My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
THE CHURCH: BRIDE OF THE LAMB (CHRIST) (Part II)
By Father John Anthony McGuckin (Rumanian Orthodox theologian)
Orthodoxy refuses to concur with a conception of the Church that has become increasingly common in the West (Roman Catholicism and Protestantism) since the Reformation--and that is the tendency to strictly demarcate the Heavenly and Earthly Church (Church Triumphant and Church Militant) into separate entities. In such a view if we may generalize and caricature a little, the 'invisible' Church is thought of as the glorious, and glorified, communion of Saints--all that Christ intended His Church to be, while the 'visible' earthly Church staggers on through history, mired in compromise, scandals and corruption constantly requiring some beneficent reformer, or other new committee of action, to rescue it from its present generational decadence, so as to reform it once again, and polish up the battered paintwork so that, at least, it might not scandalize the world. The invisible Church, in this approach, is understood to be the kernel of the elect within the Church; but it is often overwhelmed by the husk and bureaucratic chaff which threaten to stifle it. The invisible Church is imagined to be what the Scripture referred to in glowing terms, whereas the visible Church is simply an earthly society capable of being led astray by powerful factions and blown off course by prevailing winds of the age. This is a widespread preconception, particularly Protestant in form, and is often found operative as a default understanding in many Western writings about the Church. Nevertheless, it is one that is inimical to the Orthodox Christian understanding of the Church, and does not correspond to its own live experience.
Orthodoxy refuses to admit a dichotomy of this magnitude between the Heavenly and earthly conception of the Church of Christ, or between its Invisible and its Visible characters. The Visible Church can be distinguished from the Heavenly Church, in the sense that one is still in the struggle to be perfectly conformed to the will of God on earth, while the other has found its transcendent glory with the Lord, but the two cannot be separated, since they are organically linked together as one and the same family, or communion, living in one and the same energy of God's salvific grace, albeit in different 'stages' and 'orders' of discipleship.
It applies, against this dichotomous understanding, the typological understanding of the Incarnate Lord's unity with His Own Body. The Church, as the Apostle clearly taught, is the mystical Body of Christ. Similarly, the Visible and Invisible characters of the Church are bound together in an indissoluble union ('a consilience into unity' as Saint Cyril of Alexandria put it) that cannot be set apart. Such ecclesiologies of division have about them the same dichotomous character as the Christological heresy of Nestorianism. Orthodoxy thus sees the Church as the living icon of Christ. This iconic character of manifesting Christ (among itself and to its own communion, and also to the world in the form of its evangelical mission) is seen at its highest pitch in the Mystery (Sacrament) of the Holy Eucharist, which is the apex of the koinonia of the Church. The one bishop, with the local churches gathered round him in the celebration of the Holy Mystery of communion, has always been seen as a great icon of the unity of the Church. This is the context of the very first time the word 'Eucharist' ever appeared in reference to the Mystery of the Lord's Body and Blood, as when Saint Ignatius of Antioch said to the Philadelphian faithful:
"Take great care to preserve one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to unite us by His Blood, one sanctuary, just as there is one bishop together with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants. In this way all your acts will be done in accordance with God's will."
The very function and purpose of the gift of the Mystery of Communion in the Lord's Body and Blood is to bring unity among the flock, and it is no small part of the Church's work on earth to be the locus of the Eucharist, in so far as this is the unity of Christ, from which all other unity devolves.
After receiving Holy Communion, Orthodox Christians greet one another with the customary words: 'Christ is in our midst'. The words are demonstrative that this communion moves from being iconic to substantive, since the Eucharist is not merely an icon of the Lord's presence, but the actual gift of the presence. Similarly, the Church as the icon of Christ to the world, expresses a good sense of the way in which it is called upon to present a true and beautiful image of its Lord to a wider society which seeks (perhaps unknowingly) this healing beauty. On occasion the members of the Church may significantly fail in this task of iconozing their Lord successfully, but the Lord ensures that the Church never loses its iconic veracity and power as a whole. The individual moral failings of members of the Church in any generation (and equally its moral successes as a society of believers) represent the Church's iconic witness, and can be powerful or weak in any particular time or place, just as an icon can be radiantly beautiful, or rather badly done, while still remaining an icon. So too the individual member of the Church can be a poor icon of the Lord, while never losing the fundamental iconic character (as long as repentance still keeps that believer in the harmony of the Church). But the mystery of the whole Church as icon of Christ is indefectible, in a way analogous to the Holy Eucharist. (Source: The Orthodox Church. An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture by Father John Anthony McGuckin)
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George