"Sunday of Orthodoxy":
A day full of joy and delight
By His Grace Bishop Joseph of Arianzos
The first Sunday of the Holy and Great Lent is
dedicated to our Holy Orthodoxy. After six days of strict
fasting of the First Week of Lent of intensive and warm
prayer, of cleansing of soul and body, the faithful are in a
joyful and celebrating atmosphere.
"A day full of joy and delight has appeared today" chants
the sacred muse of hymnography, "for the brightness of the
very true dogmas shine, and the Church of Christ lightens in
splendour now, decorated with the restoration of the holy
Icons and engravings, and a God-awarded harmony of the
faithful is brought about".
A joyful day. Full of delight. A day on which the Church
of Christ sparkles and shines decorated with the holy icons,
enriched with the sacred Relics of Saints, honoured and
glorified with the precious blood of the Martyrs. A day on
which, in a solemn and festive way She declares that we are
Her genuine children, that we hold intact the treasure of
faith unadulterated from errors and heresies. That we
continue the tradition of piety and the life in God. As the
prophets saw. As the Apostles taught. As the Church
received. As the Teachers dogmatised. As the world agreeably
accepted. As the Grace shone. As the Truth was proven. As
the lie has disappeared. As the Wisdom boldly appeared. As
Christ rewarded.
Sunday of Orthodoxy! A day dedicated to the all-pure and
all-holy Bride of Christ. Our Orthodox Church always was and
is conscious of Her qualities as the Bride of the Bridegroom
Christ. So She never flirted with falsehood. She never
embraced error and heresy. She denied the fascinations of
the ruler of this world, the prince of darkness of this age,
the deceiver. She has always been "in body and soul and
mind" absolutely faithful and devoted to Her Heavenly
Bridegroom "the most beautiful in form of all men". She held
and always holds the reproach of Christ and carries it
around the world. To the world She is always poor; and weak,
humble and despised by the arrogant minds and the conceited
rationalists; persecuted and overrun by the powerful of the
earth for twenty centuries now. Her robe is very deep red
with the blood of Her children. Her feet are badly wounded
all over and suffering from the continuous and incessant
ascending of the narrow and sorrowful road. She does not
hold in Her hands a sceptre of worldly authority; She had
left it to those who loved the present age. Her flesh is dry
from Her ascesis. Her face betrays that She endures with
dignity the heatwave of the day. In Her eyes is reflected
Her cleanliness, Her purity, Her worship for the One, Her
unique love; Him, Whom, the Holy Martyr Ignatius the
Theoforos named so by saying "my Love is crucified!".
The blessed Photios Kontoglou was talking and writing
about "The Pained Romiossyni". On the, pretext from this,
Bishop Kallistos of Dioklia once spoke about "The Pained
Orthodoxy". I think this is a very suitable term and perhaps
under these attributes we ourselves must face Orthodoxy and
must present Her to those outside Her. Pained or Suffering
Orthodoxy. The humble Orthodoxy. The modest Orthodoxy. The
Orthodoxy for which "the world was not worthy". The
Orthodoxythat does not have to show "ecclesiastical" States
and papal despotism and swords and wars supposedly in the
name of Christ. The Orthodoxy that does not have to show
worldly power and glory, not monetary riches, nor bank's
(sometimes blasphemously named in the name of the Holy
Spirit!). The Orthodoxy which considers as Her glory the
lack of glory from men; for Her riches the poverty in
material and earthly things; for Her honour the humiliation
from the world which lacks the Spirit; for Her wisdom the
foolishness of preaching the word of the Cross. Suffering
Orthodoxy of the persecutions and the martyrdom! Suffering
Orthodoxy of the hesychastic Monasticism and ascesis.
Suffering Orthodoxy which hides in the mountains and caves
and in the holes of the earth; in the catacombs, ancient and
recent; in the deserts of the earth and the wilderness of
the cities. Suffering Orthodoxy of the still yesterday
operating Soviet concentration prisons and "mental
hospitals". Suffering Orthodoxy of blood and tears.
Orthodoxy which is not a club of sinless people, but the
last hope and refuge of the sinful; A place and way of
repentance and of possibility of return to the primal beauty
and ancient splendour of the image of God. Orthodoxy where
the prostitutes and the publicans and the sinful go ahead of
many "pious" in the Kingdom, changing by sincere repentance
to faithful and genuine friends of Christ. Suffering
Orthodox of spiritual vigilance (nepsis) and speechless
sighs of the heart. Suffering Orthodoxy which lives the
agony or the Garden of Gethsemane and the furnace of the
Cross. It is characteristic that at Her Centre, our most
venerable Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, on Good
Friday the Apokathelosis (taking down from the Cross) of the
Crucified is not performed. Suffering Orthodoxy which, while
being on Her cross, teaches Her children to climb up,
together, with the Lord, to their Golgotha to crucify their
passions and the old man who is still remaining in
themselves, expecting the redemption of the Resurrection in
the Kingdom
"...come, therefore, and let us accompany Him,
with minds purified from the pleasures of this life, and
let us be crucified and die with Him that we may live
with Him" (Idiomelon of the Praises, Good Monday).
Suffering Orthodoxy which carries apostolically the marks
of the Lord Jesus and descends daily to the chambers of
hades and She is like Him "dead full of life".
But exactly all of these create for Her the
presuppositions to participate both to the Light and the joy
of the Resurrection chanting:
"yesterday I was buried with You, O Christ;
today on Your Resurrection I am rising with You: I was
crucified with You yesterday. You glorify me with You, O
Saviour, in Your Kingdom" (Troparion 3rd Ode Easter
Canon).
This is Orthodoxy, the Suffering, but whose "hope and
immortality is complete" in Christ, this our Orthodoxy which
is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ we
commemorate and celebrate on the first Sunday of Lent,
commemorating and celebrating the restoration of the holy
icons and the justification of rendering, honour, respect
and reverence to the sacred relics of the Saints, according
to the irrevocable and God inspired teaching of the Holy
Seventh Ecumenical Synod and the teaching of all the Spirit
bearing and deified Holy Fathers.
The Orthodox icon is the expression, in the form of
paintings, of the Orthodox Faith and Life. It is the divine
script in the form of figures and colours. It is a loud
proclamation of the inspiration and energies of the All Holy
Spirit in the life of the Church. It is the initiator, to
all those who see it and venerate it with faith and
devotion, into the mystery of piety. It is the bearer of the
Divine Grace as so many miracle working and perfumed exuding
icons confirm.
On the other hand, the sacred relics of Saints, whether
they are preserved as whole bodies or as parts of the body
or even as fragments of the bones, by their incorruption
they provide the most powerful proof of the fact that God is
participable, through His Uncreated Energies. And man, by
living in faith the great mystery of piety, by struggling
according to the model of Jesus Christ, by cultivating the
gospel's virtues, by being nourished by the Sacraments and
sanctified by his participation in the whole life of the
Body of the Church "together with all the Saints", has
communion with God not only spiritually, but also bodily.
The whole man, body and soul, becomes participant of divine
nature.
So the venerable icons and the sacred relics of the
Saints together with the "sign" of the Son of God, the
Precious and Life giving Cross, being at the foremost on
Sunday of Orthodoxy consist a loud invitation for every
faithful to live, "following the Holy Fathers", the holy
life of the Gospel and to conduct his/her life according to
God, combining the correctness of the dogma (Orthodoxy) with
correctness of life (Orthopraxy) so that he/she would be
enabled to ascend to the likeness of God , as far as
possible, like Theotokos and all the Saints, and to find
himself/herself in the joy of the divine Bridal chamber
"where there is the clear sound of those who feast and
unceasingly cry, O, Lord glory to You" (Idiomela Praises
Good Tuesday).
from The Orthodox Messenger,
March/April 1999
official publication of Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia
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