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However, the belief persisted throughout the Christian communities that
John would still be alive upon the return of Christ. Even the Apostle
Paul seemed to have given credence to the saying about John. This is
probably why he wrote to Timothy his disciple saying, “keep this
commandment without spot until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing."[4] He
wrote virtually the same thing to his other disciple, Titus, telling him
that the followers of Christ should live righteous and godly lives
because they were anticipating ". . . the blessed hope and glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."[5] Besides Paul,
Peter and James also wrote about the Parousia or the Second Coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ in their epistles, as if it were to be soon.
There were no discernible changes in the world, even after the
lifesaving, cosmic events of the death and the resurrection of Christ.
The Roman Empire remained intact and controlled all of the known world.
However, with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus in 70 AD
many of the faithful equated this destruction and their suffering with
the prophecies of Christ as recorded in Saint Matthew's gospel (24:1-22)
about the end of the age. Many of them did not enter into marriage.
Others gave all they had to the Church and lived as brothers and sisters
in the various Christian communities, identifying themselves as members
of the family of God and the Body of Christ. Still others, most of whom
are unknown in the Church today, but certainly known to God, went out
into the wilderness throughout the Middle East, Asia Minor and northern
Africa where they lived as hermits, praying unceasingly, and waiting in
caves and in the crevasses of the earth for the end to come. It was not
the desire for Christians to continue to live in the world in the face
of the tyranny of Rome and the subjugation of thousands by the military
might of the pagan empire. They preferred to be with Christ and their
expectations centered on Christ.
After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish community was in
shambles. The religious practices and the strict adherence to the Jewish
faith had come to a sudden stop with the destruction of the temple and
the dispersion of the people to different parts of the known world. The
Christians also found themselves under tragic circumstances. Rome's grip
upon the world continued unabated.
Yet even in the face of all this, the Apostles, greatly empowered by the
Holy Spirit, continued to preach and to teach of Christ and His coming
Kingdom. They established new communities wherever they went and
continued to convert many to the faith. As conditions settled down after
the destruction of Jerusalem, the Christians there began to receive the
help which was so desperately needed from Paul the Apostle and many
others. The Apostle Paul's love for his people was so great that
wherever he went, he received donations and gifts for the "saints in
Jerusalem." [6]
In all of this adversity and destruction, what was it that kept the
members of the Church fervently committed to Christ and His promises?
Many wondrous signs and miracles took place. People were healed of
severe infirmities; some were also raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit
was manifesting His presence and power among the people, strengthening
them in their faith. The mighty works performed by the Apostles in the
name of Jesus Christ gave courage and determination to the people to be
persistent in the faith. Eye-witnesses of the resurrected Lord and of
the great day of Pentecost who were yet alive con-firmed the reality and
the truth of the Christian faith. In the face of those glorious events,
the unifying strength of Christ was experienced throughout the expanding
Christian communities.
The hope, then, of the soon return of Jesus Christ continued to dominate
the hearts of the people who were looking forward to this event with
joyful anticipation. They reminded one an-other to be watchful and to be
vigilant like the five wise virgins in the parable. The Lord Jesus was
to appear. "Maranatha" [7] was the watchword. They repeated it often: "O,
Lord, come!"
As time passed, the realization began to set in that it was not the time
for Christ's return. His prophecies in the holy gospels had not yet come
to pass. They recalled that when the disciples asked the Lord about the
signs before the end, His response included many events which had not as
yet been fulfilled. The destruction of Jerusalem mislead them. There
were to be many other events that were to occur in the heavens, as well
as on the earth. They recalled also that Jesus said, "But of that day
and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father
only. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is
coming." [8]
The Christian believers soon began to accept that they were going to
continue to live in the world. The Lord was not about to come and to
gather them up. Yet they also knew that they could never become
identified with the world; for one day the whole world would be consumed
by fire. [9] Suddenly they began to realize that something unexpected was
happening in the world around them. Better days had come about. The
Church was growing in increasing numbers. Their beliefs and the Church
were now tolerated by the empire. In time - less than three hundred
fifty years after Pentecost - the Christian Church would become the
official religion of the converted and Christianized empire. The Church
found a new freedom to develop in all Her expressions for the salvation
of Her people. Still the Church never forgot that there would be an end
to the age and that Her Lord would one day return to take Her with Him.
The belief, then, in the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, His Parousia,
would remain constant and the paramount eschatological tenet in the life
of the Church. In the recitation of the Lord's Prayer in almost every
worship service the Lord's words of His coming Kingdom were to remain
basic. From the year 381 AD and the Second Ecumenical Council the
confession of faith now known as the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed
would allow the faithful to proclaim as in the days of the Apostles the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory, the future event before the
consummation of the present age.
The Church grew and developed in Her primary years, the divinely
established, living organism which can never be destroyed by any power
antithetical to Her. This the Lord promised when He told His disciples
that He would send the Holy Spirit to them Who would abide with the
Church forever [10]. He also said that not even the power of Hades would
ever be able to prevail against His Church [11].
The Holy Spirit, then, Who presides over the Church gave direction to
the divinely inspired Fathers in Her formative years to place the
teaching of the Parousia at the core of the faith. In doing so, the
Church to this day preserves the belief in the Second Coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ in the services of the Church which take place at the
holiest time of the annual ecclesiastical cycle, the period called
Triodion, Great Lent, and Holy Week, a duration of seventy days.
From the very beginning then, and as we shall see further on, the Church
has held this basic belief in the Parousia uninterruptedly down through
the centuries to the present day. Although the people of the Church are
reminded annually of the dreadful and terrifying latter-day events
before the return of Christ, they also are ever mindful of the most
wonderful and joyful events which shall occur thereafter with the
beginning of the Eighth Day, the day of perfection. This wondrous day
begins with the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Day of Holy
Pascha. For one to experience this day, it is imperative for him and for
her to prepare themselves properly.
In Her preservation of the teaching regarding the Second Coming of
Christ, the Church uses the depiction, which Christ gave to Himself in
His parable of the Ten Virgins and the Bridegroom. It is this most
dramatic parable, which describes so simply, yet so eloquently, the
events of the last days, the return of Jesus Christ, and the
establishment of His eternal Kingdom. Many of the services of the Church
during this seventy-day period allude to Christ as the Bridegroom. The
meaningful prayers and hymns of the Triodion and of Great Lent are
replete with the message of the coming Bridegroom to claim His Bride,
the Church.
The days of preparation involving the three-week Triodion and Great Lent
lead the practicing believer through a symbolic spiritual wilderness for
sixty-three days to the first service of Holy Week which is called the
Service of the Bridegroom, and which takes place every Palm Sunday
evening in all the churches.
Throughout the penitential period of the Fast or Great Lent, the Church
encourages Her people to increase their time of prayer, both private and
corporate, while at the same time invites them to abstain and to fast
from those things in life which identify one as belonging to the world.
The purpose of this discipline is to strengthen one's spirit, so that
the mind and the heart begin to dwell on the things not of this world.
In this regard the believer runs a parallel course to that which Christ
traveled in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights before He
went forth to be tempted by Satan.
Relative to the temptations which Christ faced, the practicing Christian
is also expected to defeat the three temptations which Christ
experienced and which identify one with the world: the temptations of
pride, power, and possessions. In today's world we would use the terms,
egotism or self-esteem, control, and unabated consumerism. In the
temptations faced by Jesus, He was told by Satan to demonstrate His
power by changing stones into bread to satisfy His hunger [12]. The Lord
was then tempted by pride when Satan said to Him that if He were the Son
of God, that if He were to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the
temple, He would not be hurt. For it is written that God would send His
angels to bear Christ up, lest He dash His foot against a stone [13].
Finally Satan took Jesus to a high mountain from where he showed to Him
the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to Jesus, "All these
things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me." [14]
This temptation was, probably, not really an enticement for Jesus, since
He knew that all things came from Him and that all things were in His
hands, except the corruption His eyes saw because of fallen man who
first had been victimized by Satan in the Garden of Eden. This last
temptation revealed the fact that Satan never realized who Jesus really
was. For Satan could never comprehend in his vainglory that Almighty God
would so humble Himself to the point of becoming a man: Jesus, then, as
the new Adam, overcame the three great temptations and Satan was gone.
In the iconographic image of the temptations, which Christ overcame, the
Church instills in Her people the desire to acquire such spiritual
strength through the discipline of prayer and fasting throughout the
preparation period of Great Lent. The faithful are reminded of our first
parents in the Garden who were first tempted by Satan with the very
temptations, which Satan used to tempt Christ. Adam and Eve failed the
temptation of power by desiring to know the difference between good and
evil. They failed the temptation of pride by desiring to be like God.
And they failed the temptation of possessions because they desired to
have it all, even the fruit of the one forbidden tree.
During the penitential, and yet spectacular and exciting period of Great
Lent, which the people should eagerly desire to experience, there is one
basic message and that is for the people of the Church to take control
of their lives. Once they do this, then the anticipation of meeting
Christ in a personal way and experiencing a taste of the coming Kingdom
becomes basic and natural in their daily lives.
How did all this process begin regarding Great Lent and its
expectations? It was Christ Himself Who established the process. He gave
the formula for this lenten season, the season in which we experience a
joyful sorrow, sorrow that He left and anticipated joy that we will see
Him again. To understand this process biblically we must read the words
of Saint Matthew in his Gospel. He writes the following:
"Then the disciples of John came to him saying, `Why do we and the
Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to
them, `Can the friends of the Bridegroom mourn as long as the Bridegroom
is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken
away from them, and then, they will fast.' "[15]
It is in this gospel quotation that we see and understand that Christ
Himself establishes the connection between His impending departure from
the world and the discipline of fasting with a new meaning. Fasting, in
this regard, is a basic practice of the believing Christian to remind
him that Jesus Christ will one day return in glory.
The benefits of fasting or abstinence are enormous. This does not have
anything to do with the reasons many today use the discipline of
fasting. For in our day we see individuals fasting as a political tool
or other type of protest, a way of losing extra pounds, or even as a
desire to die. Christian fasting is blessed by God Himself for it is the
message of the believer to God that he desires the eternal blessings
that are to come rather than the finite blessings of this life. Its
benefits include increased spiritual strength, true obedience to God and
total patience with one's fellow man. It assists the believer to take
control of his lower appetites that involve the physical senses. The
believer becomes mentally alert and sensitive to what is happening all
around him. Moreover his understanding of life is also expanded.
Spiritual fasting for the Christian believer, then, makes him more
watchful and vigilant to the expectations which God has established for
His people. Fasting to an Orthodox Christian is what physical and mental
exercise are to a professional athlete who aspires to win the big title
and the trophy. Fasting of mind and body to the Christian, based on the
obedience of prayer, renews the health of the soul, which in most people
is parched and possibly dying. The achievements experienced by the
believer include spiritual grace and an inner peace and joy that no one
can take away. It is this blessed state that allows one not only to
focus on, but to continually be mindful of the heavenly blessings that
Christ promises to His people.
Christian fasting is the most effective weapon one can have next to
prayer. The two together in the name of Jesus can do wonders. One day
His disciples asked Jesus why they could not heal a boy by expelling a
demon from within him. They asked, "Why could we not cast it out?" The
Lord's reply was, "This kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting." [16]
In the Gospels Jesus instructs us to fast in secret. Why? Obviously,
faith is an inner power; the real power of a person is in his spirit.
This spiritual power is developed by the heart and the mind, which work
in concert to strengthen the inner man. Man is energized and renewed by
God esoterically, through his inner being and his inner heart. Anyone
can have this kind of spiritual strength and power if he practices the
Christian discipline of prayer and fasting. It is important to remember
that many of God's most devout servants, who had the power of healing
others because of their inner strength, were themselves physically
infirm, such as Saint Paul the Apostle. Fasting, moreover, makes one
realize that he is dependent on God, even if he may have no infirmities.
He knows that without God he can do nothing.
Increased prayer and fasting are encouraged by the Church during Great
Lent as a means to purification and preparation. Both physical and
spiritual purification are stressed so that the believer may feel
prepared to experience a spectacular event, the event of the Lord's
return. His Bride, the Church is always in anticipation of the glorious
return of Her Bridegroom. This anticipation is brought into focus during
the first Divine Liturgy of Holy Week, the Liturgy of the Presanctified
Gifts, which is celebrated on Holy Monday morning. The Gospel reading of
the Liturgy, which is taken from Saint Matthew's Gospel (24:3-35) speaks
of the disciples of the Lord asking Him when His return will take place,
as well as the end of the world. Fasting and prayer, therefore, during
this time of the year is not simply because it is Great Lent but because
the Church is awaiting the return of Her Bridegroom.
In this eschatological theme of Great Lent another basic truth is
stressed which is that Christ will return as the Eternal Judge Who is to
come with great power to judge all people. This is why it is imperative
that the believing Christian should be prepared as much as possible
through humility and repentance to come before God. At the same time his
desire to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Who died for the sins of
the world never wanes.
The Supreme Sacrifice on the Cross, established for the Church the
mystery of Holy Eucharist. It is at each Divine Liturgy that the
penitent and humble and obedient Christian is invited to receive the
very Body and Blood of Christ for the remission of his sins and for the
promise of eternal life. He does it in fulfillment of Christ's words at
the Last Supper, which the Apostle Paul records most accurately saying,
"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you will
proclaim the Lord's death till he comes."[17]
As the practicing believer goes forth on this annual pilgrimage to the
symbolic Jerusalem to meet the Lord at His Tomb through the special
worship services, he will certainly encounter the scoffers of these
latter days. They are more numerous than ever before. But they will not
de-tract the obedient and devout Christian. Peter the Apostle speaks of
them when he says that in the last days people will cynically be asking,
"Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." [18]
They may not be using these very words, but their life-style, their
behavior, their speech, their obsessions with the things of this world,
will all witness to their unbelief, their cynicism, and their scorn.
Nevertheless, the faithful believer will persevere. He will go on with
his fasting, his good deeds, his increased time in prayer. In a
symbolic, yet in a very real way, the three-week period of the Triodion
is the crossing by the people of God of the Red Sea from pagan Egypt
into the wilderness of the Sinai. The forty days of spiritual toil and
the traversing of one's penitential journey is symbolic, in a very real
sense, of the ancient Israelites' forty-year sojourn in the wilderness
of the Sinai peninsula. This spiritual journey for the Christian is the
time for him to leave behind all the excess baggage he may have brought
from the secular world, as well as to shed all vestiges of rebellion and
idolatry.
As the ancient Israelites zigzagged their way through Sinai, sometimes
obedient to God, but at other times reverting to their pagan past and
rebelling against God, in like manner the penitential Christian travels
the difficult wilderness of the influences of the secular world,
sometimes standing strong in his faith and sometimes falling. The
Israelites could have reached the Promised Land much sooner than they
did, had they traveled a more direct route. But God kept them in the
Sinai for forty years, so that the generation which had come out of
Egypt and which had been heavily tainted with idolatry and rebellion
would not be able to enter the Promised Land. It was the second
generation, those born in the wilderness of the Sinai, who were to
enter.
In the very same way as Moses led his people, the Church leads Her
children through the forty-day sojourn of Great Lent. For it takes at
least this long for many of the faithful to discard the vanity and the
concerns of this world and to be transformed. In this transformation the
faithful people of God become the newborn children from the secular
wilderness who will be able to experience the joy of the Promised Land.
The additional and lengthy services, the periods of silence and
introspection, the discipline of prostrations both in the services and
in private prayer will help the repentant Christian to rid himself of
impatience, anger, foul talk, and all the various expressions of
rebellion against God, against others, and even against oneself. The
struggling Christian must, after this intense discipline, be at peace
with himself, with others, and especially with God.
Once the believer accomplishes these things, never by himself, but with
the help of God, he will be able to climb the spiritual mountain, not
only to peer into the Promised Land, as did Moses, but to enter it. This
entrance into the land of promise is for the Christian the beginning of
Holy Week and Pascha. At the first service of Holy Week which is held on
the evening of Palm Sunday, the faithful pilgrim of the forty-day
struggle will hear the words of the parable as the icon of Christ comes
forth from the sanctuary: "Behold the Bridegroom is Coming!" The
believing Christian will follow in the footsteps of the Bridegroom
throughout the holy services of that spiritually moving week. In so
doing, he will experience, in a real way, as the original events
continually reflect themselves down through the centuries, the public
ministry of the Lord and the words regarding His return. He will relive
in a dramatic way the Lord's betrayal, arrest, extreme suffering,
painful and torturous death, and His burial, especially through the
services of Holy Thursday and Holy Friday.
On the next day, the Holy and Great Sabbath, all of nature will observe
a brief silence while the body of Jesus lies in the tomb. This silence
will be experienced mostly by those who followed Jesus through the
dramatic events of His passion in the holy services. They will be
meditating on the final events of His earthly life. Then on the first
day of the week, which today is called Sunday, but which is the dawn of
the Eighth Day, the day that knows no sunset, the words of the Lord will
swell up like a fountain in their hearts, "Can the friends of the
Bridegroom fast while the Bridegroom is with them?" [19]
At the midnight services of Holy Saturday evening in the darkened
churches throughout the Orthodox world, the celebrant will emerge from
the sanctuary with lighted tapers chanting, "Come and receive light from
the Unfading Light and glorify Christ Who is risen from the dead!" The
new and glorious day of the Resurrection of Christ the Lord will shine
forth with extreme joy and gladness. Although it will not have been the
actual Parousia during the present year, it will definitely have the
same spiritual glow that shone on the faces of the first Christians.
At the final service of this seventy-day period called Agape, one of the
hymns that will resound in the churches will announce:
"Come from that scene, O women, bearers of good tidings and say to Zion,
`Receive from us the tidings of joy of the Resurrection of Christ;
Exult, rejoice and be glad, O Jerusalem, for you are beholding Christ
the King as the Bridegroom coming forth from the Tomb!"'
The lengthy preparation and watchfulness of the believer during this
holiest time of the year will not have been in vain; for in his inner
heart he will remember the word, "Maranatha" which his Christian
forebearers had in their hearts and on their lips. And in response to
that expression of uncontainable joy, he will hear, in anticipation, the
heart stirring words of the Bridegroom of the Church ringing out for all
the world and the heavens to hear: "Surely I am coming quickly! Amen.
Even so, come Lord Jesus! " [20]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Acts 1:11
[2] John 21:21,22
[3] John 21:23
[4] 1 Timothy 6:14
[5] Titus 2:13
[6] Romans 15:25-32
[7] It is most disturbing that modern-day translators of the New
Testament have chosen to translate this word on their own authority from
the original texts into English and taking away its original impact,
found in 1 Corinthians 16:22.
[8] Matthew 24:36,42
[9] 2 Peter 3:10
[10] John 14:16
[11] Matthew 16:18
[12] Matthew 4:3
[13] Matthew 4:6
[14] Matthew 4:9
[15] Matthew 9:14,15
[16] Matthew 17:19,21
[17] 1 Corinthians 11:26
[18] 2 Peter 3:4
[19] Mark 2:19
[20] Revelation 22:20
*Copyright: *1997 Bishop Isaiah of Denver
© 2003 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
www.goarch.org <http://www.goarch.org>
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