ΑΠΟΛΥΤΡΩΣΙΣ
ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΣ
Articles (20)
Translation from the article:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Τί σημαίνει Ὀρθοδοξία, περιοδ. "Ἀπολύτρωσις" 50 (1996) 56-57.
(Stergios N. Sakkos, University Professor [Read CV])
Many people talk about Orthodoxy these days. We hear them on TV channels, we read them in newspaper columns, we see them as authors of various publications and books. According to their words, Orthodoxy is a type of culture or a type of folklore, depending on the guiding preference of each relevant thinker. It is a form of civilization - always exceptional and unique - or a characteristic of the people of Romiosini (Helenism)- in any case special and worthy of attention. This makes Orthodoxy seem more like an ideology, a philosophy or a worldview, a popular religion, than the revelation of God that it really is.
The Orthodox Church of Christ also speaks of Orthodoxy. And it speaks not only now, when it is fashionable to speak about Orthodoxy and to be in the light of publicity, but it has been speaking for at least twenty centuries, from the moment it was born and it speaks in the low tones of humble speech in the devout atmosphere of the meek spirit. For those of us who are genuinely interested in Orthodoxy, I think it is worth paying attention to it, because it is the only one that deserves our attention, because the Orthodox Church is the only expert on the subject.
We could say - with a very general simplification, of course, for practical reasons - that Orthodoxy is identified with the Church, the one, holy, Eastern Church. Its characteristics are the characteristics of the Church and they are none other than the characteristics of the God-man person of Jesus Christ, since the Church is the mystical Christ, which extends throughout the ages, according to the expression of Saint Augustine. This is revealed by the teachings of the Fathers, who have been the pillars of the Church, it is demonstrated by the lives of the saints who martyred for Orthodoxy, it is testified by the common conscience of the Orthodox faithful. Thus, we have immediately and surely a specific and clear view of Orthodoxy, which the history of the Church irrefutably testifies to.
First of all and above all, Orthodoxy is a way of life based on divine truth. It certainly creates culture, shapes ethos, but these are results, not its essence. Orthodoxy is the path of God, which requires that it be walked in obedience to the revealed truth and with discipline in the divine commandment. The combination of the right faith (orthodoxy) with the holy living (orthopraxis) is a characteristic of Orthodoxy “of those things which are not without.” The apostle Paul formulates this verbatim for the umpteenth time when, at the end of his life he confesses to his disciple Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).
The Church delivers the doctrine and the commandment, holding in one hand the inspired Scripture and in the other the sacred Tradition. Doctrines are the revealed truths of the divine word as formulated by enlightened saints after the Church’s struggles and battles with evil and deceitful spirits. Commandments are the ethical exhortations of the divine word, as lived by the saints of every age, who were not conformed to any scheme of their time, but were transformed into vessels of the Holy Spirit. But all this could never be accepted by human beings if they tried to follow it on their own - individually or in groups, but autonomously - by their own reason and personal efforts.
Those who have tried have either given up or erred and have not remained Orthodox. One must hear the doctrine- in order to be able to interpret it - and obey the command to be able to carry it out - united in one body and tuned to one frequency in the body whose head is Christ and whose members are the saints of all ages, and to the frequency that the Holy Spirit emits within this divine-human community.
The means of participation in the Church of Christ are the Holy Mysteries and spiritual worship. Through the grace of the mysteries, the Orthodox person is united with the Triune God, receives the forgiveness of sins and, in spite of all his finitude and imperfection, lives the infinity and perfection of eternity. In divine worship, moreover, through prayer and hymnody, he has the blessing of expressing himself before the Lord, praising His greatness, thanking him for His love and praying with contrition of his weakness. Together with the angels and the simple saints of Orthodoxy, who signify their presence with the holy icons all around, all the faithful “with one accord and in the same spirit” invoke and receive divine grace in the Church. Everything there is a sacred symbol, expressing in its own language, so evocative and profound, the doctrine and ethos of the Church, which teaches in silence. For this reason, all the elements of worship are considered genuine expressions of Orthodoxy: the icons, the hymns and the ritual.
But Orthodox life is not limited to the temple, nor does it stop at worship. It spreads out and covers every moment of the Christian’s life, continuing and permeating his every movement. In the temple of the believer’s body, there is a constant logical worship and a constant mystical communion with all the faithful of the Church. This is achieved through the Holy Spirit and is expressed by the sign of the cross, which literally marks every Orthodox. The shape of the Holy Cross is not only mentally traced on occasions with the three fingers of the right hand united in the name of the Holy Trinity, but it also constantly traces the life of the Christian who, for love of God, constantly contrasts his will with the will of the world and of his former unredeemed self, patiently endures pain and voluntarily suffers for the good, denies himself and gives himself to others, in a word, practises asceticism. Indeed, the ascetic element is a trademark of Orthodoxy. It takes many forms in Orthodox life: fasting, vigil, poverty, purity, sacrifice; but it is always a cross that imitates the Cross of Christ, and therefore bears His glory.
How many of the Orthodox speakers of our time can really identify themselves with these qualities? Every year the Church dedicates a Sunday to the name of Orthodoxy. On this Sunday, it emphasizes above all the mission of evangelization that it has towards the world, the task of proclaiming the Orthodox faith and life throughout the world. Perhaps it is time to let its voice to be heard louder and clearer today, amidst the clamor of so many, so that we may finally learn what Orthodoxy means.
Translation from the book:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Ὁ Σταυρός στό φῶς τῆς Ἀνάστασης, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2019, σσ. 50-56.
Whenever believers begin something new, they have the pious habit of making the sign of the cross. It is a sign of trust in God’s love and power, for in this way they entrust their cares to Him. In the same way, the whole Church makes the sign of the cross at the beginning of its annual work every September, celebrating the glorious Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Since the celebration takes place in the middle of the month, we are urged throughout the month, before and after the feast, to lift our hearts and minds to the raised Cross of our Lord and to implore the sanctification, mercy and grace that flow from it.
It is a good opportunity that gives us something we need most now that the summer holidays are coming to an end, now that we are going back to our jobs, now that the daily hard work and the struggle to survive are pressing us from within. At this time we need the strong hand of the mighty crucified God to steady us. We need a warm embrace, the heart-warming embrace of the compassionate Jesus. His bleeding hands are wide open on the Cross, reaching out to us and assuring us of the power of His love. “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 5:2).
The whole world is scented by this sacrifice. The angels praise, creation rejoices and the Church delights, but while all this is happening, selfish man is unaware of it because his spiritual senses are blocked by his “ego”. Nevertheless, the Cross is the most vivid evidence of the divine consent that can gladden the universe. “For behold, through the Cross joy has come to the whole world”, we proclaim in the Easter Prayer, and indeed we are joyful because our soul finds peace under the Cross. Our daily joys become deeper when we realise that they are secured by a sacrifice. And our frequent misfortunes become lighter when we feel that God sympathises with us.
Life is like a sea, full of storms, but the pious can hold the cross in front of them. In this way, they can stop the waves and walk safely through it, just as Moses parted the Red Sea. When a loved one faces danger, temptation or sickness, in situations where no help can be offered, the pious can cross themselves. The Lord grants victory to His people, just as Moses was granted the victory of the Israelites over the Amalekites. Sometimes people are like troubled travellers in the world, wandering thirstily between ideological and philosophical currents, finally losing their love for life because they cannot find a single drop of water except bitterness and disgust. If they faithfully drop the cross in their anguish, their existence will become sweet like the water of the Merra spring in the desert.
Our Lord has told us in many ways that He loves us, and He shows us His love at different times in our lives. But what uniquely and unquestionably guarantees His love is the height and breadth of His Cross. If we wanted to distinguish and measure the great revelations of God’s love for humanity, we would highlight five: the creation of the world, the history of Israel, the Holy Cross, the Holy Scriptures and the Church.
The world is the precious heritage that the Creator has given to His creature, so that its beauty may delight us and its riches nourish us.
Israel of the Old Testament is our special ancestor who has protected the truth of our descent and divine kinship through the centuries. The miraculous deliverances of the Israelites from their mighty enemies reassure us that we are safe in God’s hands.
Christ’s revelation of Himself, His name, His glory and His plan for our eternal relationship is our great priceless treasure, deposited in the written Word of God and never to be spent. Our faith in it helps us to live and enjoy here and now, there and forever.
The Church, the people of God, is our holy family which Christ has made for His children without distinction. His love fills our souls with joy and dispels all fear, for it is from the present to the end of time.
All these great gifts are given to our lives with the embrace of God. But the Cross is God’s embrace, opened to us who are dirty, wounded or even dead, so that we can be cleansed, healed and resurrected. God hangs on the cross and suffers for us. He takes our wickedness and gives us virtue. He undergoes an adventure not because he owes us anything, but to save us from being lost. He loses His glory and spills His blood to give us glory and life. God becomes man because He wants to make man God, so that we can be with Him forever and have eternal joy. The love that our soul desires is embodied on the Cross. It assumes the dimension of God and is revealed in the face of the crucified Christ, who longs for us.
In any case, the Cross exists in the depth and essence of all God’s gifts. The Cross holds the Church together, because the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is the foundation and strength of the Church. God’s plan for our salvation, revealed in Scripture, is contained in the simple form of the Cross. The Cross justifies the purpose of the Church. The Cross sanctifies the universe and reconciles man with his outer and inner world. Creation and history, Revelation and the Church hang from the holy wood on which our Saviour was crucified.
We too are called to hang from His Cross, however heavy and burdened we may be, so that we may feel light. To put at his root all that troubles us, to open our hearts to His love and our arms to His embrace. This is the love we need to live, as the Apostle Paul says: “And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). We cross ourselves, we embrace the risen Cross of the Lord and we are lifted up into His embrace. Let us be carried by His mercy.
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association
«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the book:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Ὁ Σταυρός στό φῶς τῆς Ἀνάστασης, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2019, σσ. 43-49.
Among the banners, flags and symbols raised by the world to proclaim its slogans, our Church exalts the Holy Cross and invites us to accept its message. The history of God and man, in all its dimensions, is written on its simple shape. The greatest misery and the greatest joy meet in its heart: the despair of a dying world and the hope of a world being raised.
Historically and theologically the Cross has in fact, two aspects: what it appears to be and what it is. It appears to be dipped in blood, tears and pain. But if we bend over its bloody stains, we will again discern two opposites: on the one hand, crime in its most terrible form, guilt in its most dreadful hour; and on the other, the greatest love and infinite tolerance. The cross of ancient times, was an instrument of torture, the most terrible means that Satan had discovered to torment man, after he had driven him to the lowest point of degradation. But since the Crucifixion of the sinless Christ, the Cross has also become the symbol of the highest love and devotion for those who love Christ and follow in His footsteps.
There are three crosses on Golgotha which help us to understand historically the aspect of the cross represented in its two dimensions. On two of the crosses hang two criminals who are receiving “the due reward of their deeds”; on the other Cross hangs Jesus, who “has done nothing wrong” (Lk 23:41). At the same time, the first criminal cursed the Innocent, while the other repented and became a martyr; he bore his cross with patience, denied his shameful past and believed in a glorious future. And how? With the strength that he drew from the Cross of Jesus Christ. This is the second aspect of the Cross that all those who repent and believe can experience.
The Cross of our Lord has a rich inner content which can be infused into the cross of the thief and into every cross, if we so wish. This secret content, its indescribable richness, is the love of God, which becomes blood, and the blood becomes redemption and purification, but also a power of transformation and change. Here is the “essence” of the Cross, here is the hope of the world! A hope not like the “false hopes” of the poets, which lead to despair, nor like the fleeting hopes of our narrow horizons which leave behind them disappointment. It is the hope for which the soul of man thirsts, that he is not just a piece of earth and flesh, not a number or something destined to nothing but a being of eternal value and destiny. This hope which warms the heart and enlightens the mind, which steels the nerves and sustains the will, the hope which gives meaning to struggles, joyful endurance to sorrows, profound happiness to joys, is found only in the Cross. What honour man has when, for his sake, the precious blood of God is shed! What glory awaits him since the God-man, in a human body, fights and conquers death. What hope springs from Golgotha!
Unfortunately, the world can only see the visible aspect of the cross and rejects it. Like the Jews who saw its weakness and were tempted, like the Gentiles who saw it as folly and mocked it. The world ignores the “essence” of the Cross and doesn’t even bother to learn it, so it can never understand it. That is why today the Church, the Gospel and christians are despised, mocked, hated and fought against. But it is also the reason why today the world has lost hope and is dying of despair. It is because man has cut himself off from the Cross and relies on his own strength. He cannot even think that what he wants might be hidden in the Cross. In no way do people admit that the Cross, which they consider trivial, can embrace those who are divided, give peace to the soul, make amends between man and his God.
So man struggles all alone. He sends out rockets, literally throws his money into the air, without earning anything, not a breath of life, not a drop of relief from his stress. He raises his antennas, his science and his art, and channels mainly elements of corruption and decay into his own house, his mind and his blood. He hangs horseshoes on his door as a symbol of good luck, you see, this is neither foolish nor scandalous! He reconciles fetishism with his culture because he suffocates without hope. But hope is nowhere to be found! Modern man stands disappointed before an empty Pandora’s box; his last hopes have flown away. He believes nothing, he hopes for nothing, he is lost. He puts “Hope Wanted” in the “Classifieds” in vain. He will only find hope in the Cross.
Because hope is not in “bread and spectacle”, it is not in the refrigerator or in culture. Hope is not in shop windows, shops, chimneys, oil tanks and bombs. Hope is peace and life. A full stomach and a comfortable career are not hope, hope is a pure and light heart. The saturation of the senses and the deception of our secret desires with their substitutes are not hope. Hope is the power that guarantees joy up to eternity, the power that makes us see the other person not as a target for our vice or as an object to profit from, but as a brother, as a creature of the same Father.
If we see the Cross as a simple symbol, we do injustice to the Cross and, fatally, to ourselves. If we recognise in the Cross the blood of an Innocent Man who shed His blood on it for our sake, we have taken an important step. But if we discover in the Cross, beyond the agony of death, the triumph of life that springs from the “empty tomb” of the Crucified and Risen One, then we have found our great, true, eternal hope.
Our Church, through the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, invites us to rest under its wings. Tell me, dear faithful, if a person wants something different or something more!
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association
«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the book:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Μηνύματα ζωῆς Β΄, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2015, σσ. 192-194.
Sleep or Death
August is the crown of summer and the jewel in this crown is the celebration of our Most Holy Theotokos. It is a little Easter in summer. It is celebrated as gloriously and triumphantly as the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. This is not an arbitrary choice; in the minds of pious people, this feast associates the word “sleep” with the event of death. Could there be a more desirable message for the miserable man who longs to enjoy his life but he lives every day under the shadow of death?
The power of death is, of course, defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ. This victory is experienced and celebrated by the Church when it is realised in the lives of the saints. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ “has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24) and has a first experience of the abolition of death. Death cannot hold them captive, nor can their Lord and God. For this reason, the commemoration of the day on which the saints died is not a mournful event, but a celebration. St. John Chrysostom notes that “because the saints loved their Lord, they were willing to suffer sorrows and torments in His name, which made them all the more joyful”.
Christ’s victory over death is primarily declared by the Dormition of the woman who gave Lord her human flesh so that He could resurrect it and make it non-perishable. She is the saint above all saints and is therefore named “Panagia” in Greek (pano[above] – agia [saint]). There is a clear theological explanation for this. The Orthodox Church proclaims that the Virgin Mary is the symbol of the entire Church and of each pious soul. Every Christian sees themselves as a member of the Church and in the Assumption of God’s Mother, they see their own death as a dormition, a sleep in God’s hands. Therefore, a Christian is freed from the fear of death and renews the hope that their beloved people are sleeping and will resurrect one day. Every Christian can proclaim the confession of our faith, “I am looking forward to the resurrection of the dead” (Symbol of Faith).
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association
«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the book:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Μηνύματα ζωῆς Β΄, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2015, σσ. 195-197.
The Spiritual Champion
The saints of our faith, like a great cloud, watch from heaven and help us in our struggles here on earth. The first and most glorified among them is the Virgin Mary. Her venerable person is a unique and distinct criterion in Orthodoxy. She attracts our thoughts and inspires our lives. In particular, August, the month of the Virgin Mary, with the daily Parakleses in her honour, her Assumption and the celebration of her “Apodosis”, brings her closer to us. This month draws our attention to her in order to listen to her message.
There has never been a more worthy athlete or a more glorious Olympic champion in the history of the world than the Virgin Mary. What achievement and what record can be compared to her high jump which united the earth with heaven? She is the one who opened the way for God to come down into the world and become her Son, the God-Man. He raised His Virgin Mother to His own glory and made her the christified person, the first man-God!
The ancient Olympians were honoured for life in their cities, but even today’s winners enjoy some special privileges in their home countries. But the honour and glory of the Virgin Mary is universal and eternal. She is blessed throughout “all generations” (Lk 1:48), as she herself prophesied. And no one can praise her as she deserves, for she is “the praise and glory of the human race”, as St Basil of Seleucia writes.
There may be people who have honoured an Olympic champion by naming their child after him or her. Others are proud to display a photograph of an athlete in their home. Not only countless people, but also towns and villages, churches and chapels, monasteries and associations, are named after the Virgin Mary. There are many honourable surnames that characterise her. And her miraculous icons make her presence alive among us.
From the glory of heaven, as a woman “clothed with the sun” (Rev 12:1) and crowned with the twelve-starred crown, the Virgin Mary nods to us all. As a type of the Church and of every redeemed soul, she is presented as a model and prototype, but also as a counsellor and coach for all those who desire the great victory of life, the victory that will be rewarded with the conquest of heaven.
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association
«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the article:
Εὐαγγέλου Ἀλ. Δάκα, Λατρεία εὐάρεστη στόν Θεό, περιοδ. "Ἀπολύτρωσις" 73 (2018) 104-166.
(Evangelos Al. Dakas, PhD in Theology and Philologist)
We Orthodox feel proud, and rightly so, about the spiritual magnitude of our worship. The Orthodox Church for God’s worship preserves, in this matter as well, the tradition of the holy Fathers, which has its roots in the apostolic era. Our worship does not try to impose itself on the believers and humiliate them before God’s omnipotence, as the Papists do. For the Orthodox Church, the Lord is not primarily a “mysterium tremendum” i.e., a mystery that causes terror but a “mysterium fascinosum”, a mystery that attracts love. Nor does it only teach, as is the case with Protestant worship. The Orthodox worship, on the one hand, incarnates the miracle of God's revelation in Christ here and now and on the other hand, makes the Lord's life, the Cross and his resurrection the existential identity of the believer.
However, it is necessary to take certain things into serious consideration, since the spiritual alienation that threatens us now, also affects the life of worship:
1. The foundation of our worship cannot be other than Christ's words to the Samaritan woman that “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). That is, our worship will be true and pleasing to God, if it will be first offered at the altar of our soul, at the shrine of the inner man which is not made by hand. When this does not happen, when the incense of our love for the Lord does not burn in our souls but sin smokes, all the other external offerings and sacrifices are in vain and they anger God. We find many examples of such vain worship in the people of Israel who, while blessed “in a shocking way” by Yahweh, deviated too many times into ritualism. Externally, they offered what the Mosaic Law defined, that is a multitude of bloody and bloodless sacrifices, but internally, in their hearts, they were indifferent to God. Other gods were worshiped there, their passions and desires. The Spirit of God through the prophet Isaiah says; “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?” “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.... When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood... Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.... Come now, and let us settle the matter” (Is 1:11. 15-16. 18). But Israel did not listen. They thought that by their sacrifices they would oblige God to help them. And in this way, they lost the divine adoption.
2. We must pay particular attention to another point, too. That is the manner of our worship. The priests Hophni and Phinehas, sons of the high Priest and Judge Eli, were exemplary punished by the Lord, because their behavior inside the Tabernacle was unacceptable (see 1 Sam 2:12-17, 22-36). Are we, priests and people, conscious of the sanctity of the church? Or do we often behave in this holy place, especially during the celebration of the Sacraments, as if we were in the marketplace? The fact that many times we do not understand what is being chanted or said, because the clergymen and chanters give more importance to the melody than to the meanings, also contributes to this situation. The apostle Paul faced a similar problem in the church of Corinth. In their worship gatherings, certain gifted people preached without explaining what they were saying. The result was that no one understood what was being communicated to them. In this way, no one benefited from it and the gathering resembled a madhouse. That is why the apostle took drastic measures (see 1 Cor 14). We often give emphasis to unnecessary luxury in our churches. Expensive vestments, coverings and objects that may provoke the faithful and give justification to the non-believers to accuse and mock the Church. Saint John Chrysostom emphasizes “The Church is not a goldsmith's shop or a silversmith's shop, but angels’ feast ... That table was not silver then, nor was made of gold the cup from which Christ gave his disciples his blood; but all those were precious and dreadful because they were filled with the Holy Spirit.” The holy Father says again that we do not honor the Lord's sacrifice when we offer him gold objects but when we offer him our souls made of gold, because he was sacrificed for our souls.
3. Finally, Saint James the brother of God says that the worship that pleases God must have as a foundation the love for our brothers and purity, without worldly blemishes. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (Jas 1: 27). If we worship God but are indifferent to the sorrow and sufferings of our brothers and sisters, we are deceiving ourselves. The Lord showed by his word and his example that all those who suffer are Jesus himself “in another form”. So how is it possible to worship him and turn our backs on him at the same time? Also how is it possible to worship God and at the same time blemish ourselves with the filth of the “antichrist” world? “Adulterers and adulteresses!” Saint James says again, “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (Jas 4: 4).
The heart of Orthodox Christians’ life is to worship both with the Gospel and the Sacraments. Without them the believers die, their spirituality dies. We, therefore, have a duty towards the Church, for which Christ was sacrificed, to protect it from any alteration and corruption and to keep it pure. Divine Worship is the Lord himself present in our lives.
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the article:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Τό θεμέλιο τῆς προόδου, περιοδ. "Ἀπολύτρωσις" 59 (2004) 28-30.
(Stergios N. Sakkos, University Profssor [Read CV])
It is the law of nature, which human ingenuity has made a law of mechanics: The height to which the top can reach, depends on the stability of the base. The roots go deep into the soil, so that the tree can grow and bear fruit. The builder digs deep into the ground in order to raise the building. How could the building possibly stand without a foundation? Similarly in the spiritual life, the inner holiness results in growth and progress. For this reason, the Holy Bible persistently emphasizes the necessity of inner purity, and the saints of the Church had as a goal of their lives to "dig inside".
In our times, seeming good externally and impressing others are priorities. A lot of attention and prayer is needed, so that the Christian does not lose the sailing course, does not "drift away", as the apostle Paul writes (Heb 2:1), and does not deviate from the right path. It is precisely in this need that our holy Church comes to help with its entire program. The Church exhorts and leads its children to a renewal of the inner man, to reach a spiritual "depth".
"Be on your guard", the apostle Peter exhorts the "beloved brothers" of his time but also of every era "so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 3:17-18). With the Baptism and the Anointing, we entered the area of "steadfastness", we were placed as "living stones" in the unshakeable foundation of the Church, which is Christ himself, and monopolizes salvation on earth. Our steady course within the Church ensures and guarantees our growth. It is our duty not to be left behind, fruitless; not to lose our steadfastness.
Undoubtedly, the ship of the Church is sailing safely to its heavenly destination. It will surely reach the serene port no matter how many storms it encounters. Our only anxiety is whether we, its members, will be on board, in the holy ark of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church until the end. And this anxiety is well-founded and justified, because serious dangers and powerful enemies threaten to us take us away from the Church, to snatch us from her arms, to uproot us from her vineyard! Some of them come from the outside; they are declared enemies of the Church while others spring from its bowels. Some of them are well-known, overt and powerful and others are insidious and camouflaged. How, then, will we remain steadfast, stable and growing in the ark of salvation? The centuries-long history of faith highlights the proven means that every believer must use for their steadfastness:
♦ The name of the Lord. “Jesus’ name scourges the enemies. There is truly no stronger weapon on earth nor in heaven”, stresses St. John of the “Kλίμαξ”. The simple prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me", is the umbrella, the lightning rod that neutralizes the passions. With its help, we are immersed deeper in grace and stabilized in the Church, on the ground of our salvation.
♦ The memory of death grounds us in reality as it reminds us of our transience and perishability. In this way it kindles the desire for the incorruptibility of eternity and the perfect reality of heaven. "For our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:20), emphasizes the apostle Paul. There, in heaven, our desires come true and our destiny is fulfilled. This certainty gives meaning and direction to our life here.
♦ Waiting for the Lord. "For you I keep myself chaste, and holding my shining lamps I run to meet You, my Spouse", chanted the Christians of the first centuries, as the saint and martyr Methodius, Bishop of Olympus reports. They waited daily for the Lord, and this feeling made their love warm, their faith alive, their hope immovable,
their repentance constant and overwhelming, their lives bright. And if the Second Coming of Christ does not take place in our days, who can assure us that death won’t come sooner than expected?
♦ Divine worship with the experience of prayer and the holy sacraments keeps open the communication with the reality of heaven and sanctifies our being.
♦ The word of God, the lives of saints and martyrs, the writings of the fathers of our Church are also proven helpers in the struggle of spiritual life.
♦ The example of the holy members of the Church is still a great support. There are still today, thank God, the good examples around us. Let them be our inspiration.
"If you have seen your brother, you have seen God," say the saints. The salvation of each one of us is a personal but also a collective affair, in the sense that within the body of the Church we walk along with our brothers. I cannot remain indifferent to their own salvation. I must stand as a brother in the need of the others. To feel them as brothers and to run alongside them. Here is the diamond foundation for the true progress of our world. This is the foundation for true spiritual fruitfulness.
Nowadays the enemies of the Church are organized against it, seeking to eradicate piety and wither faith. Every day we witness the relentless and merciless attack against faith. Don't let this alienate us or scare us! It should only remind us of our duty as members of Christ’s Church. Not only the saints who have passed from this world but also the faithful, who today are struggling and with the grace of God remain firm and rooted in the Orthodox faith, call us to stay alert. Let's stay steady and keep growing. In this way, our brothers stay steady and grow along with us, too. This is how the kingdom of God is spreading on Earth and our society prospers and becomes sweet.
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
REJOICE, THROUGH WHOM JOY SHALL SHINE FORTH!
Γράφτηκε από Super UserTranslation from the book:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, «Ὦ πανύμνητε Μῆτερ!», ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2010, σσ. 35-45 (Stergios N. Sakkos [Read CV], "You, all-laudable Mother", pp. 35-45)
Joy is a great and vital theme in our life. Man was created to live in the joy of paradise and he actually experienced it in his communion with God. But disobedience to God’s will, sin, took him out of paradise. So, ever since he lived with the great poverty caused by the lack of joy. But he did not stop looking for it wherever he suspected that he could find even a trace of it, a drop of joy. Man could be described as a "beggar of joy and a hunter of truth" or "a beggar and hunter of true joy".
Of course, the Lord, in his Sermon on the Mount, blesses those who mourn (Mt 5:4) and the Lord’s brother James exhorts: “Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” (Jas 4:9). Also, our Church always and especially during the period of Lent, strongly emphasizes mourning, repentance, deep distress for our sins. Perhaps this caused a misunderstanding: that Christians have nothing to do with joy but only with mourning. Some even equate Christianity with gloom. They claim that the Gospel opposes to joy, that it supposedly does not allow Christians to laugh and rejoice.
All this is said by those who do not know our Christian faith and they ignore the Bible. If they had read the book of Psalms even once, they would have found out how often it refers to joy, and in fact to complete, perfect joy. Perfect joy is both an internal and external state. It springs from the depths of the heart and is expressed in a variety of ways: “A happy heart makes the face cheerful” we read in the God-inspired Proverbs (Prov 15:13). Few of the many references from the book of Psalms will be cited here: “Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices” (Ps 15:9 [16:9]). “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy” (Ps 30:8 [31:7]). “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy” (Ps 66:5 [67:4]).
We must remember that there are two "joys": the true and the false; the joy of the Church and the joy of the world; the joy of Christ and the joy of Satan; the joy of purity and holiness and the joy of debauchery and prodigality. Our Lord has made things clear. He gave us the attributes of true joy, of His own joy.
And what is Christ’s joy? How does it stand out from the joy of the world? Christ’s joy has two basic features: permanence, " no one will take away your joy" (Jn 16:22), and fullness, " I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them" (Jn 17:13; cf. 15:11). That is why the apostle Paul urges the faithful: " Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil 4:4; cf. 1 Thess 5:16).
Jesus Christ in the famous farewell speech to his disciples, after the Last Supper, reveals that God is triune. It is very interesting that in that same speech (see Jn 13-16) the Lord presents another holy trinity, which has to do with our spirituality, with our sanctification. He speaks of love, peace and joy, which in fact He distinguishes from those of the world; He refers to His own love, to His own peace, to His own joy; “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.” (Jn 16:20).
These three great and important gifts that Christ gives to his disciples, namely love, joy and peace, which are connected with the Last Supper, are recorded by the apostle Paul as the first three fruits of the Holy Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” (Gal 5:22). What an amazing combination! How much it reveals and teaches us! Consequently, in order to have Christ’s love, to enjoy true peace, permanent and complete joy, we need the Holy Spirit. Only by the Holy Spirit do we obtain these great things, because these are His fruits.
That is why virgin Mary radiates with joy! She is the one who received in her life the visitation of the Holy Spirit in a unique way, as the angel foretold her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). With the Holy Spirit, the humble girl of Nazareth conceived the fruit of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, the donor of true and so the complete and inalienable joy. Thus, how can she not shine like the sun? She radiates her Son’s radiance. This is how the evangelist John saw her, as he writes in Revelation: "a woman clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1). This is how she has been experienced by the Church in the first Stasis (A) of the Akathist Hymn, in the first Salutation that greets her with this verse: “Rejoice, through whom joy shall shine forth; Rejoice, through whom the curse shall vanish.”
Do you want, then, to see joy not depicted in a painting, nor imprinted in a poem, but embodied in a person? Worship virgin Mary with reverence. She is the inexhaustible source of joy and the model of true joy. In the Small Supplicatory Canon (Small Paraklesis) we chant: " With gladness fill my heart, Most Holy virgin Lady, for you are she who received the abundant joy". Those who want to study joy, those who want to acquire joy, those who want to keep joy, those who want to rejoice, those who want to sing and praise the incarnated joy, let kneel before the blessed and highly favored Maria. In her virgin person they will meet joy at the highest and perfect degree.
"Your birth, O virgin Mother of God, proclaims joy to the whole world, for from you arose the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God;” we sing on the feast of the Nativity of the blessed virgin Mary. She is the one who gave birth to the source of true joy, the sun of righteousness. Her completely special and unique relationship with Jesus Christ made her a spiritual sun, which radiates joy to all, young and old; to the happy she increases their joy and to the sad ones she dissolves their sorrow. She did not cease to radiate joy even during her hard hours of pain, when she saw her Son naked, humiliated, wounded, hung on the cross; when a sword pierced through her soul, just as Simeon had prophesied (see Luke 2:35). In those moments when the pain pierced her soul, no other mother has ever experienced a pain greater than this one, the virgin Mary patiently endured. The Holy Spirit from within comforted and guided her, so that she could interpret the Lord’s Passion, to see in it the redemption of the human race. This is wonderfully expressed by many Theotokia and in fact Stavrotheotokia, which are chanted in the Services of Wednesday and Friday.
The value of a good and ripe fruit becomes obvious when we place it near a rotten or an unripe one. Genuine currency is better valued when compared to counterfeit currency. Similarly, the joy of our Most Holy Lady, the most favoured and obedient God’s servant, who co-operated in the mystery of our salvation, shines more dazzlingly when we compare it with the situation in which our race was led by Eve’s disobedience. This is what the second verse points out: “Rejoice, through whom the curse shall vanish.”
Our Most Holy Lady incarnates, expresses and gives to all of us the greatest, the strongest joy, because she played a unique role in the world history. She became God's partner in the fulfillment of the First Gospel=First Good News (see Ge 3:15)
• to crush the devil,
• to get rid of the "curse" of sin which Eve's disobedience brought us,
• and to lead us to salvation.
And while the ancestor of our race, Eve, by disobeying God’s will caused a curse on us, the virgin Mary with her free submission to God’s call brought the antidote to that first curse, redemption into the world and offered to all of us joy.
Of course, the Redeemer of mankind, the only and irreplaceable one, is Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul writes it simply and clearly in his Epistle to the Galatians; "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13) and our Church chants with gratitude in the “Kathisma” of Holy Thursday: “You have redeemed us from the curse of the law by Your precious Blood. Having been nailed to the Cross and pierced with a spear, You have poured forth immortality upon mankind. O our Savior, glory to You.” His Most Holy Mother is raised and honored for her special and unique relationship with the Redeemer. The Word of God took her own blood to become man and it is this blood that He shed on the cross for our redemption!
Our life can be characterized as a “valley of tears”. It is intertwined with sorrows and tears! And yet Christians, by believing in the Lord the Savior and through the intercessions of Ηis Most Holy Mother, can experience the exhortation of the apostle James; “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations” (Jas 1:2). They can rejoice with the apostle Paul, who in his adventures and sufferings never lost his joy; “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you” is what he writes to the Colossians (1:24) from the prison of Rome. From there he also wrote the famous Epistle to the Philippians, also known as the Epistle of Joy.
This does not mean that Christians remain insensitive to grief and various forms of pain. Anything but that! However, they live a mystery; even in pain they retain Christ’s joy. The joy of the world proves many times to be sad and its pleasure painful. On the contrary, in our Christian faith sorrow becomes joy, pain turns into sweet pleasure! Even the greatest suffering, which is caused by sin, which is the root and cause of all the pains in our lives, is neutralized in faith, because Jesus Christ’s redemptive blood "cleanses us from all sin" (1 Jn 1:7). With sincere repentance and confession of our sins, with a conscious sacramental life, we get rid of the burden of sin and live that peculiar kind of joy, which the holy Orthodox Fathers call " joyful sorrow".
When somebody experiences reconciliation with God, then all other burdens, all sufferings and problems, no matter how serious they may be, cannot take Christ’s joy away from them. These are his cross, through which he will be led to the resurrection. Our Church declares it “for behold through the Cross, joy has come in all the world”. In addition, our Jesus Christ said that the joy of his faithful is complete and no one can take it away. It cannot be taken away even by disease, slanders, persecutions and hardships, not even when the world defames us; even when our dearest friends betray and abandon us and turn into deadly enemies, not even by death! (see Rom 8:35-39). No one and nothing can steal from us Christ’s joy, the virgin Mary’s joy, the true joy that sanctifies us, enlightens us and guides us to the eternal land of joy, to the Paradise of our Lord. There is where the virgin Mary with all the saints live, where we all long to go. May we, with her intercessions, be able to hear the Lord to say about us as well; “Well done, good and faithful servant … Enter into the joy of your lord.” (Mt 25:21.23).
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the article:
Ἀποστόλου Παπαδημητρίου, Ὁ φωτισμός καί ὁ "Διαφωτισμός", περιοδ. "Ἀπολύτρωσις" 77 (2022) 8-9.
(Apostolos Papadimitriou, Electrical engineer, Columnist and Author)
The Epiphany is one of the oldest feasts of the Church. During it, the baptism of Christ is celebrated, which was followed by Ηis three years of public life, Ηis teaching, Ηis Passion and his Resurrection. For Christians in the West the Epiphany marks the enlightenment of humanity with the entry of God into the history of mankind. “O Christ our God, Who hath appeared and enlightened the world” is the final phrase of the Apolytikion of the celebration. And the people of God gave to the feast the name of the Light, because Christ enlightened the world with his epiphany. In remembrance of the event of baptism, the Church established the service of sanctification of the waters, which for centuries takes on a festive character in places near the sea, lake or river. This tradition was respected by our conquerors, even those of other religions. The people of God took care to bring a vessel to the church for the reception of the holy water. They used this to sanctify not only their family members, but also their animals and fields, their houses, and even their filthy stables, so that everything would have God's blessing. And they maintained stock for use throughout the year by adding water. And they did not hide their satisfaction that the holy water remained unaltered, which is a sign that our faith is alive, unlike others, even other Christian denominations.
Centuries passed. The West was detached from the body of the one, holy, catholic Church of Christ. The faith was altered, the image of the person was distorted. The ascetic view of life and traditions were devalued. Intellectualism under the influence of philosophical reflection “created a building” which didn’t have the teaching of Christ as its foundation. The consequences were painful. Freedom in Christ was replaced by the regime of feudalism and the "Inquisition", and the enlightenment of Christ was replaced, admittedly by most, by the darkness of the Middle Ages.
And when arbitrariness reached extreme manifestations, it provoked reaction, which manifested itself in the so-called religious reform. A feature of this was not the search for the truth lost in the realm of despotic papacy, but the arbitrary course which was not based on the tradition of the Apostolic Church that was ignored in the West, but on the personal beliefs and perceptions of the reformers. And the new fallacy proved to be worse than the first, as evidenced by the multi-fragmentation in the field of reformers and the unstoppable multiplication of their "churches"! They boasted that in "rationality" they built the "true" faith in Christ. That is why they were adversaries and particularly hostile to local traditions, which they collectively rejected as superstitions of the so called "dark" past!
The delusion of Western Christianity lies in its foundation in intellectualism and "rationalism", with which they believed they could persuade non-Christians to accept the faith of Christ, in essence their own faith. Thus their edifice, without Christ being its foundation, was swept away and fell by storm during the age of the so-called "Enlightenment". It was preceded, during the so-called "renaissance", the questioning of the authority of God's "representative" on earth. This was followed by the questioning of God himself as the God of history. He was initially repelled in the "heavens", as a God indifferent to his creatures, to be led to non-existence, which Nietzsche tragically proclaimed with the cry "God is dead"! The "god-killers" became gods themselves and undertook the task to illuminate the world with their own "lights", those of the "enlightenment"! And the world has since moved by the arrogance of the administrators of the soul-damaging experiment. They reassure the masses that everything is going well and that there is no need for concern, as they know too well how to manage the crises that they themselves cause! Selfishness does not allow them to shout Goethe’s (from the monologue of "Faust").
“I 've studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine, -
And even, alas! Theology,
From end to end, with labor keen;
And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before.
We, too, were dazzled by the "lights" of the West, when, after bloody sacrifices, we re-tasted the illusion of national freedom. According to Makrygiannis, our west-stricken compatriots, in the service of our foreign "protectors", conveyed the "lights" of Western Europe to our country as well, in order to illuminate us. Our people resisted this change/alteration with all the strength they had under slavery. In the end, they seem to succumb, accepting that "we belong to the West" and all the change that this brings with it as something inevitable. Our slavish attitude to everything that is foreign reveals the discrediting of our tradition. In fact, we brag foolishly: "We can live without Christ! Our planet is flooded with lights! It is high time we walked the path of "progress" opened by the people of the West, the "enlightened ones"!
When will we ever feel our spiritual darkness? I wonder…
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Translation from the book:
Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη ὁ Κύριος,
ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, ἔκδ. 3η, Θεσ/νίκη 2007, σσ. 160-164
(Stergios N. Sakkos [Read CV], The Lord is truly risen, pp. 160-164)
First of all, I will present a trial which, in fact, remains unknown. The high priests, the Pharisees and the Roman authorities, represented by Pilate, tried in every way to keep this out of the public eye. The evangelist Matthew saves a few but clarifying facts about this trial in some verses of the last two chapters of his Gospel. It is the trial of some soldiers of this guard, the sixteen-member Roman guard, which were under the jurisdiction of the religious leadership of the temple. With Pilate’s permission, this guard was placed outside Jesus’ grave by the Pharisees and the high priests. As a result, the disciples would not be able to steal the dead body and then spread the news that He was resurrected.
The tomb was secured “the next day, the one after Preparation Day” (Mt 27:62). These fanatical supporters of the Law about Sabbath did not even respect the Sabbath day. Why? Because they dreaded the Resurrection. They remembered that “while he was still alive that deceiver said”, while Jesus was still alive – therefore, they themselves confirmed that he was dead – He had said that “after three days I will rise again” (Mt 27:63). Although, the disciples did not keep in mind this prophecy at all, Jesus’s enemies and crucifiers were the only ones who believed it and they took every precaution to prevent its fulfillment. Indeed, with Pilate's approval, the high priests and Pharisees – after being sure that the dead body was inside - secured the tomb by putting a seal on the stone (Mt 27:66). What purpose did seals serve? They protected the tomb from the guards, while the soldiers guarded the tomb from the disciples or anyone else who would attempt to steal Jesus' dead body. The tomb was secured and the soldiers guarded the tomb. Now the high priests of Israel could sleep peacefully and “eat the Passover” happy and legally clean, free from sin (see Jn 18:28).
Their peace, however, was disturbed by the presence of these soldiers in Jerusalem the next morning, “on the first day of the week” (Mk 16:2). The high priests and elders were assembled and “had taken counsel” to judge the custodian guards. In their testimony, the soldiers reported to the chief priests everything that had happened (Mt 28:11-12). Being faithful to the mission assigned to them, they guarded the tomb. But at dawn “on the first day of the week”, after a terrible earthquake, they realized that the tomb was empty. How did that happen? They were unable to explain it. However, the high priests and elders understood it very well. Yes, despite the draconian measures they took, the prophecy of the “deceiver” was verified (Mt 27:63). Jesus Christ was risen. Therefore, he was not a deceiver but they themselves were deceived. How could they admit it, though? How could they confess it to the people? They would have to recant what they had said. For this reason, they find a formula which covers them, at least for the time being. They bribe the soldiers with “a large sum of money” (Mt 28:12), telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’” (Mt 28:13).
For Roman soldiers to fall asleep while on duty was a serious offense and punishable by death. What did the Roman ruler Pilate have to say about this? Normally, he should have beheaded the soldiers after the interrogation, as Herod did a little later, when an angel of the Lord released the imprisoned Apostle Peter. He “interrogated the guards and sentenced them to death” (Acts 12:19). Why was Pilate silent? Why did he not apply the law? The question was answered by the judges of these soldiers, the high priests, who assured that “If the governor hears about it” -the alleged negligence of the soldiers- (Mt 28:14), they would intervene themselves to convince him not to punish them. It is not difficult to understand how the high priests would achieve this. Bribery and blackmailing were the usual ways in which conquered peoples influenced conquering Romans.
So, the soldiers “took the money and did as they were instructed” (Mt 28:14), that is, they said that the disciples stole Jesus’ dead body of while they were sleeping. However, the testimony of the soldiers is not only unconvincing, but it also offends the judges-high priests. Saint Augustine aptly observes (Enarrationes in Psalmos 63, 15· Corpus Christianorum 39, 817) “Sleeping witnesses ye adduce: truly you yourself hast fallen asleep, that in searching such devices hast failed. If they were sleeping, what could they see? If nothing they saw, how are they witnesses? But they failed in searching searchings: failed of the light of God, failed in the very completion of their designs: when that which they willed, nowise they were able to complete, surely they failed”. If the judges relied on the words of the sleeping soldiers, they affirm that they made plans to deceive us. How did the soldiers, while sleeping, see that the disciples stole Jesus' body? If, on the other hand, they saw nothing, then what did they testify? Their testimony sounds as if they said: we testify that Jesus' disciples stole his body. Our testimony is completely indisputable, because at the time when the students were stealing the body, we were sleeping so deeply that we neither heard nor saw anything!
The result of the trial is that the “large sum of money” closed the mouths of the soldiers. But they were not able to keep the empty tomb closed, to prevent “the stone rolled away from the tomb” (Lk 24, 2) from revealing to the guards, to the crucifiers and to the whole world that Christ is Risen.
Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
ΤΟ ΚΑΝΑΛΙ ΜΑΣ
