The following in an excerpt from “Eros of Orthodoxy,” translated by Fr. Nicholas Palis and written by Mr. Pantelis Paschou.
In ancient times, the people had the custom of celebrating those who returned victorious from battles putting their images or statues in the centers and stadiums out of gratitude, because they saved their country from great danger and also in order to make good examples of youth. Likewise today we Orthodox Christians also honor and celebrate the God-bearing Fathers of our Church, who in very evil and difficult times fought very bravely for Orthodoxy in the Ecumenical Synods, not with those enemies who threaten the freedom of the body, the place or the state, but with the most fearsome ones: those who threatened the purity of our faith and the salvation of our souls. They fought with the devil himself and with his instruments in human form. “Because it is proper for us to honor our benefactors, for this reason also the lawmakers of our Church ordained us to honor the holy and divine Fathers, who struggled and labored to free us from the imprisonment of the wicked devil”. And by showing our honor and gratitude to the brave and sacred defenders to the God-bearing Fathers, who entrenched in the fort of Orthodoxy battled with firm, tall and heaven-based walls, i.e. with the holy dogmas and canons of our Church giving us another spiritual benefit. In the Church we hear in particular in the Matins, that unfortunately very few Christians come to follow in the morning, all the dogmatic teaching of Orthodoxy, interwoven most poetically in the liturgical hymns. We hear the correct teaching from the troparia of the Church, that Christ wore flesh “from the holy Theotokos and perfected all His economy in men, afterwards was lifted up and went to the heavens as true God”. So hearing and studying the Orthodox teaching of the God-bearing Fathers, we learn “exactly” the content of our God-taught faith,” with all its delicate shades and imprints of the “evangelical dogmas and of the pious traditions”. Following the sanctified tradition of the God-bearing Fathers, we also become able, armed with enthusiastic zeal and the “most righteous anger” having in our spiritual hands the “slingshot of the Spirit” to chase far away from the fold of the Church the “incurable ones”. Those who are sick concerning the faith” the many named enemies of Orthodoxy and the “grave and pestilent wolves” which the holy Gospel and the sacred hymnographer mention.
We must note here, that the poetry of the sacred hymnographers, with its awe inspiring lyricism and its anguish concerning the most basic problem, reason, for the poet and for every Christian, i.e. for the salvation of the soul, is not a clear and systematic dogmatic teaching. The poets also exercise freedom here. This creates problems for the investigative dogmatic theologian, the church going reader, who follows with attention and piety the things said, chanted and performed in the Church. It is better for him to learn what he believes and to fanatically guard the sacred dogmas that the mother Church gives him. Greatly touched I remember the words which a University Professor told a Metropolitan quite a few years ago, concerning the manner in which the Church teaches its dogmatic truths–and the other method of specialized study. That with the expert professor–lets say about the “omoousion” of the 1st Ecumenical Synod–will take a year to teach, analyzing, and interpreting thousands of pages and quotations, our Orthodox Church’s sacred hymnography teaches us with only two lines for example with the “Father, O Word, Spirit, Trinity in monad” and with other “Trinitarian” troparions!
One can see this truth as well in the well known masterpiece of our hymnography, the “doxastikon” of the praises on the Sundays of the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods, a creation of George of Nikomedia, which also comprises one of the best lessons of the tradition of Byzantine music, and which is chanted in the plagal 4th tone:
The group of the holy Fathers
coming together from the ends of the world
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
it dogmatized to be one essence and nature.
and the mystery of Theology
it triumphantly gave to the church
Those whom we praise in faith,
let us bless saying
O divine encampment
God-bearing foot soldiers of the side of the Lord
many shining stars of the mental firmament
the unbreakable towers of the mystical Sion
the sweet-smelling roses of Paradise
the all-gold mouths of the Word
the boast of Nicaea, and adornment of the world
lengthily intercede for our souls.
This mystical fragrance, which the sweet-smelling flowers breath, of Paradise, this salutary and sweet light, which the many-illumined stars of the mental firmament of the mystical Sion pour out, i.e. of the Church of Christ. This mystery of Theology which the all-gold mouths of the Word reveal to us, cannot be conceived and lived, except by walking the straight road that our Church’s God-bearing fathers walked. Because they are, in some way the secure measure for us alienated men who live in perdition and flagrant sin of the flesh and spirit to know the truth concerning God, man and the ways of our theosis and our salvation.
In order to know and use these measures we must approach and love the Holy Fathers, to see the manner of their holy life, which wasn’t different from their teaching. As we tragically live our lives today, we must like them with stirring humility, which can wither all egotistical boundaries, heretical inclinations, and the excesses in our worldly life and adherence to the dark and corrupted environment of vices. However it is very difficult for someone to do this successfully these days, because each of us accepts that the only authority which exists worthy to play the role of the spiritual guide and teacher is oneself. And this egotism of ours doesn’t let us get to know as our guides and teachers, the only ones capable of guiding us in the truth of the Gospel. For if we get to know it we will want to sell all to acquire the only thing that we really need, the salvation of our souls. Everything else, even the most spiritual (in outward appearance, of course) if they don’t work for the salvation of our souls, as the Church blesses and wishes, and as the Holy Fathers in their very rich experience teach, comprise satanic slanders, a deviation from the Orthodox spiritual road. There is no greater proof than those same leaders of the various heresies, who started with small deviations from the patristic tradition and line–interpreting some passages of the Holy Scripture in a misconstrued way–and afterwards ended up becoming deniers of Christ’s divinity or of the Holy Spirit. Their sinful life was such that satan had muddled their minds!
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