"To be and to appear as one body formed of different members ..."

 

St. Maximus the Confessor

 

 Dear Parish Faithful,

I hope that everyone enjoys a good beginning to the Forty-day Nativity Fast that starts today. A "good beginning" can go a long way in creating the atmosphere of keeping a good spirit up to the Feast. 

Vespers this evening at 7:00 p.m. could add to that good beginning!

Below is a passage that is not directly related to the upcoming Feast of the Lord's Nativity, but one that I shared in Church recently, and which you may want to look over more carefully.

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It is in this way that the holy Church of God will be shown to be active among us in the same way as God, as an image reflects its archetype. For many and of nearly boundless number are the men, women and children who are distinct from one another and vastly different by birth and appearance, by race and language, by way of life and age, by opinions and skills, by manners and customs, by pursuits and studies, and still again by reputation, fortune, characteristics and habits: all are born into the Church and through it are reborn and recreated in the Spirit. To all in equal measures it gives and bestows one divine form and designation: to be Christ's and to bear his name. In accordance with faith it gives to all a single, simple, whole and indivisible condition which does not allow us to bring to mind the existence of myriads of differences among them, even if they do exist, through universal relationship and union of all things with it. It is through it that absolutely no one at all is in himself separated from the community since everyone converges with all the rest and joins together with them by the one simple and indivisible grace and power of faith. "For all," it is said, "had but one heart and one mind." (Acts 4:32) Thus to be and to appear as one body formed of different members is really worthy of Christ himself, our true head, in whom says the divine Apostle, "there is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither circumcision or uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither slave nor free, but he is all and in all." (Col. 3:11) It is he who encloses in himself all beings by the unique, simple and infinitely wise power of goodness.  - St. Maximus the Confessor 

 

This remarkable passage from the remarkable St. Maximus the Confessor (+662) clearly indicates that if the Church is understood as an "institution," it is an institution unlike no other in the world. The Church unites what is disunited in the world - men, women and children from innumerable backgrounds. The unity of the Church is stressed in this passage by the saint, in order to remind us that all natural divisions and differences within humanity cannot possibly be the source of unnatural - that is, sinful - divisions and differences in the Church. 

The stress on unity does not mean that unique distinctiveness among the members of the Church is absorbed in some kind of collective. Quite the contrary. The personal uniqueness of every member of the Church is enhanced and recognized within the unity of the Church, made up of all who bear the name of Christ. Be that as it may, this is a wonderful passage that reminds us as we think on it and "unpack" its profound meaning, of the glory of the Church, and one that we can return to often to remind us of the blessings of grace that we receive within the unity of the Body of Christ.