The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 3 of 4

...continued from part two.

2. Father John Romanides on the Mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ

The necessary means of perfection for the deified, but also for the hired hands and slaves, is the crucifixion of desires and the uprooting of self-love through unwavering faith and unconditional obedience to the will of God. Perfection through obedience is valid for the angels before the fall of the devil and demons, since after the fall there is no repentance for them. For humans, obedience is the means of perfection before and after the fall. Obedience, however, is not an end in itself, so that through a servile and exchangeable disposition one may acquire a static, blissful state leading to the perpetuation of a servile or selfish relationship with God. In the stages of the slave and the hired hand, man participates in the perfection of God through the partaking in Christ of the purifying and illuminating grace of the mystery of the Cross, which purifies the passions and the nous and illuminates, sanctifies, justifies and animates the whole man and makes possible, through man's cooperation, obedience unto death to the will of God, through which obedience the grace of God transforms this submissive selfishness into selfless love, and thus man is deified and becomes a friend and co-worker of God, a brother and co-king by the grace of Christ, and an adopted son of the Virgin.

Homily on the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope and Love and their Mother Sophia (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily on the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope and Love and their Mother Sophia 

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1964)

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Martyrs Faith (Vera), Hope (Nadezhda) and Love (Lyubov) and their mother Sophia, honoring their suffering for their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

To understand the nature of the suffering of the Holy Martyrs, it is necessary to recall the time and circumstances in which their martyrdom took place. Saint Sophia lived in the city of Rome, Italy, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Having lost her husband in her youth, she took on the upbringing of her young children — her daughters Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov. Vera was the eldest, twelve years old; Nadezhda was ten; and Lyubov was nine. Being a pious and zealous Christian herself, she strove to instill in her daughters the same spirit of piety, faith, and love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Having ample material resources, Saint Sophia devoted herself entirely to Christian philanthropy, helping the poor. Her children, who are generally drawn to good examples, saw in her life a good role model, and so it is not surprising that they were quite pious.

Prologue in Sermons: September 17

The Unskilled Should Not Take Upon Themselves the Title of Teachers and Interpret the Word of God

September 17

(From the Paterikon: On Anger and Repentance)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

It happens that the literate among you, especially those who have lived in the cities for a considerable time and listened to various scholars, return home and assume the title of teachers. They gather the simpletons around them, begin to read to them from the Divine Scriptures, and interpret the words of Holy Scripture as they please, fully confident that they are doing a good deed. That they read from the Divine Scriptures is truly a good deed on their part, but that they interpret the Divine Words in their own way cannot be called a good deed, for often their arbitrary interpretations give rise to superstitions, prejudices, and most destructive errors. Worst of all, when such teachers are confronted with the idea that this or that passage of Scripture has been interpreted incorrectly, they almost never admit their error, and everyone will assume they are right. This stubbornness often leads them to the point of completely separating from the Church and becoming schismatics. In their own destruction, they lead many others to destruction as well. Had they confessed their error, the Lord would have immediately forgiven them, and the Church would have immediately accepted them into communion.

Homily Three on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

Homily Three on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

By St. John of Kronstadt

"The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18)

The message of the Cross or the message about the Cross, what is it? It is a message about the salvation of the world perishing in sins through the sufferings and death of the Only Begotten Son of God. It is a message about the infinite love of God for the world, "for 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). It is a message about the infinite truth of God, which demanded an infinite sacrifice for the countless and grave sins of the world and for the infinitely insulted holiness of the Deity by creatures created in the image and likeness of God, for the desecrated most holy laws of God; for the corruption by sin of the animated tabernacles of God, the souls and bodies of men. The message about the Cross, further, is a message about the granting of eternal life to all believers for the sake of Christ who suffered, died, and rose again; a message about the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and lusts; a message about the mutual love of people for each other; about self-denial for the sake of love for God and neighbor; a message about the patience of sorrows, illnesses, reproaches, slander, persecution, torment for the sake of Christ. This is what the message of the Cross means. 

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 2 of 4

...continued from part one.

1. Father George Florovsky on the Theologia crucis and Theologia gloriae

It is commonly assumed that, in counterdistinction from the West, Eastern theology is mainly concerned with Incarnation and Resurrection and that the “theology of the Cross”, theologia crucis, has been under-developed in the East. Indeed, Orthodox theology is emphatically a “theology of glory”, theologia gloriae, but only because it is primarily a “theology of the Cross”. The Cross itself is the sign of glory. The Cross itself is regarded not so much as a climax of Christ's humiliation, but rather as a disclosure of Divine might and glory. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Or, in the words of a Sunday hymn, “it is by the Cross that great joy has come into the world”. On the one hand, the whole oikonomia of Redemption is summed up in one comprehensive vision: the victory of Life. On the other, this oikonomia is related to the basic predicament of fallen man, to his existential situation, culminating in his actualized “mortality”, and the “last enemy” is identified, accordingly, as “death”. It was this “last enemy” that had been defeated and abrogated on the tree of the Cross, in ara crucis. The Lord of Life did enter the dark abyss of death, and “death” was destroyed by the flashes of His glory. This is the main motive of the divine office on Easter Day in the Orthodox Church: “trampling down death by death”. The phrase itself is significant: Christ's death is itself a victory, Christ's death dismisses man's mortality.