On the Church (Part II)

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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ON THE CHURCH (Part II)
By Saint Porphyrios

In the Church, We Are All One, and Christ is the Head

The Head of the Church is Christ and us humans, we Christians, are the body. The Holy Apostle Paul says: He is the head of the body, of the Church (Colossians 1:18). The Church and Christ are one. The body of the Church cannot exist without its Head. The body of the Church is nourished, sanctified, and lives with Christ. He is the Lord, Omnipotent, Omniscient, everywhere present and filling all things, our staff, our friend, our brother: the pillar and sure foundation of the Church. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the basis--He is everything. Without Christ the Church does not exist. Christ is the Bridegroom; each individual soul is the Bride.

Christ united the body of the Church with heaven and earth: with angels, men, and all created things, with all of God's creation--with animals and birds, with each tiny wildflower and each microscopic insect. The Church thus became "the fullness of Him Who fills All in All" (Ephesians 1:23), that is, of Christ. Everything is in Christ and with Christ. This is the mystery of the Church. Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own, I am not the Church, but together with you. All together we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church. We are all one and Christ is the Head One body, one body of Christ: "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are all one because God is our Father and is everywhere. When we experience this we are in the Church. This is our Lord's wish for all the members of the Church, as expressed in His Great High-Priestly Prayer: "that they may be one" (St. John 17:11, 22). But that is something you can only understand through grace. We experience the Joy of unity, of love, and we become one with everyone. There is nothing more magnificent!

The important thing is for us to enter into the Church--to unite ourselves with our fellow men, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them just as Christ did for us. In the Church, we become one with each unfortunate, suffering and sinful soul.

No one should wish to be saved alone without all others being saved. It is a mistake for someone to pray for himself, that he himself may be saved. We must love others and pray that no soul be lost, that all may enter into the Church. That is what counts. And it is with this desire one should leave the world to retire to a monastery or to the desert.

When we set ourselves apart from others, we are not Christians. We are True Christians when we have a profound sense that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, of the Church, in an unbroken relationship of love--when we live united in Christ, in an unbroken relationship of love--that is when we experience unity in His Church with a sense of oneness. This is why Christ prays to His Father saying, "that they may be one" (St. John 17:11, 22). He repeats the prayer again and again and the Holy Apostles emphasize it everywhere. This is the most profound aspect, the most exalted meaning, of the Church. This is where the secret is to be found: for all to be united as one person in God. There is no other religion like this; no other religion says anything of this sort. They have something to say, but not this mystery, this exquisite point of the mystery which Christ demands and tells us that this is how we must become, that He wants us to be His.

We are one even with those who are not close to the Church. They are distant on account of ignorance. We must pray that God will enlighten them and change them so that they too may come to Christ. We see things in a human light, we move on a different plane and imagine that we love Christ. But Christ, Who "sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (St. Matthew 5:45), tells us: "love your enemies" (St. Matthew 5:44). We need to pray that we may all be united in God. Then, if we live-out this prayer, we will achieve the corresponding results; we will all be united in love.

For the people of God, there is no such thing as distance, even if they are thousands of miles apart. However, far away our fellow human beings may be, we must stand by them. Some people regularly telephone me from a town on the edge of the Indian Ocean--Durban is what it is called if I am pronouncing it correctly. It is in South Africa, two hours drive from Johannesburg. Indeed, a few days ago they came here. They were taking a sick person to England and they came here first to ask me to read a prayer over him. I was very moved.

When Christ unites us, distances do not exist. When I leave this life it will be better. I will be closer to you. (Source:  Orthodox Heritage)

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George