The Benefit of Church

In the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Great Lent, the Church draws our attention to the benefit of Church in our struggle to reach Christ. Contrary to what we might think, we need the Church in order to reach Christ, just as the paralytic man needed his friends in order to reach Christ. Then he could be healed, and so can we.

 According to the Gospel (Mark 2.1-12) Christ was surrounded by a large crowd who had gathered to hear His teaching. The crowd was so large, a paralytic being carried by his four friends couldn’t fit in the house. If not for his friends, the paralytic would have been left outside while the rest of the crowd was blessed by God. But when his friends helped him by climbing up and tearing a hole in the roof, then he was able to reach Christ and be healed.

 During our Great Lenten journey, the Church is here to help us, just as the friends of the paralytic, reach Christ. We don’t have to sit outside the gates of His House, while others are blessed on the inside. With the help of our fellow Church members, we reach Christ. We fast together. We pray together. We learn together. We worship together. We help others together. We laugh and cry together. We reach Christ together.

 Once we reach Him, then we can hear Him say, “Your sins are forgiven….Rise, take up your pallet and go home.” We will be forgiven and healed by God, not only through our efforts, but through the faith of the Church. The Gospel teaches, “When Jesus saw their faith,” then He forgave the paralytic. Why was their faith so important? They were willing to go through the extra effort to carry their friend to Christ. They put their own comfort second to the needs of their friend. They could have turned back, telling their friend Jesus was too busy to be bothered.

 Unfortunately, there are times we turn back rather than carrying our friends to Christ. There are times that we, challenge the work of Christ in others, feeling justified that we are already comfortably in the Church. Spend the remaining weeks of Great Lent carrying each other as a Church so we can reach Christ and His Resurrection together.

Dear St. Nicholas Cathedral Family, 

 Last week we covered a very divisive 4^th Ecumenical Council in Ephesus which resulted in a separation of  the Non-Chalcedonian Churches (Coptic, Oriental and Ethiopian Orthodox Churchs). As further proof that the council the next two ecumenical councils included more discussion on the interpretation of the Natures of Christ. Today we will speak about the 5^th Ecumenical Council which was held in Constantinople with 165 bishops present (the West was present).

This council was convened by Emperor Justinian and was called in hopes of putting an end to the Nestorian and the Eutychian (Monophysite) controversies). It looked back at certain Bishops writings and teachings and either condemned their writings (being that they had already passed) or discussed the possibility of excommunicating those who were still alive if they had not changed their stance on the teachings they were sharing with their respective jurisdictions. While it seems tedious to go back and look at old documents, it ended up being almost necessary because there were selected proscribed works written by Theodore of Mopsuetia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa which contained expressions used by the Nestorian position to interpret the definitions of the Council of Chalcedon for the strengthening of their arguments. In result, The Council confirmed Church's teaching regarding the two natures of Christ (human and divine) and condemned certain writings with Nestorian learnings. Emperor Justinian himself confessed his Orthodox faith in a form of the famous Church hymn "Only begotten Son and Word of God" which is sung during the Divine Liturgy during the second Antiphon.

This Council also examined errors of presbyter Origen who was a very famous Church teacher during the 3^rdcentury. At this council the Holy Fathers condemned the following teachings of his. They condemned his teaching of the pre-existence of souls which was the belief that each individual human soul existed before mortal conception, and at some point before birth enters or is placed into the body. They condemned his teaching on the hierarchy of the Trinity. Origen believed that the Father was superior to the Son and the Son was superior to the Holy Spirit. Finally, they condemned Origen’s teaching on inevitable salvation. He did not believe in the eternal suffering of sinners in hell. For him, all souls, including the devil himself, will eventually achieve salvation, even if it takes innumerable ages to do so.

 This council did not deal with any ecclesiastical order so there were not any canons established at this council. Next week, we will continue the journey and explore the 6^th Ecumenical Council.

 With Love in the Lord,

Rev. Fr. Sampson N. Kasapakis

Memorials

8:15 AM Divine Liturgy (Greek) 

Sevasti Kouremetis - 3 Months

Pantelis Koulianos - 6 Months

Petros Psaras - 6 Months

Peter George Stamas - 1 Year

Demetrios Rigopoulos - 3 Years

Aspasia Gombos - 8 Years

Anastasia Kardoulias - 13 Years

11:00 AM Divine Liturgy (English)

Eleni Kondos - 9 Days

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