Lazarus Saturday: Christ “stole him from among the dead.” Next weekend there will be a blasting of the gates of hell itself!

 

 

Ancient faith / Glory 2 God for all things // Fr. Stephen Freeman

Largely ignored by much of Christendom, the Orthodox mark the day before Palm Sunday as “Lazarus Saturday” in something of a prequel to the following weekend’s Pascha. It is, indeed a little Pascha just before the greater one. And this, of course, was arranged by Christ Himself, who raised His friend Lazarus from the dead as something of a last action before entering Jerusalem and beginning His slow ascent to Golgotha through the days of Holy week.

One of the hymns of the Vigil of Lazarus Saturday says that Christ “stole him from among the dead.” I rather like the phrase. Next weekend there will be no stealing, but a blasting of the gates of hell itself. What he does for Lazarus he will do for all.

Lazarus, of course, is different from those previously raised from the dead by Christ (such as the daughter of Jairus). Lazarus had been four days dead and corruption of the body had already set in. “My Lord, he stinks!” one of his sisters explained when Christ requested to be shown to the tomb.

I sat in that tomb in September 2008. It is not particularly notable as a shrine. It is today, in the possession of a private, Muslim family. You pay to get in. Several of our pilgrims did not want to pay to go in. I could not stop myself.

Lazarus is an important character in 19th century Russian literature. Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment, finds the beginning of his repentance of the crime of murder, by listening to a reading of the story of Lazarus. It is, for many, and properly so, a reminder of the universal resurrection. What Christ has done for Lazarus He will do for all.

For me, he is also a sign of the universal entombment: that even before we die, we have frequently begun to inhabit our tombs. We live our life with the doors closed (and we stink). Our hearts are often places of corruption and not the habitation of the good God. Or, at best, we ask Him to visit us as He visited Lazarus. That visit brought tears to the eyes of Christ. The state of our corruption makes Him weep. It is such a contradiction to the will of God. We were not created for the tomb.

I also note that in the story of Lazarus – even in his being raised from the dead – he rises in weakness. He remains bound by his graveclothes. Someone must “unbind” him. We ourselves, having been plunged into the waters of Baptism and robed with the righteousness of Christ, too often exchange those glorious robes for graveclothes. Christ has made us alive, but we remain bound like dead men.

I sat in the tomb of Lazarus because it seemed so familiar. But there is a voice that calls us all…

 

Saturday of Souls & Sunday of Pentecost in the Orthodox Church!

 

Icon from here

Click:

Saturday of Souls

Saturday of Souls Resource Page

Pentecost (the Descent of the Holy Spirit)

 

Pentecost. Icon from here.

Pentecost – a frontal assault on Hades! 

National Identity and Unity: From Babel to Pentecost 

Baptism by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (Digital book)

God the Holy Trinity: ‘The Lover of Mankind’ (& the "depiction of God" in Orthodox Church)

 

The Sundays after Easter in the Orthodox Christian Heritage! 
 

Utatu Mtakatifu, Mungu ambaye anapenda ubinadamu

 

 

Pentecostalism 

 

"A blessed Pentecost to all from St. Basil Gulu. May the Holy Spirit our God, come and dwell in us, cleanize us, strengthen us, protect us, clear our Atmosphere from the current virus and protect us from all dangers & evils". Orthodox Diocese of Gulu and Eastern Uganda

 

Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

Ancient faith / Glory 2 God for all things // Fr. Stephen Freeman

 

 

The Swedish Lutheran theologian, Gustav Aulen, published a seminal work on the types of atonement theory in 1930 (Christus Victor). Though time and critical studies have suggested many subtler treatments of the question, no one has really improved on his insight. Especially valuable was his description of the “Classic View” of the atonement. This imagery, very dominant in the writings of the early Fathers and in the liturgical life of the Eastern Church, focused on the atonement as an act of invasion, the smashing of gates and bonds, and the setting free of those bound in hell. Aulen clearly preferred this imagery and is greatly responsible for its growing popularity in some segments of Western Christendom.

The language of the Classic View was obscured in the West by the later popularity of propitiatory suffering (and the various theories surrounding it). Aulen claimed that Luther tended to prefer this older imagery. I had opportunity to do a research paper in grad school on the topic. I surveyed all of the hundreds of hymns written by Luther and analyzed them for their atonement theology. All but about two used the Classic View. Aulen seems to have been right.

In Orthodoxy, this imagery is the coin of the realm in the hymns surrounding Pascha. All of Holy Week is predicated on the notion of Christ’s descent into hell and His dynamic actions in destroying death and setting free those held in captivity. St. John Chrysostom’s great Paschal Homily, read in every Orthodox Church on the night of Pascha, is an “Ollie, Ollie, in come free!” of salvation [“Ollie, Ollie, in come free!” and other similar phrases (“oxen free!”) is a children’s cry that ends the game of Hide ‘n Seek].

Easter 2021 in Bukoba, Tanzania (from here)

I have written on this topic before. I thought, however, to share some of the verses from the hymns of the Matins of Holy Saturday. Their language is a pure expression of the spirit of Orthodox Pascha and the atonement teaching of the Fathers.

Hell, who had filled all men with fear,
Trembled at the sight of Thee,
And in haste he yielded up his prisoners,
O Immortal Sun of Glory!

Thou hast destroyed the palaces of hell by Thy Burial, O Christ.
Thou hast trampled death down by thy death, O Lord,
And redeemed earth’s children from corruption.

Though thou art buried in a grave, O Christ,
Though Thou goest down to hell, O Savior,
Thou hast stripped hell naked, emptying its graves.

Death seized Thee, O Jesus,
And was strangled in Thy trap.
Hell’s gates were smashed, the fallen were set free,
And carried from beneath the earth on high.

O Savior, death’s corruption
Could not touch Thy holy flesh.
Thou hast bound the ancient murderer of man,
And restored all the dead to new life.

Thou didst will, O Savior,
To go beneath the earth.
Thou didst free death’s fallen captives from their chains,
Leading them from earth to heaven.

In the earth’s dark bosom
The Grain of Wheat is laid.
By its death, it shall bring forth abundant fruit:
Adam’s sons, freed from the chains of death.

Wishing to save Adam,
Thou didst come down to earth.
Not finding him on earth, O Master,
Thou didst descend to Hades seeking him.

O my Life, my Savior,
Dwelling with the dead in death,
Thou hast destroyed the iron bars of hell,
And hast risen from corruption.

These examples could be multiplied many times over. The section of Matins from which these are taken has over 100 verses! Orthodox Holy Week and Pascha has many ways of acting out this theology. Lights go up at the hint of victory, particularly as we sing the Song of Moses celebrating the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. In some parishes, bay leaves are tossed in the air by the priest in a fairly violent and joyous celebration of the victory. In yet others, at certain points during the Vesperal Liturgy of Pascha,  loud noises such as the banging of pots and pans are heard as the liturgy describes the smashing of hell’s gates. There’s is one village in Greece where two parishes have developed a custom of firing rocket fireworks at each other in the Paschal celebration.

Easter 2021 in Guatemala (from here)

Such antics completely puzzle the non-Orthodox and even seem comical. The Paschal celebration in Orthodoxy is far more akin to the wild street scenes in American cities when the end of World War II was announced – and for the same reason!

All of this also explains why many Orthodox are very reluctant to engage in “who’s going to hell” discussions with other Christians (though some Orthodox sadly seem to relish the topic). The services of Holy Week, as illustrated in these verses, are filled with references to hell. I daresay that no services elsewhere in all of Christendom make such frequent mention of hell. But the language is just as illustrated above. It’s all about smashing, destruction and freedom. It is the grammar of Pascha. It is the grammar of Christianity itself.

Hell is real. Jesus has come to smash it. It is the Lord’s Pascha. It is time to sing and dance.

 

Easter Rocket War of Vrontados in Chios

 

Good Friday: Jesus Christ fights against the death of all people

Icon from here

This Time Is That Time – Holy Week Thoughts  

The Death of Christ and the Life of Man

 
An Atonement of Shame – Orthodoxy and the Cross
 
Victory Against Death - The Sadness and Joy of Holy Saturday!
 
About The Paschal Lamb
 
The Mystery of Holy Week and Pascha
 
The Orthodox Holy Week & Holy Easter (Pascha)

Videos from Greece & Lebanon

How an Atheist Cancer Patient Came to Believe in God...

By Antonios Tenedios (Skalohori, Mytilini, Greece)

MYSTAGOGY, ΑΠΑΝΤΑ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑΣ 

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ: Ένας άθεος καρκινοπαθής

Quite a few years ago the following real-life story took place. This story was told to me by my good friend, Fr. Demetrius, the parish priest of the St. Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church located at Sahtouri Street, Piraeus, Athens, Greece. I present this story to you just as it was narrated to me by Fr. Demetrius himself.

“One morning after the Divine Liturgy, I went to the Church office. A fifty year old man came in to talk to me. I did not know him neither had I ever seen him before in my Church. He spoke to me about a forty-two year old man who was admitted to the hospital in Piraeus, Athens, Greece. He was diagnosed with cancer. The disease had spread throughout his body and had metastasized into his brain. Following an examination, the doctors had told him that there nothing that could be done to save his life. He was taking large doses of medicine but they did not help him. This gentleman told me that the hospitalized man was a close relative of his. He requested that I go to the hospital as soon as possible in order to give him Holy Communion.

As requested, I went to the hospital to fulfill this obligation to administer Holy Communion to the sick man. As soon as I entered the patient’s room, it became apparent to me that he was in bad shape. It was further verified to me that the disease had spread to the brain and there was no chance of survival. His days were numbered. The patient was the only person in the room. The other bed was empty. At a certain point, the patient awakened from his coma and opened his eyes. He immediately saw me and with great difficulty told me the following story:

“My family admitted me to this hospital facility thirty-five days ago. An eighty year old man was already in the room that I was assigned to. This patient was suffering from bone cancer. He was suffering horrific pains. In spite of his pain, he would continuously pray: “Glory to you Oh God, Glory to you, Oh God” and this would be followed by a series of prayers. I was an atheist and I was hearing this for the first time in my life. I had never in my life stepped foot in a Church. This is why I became so startled when I observed that after saying his prayers he would calm down and sleep peacefully for two or three hours. But when he woke up again he would groan from unbearable pain. And then he continued to pray “Glory to You, Oh God!”

I was also groaning suffering from immense pain and yet he, in spite of his pain, continued to glorify God. But I, in my frustration from my pain blasphemed the name of Christ and His Holy Mother. The old man was actually thanking God for giving him cancer. Hearing him go on like this constantly and I, suffering my own pain, became upset with him. In addition to his constant praying, he would daily request to receive Holy Communion.

I, the filthy one, swore at him constantly. I would say to him “shut up, shut up finally! Can’t you see that the God that you glorify is torturing us severely with this cursed illness? What God? There is no God!” The old man would calmly hear me and reply: “He exists, my child, God does truly exist and He is a loving Father. Through the illness that He has given us, we are being cleansed of our many sins.” These replies of the old man made me angrier and I began once again to blaspheme both God and demons. I started yelling out and saying: “God does not exist! I don’t believe in anything; neither in God, His Heavenly Kingdom nor in the other world.”

 

Following this exchange between us, the old man would calmly reply: “Wait and you will see with your own eyes how the soul of a believing Christian is separated from his body. I am a sinner but the Grace of God will save me. Wait, you will see and believe!” He continued to glorify God and His Holy Mother. He would say a specific prayer that repeated the word “hail” for the Virgin Mary (taken from the Salutations of the Akathist Hymn). He also chanted the hymns “Oh Virgin, Birth-Giver of God” and “It is truly meet to bless you.”

At one point, he suddenly stopped praying and I heard him say: “Welcome, my guardian angel! I thank you for coming with such a resplendent party of angels to take my soul.” In great shock, I opened my eyes to see before me the heavenly host. The old man then made the sign of the Cross; crossed his arms on his chest and took his last breath. Suddenly the hospital room was filled with brilliant light that was brighter than ten suns. I, the unbeliever, the atheist, the materialist, saw this miracle with my own eyes. Then an extremely beautiful fragrance filled the room. I was dumbfounded by what I saw because I realized at that point that the old man was right all along.

I then called my parents and told them everything that I had witnessed and experienced. I angrily told them off because they had never spoken to me about the existence of God. I then invited my friends and relatives to come close to me and asked them to tell me everything about faith in God which I had never been taught by anyone. Dear Father, I now believe that God truly exists. This is why I am asking you to hear my confession and for you to give me Holy Communion.

GLORY TO GOD IN HIS SAINTS

 

Click:

 

Death is Unnatural
Death! Death! DEATH! (The Mystery and the Process of Death)

ATHEISM (tag)

We and the spirits of the departed 

A revelation on the torments of hell & the unworthy priest

The Way - An introduction to the Orthodox Faith 
Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life
Theosis, St. Silouan and Elder Sophrony

Why’s the smile of elder Joseph of Vatopedi from eternity?

LOVERS OF TRUTH: THE LIFE OF HIEROMONK SERAPHIM ROSE

A Deer Lost in ParadiseLIVE, BEYOND THE LIMITS!

OUR TALENT OF FREEDOM & SOME PITFALLS

Child mortality rates drop but 15,000 children under 5 still die each day

Global Agriculture 

Children in sub-Saharan Africa face a higher risk of death (Photo: CC0)

Although the global number of child deaths remains high, the world has made tremendous progress in reducing child mortality over the past few decades. The total number of under-five deaths dropped to 5.3 million in 2018, down from 12.5 million in 1990. This is the main message of a report published today by UN organisations led by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the “Levels and trends in child mortality: Report 2019”, more women and their children are surviving today than ever before. Since 2000, child deaths have reduced by nearly half and maternal deaths by over one-third, mostly due to improved access to affordable, quality health services. However, in 2018 alone, 15,000 children died per day before reaching their fifth birthday. “It is especially unacceptable that these children and young adolescents died largely of preventable or treatable causes like infectious diseases and injuries when we have the means to prevent these deaths,” the authors write in the introduction to the report. The global under-five mortality rate fell to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018, down from 76 in 2000 – a 49% decline.
“Despite advances in fighting childhood illnesses, infectious diseases remain a leading cause of death for children under the age of 5, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia,” says the report. Pneumonia remains the leading cause of death globally among children under the age of 5, accounting for 15% of deaths. Diarrhoea (8%) and malaria (5%), together with pneumonia, accounted for almost a third of global under-five deaths in 2018. “Malnourished children, particularly those with severe acute malnutrition, have a higher risk of death from these common childhood illnesses. Nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45 per cent of deaths in children under 5 years of age,” warns the report. The estimates also show vast inequalities worldwide, with women and children in sub-Saharan Africa facing a higher risk of death than in all other regions. Level of maternal deaths are nearly 50 times higher for women in sub-Saharan Africa compared to high-income countries. In 2018, 1 in 13 children in sub-Saharan Africa died before their fifth birthday – this is 15 times higher than the risk a child faces in Europe, where just 1 in 196 children aged less than 5 die.
In 2015, the 193 UN Member States adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The third SDG calls for an end to preventable deaths of newborns and children under age 5, with all countries aiming to reduce under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2030. The global target for ending preventable maternal mortality is to reduce the mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100 000 live births by 2030. The world will fall short of this target by more than 1 million lives if the current pace of progress continues. “A skilled pair of hands to help mothers and newborns around the time of birth, along with clean water, adequate nutrition, basic medicines and vaccines, can make the difference between life and death. We must do all it takes to invest in universal health coverage to save these precious lives,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. (ab)

• Levels and trends in child mortality: Report 2019
• UNICEF: More women and children survive today than ever before – UN report

Child and Infant Mortality

 

by Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie and Bernadeta Dadonaite

Our world in data (the map from here)

This entry was first published in 2013 and updated in November 2019.

Child mortality today is the lowest it has ever been. In less than three decades child mortality has more than halved — from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5.4 million in 2017. This is a huge accomplishment that should not be overlooked.
Of course, the death of every child is an enormous tragedy, and in many countries far too many children die because of causes we know how to prevent and treat. As the map here shows, today the highest child mortality rates are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where we still have countries with child mortality rates greater than 10% — this means that one out of 10 children born never reach their 5th birthday.

56 million people in the world died in 2017. How old were they when their lives ended?
The answer can be seen in the bar chart. It shows all deaths in the world by age in five-year age groups, starting with the youngest on the left towards the oldest age group (95+ years) on the right.
What stands out is the death toll for the very youngest age-group. 5.4 million children died before they had their fifth birthday. On any average day, that’s 15,000 young children.
The suffering and dying of children remains immense, yet these daily tragedies continue without receiving the attention this injustice deserves. A comparison of the tragedy of child deaths with those tragedies that do receive public attention puts it in perspective. A large jumbo jet can carry up to 620 passengers.

The number of child deaths is that of 24 jumbo jet crashes, with only children on board, every single day.
Single events – such as plane crashes – always make the headlines. Daily tragedies – even the worst ones like the deaths of thousands of children – never make the headlines.

Every case of a family losing a child is a tragedy, regardless of how common or uncommon the cause. Spectacular events that grab global attention in the media are not more important than everyday human suffering. But unfortunately this is not how our minds and our media work. What we focus our attention on are either the spectacular tragedies (natural disasters, terrorist attacks, crime) or new problems (fake news, risks from automation). The first category keeps the breaking news cycle running, the second category keeps the op-ed writers employed. But in many aspects the biggest threats to our lives are the same threats that all the generations that came before us have faced. And this seems unfortunately to be true for what kills children around the world; it’s neither new nor spectacular.
A newspaper that would cover the most important facts about the last 24 hours would cover the 15,000 child deaths on its cover page every day. 

You can see all the article here.

 

African Children (tag)

 

Photo from here

 

The consequences of Man’s Fall

Professor Ioannis Zizioulas 

(current Metropolitan of Pergamus and Chairman 

of the Athens Academy), 

 Lessons on Christian Dogmatics

Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries
Translation by A. N.

Icon from here

Up to this point, we have seen how Man’s Fall became possible. His Fall became possible, on account of his freedom. Evil, therefore, entered the world on account of freedom. If freedom didn’t exist, there would be no evil, no sin. Animals do not sin. They may perform the same acts that are characterized as “sins” by Man, but they are not sins for an animal. This is because it is not the act -per se- that renders something sinful; it is the exercising of freedom. An animal does not have freedom. Consequently, when Man exercises his freedom, he either sins, or he doesn’t.

We mentioned that freedom is necessary for a created being. We also mentioned that Man has this freedom exclusively within his created hypostasis - in the form of a link between the material world and the Uncreated God (and not just the immaterial world) – and that because it is a freedom that was bestowed on the created and not the Uncreated, it is exercised in the form of acceptance or rejection of a given event, a given situation. Because the created being is precisely this: it is that which confronts given situations. The difference between the created and the uncreated is that the uncreated –naturally- has nothing given about it; everything that exists originates from its volition, it was not made by “someone else”, otherwise, it would not have been an uncreated being. A created being would not have been a “creation”, if its existence was a given fact and subsequently the existence of the one who gave it its existence. This, therefore, causes it to need to exercise its freedom through “Yes” or “No” – through the admission or the rejection of given situations.

Now, remember what we said earlier: that it is necessary for the created to survive, to escape from nil, and to be in a union with the Uncreated; that it cannot survive otherwise. Remember also, that Man was created precisely for the purpose of materializing this union of the created with the Uncreated. Now, let us come to the matter that we touched on previously, i.e., that Man, when addressing this calling from God, decided to exercise his freedom in a negative manner, saying “No, I will not unite the created to the Uncreated. I will unite the created to myself.” This was the deeper meaning of the Scriptural passage in which Adam succumbs to the temptation to state that he will become god. He thus transferred the focal point of reference of that union, from the Uncreated God to his own, created self. He deified himself. In other words, he rejected God; he said “No” to the given God: “No, You are not a given God for me, so, I shall create my own god, i.e., my own self. Everything shall therefore have me as a point of reference, instead of You.” This is the way that we portray the Fall of Man. All of Creation fell. Why? Here is the analysis that we must now make, on the event of the Fall.

We mentioned that Creation can be saved, only if united with God, and that this could only be achieved through Man. We also explained why. Now that Man had decided to divert all of Creation towards his person and make himself a god – the ultimate point of reference – the following consequences were generated: The first consequence was that Man came to believe that he can dominate over all of Creation as though it were his own creation, subsequently causing a conflict, an opposition between Man and Nature – a veritable enmity. This enmity rendered Nature a place of misery for Man, because he was no longer in harmony with it. This disharmony between Man and Nature was the disharmony – the contrast – between the person and nature, between freedom and necessity, and consequently, man could no longer survive in this world, except only through combat - by fighting against nature.

On the other hand, one could say that Nature also took on personal dimensions; in other words, it took on divine dimensions for Man. Seeing how, during this battle with Nature, Man came to realize how much weaker he was by comparison to Nature, he immediately formed an impression of Nature’s superiority over him. When Man suffered defeat during this battle, when Nature overwhelmed him, Man automatically felt its supremacy, and, having ousted God as the ultimate point of reference, he began to make – to absolutize – the forces of nature, as his ultimate point of reference. Thus, the next consequence of Man’s Fall was idolatry; his fight with Nature finally led to the deification of Nature. 

Icon from here

 
When a lightning bolt -for example- appeared threateningly and he realized it could not be controlled by his own power, Man deified it. And that is how the Scriptural observation of “they exchanged the Creator, with the creations” is comprehended; this is how Creation became deified...... Now you can understand how we arrived at the deification of Creation; which path led to the consequences (which are truly tragic for mankind, but also for Nature itself). In view of the fact that Man was created and Nature expects Man to make God its point of reference in order for it to survive, and given that Man has now taken God’s place and the only point of reference that Nature now has is Man, all of Creation has thus become subjected to deception as regards life and existence. In other words, Man and all of Creation both became confined to a life that is dictated and directed by the laws of Nature, by the biological life that gives the impression of an actual life, of a transcendence of death, when in fact it leads to death.

Thus, Man’s fall had, as its outcome, Man’s loss; Nature overall lost the meaning of truth, the meaning of true life, and was deceived into an impression that the thing called “life” is actually life, when in fact it is death. Thus, death enters the scene as synonymous to life. Note here, that this could well be the most tragic consequence of the Fall, i.e., that death enters the scene as a synonym of life. What do I mean with this? Well, we are under the naïve impression that “death” is a point located at the end of Man’s “life”. 

We say that someone died “at the age of 90”, as though death suddenly made its appearance during his 90th year. In reality however, this man began to die from the moment he was born. Biology sees death as a process that begins simultaneously with birth. Moreso modern Biology and the latest theories on ageing, link ageing to reproduction. At least in beings with organs – especially mammals – the ageing cycle begins from the moment that the organism reaches the point of reproductive maturity. And this is characteristic, precisely because it is linked to the mystery, the phenomenon of life. The phenomenon of life bears inside it the phenomenon of death. The deception, the clouding of the truth here, is that we are under the impression that we are actually living (and when I say impression, I mean the existential, the experiential kind; an impression that we are all influenced by).

We shield our eyes from the truth of death; We are speaking here of biological, existential categories. When we go to the psychological categories, things are even more evident. We don’t even want to think of death, or, we are unable to, psychologically. But the psychological aspect is not the most important aspect; the biological, the existential one is. These are fermentations that already exist inside the organism. The fermentations of deterioration exist, but we cannot see them. Biological existence is structured in such a manner, that it cannot see the truth; and even if it does see it, it will see it only psychologically – it cannot see it ontologically. It is not possible; this is the way that things are: out of our control.

We have therefore entered into a circle that is a fake life, which is why the Gospel speaks of the “real life”. Why was this distinction necessary here? We say “real life”. What is “real life”? We seem to have de-spiritualized the term. These modern perceptions are not Biblical. When one speaks of the “real life”, he is not implying another life – the kind that we call “spiritual”. He is implying a life that does not die; a life that is not subject to this deception of the so-called life that leads to death. Consequently, real life is the life that is not proven false, because it is not defeated by death. Real life springs from the Resurrection of Christ, from Christ Himself, precisely because that is where biological death was actually transcended. This is not a matter of ignoring biological death in favor of another life. No. The everyday expression of “other life” which we use is the extension of this life – it is the real side of this life. Thus, death (i.e., this deceptive life that carries death inside it), is the outcome of the Fall and it is a bad, unacceptable thing. The Christian view can never regard death as something good.

The transcending of death, therefore, is –par excellence- the Gospel, which the Church offers us. With His Resurrection (which signifies the transcendence of biological death), Christ provides us with the conviction, the hope, that it is possible for this admixture of the real life with the false that we are subject to can be cleared, so that the element of death may be removed, leaving only the element of life. This is the real and eternal life, because a “real” life is also an eternal life. As for the word “eternal” in the New Testament, it has no other inference, except that it is an extension of this life. It is only in Platonism that the term “eternal” is juxtaposed to the term “current”, i.e., an entirely different level of thought. We do not find this kind of level in the Biblical perception. 

Icon from here

 
In the biblical perception, we have straight lines. Time, and consequently History, the corpus and the course of matter- of the material world - is a blessed part of Creation. In Platonism however, this is a negative point of reference, since one must escape from Time in order to be released and move on to another level; i.e., to fly beyond Time. Unfortunately, many Christians interpret things in this Platonic manner, when they say: “Did he die? Consider him blessed. He has departed from this fake world. He has slipped away from Time. He has gone to eternity, where Time doesn’t exist. These ideas are not Christian. The expectation therefore of the Resurrection is precisely an expectation of the transcendence of death and the catharsis of existence, so that the false and the deceptive element is taken out of the way.

I shall revert therefore to the manner in which the deceptive and the false element appeared, which is directly related to the “nil” from which Creation began. Imagine that we have a world that originates from nil; a world that did not previously exist. We therefore have an entity “A”, which has nothing behind it as support; i.e., it has no pre-existence. This entity constitutes a multiplicity in Creation, because Creation is not one thing – God didn’t create one being; He created many. Creation began with multiplicity, therefore “nil” had infiltrated everything; it exists between “A” and “B” because “B” is also a creation, just like every single creation that has been created, thus, there exists a dimension between beings. The dimension between beings in Creation is expressed by two elements: space and time. 

Between “A” and “B” or “B” and “C” there definitely is space and time. Between them is space and time, which is what gives them their hypostasis; it connects them between each other, but it also keeps them separate. In other words, time and space act (this is yet another deception that is created) simultaneously as a connective element and as a differentiating factor. Take for example the space that we have between us; it is the element that unites me with you. If space didn’t exist, I couldn’t be united with you – we couldn’t communicate between us. This same space, with the same, uniting energy, also acts differently and divisively upon us, because, thanks to this space, I am able to separate myself from you and be divided from you. Time does the same thing. The time between my father and myself is that which unites me to my father, but, the fact that my father used to exist at one time, whereas I exist now – this space of time that intervened, is what separated me from my father. 

This intervention of space and time - as a unifying and simultaneously dividing element - is what renders every created being (and they all began from the original “nil”) perishable. What do we mean by “perishable”? We mean “divisible” and “subject to deterioration”. Time and space therefore compose beings, and decompose them simultaneously; and in this way, what we said earlier about the deception we call “life” is verified. A “life” is created, which is imbued with death on account of a division; because, what is death? It is a separation; it is deterioration, the decomposition of existence. We have here a composite world, which breaks up with death. “A” and “B” no longer communicate with each other and “B” doesn’t communicate with “C”. 

However, “B” itself is also composite, because it is composed of smaller elements; thus, just as in the death of a person –for example- we have two sides to the separation, i.e., one separation is the separation between “A” and “B” (the personal separation), and the other separation is when the whole – the person we call “A” – disintegrates into his composite elements; these disintegrate, and thenceforth, we have the dissolution of a unity that had originally been secured by time and space. In other words, all of these beings are subject to the influence of “nil”, from which they originated. This whole, therefore, which is called “world” and which originates from nil, must unite itself to the whole that doesn’t have these kinds of processes. Since God didn’t have a beginning from “nil”, and by not living within space and time, He is not subject to this fate. And that is where the real life is: where death doesn’t exist.

I would like to draw as a conclusion that, upon severing his bond, Man was left to this fate. He was therefore deceived - and continues to be deceived - by believing that he lives when in fact he is dying, and by believing that with time and space, he can accomplish something. This is how deception appears in History, i.e., that within time - during the progress of History - eternicity can be secured. But, this cannot be achieved, unless one shuts his eyes to the problem of death, and shows disinterest in whether all beings become deteriorated and destroyed; when he shows concern whether humanity will survive, but not whether certain specific people will survive. Christian Dogmatics however must seriously consider the issue of deterioration, the issue of death of each single person, each single being, and believe that the world is indeed subject to deterioration, and thereafter, the solution that can be provided is another matter.

Greek text
St. Mamas the Great Martyr - The boy who lived with the deer and the lions (September 2nd)

LIVE, BEYOND THE LIMITS!

The Saints and the animals

Orthodoxy's Worship: The Sanctification of the Entire World

The god called “Earth” 
 

Bishop Nectarios Kellis of Madagascar († 11 September 2004)

 
Bishop Prodromos of Toliara
Orthodox Missionary Fraternity
In Greek

Fifteen years! Five thousand four hundred and seventy-five days! Countless hours, numberless minutes, an ocean of seconds; and yet, all this time, all this measurement with its subdivisions, which is desperately trying to put some order in the chaotic space between events is an act so subjective! The fluid time itself, as the Holy Fathers put it, the dubious space-time continuum of natural scientists, is at its core so human a construct! Without the human subject, without this wise saying «man is the measure of all things», even without this biochemistry of our brains, the intervals between events would range from meaningless to non-existent. We are the ones who, as perishable creatures, consistently want to measure the periodicity of our deterioration, our falls, we are the ones who perceive everything in flux, and definitely we are the ones who, once we define time, depending on the importance of events, misrepresent it.

And what does this have to do with number 15? It is absolutely relevant. Because this largely insignificant period of time, always compared to the years that humankind has been on earth, not merely through the subjective perception of time, but through the more objective inter-subjective co-perception and comprehension of events, tends to constitute the beginning of an originative myth, the beginning of a shared national and cultural memory of a highly emotional and at the same time rational collective unconscious. 

For the people of Madagascar it is both a sad and joyous day; the day on which the first Orthodox Bishop, Fr. Nectarios, through a horrible death goes into the life of eternal bliss. It is the fall of the fatal Chinook, the mysterious death that relates the whole Patriarchate of Alexandria to the mystery of death, since the second throne of Orthodoxy remains headless and many local Churches lose the paternal concern and love of their Bishops – Shepherds.

Among them is Madagascar. This country, which was introduced to Orthodoxy by a man of a fiery zeal and nobility, Fr. Nectarios, is merely confined to the mournful hearing of spiritual orphanhood, being deprived of the obvious, the corpse, the tangible proof of death and the consolation of mourning. The land he so much loved and watered with his own sweat and tears, could neither give him a last embrace, nor be his last earthly abode while awaiting Resurrection as the deceased Prelate’s venerable body was never found. 

Nevertheless, despite the fact that there is nothing left of him, a part of his physical presence that could be a starting point for memories, in people’s hearts his spiritual presence is more than real. There are so many villages in the depths of southern Madagascar where men and women would say in broken Greek: «Nectarios – Nectarios»! There are so many places where the only sign of Orthodoxy is a hut with a rickety cross on the roof, and old people would come and talk to me about Fr. Nectarios, the one who has been physically missing for fifteen years, but whose love is tied to the eternal present.

Fifteen years on, and the humble nun of Toliara, at the time the young indigenous woman who did the unthinkable, she became a nun in a faith entirely foreign to her tradition, confirmed to me the account of Fr. Nectarios request after the heart surgery he had undergone at the Onassis Heart Clinic. He had asked his attending physicians to grant him an irregular discharge so that he could return to his beloved land, to his millions of children, to the little Vineyard of his Lord, which he dug with his bare hands and watered with the spring water of his so full of paternal love words.

I am tested! My conscience is tested for I can barely follow in the footsteps of this Titan of Mission, this man who twenty years ago met me through his pen on the pages of a journal, and set me on fire for his love of the Vineyard, which has not yet been cultivated. Fifteen years, then, and six identical words he chose to repeat while making the sign of the cross at the time of his ordination as Bishop.

“Glory to God for all things, glory to God for all things, glory to God …», the words of St. John Chrysostom on his long journey to exile and the certainty of death. For Fr. Nectarios, too, the daring venture of Madagascar was a voluntary exile and certain death for the salvation of the people who he was appointed to minister to by our Holy Church. And if the words “exile” and “death” sound cruel and unfit for the ministry of a bishop, I repeat them five times making the sign of the cross myself, for it is the phrase «of one’s own volition” that turns martyrdom into the ticket to Paradise. 

9/11 (September 11) in the Orthodox Church...
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