On this, the 6th Sunday of Pascha, we commemorate the miracle wrought by our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ upon the man who was blind from his birth. We also remember the Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him at Rome (166), St. Mertius the Farmer of Myra in Lycia (912), the Ven. Dionysii, Abbot of Glushetsk (1437), Ven. Agapit, Unmercenary Physician of the Kiev Caves (11th c.). Fifth Tone.
Those who wish to unite with Christ, with God the Father -- through Christ -- are aware that this union takes place in Christ's body, which is our Holy Orthodox Church -- a union, of course, not with the Divine essence, but with the deified human nature of Christ. However, this union with Christ is not external, nor simply moral. We are not followers of Christ as some men are followers of a philosopher or a teacher. We are members of Christ's body, of the Church. The Church is the body of Christ, the real, not the moral one, as some theologians have erroneously theologized, having not probed deeply into the spirit of the Holy Church. Christ takes us Christians, despite our unworthiness and sinfulness, and embodies us in His body. He renders us members of Himself and we truly, not morally, become members of His body. The Apostle Paul says: "We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones" (Ephesians 5:30).
Of course, depending on Christians' spiritual condition, at times they are living members of Christ's body and at other times they are dead members. But even as dead members, they do not cease to be members of Christ's body. For example, a baptized person has already become a member of Christ's body. If he does not confess, does not receive communion and if he does not live spiritually, he is a dead member of Christ's body.
Nevertheless, when he repents, he is instantly imbued with divine life and becomes a living member of Christ's body. He does not need rebaptism. The unbaptized, though, is not a member of Christ's body even if he leads a moral life. He needs to be baptized, to become a member of Christ's body, to be embodied in Christ.
As to members of Christ's body, Christ's life is offered to us and it becomes our life. Thus, we are given life, saved and deified: an impossibility had God not made us members of His holy body.
According to the holy Fathers, our salvation would be an impossibility were it not for the Church's Holy Sacraments which embody us in Christ and render us of the same body and of the same blood as Christ. What a great blessing, to be partakers of the sacred sacraments! Christ becomes ours. His life our life. His blood our blood. Hence, St. John Chrysostom remarks that God has nothing more to offer man than what He offers him at Holy Communion. Nor can man ask from God anything more than what he receives from Christ at Holy Communion.
Thus, Baptized, Chrismated and having confessed, we partake of the Lord's Body and Blood and become gods by Grace. We unite with God. We are no longer strangers, but intimates to Him.
In the Church, where we unite with God, we experience this new reality that Christ brought to the world: the new creation. This is the life of the Church and of Christ, a life which becomes ours as a gift from the Holy Spirit.
In the Church, all things lead towards deification - the Holy Liturgy, the Sacraments, divine Worship, the Gospel preaching, fasting, everything. The Church is the sole place of deification.
The Church is not a social, cultural or historical foundation that can resemble other foundations in the world. It is not like the various institutions of the world. Institutions, organizations, foundations and other nice things may be found in the world. However, our Orthodox Church is the unique place for God's communion with man, the sole place for man's deification. Man can become god only in the Church, nowhere else. Not in the universities nor in the social services nor in anything else beautiful and good which the world has to offer. All that, good though it may be, cannot offer what the Church offers.
That is why the worldly institutions and systems can never substitute for the Church, however much progress they may make.
It is possible for us, weak and sinful people, to undergo crises and difficulties from time to time within the Church. It is possible that scandals may take place in the bosom of the Church. These happen because, in the Church, we are on journey to deification, and it is only natural that human weaknesses exist. We are not gods, but we become gods. Much as these things may occur, we will never turn away from the Church, because in it we have the only possibility of union with God.
For example, when we go to church to attend the holy Liturgy and meet there people who do not pay attention to the divine Liturgy and who in fact talk to each other, causing distraction, a reasonable thought passes through our mind. This thought is: "What is it that I actually gain from coming to church? Would it not be better if I stayed at home where I would have more peace and comfort for prayer?"
We, however, must prudently contradict this evil thought: "I may have more external peace at home but I will not have God's Grace to deify and sanctify me. I will not have Christ who is present in His Church nor will I have His Holy Body and His precious Blood which are found in His Holy Church, on the Holy Table. I will not partake in the Mystical Supper of the Holy Liturgy. I will be severed from my brethren in Christ who together with me compose Christ's body." Consequently, whatever happens, we will not leave the church, for only within it do we find the path to deification.
- from Deification as the Purpose of Man's Life
by Archimandrite George, Abbot of Gregoriou, Mt. Athos
The present age is temporal - compared with the future one it is like a drop in the ocean. So no longer attach your mind to temporal and earthly things, but to the incorruptible and heavenly things. Let us long with our whole soul for heavenly things and with God's help we shall obtain them. Let your recollection, says St. Hyperechios, be in the Kingdom of the heavens and you shall quickly inherit it. So please, my brethren, let us not be negligent and drowsy.
- Blessed Elder Philotheos Zervakos (+1980)
+ The purer the heart is, the larger it is, and the more able it is to find room within it for a greater number of beloved ones; while the more sinful it is, the more contracted it becomes, and the less number of beloved can it find room for, because it is limited by self-love, and that love is a false one.
- St. John of Kronstadt (1908)