The Creed and the Strength of Orthodoxy

What is Orthodoxy? What are the foundations or bases of our Christian faith? What are the pillars of our creed and our confession? What are the strengths of the Orthodox faith?

Orthodoxy, beloved Christians, is the straight path, the shortest way between man and God. Orthos (a Greek word) means “straight,” and doxa (also a Greek word) means “glory” or “praise.” In science, the straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Orthodoxy is the straight path, the shortest one, between two beings—between man and God. This is our religion. That is why we are called “Orthodox Christians,” meaning “right-believers,” “true worshippers,” or “those who give right glory.” This religion, this way, this faith is as deep as the human soul and as exalted as heaven….

What are the pillars of our creed, the foundations of our faith, in contrast to other confessions and sects? Or more briefly, what are the unshakeable rock-like strengths of Orthodoxy?

1. First of all, Christ. Orthodoxy is the religion of Christ; it is the Church of Christ—that is, Christianity in its oldest, purest, simplest, and truest form. Orthodoxy has no earthly founders like the Protestant sects, nor has it dared to enthrone “vicars of Christ on earth,” who usurp divine attributes and presume to replace Him, as in Roman Catholicism. Orthodoxy has remained faithful to the Gospel, which teaches that Christ alone is the Head of the Church, and that the Church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1: 22–23; Colossians 1:18, 27). Within Orthodoxy, the unity of Spirit and faith is preserved through Christ and through the Creed of the Church. We hold firmly that no one can take the place of Christ in governing His Church; Orthodoxy does not admit, nor can it admit, another head or a second head of the Church. Above us, above Orthodoxy, there is only the dome of the Church and the open heaven. In Orthodoxy, there are no “vicars of Christ” and no “holy thrones,” save only the throne of God's glory; therefore, in Orthodox nations, there is not the same degree of unbelief as in those nations subject to the “vicar of Christ” (Italy, France, Spain, and Belgium). In Orthodoxy, the Head of the Church is Christ alone. He is with us unto the end of the ages (Matthew 28:20). The unshakeable rock of Orthodoxy, therefore, first of all and above all, is Christ.

2. The second strength of Orthodoxy is the Saints: the guardian angels, the patriarchs of the Old Testament, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the great teachers and hierarchs of the Christian world, the venerable and God-bearing Fathers, and all the righteous. None has greater authority in the Church than the saints. None has more beautifully embodied the teachings of the Gospel of Christ than the saints. Nowhere do we more clearly behold how the truths of the Christian faith were illumined and lived than in the lives, traditions, hymns, and exemplary teachings of the saints. Orthodoxy is “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Our Creed is the Creed of the saints, and therefore it is so precious to us. Whoever rises against Orthodoxy rises against the saints, who in their lives and traditions have embodied the highest, purest, and most demanding form of life—holiness. Other “churches” also speak of saints, but even here they fall into error. Already in apostolic times, and even more in our days, some said they were of Peter (Catholicism), others of Paul (Protestantism), others of John (Orthodoxy), and more recently, some are of Anthony of Padua, whom they honor more than God Himself.

Orthodoxy admits no such divisions in the veneration of the saints. Orthodoxy is the Church of all the saints—of Peter, of Paul, of John, of Martha (active Christianity), and of Mary (contemplative Christianity). Orthodoxy neither abolishes the veneration of the saints (as among the Protestants), nor lowers it to the level of noisy publicity, as though every answered prayer must be attributed to the miracle of some particular saint (as in Roman Catholicism). Orthodoxy keeps the veneration of the saints within the bounds of reverence and right belief, within the nature created and ordained by God. It teaches and follows the lives, traditions, teachings, virtues, hymns, and prayers of the saints, and, with evangelical humility, does not diminish their miracles. This, too, is one of the granite strengths of Orthodoxy.

3. The third strength of Orthodoxy is the faithful people. Orthodoxy is the Church of the people—a popular Church, for the people, for their longings, their sufferings, their needs, and their salvation. In Orthodoxy, both the learned and the Pharisees (like Paul, Joseph, Nicodemus, and others), and the emperors (like Constantine and Justinian) have found salvation. But Orthodoxy is not for hypocritical Pharisees, nor for tyrant emperors. It is for John, for Simeon, for Peter, James, Nicholas, George, Demetrius, Stephen, Basil, Gregory; it is for Mary Magdalene, Anna, Helen, and countless others. Orthodoxy has never been against the people; it has never been, and is not, for Herods or Pilates. It is for shepherds and fishermen, for farmers like Simon of Cyrene, for laborers with mind and hand like Paul and Onesimus, like Titus and Timothy, like Aquila and Priscilla. Orthodoxy has lived in solidarity with heaven above and with the people below; it has suffered with them, labored with them, rejoiced with them, and triumphed with them. Orthodoxy has no eternal city on earth—“For here we have no abiding city” (Hebrews 13:14). It is not with papal Rome, nor imperial Vienna, nor Paris, nor London, nor with any worldly empire or earthly power that betrays Christ. Orthodoxy is with itself—that is, with Christ God, with the Gospel, with the saints, with the people, with your soul, and with the heavenly Jerusalem, with heaven above and with the people below. In Orthodoxy, all the holy books, prayers, and hymns are written in the language of the people. In Orthodoxy, there are no dead languages, no “sacred tongues”; every tongue that prays to God, that reads the word of God, and that partakes of Christ God, is sanctified—becomes a holy tongue.

This is Orthodoxy: Christ, with the graces of the Church and the truths of His Gospel;

The Saints, with their lives, virtues, prayers, hymns, teachings, and traditions;

And the People, with their needs for salvation, their longings, their sufferings, and their joys.

This is Orthodoxy, and these are the granite strengths, beloved and blessed Christians; these are the foundations of our faith; these are the pillars of our creed, our confession, and our salvation: Christ, the Head of our Church; the Saints, our icons and models; and the faithful People, the living body of the Church of Christ. “Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Let us then refresh in our souls these thoughts on Orthodoxy and its eternal strengths, and let us confess this threefold foundation with the same faith and love with which we confess the Holy Trinity, when we pray and sing with reverence: My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit. Holy Trinity, glory to Thee… Glory to Thee, O holy Orthodoxy—with Christ, with the saints, and with all the faithful people—glory to Thee unto the ages of ages. Amen.

A Word of the Holy Hieromartyr Father Ilarion Felea

Translated from: https://atitudini.com/2016/09/cuvant-miscator-al-parintelui-ilarion-v-felea-despre-ortodoxie-crezul-si-taria-ortodoxiei/

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