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.
+
TRADITION IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH (Part III)
By George Bebis, Ph.D.
Universality and Timelessness of Tradition
Another characteristic still to be added, namely the Tradition of the Church is universal in space and time. Saint Vincent of Lerins, a bishop and writer in France during the 5th century, writes that "we must hold what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all" (Common, 2). Indeed, the Church with all her members, always, from the time of her inception until the end of time, accepts and teaches everywhere the redemptive work of Christ. This does not mean that the Church and Her Tradition move within numerical, geographical or chronological limits. The Church and Her Tradition, although they live in history, are beyond history. They have eternal value, because Christ, the Founder of the Church, has no beginning and no end. In other words, when the universality of the Church Tradition is mentioned, it refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit, which enables the Church to preserve until the end of time the Apostolic truth unadulterated, unbroken, and unaltered. This is true because Tradition expresses the common Orthodox mind (phronema) of the whole church against all heresies and schisms of all times.
It is important to emphasize both the temporality as well as the timelessness, two fundamental aspects of Holy Tradition. The late Father Georges Florovsky wrote that:
"Tradition is not a principle striving to restore the past, using the past as a criterion for the present. Such a conception of tradition is rejected by history itself and by the consciousness of the Orthodox Church. Tradition is the constant abiding of the Spirit and not only the memory of words. Tradition is a charismatic, not a historical event." [The Catholicity of the Church" in Bible, Church, Tradition, p. 47]
In other words, Tradition is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a living experience, which is relived and renewed through time. It is the true faith, which is revealed by the Holy Spirit to the true people of God.
Tradition, therefore, cannot be reduced to a mere enumeration of quotations from the Holy Scripture or from the Holy Fathers. It is the fruit of the incarnation of the Logos/Word of God, His Crucifixion and Resurrection as well as His Ascension, all of which took place in space and time. Tradition is an extension of the life of Christ into the life of the Church. According to Saint Basil the Great, it is the continuous presence of the Holy Spirit:
"Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return as adopted sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, in a word, our being brought into a state of a 'fullness of blessing' (Romans 15:29), both in this world and in the world to come" (Saint Basil of Caesaria, On the Holy Spirit, XV.).
Tradition and Traditions
This description by Saint Basil the Great gives the True "existential" dimensions of the Holy Tradition of the Church. For the Orthodox Christians, therefore, Holy Tradition is not a static set of dogmatic precepts or the uniform practices of the liturgical ritual of the Church. Although Church Tradition includes both doctrinal and liturgical formulas and practices, it is more properly the metamorphosis, the continuous transfiguration of the people of God, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit, as experienced in the daily life of the Church. This does not mean that Tradition is something abstract and theoretical or that it ignores the daily needs of human nature. On the contrary, the "rule of faith" becomes every day the "rule of worship." Doctrine, prayer, moral guidance, and liturgical practices are indispensable parts of Holy Tradition. Some theologians speak about traditions with a small "t", as being the written or unwritten practices of the daily Christian life, in contrast with Holy Tradition with a capital "T", which encompasses the basic doctrines of revelation and our salvation in Christ.
This type of distinction is rather misleading. Tradition and traditions are the integral parts of the life of the Church and they express the totality of the Christian way of life which leads to salvation. The Doctrine of Incarnation, the historical Truth of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the Eucharist, the sign of the Cross, the threefold immersion in the baptismal font, the honor and respect due to the Every-Virgin Mary and Theotokos, and to the Saints of the Church, are all important for the Christian, who wants to find himself in the "perimeter" of salvation in Christ. This is what the Church has taught through the centuries. "therefore we must consider the Holy Tradition of the Church trustworthy, " Saint John Chrysostom writes, "it is Tradition, seek no more" (Second Letter to Thessal." Homily). (Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)
(To be continued)
_____________________________________________________
Please note: Every Orthodox Christian believer must be theologically knowledgeable of the basic beliefs, traditions, practices in our Holy Church. We know through history that there are always those who seek to undermine the Church from within as well as without. We must be vigilant so as not to allow any so-called "revisionists" to change the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church. We have seen the Ecumenical Councils of the Orthodox Church throughout the centuries confront the various dangerous and destructive heretics and heresies and defending the True Faith. The Eastern Patriarchs wrote that "the Defender of the faith is the very Body of the Church, that is the people, who want their faith kept constantly unvarying and in agreement with the Fathers." Thus the clergy and the laity are both responsible for the preservation of the authentic and genuine Holy Tradition in and through the life of the Church."
______________________________________________________
"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
+++
With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George