ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΟΙΚΟΓΕΝΕΙΑ-CHURCH AND FAMILY ((ENCYCLICAL, PART 3)

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ΕΓΥΚΛΙΟΣ τῆς Ἁγίας και Μεγάλης Συνόδου τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Ἐκκλησίας
(Κρήτη, 2016)

                    III. The Family: Image of Christ’s love towards the Church

ΙΙI. Ἡ Οἰκογένεια - εἰκών τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρός τήν Ἐκκλησίαν

7. Ἡ Ὀρθόδοξος Ἐκκλησία θεωρεῖ τήν ἀκατάλυτον ἀγαπητικήν ἕνωσιν ἀνδρός καί γυναικός «μυστήριον μέγα... εἰς Χριστόν καί εἰς τήν Ἐκκλησίαν», (Ἐφεσ. ε’, 32) καί τήν προκύπτουσαν ἐξ αὐτοῦ οἰκογένειαν, ἡ ὁποία ἀποτελεῖ τήν μόνην ἐγγύησιν τῆς γεννήσεως καί τῆς ἀνατροφῆς τῶν τέκνων, συμφώνως πρός τό σχέδιον τῆς θείας Οἰκονομίας, «Ἐκκλησίαν μικράν» (Ἰωάννου Χρυσοστόμου, Ὑπόμνημα εἰς τήν πρός Ἐφεσίους ἐπιστολήν, Κ’. PG 62, 143), παρέχουσα εἰς αὐτήν τήν κατάλληλον ποιμαντικήν στήριξιν.

Ἡ σύγχρονος κρίσις τοῦ γάμου καί τῆς οἰκογενείας εἶναι ἀπότοκος τῆς κρίσεως τῆς ἐλευθερίας ὡς εὐθύνης, τῆς συρρικνώσεως αὐτῆς εἰς εὐδαιμονιστικήν αὐτοπραγμάτωσιν, τῆς ταυτίσεώς της μέ ἀτομικήν αὐταρέσκειαν, αὐτάρκειαν καί αὐτονομίαν, καί τῆς ἀπωλείας τοῦ μυστηριακοῦ χαρακτῆρος τῆς ἑνώσεως ἀνδρός καί γυναικός, ὡς καί τῆς λήθης τοῦ θυσιαστικοῦ ἤθους τῆς ἀγάπης. Ἡ σύγχρονος ἐκκοσμικευμένη κοινωνία προσεγγίζει τόν γάμον μέ ἀμιγῶς κοινωνιολογικά καί πραγματιστικά κριτήρια, θεωροῦσα αὐτόν ὡς μίαν ἁπλῆν μορφήν σχέσεως, μεταξύ ὅλων τῶν ἄλλων, αἱ ὁποῖαι δικαιοῦνται ἐξ ἴσου θεσμικῆς κατοχυρώσεως.

Ὁ γάμος εἶναι ἐκκλησιοτραφές ἐργαστήριον ζωῆς ἐν ἀγάπῃ καί ἀνυπέρβλητος δωρεά τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἡ «ὑψηλή χείρ» τοῦ «συνδέτου» Θεοῦ «ἀοράτως πάρεστι, τούς συναπτομένους ἁρμόζουσα» μετά τοῦ Χριστοῦ καί μετ’ ἀλλήλων. Οἱ στέφανοι, οἱ ὁποῖοι τοποθετοῦνται ἐπί τῆς κεφαλῆς τοῦ νυμφίου καί τῆς νύμφης κατά τήν τέλεσιν τοῦ μυστηρίου, παραπέμπουν εἰς τήν διάστασιν τῆς θυσίας καί τῆς πλήρους ἀφιερώσεως εἰς τόν Θεόν καί εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἀναφέρονται δέ ἐπίσης καί εἰς τήν ζωήν τῆς Βασιλείας τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀποκαλύπτοντες τήν ἐσχατολογικήν ἀναφοράν τοῦ μυστηρίου τῆς ἀγάπης.

 

III. The Family: Image of Christ’s love towards the Church

7. The Orthodox Church regards the indissoluble loving union of man and woman as a “great mystery” … of Christ and the Church (Eph 5.32) and she regards the family that springs from this, which constitutes the only guarantee for the birth and upbringing of children in accord with the plan of divine Economy, as a “little Church” (John Chrysostom, Commentary of the Letter to the Ephesians, 20, PG 62.143), giving to it the appropriate pastoral support.
The contemporary crisis in marriage and the family is a consequence of the crisis of freedom as responsibility, its decline into a self-centered self-realization, its identification with individual self-gratification, self-sufficiency and autonomy, and the loss of the sacramental character of the union between man and woman, resulting from forgetfulness of the sacrificial ethos of love. Contemporary society approaches marriage in a secular way with purely sociological and realistic criteria, regarding it as a simple form of relationship – one among many others – all of which are entitled to equal institutional validity.
Marriage is a Church-nurtured workshop of life in love and an unsurpassed gift of God’s grace. The “high hand” of the “conjoining” God is “invisibly present, harmonizing those being joined together” with Christ and with one another. The crowns that are placed on the heads of the bride and groom during the sacramental rite refer to the dimension of sacrifice and complete devotion to God and one another. They also point to the life of the Kingdom of God, revealing the eschatological reference in the mystery of love.
8. The Holy and Great Council addresses itself with particular love and care to children and to all young people. Amid the medley of mutually contradictory definitions of childhood, our most holy Church presents the words of our Lord: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18.3) and “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it (Luke 18.17), as well as what our Savior says about those who “prevent” (Luke 18.16) children from approaching Him and about those who “scandalize” them (Matt 18.6).
To young people the Church offers not simply “help” but “truth,” the truth of the new divine-human life in Christ. Orthodox youthshould become aware that they are bearers of the centuries-old and blessed tradition of the Orthodox Church and also the continuers of this tradition who will courageously preserve and will cultivate in a dynamic way the eternal values of Orthodoxy in order to give life-giving Christian witness. From among them will come the future ministers of the Church of Christ. The young people thus are not simply the “future” of the Church, but also the active expression of her God-loving and human-loving life in the present.