Orthodoxy and the World - Part 3 - Unity

Unity is a bond that two people might share or a whole community. Unity is also a bonding factor within the community of the assembly. Every Sunday we partake of the Eucharist as a community of believers which unites us under the same belief. This is how we are united to Christ. By partaking of the Eucharist we become united to Him in one bread and one cup. Humanity was created for this purpose. How do we know? God says in Genesis 1.26-27 that He created us in his image and His likeness. If we then are created in his image and in his likeness then God abides in us. When we interact with other human beings we are interacting with Christ because we were created in his image and likeness. The factor that unites us together as the community of believers is the Eucharist of Christ.

Orthodoxy today is placed into one big bag and everyone who is not a Christian automatically assumes that we are Orthodox Jews or say "I have never heard of that type of Christianity". Living in the west naturally has diluted the concept of Orthodox Christianity to the secular world. Westernized Christianity is at the forefront of the Christian world today; something we Orthodox should not be apart of. Another misgiving of understanding Orthodoxy is that many place it as a denomination with Christianity. When we look at it as a denomination then it naturally gets spilt into terms like "Eastern Orthodox", "Oriental Orthodox" etc.; terms that I do not like to use or associate Orthodox Christians with because Orthodoxy is not a denomination but life. Living out your Orthodoxy within the community of the believers is how one ought to be Orthodox. Living through the unity of Christ expressing his ultimate form of love (Agape) is how an Orthodox Christian ought to live. By being one in Christ and dying to the world everyday for your beliefs is how we should conduct ourselves in the world. It's simple to walk around and say you are an Orthodox Christian but saying it is different than dying for it. When we are tested for our faith will truly know where we stand in our spiritual life as Orthodox Christians.

Sharing in the unity of the Eucharist should uplift us into experiencing Christ every day. Through constant prayers and reminder of the passion of the cross we truly can move closer to unity with Christ. Living out our theology through this unity is how an Orthodox Christian conducts himself to the rest of the world. Dying to the world in order to live like Christ is the constant theme of the New Testament. Our constant death to the world is not only shared with other humans but with the new Adam. Christ himself experienced death and our unity with Him is depended on our death as well. The covenant of the New Testament is based on this message and was preached by all the Apostles culminating in Paul's letter to the Galatians when he tells them "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no long I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I love by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal 2:20). The same way the apostles (Luke 24) recognized Jesus through the opening of scripture and breaking of bread we also come to know Christ through the same manner in the liturgical service by opening scripture and partaking of the divine Eucharist.
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The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity because we are united to one another by being united with Christ in one bread and cup. It was for such unity that man and woman were created, and this cannot be eradicated. "The devil could turn man, and in him, the world away from God, he could poison and enfeeble life through sin, permeate it with mortality and death. One thing he would not and cannot so: change the very essence of life as unity."

We are made for unity, but sin can turn the instinct to devilish purposes. The work of the devil is diabolical: literally, to "throw in two," from dia (two) and baleo (to throw). The unity of the Church in Christ, by redemptive contrast, is symbolical: Things separated are thrown together, Until that ascetical healing takes place, unity will often be an occasion for division. The world is divided up into "us and them," and love for ones own kind creates enmity toward the alien.

Unity is corrupted if the Church makes this kind of diving between itself and the world. This must not happen. Christians must not confuse salvation of the world with salvation from the world. The Church remains and sojourns on earth to beckon a world wracked with divisions and hostilities back to a love for which it was created, but has abandoned. The king of God is manifest when the Church assembles in a unity of love that only the Holy Spirit can inspire. This is the Church's leitorgia and the task of each baptised initiate therein. The community's ritual leitourgia and the individual's lived leitourgia are oriented toward enacting love.

Source: David W. Fagerberf, "Theologia Primse: What is Liturgical Theology?" 2nd Ed. (Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2004) 202-203.