Posts
Christ & His Church
by Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko
A] Jesus Christ is the God-man, the “Second Person” of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God become fully human, “for us men, and for our salvation.” This is the essence of the Christian worldview, the essential truth to which all witness must be born and all service rendered. Christians know this and bear witness to it, to Christ as being “all in all,” because they experience Him in the Church – His living Body. They experience Him, here and now, in the life of his church, as He is in all the fullness of His divine humanity.
B] Christ is with us now: this is the Christian encounter and witness. God is with us in Him. Others may have seen and heard and touched Him as He was in the days of his flesh, but we know Him as He is now in the fullness of His glory. The days of His flesh show over and gone. We have no need to strive and revive, retrieve or relive them, certainly not by scholarly, psychological, or even by meditative means. Jesus Christ is no longer as He was in his days on earth - in the form of a slave. He is present now in and with His people, and with God, His Father, by the power of God, the Holy Spirit and "the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who feels all in all" (Eph. 1:23).
C] For this reason, Orthodox Christians have nothing to offer people and the world but Christ and His Church. It is our conviction that there is nothing else to be offered and nothing else that is necessary. Our witness to this conviction, to this end. In our time, however, there are specific human needs, and desires, which cry out for fulfillment, specific cries, which arise in the hearts of men which reach our ears, clamoring for concern and attention. If we say that Christ and His Church are the answer to these needs, we must be aware of what they are and be prepared to demonstrate how their ultimate satisfaction can be attained only by Christ and through His Church. We must be ready to make every effort to verify our claims by our actions, witnessing and serving with the love "not in words and speech, but indeed, and in truth." (1 John 3:18).
D] Jesus was not a relativist. Neither was He a sectarian. Whatever someone happens to believe about His person and nature, one should see that he was not a "peddler" of some religious doctrine or a "Crusader" for some religious sect. He was a man – the man Who was also the incarnation of the Son of God – Who witnessed to the unity of mankind in freedom, in Spirit and in truth. He spoke not about ethereal "spiritualities" or about the need for "religion," but about goodness, truth, virtue, light and life itself. He was not a "tyrant" of any sort. He exercised no power or force of any kind – political, social, economic, psychological, or religious. He wrote no books. He left no earthly monuments as a record to His many miracles and accomplishments. But He believed that people could know the truth and do good, and so be free.
