My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
REMAINING CONSCIOUS OF GOD’S PRESENCE AT ALL TIMES
AND EVERY PLACE.
“Where can I go from Your
Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your
presence?
I ascend into heaven, You are
there;
If I make my bed in hell,
behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the
morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.”
[Psalm 138[139]:7-10].
Each of us is known by the Lord. The psalmist wonders at the depth of God’s plan and foretells the calling of the Gentiles and the resistance of the Jews. Verse 8 is prophetic, and could only be true for us had God entered Sheol. Thus, Christ descended to Hades on our behalf, trampling down death by death, so that through God in the flesh dwelling in hell, WE ARE NOT SEPARATED FROM HIM EVEN IN DEATH!
God is NOT subject to any limitation in space, but He fills everything. Filling everything, God, as a simple Being, IS PRESENT IN EVERY PLACE, NOT AS IT WERE IN SOME PART OF HIM, OR BY MERELY SENDING DOWN SOME POWER FROM HIMSELF, BUT IN ALL HIS BEING; and He is NOT confused with that in which He is present. “The Divinity PENETRATES EVERYTHING without being mingled with anything, but nothing can penetrate Him” [Saint John Damascene]. “That God is present everywhere we know, but how, we do not understand, because we can understand only a sensuous presence, and it is not given to us to understand fully the Nature of God” [Saint John Chrysostom]. Saint Gregory Palamas teaches that both God’s Essence and His Energies, being inseparable from each other, ARE PRESENT EVERYWHERE IN CREATION.”
The holy Desert Fathers and ascetics state that the greatest sin of all is FORGETFULNESS OF GOD. Therefore, the question is how do we remain conscious of the Divine Presence at all times? This is the only way for a believer to make significant spiritual progress. As Orthodox Christians we believe that through our Lord Jesus Christ, God entered into history, that is into time and space and from this moment in time there is no single place or moment that is not filled with His Divine Presence. Jesus brought about the end of a religion whose practice was to call upon God in prayer, worship or the temple. Our Lord speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well said to her: “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father… But the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth… God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” [John 4:21-24]. Jesus teaches that worship is NOT tied to any geographical place. He possesses a spiritual nature which cannot be confined to a particular geographic location.
Now God is in everything. The holy Apostle Paul says everything is through Him and in Him. If we are wondering about the purpose of life the answer is quite simple “to encounter within all our successive activities, at the heart of every happening, the God Who waits for us there.” We pray to the Holy Spirit: “O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, YOU ARE EVERYWHERE AND FILL ALL THINGS. TREASURY OF BLESSINGS AND GIVER OF LIFE: COME AND ABIDE IN US, AND CLEANSE US FROM EVERY IMPURITY, AND SAVE OUR SOULS, O Good One!” And in the divine service of the Great Compline we chant: “God is with us, know it you nations and be submissive, For God is with us. Hear it to the ends of the earth. For God is with us…”
Indeed, God is with us! But for some reason some people find it difficult to believe. However, believing that He is always present is the true path to holiness and genuine asceticism. When we begin to believe that God is with us and everywhere present, that He sees everything that we do or do not do, we would think twice before we break His commandments, or before we offended Him. Knowing that He knows us and our actions throughout our lifetime we could never plead ignorance on the dreadful Judgment Day. We read in the book of Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS, BY THE THINGS WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN THE BOOKS.” “Standing before God” at His Throne at the Final Judgment, “the dead” are confronted with “their works.” “The Book of Life” contains the names of all who are saved by grace. God’s mercy is far greater than human works, good or bad. The Orthodox Divine Liturgy thus petitions God for a “GOOD ACCOUNT BEFORE THE DREAD JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.”
It is essential for people to know and believe that there is accountability for everything that we do. No one can escape this Final Judgment of God. “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the Second Death” [Revelation 21:8]. Those who fall away through cowardice or unbelief face instead “the lake of fire.” They lose God’s inheritance, receiving instead the damning recompense of sin and death in company of the beast, the false prophet, Death, and Hades. The most complete picture of this Last or Final Judgment by the Savior is given in Matthew 25:31-46 [“When the Son of Man shall come in His glory…”). The Judgment will be universal, that is, extending to all men living and dead, good and evil, and according to other indications given in the word of God, even to the fallen angels themselves [2 Peter 2:4; Jude, v. 6]. It will be solemn and open, for the Judge will appear in all His glory with all His holy Angels before the face of the whole world. It will be a “day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God [Romans 2:5]. Also, final and definitive, determining for all eternity the fate of each one who is judged. The result of the Judgment will be eternal reward–blessedness for the righteous and torment for the evil who are condemned.
The great mistake made by man is to deny God’s presence among us and in us. For the Orthodox Christian the Lord’s presence is very real in the Divine Liturgy. Although the bread and wine are transformed in the Mystery into Body and Blood of the Lord, He IS PRESENT IN THIS MYSTERY (SACRAMENT) “WITH ALL HIS BEING”, that is, with His soul and with His very Divinity, which is inseparably united to His humanity. Although, further, the Body and Blood of the Lord are broken in the Mystery of Communion and distributed, still we believe that “IN EVERY PART–even in the smallest particle–of the Holy Mysteries, those who receive Holy Communion RECEIVE THE ENTIRE CHRIST IN HIS BEING, THAT IS, IN HIS SOUL AND DIVINITY AS PERFECT GOD and perfect man. This faith the Holy Church expresses in the words of the priest at the breaking of the Holy Lamb: “Broken and divided is the Lamb of God, which is broken, though NOT disunited, which is ever eaten, though never consumed, but sanctifieth those that partake thereof.” [Orthodox Dogmatic Theology]
Those who doubt Christ’s presence in the Divine Eucharist commit a grave sin. To receive communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord is the essential, necessary, saving, and consoling obligation of every Orthodox Christian. This is evident from the words of the Savior which He uttered when giving the promise regarding the Mystery of the Eucharist: “Most assuredly, I say to you, UNLESS YOU EAT THE FLESH OF THE SON OF MAN AND DRINK HIS BLOOD, YOU HAVE NO LIFE IN YOU” [John 6:53]. We receive the benefits of Christ’s Sacrifice by coming to Him IN FAITH, and by communion with Him we “EAT HIS FLESH AND DRINK HIS BLOOD. To receive Everlasting Life, we must partake of His Eucharistic flesh and blood. Saint John Chrysostom [Homily 47:2] teaches we must NOT understand the Mystery (Sacrament) carnally, that is, according to the laws of physical nature, BUT SPIRITUALLY PERCEIVING A TRUE BUT MYSTICAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE DIVINE EUCHARIST.
__________
“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry},
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 