Synaxis Study Group: December 2012

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Salvation and the Other

Saint Antony the Great: He also said, 'Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ.'

Abba John the Dwarf said, 'A house is not built by beginning at the top and working down. You must begin with the foundations in order to reach the top. They said to him, 'What does this saying mean?' He said, 'The foundation is our neighbor, whom we must win, and that is the place to begin. For all the commandments of Christ depend on this one.'

Saint Anastasios of Sinai: 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...

Synaxis Manifesto

4 Pillars of Synaxis
1) We gather because the Spirit of God brings the Word of God to us.
2) We gather because we are authentically human when in relationship with each other.
3) We gather to discuss the words of the Holy Fathers and Mothers because our relationship with them transcends time, space, and death itself.
4) We gather to celebrate the greatest gift that God has given us- the Other: God, neighbor, and our ancestors.

4 Canons of Synaxis
1) Synaxis is for everyone.
2) Synaxis has the text as teacher and the group as moderator.
3) Synaxis reads texts that are Orthodox Christian Classics which are any text that is written by an Orthodox Christian and is both loved by the Church and doctrinally formative.
4) Synaxis is organized by its elder members whose sole responsibility is to arrange a convenient time and place and to select and distribute the readings.

4 Foundations of Synaxis
1) Works of the Apostolic Fathers and Apologists (Particularly St. Iraneaos’ Against Heresies for its dogmatic, anthropological, and soterlogical significance).
2) The Works of St. Athanasios (Particularly On the Incarnation and the Life of St. Antony).
3) The Works of the Cappadocians (Particularly the Orations of the Theologian which were considered by the Church as Second Scriptures, the Letters of St. Basil together with his defense of the Holy Spirit, and St. Gregory Nyssa’s Catechism).
4) St. Maximos the Confessor.

Thy Kingdom Come...

The Messiah, this King, this new David, Himself, the expected Royalty, came and founded His kingdom, the Church, inaugurating it on the day of Pentecost through the descent of the Holy Spirit… At that moment the Church was born, the new Israel of God, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”, a people dedicated to God. The event of Pentecost is not limited in time, however, but is an eschatological experience of the believer, daily living the life of Christ in the Church. So when we speak of the Church, we refer to an eschatological event, a permanent Pentecost.
-Archimandrite Aimilianos