Elder Aimilianos: We live in Common

When all is said and done, what is Athonite life? A human society containing God. It is bliss, consisting, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa says, in this: “Having God within oneself ‘. God lives and moves among them.
But what of the world, all of us who make up human society, who is our bliss if not God? The God of all flesh, our God, too?
But you’ll say to me: “We’re swamped every day by the problems of life, by pain, by sickness by sin, by concerns, by the ragged tatters of our past life. We’re worldly”.
All right! So does that mean that since you’re swamped, or that since you’re such sinners – as much as I am, as much as any Athonite – that you aren’t children of God?
But, again, you’ll say to me: “We don’t see God, either as light or as darkness. We don’t have such experiences. They’re just dreams for us. How can we bear up in life? There’s only impotence and dejec­tion around us, only darkness”.
What is all this, dear friends? No! We live in common and we see in common. Why do you think of yourself as an individual and not as a member of Christ? Is the faith and experience of others foreign to us? What did we say before? “It is said that God dwells in darkness”. And the mystic, the heavenly author, goes on to say concerning the Apostle Paul, and this is surely true, that he saw Christ: “And, indeed, the divine Paul is said to have known God”.
What does this mean? It means that the saints say, the Scriptures mention time and again, the Fathers confirm, Paul confesses and the experience of the mystical life proclaims that God dwells in darkness and in light. If you have not seen Him, not recognised him, what does that matter? Are you the touchstone of truth? No. Which is why the experience of the Church has told it, tells it and writes it. And, since you have heard it – which is precisely why it has greater significance – your senses are not deceiving you.
This is why the Mountain insists on a tradition, a pre-eternal trad­ition, so as to have the certainty it possesses. The Mountain is to be believed, because it does not say anything which it has simply produced today. It is authentic because its witness goes all the way back to Christ. It has and gives life and life is God Himself, your God!
Scripture says: “The breath of man is the light of the Lord, Who searches the innermost parts of the belly”". Do you hear that? The light of God is our breath. In other words, we would have died were it not for the light of God, even if invisible. You therefore have the light, so believe in what you have, because at some stage that will place you on the right hand of God. It is enough to recollect and to know: like breath it enters into you and fills your innermost parts with life. Have you then no breath? You have. And yet you do not have light? You do not have God? Impossible. Your breath conceals this light. Catch hold of your breath. You are holding God there! God has come to dwell in us and searches the depths of our souls and sees our desires.
It was a cause of great distress to one monk that, although his Elder was a holy man, he himself did not feel he was experiencing God. And do you know what he did? He would fall down on his knees and kiss the earth, the stool, the door of the Elder’s cell, whatever was inside, and would say: “Christ is here, too. I’m kissing Christ”.
Another used to kiss the donkey which eased his way on rising ground, because it helped him comprehend God, Who gives rest to those who are weary and heavy-laden. You alone are without God?
You, too, can kiss the earth you tread upon. Where your wife treads, your husband, your child, the place where you pray, where you cense, where you cry. Comprehend Christ there, and kiss the place yourself, because it is a sign that God has passed that way.
The Holy Mountain has shown us and tells us that the grace of God is active everywhere. Do you know what Saint John the Damascan calls divine grace? “A vault of God”. That is a leap of God. There where you are sitting, where for years you have been expecting God and not found Him, He all of a sudden leaps and enters you, embraces you, kisses you and fills you with the breath of His nostrils, with His love, His being, His triunity.
It is as easy for God to leap and come into our lives as it is for anyone to jump. Just as He leaps on the peaks of Athos, as He gets into the little boats and caves, the crannies, everywhere, comprehen­ding the desires, the pains and the tears of the Athonites, so He com­prehends the least cry of your soul, of the souls of all.

Condemned to Immortality by Saint Justin Popovich

Men have condemned God to death; God, however, has by His Resurrection "sentenced" men to immortality. In return for their buffets, He offers embraces; for their insults, blessings; for death, immortality. Never have men shown such enmity for God as when they crucified Him; and never has God shown such love for men as He did in resurrecting. Men wish to render God mortal, but God by His Resurrection designed to make men immortal. The crucified God resurrected and overcame death. Death is no more. Immortality has overtaken man and the whole of his world.

Through the Resurrection of the God-Man, the nature of man has been led irrevocably to the path of immortality, and death has thus become fearful. For, before the Resurrection of Christ, death was something feared by man; but after the Resurrection of the Lord, man has become something fearful for death. If a man lives in Faith within the Resurrected God-Man, he lives above death. He stands impregnable by death. Death is transformed into a "footstool beneath his feet": "O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?" (I Corinthians 15:55). Therefore, when a man in Christ breathes his last, he sheds only the shell of his body, to be clothed with it once again on the day of the Second Coming.

Until the Resurrection of the God-Man Christ, death was the second nature of man; the first was life, the second death. Man had become used to death as something natural. But with the Resurrection of the Lord, all things changed: immortality became the second nature of man. It has become something natural to man, whereas death is rendered unnatural. Just as before the Resurrection of Christ it was natural for man to be mortal, so after His Resurrection it has become natural for man to be immortal.

Through sin, man was made mortal and limited; through the Resurrection of the God-Man, he becomes immortal and eternal. In this precisely lie the power, the dominion, and the omnipotence of the Resurrection of Christ. Moreover, without the Resurrection of Christ there would be no Christianity at all. Among miracles, the greatest of all is the Resurrection of the Lord. All of the other miracles spring forth form the Resurrection and are centered within it. From it spring forth faith, love, hope, prayer, and godliness. The fugitive Disciples, they who fled far from Jesus when He died, returned to Him when he resurrected. And the Roman centurion, when he saw Christ resurrect from the tomb, confessed Him as the Son of God. It was in this way that all of the early Christians became Christians —because Christ resurrected, because He conquered death. This is that which not one other religion has; it is this, the Resurrection, which exalts Christ above all other men and above all other gods. It is this which, in a singular and indisputable manner, shows and proves that Christ is the only true God and Lord of all the seen and unseen worlds.

By the grace of the resurrection of Christ, by the grace of His conquest over death, men became, are now becoming, and will in the future become Christians. All of Christian history is nothing other than that of one singular miracle, the miracle of the Resurrection of Christ, which is eternally contained within the hearts of Christians from day to day, from year to year, and from age to age, until the Second Coming.

Man is truly born, not when he is brought into the world by his mother, but when he comes to believe in the Resurrected Savior, Christ; for then he is born into immortality and eternal life, while the mother brings a child only into death, to the grave. The Resurrection of Christ is the mother of all of us, all of us Christians —the mother of all who are deathless. By his faith in the Resurrection of Christ, man is born anew, born into eternity.

This is impossible, the skeptic responds. And the Resurrected God-Man replies: "All things are possible to him who believes" (St. Mark 9:23). And one who believes is he who, with all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his being, lives according to the Gospel of the Resurrected Lord Jesus.

Our Faith is the victory in which we conquer death; faith, that is, in the Resurrected Lord. "O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?" "The sting of death is sin" (I Corinthians 15:55-56). By His Resurrection, the Lord "removed the sting of death." Death is the serpent and sin is its sting. Through sin, death injects its poison into the souls and bodies of men. The more sins that a man has, the more powerful the sting by which death injects its poison into him.

When a wasp stings a person, the person makes every possible effort to extract the stinger from his body. But when he is stung by death —this sting of Hades—, what should he do? He must, with faith and prayer, call upon the Resurrected Savior, Christ, that He may take from his soul the sting of death. And He, compassionate as He is, will do so, for He is the God of Mercy and Love. When many wasps set upon a man's body and wound him with their stings, a man becomes poisoned and dies. The same thing happens when a man is wounded by the many stings of manifold sins. He who is not resurrected from sin succumbs to death.

By conquering the sin within him through Christ, a man conquers death. If a single day passes and you have not yet conquered at least one of your sins, realize that you have become all the more mortal. If, however, you have overcome one, two, or three of your sins, you have become more greatly renewed in that newness that does not age: immortality and eternity. Let us never forget that, for one to believe in Christ, this means that he must struggle ceaselessly against sin, evil, and death.

A man demonstrates that he truly believes in the Resurrected Lord by his struggle against the passions and against sin; and if he so struggles, he must know that he struggles for immortality and for eternal life. If he does not struggle, then his faith is in vain. For, if a man's faith is not a struggle for immortality and eternity, then what is it? If by faith in Christ one does not attain to immortality and victory over death, then to what end our faith? If Christ is not resurrected, this means that sin and death have not been conquered. And if these two things have not been overcome, then why should anyone believe in Christ? He who, through faith in the Resurrection of Christ, struggles against his every sin, however, has profound reinforcement within himself of a sense that Christ is in fact resurrected, that He has in fact removed the sting of death, that He has in fact conquered death on all fronts of battle.

Sin deeply scars man, draws him near to death, and transforms him from something immortal to something mortal, from something incorruptible and unbounded into something corruptible and limited. The more sins a person has, the more mortal he becomes. And if a man does not feel himself immortal, it is obvious that he is wholly mired in sin, in short-sighted thought, and in dead feelings. Christianity is a call to a struggle to the last breath against death, until, that is, the final victory over death. Every sin is a falling-away, every passion a betrayal, every evil deed a defeat.

No one should ask why it is that the Christian succumbs to bodily death. This comes about because the death of the body is a kind of sowing. The mortal body is sown, St. Paul tells us (see I Corinthians 15:42ff), and is raised in power, becoming immortal. Like the seed that is sown, so too the body dissolves, that the Holy Spirit might give it life and perfect it. If the Lord had not resurrected in the body, what benefit would we have taken in this from Him? He would not have saved the whole man. Had He not resurrected the body, then why was He made flesh? Why did He take upon Himself a body, were it not to give to it of His Divinity?

If Christ did not resurrect, why should anyone then believe in Him? I confess sincerely that I would never have believed in Christ, had He not resurrected, had He not conquered death, our greatest enemy. But Christ was resurrected, and He gave to us immortality. Without this truth, our world is nothing but a chaotic display of odious stupidities. Only with His glorious Resurrection does our wondrous Lord and God free us from despair and senselessness. For without the Resurrection, there is nothing more senseless in the heavens or under the heavens than the present world; nor is there greater despair than this life without immortality. For this reason, in all the world there is no more misfortunate a being than a man who does not believe in the Resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead (see Corinthians 15:19). "Better for that man if he had not been born" (St. Matthew 26:24).

In our mundane world, death is the greatest torment and the most hideously cruel thing. Freedom from this torment and cruelty is precisely what salvation is. Such salvation was given to the generation of man only by the Conqueror of Death, the Resurrected God-Man. Through His Resurrection, He revealed to us the whole mystery of our salvation. Salvation means to be guaranteed immortality and eternal life for the body and for the soul. But how do we succeed in this? Only in the life of the God-Man, in the life of the Resurrection, through the Resurrected Christ.

For us Christians, life on this earth is a school in which we learn how to secure for ourselves immortality and eternal life. For of what benefit is this life, if we cannot attain to eternity within it? But for a man to be resurrected with Christ, a man must first die with Him and live the life of Christ as his own. If he does this, then on the Day of Resurrection he may say, along with St. Gregory the Theologian: "Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him, today I am given life with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him, today I rise with Him."

And in a few single words we may summarize the four Gospels of Christ: "Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!" In each of these words one can find the Gospel of Christ, as in the four Gospels one may find all of the knowledge of the whole of God's world, both known and unknown. And when the feelings of man, along with all of his thoughts, are centered on the thundering din of the Paschal greeting, "Christ is Risen!," then the joy of immortality moves all things, and all things in rejoicing proclaim the Paschal miracle: "Indeed He is Risen."

Yes, Christ is indeed risen! and a witness of this is you; I am a witness; every Christian is a witness of this, beginning with the Apostles and reaching up through the Second Coming. Because only the power of the Resurrected God-Man Christ can give —and continually gives now and will continually give in the future— the power to each Christian, from the first to the last, to conquer all that is mortal, and by this death itself; all that is sinful, and by this sin itself; and all that is demonic, and by this the devil himself. For simply by His Resurrection, the Lord, in the most convincing way, showed and proved that His life is Eternal Life; His love, Eternal Love; His good, Eternal Good; His truth, Eternal Truth; and His joy, Eternal Joy. He also showed and demonstrated that all of these things He gives, in His incomparable love of mankind, to every Christian in every age.

With regard to these things, there is not a single event, not only in the Gospels, but in the entire history of the human race, to which greater testimony has been given, in a manner so forceful, so unimpeachable, and so undisputed, than the Resurrection of Christ. Without doubt, Christianity, in all of its historical reality, in all of its historical force and omnipotence, has been established on the fact of the Resurrection of Christ, that is, on the Hypostasis of the God-Man Christ in Eternal Life. And to this all of the long and ever-miraculous history of Christianity bears witness.

Indeed, if there is one fact with which one could summarize all of the events in the life of Christ and of the Apostles, and more generally in all of Christianity, that event would be the Resurrection of Christ. Moreover, if there is a reality which summarizes all of the realities of the New Testament, that reality would be the Resurrection of Christ. And finally, if there is one miracle in the Gospels which can be said to summarize all of the miracles reported in the New Testament, that miracle would be the Resurrection of Christ. For only within the light of the Resurrection are the person of Jesus Christ and His work made miraculously known. Only within the light of the Resurrection are the miracles of Christ, all of His truths, all of His words, and all of the events of the New Testament fully explained.

Up to the time of His Resurrection, the Lord taught about eternal life; but in the Resurrection, He shows us that He Himself is Eternal Life. Up to the time of His Resurrection, He taught about the Resurrection from the dead; but in the Resurrection, He showed that He Himself was indeed the resurrection of the dead. Up to the time of His Resurrection, He taught that belief in Him took one from death to life; but in His Resurrection, He showed that He Himself had conquered death and had thus assured those afflicted by death of passage from death to resurrection. Yes, O indeed, yes: the God-Man Jesus Christ, by His Resurrection, showed and demonstrated that He is the only true God, the only God-Man among all humankind.

And something further: without the Resurrection of the God-Man, it would be impossible to explain the witness of the Apostles, or the martyrdom of the Martyrs, or the confessions of the Confessors, or the holiness of the Holy, or the ascetic labor of the Ascetics, or the wonders of the Wonder-Workers, or the faith of the Faithful, or the love of those of love, or the hope of the hopeful, or the prayer of the prayerful, or the repentance of the repentant, or the mercies of the merciful, or any Christian virtue or labor.  Had the Lord not risen as the Resurrected One and had He not filled His Disciples with life-giving power and miraculous wisdom, what could have brought these cowardly and fugitive men together, giving them the courage and the strength and the wisdom so fearlessly to preach and to confess the Resurrected Christ and to go with such joy even to death on His behalf? And if the Resurrected Savior did not fill them with His divine power and wisdom, how could they have ignited in the world the inextinguishable fire of the New Testamental Faith, these simple, unlearned, and poor men? If the Christian Faith were not a faith in the Resurrection and, as a consequence, in the Eternally-Living and Life-Giving Lord, who would have been able to inspire the Martyrs in the feat of martyrdom, the Confessors in the feat of confession, the Ascetics in the feats of asceticism, the Unmercenaries in the feat of penury, the Fasters in their feats of abstinence, and any Christian in any Christian feat?

Thus it is that all of these things are true for me and for every human being —through the Resurrection of Christ. The Wondrous and Sweet Jesus Christ, the Resurrected God-Man, is the only Being under the heavens in whom man here on earth can conquer death and sin and the devil and come to blessedness and immortality —becoming a partaker, indeed, of the Eternal Kingdom of the Love of Christ. For the human being, the Resurrected Christ is the all in all throughout mankind: all that is Beautiful, Good, True, Precious, Harmonious, Sacred, Wise, and Everlasting. He is all of our Love, all of our Truth, all of our Joy, all of our Life, the Eternal Life unto all the sacred eternities and infinities.

Saint Kosmas and Resurrection

The Lord went to Hades and brought out Adam and Eve and our race. He rose on the third day. He appeared twelve times to his Apostles. There was joy in heaven, joy on earth, and in the entire world.

If our Christ hadn't been buried in a grave, he wouldn't have watered eternal life and the resurrection. Can't you see clearly how God raises the grass from the earth each year? We don't have the knowledge, my fellow Christians, to see everything. God has given us everything. So for the present, I beg you, my brethren, to say for all the dead three times: "May God forgive them and have mercy on them."

Saint George: Witness to our Lord's Resurrection!

And it came to pass that an angel of light appeared to him in prison in the middle of the night, and there was a great earthquake and the city was moved to its very foundations. And behold God came into the prison with thousands of his holy angels, and the whole place was filled with exceeding precious incense. And God called to Saint George, saying, "George, my beloved, rise up healed and without corruption, from the couch on which thou sleepest;" and he straightway leaped up without any pain in his body, and he was like one who had risen up from a royal feast. Then he cast himself down and worshipped the Lord, but He took him by the hand and raised him up, and saluted him lovingly, and laid His hand upon all his body, and filled him with strength, and said to him, "O beloved one, be strong and of good cheer, for I will be with thee until thou hast put to shame these lawless kings. I swear by Myself, O George My beloved, that as there has never arisen among those born of women one greater than John the Baptist, so there shall never be any one among the martyrs that can be compared with thee, or be like unto thee. And behold these seventy lawless kings shall torture thee for seven years, and thou shalt do many mighty deeds, and shalt die three times, and I will raise thee up again: but on the fourth time I will come to thee on a cloud of light with the celestial hosts and the Prophets and the Apostles and the holy Martyrs, and I will bring thee to the place of safe keeping which I have prepared for thee." When the Savior had said these words to him, He gave him the salutation of peace and filled him full of joy; and He went up to heaven with His angels. And the blessed man was looking after Him and rejoicing greatly and blessing God until day-break by reason of the words which God had spoken to him…

…I will make all creatures upon earth to enjoy this day; and I will crown the fruits of the earth on the day in which thou art crowned; and on the day of the dedication to thee of the first-fruits of the earth, which is the seventh day of Athor, thy name, O My beloved George, My valiant soldier, shall be exalted in heaven and glorious upon earth forever and ever, Amen." And when the Lord had said these things to him, He filled him with power and joy, and the blessed man rejoiced greatly and exulted, saying, "I thank thee, O my Lord Jesus, that thou hast honored me more than I deserve;" and the Lord made the sign of the cross over him, and disappeared from his sight. Then the holy man roused the soldiers, saying, "Come, my brethren, and perform that which has been commanded you:" and he straightway stretched out his neck and the soldiers took off his holy head, and there came forth from it blood and milk. And the Lord caused Michael to receive the blood and milk in his garment of light, and the Lord received his soul in to His own hands, and embraced it, and He wrapped it in the purple of the aether and ascended into the heights with it. And the whole firmament was filled with the holy angels and the company of the saints, and they hymned it until the Lord gave it as a gift to His Good Father and the Holy Spirit. And He put upon it a garment of light and an excellent diadem of gold set with precious stones, and there were seven crowns upon the diadem wreathed with the flowers of the tree of life, and the Lord wrote his name with the first-born forever. And He caused the whole company of heaven and all the bands of the saints to seat him upon a throne and to celebrate a festival with him in the heavenly Jerusalem.



"Χριστός ἀνέστη!" by Pavlos Nirvanas

Once — many years ago— when I happened to celebrate Easter and the Resurrection in a little mountain village of the Peloponnese, I had noticed an old villager who was holding a lit Easter candle with his arm outstretched upwards, towards the stars that adorned the skies of that Resurrection night, and, as though addressing me, I heard him gently murmur:

“The Heavens, my child, were tamed on this night….”

In those few words, that innocent villager had succinctly enclosed the most profound meaning of the Christian miracle. “The Heavens were tamed”.

Without the supreme Christian miracle of the Resurrection, the heavens would have continued (for the cowardly soul of the simple person and for every human soul generally) to be the abode of a dreaded God; a fair judge, but also one without leniency, and a merciless vindicator. Such were the gods of all other religions. They reigned supreme over their creations, instilling fear in them. They were omnipotent tyrants, who remained at a great distance from their peoples; they had never acquainted themselves with their worshippers’ weaknesses, they had never suffered the pain that their believers suffered and had never been tormented by their believers’ torments. They had never mourned like their believers mourned. They were incapable of compassion, of sympathy or forgiveness. How could the heavens that are inhabited by such gods not be perceived as “savage”, in the eyes of awe-struck mortals?

In that calm spring night, as the old villager’s lit candle was lifted to the heavens like a greeting towards the twinkling, resurrected stars, the heavens indeed seemed tamer. They were no longer the abode of a God estranged from His people, seated far, far away “up there” on His terrible throne. There now resided a lovable God; one Who had savored all the sufferings that mankind suffered: He had acquainted Himself with all the injustices of the world, He had undergone every kind of scorn, He had paid for every single kind of ingratitude. He was abused, laughed at, spat on, dragged through the streets in bonds as though He were the worst of criminals, and was crucified. He had hungered, thirsted, and had beheld the horror of death. For a moment, He had even seen Himself as forgotten by God Himself, who was His Father: “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” There was no pain that He had not become acquainted with; no heartache that He had not felt; no misery whose poison He had not tasted. He drank every kind of bitter drink that a person could ever drink in this world. And, on a night like tonight, this suffering and tortured person had risen to the heavens and had seated Himself, all-powerful, at God’s Throne, to govern the entire world. How could the Heavens not become “tamed”? An infinite goodness had now engulfed the Firmament.

“Why should any sinner tremble in fear from then on?” the old man must have thought to himself. “He who had forgiven the whore, the robber - and even those who had crucified Him - is now “up there” and He can see the sinner’s tears of repentance and forgive him. Why should any sick person feel desperation? He who had healed the blind and the paralyzed is now “up there” and can heal him also. Why should the poor and the wronged feel resentment? He, who had hungered and thirsted is now “up there” and is fully understanding of his misery too. Why should any mother worry anxiously about her child? Up there, in the Heavens, is a caring Mother who has also endured maternal suffering and who will beseech (on that mother’s behalf) Her Son, who governs the entire world, to bestow His mercy on her. And why should any white-haired elder tremble during his hour of death? For him - as for every soul – there awaits a resurrection…”

The Heavens were indeed tamer on that spring evening. And the old man’s candle had indeed been raised as a greeting – and as a thanksgiving – towards those ‘resurrected’ stars.

—“Christ is risen, grandpa”.

—“He is God; He is the Lord, my child”.
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Κάποτε —ἐδῶ καὶ πολλὰ χρόνια— ποὺ μοὔτυχε νὰ κάνω Ἀνάσταση σὲ κάποιο ὀρεινὸ χωριὸ τῆς Ρούμελης, ἕνας γέρος χωριάτης, ὑψώνοντας τὴ λαμπριάτικη λαμπάδα του, σὰ χαιρετισμό, πρὸς τ' ἀναστάσιμα ἄστρα, μοῦ εἶπε σὰ νὰ μιλοῦσε μὲ τὸν ἑαυτό του :

—Ἡμέρεψαν ἀπόψε, παιδί μου, τὰ Οὐράνια.

Στὰ δυὸ αὐτὰ λόγια ὁ ἀθῶος χωριάτης εἶχε κλείσει, ἐπιγραμματικά, τὸ βαθύτερο νόημα τοῦ χριστιανικοῦ θαύματος. «Ἡμέρεψαν τὰ Οὐράνια». Ὁ οὐρανός, χωρὶς τὸ μεγάλο χριστιανικὸ θαῦμα, θὰ ἐξακολουθοῦσε νὰ εἶναι γιὰ τὴν περίφοβη ψυχὴ τοῦ ἁπλοϊκοῦ ἀνθρώπου —γιὰ κάθε ἀνθρώπινη ψυχὴ— τὸ κατοικητήριο ἑνὸς Θεοῦ τρομεροῦ, δικαιοκρίτη χωρὶς ἐπιείκεια καὶ τιμωροῦ χωρὶς ἔλεος. Τέτοιοι στάθηκαν οἱ θεοὶ ὅλων τῶν θρησκειῶν. Κυβερνοῦσαν τὰ πλάσματά τους μὲ τὸν τρόμο. Τύραννοι παντοδύναμοι, μακρυσμένοι ἀπ' τὸ λαό τους, δὲν εἶχαν γνωρίσει ποτὲ τὶς ἀδυναμίες του, δὲν εἶχαν πονέσει ποτὲ τὸν πόνο του, δὲν εἶχαν βασανισθεῖ ποτὲ ἀπ' τὰ βάσανά του, δὲν εἶχαν κλάψει ποτὲ τὰ δάκρυά του. Ἀνίκανοι νὰ συμπονέσουν, νὰ λυπηθοῦν καὶ νὰ συχωρέσουν. Πῶς νὰ μὴν εἶναι «ἄγρια» — ὅπως τάβλεπε τὸ μάτι τοῦ φοβισμένου ἀνθρώπου —τὰ οὐράνια, τὰ κατοικημένα ἀπὸ τέτοιους θεοὺς;

Καὶ μέσα στὴν ἀνοιξιάτικη ἐκείνη νύχτα, ποὺ ἡ λαμπάδα τοῦ γέρου χωριάτη εἶχε ὑψωθῆ σὰ χαιρετισμὸς πρὸς τὰ λαμπρά, ἀναστάσιμα ἄστρα, τὰ οὐράνια εἶχαν ἡμερέψει. Δὲν κατοικοῦσε πιὰ ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω ὑψωμένος στὸν τρομερὸ του θρόνο, ἕνας θεὸς ξένος γιὰ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. Κατοικοῦσε ἕνας γλυκύτατος θεός, ποὺ εἶχε πονέσει ὅλους τους πόνους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ποὺ εἶχε γνωρίσει ὅλες τὶς ἀδικίες τῆς γῆς, ποὺ εἶχε τραβήξει ὅλες τὶς καταφρόνιες, ποὺ εἶχε πληρώσει ὅλες τὶς ἀχαριστίες. Τὸν ἔβρισαν, τὸν ἀναγέλασαν, τὸν ἔφτυσαν, τὸν ἔσυραν δεμένο στοὺς δρόμους, σὰν τὸ τελευταῖο κακοῦργο, τὸν σταύρωσαν. Ἐπείνασε, ἐδίψασε, κουράστηκε, ἀντίκρυσε τὴ φρίκη τοῦ θανάτου. Γιὰ μιὰ στιγμὴ εἶδε τὸν ἑαυτό του λησμονημένο κι' ἀπ' τὸν ἴδιο τὸ Θεό, ποὺ ἦταν πατέρας του. «Θεέ μου, θεέ μου, ἵνα τί μὲ ἐγκατέλιπες;» Δὲ στάθηκε πόνος, ποὺ νὰ μὴν τὸν γνώρισε, καρδιοσωμός, ποὺ νὰ μὴν τὸν ἔννοιωσε, δυστυχία, ποὺ νὰ μὴ γεύθηκε τὸ φαρμάκι της. Ἤπιε ὅλα τὰ φαρμάκια, ποὺ μπορεῖ νὰ πιῆ ἄνθρωπος σ' αὐτὸν τὸν κόσμο. Καί, τὴ νύχτα ἐκείνη, ὁ πονεμένος καὶ βασανισμένος αὐτὸς ἄνθρωπος εἶχε ἀνέβη στοὺς Οὐρανοὺς καὶ εἶχε καθήσει παντοδύναμος στὸ θρόνο τοῦ θεοῦ, νὰ κυβερνήση τὸν κόσμο. Πῶς νὰ μὴν «ἡμερέψουν τὰ Οὐράνια»; Μιὰ ἀπέραντη καλωσύνη εἶχε πλημμυρίσει τὸ στερέωμα.

Γιατὶ νὰ τρέμη πιὰ ὁ ἁμαρτωλός; θὰ συλλογιζότανε ὁ γέρος. Ἐκεῖνος ποὺ συχώρεσε τὴν πόρνη, τὸ ληστὴ κι ἐκείνους ἀκόμα ποὺ τὸν σταύρωσαν, εἶναι τώρα ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω, γιὰ νὰ ἰδῆ τὰ δάκρυα τοῦ μετανοιωμοῦ του καὶ νὰ τὸν συχώρεση. Γιατί ν’ ἀπελπίζεται ὁ ἄρρωστος; Ἐκεῖνος ποὺ γιάτρεψε τὸν τυφλὸ καὶ τὸν παράλυτο, εἶναι τώρα ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω γιὰ νὰ τὸν γιατρέψη. Γιατί νὰ βαρυγκομάη ὁ φτωχὸς καὶ ὁ ἀδικημένος; Ἐκεῖνος, ποὺ πείνασε καὶ δίψασε, εἶναι τώρα ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω καὶ καταλαβαίνει τὴ δυστυχία του. Γιατὶ νὰ λαχταράη ἡ μάννα γιὰ τὸ παιδί της; Ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω στοὺς Οὐρανοὺς εἶναι μιὰ Μαννούλα, ποὺ δοκίμασε τὸν πόνο της, γιὰ νὰ παρακάλεση τὸ παιδί της, ποὺ κυβερνάει τὸν κόσμο, νὰ τὴν ἐλεήσῃ. Καὶ γιατὶ νὰ τρέμη ὁ ἀσπρομάλλης ὁ γέρος τὴν ὥρα τοῦ θανάτου; Εἶναι καὶ γι' αὐτόν, εἶναι γιὰ κάθε ψυχή, μιὰ ἀνάσταση.

Τὰ Οὐράνια εἶχαν ἡμερέψει, ἀλήθεια, ἐκείνη τὴν ἀνοιξιάτικη νύχτα. Καὶ ἡ λαμπάδα τοῦ γέρου εἶχε ὑψωθῆ σὰ χαιρετισμὸς καὶ σὰν εὐχαριστία, πρὸς τὰ ἀναστάσιμα ἄστρα.

—Χριστὸς ἀνέστη, παπποῦ.
—Ὁ Θεός, ὁ Κύριος, παιδί μου.

Proto-Myrrh Bearer

Icon by the hand of Georgios Kordis

Anastasios of Sinai: The Short Cut to Salvation

Icon by the hand of Fr. Stamatios Skliris

Therefore, I pray you, let us flee this wicked and unpardonable sin (of remembrance of wrong).  And if you want to learn that the darkening from the remembrance of wrong is worse than any other, then listen.  Every other sin takes a brief while to commit and is soon over, as when someone commits fornication, and afterwards remembers the enormity of this sin and comes to consciousness of it; but remembrance of wrong has a passion that never ceases to burn...  where remembrance of wrong has taken root, nothing is of any avail; not fasting, or prayer, or tears, or confession, or supplication, or virginity, or alms, or any other good thing.  For remembrance of wrong towards our brother destroys everything.


I often hear people saying, 'Alas, how shall I be saved?  I haven't the strength to fast, I don't know how to keep vigil, I can't live in virginity, I couldn't bear to leave the world- so how can I be saved?'  How?  I will tell you how.  Forgive and you will be forgiven...  here is a short cut to salvation.  And I will show you another, what is that?  Judge not, it says, and you will not be judged.  So here is another path without fasting 0r vigil or labor... He who judges before Christ's coming is Antichrist, because he abrogates the position that belongs to Christ...

Saint Romanos' Palm Sunday Kontakia

Since you bound Hell, slew Death and raised the world,
With palms the infants praised you, O Christ, as victor,
Crying out to you to-day, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David.
For no more’, they say, ‘will infants be slaughtered because of Mary’s babe,
But for all, infants and elders, you alone are crucified.
No more against us will the sword advance,
For your side will be pierced by a lance.
Therefore we rejoice and say, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’’

2

Behold our King, meek and gentle, seated on the colt
Draws near with haste to suffer and to cut off the passions;
The Word upon an irrational beast wishing to deliver rational creatures;
And it was possible to see on the back of a colt the One who rides on the shoulders of the Cherubim,
Who once took up Elias in a fiery chariot,
He who is rich by nature making himself poor by design,
And weak by intention, he who empowers
All those who cry to him, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam’.

3

All Sion was shaken as once Egypt was. There the inanimate,
But here the animate were shaken as you came, O Saviour,
Not because you are fomenter of trouble—for you are the sower of peace—
But because you abolish, as Maker of all things, all the trickery of the foe,
Driving him from everywhere as you reign in every place.
Their idols fell down of old,
And now those who favour them are shaken
As they hear the voices of infants, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’

4

‘Who is this?’ they said, who deliberately did not know you. For it says they did not know
Who was the son of David who had delivered them from corruption.
They are still untying Lazarus and do they not know who raised him?
The shoulders of those who carried the widow’s son are still hurting,
And do they really not know who it was snatched him from death?
They have not yet left Jairus’s courtyard,
And do they not know who it was gave his daughter life?
They do know, but do not want to say ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’

5

Ungrateful, lawless, they welcomed ignorance, indeed were ignorant.
The one they were plotting to kill they did not know, the sons of falsehood!
What they say is not strange. They are repeating the past.
Moses led them out of Egypt; he was immediately denied by them.
And Christ, who saved them from death, was now unknown.
They did not know Moses, those who knew the calf.
They denied Christ, the friends of Beliar.
Then it was ‘What has happened?’ But now they said, ‘Who is this
Who comes to call back Adam?’

6

With palms infants sing your praise, calling you Son of David rightly, Master;
For it was you who slew the Mocker, the spiritual Goliath.
David the dancing maidens extolled after his victory,
‘Saul slew them in thousands and David in ten thousands’.
That is: the Law, and after it your Grace, my Jesu.
The Law was Saul, envying and persecuting,
But David persecuted, sprouted grace,For you are David’s Son and Lord,
Who come to call back Adam.

7

The sun is a chariot of light, and, resplendent as a carriage, it is enslaved to you,
And it is subject to your command as Creator and God.
And now a colt was your delight. I worship your compassion,
Since once for me you were laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
And now you are mounted on a colt, who have the heaven as your throne.
There the angels encircled the manger,
Here disciples held the colt.‘Glory’ you heard then, and now, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’

8

You showed your strength in choosing penury, since for you to be seated on a foal
Is a form of beggary. But in glory you shake Sion.
The disciples’ garments signified penury,
But the sign of your might was the hymn of the children and the gathering of the crowd
Crying ‘Hosanna’—that is ‘Save now’—’in the highest’.
Most High, save the humbled;
Have mercy on us, as you look on our branches.
Boughs that are brandished will move your compassion, O you
Who come to call back Adam.

9

Adam contracted for us the debt that we owe, by eating what he ought not,
And until to-day it is demanded of us who are descended from him.
The creditor was not satisfied with seizing the debtor,
But he attacks his children too, demanding the ancestral debt,
And empties the debtor’s house entirely, sweeping everyone away.
And so let us all flee to one who is powerful.
Knowing that we are in dire poverty,
Do you yourself pay back what we owe, for you are rich,
Who come to call back Adam.

10

You have come to deliver all, and your prophet Zachary, who once called you
Most meek, just and who save, is your witness.
We were wearied, we were worsted, we were utterly cast out;
We thought we had the law as our redeemer, and it enslaved us;
The prophets too, and they left us on our hope.
And so with infants we bow the knee to you.
Have mercy on us who have been humbled,
Be willing, be crucified, and tear up the record of our debt, you
Who come to call back Adam.

11

‘Creature fashioned by my hand’, the Fashioner answered those who shouted,
‘Knowing that the law had no strength to save you, I have come myself.
It was not for the law to save you, since it did not fashion you.
Nor was it for the prophets, because they too are my fashioning just as you are.
Mine alone was the task of releasing you from this most heavy debt.
I am being sold for your sake and I shall free you.
I am being crucified for you and you are not being made to die.
I die and I teach you to cry, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.

12

For was it for angels that I showed affection? It was you the pauper that I befriended. I hid my glory
And I, the Rich, have willingly become poor, for I love you greatly.
I was hungry, I was thirsty, I toiled also for your sake.
I passed by mountains, cliffs and valleys, seeking you, the lost.
I was named ‘Lamb’, that attracting you by my voice I might lead you;
‘Shepherd’, and for you I am willing to lay down my life,
That I may snatch you from the hand of the wolf.
I suffer all, wishing you to cry, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’’

13

But after words he showed it by deeds, for he reached the city,
And the hymn of the children enraged all his enemies.
Raising his eyes he gazed on Sion
And wove a lament over her, crying, ‘Groan aloud, Jerusalem,
Because you have found children to be fathers, teachers your sons.
In evil and wickedness you are a youngster,
For doing good you are weighed down by old age.
Better than you are those who cry to me ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’

14

Now I shall enter you and casting you aside reject you, not because I have hated,
But because I have understood that you have hated me and mine.
Your children have prepared a cross for me in return for what?
Because with a staff I rent the sea apart like a tunic before them?
Do they carve out a tomb because I gave them a cloud as protection?
And I rejoice, since for their sake I came,
And I long to suffer in my love for the fallen,
That those who love me may say, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’’

15

So he who sees the inmost heart reproached city sluggish of heart and enters
The temple with all the infants, he the universal priest.
The Son arrived in his Father’s house.
And cast out both sellers and buyers together, saying,
‘Let nothing remain here; for we are leaving here,
I and my Father together with the Spirit.
Now we have found a court: the will of the meek,
Of those who with their voices faithfully cry to me, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’’

16

All-holy Son of God, number us together with those who sing your praise,
And receive the supplication of your servants as once the children’s.
Have mercy on those you fashioned, amongst whom you dwelt in love.
Give peace to your churches, shaken by enemies,
And send down to me, O Saviour, release from my iniquities.
Grant me to speak what you will as you will
Do not let grief make my mind sluggish.
Show me to be a skilled cultivator to cry, ‘Blessed are you
Who come to call back Adam.’

translations on this page are copyright to
Archimandrite Ephrem ©

Theosis & Saint Makarios the Great

They said of Abba Makarios the Great that he became,

as it is written, a god upon the earth, because, just as God protects the world, so Abba Makarios would cover the faults which he saw, as though he did not see them; and those which he heard, as though he did not hear them.

Ἀρχιμανδρίτης Αἰμιλιανός, Προηγούμενος Ἱ.M. Σίμωνος Πέτρας

Μὲ τὴν γλυκυτάτην ἐπίκλησιν καὶ πρόσκλησιν «Ἰησοῦ», μαρτυροῦμεν, ὅτι εἶναι παρὼν ὁ Χριστός, ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν, καὶ εὐγνωμόνως τὸν εὐχαριστοῦμεν, διότι μας ἡτοίμασε ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Μὲ τὴν τρίτην λέξιν «Χριστέ», θεολογοῦμεν, ὁμολογοῦντες ὅτι ὁ Χριστὸς εἶναι αὐτὸς ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Θεός. Δὲν μᾶς ἔσωσε κάποιος ἄνθρωπος, οὔτε ἄγγελος, ἀλλὰ ὁ Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, ὁ ἀληθινὸς Θεός.

Saint Aphrahat the Persian Sage: Christ & the Victory over Death



And when Jesus, the slayer of Death, came, and clothed Himself in a Body from the seed of Adam, and was crucified in His Body, and tasted death; and when (Death) perceived thereby that He had come down unto him, he was shaken from his place and was agitated when he saw Jesus; and he closed his gates and was not willing to receive Him.  Then He burst his gates, and entered into him, and began to despoil all his possessions.  But when the dead saw light in the darkness, they lifted up their heads from the bondage of death, and looked forth, and saw the splendour of the King Messiah.  Then the powers of the darkness of Death sat in mourning, for he was degraded from his authority.  Death tasted the medicine that was deadly to him, and his hands dropped down, and he learned that the dead shall live and escape from his sway.  And when He had afflicted Death by the despoiling of his possessions, he wailed and cried aloud in bitterness and said, “Go forth from my realm and enter it not.  Who then is this that comes in alive into my realm?”  And while Death was crying out in terror (for he saw that his darkness was beginning to be done away, and some of the righteous who were sleeping arose to ascend with Him), then He made known to him that when He shall come in the fulness of time, He will bring forth all the prisoners from his power, and they shall go forth to see the light.  Then when Jesus had fulfilled His ministry amongst the dead, Death sent Him forth from his realm, and suffered Him not to remain there.  And to devour Him like all the dead, he counted it not pleasure.  He had no power over the Holy One, nor was He given over to corruption.

5.  And when he had eagerly sent Him forth and He had come forth from his realm, He left with him, as a poison, the promise of life; that by little and little his power should be done away.  Even as when a man has taken a poison in the food which is given for (the support of) life, when he perceives in himself that he has received poison in the food, then he casts up again from his belly the food in which poison was mingled; but the drug leaves its power in his limbs, so that by little and little the structure of his body is dissolved and corrupted.  So Jesus dead was the bringer to nought of Death; for through Him life is made to reign, and through Him Death is abolished, to whom it is said:—O Death, where is thy victory?

(Complete Text: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf213.iii.ix.x.html)

Who is Aphrahat the Persian Sage?
For now, however, a few more words of introduction to Aphrahat the Persian Sage are in order. He is a mysterious figure, though not because any wish on his part to cloak himself with obscurity. To the contrary, he writes to his correspondents as someone who is well known to them. He appears, in fact, to have been quite prominent in the Christian Church of the Persian Empire during the first half of the fourth century [4]. The mystery is rather that we know and hear nothing about this Church prior to the writings of Aphrahat himself. His is the first Christian voice from East of the Tigris that we can be certain of placing and dating securely, thanks entirely to the fact that Aphrahat himself is kind enough to supply us with the exact dates of his twenty-three discourses or, as he calls them, Demonstrations (tahwyata): the first ten in A.D. 337, the next twelve in 344, and the twenty-third in 345 [5]. Yet the Church which his Demonstrations assume is clearly numerous, widespread in Mesopotamia and at least in Western Iran, and possessed moreover of long-standing institutions. An entire, hitherto-unglimpsed Christian universe appears thus for the first time in these writings, even though this is obviously a world which has been around for a long time -- perhaps even for centuries -- before it does so appear [6].
There are many things of great interest about this "third world" which can and do shed light on the much better-known "worlds" of Greek and Latin Christianity. Its Semitic character at once betrays a number of traits unique to itself and, more importantly for my purposes here, reveals with perhaps especial clarity, thanks to its relative freedom from the technical vocabulary of Hellenistic philosophy, the great pool of Jewish traditions out of which Christianity itself originally coalesced, and from which it continued to draw -- whether in Syriac, Greek, or Latin -- throughout its early centuries [7]. All the materials, so-to-speak, for the foundational doctrines of the Church derive from this source, which is finally nothing more nor less than the single revelation of God to Israel as lived in the centuries prior to Christ and, in the fullness of time, as re-shaped by the inherent demands of the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth crucified, risen and enthroned at the right hand of the Father [8]. Since this is clearly a huge topic, and since my space is limited, I shall focus on the particular subject of the transfigured holy man, whom we shall find complete in our Mesopotamian author twenty years before -- and a thousand miles removed from -- St. Athanasius' portrait of the "father of monks" in the famous Vita Antonii [9].
Aphrahat, too, was writing to and about Christian ascetics. One of the institutions that we find fully-formed in the Persian Church of his day, indeed so much an assumed part of that Church's life, and already so old as to require renewal, is that of the "sons" and "daughters of the convenant", bnai/bat qyama, who are consecrated "single ones", ihidaye, or "celibates" -- though the theological resonances of both qyama and ihidaya are much richer and more subtle than simply these handy definitions [10] Unlike Egyptian monasticism, which was in process of taking on its mature forms even as Aphrahat was writing, these native, Syro-Mesopotamian ascetics were not physically separated off from the larger Church in discrete communities and living outside the towns and villages under their own leaders, as in the nascent monastaries of St. Pachomius, or in the villages of monks at Scete, but were rather attached to their local churches under the supervision of the bishops and living in small groups within the town or city [11] Later on, to be sure, during the latter days of St. Ephrem of Syria (+373), the Egyptian form of organized monasticism began to appear in Syriac-speaking churches and would eventually predominate.
This was not the case when Aphrahat wrote, however. By this fact alone, he offers proof that organized Christian asceticism was both older and more widespread than the monastic explosion of fourth-century Egypt, and his "proto-monks" have as a result been the focus of a modest scholarly industry for the past century. Only with the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, has it begun to become apparent just how old Christian asceticism is, and how rooted in Jewish traditions of the era immediately before Christ. Here again, Aphrahat's ihidaye -- and the very phrase, "sons of the covenant" -- are extraordinarily revealing. Affinities between them and the Jewish covenanters have been noted in scholarly literature since the Scrolls first began to appear in print during the later 1950's [12]. More recently, Antoine Guillaumont provided a rationale for the Qumranites' celibacy based in great part on an analysis of Aphrahat, and the rationale still stands in scholarly circles [13]. In brief, the Persian Sage argues for celibacy on the basis of the levitical holiness code for priestly ministry in the Tabernacle or, later, in the Temple [14]. Similar concerns appear to have moved the Jewish convenanters four hundred years before, with the difference that, for our Christian writer, the continuous temple service -- requiring thus continuous abstention even from the sanctified sexual activity of marriage -- is that of the ministry of prayer within the temple of the body and so, as we shall see momentarily, before the presence of God in the heavenly temple. Obviously, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the "hatred of the body" supposedly characterizing early Christian asceticism and allegedly resulting from pagan, chiefly Platonist influences.
Alexander Golitzin
The Place of the Presence of God: Aphrahat of Persia's Portrait of the Christian Holy Man. An Essay in Honor of Archimandrite Aimilianos of the Monastery of Simonos Petras, Mount Athos

Melito Sardis: The Death & Resurrection (180 AD)

Deliverance of Mankind through Christ

66. When this one came from heaven to earth for the sake of the one who suffers, and had clothed himself with that very one through the womb of a virgin, and having come forth as man, he accepted the sufferings of the sufferer through his body which was capable of suffering. And he destroyed those human sufferings by his spirit which was incapable of dying. He killed death which had put man to death.

67. For this one, who was led away as a lamb, and who was sacrificed as a sheep, by himself delivered us from servitude to the world as from the land of Egypt, and released us from bondage to the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls by his own spirit and the members of our bodies by his own blood.
68. This is the one who covered death with shame and who plunged the devil into mourning as Moses did Pharaoh. This is the one who smote lawlessness and deprived injustice of its offspring, as Moses deprived Egypt. This is the one who delivered us from slavery into freedom, from darkness into light, from death into life, from tyranny into an eternal kingdom, and who made us a new priesthood, and a special people forever.
69. This one is the passover of our salvation. This is the one who patiently endured many things in many people: This is the one who was murdered in Abel, and bound as a sacrifice in Isaac, and exiled in Jacob, and sold in Joseph, and exposed in Moses, and sacrificed in the lamb, and hunted down in David, and dishonored in the prophets.
70. This is the one who became human in a virgin, who was hanged on the tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from among the dead, and who raised mankind up out of the grave below to the heights of heaven.
71. This is the lamb that was slain. This is the lamb that was silent. This is the one who was born of Mary, that beautiful ewe-lamb. This is the one who was taken from the flock, and was dragged to sacrifice, and was killed in the evening, and was buried at night; the one who was not broken while on the tree, who did not see dissolution while in the earth, who rose up from the dead, and who raised up mankind from the grave below.
(Complete Text- http://www.kerux.com/documents/KeruxV4N1A1.asp)

Exploring the Synaxis (Part 3)

The Liturgy as Salvation

In the Liturgy the Church becomes Church,

At each Eucharist the chosen people, the New Zion, gather together triumphantly on the banks of the Red Sea opposite those of Pharaoh and glorify God for the salvation already granted and simultaneously await the final victory. On the difficult and dangerous road to the Land of Promise, from Sunday to Sunday, and from day to day, one may fall into the hands of Satan and be cut off from the body of Christ. At each gathering "epi to auto" by means of each Eucharist, the body of Christ, the Church this side of death, is in the process of formation - the Word made flesh is being formed in the faithful by the Holy Spirit (I John 3:23-24), and thus the Church, although already the body of Christ, is continuously becoming what she is. -Romanides

In the Liturgy all that Christ is, has offered us, and has done for us, is made present to us.

The Primary and supreme mystery of our faith, which according to the Apostle Paul is Christ, the Incarnation and the divine economy of the Word, is seen by the Byzantine mystic (Kavasilas) as refracted in such a way that it becomes concrete and active within time through the mysteries…there is an inner identity between the historical body of Christ and the Church, between the energies [uncreated] of the actual body of the Lord and the Mysteries.  The Mysteries extend the function of that body in a real way and make available its life in actuality.  The Church is represented in the Mysteries not as in symbols, but as the members are in the heart, as the branches of plant are in the root, and, as the Lord has said, as the branches are in the vine… (Panagiotis Nellas)

In the Liturgy we experience Salvation as forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins.”  And as we are His members, we are also nourished by means of the creation (and He Himself grants the creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends rain when He wills). He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.

When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him? (St. Iraneaos)

Through the Liturgy creation is redeemed, healed, and fulfills its purpose by being grafted into the Church.

“…salvation cannot happen unless the created realities of our world are grafted onto the Church, to be transfigured into the body of Christ, which is the only incorruptible, infinite, and eternal element in the world.  This is what in the Biblical and Patristic traditions is known as salvation.”  This is possible because: “the life of the Church is uncreated.  But the material out of which the Church is constructed, her body, is created material of every period.  The uncreated life reconstructs, reanimates, and enlarges created being to infinity, in other words deifies it…” The Church possesses uncreated life because she is the “extension of the Incarnation, is brought into being by the hypostasizing of creation in Christ.” (Nellas Creation, History, Church, the Faithful. Synaxis)

We also see this cosmic dimension of the Eucharist in the following exhortation of St. Kosmas Aitolos.  At the same time the Saint doesn’t end with the affect of the liturgy on the world but he also includes how the liturgy is able to, “transfigure all the actual structural elements in people’s relationships.”(Nellas)

Priests should celebrate the Liturgy each day so that Christ will bless the people and guard their land from every illness and every abuse; so that God will bless your land, your fields, your vineyards, your place, and all the work of your hands. You should all, young and old, pray that the elders of your village live a long time, that God blesses them so they will take care of you well, for an elder is like a father. You should honor your priests and your betters. Wives, honor husbands; husbands, love your wives and your mothers. Daughters-in-law, honor your fathers-in-law and your mothers-in-law. Sons-in-laws, love your in-laws also and with this respect you will, prosper bodily and spiritually and you win partake of all the good things of the earth. And as long as you live on this earth, this temporary and brief life, you will gain all the blessings of paradise in the eternal life.

The following quote shows how the Eucharistic ethos relates to faith, an issue important to any conversation on salvation, particularly one taking place in a protestant milieu.

But our faith is in accordance with the Eucharist,

and the Eucharist in turn establishes our faith.

                                                          -Saint Iraneaos