief and that offspring of vain-glory.
Cowardice is a childish disposition in a .?.?. vain-glorious soul?.?.?. a
failing away from faith that comes through expecting the unexpected .?.?. a
rehearsing of danger beforehand in fear, a loss of conviction.
A proud soul is a slave of cowardice; it vainly trusts in itself and fears any
shadow and sound of creatures.
.?.?. all cowardly people are vainglorious .?.?. and often have mental
breakdowns .?.?.
He who has become the Lord’s servant fears the Master alone, but he who
does not yet fear Him is often afraid of his own shadow.
He who has conquered cowardice has clearly dedicated his life and soul to
God (Saint John Climacus, 7th c., The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 21).
Faithfulness
According to the scriptures, one of the main characteristics of God is His
absolute faithfulness. This virtue in man is also considered to be one of the
“fruits of the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5.22).
To be faithful means to be absolutely true to one’s word, to be totally loyal
in one’s devotion, to be completely steadfast and unswerving in one’s own
calling and vocation. It also means to remain in humble service, in truth and in
love, no matter what the conditions or consequences. To be faithful means to be
courageous and to be and to do that which one must be and do by God’s will,
regardless of any rejection by others and in spite of any lack of recognition or
appreciation. God Himself is perfectly faithful. He has made promises and
declared covenants, keeping His word no matter what man does. When men are
adulterous and faithless, God remains faithful (cf. Jer 3, Ezek 16); for “the Lord
has sworn and will not change His mind” (Ps 110.4, Heb 7.21).
.?.?. if we deny Him, He will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains
faithful for He cannot deny Himself (2Tim 2.12–13).
Christ is faithful to His Father and to His creatures until the end. He does
not swerve from His mission but accomplishes all that God the Father has
given Him to do (cf. Jn 17.4). According to the book of Revelation, the name of
Jesus, the Word of God, is “Faithful and True”; He is called “the faithful
witness” by John (Rev 19.11, 1.5).
The spiritual person is the one who is faithful to his calling, fulfilling
every good resolution, and bearing fruit patiently with the gifts and talents
given by God. The spiritual person is faithful in every little thing-every
thought, every word, every deed-“according to the measure of faith which God
has assigned him” (Rom 12.3), “according to the measure of Christ’s gift”
which is “given to each” (Eph 4.7). Such faithfulness is the main teaching in
Christ’s parable of the talents. The one who faithfully and without fear
develops and grows with that which the Lord has provided is the one who hears
the voice of the Master.
Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little-
faithful in a very little (Lk 19.17); I will set you over much, enter into the joy of
your master (Mt 25.23).
The main enemies of faithfulness to God and man are pride, covetousness,
cowardice, envy and the refusal to serve humbly where one is, with the
conditions and gifts which God has provided. Faithlessness is born when one
“thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Rom 12.3), fears that
he cannot do with what God has given, covets his neighbors’ talents and gifts,
and moves from place to place seeking to be satisfied and filled by the things of
this world.
Faithfulness is characterized by stability of body and soul; the utter refusal
to move or be moved for any unworthy reason; the complete dedication to what
God gives one to do, with the faith, grace and strength that God gives to do it.
As it is written in the sayings of the fathers of the desert: “As a tree cannot bear
fruit if it is often transplanted, no more can a monk (or any person) that is often
changing his mind and moving from place to place.” The only way to receive
the “crown of life” is to be “faithful until death” in the place where God has put
us (Rev 2.10). The only way to find joy, wisdom and peace is to be faithful to
one’s own uniqueness, knowing that each person has his own specific life and
vocation from God which no one else has; his own specific mission which no
one else can perform. The spiritual person develops his own life in faithfulness,
without envy or fear, and so accomplishes and becomes that which God has
willed for him before the dawn of creation.
Self-Control
Self-control is also listed by the Apostle Paul as a “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal
5.22). This virtue is one which is not often easily attained because people forget
that, like patience, it is a grace of God and they must seek it from the Lord.
Instead they think that it can come from human effort and will power alone.
Self-control is one of the main characteristics of God and is one of the
main gifts to man as created in God’s image. According to the saints, self-
control is one of the main elements of the divine image in man, coextensive
with the gift of freedom which is often explained as the essential and basic
element of man’s likeness to his Creator. When one is perfectly free by the
grace of God-“where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2Cor 3.17)-
there is also perfect control over oneself.
Man loses his self-control when he sells himself to sin and becomes a
slave to the corruption of his fleshly passions. Such a man has been
characterized well in the second letter of Saint Peter.
.?.?. those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority
.?.?. bold and willful .?.?. irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be
caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant .?.?. They are
blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation .?.?. They have eyes full of
adultery, insatiable for sin .?.?. They have hearts trained in greed .?.?. They
have gone astray .?.?. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm
.?.?. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of
the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They
promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for
whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved (2Pet 2.10–19).
The man without self-control is enslaved. He is the captive of sin, the
willing instrument of carnal passions, the victim of all foolishness and evil. He
is bound in his mind and heart by “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life” (1Jn 1–17). He is a “child of the devil” (Jn 8.44, Acts
13.10, 1Jn 3.10) and possesses a “carnal mind” (Rom 8.7).
.?.?. following the course of this world, following the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among
these we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of the
body .?.?. (Eph 2.3–4, Rom 1.18–32).
Self-control, according to the spiritual tradition of the Church, is the
spiritual mastery over the lusts of the mind and the flesh. It is often called
“passionlessness” by the spiritual masters. Passionlessness (apatheia) does not
mean the destruction of the natural drives and desires of the body and soul,
such as the need for sleep, food and drink; or the emotions such as spiritual
desire, zeal, excitement, joy, awe, sorrow or fear. It means rather the control of
the feelings that are normal, natural and healthy, and the mortification of the
feelings that are wicked and evil.
Evil is to be seen, not in the nature of creatures, but in their wrong and
irrational movements.
Passionlessness is a peaceful state of the soul in which it is not readily
moved to evil.
In the soul are its spiritual powers. In the body are its senses and members.
Around the person are food, possessions, money, etc. A right or wrong use of
things, and the resulting effects show us as being either virtuous or sinful.
The scriptures .?.?. do not forbid eating or bearing children or having
money and spending it rightly, but they forbid gluttony, fornication, and so on.
They do not even forbid us to think about such things .?.?. but only forbid
us to think of them with passion and lust.
When the mind is not the master, the senses hold sway, and as a rule the
senses are mixed with the power of sin which, through pleasure, leads the soul
to pity the flesh .?.?. As a result, it undertakes, as if it were natural to do so, a
passionate and lustful and pleasure-loving care of the flesh and leads man away
from the truly natural life, urging him to be for himself the instigator of evil
.?.?.
Evil for a rational soul is to forget its natural good, thanks to a passionate
attitude to the flesh and the world. When the mind becomes the master, it
abolishes such an attitude .?.?. rightly interpreting the origin and nature of the
world and the flesh .?.?.
As the mind, keeping passion in its power, makes the senses the
instruments of virtue, so the passions, captivating the mind, move the senses to
sin. It is necessary to see how the soul should keep a suitable mode of action by
using for virtues what was formerly used for sin.
A soul moves rationally when its desiring power has acquired self-
mastery, its excitable power strives after love .?.?. and its mental power abides
in God by prayer and spiritual contemplation (Saint Maximus the Confessor,
7th c.).
Thus it is only communion with God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit,
that gives the power of self-control to the rational creature of God.
Kindness
The spiritual person is kind. He never practices cruelty in any of its forms,
but is always gentle in his relations with others. Kindness, according to the
Apostle Paul, is also a “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5.22).
According to the scriptures, God Himself is kind. For all of His anger and
wrath over the sins of men, the Lord is “kind to the ungrateful and selfish” (Lk
6.35).
For great is His merciful kindness toward us; and the faithfulness of the
Lord endures forever (Ps 117.2; cf. Pss 31.21,119.76).
Christians are urged to follow God in His kindness and to do all things
gently and with tenderness. Especially when rebuking and correcting others, the
spiritual person must be kind.
.?.?. the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an
apt teacher, forbearing; correcting one’s opponents with gentleness .?.?. (2Tim
2.24; cf. Gal 6.1).
Parents especially are urged not to “provoke their children to anger” by
unkindness and cruelty (Eph 6.4, Col 3.21).
Very often it happens that people can be kind to strangers and to those with
whom they have but a passing and casual relationship, but with persons with
whom the relationship is longer and deeper-family, relatives, co-workers,
fellow members in the same church community-it is sometimes assumed that
they may be unkind, and that they even have a certain right to act carelessly and
with harshness. This is a great temptation. Familiarity and everyday contact do
not give one the right to act unkindly or to behave crudely. To those closest and
nearest, the need for continual gentleness, tenderness and kindness in every
action and word is especially necessary. There can be no excuse for
insensitivity and harshness, whatever the relationship. Spiritual persons must
“do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith”
(Gal 6.10).
.?.?. for we are members one of another. Be angry, but do not sin; do not
let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil (cf. Ps
4).… Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for
edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear .?.?.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away
from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another as God in Christ forgave you (Eph 4.26–32).
Kindness does not mean overlooking people’s sins; it means forgiving
them. Kindness also does not mean “being nice” to everyone, whoever they are
and whatever they do. It does not mean “going along” with others in every way.
A kind person will correct others, if need be, and his very kindness will be
shown by his care and concern for the well-being of his fellow creature “for
whom Christ died” (Rom?14.15).
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and
him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother (Mt 18.15).
The correction by a kind person is never with contempt or cruelty. It never
ridicules, demeans or condemns. It always encourages and edifies with
gentleness and understanding.
Gratitude
The spiritual person is the one who is grateful for everything. He is the one
who receives everything with thanksgiving, and who knows that he has nothing
except what he has received from God (cf. Jn 3.27).
And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace (Jn?1.16).
In the Old Testament, thanksgiving was central in the life of God’s people.
The temple liturgy offered sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise, and psalms
sang continually of thanksgiving to God.
Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His Holy
Name.
Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Let us enter His gates
with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His
name!
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Thy Name, O Most
High; to declare Thy steadfast love in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by
night.
O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, for His mercy endures
forever! (Pss 30.4, 95.2, 92.1, 107.1).
In the New Testament, thanksgiving is the very essence of the Church’s
life. The word eucharist means thanksgiving, and the very center of the
Church’s liturgical worship of God is when, in remembrance of all His saving
acts in Christ, the faithful “lift up their hearts” and “give thanks unto the Lord.”
The apostolic scriptures and the lives of the saints abound with
thanksgiving to God for all things.
Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting;
but instead let there be thanksgiving .?.?. always and for everything giving
thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father (Eph 5.4, 20).
Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess 5.16–18).
Rejoice always in the Lord; again I say, Rejoice! Have no anxiety about
anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all
understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4.4–
7).
The spiritual person has thanksgiving and gratitude in all circumstances,
in everything and for everything. This thanksgiving is rooted in the firm
conviction of God’s merciful providence and care in all things, in the steadfast
faith that “God works in everything for good with those who love Him” or, as
the passage may also be rendered, “everything works together for good with
those who love God” (Rom 8.28).
The spiritual teachers, especially Saint John Chrysostom (4th c), are very
strict in this teaching. The spiritual man does not thank God only for what he
considers to be good. Rather, he thanks God for everything, even for what
appears to be bad, knowing that God’s tender care is over all, and that the evil
in this world-which is always present and inevitable (cf. Jn 17)-can itself be the
vehicle for spiritual growth and salvation if rightly understood and overcome
by the grace of God.
The opposite of gratitude is bitterness and complaining; it is bemoaning
one’s lot in life because of pride and covetousness. It is caused by the absence
of humble trust in the Lord. It is rooted in an attitude of life which does not
allow the person to exclaim with the righteous Job:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord
gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1.21).
To thank God in everything and for everything is the result of faith and
faithfulness in God. It is the result of absolute trust in the Lord who knows best
what we need for our salvation and does all that He can within the evil
conditions of the world to bring us to eternal life, to peace and to joy. It is the
product of believing, with Isaiah, the Word of the Redeemer who says:
For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather
you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with
everlasting love will I have compassion on you.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, says
the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts .?.?.
And you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and
the hills before you shall break forth into singing .?.?.
Keep justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come .?.?.
(Is 54.7–8, 55.8–9, 56.1).
A person is grateful to the extent that he trusts in the Lord and has love for
God and man.
The Greatest Virtue is Love
God is Love
According to the Christian faith “the greatest virtue is love” (1Cor 13.13).
Love is the “fulfilling of the law” of God (Rom 13.10). For God Himself is
Love.
born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His
only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man
has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is
perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given
us of His own Spirit.
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son as the Savior
of the World. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in
him, and he in God.
So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who
abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day
of judgment, because as He is so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do
with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
We love, because He first loved us (1Jn 4.7–19).
In these inspired words of the beloved Apostle John, one sees that man’s
communion with God, his entire spiritual life, is expressed in love. Where there
is no love, God is absent and there is no spiritual life. Where love is, God is,
and all righteousness.
Man’s love has its origin in God. God’s love always comes first. Men are
to love God and one another because God Himself has loved first.
God’s love is shown in the creation and salvation of the world in Christ
and the Holy Spirit. All things were made by, in and for Jesus Christ, the Word
of God, and the “Son of His love” (Col 1.13–17; Jn 1.1–3; Heb 1.2).
When the world became sinful and dead, “God so loved the world that He
sent His only-begotten Son .?.?. not to condemn the world, but to save the
world” (Jn 3.16, 12.47).
But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us (Rom 5.8). But when the goodness and love of God our Savior
appeared, He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in
virtue of His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the
Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior
so that we might be made righteous by His grace and become heirs in hope of
eternal life (Titus 3.4–7).
God’s love for man and His world in Christ is given in the Holy Spirit.
This love is the first and greatest “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5.22), “for God’s
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been
given to us” (Rom 5.5).
In the spiritual tradition of the Church, the aim of life as the “acquisition
of the Holy Spirit” is expressed most perfectly in love (cf. Saint Macarius of
Egypt, 4th c., Spiritual Homilies; Saint Seraphim of Sarov, 19th c.,
Conversation with N. Molovilov). Indeed, the Holy Spirit Himself is identified
with God’s love by the saints, as witnessed in the writings of St Simeon the
New Theologian.
O Holy Love [i.e., the Holy Spirit of God], he who knows you not has never
tasted the sweetness of your mercies which only living experience can give us.
But he who has known you, or who has been known by you, can never have even
the smallest doubt. For you are the fulfillment of the law, you who fills, burns,
inflames, embraces my heart with a measureless love. You are the teacher of the
prophets, the offspring of the apostles, the strength of the martyrs, the
inspiration of the fathers and masters, the perfecting of all the saints. Only you,
O Love, prepare even me for the true service of God (Saint Simeon the New
Theologian, 11th c, Homily 53).
Thus God who is Love enters into union with man through the Son of His
love by the Spirit of love. To live in this divine love is the spiritual life.
The first definition of love as agape is love as the action of perfect
goodness for the sake of the other. This is the most basic meaning of love: to do
everything possible for the well-being of others. God Himself has this love as
the very content of His being and life, for “God is agape.” It is with this love
that spiritual persons must love first of all.
The second definition of love as eros is love for the sake of union with the
other. Erotic love is no sin when it is free from sinful passions. It can be the
utterly pure desire for communion with the other, including God. All spiritual
writers have insisted that such love should exist between God and man as the
pattern for all erotic love in the world between husband and wife (See
Sexuality, Marriage, and Family). Thus the mystical writers and spiritual
fathers have used the Old Testament’s Song of Songs as the poetic image of
God’s love for man and man’s love for God (Philo the Jew, Gregory of Nyssa,
Bernard of Clairvaux, John of the Cross, Richard Rolle in England, et al.).
Indeed the prophets have used the image of erotic love in explaining the Lord’s
relation with Israel (Is 54; Jer 2–3,31; Ezek 16; Hos). And Saint Paul uses this
image for Christ’s love of the Church (Eph 6). In the scriptures, the union of
man with the Lord in the Kingdom of God is primarily revealed in the image of
eros (Mt 22, Rev 19–22).
.?.?. for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made
herself ready; it was granted to her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and
pure-for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints (Rev?19.7–8).
“Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Rev?21.9).
The third type of love is friendship-phila. This also should exist between
man and God. Man has no greater friend than God, and God Himself wants to
be man’s friend. According to the scriptures, the very purpose of the coming of
Christ was to dispel all enmity between God and man, and to establish the co-
working of Creator and creature in the fellowship of friendship.
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his
friend (Ex 33.11).
Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you
servants [or slaves], for the servant does not know what his master is doing.
But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father, I have
made known to you (Jn 15: 13–15).
So it is that love as goodness, love as union, love as friendship are all to be
found in God and man, between God and man, and between human beings.
There is no form of true love which lays outside the realm of the spiritual life.
Love of God
The first and greatest commandment of God is that His creatures should
love Him.
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength (Mk 12.29–30, Mt 22.37, Lk 10.27, Deut 6.4–
5).
This is the great and first commandment (Mt 22.38).
To love the Lord God with all one’s heart means to desire nothing but Him
and His holy will. The heart is the center of man according to the scriptures and
the teachings of the saints. It is the “deepest part” of man, the foundation and
guide of his life. What is in a man’s heart, and what his heart desires, is what
determines the whole life and activity of the person.
For the inward mind and the heart of man are deep (Ps 64.6).
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the
evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart produces evil; for out of the
abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks (Lk 6.45, Mt 12.34–35).
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication,
theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy,
slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and they defile a
man (Mk 7.21–23).
My son, says the Lord, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my
ways (Prov 23.26).
According to the scriptures and the saints, man’s heart grows hard, fat,
cold and corrupt when it is stubborn and rebellious against God, depriving itself
of His Holy Spirit. Many times and in many different ways this is said in the
holy writings (Deut 6.7, Is 6.10, Jer 5.23, Zechariah 7.12, Mk 8.17, Mt 19.8, et
al.). But when man sins, the Lord still loves him faithfully and purifies his
heart by grace in order that he might be saved for everlasting life.
I will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take
the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may
walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them; and they shall be
my people, and I shall be their God.
Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.
Cast away from you all transgressions which you have committed against me
and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For I have no pleasure in the
death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.
A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you .?.?. I
will put my Spirit within you and you shall live .?.?. (Ezek 11.19–20, 18.30–32,
36.26–27, 37.14; cf. Ps 51.10; Jer 31.31–34; Is 57.15–18; Joel 2.28–29).
God gives a clean heart and a new and right Spirit to man that he might
love Him in return with all of his heart. This is given in Christ, in the Holy
Spirit, in the Church of the new and everlasting covenant. It is given that man
might fulfill the first and greatest commandment of God (cf. 2Cor 3–5).
To love God with all one’s soul means to love Him with every spiritual
power and with the whole of one’s life. Sometimes the word soul is used as a
synonym in the sacred writings for life itself. Man’s soul is his life, all of his
life. When one loves God with all his soul he loves Him and serves Him in
whatever he does, doing all things “to the glory of God” (cf. 1Cor 10.31).
To love God with all one’s mind is to love God’s Word, to serve God’s
trust, to delight in God’s righteous commandments.
I find my delight in Thy commandments which I love, I revere Thy
commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Thy statutes.
O, how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. I have more
understanding than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation.
Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, above fine gold.
Therefore I direct my steps by all Thy precepts; I hate every false way .?.?. give
me understanding that I may live.
The sum of Thy word is truth, and everyone of Thy righteous ordinances
endures forever.
I long for Thy salvation, O Lord, and Thy law is my delight (Ps?119).
The love of God with all one’s mind is the “love of the Truth,” and those
who refuse such love are those who will perish (cf. 2 Thess 2.9–11). The mind
of man is the guide of his life, directed to truth by the purity of his heart. When
one loves God with all his mind, he is not “conformed to this world” but proves
“what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12.2).
He is the one who follows the advice of Saint Paul, and thinks solely and
continually about “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, if
there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise .?.?.” (Phil 4.8). He
is the one, in a word, who has “the mind of Christ” (1?Cor 2.16).
To love God with all one’s strength is to be spiritually violent in the
pursuit of God’s ll, in order to do it.
.?.?. the kingdom of God has suffered violence, and the men of violence
take it by force (Mt 11.11).
It means to do everything to please Him, with all of one’s energy and
power, to serve Him faithfully and patiently in all things until death. It is to
struggle to resist sin and every evil “to the point of shedding your blood” (cf.
Heb 12.4). It is to have, once again, the attitude and virtue of Saint Paul.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent
power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not
crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
.?.?. but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way through
great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, calamities, beatings,
imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, hunger; by purity, knowledge,
forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the
power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the
left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as
impostors, and yet are true, as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and
behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing and yet possessing
everything (2Cor 4.7–11, 6.4–10).
The one who loves God perfectly is the one who loves Him with the power
of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the “power .?.?. made perfect in weakness” (1Cor
12.9).
Love of Neighbor
After the love of God, the greatest commandment is the love of one’s
neighbor.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul and with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And a
second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two
commandments depend all the law and the prophets (Mt 22.37–40, Mk 12.30–
31, Lk 10.27, Lev 19.18).
There is no commandment greater than these (Mk 12.31).
Love of neighbor necessarily follows from the love of God, and there can
be no true love of God without it.
He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness still. He
who loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause of
stumbling. He who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and
does not know where he is going for the darkness has blinded his eyes.
If any one says “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who
does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not
seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God,
should love his brother also (1Jn 2.9–11, 4.20–21).
The love of the neighbor and the brother does not mean the love of only
those who love us and are good to us. The neighbor and the brother mean
anyone near at hand, everyone made by God, all “for whom Christ has died”
(Rom 14.15). The neighbor and the brother include also the enemies. This is the
point of Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10.29–37). It is also the
Lord’s specific teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may
be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love
those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors
do the same? And if you greet only your brethren, what more are you doing than
others? Do not even the heathen do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5.44–48).
But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you .?.?. If you love
those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who
love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that
to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you
hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to
receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting
nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and selfish (Lk 6.27–35).
This teaching of Jesus is conveyed also in the writings of the apostles.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one
another with brotherly affection .?.?. Bless those who persecute you, bless and
do not curse them .?.?. No, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty,
give him drink .?.?. Owe one another nothing, but to love one another; for he
who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not
commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,”
and any other commandment are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is
the fulfilling of the law (Rom 12.9–10, 14–20; 13.8–10; cf. Mt 25.31–46).
Genuine love is expressed in deeds, and not in words alone. It is expressed
through what one actually does in one’s life. It is manifested in concern for
others through kindly speech and generosity with one’s earthly possessions
given by God. It is revealed in one’s works of faith in keeping all of God’s
commandments.
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that Christ laid
down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if
any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart
against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love
in word or speech, but in deed and in truth (1Jn 3.14–18; cf. Jas 2.8–17).
The love of neighbor “as oneself” is sometimes misunderstood. One
should, of course, love oneself in the sense that one is faithful to God and
grateful for his life. And certainly one should love oneself in the sense that he
sees himself as uniquely important in the eyes of God and the object of God’s
own unfailing love and mercy. One should not hate oneself in the sense that he
despises the life given to him by God, rejecting his own talents and gifts
because he is envious of others. Neither should one hate oneself for being a
sinner, since, as the masters teach, such a self-hate is only the subtle form of a
more grandiose price which vaunts a person to stature of judgment greater than
that of God Himself, who is merciful, loving and forgiving (cf. Father
Alexander Elchaninoff, 20th c. Diary of a Russian Priest; Father John of
Kronstadt, 20th c. My Life in Christ).
One should certainly “hate himself,” however, in the sense that he despises
and crucifies his “old self” corrupted by sin in order to “put off the old nature
with its evil practices” and to “put on the new nature which is being renewed in
knowledge according to the image of its Creator” (Rom 6.6, Col 3.10).
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God
who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal 2.20; cf. 5.24, 6.14).
This is also what Christ undoubtedly meant when He spoke those most
violent and terrifying words in the Gospel.
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and
wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot
be My disciple (Lk 14.26).
This is the extreme and terrifying warning against all passionate
attachments stronger and more powerful than one’s passionate attachment to
Christ alone. And the greatest passion of all which keeps one from the love of
God and the love of one’s neighbor is the sinful passion for oneself. Sinful self-
love, says Saint Maximus the Confessor, is the “mother of all evils,” and the
“original sin” of man’s heart.
One must “hate oneself” in this sense, even as he must hate his family and
friends. He must hate them as objects of his sinful self-love, that he might love
them, and himself most truly in Christ.
The New Commandment
The commandments to love God and neighbor are found in the law of
Moses. They are not commandments for God’s people. They are the
commandments “written on men’s hearts” and given “by nature” itself (Rom
2.14–15). They are the commandments given by God, in His Words, to man
“from the beginning” (1Jn 2.7).
In the new covenant Church of Christ, however, there is a “new
commandment” (1Jn 2.8). It is the “new commandment” given by Jesus
Himself to those who believe in Him.
A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; even as I
have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that
you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13.34).
The new element in this “new commandment” is not the teaching of love,
for this was written in the law. The new element is that believers in Christ must
love as Christ Himself loves. The new commandment is to love “as I have
loved you.”
Christian love must be the perfect love of Christ Himself which is wholly
divine. Christian love must be the totally self-emptying love of the Lord
Himself. It must be the divine love of God the Father poured into men’s hearts
by the very Spirit of God. It must be the love that is absolutely faithful, perfect,
eternal and divine.
Of all the men who ever lived on this earth, or who ever will live, only one
has fully fulfilled the two great commandments of God; only one has lived
absolutely and perfectly according to God’s laws; only one has loved the Father
with all of His heart, mind, soul, and strength, and His neighbor as Himself.
This is Jesus Christ, the child of Mary according to the flesh.
There is no one righteous before God’s law but Jesus. Only He has lived
according to the law and by the teachings of the prophets. He alone is the one
who has “fulfilled the law and the prophets” (cf. Mt 5.17, 7.12). He alone, of all
men, has loved with perfect, sinless, dispassionate love.
He committed no sin; no guile was found on His lips. When He was reviled,
He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He
trusted to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the
tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have
been healed (1Pet 2.22–24; cf. Is 53).
Having no sin, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and became sin “for us
men and for our salvation” (Nicene Creed). In this the perfect love of God was
perfected in a human being, that all humans might share in the love and glory
of God. As all of the holy fathers have said, “He became what we are, that we
might become what He is .?.?. God became man that man might become god.”
For our sake God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God (2Cor 5.21).
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness .?.?. that you may escape from the corruption that is in the world
because of passion, and become partakers of the nature of God (2Pet 1.3–4).
Since .?.?. the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
partook of the same nature, that through death He might destroy him who has
the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of
death were subject to lifelong bondage.
Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in every respect, so that He
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make
expiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself suffered and was
tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted.
For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize [i.e., co-suffer]
with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect has been tempted as we, yet
without sinning (Heb 2.14–18, 4.15–16).
God has given us His love in Jesus. When a person is “in Christ” he can
love with the love of God. This is the “new commandment,” that men filled
with the Holy Spirit should love with the love of God Himself.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul describes the perfect love
which is Christ’s gift of God to men in the Holy Spirit. He describes what
Christian love is: the chief gift of the Spirit of God, who is love.
Through the love of Christ, men are called to bear, believe, hope and suffer
all things. This is what Christ has done. This is what love does. The one who
does this has fulfilled the “new commandment” of Jesus and abides in the love
of God. The one who does this abides in God Himself, and already possesses
eternal life as a member of His Kingdom.
The Gift of Love
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have,
and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for the prophecies, they will pass away; as for
tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our
knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect
comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I
thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up
childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I
know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully
understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is
love.
(1Cor 13.1–13)
Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving
Prayer
All of the virtues and powers of God are attained primarily by prayer.
Without prayer, there is no spiritual life. As the Russian bishop, Theophan the
Recluse, has said, “If you are not successful in your prayer, you will not be
successful in anything, for prayer is the root of everything” (Theophan the
Recluse, 19th c., The Art of Prayer, Igumen Chariton, ed.).
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to
stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be
seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go
into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and
your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Mt 6.5–6).
Prayer must be in secret. This is the first rule given by Christ. The person
who prays must do so in such a way that he would not be seen by men to be
praying.
In the spiritual tradition of the Church, the words of Christ “go into your
room” have been interpreted in two ways. First of all, they have been
understood to be a literal commandment. The praying person must close
himself off physically during times of prayer in order to pray secretly and to
avoid being seen.
Secondly, these words of Christ have been understood to mean that the
praying person must enter within himself, praying secretly in his mind and
heart at all times, without displaying his interior prayer to others. Thus the
“room” which one must “go into” is the “room of the soul.”
The room of the soul is the body; our doors are the five bodily senses. The
soul enters its room when the mind does not wander here and there, roaming
among the things and affairs of the world, but stays within, in our heart. Our
senses become closed and remain closed when we do not let them be
passionately attached to external sensory things and in this way our mind
remains free from every worldly attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites
with God its Father.
God who sees all secret things sees mental prayer and rewards it openly
with great gifts. For that prayer is true and perfect which fills the soul with
divine grace and spiritual gifts (Saint Gregory Palamas, 14th c., How All
Christians Must Pray Without Ceasing).
Thus, in the spiritual tradition of the Christian teachers of prayer, the
unification of the mind and the heart within the soul is seen to be the
fulfillment of the basic condition of prayer as commanded by Christ (cf. The
Art of Prayer, Igumen Chariton, ed.).
And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the heathen do; for they
think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not he like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Mt 6.7–8).
God knows the needs of His people. Man prays in order to unite his mind
and heart with God. He prays in order that God’s will would be done in his life.
He prays so that whatever he needs from God would be given. He prays so that
he would consciously and with full awareness express the fact that all that he is,
has and does is dependent on God. It is man who needs to pray. It is not God
who needs man’s prayers.
True Christian prayer must be brief. It must be simple and regular. It must
not be many-worded. Indeed it need not have words at all. It may be the totally
silent inner attitude of the soul before God, the fulfillment of the words of the
psalmist:
Commune with your hearts .?.?. and be silent. Be still, and know that I am
God (Ps 4.4, 46.10).
The teaching about brevity and silence in prayer is found in all of the
spiritual teachers. Saint Dimitry of Rostov sums up this teaching when he says
that the publican prayed only “God be merciful to me a sinner” and was
justified; the repentant thief prayed only “Remember me .?.?.” and received
paradise; and the prodigal son and the tax-collector, Zacchaeus, said nothing
at all, and received the mercy of the Father and the forgiveness of Christ (Lk
15.20, 18.13, 19.5, 22.42; cf. St Dimitry of Rostov, 17th c., The Art of Prayer,
Igumen Chariton, ed.).
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will
be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks, finds, and
to him who knocks it will be opened?.?.?. If you who are evil know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven
give good things to those who ask Him!
Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in My name, I will do it (Jn 14.13–14).
Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to
you in My name. Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you
will receive, that your joy may be full (Jn 16.23–24).
Whatever one asks in the name of Jesus will be given. This does not mean
that man can ask God for anything at all. He cannot ask for what is not needed,
or for what is evil. He can ask, however, and must ask for “good gifts,” for
whatever can be asked in the name of Christ, for whatever is holy and sinless
and good. If one asks for good things in faith, he will certainly receive them if
God thinks that he should have them for his life and salvation. This is the
promise of the Lord Himself.
If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and
it shall be done for you (Jn 15.7).
And whatever you ask in prayer, if you have faith, you will receive (Mt
21.22, cf. Lk 18.1–8).
Every prayer directed to God in faith is answered. This does not mean that
what is asked is always given, for God knows better than the person who prays
what is good for him. For this reason the spiritual teachers warn man against
being too long and insistent in his concrete demands of the Lord. God knows
best what is needed, and in order to prove this to His servants, He may at times
yield to their insistent demands and give what they want, but should not have,
in order to show them quite clearly that they should have trusted in His
wisdom. Thus it is always best to be silent and brief in prayer, and not too
specifically demanding. It is always best to pray: “Give what is needed, O Lord.
Thy will be done.”
How many times have I prayed for what seemed a good thing for me, and
not leaving it to God to do, as He knows best, what is useful for me. But having
obtained what I begged for, I found myself in distress because I had not asked
for it to be, rather, according to God’s will .?.?. (Saint Nilus of Sinai, 5th c.,
Texts on Prayer).
The Lord’s Prayer
When teaching men to pray, Christ said,
Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Mt 6.9–13,
cf. Lk 11.2–4).
This is the usual translation of the prayer used in the Orthodox Church. It
begins with a petition to God as “our Father.” There was no such prayer before
this teaching of Christ. The Old Testament people did not address God as
“Abba: Father” (Rom 8.15, Gal 4.6). This name of “Father” for God is given by
Christ, the divine Son of God. Men can dare, “with boldness and without
condemnation” to call upon the “heavenly God” with the name of “Father” only
when they are made worthy to do so by Christ (cf. Liturgy of Saint John
Chrysostom). In the early church the prayer “Our Father” was taught only to the
baptized members of the church.
The statement that the Father is “in heaven,” or literally “in the heavens,”
means that He is everywhere and over all things. The heavens are over all and
encompass all. Wherever man goes on the earth or in the air, or even in space,
the heavens are around him and over him. To say that the Father is “in the
heavens” means that He is not tied down or limited to any one location-as were
the gods of the heathens. The heavenly God is the “God of gods” (Deut 10.17,
2Chron 2.5), the “Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all”
(Eph 4.5), the one in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts
17.28). To say that God is “in heaven” is not to place Him somewhere; it is
rather to say that He transcends all things and yet is present to all.
“Hallowed be Thy name” means that God’s name is holy and should be
treated with respect and devotion. In the old covenant it was the custom of the
Jews never to say the sacred name of God: Yahweh, the I AM (cf. Ex 3.13–15).
This was to guard against defilement of the divine name, and to safeguard
against transgressing the commandment: “You shall not take the name of the
Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His
name in vain” (Ex 20.7).
In the New Testament, God gives Jesus the “name which is above every
name” (Phil 2.9) and in making the name of the Father holy, Christians do so in
the name of His Son.
“Thy Kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer is first of all the prayer for the
end of the ages. Christians want the world to end so that God’s Kingdom would
fill all creation with divine glory and life. “Come Lord Jesus; Marantha!” is the
prayer of the faithful, the last prayer of the Scriptures (Rev 22.20, cf. 1Cor
16.22). It is the calling for the final appearance of the Lord.
In the spiritual tradition of the Church, the prayer “Thy Kingdom come”
has also been understood as an invocation of the Holy Spirit to dwell in God’s
people. In his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, Saint Gregory of Nyssa says
that there was another reading for this petition which said “Thy Holy Spirit
come upon us and cleanse us.” Thus he says, following the scriptures, that the
presence of the Holy Spirit in man is the presence of Christ and the Kingdom of
God.
For the Kingdom of God is .?.?. righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit (Rom 14.17).
.?.?. it is God who establishes us with you in Christ .?.?. He has put His
seal upon us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2Cor 1.22).
In Him .?.?. you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit which is the
guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of
His glory.
.?.?. do not grieve the Holy Spirit in whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption (Eph 1.13–14, 4.30).
The seal of the Holy Spirit on men’s hearts is the pledge and guarantee of
the Kingdom of God still to come in all power and glory. In the prayer “Thy
Kingdom come,” believers in Jesus ask that the Kingdom of God “not coming
in external signs of observation” for the faithless to behold, might dwell
powerfully and secretly within the faithful (cf. Lk 17.20–21).
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is the center of the Lord’s
Prayer, the central desire of Christians. The whole purpose of prayer, the very
purpose of man’s life, is to do the will of God. This is what Jesus prayed and
did (cf. Mt 26.42). And this is what His followers must pray and do. There is
but one purpose of prayer, say the spiritual teachers, to keep God’s
commandments so as not to sin, thus leading to deification and divine sonship
with Christ.
The only thing that God demands of us mortals is that we do not sin. But
this .?.?. is merely keeping inviolate the image and rank we possess by nature.
Clothed thus in the radiant garment of the Spirit, we abide in God and He in us;
through grace we become gods and sons of God and are illumined by the light
of His knowledge .?.?. (Saint Simeon the New Theologian, 10th c., Practical
and Theological Precepts).
To pray “Thy will be done” according to the spiritual teachers, is a daring
and dangerous act. This is so, first of all, because when one makes this prayer,
he must be ready, like Christ, to follow where it leads. God will answer this
prayer, and make known His will. The person who prays must be ready to obey,
whatever the consequences. When asked why many Christians are frustrated
and irritated, grouchy and mean, and sometimes even somewhat “unbalanced,”
one spiritual teacher responded that the reason is clear. They pray “Thy will be
done,” and continue daily to do so, while at the same time they resist God’s will
in their lives and so are always ill at ease. Then they begin to justify their
attitudes and actions, to explain and to rationalize their behavior, before their
own consciences and others. A person in such as state can never be at peace, for
“it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Heb 10.31).
The second reason why it is said that the prayer “Thy will be done”-and
prayer generally-is daring and dangerous is because the devil ferociously
attacks the person who prays. Indeed one of the greatest proofs of demonic
temptation, and the reality and power of the devil, is to be fervent in prayer. For
the devil wants nothing so much as for man to fail to accomplish the will of
God which is the purpose of all prayer.
If you strive after prayer, prepare yourself for diabolical suggestions and
bear patiently their onslaughts; for they will attack you like wild beasts .?.?.
Try as much as possible to be humble and courageous .?.?. He who endures will
be granted great joy (Saint Nilus of Sinai, 5th c., Texts on Prayer).
The prayer for our “daily bread” is normally understood to signify
generally all of our bodily needs and whatever we require to sustain our lives in
this world. In the spiritual tradition however, this petition, because it literally
says our “essential” or “super-essential” bread, is often understood in the
spiritual sense to mean the nourishment of our souls by the Word of God, Jesus
Christ who is the “Bread of Life;” the “Bread of God which has come down
from heaven and given life to the world” (Jn 6.33–36); the bread which “a man
may eat of it and not die,” but “live forever” (Jn 6.50–51). Thus the prayer for
“daily bread” becomes the petition for daily spiritual nourishment through
abiding communion with Christ so that one might live perpetually with God.
The prayer “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us” has been especially emphasized by the Lord.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses (Mt 6.14–15).
This is the point of Christ’s parable about the unforgiving servant (Mt
18.23–35). All men need the forgiveness of God and must pray for it. All men
are indebted to God for everything, and fail to offer the thanksgiving and praise
and righteousness that are due. The only way that God will overlook and
forgive the sins and debts of His servants is if they themselves forgive their
brothers, not merely in words and formal gestures, but genuinely and truly
“from their hearts” (cf. Mt 18.35). In the prayer taught by Christ this is clearly
acknowledged.
“Lead us not into temptation” should not be understood as if God puts His
people to the test or brings them in to the occasion of evil.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God;” for God
cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one; but each person is
tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it
has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth
death (Jas 1.13–15).
“Lead us not into temptation” means that we ask God not to allow us to be
found in situations in which we will be overcome by sin. It is a prayer that we
be kept from those people and places where wickedness reigns and where we in
our weakness will certainly succumb. It is a prayer that we will be liberated
from the deceit and vanity of our minds and hearts, from the carnal lusts that
dwell in our bodies. It is a prayer that God Himself would be man’s shelter and
refuge (cf. Ps 91).
“Deliver us from evil” says literally “rescue us from the evil one,” that is,
the devil. The meaning is clear. There are but two ways for man: God and life
or the devil and death. Deliverance from the devil means salvation and
redemption from every falsehood, foolishness, deceit, wickedness and iniquity
that leads to destruction and death.
Thus, as Metropolitan Anthony of Sorouzh has explained, the Lord’s
Prayer shows the whole meaning of the life of man (cf. Anthony Bloom, Living
Prayer). Delivered from evil, man is saved from temptation, in so doing he is
merciful to all and receives the forgiveness of his own sins. Being forgiven his
sins, by his mercy to others, he has all that he needs for life-his “daily bread”;
and being nourished by God, he accomplishes His will. Having accomplished
His will, God’s Kingdom is present, His name is sanctified and He becomes the
Father of the one who shows himself to be in truth the child of God who can
say, “Our Father.”
Intercessory Prayer
In praying to His Father, Jesus prayed for His people (cf. Jn 17), He
Himself is the only competent intercessor for men before God.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all (1Tim 2–3).
Jesus, in His resurrected glory, prays eternally to His Father on behalf of
His creatures.
.?.?. He holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever.
Consequently He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God
through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
For Christ has entered, not a sanctuary made with hands .?.?. but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Heb 7.24–25;
9.24).
In and through Christ, Christians become competent to intercede before
God. In the name of Jesus, Christians are commanded and empowered to pray
for each other and for all creation: “on behalf of all and for all” (Liturgy of
Saint John Chrysostom).
First of all I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and
thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high
positions?.?.?. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who
desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim
2.1–4).
Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that
you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
Elijah was a man of like natures with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it
might not rain and .?.?. it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and
the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit (Jas 5.16–18).
Intercessory prayers can be made for every “good gift” from God for the
sake of the salvation of others. Such prayers can include petitions for every
kind of blessing, both for the body and the soul. They can be made for the
inspiration and instruction of men, as well as for their healing and salvation.
Whatever one can ask for oneself, one can ask for all men. Whatever one does
ask for oneself should be entreated for all. “It is right to pray not only for one’s
own purification, but for the purification of every man .?.?.” (Saint Nilus of
Sinai, 5th c., Texts on Prayer).
To understand intercessory prayer, one must remember the eternal
providence of God. One must grasp the fact that God knows all things eternally
and takes into consideration each act of man in His overall plan. With this
perspective one can then see that even before the creation of the world, God has
heard, or rather, more accurately, eternally hears, the cries of His people. He
considers man’s prayers in all that He does in His dealings with men. Thus it is
the case that God does not wait to see what we do or how we will pray. He
considers our actions and prayers from the perspective of eternity. And in the
light of our desires and deeds He sees that “all things work together for good
for those who love God” (Rom 8.28).
If we understand this we can see how our prayers are considered by God,
for ourselves and for others. We can understand as well how we can pray even
for those who are dead, whose lives on this earth are over and done. For the
Lord does not hear our prayers “after” something is finished, because for God
there is no “after” at all. God knows what we ask before we even ask it, for He
knows all of man’s life in one divine act of all-embracing vision and
knowledge. Thus all of our prayers, even for those who are dead, are heard and
considered by God before we even make them. If we fail to pray, this too is
known to God, and it takes its effect in God’s plan of salvation. Therefore we
have to “pray for one another” and our prayer will have “great power in its
effects” through the eternal and providential action of God.
Unceasing Prayer
In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul instructs Christians to “be constant
in prayer” (Rom 12.12). In his first letter to the Thessalonians he says simply,
“pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5.17).
These two commands of the apostle have been interpreted in the Orthodox
tradition in two different ways. The first way, mentioned by Saint John
Chrysostom and Saint Dimitry of Rostov, is that Christians should have regular
times for prayer which they never skip-“in the evening and the morning and at
noon day” (Ps 55.17)-and then in between they should always remember God
and do all things to His glory (cf. 1Cor 10.31), offering up supplications and
petitions as the need may arise, praising and thanking when the occasion
requires it. Such is the normal way that all Christians must live.
Prepare for your set times of prayer by unceasing prayer in your soul, and
you will soon make progress (Saint John of the Ladder, Step 28).
The set times of prayer are very important, and should not be put aside for
any reason, even when one prays continuously in his heart. This is the teaching
and practice of the saints. Each person desiring to live the spiritual life should
have his own rule of prayer. It should be brief and regular, such that it could be
kept in all conditions and circumstances. In this set rule of prayer, the prayers
of the Church should be used, the Lord’s Prayer and those from the prayer
book. This gives discipline in prayer and provides instruction and inspiration in
prayer which is perfectly trustworthy and sound, having demonstrated its power
in the lives of the saints. A person who does not follow a set rule of prayer
using the traditional prayers of the Church runs the great risk of impoverishing
his prayer and reducing its dimensions and scope to the limited perspective of
his own individual desires and needs.
When praying with a set rule of prayer, the spiritual teachers tell us to put
our whole mind and heart into the meaning of the words, not merely “saying
prayers,” which is not prayer at all, but genuinely praying through personal
attention and fervor. They tell us to allow our mind not to wander from the
words of the prayer, but to use the given words as the basis of our own personal
devotion, even allowing our mind to go beyond the given words to our own
words, or to no words in the prayer of silence, if the Lord leads us this way.
They also tell beginners-and Saint Dimitry of Rostov says that we are all
beginners, no matter how advanced-never to go back and repeat prayers done
poorly. They tell us rather to put ourselves at the mercy of God, and to try to do
better the next time. This method reduces the possibility of thinking that God
hears our prayers according to the perfection of our performance and not
according to the greatness of His mercy, and safeguards against both pride and
despair. It gives humility and hope, and keeps us always forging ahead (cf. Lk
9.62, Phil 3.13–15).
Thus when one finishes his rule of prayer, however well or poorly he has
done it, he should say “Amen,” and go about his business of living in Christ,
remembering God and doing His will until the next time comes for the rule of
prayer to be done. Then he should do it as well as he can, beginning all over
again.
The second way of interpreting the teachings about unceasing prayer is
that men should actually pray with conscious awareness at every moment of
their lives, and even in their unconscious selves while their bodies are sleeping.
This understanding of “unceasing prayer” was developed in the monastic
tradition, but then spread rapidly throughout the whole membership of the
church. It became very popular in recent times, mostly through the appearance
of the book by the anonymous Russian peasant called The Way of the Pilgrim.
The search for active “unceasing prayer” has its source not only in the
instruction of Saint Paul, but also in the literal interpretation of such words of
the psalmist:
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continuously be in my
mouth (Ps 34.1).
And of the Song of Solomon:
I slept, but my heart was awake (Song 5.2).
The method of “unceasing prayer” is to have a brief prayer verse, usually
the Jesus Prayer (see next section), which is repeated over and over, literally
hundreds of times throughout the day and night, until it becomes perpetually
implanted in the heart as a “bubbling spring,” a continual presence in the soul
calling out to the Lord (cf. Theophan the Recluse, 19th c., The Art of Prayer). It
is often, but not necessarily, connected with one’s breathing, so much so that it
is uttered “with every breath” (Saint Gregory the Theologian; Saint John
Chrysostom). It begins by being said vocally, silently with the lips, and then it
becomes wholly mental. The claim is made that one can continue this
“unceasing prayer” even while engaged in the normal activities of life, while
reading or writing, and even while sleeping, thus the “body sleeps,” but the
“heart is awake.” Then, whenever one’s attention to the affairs of life cease, or
when one awakes from one’s bed, one finds that the prayer is continuing itself.
The prayer is also known to break through one’s consciousness with power
in times of temptation or stress, appearing, as it were, of its own accord (cf. The
Art of Prayer, Igumen Chariton, ed.).
We are not commanded to work, keep vigil or fast without ceasing, but we
are commanded to pray without ceasing. For .?.?. prayer purifies, and
strengthens the mind which was created to pray .?.?. and to fight the demons for
the protection of all the powers of the soul (Evagrius of Pontus, 4th c.).
He who has entered his room [i.e. his heart] and prays without ceasing has
included in this all prayer everywhere (Saint Mark the Ascetic, 4th c., Direction
from Discourses).
Let no one think, my brother Christians, that it is the duty only of priests
and monks to pray without ceasing, and not of laymen. No, no; it is the duty of
all Christians to remain always in prayer.?.?.?. bear in mind the method of
prayer-how it is possible to pray without ceasing, namely by praying in the
mind. And this we can do always if we wish. For when we sit down to work with
our hands, when we walk, when we eat, when we drink we can always pray
mentally and practice this mental prayer-the true prayer pleasing to God.
Blessed are those who acquire this heavenly habit, for by it they overcome
every temptation .?.?.
This practice of inner prayer tames the passions .?.?. by it the dew of the
Holy Spirit is brought down into the heart .?.?. This mental prayer is the light
which illumines man’s soul and inflames his heart with the fire of love for God.
It is the chain linking God with man and man with God. Oh, the incomparable
blessing of mental prayer. It allows a man constantly to converse with God.
And what other and greater rewards can you wish than this, when .?.?. you
are always before the face of God, constantly conversing with Him-conversing
with God, without whom no person can ever be blessed, either here or in the
life still to come (Saint Gregory Palamas, 14th c., How All Christians In
General Must Pray Without Ceasing).
The Jesus Prayer
The most normal form of unceasing prayer in the Orthodox tradition is the
Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer is the form of invocation used by those
practicing mental prayer, also called the “prayer of the heart.” The words of the
prayer most usually said are “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
a sinner.” The choice of this particular verse has a theological and spiritual
meaning.
First of all, it is centered on the name of Jesus because this is the name of
Him whom “God has highly exalted,” the name given to the Lord by God
Himself (Lk 1.31), the “name which is above every name” (Phil 2.9–10, cf. Eph
1.21).
.?.?. for there is no other name given among men by which we must be
saved (Acts 4.12).
All prayer for Christians must be performed in the name of Jesus: “if you
ask anything in My name, I will do it” (Jn 14.13–14).
The fact that the prayer is addressed to Jesus as Lord and Christ and Son of
God is because this is the center of the entire faith revealed by God in the
Spirit.
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
And Jesus answered, “Blessed are you .?.?. for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven .?.?. and on this rock I will
build my Church .?.?.” (Mt 16.16–18).
That Jesus is the Christ, and that the Christ is Lord is the essence of the
Christian faith and the foundation of the Christian church. To believe and
proclaim this is granted by the Holy Spirit.
.?.?. no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (1Cor 12.3).
.?.?. every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father (Phil 2.11).
In calling Jesus the Son of God is to acknowledge God as His Father. To do
this is, at the same time, to have God as one’s own Father, and this too is
granted by the indwelling Spirit.
And when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the
Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4.4–6).
When we cry “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with
our spirit that we are children of God .?.?. (Rom 8.15–16).
Thus, to pray “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” is already to be a child of
God, and already to be certain that the Holy Spirit is in you. In this way, the
Jesus Prayer brings the Spirit of God into the heart of man.
“Have mercy on me a sinner” is the publican’s prayer. When uttered with
humble conviction it brings divine justification (cf. Lk 18.9–14). Generally
speaking, divine mercy is what man needs most of all. It is for this reason that
the numberless repetition of the request for the Lord’s mercy is found
everywhere in the prayers of the Church.
And finally, all men are sinners. To know this is a fact, and to confess it
with faith is to be justified and forgiven by God (cf. Rom 3.10–12, Ps 14.1–3).
The Jesus Prayer basically is used in three different ways. First as the
verse used for the “prayer of the heart” in silence in the hesychast method of
prayer. Second as the continual mental and unceasing prayer of the faithful
outside the hesychast tradition. And third as the brief ejaculatory prayer used to
ward off temptations. Of course, in the actual life of a person these three uses
of the prayer are often interrelated and combined.
In the hesychast method of prayer the person sits alone in a bodily position
with his head bowed and his eyes directed toward his chest or his stomach. He
continually repeats the prayer with each aspiration and breath, placing his
“mind in his heart” by concentrated attention. He empties his mind of all
rational thoughts and discursive reasoning, and also voids his mind of every
picture and image. Then, without thought or imagination, but with all proper
attention and concentration he rhythmically repeats the Jesus Prayer in silence-
hesychia means silence-and through this method of contemplative prayer is
united to God by the indwelling of Christ in the Spirit. According to the fathers,
such a prayer, when faithfully practiced within the total life of the Church,
brings the experience of the uncreated divine light of God and unspeakable joy
to the soul. Its purpose is to make man a servant of God.
.?.?. the mind when it unites with the heart is filled with unspeakable joy
and delight. Then a man sees that the Kingdom of heaven is truly within us.
When you enter the place of the heart .?.?. give thanks to God, and
praising His mercy, keep always to this activity, and it will teach you things
which you will learn in no other way.
.?.?. when your mind becomes established in the heart, it must not remain
idle, but it should constantly repeat the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me!” and never cease.
For this practice, keeping the mind from dreaming, renders it invincible
against all suggestions of the devil and every day leads it more and more to
love and longing for God (Saint Nicephorus, 14th c., Discourse on Sobriety).
To practice the hesychast method of prayer requires always and without
exception the guidance of a spiritual guide, one must not use this method unless
one is a person of genuine humility and sanity, filled with all wisdom and
peace. To use this method without guidance or humble wisdom is to court
spiritual disaster, for the temptations that come with it are many. Indeed, the
abuses of the method became so great in recent centuries that its use was
greatly curtailed. Bishop Theophan tells that the bodily postures and breathing
techniques were virtually forbidden in his time since, instead of gaining the
Spirit of God, people succeeded only “in ruining their lungs” (cf. The Art of
Prayer, lgumen Chariton, ed.).
Such abusive and abortive uses of the method-itself something genuine
and richly rewarding-were already known in fourteenth century Byzantium
when Saint Gregory Palamas defended the tradition. And evidence exists from
as early as the fourth century to show that even then people were using the
prayer foolishly and to no avail by reducing it to a “thing in itself” and being
captivated by its form without interest in its purpose. Indeed, the idolatrous
interest in spiritual technique and in the pleasurable benefits of “spirituality”
and “mysticism” are the constant temptations of the spiritual life-and the
devil’s most potent weapon. Bishop Theophan called such interest “spiritual
hedonism”; John of the Cross (16th c. Spain) called it “spiritual gluttony” and
“spiritual luxury.” Thus, by way of example from various times and places,
come the following admonitions.
Those who refuse to work with their hands under the pretext that one
should pray without ceasing, in reality do not pray either. Through idleness
.?.?. they entangle the soul in a labyrinth of thoughts .?.?. and make it
incapable of prayer (Saint Nilus of Sinai, 5th c., Texts on Prayer).
As long as you pay attention only to bodily posture for prayer and your
mind cares only for the external beauty of the tabernacle [i.e. proper forms],
know that you have not yet found the place of prayer and its blessed way is still
far from you.
Know that in the midst of all spiritual joy and consolation, that it is still
more necessary to serve God with devotion and fear (Saint Nilus of Sinai, Texts
on Prayer).
It is natural for the mind to reject what is at hand and dream of something
else to come .?.?. to build fantasies and imaginings about achievements before
he has attained them. Such a man is in considerable danger of losing what he
has and failing into self-delusion and being deprived of good sense. He
becomes only a dreamer and not a man of continual prayer [i.e. a hesychast]
(Saint Gregory of Sinai, 14th c., Texts on Commandments and Dogmas).
If you are truly practicing the continual prayer of silence, hoping to be
with God and you see something sensory or spiritual, within or without, be it
even the image of Christ, or an angel, or some saint, or if an image of light
pervades your mind in no way accept it .?.?. always be displeased with such
images, and keep your mind clear, without image or form .?.?. and you will
suffer no harm. It has often happened that such things, even when sent by God
as a test before victory, have turned into harm for many .?.?. who have then
done harm to others equally unwise .?.?. leading to pride and self-conceit.
For the fathers say that those who live rightly and are faultless in their
behavior with other men .?.?. who seek God with obedience, questioning and
wise humility .?.?. will always be protected from harm by the grace of Christ
(Saint Gregory of Sinai, Instructions to Hesychasts).
The use of the Jesus Prayer outside the hesychast method for unceasing
prayer is to repeat the prayer constantly and continually, whatever one is doing,
without the employment of any particular bodily postures or breathing
techniques. This is the way taught by Saint Gregory Palamas in his short
discourse about how unceasing mental prayer is the duty of all Christians.
Anyone can do this, whatever his occupation or position in life. This also is
shown in The Way of the Pilgrim.
The purpose and results of this method of prayer are those generally of all
prayer: that men might be continually united with God by unceasing
remembrance of His presence and perpetual invocation of His name, so that one
might always serve Him and all men with the virtues of Christ and the fruits of
the Spirit.
The third method of using the Jesus Prayer is to have it always ready for
moments of temptation. In this way, as Saint John Climacus has said, you can
“flog your enemies, i.e. the temptations, with the name of Jesus, for there is no
stronger weapon in heaven or on earth” (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 21).
This method works best when one practices the prayer without ceasing, joining
“to every breath a sober invocation of Jesus’ name” (Evagrius of Pontus). When
one practices the continual “prayer of the heart,” and when the temptations to
sin enter the heart, they are met by the prayer and are defeated by grace.
Man cannot live in this world without being tempted. When temptation
comes to a person, there are only three possible results. Either the person
immediately yields to the temptation and sins, or he tries to ward off the
temptation by the power of his will, and is ultimately defeated after great
vexation and strife. Or else he fights off the temptation by the power of Christ
in his heart which is present only by prayer. This does not mean that he “prays
the temptation away.” Or that God miraculously and magically descends to
deliver him. It means rather that his soul is so filled with the grace and the
power of God that the temptation can have no effect. It is in this sense that the
Apostle John has written: “no one who abides in Christ sins” (1Jn 3.6).
He who sins is of the devil .?.?. The reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sins; for God’s
nature abides in him, and he cannot sin for he is born of God. By this may be
seen who are children of God, and who are children of the devil (1Jn 3.8–10).
One becomes a child of God, born of God in the Church through baptism.
One continues as a child of God and does not sin only by continual prayer: the
remembrance of God, the abiding in Him, the calling upon His name without
ceasing in the soul. The third use of the Jesus Prayer, like the first two, is to
accomplish this end: that man might not sin.
Liturgical Prayer
Liturgical prayer is not simply the prayers of individual Christians joined
into one. It is not a corporate “prayer service” of many persons together. It is
rather the official prayer of the Church formally assembled; the prayer of
Christ in the Church, offering His “body” and “bride” to the Father in the
Spirit. It is the Church’s participation in Christ’s perpetual prayer in the
presence of God in the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Heb 7.24–25, 9.24). The model
of liturgical prayer is in the book of Revelation, and not in the gospel events of
Jerusalem or Galilee.
In the Orthodox Church there is no tradition of corporate prayer which is
not liturgical. Some consider this a lack, but most likely it is based on Christ’s
teaching that the prayer of individuals should be done “in secret” (Mt 6.5–6).
This guards against vain repetition and the expression of personal petitions
which are meaningless to others. It also protects persons from being subjected
to the superficialities and shallowness of those, who instead of praying, merely
express the opinions and desires of their own minds and hearts.
When a person participates in the liturgical prayer of the Church, he can
only do so effectively to the extent that he prays by himself, at home, and in his
own mind and heart. The one who “prays without ceasing” is the one who offers
and receives most in liturgical prayer.
When one participates in the liturgical prayer of the Church, he should
make every effort to join himself fully with all the members of the body. He
should not “say his own prayers” in church, but should pray “with the Church.”
This does not mean that he forgets his own needs and desires, depersonalizing
himself and becoming but one more voice in the crowd. It means rather that he
should unite his own person, his own needs and desires, all of his life with
those who are present, with the church throughout the world, with the angels
and saints, indeed with Christ Himself in the one great “divine” and “heavenly
liturgy” of all creation before God.
Practically this means that one who participates in liturgical prayer should
put his whole being, his whole mind and heart, into each prayer and petition
and liturgical action, making it come alive in himself. If each person does this,
then the liturgical exclamations become genuine and true, and the whole
assembly as one body will glorify God with “one mouth, one mind and one
heart” (See Worship, Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom).
Meditation
Meditation differs from prayer, even from silent prayer, in that meditation
is thought about God and contemplation of His word and His works.
Meditation normally begins by reading from the holy Scriptures, the Word
of God. This is called in the spiritual tradition lectio divina. It is the slow and
attentive reading of the Bible, or perhaps the writings of the church fathers and
saints, not for the purpose of gaining information, but for the purpose of
communion with God.
Such meditative reading may be of the sort where the person tries, with the
power of his thought and imagination, to enter into the event about which he is
reading in order to become its contemporary participant. Or, it can be of the
sort where the person merely reads and listens in silence, without imagination
or rational thought, in order to let the Word of God enter his mind and heart in
order to remain there, to bring forth its fruit at the appointed time.
Psalmody, done either alone or in the churchly assembly, exists for this
latter purpose. When reading or chanting the psalms, the person does not try to
think about each word and phrase. Rather he cuts off all reasoning, and opens
his heart to the Lord, uniting “his mouth with his mind,” (Saint Benedict) and
allowing the Word of God to be planted within him to blossom in his soul with
the fruits of the Spirit. This also is the case with church hymnography. It is
sung for the glory of God and the edification and expansion of the soul through
the contemplation of the Lord in His words and works of salvation, much more
than for any intellectual instruction. This type of meditation is especially
advised in times of despondency.
There is also the type of meditation and contemplation done totally in
silence, without any words or images or thoughtful activity at all, not even
psalmody. The person merely sits in silence, often in the presence of holy
icons, and emptying his mind of all thoughts, imaginations and desires, listens
to God in silence, the divine “language of the Kingdom of heaven” (Saint Isaac
of Syria). This type of meditation, for a person of unceasing prayer, will be the
“prayer of silence,” with the “bubbling spring” of the Jesus Prayer as its only
foundation and background. In such contemplative prayer and prayerful
contemplation, the spirit of man becomes one with the Spirit of God (cf. 1Cor
6.17).
Prayer in the Spirit
All Christian prayer must be prayer in the Spirit; and all genuine prayer
most certainly is. Men pray to the Father, through Christ the Son and Word of
God in the Holy Spirit. This is the case wherever men pray, whatever their
method, whether they know it or not. For prayer is not man’s lonely cry across
empty spaces to a far-off God. Prayer is man’s being in God; being in the Holy
Spirit, as made in Christ’s image, the dwelling place of God.
you??.?.?. God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are (1Cor 3.16–17, cf. Deut
30.9–14, Ps 139.7–14, Rom 10.5–13).
Christian prayer is done consciously in the Holy Spirit, with all faith and
awareness. It is addressed to and through Christ, to the Father. In the Orthodox
Church there is only one prayer among all the prayers of the Church addressed
to the Holy Spirit. This is the prayer O Heavenly King, which begins all prayers
and clearly creates the conditions in which all prayer is performed.
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth,
You are everywhere and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life,
Come and abide in us, cleanse us from every impurity
And save our souls, O Good One.
Even on Pentecost Sunday in the Orthodox Church the three special
prayers of the feast are addressed to Christ and the Father.
The prayer to God for the coming of the Spirit is itself a sign that the
Spirit is already in man enabling him to call to the Father. This is the mystery
of man’s nature and existence; that he is only truly man when the Holy Spirit is
in him. This is the mystery of God’s gracious work in man. It is the mystery of
prayer and life itself.
One calls God “Our Father” only in the Spirit. One calls Jesus “Lord” only
in the Spirit. One prays to God in any manner or form only in the Spirit. The
words of the psalms, the prayers of the saints, the liturgical worship of the
Church, is the “breathing of God’s Spirit” in man (Saint John of Kronstadt, My
Life in Christ). For all prayer, like the scripture itself, is by the inspiration of
God.
Even when men do not know how to pray or for what they should ask, it is
the Holy Spirit who prays in them that they would have what is needed, that
God’s will would be done.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to
pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with signs too deep
for words. And He who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the
Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God
(Rom 8.26–27).
Thus the prayer in the Spirit, as well as the prayer for the Spirit, has as its
purpose the “acquisition of the Spirit” so that by the “fruits of the Spirit” man
would be holy and divine by God’s grace. This is the basic mystery of the
spiritual life. For as Saint Augustine has said, the person who seeks the Lord
has already been found by Him. The very seeking in prayer, when one knows
not how to pray, makes a person already the dwelling place of God.
In his first letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul speaks of a special
kind of prayer in the Spirit. It is the spiritual gift of “speaking in tongues.”
With this particular gift the person praises God in a language he cannot
understand. His “spirit prays” with ecstatic utterances, but his “mind remains
unfruitful.” According to the apostle, who himself had this gift and says that it
should not be forbidden, such prayer in the Spirit is without benefit to man
unless it is accompanied with “some revelation or knowledge or prophecy [i.e.
the directly inspired Word of God] or teaching.” He says that it should not be
done in the public gathering of the church unless there be some interpretation
and that even then there should be “only two, or at most three,” and that those
who are “eager for manifestations of the Spirit should strive to excel in
building up the church” and should “not be children in their thinking .?.?. but in
thinking be mature.” He says that all should seek rather to prophesy, i.e. to
speak the Word of God clearly and plainly so that those who observe Christians
would declare that God is really among them and not consider them mad. He
says finally that “all things should be done decently and in order” (cf. 1Cor 12–
14).
It is apparent that the gift of praying in the Spirit with tongues was the
cause of no small confusion and disorder in the Corinthian Church, and that
those having this gift of ecstatic prayer were disturbing and dividing the
community by considering themselves more spiritual than others. Saint Paul
insists that not all have the same gifts, and that tongues are but one of the gifts,
the last of those mentioned, to serve as a sign not for those who already believe,
but “for unbelievers” (1Cor 14.22). In general it is clear that the sole purpose of
the apostle’s extended discussion of the spiritual gifts, and his insistence on
giving up “childish ways” in the pursuit of perfection when one becomes
mature, was to rebuke the members of the Corinthian Church for their misuse
and abuse of the spiritual gift of tongues.
There is no evidence in the spiritual tradition of the church that any of the
saints had the gift of praying in tongues or that such kind of prayer was ever a
part of the liturgy of the church. The only mention that can be found of it, to
our knowledge, was at the baptism of Montanus, a third-century heretic who
left the Church to found his own spiritualist sect. If any of the saints or spiritual
masters had this gift, they did not write about it or propagate it openly. It was
unknown, for example, to Saint John Chrysostom by his own report, (cf.
Commentary on Corinthians). Since a number of believers have this gift in our
time, and since there are persons who seek it, it is critically important that this
method of prayer be understood according to the counsels of St Paul and in the
light of the teaching of the spiritual masters on prayer.
Fasting
Jesus Himself fasted and taught His disciples to fast.
And when you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they
disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly I say to you,
they have their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your
face, that your fasting may not be seen by men, but your Father who is in
secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Mt 6.16–18).
The purpose of fasting is to gain mastery over oneself and to conquer the
passions of the flesh. It is to liberate oneself from dependence on the things of
this world in order to concentrate on the things of the Kingdom of God. It is to
give power to the soul so that it would not yield to temptation and sin.
According to Saint Seraphim, fasting is an “indispensable means” of gaining
the fruit of the Holy Spirit in one’s life (cf. Conversation with Motovilov), and
Jesus Himself taught that some forms of evil cannot be conquered without it
(Mt 17.21, Mk 9.29).
Man does not fast because it pleases God if His servants do not eat, for, as
the lenten hymns of the Church remind us, “the devil also never eats” (Lenten
Triodion). Neither do men fast in order to afflict themselves with suffering and
pain, for God has no pleasure in the discomfort of His people. Neither do men
fast with the idea that their hunger and thirst can somehow serve as a
“reparation” for their sins. Such an understanding is never given in the
scriptures or the writings of the saints which claim that there is no “reparation”
for man’s sin but the crucifixion of Christ. Salvation is a “free gift of God”
which no “works” of man can accomplish of merit (cf. Rom 5.15–17, Eph 2.8–
9).
Men fast, therefore, and must fast, only to be delivered from carnal
passions so that the free gift of salvation in Christ might produce great fruit in
their lives. Men fast so that they might more effectively serve God who loves
them and has saved them in Christ and the Spirit. Fasting without effort in
virtue is wholly in vain.
Why have we fasted, and Thou seest it not? Why have we humbled
ourselves, and Thou takest no knowledge of it?
Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all
your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and fight .?.?. Fasting like yours
.?.?. will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness .?.?. to
let the oppressed go free .?.?. is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and
bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover
them .?.?.
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall
spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the
Lord shall protect you. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; then you
shall cry, and He will say: Here I am (Is 58.3–9).
“Fasting in the body, O brethren, let us also fast from sin.” This is the
Church’s song in the lenten season of fasting. It is also the teaching of the
saints.
.?.?. in fasting one must not only obey the rule against gluttony in regard
to food, but refrain from every sin so that, while fasting, the tongue may also
fast, refraining from slander, lies, evil talking, degrading one’s brother, anger
and every sin committed by the tongue. One should also fast with the eyes, that
is, not look at vain things .?.?. not look shamefully or fearlessly at anyone. The
hands and feet should also be kept from every evil action.
When one fasts through vanity or thinking that he is achieving something
especially virtuous, he fasts foolishly and soon begins to criticize others and to
consider himself something great.
A man who fasts wisely .?.?. wins purity and comes to humility .?.?. and
proves himself a skillful builder (Saint Abba Dorotheus, 7th c., Directions on
Spiritual Training).
Saint Paul himself fasted, and in his teaching on food insists that men fast
and do so in secret, without mutual inspection and judgment.
Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an
example in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you with
tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god
is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things
(Phil 3.17–19).
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are
lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. Food is meant for the
stomach, and the stomach for food-and God will destroy both one and the other.
The body is not meant for immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body
(1Cor 6.12–13).
Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who
abstains, pass judgment on him who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are
you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who
eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who
abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of him for whom Christ has died
.?.?. for the Kingdom of God does not mean food and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, he who thus serves Christ is acceptable to
God and approved by men.
Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God .?.?. the faith that you
have keep between yourself and God .?.?. whatever does not proceed from faith
[whether eating or abstaining] is sin (cf. Rom?14).
The spiritual fathers, as strictly ascetic as they were, are very clear in their
teaching about fasting. They insist with the Lord and the scriptures that men
must fast in order to be free from passions and lust. But they insist as well that
the most critical thing is to be free from all sin, including the pride, vanity and
hypocrisy which comes through foolish and sinful fasting.
.?.?. eating beyond the point of being satisfied is the door of madness
through which lust enters, for the belly is the queen of passions which man
serves as a slave.
But you, firm in this knowledge, choose what is best for you, according to
your own powers .?.?. for the perfect person, according to Saint Paul ought both
“to be full and be hungry .?.?. and do all things through Christ who strengthens
(Phil 4.12–13).
Thus a man who strives for salvation .?.?. must not allow himself to eat to
fullness .?.?. but should still eat all kinds of food so that on the one hand he
avoid boastful pride and on the other not show disdain for God’s creation which
is most excellent .?.?. Such is the reasoning of those who are wise! (Saint
Gregory of Sinai, Instruction to Hesychasts).
Saint Isaac of Syria says, “Meager food at the table of the pure cleanses
the soul of those who partake from all passion .?.?. for the work of fasting and
vigil is the beginning of every effort against sin and lust .?.?. almost all
passionate drives decrease through fasting.”
For the holy fathers taught us to be killers of passions and not killers of
the body. Partake of everything that is permissible with thanksgiving, to the
glory of God and to avoid boastful arrogance; but refrain from every excess
(The Monks Callistus and Ignatius, 14th c., Directions to Hesychasts).
If such is the teaching to hesychast monks, it is certainly applicable to all
Christians as well. The whole essence of the matter is put simply and clearly in
these two short stories from the fathers of the desert.
A certain brother brought fresh loaves of bread and invited his elders.
When they had eaten much, the brother, knowing their travail of abstinence,
began humbly to beg them to eat more. “For God’s sake, eat this day and be
filled.” And they ate another ten. Behold how these that were true monks and
sincere in abstinence did eat more than they needed, for the sake of God.
Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, called the abbot Hilarion to see him. A
portion of fowl was set before them and the bishop invited the abbot to eat. The
old man said, “Forgive me, Father, but since the time I took this habit I have
never eaten anything that has been killed.”
And Epiphanius said to him, “And from the time I took this habit I have
let no man sleep who has anything against me, and neither have I slept holding
anything against anyone.”
And the old man said to him, “Forgive me, Father, for your way of life is
greater than mine” (The Sayings of the Fathers).
Almsgiving
In Christ’s teaching, almsgiving goes together with fasting and prayer. We
have seen that this is also the teaching of Isaiah (See Fasting) and of the Old
Testament generally. When one prays and fasts, one must show love through
active generosity to others.
Beware of practicing your piety before men, in order to be seen by them,
for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when
you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do .?.?. that they
may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when
you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so
that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward
you (Mt 6.1–4).
As with fasting and prayer, the gifts of help to the poor must be done
strictly in secret, so much so that one should, as it were, even hide from himself
what he is giving to others, not letting one hand know what the other is doing.
Every effort must be made, if the gift will be pleasing to God, to avoid all
ostentation and boastfulness in its giving.
As we have already seen, there is no real love if one does not share what
he has with the poor.
.?.?. if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet
closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1Jn 3.17).
Such was the command of the law of Moses as well.
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your
towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden
your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your
hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take heed
lest there be a base thought in your heart, and you say, “The seventh year, the
year of release is near,” and your eye be hostile to your poor brother, and you
give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and it be sin in you. You
shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to
him; because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in
all that you undertake. For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I
command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and
to the poor, in the land (Deut 15.7–11).
Such also was the teaching of Wisdom.
The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.
He who despises his neighbor is a sinner, but happy is he who is kind to
the poor.
He who mocks the poor, insults his Maker, he who is glad at calamity will
not go unpunished (Prov 14.20–21, 17.5).
According to Saint John Chrysostom, no one can be saved without giving
alms and without caring for the poor. Saint Basil the Great says that a man who
has two coats or two pair of shoes, when his neighbor has none, is a thief. All
earthly things are the possessions of God. “The earth is the Lord’s and the
fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell in it” (Ps 24.1). Men are but
stewards of what belongs to the Lord and should share the gifts of His creation
with one another as much as they can. To store up earthly possessions,
according to Christ, is the epitome of foolishness, and a rich man shall hardly
be saved (cf. Lk 12.15–21).
How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God! For
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter the Kingdom of God.
Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”
But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Lk
15.24–27, Mt 19: 23–26, Mk 10.23–27).
Woe unto you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe
unto you that are full now, for you shall hunger (Lk 6.24–25).
For He who is mighty .?.?. has filled the hungry with good things, but the
rich He sent away empty (Lk 1.53).
The reason why a rich man can hardly be saved, according to Jesus, is
because when one has possessions, he wants to keep them, and gather still
more. For the “delight in riches chokes the word of God, and so it proves
unfruitful” in man’s heart (Mt 13.22, Mk 4.19, Lk?8.14).
According to the apostle Paul, the “love of money”-not money itself-is the
“root of all evils.”
There is great gain in godliness with contentment; for we brought nothing
into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world; but if we have
food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be
rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires
that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of
all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith
and pierced their hearts with many pangs (1Tim 6.6–10, cf. Heb 13.5–6).
The apostle himself collected money for the poor and greatly praised those
who were generous in giving.
The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but he
who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has
made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver. And God is able to provide .?.?. so that you may always have
enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it
is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his
righteousness endures forever” (Ps 112.9).
You will be enriched in every way for great generosity which .?.?. will
produce thanksgiving to God .?.?. (2Cor 9.6–12).
The spiritual person must share what he has with the poor. He must do so
cheerfully and not reluctantly, secretly and not for the praise of men. He also
must do so, as the poor widow in the gospel, not out of his abundance, but out
of his need.
And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude
putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor
widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And He called
His disciples to Him, and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has
put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all
contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in
everything she had, her whole living” (Mk 12.41–44, Lk 21.2).
Giving alms, therefore, must be a sacrificial act if it has any spiritual
worth. One cannot give merely what is left over when all his own needs are
satisfied. One must take from oneself and give to others. In the spiritual
tradition of the Church it is the teaching that what one saves through fasting
and abstinence, for example during the special lenten seasons, should not be
kept for other times but should be given away to the poor.
In recent times the teaching has developed that the spiritual man should
work within the processes and possibilities of the free societies in order to
make a social structure in which the poor will not merely be the object of the
charity of the rich, but will themselves have the chance to work and to share in
the common wealth of man. In this way the poor will have dignity and self-
respect through assuming their just place as members of society. “We do not
want hand-outs,” say the poor, “we want to be able to learn and to work for
ourselves.” The spiritual person is the one who works to make this happen; and
it is right and praiseworthy to do so. The only temptations here would be to
have this attitude and to undertake this action without personal sacrifice, and to
think that when such a “just society” will exist-if it ever will-all of men’s
problems will be solved. The spiritual decadence of many wealthy persons
demonstrates that this is not the case. Thus the words of Christ remain forever
valid and true:
“.?.?. the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me
.?.?. if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; and come, and follow me” (Mt 19.21, Mk
14.5–7, Lk 18.22, Jn 12.8).
The one who is truly perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect is the one
who gives all for the sake of others, in the name of Christ, with Him, and for
His sake. Such a person is most truly living the spiritual life.
Sexuality, Marriage, and Family
Sexuality
The sexual character of human persons has a positive role to play in
human spirituality. Like all things human, sexuality must be sanctioned by God
and inspired with the Holy Spirit, used for the purposes God has intended. And
like all things human, through its misuse and abuse, sexuality can be perverted
and corrupted, becoming an instrument of sin rather than the means for
glorifying God and fulfilling oneself as made in His image, and according to
His likeness.
.?.?. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord
for the body .?.?. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a
prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute
becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two shall become one.”
But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Shun immorality.
Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man
sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you
were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1Cor 6.13–20).
The teaching of Saint Paul about sexuality is analogous to his teaching
about eating and drinking and all bodily functions. They are given by God for
spiritual reasons to be used for His glory. In themselves they are holy and pure.
When misused or adored as an end in themselves, they become the instruments
of sin and death. The apostle specifically says that all sexual perversions have
as their direct cause man’s rebellion against God.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the
dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the
truth about God for a lie and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural
relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men
committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due
penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a
base mind and to improper conduct .?.?. Though they know God’s decree that
those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve
those who practice them (Rom 1.24–32).
That those who “do such things deserve to die” was taken literally in the
law of Moses; thus adulterers, homosexuals, incestuous people and those
committing sexual acts with beasts were ordered to be “put to death” (Lev
20.10–16).
In following this teaching, while hoping on the mercy of God and the
forgiveness of Christ for all sinners, the New Testament scriptures are even
more strict in their demands regarding sexual purity. Jesus, who forgave the
woman taken in adultery (Jn 8.7–11) and the repentant harlot who washed His
feet with her hair (Lk 7.36–50), gave the following teaching in His sermon on
the mount:
You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say
to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out
and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your
whole body go into hell.
It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate
of divorce.” But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on
the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a
divorced woman commits adultery (Mt 5.27–32, see also 19–3-9, Rom 7.3).
The Apostle Paul says simply that unrepentant adulterers, fornicators, and
homosexuals will not enter the Kingdom of God (cf. 1Cor 6.9–10, Gal 5.19).
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be
undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and the adulterous (Heb 13.4).
Thus, according to the revelation of God, sexual relations are holy and
pure only within the community of marriage, with the ideal relationship being
that between one man and one woman forever. Those who are not married and
those who choose by the will of God not to marry must abstain from all sexual
relations since such relations cannot possibly fulfill the function given to the
sexual act by God in creation. This does not mean that there will be no sexual
character to the unmarried person’s spiritual life, for the unmarried man and
the unmarried woman will still express their humanity in masculine and
feminine spiritual forms. The virtues and fruits of the Spirit in each, as in those
who are married, are identical, but the manner of their incarnation and
expression will be proper to the particular sexual form of their common
humanity, as well as the individual uniqueness of each person.
The single person who lives his or her whole life without husband or wife
is called to virginity as a witness in this world of the Kingdom of God where
“in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like
angels in heaven” (Mt 22–30). It is for this reason that those following the
monastic life are said to have taken the “angelic habit.” This does not mean that
they become disincarnate or unsexual. It means rather that they perpetually
serve and praise God as His children, comprising, as it were, the universal
family of God without being themselves the leaders of families on this earth. In
this way they express themselves as the fathers and mothers, brothers and
sisters of all mankind in Christ.
“Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” And stretching out His
hands toward His disciples, He said, “Here are my mother and my brethren! For
whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and
mother” (Mk 3.34–35).
Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as you would a father; treat
younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like
sisters, in all purity (1Tim 5.1–2).
These words, of course, are intended for all, married and unmarried, but
they also most obviously have special significance for those who, for Christ’s
sake, are living the unmarried life. For as those who are married have the task
of living their spiritual lives with the cares of the family, and within the context
of its needs and demands, the Christian who is single lives his or her life in
Christ without these conditions.
I wish that all were as I myself am [i.e. unmarried, says Paul]. But each
has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. .?.?. The
unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord,
but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife,
and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about
the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married
woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this
for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good
order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord (1 Cor?7.34–35).
So he that marries .?.?. does well; and he who refrains from marriage will
do better (cf. 1Cor 7.7–40).
The teaching here is clear. People can serve God and live the spiritual life
both in marriage and in the single life. And people can sin in both as well.
“Each has his own special gift from God” (1Cor 7.7). Saint Paul thinks,
however, that among those who want to do as perfectly as they can, they who do
not marry “will do better” (1Cor 7.38–40).
The spiritual tradition of the Church clearly agrees with the apostle. This
does not mean that marriage is in any way disparaged or disdained. It is given
by God and is a sacrament of the Church, and those who abhor it for “spiritual
reasons” are to be excommunicated from the Church (cf. Canon Laws of the
Council of Gangra). It means only that, most practically, one can be a greater
servant of God and more perfectly a witness to His unending Kingdom if he
gives up everything in this world, sells all that he has, and follows Christ in
total detachment and poverty.
The idea, however, that a single person can indulge oneself in the things of
this world, including sexuality, and still be the servant of God in Christ is
totally rejected and condemned. One can forsake marriage in the body only for
greater freedom from “anxiety about worldly affairs” in order to be concerned
with “the affairs of the Lord .?.?. how to be holy in body and spirit.” The single
person who is “holy in body and spirit” has sexual relations with no one.
Marriage
Marriage is a part of human life on this earth as created by God.
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife,
and they become one flesh (Gen 2.24, cf. Mt 19.5–6).
God created male and female so that man and woman would live their lives
together in marriage as one flesh. This union should be broken for no earthly
reason.
What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
They said to Jesus, “Why then did Moses command one to give a
certificate of divorce and to put her away?”
He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce
your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever
divorces his wife except for sexual impurity and marries another, commits
adultery.”
The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is
not expedient to marry.”
But he said to them, “Not all men can receive this precept, but only those
to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and
there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs
who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. He
who is able to receive this, let him receive it” (Mt 19.6–12).
Human marriage exists by the will of God on the earth as the created
expression of God’s love for man and as man’s participation in the creative
love of God. The union of man and woman in the community of marriage is
used in the Bible as the image of God’s faithful love for Israel, and Christ’s
sacrificial love for the Church (cf. Is 54, Jer 3, Ezek 16, Hos).
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its
Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in
everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the
church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed
her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the church to
Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be
holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their
own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are
members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery,
and I take it to mean Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love
his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband (Eph
5.22–33).
These words of Saint Paul, read at the sacramental celebration of marriage
in the Church, contain the whole program for spiritual life in the community of
marriage. The husband must love his wife to the point of death, as Christ loves
the Church. And the wife must be totally given to her husband in everything as
the Church is given to Christ. The union in love must be perfect, total,
complete, enduring and lasting forever. Within this union, the sexual act of love
is the mystical seal of the total union in love; the act whereby the two are
united in mind, heart, soul and body in the Lord.
According to the spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church, marriage, and
so the sexual act of love, is made perfect only in Christ and the Church. This
does not mean that all those who are “married in church” have an ideal
marriage. The sacrament is not mechanical or magical. Its reality and gifts may
be rejected and defiled, received unto condemnation and judgment, like Holy
Communion and all of the sacramental mysteries of the faith. It does mean,
however, that when a couple is married in the Church of Christ, the possibility
for the perfection of their marriage is most fully given by God.
When a man and a woman truly love one another, they naturally desire that
their love would be perfect. They want their relationship to be filled with all
virtue and every fruit of the Spirit. They want it to be ever more perfectly
expressed and fulfilled. They want it to last forever. Those who do not desire
such perfection for their love, do not really love.
When a man and woman have such a love, they can find its fulfillment
only in Christ. He makes it possible; no one and nothing else can do it. So, for
those who love truly, the savior and accomplisher of their love is Christ. He
gives every virtue and every fruit of the Spirit. He allows them to grow ever
more perfectly one. He allows them to live and to love for eternity in the
Kingdom of God. A marriage in Christ does not end in sin; it does not part in
death. It is fulfilled and perfected in the Kingdom of heaven. It is for this
reason, and this reason only, that those who seek true love and perfection in
marriage come to the Church to be married in Christ.
A truly Christian and spiritual marriage is one where true love abides. In
the community of marriage true love is expressed in the total union of the
couple in all that they are, have and do. It is the love of each one living
completely for the good of the other, the love of erotic union in total oneness of
mind, heart and flesh; the love of perfect friendship.(See “God is Love,”
above).
Within such a community of love, the sexual act is the expression of all of
this. It was created for this purpose by God. It is the intimate act which finds its
total joy when perfected by those who are fully devoted and dedicated to each
other in all things, in every way, forever. It is for this sacred and divine reason
that the sexual act cannot be done casually or promiscuously for one’s own
spiritual or bodily pleasure. It is the act of loving self-sacrifice in eternal
fidelity. Only when accomplished in this way does it yield divine satisfaction
and infinite delight to the lovers who enact it.
Sexual dissatisfaction in marriage is virtually never simply a bodily or
biological problem. It is with almost no exception, the result of some defect of
mind, heart and soul. Most basically, it is the defect of love itself. For when
each considers only the good of the other, desiring total spiritual and bodily
union in perfect friendship, the sexual act is always most satisfying. When this
is absent, and something other is central, the gratification of some unworthy
passion of body or mind, then all is lost and the perversion of love brings
sadness and death to the union.
Normally the sexual act in marriage bears fruit in the procreation of
children. The marriage ceremony in the Church prays for “chastity, a bed
undefiled, the procreation of children, and for every earthly blessing that they
may in turn bestow upon the needy.” The sexual act of love, however, is not
limited merely to the bearing of children. It exists as well for the union in love
and the mutual edification and joy of those who are married. If this were not
the case, the Apostle Paul would not have given the following counsel:
.?.?. each man should have his own wife, and each wife her own husband.
The husband should give the wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to
her husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband
does; likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does.
Do not refuse one another except perhaps by agreement for a time, that you may
devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, lest Satan tempt you
through each of self-control (1?Cor 7.2–5).
The apostle does not say that the married couple should be separated and
come together only with intentions of bearing a child. He says rather that they
should stay together, separating “by agreement, for a time,” and that for the
purpose of being devoted “to prayer.” The words “by agreement” are central in
this counsel, for each one must live totally as belonging to the other.
Sexuality in pure marriage is pure. For, as the apostle says in another
context:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing
is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know
God but they deny Him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit
for any good deed (Titus 1.15–16).
There are those whose marriages are impure because they are corrupt and
unbelieving, unfit for any good deed. Even though they are married and the
sexuality is, as they say, “legal,” nevertheless it is ungodly and impure. The
fact that a couple is “legally” or even “sacramentally” married does not make
their marital life pure and free from sinful passion, perversion and lust. Only
those who truly live the spiritual life in genuine love and devotion have sexual
lives that are holy and pure, mutually satisfying and fulfilling, and well-
pleasing to God. This is guaranteed when the spiritual life is in Christ and the
Church. But as Saint John Chrysostom has said, even heathen marriages are
holy and pure when true love is present and the couples are eternally given to
one another in unending fidelity and mutual devotion. For where such love is
present, there is the presence of God.
Family
True love in marriage supposes the bearing of children. Those who truly
love in marriage will naturally have children as the fruit of their love and the
greatest bond of their union. Those who despise children and refuse to offer
them care and devotion do not truly love.
Of course there are those whose marriages will be childless because of
some tragedy of nature brought on by the “sin of the world.” In such marriages
perfect love can exist, but the mutual devotion in the service of God and man
will take on other forms, either the adoption of children or some other good
service for the sake of others, The childless marriage, either by voluntary
choice or natural tragedy, which results in self-indulgence is not a spiritual
union.
The voluntary control of birth in marriage is only permissible, according
to the essence of a spiritual life, when the birth of a child will bring danger and
hardship. Those who are living the spiritual life will come to the decision not to
bear children only with sorrow, and will do so before God, with prayers for
guidance and mercy. It will not be a decision taken lightly or for self-indulgent
reasons.
According to the common teaching in the Orthodox Church, when such a
decision is taken before God, the means of its implementation are arbitrary.
There are, in the Orthodox opinion, no means of controlling birth in marriage
which are better or more acceptable than others. All means are equally sad and
distressing for those who truly love. For the Christian marriage is the one that
abounds with as many new children as possible.
The abortion of an unborn child is absolutely condemned in the Orthodox
Church. Clinical abortion is no means of birth control, and those who practice it
for any reason at all, both the practitioners and those who request it, are
punished according to the canon law of the Church with the “penalty for
murder” (Council of Trullo, 5th and 6th Ecumenical Councils).
In extreme cases, as when the mother will surely die, if she bears the child,
the decision for life or death of the child must be taken by the mother alone, in
consultation with her family and her spiritual guides. Whatever the decision,
unceasing prayers for God’s guidance and mercy must be its foundation.
According to the Orthodox faith, a mother who gives her life for her child is a
saint who will most certainly be greatly glorified by God; for there is no greater
act of love than to give one’s life so that another might live (cf. Jn 15.13).
Within the life of the family, the father must be the leader and head. He
must love his wife and children as Christ loves the Church-and Christ died for
the Church. He must never be harsh. The wife must be totally devoted to her
husband and must demand, encourage and enable his leadership. This is the
normal way of family life prescribed in the scriptures, for “the head of every
man is Christ, and the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ
is God” (1Cor 11.3, Eph 5.22–23, Col 3.18–19, 1Pet 3.1–7).
When the husband or wife is an unbeliever-and such should be the case
only when one member of the marriage becomes Christian after being married,
or when one member of a married couples loses his or her faith, for a Christian
should not normally enter into marriage with an unbeliever-the couple,
according to Saint Paul-should not separate or divorce, but should continue to
live together. The believer should show the best example of the spiritual life of
love to the unbeliever in every word and deed, totally without coercion or
compulsion regarding the faith, and certainly without accusation or
condemnation.
For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the
unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise your children
would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such case
the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace. Wife, how do
you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know
whether you will save your wife? (1?Cor 7.13–16, cf. 1Pet 3.1–7).
Here the apostle, for the sake of peace, permits separation, but does not
encourage it. Nevertheless, in dire circumstances, such as when there is
spiritual or physical danger, the Church itself counsels separation as the lesser
evil. However, in such cases the Church also counsels the separated Christian,
if possible, to “remain single” (1Cor 7.10). Second marriages, even for widows
and widowers, are allowed and blessed by the Church, without the penalty of
excommunication, only, in theory, in those cases where the new marriage has
the possibility of being holy and pure (See Worship, “Marriage”).
Within the family, the spiritual life of love should be sought and lived as
fully as possible. This means that every member of the family should live for
the good of the other in all circumstances, “bearing one another’s burdens” and
in this way fulfilling “the law of Christ” (Gal 6.2). There should be the constant
presence of mercy and forgiveness and mutual upbuilding. There should be
every expression of true love as is generally found in those who are holy.
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1?Cor 13.4–7).
Such love is the basis of enduring family life, lived and expressed joyfully
and cheerfully, without reluctance or compulsion (cf. 2Cor 9.6–12). For
marriage is not “holy deadlock” as one cynical writer has put it, but, in the
words of Saint John Chrysostom, a “small church” in the home where the grace
and freedom of God abounds for man’s salvation and life.
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your
father and mother .?.?. that it may be well with you and that you may live long
on the earth” (Eph 6.1–3, Ex 20.12).
There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers .?.?.
If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness
(Prov 30.11, 22.20).
For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall be put to death; he
who has cursed his father or his mother, his blood is upon him (Lev 20.9).
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Col
3.20).
Saint John Chrysostom says that those who cannot honor, love and respect
their parents can certainly not serve God, for He is the “Father of all” (Eph 4.6),
the One “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph
3.15).
The true father loves and disciplines his child as God loves and disciplines
His people (cf. Heb 12.3–11).
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to
discipline him.
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it
far from him.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not
depart from it (Prov 13.24; 22.6,15; 23.13).
The love of the father for children is expressed in loving discipline
without hypocrisy. The best teacher is one’s own example.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up with
discipline and instruction in the Lord (Eph 6.4).
Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged (Col
3.21).
Like the pastors of churches, the fathers of families must be “temperate,
sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, no drunkard, not violent but
gentle, not quarrelsome and no lover of money” (1Tim 3.2). He must be an
example for his children “in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”
(1Tim 4.12). Like the father in Christ ’s parable, the human father must always
be ready to receive home with joy his prodigal children. The wives and mothers
of families must be fully devoted to their husbands and children. They must be
the very embodiment of all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit as those who give
life, both physical and spiritual.
A good wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart
of her husband trusts in her .?.?. she does him good and not harm all the days
of her life.
Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of
idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, he praises her,
saying: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is
greatly to be praised (Prov 31.10–31).
This teaching of Wisdom is found also in the writing of the apostles of
Christ.
I desire then that in every place .?.?. women should adorn themselves
modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or
pearls or costly attire, but by good deeds as befits women who profess piety (1?
Tim 2.8–10).
Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though
they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their
wives, when they see your reverent and chaste behavior. Let not yours be the
outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of
robes, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of
a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. So once the holy
women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to
their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are now
her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you (1?Pet 3.1–6).
Thus in the “small church” of the family, with each member living
according to God’s will, the Kingdom of God is already present and active,
waiting to be perfectly fulfilled in the Kingdom of heaven which never will
end, where all are God’s children, the bride of His Son.
Sickness, Suffering, and Death
Sickness
Sickness exists in the world only because of sin. There would be no
sickness at all, neither mental nor physical, if man had not sinned. According to
Christ sickness is bondage to the devil (Mt 8.16, 12.22; Lk 4.40–41, 13.10–17).
And Christ has come to “destroy .?.?. the devil” (Heb 2.14). With Jesus, the
forgiveness of sins, the healing of the body, the destruction of the devil and the
raising of the dead are all one and the same act of salvation.
For which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say “Rise and
walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins-He then said to the paralytic-“Rise, take up your bed and go
home.” And he rose and went home (Mt 9.4–7, Mk 2.9–12, Lk 5.23–25).
In that hour He cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and
on many that were blind he bestowed sight (Lk 7.21).
Doing these things Jesus showed that He is Christ the Messiah, the
fulfillment of the prophets who brings the Kingdom of God to the world.
.?.?. the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the good news of the gospel
preached to them. And blessed is he who is not scandalized at Me (Lk 7.22–23;
cf. Is 29.18–19, 35.5–6, 61.1; Mt 4.23–24, 11.4–6).
When one is delivered from sin and evil, one is also freed from sickness
and death. In the Kingdom of God there will be “no sickness or sorrow or
sighing, but life everlasting” (Requiem Kontakion of the Church).
When one is visited by sickness in this world, whether bodily or mental,
he is a victim of the devil and the “sin of the world” (Jn 1.29). This does not
mean that people are necessarily being personally punished with their diseases.
It means rather, as in the case of those born with infirmities and children who
are ill, that where sin abounds, sickness and disease are also rampant. It is the
teaching of the Church that those who are innocently victimized by sickness,
such as small children and the developmentally disabled, are certain to be
saved in the Kingdom of God.
This is the teaching of the book of Genesis. God did not say to man, “Sin
and I will kill you.” He said, if and when you sin, “you will die” (Gen 2.17,
3.3). Thus when man sins and ruins himself by evil, he brings the curse of
sickness and suffering to the world for himself and his children; and his life
becomes toil until he returns to the dust out of which he is made-and which he
is by nature without the grace of God in his life (cf. Gen 3.17–19). It is in this
sense that the “prince of this world” is the devil (Jn 12.31, 14.30, 16.11).
Given the sinfulness of the world, its bondage to the devil, its “groaning in
travail” (cf. Rom 8.19–23) until its salvation in Christ, God Himself uses
sickness and death for His own providential purposes as the means for man’s
salvation. God is not the cause of sickness, suffering and death; but given their
existence because of the devil’s deceit and man’s wickedness and sin, God
employs them that man might be healed and saved in the forgiveness of sins. In
this sense, and this sense only, can it be said that “God sends sickness to man.”
When a spiritual person is sick he recognizes that his illness is caused by
sin, his own and the sins of the world. He does not blame God for it, for he
knows that God has not caused it and does not wish it for His servants. He
knows as well, through the providential plan of God and the salvation of Christ,
that his sickness will be healed. He knows also that if God so wills, he can be
healed of his sickness in this life in order to have more time to serve God and
man on earth, and to accomplish what he must according to God’s plan. He
knows as well that the very sickness itself can be the means for serving God,
and he accepts it in this way, offering it in faith and love for his own salvation
and for the salvation of others.
There is no greater witness to the love of God and faith in Christ than
sickness endured with faith and love. The one who bears his infirmities with
virtue, with courage and patience, with faith and hope, with gladness and joy, is
the greatest witness to divine salvation that can possibly be. Nothing can
compare to such a person, for God’s praise in distress and affliction is the
greatest possible offering that man can make of his life on earth.
Every saint who ever lived suffered bodily infirmities. And all of them,
virtually without exception-even when healing others by their prayers-did not
ask for or receive deliverance for themselves. This is the case most evidently of
Jesus Himself, the suffering servant of God.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief; as one from whom men hide their faces .?.?.
Surely He has borne our grieves, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed
Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, upon Him was the
chastisement that healed us, and with His wounds we are healed .?.?. the Lord
has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man [i.e. Joseph
of Arimathea, cf. Mt 27.57] in His death .?.?. when He makes Himself an
offering for sin .?.?. (Is 53, cf. Pss 22, 38, 41).
Christ “poured out His soul to death” (Is 53.12) when He was only in the
third decade of His life. Many of the saints hardly lived longer, and virtually all
suffered, as did Saint Paul, from some “thorn in the flesh,” normally
understood as some bodily affliction.
.?.?. a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me,
to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this,
that it should leave me; but He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness,” that the power of Christ may rest upon
me .?.?. for when I am weak, then I am strong (2Cor 12.7–10).
All spiritual persons follow the example of Christ and Saint Paul and all of
the saints in their appreciation of sickness. They say to the Father, “Thy will be
done,” and transform their weakness, by the grace of God, into the means of
salvation for themselves and others.
Suffering
There is no life in this world without suffering. The cessation of suffering
comes only in the Kingdom of God.
There are generally three sources of suffering in this world: suffering from
the persecution of others in body and soul, suffering from sickness and disease,
and suffering in spirit because of the sins of the world. There are only two
possible ways to deal with such sufferings. Either one humbly accepts them and
transforms them into the way of salvation for oneself and others; or one is
defeated by them with rebellion and rejection, and so “curses God and dies”
both physically and for eternity in the ages to come (cf. Job 2.9–10).
We have seen already that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted” (1Tim 3.12); and that Christians should “count it all
joy” when they “meet various trials” (Jas 1.2), “rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5.41).
We have also seen that those who suffer through sickness and disease with
every virtue of Christ will receive “sufficient grace” from God to be strong in
the Lord in their bodily weakness, and so direct their sufferings “not unto
death” but to the “glory of God” (cf. 2Cor 12.7–10, Jn 11.4).
Since therefore Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the
same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to
live for the rest of time in the flesh no longer by human passions, but by the will
of God (1?Pet 4.1–2).
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete
what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is the church
.?.?. (Col 1.24).
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our
inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is
preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we
look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the
things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here
indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it
on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with
anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed,
so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for
this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in
the body, we are away from the Lord .?.?. (2Cor 4.16–5.6).
The spiritual person, when suffering in the flesh, uses his afflictions to be
set free from sin, and to be made “perfect through suffering” like Jesus Himself
(Heb 2.10). He knows that as his “outer nature is wasting away” he is being
born into the Kingdom of God if he suffers in and with Jesus the Lord.
In a very real sense the most grievous suffering of all is not in the flesh
but the spirit. This is the suffering which torments the soul when, by the grace
of God and in the light of Christ, the spiritual person sees the utter futility,
ugliness and pettiness of sin which is destroying men made in the image of
God. According to one great theologian of the Church, this suffering was the
most grievous of all for the Lord Jesus Himself (cf. Metropolitan Anthony
Khrapovitskii, 20th c., The Dogma of Redemption).
Jesus knew the fullness and perfection of the divine beauty of God; He
knew His mercy and love, the glory of paradise, the goodness of His creation.
Beholding all of this, given to man as a gift, and beholding it scorned and
rejected in His own person, was infinitely more painful and torturing to the
Lord than were any beatings and scourging and being nailed to the cross. For
the cross itself was the great scandal of man’s hatred and rejection of the love
and light and life of God as given to the world in the person of Christ. Thus the
agony and torment of the Lord in His being killed on the cross was the divine
agony, in body and soul, of man’s refusal of divine life. No greater agony than
this can possibly exist, and no human mind can fathom the infinite scope of its
horror and tragedy.
The spiritual person, according to the measure of grace given by God,
participates spiritually in this agony of Christ. It is the greatest suffering of the
saints, infinitely more unbearable than any external persecution or bodily
disease. It is the torment of the soul over the utter foolishness of sin. It is the
agony of love over those who are perishing. It was in such straightness of soul
that the Apostle Paul could exclaim: “.?.?.?I have great sorrow and anguish in
my heart, for I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the
sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race” (Rom 9.3).
It is with this same agony of love that Saint Isaac of Syria could say about
the saints, “if they were cast into fire ten times a day for the sake of their love
for man, even that would seem to them to be too little.” (Mystic Treatises,
Wensinck, ed.) This same Saint Isaac himself was known to weep fervent tears
of suffering love for all men, the whole of creation, and even the devil himself.
Thus the ultimate form of all suffering which leads to salvation is
compassionate love for all that are perishing through the ridiculous foolishness
of sin. Christ suffered from such love to the full and unlimited extension of His
divinity. And each person suffers it as well to the extent that he or she is deified
in Christ by the grace of the Spirit.
Death
There is no person who will not die. The preparation for death is at the
center of the spiritual life.
Lord, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know
how fleeting my life is! Behold, Thou hast made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing in Thy sight. Surely every man stands as a mere
breath! Surely man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nought are they in
turmoil; man heaps up, and knows not who will gather! (Ps 39–4-6).
That man should die is not the will of God, for as the scripture says, “God
did not make death.”
God did not make death, and takes no pleasure in the destruction of any
living thing; He created all things that they might have being (Wisdom of
Solomon 1.13).
For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn
and live (Ezek 18.32).
Death is the result of sin. It is the final victory of the devil, the result of
his destructive activity. If man had not sinned, he would not have died. His
body may have changed and evolved over great periods of time, but it would
not have been separated from his spirit to return to the dust, and man’s soul
itself would not have been corrupted, losing power over its body and becoming
its slave. This is the meaning of the sin of Adam, that man has emerged on the
face of the earth, made in God’s image and inspired with His Spirit, and has
chosen death instead of life, evil instead of righteousness, and so through
defilement of his nature in rebellion against God, brought corruption and death
to the world (cf. Gen 3, Rom 5.12–21).
“Sin spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom 5.12); and in sinning
man brought death to the children who partake of this mortal nature and life. In
a sin-bound world, no person escapes, even those who are personally guiltless
and innocent, for all are caught up in the sins of the world.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me (Ps 51.5).
Even the all-pure Virgin Mary who gave birth to Christ in the flesh could
not escape the snares of death. For all her innocence and spiritual perfection,
she too needed salvation from death by her Son, and her spirit rejoiced in God
her Savior (cf. Lk 1.47).
According to the Orthodox Christian faith, Jesus Christ alone, of all men,
as the incarnate Son and Word of God, need not have died. His death alone of
all human deaths was perfectly voluntary. He came in order to die, and by His
death to liberate all who were held captive by death’s power.
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may
take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I
have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again; this charge
I have received from My Father (Jn 10.17–18).
Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save Me from this
hour?” No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.
Now is the judgment of the world, now shall the prince of the world be
cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
He said this to show by what death He was to die [i.e. crucifixion].
The crowd answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ
[i.e. Messiah] remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be
lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer .?.?.” (Jn
12.27–35, cf. Mt 16.21–23, 17.9–13).
Jesus came “for us men and for our salvation” in order to die (Nicene
Creed). He came that through His death and resurrection all men might be
raised from the dead for eternal life in the Kingdom of God. This is the
Christian faith.
.?.?. for the hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear the
voice of the Son of God, and come forth, for those who have done good, to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
damnation (Jn 5.25–29).
This, too, is the apostle’s doctrine (cf. Acts 2.22–36).
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those
who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all
be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at His
coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when He delivers the
kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and
power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The
last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1Cor 15.20–26).
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and
we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the
imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the
saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy
victory? O death, where is thy sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to
God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor 15.52–57).
The whole essence of the spiritual life is to die with Christ to the sins of
this world and to pass through the experience of bodily death with Him in order
to be raised up “on the last day” in the Kingdom of God (cf. Jn 6.39–44, 54).
By the power of Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians can and
must transform their deaths into acts of life. They must face the tragedy of
death with faith in the Lord, and defeat the “last enemy-death” (1Cor 15.26) by
the power of their faith.
None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself If we live, we
live to the Lord, if we die, we die to the Lord, so whether we live or whether we
die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He
might be Lord of both the dead and the living (Rom 14.8–9).
Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who
sent Me has eternal life; he does not come to judgment, but has passed from
death to life (Jn 5.24, cf. Jn 6.29–58).
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die,
yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die (Jn
11.25–26).
For Christians, as for all men, death remains a tragedy. When confronted
by death, like all men, and like Jesus Himself and His apostles, Christians can
only mourn and weep (cf. Jn 11.35, Mt 26.37–38, Mk 14.33–34, Lk 22.42–44,
Acts 8.2). But for Christians, filled with faith in Christ and His Father, the
tragedy of death can be transformed into victory.
The Final Judgment
Every man will stand judgment before God for his life in this world. Each
person will be judged according to his words and his works.
I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every idle
word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you
will be condemned (Mt 12.36).
For the Son of Man is to come with His angels in the glory of His Father,
and then He will repay every man according to his works (Mt 16: 27, cf. Rev
2.23).
The judge will be Christ Himself, for He is the one who, by His suffering
and death, has received the power to judge. It is the Crucified One who will call
men to account at the end of the ages. He has won this right as a man through
the perfection of His human life.
For the Father .?.?. has given Him the authority to execute judgment
because He is the Son of Man (Jn 5.27).
Christ will judge all men exclusively on the basis of how they have served
Him by serving all men-the least of the brethren.
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then
He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations,
and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep
from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats at
the left.
Then the King will say to those at His right hand, “Come, O blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I
was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was
sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry
and feed Thee, or thirsty and give Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a
stranger and welcome Thee, or naked and clothe Thee? And when did we see
Thee sick or in prison and visit Thee?”
And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of
the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
Then He will say to those at His left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and
you gave Me no food. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger
and you did not welcome Me, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in
prison and you did not visit Me.”
Then they also will answer, “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?”
Then He will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of
the least of these, you did it not to Me.”
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into
eternal life (Mt 25: 31–46).
All spiritual life is fulfilled in this one parable of Christ, for the heart of it
is love, both for God and for man.
In commenting on this teaching about the final judgment, Saint Augustine
has said that Christ Himself is truly the one who is found in all of these
conditions, just as He is the one who is the Savior in each of them.
He Himself was hungry; who is the “bread of life,” which if a man eats of
it, he will never hunger again (Jn 6.35).
He Himself was thirsty, crying out “I thirst!” (Jn 19.28); who gives the
“living water,” which, if a man drinks of it, he will never thirst again (Jn 4.13,
6.35, 7.37).
He Himself was a stranger with “no place to lay His head” (Mt 8.20, Lk
9.58), who “came to His own home, and His own people received Him not” (Jn
1.11); who brings all men home to the heavenly house of the Father (Jn 14.1–2).
He Himself was naked, in the manger in Bethlehem, in the streams of the
Jordan, and on the cross of Golgatha; who clothes all men with Himself (Gal
3.27), and with the “robes of salvation” (Is 61.10, Rev 6.11).
He Himself was sick, “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for
our iniquities,” left alone hanging on the cross (Is 53.5, Mt 26.56); who
Himself heals all the wounds of men, for “with His wounds we are healed” (Is
53.5).
He Himself was in prison, arrested as a criminal and thrown into jail,
forsaken by His disciples (Mt 26.56, 27); who Himself proclaims “liberty to the
captives” (Is 61.1, Lk 4.18), setting men free from everything that binds them,
and forgiving their crimes.
Since Christ has identified Himself wholly with every man, in every one
of his sad and most sorrowful states, the person who “does it to the least of his
brethren” does it to Christ Himself-not “as if” to Christ, but to Christ in reality,
for Christ is most truly within every man, and every man is the bearer of Christ,
the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1.15).
Saint Simeon the New Theologian gives the following teaching about the
parable of the final judgment:
The Son of God has become the Son of Man in order to make us men sons
of God, raising our nature by grace to what He is Himself by nature, granting
us birth from above through the grace of the Holy Spirit and leading us
straightway into the Kingdom of heaven, or rather, granting us the Kingdom of
heaven within us .?.?.
A man is not saved by having once shown mercy to someone .?.?. for “I
was hungry” and “I was thirsty” is said not of one occasion, not of one day, but
of the whole of life. In the same way, “you gave me food,” “you gave me
drink,” “you clothed me,” and so on, does not merely indicate one incident or
action, but a constant attitude to everyone always. Our Lord Jesus Christ said
that He Himself accepts such mercy .?.?. in the persons of the needy.
.?.?. it is Him whom we feed in every beggar .?.?. Him whom we have left
to die in our neglect .?.?.
Our Lord was pleased to assume the kindness of every poor man .?.?. in
order that no one who believes in Him should exalt himself over his brother,
but seeing his Lord in his brother, should consider himself beneath him .?.?.
and honor him, and be ready to exhaust all his means in helping him, just as our
Lord exhausted His blood for our salvation.
A man who is commanded to love his neighbor as himself should do so
.?.?. for his entire lifetime .?.?. A man who loves his neighbor as himself cannot
allow himself to possess anything more than his neighbor; so that if he has
more and does not distribute them without envy .?.?. he does not fulfill our
Lord’s command exactly.
If he who possesses .?.?. disdains even one who does not .?.?. he will still
be regarded as one who has disdained Christ our Lord.
His words, “you have done it unto Me,” are not limited only to those to
whom we have been unkind, or whom we have wronged, or whose possessions
we have taken, or whom we have harmed, but include also those whom we have
disdained.-This latter alone is sufficient for our condemnation for, in disdaining
them, we have disdained Christ Himself.
All this may appear too hard for people and they may think it right to say
to themselves: “Who can strictly follow all this, satisfying and feeding
everyone and leaving no one unsatisfied?” Let them listen to Saint Paul: “For
the love of Christ compels us .?.?.” (2Cor 5.14).
.?.?. a man who gives all .?.?. has fulfilled the particular commandments
in one stroke .?.?. as he who prays constantly has fulfilled the rules of prayer
.?.?. and he who has God in himself .?.?. has accomplished everything .?.?.
(Practical and Theological Precepts).
It is also the teaching of the spiritual masters that what must be given to
all men is Christ Himself: the Bread of Life, the Living Water, the Home of the
Father, the robes of salvation, the healing of wounds, the liberation and
forgiveness of all sins. In this sense every man, no matter how rich or how
righteous, is poor, hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, sinful and imprisoned by evil
and death. Thus to “do it to the least of the brethren” is to offer Christ to all
men, to give them the eternal and unending satisfaction of all their needs and
desires: bread which is never consumed, water which eternally satisfies, a home
which is never lost, garments which do not grow old, healing which never
suffers again, liberation which can never revert to captivity. Thus, “to do it to
the least of the brethren” is to bring them the Kingdom of God. In doing this
one offers to all men and so to Christ Himself what already belongs to them
from God; as in the liturgy of the Church we offer to God that which already is
His. In every case, this is Christ Himself.
We offer to Thee, what is already Thine, on behalf of all, and for all
(Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom).
This, therefore, is perfect love; the love of God and the love of man, the
love for God and the love for man, becoming one and the same love. It is
accomplished in Christ and is Christ. To love with this love is to love with the
love of Christ and to fulfill His “new commandment” to “love one another even
as I have loved you” (Jn 13.34–35, 15.12). In this is the whole of spiritual life.
In this, and this alone, man will be finally judged. It is the crown of all virtue
and prayer, the ultimate and most perfect fruit of God’s Spirit in man.
Heaven and Hell
The Kingdom of heaven is already in the midst of those who live the
spiritual life. What the spiritual person knows in the Holy Spirit, in Christ and
the Church, will come with power and glory for all men to behold at the end of
the ages.
The final coming of Christ will be the judgment of all men. His very
presence will be the judgment. Now men can live without the love of Christ in
their lives. They can exist as if there were no God, no Christ, no Spirit, no
Church, no spiritual life. At the end of the ages this will no longer be possible.
All men will have to behold the Face of Him who “for us men and our salvation
came down from heaven and was incarnate .?.?. who was crucified under
Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried?.?.?.” (Nicene Creed). All will have
to look at Him whom they have crucified by their sins: Him “who was dead and
is alive again” (Rev 1.17–18).
For those who love the Lord, His Presence will be infinite joy, paradise
and eternal life. For those who hate the Lord, the same Presence will be infinite
torture, hell and eternal death. The reality for both the saved and the damned
will be exactly the same when Christ “comes in glory, and all angels with
Him,” so that “God may be all in all” (1Cor 15–28). Those who have God as
their “all” within this life will finally have divine fulfillment and life. For those
whose “all” is themselves and this world, the “all” of God will be their torture,
their punishment and their death. And theirs will be “weeping and gnashing of
teeth” (Mt 8.21, et al.).
The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out of His
kingdom all causes of sin and all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of
fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine
like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Mt 13.41–43).
According to the saints, the “fire” that will consume sinners at the coming
of the Kingdom of God is the same “fire” that will shine with splendor in the
saints. It is the “fire” of God’s love; the “fire” of God Himself who is Love.
“For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12.29) who “dwells in unapproachable
light” (1Tim 6.16). For those who love God and who love all creation in Him,
the “consuming fire” of God will be radiant bliss and unspeakable delight. For
those who do not love God, and who do not love at all, this same “consuming
fire” will be the cause of their “weeping” and their “gnashing of teeth.”
Thus it is the Church’s spiritual teaching that God does not punish man by
some material fire or physical torment. God simply reveals Himself in the risen
Lord Jesus in such a glorious way that no man can fail to behold His glory. It is
the presence of God’s splendid glory and love that is the scourge of those who
reject its radiant power and light.
.?.?. those who find themselves in hell will be chastised by the scourge of
love. How cruel and bitter this torment of love will be! For those who
understand that they have sinned against love, undergo no greater suffering
than those produced by the most fearful tortures. The sorrow which takes hold
of the heart, which has sinned against love, is more piercing than any other
pain. It is not right to say that the sinners in hell are deprived of the love of
God .?.?. But love acts in two ways, as suffering of the reproved, and as joy in
the blessed! (Saint Isaac of Syria, Mystic Treatises).
This teaching is found in many spiritual writers and saints: Saint Maximus
the Confessor, the novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. At the end of the ages God’s
glorious love is revealed for all to behold in the face of Christ. Man’s eternal
destiny-heaven or hell, salvation or damnation-depends solely on his response
to this love.
When Christ will come in glory at the end of the ages, and God will be all
in all, then will come the new heaven and new earth foretold by the prophet
Isaiah and described in the book of Revelation (cf. Is 65.17–66.24).
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the
dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be His
people, and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from
their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor
crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
And He who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Also He said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And He
said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water
of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he
shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for
murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the
lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21.1–
8).
Behold I am coming soon, bringing my recompense to repay everyone for
what he has done (Rev 22.12).
To gain the “heritage” of the New Jerusalem is the whole meaning of life,
the sole purpose of man’s being created by God. “He who conquers shall have
this heritage.” And as Saint Paul has said simply, “We are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8.37).
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8.38–39).
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family
in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He
may grant you to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner
man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of
Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness
of God (Eph 3.14–19).
To be “filled with all the fullness of God”-this, and this alone, is what
Orthodox spirituality is about.
Resources
Arseniev, Nicholas, Revelation of Life Eternal, St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, Tuckahoe, N.Y., 1962.
Bloom, Archbishop Anthony, Beginning to Pray, Paulist Press, New York,
1970.
Meditations – A Spiritual Journey Through the Parables, Dimension
Books, Denville, N.J., 1971.
Living Prayer, Libra Books, London, 1966.
God and Man, Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1970.
Cabasilas, Nicholas, The Life in Christ, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press,
Tuckahoe, N.Y., 1974
Chariton, Igumen of Valaam, The Art of Prayer – An Orthodox Anthology,
Faber and Faber, Ltd., London, 1966.
Elchaninov, Alexander, The Diary of a Russian Priest, Faber and Faber,
Ltd., London, 1967.
John (Sergieff) of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ, Jordanville, N.Y., n.d.
Fedotov, George, A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, Harper Torchbook,
New York, 1964.
Kadloubovsky and Palmer, Trans., Early Fathers from the Philokalia,
Faber and Faber, Ltd., London, 1954.
Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber and Faber, Ltd.,
London, 1951.
Macarius of Optina, Russian Letters of Direction, St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, Tuckahoe, N.Y., 1975.
Meyendorff, John, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Tuckahoe, N.Y., 1973.
Schmemann, Alexander, For the Life of the World, St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, Tuckahoe, N.Y. 1973.
Liturgy and Life, Department of Religious Education, Orthodox Church in
Sophrony, Archmandrite, Wisdom from Mount Athos -The Writings of
Father Silouan, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Tuckahoe, N.Y., 1974.
Spirituality Questions and Reflections for Discussion
Introduction
Spirituality volume of the series.
There are questions for each chapter of this volume, based on the text.
They can be used to review or further consider the material in the chapter. A
page number follows each question to show the part of the text it’s based on.
copy of the questions for that chapter. The group can then answer them
together, as a way of reinforcing and reviewing what they have read.
Another way of using the questions is to give them to participants before
they read the text, and then have them find the answers together. The group
leader can check the answers with the answer sheet, though most should be easy
to find within the text.
A reader going through the book on his or her own can use the questions
and answers in whatever way is most helpful.
Some of the answers on the sheet also offer points for reflection. Father
Thomas always liked to reflect further on things as he taught, and we hope
those who use the books will want to do likewise. Most of all we hope that
people will benefit from this revised editions of Father Thomas’ valuable gift
to the Church, his series The Orthodox Faith.
Department of Christian Education
Orthodox Church in America
Chapter 1: Orthodox Spirituality
In the book’s first paragraph Fr. Thomas defines spirituality as “the
everyday activity of life in communion with God.” What familiar prayer words
does he say are the heart and soul of all spiritual effort and activity? (p. 16)
What two things do people not do if they are not “of God”? (p. 18)
What did St. Seraphim of Sarov say was the essence of Christian life, in
fact of life itself? (p 20)
Why is it “contradictory” to be both human and a sinner? (p. 23)
How does 2Cor 11describe Satan? (p. 25)
How does the Church differentiate two meanings of the words world and
flesh? (p. 26–7)
Who is St. Paul referring to when he writes about the law of God written
on their hearts? (p. 30)
What does the grace of the Holy Spirit enable a person to do through Holy
Unction? (p. 32)
Chapter 2: The Beatitudes
What is the “source of all sorrows”? (p. 38)
To what does St. John Climacus compare honey in the comb? (p. 39)
How does Fr. Thomas distinguish between being “tolerant” and being
“merciful”? (p. 44)
Fr. Thomas writes that a Christian must expect persecution. How does a
person’s attitude toward persecution determine whether it is, as it should be,
“for righteousness’ sake”? (p. 52)
Chapter 3: The Virtues
Are the Christian virtues, or Fruits of the Spirit, things that only Christians
know and try to attain? (p. 56)
Is weak faith often the result of an intellectual mistake or mental
confusion? (p. 59)
What is the “noonday demon”? (p. 61)
What foolish exchange does St. Paul say human beings make? (p. 66)
What is the “most vile” of evils in God’s sight? (p. 70)
How do God the Father and Jesus Christ show their humanity? (p. 72)
What connection is there between patience and will power? (p. 76)
What does each person’s “uniqueness” have to do with finding joy,
wisdom and peace? (p. 81)
What is “passionlessness”? (p. 82–3)
Why does St. John Chrysostom tell us to be thankful to God even for
things that seem evil? (p. 87)
Chapter 4: The Greatest Virtue is Love
Of the three types of love-agape, eros and phila-which can exist between
God and human beings? (p 92–3)
Fr. Thomas writes about loving and hating oneself. What is the one way in
which it is appropriate to hate ourselves? (p. 100)
What is the “new element” in the new commandment Jesus Christ gives us
in Jn 13:34? (p. 102)
Chapter 5: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving
What problem in prayer is described by St. Nilus of Sinai? (p. 109)
What does it mean to say that God is in the heavens as we do in the Lord’s
Prayer? (p. 110)
Why is it a “daring and dangerous” to pray to God, Thy will be done? (p.
112)
Are we tempted by God to sin? (p. 114)
What kind of prayer has great power in its effects according to the Letter
of James? (p. 116)
Why do Orthodox spiritual teachers advise us not to go back and repeat
prayers we may have said poorly? (p. 118)
The hesychast method of contemplative prayer is based on the Jesus
Prayer. Aside from that method, though, anyone can use the prayer. How is it
done? (p. 125–6)
What is the model of liturgical prayer in the Orthodox Church? (p. 127)
What is lectio divina? (p. 128)
What assurance did St. Augustine give to those who seek God in prayer?
(p. 131)
Is it possible to fast “foolishly”? (p. 135)
Why does Jesus Christ say that a rich person can hardly be saved? (p. 140)
Chapter 6: Sexuality, Marriage and Family
Under what conditions can sexual relations be “holy and pure”? (p. 148)
Can people serve God as well in the single life as they can in marriage?
(p. 149–150)
What makes the sexual act satisfying in marriage? (p. 153)
How does loving, honoring and respecting one’s parents relate to one’s
service to God? (p. 158)
Chapter 7: Sickness, Suffering and Death
What is the greatest possible witness to love of God and faith in Christ?
(p. 164)
What was the greatest agony suffered by Jesus Christ? (p. 167)
In what way is Jesus Christ’s death different from the deaths of all others
born on this earth? (p. 170)
Chapter 8: The Kingdom of Heaven
On what basis will Jesus Christ judge us at the last judgment? (p. 174)
Fr. Thomas writes that each person’s eternal destiny “depends solely” on
his or her response to one thing. What is it? (p. 180)
Spirituality Answers and Reflections for Discussion
Chapter 1: Orthodox Spirituality
“Thy will be done.” (For reflection: Is it possible to be “spiritual but not
religious?”)
They do not do right, and they do not love their brother-meaning all
people.
The acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.
Because our human being and life are naturally positive and good, evil and
sin are not normal for us. So it is a contradiction to be both human and a sinner.
Satan is the Adversary who disguises himself as an angel of light. (For
reflection: The word “disguise” reminds us that Satan is always lying, hiding
himself, pretending-nothing he does is straightforward.)
The word world can refer to God’s good creation, which His Son came to
save. It can also refer to the world as the place of temptation and sin, in
rebellion against its Creator. The word flesh can refer to the positive character
of created being, and to Christ becoming part of it in His incarnation, as in
John’s Gospel: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But it can also have
the negative meaning of a godless and unspiritual existence.
He is referring to every human being, especially those who are not
formally part of the Church.
It enables a person to make suffering and death an act of victory and life.
Chapter 2: The Beatitudes
Violation of the spiritual attitude of being “poor in spirit” is the source of
all sorrows. To be poor in spirit is to be wholly set free from the sinful lusts of
this world.
He compares it to mourning and grief, which have within them joy and
gladness. If we mourn and grieve for our sins and for the sinful world (not
morbidly or hopelessly) that godly grief will bring us to repentance, salvation
and joy.
To be merciful means to refuse to condemn, to be compassionate and
sympathetic toward those caught in sin, and to forgive. This is not the same as
being tolerant of sin and foolishness in ourselves or others.
The persecuted person must genuinely forgive those who persecute.
Persecution “for righteousness’ sake” is always “without cause”, as Psalm 69: 4
says.
Chapter 3: The Virtues
The virtues are for everyone, not just Christians. They are things that all
people desire and seek, as creatures made by God.
No. It is the refusal, either conscious or unconscious, to acknowledge God
with honor and thanksgiving.
The “noonday demon” is the demon of despondency. (For reflection: That
two great teachers of the Church could describe despondency so vividly, as they
do here, tells us that they, like many of us, must have been familiar with this
destructive emotion. The remedies Fr. Thomas writes about-taken from the
teachings of the Fathers-are worth discussing, since they are things we don’t
always talk about.)
They exchange the truth about God for a lie, which leads them to worship
and serve the creature rather than the Creator.
Hypocrisy. (For reflection: This answer might surprise some people. What
does it mean “not to say or do anything that would lead people to have a false
impression of [oneself] or of anyone or anything”? How do we do it, living in a
world in which the appearance of things is considered to be so important?)
They show it by humility-by caring for the lowliest and worst of sinners,
and for the birds, the grass, and all the “least important” things and beings.
Patience is a virtue that comes through our willingness to “stay on the
cross” and do God’s will no matter what. It cannot come through an effort of
our own will power alone.
Each of us has a unique life, mission and vocation from God, which no one
else can fulfill. Working in faith to accomplish this, without fear and without
envying anyone else’s life, is the way to joy, wisdom and peace.
Passionlessness is spiritual mastery over the lusts of the mind and flesh.
Because even the things that are evil-and they do exist-can be vehicles for
spiritual growth and for our salvation. They are not stronger than God, and His
tender care is over all.
Chapter 4: The Greatest Virtue is Love
All three.
The only way in which it is appropriate for us to hate ourselves is in
despising and putting off our “old nature with its evil practices” so that we can
“put on the new nature which is being renewed in knowledge according to the
image of its Creator.”
Jesus Christ calls us not only to love, which was already commanded in
the Old Testament law, but to love as Christ Himself loves. Christian love must
be totally self-emptying, as Christ’s love is.
Chapter 5: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving
St. Nilus says that if we ask for something we want and God grants it, we
will then be distressed because we haven’t left it to God to give what He knows
is needed.
It means that God is everywhere and over all things.
It’s daring and dangerous because it means we must follow wherever it
leads, as Christ did. Also, the devil will fiercely tempt anyone who truly tries to
live according to God’s will.
No, we are only tempted by our own desires.
Intercessory prayers, for the salvation of others.
Because doing so would tempt us to believe that God hears our prayers
according to how well we’ve said them, rather than simply through His great
mercy. Therefore, we should just forge ahead in our prayers.
We can say the prayer constantly, whatever we are doing, without any
particular bodily postures or breathing techniques.
The model is the Book of Revelation.
Lectio divina is slow and attentive reading of the Bible or possibly other
writings, for the purpose of communion with God.
He says that even if a person doesn’t know how to pray but does seek God,
that person is already the dwelling place of God.
Yes. According to St. Abba Dorotheus, if when we fast we think we’re
achieving something virtuous, we are foolish. It leads us to look down on others
and think we are “something great”-just the opposite of the attitude we should
have.
A rich person will want to keep them and gather even more, and this
delight in riches “chokes the word of God, and so it proves unfruitful.”
Chapter 6: Sexuality, Marriage and Family
They are holy and pure within the communion of marriage, ideally of one
woman and one man forever.
Yes. Both married and single people can serve God and live the spiritual
life.
The sexual act is satisfying when it is the expression of the couple’s total
union, each living completely for the good of the other.
Honoring, respecting and loving our parents enables us to serve God, who
is the “Father of all.”
Chapter 7: Sickness, Suffering and Death
The greatest witness is sickness endured with faith and love.
Jesus knew the glory of paradise and the perfect love of God. All this was
given to human beings, and the greatest agony Christ suffered was to see the
gift scorned and rejected in His own person.
His death is the only one that is completely voluntary. (For reflection:
Christianity is based on the willingness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to live
with us and die for us. This is unique to the Christian faith-no other faith
teaches that God would do this amazing thing for His creatures, out of
completely self-emptying love for them.)
Chapter 8: The Kingdom of Heaven
We will be judged solely on the basis of how we have served Him by
serving others, including the “least” among us.
It is God’s glorious love, which will be revealed to everyone at the end of
the ages.

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