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.
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THE HUMAN PERSON: OUR CREATION, OUR VOCATION, OUR FAILURE (Part III)
By His Eminence Metropolitan Kallistos Ware
Jesus Christ
It would be wrong to think of Orthodoxy simply as the cult of Christ's Divine glory, of His Transfiguration and Resurrection, and nothing more. However great their devotion to the Divine glory of Our Lord, Orthodox do not overlook His humanity. Consider for example the Orthodox love of the Holy Land: nothing could exceed the vivid reverence of devout Orthodox Christian believers for the exact places where the Incarnate Christ lived as a man, where as a man He ate, taught, suffered and died. Nor does the sense of Resurrection joy lead Orthodoxy to minimize the importance of the Cross. Representations of the Crucifixion are no less prominent in Orthodox Christianity than in non-Orthodox churches, while the veneration of the Cross is more developed in Byzantine than in Latin (Roman Catholic) worship.
One must therefore reject as misleading the common assertion that the East concentrates on the Risen Christ, the West on Christ Crucified. If we are going to draw a contrast, it would be more exact to say that East and West think of the Crucifixion in slightly different ways. The Orthodox attitude to the Crucifixion is best seen in the hymns sung on Holy and Great Friday, such as the following:
"He who clothes Himself with Light as with a garment, Stood naked at the judgment. On His cheek He received blows From the hands which He had formed. The lawless multitude nailed to the Cross the Lord of glory."
The Orthodox Church on Holy and Great Friday thinks not simply of Christ's human pain and suffering by itself, but rather of the contrast between His outward humiliation and His inward glory. Orthodox Christians see not only the suffering humanity of Christ, but a suffering God:
"Today is hanged upon the tree He Who hanged the earth in the midst of the waters. A crown of thorns crowns Him Who is the King of the Angels. He is wrapped about with the purple of mockery Who wraps the heaven in clouds."
Behind the veil of Christ's blessing and broken flesh, Orthodox Christians still discern the Triune God. Even Golgotha is a theophany (epiphany); even on Holy and Great Friday the Church sounds a note of Resurrection joy:
"We worship Your Passion, O Christ: Show us also Your glorious Resurrection! I magnify Your sufferings, I praise Your burial and Your Resurrection, Shouting Lord, glory to You!
The Crucifixion is not separate from the Resurrection, for both are but one action. Calvary is seen always in the light of the empty tomb; the Cross is an emblem of victory. When Orthodox Christians think of Christ Crucified, they think not only of His suffering and desolation; they think of Him as Christ the Victor, Christ the King, reigning in Triumph from the Tree:
"The Lord came into the world and dwelt among humans that He might destroy the tyranny of the Devil and set humans free. On the Tree He triumphed over the powers which opposed Him, when the sun was darkened and the earth was shaken, when the graves were opened and the bodies of the saints arose. By death He destroyed death, and brought to nought him who had thepower of death."
Christ is our victorious King not in spite of the Crucifixion, but because of it: "I call Him King, because I see Him crucified."
Such is the spirit in which Orthodox Christians regard Christ's death upon the Cross. Between this approach to the Crucifixion and that of the medieval and post-medieval West, there are of course many points of contrast; yet in the Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) approach there are also certain things which make Orthodox Christians uneasy. The West, so it seems to them, tends to think of the Crucifixion in isolation, separating it too sharply from the Resurrection. As a result the vision of Christ as a suffering God is in practice replaced by the picture of Christ's suffering humanity: the Western worshipper, when he meditates upon the Cross, is encouraged all too often to feel an emotional sympathy with the Man of Sorrows, rather than to adore the victorious and triumphant King...
"...Where Orthodox Christianity sees chiefly Christ the Victor, the late medieval and post-medieval West sees chiefly Christ the Victim. While Orthodox Christianity interprets the Crucifixion primarily as an act of triumphant victory over the powers of evil, the West -- particularly since the time of Anselm of Canterbury (? 1033-1109) - has tended rather to think of the Cross in penal and juridical terms, as an act of satisfaction or substitution designated to propitiate the wrath of an angry Father. (Source: The Orthodox Church)
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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