Jerusalem Patriarchate
SPEECH OF H.H.B. THE PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM THEOPHILOS III IN THE OFFICIAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SACRED SYNOD OF THE HIERARCHS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Your Beatitude Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Cyril,
Brother and co-celebrant of Our Mediocrity.
Having arrived in the bearer of Saints and much suffered land of
Russia from the Holy City of Jerusalem, we convey to You and the Holy
Synod of the beloved Archbishops with You, as well as to the crowds of
our brotherly Orthodox Russians the timeless hopeful message of the
incarnate Christ the Lord of glory, Who lived as God-man in Bethlehem
and the humble land of Palestine. We bless our brothers and sisters in
Christ, by the grace of the All-holy and Life-giving Holy Tomb.
Amidst the period of spiritual preparation for the forthcoming feasts
of Christ’s epiphany, towards which the holy hymn writer generously and
gradually mystifies our minds and hearts, namely “the newest mystery of
all new mysteries”, the Incarnation of the Redeemer of the World, we
feel that man’s rebirth is primarily ensued through Via Dolorosa,as we
commemorate in these sacred meetings of requiem and memory the recent
harsh and onerous history of the Church of Russia. Moreover, the end of
the Forty days of the Christmas fast, the Twelve-day festal period,
coincides with the commemoration of martyrs such as the myriads of
infants who were unjustly slaughtered by Herod for the name of the Lord,
as well as that of Archdeacon Stephen the First Martyr, who during the
martyrdom he suffered by his callous fellow citizens, saw the heavens
open and the glorified Christ sitting at the right side of God the
Father. The vision of the ineffable and uncreated light was the
redemption for martyr Stephen. Similar divine visions of light were
experienced by many new martyrs of the Russian nation in the recent
years.
The martyrs’ offenders ever failed to actually realize that our God
is glorified by myriads of archangels and angels, and simultaneously by
armies of martyrs, nor did they ever realize, that our God is made
manifest on earth in the form of peace and good will among men.
Martyrdom is central in the spiritual life; according to the Lord’s
beloved disciple John the Theologian, the martyrs “have washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). “They
stand before the throne of God, and serve him” boldly for all eternity
(Rev. 7:15). The One that sitteth on the throne of Glory our God,
protects His servants from “the heat of the day” namely the wickedness
and maliciousness of the “rulers and the principalities of this world”
(Eph. 6:12), because “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters” (Rev.
7:15-17). The martyrs beseech God that He may wipe out the wickedness of
the world by His love, and that the Divine mercy, peace and
righteousness of the God Who is beyond all visible, invisible and
comprehensible things will prevail: “How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the
earth?” (Rev. 6:10).
We glorify the worshiped in one Trinity God, because the prayers of
the myriads of the new Russian martyrs, who have been not in the least
inferior to the ancient ones, have liberated Your Church from tyranny
and strengthened it, so that it marches towards the last times
brightened and radiating with the glory of the Holy Saints according to
the Lord’s will.
The Church of Jerusalem glories especially, having being the womb of
the martyrdom, because it was in Jerusalem that He Who “being in the
form of God”… “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”,
and the first to indicate the path of lifting the cross, “Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.2:6-11).
According to the great master of monasticism and the Orthodox
Doctrine Theodore the Stoudite, whose memory we celebrated only a few
days ago, all beings and the whole of nature will kneel when sin will be
abolished in the last day of judgment, precisely because sin lacks
hypostasis “as it [sin] was nothing among the living things, but it
existed and was created by the free will of the doer [the person who had
committed the sin]”. At that time, only God’s creatures will remain in
existence, because they have a hypostasis, but sin will not, as it has
no hypostasis. In addition, “the souls who have been led astray, having
gone through all centuries without finding a place to stop, will come to
God, Who has no limit, and then by realization and not by [spiritual]
communication will they recover their strength, namely they will be
restored to their ancient form and realize that God is not responsible
for sin” (PG99, 1500D-1501B).
Such is the dominance of the glorified Lord, and such is the power of
the plan of the ineffable Divine Providence. According to your native
religious philosopher N. Berdyaev, the power of the kingdom of Spirit is
elevated above this unmodified foundation against Caesar’s kingdom.
Many are the times throughout history, that the Church has witnessed
the dominance of the kingdom of the Spirit. In this case, this is
confirmed by the contemporary status of the brotherly Church of the
Russian and other Orthodox Patriarchates and autocephalous Churches. The
persecutions have ended and the Church has once more been highlighted
as “gold in the crucible”. Today the Orthodox Church is called again to
bear witness to the truth in a secularized world which is being promoted
by the Globalization. As it was recently noted in the Holy and Great
Synod in Crete: “In these years of secularism, and in the face of the
spiritual crisis which characterizes the contemporary civilization, the
projection of the need to underline the importance of the holiness of
life is significant…The Orthodox tradition, shaped by practising the
Christian truths, is the bearer of spiritual and ascetic morals, which
should be highlighted and promoted especially in our era”. All of us the
Orthodox faithful owe to bear witness to the Gospel of Christ
dynamically and in unity, thus becoming the “light of the world” and
“the salt of the earth”. A matter of prime importance for the faithful
is to realize that the starting point of re-evangelizing people is
precisely the unity and the respect towards the ecclesiastical
ordinances, and especially of the ordinance of the Synod. According to
the Apostolic tradition, the Synod of each Church is the ordained body
by God, to guide the pastoral and missionary work.
Your Beatitude, Holy Brother,
We know by personal experience the sensitive Russian soul, witnessed
by the thousands of pilgrims who visit the sacred shrines of the Holy
Land every year. The Russian Orthodox faithful lay their deepest heart,
often in tears, primarily before the Horrendous Golgotha and the
All-holy and Life-giving Tomb. The deep faith of these genuine faithful
people leaves the Hagiotaphite Fathers ecstatic at times. The projection
of our souls towards the All-merciful God in deep faith and patience
draws His Mercy.
Therefore, we, both the clergy and the people are called, to imitate
the Saints’ example, in alignment with the timeless exhortation of the
psalmist to each one of us: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and
he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm
27:14). This waiting on the Lord is the God-taught narrow path for the
victory over sin and death, and at the same time the creative course
towards the true theology, which the world needs greatly in order to
glorify God.
To Him all glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.