The following in an excerpt from “Eros of Orthodoxy,” translated by Fr. Nicholas Palis and written by Mr. Pantelis Paschou.
There is much wisdom and great understanding by the way our Holy Church established the festive cycle of the ecclesiastical liturgical year. And there is a deep meaning in the frequent emphasis, which the Church makes to the faithful, through the commemoration of the Sundays of the Holy Fathers. She wants to show us those who struggled and reached a martyr’s death, so that the faith of the Orthodox would remain pure and untainted. She reminds us of the great wars that were troublesome times in the life of the Church creating struggles for the Fathers, who with the grace of God always managed victory for Orthodoxy. This is a hope for us, but also a great and challenge to our fears, anguish and worries concerning Orthodoxy’s future in relation to the heresies and wars which it faces every day–both from within and external that can weaken and obliterate it.
The feasts of the Holy Fathers show us that the Church underwent much more difficult times then but by remaining firm in Orthodox dogmas and secure in the sound and unshakable rock of Tradition, it always defeated her enemies. She emerged from every battle brilliantly gleaming and with more castles around her that the Fathers built to guard the innumerable treasures of our Holy Orthodoxy. With the struggles and wars which the Holy Fathers of the church faced they answered the enemies of Orthodoxy with a multitude of synodical canons and dogmas, which authoritatively interpreted the Holy Scripture. With their lives and teachings they founded the Tradition of Orthodoxy, which is the most beautiful and truthful despite all the variances in their teachings and the most tightly unified of all the traditions in the spirit of the Gospel. This “harmony” which exists in the divine area of the Holy Fathers shows the living cohesion of the Church and is the fruit and result of the divine enlightenment and the grace of God. Through the truthful dogma of the faith and their holy life, the Holy Fathers had become worthy of the radiance of the Holy Spirit, which enlightened them to interpret and correctly teach the holy Gospel. In addition, it enabled them to offer it in relation to our ability to understand it, as dogma as word and as life. This is why–very properly–our Holy Orthodoxy is named the CHURCH OF THE HOLY FATHERS. “Because through the Fathers we learn about the supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit within the Church.
The Fathers gave the interpretation of the Gospel of the Grace of Christ to the world. What would the Church be without “the golden mouths of the Word” the “soldiers of the Lord’s side” the “organs of the Holy Spirit”?
Our Orthodox Church is based on Holy Scripture and sacred Tradition, i.e. on the Holy Gospel and Holy Fathers. The entire struggle of the Churches’ children is to reach the divine truth and salvation of their souls, through holiness, which the Holy and Sacred Gospel teaches. For this reason one of the newer authors indicates that concerning God’s Church: “they are the saints, the gathering of the faithful, who are called to sanctify” (Koresius). However to reach the salutary truth of the Gospel, we need an experienced guide. Because sinfulness has greatly darkened our spiritual eyes, we lack the experience necessary for spiritual journeys so fearsome that the dangers awaiting us on this road are enormous and difficult to fight. This guide is none other than the Tradition of the Fathers of Orthodoxy. The brightest guides of our journey towards salvation are the Holy Fathers. Outside of these the dangers of heresy lie in wait for us. None should accuse us of over-stressing the importance of Tradition over the Holy Scripture. The extremes of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism don’t meld with the customs of Orthodoxy, which approach the simple but deep and lofty salutary meaning of the word of God, with the humility and holiness of the Holy Fathers. Our Church unites the Gospel and Tradition. The Gospel wouldn’t exist if Tradition didn’t preserve it and if the most spirit-bearing holy Fathers didn’t interpret it. Nor could the Holy Fathers be understood without viewing the Gospel.
The Holy Fathers are the action of the Gospel, an action that unites the life of the whole Church under the cross of Christ through the mysteries of salvation. “For the name of the Church says the Divine Chrysostom, is a name not of separation but of unity and harmony”. This action shows us the correct teaching is a fruit of holy living. If the theology of the fathers were a simple knowledge, without the living word of God, their theology would not differ from the pious rhetoric of heretics since the heretics were also clever in learning and knowledge. But their abandonment from holiness (this is the most important reason) threw them into satanical heresies and swayed them outside of the Church.
However this is not the place to explain in detail all of satan’s methods in this inner fight. But we must say that these characters are many times more dangerous than many indifferent or atheistic people. In the Acts of the Apostles there is a related sermon of the Apostle Paul, to the Presbyters of the Churches of Milletus and Ephesus: “and from you men will rise up speaking perverse things, to tear away the disciples behind them”(Acts. 20,30). ” It isn’t necessary, says a current shepherd and ecclesiastical author, to call them “those from among us” of whom the Apostle is speaking. They are all without exception who have as their goal to “tear away the disciples behind them”–to tear away the faithful and to drag them behind them, to create sympathies and partiality for themselves and to become rulers of parties in the Church. True shepherds don’t separate the faithful and don’t project themselves between the faithful, they don’t spiritually tyrannize them, and they don’t imprison their spiritual freedom. This occurs with whoever moves and acts outside of the tradition and order of the Church. They form a circle within the Church and in the center of the circle they place themselves “Oikodomi” weekly, year 2 art.22,29th May 1960). Fearing these dangers sacred Chrysostom advised those whose trust has lessened towards the personages of the Church and desired to depart from her blessed fold to “remain in the Church and you will not be betrayed by the Church. If you leave the Church, the Church is not the cause. For if you are inside her the wolf won’t enter in. But if you leave you will be caught by the wild beasts, not because of this fold but because of your little faith. For nothing is equal to the Church.
We must also be very watchful in the confusion that the satan creates with his calumnies around the eternal topic of the Church and the bearers of priesthood. Unfortunately we can’t always have priests or bishops of the stature of Chrysostom or Saint Isidore Pilousioti. But this mustn’t draw us away from the Church. If we can we should pray for them, so we enter into the tried expertise of the Church and with our holy life and truthful teaching, serve the Gospel and not break away one group of faithful, to avenge the priest or bishop, and to make our own Church or our own Group, a common place action today–“in style” as Pappadiamantis says: “It would be a boldness on our part, if we felt that we had to speak here concerning certain other distinguished theologians, who shifted their religious gatherings to a meeting hall. Aren’t we peculiar to think that just as there are for example photographers in style, tailors in style etc. thus consequently there are also theologians in style “. But in another area Pappadiamantis clarifies the stance of the faithful children of the Church–both before Her and before the bearers of priesthood–when he replies in the “Logos” magazine of Apostolos Makrakis: “I am a genuine child of the Orthodox Church, represented by her Bishops. If by chance many of these are sinners, it is proper only for the Church to judge and we must only call upon the infinite mercy of God.” But Christians must really be careful. Because with amazing ease and cleverness satan uses both the right and left weapons, to take us out of the Church’s path, and then to give us up to “an inexperienced mind” in order to separate us both from our friends and people of the same ideology, and to throw us into perdition.
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The Orthodox Church is the “mountain of spiritual riches seasoned by the spirit” which has no need to fear heresies and heretics. All of the Churches’ things are joined in sacred unity, allowing no margin for desertions to the real and conscientious Orthodox. For there is nothing that can be watered down in the Church says Saint Cyril of Alexandria, but all are bound tightly together in piety”. However the fear is when the heresies, which we commemorated, used our lack of zeal or sinfulness. And this resulted in the prophet’s word to materialize: “For the name of God, is blasphemed because of you”. Regardless of how much knowledge we have of Orthodoxy and the Holy Fathers, it won’t benefit us in anything, if we ourselves don’t live how they lived and taught us. “Not everyone telling me Lord Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father in the Heavens”. Because the nature and the character of the Orthodox Church, the Church of the Fathers is ascetic, we must also imitate their lives with ascesis, according to our might, in order to understand their most mystical depth. This will give us a new power and will put out our flaming thirst. It is this truth which the hymnographer stresses in the 3rd ode of the Canon of the Sunday of the Holy Fathers: “The catalogue of the Fathers cleanses foul and dirty streams, drawing from wells of salvation, and the people thirsting, are filled with the streams of Christ’s teachings.
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