| The Church of Christ is founded upon faith as upon a rock which does not shake beneath it. By faith the saints conquered kingdoms, performed righteous deeds, closed the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the sharp sword, were strengthened in infirmity (Heb. 11:33–38). Being inspired by faith, Christians went to torture and death with joy. Faith is a rock, but a rock that is impalpable, free of heaviness and weight, that draws one upward and not downward. “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture bath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,” said the Lord ( John 7:38 ); and the preaching of the Apostles, a preaching in the power of the word, in the power of the Spirit, in the power of signs and wonders, was a living testimony of the truth of the words of the Lord. Such is the mystery of living Christian faith. The source of faith. “If ye have faith, and doubt not... if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea – it shall be done” (Matt. 21:21). The history of the Church of Christ is filled with the miracles of the saints of all ages. However, miracles are not performed by faith in general, but by Christian faith. Faith is a reality not by the power of imagination and not by self-hypnosis, but by the fact that it binds one with the source of all life and power – with God. In the expression of the Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, faith is a vessel by which water is scooped up; but one must be next to this water and must put the vessel into it: this water is the grace of God. “Faith is the key to the treasure-house of God,” writes St. John of Kronstadt (My Life in Christ, Vol. I, p. 242 in the Russian edition). Faith is strengthened and its truth is confirmed by the benefits of its spiritual fruits which are known by experience. Therefore the Apostle instructs us, saying, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” ( 2Cor. 13:5 ).Yet, it is difficult to give a definition of what faith is. When the Apostle says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1), without touching here on the nature of faith, he indicates only what its gaze is directed towards: towards that which is awaited, towards the invisible; and thus he indicates precisely that faith is the penetration of the soul into the future (“the substance of things hoped for”) or into the invisible (“the evidence of things not seen”). This testifies to the mystical character of Christian faith. The nature of our knowledge of God |
| But just as there are words in the Bible that everyone wants to apply to himself, there are words that Christians remember very reluctantly and not often think that they concern their own communities. Those are bitter words of the Saviour about the pharisees. Maximus the Confessor wrote: «“Precisely these words that the Lord was speaking to reprove the Pharisees I feel He is speaking to us, the hypocrites of today […]. Do not we also require others to carry crushing weights while we do not touch them even with a finger (Luke 11:46)? Is it not possibly true that we too look for the best seats at banquets, the front places in meetings and life to be called experts? And do we not have a mortal hatred for anyone who does not offer us these honors? Have not we too, perhaps, thrown away the key of true knowledge and shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in the face of other people, so that we neither enter ourselves nor allow others to enter?Do not we cross land and sea to recruit a single follower, and when we do, do not we make that person twice as fit for hell as we are? (Matt. 23:15) Are not we the blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel? (Matt. 23:24) Do not we clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but on the inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence? (Matt. 23:25)[… ] Do not we build tombs for martyrs but behave like those who killed them?” Sometimes the Bible tells things that seem to contradict each other. Which one of them should we choose? Apostle James writes: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” (James 2:21) But apostle Paul seems to state the opposite: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaak” (Heb. 11:17). James says: “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers”(James 2:25), but Paul continues: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31). This is a classical argument between Catholic and Lutheran theologians and each side has their own stock of quotes. This difference in biblical texts led Luther to the idea of using scissors to reconcile his catechism with the Bible – he wanted to remove James”s epistle from it by stating it was a fake. Clearly, such interpretations go beyond philological aspect and start influencing practice of spiritual life. |
| Hence, to be a “true philosopher” or “theologian” (which, to some degree, is possible for all Christians, to anyone united to the incarnate Wisdom through Baptism), requires “purification” (κθαρσις) from the passions. Without mortification of our fallen human nature, all knowledge is uncertain, inadequate and even harmful. Without regeneration in Christ, man and his knowledge remain in an unnatural condition. His mind is always susceptible to “delusion,” πλνη. He cannot penetrate the spiritual realm and without grace; indeed, he cannot become rational according to nature, that is, as he was in the beginning,” declares St Gregory Sinaitica, “not unless he has first been purified and become dispassionate” (De Quiet., 10 PG 150959A–960A). Apatheia, dispassion, is the state of the “new creature,” the creature whose end is the “knowledge” of truth and, what is the same thing, “participation in the divine Nature.” But the “fallen man,” the man subject to the devil, death and the passions cannot “theorize” or “philosophize” about God nor enter into His Presence. There is no Mediator between God and Man, save “the Wisdom of God” and “Light of the world.” 43 He is a “philosopher” that loves that Wisdom Who “in these last days” became incarnate to release the human race held captive by the devil. 4. The Wisdom of God and the Wisdom of the Age When St Paul wrote in his first Corinthians 1:21 that “by wisdom the world knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe,” he was not condemning all “wisdom.” The revelation of the mysterion is a revelation of wisdom, sophia. Thus, the “foolishness” he preached was “the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Jesus Christ in Whom are hidden all the treasures of σοα and γνσις” ( Col. 2:3 ). The “folly” was that these treasures should be revealed in the Crucified God and store in His Kingdom which has no end. The Kingdom, which is to come, is already present in the Church, the beginning of a “new order” which, although in the world, belongs to the future age (St John Chrysostom, In lllud. vid. Dom., IV, 2 PG 52 121). The Church is now “the City of God,” the Kingdom, albeit imperfectly. She is the icon and entelechy of “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22), “the Jerusalem which is above, free and the mother of us all” ( Gal. 4:26 ); indeed, “a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:10). The Scriptures of the New Testament contrast her to the world, itself a “city,” “Babylon, the mother of harlots,” the regnum diaboli, whose master is the devil, “the god of this age.” |
| Pan-Orthodox Council: The Sacrament of Marriage and Its Impediments Source: DECR Communication Service January 28, 2016 The document is approved by the Synaxis of the Primates of Local Orthodox Churches on January 21 – 28, 2016, in Chambesy, with the exception of representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Antioch and Georgia. It is published by the decision of the Synaxis of the Primates. 1. Orthodox marriage 1) The institution of the family is threatened today by such phenomena as secularization and moral relativism. The Orthodox Church asserts the sacral nature of marriage as her fundamental and indisputable doctrine. The free union of man and woman is an indispensable condition for marriage. 2) In the Orthodox Church, marriage is considered to be the oldest institution of divine law since it was instituted at the same time as the first human beings, Adam and Eve, were created (Gen. 2:23). Since its origin this union was not only the spiritual communion of the married couple – man and woman, but also assured the continuation of the human race. Blessed in Paradise, the marriage of man and woman became a holy mystery, which is mentioned in the New Testament in the story about Cana of Galilee, where Christ gave His first sign by turning water into wine thus revealing His glory (Jn. 2:11). The mystery of the indissoluble union of man and woman is the image of the unity of Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32). 3) The Christ-centered nature of marriage explains why a bishop or a presbyter blesses this sacred union with a special prayer. In his letter to Polycarp of Smyrna, St. Ignatius the God-Bearer stressed that those who enter into the communion of marriage “must also have the bishop’s approval, so that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust. Let everything be to the glory of God” (Poly. 5).The sacred nature of the God-established union and its lofty spiritual content explain the Apostle’s affirmation: Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure (Heb. 13:4). That is why the Orthodox Church condemned any defilement of its purity (Eph. 5:2-5, 1 Thes. 4:4, Heb. 13:4ff). |
| Thus without any death their natural bodies would receive a new quality since they obeyed every command of the spirit that ruled them. With the spirit alone vivifying them, without any help from corporeal nourishment, they would be called spiritual bodies. This could have been if the transgression of God’s command had not merited the punishment of death. On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis 9.3.5–6. 198 The Nuptial Blessing Remained After Sin Appeared. Augustine: Far be it then from us to believe that the couple that were placed in paradise would have fulfilled through this lust, which shamed them into covering those organs, the words pronounced by God in his blessing: “Increase and multiply and fill the earth.” For it was only after man sinned that his lust arose; it was after man sinned that his natural being, retaining the sense of shame but losing that dominance to which the body was subject in every part, felt and noticed, then blushed at and concealed that lust. The nuptial blessing, however, whereby the pair, joined in marriage, were to increase and multiply and fill the earth, remained in force even when they sinned. Yet it was given before they sinned, for its purpose was to make it clear that the procreation of children is a part of the glory of marriage and not of the punishment of sin. City of God 14.21. 199 Gaining Dominion oven the Beasts Within. Gregory op Nyssa: ”You will rule over savage beasts.” How though, you may sale, since I have a beast within. Actually, there are a myriad, a countless number of beasts within you. You should not take offense in these words. Rage is a small beast, yet when it growls in the heart is any 194 FC 84:77–78. 195 Heb 4:15. 196 PG 91:1307–10. 197 Heb 13:4. 198 ACW 42:73–74. 199 LCL 371–73. dog more savage? Is not the treacherous soul like fresh bait staked in front of a bear’s den? Is not the hypocrite a beast?... [Rule] then over the beasts inside you. Rule your thoughts so that you will became a ruler over all things. So the same one who provides the power to rule over all living things provides power for us to rule over ourselves. On the Origin of Man. 200 |
| By cancelling the Wednesday and Friday fast during the week of the Publican and the Pharisee, the holy Church desires to keep us from pharisaical self-complacency, when the formal observation of Church rules (fasting, prayer rule, and church attendance) becomes the goal of spiritual life. The holy fathers teach that all this must be fulfilled, but it must be seen as a means for acquiring spiritual fruits. The Pharisees considered themselves to be wise and knowing. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (Js. 3:17-18) Question: Hello! Christ tells the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple. The Pharisee says that he does this and that, including that he fasts two days out of the week. Tell me, please, what days of the week were these, and why were they fast days? Thank you! Evgeny. Answer by Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) According to the law of Moses there was only one day established as a day of fasting (Heb. tsum —to draw out) during the year—on the day of Purificaton (Yom Kippur): Lev. 16:29; Num. 29:7. Nevertheless, any of the sons of Israel could voluntarily take on a fast. Such fasts are often written about in the Old Testament. A fast could be for one day, or it could go on for many days: the prophet Moses on the mountain in the presence of God spent forty days without food and water (Ex. 34:28), and the prophet Elias fasted for just as long (3 Kings 19:7-8). Fasting for the Jews presupposed total abstinence from food. David ate nothing for seven days (2 Kings 12:16-21). The faster usually put on sackcloth, refrained from daily washing, sprinkled his head with ashes (3 Kings 21:27; Nem. 9:1). The Jews had voluntary recourse to fasting: 1) Before decisive events, the outcome of which depended upon God’s mercy; (2 Kings 12:16, 21-23; Eph. 4:3-16, and others); 2) During sincere repentance and humility before God (1 Kings 7:6; 3 Kings 21:27); Ezd. 10:6; Nem. 9:1); and 3) To attain full communion with God (Ex. 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 18). |
| 550 I Pet. 5: 5; Prov. 3: 34. 551 Cf.: Mt. 19: 6; 24: 37—39; Lk. 17: 26—30; 18: 8; 21: 23. 552 Lk. 21: 23; Mt. 24: 19. 553 Plato, Leges, VIII 840 a; Aelianus, De natura animalium VI 1; Varia historia III 30. 554 Diog. Laert. V 35. 555 Истр Киренский был учеником Каллимаха и писателем второй половины третьего века до н. э. Фрагменты см.: FGrH 3 B 334. 556 I Tim. 4: 1—3. 557 Col. 2: 18.23; I Cor. 7: 27. 2—3. 558 I Reg. 17: 6; I Sam. 9: 24. 559 Mt. 11: 18—19. Петр действительно был женат (Mk 1: 30; I Cor. 9: 5), однако в Новом завете ничего не говорится о детях и семейном положении Филиппа. 560 Phil. 4: 3. Место неоднозначное и толкование Климента спорно. Здесь действительно упоминается некая сотрудница (или сотрудник по имени Сизигос). 561 В действительности, имеется в виду первое послание (I Tim. 5: 9—15). 562 Mt. 25: 35.40; Prov. 19: 17; 3: 27. 563 Prov. 3: 3; 10: 4; Ps. 14: 5; Prov. 13: 8. 564 Mt. 19: 19—21; Lev. 19: 18 et. al. 565 Prov. 13: 11; 11: 24; Ps. 111: 9. 566 Mt. 6: 19; Hag. 1: 6. 567 Cf. Mt. 11:19. Заметим, что из фрагмента непосредственно не следует, что Иисус имел тело психической или духовной природы. Все сказанное вполне укладывается в схему, предложенную в Евангелии от Матфея. Контекст высказывания показывает, что Климент цитирует здесь Валентина скорее в подтверждение своих мыслей, нежели в целях полемики. 568 Mt. 19: 12; Heb. 9: 14. 569 FGrH 3 A 99, fr. 18. 570 Возможно, лакуна в тексте. 571 Вероятно имеются в виду буддийские «ступы» — священные сооружения где обычно замуровываются различные священные предметы, от текстов мантр до останков святых. Однако обнаженными буддисты обычно не ходили. Источником Климента здесь скорее всего также является Александр Полигистор. Упоминание о Будде см. в первой книге Стромат (Strom. I 21). 572 II Cor. 5: 10.17; 6: 14—16; 7: 1. 573 Ср. трехчастное деление души у Платона (Rep. IV 435 b — 441 c). 574 II Cor. 6: 16. 575 Cf. Mt. 5: 27—28. 576 II Cor. 6: 16—18. 577 II Cor. 7: 1; 11: 2. 578 II Cor. 11: 3. 579 I Pet. 2: 11—12; 15—16. |
| 2 . Our spiritual pastors and teachers; for they by their doctrine and by the Sacraments beget us to spiritual life, and nurture us up in it. 3 . Our elders in age. 4 . Our benefactors. 5 . Our governors, or superiors, in different relations. 561. How does holy Scripture speak of the honor due to the sovereign? Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. Rom. xiii. 1, 2. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience " sake. Rom. xiii. 5. My son, fear God and the king, and oppose neither of them. Prov xxiv. 21. Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar " s; and unto God the things that are God " s. Matt. xxii. 21. Fear God; honor the king. 1Pet. ii. 17. 562. How far should love to our sovereign and country go? So far as to make us ready to lay down our life for them. John xv. 13. 563. How does holy Scripture speak of the duty of honoring spiritual pastors and teachers? Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Heb. xiii. 17. 564. Is there in holy Scripture any particular injunction to honor elders in age as parents? The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy thus: Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; younger men as brethren; elder women as mothers. 1Tim. v. 1,2. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear the Lord thy God. Lev. xix. 32. 565. How may we be assured that we ought to honor benefactors as parents? By the example of Jesus Christ himself, who was subject to Joseph; although Joseph was not his father, but only his guardian. Luke ii. 51. 566. Besides these, who are our superiors, whom we must honor after parents, and like them? They who in place of parents take care of our education, as governors in schools, and masters; they who preserve us from irregularities and disorders in society, as civil magistrates; they who protect us from wrong by the power of the law, as judges; they to whom the sovereign intrusts the guardianship and defense of the public safety against enemies, as military commanders; and, lastly, masters, so far as relates to those who serve them, or belong to them. |
| 353]. Λτρωσις in Luke 1:68 is no more than simply «salvation» (cf. 5:69, 71, 77). Hebr. 9:12 : αωναν λτρωσιν does not imply any ransom either. «An ein Lösegeld ist wohl hier kaum gedacht, wenn auch vom Blute Jesu die Rede ist. Die Vorstellung in Hebr. ist mehr kultisch als rechtlich» (Büchsel, s. 354). πολτρωσις in Luke 21:28 is the same as λτρωσις in 1:68 or 2:38, a redeeming Messianic consummation. This word is used by St. Paul with the same general meaning. See Büchsel, s. 357f. «Endlich muss gefragt werden: wie weit ist in πολτρωσις die Vorstellung von einem λτροv, einem Lösegeld oder dergleichen noch lebendig? Soll man voraussetzen, dass ueberall, wo von πολτρωσις die Rede ist, auch an ein λτρον gedacht ist? Ausdrücklich Bezug genommen wird auf ein Lösegeld an keiner der πολτρωσις – Stellen… Wie die Erlösung zustande kommt, sagt Paulus mit der λαστριον – Vorstellung, was überflüssig wäre, wenn in πολτρωσις die Lösegeldvorstellung lebendig wäre. …Die richtige deutsche Übersetzung von πολτρωσις ist deshalb nur Erlösung oder Befreiung, nicht Loskauf, ausnahmweise auch Freilassung Heb. 11:35 und Erledigung Hebr. 9:15 . " St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. cat., cap. 8, «the potentiality of death which was the distinctive mark of the dumb creatures,» τν πρς τ νεκρουσθαι δναμιν της λγου σεως ξαρετος ν, ρ. 43–44 Srawley; cf. De anima et resurr., M.G. XLVI, c. 148: «that which passed to human nature from dumb life,» σχημα της λγου σεως. De opif. hominis, 11, M.G. XLIV, c. 193: «what was bestowed upon dumb life for self-preservation, that, being transferred to human life, became passions.» The interpretation of the «coats of skins» in the Biblical narrative as of the mortality of the body is connected with that; cf. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Ortio 38, n. 12, M.G. XXXVI, c. 324. The Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been the first to suggest that the «coats of skins» in Genesis 3:21 meant the fleshly body; see St. Irenaeus, Adv. haereses, I.5.5, M.G. |
| Courage, according to Saint Gregory of Sinai, is the first of the “four original virtues,” one of the four parent virtues which contain and constitute all others (Saint Gregory of Sinai, 14th c., Instructions to Hesychasts). If you wish to make a right beginning in your spiritual activity, first prepare yourself for the temptations that will befall you. For the devil has the habit of visiting with terrible temptations those whom he sees starting a righteous life with ardent faith.?.?.?. Therefore prepare yourself to meet courageously the temptations which will surely assail you, and only then begin to practice them (Saint Isaac of Syria, 6th c., Directions on Spiritual Training). If you pursue virtue .?.?. you are most likely to be attacked much by fear .?.?. such a person should make every effort to overcome cowardice, that daughter of unbelief and that offspring of vain-glory. Cowardice is a childish disposition in a .?.?. vain-glorious soul?.?.?. a failing away from faith that comes through expecting the unexpected .?.?. a rehearsing of danger beforehand in fear, a loss of conviction. A proud soul is a slave of cowardice; it vainly trusts in itself and fears any shadow and sound of creatures. .?.?. all cowardly people are vainglorious .?.?. and often have mental breakdowns .?.?. He who has become the Lord’s servant fears the Master alone, but he who does not yet fear Him is often afraid of his own shadow. He who has conquered cowardice has clearly dedicated his life and soul to God (Saint John Climacus, 7th c., The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 21). Faithfulness According to the scriptures, one of the main characteristics of God is His absolute faithfulness. This virtue in man is also considered to be one of the “fruits of the Holy Spirit” ( Gal 5.22 ). To be faithful means to be absolutely true to one’s word, to be totally loyal in one’s devotion, to be completely steadfast and unswerving in one’s own calling and vocation. It also means to remain in humble service, in truth and in love, no matter what the conditions or consequences. To be faithful means to be courageous and to be and to do that which one must be and do by God’s will, regardless of any rejection by others and in spite of any lack of recognition or appreciation. God Himself is perfectly faithful. He has made promises and declared covenants, keeping His word no matter what man does. When men are adulterous and faithless, God remains faithful (cf. Jer 3 , Ezek 16 ); for “the Lord has sworn and will not change His mind” ( Ps 110.4 , Heb 7.21). |
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