[I\u2019ve read his books, admire his work, met him, and consider myself a \u201cfan\u201d. But I honestly have no idea what His Eminence is trying to say in this article. Perhaps something got lost in translation?]<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.straphaelnc.com\/vlachos.jpg\")
The Orthodox Church is the Church of the Resurrection, because it gives prominence to Christ\u2019s victory over death. Pascha is the overcoming of death, the passage of the Word to the human nous and not the diffusion of the nous to human reason and senses.<\/p>\n
When one examines the \u201cethos\u201d of the Orthodox, one finds that it sheds the \u201cspirit\u201d and the life that comes out of the Tomb: the \u201clife in the tomb\u201d as the hymns say. It is a blaze and orgasm of life. This is where the difference between western Christianity and the Orthodox Church can be seen:<\/p>\n
*Saint Francis, in Kanzantzakis\u2019 biography, reaching the highest degree of spiritual life by feeling \u201cGod crucified\u201d in his body. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s a cross, Brother Leone, man\u2019s body is a cross \u2014 open your arms and you will see \u2014 God is crucified upon it\u201d. And he prayed, \u201cMy Christ, my love, I ask one favour of you, one favour for me before I die \u2014 that I may feel in my body and soul, as far as possible, Your pain and Your Holy passion\u2026\u201d He reached the point of seeing the wounds of the Cross on his body, and while he asked for another, greater, experience, he heard a divine voice saying: \u201cDo not ask for more; this is where man\u2019s ascent ends at the Crucifixion!\u201d<\/p>\n
*On the other hand, an Orthodox saint, St. Silouan the Athonite, saw the Resurrected Christ and experienced Pascha within his being and within creation. Following the vision of Christ resurrected he said, \u201cI was living in a paschal feast. Everything was beautiful; the world was grand, people were pleasing, nature was unspeakably lovely, the body changed and became light, strength was added \u2026 the soul overflowed with joy, it had compassion on people and prayed for the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n
This difference between Western and Eastern thinking is seen in the difference between Sartre and St. Serpahim of Sarov. The former (Sartre) disillusioned by western Christianity said \u201cThe other is my hell!\u201d. The latter (saint Seraphim of Sarov) addressed everyone who met him with the greeting \u201cChrist is Risen, my joy\u201d. Each and every \u2018other\u2019 is not \u2018different\u2019 a \u2018stranger\u2019 a \u2018foreigner\u2019 , but a brother. The experience of the Resurrection overcomes death, neutralizes selfishness, abolishes Hades. Otherwise, man is enclosed in his own personal hell.<\/p>\n
Mortal problems
<\/strong>
In celebrating \u201cour Pascha\u201d as \u201cthe feast of feasts\u201d and as \u201cthe death of death, the first-fruits of another life that is eternal\u201d we feel within ourselves and around ourselves the scent of spiritual death, of life that is before the Resurrection of Christ.<\/p>\nWe live biological life simply as survival, and indeed, mortal. We chant \u201cChrist is Risen!\u201d, we celebrate on the outside, but the bitterness of Hades rules within us, often even in church life. The remembrance of death is bitter, so too the pain of loneliness. The venomous constraints in the field of Christianity are bitter, even in the Church itself, which continues to be the Church of the Resurrection and to preach the mystery of the Resurrection.<\/p>\n
Our various passions keep us away from the existential festival of life. The various pressures make church life feel different. Christians divided by various political considerations, the Orthodox with various rivalries amongst themselves, does not remind us of the Resurrected Christ at all.<\/p>\n
The crucifixion of the Orthodox Church continues. The wounds of the Cross of the Church in Jerusalem, from internal weaknesses and external influences blacken the \u201cHoly Fire\u201d that comes from the Sepulchre of Christ. The political opportunism, the nationalistic racists with all too human passions do not allow the joy of the Resurrection to shine out as light to the people around.<\/p>\n
The domineering powers that can be seen in all Christian confessions drain away the \u201cJoy to all\u201d, the \u201cPeace unto you\u201d, the \u201cbe of good cheer\u201d, because they are ruled by other alien powers, foreign to the \u201cspirit\u201d of the Resurrected Christ. Unfortunately, politics, often in ecclesiastical dress, are the nails of the crucified Church, the bride of the Resurrected Christ. And the worldly-led pressures take place in the name of the term \u201cmother Church\u201d.<\/p>\n
In accordance with the decisions of the Ecumenical Synods and the later secession of the Papal Church from the truth of Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the First Throne \u2013 mother Church. However, some Orthodox Churches are trying to raise up the Church of Jerusalem into this place and they call her mother Church, at the expense of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Even the new Pope, as President of the Committee for the teaching of the Faith, which is an continuation of the Inquisition, a few years ago (2000), published a text which examined the term \u201csister Churches\u201d, which had been used both by Patriarch Athenagoras as well as by the Second Vatican Council. He explained that \u201cThe holy, catholic and apostolic universal Church (meaning the Roman Catholic) is not a sister, but the mother of all the particular churches.\u201d So he recommends that \u201cOne should avoid, as a cause of misunderstanding and theological confusion, the use of terms such as \u201cour two Churches\u2026\u201d The Ecumenical Patriarchate is thus undermined and a worldly expression of
the Church can be seen.<\/p>\n
The True Pascha of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\nOur Pascha, as the victory over death and the experience of life, is lived out today despite the secular-minded powers and tendencies. It is experienced by those who live humbly and existentially within the sphere of the Church, away from secularization, racism and political considerations and can be clearly seen in the relics of saints. Normally, the bodies of those saints that have fallen asleep, which are a just mass of cells, within which are included the cells for ageing, should rot away. However, the power and grace of the Resurrection does not let them break up, something which proves they have overcome death. The saint is a person who is asleep awaiting the last wake up call. This is our Pascha, as a mystery of the Resurrection, and not as a religiousized Christianity with the passion of love of precendence, of division, of rivalry. \u2018Our Pascha\u2019 cannot be replaced by \u2018our Religion\u2019, which lives under the rule of death. Resurrected Christ cannot be made up of political expressions of Christianity, and the power of the Resurrection cannot fit within \u201cChristian States\u201d. It is experienced apophatically, hesychastically, with eros, and humility.<\/p>\n
Translated from: http:\/\/www.enet.gr\/online\/online_text?c=110&id;=34938448.
Originally posted on the Orthodox (Indiana) List by Marina Robb.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by His Eminence, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos [I\u2019ve read his books, admire his work, met him, and consider myself a \u201cfan\u201d. But I honestly have no idea what His Eminence is trying to say in this article. Perhaps something got lost in translation?] The Orthodox Church is the Church of the Resurrection, because it gives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1691,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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