Poised on the intersection of divine eternity and human history, the holy ground of Mount Sinai sets the stage for the monumental events of salvation. From God’s revelation of His name in the Burning-but-not-consumed Bush to the reception of the Ten Commandments by Moses and all that ensues as the Hebrew people struggle to follow the way of God to the promised land – the Old Testament revelations of Sinai illumine our own path to God.
Trusting in God, the Hebrew people do well. Putting their own logic ahead of that trust, not so well … A desert is a difficult place where one learns to depend on the grace, the divine help of God. And this is where Sinai’s light shines brightest. For the difficult steps leading to the Holy Summit of Sinai divulge not only the path to God, but its destination– physical union with the divine fire of the Burning Bush. A mystery difficult to contemplate but for the living icon of the Mother of God whose womb – like the Burning Bush – would contain the fire of divinity, some twelve centuries later, without being consumed by it.
With the message of union with God encompassing both Old and New Testaments– what then separates the two? True, the New Testament reveals the trinitarian nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, accentuating the meeting point of creation with God in the Person of the Son – but these earthshaking realities were previously indicated on Sinai, very much in the Old Testament …
The New Testament opens with the human genealogy of Jesus Christ. Having been born of a Father without a mother before time, He is now born of a mother without a father within time – fully God, fully Man. Thus Jesus, the Son and Anointed of God (Messiah in Hebrew, Christos in Greek), refers to Himself as the “Son of Man,” emphasizing that, notwithstanding His unprecedented miracles, He is fully human. Why is this important? For many reasons, one of which is to demonstrate that we can follow in His footsteps to reject sin and its damages, since He accomplished this as a human Himself. Thus He says I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.
Illustrated by anchorites like St. Mary of Egypt. A Homily by St. Tikhon, Patriarch of MoscowThe life of St. Mary teaches us that there is no sin that could overcome the mercy of God, there is no abyss of dissoluteness that we could not rise from by the grace of God and by taking the path of faith and repentance.
“>Saint Mary of Egypt who took this so much to heart that they went out into the desert to occupy themselves with nothing else, the process is called “purification of soul.” Christian life for Orthodox faithful is not a matter of “going to church,” “going to confession” “fasting” and the like. They worship, confess (which in fact is not a place they go to but therapy for the soul) and fast, but only as the means to an end. Quoting the Bishop of Skopelos on the Sunday of St. John Climacus“>Sunday of Saint John Klimakos, “You can put nothing except fasting foods in your mouth for an entire lifetime and achieve nothing. Fasting is not an end in itself, but the means to an end – sanctity.” As Sinai’s Elder Pavlos would explain, “Fasting is a means provided by the Church for those who wish to go closer to God.”
Saint Mary spent forty-eight years in the desert. Where were her toiletries, her vitamins, her medicines, her sugar and coffee? Where did she find a cold drink in the suffocating heat of the Palestinian desert; a stack of blankets to weather its freezing nights? Her recycle bags to carry groceries home from the supermarket? The logistics are unimaginable even to those who think we live a fairly basic lifestyle.
The answer, beyond the perception of this world, is no secret to the wisdom of Orthodox hymnology. As the famous hymn of the Annunciation to the Mother of God points out, “Wherever God wishes – the order of nature is overridden.” Or, in the expression of the original Greek whose grammatical drama allows backwards sentences for effect: Wherever God wishes – is vanquished of nature the order!’
Sinai’s Elder Pavlos of blessed memory had a story to tell on the subject, one which you were not likely to hear for he took the Sinaite custom of hiding one’s spiritual experiences very seriously. Overcome with ascetic zeal, he would hike in the blistering desert for three days at a time without water, without having brought water along even for emergencies … to reach his destination filled with the exhilaration of unmitigated ardor, spiritual and bodily thirst alike quenched by the grace …
* * *
Having taken affront at the abusive powers of sin on the soul, Mary of Egypt throws the entire weight of repentance against the insult by walking into the desert and not coming back. Suddenly seeing what cannot be seen, she realizes that the only thing of value in this life, the only thing that lasts, is going closer to God. Does God live only in the desert then? On the contrary. Given that the purity of God bears no cohabitation with sin, Saint Mary’s self-exile illustrates not how far a Christian must go from civilization to find a cave, but how far one must go from sin to find his soul. Everything one does in this life can, and must be, the means of going closer to God.
Thus the gift of the Old Testament in setting humanity on the path to purification of soul. “On the path,” because despite the emphasis of Mosaic Law on the ritual of purification, there is no purification of soul before the sacrifice of the unblemished Lamb of God on the cross, whose most pure blood alone carries the divine power to purify …
Having begun, then, with the Incarnation (the ‘putting on flesh’) of Christ (who puts on human nature in everything but sin), the New Testament recounts His work as the God-man who saves humans from slavery to death, encouraging their return to the blessedness of life in God for which they were created. The first four chapters are the Evangelia, meaning ‘good news.’ These are four parallel accounts of the life of Jesus, His teachings and miracles, completed by the work of His salvation on the Cross, His resurrection from the dead and finally, return to His Father in Heaven.
Photo by Priestmonk Justin Sinaites
Christ leaves His followers with the promise of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit who dwells within those who wholeheartedly seek His presence within their hearts and lives. One must want Him, for our God respects our freedom and will not force His love on anyone.
Next we read about the Acts of the Apostles as they carry the good news of Christ into the world following the promised descent of the Holy Spirit. The rest of the New Testament consists of letters from the apostles, mostly Saint Paul, to members of the new faith.
Simultaneously with the inconceivable humility of His birth as an infant, however, Christ exists before all time. In fact, as the ‘Asarkos’ (before putting on flesh) Word of God, He is the Creator of all. Throughout the Old Testament, it is Christ who forms the first humans; who appears in the Burning Bush to acquaint humanity with God; who gives Moses the Ten Commandments on Sinai in order to turn people from the atrocities of paganism; who gives His words to the Prophets to bring humanity back to God – not by force but through the healthy exercise of their free will (the same free will the first humans misused to reject life in God).
As Archbishop Damianos of Sinai has pointed out, being a community of Love, the Holy Trinity created mankind to participate in the blessedness of that Love. Where does free will fit in? To answer a question with a question: Who ever loved by force? To love, people must enjoy the freedom to want to. Their early choice rejected that love (by accepting slanderous thoughts against it). The inevitable result was slavery to sin. But in purifying human nature as the God-man, Christ purifies freedom of will itself via the blessings of the Church founded through His apostles and guarded from human innovation by their successors.
Reversing the mistake of the first humans by rejecting the disparaging thoughts about others that besiege us all, humans can once again genuinely love. The reward of love? Union with God in theosis: the goal of Orthodox Christian life in which our purified energies are united with those of God Himself. Should one desire the definitive image of this human-divine synergy, he need but consider the birth of the bodiless Word of God in the flesh of the Holy Virgin.
“… as the herald of truth, tell me O Gabriel how I shall give birth in the flesh to the bodiless Word…” From the Fourth ode of the Canon sung on the Orthodox feast of the Annunciation. Canons are sacred poems referencing the Old Testament songs whose theological insights richly illumine the New Testament events they foreshadow. The Annunciation Canon is composed entirely of a rhetorical dialogue between the Holy Virgin and the Archangel offering many layers of perception into the ultimate unknowability of the event. Photo by Bruce White.
The rewards are infinite, for the grace of God not only enters within us, but flows from us to our children, assisting them through the difficulties and challenges of their present and future lives – the obligation par excellence of parenthood. Feeding the child with material food comes second to nourishing them with the Holy Spirit … in order for the grace of God to flow ultimately from us to the entire world. What did Saint Seraphim of Sarov say? “Find inner peace, and thousands around you will be saved.”
PART II
It would be difficult indeed to think about the union of human and divine energy without remembering the events of Pentecost. Observing Jewish custom on this day, the apostles were commemorating Moses’ reception of the Commandments on Sinai – the Law of God preparing humanity for reception of the Holy Spirit – when the event suddenly takes place. The Holy Spirit descends in tongues of fire upon each of the apostles, who then begin speaking the foreign languages they will need to carry the good news of Christ’s saving grace to the world.
The Jewish festival of Pentecost having reached its zenith in the Christian one, Apostle Peter proceeds to a summary of the Old Testament prophecies and promises of God that have just been fulfilled before the eyes of thousands.. Beginning with Prophet Joel’s And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh … he proves to the attentive crowd that there can no longer be doubt in anyone’s mind that Jesus is God before the ages.. Indeed, Orthodox Christianity’s great theologian-saints are clear that the words of all the Old Testament prophecies are those of the Pre-incarnate Son and Word of God.
However, Peter stresses that this day’s miracle is not the end of something, but the beginning:
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Acts 2. 38-39)
PART III
And the heavens and the earth were finished, and the whole world of them.
And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on
the seventh day from all his works which he made. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because in it he ceased from all his works … (Genesis 2.1-3)
In short, the Old Testament recounts the works of Christ before His incarnation as a man, while the New Testament recounts the works of Christ following His incarnation.
Navigating the fathomless depths of Orthodox worship we discover the staggering connection between the two in the services of Holy and Great Saturday, the day that Christ spends in Hades following the ineffable passion of His crucifixion … A day of breathless silence rendered intelligible only within the vision of the sacred hymnology which notes that
“Moses, the great Prophet, mystically prefigured this day saying,
‘And God blessed the seventh day.’
For this is the blessed Sabbath; this is the day of rest,
on which the only-begotten Son of God rested from all His works,
observing the Sabbath rest 1744007792 in the flesh …”
Having rested on the seventh day from the works of Creation that brought everything into being from nothing, Christ rests once more on the seventh day, now in the flesh, from the greatest work of all.
Far beyond the garden of earthly delight where the first humans wore the glory of God as a garment, the salvation offered by the God-man renders His followers gods themselves, fulfilling the text of Psalm 81/82.6: I have said, Ye are gods; and children of the Most High, all of you. This passage is quoted by Christ Himself in John 10.34, clarifying that gods are those who receive the Word of God; the gift of grace bestowed without change to human nature (thus the small ‘g’ appropriate to this text). The earthly garden is infinitely superseded by the kingdom of heaven – God within those who authentically seek and desire Him.
It was on this same seventh day, the Holy and Great Saturday celebrating Christ’s opening of the kingdom of heaven to mankind, that Archbishop Damianos shared the above observations following the Divine Liturgy at St. Catherine’s. An Orthodox pilgrim listened attentively as though in preparation for the impending moment already arrived for him, the moment when his soul flew from this world to the newly opened kingdom in the joy awaiting every child of the Most High; pilgrims in heart and soul, all of them …
One goes to great lengths to experience the majesties of creation (which the enlightened say are nothing compared to those of the original creation). The traveler returns home with photos and mementos, hoping to retain the inner peace inspired by alpine wildflowers, Mediterranean seas glistening on their way to forever, a glass of claret sparkling in the sunlight on a medieval hilltop surrounded by olives and pomegranates ..
But he cannot. So he returns, again and again, discounting the toils of travel because the experience of peace is so addictive. Understandably, because we were created for it … not for ephemeral joys that is, but for the incomparable peace of God that dwells within, wherever we are, whatever we are doing. This is the gift one brings home not from the airport or the bank or the supermarket, but from the journey deep into the soul that finally confronts the “Why are we here?” whose voice will not be silenced. Fame and fortune, family and friends all have their day in the sun. And the sun can be counted on … but not forever..
The promise held out by God in the Old Testament is made reality in the New.
When all is said and done, it’s not about practicing virtue, but about wanting to. Our objective in seeking the Holy Spirit is not to become divine on our own powers (as attempted by Adam and Eve, resulting in their estrangement from God) – but to become participants in the love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through purity of soul. What does the most venerable Orthodox saint then respond to the lowliest monastic who seeks his or her guidance? “Do this – if you want to.”
Thus the dangers, not of having riches, but of enslaving ourselves to them, of devoting ourselves to nothing but the good life of food and drink, health and wealth; or rather, to the delusion that Life consists of nothing higher..
What does the leprous man who has understood the mercy of Christ say to Him? If you will, you can make me clean. What does Christ’s love reflexively respond, even before commanding, Be cleansed ? … “I will!”
While “mercy” might conjure up images of a tyrant needing appeasement, in fact the word “mercy” translates a Greek one meaning charity. As the energy of “divine righteousness” which only loves, God’s “merciful charity” could not be further from the vindictiveness connected to human notions of righteousness. How grossly non-Orthodox translations of the Scriptures have disfigured the humble love of Christ – the Lord and God of all who exclaims on another occasion “Man, who made Me judge or partitioner over you?” With a small vocabulary and no need for spoken fluency, New Testament Greek is not that difficult to learn. A good grammar and the patience to go slowly quickly pay for themselves with priceless new perceptions, not only of the meanings but of the power couched in the words of holy scripture. The kind of perception that transcends understanding … Why? As the Word of God, Christ Himself is present in His words.
Passing through the nave of the church from front to back with the Book of the Evangelia held high, as all liturgists do on Sundays after reading the New Testament announcement of Christ’s Resurrection, Father Pavlos did not try to conceal his elation as he offered the Book to each of the faithful as each pressed forward to venerate it with a grateful kiss. “In the words of His Evangelia, the Word of God Himself comes forth to greet His people,” he would say, “just as you greet beloved visitors to your home!”
Christians similarly cherish the pure will of the Mother of God at the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement that she has been selected to give birth to Christ. How could anyone respond to such a message? Indeed the Holy Virgin evinces bewilderment. Held hostage neither to sin however, nor to the bonds of impoverished human logic, she waits only long enough to understand this to be the will of God before exclaiming, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord! “I will!”
As indicated by a rare Sinai icon depicting the embryo Christ in her womb, it is at this instant – simultaneously with the Virgin’s acceptance – that the Holy Spirit descends in a ray of grace for the infant Christ to take shape in her womb.
Representing the Holy Spirit’s entrance into the heart of every Orthodox Christian who finds his own will in that of Christ, the message of the Annunciation is placed on the Beautiful Gate of Orthodox temples – the central doors opening onto the holy of holies – the altar bearing the body and blood of Christ that sanctify every Orthodox Christian from within.
With limited space, the depiction on the altar gates is typically limited to images of the Archangel and Holy Virgin whose stances exude the unprecedented gravity of this moment for mankind – the juncture of Old and New Testaments enacted within the womb of a Pure Maiden. A juncture contingent not only upon the Virgin’s response, but upon our own when called to embrace God’s plan of salvation on behalf of our own soul. For Christ wishes to be born within every soul brought into being by His love; a calling to whose magnitude we must respond – and do – whether through action, or the tragedy of inaction.
Wrapped about in clouds of seclusion from the world and its travails, a Byzantine monastery perched on a crag overlooking the Aegean preserves the apprehension of these phenomena by a devout woodcarver, himself long lost to the centuries. Well aware that Byzantine iconography functions neither as art nor historical representation, he understood its testimony to the kingdom of heaven, to the grace that acts on creation not just exteriorly, but from within Spirit-bearing souls.
Unwilling, as a result, to omit the ray from the iconography that manifests the synergy of divine energies with human love, the woodworker solved his dilemma by skillfully carving the ray of grace into the decorations of the surrounding woodcarving, exactly where it would have been painted had space allowed for a complete icon…
These are the teachings preserved without change until today only by Orthodox Christianity’s vigilance for the Truth of God; the vigilance of a nameless soul carving the Light of Christ into the fabric of a monastery sequestered by the ages on a nameless headland … where it shines undimmed upon the ages.
What unites Old and New Testaments then? What else but the sacrificial love outside time yet within it, of the bodiless yet incarnate Son of God, whose limitless generosity unites the courage and daring of those who truly want “the good life” … with its ineffable blessings.
Source: Orthodox Christianity
