SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God. Verily, I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” (Luke 18;16-17)

The other Sunday, several small children and two babies were taking their first communion after baptism. They looked so sweet in their new clothes and our priest showed immense patience and love in his attempts to get the babes to take the bread and wine. I love to watch the different reactions of the babies. Some hate the whole affair and scream throughout, eventually being ‘force fed’ while held in a sort of gentle headlock. Some are as good as gold. My favourites are those who cry and refuse to co-operate until they taste the wine and decide they quite like it after all! With them all, however, the priest talks gently and kindly.

Unlike the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, there is no Confirmation Service in the Orthodox Church; the child at baptism immediately becomes a full member of the Church, including participation in Holy Communion. There is no need for the promises made by the godparents to be confirmed by the child itself on reaching an age of understanding. When I first considered this concept, my Baptist origins and even my later Anglican beliefs rebelled a little. Surely a baby cannot understand enough to be a full participant in the Church’s sacraments. However, like the Irishman giving directions who says “Well, I wouldn’t start from here,” the Orthodox doctrine starts from a completely different understanding of the nature of the Church and the meaning of Baptism.

MAY THE JOY AND PEACE OF THE NATIVITY BE WITH ALL MY READERS

“Christians awake, salute the happy morn

Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born.”

Modern icon by Georgia Lellou of Athens http://www.lellou.gr/agiografies/ 

According to my statistics, I have readers in Greece, The Netherlands, Germany, Albania, Chile and Malaysia. Although I assume you must be English-speaking, I would like to wish you:

Καλά Χριστούγεννα και Ευτυχισμένο  το Νέο Έτος

Prettige kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr

Gëzuar Krishtlindjet e Vitin e Ri

¡Feliz Navidad y próspero año nuevo!

Selamat Hari Natal & Selamat Tahun Baru

I hope I've got all these right. What a wonderful thing is the Internet!

No blog today, just a few nice things to share with you on this Christmas morning. I haven’t forgotten readers from the Russian tradition or others following the Old Calender. I'll try to do something for you on 6 January.


First, the bells of Christmas from Bethlehem:

Meanwhile, in Crete, Santa Claus even visits the Bishop! For those who are not familiar with Greek traditions, the chap in the red suit is actually Aï Vasili (based on Agios Vasilios or St. Basil). Although he bears a remarkable resemblance to Santa Claus, he visits the children of Greece on 1 January. Needless to say, the kids don't worry about the details, they just enjoy the presents!

Since I am a firm believer that nepotism should be kept in the family, I'd like to share this with anyone who hasn't yet seen it. The Christmas hymn, words and music, was written by my son Michael and sung by his daughter Melina in the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia in London. Michael also did the filming and editing.

                        

And finally, the joyful sound of more church bells, this time from Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand on Christmas morning. Filmed before the tragic earthquake of 2011.

“Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

Let Earth receive her King”

A BRIEF NOTE ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD

Well, it didn't happen, which will come as no surprise to Christians as Jesus several times made it crystal clear that nobody will know when it will happen: “Be on your guard, then, because you do not know what day your Lord will come” … “No one knows, however, when that day and hour will come – neither the angels in Heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows.” 

 Nevertheless, it doesn't stop people trying. To be fair to the Mayans, it wasn't they who predicted the 21 December 2012 as the end of the world; they just stopped computing more dates. Over the years, there have been a multitude of cranks and oddbods attempting to predict the end of the world, so far with little success! Although I have very little time for the Jehovah's Witnesses, intriguingly their original prediction for the date of  Armageddon was 1914 and it could be argued that their estimate was nearer than most. Certainly the states of Europe did their best to bring it about!  

Cartoon with permission of Leigh Rubin. If you enjoy quirky humour, as I do, his website is certainly worth a visit. (http://www.rubescartoons.com/)

LOVE DIVINE

“Love Divine, all loves excelling

            Joy of Heaven to earth come down.” (Wesley)

           

Most scholars believe that John the Theologian, apostle and writer of the fourth Gospel, was the same John referred to in the Gospels as “the disciple that Jesus loved” but  nobody can be completely sure of this. What is certain beyond any question, however is that John was “the apostle of love.” I do not have a concordance and cannot prove it statistically but my instinct is that the word ‘love’ appears more times in John’s Gospel and epistles than in any other book in the Bible.

Examples are too numerous for a short blog but the most beautiful and powerful summary of the Christian faith must surely be John's words: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (There is a beautiful musical setting of this verse in John Stainer's 19th Century oratorio 'The Crucifixion' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkJGglj9opY .) This idea is repeated more thoroughly in one of John's epistles: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” So central was the importance of love to John that St. Jerome wrote: “when he was too old to preach, John would simply say to the assembled people: 'Love one another. That is the Lord's command, and if you keep it, that by itself is enough.'”

Please pray for the children and teachers killed in Connecticut, for their families and for the whole community. I was going to write a bit about this horrific event but I find I just cannot find the words. Just pray.  

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE, Part 2

“It's Not for You to Know”

The Orthodox Church believes in the baptism of children and accepts them into full membership of the Church, including the taking of Holy Communion, from the very beginning. I shall be discussing some of the implications of this in a later blog but it also has relevance to the question of doubt and agnosticism. Children are full members of the Church and yet how can a three-year-old be expected to understand the Holy Trinity? It follows, then, that it cannot be necessary for our salvation that we understand every aspect of Orthodox theology. As we grow older, of course, we understand more but even the greatest intellects among us remain mere infants from the perspective of eternity. This is not to say that we shouldn't use our God-given brains to seek to make sense of the world but we should never forget that we are still 'looking through a glass darkly.'

As I have explored the rich landscape of Orthodox thought, I have sometimes been  surprised to find that the 'uncertainty principle' is actually at the heart of much mainstream Orthodox belief. Some of the greatest Orthodox theologians have argued that we can never understand what God is and can only attempt to define Him by what He is not. Others maintain that even this is beyond human understanding and we can only know God through Christ. Well, that's all a bit deep and I certainly don't intend to go into details about this 'apophatic' theology; if this interests you, 'The Orthodox Way' by Metropolitan Kallistos contains  a reasonably accessible approach to the subject, as does Vladimir Lossky's 'The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church.' However, even in the basic beliefs we all profess, Orthodoxy accepts that many ‘details’ of Christian faith are better left unexplored. The Church maintains an attitude of reverent and agnostic reticence towards such beliefs as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary or exactly what happens after death. The former, as Metropolitan Kallistos writes, “is not so much an object of faith as a foundation of our hope, a fruit of faith, ripened in Tradition. Let us therefore keep silence, and let us not try to dogmatize about the supreme glory of the Mother of God.”

C.S. Lewis argues that even what exactly happened at the Crucifixion cannot be (and perhaps should not be) the object of too much detailed analysis. “We believe that the death of Christ is just that point in history at which something absolutely unimaginable from outside shows through into our own world. And if we cannot picture even the atoms of which our own world is built, of course we are not going to be able to picture this. Indeed, if we found that we could fully understand it, that very fact would show it was not what it professes to be – the inconceivable, the uncreated, the thing beyond nature, striking down into nature like lightning. You may ask what good it will be to us if we do not understand it. But that is easily answered. A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works.”

In “The Orthodox Church,” Metropolitan Kallistos cites a timely reminder of how we should beware of probing too deeply: “When St. Antony of Egypt was once worrying about divine providence, a voice came to him, saying: ‘Antony, attend to yourself; for these are the judgements of God, and it is not for you to know them.’” I'm not saying that speculation, study, theology and analysis of one's faith is wrong. I do it all the time. It should, however, be kept in perspective. Whatever our natural desire for clear answers and certainty, maybe it's better, as Christmas approaches, to consider the shepherds of Bethlehem. It's unlikely that any of them understood the concepts of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation or the Virgin Birth; they just went and saw and “returned rejoicing and glorifying God.”

Next week: Looking at my programme for future blogs, I notice that the next one due is on the theme of the Last Judgement!! Perhaps this might be a bit gloomy for the week before Christmas so, in the words of TV cooks everywhere, next week I will be presenting “one I prepared earlier.” On the other hand, if the predictions of the end of the world on Friday come true, my original posting might have been very appropriate, if a touch late!

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE, Part 1

“When in Doubt …”

The Holy Apostle Thomas

I’ve always felt a particular affection for the apostle Thomas. His was not the way of blind faith but of reverent agnosticism. “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Even more than Peter’s timidity after the trial of Jesus, his doubts strike a chord with modern man. It is interesting and possibly significant that, alone among the apostles, Thomas is celebrated twice: on his feast day of October 6 and on the Sunday after Easter. Moreover, the Gospel reading at the beautiful ‘Service of Love’ on Easter Sunday is the story of his doubt. With a wonderful sense of the dramatic, the priest's chanting of the Gospel rises to a crescendo as he ends with the words: “I will not believe,” a real cliff-hanger until the story is completed the next week. The story does end, of course, on a high note as, when Thomas actually meets the risen Christ, he kneels before Him and utters the simple words “My Lord and my God.” Jesus gently ticks Thomas off for his doubt but, according to tradition, the apostle went on to become a valiant missionary to Persia and India and a martyr for his faith.  

We could all have said the same as Thomas and, in a manner of speaking, we often do. How lovely it would be to be able to say at all times “I know that my Redeemer liveth” instead of “I believe” or even on occasions “I’m not really sure but …. .” To have no doubts, however, is surely to have no thoughts. To have no doubts is to have no free will. Is doubt always a bad thing? Ellis Peters has her fictional monk Brother Cadfael make the insightful comment, “I sometimes like to put a little sand of doubt into the oyster of faith” and it could be argued that more pearls of wisdom may be grown out of doubt than out of certainty!

RESTORED TO LIFE

A Trip to Albania, Postscript

In spite of Enver Hoxha's attempt to make Albania “the world's first atheist state,” religious life in the country has experienced a revival since the fall of communism. The Orthodox Church, under the guidance of the extraordinary Archbishop Anastasios has rebuilt its administrative structure, ordained priests and rebuilt many of the churches destroyed during the communist era. Among these was the Cathedral in Korcë. The original Cathedral of the Life-Giving Spring was turned into a museum during the communist era and the Church was refused permission to restore it. After a long struggle, the Church was offered a plot of land in a poor location. Following an argument with the local government, even this was taken away but within a short time another plot was offered in a prime location in the city centre next to the city hall! As Metropolitan Joani says, “For us, this was a miracle. We could not have asked for a better place to build our cathedral.” Another success in Korcë was the restoration of the Metropolis offices to their original role after they had been  used as a communist party youth training centre for thirty years.

Korcë Cathedral

On my first morning in Korcë, I went to Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral. As the chanter recited the prayers, I was astonished to hear a full choir sing the responses in the Russian style. Since there was no sign of a choir or organ, I thought at first that it was a recording (!) but discovered later that there is a special choir loft. The effect was so heavenly and beautiful that a very large lump was brought to my throat. I later found out that Vasko, mentioned last week, is the choirmaster at the cathedral and was responsible for the beautiful music. Because of the persecution under Hoxha, there is a fervour and passion about those who still attend church that is extremely moving. Certainly, when the whole congregation joined in the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, I was conscious of a sincerity that is often absent in countries where it is easier to be a Christian.