A Sermon of His Eminence, Metropolitan Moses

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
On this Sunday we commemorate the Forefathers according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember especially the Patriarch Abraham, to whom the promise was first given, when God said to him, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen 22:18). This promise was given two thousand years before the birth of our Savior Christ.

For the Dismissal Hymn of the feast, we chant:

By faith didst Thou justify the Forefathers, when through them Thou didst betroth Thyself aforetime to the Church from among the nations. The Saints boast in glory that from their seed there is a glorious fruit, even she that bare Thee seedlessly. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.

The Gospel for this feast is the parable of the Great Banquet, which is a type of the gathering of the faithful, as it is found in the Gospel of Saint Luke. One can easily contemporize today’s parable:

‘They all at once began to make excuse. The first said unto him, real estate is more important: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have an investment in livestock, business, machinery, electronic equipment, etc., I pray thee have me excused. And another said, because of my family affairs or ethnic or community pressures, I pray thee have me excused.’

Before we squander the limited time of our life, we need to spiritually reflect upon the significance of our Savior’s words. Our Heavenly Father has called us to the Great Banquet and given us the guiding light of His unchanging Truth. We have come from diverse backgrounds, we have had various experiences on our way and had to confront different errors, yet, as Orthodox Christians, our common journey is to this Banquet, to be united with the Holy Trinity. What is it that we partake of at this banquet? Saint Isaac the Syrian explains in one of his homilies that the nourishment we partake of is love. This love is attained through union with God. As our Savior prayed unto the Father:

That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one. (John 17:21-23)

The oneness of the Father and the Son is by nature, our oneness with them and each other is by an effort of our free will and grace. This banquet is singular and is to be found only in the Father’s house, that is, the Church. The Evil Ones’ goal is to sow the seeds of confusion and false notions (heresies) and through them, divide and break this union of love. The Holy and God-Bearing Fathers have taught us how to cast down the might of the Evil One, and we can find life and union with the Holy Trinity as long as we do not allow anyone to separate us from their teachings.

We partake of the banquet both here and in the age to come. When we gather as a Eucharistic community in the Church, we partake of the banquet of love. Thus, the Church is not simply an administrative body, but rather it is a mystical union. The Church is not some abstract idea. We are united to one another in our local Eucharistic community, made into one body, the Body of Christ, through Baptism and the Sacred Eucharist in the bond of love.

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Holy Apostles and granted them the charism to baptize and to consecrate Holy Communion. They were also given the grace to appoint successors, i.e., bishops, in each land. Through the grace given to him, from the beginning, the bishop of each local church manifested this mystical unity in the bond of love. Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, a disciple of Saint John the Theologian, explains some facets of this mystery of union with the Holy Trinity through the Eucharist his Epistle to the Philadelphians:

Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God.

I have confidence of you in the Lord, that ye will be of no other mind. Wherefore I write boldly to your love, which is worthy of God, and exhort you to have but one faith, and one [kind of] preaching, and one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ; and His blood which was shed for us is one; one loaf also is broken to all [the communicants], and one cup is distributed among them all: there is but one altar for the whole Church, and one bishop, with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants.

-- Epistle of Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Philadelphians

Thus in the Great Banquet of love, oneness is manifested in the Eucharist through the one bishop in the local Church. The local bishop ordained presbyters (this word means elders in Greek) and deacons to help minister to the rational flock of Christ. In the early Church the bishop, presbyters and deacons concelebrated at one single altar in any given city. Later, when the Church grew in size, certain elders (presbyters) were commissioned by the bishop to act, with his blessing, as his personal representatives and to serve the liturgy consecrate the Holy Eucharist in his name in separate parishes throughout the territory of his diocese. This concept of the spiritual reality of one altar for each local Church was expounded by Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer throughout his many epistles:

Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it.

-- Epistle of Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrneans

Up until the 8th Century in some locations in the Orthodox west, the local bishop would take out from the Eucharist that he consecrated, a portion called the Fermentum. Deacons would carry the Fermentum to every altar in the diocese for it to be placed in the chalice at each liturgy with the Eucharist consecrated by the presbyter. This demonstrated how much  they desired to have before them the Apostolic principle of Eucharistic unity in one bishop.[1]

To this day, in every part of the world at every service throughout the Orthodox Church, in the local parishes, chapels or monasteries, the serving presbyter or deacon commemorates his own ruling diocesan bishop. In addition, during key parts of the liturgy, the deacon addresses the presbyter as “Holy Master” and not as “Holy Father” as he does at all of the other services, in order to emphasize the fact that the presbyter is representing the one bishop in whom there is found Eucharistic unity.

As is obvious from what has been quoted, in the Orthodox Church, the relationship of a bishop to his flock is outside of the categories found in secular organizations. From ancient times, a ruling bishop was said to be “wedded” to his see and when a ruling bishop died and the local see was vacant, the diocese was declared to be "widowed." When a see is “widowed” the Christian flock assembles, in canonical order, to find a new bishop. In times of trouble when an entire local Patriarchate falls into heresy, as has happened in the past and as has happened recently in the case of the great contemporary heresy of ecumenism, a presbyter may commemorate, "the episcopate that rightly divides the word of truth," at the local liturgy, but as soon as there is peace and order is restored, it is required that he place himself back within the hiearchical structure of the Church by acknowledging the canonical authority of a right-believing, right-teaching bishop. Without the bishop, the canonical order of the Church is absent. As Saint Cyprian of Carthage wrote in his 66th Epistle, “The bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishop.” As the saying goes, “One hundred presbyters cannot make one bishop, but one bishop can ordain one hundred presbyters.”

Oneness of mind are hallmarks of this unity in the Eucharist in the bishop of the local Church, as Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer so eloquently wrote in his Epistle to the Ephesians:

Wherefore it is fitting that ye should run together in accordance with the will of your bishop, which thing also ye do. For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp. Therefore in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. And do ye, man by man, become a choir, that being harmonious in love, and taking up the song of God in unison, ye may with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ, so that He may both hear you, and perceive by your works that ye are indeed the members of His Son. It is profitable, therefore, that you should live in an unblameable unity, that thus ye may always enjoy communion with God.

-- Epistle of Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians

In this very early teaching by one of the truly great Fathers of the Church, there is already an emphasis on the unity of the body of the Church here on earth through the local bishop, in order to establish oneness with God Himself. Anything that would disturb, undermine or violate this unity found in a local Church through the Eucharist and the ruling bishop is repugnant to the Holy Church and the Canons. Saint Ignatius of Antioch uses even stronger language:

Moreover it is in accordance with reason that we should return to soberness [of conduct], and, while yet we have opportunity, exercise repentance towards God. It is well to reverence both God and the bishop. He who honours the bishop has been honoured by God; he who does anything without the knowledge of the bishop, does [in reality] serve the devil.

-- Epistle of Saint Ignatius to the Smyrneans

In times of confusion or turmoil, it is the responsibility for every individual Orthodox Christian, according to the best of their ability, to make sure proper measures are met in order to safeguard the Canonical order of the Church.

During these days when we prepare for the feast of the Incarnation and Birth of the God-Man Jesus Christ, let us take the time to spiritually reflect on these truths and know that the only way we can complete the journey to the Banquet of Love is to labor for that unity found in the local Church through the Eucharist and bishop.

“And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.”

Amen.

[1] See John D. Zizoulas, “Eucharist, Bishop, Church,” p 220, Holy Cross Orthodox Press