Know the Faith (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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KNOW THE FAITH (Part III)

The Orthodox Christian Approach to Salvation

The Orthodox Christian approach to salvation is in stark contrast to the Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) approach. While there is some guilt associated with sins, guilt is not the problem; nor is punishment the solution. Christ did not come to save us from guilt but from sin and death.

In Orthodoxy, sin is not understood as a crime necessitating punishment but as an illness in need of cure. Man sins because his nature has been corrupted and needs to be healed and renewed, brought into union with incorruption. It is death and the fear of death that has held man in bondage (Hebrews 2:15), not guilt. And death can only be overcome by Life, that is, Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the God-Man, became Incarnate to restore human nature to the likeness of God; He was crucified to destroy the power of sin; and He was raised to fill our nature with divine grace, God's divine energies, giving us power to overcome death. We are indeed saved by grace. Salvation is the condition of being united to the Savior by grace, that is, by receiving the Uncreated grace and energies of God. As we will see in the next chapter, justification is the condition of faith that opens us to God's Uncreated grace and thus introduces us to the life of salvation.

For the Orthodox Church, salvation is not a mere one-time event but a whole way of life that place us within the rays of God's saving grace. Salvation has a beginning, which includes a confession of faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior, followed by Christian baptism and chrismation. But salvation is also a lifelong process by which we incorporate Christ's life as our own, so that we might be found spiritually in the same place as the holy Apostle Paul, who, toward the end of his life, said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

While personal faith is always essential, one is saved in cooperation with the action of the Church: "On the first day we make them Christians; on the second catechumens; on the third, we exorcise them...instruct them...and then we baptized them" (holy Canon Eight of the Second Ecumenical Council.) As the Body of Christ, the Church extends God's grace to the world through the Holy Spirit. The Church facilitates and prepares the soil of the heart of one who desires salvation. She then immerses that soul in the life of salvation in God's Church, Christ's Body.

In baptism we are joined to Christ (Galatians 3:27); we personally participate in His death and Resurrection (Romans 6:3-5) and are therefore "born again" (or "born from above," John 3:3). However, just as a newborn baby must be nourished and grow in strength and character, the newly baptized must grow in faith and continue to walk in the light of salvation (Ephesians 5:8; 1 John 1:7).

For Orthodox Christians, salvation is not just a ticket to heaven after death; it is participation in the life of God now in this life, as well as a never-ending and ever-increasing participation in the life to come. Salvation is not merely a mental or cognitive acceptance or belief in Christ; it is an organic reality of communion with God through Christ by the acquisition of God's spirit (or "grace").

The Orthodox Christians do not believe and have never believed that we are saved by works. We believe in accordance with the Holy Scripture that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). However, the Orthodox Christians know grace to be the real presence, power, and energies of God, freely given by Him to those who in faith have opened themselves to Him by their free will, God's grace is not imposed on anyone.

Grace is not merely a juridical release from guilt but a real participation in the life of God Himself. This entrance of grace into the human fabric was made possible when Jesus Christ joined His divine nature with our human nature, trampled down death by His death, and raised our human nature, now glorified and filled with grace, to the life of the Holy Trinity through His Resurrection, Ascension, and sitting at the right hand of God.

We are saved by grace--by acquiring and abiding in this grace. According to the teachings of the Holy Scripture, the early Church, and the Orthodox Church today, salvation is the consequence of acquiring grace, which brings us into union with God. The Protestant understanding tends to make salvation a mere idea or concept, whereas the Orthodox teach that salvation is a real participation in God Himself.

God's grace is available and active through a life of authentic repentance, which means bearing one's cross and embracing ascetical self-denial. Grace is nurtured and deepened through partaking in the Sacramental (Mysteriaki) life and especially the Holy Eucharist, through the Church's services of prayer, through the reading and hearing of the Holy Scripture, and by obedience to His commandments, which include good works (works of mercy) (Ephesians 2;:10).

However, His grace is never given automatically, nor does the Church dispense it in some mechanistic way. It is always given freely as a gift according to God's personal will. We can never earn it, but we can place ourselves in a position to receive the gift more readily: "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20). By revelation, we know that He gives in accordance with our faith in Him and love for Him, which is also manifested in love for our neighbor. (Source: Know the faith. A Handbook for Orthodox Christians 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

Know the Faith (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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KNOW THE FAITH (Part II)
Introduction

In the biblical account, an Angel appears to Cornelius and proclaims exactly how he has found favor with God: "Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God" (Acts 10:4). It was his faithful prayer and love for the poor that placed Cornelius in a position to receive the visitation of God's grace. But this grace had still not come to dwell within him, for he was not yet regenerated in baptism.

God then led to him the holy Apostle Peter, who preached the Good News of Jesus Christ and taught him the way of salvation. His entrance into the life of salvation began by water and the spirit. He would then begin to participate in the life of grace and grow toward the "fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13) in the apostolic Church.

This is essentially no different from how one enters in the Orthodox Church today. One who is seeking the True God, prompted ultimately by the Spirit, at some point encounters His Apostolic Church. He bears the teaching of the Gospel in its fullness and is made a catechumen (a "learner") by the Church. After a period of preparation in which he is taught the way of faith, he is baptized into Christ and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit through the Mysterion (Sacrament) of Holy Chrismation.

But this is only the beginning. Salvation is not a legal or ritual removal of guilt that entitles one to go to heaven when he dies. It is not a stamped ticket to Eternal Life in exchange for a one-time confession of faith. Salvation is a real union with God, a participation with the resurrected flesh of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is why salvation requires repentance: because the heart must actually open up to the grace of God--and not just part of the heart, but the whole heart.

Salvation begins with the forgiveness of sins but must progress toward the actual remission of sins to the healing of the passions, the source of these sins. A man (a person) whose body is riddled with cancer and who is threatened with imminent death will not be comforted by news that his cancer is "forgiven." He will rejoice with great rejoicing, however, if he is told his cancer is in remission. For then he knows that the death-bearing cancerous cells have receded and life reigns in his body.

As another example, a wedding and a marriage certificate do not make a marriage, an actual communion of husband and wife. What is blessed by God and begun well must continually be lived out and realized within the arena of a daily struggle to actualize what Saint Paul describes as marriage: an icon of Christ with His Bride, the Church (see Ephesians 5:22-33).

According to the mind of the Holy Orthodox Church, salvation is the reorientation and healing of the human being. First, it is the uncovering of the image of God and then a progression "from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18), toward His likeness. For instance, in his Questions to Thalassios, Saint Maximus the Confessor describes The process of salvation, or spiritual rebirth:

"The manner of birth from God within us is two-fold: the one bestows the grace of adoption, which is entirely present in potency in those who are born of God; the other introduces, wholly by active exertion, that grace which deliberately reorients the entire free choice of the one being born of God toward the God who gives birth. The first bears the grace, present in potency, through faith alone; but the second, beyond faith, also engenders in the knower the sublimely divine likeness of the One known."

Saint Maximus goes on to say that, although God gives the whole gift of grace at the outset to the one reborn, it cannot be actualized because the will has "not yet fully detached from its propensity to the flesh." In other words, one must voluntarily assent and conform to the life of grace, for God transforms us only to the extent that we have a "willing will."

In order to actualize the grace of regeneration in baptism, great struggle is necessary to overcome the still imperfect and fallen will and desire. The Holy Fathers of the Church teach us that our first effort must be in the practice of keeping Christ's Commandments, for in this way we crucify the fleshly desires and receive God's grace. Because what we do either attracts or repels God's grace, it matters what we do in this life and to what extent we repent of those obstacles that obstruct our hearts from receiving His grace.

Salvation has a beginning. For some it is an obvious dramatic" road to Damascus" experience, but for others it is n almost imperceptible, slow-growing flame that has been burning with the help of the Church from infancy. It is not for us to say that we are "saved" in the sense that we have "already attained" salvation or are "already perfected" (Phil. 3:12). Even the great Apostle Paul did not presume that. It is for us to abide in the way of salvation and strive toward "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

Far from being "guaranteed," salvation can never be taken for granted, since the moment we do so, we become presumptuous and stop striving for it. In Orthodox Christianity there is no "minimum requirement" of holiness or faith for salvation. This is because the goal is love (agape) for God and neighbor. There are no minimums when it comes to love (agape). That would be the approach of a spiritual lawyer or accountant.

When a certain young man came to Jesus, he inquired about minimums: "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I so that I may have eternal life?" (Matthew 19:16). In response the Lord provided him with a maximal answer: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

This does not mean we are to be constantly insecure and anxious about whether we are on the path of salvation. It is not, as it is sometimes presented, as if we Orthodox Christians have no clue whether or not we are striving to repent of our sinful habits and seeking to "be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind" (literally, the nous, or inner man, Romans 12:2). Yet in humility we know we have much further to go along the path of salvation and, without God's grace, we are vulnerable to straying from the path.

This comes into sharper focus as we look to those who have gone before us, those who are instructed to "imitate" (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1; Hebrews 6:12) and "whose faith" we are to "follow, considering the outcome of their conduct" (Hebrews 13:7). They are our examples, "because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:14). It is not only he who begins on the way, "but he who endures in the end [who] will be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

In the end, salvation means real union with God. Cornelius would not have known of atonement theories that seek to package God's redemptive work into a juridical formula. Salvation for the early Church was about Christ's victory over the devil and death, the "last enemy" (1 Corinthians 15:26). It was about the renewal of human nature in the Incarnation, the victory over sin on the Cross, and the ultimate goal--the deification (theosis) of human nature in the Person of the Resurrected Christ. Salvation is the good news that what Jesus is by nature, we also can become by grace.

The very word Holy Scripture uses to describe our personal assimilation of God's redemptive work--salvation (Greek, soteria)--signifies health, wholeness, safety, preservation, and deliverance from enemies. Ultimately, salvation is the condition of spiritual health and wholeness that comes by an organic union with God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. (Source: Know the Faith. A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers by Rev. Michael Shanbour)

(To be continued)

________________________

"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

Know the Faith (Part I)

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.

+

KNOW THE FAITH
Salvation

"For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18)

By grace and through faith, Cornelius and his family have now embarked upon the path of salvation. The eyes of their souls have been enlightened, and they understand that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), the "Alpha and the Omega" (Revelation 18; 22:13). He is indeed the "savior of the world" (John 4:42), and "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (COL. 2:9).

Cornelius rejoices and ruminates on how this gift of God was imparted to him and his loved ones, even his children, "not by works" (Titus 3:5), but by grace through "water and the Spirit" (John 3:5). They have received forgiveness of their sins. They have "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27) and have been joined to His Body. Cornelius, whose heart is now aflame with God's unspeakable love, is overwhelmed with God's presence and full of thanksgiving. He remembers the words of the psalmist--"How marvelous are Thy works, O Lord, and there is no word which is sufficient to hymn Thy wonders!" (Psalm 92:5).

By being grafted into the glorified flesh of the Resurrected Christ, Who is both God and Man, Cornelius and his household have become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). "This is salvation!" he spontaneously declares aloud to himself, "This is the purpose for which the Messiah Jesus, God's own Son, came down from heaven and was born of the Virgin--to enable us to share in God's own life and in His Kingdom. For God has united 'all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth" (Ephesians 1:10).

The teaching of the holy Apostle Peter, who instructed and exhorted the newly baptized Gentile converts with many words after their baptism, still resounds in his ears: "And if you call on the Father, Who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things...but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:17-19).

Cornelius remembers the holy Apostle's admonition that the grace he and his family have received this day is a seed, not a full-grown tree. They have begun the life of faith, Peter told them, but "the end of your faith" is "the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:9). They should not consider their salvation as something past and accomplished but as their "living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

The new convert realizes he is not "already perfected" (Phil. 3:12); he has not yet "come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). Rather his call is to continue on the path of salvation: "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you as the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:13-16).

Be on guard, the holy Apostle told them, "because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). "Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10), he warned, for "God did not spare the angels who sinned" (2 Peter 2:4). When the Lord comes again they should "be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless" (2 Peter 3:14).

Cornelius understands from all of this that salvation is not confined to the moment he believed but is a way of life and grace to maintain, nurture, and grow. He has not only "been saved" (Ephesians 2:5) by God's mercy "through the washing of regeneration" (Titus 3:5); he is also "being saved" (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15) and must hold on to the "hope of salvation" (1 Thess. 5:8), lest he "neglected so great a salvation" (Hebrews 2:3) and "drift away" (Hebrews 2:1). He cannot only look backward but must "stand" in the present in the grace of salvation (Romans 5:2; 1 Peter 5:12), "work out [his] own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12), and "press toward the goal" to "lay hold" of this salvation (Phil. 3:14; 1 Tim. 6:12), now and always.

Before his departure from them, Saint Peter counseled them not to turn back from the way of salvation: "For," he said, "it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:20-21). Again, he exhorted them not to be "led away with the error of the wicked; but [to] grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:17-18).

The holy Apostle Peter then repeated the words he heard from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself: "if you love Me, keep My Commandments" (John 14:15). And so Cornelius encouraged his family to "commit their souls to him in doing good, as to a faithful creator" (1 Peter 4:19). And in imitation of Noah and his family at the time of the Great Flood (1 Peter 3:20), they encouraged one another to remain in God's grace in His Holy Church, the ark of salvation. (Know the Faith. A Handbook for Orthodox Christians 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

Divine Grace According to Orthodox Christianity (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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DIVINE GRACE ACCORDING TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY (Part III)

THE FRUIT AND STAGES OF GRACE

The fruit of the acquisition of divine grace is not only good works and virtue but an actual union with God. First, grace works to purify the heart from all sinful passions and inclinations. Those who reach this spiritual state are called dispassionate. This does not mean that one is uncaring or disconnected, but that the energies of the soul have been directed away from anything evil and redirected toward God. The dispassionate person is not compelled by any sinful impulse. Rather, he is free to love and to choose to love God and others without concern for self or for what other may think.

When the heart has been purified, grace then illuminates the heart, giving discernment and spiritual understanding or knowledge. One who is illuminated has spiritual vision and clarity and is able to recognize the true nature of created things and the presence of the Uncreated. Saint Paul refers generally to this spiritual condition when he writes of "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Ephesians 1:18).

Finally, grace works further upon the heart of the illuminated to complete the union with God, so that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). The Holy Church Fathers use the term theosis or deification to describe this exalted spiritual state of union with God by grace. As the human nature of Jesus Christ was fully infused and saturated by the divine energies flowing from His Divine Nature, so it is possible by grace for human beings to become vessels of divine grace.

The Saints use the analogy of iron and fire, with iron representing human nature and fire, Divine Nature. When iron is placed in fire for some time it becomes red hot, having acquired the properties of fire. However, the iron has not become fire by nature but through continuous contact with the fire.

Similarly, one who by God's grace has been fully united with Him is permeated with His Divine life in such a way that he exhibits spiritual gifts, and fruits akin to God Himself. As the iron placed in the fire retains the properties of fire when removed, so the humanity of the spiritually perfect is united and mingled with the fire of divine life. He has become united with God in a permanent and abiding way and experiences His Uncreated Light as a continuous (and sometimes visual) reality. However, as the iron does not become fire itself, but participates and shares in the properties of fire, so human nature participates in God by grace, not by nature. Only the humanity of Christ received deification (theosis) by nature as a result of its union with His Divine Nature.

These spiritual stages are not mutually exclusively or perfectly compartmentalized; there is progression (or digression) and overlap. The Hoy Church Fathers teach that God's grace is single; there are different kinds of grace. However, grace works in each person according to his current spiritual condition.

The vast majority of Christians are still struggling for purification of the heart and should never imagine or measure ourselves as having reached great spiritual heights. Those who have attained great sanctity are always characterized by extreme humility.

THE CHURCH HOLY FATHERS ON GRACE

Saint John Cassian (360-435 A.D.), commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:10.

"When he says "I labored," he shows the effort of his own will; when he says yet not I, but the grace of God, he points out the value of the Divine protection; when he says with me, he affirms that grace cooperates with him when he is not idle or careless, but working and making an effort."

In all these (scriptural quotations), there is declaration both of the grace of God and the freedom of our will, because even of his own activity a man can be led to the quest of virtue, but always stands in need of the help of the Lord.

For these two, that is, both grace and free will, seem indeed to be contrary to each other; but are in harmony. And we conclude that, because of piety, we should accept both, lest taking on of these away from man, we appear to violate the Church's rule of faith."

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Saint Maximus the Confessor (580-663 A.D.)

"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 the Logos/Word of God Who is in it; and he who receives the Logos/Word through the commandments also receives through Him the Father Who is by nature present in Him, and the Spirit Who likewise is by nature in Him. "I tell you truly, he that receives whomever I send receives Me; and he that receives Me receives Him that sent Me" (John 13:20). In this way, he who receives a commandment and carries it out receives mystically the Holy Trinity. (Second Century on Theology, 71).

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Saint Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833)

Prayer, fasting, vigil (Agrepnia) all other Christian activities, however, good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. But mark, my son, only the good deed done for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All that is done for Christ's sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this.

That's it, your Godliness. In acquiring this spirit of God consists the true aim of our Christian life, while prayer, vigil fasting, almsgiving and other good works done for Christ's sake are merely means for acquiring the spirit of God.

In the Parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones lacked oil, it was said: "Go and buy in the market." But when they had bought, the door of the bride-chamber was already shut and they could not get in...I think that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. These virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual ignorance they supposed that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good works. By doing a good deed they thought they were doing the work of God, but they little cared whether they acquired thereby the grace of God's Spirit.

Of course, every good deed done for Christ's sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit.

And if we were never to sin after our Baptism, we should remain forever saints of God, holy, blameless and free from all impurity of body and spirit. But the trouble is that we increase in stature, but do not increase in grace and in the knowledge of God as our Lord Jesus Christ increased; but on the contrary, we gradually become more and more depraved and lose the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and become sinful in various degrees...Then through the virtues practiced for Christ's sake he will acquire the Holy Spirit Who acts within us and establishes in us the Kingdom of God.

The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light which enlightens man. The whole of Sacred Scripture speaks about this...Thus the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in an ineffable light to all whom God reveals its action. (Conversation with Motovilov). (Source: Know The faith. A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers by Rev. Michael Shanbour)

(To be continued)

___________________________

"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

Divine Grace According to Orthodox Christianity (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.

+

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

October 3 - Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite

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 OCTOBER 3rd OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST DAY OF THE HOLY HIEROMARTYR DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite was born of noble parents who were pagans and was reared in the most glorious city of Athens, Greece. He began the study of Greek wisdom in his childhood, and such as his success therein, that by the age of twenty-five he had surpassed all his peers in his knowledge of philosophy. Nevertheless, he then departed to the city named Heliopolis, in the land of Egypt, where learned teachers had lived since antiquity, that he might perfect his knowledge. Together with his friend Apollophanus, he was instructed by the wise men of Heliopolis in the science of astronomy. On the day when Christ the Lord was crucified on the Cross for our salvation, when the sun was darkened at midday because it could not bear the sight of the Lord's Crucifixion, and the light was turned to darkness for three hours, Dionysius said in astonishment, "Either God, the Creator of the whole world is undergoing suffering, or this visible world is coming to an end." This he said concerning the Master's Passion through the Holy Spirit and not merely because he was learned in the wisdom of this age.

When Dionysius returned to Athens, he married; and inasmuch as he was the most eminent of the citizens because of his nobility, intelligence, and integrity, the government of the city was committed to him. When the holy Apostle Paul came to Athens, Greece and preached Christ, crucified and Resurrected, before the elders of the city, Dionysius hearkened attentively unto Paul's words, laying them up in his heart. The other elders told Paul that they would hear him speak of Christ again, at another time, but Dionysius, who was wiser than the rest, continued speaking with Saint Paul alone. Saint Paul asked him, "What god do you worship here?"

Dionysius pointed out to him in the city Cronus, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysius, Artemis, and many others. As Saint Paul went through the city with Dionysius and saw these gods, he came upon an idol with this inscription: "to the unknown god." He asked Dionysius, "Who is this unknown god?"

Dionysius replied, "He among the gods Who has not yet manifested Himself but Who shall come in his own time. He is the God Who shall reign over heaven and earth, whose kingdom has no end."

When the holy Apostle Paul heard this, he began with success to sow the seed of the word of God on the good earth of Dionysius' heart, proclaiming to him, on the foundation of Dionysius' own words, that God had already appeared and that He had been born of the Most Pure and Ever-Virgin Mary. He also explained how Christ-God had been nailed to the Cross and suffered for the sake of the salvation of man, and that, unable to bear the sight of His suffering, the sun was darkened and did not shed its light upon the world for three hours. Saint Paul told him that this same God arose from the dead and ascended into the heavens, and he ended his words thus: "Therefore, Dionysius, believe in Him, and in truth serve the True God, Jesus Christ."

Dionysius called to mind the darkness of which Saint Paul spoke, which had covered all the earth, and straightway he believed that God had truly suffered at that time in a human body. He opened his heart to the knowledge of the unknown God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and was illumined by the light of the grace of God. Moreover, he entreated the holy Apostle to pray for him to God, that He might show him mercy and number him among His servants.

As Saint Paul was departing from the city of Athens, a certain blind man (whom all knew had been blind from his birth) besought the Apostle to grant him sight. Saint Paul made the sign of the Cross upon his eyes and said, "May my Lord and Teacher Jesus Christ, Who anointed with clay the eyes of the man born blind an granted him sight, likewise enable you to see by His power."

Immediately the blind man saw; and Saint Paul commanded him to go to Dionysius and to say, "Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, has sent me to you, that you might go to him and be baptized, as you have promised, and receive the remission of sins."

The blind man went and did as he had been told, proclaiming to Dionysius the Divine benefaction bestowed upon him through Saint Paul. When Dionysius saw that the blind man, who was known to him, now saw, he marveled greatly. He did not delay but hastened to Saint Paul, together with his wife Damaris, their sons, and their entire household; and he was baptized by the holy Apostle. After this Dionysius left his house, his wife, and children and joined himself to Saint Paul. For three years he followed Saint Paul wherever he went, and what he learned from him is evident in his treatise On Mystical Theology. Later, Dionysius was made bishop by Saint Paul and was sent from Thessaloniki to Athens that he might serve for the salvation of men there. Dionysius had occasion to hear not only Saint Paul but the preaching of all holy Apostles. He was with them when they were all gathered together for the burial of our most Pure Lady, the Theotokos, and in his writings he states that he was in the city of Jerusalem at the Lord's Sepulchre, where he saw and heard James the holy Apostle, the brother of the Lord, and the eminent Saint Peter the Apostle, Saint John the holy Apostle, the Theologian, Saint Hierotheos, Timothy the holy Apostle, and many of the other brethren, who at that time taught there the mysteries of the faith, proclaiming the Divinity and Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as every True theologian teaches even now.

Dionysius remained in Athens for quite a long time, through his labors causing the Church founded by the holy Apostle Paul to grow. But like the holy Apostles, Saint Dionysius wished to preach the Gospel of Christ in other lands and to suffer and martyrdom for the name of Christ as did his teacher, the blessed Paul, whom he heard had suffered for Christ in Rome under the pagan emperor Nero. He appointed another bishop in his place in Athens and went to Rome, where Saint Clement, the bishop of Rome, received him joyfully. He lived with Saint Clement for a short time and then was sent by him to Gaul (France), together with the priest Rusticus and Eleftherius the deacon, to preach the word of God to the unbelievers there. Saint Dionysius arrived in France with these men and converted many people from idolatry to the Lord in the city of Paris, thus becoming the Apostle of that land. There, with the alms by the faithful, he built a church, in which he celebrated the bloodless sacrifice and prayed God to permit him to gather together a multitude of rational sheep.

As the word of God spread, the pagan Caesar Domitian raised up a persecution against the Christians, similar to the one brought about by Nero. He sent one Sisinius as Governor to Gaul (France), that he might persecute the Christians there. When Sisinius arrived in the city of Paris, he immediately ordered that Dionysius, renowned for his miracles and divine wisdom, be seized and tortured, together with Rusticus and Eleftherius. Saint Dionysius was by this time already aged and very worn by his labors in the preaching of the holy Gospel, He was bound firmly and led with the others before the Governor, who looked upon him and said angrily, "Are you Dionysius, the wicked old man who blasphemes our gods, disdains their worship, and opposes the imperial decree?"

Answered the Saint, "Although my body, as you see, is already aged, my faith blossoms with youth, and my confession ever gives birth in Christ to new children."

Saint Dionysius was asked by Sisinius what god he worshipped and he proclaimed unto the Governor the word of Truth, confessing the Great Name of the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Governor, like a deaf asp, did not wish to hear the word of salvation and asked all three prisoners, "Do you agree to submit to the emperor and to sacrifice unto the gods?"

As though out of a single mouth, the Saint answered, "We are Christians and worship but one God, who is in the heavens. We will not submit to the emperor's ordinance."

Then the Governor commanded that Dionysius be disrobed and lashed mercilessly. As the Saint endured this, he thanked Christ that He had permitted him to bear His wounds upon his body. They likewise tormented Rusticus and Eleftherius, who, strengthened by Dionysius and still more by God, glorified Christ as they suffered...The persecutor became enraged and again commanded that they be beaten without mercy after which he condemned them to be beheaded.

As the Saints were being led out of the city to the hill which is called the Hill of Ares, Dionysius prayed, saying, "O God, my God, Who did create me and instruct me in Thine eternal wisdom...I thank Thee for all things which Thou hast wrought for me unto the glory of Thy Most Holy Name, I likewise offer Thee, in mine infirmity and old age and dost summon me and my friends unto Thyself...Accept Thou our labors, for Thine is the power and the dominion, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages."

When he had said the Amen, Dionysius bent his sacred head, which was cut off with a dull axe for the Most Holy Name of Jesus Christ. In like manner Rusticus and Eleftherius were beheaded for Christ after him.

Saint Dionysius suffered when he was 90 years of age, 96 A.D., and at his grave many miracles were worked unto the glory of Christ our God. (Source: The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints)

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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