Healing the Wounds of Chalcedon

I collaborated with the main editor of Theologues regarding the council of Chalcedon. He allowed me to write a small entry on the history of the council and the implications for all Christians today. The following is the link to the original post (click here). I would like to thank Zach very much for giving me the opportunity to write on a delicate topic that needs to be treat with care and love. My philosophy is based on love; a love that unites in the body of Christ. Chalcedon was an event that for many, and I mean many, reasons divided the body of Christ. However, with time, wounds have begun to heal and I believe we are in a position today to finally let out a deep breathe, and with with confidence say, we can start moving forward and living out that unity once again! Leave your comments and questions and I hope this small piece will deepen your search for the truth! 

Healing the Wounds of Chalcedon

Top: Patriarch Ephrem II of Antioch and Patriarch John X of Antioch 

Bottom: Patriarch Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria

Pope Francis and Patriarch Tawadros II 

Memory Eternal Fr. Matta El-Meskeen (Matthew the Poor)

Father Matthew was not only a monk but a man who allowed Christ to penetrate his heart in order to learn the true love of Christ. His words were simple but powerful, he was gentle but effective, always treated others like Christ did but never asked for anything in return. Father Matthew was a key figure in the revival of the modern Monastic movement which began within the Coptic Church in the 1950s. He was appointed abbot of the monastery of St. Macarius in 1969 and was given the task by his Holiness Pope Kirolos the 6th to revive and restore the monastery. By the time of his death the community had grown from 6 aged monks, two of whom were blind, to a 130 monks by the time of his departure (June 8th 2006). During his time many monasteries had been revived and new one's were build. He was not only a monastic but was also a prolific writer. Retreating to his cave in the desert he composed over 170 books and over 300 journal articles on Biblical exegesis, ecclesiastical rites, pastoral and theological matters, and much more. 

The following are words spoken out of Fr. Matta's wisdom:

Whenever physical hunger turned cruel against me, I found my gratification in prayer. Whenever the biting cold of winter was unkind to me, I found my warmth in prayer. Whenever people were harsh to me (and their harshness was severe indeed) I found my comfort in prayer. In short, prayer became my food and my drink, my outfit and my armor, whether by night or by day.

It is no joy for the church to many active members of varied services who lack the spiritual proficiency for renewing souls and regenerating them in a genuine spiritual rebirth to win them for the Kingdom of Heaven. The true joy of the church lies in leaders who possess spiritual insight, who walk ahead of their flocks so that the flocks can follow a sure path. It is not possible to obtain spiritual insight by action or study, spiritual insight is attained by silence, retreat and long prayers in their various stages.

The following is a documentary about the Monastery which was filmed shortly after his repose:

 

The Liturgy for the life of the World

Icon from St. Silouan Orthodox Church in Toronto-Feeding of the 5000

 The Institution Narrative of the liturgy proclaims that Christ gave up his life for the world. The liturgy is the expression of the Christian for the life of the world. By seeing Christ present and partaking of Christ within Liturgy, this allows the entire the community to see Christ in the world becoming witnesses of Christ through our very actions. By allowing liturgy to become the means to our life, liturgy will become a means of mission for the entire world. The liturgy is not an archaic form of worship; the liturgy is instead the offering of the Bread of Life on behalf of all believers for the life of the world. The priest recites, during the Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom's liturgy, "Your own of your own we offer unto you on behalf of all and for all". This bread, the bread of life, is offered on behalf of all and for all. This Bread of Life is the same bread that became the sacrifice for the life of the world. Within the Byzantine tradition of Lent the third week is dedicated to the veneration of the cross. The cross is brought out and venerated as we are reminded during the half way point of Lent that the cross will become a stumbling block to those who do not believe, but to those who accept the cross, it will become the source of life. Through Christ’s own mystical death we have been received into the everlasting life. The cross has become the source of all power for the Christian who embraces it but shamefulness to those who have not accepted the calling of the cross. The weakness of the cross has become the strength to those who believe. 

St. Paul reminds us of this when he said that “my strength is made perfect in weakness”. The Cross, having become the source of power, became the power that enabled the liturgy to grow through the offering of the Bread of Life. Christ having become the sacrifice on the cross became our mediator between us and God. We are then constantly reminded of Christ because the climax of the liturgy is the unity of the one body in Christ. As we receive the Eucharist we are reminded that the liturgy is not a show that has a beginning and an end, but rather, the liturgy is constantly in motion for the life of the world through the living Eucharist. As Christ gave his life up for the world we to must learn to give up our life for the world. We have been made dead in Christ through our baptismal renewal and made alive in Christ through our Chrism and participation of the Eucharist. As the priest tosses the water at the end of the liturgy (Coptic Rite) it reminds the gathered community of our baptismal renewal that we are made alive through our own death in Christ. The living liturgy becomes that which, is lived out in His image and likeness. 

The joy of the resurrection is the expression that all Christians need to express in order for others to see Christ in us and for us to see Christ in others. If we make Christ our starting point then the living liturgy will become the expression for all Christians for the life of the world. This life made perfect in Christ is not categorized by egotistic, individualistic and capitalistic ambitions. Christ, being our starting point, lies within the community of love living in the joy of the resurrection serving as a constant reminder that liturgy is not just a mere three hour service on a Sunday morning but the liturgy is the expression of what it means to be united in Christ's body. Liturgy is the life for the world as Christ gave up his life for the world we to be called to give up the world for the life in Christ in order that all might see Christ.

Presenting the Liturgy to our Children

I came across a blog entry that I thought had to be blogged again because it presents how we can present the liturgy to our children. The following is the link to the original blog: 

http://orthodoxyisorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2013/04/presenting-church-to-our-children.html#more  

"Making the Liturgy more "relatable" is the opposite direction one should take in presenting the Church to your child. Holiness speaks to a separation from the things of this world that distract us from God. Using cultural distractions to encourage participation in the services of the Church muddles this reality. If what we should be seeking after is packaged in a secular pop-culture medium a false equality and connection is made in the minds of our children that life in the Church is just another way to pass the time. Making the Way into a video game, a music video, or any other trivial entertainment serves to undermine and not reinforce your child's faith. The hard lesson that evangelical efforts to grow the Church through making it more "relevant" have been learned over and over at the expense of tradition and with little to show for it beyond empty coffers, infrequent attendance, and a "spiritual but not religious" ethos.

The Liturgy is best presented as a constant walking towards the transcendant where His people gather in reverence and anticipation of His imminent return. A child that sees himself as someone in service to a thing not only much greater than he, but also something that can transform him into the man God would have him be through service to His Church, is a child that will grow in faith and love of the Lord. "

"You may, being teachers, be interested to know how we teach our faith. Well, I could put it in a nut-shell by saying, badly, because if what I have said in the beginning makes any sense to you, it is not by making children to learn doctrinal formularies or formal prayers or any such thing that you make a person into a Christian or an Orthodox. He must be introduced into an experience. And an experience can be caught as one catches the flu, it is an infection, it’s not something which can be conveyed in a sterile manner. So that what we expect is that in the family people should have a sense of worship. I do not mean, do special things. It’s not by praying before a meal or not praying before a meal that one conveys a sense of a sacredness of the event, but I remember one of our young theologians saying, “Everything in life is an act of love divine even the food, which we eat, is divine love that has become edible.” And if the food is prepared with love, if it is served with beauty, if it is shared with reverence, if it is treated as a gift of God, a miracle, and for people of my generation and that of my parents this attitude is easy because we have gone so often without any food and in hunger, that really a peace of bread or any form of food is an act of God or an act of human love. So that is an example. The same could be applied to everything which is the life of the home — the way parents treat children and children treat parents."

+ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom,  http://masarchive.org/Sites/texts/1900-00-00-0-E-E-T-EN05-023Othodoxy.html

The Living Liturgy

How then can we be reminded of the constant theme of living out our Liturgy. Father Phillip LeMasters said it best:

The complete way of self offering to the father that is Jesus becomes our way. All of our life is to become Eucharistic, a Christ like offering of thanksgiving and praise to the father in the power of the Holy Spirit. As arch-priest Patrick Reardon has written “the goal of the holy Eucharist is not the consecration of bread and wine but the consecration of human beings”. Let us to attend to this sublime vision of the consecrated, Eucharistic life. First, think of bread and wine, the fruit of someone’s vineyard and the product of someone’s kitchen. Apart from the self-offering of Jesus Christ, bread and wine remain bread and wine. They are the product of God’s good creation, requiring both the fruits of the earth and the work of human beings. Yet they are limited to this world, this life of decay and corruption. When joined with the self-offering of the Lord, however, they become His Body and Blood, our Holy Communion in Jesus Christ, our participation in the Kingdom of Heaven and life eternal. 

The same is true of our lives. We bear the image of God but are corrupt and mortal because of the sinful path we have chosen, both collectively and personally. We have offered ourselves and our world to ourselves, being slaves of our own passions. But when by the power of the Holy Spirit we are united with our Lord’s self-offering to the Father, we are transfused and transformed by the Divine Energies. Christ is the Vine, and we are the branches. His eternal life becomes ours; we are deified, shining with the Light of a Kingdom beyond this world. Our vocation to become like God is fulfilled not by our own power but by that of the God-Man, Who has conquered sin and death on our behalf. Truly to commune with the Lord is to offer our lives to Him, to be united with Him in every facet of our existence, to participate in the life of the Kingdom of Heaven even now. Our lives become Eucharistic when, as those nourished by the Body and Blood of the Lord, we offer ourselves to God fully and without reservation. 

Father Phillip LeMasters

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Liturgy, as the address of the created to the Creator; is the domain in which our Holy Fathers expressed the special relationship of the children with their heavenly Father; and the uprightness of their faith. They have lived this experience and expressed it in words cast in poems imbued with ascetic terms, resulting in prayers. These prayers reflect the life of the Church historically and theologically, the more we repeat them, the more we understand their depth and appreciate their sweetness. 

However liturgy is not a rigid thing to be repeated unconsciously. It is an expression of the human need to talk to the Lord, and to thank Him for His grace. Liturgy is spirit and life running through the veins of the body of the Church, and nurturing all its members. It revives the Church, the community and the individuals with the grace that is bestowed upon it. Hence, we are here before a precious gem. We should polish it and reveal its glorious face, stressing the essence of the liturgical practice which leads the believer to grow in Christ. It is therefore important to resort to all tools that enable the people to reach the depth of this inspiring liturgy, that they may take from it that which will help them attain salvation and understanding of the mystery of God. 

We are aware of the fact that ritual services and sacramental life are important in our parishes. Performing these services, unifying the forms and developing chanting play a special and basic role in harmonizing between the liturgical practice and the pastoral reality. Activating the pastoral aspect of Liturgy can increase the religious awareness and deepen the relationship between the created beings and the Creator. This is realized by making the language understandable to the people, and by restoring the pastoral liturgical order which takes into consideration the particular needs of parishes and the necessity of sanctifying time in a world of drastic changes. We should also restore the pastoral dimension of all sacramental practices in order that these practices may become the center of the life of the believing community, not merely as passing practices of individuals."

+ Patriarch John X, Vision for the Orthodox Church, On Liturgy.

The following was a meditation given by the Very Rev. Fr. Chad, Chancellor of St. Vladimir's ORthodox Theological seminary on Liturgy:

Reflections on Fasting- Part 2

The following are reflections on fasting written by Father Matthew the Poor. In the book, Communion of Love, it has a chapter entitled "The Deep Meaning of Fasting" which these reflections are taken from. A recommended read for all during the Lenten period. The book is a complication of Father Matthew's smaller booklets put into one book:

-We should notice that all the commandments of Christ regarding works—whether they be voluntary poverty, asceticism, renunciation of kindred, divestment, or bearing the cross—revolve around the person of Christ and end up in Him: "for My sake;” "come, follow Me!” "for My name’s sake;” "be My disciple;” "come after Me;” "watch with Me.”

-All the works we perform in the name of Christ, for His sake, and in imitation of Him—whether they be fasting, vigil, patience, endurance of suffering or persecution, service, sacrificial love, or crucifixion—are but a voluntary translation of the desire to imitate and unite with Christ ("Follow me”). They express communion in spirit, heart, and intention.

-The Church has inherited this living apostolic experience; it has inherited Christ working in the Apostles. So the importance, or rather the inevitability, of works in the Orthodox Church means that the Church focuses on Christ Himself working in us just as He did in the Apostles, doing the same deeds He did for our salvation. The Church believes in exactly what St. Paul meant when he said: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work” (Ph. 2:13). It is equally confident that this also leads to St. Paul’s words, "Do all to the glory of God” (1 Co. 10:31). It is through Christ and in His presence that works should be done; it is only the work of Christ that leads to the glory of God: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Ph. 2:11).

-To this perfection belongs Christ’s whole action and, better yet, even His entire mission and compassion for all humanity. Works, then, are not limited acts done by the human will to relieve the ego. The importance of works in Church thought is based on the fact that all works must spring from the will of Christ and be perfected by His power: "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Ph. 4:13). Works must end up in the glory of God the Father. In other words, they must reveal Him and testify to Him: "That they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). Henceforth, the concept of "faith and works” in the Orthodox Church is inseparable from the living person of Christ, who is the source of faith and works alike in human life. The utlimate end of both faith and works is the glorification of God the Father—an essential work that belongs exclusively to Christ: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Ph. 2:11).

-If we delve deep into the essence of divine love, which is the model of love we intend to follow, we find that it only can be attained by self-denial to the point of self-renunciation, or even destruction.

-Fasting is a test in which the personality defies the self. It is an exercise in which the self has to be forsaken and resisted by the whole being. Fasting may therefore be considered an act of love of the highest order, a physical way of entering into the experience of the cross, and an inseparable part of that experience.

-Thus, when we fast we exhaust the body, and so, indirectly, subdue the self. If we subdue the self through the subjugation of the body, we have in fact come close to the destruction of the self, at least partially.

-This is attained by the mental acceptance of death itself, willingly with no dismay or restraint. But we received the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves (cf. 2 Co. 1:9 ).

Reflections on Fasting- Part 1

The following are reflections on fasting written by Father Matthew the Poor. In the book, Communion of Love, it has a chapter entitled "The Deep Meaning of Fasting" which these reflections are taken from. A recommended read for all during the Lenten period. The book is a complication of Father Matthew's smaller booklets put into one book:

-It represents the first battle in which Christ did away with His adversary, the prince of this world.

-It is then extremely important to accept and to feel the power of each of these three acts (Baptism, Holy Spirit and Fasting) in our depths and draw from Christ their action in us as they worked in Him, so that His same life may identify with ours. The ultimate aim of baptism, of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and of fasting is that Christ Himself may dwell in us: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Ga. 2:20).

-In baptism the connection with our old Adam is cut off for us to receive our sonship to God in Christ. In being filled with the Holy Spirit, our connection with the devil and with the life of sin is cut off for us to receive the Spirit of life in Christ. And in fasting, the connection between instinct and Satan is cut off to give the flesh victory in its life according to the Spirit, in Christ.

-The point to understand is that fasting is a divine act of life, which we receive from Christ complementary to baptism and fullness. Since its beginning the Church has been occupied with infusing into its own body the acts of Christ’s life so they would become life-giving acts to all its members. If the Church imitates Christ in its life discipline, it is because it has been given grace and authority by God to possess Christ Himself as a life of its own. The Church, which is one with Christ, is a lively and efficacious image of the life of Christ. The Gospel describes it as the "bride of Christ” united with her Bridegroom. Though the Gospel declares that the Church has become one with Christ, it still reiterates that Christ will remain a Bridegroom on His own, no matter how much He offers Himself. Neither does Christ become a Church, nor the Church become a Christ.

-This confirms to us that we, as members of the body of Christ, always need to strive to acquire Christ to become more like Him and to be a bride "without spot,” a betrothed "pure bride” in a perpetual state of betrothal like the Virgin who conceived and bore the Logos.

-Fasting in this sense is one of the fundamental phases that Christ underwent. We have never been able to claim that we live in the full maturity of Christ, or that Christ abides in us in His full measure, particularly if we overlook fasting. If baptism is one phase and crucifixion another, fasting is an extremely important stage between baptism and crucifixion. Fullness with the Holy Spirit, which Christ consummated by baptism, elevated the flesh to the level of extraordinary fasting, i.e. total deprivation of food and drink, utter seclusion and prayer. He thus raised the flesh to the stage of the cross.

-Their power (Christ’s work), however, is not imparted to us unless we experience and practice it. Those who are baptized put on Christ, those who are filled with the Holy Spirit live by means of Christ’s life, and those who fast win Christ’s victory over the prince of this world.

-Here He reveals that He has placed Himself as a model of life and works, as our “Forerunner,” as the "first-fruits,” that in everything we would be "like Him.” He became like us so we would become like Him.