Every believer is called to live theologically, and the whole body of the Church is creating theology in its life and its struggle.
Thus the ex cathedra of Orthodoxy, the way in which it expresses itself infallibly, is from the Cross.
The responsibility that is spread over the whole body of people is a cross. Apophatic theology is an ascent to Golgotha. The spiritual life of each believer which provides the overall balance is a cross. On the Cross, the Lord ‘stretched out His hands and united what had previously been sundered.’
From all this we see why every term has a different meaning in the mouth of a saint, a different weight and force; it is because he is born and lives in another world.
What commands his enthusiasm and concern is something altogether non-essential and unimportant to the present age, which comes and sees it, and passes by on the other side.
That which is the life, the joy and the certainty of the Orthodox, does not exist for the world: ‘The world will see Me no more, but you will see Me’ (John 14:19).
We are bound together by the common faith which, in accordance with tradition, each of us has found and finds personally through the exercise of his own responsibility—‘so each of us shall give account of himself to God’ (Romans 14:12)—and through the communion of the Holy Spirit.
We are bound together by the common faith which, in accordance with tradition, each of us has found and finds personally through the exercise of his own responsibility—‘so each of us shall give account of himself to God’ (Romans 14:12)—and through the communion of the Holy Spirit.
The Church leaves the believer free to feel Christ dwelling within him;
free to live in fear on the sea of this present age;
free to be crushed by his responsibility;
free to cry out to the Lord, ‘Master, we perish,’ and to see Him in the night of the present age, walking on the waters for him personally and for the whole Church;
and free to hear the Lord say to him, ‘It is I.’
This is the Orthodoxy that we adhere to. This is the Orthodoxy that is the foundation of the world, as we proclaim on Orthodoxy Sunday.
This is the unchanging Orthodoxy of Jesus Christ, the holy apostles, the fathers, the martyrs and all the saints, of former ages, in this present time, and in the age to come.
This is not an Orthodoxy one can convert to. This is an Orthodoxy one finds enfolding him when he comes to Jesus.
Glory to You, our God, and our hope,
glory to You who have shown us the Light!
free to live in fear on the sea of this present age;
free to be crushed by his responsibility;
free to cry out to the Lord, ‘Master, we perish,’ and to see Him in the night of the present age, walking on the waters for him personally and for the whole Church;
and free to hear the Lord say to him, ‘It is I.’
Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of Entry, pp. 50-52 passim
This is the Orthodoxy that we adhere to. This is the Orthodoxy that is the foundation of the world, as we proclaim on Orthodoxy Sunday.
This is the unchanging Orthodoxy of Jesus Christ, the holy apostles, the fathers, the martyrs and all the saints, of former ages, in this present time, and in the age to come.
This is not an Orthodoxy one can convert to. This is an Orthodoxy one finds enfolding him when he comes to Jesus.
Glory to You, our God, and our hope,
glory to You who have shown us the Light!
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