“THIS IS THE FAITH OF THE FATHERS — THIS IS THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH”
A Feast of feasts and a Festival of festivals is celebrated today by the Orthodox Church of Christ, in hymns and spiritual songs, on the first Sunday of the Holy Fast. She calls her children from one end of the inhabited world to the other, holding in their hands the holy icons, to glorify the Triune God, from Whom come all glory, honor, and worship.
Our Holy Church — the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church — celebrates and rejoices today in her victories over the world of falsehood and deceit, over delusion and darkness. The enemies of the Church of the Theanthropos Jesus Christ have been many, numerous, and fierce — false and slanderous.
Yet the Church, founded upon the unshakable and immovable rock of the Faith, strengthened by the power and grace of her eternal Founder, the Son and Word of God the Father, has gone forth conquering and shall remain unshaken and indestructible throughout the ages, to the shame of her furious and manifold enemies. “And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her.”
On this first Sunday of the Fast, which the Holy Fathers appointed to be called the Sunday of Orthodoxy — that is, right doctrine — we celebrate the victory of the Church, the Faith which has overcome the world: faith in the one true God and in Jesus Christ Whom He has sent.
On this great and radiant day, when the Church triumphs in her victory and freedom from the bonds of error and death, of falsehood and deception, the Gospel passage from Saint John (1:44–52) is proclaimed.
In this passage is preached and confessed, through the mouth of the Apostle Nathanael, the very foundation of the Faith — in Him Who “bowed the heavens and came down upon earth, desiring to save the world; the Creator of all came of His own will, and being Shepherd as God, for our sake appeared as man.”
“Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.”
This confession is of supreme significance. It elevates those who believe and confess the presence of Jesus upon the earth. Faith that the Lord is the Only-begotten Son of God lifts the spirit, strengthens the heart of the believer, and grants noble sentiments together with the assurance of the life to come and the immortality of the soul. As Saint John Chrysostom says, “As much as the soul is more precious than the body, so much more grievous is its harm” — namely sin, which leads man away from God, his Maker and Creator.
This faith was preached throughout the world by the God-proclaiming Apostles, and after them by the choir of the Holy Fathers, the golden mouths of the Divine Word. For this faith countless martyrs, men and women, bore witness, sacrificing not only honors and possessions but even their very lives for Christ and for the Holy Faith.
Likewise, for this steadfast and unshakable faith in Christ, the Founder of the Church, multitudes of Saints and Confessors of the Church militant upon earth testified in mountains and caves and in the holes of the earth. By their words and deeds they upheld and confessed the sacred symbols of the Church, rendering the honor due to the Prototype — to Christ Himself.
From that blessed era of the early Christian centuries, when the Apostle Nathanael confessed the presence of the God-Man upon the earth, saying, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel,” until this very day, the Church of Christ has been ceaselessly persecuted — yet never overcome — always conquering and triumphing over the devices and slanders of atheists, heretics, and schismatics, both of old and of our own times.
The many-named atheists, heretics, and schismatics sink one after another into obscurity and darkness. Those who are called wise according to the world are in truth unwise and corrupted. Like roaring lions they rushed against the Church of the God-Man Jesus Christ, the innocent Lamb of the Apocalypse, seeking to destroy and burn in the fire of their malice whatever is holy and sacred in Christianity and Orthodoxy. Even the modern deniers of all things, foolish materialists and slow of heart, have joined in unholy conspiracy against God. Yet they were defeated by divine grace and are ever defeated, for Christ “went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Rev. 6:2).
The Lord lives; and His Church militant upon earth lives and shall live unto the ages of ages. For unto Him belongs the final and eternal triumph.
This precious treasure of our blameless Faith — our faith in the Triune God and in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church — we also, as children of faithful and glorious fathers, must honor and preserve undefiled as the apple of our eye all the days of our life, unto the glory of God and the salvation of our souls.
This is the Faith of the Fathers which has established the Church!
† Paisios
Metropolitan of L.K.A.
