As we approach the feast of Christ's Nativity, let us look for a moment at the period of preparation that precedes it. Our Lord has never called His people together as a collection of egos. In every time and place when God made His will known and acted among the faithful, they have been established as "community." From the very beginning, in Paradise, God declared that it was not good for Adam to be alone. Our Lord created Eve as a mate for Adam so that there would be community in Eden. Above all, Adam and Eve could help keep each other from falling into egoism and self-love. He preserved His creation through the extended family of Noah, and called Abraham and Sarah to found the community of the Covenant. The Holy Prophets spoke to Israel not as a group of isolated individuals, but as the community of the promise. Each person was responsible for the whole community.
In the seventh chapter of Joshua we see that fasting and repentance were fulfilled not only by those who had fallen, but by the whole community of Israel together. The spiritual life of the holy nation was not fulfilled individually, but by the efforts of each to serve for the purification and sanctity of the whole community. In like manner, Jesus Christ did not establish some form of indefinite "Christianity," but rather a clearly defined community bound together in such a bond of oneness that it is called "the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:27). When the Church calls us to observe a fast before the feast of Christ's Nativity, this is also a call to the community of the faithful. We do not observe the fasts simply as individuals. The canonical fasts do not serve only for the purification and spiritual growth of the individual; rather they serve for the purification and spiritual growth of the community. The lenten periods are not only a gift to each Orthodox Christian to aid in his struggle toward sanctification. They are a call to the parish to act together in struggling for the sanctification of the community. Just as we receive the feast together, so we struggle to prepare spiritually for it together, as one body, one community, with one heart and one mind.
It is notable that the holy fathers seldom speak about guilt, but speak so often about responsibility. Each Orthodox Christian has a direct responsibility to the community, and maintaining the canonical fasts with understanding and dedication is part of that responsibility - not only to the community but to ourselves. Just as we come together for the Divine Liturgy and unite our prayers in all the church services, so we are called upon to fast together. Our lenten effort, while following the rules given us by the Holy Spirit, should certainly focus on the healing of disputes, contentions and partisan mindedness in each parish. This effort should lead us to a greater sense of that unity and oneness of mind and heart to which God has called us. The Nativity lent is a perfect occasion for such a struggle, because we are preparing ourselves to celebrate the appearance of the King of Peace, Who comes into the world in order to "call into oneness those who before were divided" (Crowning Service of Marriage). In the words of Saint Basil the Great,
Those who live according to `community'[or, in common] eradicate in themselves the sin of the forefather Adam and renew the original goodness, because there would be neither division, nor strife, nor wars among men if sin had not cleaved nature asunder. They are exact imitators of the Saviour and His life in the flesh. For, just as the Saviour, after composing the group of disciples, made even Himself common for the Apostles, so with these....They rival the life of angels, for like them, they observe the community....In advance they seize on the goodness of the promised kingdom, in a well disposed life and communion, representing an exact imitation of the life and condition there. They clearly express in human life how many good things the Saviour's incarnation has obtained for them, because, according to the measure of their strength, they lead human nature, which has been cut up into a thousand pieces by sin, back into unity both with itself and with God. For this is the main point in the saving ekonomy in the flesh: to bring human nature into unity with itself and with the Saviour, having destroyed the evil cleavage, to renew the original unity, just as the best physician, by applying treatments, again binds together a body which has been broken in many places.
Indeed, there is no other way to defeat the power of Satan in our lives than by developing unselfish love both in ourselves and in our parish communities. Therefore, let the Nativity fast be a period of healing, a casting aside of selfishness, enmity, malice and every division among the brothers and sisters of each parish. Let it be a building up of unselfish love, a common spirit and a true sense of community, so that with one mind we may confess:
"The Peace of God, Christ is born. Truly He is born, Glorify Him!"
Forwarded by Rd. Constantine
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|Reader Constantine Wright IC|XC|
|Member of the Jerusalem Patriarchate -----|
|in Athens, Georgia NI|KA|
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| http://www.angelfire.com/zine/rocanews |
| http://constans_wright.tripod.com |
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