Approaching the Holy and Glorious Sunday of Pentecost (Part III)

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 SUNDAY JUNE 7TH OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH CELEBRATES THE HOLY AND GLORIOUS FEAST OF PENTECOST

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Feast

Blessed are Thee, O Christ Our God. Thou made the fishermen all-wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them Thou drew the world into Thy net. O Lover of mankind, glory to Thee."

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Among the gifts which the one who receives the gift of the Holy Spirit is endowed in the saintly life, when the person struggles to keep God's commandments to the highest degree and to live in purity of soul and body, the married life in Christ within the social customs, the pastoral diaconate in Christ with its many cares, etc. In other words, all the gifts of grace that the Holy Spirit grants. Thus the Holy Spirit "wholly makes up the institution of the Church", which is the Body of Christ.

As soon as the Holy Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit they were full of great joy. It was a new experience for them. While previously they had simply been good men, now they became members of the Risen Body of Christ. They were not confined to worshiping Christ, but they were inseparably united with Him. All who saw them were perplexed, and some mockingly said "they are full of new wine", meaning they were drunk with new wine (Acts 2:13).

The Coming of the Holy Spirit into the heart of man is called by the Holy Fathers of the Church "sober intoxication" (Saint Dionysios the Areopagite). Saint Isaac the Syrian, referring to such states, speaks of the fact that all the person's powers are plunged "in deep intoxication". It is called intoxication because there is great joy and gladness, and it is characterized as "sober" because the person does not lose his senses nor his reason. When a person is taken possession of by the Holy Spirit he remains free, or to express it better, he acquires real freedom, which does not function as a power of choice, as philosophical ethics says, but as natural will, as an overcoming of death. The Holy Apostle Paul writes characteristically: "The spirits of Prophets are subject to the Prophets" (1 Corinthians 14:32). This means that the man who is Prophet is not subject to his gift of grace, but the gift of grace is subject to the Prophet, which is to say that man's freedom is not abolished, nor are the energies of his mind and soul suspended.

Saint Nicodemos the Hagiorite says that there are three kinds of intoxication. First, that which comes with too much wine, which is the cause of many evils. Second, is the intoxication which is activated by the passions. This is the intoxication meant by the Prophet Isaiah when he said "Woe to those that are drunk without wine" (Isaiah 28:1 Septuagint). And elsewhere the same Prophet, referring to Jerusalem said: "hear this, you afflicted ones, made drunk, but not with wine". Third, is the intoxication caused by the Holy Spirit. We meet it in the mother of the Prophet Samuel, who was praying in the Temple very earnestly, and her prayer was noetic, so strong that his son Eli the Priest thought she was drunk and wanted to drive her out of the Temple. And she answered and said that she was not drunk but was pouring her heart out to the Lord (I Samuel 1:14-15).

The Holy Apostles underwent this third intoxication on the day of Pentecost, because then they received the Holy Spirit, discovered the place of the heart, knew Christ better, became members of the Body of Christ, developed a great love and longing for Christ, and this was expressed, as the Fathers explain, by prayer...

"...The Holy Fathers teach that while the Holy Spirit is active in the whole creation and in all people, nevertheless each person partakes of Its energies in accordance with his receptivity. One must have a receptive organ in order to receive the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Maximos the Confessor, referring to this, says that the saints acquire different gifts of grace not by their natural power, but by Divine Power. All the gifts of grace are given by the Holy Spirit but this happens according to their receptivity. The Holy Spirit does not inspire wisdom, nor knowledge if there is no power of reason, nor faith without the nous and reason being informed about the things to come, nor gifts of healing, without natural love towards men. This means that the saints receive the gifts of theology, gifts of knowledge, gifts of healing, if there is an organ to receive this gift.

This is the case not only for the gifts of theology, but also for other gifts of grace. They are called gifts of grace because they are granted by God, but in accordance with the spiritual condition of each person. Saint Maximus the Confessor once again points out that each of the faithful receives the energy of the Holy Spirit according to his faith and the condition of his soul...

"...In reality, through the energy of the Holy Spirit, when the person is made a receptive vessel, the fire of Divine Grace is set alight in his heart. Saint Basil the Great says that there is a real "burning of the Spirit which rekindles the heart." And indeed it is maintained that this burning which illumines sous and destroys the stubble and thorns, was active in the Holy Apostles who spoke in fiery tongues, it shone round the Apostle Paul, it warmed the hearts of Cleopas and those with him, this fire is something which will banish the demons, but also a power of resurrection, an energy of immortality, illumination of the holy souls, support of the rational powers.

So Pentecost was in history once, but it is brought back in the lives of the saints. When the deified attained a state of spiritual life, they share in Pentecost and become apostles of Jesus Christ. Pentecost is the high point of glorification and deification (theosis). All who follow the same journey with the holy disciples arrive at this vision of God and partake of the grace and energy of Pentecost...

"...The Holy Apostle Paul is clear when he says: "those who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14). Not all people who were created by God are children of God, but only those who are led by the Holy Spirit. Sonship is connected with inner noetic prayer: "And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). The Spirit of God which will be present in the heart of man "testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Romans 8:16). He is himself a son of God who has the Holy Spirit within him, which testifies with our spirit and confirms that the man is a child of God. However, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our heart is confirmed by the inner prayer of the heart which comes with a cry.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of God in him, he does not belong to Christ, which means that he is not a living member of the Body of Christ. Even if he has been baptized at some time, the grace of Baptism remains inactive, and this man is a dead member of the Church. This is said by the Holy Apostle Paul in an important and revealing passage: "And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:9). No one belongs to Christ if he does not have the Holy Spirit, with the preconditions which we have seen before. By contrast, if anyone has in him the Holy Spirit, he is really a member of the Body of Christ, since he is not "controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit" (Romans 8:8-9). (Source: The Feasts of the Lord. An Introduction to the Twelve Feasts and Orthodox Christology by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos HIEROTHEOS)

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Please note: It is imperative that we understand that not everyone, according to the Holy Apostle Paul, and Holy Fathers of the Church, is a member of the Body of Christ and/or a child of God if he or she does not possess the Spirit of Christ. The above article explains why not everyone has the same rights in the Orthodox Church since not everyone "is led by the Holy Spirit". We pray for and love all people and supplicate God for the salvation and enlightenment of all people but one must first believe, be receptive, and "has in him the Holy Spirit".

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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

Approaching the Holy and Glorious Sunday of Pentecost (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON JUNE 7th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH CELEBRATES THE HOLY AND GLORIOUS FEAST OF PENTECOST (Part II)

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Feast of Pentecost Mode pl. 4

Blessed are You, O Christ our God, You made the fishermen all-wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them drew the world into Your net. O Lover of mankind, glory You.

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The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost does not indicate that the Holy Spirit was previously absent from the earth and from people, but that, as we mentioned before, the Holy Spirit operates in a different way. We can offer two points that interpret the Descent of the Holy Spirit and His different energy.

The first point is that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Apostles understood that the Holy Spirit is a particular hypostasis (Person) and not simply energy of God. The Holy Spirit, which appeared faintly in the Old Testament as a breath, as a sound, as the voice of a breeze, as an inspiration of the Prophets, is manifested at Pentecost "as a self-existing hypostasis". Thus, when the events which manifested the hypostasis of the Son had been completed, there began the events which manifested the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit (Saint Gregory Palamas).

The second point by which one can interpret the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit made the Disciples members of the Body of Christ and gave them the power to participate in Christ's victory over death. God cannot be compared with human data. The Angels possess freedom naturally, but they exercise it without hindrance, they want to use it directly because they have nothing to prevent them from acting on it, for they are not hindered by the body or any other opposing force. Human beings are independent and have freedom, but their free will has been traumatized and it is not easy for them to carry out their desires. This is why desire and free will need to be strengthened by God. In the Old Testament, it says that he who listens "receives favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 8:35). And the Holy Apostle Paul writes: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).

This means that the Holy Spirit came down into the hearts of the Holy Apostles and is working in men through their own will and not as servants. But men must respond to the energy of the Holy Spirit with their will since god does not violate their freedom. However, desire and free will must be reinforced by God because in the fallen state man is enslaved, he is an attached being.

In general, when we speak of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, we cannot understand it as an incarnation, for only the Son and Logos/Word of God became Incarnate, but as Its hypostatic manifestation in the world, which transformed the Disciples and changed them from mortal men to living members of the Body of Christ...

"...After promising to His Disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit, Christ gave a clear command: "stay in the city of Jerusalem until you have been clothed with power from on high" (St. Luke 24:49). The Holy Disciples kept this command and remained together in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, in stillness and prayer, waiting for the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Holy Evangelist Luke assures us: "And they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luke 24:53).

At this point, I should comment briefly on the phrase: "until you have been clothed with power from on high" because it is quite characteristic. Christ does not say that they will simply receive the Holy Spirit, but that they will be clothed with it, as with some spiritual suit of armor in order in order to fight the enemy (Satan). It is not about spiritual enlightenment of their minds, but about a transformation of their whole being. There will be no point in their body and no energy of the soul which will be left uncovered by the energy of the Holy Spirit.

It is well known that with Holy Baptism, which is regarded as an introductory Sacrament it introduces us into the Church and we become members of the Body of Christ, we have clothed ourselves with Christ Himself: "for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). But at the same time, we clothe ourselves in the Holy Spirit as well, according to Christ's explicit promise. Moreover, this is the purpose of the two Sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation, which are interconnected.

The Christian's clothing himself in the Holy Spirit is not outward and superficial, but inward, like the uniting of iron with fire. Iron that is made red-hot is afire completely, not a small part of it. Thus all who receive the Holy Spirit feel that it fills their heart, it gives light to their eyes, sanctifies their ears, stifles their bad thoughts, ideas spring up, wisdom is granted, persons are filled with grace. (Source: The Feasts of the Lord. An Introduction to the Twelve Feasts and Orthodox Christology by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos HIEROTHEOS)

(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

Approaching the Holy and Glorious Sunday of Pentecost

My beloved spiritual children in 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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APPROACHING THE HOLY AND GLORIOUS SUNDAY OF PENTECOST (June 7th)

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Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Feast of Pentecost Mode pl. 4.

Blessed are You, O Christ our God. You made the fishermen all-wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them You drew the world into Your net, O Lover of mankind, glory to You.

Pentecost

Before Christ ascended into Heaven He gave a command to His Disciples to return to Jerusalem after His Ascension and remain there until they were invested with power from Heaven. Thus He gave them the promise that they would receive the Holy Spirit, about which He had spoken during His life.

This promise by Christ to the Disciples was realized 50 days after Pascha and ten days after His Ascension to heaven. Thus in the Church we observe the feast of Pentecost, in which we honor the Holy Trinity, and on the following day we celebrated and glorify the Holy Spirit. So the feast of Pentecost is a feast of the Holy Trinity.

The feast of Pentecost is also included in what the Church calls the "Twelve Feasts", because it is the last feast of the Divine Economy. The Incarnation of Christ was aimed at victory over death and the coming of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of men. Moreover, it is well known that the purpose of the ecclesiastical and spiritual life is that we should become members of the Body of Christ and receive the Holy Spirit. These two are inseparably linked together.

The holy hymnographer calls Pentecost the last feast concerning man's reformation and renewal: "Let us believers joyfully celebrate a last fast: it is Pentecost, fulfillment and deadline of a promise". Thus, if the Annunciation to the Theotokos is the beginning of the Incarnation of the Logos/Word and the Divine Economy, Pentecost is the end, since it is then that man, through the Holy Spirit, becomes a member of the risen body of Christ.

We can also place Pentecost, as well as what relates to the Holy Spirit and Christ, in this framework because Christology cannot be understood apart from Pneumatology, nor Pneumatology apart from Christology.

The descent of the Holy Spirit took place on Sunday. And here we see the value of Sunday (Lord's Day), for the Great Feasts of the Lord took place on it. According to Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, the creation of the world began on the first day, that is to say' on Sunday, for it was then that light was created; the renewal of creation began on Sunday with the Resurrection of Christ; the completion of creation took place on Sunday with the descent of the Holy Spirit. The making of creation was done by the Father with the cooperation of the Son and the Holy Spirit, the renewal was done by the Son with the good will of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, and the completion of creation was done by the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son.

Of course, in saying these things, we are giving importance to the Persons that played the leading part in the creation, renewal and completion of creation. But finally, as we have been taught and we believe, and one Person can never be separated and isolated from the others in the Holy Trinity.

The Christian Pentecost in which we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit coincides with the Jewish Pentecost. It was on the day when the Jews were celebrating Pentecost that the Holy Spirit descended upon the holy Apostles and made them members of the Risen Body of Christ.

The feast of Pentecost is a feast the Holy Spirit, because we learn from the Descent of the Holy Spirit that God is threefold. Previously too, both obscurely in the Old Testament and in Christ's teaching, people were learning the trinitarian character of God, but at Pentecost they acquire practical experience of His threefold hypostasis. Thus Pentecost is a feast of orthodox theology.

Many names have been given to the Holy Spirit. One of them, which also shows the work which He does in the Church as well as in the lives of people is the name "Comforter". Christ Himself used this word for the Holy Spirit when He said to His Disciples shortly before His Passion: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter to be with you forever -the Spirit of Truth" (John 14:16-17). And a little further on, the Holy Spirit is characterized by Christ as the 'Paraclete', the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:25). Having the assurance that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, we pray to Him: "Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of Truth".

God the Holy Spirit comforts the person who is struggling against sin, trying to keep Christ's commandments in his life. This struggle is hard, because the fight is against the evil spirits. Therefore the Holy Spirit is a comforter, or one who consoles man, as Saint John Chrysostom says. It is a mark of God that He consoles men, so God is characterized by the same term as the Holy Spirit...

 "...The phrase "other Paraclete" means that Christ and the Holy Spirit are different hypostases, but they have a common nature, essence and energy. Saint Gregory the Theologian, interpreting the phrase "other Paraclete", says that this constitutes and characterizes the 'co-lordship' and consubstantiality of the two hypostases (persons). The fact that Christ says the He will send 'another Comforter' means that He too is a comforter. "For it is one and I am the other".  In this way we can see the equality in honor of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Son and the Father, because all Three Persons of the Holy Trinity have a common essence or nature, and a common energy or intention glory. This is why wherever Christ is, there is the Holy Spirit, and wherever the Holy Spirit is, there is Christ...

"...The Church was founded on the day of Pentecost, in that the holy Apostles became members of the Body of Christ. Thus, while they previously had a communion with Christ, now by the power and energy of the Holy Spirit they became members of the Body of Christ. The Church changed from spirit to flesh. The Saints, the deified, had a relationship and communion not only with the Unincarnate Logos/Word, but with the Logos/Word become flesh, Christ the Godman. The theology that the Church is the Body of Christ is explained by the holy Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 12:1-31). He says that the Church is not a religious organization, but the Body of Christ. Moreover he says that the distribution of the gifts of grace takes place by the energy of the Holy Spirit. To conclude, the holy Apostle Paul says: "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). (Source: The Feasts of the Lord. An Introduction to the Twelve Feasts and Orthodox Christology by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos HIEROTHEOS)

(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

The Holy Bible: God's Revelation to Man

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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THE HOLY BIBLE: GOD'S REVELATION TO MAN
By The Right Reverend JOSEPH, Bishop of Los Angeles and the West

For the Christian of true worship, the Holy Bible is the greatest source of Truth, virtue, and moral ethics. It is invaluable as a source of teaching doctrine and holiness. We call it the "Book of Life," for in its pages we find the closest expression we have of the Inexpressible. From generation to generation, the books that make up the Canon of Scripture have communicated to us the lessons God has taught and still is teaching His people. It is open to all and should be read by all; men and women, clergy and laity, children and adults, believers and unbelievers.

The Bible Reveals God

From the beginning, God has revealed Himself to mankind. He never ceases to reach out to His creation with abundant blessings, desiring all to freely partake of the personal communion He offers. The Bible also establishes that it was humanity who rejected Him, following after the selfish desire to be as God. Certainly, humanity has afflicted itself with this delusion. Even so, the human race, even in its fallen state, is unable to deter God's unceasing ministry to His people. The Scripture record this ongoing spiritual struggle between the loving Truth of God and man's deluded expression of pride.

Once the Truth of God is accepted, and a person surrenders his pride and his denial of reality, his eyes become open to Christ our God, whose Divine Light invisibly enters in. This is what we call holiness, and therefore only in genuine holiness can we begin to understand the Bible and experience God revealed in it. The Scripture and the histories of the martyrs bear witness to the glory of God as it enters us. They also witness to us the terrible price that people pay when they refuse to acknowledge the presence of the Lord.

The Bible Reveals Our Need

The Old Testament establishes the way of thinking of the one who has "seen" God. He now sees the misery of fallen humanity. He discerns how, in our wretched state, we bring ruin upon ourselves with the lies our pride fabricates for us. In the pages of the Bible, we see how even good men can fail. And we see and hear the warning for us that, just as surely as sunset brings night, the disobedience of mankind brings death and destruction.

The Bible is not a document for the individual seeking to feel self-justified and full of wisdom. Rather, it is a mirror in which each person can see his own weakness without God and his need for Him. One who reads the Scripture and does not fall down praying for God's mercy has not really read them. He may have read the words on the pages, but he is still a man of the world, a prisoner of his blinded intellect and fleshly desires. Perhaps such a person would do better with a technical manual or a history book. The Bible is neither of these. It is a spiritual tool, the greatest of all, designed to change us. It overcomes all boundaries of human time and transcends all cultures.

The Bible Reveals Salvation

The one who reads the Bible and repents of his own sinfulness, recognizing no good in his life without God, opens the door to a new life. He is transformed by encountering the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Logos/Word of God. He is the One Whom the Prophets proclaim would save us from sin and the sting of death which we brought upon ourselves. When we read with a repentant heart, the words of the Bible are not lifeless rules and interesting stories, but insights into a world beyond expression. These words are doors through which to walk, so we may come to know God. The Bible challenges us to emerge from our own personal self-centered and illusory world, and to enter rather into the Kingdom of God. Then every word of the Bible is a window to heaven, to Paradise, and to Perfection.

Just as someone cannot "birth" himself, neither is a man "reborn" by himself. His personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will not be fulfilled outside of the Church. For it is there that we enter into a Tradition, a dynamic history of men and women--saints--who honored what they received from God and passed it on intact to the next generation. This embodiment of Faith is founded in the Incarnate Logos/Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Head of the Body which is His Holy Orthodox Church. Within the Church, the repented man, woman or child is born anew through the life-giving waters of Holy Baptism. Here, the passion of the individual begin to die and transformation is initiated.

Truly the fullness of the Scripture cannot be obtained outside the mind of the Church. Heretics and unbelieving intellectuals may read the words of Scripture, but they cannot understand it as does a spiritual man or woman within the Holy Community of the Church. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit to reveal within us the truth of God, the Bible is but raw data. Certainly, the Holy Spirit has whispered Truth into the ears of people not in the Church, but the place where He speaks the fullness of the Faith is within the Church where he dwells.

Only with the teachings of His Church--the Church that proclaims the Truth found in the Bible--can we begin our true work of breaking out of the self-imposed imprisonment of self-idolatry. When we submit our lives to Christ in repentance and lift us up. Therefore, it becomes our joyful duty to ceaselessly knock on the door of the Scripture, asking God to reveal the Truth to us through His Logos/Word, that we might walk through the gates and grow into an ever greater appreciation and experience of Him and His Heavenly Kingdom.

Simply put, the Holy Bible must be read with serious and humble prayer, a genuine desire for God's mercy, along with sound instruction from the Church and the very presence of the Holy Spirit within us. Our Lord Jesus Christ left Himself within this Holy Book, that He might be found by those who genuinely see Him. May you find Him today! (Source: The Orthodox Study Bible)

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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

Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

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 SUNDAY MAY 31st OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE HOLY FATHERS OF THE FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

On this Sunday our Holy Church celebrates the memory of just one small group of His disciples and followers. The Holy Orthodox Church brings before you only 318 of His sweet, fragrant, and undecaying fruits. A small but chosen group. These are the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, which was held in Nicaea in 325 A.D., in the time of the Emperor Constantine the Great, for the defense, clarification, and confirmation of the Orthodox Christian Faith. There had, at that time, appeared "grievous wolves" (Acts 20:29) under the guise of shepherds of the Church, who because of their dissolute lives, were unable to find a place for Christ's truth within themselves, but led the faithful astray, teaching them as dissolutely as they lived. The Holy Spirit, therefore, brought these Saints, the Holy Fathers, of God together at a Synod (Council), so that Christ's true teachers should be seen, as against the false, and that the might of those who fight for Christ should be seen over those who fight against Him; that the true, sweet fruit of the good Tree of which is Christ should be seen in contrast to the rotting and bitter fruits of the tree of evil. Like stars that shine in the sky, receiving light from the sun, so the Holy Fathers shone at Nicaea, receiving Light from Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. They were Christ-bearing men, for Christ lived and shone forth in each of them. They were citizens of heaven rather than of earth, more like Angels then men. They were, in very truth, "the temple of the living God; as God hath said: "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (2 Corinthians 6:16). Is it not sufficient to mention just three of them, the best known in you, for you to have an idea of what the other three hundred and fifteen were like: our Holy Father Nicholas, Saint Spyridon, and Saint Athanasius the Great? Many of them came to the Synod bearing on their bodies wounds incurred for Christ's sake: Saint Paphnutius, for example, had lost an eye to his torturers. All of them shone with an interior Light that came from God, and in which the Truth was seen and known. As followers of Him Who was Crucified, they regarded their sufferings as nothing, because of which their fearlessness in defense of the Truth was boundless and inexpressible. By their God-given knowledge of the Truth and their fearlessness in defense of the Truth, these Holy Fathers disproved and stamped out the heresy of evil Arius the heretic, and established the Creed that we today hold and confess as God's saving truth.

Today's Gospel does not speak of this Synod, but of our Lord Jesus Christ's last prayer to His Heavenly Father. Why is it this prayer that we read in today's Gospel? Because it showed its effect on the First Ecumenical Council. Through the power of this prayer, God made the Holy Fathers at this Council devoted and fearless defenders of the Truth, and victors over questionings and malice by men and demons. This is that great prayer.

At that time, "Jesus lifted up His eyes into heaven, and said: 'Father the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." All that the Lord taught men to do, He did Himself. He had taught men to pray to God thus: "Our Father, which art in heaven..." (St. Matthew 6:9). And he raised His eyes to heaven, where the Father dwells and said: "Father!" He does not say "our Father," as we do, but simply "Father!" He alone could say "My Father"; He and no other, in heaven or on earth, for He is the only begotten Son of the heavenly Father - while we are only adopted sons by God's mercy and grace. "He lifted up His eyes" - not only His bodily eyes also His spiritual ones - and firstly these latter. The Publican "would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven" (St. Luke 18:13), for he, felt his sinfulness. The Lord, though, freely "lifted up His eyes unto heaven." for He clearly saw this hour, the most terrible from the beginning to the end of time. He alone saw it clearly from the very beginning, and from the beginning, He foretold it and spoke about it to His disciples. But His disciples did not grasp it, nor did their hearts make it their own, right up to the time that the hour was no longer days, but minutes, away.

"Glorify Thy Son!" Glorify Him in this terrible hour as Thou hast glorified Him up to now. Glorify Him in death as Thou hast glorified Him in life. Glorify Him in humiliation and torment, as Thou hast glorified Him in mighty words and deeds. Glorify Him among men, as Thou hast down from the beginning glorified Him among the Angels. Glorify Thy Son, "that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." If it seems the first part of the sentence that the Son is lesser than the Father, we see clearly from this second part Their Equality and mutual activity in Their equal power. The Father glorifies the Son, and the Son glorifies the Father, with undivided power and undivided love. As the Seer saw and expressed it: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also" (I John 2:23). The Father sent the Son into the world, the Son revealed the Father to the world. Nothing would be known of the Son without the Father, nor of the Father without the Son, as light would not be known, were it not to come from the sun; nor the sun, without the light revealing it. And the Apostle uses this comparison, calling Christ "the brightness of His (the Father's) Glory" (Hebrews 1:3). But the Lord does not seek this glorifying of Himself from the Father for his own sake, but for the sake of men. (Source: Homilies by Saint Nikolai Velimirovic)

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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

May 29 - The Commemoration of the Fall of Constantinople

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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THE COMMEMORATION OF THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

"The Uses and Abuses of Hagia Sophia: From the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to Erodgan's Neo-Ottomanism in 2020"
By Alexandros K. Kyrou

It is no small irony that across the globe the edifice and image most widely associated with Turkey, Istanbul, and even perhaps Islam, is a sixth-century Orthodox Christian church--the magisterial Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, or "Holy Wisdom." Built by some 10,000 workers between 532 and 537 its patron, Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, inaugurated the construction of Hagia Sophia in the Imperial Capital of Constantinople with the proclamation that the Church of the Holy Wisdom would be a Cathedral like "one that has never existed since Adam's time, and one that will never exist again."

Remarkably, Justinian's boastful claims proved to be as accurate as they were visionary. For virtually a millennium Hagia Sophia was the unrivaled ecclesial hearth of the Christian Church before the Western schism, the physical epicenter of the Orthodox Christian world, and the wondrous breathtaking symbol of Byzantine grandeur and purpose. Indeed for both contemporaries and historians, Hagia Sophia constituted the greatest achievement of late ancient and medieval architecture, an enduring masterpiece that embodied Byzantine civilization's sophisticated respect and the quest for symphony and balance between the ethereal and the physical majesty and beauty, place and boundlessness, science and mystery, creative genius and humility. Despite Hagia Sophia's present diminished and abused condition, it is not difficult for even today's visitor to appreciate the description found in famous Russian ambassadorial report sent from Constantinople in 987 to Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, of what one encountered upon entering the Great Cathedral: "we did not know where we were, on heaven or on earth."

When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, virtually all of the city's surviving cathedrals and churches were--after being desecrated and thoroughly plundered--forcibly seized and turned over to the Turks' religious establishment to be converted to mosques and used as Muslim properties. The conquering sultan, Mehmet II, personally oversaw the conversion of Hagia Sophia. Crosses were demolished and exchanged for crescents, altars and bells were destroyed, icons were burned or hacked to pieces, mosaics and frescoes depicting Christian imagery were plastered over, and most of the cathedral's priests were killed or enslaved. In time, four colossal minarets were erected to surround Hagia Sophia, producing the iconic image that has come to e globally associated with Ottoman Constantinople and Turkish Istanbul.

Mehmet took great pride in his belief that he had fulfilled Mohammed's prophecy: "Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader he will be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!" Thereafter, Constantinople and Hagia Sophia represented for the Ottoman Turks much more than merely their empire's capital and preeminent mosque, respectively. The conquest of Christianity's greatest city and church was understood by Mehmet and his successors as divine proof of the leading role in the Muslim world to which the Ottoman Empire was entitled, a belief also manifested by the Turk's subsequent relocation of the Islamic Caliphate to Constantinople.

Indeed, the purpose for the construction of the massive minarets that now tower over Hagia Sophia was to project to the world Islam's triumph over Christendom's greatest empire, city, and church. The capture of Hagia Sophia confirmed and symbolized in the Ottomans' imagination their belief in the superiority of their state and faith over all other nations and all religions, a putative affirmation of their providential role and destiny in history. Hence, the Ottoman Turks formally dedicated their greatest, most celebrated single piece of loot--Hagia Sophia--as Great Faith Mosque, or "Great Conquest Mosque."

Despite the Turks' convictions that their mastery over the great, coveted prizes of Constantinople and Hagia Sophia signaled their inevitable conquest of the remainder of Christian Europe, the Ottoman state showed signs of weakness by the 16th century and by the 17th century began a long, miserable decline and recession that culminated in the complete dissolution of their empire in the early 12th century. Led by the Turkish nationalist, Mustafa Kemal, the Republic of Turkey, which emerged in the early 1920s succeeded the Ottoman Empire and to abolish the Caliphate, was officially premised on secularism. Kemal's modern Turkey rejected the Islamic theocratic system that he and his modernizing nationalists held responsible for the collapse of the old Ottoman order.

In modern Turkey, secularism has produced neither freedom for all faiths nor separation of church and state. Instead, Turkish secularism has meant state control of religion through official policies carried out y the Diyanet (The State Directorate of Religious Affairs), the governmental institution responsible for centralizing, regulating, and directing Islam in Turkish society. Likewise, the Kemalists' non-Western, non-democratic version of secularism has also meant that Turkey's non-Islamic communities and institutions (in particular, Turkey's Greek Orthodox Christians and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, respectively), inasmuch as they are regarded as impediments to universal "Turkishness," are viewed with suspicion, treated with hostility, and subjected to a policy of steady, systematic persecution, with the goal being their final elimination. Indeed, following the Turkish nationalists' genocide and population expulsions of Christian Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks between 1914 and 1923, the Kemalist republic inaugurated the Eritme Programmi (Dissolution Program), which has been continued by every successive Turkish government and that aims to enthnically cleanse all remaining non-Muslim communities in Turkey. The Turkish state's implementation of this policy has included the targeted use of violence, intimidation, punitive taxation, property expropriation, and countless forms of discrimination and persecution, all intended to create unbearable conditions for Christians and Jews in order to produce their exodus from Turkey.

Clearly, the Turkish state's claims purporting its embrace of Western democratic and secular principles have not at any time aligned with Turkey's actual record of practice. Recognizing the need to produce the appearance of a secular democratic state and society when neither existed meant that secular symbols and symbolism became very important to the Kemalist nation-building project. It was, consequently, not a move that produced any resistance when Mustafa Kemal, presiding over Turkey's one-party "secular democracy," closed Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship in 1931 and reopened the historic structure as a museum in 1935. Just as Sultan Mehmet in the 15th century appreciated the symbolism of converting Hagia Sophia, the grandest of Christian Cathedrals, to an Ottoman mosque for the furtherance of his imperial ambitions, President Kemal in the 1930s understood the symbolic value of transforming Hagia Sophia from a mosque-- the quintessential iconographic symbol of the Ottoman Islamic past--to a Turkish museum for the advancement of his modern secular nation-building project at home and for the promotion of his country's Westernizing image abroad.

Since his rise to power beginning in 2002, Turkey's nationalist Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has cautiously continued to pay homage to the authoritarian principles and legacy of Kemal, as his government more and more openly draws its inspirations and aims from an idealized version of the Ottoman imperial past. Under Erdogan, Islam is steadily becoming the core of a re-imagined Turkish identity, historical consciousness, and driver for state policy and purpose. According to Erdogan's neo-Ottoman agenda, Islam, through its expanding public role, will be increasingly revered and privileged by the state, while it will also be harnessed to help restore Turkey to its rightful place as a global force and as the leading state within the Islamic world.

Like Sultan Mehmet and President Kemal, Erdogan, who many observers describe as a president who acts like a sultan, recognizes the importance of symbols and symbolism for advancing Turkey's Ottoman revival. Much like Mehmet who used Hagia Sophia to showcase the superiority of Islam and the Ottoman Empire, or Kemal who employed Hagia Sophia to demonstrate the secularization and modernization of republican Turkey, Erdogan has steadily exploited Hagia Sophia to promote neo-Ottomanism and to mark the state's public embrace of Islam, the promise of a return to Turkish greatness and power. In this sense, the much-reported gradual re-Islamization of Hagia Sophia over the past decade has served as a deliberate signal by Erdogan to the masses of his Islamist supporters to realize a future in which Turkey, with Islam at the center of its public life, reigns supreme once more as a regional hegemon, a world power, and the leader of the Muslim community of nations.

In the final analysis, the importance and purpose of the Erdogan government's preparations for the second conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque can be fully understood only if one recognizes what the Great Fatah Mosque symbolically embodies for Turkish, especially Turkish Islamists, nationalists. For Erdogan and his followers, Hagia Sophia remains the most potent, visible reminder of Ottoman Turkey's might and glory, a rallying standard for a return to that former greatness, and a national icon to help forge neo-Ottomanism and to inspire Turkish society as its Islamist leaders move to fulfill their ambitions for Turkey in Europe, the Middle East, and the world. In that sense, the Turkish state's current exploitation of Hagia Sophia, only the most recent incarnation of the Turk's long history of use and abuse of the Great Christian Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom, stands as a troubling bellwether to states and peoples worldwide committed to peace and freedom. (Source: Alexandros K. Kyrou is Professor of History and Director of the Program in East European and Russian Studies at Salem State University, in Salem, Mass. where he teaches on the Balkans, Byzantium, and the Ottoman Empire)

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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