Baptismal Theology

Baptismal Theology by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos and Hagios Vlasios

THERE HAS BEEN in the past, and there is in our own day, a good deal of discussion about the Baptism of heretics (the heterodox [1]); that is, whether heretics who have deviated from the Orthodox Faith and who seek to return to it should be Baptized anew or simply Chrismated after making a profession of faith. Decisions have been issued on this matter by both local and Œcumenical Synods.

In the text that follows, I should like to discuss, by way of example, the agreement reached between the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of America and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in America [2] on June 3, 1999. The Greek translation of the original text was made by Protopresbyter George Dragas, a professor at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston [Brookline—Trans.], who also provided a summary and critique of this agreed statement between Orthodox and Roman Catholics in America.

The basis of this document is the Balamand Agreement of 1993, “Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past and the Present Search for Full Communion,” which it evidently wishes to uphold.

The text on which we are commenting, that is, the agreement signed by Orthodox and Roman Catholics in America and entitled “Baptism and ‘Sacramental Economy,’” is based on several points, in my observation, that are very typical of the contemporary ecumenical movement and indicative of its entire substance.

The first point is that “Baptism rests upon and derives its reality from the faith of Christ Himself, the faith of the Church, and the faith of the believer” (p. 13). At first sight, one is struck by the absence, here, of any reference to the Triune God—perhaps in order to justify this flexible interpretation of Baptism. Faith, then, becomes the fundamental mark and element of Baptism.

The second point is that Baptism is not a practice required by the Church, but is, “rather, the Church’s foundation. It establishes the Church” (p. 26). Here, the notion that Baptism is not the “initiatory” Mystery whereby we are introduced into the Church, but the foundation of the Church, is presented as the truth.

The third point is that “Baptism was never understood as a private ceremony, but rather as a corporate event” (p. 13). This means that the Baptism of catechumens was “the occasion for the whole community’s repentance and renewal” (p. 13). One who is Baptized “is obliged to make his own the community’s common faith in the Savior’s person and promises” (p. 14).

The fourth point is a continuation and consequence of the foregoing points. Since Baptism rests upon faith in Christ, since it is the basis of the Church, and since, moreover, it is the work of the community, this means that any recognition of Baptism entails recognition of the Church in which the Baptism is performed. In the Agreed Statement we read: “The Orthodox and Catholic members of our Consultation acknowledge, in both of our traditions, a common teaching and a common faith in one baptism, despite some variations in practice which, we believe, do not affect the substance of the mystery” (p. 17).

According to this text, there is a common faith and teaching concerning Baptism in the two “Churches,” and the differences that exist do not affect the substance of the Mystery. The two sides each acknowledge an ecclesial reality “in the other, however much they may regard their way of living the Church’s reality as flawed or incomplete” (p. 17). “The certain basis for the modern use of the phrase ‘sister churches’” (p. 17) is to be found in this point. The Orthodox Church and the Latin Church are these two “sister Churches,” because they have the same Tradition, the same Faith, and the same Baptism, even though there are certain differences between them. Hence, the following opinion is repeatedly affirmed in the text: “We find that this mutual recognition of the ecclesial reality of baptism, in spite of our divisions, is fully consistent with the perennial teaching of both churches” (p. 26). Misinterpreting the teaching of St. Basil the Great, the signers of this document aver that the two “Churches,” in spite of the “imperfections” that exist, constitute the same ecclesial reality: “By God’s gift we are each, in St. Basil’s words, ‘of the Church’” (p. 26).

The fifth point is that the authors of the Agreed Statement find fault with St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, who, in interpreting the views of St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Basil the Great, and the Second Œcumenical Synod, talks—as do all of the Kollyvades Fathers of the eighteenth century—about exactitude (akribia) and economy (oikonomia) with regard to the way in which heretics are received into the Orthodox Church. That is to say, the Fathers have at times received heretics by exactitude—namely, by Baptism—and at times by economy—namely, by Chrismation. However, even when the Church does receive someone by economy, this means that She effects the mystery of salvation at that very time, precisely because the Church is superior to the Canons, and not the Canons to the Church, and because the Church is the source of the Mysteries and, eo ipso, of Baptism, whereas Baptism is not the basis of the Church. The Church can receive this or that heretic by the principle of economy, without any implication that She recognizes as a Church the community that previously baptized him. This is the context within which St. Nicodemos interprets the relevant decision of the Second Œcumenical Synod.

Confusion is certainly heightened by the fact that one of the recommendations of the Agreed Statement is subject to many different interpretations. According to this recommendation, the two Churches should make it clear that “the mutual recognition of baptism does not of itself resolve the issues that divide them, or reëstablish full ecclesial communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, but that it does remove a fundamental obstacle on the path towards full communion” (p. 28).

From this brief analysis, it is obvious how much confusion prevails in ecumenist circles regarding these issues. It is also obvious that [Orthodox] ecumenists understand the acceptance of the baptism of heretics (Catholics and Protestants, who have altered the dogma of the Holy Trinity and other dogmas) to mean accepting the ecclesial status of heretical bodies and, worse still, that the two “Churches,” Latin and Orthodox, are united in spite of “small” differences, or that we derive from the same Church and should seek to return to it, thereby forming the one and only Church. This is a blatant expression of the branch

theory.

When there is such confusion, it is necessary to adopt an attitude of strictness, which preserves the truth: that all who fall into heresy are outside the Church and that the Holy Spirit does not work to bring about their deification.

In any event, baptismal theology creates immense problems for the Orthodox. From the standpoint of ecclesiology, the text under consideration is riddled with errors. The Patristic Orthodox teaching on this subject is that the Church is the Theanthropic Body of Christ, in which revealed truth—the Orthodox Faith—is preserved and the mystery of deification is accomplished through the Mysteries of the Church (Baptism, Chrismation, and the Divine Eucharist). The essential precondition for this is that we participate in the purifying, illuminating, and deifying energy of God. Baptism is the initiatory Mystery of the Church. The Church does not rest upon the Mystery of Baptism; rather, the Baptism of water, in conjunction with the Baptism of the Spirit, operates within the Church and makes one a member of the Body of Christ. There are no Mysteries outside the Church, the living Body of Christ, just as there are no senses outside the human body.

In closing, I should like to cite the conclusion of Father George Dragas, which he appends to his “Summary and Critique”:

These recommendations will not win the agreement of all Orthodox, and certainly not of those who are Greek-speaking (or Greek-minded), and consequently they are, by their very nature, divisive. My primary reason for coming to such a negative conclusion is that this inquiry into sacramental theology is devoid of any ecclesiological basis and that it onesidedly interprets—or rather, misinterprets—the facts of Orthodox sacramental practice, and particularly vis-à-vis the heterodox at different periods in the history of the Church. These recommendations and conclusions and, indeed, the entire Agreed Statement are the epitome of Western skepticism. Their acceptance by Orthodox theologians signals a deliberate betrayal of Orthodox views and a capitulation to the outlook of Western ecumenism. This is something that we should reject.

Endnotes

1. We have retained, here, for the sake of faithful translation, the word “heretic,” though with some concern that many readers may assume that it carries with it the vitriol that has been attached to it in Western Christianity—and especially since the Inquisition—or by some of the more irresponsible and less reflective and spiritually-enlightened Orthodox traditionalists, today. We could have justifiably used the word “heterodox,” which is not frequently used as an ad hominem epithet, as the word “heretic” so frequently is, but which simply indicates what both words actually mean: a person who holds to views that deviate from established belief and, in the Orthodox Church, who accepts an opinion held in opposition to the Patristic consensus and the conscience of the Church. The word takes on wholly pejorative meanings, in the Orthodox Church, only when applied to those who, in their absolute intransigence, fail to succumb to the entreaties of the Church (and to spiritual sobriety), in the face their of error, and thus cause harm to the harmonious ethos of Orthodoxy and lead others into error and delusion—Trans.

2. To be precise, the agreement in question was signed by members of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, meeting at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York—Trans.

Translated from the Greek original in Ekklesiastike Parembase, No. 71 (December 2001), p. 12. Reprinted from Orthodox Tradition, Vol XX, No 2, pp. 40-43.

unbelieving belief

THOMAS the Twin, who alone was bold, and who by his unbelieving belief hath brought us benefactions, doth by his believing unbelief dispel gloomy ignorance from all the ends of the earth. And he doth clearly plait a crown for himself by saying: Thou art Lord. O our supremely exalted God, the God of our Fathers, blessed art Thou.

Thomas Sunday

“But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe (Jn. 20:24-25).

What does this mean, his “I will not believe”? Is it possible he could not believe the other eleven Apostles, his brothers? Is it possible they could lie to him? The whole evangelical life of Christ, all His miracles, Golgotha, the death on the Cross, they had experienced together. And now this joy which they all had experienced they wanted to share with him. No, this was not a lie.

But He, Whom they had seen, was He really the same Christ? Was this not a vision or some other Christ? Was this not a mistake? And Thomas was afraid to lose what he had. And what did he have? This is what: during the years of fellowship with Christ, he had absorbed His teaching, the entire makeup of His life; and by now he was incapable of living any other way. It was painful for him not to have personal fellowship anymore with Christ; but by this time he understood that Christ came to earth in order to teach us the main commandment of God: love for God and neighbor, to perform it Himself, and to give us the strength to fulfill it.

In Paradise the first man fulfilled the commandment of God. The strength to fulfill this commandment of God he drew from eating the fruits of the Tree of Life. But then came the Fall. Paradise was lost, the Tree of Life was lost, and together with it, the strength for a godly life. And Christ came in order to give us the New Testament Tree of Life — His Body and Blood. “This do in remembrance of Me,” He said at the Last Supper (Lk. 22:19).

Thomas knew the commandments of Christ, and he knew where to draw the strength to fulfill them. He lived this. Although he lived without the human presence of Christ, he lived in Christ. He was afraid to make a mistake. What if another Christ had appeared to the disciples, not the One in Whom he lived and continued to live? This is what his “I will not believe” meant. And on the eighth day after His Resurrection, the Lord again appeared to His disciples, while Thomas was also in the house, and allowed him to touch His wounds. And here resounded Thomas’s triumphant cry, which even now stirs our hearts: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28).

And here are the words of Christ which relate to you and me, opening a new era of faith which will remain until the end of the world: “Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed… But these are written,” adds the Apostle John the Divine, “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (Jn. 20:29, 31).

Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)

As soon as you wake

As soon as you wake up in the morning, pray for a while, saying: *‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.’*  Then your first work should be to shut yourself in your own heart, as if taking up position in an arena.

Having established yourself there, bring yourself to the consciousness and feeling that your enemy and the passionate urge against which you struggle at the moment is already there, on your left, ready for immediate attack; therefore rouse against them a firm resolve to conquer or die, *but never to submit.*

-  Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Risen is Christ!

THE CATECHETICAL HOMILY

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS

JOHN CHRYSOSTOMOS

IF any be pious and a lover of God, let him delight in this fair and radiant festival. If any be an honest servant, let him come in and rejoice in the joy of his Lord. If any have wearied himself with fasting, let him now enjoy the recompense. If any have worked from the first hour, let him receive today his just reward. If any have come after the third, let him feast with thankfulness. If any have arrived after the sixth, in no wise let him be in doubt; in no way shall he suffer loss. If any be later than the ninth, let him draw nigh, let him not waver. If any arrive only at the eleventh, let him not be fearful for his slowness, for the Master is munificent and receiveth the last even as the first; He giveth rest to him of the eleventh even as to him who hath wrought from the first hour. He is merciful to the last and provideth for the first; and to this one He giveth, and to that one He showeth kindness. He receiveth their labours and acknowledgeth the purpose, and He honoureth the deed and praiseth the intention. Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of our Lord, and let the first and the second take part in the reward. Ye rich and ye poor, join hands together. Ye sober and ye heedless, do honour to this day. Ye who fast and ye who fast not, be glad today. The table is full: do ye all fare sumptuously. The calf is ample: let no one go forth hungry. Let all enjoy the banquet of Faith. Let all enjoy the wealth of righteousness. Let no one lament his poverty, for the Ruling Power (Kingdom) is made manifest to all. Let no one bewail transgressions, for forgiveness hath dawned forth from the tomb. Let no one be fearful of Death, for the death of the Saviour hath set us free. He hath quenched Death by being subdued by Death. He Who came down into Hades, despoiled Hades; and Hades was embittered when he tasted of Christ’s Flesh. Esaias, anticipating this, cried out and said: Hades was embittered when below he met Thee face to face. He was embittered, for he was set at nought. He was embittered, for he was mocked. He was embittered, for he was slain. He was embittered, for he was cast down. He was embittered, for he was fettered. He received a body, and encountered God. He received earth, and met Heaven face to face. He received what he saw, and fell whither he saw not. a Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? Risen is Christ, and thou art overthrown. Risen is Christ, and the demons are fallen. Risen is Christ, and the Angels rejoice. Risen is Christ, and life doth reign. Risen is Christ, and there is none dead in the tomb. For Christ is raised from the dead, and is become the first-fruits of them that slept. To Him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Give me this Stranger

the noble Joseph

The mystery and the process of death

Interview

Metropolitan Of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios Hierotheos

Interview with Pavel Chirila, Professor and Doctor at St Irene’s Hospital Bucharest (Romania)

1 Question: Tell us something about death, something that comes spontaneously to you, something you consider extremely important.

Answer:What comes spontaneously to mind is that death is a terrible mystery, as we chant in the funeral service, which is a poem by St. John Damascene. This is related to the fact that the soul is violently detached from the harmony of its union with the body. It is also a sad event, because it is related to man’s corruptibility and mortality which is manifested in all life.

In addition, it brings to my memory the Service of the Resurrection of Christ, which we Orthodox celebrate with splendour. We hold lit candles in our hands and sing triumphally the paean of victory: “Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled down death, and on those in the tombs He has bestowed life”. This beautiful image shows our attitude towards life and death. We are corruptible and mortal, but we possess the “medicine of immortality”, which is the resurrected Christ. Employing modern terminology, we may say that by the incarnation of the Son and the union of human with the divine nature in the person of Logos, a “spiritual cloning” has taken place, our mortal nature has been united with the life of God. This is why death has changed its name and is now called dormition (falling asteep) and the places where the departed ones are buried are called cemeteries (“dormitories” in Greek), not burial grounds.

So, when I see people holding a lit candle and chanting “Christ is Risen” on the night of the Resurrection of Christ, I understand better that we should regard death as a process of passing from the “land of Egypt” to the “land of Promise”, from death to life, which takes place in Christ, and as a hope for our resurrection which again takes place in Christ. It would be very fortunate if we were to anticipate death in this position, holding the candle of the Resurrection and chanting “Christ is Risen”. After all, we are “ strangers and pilgrims” in this life, our true country is elsewhere. I am always impressed by the words of St Nikolaos Cabasilas (14th century) that while we live here on earth we are like an embryo in his mother’s womb, and at the moment of death we are born, we get out of that womb. This is why in the Orthodox Church the saints are celebrated on the day of their dormition or their martyrdom, not on the day of their physical birth.

2. Question: We understand from the Holy Scripture that there are two kinds of fear: a holy fear, which is fear of God and the beginning of wisdom according to the psalmist, and another kind of fear inspired by demons, which is pathological fear. To what category does the fear of death belong?

Answer: Indeed, there is a fear of God which is an energy of the grace of God and the beginning of salvation, that is, man fears/respects God and starts obeying His commandments, and there is a fear inspired by demons which causes anxiety and anguish. However, besides these two fears there is also another fear so-called psychological fear, which is related to a person’s insecurity and emotional inadequacy.

The fear of death means something different for each person. For secular and atheist people it is related to the course to “nothingness”, that is, they think that they leave the only existing world and end up in the nothingness of non-existence. This is something that does not exist for us Orthodox. For Christians, the fear of death is related to the soul’s departure from the world they know, the friends and relatives, and its entry into another world they do not know yet. They do not know how they are going to live, what will happen with God’s judgment which follows death. This is why hope and proper preparation is needed.

Of course, those Christians who have reached the illumination of the nous and deification and have been united with Christ transcend the fear of death, as exemplified by the life of the Apostles, the Martyrs and in general the Saints of the Church. In reading the Synaxaria we see phrases like: “on this day saint (so and so) is perfected in peace” or “is perfected by the sword”, etc.. It has to be underlined that in Greek the verb “teleioutai” means “is perfected”, is led to perfection, and differs from the verb “teleionei”, which means “ceases to exist”. We may also say that the life of the senses (“vios”) is terminated by death, while life (“zoe”) is perfected but not terminated.

What is important is that, with the spiritual life we live, we should defeat the fear of death and feel death as a path towards an encounter with Christ, the All holy Virgin and the saints.

3. Question: We know from the Holy Tradition that at a person’s death angels, saints as well as demons are present. What can you tell us about this?

Answer: From the teaching of Christ and the whole tradition of the Church we know that both angels and demons exist, and they are not personifications of good or evil, but individual beings created by God. Demons were angels who lost communion with God. Many saints proved worthy to see angels, as well as demons of temptation, while in this life.

According to the teaching of our Fathers, angels and saints, often even Christ and the All holy Virgin, appear to those about to die in order to support them, to strengthen them to avoid the fear caused by death. The demons also appear, especially when they are able to influence certain people because of their passions, and they demand power over their souls. We are reminded of this in the prayer to the All holy Virgin in the service of the Compline (“Apodeipnon”): “At the hour of my death, care for my miserable soul and drive the dark faces of evil spirits far from it”.

From the teaching of the church it is well known that each person has a “guardian angel” protecting him, and this is why there is a special prayer to the guardian angel in the service of the Apodeipnon. Fr. Paisios, a monk on the Holy Mountain, used to tell me that he would often see his guardian angel beside him and embrace him. He used to say that we must strive to reach salvation, so that our guardian angel, who has been to so many pains to protect us and help us in our life, may not go empty-handed to God, if we are not saved due to our indifference.

I remember with emotion that my father, when he entered the Church, would go to the northern gate of the holy Altar and kiss the icon of Archangel Michael and ask him to receive his soul in due time, when he had repented, protect it from evil demons, and lead it to God. Perhaps this prayer, among everything else, helped him have a good dormition and a happy, smiling face in the coffin.

4. Question: We read in the Holy Scripture that mercy has exceeded judgment. Does this mean that almsgiving absolves a multitude of sins?

Answer: We have to see what mercy means. In reality, mercy is the feeling of divine grace, the love of God. When we pray saying “Lord have mercy”, we ask God’s mercy, God’s grace. He who experiences divine grace is generous to his brothers with all sorts of charity, expressed by prayer, theological words, material contributions, and thus puts into practice the beatitude “blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew, 5,7). In this sense it can be said that the feeling of God’s mercy and almsgiving transcends judgment.

He who has been transformed spiritually and has been united with God does not fear judgment, for what Christ said applies to him: “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5,24).

According to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, there are three judgments. The first occurs throughout our life , when we are faced with the dilemma of whether to follow the will of God or to reject it, when we have to choose between a good and an evil thought. The second judgment takes place when the soul exits the body, according to St. Paul’s words “people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment” (Hebrews, 9, 27). The third and final judgment will be at the Second Coming of Christ. The first judgment is important.

St. Symeon the New Theologian says that, when a person is united with Christ in this life and sees the uncreated Light, then the judgment has already taken place for him and he does not wait for it at the Second Coming of Christ. This reminds us of the words of Christ I mentioned above.

At this point I would like to repeat the saying by St. Basil the Great and other Fathers of the Church that there are three categories of those who are saved, that is, the slaves, who follow the will of God in order to avoid hell, the wage-earners who struggle to earn Paradise as a reward, and the sons who obey God’s will out of love for God. So, throughout our life we must advance spiritually and pass from the state of the slave to the state of the wage-earner and from there to the mentality of the son. This means to pass from fear and recompense to love. To love Christ, because He is our Father, our mother, our friend, our brother, our bridegroom and our bride. This way we transcend the judgment.

5. Question: Tell us something about sudden death.

Answer: The assessment of sudden death depends on each one’s viewpoint. For secular people, sudden death is good, accepted and desirable, because they will not suffer and they will not be tormented by illnesses and old age. For believing Christians, though, sudden death is bad, because they are not given the possibility to prepare better for their encounter with Christ and the heavenly Church. When someone visits a high-ranking official, he prepares accordingly. We should do the same with respect to our encounter with Christ.

Preparation, by repentance, is essential. This is why Father Paisios of everlasting memory used to say that cancer is a saintly illness because it has filled Paradise with saints, meaning that a long illness prepares people with prayer and repentance. According to the teaching of St. Maximus the Confessor, pain cures pleasure.

In any case, death is the most certain event. We see it around us, everything dies, all living creatures, our friends, our relatives. What is not certain and is unknown to us is the hour of death, when death will come. It may happen while sleeping,while walking, while travelling, while working, while entertaining ourselves, etc. This is why we should pray to God daily, as the Church does: “For the completion of our lives in peace and repentance, let us ask the Lord”and “For a Christian end to our lives, peaceful, without shame and suffering, and for a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ, let us ask the Lord”.

In the teaching of the holy Fathers we come across the truth that one of the greatest gifts a person can have is the daily “memory of death”. When this is maintained with the grace of God it leads man not to despair, hopelessness , psychological fear, but to inspiration, to prayer, creativity, even in human affairs, because he tries to finish his tasks and prepare properly. When we live each day as if it were the last day in our life, then even sudden death will find us ready.

6. Question: Which is the correct expression: the hour of death or the moment of death?

Answer: This depends on how one interprets the words “hour” and “moment”. In speech we often use the word “hour” meaning the moment. But I understand that your question refers to whether death is a process or a moment.

What can be said is that there is a process of death, that is, long illnesses lead man gradually to death, but the separation of soul and body takes place at a specific moment by the will of God.

This moment is important, because man’s mode of existence changes and we cannot know how it will be from then on. We know the state where the soul is attached to our body, which communicates with the creation through the senses. We do not know by experience what is going to happen then and how we will be. At present we usually see the world created by God, people, friends, the beauty of earth, not angels and demons. Then, however, the soul will not see through the senses of the body but will see what is presently invisible. This is why the saints want to be conscious and pray during the process of death, in order to leave this world with prayer and to have the strength and grace of God accompanying them.

We have to say that the privilege of being able to pray during these hours and receive communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, in order to be surrounded by the grace of God when the soul leaves the body, is eliminated in our days with so-called life support eguipment in Intensive Care Units. From a Christian viewpoint, the hour and moment of death requires an appropriate preparation, that is, confession, holy Communion, holy unction, prayer by family and frients our own prayer. However, in Intensive Care Units it is impossible to such an ecclesial-pastoral ministry. Thus, because of exercise modern techniques and drugs, in our days more and more people die not being conscious of what goes on at that hour and moment. This is an important problem. Modern medical methods pose a dilemma. “Prolongation of life or obstruction of death?”. With everything that is offered by medical science the question is: is our life prolonged so that we repent and devote it to God or is death obstructed, which creates a lot of pain, physical and existential?

In any case, it is a great blessing from God for someone to die surrounded by his beloved ones who pray and, above all, to die living in the Church, with holy Communion, prayer, the blessing of his Spiritual Father, the grace of God and the prayers of the saints. Our permanent wish should be a death like the one depicted in the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, with her in the middle surrounded by the love of Christ, the Apostles, the Hierarchs.

7. Question: Some people die unexpectedly. Is it true that God takes someone when his probability of salvation is at the maximum?

Answer: We Christians absolutely believe that we have been created by the God of love and that God directs our life, He gives life to us and He takes it when He considers it to be the right moment. We also know that God loves man whom He created and wants his salvation. Therefore, it is certain that God allows each man’s death to occur at the most appropriate moment.

Of course, God’s love does not abolish the freedom of man. Man has the ability to act positively or negatively, to respond to the love of God or to reject Him.

Since you said that some people die unexpectedly, I would like to remind you, that we should remember death continuously, we should not feel that we are going to live eternally on earth, because this is a spiritual sickness. There is an alternation between life and death, similar to the alternation between day and night. Modern molecular biology stresses that death is inextricably linked with life, because among the genes there are the genes of aging, which are found in the mitochondria. So, from the moment of our conception, death exists in the DNA, and we see death in our body with the death of cells and, generally, with aging, the passing of years, wrinkles, illnesses, everything which theologically is called corruptibility and mortality. We should not be myopic and behave like an ostrich.

In this process we should know that God did not create us to die, that death is a consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve, and that God loves us and cares for us. He is our affectionate father. It is not correct on the one hand to pray with the “Lord’s Prayer”, the well-known “Our Father”, and call God “Father”, and on the other hand to live as orphans.

8 Question: Orthodox faith attaches particular importance to repentance. We thank you Lord for giving repentance to us. Can repentance on the time of death be so great that a man is saved, even though he is burdened by great sins?

Answer: In our Orthodox Tradition it is known that sin is not somethimg moralistic it is ontological something, namely, the course from life according to nature to life contrary to nature. Thus, repentance is man’s return from life contrary to nature to life according to nature. With sin man lost his communion with God, with his brother and with the creation. With repentance he acquires this communion once again. So, repentance is associated with a progression in man’s liberation from everything enslaving him. The Fathers described this progression in three words: purification, illumination, deification and this is what is called therapy. This happens throughout life. Therefore, salvation is related to therapy. The physician of the body examines us, makes a diagnosis and recommends an appropriate therapeutic method which we should apply. The same holds true for the illness of the soul.

A confession at the time of death opens for man the way to salvation. If he did not have time to be cured spiritually, then the Church with its prayers helps man to salvation, bearing in mind that perfection is endless, it is a dynamic, not a static state.

Throughout our life we must have this “spirit of repentance”. We should consider how we were created by God and the point we have reached because of sin. If we read carefully the book of Genesis, according to the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, and see how Adam and Eve lived and what they became afterwards because of sin, then repentance will develop inside us.

So, someone who has the “spirit” of repentance throughout his life feels this repentance at the hour of death, and actually he feels it to a great degree. On the contrary, when he lives his life without repentance it is difficult to show repentance at the last moment.

My Gerondas, of everlasting memory, Metropolitan of Edessa Kallinikos lived continuously with the memory of death. When he was told by the doctors that he has a tumor in the brain, he confessed right away, he wrote his will, he prayed and had absolute faith to God, saying: “Perhaps God said to me “stop”. I don’t need you any more”. He would pray continuously saying “your will be done”. He gave himself up to God and had a peaceful and saintly end, similar to his whole life.

Therefore, even though there is a possibility for someone who had some spark of love for God in him to repent at the hour of death, we should repent when we are healthy, so as to have the ability to be cured, that is, to proceed from self-love to the love of God and love of men, to reach selfless love out of selfish love.

9. Question: After man’s death, what are the links between the soul and this world?

Answer: Although the soul is separated from the body, man’s hypostasis still exists. As we see in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is conscious of his state, of his relatives who are still alive and he cares for them. Thus, after death, men care for their beloved ones and ask God for their salvation. All our prayers to the saints are based on this truth. Of course, this link between the soul and living persons is spiritual, not material.

In the book of the Revelation of St John which describes the celestial Divine Liturgy, one can see these relations of the saints with us and their prayer for all people living on earth. This is why our Fathers depicted in the Divine Liturgy this uncreated Divine Liturgy which takes place in the Heavens, in the uncreated Temple. In the Divine Liturgy we live the atmosphere of the heavenly Liturgy and we anticipate it.

We ourselves often feel the love and protection of the saints, as well as of those close to us who have departed from this world, and wish to meet them. A spiritual child of mine was very happy at the hour of death, because, as she said, she would meet this heavenly Church.

Therefore, the soul continues to live after its exit from the body, it is not led to non-existence. If a person lived in repentance during his life, then his soul after exiting the body will enter this heavenly Divine Liturgy and will pray, like a spiritual priest, for the whole world, and will wait for the resurrection of the body. Then the soul will enter the body so that the body too participates in this heavenly Easter celebration.

10. Question: What advice should we give to those close to us regarding our attitude to a person about to die on the day, or at the hour or the moment of death?

Answer: The process of death is very important for each man, because in front of him is the road to salvation or the road to eternal perdition. Unfortunately, in these circumstances, many people look only after the physical health of their relatives and friends without regard for their eternal course. This is why we should take care that a person who is about to die confesses, receives holy Communion, receives the grace of God through the sacrament of Unction and does everything that our Church has available. In particular, we should live the last moments of the life of our beloved one in prayer. We should consider not simply that we are losing our relative, our friend, but that he is moving from one way of existence (with body and senses) to a different way of existence, without body. So, intense prayer is what is needed at that time.

I remember the last moments of my Gerondas, I was beside his bed and could not offer anything else, I just prayed to God for his soul to be received by angels. An aunt of mine who was present thought that I was sad, as I concentrated and prayed. But I was just praying, because that moment is holy and crucial.

Overall, we must experience daily, as St. John Chrysostom says, that the present life is an “inn”. We entered this inn, we live, but we must take care to depart in good hope, without leaving anything here in order not to lose what is there. Furthermore, all of us Christians should realise that death has been defeated by the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ, that communion with Christ is a continuous transcendence of death and of the fear of death, that the exit of the soul from the body is a course towards the heavenly Church and the encounter with Christ, the All holy Virgin and the saints, that the soul will return to the body, and the body will be resurrected and live eternally, according to the way it lived on this earth. St. Maximus the Confessor writes that from the moment of death, and especially after the last Judgment, there are two possibilities: those who are in communion with Christ will live in “eternal well-being” and the rest in “eternal woeful being”. So, everyone will enjoy “eternal being”. The difference is between “well” and “woeful”.

Therefore, our advice to the relatives and friends of those about to die is to have faith in Christ and confidence that we are not just citizens of this world, but we are travellers guided to our true country, which is heaven. Our citizenship is above in heaven. The desire for the heavenly land should overwhelm us.–

Good and Holy Friday

Good and Holy Friday: Sermon before the Shroud

“Say ye, His disciples…stole Him away.” So said the high priests to the soldiers when they notified them of what had happened in the tomb. Starting in verse 12 of the 28th chapter of Matthew, it says: “And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money and did as they were taught; and this story has been spread [and is being spread] among the Jews to this day” . to this day … to this day. And over Jewish life fell darkness, malice, deviousness – darkness.

And Christ? Christ in the meantime, while the soldiers were spreading these lies, Christ appeared to the myrrhbearers. But how, under what circumstances did He appear? The myrrhbearers came, despite their feminine nature, not thinking about what would happen. They knew that a tombstone blocked the entrance to the tomb, and that guards stood guarding the tomb. But they didn’t think about this; they had to fulfill what was required by the law of Moses: perform the anointing at burial. And here, when they had performed this, Christ appeared to them.

And again: Mary Magdalene, from whom the Lord had cast out seven devils. After the terrible suffering of being possessed, how well she knew this state of joyous peace. And when she saw what happened on Golgotha and she herself participated, along with Joseph of Arimathea, in the burial of Christ, and when she came and did not find Christ – try to understand her state of mind – she who had received her life from Christ, she who in the name of Christ was ready to do anything. And here Christ appeared to her!

And again: two disciples, Luke and Cleopas, were walking after Golgotha. They had seen everything, or more exactly, they had heard everything. Imagine what grief filled their hearts! And here, close by approached a wanderer. He began to explain the Word of God and their hearts were trembling, but they didn’t understand Who was with them. And only then, when they had fulfilled the commandment of Christ – love – Christ appeared to them.

And again: the doors were locked for fear of the Jews. Try to understand their state of mind! We immigrants know what persecution means. We know what we went through when in church during the service we heard the police walking around. So here the apostles were gathered together for fear of the Jews. And Christ appeared to them while they were suffering, seeking Him, because they had already heard from the myrrhbearers that Christ had risen. They were trembling, they were waiting, they had no other concern but this: Christ is risen. Where? How? And then He appeared.

And again: the Apostle Paul, while still Saul. He, as a Pharisee, understood that for the position of the Jewish nation, what was going on in Damascus (where groups of Christians were already preaching openly about the risen Christ), all this was very dangerous. The Messiah, as it seemed to the Jews, could come at any moment or maybe had already come. And this is how it was, because Christ had come. But they did not know that this was Christ; they were waiting for their own messiah, a king. And here the Apostle Paul (Saul) wanted to help preserve this peace which at that time existed between the Jews and Romans, and wanted to crush this group which was preaching its Messiah. Then after His Ascension, Christ appeared to him. He saw Christ. And from Saul, Christ converted him into the great Paul.

And then the Apostle Peter. And further, and further. Look, there were entire ages: the age of martyrdom, when multitudes of martyrs shed their blood in coliseums, on crosses, in prisons, because Christ appeared to them, was with them. Or better to say, because they were with Christ.

But it was necessary to understand correctly what we believe in. And here again appeared an entire age – the age of the Church Fathers, which formulated: “I believe, Lord, and I confess . I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”(From the Nicene Creed – “The Symbol of Faith”).

And also the mysterious appearance of the Apostle Paul when he whispered in the ear of John Chrysostom. How many similar appearances we know of from the lives Of the saints, when Christ was speaking.

And further: saintliness – when everything had become clear, blood had been shed, the teaching of Christian morals and Christian dogmatics had been established, life went on. Then came the time of saintliness.

And there? There, where they believed the lie that He had been stolen – there was darkness. Wars were going on, fierce nations were fighting. Rome against the Greeks, and later against the Germans. These barbarian nations overwhelmed the Roman state, deviousness, horror. And in the midst of this fear, there was a quiet joy. The Christian spiritual strivers who were giving peace to the heart.

And here again comes a new age. For a moment, it would seem to be the triumph of Christianity. Yes, there was a triumph. Multi-ton bells were ringing; everything was washed in sunlight, golden. There were church services. And amid this? Amid this the Inquisition took place and some other circumstances which disturbed the real, true Christianity. And therefore it seemed that Christ was hiding Himself.

But no. Christ was there all the time: He was also among our Russian people, in our Motherland. If you were to come into a village at dawn when they were ringing for matins, you would see with what trembling the people came, repenting. If you had looked on the roads filled with pilgrims (from Kursk to Kiev); these people were walking with the feeling of repentance: “Lord have mercy!”

And then the horror of communism, sufferings. We do not know how many tears Christ wiped from the eyes of those who were in concentration camps and of those unfortunate wives and children who were left at home. Christ was comforting; Christ was helping. And Christ brought us here in order to preserve what we should preserve, what has been passed on to us. And what was passed on to us? This is the Tree of Life, the Divine Eucharist. But the Divine Eucharist may be performed only after a certain rite, which is the preparation for the Divine Eucharist. And so the Lord has sent us this period of life. We are living in this period.

Did you not feel Christ when He took from you the stone which covered your heart, the stone of sin? And when our spiritual father said, “Our Lord and God…by His Grace and mercy and love toward mankind, forgives thee, Child, all thy sins” did we not weep for joy when suddenly our heart received wings.

And when we understand all this and feel that the object of our life is godliness (keeping what is God’s in honor), then we will understand also that all the evil, the stormy sea of deviousness, this very deviousness, and the lie which came from the high priests who said to tell people He was stolen; all this is still going on and divides the world in two.

Those who accepted this lie are hustling about. Even now they will find, lose, and seek again Him Who was “stolen.” But we, brothers and sisters, who did not accept this lie, we don’t have to seek anyone. We know where our Savior is and where our Life is, our Joy and our Hope. We are here in order to go there, but to go there by way of those steps which will bring us to the Divine Eucharist, to His Body and Blood, to the Tree of Life which He renews for us.

Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) - 

Instruments, Observation, Concepts, and Language

Modern science has arisen by the accumulated techniques of testing with the aid of instruments the imaginative theories proposed by the intellect. Observation by means of these man-made instruments has opened up vast areas of knowledge which would have been absolutely impossible for the intellect to even begin to imagine.

The universe has turned out to be a much greater mystery to man than anyone was ever able to imagine, and indications are strong that it will yet prove to be an even greater mystery than man today can yet imagine. In the light of this, one thinks humorously of the bishops who could not grasp the reality, let alone the magnitude, of what they saw through Galileo’s telescope. But the magnitude of Frankish naivete’ becomes even greater when one realizes that these same church leaders who could not understand the meaning of a simple observation were claiming knowledge of God’s essence and nature.

The Latin tradition could not understand the significance of an instrument by which the prophets, apostles, and saints had reached glorification.

Similar to today’s sciences, Orthodox theology also depends on an instrument which is not identified with reason or the intellect. The Biblical name for this is the heart. Christ says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

The heart is not normally clean, i.e., it does not normally function properly. Like the lens of a telescope or microscope, it must be polished so that light may pass through and allow man to focus his spiritual vision on things not visible to the naked eye.

In time, some Fathers gave the name nous to the faculty of the soul which operates within the heart when restored to normal capacity, and reserved the names logos and dianoia  for the intellect and reason, or for what we today would call the brain. In order to avoid confusion, we use the terms noetic faculty and noetic prayer to designate the activity of the nous in the heart called (noera euch).

The heart, and not the brain, is the area in which the theologian is formed. Theology includes the intellect as all sciences do, but it is in the heart that the intellect and all of man observes and experiences the rule of God.

One of the basic differences between science and Orthodox theology is that man has his heart or noetic faculty by nature, whereas he himself has created his instruments of scientific observation.

A second basic difference is the following: By means if his instruments, and the energy radiated by and/or upon what he observes, the scientist sees things which he can describe with words, even though at times inadequately. These words are symbols of accumulated human experience.

In contrast to this, the experience of glorification is to see God who has no similarity whatsoever to anything created, not even to the intellect or to the angels. God is literally unique and can in no way be described by comparison with anything that any creature may be, know or imagine. No aspect about God can be expressed in a concept or collection of concepts.

One can readily see why Plato’s theory of ideas, even in Augustinian form (whereby creatures are literally copies of real archetypal prototypes in the divine mind), are consistently rejected by the Fathers of the Church.

Thus, the experience of glorification has no room either for Augustine’s speculation about God by the use of psychological analogies, nor for the claim of some Russian theologians that the Fathers of the Church allegedly theologize about God on the basis of some kind of ‘personalism.’ Neither the term, nor the concept, is ever applied to God by the Fathers. The reason is clear. All the Fathers emphasize, and mean what they say, that there is absolutely no similarity between God and any of His creatures. This means that the names of God or language about God are not intended to be the means by which the human intellect can attain to concepts which reveal the essence of God to the intellect. Rather, the purpose of language about God is to be a guide in the hand of a spiritual father who leads his student through various stages of perfection and knowledge to glorification where one sees for himself what the saints before him insisted upon-that God is completely different from concepts used about Him.

It is for this reason that positive statements about God are counterbalanced by negative statements, not in order to purify the positive ones of their imperfections, but in order to make clear that God is in no way similar to the concepts conveyed by words, since God is above every name and concept ascribed to Him.

The Fathers insisted against the Eunomian heresy that language is a human development and not created by God. Arguing from the Old Testament itself, Saint Gregory of Nyssa claimed that Hebrew is one of the newer languages in the Middle East, a position considered today correct. Compare this with Dante’s claim that God created Hebrew for Adam and Eve to speak, and preserved it so that Christ would speak this language of God also. Of course, Christ did not speak Hebrew, but Aramaic.

Nyssa’s analysis of Biblical language has always been dominant among East Roman writers. I have found Dante-type theories so far only among the Eunomians and Nestorians. Given such presuppositions, one can see why the Fathers insist that to study the universe, or to engage in philosophical speculation adds nothing to the stages of perfection leading to glorification.

The doctrines of the Holy Trinity and of the incarnation, when taken out of their empirical or revelatory context, become and have become ridiculous. The same is true of the distinction between the essence and uncreated energy of God. We know this distinction from the experience of glorification since the time of the prophets. It was not invented by Saint Gregory Palamas. Even modern Jewish theologians continue to see this clearly in the Old Testament.

Although God created the universe, which continues to depend on Him, God and the universe do not belong to one category of truth. Truths concerning creation cannot apply to God, nor can the truth of God be applied to creation.

- Protopresbyter John S. Romanides: FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE – Part 2