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.
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DIVINE GRACE ACCORDING TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY (Part II)
GRACE CONFIRMED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE
That grace is a real and substantial thing given by God to His creation is verified by several important passages of Holy Scripture. First, the Acts of the Apostles relate how many miraculously healings occurred through Saint Paul, "so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:12).
Notice the passage is careful to specify that these personal items had been in contact with Saint Paul's body. This is significant. If grace were a mere theological concept, there would be no organic connection between the holy Apostle himself and the grace of God that worked the miracle. But since grace is indeed the real outpouring of God's Divine energies, we can understand that the uncreated grace of God abiding in the holy Apostle's body was literally transmitted to his garments by physical proximity.
Something similar is recorded in the life of Saint Nektarios of Aegina. In 1920, after he reposed in a hospital in Athens, Greece, some medical staff began removing his clothes to clean his body, as was customary. In the process, they tossed his sweater onto the bed of the paralyzed man lying next to him. The man was instantly healed, got out of his bed, and began to walk. As in the example from the Book of Acts, the uncreated and immaterial grace of God abiding in the soul and body of Saint Nektarios healed the sick, in this case through the means of his garment.
This understanding of grace is the basis for the Orthodox Christian veneration of the holy relics (bodies or bones) of the Saints. The body, being the "temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19), participates in the holiness of the soul and becomes a vessel of divine grace. We see an example of this even in the Old Testament. Shortly after the Prophet Elisha's death, his grace-bearing relics raised a man from the dead.
"So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet" (2 Kings 13:21).
Perhaps the best example of grace is a tangible and organic reality that is found in the earthly life of our Savior. As the Lord Jesus walked among a great crowd on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus, a woman afflicted with an issue of blood for many years, desperate but full of faith in the Lord, reached down behind Him to touch the fringe of His garment. She was immediately healed. But the important point for us is what happens next. Jesus, "immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him" (Mark 5:30), turned around and inquired who it was that had touched Him. The woman--known as Saint Veronica according to Holy Tradition--revealed herself and what had happened when she touched, not Christ's body, but merely His clothing.
What then is this healing power that went out from the Lord that day? The Orthodox Church teaches that it is the very same power that went forth from Saint Paul and Saint Nektarios in our examples above. The woman was healed by the Uncreated and Divine energies and grace of God. While Christ possesses this power infinitely by His very nature as God, His Saints participate and share in it by grace.
GRACE AND WORKS
The Orthodox Christian view of works and salvation depends on our understanding of grace. If grace is merely a juridical release from the guilt of sin, man has no real function to perform in his own salvation, except perhaps to have faith, narrowly defined. And if grace is an alien and unnatural addition to an otherwise graceless being, then it can only create a facade of holiness or of union with the Holy.
But in Orthodox Christian Theology, grace is the very life-giving energies of God. It is the means by which God shares His Divine Life and Light with His creation, and particularly with man, who is only truly human when he is permeated and penetrated by the grace of God. Grace is the natural condition of man, and only grace can make him fully human. The acquisition of this grace is the goal and purpose of the Christian life and of membership in the Church.
The Orthodox Church has never taught that man is saved by works. Rather, he is saved by grace. But works do ultimately have an impact on our salvation inasmuch as they either open or close us to God's grace. It is for this reason--that "the works of the flesh" (Galatians 5:19) are an obstacle to salvation. It is not because these sins represent the breaking of a moral law or because God becomes angry and desires to punish those who do them, but because they intrinsically light and energy of God, that is, grace.
If we desire to feel the warmth of the sun, we must make the physical effort to walk outdoors and expose our skin to its rays, perhaps shedding some of our clothing. After being tanned by the sun's rays, we would claim not that out tan came about as the result of our own power, but rather that we desired it and put ourselves in a position to receive it.
And if there are clouds covering the sun, we do not say, "The sun is angry with me." The sun has not changed in any way, nor have the sun's rays ceased to shine. Rather, we acknowledge that the clouds are obstructing the sun's light and power, keeping it from having its natural impact.
The same is true in spiritual life. If we desire to be in the presence of the Spiritual Sun, we will adopt a way of life that naturally exposes us to the rays of God's grace. This is the way of love or keeping the commandments of God---"if you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). It will not be our effort, our works, that save us, but the grace of God, which brings us into union and communion with Him.
Therefore, we never attribute salvation to our own works or power or imagine that our works merit salvation. It is grace that saves us. However, we do the works to open ourselves to the possibility of receiving and keeping the gift of God's grace. Saint Maximus the Confessor, one of the greatest theologians of the Church, tells us that grace actually resides in God's Commandments.
"The Divine Logos/Word of God the Father is mystically present in each of His Commandments...Thus, he who receives a Divine commandment and carries it out receives mystically the Holy Trinity."
Good works, living out the Commandments of Jesus Christ, are a means to acquire the saving grace of God, for Jesus Christ Himself is revealed to us and shares Himself with us through the Commandments.
On the other hand, sinfulness--works of darkness (whether manifested in thoughts, words, or deeds)--are clouds over the soul, inhibiting the rays of God's grace from shining over the soul, and out from the heart to the entire human person. As Saint Clement of Alexandria affirms, "into the impure soul, the grace of God finds no entrance." Again, immorality is sinful because it blocks grace from penetrating the human soul, making a person less than human. The same is true of pride, envy, hatefulness, and all other sins." (Source: Know the Faith. A handbook for Orthodox Christian and Inquirers by Rev. Michael Shanbour)
(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 (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George