THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH
Inok Vsevolod (Filipiev)
The greatest mystery and the greatest revelation of Christianity consist in the fact that Christ lives and acts in the world today. He acts in the Church. Yet the eyes of the non-Christian world as well as the eyes clouded by sin of many Christians do not see it. They see nothing but the organization of the Church and are therefore unable to peer underneath its veil. The mystery and the revelation of Christianity consist in believing that the Church of Christ is the Body of Christ, that
Christ is the Head of the Church, and that Christians are the members of this Body. Hierarchs may be likened to the mouth, for they are called upon to bring the Good News of Christ to the world and to administer to the faithful according to God's commandments. Priests can be compared to the hands that perform the sacred work of God; monastics - to the heart that prays for the salvation of the suffering human race; while the laity are the living flesh of the Church Body, without which the Body cannot survive.
Christ is the Head of the Church. His wise Will governs the Church. He leads the children of His Church to the Heavenly Father, towards the salvific abode. The Holy Spirit dwells and breathes within the Church Body; He vivifies and sanctifies It. Inside the Church God is with us, humans, and we are in Him. God lives! Even today, He in actual fact takes action upon the earth.
Anything that is not akin to Christ is external to Christ even when ostensibly it appears to be with Christ. Alas, many hierarchs, priests, monastics, and laymen deviated from Christ in their spiritual condition and by the orientation of their lives. Those Christians are like the peel on the Body of the Church; they resemble pieces of dead skin that still cling on to the Body of the Church. The evil spirit teaches humans to form their opinion of the Church of Christ based solely on their ideas of that peel.
Yet, the mystery of the Church will be revealed to those who in their search for the Truth appeal to the Lord, and they will see the living Christ Who works on the earth. They will hear the word of the undying Truth coming forth from the mouths of worthy arch-pastors and pastors. They will see the light of Christ illuminating the faces of humble ascetics. Along with the meek words of their spiritual father, Love will touch their hearts, and they will comprehend and believe that it is in people like this that the mystery of the Church is accomplished; that in the Church the mystery of salvation is accomplished, which was started on the earth by the God-man, open to all those seeking salvation.
The saints of the Orthodox Church summon us on to the path of eternal Life. Yet, this path begins on the sinful earth, and for this reason it is narrow and full of sorrows. He who is afraid of the sorrows of the earthly path will not see the dwellings of the Heavenly Truth - that is the unalterable meaning of Christianity.
Let us not heed the tempting voices coming from the outside of the protection of the Orthodox Church. It is enough for us to have the testimony and the good example of the Orthodox Saints. They took the sacred path of Orthodoxy and gained the beatitude of salvation. What else can we desire, what else can we seek in other paths?
Every era in the life of the Church is blessed, for it is sanctified by Divine presence, by the love and light of God. It is very important for us to be realists in Christ, we need to take life as it comes, one day at a time: we not only need to preserve, but to create as well; we not only need to wait, but to act as well.
On the other hand, it is important to realize that in the Church the present day is in no way different from the preceding and the subsequent days. External conditions may change - one day, the Church is persecuted, the next day, open persecution ceases - yet, the spiritual substance of the life of a Christian in the bosom of the Church remains unchanged.
The essence and the purpose of a Christian's life is communion with God, its objective - salvation of the soul. If this objective in a Christian's life becomes lost or replaced with another, if the purpose of his life is in something else, than that Christian is alien to Christ, to salvation, to the Church.
Let us look inside our hearts and examine our conscience: are we with Christ? Is salvation the only all-surpassing purpose of our life? Do we seek contact with God, which is the only thing that can make our life purposeful? If not, then let us repent and convert while there is still time. Let us recall our first love and zeal in the Lord. Where are the wings upon which our souls sought the Heavenly Realm after we had discovered the mysterious land of the holy Orthodox faith? We were true Christians then. And what about now? Our faith and our love have been poisoned by the venom of doubt; we stumble upon seeing the many shortcomings in the organization of the Church…
Enough, however. We need to stop this endless gliding on the surface and direct our souls towards the Heavens. Let us recall our initial love! The Church, our holy Mother that has revived us into eternal life through baptism, is still the same. The gates of Hades will not conquer the Church according to the promise of Christ. Let us believe in the Church with a renewed force, let us love it with our whole hearts; let us serve it even unto death, for it is only in the Church that each of us met the living God for the first time. And the Church of Christ will remain the only sacred temple, the only place where the eternal mystery of the encounter of humanity with Divinity occurs.
If we are within the Church, then the Church is also within us. This is another aspect of its mysterious nature. The Kingdom of God is within us, yet the Church is the Kingdom of God, which is still being built.
The Grace-filled threads that bind the children of the Church into a whole go from heart to heart.
The Spiritual Heavens are not above us, they are within each and every one of us, which means it is near us and even closer. The entrance to the Holy of Holies is hidden inside the heart of every Orthodox Christian. For this reason, people comprehend their connection to the Church of Christ not with their minds, but above all with their hearts.
It is of course possible to try to prove the Truth of Orthodoxy with words and logic. Yet, those who have gotten to know Orthodoxy with their hearts do not require proof anymore. They already know that the Grace of Orthodoxy is real. Besides, who having tasted things that are sweet will want to go back to things that are bitter?
We are in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Holy Fathers of our Church have conveyed to us the lofty teaching of how all of the children of the Church have been given the possibility to incessantly invoke and praise their Savior in the Jesus prayer, the prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer is the best way to confess Orthodoxy, by saying it we pledge our loyalty to Christ the King.
Let us stand before the gates of the heart and let us unceasingly pound on them with the repentant Jesus prayer. Then the gates of the heart will open, and we will face the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, the mystery of a pure heart, the mystery of the Church, not only in words, but with experience.
The Holy Spirit intones the Divine hymn of ceaseless prayer in the hearts of the faithful. The invisible world of those who dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven joyfully heeds this marvelous song of the inhabitants of the earth. God heeds us and comes down to us and dwells with us. And we dwell with Him, in the bosom of His Church, in the Ark of salvation, in everlasting communion with God, in the rays of Divine Love.
Spiritual enemies will constantly try to instill in us the fallacious thought that a full, Grace-filled life within the bosom of the Holy Church is beyond our natural strength. If we believe this falsehood, it will mean that we have not truly comprehended the mystery of the Church.
Acknowledging the frailty of the human nature let us humbly approach the gates of the Church. Let us knock on them with hope. There, behind that sacred ecclesiastical enclosure someone has long been waiting for us. Who has been waiting for us there? God Himself.
(Translated from Russian by M. Nekipelov)