Orthodox Iran

 

Orthodox Iran

APOSTOLIC MESSAGES

by Protopresbyter fr. George D. Metallinos (+ 19-12-2019) Professor Emeritus of the Athens University School of Theology 

Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries

In Memoriam...

Our beloved Father George, internationally acknowledged for his steadfast Orthodox perception and stance, departed far too soon to be in Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ and the company of our Holy Mother and all the Saints - especially with the one that he so fervently referred to in his essays, homilies and books: the Apostle Paul.

The present book was compiled by him several years ago, aspiring to an eventual translation for an English publication; perhaps Father George Metallinos wanted his last words before departing from this world to be deposited in the form of a “farewell bouquet” of sermons, intentionally titled “Apostolic Messages” in honour of his most beloved and frequently quoted Saint: the Apostle of Nations, Paul.
 

The three excerpts below have been taken from within the book, and are indicative of his characteristic delivery when addressing and guiding his audiences, readers and spiritual children...

5. ALL THINGS COMMUNAL

“But do not omit to do good and to share”

(Hebr.13:7-16)

When we refer to community struggles and community concerns, we usually turn our thoughts to the variously named social systems, because we think that only they concern themselves with man’s social life. But this is only because we are ignorant of our Christian sources. So, if one were to hear the catch-phrase “ALL THINGS COMMUNAL”, it would be regarded as anything but Christian, and its herald as a suspicious bearer of “anti-Christian” ideas and revolutionary trends.

A society of theosis, love and equality

As an «exit» from the «enclosure», as the cessation of all relations - not only with the anti-Christian hostility of Judaism but also with the world of sin – is how the Apostle Paul sees the life of the Church. The reason for this, he continues, is because “we do not have a permanent homeland here, but we yearn for the one that is to come”. A course towards the heavens and eternity is the life of the Church, who has Her own means for salvation. The Church is a self-sufficient “society of theosis and salvation”; but the Church’s worship and Her thanksgiving reference to God are not expended in hymns and prayers; they are also supplemented with “sacrifices”, that are God-pleasing. And according to Paul, those God-pleasing sacrifices are the “doing good and sharing”.

The Apostle Paul wrote these things to the Hebrews, because he knew that they were the daily praxis of the Church. Besides, he himself had likewise recommended to the Corinthians: “For, not so that others be convenienced and you afflicted, but for the sake of equality, so that your abundance at the present time will be for their shortage; so that their abundance will likewise be for your shortage— so that there be equality…“ (2 Cor.8:13-14). It was on the Holy-Spiritual basis of common ownership that the community life of the ancient Church was founded; not only in Jerusalem, but wherever a local church was founded, as proven by the respective words by Paul.

Just how this truth functioned in practice can be seen in the “itinerary of the ancient Church”, in the Acts of the Apostles (ch.2:44 and 4:32). There we read that “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need”.

That this was not just a brief and transient flash of love, it suffices to recall the “Didache of the Apostles” – a text from the beginnings of the 2nd century – where that same apostolic proclamation is repeated: “You shall not remain indifferent towards the one who is in need, but you shall have EVERYTHING IN COMMON with your brother, and you shall not say that (all that you have) are yours, because, when you have the immortal element (the Grace of God) in common, how much more so should you have in common the mortal elements (the worldly and transient material things)!” (Ch.4:58).

The fruit of in-Christ love

But how was this message experienced and applied by the Christians? Does this social principle of the Church have anything in common with other, familiar theories? Of course not, because it is not merely a slogan, or a law that demands implementation by force. It is a natural fruit of man’s communion with the Grace of God, which renders him worthy of displaying that love towards his brethren. Outside the body of Christ, His Grace and His Mysteries, it can never be applied correctly; and wherever it sounds like a social request, without the Holy-Spiritual prerequisites of the Church, it remains a void and inactive word.

Eventually the rich and the poor become Christians. They meet, in the new community of Grace, in the body of Christ, and they incessantly receive His Grace in order to defeat death and deterioration. The Grace of God is the spiritual rain that irrigates everyone and everything, without discrimination and exception. From the moment of our Baptism we all become equal in the face of the salvation that is gifted to us by the Triune God – men and women, glorious and inglorious (Gal.3:28). The Holy Spirit also distributes charismas to everyone without discrimination (1 Cor.12). Inside the Body of Christ we all become brethren between us. The power that unites us in an unbreakable social unity; it is the Grace of God, which is expressed in our lives as love.

Inside the family of the Church, we do not have the right to misappropriate the spiritual gifts (charismas) : to individually regard them as “ours”. If we do not activate them by converting them into ministering to our brethren, we will be burying our talent (Matth.25), which is tantamount to denying Divine Grace.

Whatever is done with spiritual gifts must also be done with the material ones that we have in our hands – not unjustly of course, nor with exploitation. Because if we acquire them through exploitation and injustice towards others (especially as Christians), then we are neither Christians, nor do the words of the Apostle apply to us… And we also have no right to regard material goods as “our property”, because they too are the gifts of God’s love, even if we have earned them through toil – with our labour – given that all our strengths are likewise a gift of His, and absolutely nothing is “ours”.

Hence, one Christian does not snatch another’s material goods, just as he would never even think of snatching his spiritual goods. But, regardless of whose hands the spiritual and material goods are in – they are COMMON. Without constantly changing possessors, they belong to EVERYONE, because in the time of our brother’s need - be it spiritual or material - they also become his, in order to serve his need. This is also where freedom is based: in those who have been truly reborn in the Church and where it has culminated in the monastic absence of possessions and voluntary poverty. From the moment that one is not tied to “his” possessions, he is truly free. And it is from that moment, that “our” material possessions become COMMON in reality.

Living models of common possession and love are our Saints, of course. Whosoever of them happened to have a fortune, had distributed it among the poor, before freely submitting themselves to the struggle for deification (theosis). Such were the Three Major Hierarchs who are aptly honoured: not only were they the patrons of Hellenic-Christian education; they were also projected by Orthodoxy as major social benefactors. However, instead of us singing their praise with our feeble words, we consider it more appropriate to listen to their words, which, above all else, testify that they too had lived within the ideals of the ancient Church and had thus shaped their own social ministry. And first of all, Basil the Great: in his homily “In Famine and Drought” (in case of hunger and aridity), he advised: “…let us emulate the example of the “three thousand”. Let us envy the way of life of the first Christians, when everything was common to them all – that is, their lives, souls, agreement, common meals, an indivisible brotherhood and unfeigned love - which united and made the many bodies one, and which bonded the souls into one mindset.” (Ε.P. 31, 324).

Then as the blessed Chrysostom would once again note in his interpretation of the 4th chapter of Acts: “...If, at the time, there were no more than three to five thousand faithful… and they had dared to actualize the sharing of possessions, how much more so could it be done today, when, with the Grace of God, the world is filled with many faithful? Who would then have continued to be an idolater? At least I believe that NO-ONE would. In that way, we could make everyone a Christian… So, if we were to continue in that direction, I believe that gradually, also with the Grace of God, that which seems unachievable now, will be accomplished… If God grants me more years, I believe that I will soon lead you into such a way of communal coexistence.” (E.P. 60, 98).

But even Gregory himself – that Theologian of “flight” towards solitude and “quiet” – had made room in his Theology for proclamations such as: “You, who hold on to things that belong to others, should be ashamed of yourselves and should emulate God’s kind of equality; that way, no-one will be left poor…” (Ε.P. 35, 889)! Such is Orthodoxy, in its authentic dimensions. Spirituality and Sociability, perfectly fraternized, compose that way of life - which has DEIFICATION as its final destination.

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24. SHEPHERDS AND WOLVES

“...will enter... savage wolves, not sparing the flock”

(Acts. 20:16-18, 28-36)

Of opportune significance for the life of the Church are the words of the Apostle Paul, as given to us by Luke the Evangelist in the Book of Acts. With his divine illumination, the Apostle details the course of the Church, and Her adventures in the world. And he very clearly stresses that the greatest evil will be the appearance of “wolves”, who will insolently dare to take the place of Shepherds (Pastors). Shepherds and “wolves” are also portrayed in parallel by the Apostle Paul, in order to reveal the sky-high difference between the two.

Shepherds of Christ’s flock

Genuine Shepherds are the genuine Bishops of the flock; they are the ones responsible for the incessant care and supervision of the faithful, so that they can remain within the Body of Christ. What weighs most in the conscience of the Shepherds is that the flock – the entirety of the faithful – does not “belong” to them, but to the ONLY “Supreme Shepherd”, Christ. The Church is HIS Body, which is why it is called “Body of Christ”, and not “body of Christians”. He is the One Who saved the Church and rendered Her His Body, through His most holy Blood. And that is the reason “Shepherds” look after the flock that Christ entrusted to them, with “care”, fondness and love (cmp. John 21:15 etc), and are always willing to sacrifice themselves for it and its well-being.

The holy Fathers, great and small, known and unknown, are all aware that their opus in the Church is a spiritual one, a regenerative one, and not merely an administrative or authoritative one. Themselves being spiritually cleansed and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, they are aware that they have been assigned as guardians of the flock’s spiritual health – as its physicians and healers. That is why they do not transmit an intellectual faith which is expended in pious speculations and religious niceties; they actually lead to therapy, catharsis and to Holy-Spiritual illumination. They activate the de-activated "nous" of man and they assist the faithful to progress from “praxis” (actively upholding the commandments and the cleansing of passions) to “theoria” (illumination, which leads to theosis-deification), while in parallel they tend to the communion and the unity of the faithful, in the Truth and the Love of Christ and His Righteousness.

In this way, they introduce the flock to the tradition of the Church, which is the continuation of Her life, within the Grace and the experiences of the Holy Spirit, given that their aim is not to create good and “useful” citizens or “moral personalities”, but Spirit-bearing people, whose goal is not merely the attainment of morality, but how they can finally attain theosis (deification).

As opposed to the genuine Shepherds, the witting – or even unwitting – perverters of the Church’s poemantic opus are the “wolves” that Paul so agonizingly mentions. They are all the false teachers, the corrupt teachers, the deceivers and the insidious, who enter Christ’s fold stealthily, or who live and function inside the Church - but as “wolves”. Paul’s words pertaining to them are clearly prophetic. In his Poemantic Epistles, it is teachers such as those that he refers to – in fact, the Ephesians. Their work is altogether satanic. They usurp the place of genuine Pastor and make their appearance wearing his garment, which makes them especially dangerous. They appropriate the flock and they exploit it, spiritually and materially, as if it is their own fiefdom. They do not toil for, nor do they concern themselves with the unity of the Body of Christ; instead, they transform the faithful into followers and they form particular groups – no longer of persons faithful to Christ, but of personal followers. “For the aim of heretics hastens to make the people attend to them, not to the Lord, so that they may boast in themselves” (Ammonios).

The grouping of the faithful does not always lead them to becoming followers, even if those groups are not officially condemned as heretical. But, just as the Shepherds must have certain inner spiritual prerequisites, so do the false shepherds (the “wolves”) have their own prerequisites. And should they reach - even unwittingly - the state of “wolf” by having made the faithful their own followers without a trace of genuineness, they will definitely lack the spiritual experience of “God-sighting” Shepherds. Albeit not having undergone the spiritual therapy of the Church, they dare to undertake the spiritual healing of others. The Holy Fathers have common esoteric experiences, because they all have the same illumination. That is why they remain united to Christ and keep the flock of Christ united. However, instead of having the Holy Spirit and illumination, the various “wolves” have wickedness and their passions inside them. In the worst case, they infiltrate the Christian flock in order to “sacrifice and eliminate it”, by not being shepherds but “thieves” (John 3:10). Hence, they don’t see their mission as a continuous offering and sacrifice for the flock, but rather as a stage towards a secular career and profit. In the best case, they might only have the will to work for the flock, but cannot offer it anything, because inside them they do not possess what they should be offering: that is, Holy Spirit and Truth.

They might perhaps be moral (externally) and as such they would naturally be moralizers, who ruthlessly castigate corruption in others. But they are definitely not (internally) cleansed and illuminated, which is why they can never become proper physicians, and instead remain clumsy “quacks”, who moralize but never lead their flock to therapy, by preserving it at the level of idolatry and atheism. Idolatry, because they teach it to admire and believe in their “virtuous” and “cleansed” self (cmp. those Pharisees “who are convinced about themselves” – Luke 18:9); and atheism, because by not progressing through inner catharsis to illumination in the Holy Spirit, they never become acquainted with the True Christ, and thus remain in the dark, as an observance of ritualism.

Only the Holy Fathers throughout the ages, whom Orthodoxy rightly honours in the Persons of the God-bearing Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) as genuine shepherds, are the ones who continue Paul’s opus, and who uphold his instructions on protecting Christ’s flock from various wolves. With the divine Word and the “slingshot of the Spirit”, they ward off the “savage and pestilent wolves”.

With their unsleeping care and the tears of their love, they admonish, they console, they correct. By regarding the Church as Christ’s Flock and not theirs, they do not burden anyone, but instead, they offer everything that they have, to the Flock - both spiritual and material. They render themselves poor (materially), in order to spiritually enrich others. They are in the position to proclaim: “I have desired no-one’s silver or gold or attire”. Being rich in Spirit, they regard material things as a means for ministering to their spiritual children, and not for making a fortune for themselves.... We often speak of a famine of faith and a decline in the Christian mien in our times; it is because albeit so rich in “wolves”, we are unfortunately so poor in shepherds.

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39. NOT MASTERS, MINISTERS

«not because we rule over your faith; we are but accessories to your joy”

(2 Cor. 1:21; 2:4)

The weight of a depressive “anti-tradition” - which unfortunately progresses in parallel to the genuine Tradition of the Apostles and the Holy Fathers – has grafted our ecclesiastic life with a number of secular elements. Thus, our Clergymen are often regarded (even by laypersons) as secular officials who are included among the “authorities”, while the terms “power”, “dominion”, “master” that are frequently used in our ecclesiastic tongue – by clergy and laity – have been inundated by all their secular content.

The Apostle Paul has helped us to discern as he did (in the Holy Spirit) the place of the clergy in the Body of Christ – the Church.

The sorrowed father

The Apostle Paul did not merely establish local churches; he also ensured that they remain in the unity of the faith and in the communion of the Holy Spirit.

This was also the case with the Church of Corinth. At one point, there arose in this Church a serious internal crisis on account of scandals as well as the disruptive preachings by certain “pseudo-brethren” of Paul’s, who persisted in slandering him. This forced Paul to check the Corinthians bitterly for having allowed themselves to be misled by the dexterous sycophants of his opus.

This was also the reason he did not go to Corinth to visit them, as he had planned. It was imposed by his love for them, because if he had gone, he would have been forced to check them and cause them and himself to become upset. He had “spared” the Corinthians by not going to Corinth. However – as noted by Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite – this reason seemed “authentic and authoritative”, which is why Paul went on to clarify that he was not the master and overlord of their faith. Paul wanted to dispel every suspicion that he was acting as a master and overlord, who directed them according to his personal dispositions.

Our Holy Fathers discern here a clear allusion by Paul to the pseudo-teachers, who, among their other deviations, were also displaying authoritarian tendencies towards the faithful. This is also expressed clearly by Paul in the same Epistle, when he spoke of “deceitful workers – false apostles” (11:13). He says: “For you tolerate being wholly subjugated, or devoured, or caught, or struck on the face” (11:20).

Paul thus made it clear that the success by any false apostles and false teachers or false shepherds entails guilt by the faithful themselves, for tolerating their presence and not abandoning them!

It is however a fact, that when the ecclesiastic criteria of the faithful slacken or become inactive, that is when the genuine shepherds are weakened and the counterfeit ones prevail...

Paul was in a similar clime at the time; however he did not feel “dominant”, because he was a father – and in fact a sorrowed one. In his Epistle, he speaks of tears, sorrow, a distraught heart; evidence, that his necessarily chastising words did not cease to be kneaded with love – the love of a Spiritual Father who had “begotten” them in-Christ - spiritually.

The Master of faith

Paul could never see himself as an “overlord of the faith” of the Corinthians – just as none of Paul’s genuine successors could, because there is only one Lord of our faith, Jesus Christ. He alone is the reason and the content of our faith, because it is He “Who works within us, so that we both will and act for our salvation” (Phil.2:13). It is He, Who ignites the flame of faith within us, in response to our quest. Salvatory faith is not a vague, sentimental state, nor a formal “religiosity”; it is a life relationship between the believer and the Believed.

A faithful person does not believe generally and vaguely; he believes in Someone. Furthermore, he believes, not by consenting to Him or by acknowledging Him, but by surrendering himself to Him and following His words, in order to finally be able to become united to Him. The content of our faith is that very God-Man Lord, the way that He revealed Himself to us. “I believe in Christ” signifies that I follow Christ, and apply in my life whatever He revealed to me for my salvation. I accept Christ absolutely – the way that an infant accepts its mother, with absolute faith and trust. We therefore have Christ as “the leader and the concluder of our faith” (Hebr.12:2), Who not only constitutes our faith, but also regenerates us through our faith in Him, in His Word. Paul, who had also accepted Christ thus, as the leader of his faith, is aware that as an apostle of the ONLY LORD, he cannot be anything but a Minister to the faith.

This was Paul’s self-awareness, and was also, for all the other Apostles. “5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?...” This was the question posed by the Apostle to the Corinthians, to check their factional tendencies – to which he also gave the answer: “We are but ministers, through whom you believed...” (1 Cor.3:5). He clarified that they were ministers to their faith, who led them to the Faith and to the One believed in; they were simple ministers and servants of Christ, and not “the root and the source of good things”, which is Christ only. This is also the conscience of genuine shepherds throughout the ages, and is how the faithful people of God accept and regard their shepherds: when they have an ecclesiastic conscience. In a genuine ecclesiastic community there are no “leaders and those being led” in the secular sense.

There are no absolutist demands by clerics, nor any riotous tendencies by the laypeople. Relations between clergy and laity are not regulated on the basis of the power of authority, but on equality, brotherhood and love, which issue from their common participation in the one Body of the Lord.

This is how we recognize the ecclesiastic significance of the terms “master” or “authority” in ecclesiastic living. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ “assumed” man (human nature) – but without sin (which does not belong to human nature) – likewise, His Church “assumes” the language of the world but renders it new by de-charging it of its content and “churchifying” it. Thus, the term “leader” is not rejected by Saint Gregory the Theologian, but is meant in the ecclesiastic sense: “It seems to me that ‘master’ is a helper of virtues and an opponent of malice” (Epistle 224). The same applies with the term “authority” in the language of the Gospel and the Fathers, inasmuch as it identifies with the terms “ministry” and “love”. When the apostolic and patristic conscience is preserved intact, then words find their actual significance in our lives.

Dimanche de tous les saints

Foto d'ici
 
Sagesse Orthodoxe.fr

Les saints, c’est nous –
Le dimanche qui suit la Pentecôte est dédié à tous les saints. Mais il ne s’agit pas, d’après l’évangile que nous venons d’entendre (Matthieu 10, 32-33, 37-38 ; 19, 27-30), des saints du passé. Les saints ne sont pas seulement les autres, des hommes et des femmes qui ont été canonisés autrefois ou plus récemment, comme saint Sophrone le Nouveau ou saint Païssios l’Athonite. 
Non : la sainteté, c’est pour maintenant ! Le futur grammatical qu’emploie notre Maître en ce jour nous désigne : qui me reconnaîtra… Je le reconnaîtrai devant le Père. Et ce futur désigne également notre avenir à tous, la perspective du Jugement dernier. La question de la sainteté est d’actualité. Pourquoi ? – parce que la sainteté de ses membres atteste la vie du Corps.
 

Le Christ présent par les saints
Le Christ vit dans la société civile et dans l’ensemble de la Création par la sainteté de ses membres. La communauté humaine planétaire est soutenue par la présence des justes et des saints au milieu d’elle. Saint Justin le Philosophe écrit que « si Dieu retarde la catastrophe qui doit bouleverser l’univers… c’est en raison de la famille des chrétiens, en qui Il voit un motif de conserver le monde » (Apologie II, 7). 
A l’époque de l’oppression bolchévique, c’est la présence des saints et des martyrs dans la société qui a maintenue celle-ci en vie pour des temps meilleurs. Tout récemment, l’expérience de la pandémie l’a encore montré : la présence d’un nombre incalculable de personnes choisissant le Christ tous les jours, priant pour le Salut du monde, intercédant pour que le fléau soit écarté, portant dans leur prière les malades et les soignants, priant pour les gouvernants, se sanctifiant eux-mêmes dans le jeûne et le repentir, a fait que notre monde a été préservé du pire.
 

L’utilité des saints
A nous maintenant d’en tirer la leçon. La présence des saints, des hommes et des femmes de sérénité, de bienveillance et de discernement protégera ce monde de la folie de ceux qui le gouvernent, ou qui voudraient en être les maîtres. La sainteté est ce qu’il y a de plus utile à la société. Elle est la puissance compatissante que le Seigneur exerce à travers ses membres, de façon organique. 
Tous les saints, et ils sont si nombreux, ne savent pas qu’ils en sont. La plupart se considère comme pécheresse. Les saints sont des canaux souvent inconscients de la bienveillance divine parmi les hommes. Nos paroisses, nos familles, nos monastères, nos synodes épiscopaux sont remplis de saintes personnes, de justes et de sages selon Dieu par lesquels triomphe le plan du Seigneur qui est toujours de faire miséricorde. 
Aujourd’hui, comme au temps de Noé ou d’Abraham, par exemple, le Seigneur a voulu, par considération pour les justes et les innocents, retenir le désastre où s’engageait l’humanité, en dépit des sceptiques, des cyniques, et des conspirationnistes. La sainteté est, non pas une catégorie morale ou juridique, mais une réalité charismatique.
 

Le Christ présent dans son monde
Elle est, venant avec puissance, la présence de Dieu en son monde. Le Seigneur, non seulement est présent parmi les saints, mais Il est présent par eux au milieu de ceux qui ne le sont pas encore, agneaux au milieu des loups, lumières allumées dans les ténèbres, « sel de la terre », chastes et vierges au milieu des débauchés. 
Prendre sa croix et suivre le Christ ne consiste pas à lutter pour le triomphe d’une idéologie ou d’un ordre moral. Cela consiste à être, invisiblement souvent, « dignes du Christ », levain dans la pâte, ferment d’humanité véritable, semence évangélique de vie et de joie. 
Qui se sanctifie, sanctifie et sauve le monde de l’intérieur par sa propre personne et allège les tourments de ceux qui souffrent. Le vrai combat est celui qui se mène pour la manifestation de l’amour de Dieu en ce monde et dans celui qui vient.
 

(Radio Notre-Dame, « Lumière de la Orthodoxie », dimanche 14 juin 2020)

Τhe Sunday of All Saints (Sunday after Pentecost)

Sunday of All Saints: a Sermon by Archbishop Andrew (Rymarenko)

 

"...Just look at the murals of our church and you will see: martyrs, confessors, ascetics, fools for Christ, educated people, simple people, rich, poor, bishops, monastics, lay people. This is the Heavenly Church. She is all-embracing, and she is filled up by the earthly, Militant Church!"

Catalog of St Elisabeth Convent
 

Brothers and sisters! Last week the Holy Church placed flowers in our hands, as if saying to us: See how soulless nature is obedient to its Creator. Starting with the days of Christmas, the earth has been turning toward the sun, which began to bestow upon the earth its life-giving warmth. And nature does not prove itself ungrateful toward its Creator. In answer to His caress, she has produced this glorious beauty, these flowers, and further on, will produce fruits. And what about us? In answer to the spiritual warmth of God’s Grace, so abundantly poured out on us, do we bring to our Creator spiritual beauty, flowers, fruits of virtues? 

After all, He became Man for our sake, died for us, rose for us, ascended into Heaven in order to send down to us His Holy Spirit. And what about us? Is not this beauty of nature around us a reproach to our conscience? Let us answer honestly. Yes, it is. But more than this, we want to justify our negligence, our ingratitude. The commandments of Christ are wonderful, we say; and if people would begin to fulfill them, then the whole earth would be transformed into a wonderful divine garden. But is this possible for weak human strength? And here this Sunday, the Sunday of All the Saints, answers this question loudly so that the whole world hears: Yes, it is possible.

All the saints being remembered today followed the example of Christ. And all of them in their time, in their circumstances of life, fulfilled God’s commandment of love of God and neighbor. Occasionally their times were difficult, maybe more difficult than ours; and not infrequently their circumstances in life were more dangerous in spiritual terms, and often in worldly terms were worse than ours. But they still proceeded, struggled, and reached the abodes on high where they now triumph.

Just look at the murals of our church and you will see them: martyrs, confessors, ascetics, fools for Christ, educated people, simple people, rich, poor, bishops, monastics, lay people. This is the Heavenly Church. She is all-embracing, and she is filled up by the earthly, Militant Church. There is room for each of us there. This is what today’s Apostle reading tells us: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2). 

Just think: all of these saints were live people like us. And like us, all of them were different people; and their paths were different. But all of them, absolutely all, had three qualities which they all possessed identically. These qualities are pointed out to us in today’s Gospel. They are obligatory for everyone, and this means for us, too; we cannot escape them. 

Here they are: ‘Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father, which is in heaven” (Mt. 10:32). This is the first thing. Don’t you feel, brothers, how important this is for us modern-day people? Why, the whole world around us as if asks us: “Are you Christian or one of ours?” We cannot leave this question unanswered. In our speech, our actions, our thoughts and feelings (for our feelings are somehow passed on to the others), we must answer loud and firm: “Yes, I am a Christian!”

Here is the second: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:37). Here and now, the Lord demands from you and me this all-consuming love – to love Him more than everyone and everything. And only through this love for Him will we really be able to love our relatives, strangers, and even our enemies.

Finally the third: “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:38). This instance does not even require explanation. Each of us has his own sorrows and difficulties in life; they are personal for each of us. It is difficult, burdensome, but such is our life; and this means, such is the Will of God for us.

Let us thank the Lord even for this cross! Without it we cannot be saved. And the Lord wants all of us to be saved, and to be united into one Triumph with all the Saints, whom we are glorifying today.

Source: Orthodox word

 

African Orthodox Church & Caucasian Mountains: Bishop Innocentios of Burundi and Rwanda, on the feastday of St. Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia, in a Pilgrimage Chapel near the borders of Armenia and Turkey (more here). 

 

Théosis (déification)

Icône de tous les saints (à partir d'ici)

fr.orthodoxwiki.org

Theosis ("divinisation", "déification") est le processus consistant à devenir un fidèle libre d'hamártía ("manquer la marque"), s'unissant à Dieu, dès cette vie et en plénitude lors de la résurrection des morts. Pour les chrétiens orthodoxes, la Théōsis (voir 2 Pierre 1:4) est le salut. La Théōsis suppose que les êtres humains sont destinés dès le commencement à partager la vie ou la nature de la Toute Sainte Trinité. Par conséquent, un fidèle, enfant ou adulte, est sauvé, délivré de l'état de non-sainteté (hamartía - qui ne doit pas être confondue avec hamártēma "péché") pour la participation dans la Vie (zōé, et non pas simplement bíos) de la Trinité - qui est éternelle. Ceci n'est pas à confondre avec l'(apothéōsis) hérétique - la "déification dans l'Essence de Dieu", laquelle est imparticipable. 

 
La théologie orthodoxe

 

La déclaration de Saint Athanase d'Alexandrie : "Le Fils de Dieu s'est fait homme, pour que nous devenions Dieu", résume parfaitement la notion de Théosis. La seconde épître de Pierre (II Pierre 1:4) affirme que que nous sommes devenus "...participants de la nature divine". Athanase amplifie le sens de ce verset quand il dit que la théosis, c'est "devenir par la grâce ce que Dieu est par nature" (De Incarnatione, I). Ce qui, autrement, semblerait absurde, que tombé, l'homme pécheur puisse devenir saint comme Dieu est saint, a été rendue possible grâce à Jésus-Christ, qui est Dieu incarné. Naturellement, l'affirmation chrétienne essentielle, que Dieu est Un, fixe une limite absolue sur le sens de theosis - il n'est pas possible pour tout être créé à devenir, ontologiquement, Dieu ou même un autre dieu.

Voir aussi

• Sotériologie
• Hésychasme
• Grégoire Palamas

Sotériologie

 

Le salut est le but du christianisme, et la tâche de l'Église. La "théologie du salut" est appelée Sotériologie.

Le christianisme orthodoxe croit fortement que Dieu s'est fait homme, afin que l'homme devienne semblable à Dieu (St. Athanase le Grand). Cette affirmation est le résumé du concept de theosis, essentiel à la théologie et à la spiritualité orthodoxes. De cette perspective, le salut n'est pas un acquis individuel - on ne l’obtient ni de ses propres forces et moyens, ni par l'accomplissement d'une loi quelconque -, mais un processus continuel de guérison de la nature humaine déchue, en collaboration avec la grâce de Dieu. Le christianisme considère le salut comme une délivrance de notre état de pécheurs ou de notre relation au péché. Le péché n'est pas la transgression d'une loi figée (d'où découlerait la culpabilité), mais une échec existentiel, un échec de la relation avec Dieu, avec son prochain, avec la création de Dieu, avec soi-même. Le penchant vers le péché est le signe (ou le symptôme) de la maladie de la nature humaine déchue, qui a besoin de traitement. La chute, le péché, le message évangélique, le salut sont considérés dans l'Orthodoxie à travers une relation d'amour. La participation au mystère du salut devient la participation à la relation d'amour avec le Dieu trinitaire. 

L'histoire du salut
 

Dieu a créé l'homme à son image et ressemblance 

Selon les Écritures, l’homme a été crée à l’"image" et selon la "ressemblance" de Dieu (Genèse 1, 26-27). Être semblable à Dieu, par la grâce de Dieu est l’essentiel de la vie humaine. Les Écritures relatent que Dieu a «insuflé dans ses narines l’haleine [ou l’esprit] de vie » (Genèse 2, 7). Pour l’Église Orthodoxe, cet enseignement signifie que l’homme ne saurait être tout à fait humain, tout à fait lui-même, sans l’Esprit de Dieu. L’image de Dieu signifie que l’homme a le libre arbitre, il a la raison, le sens de la responsabilité morale, tout ce qui sépare l’homme de l’animal et qui en fait une personne. Mais l’image signifie encore plus. Elle signifie le fait que nous sommes des « descendants » (Actes 27,28) de Dieu, nous sommes apparentés à Lui. Entre nous et Lui, il y a un point de contact, une similarité essentielle. L’abîme entre la créature et le Créateur n’est point indépassable, car nous avons été faits à l’image de Dieu et, pour cela, nous pouvons connaître Dieu et être en communion avec Lui.
La chute de l'homme

L’histoire de la Création et surtout celle d’Adam et Éve nous parle de la bonté fondamentale de tout ce qui existe et de la supériorité de l’homme par rapport aux autres créatures. Elle nous montre que l’origine du mal ne réside pas en Dieu, mais dans la plus parfaite de ses créatures, dont le choix libre du péché a porté dans le monde le mal et la mort, elle nous raconte comment l’homme a perdu la "ressemblance" à Dieu, la réponse à l’amour de Dieu. L’Église nous enseigne que, lorsque nous ne répondons pas à l’amour de Dieu, notre humanité s’en retrouve diminuée. L’acte de foi qu’il demande de notre part n’est pas très différent de la foi et de la confiance que nous accordons aux gens autour de nous. Lorsque nous ne répondons pas à l’amour qui nous est donne par les gens qui nous aiment, nous devenons des individus superficiels et endurcis. 

Les prophètes

Depuis que l’homme était encore à l’image de Dieu, la quête de sens a été pour lui tout aussi importante que l’air et l’eau. La Création-même, oeuvre de Dieu, nous Le montrait. Mais, avant la venue du Christ, la signification du monde et de notre place à son intérieur était encore difficile à comprendre. Les gens ont créé des histoires pour les aider à expliquer le grand mystère de leur propre existence, du monde et de Celui qui était responsable de leur existence. Mais la connaissance du vrai Dieu leur échappait. Les Saintes Écritures parlent de cette absence de la connaissance comme obscurité. Dieu a envoyé alors des messagers pour leur parler, des saints hommes et femmes à travers lesquels il a fait des miracles, des prophètes qui annoncent le salut prochain. Finalement, Dieu a envoyé son propre Fils, Jésus Christ. Lorsqu’Il est venu, Celui qui a créé le monde a été enfin révélé au monde, en apportant de la lumière à ceux qui gisaient dans l’obscurité.
 

L'Incarnation

Mais, puisque l’homme est tombé, l’Incarnation n’est pas seulement un acte d’amour, mais aussi un acte de salut. Jésus Christ, en réunissant Dieu et l’homme dans sa personne, a rouvert à l’homme la voie de l’union avec Dieu. Dans sa propre personne, le Christ nous a montré ce qu’est la véritable « ressemblance à Dieu », et par son glorieux sacrifice rédempteur, il a replacé cette ressemblance à la portée de l’homme. Le Christ, le Second Adam est venu sur terre et il a renversé les effets de la désobéissance du premier Adam.
 

L’Église

La rédemption signifie que le monde n’est pas un but en soi, mais une réalité qui nous indique une autre, plus vaste, celle de l’amour de Dieu pour nous et pour tout ce qui est autour de nous. Le monde, le temps, l’histoire, nos vies elles-mêmes sont "une épiphanie de Dieu, un instrument de sa révelation, de sa présence et de son pouvoir". Dieu n’a pas abandonne son peuple après l’Ascension du Christ aux ciel. Depuis la Pentecôte, Son Église est toujours présente. 

Le jugement dernier

Le Christ va juger tous les peuples seulement en considérant comment ils l’ont servi en travaillant l’un pour l’autre, le dernier de ses frères. Ceci va montrer comment chaque personne a aimé Dieu et son prochain, l’amour de Dieu et l’amour du prochain étant devenu un, un amour dans le Christ et qui est le Christ. Aimer de cet amour est aimer avec l’amour du Christ est d’accomplir son "nouveau commandment" : "comme Je vous ai aimés, aimez-vous les uns les autres" (Jean 13,34-35; 15,12).Ceci comprend toute la vie de l’esprit. C’est par cela – et uniquement par cela – que l’homme sera jugé. Ceci est le couronnement de toute vertu et de toute prière, le plus grand et le plus parfait des fruits de l’Esprit de Dieu dans l’homme. La venue finale du Christ sera le jugement de tous les hommes. Sa présence-même se sera le jugement. Pour ceux qui aiment le Seigneur, Sa présence sera une joie infinie, le Paradis et la vie éternelle. Pour ceux qui le haïssent, la même présence sera torture infinie, l’Enfer et la mort éternelle.
 

« Que tous soient un »

Lors de la Dernière Cène, le Christ a prié pour « que tous soient un, comme toi, Père, tu es en moi et que je suis en toi, qu’ils soient en nous, eux aussi » (Jean 17,21). Tout comme les trois Personnes de la Trinité « reposent » l’une dans l’autre dans le perpétuel mouvement de l’amour, l’homme, fait à l’image de la Trinité, est appelé à se «reposer » dans le Dieu-Trinité.

Hors l’Église, pas de salut
Saint Cyprien écrit : « L’homme ne peut avoir Dieu pour Père s’il n’a pas pour Mère l’Église ». Dieu est salut, et le pouvoir rédempteur de Dieu est médié pour l’homme par Son Corps, l’Église. Le père Georges Florovsky l’exprime d’une manière un peu différente : « Hors l’Église il n’y a pas de salut puisque c’est l’Église qui est le salut ». L’Église est l’unité de ceux qui sont unis avec la Trinité. L’Église Une est unie comme sont unies les trois Personnes de la Trinité. Si un membre de l’Église fait usage de cette Église de la manière juste, pour la communion avec Dieu, il deviendra «semblable » à Dieu, il va acquérir la ressemblance divine ; selon l’expression de St. Jean Damascène, il sera «assimilé à Dieu par la vertu ». Acquérir la ressemblance divine est d’être sanctifié («déifié»), c’est devenir un «second dieu », « dieu par la Grâce ».

Voir aussi

• Is to experience the events of salvation..., What is Orthodoxy par le Père Dr. Theodore Pulcini.
  
  Sources

• en: A Pastoral Letter on the Occasion of the Third Christian Millennium (PDF) La Conférence des Évêques Orthodoxe Canoniques des Amériques (SCOBA)
• en: The Orthodox Faith, par le Père Thomas Hopko
• en: Fragments de The Orthodox Church par Mgr. Kallistos Ware (”Part II: Faith and Worship”)
  
  Œuvres

• Olivier Clément, L’Église Orthodoxe, 7e éd., PUF [Que sais-je ?], Paris, ???
• Jean Meyendorff, L’Église Orthodoxe : hier et aujourd’hui, ???
• en: Carlton, Clark. The Life: The Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation (Faith Series). (ISBN 1928653022)
• en:Ware, Kallistos. How Are We Saved?: The Understanding of Salvation in the Orthodox Tradition. (ISBN 1880971224) 

Voir aussi
 

Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life Theosis, St. Silouan and Elder Sophrony Saints  

Preserving Monastic Tradition - The Convent of the Lesna Mother of God Icon in France LA SAUVEGARDE DE LA CREATION DANS LA TRADITION ORTHODOXE

CONVERSATION ENTRE LA MONIALE CORNELIA [REES], ET L’ARCHIMANDRITE GABRIEL [BUNGE] : Nous devons retourner à nos racines.
De l'athéisme à l'Orthodoxie en passant par...
Travelers on the Way to the Light
SKITE SAINTE FOY - Monastère Orthodoxe en Cévennes
Saint Romain - Abbé du Jura, frère de saint Lupicin (✝ 460)
Monastery of Saint Silouan the Athonite in Saint-Mars-de-Locquenay, France
Jean-Claude Larchet sur différents thèmes de la vie spirituelle en rapport avec Pâques
Orientation Orthodoxe Dogmatique Elaborée
Valaam, l'archipel des moines  

Saint Nil de la Sora: Une Voix dans le Désert
Sophrony Sakharov  

 

Cet article fait partie de la série Spiritualité Orthodoxe

Saints Mystères

Baptême - Chrismation Eucharistie - Confession Mariage - Ordination Sainte Onction

Trois étapes

Catharsis/Purification Theoria/Illumination Théosis/Divinisation

Hésychasme

Nepsis - Metanoia Hesychia - Phronema Mysticisme - Nous

Ascéticisme

La Chasteté - L'Obéissance La Stabilité - Le Jeûne La Pauvreté - Le Monachisme

Vertus

Humilité - Générosité Chasteté - Douceur Tempérance - Contentement Diligence

Prière

Culte - Vénération Règle de Prière - Prière de Jésus Reliques - Signe de la Croix

Pères de l'Eglise

Pères Apostoliques Pères du désert Cappadociens La Philocalie des Pères neptiques L'échelle sainte

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Deification - The Uncreated Light

Orthodox Way of Life
Ελληνικά για το θέμα: Βλέποντας το Θεό

 

Deification is an enhypostatic* and direct illumination which has no beginning but appears in those worthy as something exceeding their comprehension.  It is indeed a mystical union with God, beyond mind and reason in the age when creatures will no longer know corruption. - 

Saint Maximus the Confessor

Deification is most often expressed as involving the "Uncreated Light."

Fr. Sophrony says,

This Light penetrates us with the power of God, we we become 'without beginning'––not through our origin but by the gift of Grace: life without beginning is communicated to us.  And there is no limit to the outpouring of the Father's love: man becomes identical with God––the same by content, no by primordial Self-Being.  God will eternally be GOD for the reasonable being."  (We Shall See Him as He Is, p172.)

It is though our participation in this uncreated light that we become deified, become like Christ.  We do not become a god in essence but by Grace and adoption.  We are  taught that we can never behold, or know the Divine Essence, but when we are filled with this Divine Light we experience His Uncreated Energies. This is a personal communion with God, face to face. Our identity is not assumed into the Divine Essence. And, it is much more than an experience of Light.

 

Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Here is how Saint Symeon the New Theologian expresses it in one of his hymns,

He Himself is discovered within me, resplendent inside my wretched heart, enlightening me from all sides with His immortal splendor, shining on all of my members with His rays.  Entirely intertwined with me, He embraces me entirely.  He gives Himself totally to me, the unworthy one, and I am filled with His love and beauty.  I am sated with pleasure and Divine tenderness.  I share in the Light.  I participate also in the glory. My face shines like that of my beloved and all my members become bearers of Light.

* Fr. John Meyendorff explains the meaning of enhypostatic: "This divine light cannot be contemplated as a hypostasis, that is, as an independent reality, since strictly speaking it has no essence. It can be contemplated only in a hypostasis, i'e', in a personal locus. Here Palamas has in mind the deified saints who by grace show forth in their whole persons the light that transforms them. But the energies are also "enhypostatic" in respect of the Person (hypostasis) of Christ. The light of tabor does not reveal the divine essence, but the second person of the Trinity. As well as meaning "what exists in another hypostasis", enhypostatic can also mean "what really exists"' that which is genuine or authentic, e.g. of our real adoption as sons by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The first sense of the word goes back to the christology of Leontius of Byzantium, the second to Mark the Monk.

 

Click here:   

Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life

Theosis, St. Silouan and Elder Sophrony 

LOVERS OF TRUTH: THE LIFE OF HIEROMONK SERAPHIM ROSE

OUR TALENT OF FREEDOM & SOME PITFALLS

Through The Eastern Gate - From Tibetan Buddhism to Orthodox Christianity

ORTHODOX OUTLET for DOGMATIC ENQUIRIES
St Herman Press