The Institute for Orthodox Studies- CAMBRIDGE
11th January 2002
Some reflections on
The meaning of the Church
From a Middle Eastern point of view
Bishop John Yazigi of Pyrgou
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve…” (1Co15:1-8)
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Mystery “which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom16:25-26). But He came to us and became a man to give us His “great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2Pe1:4). And we partake of these mysteries when we are born in Christ and become members of His body, the Church, by the mysteries of Baptism, Chrism and Eucharist. In so doing, we become branches of the life-giving Vine. We purge our selves, then we become illuminated; thus God sanctifies us, declaring Himself to us and uniting us to Him. This means that He makes us children of God through our rational worship. In that worship God, through the Holy Spirit, draws us to Himself and to the Church, His Body, so that we grow in grace and stature, becoming perfect persons ”unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ … a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing”(Eph4:13,5:27).
The Holy Mysteries of Baptism, Chrism and the Eucharist are the Mysteries by which man enters the Church of Christ.
A) - Baptism is the door through which we enter life in Jesus Christ. Adam fell and became estranged from true life and existence, that is, from God. Baptism is the new birth from above, not from flesh and blood, nor through the will of man, but from God (John1:12-13, 3:3-7), and by that new birth we return to our first beauty and our true existence.
In Baptism man participates in the death of Jesus and His resurrection. He puts on Jesus and takes off the old man. He becomes the bride of Christ, adorned with divine beauty and loved by the Groom, Who gave Himself for him unto death, with a perfect and endless love. Baptism is entry upon a new life, by which man is enlisted in Christ’s service and commits himself to complete the course and to finish the way of his enlightenment and deification in the “image of His creator”(Col3:10).
B) - Holy Chrism is the mystery by which is given the seal and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts cause the new life received in Baptism to grow and they direct it to full perfection.
C) - Eucharist, the Mystery of thanksgiving, is the Lord’s banquet by which Jesus offers Himself to us as real food and drink through a bloodless sacrifice, it is the extension of the sacrifice on the cross, where the Great High Priest gave Himself as the Lamb, once for all, shedding His precious Blood for the salvation of the world.
In Communion a man participates in the Body and Blood of the Lord and is truly united with Him. This union with Christ, and the abiding in Him, is what grants to man eternal life (John6:54). This is what makes man a participant in the Divine Nature (2Pe1:4).
The liturgical and Eucharistic gathering is the clearest expression of the mystery of the church as the Body of Christ. It is the Church herself who performs the Eucharist. It is the Eucharist itself which constitutes the Church and unites her members, nourishing them with life. For this reason the Mystery of the Eucharist realises the unity of the Church and consolidates the interrelations between the faithful (1Co10:17).
The Holy Mysteries of Baptism, Chrism and the Eucharist are the mysteries of initiation, by which man enters the Church of Christ. Holy Baptism is the mystery of second birth, and by it man is born into Christ. But in Holy Chrism, those gifts of the Holy Spirit are given that strengthen man to grow in this new life and guide him into all Truth, so that he may become a permanent witness to the name of the Lord. Finally, in Holy Communion, there is participation in the revered Body and Blood of the Lord. By these three Mysteries man’s joining to the Church is completed.
For the Christian man his joining to the Church is not abstract, for he lives this truth in his heart. He tries to follow Christ, because he believes that Christ is his role model, Type and Typikon: “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you” (Joh13:14-15).
The Gospels talk of following Christ, and the Epistles remember that Christ is our example. This means that Christ acts in the Church not only as the Christ of history, but as the Christ of glory, the true Savior and God. The Apostle Paul asks us all to be his followers, even as he also is of Christ (1Co11:1). This means that the following of Christ is not an external formality, but a true and complete servility to God: “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2Co5:16-18).
The man imitates the Christ who has suffered: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1Pe2:21). And he who has participated in the suffering of Christ will participate also in His resurrection and His ascension.
The main condition for our life in Christ is Love and man’s denial of himself; the reconciliation of man with his brother and with God. The risen Christ has not been watched by the whole world, but only by His disciples: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (Joh14:18-21). This means that the seeing of God obliges man to change from a slave and enemy to a friend of God. This friendship is not in the terms of this world: “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you”(Joh15:14-15).
This friendship of man with God shall be completed when man, by God’s grace, participates in the mystery of the cross, in the death and the resurrection of Christ. For the Christian, to take up the cross is not simply to carry the problems and difficulties of this life, but to die for the old things and become a new man. The Cross is a voluntary and ceaseless struggle to liberate us from the slavery of sin by keeping the commandments and obeying the will of God until death: “I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (Joh12:24-25). This means that the Cross is the purged, illuminated and sanctified power of God.
The face of Jesus Christ is the prototype for the believers: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abides which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1Co3:11-15). The joining to the Body of Christ, the Church, is completed by the Holy Mysteries, and the imitation of Christ is completed by the obedience to the will of God and by the Personal and voluntary participation in the Mystery of death and resurrection. Hence, man takes off the old Adam and wears the new Adam and is sanctified by Grace. In this way, the Church becomes a sacred nation, the “glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Eph5:27).