[
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 crucifixion 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 makes 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
ceaseless 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 fantasies 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-GENOMENA in greek-to be seen and heard and which He passes back into
non-existence-APOGENOMENA in greek- 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
(BASILEIA in greek) 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 (BASILEIA in Greek) 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 (BASILEIA in Greek) 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 (BASILEIA in Greek) 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 "BASILEIA (in Greek) 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 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 Philokalia 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 � 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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