[ CONTENTS
]THE SICKNESS OF RELIGION AND ITS
CURE.[
1 ]
A Medical Key To Church
Reunion.
© John S. Romanides
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Preface
The
basic difference between the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke on the one
hand and that of the Gospel of John on the other hand[
2 ] is due to the two stages of the Old and New
Testament's cure of the sickness at the second center of the human personality
in the heart which circulates blood, the other center being the brain or the
intellect which is part of the spinal cord system which circulates spinal fluid.
It is the heart which needs cure by its purification and illumination to be
consummated in the glorification of the whole person. The Gospels of Matthew,
Mark and Luke, accompanied by texts of the Old Testaments, especially those of
the Psalms, were used as part of the process of the purification and the
illumination of the hearts of the catechumens which was consummated by the
celebration of the passion and crucification of the Lord of Glory into which
they were being baptized on Holy Saturday. These baptisms were followed by the
celebration of the resurrection of Christ followed by the Easter Eucharist at
which time the Gospel of John began to be read and interpreted up to Pentecost
Sunday within this period of fifty days. During this period of Johannine
instruction one was expected to progress from one's state of the purification of
one's spirit in the heart to it's illumination by unceasing prayers and psalms
as contrasted from prayers and psalms by the intellect at given times. At this
point one knew that was becoming a member of the Body of Christ as the prayer in
the heart was taking hold and remaining ever present without ceasing. That one
had this prayer and lost it and had thus become satisfied that he had had it
means that he in danger of permanent loss since "Let us not think that we have
become members of the Body once and for all".[
3 ]
Pentecost is the event by which the Old and Testament Church became the
Body of Christ which now includes also all the forefathers who had been
illumined and glorified before Yahweh's incarnation. As in the Old Testament,
those who persevered in the illumination of their heart would go on to their
glorification which was their ordination to prophethood. This is why John the
Baptist, already glorified and ordained to prophethood, again was glorified and
this time experienced the strange reality that he was Baptizing Yaweh Himself
Incarnate. Six days after saying that "...some standing here...will not taste
death until they see the reign of God come in power," Christ again revealed
Himself as Yaweh Incarnate to Peter, James and John".[
4 ]
Such
Biblical realities are not open to correct interpretation by those who have been
contaminated by Augustine's distortion of God's revelation to both the Old and
New Testament the prophets. Being thoroughly intimidated by the Arian argument
that proof that the Logos is created is the fact that He was visible to those to
whom He revealed Himself. In sharp contrast to the tradition of the Old and New
Testament and the Church, Augustine concocted the teaching that God appeared to
and was heard by the prophets and the apostles by means of creatures which God
brings into existence in order to be seen and heard and which he passes back
into non existence after being seen and heard. In sharp contrast to these divine
appearances from nothing that God may be seen and heard and disappearances back
into nothing, it was only the human nature of the Logos which remained
permanently in existence after His incarnation.[
5 ] Such supposed creatures as the dove at the
Baptism of Christ, the rule of God (erroneously translated kingdom) at the
Transfiguration and the tongues of fire at Pentecost are among those creatures
which God brings into existence to be seen and heard and pass out of existence
when their mission is accomplished.
It was
expected that during this Johannine time of instruction the newly baptized would
have entered into the stage of illumination of the heart with unceasing prayer
and psalms as explained by St. Paul, especially in 1Cor. 12-15.12. This will be
the pivotal point of this study since it is here that we have a an esoteric
outline of the inner reality of the worshipping primitive Church headed by
apostles, prophets and teachers whose authority was their own glorification
mutually accepted.
Introduction
All
fantasies, especially that of religion, are caused by a short circuit at the
center of the human personality. It is this short circuit which is cured by the
illumination of the heart by unceasing payer, as distinguished from intellectual
prayer with the brain at given times. The study of this cure in St. Paul will
comprise the heart of this study. We repeat that when illumination results in
glorification then both men and women have been ordained prophets. This is what
prophets are in both the Old and the New Testaments and this is what make
fathers of the Church. What the prophets have seen above seeing in their
glorifications is Yaweh Himself both before and after His incarnation.
This
short circuit, which needs curing, exists between the heart, which pumps blood,
and the spinal cord, which causes the circulation of spinal fluid. All fantasies
are rooted in this short circuit which is nothing more than an electrical short
circuit. This malady cuts its victims off from reality at varying degrees.
Because of this malady one does not always distinguish between reality and
fantasies. Perhaps the most dangerous of these fantasies are religions which
claim to have writings dictated by God and understood by a cast of so-called
inspired leaders. It is by means of human fantasies that that humans remain
captive of demonic power especially manifested in religions. Only the blind do
not see the fact that religions are one of main sources of social turmoil.
However,
within the Old and New Testament tradition, such so-called inspired leaders
constitutes a distortion of what one accepted in the primitive Church during
one's tenure as a catechumen while going through the stages from the
purification and illumination of one's heart on one's way to glorification. The
very illumination of one's heart by unceasing prayers and psalms becomes one's
own testimony of being on the right path to glorification. Those who pretend to
have reached illumination and glorification cannot fool real prophets. The two
basic criteria of phony Prophets are that "it is impossible to express God and
even more impossible to conceive Him," and that "there is no similarity
whatsoever between the created and the uncreated". Phony prophets are easily
detected by their transgressions of these two basic criteria which Augustine
repeatedly transgresses.
In sharp
contrast to these criteria, most doctrine and Bible interpretation belongs to
the realm of fantasy, simply because those dealing with these subjects have been
brought up to believe that their fantasies themselves belong to the realm of the
gift of faith. Their leaders, who have not the slightest knowledge of the very
existence of the illumination of the heart and glorification, here and know in
this life, convince their faithful that their faith itself is
proof that they are on their way to salvation. The very nature of the
Ecumenical Movement for Christian Unity has not yet even entertained the
possibility that the key to unity is the cure of unceasing prayer in the heart
and glorification.
It is
the short circuit in question which minimizes the level of one's communion with
the uncreated glory of God which saturates and governs creation. All created
beings participate in the uncreated creative and sustaining energies of God
which are collectively called His glory and rule by the Old and New Testaments.
This is the reality which underlines the Old and New Testament and primitive
Judaism and Christianity and the Nine Ecumenical Councils convened by the Roman
Emperor who ruled from Constantinople New Rome until captured by the Ottoman
Turks in 1453. Although the Roman Empire then disappeared the practice of the
cure of the heart by its purification and illumination leading to glorification
has not disappeared, at least yet. We will know that the last one to be gloried
has passed away when human society has passed away. And this last one glorified
will probably not have been member of any "official" Church.
1) The Short Circuit
The
short circuit which exists between the heart which pumps blood and the spinal
cord which circulates spinal fluid is repaired by the ceasless prayer in the
heart. It is only when one's short circuit is thus repaired that one begins to
be liberated from the realm of fantisies by which the devil rules human society.
Human
communion with the uncreated energies of God which saturate creation is enhanced
by the purifying, illuminating and the glorifying energy of God. In sharp
contrast to Biblical glorification, the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition that
happiness as one's highest destiny is in reality hell itself, i.e. the compete
satisfaction of one's ego-centric desires.
The most
important result of glorification is the revelation that "there is no similarity
whatsoever between the created and the uncreated" and that "it is impossible to
express God and even more impossible to conceive Him". In other words the Bible
Itself is neither an expression of God nor conceptions of God. Only in the hands
of the glorified can it be used to guide others to the cure of purification and
illumination of the heart and glorification. In the hands of quack doctors it
leads their victims to their destruction.
To
become a member of the Body of Christ one begins with the faith of acceptance
during the stage of purification of the heart. This faith must become inner
faith as testified to by ceaseless prayer. It is the ceaseless payer in the
heart that testifies to the fact that one has begun to become a member of the
Body of Christ. However, to arrive at the state of illumination and then at the
threshold of glorification means that the Lord of Glory is taking one into His
glorification for his own good, but especially for the good of others. Having
been glorified one goes back to illumination "a man".[
6 ]
2) The Angel Yahweh of Glory [ 7 ]
The
First and Second Ecumenical Councils condemned the Arian and Eunomean position
that the Angel Yahweh of Glory and His Spirit are the first creation of God
before the ages. These Councils supported instead the position that the Angel of
Great Council and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial with the Father.
The
Ninth Ecumenical Council of 1341, according to Roman Law, condemned the
Augustinian teaching of Barlaam the Calabrian, without realizing its source,
that God reveals Himself by means of creatures which He brings into
existence-τΠγινόμενα-to be seen and heard and which He passes back into
non-existence-τΠαπογενόμενα- when their missions are accomplished. What these
council Fathers did not know in 1341 was that these teachings were those of
Augustine himself clearly stated over and over again in his books II and III of
his De Trinitate, as we saw. This means that the Vatican has for centuries been
accepting the Roman Ecumenical Councils of New Rome within Augustinian
categories. The question before us is whether the Lutheran and Orthodox members
of this dialogue follow either Augustine, the Fathers of these Roman Councils,
or positions of their own.[
8 ]
3) Synods as Associations of Neurological Clinics
We must
have a clear vision of the context within which both Church and State saw the
contribution of the Prophets to the cure of the sickness of the human
personality and its perfection in order to understand both the mission of Synods
and the reason why the Roman Empire incorporated them into its code of law.
Neither Church nor State reduced the mission of the Church to salvation by
forgiveness of sins for entrance into heaven after death. This would be
identical to doctors forgiving their patients for being sick so that they may be
cured after death. Both Church and State knew very well that forgiveness of sins
was only the beginning of the cure of the happiness-seeking sickness of
humanity. This cure passed through the purification and illumination of the
heart and culminated in the perfection of glorification. This resulted not only
in proper preparation for life after death but also in the transformation of
society here and now from that of selfish and self-centered individuals to that
of individuals with selfless love which does not seek its own.
a) Heaven and Hell.
Everyone
will see the glory of God in Christ and reach that degree of perfection one has
both chosen and worked for. Following Saint Paul and the Gospel of John, the
Fathers support that those who do not see the resurrected Christ in glory in
this life, either in a mirror dimly by unceasing prayers and psalms in the
heart, or face to face in glorification, will see His glory as eternal and
consuming fire and outer darkness in the next life. The uncreated glory that
Christ has by nature from the Father is heaven for those whose selfish love has
been cured and transformed into selfless love, and hell for those who choose to
remain uncured in their selfishness.
Not only
are the Bible and the Fathers clear on this, but so are the Orthodox Icons of
the last judgment. The same golden light of glory within which Christ and His
friends are enveloped becomes red as it flows down to envelope the damned. This
is the glory and love of Christ, which purifies the sins of all but does not
glorify all. All humans will be led by the Holy Spirit into all the Truth which
is to see Christ in glory, but not all will be glorified. "Those whom he
justified those he also glorified", according to St. Paul (Rom. 8:30). The
parable of Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham and of the rich man in the place of
torment is clear. The rich man sees but he does not participate (Luke 16:19-31 )
.
The
Church does not send anyone to heaven or hell, but prepares the faithful for the
vision of Christ in glory, which everyone will have. God loves the damned as
much as He loves His saints. He wants the cure of all but not all accept His
cure. This means that the forgiveness of sins is not sufficient preparation for
seeing Christ in glory.
It goes
without saying that the Anselmian tradition whereby the saved are those to whom
Christ supposedly reconciled God is not an option within the Orthodox Tradition.
Commenting on 2 Cor. 5:19, for example, St. John Chrysostom says that one must
"be reconciled to God. Paul did not say, `Reconcile God to yourselves', for it
is not He who hates, but we. For God never hates".
It is
within the above context that the State understood the Church's mission of cure
within society. Otherwise religions promising happiness after death are not much
different from each other.
b) Paul's window on the Church. [ 9 ]
1 Cor.
12-15 is a unique window through which one may look at the reality of the Church
as the Body of Christ. Membership in the Church has its degrees of cure and
perfection within two groupings, the illumined and the glorified. The members of
the Body of Christ are clearly listed in 1 Cor. 12:28. One begins by becoming a
private individual believer (idiotes) who says "amen" during corporate
audible worship. At this stage one is engaged in the purification of one's heart
under the direction of those who are already temples of the Holy Spirit and
members of the Body of Christ.
The
degrees of illumination begin with the foundation charisma of "kinds of tongues"
at the bottom in eighth place and reach up to the "teachers" in third place.
At the
head of the local Church are the "Prophets" in second place, who have received
the same revelation as the "Apostles" (Eph. 3:5) in first place, and are
together with them the foundation of the Church (Eph. 2:20). Apostles and
Prophets are the foundation of the Church in a way similar to doctors being the
foundation of hospitals.
"Kinds
of tongues" are the foundation on which all the charismata are built and are
temporarily suspended only during glorification (1 Cor.13:8). As an Apostle, St.
Paul puts himself at the head of the list of members God has placed in the
Church. Yet he still has the foundation charisma of "kinds of tongues". He
writes, "I thank God in tongues more than all of you" (1 Cor. 14:18). This means
that "kinds of tongues" belong to all levels of charismata within the Body of
Christ. Paul's question, "do all speak in tongues?" is a reference to the
"private individuals" who do not yet have the gift of tongues and are therefore
not yet members of the Body of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.[
10 ]
The
illumination and glorification of the members of the Body of Christ are not
grades of authority by human appointment or election. They are those whom God
prepares and places within the Church for advancement to higher degrees of cure
and perfection. That Paul calls on all lower degrees of membership in the Body
of Christ to seek advancement to higher spiritual stages means clearly that all
are supposed to become Prophets, i.e. to reach glorification. "I indeed want all
of you to speak in tongues that you may prophesy" (1 Cor. 14:5).
c) Psychiatric Clinic.
This
Pauline Church is like a psychiatric clinic. But its understanding of the malady
of human personality is much more sophisticated than anything now known in
modern medicine. In order to see this reality we must look through Paul into the
Biblical understanding of human normality and abnormality. The normal human
being is he who has been led into all the Truth by the Spirit of Truth, i. e.
into vision of Christ in His Father's glory (John 17). It is because the
Apostles and Prophets are glorified in Christ that the people believe that God
has sent His Son and that they too can be cured by selfless love (ibid.). Humans
who do not see the uncreated glory of God are not normal. "All have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). In other words the only human who
was born normal is the Lord of Glory, Who by choice assumed the blameless
passions (i. e. hunger, thirst, weariness, sleep, fear of death, etc.), although
by nature the source of glory, which abolishes them..
The
other side of this coin is that God does not reveal His glory to everyone
because He does not wish to harm those not prepared for such a vision. The
surprise of the Old Testament Prophets that they have seen God and yet live and
the people's request that Moses ask God to cease showing His glory, which had
become unbearable, is clear in this respect.
The
concern of the Apostolic Churches was not to reflect and speculate about God in
Himself, since He remains a mystery to the intellect even when He reveals His
glory in Christ to those who participate in the mystery of His Son's Cross by
their glorification. Their only concern was each individual's cure in Christ,
which is brought about by the purification and illumination of the heart and
glorification in this life (1 Cor. 12:26) for service to society. "... Those
whom he has justified, he has also glorified" (Rom. 8:30) means that
illumination and glorification are interdependent in this life, yet not
identical.
The
sickness of human personality consists of the weakening of the heart's communion
with the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), by its being swamped by the thoughts of the
environment (Rom. 1:, 21,24, 2:5). In such a state one imagines God to be in the
image of one's sick self or even of animals (Rom. 1:22). The inner person (eso
anthropos) suffers spiritual death "because of which (eph'ho)[
11 ] all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12) by becoming
enslaved to the instinct to self-preservation which deforms love by its bondage
to the self-centered search for security and happiness.
The cure
of this sickness begins by the purification of the heart of all thoughts (Rom.
2:29), both good and bad, and their restriction to the intellect. In order to do
this one's spirit dissipated in the brain must spin itself by prayer into a ball
of light and return to the heart. It becomes like a repaired diskette to which
prayer texts from the brain may be transferred and back to the brain. One thus
becomes free from slavery to everything in the environment, e. g. to self
indulgence, wealth, property and even to one's parents and relatives (Math.
10:37; Luke 14:26). The purpose of this is not to attain to Stoic indifference
or lack of love, but to allow the heart to accept the prayers and psalms that
the Holy Spirit transfers there from the intellect and energizes unceasingly
while the intellect is occupied with daily activities and while asleep. It is
thus that sick love begins its cure.
This is
the context of St. Paul's reference to the Holy Spirit praying in the heart. The
Holy Spirit as such advocates on behalf of all humans "with sighs not spoken"
(Rom.8:26). But He transfers the prayers and psalms of the intellect to the
human spirit in the heart when it is purified of all thoughts, both good and
bad. At this point one's own spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit does nothing
else but pray and recite psalms unceasingly while the intellect engages in its
normal daily activities liberated from happiness-seeking self-centeredness. Thus
one prays with one's spirit in the heart unceasingly and one prays with the
intellect at given times. This is what Paul means when he writes, "I will pray
with the spirit, but I will also pray with the intellect. I will recite psalms
with the spirit, but I will also recite psalms with the intellect" (1 Cor.
14:15).
Paul
has just told us that praying by means of other tongues than one's own includes
Old Testament psalms. He is, therefore, not speaking about incomprehensible
audible prayers since the psalms were familiar to all. Paul is speaking about
the prayers of one's spirit in the heart which are audible only to those with
this same charisma of "kinds of tongues". Those who did not yet have this gift
could not hear the prayers and psalms in the hearts of those who did have this
gift.
The
Corinthians in the state of illumination had introduced the innovation of
conducting corporate worship in the heart in the presence of the "private
individuals" who had not yet received this gift of "kinds of tongues". This made
it impossible for these "private individuals" to be edified and say their "amen"
at the proper times simply because they could not hear.
Paul
states clearly that "no one hears", (1 Cor.14,2). "if I come to you speaking by
tongues, what will I benefit you if I do not speak to you?" (ibid. 14:6-7). "For
if the trumpet gives an unmanifested sound, who will prepare for battle? Thus
also you, if you do not give a well-shaped word by means of the tongue, how will
that which is spoken be known?... Thus many may happen to be the kinds of sounds
in the world, and none are soundless. For if I do not know the force of the
sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me".
(1 Cor. 14:8-11). Those without the gift of "kinds of tongues" must hear the
"force of the sound" of the prayers and psalms to react with their "amen" (ibid.
14:11,16). One must not pray and recite psalms with "unmanifested sound," in the
presence of those without this gift of tongues (ibid. 14:10,11). "For you give
thanks well, but the other is not edified" (ibid. 14:17).
When
Paul says, "he who prophesies is greater than him who speaks in tongues, except
if he interprets that the church may receive edification" (1 Cor. 14:5), he
means that he who speaks only in tongues must learn to translate the psalms and
prayers in his heart into psalms and prayers of his intellect to be recited
audibly. When he thus learns to pray and recite psalms simultaneously with his
spirit and his intellect he may then participate in corporate thanksgiving for
the benefit of the "private individuals" who will know when to say their Amen.
"Thus let him who speaks in tongues pray that he may translate. For if I pray in
tongue, my spirit prays, but my intellect is without fruit. So what is (the
situation)? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the
intellect. I will recite psalms with the spirit, but I will also recite psalms
with the intellect. For if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies
the place of the private individual say the Amen to your thanksgiving? Because
he does not know what you say. You give thanks well, but the other is not
edified. I thank God in tongue more than all of you, but in church I prefer to
speak five words with my intellect, so that I may instruct others, rather than
ten thousand words in tongue" (1 Cor. 14:13-19).
Paul
never says that one interprets what another is saying in tongues. One interprets
what he himself is saying in tongues. In each case where Paul relates "speaking
in tongues" to "translation" it is always the one who has the gift of tongues
who translates himself in order to be heard audibly for the benefit of the
"private individuals". It is within this context that Paul directs that "if one
speaks in tongues, he should be grouped in twos or the most threes, and let one
translate. If there is not a translator, let him keep quiet in church, let him
speak to himself and to God" (1 Cor. 14:27-28). The interpreter is clearly he
who has the gift of translating his own prayers of his own spirit in his own
heart to his own intellect that they may become audible for the edification of
others. Otherwise he must keep quiet and restrict himself to praying in tongues
which others are also doing but also audibly. Paul thus deprives those with only
the gift of kinds of tongues of their majority power to impose their innovation
of corporate prayers by only tongues in the presence of the "private
individuals".
Paul is
speaking about psalms and prayers not recited by one's own tongue, but heard
coming from the heart. This illumination of the heart neutralizes enslavement to
the instinct to self-preservation and begins the transformation of possessive
love into selfless love. This is the gift of faith to the inner person which is
one's justification, reconciliation, adoption, peace, hope and vivification.
These
unceasing prayers and psalms in the heart (Eph. 5:18-20), otherwise called
"kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:28), transform the private individual into a
temple of the Holy Spirit and member of the Body of Christ. They are the
beginning of one's liberation from bondage to the environment, not by retreat
from it, but by controlling it, not exploitatively, but by selfless love. It is
thus that, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has liberated me from
the law of sin and death...If one does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, then the body is dead to sin, whereas
the Spirit is life unto justice..". (Rom. 8:2ff).
As love
is being cured by perfection one receives the higher charismata listed by Paul
in 1 Cor. 12:28 which are consummated in glorification. Paul states that, "if
one is glorified, all members rejoice" (1 Cor.12:26) in order to explain why
Prophets are second to the Apostles and before all other members of the body of
Christ. To be justified by the prayers and psalms of the Holy Spirit in the
heart is to see Christ in a mirror dimly (1 Cor. 13:12). Glorification is the
coming of "the Perfect" (1 Cor. 13:10) by seeing Christ face to face (1 Cor.
13:12). In saying, "I know now in part" (ibid.) Paul is referring to his current
state of illumination or justification. By his next phrase, "but then I will be
known as I was known" (ibid.), Paul is saying that he will be glorified as he
had been glorified. In the state of illumination one is a child. Once glorified
one returns to illumination a man (1 Cor. 13:11).
During
glorification, which is revelation, prayer in the heart (tongues), knowledge and
prophecy, together with faith and hope, are abolished since replaced by Christ
Himself. Only love does not fall away (1 Cor. 13:8-11). During revelation words
and concepts about and to God (prayers) are abolished. After glorification one
returns to illumination. Knowledge, prophecy, tongues, faith and hope return to
join love which had not fallen away. Those words and concepts used in prayer and
teaching by one glorified to lead others to glorification are inspired and to be
abolished in glorification.
It is
this vision of the resurrected Christ in glory which Paul had and which puts
Apostles and Prophets at the head (1 Cor. 12:28) and foundation (Eph. 2:20) of
the Church. This foundation includes women prophets (Acts 2:17, 21:9, 1 Cor.
11:5) and is the context of Paul's statement that in Christ there is neither
male nor female (Gal. 3:28).
Glorification is not a miracle, but the normal final stage of the transformation
of selfish love into selfless love. Both Paul and John clearly consider vision
of Christ in glory in this life as necessary for the perfection of love and
service to society (John 14:21-24, 16:22, 17:24, 1 Cor. 13:10-13, Eph. 3:3-6).
The appearances of the resurrected Christ in glory were not and are not miracles
to astound observers into believing in His Godhead. The miracle was the
crucifixion of the Lord of Glory, not His resurrection. The resurrected Christ
appears only for the perfection of love, even in the case of Paul who had
reached the threshold of glorification (Gal.1:14ff), not knowing the Lord of
Glory he was about to see had been born, crucified and resurrected. 1 Cor.
15:1-11 are the glorifications which complete Paul's treatment of spiritual
gifts begun in 1 Cor. 12:1.
All
subsequently glorified in history are equal to the Apostles in their
participation in Pentecost because they too have been guided into all the Truth
(Acts 10. 47-11:18). All the Truth is the resurrected and ascended Christ Who
returned in the uncreated tongues of fire of Pentecost to dwell with His Father
in the faithful who have become temples of His Spirit advocating in their
hearts. He thus made the Church His body against which the gates of death can no
longer prevail.
Glorification is both the soul's and body's participation in
immortality and incorruption for the perfection of love. This may be of short or
long duration. After an initial loss of orientation one goes about one's daily
work seeing everything saturated by the glory of God which is neither light nor
darkness, nor similar to anything created. The passions, which had been
neutralized and made blameless by illumination, are abolished. During
glorification one does not eat, drink, sleep, or fatigue and one is not effected
by heat or cold. These phenomena in the lives of saints (prophets) both before
and after the incarnation of the Lord of Glory are not miracles but the
restoration of humans to normality. It is within this context that one places
such sayings of Christ to the living, but sick, that "I came that they have life
(in illumination) and that they have it (in glorification) abundantly" (John
10:10). The gospel of John, and especially 14-16, is a detailed description of
the cure of illumination and John 17 is Christ's prayer for the cure of
glorification.
Gerontologists have concluded that the aging process is a sickness and are
looking into whether death itself is also a sickness. In this respect both the
glorified and their relics should prove of interest since many hundreds of them
remain with their bodies intact for centuries in an intermediary state between
corruption and incorruption. One of the oldest examples is St. Spyridon on the
island of Corfu who was a Father of the First Ecumenical Council in 325. There
are 120 in Kiev alone.
This is
the context of Paul's statement that "even this creation will also be liberated
from bondage to corruption unto the freedom of the glory of the children of God"
(Rom. 8:21). It is clear from the context that "the freedom of the glory" is
here freedom from mortality and corruption. But even those whose inner person
has been adopted by illumination and who have tasted of physical immortality and
incorruption during and limited to the period of their glorification await "the
adoption, the liberation of our body" (Rom. 8:23). "The dead will be raised
incorruptible and we will be changed... this corruptible will put on
incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality..". (1 Cor. 15:53,54). One
knows this not by speculation on Biblical texts, but from the experience of
glorification, i. e. from "the freedom of the glory of the children of God". The
experience of glorification and not only Biblical texts is the basis of the
Church's belief in the physical resurrection of the biological part of the
person.
d) Not of the world but in the world.
The
distinction between active and contemplative lives does not exist within the
Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit's gift of unceasing prayers and psalms in the
heart makes such a distinction impossible. It can exist only outside the Body of
Christ.
No one
can say Lord Jesus in the heart except by the Spirit and no one can say Anathema
Jesus in the Spirit (1 Cor.12:3). This is Biblical and Patristic spirituality
and the power by which it was impossible to torture a temple of the Holy Spirit
into renunciation of Christ. Such renunciation simply proved that one had not
been a member of the Church. The primary mission of the temples of the Holy
Spirit was to work at whatever profession they were engaged in and to seek to
pass on their own cure to others. They literally worked in their societies in a
capacity similar to that of psychiatrists. Unlike them, however, they did not
seek mental equilibrium by conformity to social standards of normality. Their
standard of normality was glorification. Their healing power was not and is not
of this world. Yet they are in this world as part of its transformation.
e) Theology and dogma.
All who
have reached glorification testify to the fact that "it is impossible to express
God and even more impossible to conceive Him" because they know by their
experience that there is no similarity whatsoever between the created and the
uncreated. God is "unmoved mover" and "moved" and "neither one. nor oneness nor
unity,. nor divinity... nor sonship, nor fatherhood, etc". in the experience of
glorification. The Bible and dogmas are guides to and abolished during
glorification. They are not ends in themselves and have nothing to do with
metaphysics, either with analogia entis or with analogia
fidei.
This
means that words and concepts which do not contradict the experience of
glorification and which lead to purification and illumination of the heart and
glorification are Orthodox. Words and concepts which contradict glorification
and lead away from cure and perfection in Christ are heretical.
This is
the key to the decisions of all Seven Roman Ecumenical Councils as well as that
of the Eighth of 879 and especially of the Ninth of 1341.
Most
historians of dogma do not see this because they believe the Fathers were, like
Augustine, searching by meditation and contemplation to understand the mystery
of God behind words and concepts about Him. They induct even such Fathers as
Gregory the Theologian into the army of Latin theology by translating him to say
that to philosophize about God is permitted only to "past masters of
meditation," instead of "to those who have passed into theoria", which is vision
of Christ "in a mirror dimly", by "kinds of tongues" and "face to face" in
"glorification".
The
Fathers never understood the formulation of dogma as part of an effort to
intellectually understand the mystery of God and the incarnation. St. Gregory
the Theologian ridicules such heretics: "Do tell me, he says, what is the
unbegottenness of the Father, and I will explain to you the physiology of the
generation of the Son and the procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us
be frenzy-stricken for prying into the mystery of God".
Neither
did the Fathers ever entertain the Augustinian notion that the Church
understands the faith better with the passage of time. Every glorification is a
participation in all the Truth of Pentecost, which can neither be added to nor
better understood.
This
also means that Orthodox doctrine is purely pastoral since it does not exist
outside the context of the cure of individual and social ills and
perfection.
Being a
theologian is first and foremost to be a specialist in the ways of the Devil.
Illumination and especially glorification convey the charisma of the discernment
of spirits for outwitting the Devil, especially when he resorts to teaching
theology and spirituality to those slipping from his grip.
f) The Mysteries.
The
most important result of l8th and l9th century Franco-Latinisation of Orthodox
theological education has been the disappearance of the context of the very
existence of the Church in purification, illumination and glorification from
Dogmatic Manuals, and especially from chapters on the Mysteries. These manuals
were not aware of the biblical and patristic fact that the charisma of the
presbyterate presupposed the state of prophecy. "...do not neglect the charisma
within you which was given to you by means of prophecy with the laying on of
hands of the presbyterate (1 Tim. 4:14)".
g) Prophets and Intellectuals.
Creation
is completely dependent on God although there is no similarity whatsoever
between them. This means that there is no difference whatsoever between the
educated and non-educated when both are passing through the cure of illumination
on their way to becoming Prophets by glorification. Superior knowledge about
created reality does not give one any special claim on knowledge of the
uncreated. Nor is ignorance about created reality a disadvantage for reaching
the highest knowledge of uncreated reality.
h) Prophets and Popes.
Of the
five Roman Patriarchates the Franks captured that of Rome and replaced the Roman
Popes with Teutonic Popes by military force during a struggle which began in 983
and ended in 1046. They thus extended their control of Apostolic succession to
the Papacy as part of their plans for world dominion. They transformed the Roman
Fathers into Greeks and Latins and attached themselves to the latter and so
invented the idea of two Christendoms. For Islam the Papacy is still Latin and
Frank, and the Patriarchs of New Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem are
still Roman.
Ignorance of who and what the glorified are and why they are second and
successors to the Apostles created the void which was filled by the
infallibility of the Latin Pope.
i) Prophets and Fathers.
Gregory
of Nyssa informs his readers that heresies appear in those churches which have
no Prophets. The reason is that their leaders attempt to commune with God by
means of meditation and contemplation about Him instead of by illumination and
glorification. To confuse one's concepts about God with God is idolatry, not to
mention bad scientific method.
It is
about Apostles and Prophets that St. Paul says, "For the spiritual person
examines all, but he is examined by no one" (1 Cor. 3:15). The reason for this
is that by their glorification in the uncreated glory of God in Christ they
became witnesses to the fact that "the leaders of this age" "crucified the Lord
of Glory" (1 Cor. 2:8). This is the very same Lord of Glory (the Angel of Great
Council), Who calls Himself "He Who Is, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and
the God of Jacob", the Almighty, the Wisdom of God, the Rock which followed (1
Cor. 10:1-4), which the Old Testament Prophets saw. St. John the Baptist was the
first of the Prophets to see this same Lord of Glory in the Flesh. Of course the
Jews also, who formally believed in the Lord of Glory, "had they known, would
not have crucified the Lord of Glory" (1 Cor. 2:8).
Paul
adapts the sayings, "that which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has
not arisen in the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him",
to the crucifixion of the Old Testament Lord of glory, which "God has revealed
to us by His Spirit" (1 Cor.3:9-10). Those thus glorified are the only
authorities within the Orthodox Church. They produce the doctrinal formulations
which serve as guides to the cure of the center of the human personality and as
warning signs to stay away from quack doctors who promise much and have nothing
to give in preparation for the experience of God's glory in Christ which
everyone will finally have.
j) The Lord of Glory and the Ecumenical Councils. [ 12 ]
By
Scriptures both Christ and the Apostles meant the Old Testament to which the New
Testament was added. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke were edited to serve
as pre-baptismal guides during the stages of the purification and the
illumination of the inner person in the heart. That Christ is the same Lord of
Glory Who revealed Himself to his O. T. Prophets became manifest at His baptism
and transfiguration wherein He showed the glory and rule (βασιεία) of His
Father as His own by nature. The Gospel of John was edited for the purpose of
continuing one's advance within illumination (John 13:31-16) and press on to
glorification (John 17) by which one fully sees the glorification of the Lord of
Glory in His Father and the latter in His Son (John 13:31, 18-21). This was the
reason why John was called the "spiritual Gospel".[
13 ]
Those
being thus initiated into the Body of Christ did not learn about the
incarnation, baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection,
ascension and Pentecostal return of the Lord of Glory in His Spirit's uncreated
tongues of fire to become the head of His Body, the Church, by simply studying
texts of the Bible. They studied the Bible as an integral part of the process of
having their hearts purified, illumined and readied for glorification, in the
same Lord of Glory, Who had glorified His Old Testament Prophets, but now in His
human nature born from the Virgin Mary.
It was
within this context that the ancient Church identified Christ with the Lord,
Angel and Wisdom by Whom God created the world and glorified His friends, the
prophets, and by Whom He delivered Israel from bondage and guided her to the
time when He Himself became flesh to put an end to the rule of death over His
(O. T.) Church (Matt. 16:18). In spite of their glorification the O. T. Prophets
died. But now "if one keeps my word, one will never see death" (John 8:52-53).
There is now a first resurrection of the inner person (Rev. 20:5) and a second
resurrection of the body (Rev. 20:6) and there is also a second death of the
body (Rev. 20:14).
Even
such heretics as the Arians and Eunomians, condemned by the First and Second
Ecumenical Councils, took this identity of Christ with the Old Testament Lord of
Glory for granted. However, they claimed that this Angel of Glory was the first
creation of God's will from non-being before both time and the ages and not
co-eternal with the Father. They used the visibility of the Angel of Glory to
the Prophets as proof of His created nature[
14 ] in a way somewhat similar to those
Gnostics who identified this Old Testament Angel with their lesser creator god
of this supposed evil world and who duped Israel.
The
Arians and Eunomians either ignored or rejected the fact that by glorification
one becomes god by grace (theosis) and that one therefore sees the uncreated
glory and rule (βασιεία) of God in Christ by means of God Himself. At stake was
the fact that God Himself reveals Himself to His glorified friends and not by
means of a creature, with the sole exception of the created nature of His Son.
Yet the grace and rule (βασιεία) of illumination and glory which Christ
communicates to His Body the Church is uncreated. The Franco-Latin doctrine that
communicated grace is created has no place in the tradition of the Ecumenical
Councils.
The
reason why the above aspects of the Ecumenical Councils play no role in the
Latin and Protestant histories of doctrine is the fact that Augustine deviated
sharply from Ambrose and the Fathers in his understanding of the appearances of
the Logos to the O. T. prophets.[
15 ] His misunderstandings became the core of
the Franco-Latin tradition. The Protestant and Latin histories of doctrine,
which are aware of Augustine's deviation from this ancient identification of
Christ with this Angel of Glory, assume that it was dropped from the tradition
because of its usage by the Arians. However this tradition was preserved intact
within the Churches of the Roman Empire and continues to be the heart of the
Orthodox tradition. This is the sole context for the Trinitarian and
Christological terms: Three substances, one essence and the homoousion of the
Logos with the Father and us. They were and remain meaningless in the
Augustinian context.
Augustine had mistakenly believed that it was only the Arians who identified the
Logos with this O. T. Angel of Glory. He was not aware that both Ambrose, the
bishop he claims to have opened his Manichaean mind to the Old Testament and
baptized him, and all other Fathers did the same. The Arians and Eunomians had
argued that proof that the Logos was created was that He was by nature visible
to the Prophets, whereas the Father alone was invisible. Augustine had not
understood the Biblical experiences of illumination and glorification, which he
had confounded with Neo-Platonic illumination and ecstasy. He relegated
glorification to life after death and identified it with the vision of the
divine substance which supposedly satisfies man's desire for absolute happiness.
His utilitarian understanding of love made it impossible for him to understand
the selfless love of glorification in this life. In this regard he did not
differ from the Arians he was attacking.
Within
the above Neo-Platonic presuppositions Augustine solved the problem at hand with
the following explanation: the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, being equally
invisible, supposedly reveal themselves and their messages to the prophets by
means of various creatures which they bring into existence to be seen and heard
and which they then cause to pass out of existence, such as the glory, cloud,
fire, burning bush, etc. God permanently became visible in the human nature of
His Son by Whom He communicates messages and concepts. Yet He supposedly also
continues to reveal visions and messages by created means which He passes into
and out of existence as needed, such as the bird at the baptism of Christ, the
tongues of fire of Pentecost, the glory /light /rule (βασιεία) of God revealed
at the transfiguration, the cloud /glory on which Christ went to heaven, the
voice of the Father by which He announced His pleasure in His Son, the fire of
hell, etc.
These
verbal symbols by which the Old and New Testament writers expressed experiences
of illumination and glorification were thus reduced to temporary objects and
unbelievable miracles.[
16 ] This became the Franco-Latin tradition to
which both Latins and Protestants still basically adhere to.
One of
the most remarkable side effects of such misunderstandings is the use of the
word "kingdom" which saturates translations of the New Testament and which never
once appears in the Greek original. The Greek term "βασιεία of God" designates
the uncreated rule of God and not the created Kingdom ruled by God.
k) "...do not quench the Spirit", (1 Thes. 5:19).
The Holy
Spirit advocating in one's heart "with sighs unspoken", (Rom. 8:26) is not in
itself membership in the Body of Christ. One must respond with one's own
unceasing prayer of one's spirit so that the Spirit of God may testify to our
spirit "that we are children of God and co-heirs of Christ, that since we
co-suffer that we may also be co-glorified", (Rom. 8:16-17). Although this
response is our own, it is also a gift of God. This is exactly what St. Paul
presupposes when he commands, "Pray unceasingly... Quench not the Spirit. Do not
disregard prophecies". (1 Thes. 5:17-19). Paul is here telling us to take care
to remain temples of the Holy Spirit by preserving our spirit's unceasing prayer
in the heart that we may become prophets by glorification. This is also why such
Fathers as St. John Chrysostom says, "Let us not think that we have become
members of the Body once and for all".[
17 ]
Baptism
by water unto forgiveness of sins is an indelible mystery because God's
forgiveness for being sick is the given fact for the beginning of cure. However,
baptism by the Spirit is not an indelible mystery since one either does have, or
does not have, or may lose, unceasing prayer in the heart. Whether one responds
or not the Holy Spirit advocates in the heart of every single human being
whether he believes in Christ or not. In other words the love of God calls
everyone equally but not all respond.
Those
who do not respond should not imagine themselves to be temples of the Holy
Spirit and members of the Body of Christ and thereby impede others from
responding. Those in the state of illumination pray together in their liturgies
as temples of the Holy Spirit and members . of the Body of Christ that
non-members become members and former members become again members since this
was not guaranteed to them by their baptism of water unto forgiveness of
sins.
l) The charisma of translation.
At some
point in the history of the early Church the charisma of simultaneously
translating the psalms and prayers from the heart to the intellect for the
corporate worship benefit of the private individuals was replaced by fixed
written liturgical texts with fixed points at which laypersons (idiotes)
responded with their amen, Kyrie eleison, etc. Also the prayer in the heart was
reduced to either a short prayer (e. g. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me the
sinner) or a sentence from a psalm (a form found in the desert Fathers of Egypt
brought to the West by St. John Cassian). Otherwise the charismata remained
intact.
Gregory
of Tours described the phenomena of both unceasing prayer and glorification. But
having not understood what they are, he described them as miracles and in a
confused way.[
18 ] The Franks continued this confusion and
finally confounded illumination and glorification with Augustine's Neo-Platonic
mysticism, rightly rejected by most of the Reformation.
SELECTION OF STUDIES ON THE SUBJECTS HEREIN DEALT WITH
Collection of Patristic Sources on Prayer in the Heart entitled
ΦΙΛΟΚAΛΙA (Philokalia), edited by the Metropolitan of Corinth, Panteleimon
Karanikolas, vol. 1-5, Athens, 1957-1963.
"The Way
of a Pilgrim", translated from Russian by R. M. French SPCK London 1942.
Translated into Greek by the Metropolitan of Corinth, Panteleimon Karanikolas.
The ΦΙΛΟΚAΛΙA in popular practice.
John S.
Romanides, "Original Sin According to St. Paul" in St. Vladimir's Quarterly (in
the original Georges Florovsky numbering discontinued by new editors), New York,
1955, vol. IV, nos. 1-2. Paper delivered in 1954 to the faculty of St. Sergius
Orthodox Theological School in Paris.
The
Ancestral (original) Sin, 1st ed., Athens 1957; 2nd ed. Athens 1989, Domos.
"Ecclesiology of St. Ignatius of Antioch", Atlanta 1956: reprinted in
The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, Brookline 1961-62, vol. VII, nos. 1-2,
pp. 53-77.
"Justin
Martyr and the Fourth Gospel," Greek Orthodox Theological Review 4 (1958):
115-134.
"Dogmatics", Thessaloniki 1973.
"Romanity, Romania, Roumeli", Thessaloniki 1975.
"Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology", in Procès Verbaux du
Deuxième Congrès de Théologie Orthodoxe tenu à Athènes 1976, ed. S. C.
Agourides, Athens 1978.
"Franks,
Romans, Feudalism and Doctrine", Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline 1982.
"Jesus
Christ-The Life of the World", in Xenia Oecumenica, Helsinki 1983, no. 39, pp.
232-275.
"Justice
and Peace in Ecclesiological Context", edited by Gennadios Limouris, in "Come
Holy Spirit Renew the Whole Creation", Holy Cross Press, Boston 1990, pp.
234-249.
"Saint
Augustin", Les Dossiers H-L' Age d' Homme, editor Patric Ranson, 1988. Of
interest on points herein touched upon see studies by Patric Ranson, Emile Zum
Brunn, John Romanides, Laurent Motte, Anne Pannier and Alain de Libera.
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