Saturday, February 24, 2018

THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY

Having so eloquently praised the martyric feats of the Old Testament righteous who endured with patience sufferings and afflictions for the sake of a promised Christ not yet revealed, St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Hebrews, "wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."  And so do we celebrate today that Faith by which the whole universe has been established.

We commemorate today, on this first Sunday of the Great Fast, the defeat of the iconoclastic heresy and the restoration of the holy Icons.  Through this victory it is confirmed once again that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church of God, which is (according to the Symbol of Faith) both catholic (universal) and Orthodox (rightly glorifying God).  It is on this day, therefore, that the anathemas are read, casting from the Holy Church all who oppose the true and divinely revealed teachings taught by the Apostles and sealed by the blood of the martyrs. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that those of us who remain faithful to the time-tested traditions of the Church are often accused of Triumphalism, claiming that we alone are members of the True Church and therefore superior to those who belong to other so-called "churches" or "denominations."  And so it is that instead of striving for the "one thing needful,"  we get caught up in vain speculations  and disputes, making religion into some sort of competitive sport among conflicting teams confessing various beliefs and philosophies.  We argue ceaselessly over who is "right" and who is "wrong," while losing sight in all the confusion of the real issue at sake (as simply expressed by Pontius Pilate) "What is truth?"

It is obviously childish to argue that my church is better than yours, or to consign to hell those who do not happen to share our beliefs and convictions.  There can be, in any case, but one Church, because there is but one Christ, one Faith, one Baptism, and one God and Father of us all.  What we all should be seeking primarily is not the True Church, but rather Truth itself--and that Truth is Christ, Whose Body is the Church, which was established not on the day of Pentecost, but rather at the very creation of the world. 

The Church is not one organization among many, which we may choose to belong to or not.  If the Church is truly universal (as we Orthodox Christians profess), then it must encompass the entire created order, the angelic hosts, and the whole human race--from the creation of Adam unto the consummation of the ages at the end of time. 

Truly Christ cannot be divided, nor can there be any divisions within the fullness of His Body.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the one creator and redeemer of the entire human race.  He is fully God and fully man, the Godman Who descended from heaven and took upon Himself from the pure blood of the Virgin the fullness of our human nature, the pre-eternal God made visible and depicted in icons, that through the veneration of the faithful He might be "rightly glorified." 

But there is not in any of this any place for "triumphalism."  It is Christ Himself Who triumphs over the powers of sin, death, and the devil.  And it is through love alone (because God is love) that He opens unto all who humble themselves before Him the gates of Paradise and the promise of eternal life in His heavenly Kingdom.

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