On this, the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, we commemorate the Martyrs Probus, Tarachus, and Andronicus, at Tarsus in Cilicia (304), St. Cosmas the Hymnographer, Bishop of Majuma (ca. 787), Ven. Amphilochius, Abbot of Glushetsk (1452), Martyr Domnica of Anazarbus (286), St. Symeon the New Theologian (1021), the Virgin Martyr Anastasia of Rome, St. Jason of Damascus, St. Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours (400), St. Mobhi of Glasnevin (585), St. Edwin, King and Martyr (633), and St. Wilfrid, Archbishop of York (709).
Through the intercessions of Thy Saints, O Christ God, have mercy on us and save us!
Traditional Biblical Christianity is profoundly paradoxical. But many inquiring about our Orthodox Faith have no clear concept of the paradox, and little feeling for the vital role played by the many paradoxes in Christian teaching. So we need to explain what a paradox, and then communicate the crucial centrality of traditional Christian paradoxes.
So what is a traditional Christian paradox? Briefly, it is an iconic (i.e., revealing) statement of truth, containing in itself apparent contradictions. But these are not actual contradictions: they are balanced, and complimentary, aspects of the whole truth. The apparent contradictions in a real paradox, therefore, call for both/and rather then either/or understandings. In brief, in an authentic paradox, apparent contradictions find true balance.
The foregoing observation leads us right back to the Bible, for the great paradoxes of the Christian Faith are all enshrined in the pages of the New Testament. But we miss the full Biblical message if we fail to understand the paradox, for a complete manifestation of Eternal Truth can only be expressed in paradoxes. It must be stressed that the apparently contradictory teachings in Christian paradoxes are basic, complementary, and balanced elements in the whole truth. Questions constantly asked about Orthodoxy by non-Orthodox tend often to imply the either/or approach to paradoxes: "Do you believe in A, or B?" Most often the answer, however, is simply, "Yes." Here are some important examples, in effect quotations, of queries which I and other Orthodox hear frequently. The answers recorded below are those which this writer typically gives to these questions.
Q. 1."Is God One or Three?"
A. Yes. This, of course, is the primordial Christian paradox. As in all Christian paradoxes, however, there is no actual self-contradiction, just the subtle balancing of revealed truths. God's oneness refers (using human language, as we humans must, for reality which is beyond words) to His One Being or Substance. In terms of What God Is: God is One. His threeness refers to Who God Is: God is three Persons. God has three "Subjects" or "Centers of Being." In terms of "whoness" (persons, subjects, centers of being) God is Three; in terms of' "whatness" (being or substance) God is One.
Q. 2. "Do you believe in the Word, or in Sacraments?"
A. Yes. The written Word of God, the Bible, itself is sacramental. Written words are physical objects: marks on paper, carvings in stone, etc. Words in any form, like water, oil, bread, wine, are created things. Like the Bible, Sacraments manifest the Word. Every aspect of Orthodox life and worship is sacramental; sacramental worship totally needs and employs the power of the Word. Orthodox worship, by the way, abounds with Biblical readings, quotes and allusions.
Q. 3. "Do you believe in the Bible, or Tradition?"
A. Yes. The Bible itself is the core of the Sacred Tradition. Tradition, kin to our word trade, means "that which is handed over." The Bible uses tradition (as it uses world sad flesh) in two distinct senses, one pejorative, the other positive. Tradition, used negatively in a few places, means "merely human traditions." But in many other places tradition refers to what is handed over from God to the believer (e.g. II Thess. 2:15, 3:6. The Greek verb "to tradition" is in Jn. 19:30, Rom. 6:17; I Cor. 11:23; 15:3; II Pet. 2:21; Jude 3.)
Q. 4. "What saves us, faith or good works?"
A. Yes. Faith itself, being a human action, is a work. But the ability to exercise Faith is a gift of Grace. Good works are manifestations of Grace, and empowered by Grace. (See James 2:17-26)
Q. 5. "Do you believe in God's grace, or in human efforts?"
A. Yes. Grace is the free gift of God, God Himself at work in our lives. Our sincere struggles and most diligent efforts are enabled entirely by God's Grace. With that fact in mind we can truly say with abject humility, "I am nothing," while at the same time affirming with joy, "By Grace, I am truly something special." By Grace we can and must cooperate with Grace: we call this process synergy.
Q. 6. "Do you believe the Communion Service is a sacrifice, or merely a memorial service?"
A. Yes, The word memorial, remembrance, in Hebrew thought means to make the past present, and the invisible manifest, with power. (e.g. I Kings 17:18) Jesus Himself calls the Service He instituted on the night he was betrayed His Memorial, the memorial of His Sacrifice. It is a quite non-biblical to equate sacrifice with killing. In the Bible sacrifice essentially means not death but the offering of a sacred gift. (See Mt. 5:23-24.)
Orthodoxy has taught for nearly 2000 years that the Eucharistic Liturgy is the Mystical (Sacramental) Memorial of Christ's historic One Sacrifice: the Liturgy is a real Sacrifice precisely because it is the Memorial of Christ's Sacrifice!
Q. 7. "Do you believe that the Church is hierarchical or instead, communitarian?"
A. Yes. The Church in many places is likened by St. Paul to a Body. A body, unlike a mere collective or conglomeration, is by nature both hierarchical and communitarian, not one or the other.
Q. 8."Do you believe in the ordained priesthood, or in the priest-hood of all believers?"
A. Yes. There is one Christian Priesthood, that of Christ. The Church, the Body of Christ, participates fully in the one Priesthood of Christ. Each member of the Priestly Body, the Church, shares in the Priestly Ministry of Christ. The Bishop with his Presbyters (Priests) and Deacons, are ordained to manifest, exercise, and participate in me Priesthood of Christ in specific liturgical and pastoral ways.
Q. 9."When you speak of misconduct, do you think of it as destructive behavior, or as sin?"
A. Yes. Sin is by nature destructive behavior. The Ten Commandments are not "merely of human origin," but warning signs from the Creator. Wishful thinking can't transform sin into healthy behavior.
- Excerpt from Doxa Newsletter by Brother Andrew
of St. Michael?s Skete, Caņones, New Mexico.
One can distinguish five reasons why God allows the devils to attack us:
- St. Maximus the Confessor (+682)