JULY-AUGUST 2001
HOLY COMMUNION u page 12
1. Desire for Holy Communion
The belief in the sacrament of Holy Communion, the belief in the real physical presence of our Lord in the chalice, and the belief that Holy Communion is a most essential food and nourishment for our spiritual life must make the faithful desire, long for, in fact, cherish to unite with his Lord. As one of the prayers before Holy Communion states: You have smitten me with yearning, O Christ, and with your divine love (Eros) you have changed me; but do burn away with spiritual fire my sins, and make me worthy to be filled with your joy, so that, rejoicing, I may magnify your two presences (first and second coming), O good one.
2. Self-examination and Testing
Before taking Holy Communion we must examine ourselves as St. Paul instructs: Let a man examine himself, and then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the Body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That s why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died (I Corinthians 11, 28-30). But we must be careful that during the examination we do not exhibit over-sensitivity or undersensitivity. If the examination reveals minor unworthiness, then one proceeds to Holy Communion with a contrite heart. If the examination reveals serious violations, carnal, moral or ethical, then one must proceed to confession.
3. Love
Holy Communion is a labor of love. The Holy Eucharist as the highlight of the Divine Drama is the ultimate act of love in the union between man and God. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3, 16). In approaching for Holy Communion we must feel the same kind of love for him. And the best way to show love for him is to love neighbor as self: We love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him that he who loves God should love his brother also (I John 4, 19-21). And in Matthew we read : So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5, 23-24). And St. John Chrysostom protests and states that no one who has enemies and hates them can approach the Holy Table:
ORTHODOX OBSERVER
Behold, I declare and protest and shout with a loud voice. No one who has an enemy can approach the Holy Table and accept the Body of the Lord; and none of those who come forward should have an enemy. Do you have an enemy? Do not approach. Do you want to approach? Reconcile and then come forward and touch the Holy. We can see, therefore, to what extent love is a basic and fundamental presupposition for taking Holy Communion.
OF SPECIAL INTEREST u page 11
There is no greater source of strength and power in earth for the Christian than the partaking of the Lord s Body and Blood regularly and worthily. This is something that we must realize and take seriously by overcoming all the prejudices and superstitions that have crept into our faith and are stifling our spiritual growth.
ality is the product of the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control If we live by the Spirit, then we shall walk by the Spirit , and we shall minister by the Spirit. As a priest of the 21st first century, one needs to be the epitome of the fruits of the spirit. The human spirit should always respond to God s Spirit who is present everywhere-filling all things. Spiritual life is a joyful exultation of the heart, but also a perpetual quest of the mind (skirtimata tes kardias kei anazeteseis tou nou), a life of faith but also a life of questions, of a reflective mind that constantly seeks a renewal. Heart and mind must be in a constant dialogue, a cooperation that ultimately surrenders to God s arms. I love St. Augustine s outcry: I find no rest, O Lord until I rest in you. So before we face our flock, we need to face ourselves. We need to ask ourselves: do we believe? Do we hope? Do we love? The challenges of the third millennium will not come from Nero and Caligula, Domitian and Decius, Galerius and Diocletian, but from cellular-biologists and physicists, from economists and sexologistsfrom people who see the human being as nothing more than a biological being. How do I respond to my grandson, who knows more about physics than I do Pappou, how did Christ make the world? Pappou, what are you going to respond when in the near future they create a human being in test tube? A few years ago, while in Baltimore, the president of a Greek Orthodox community who is also a professor of microbiology said to me, Father, you priests have no problem; you believe, you accept everything by faith, and feel secure. Think of my problems as a cellular-biologist: how do you expect me to believe that almighty God intervened and made everything? As we began exploring his spiritual and religious questions, I asked him , My good doctor, just tell me: what brings cells together and unites them to multiply and create a being? Well, we do not know, he said. It is a mystery, he added. For us, too, it is a mystery, but a mystery resolved. The power of the dynamics of creation the source of life that unites cells is what we call God, Creator, the Unknown Power, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the indescribable. Being that brought everything into being and in whom we have our being. A priest of the 21st century will continue to serve the spiritual and religious needs of grandmothers and grandfathers, of students
from the chains of our sins, which hold us back in our quest for unity with the Trinity. The climb up the Ladder can be very difficult, but the step-by-step method that St. John introduces us to, makes this ascent feasible for each of us. Though this struggle is monastic, we do not have to be monks to reach our goal of eternal joy in Christ. Theosis is intended for all baptized Christians. Though it may help, it is not necessary to give up all of our possessions and live in seclusion. The idea is not to abandon all other pursuits, but to put them in their proper place in our lives: squarely behind our journey towards Christ. In order to change our destination from suicide like James, to eternal joy in Christ, we love God and our fellow men, keep our Lord s commandments, rise
through repentance as often as we fall, and deny our own will and replace it with that of God. If we do this, you and I are on our way there. Slowly but surely, we are climbing the ladder towards our ultimate goal: the Kingdom of God not a destination that is meant to be reached after death. Heaven is not a place where we go when we die, if we re good when we live; it is something that can and has been achieved by humans, the saints, while in our world. We are not to wait to die in order to reach the Kingdom, but to enjoy the abundant life Christ promised us on earth. This is our purpose! This is our struggle! This is the meaning of our existence! Let s get started on our quest we ll make it one step at a time.
4. Prayer and Devotion
Once a person has taken Holy Communion he must start his preparation for the following time with prayer and devotional reading from the Bible and the Communion prayers. Not enough can be said about the great benefits that such a preparation can produce for the communicant. The state of mind with which we approach the Holy Gifts is a very important part of the entire process of salvation and true prayer and devotional readings do produce within us the proper state of mind.
5. Reverence and Fear
The final station of preparation for Holy Communion is reverence and fear that must exist in the soul of the faithful when he approaches for Holy Communion. Many people dislike the word fear as being the opposite of love. But the fear we are talking about here is not so much being afraid, as is awe which springs forth from the realization of our sinfulness, the solemnity of the moment and the greatness of God whom the faithful literally touches. If we really had such awe and fear and reverence we would not be witnessing the ugly scenes that we see in our churches on the big holidays: disorder, noise, shouting, pushing, arguing and even fighting. Even St. John Chrysostom was horrified by this: What is this sin which is being openly committed? Coming to Communion not with awe but kicking and striking, full of anger, shouting, abusing, pushing the nearby, full of agitation Tell me, why so much noise? Why such a rush? These are called and are sacraments, and when there are sacraments there should be nothing but silence. Therefore, with much silence and much order and with the proper reverence, we should approach this sacred sacrifice, so that we may gain much favor from God and cleanse our souls and gain the eternal blessing.
CONCLUSION
ORATORICAL FESTIVAL u page 20
best-selling books like Lose 10 lbs. In 10 Days race out of bookstores. Why not this one, which teaches us how to gain eternal joy? In this ultimate self-help book, St. John presents the vision of a ladder reaching from earth to Christ, with each of thirty rungs representing a further step towards achieving Theosis: the state in which we fully experience the love of the Trinity, and by which we gain the most pure joy possible. Step by step, we work our way up this ladder by ascetic struggle, things like prayer, fasting, confession, and receiving Holy Communion. Through this process, we learn three things: to break from the world and the superficial, to practice virtues until we become them, and to suppress the passions that keep us from moving towards God. We release ourselves
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and teachers, of physicists and mathematicians, of poor and wealthy people, of the destitute homeless and the powerful. A community of the 21st century will be more demanding of their priest, expecting more from his intellectual and spiritual reservoir. More and more of the communicants will demand that all priests be better educated, more experienced and more dedicated to their vocation. They have had enough of ekklesiastiko epangelmatismo-ecclesiastical professionalism. The faithful expect their priest to be a person convinced of his faith in himself, a person who inspire hope, a person whose love can embrace the totality of God s creation, a person whose services and prayers can bring tears to his people. When the celebrant priest kneels before the altar, he should feel shivers going through his spine. When he finishes the liturgy, he has distributed the antidoro and has finished with his catalysis, he should feel exhilarated and deeply tired. No, the liturgy is not one hour s engagement but one week s preparation, reading, thinking, reflecting on the Sunday s message and joyfully expecting every Sunday for a renewal and a new, more fulfilling spiritual experience. In the altar the priest stands enopios enopio (facing each other). It is for this reason that he should not be disturbed by the comings in and the goings out of members of the ecclesiastical council, the choirmaster, or the acolytes, who should have been prepared and know ahead of time of their duties. Once the liturgy starts, the priest should not leave his place before the hagia trapeza, or the altar. A priest s education should go beyond his theological training and be broad enough in language, history, philosophy broad enough to encompass the humanities as they affect his ministry, an example set by St. Paul and the Apologists, the Church Fathers and ecclesiastical writers.
Quality of the present
Writing during the first quarter of the fourth century, Eusebios of Caesarea, the father of ecclesiastical history was the first writer of the Christian era who studied his contemporary events in the light of the past. For him the present was a fulfillment of the past and saw the future determined by the nature of his times. Eusebios, a faithful student of the ancient Greeks: Plato, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertios and especially the historians Herodotos, Thucydides, Dionysios of Hallicarnassos realized that the Christian church could be traced back to the election of Abraham but he emphasized that its future depended on the quality of the present. The future of our church in today s world is determined by the kind of education, by the kind of preparation, by the character and spiritual formation we provide in our colleges and in our theological schools. Briefly, as I reflect on the role of the priest in the 21st century, I realize that one must be excellently educated; one must have a very good understanding of human nature, of its needs and aspirations. One needs to have a sense of obligation to fellow human beings, obligation to strengthen their faith through word and deed. As servant of God and people, a priest needs to possess a faith that does not put him to shame, a hope certain and forwardlooking, and a love without hypocrisy, an all-embracing love that makes itself manifest in genuine spirituality and in diakoniaservice to fellow human beings. A priest s pastoral ministry should not be an ecclesiastical profession, a trade (ekklesiastiko epangelma) but a response to a calling. To be sure, as in every age and every century, the role of a priest is a demanding exercise in faith, hope, and love, nevertheless a joyful and fulfilling exercise.