The Lord of Glory does not need the WCC

Fr. John Romanides

1. Before and after His Incarnation the Lord of Glory cured His faithful by “purifying” and “illuminating” their hearts and “glorifying” them making them partakers in His uncreated “rule,” i.e. “vasileia.” ^{[ 4 ]} Those who reach “glorification” are the prophets of the Old and New Testaments and the Fathers of the Church. Those whose hearts are being “purified” are called “private individuals (idiotes) ^{[ 5 ]}” because they are being prepared to become members of the society of “illumined” and “glorified” who since Pentecost are becoming members of the Body of Christ. For this reason Pentecost is regarded as the Birthday of the Church as the Body of Christ. The CUV document quoted in the title above may be completed by being placed within such a context and thus liberated from the Franco-Latin quest for Augustinian happiness.

2. This biblical framework is based on the cure of the human personality by YAHWEH Himself both before and after His Incarnation. It is He Who guides His faithful by means of the “purification” and “illumination” of their hearts and finally to their ordination to prophethood by their “glorification.” Paul’s statement “when one is “glorified” the rest rejoice ^{[ 6 ]}” means that the man or woman in question has become a prophet. The difference between a “private person” and a member of the Body of Christ is that the latter has the gift of “unceasing” prayer in the heart, ^{[ 7 ]} called “illumination,” and prays at the same time with his brain. The “private person (idiotes)” has been praying only with his brain and his physical tongue and is being guided through the “purification” of the heart toward its “illumination” and full membership in the Body of Christ. When one arrives at “glorification” the state of childhood is abolished since one has become a “grownup (ANER),” a “prophet.” However, this is not a permanent state in this life since one goes back to “illumination” a grownup until one will again see “face to face” and “when I will be fully known, as I was fully known. ^{[ 8 ]} ” Those Protestants and Orthodox who are not interested in this struggle for the “purification” of the heart which leads to its “illumination” and “glorification,” are wasting their and our time and money leading us to the opposite of “illumination” and full membership in the Body of Christ.

3. One knows that one is becoming a member of the Body of Christ when one has unceasing prayer in the heart. In contrast to this reality this CUV document lacks a description of who are the members of the Body of Christ and how one becomes a member. Instead, the document assumes that the member churches of the WCC are already members of the Body of Christ and so they will “help each other in order that the Body of Christ may be built up and that the life of the churches may be renewed. (1.2)” Within proper context this could be true. Within the current context CUV seems to be telling us that sick people are healing each other without much help from the Real Doctor of our souls and bodies Who happens to be and has always been YAHWEH Himself both before and after His Incarnation and Pentecost working via his prophets. The prophets of both Testaments are the same except for the addition of the Incarnation and Pentecost.

4. As written, this document ignores the fact that Christ Himself rules His Own Body, the Church, and that it is He Himself Who adds new members to His own Body.The Lord of Glory does not need the WCC to help Him do His own work. He has been doing this before and after His incarnation by means of His Own prophets whom He chooses by His glorifying them. This He does when He “purifies” and “illumines” their hearts and “glorifies” them. It is these prophets, ordained by their “glorification” by the Lord of Glory Himself, who guide the faithful through these stages of cure which they pass on through the ages till now.

_

NOTES:

^{[ 4 ]} Not “kingdom of God” which makes it created.

^{[5 ]} 1 Cor. 14:16,23; 2Cor. 11:6.

^{[ 6 ]} 1 Cor. 12,26

^{[7 ]} The Metropolitan of Corinth Panteleimon edited the Greek Patristic collection of this prayer in five volumes called PHILOKALIA, Athens 1957-1963. For a popular view of this tradition in English see “Way of a Pilgrim,” Light and Life Publishing Co. Minneapolis Minnesota. This edition contains a second part “and the Pilgrim Continues on his Way” which may be not from the same author. The Monastery of Koutloumousiou of Mount Athos published in Greek the first work which translated this prayer in the heart into a neurological context: “RELIGION IS A NEUROLOGICAL SICKNESS, WHEREAS ORTHODOXY IS ITS CURE,” by John S. Romanides, in its volume entitled ORTHODOXY AND HELLENISM ON THE ROAD TO THE THIRD MILLENIUM, � 1996, pp. 67-87.

^{[ 8 ]} 1 Cor. 13, 10-12.

_source_