Descent of the Holy Spirit

Let us celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit,
The appointed day of promise, and the fulfillment of hope,
The mystery which is as great as it is precious.*

On Pentecost Orthodox-Catholic Christians especially pray for spiritual renewal as the Church liturgically commemorates the Descent of the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we are filled with God’s divine grace and are bonded in relationship with Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to do God’s will and to act with love towards others.

For Orthodox-Catholic Christians the physical place where the faithful gather is respected as sacred space where the Holy Spirit is very much present and where God’s grace actively works through the Holy Mysteries (sacraments). Partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ by reception of the Holy Eucharist (communion) especially gives one renewed spiritual strength.

Let’s remember to give thanks for all Christ does for us through the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to act within us and let us strive to purify our hearts so that we can become more and more like Christ.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov writes,

Acquiring the Spirit of God is the true aim of our Christian life, while prayer, fasting, almsgiving and other good works done for Christ’s sake are merely means for acquiring the Spirit of God.

*From the Orthodox All-Night Vigil of Pentecost

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Blessed Pentecost – Съ Праздникомъ Троицы

As commonly said in Russia: “Everything resolves on Pentecost!”

Как говорят в народе: “На Троицу всё устроится!”

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PENTECOST SATURDAY OF SOULS

“From the early times, our Church dedicated Saturday to the souls. It is primarily the day of those who have fallen asleep. And Christians always took care, with memorial services and charitable acts done especially on Saturdays, to stay close to their dead and ask God for their repose and salvation. Even today one will see more people in cemeteries on Saturdays than on any other day.

But why is Saturday the day of the souls? There are many explanations. The most likely explanation why Saturday was set apart for the departed appears to be that the word “Saturday” — coming from the Hebrew word Sabbath — means rest. And on this day we are praying for the repose of the souls.
Starting from this point of view, it is worth our expressing a few thoughts so that we of today may remember again great truths concerning the Saturday of the Souls. Properly speaking, there are only two Saturdays of Souls, the one on Saturday before Meat-fare Sunday and the other on Saturday before Pentecost.

Yet Saturday is generally as the day for those basic and saving truths:

1. That the world does not end in whatever we see and count, but also extends in the space of the spirit, which also exists, coexists together with us. In this place the souls of our departed beloved are encamped.
2. That the Church is a continuous intercommunion between those of its members that are still struggling on earth and those that have already reposed in the Lord.
3. That amidst the fever of action and the struggle of daily life we must remember that the natural terminus of every effort, which is rest in the Lord, since there is nothing more certain than death and nothing more uncertain than the hour of death.”

Excerpted from The Orthodox Messenger
(Jan/Feb 1992)

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Many Languages Proclaiming God’s Power

Religious holidays punctuate the secular year to remind us of God’s grace breaking into ordinary time. As a member of the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America (OCCA) (a diverse jurisdiction that embraces both the Western [Latin] and Eastern [Byzantine] manifestations of the Church), today’s liturgical commemorations serve as an extreme paradoxical irony.

According to the Gregorian Calendar, the Western (Latin) Church celebrates the Great Feast of Pentecost. On the first Pentecost as recorded in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, the gift of God’s Spirit gave the disciples a multitude of languages to proclaim God’s power. The feast celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit and the many languages in which God’s name is liturgically praised and in which God’s word is proclaimed. According to the Julian Calendar, the Eastern (Byzantine) Church commemorated the Feast of Saints Cyrill and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Teachers of the Slavs.

Saints Cyrill and Methodius were sent to Moravia to evangelize the Slavs in their own language. In preparation for the task, Saint Cyrill with the help of his brother Saint Methodius and the students Gorazd, Clement, Savva, Naum and Angelyar composed a Slavonic alphabet and translated into the Slavic tongue the liturgical books, without which it would have been impossible to celebrate the Divine Services in the vernacular of the Slavic people. After completing the translations, the holy brothers set off to Moravia, where Pope Adrian II and his clergy welcomed the holy brothers with great honor. The pope created the Archdiocese of Moravia and Pannonia, and in doing so, made it independent of the German Church. The liturgical services in the Archdiocese began to be conducted in the Slavonic rather than Latin. This aroused the malice of the German bishops, who insisted that liturgical services be conducted only in one of three languages: Hebrew, Greek or Latin. The German bishops asserted that it was by divine decree that only three languages were specially designated for liturgical purpose; the three languages in which the sign affixed to the redeeming Cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of Judeans” was written. Saint Cyrill retorted: “You recognize only three languages by which to give glory to God, but The Prophet David sang: ‘Come to the Lord, all nations, praise the Lord all peoples, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!'”

The German bishops were humiliated, but they became all the more bitter and complained to Rome. The holy brothers were summoned to Rome for a decision on this question. The pope installed Saint Methodius as Archbishop to the dismay of the existing Latin clergy and affirmed permission to conduct the Divine Services in the Slavonic language. The pope also decreed that the books translated by the holy brothers to be placed in Roman churches and to celebrate liturgy in the Slavonic language. This took place in the year of 870.

At the order of King Louis, the Holy Roman Emperor (the Germanic Emperor of the West), however, Saint Methodius was soon deposed and cast into prison where he was cruelly tormented for three years. Eventually, when word of his imprisonment reached Rome, Pope John VIII came to his defense. At the command of the Pope, Saint Methodius was liberated and reinstalled as Archbishop of Moravia; however, he was again summoned to Rome in 879. A German priest Wiching accused Methodius of heresy and objected to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in Church Slavonic. In Rome, the Pope paralleling his predecessor, sanctioned the usage of Church Slavonic in the Divine Services. While in Rome, Wiching was nominated as one of the suffragan bishops of Moravia and continued to resist the leadership of Saint Methodius as his Metropolitan. Wiching in his disdain of the Greek bishop forged papal letters to Archbishop Methodius in hopes to incite disputes. When the Pope learned of these fallacious letters he immediately denounced them and admonished Wiching. In 1054, Pope Gregory VI prohibited the use of Slavonic “under any circumstances”. Subsequently, in 1061, Pope Alexander II decreed in his full authority and “in perpetuity” that the Liturgy could never again be recited in Slavonic, but only in Latin or Greek.

Moving forward approximately 954 years, Pope Francis said that celebration of the Mass in the language of the local congregation rather than in Latin allowed the faithful to understand and be encouraged by the word of God. “You cannot turn back. We have to always go forward, always forward and who goes back is making a mistake,” he told parishioners after commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first time a pope celebrated Mass in the vernacular following the Second Vatican Council. “Let us give thanks to the Lord for what he has done in his church in these 50 years of liturgical reform. It was really a courageous move by the church to get closer to the people of God so that they could understand well what it does, and this is important for us: to follow Mass like this,” he said. Authentic worship and liturgical celebrations should lead people to feel… “not like foreigners but as brothers and sisters” who are united in their love for Christ.

So, as our community observes both traditions of the Church, we rejoice today in the many languages that proclaim God’s word. We pray that the Holy Spirit will move us beyond boundaries of language and nationality into God’s endless and extravagant love. We especially give thanks today for the courageous witness of the episcopacy and faithful of OCCA, who affirm the goodness of God’s creative diversity in humanity and offer hope and sanctuary to a world so in need of forgiveness, peace, and healing.

Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving*

O Spirit at work among us, we give thanks for the many ways to communicate our praise to you. We lift our voices to sing your praise and flex our hands to do your work. We proclaim your wonderful deeds through science, poetry, and everyday discussions. We witness through our faith and our finances. We use electronic technology and computers to share your word. These are just some of the “tongues” you give us to spread your good news to the world. Bless these gifts that we bring and multiply them in your purpose. Amen.

*United Church of Christ

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Saints Cyril and Methodius

Saints Cyril and Methodius (Greek: Κύριλλος καὶ Μεθόδιος, Old Church Slavonic: Кѷриллъ и Меѳодїи) were 9th-century Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessalonica, Macedonia, in the Byzantine Empire. They were the principal Christian missionaries among the Slavic peoples of the Great Moravia and Pannonia, introducing Orthodox Catholic Christianity and writing to the hitherto illiterate, pagan Slav migrants into parts of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Balkans.

Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title “Apostles to the Slavs”. They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic.

After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Orthodox Church as saints with the title of “equal-to-apostles”. The saints’ feast day is celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 11/24 May.*

*Excerpted from Wikipedia

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A Radical Household of Faith

Part of being a household of faith which self-describes itself as “radical” in the truest sense of the word means, it seems to me, that we have to look at issues which make even us, the radical ones, uncomfortable. Are we radical? We mean when we say that we are that we apply a radical interpretation of the gospels; and that we experience this in welcoming everyone at our mystical table. Our community is open to whomever comes our way by chance or choice. Our mystical table isn’t only the altar table–oh no–it is the table of our lives, and hopefully, not just our individual but our communal lives. We work in places where individuals are in danger because of something unjust or even inhuman is present. We live with the poor, the aged, the ill, the marginalized, the insecure, the afraid, the lonely, the searching, the young, the angry, the hungry, the homeless, the imprisoned, the learning, and the list goes on. Each of us have a comfort zone. That goes without saying. Some of us are at their best at walking the street serving the homeless, while others are superb administrators in organizations which serve. Some of us are chaplains and spirit companions, while others teach how one becomes such a companion. Some of us work secular jobs and become available to their co-workers as the need presents or have unpaid ministries after checking out of work. Many of us are retired, and do what older folk do so well, praying and listening and watching and responding. And all of us are challenged in ways particular to us. What is a fit for a companion in ministry in Yonkers NY won’t do for one of our own in Lexington KY; the passion of a companion in ministry in Australia won’t do for Mexico; the thrill of ministry found in the Virgin Islands would not fit a companion in Fort Wayne IN. Ones vocation is where our hunger to serve encounters one of the hungers of the world.

In this radical faith community a challenge for all of us is the death penalty in general, and particularly for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the “Boston bomber.” It isn’t an easy hunger of the world to address. It is filled with emotion. Massachusetts hasn’t executed anyone since 1047, and only a poll showed that just fifteen percent of Bostonians favored death in this case. But it was a federal, not state case, so the death penalty was always a possibility. And the entire jury voted for his execution.

I believe this is a mistake. I am convinced that our nation would send a far more powerful message by not taking the murderer’s life. I’m probably in the minority here, but I believe that this stance is what Jesus would have preferred; that doesn’t make me saintly, not at all. It makes me one willing to resist the urge to take a life in vengeance and to do so in a way that would cause pain to the murderer. But even as I admit that I feel that I must witness to life rather than death as a penalty for his horrible crime.

In our era, many countries have eliminated the death penalty. I know that many places still use it in what seems arbitrary ways and for inhuman reasons. That is a sadness for me, and a cross for us.

A hero of mine is Joseph Bernardin, the late Archbishop of Chicago. He wrote a pastoral and used the phrase “seamless garment” to describe life. Taking a life in vengeance unravels the fabric of life, and I prayerfully submit to your consideration that we members of a radical church are doing good when we oppose the death penalty.

Metropolitan Archbishop +Peter (Zahrt), Primate
Orthodox-Catholic Church of America (OCCA)

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The “Chosen” People of God: An Orthodox Christian Perspective

I was recently asked what is the Orthodox Christians perspective regarding the Jewish people as God’s “chosen people”?

The theological concept of the “people of God” in Orthodox Christian perspective is highly dependent on the biblical understanding of God’s covenant with the people of Israel and the Christian self-understanding as the new Israel.

In the Scriptures we read:

“And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” [1]

And in another place it is stated that:

“Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.” [2]

This is the basis of the scriptural understanding of God’s people where they are set apart to worship God, to obey God’s commandments, and to proclaim God’s truth to the whole world. The scriptures do not intend to promote a racist view of the people of God, but, rather, to draw attention to the universal mission of Israel as the people called by God to bring into the world the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. God chose Israel as God’s people not for special favor and glorification but to bring God’s light to the “nations,” to be the divine messenger and witness to all the peoples of the world. [3]  The Christians looked on the people of God as Jesus’ disciples, a universal community that was not distinguished according to race or nationality or class or sex, as explicitly stated in the letters of St. Paul:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” [4] The term “holy people of God” designates the Church, open to all and transcending all barriers between Jews and gentiles. [5]

The Church is the Israel of God, “not a new Israel, but the one and only people of God, Israel in a new face of history, namely, that of Jesus.” [6]  The Church is all encompassing and provides divine revelation and salvation to ALL people and races. One interpreter of St. Paul makes the point that; “In Jesus there is a new universalism, not a bare transposition from Israel to the Church.” [7]  Children of God are “all who received him [Christ], who believed in his name.” [8]  “It is faith, this total adherence to the person of Christ, as revealed and expressed through his name, that makes of us ‘children of God’.” [9]

The term “people of God” in the Orthodox Church is understood as the members of the body of Christ (the Church), the “Israel of God,” the “saints,” the “elect,” the “chosen race,” and the “royal priesthood. [10]  In the New Testament, as understood by Orthodox Catholics, the “people of God” is the Church as the body of Christ. In the First Epistle of Peter it is clearly stated that:  “At one time you were not God’s people, but now you are his people.” [11]  The Church is “God’s holy people,” the baptized participating in God’s realm, as manifested in the divine eucharistic liturgy. [12]

The Church Fathers generally accepted the Old Testament as a precursor to the coming of Christ. The Epistle of Barnabas refers to the circumcision not as a physical mark of the chosen people but as that of the “circumcision of the ears,” that is, to hear God’s word and to keep it. All these are a “type” of Jesus and the Church. The sacrifices of the Old Testament serve as a prefiguration of the good news and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The acts performed in the Old Testament all point to Christ. [13]

The covenant, the bond God made with Israel on Mount Sinai is fulfilled on Golgotha (Calvary), sealed with the blood of Christ as Savior of the world. This Orthodox view of the people of God is based on reiterations of scripture referring to these believers as “people of God,” “chosen race,” “a peculiar people” (Titus 2:14), and as “Christian people” (St. John Damascene). These terms refer to the mystical body that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and governed by the divine head, which is Christ. [14]

The following statement provides an understanding of the call and uniqueness of the people of God that, as an Orthodox Catholic Christian, one can assert:

‘In a broken world God calls the whole of humanity to become God’s people. For this purpose God chose Israel and then spoke in a unique and decisive way in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Jesus made his own the nature, condition and cause of the whole human race, giving himself as a sacrifice for all. Jesus’ life of service, his death and resurrection, are the foundation of a new community, which is built up continually by the good news of the Gospel and the gifts of the sacraments. The Holy Spirit unites in a single body those who follow Jesus Christ and sends them as witnesses into the world. Belonging to the Church means living in communion with God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. [15]

The Orthodox Church makes a clear claim that the baptized are the people of God. ALL baptized believers in Christ who receive the Holy Spirit are “sons and daughters of God” and “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Further, there are now no differences whatsoever within the ‘Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) in the covenant members’ relationship to the Lord, for in the “new creation” all believers are “one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). [16]

The contemporary theological interpretation of the Sinai Covenant is clearly stated as a fulfillment in Christ but not necessarily as a rejection of the Jewish people. However, in the present times, the relationship of God with God’s people is to be understood in terms of the Church. [17]  In the new Israel (the Church), all human beings are incorporated without regard to their race and gender – united into one Body of Christ, both Jews and gentiles, brought together in Christ. The formerly “separated” and “distanced” Jews and gentiles now exist in harmony in the Church as the Body of Christ. The salvific mission of Christ is universal. By creating the Church, Christ introduces a “new creation” and “a new human person.” The “new human person” (Ephesians 4:24) is the renewal of the “old human person” that now has a new existence in Christ. The “new creation” constitutes the people of God who exist in Christ and are manifested in His Body, the Church. All humanity is called to participate in this “renewed” existence as one body of God in the incarnate Logos. [18]

The question might again be raised: “Who are the chosen people of God? [19] The people of God are the baptized faithful!, the Church. This view of the people of God includes ALL people. The people of Israel in the desert were the Church of God. The entire history of humanity participates in the continuing call of God to be God’s. When the fulfillment of time came, the Son of God, the Divine Logos, became anthropos (human person) to call humanity to come close to God. Jesus’ entire life and mission were to call ALL human beings to enter the Reign of God. The eternal plan of God is fulfilled in Christ. ALL humanity, including Jews and gentiles, are united in Christ and His Church as the people of God. [20] The Church, made up of the “people of God” is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and His own special people (I Peter 2:9).

In summary, an Orthodox understanding of the people of God must be expressed as follows:

1. God’s creation of the human person as being in God’s image is the place to begin for one’s understanding of the idea of the term “people of God.”
2. The history of Israel is the history of the people of God, seen particularly in God’s promise to Abraham and the covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai.
3. The creation of the Church by the Incarnate Logos of God (Jesus) established a new relationship with God’s people that draw into the covenant all races and all human persons.
   _______________________________________

[1] Deuteronomy 26:18-19 (New International Version)

[2] Deuteronomy 10:15 (New International Version)

[3] John 1:12. See also Constantine Scouteris. The People of God – Its Unity and Its Glory: A Discussion of John 17:17-24 in the Light of Patristic Thought. The Greek Orthodox Theological Review. V. 30, No. 4 (Winter 1985) pp. 400-401.

[4] Galatians 3:28 (New International Version). See also Colossians 3:11.

[5] Romans 15:25-31; I Corinthians 16:1 (New International Version).

[6] Jarvel, “God’s Faithfulness to the Faithless People,” p. 31. See also Samuel W. Newell Jr., “Many Members: The Relation of the Individual to the People of God,” Interpretation, vol. 5 (1951), p. 422. He states: “Between the Old Testament ‘people of God’ and the New Testament Church there exists a relation of continuity.”

[7] Peter Richardson, “Paul’s Use of LAOS,” Israel in the Apostles’ Church , Cambridge University Press, (1969), p. 216.

[8] John 1:12. See also Constantine Scouteris. The People of God – Its Unity and Its Glory: A Discussion of John 17:17-24 in the Light of Patristic Thought. The Greek Orthodox Theological Review. V. 30, No. 4 (Winter 1985) pp. 400-401.

[9] Pancaro, “‘People of God’ in St. John’s Gospel,” p. 126. See also John 8:39.

[10] Vassiliades, “New Testament Ecclesiological Perspectives on Laity”, p.348. Acts 9:31,41; 26:19; Gal. 6:16; Rom. 1:7; 8:27, 33; 12:13; 15:25; Col. 3:12; 1 Peter 2:9.

[11] Vassiliades, p. 349. 1 Peter 2:10

[12] Vassiliades, p. 350. See also Godfrey Diekmann, “The Eucharist Makes the People of God,” Worship, vol. 39, (Oct.-Nov. 1965), pp. 458-469.

[13] Epistola Catholica- 8B; 9B-C, PG vol. 2, pp. 748, 749. See also Justin the Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho- 169A, PG vol. 6, p. 641. Clement of Alexandria, The Educator, bk. 1:39, PG, vol. 8, pp. 320-321. Origen. Contra Celsum bk. 5:583-584, PG Vol. 11, pp. 1192-1193. Eusebius, Dogmatica 23, PG, vol. 24, pp. 960-961.

[14] Evangelos D. Theodorou, “He Ekklesia Os Laos tou Theou,” Ekklesia, vol. 59 (October 1, 1982), p. 409.

[15] Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (BEM). Faith and Order Paper No. 111 Geneva: World Council of Churches, (1982), p. 20

[16] Thomas Hopko, “Galatians 3:28; An Orthodox Interpretation,” St. Vadimir’s Theological Quarterly, vol. 35, nos. 2 and 3 (1991), p. 176.

[17] Gerasimos Papadopoulos, Orthodoxy: Faith and Life (Christ in the Life of the Church), vol. 2 Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, (1981), pp. 94.

[18] Chrestos Sp. Voulgares, He Henotes tes Apostolikes EkklesiasAthens: Publication Organization of Teaching Handbooks, (1984), p. 105

[19] Sloyan, “Who Are the People of God?” pp. 103.

[20] Papadopoulos, Orthodoxy. Vol. 2, pp. 96-104. See also the excellent article that emphasizes the Patristic understanding of the people of God, Constantine Scouteris, “The People of God –Its unity and Its Glory: A Discussion of John 17:17-24 in the Light of the Patristic Thought.” The Greek Orthodox Theological Review. Vol. 30, No. 4 (1983) pp. 399 – 420.

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