Today is the Feast of Nayrouz (Feast of the Martyrs) in the Orthodox Coptic Rite. (Nofri Shai. Kol Sana Wa Inta/Inti Tayeb/a, Happy Feast).
What strikes me as interesting on this feast day commemorating the Martyrs is that the martyrs are those who are present in the Faith. That their witness is not one of dying for a cause, but the active encounter and awareness of a Person.
Perhaps this has a deeper implication for missions and evangelism, for Orthodoxy that is Orthodoxy.
Martyrs, those who witness, are not only those who confess the faith publicly, or those who die a death in violence. Martyrs also include the very witness of and encounter with the Fully Divine and Fully Human Person of Christ. Martyrs are those growing in union with the Holy Trinity through the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the Good News proclaimed by His Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Metropolitan Kalistos Ware mentions in his "Orthodox Church"
What I think resonates with all three of these 'martyrs' that Metropolitan Kalistos quotes is that these martyrs, continue to exist today, as the Church reminds us with the Feast of Nayrouz. All three 'types' of martyrdom involve a sense of being. Being free of evil desire (fallen passions), being totally offered to God (being in Love), or being present with the Cross. All three are necessary in some sense and are interrelated either physically or metaphysically, thematically and philosophically. Neither are to be raised in opposition or above the other and all three encompass the encounter and dwelling of being, of presence, of witness.
Christians are called to BE Christian not just think, say or do Christian things. Perhaps the reason martyrdom in the first three centuries was often met with bloodshed, was because of this characteristic of BEING.
Roman Catholic Priest, Fr Henri Nouwen, captures this sense of being in his book, the Life of the Beloved, when he speaks about true giving, that true offering is when we embrace "who can we BE for each other."
The martyrs, the saints, the calling of every Christian growing in union with the Holy Trinity, is about this face to face encounter (1 Cor 13), this beholding of God. The martyrs speak and live within the presence of God, their being has become fulfilled in the One who IS. The saints are proclaiming what is prayed in the Litury of St Basil in the Coptic Rite, their life is affirming that they are being and dwelling and sharing in the Divine Life, the Sonship of Love. Their every action and deed is a witness, a heart living the prayer beginning with "O You, The Being."
The One Who Is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is revealed in the kenotic victory of the Son, the Incarnate Logos, Theanthropos. In the Byzantine Rite, the Nativity of the Theotokos was celebrated last Sunday (Sunday, September 9, 2012: The Synaxariam also commemorates Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna). One of the Gospel readings is John 3:13-17:
One can see that this sense of being in the martyr is a typological reference to the kenosis of Christ, and subsequently Theotokos is also martyr because He dwells in her, as He also dwells among and in us, abides in us and us in Him. Perhaps this is where we are to encounter the unknowable mystery of God Who is made known by the energy of His Son. The Divine pattern is fulfilled by this extreme humility, this extreme love, that is given, that WAS, IS and WILL come and has BECOME so that all of the world might not perish but have everlasting life.
The martyrs give because they have been given, or more acutely, they give because they have encountered the undefinable Gift which is given in the very encounter of the Being Who Gives. Martyrdom is the response of love to Love. Not a docetist or dualist hatred of the world, but a restoration of love to Love, of being to the Being, of activity to the Action of Love. Martyrdom, Witness, Liturgy, Orthodoxy is Love in motion, offered, restored and in the process of restoring.
Giving (and the martyrs offering) is an encounter, knowledge and mystery of Divine Love. Or as Metropolitan Anthony Bloom mentions:
Today we remember and embrace our Liturgical Life.
Today, martyrdom and mission, worship and service...
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Who is present in all places and fills all, the Treasury of good things and the Life‑Giver, graciously come, and dwell in us and purify us from all defilement, O Good One, and save our souls.
Amen.
What strikes me as interesting on this feast day commemorating the Martyrs is that the martyrs are those who are present in the Faith. That their witness is not one of dying for a cause, but the active encounter and awareness of a Person.
Perhaps this has a deeper implication for missions and evangelism, for Orthodoxy that is Orthodoxy.
Martyrs, those who witness, are not only those who confess the faith publicly, or those who die a death in violence. Martyrs also include the very witness of and encounter with the Fully Divine and Fully Human Person of Christ. Martyrs are those growing in union with the Holy Trinity through the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the Good News proclaimed by His Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Metropolitan Kalistos Ware mentions in his "Orthodox Church"
Now there are three kinds of martyrdom which are accounted as a Cross to a man, white martyrdom, green martyrdom, and red martyrdom. White martyrdom consists in a man’s abandoning everything he loves for God’s sake…. Green martyrdom consists in this, that by means of fasting and labor he frees himself from his evil desires; or suffers toil in penance and repentance. Red martyrdom consists in the endurance of a Cross or death for Christ's sake.
(Quoted in J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism, London, 1931, p. 197).
What I think resonates with all three of these 'martyrs' that Metropolitan Kalistos quotes is that these martyrs, continue to exist today, as the Church reminds us with the Feast of Nayrouz. All three 'types' of martyrdom involve a sense of being. Being free of evil desire (fallen passions), being totally offered to God (being in Love), or being present with the Cross. All three are necessary in some sense and are interrelated either physically or metaphysically, thematically and philosophically. Neither are to be raised in opposition or above the other and all three encompass the encounter and dwelling of being, of presence, of witness.
Christians are called to BE Christian not just think, say or do Christian things. Perhaps the reason martyrdom in the first three centuries was often met with bloodshed, was because of this characteristic of BEING.
Roman Catholic Priest, Fr Henri Nouwen, captures this sense of being in his book, the Life of the Beloved, when he speaks about true giving, that true offering is when we embrace "who can we BE for each other."
First of all, our life itself is the greatest gift to give — something we constantly forget. When we think about our being given to each other, what comes immediately to mind are our unique talents: those abilities to do special things especially well. You and I have spoken about this quite often. “What is our unique talent?” we asked. However, when focusing on talents, we tend to forget that our real gift is not so much what we can do, but who we are. The real question is not “What can we offer each other?” but “Who can we be for each other?” No doubt, it is wonderful when we can repair something for a neighbor, give helpful advice to a friend, offer wise counsel to a colleague, bring healing to a patient, or announce good news to a parishioner, but there is a greater gift than all of this. It is the gift of our own life that shines through all we do. As I grow older, I discover more and more that the greatest gift I have to offer is my own joy of living, my own inner peace, my own silence and solitude, my own sense of well-being. When I ask myself, “Who helps me most?” I must answer, “The one who is willing to share his or her life with me.”
Fr Henri Nouwen, The Life of the Beloved, Given, p113
The martyrs, the saints, the calling of every Christian growing in union with the Holy Trinity, is about this face to face encounter (1 Cor 13), this beholding of God. The martyrs speak and live within the presence of God, their being has become fulfilled in the One who IS. The saints are proclaiming what is prayed in the Litury of St Basil in the Coptic Rite, their life is affirming that they are being and dwelling and sharing in the Divine Life, the Sonship of Love. Their every action and deed is a witness, a heart living the prayer beginning with "O You, The Being."
The One Who Is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is revealed in the kenotic victory of the Son, the Incarnate Logos, Theanthropos. In the Byzantine Rite, the Nativity of the Theotokos was celebrated last Sunday (Sunday, September 9, 2012: The Synaxariam also commemorates Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna). One of the Gospel readings is John 3:13-17:
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
One can see that this sense of being in the martyr is a typological reference to the kenosis of Christ, and subsequently Theotokos is also martyr because He dwells in her, as He also dwells among and in us, abides in us and us in Him. Perhaps this is where we are to encounter the unknowable mystery of God Who is made known by the energy of His Son. The Divine pattern is fulfilled by this extreme humility, this extreme love, that is given, that WAS, IS and WILL come and has BECOME so that all of the world might not perish but have everlasting life.
The martyrs give because they have been given, or more acutely, they give because they have encountered the undefinable Gift which is given in the very encounter of the Being Who Gives. Martyrdom is the response of love to Love. Not a docetist or dualist hatred of the world, but a restoration of love to Love, of being to the Being, of activity to the Action of Love. Martyrdom, Witness, Liturgy, Orthodoxy is Love in motion, offered, restored and in the process of restoring.
Giving (and the martyrs offering) is an encounter, knowledge and mystery of Divine Love. Or as Metropolitan Anthony Bloom mentions:
But then, what should we do? You hear every Sunday in the Liturgy words that say, ‘Let us lay aside all the cares of this life’. Does it mean that we must turn away from the earth on which we live, from the tasks which are ours, from the joys and true sorrows that come our way? No!...It means that if we are dead with the death of Christ to everything which is destructive of love, destructive of compassion, which is self-centredness, which is self-love, which leaves no space for anyone but ourselves - if we are dead to all this, and if we have accepted life on Christ's terms, ready to live for others, live for God, live for the joy and life of those who surround us - then we are risen with Christ, and our life is indeed hid with Christ in God, it is at the very depth of God, at the very depth of divine love!Today on the feast of Nayrouz, an even greater need is required to return to our authentic 'history' and witness of the Church. As we embrace our evangelistic calling and the life of witness, the life of martyrdom it becomes increasingly important to know what Orthodoxy is, to return to that proclamation, that encounter and living of the Good News.
+ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, on the Bridal Feast, 24 December 1989
"This is one of the great challenges of the Church in the modern age – to return the proclamation of the Gospel to its proper existential and realist foundations and rescue it from the increasing secularism of marketing growth and moralistic interpretations. Christ did not come to make bad men good, but to make dead men live."
Today on the feast of Nayrouz, the words of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann rings in the still quiet of Orthodox prayer life calling for a deep understanding of the encounter of the Kingdom which is the Lived Theology of the Orthodox.
Today we remember and embrace our Liturgical Life.
Today, martyrdom and mission, worship and service...
...all depends” primarily on our being real witnesses to the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit, to that new life of which we are made partakers in the Church. The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom —not because she possesses divinely instituted acts called "sacraments,” but because first of all she is the possibility given to man to see in and through this world the "world to come,” to see and to "live” it in Christ. It is only when in the darkness of this world we discern that Christ has already "filled all things with Himself” that these things, whatever they may be, are revealed and given to us full of meaning and beauty. A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him. And this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world’s return to Him who is the life of the world.
Glory to God for all things. Let us continue to pray and live the Truth revealed in Christ that Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy. The Third Hour Prayer of the Agpeya (Coptic Book of Hours) has a prayer which perhaps encompasses this revelation, this encounter, this being with the Being.+ Fr Alexander Schmemann, For Life of the World, p113
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Who is present in all places and fills all, the Treasury of good things and the Life‑Giver, graciously come, and dwell in us and purify us from all defilement, O Good One, and save our souls.
Amen.
