CHRISTMAS
EPISTLE
+AKAKIJE
By the Mercy of
God
True Orthodox
Bishop of Resava and Shumadiya
(SERBIAN TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH)
To All the
Faithful Children of St. Sava’s Church,
By the mercy of
God, one more joyous and comforting feast of the descent of God the Word to
earth, that is, of His most wondrous birth by the Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary,
has arrived. For our sake and our salvation, Christ was born, took flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we on earth beheld His glory, as the Only-Begotten Son of
God, full of grace and truth. All God’s creation rejoices today and hastens to
worship the King Who has been born, their Creator: Angels offer their singing,
the sky – a star, the Magi – gifts, the shepherds – pious delight, the earth –
a cave, the wilderness – the manger, and the race of man – the Virgin
Mother. And we True Orthodox offer God
the preservation of the True Faith given to us by our fathers, at the head of
whom is Saint Sava, and a sacrifice of thanksgiving – the fruit of lips who
glorify His name.
God came to save
His creation from evil and destruction. Christ the Savior came down to Earth,
as He said Himself, to witness to the Truth (Jn. 18:37) only by which it is possible to win salvation. All His faithful
followers, and even more the pastors of the Church, are obliged to follow His
example, to witness to the Truth, not allowing any falsehood, either in words
or in deeds. Today we celebrate the Incarnation of Truth, as Christ Himself is
Truth. We celebrate the birth of the Founder of the Church, which is the only
and irreplaceable instrument of the salvation of mankind. Along with this, the
Church is a treasury of divine truth; She is, according to the Holy Apostle
Paul, the pillar and ground of the Truth. She is overflowing with divine truth,
and everything in Her is only truth, and truth is one, as is the ONE, Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic Church. There are not many truths, nor do many churches
exist outside the bounds of the truth of Holy Orthodoxy. The Orthodox Church is
one, but within the confines of Orthodoxy, She is at the same time “many”
(Local Churches).
In Orthodoxy,
that is what is most important, that it confesses the only True Faith, that
which God revealed, which was not invented by people making guesses about God
and faith, but rather that which was brought from Heaven to Earth by the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, God’s Logos, Power, and Wisdom. This is
the essential dogma of the Orthodox Church of Christ, especially today, when
“Orthodox” Ecumenists recognize grace outside the borders of the Orthodox
Church. We must humble ourselves before this explicit teaching of the Church,
that outside of Christ’s Truth there is no salvation. The Orthodox Church is the indestructible keeper of the truth, and those
who are outside of it (heretics), as St. Cyprian of Carthage says, could be
saved only in the case that some were saved who were outside Noah’s ark.
In our
unfortunate and confusing times of the apostasy of the pan-heresy of ecumenism,
a life-or-death battle is being waged between light and darkness, truth and
falsehood. In the beginning of the 20th century a great division
appeared (similar to that in the 11th century), which one can now
say is fully accomplished: the so-called “World” or Sergianist,
New-Calendarist, Ecumenist “Orthodoxy,” separated itself from the Orthodox
Church – it lost its bond with the Church of the Holy Fathers, the Holy
Ecumenical Councils, and Holy Tradition. The foundation of the “World Orthodox”
consists of a hierarchy which has apostatized from Christ, and which drags with
itself people who consider themselves Orthodox, but who do not know what
Orthodoxy is in fact. For those people who substitute mere appearances and some
kind of Eastern-flavored Papism or Protestantism for the patristic teachings
about the Church, a bishop’s significance boils down mainly to the function of
church administrator, or to the role of some kind of authority without backing,
i.e., a bishop who is not a link in the unbreakable chain of patristic
catholicity. He can be a heretic, or in communion with heretics, yet not fall
under the judgment of the canons because of his heterodoxy. For such people,
the fullness of the church is in a bishop if he is: “official,” if the mighty institution of the state church
stands behind him, and his seat is in some ancient monastery or cathedral.
According to the patristic teaching, however, as expressed by St. Maximus the
Confessor, the Church is comprised of “a genuine and salvific confession of
faith,” and therefore, of every man who is a bearer of that faith. Still, it is
true, that without a right believing bishop, there is no fullness of the
church; so, as long as the church on earth exists, there will exist Orthodox
bishops. God promised that the gates of
hell will never prevail against His Church, meaning solely that the true Church
of Christ will not disappear from the face of the earth until the very end of
this age, at the second coming of Christ; but this does not exclude the
appearance of a false church in Christian society, the church of the wicked,
which bears only the exterior marks of the Church, but is devoid of Her spirit.
The true Church of Christ will be preserved on Earth, even if She has only one
bishop with only a few priests and believers.
The True
Orthodox Church separated from the Apostasy, staunchly holding fast to the
Orthodox teachings about Bishop and Church, as part of Holy Tradition. We wish
to be faithful children of the Holy Fathers, the teachers of Orthodoxy, and to
live in the very same Church in which live the Holy Apostles, prophets, martyrs
and all saints: that is why we will not go with the apostate “Orthodoxy” of
this world which arrogantly tramples the Church teachings and mocks the saints,
who spilled their blood and gave their lives defending the stronghold of the
Faith. We will not go with so-called “patriarchates” with their hierarchy and
“spiritual elders” who emulate them, with their lost pastors and flock, because
we have been taught by the saints that there are two paths: the way of life and
the way of death; the way of light and the way of darkness; the way of the holy
fathers and the way of apostates and heretics, persecutors and haters of the
truth and lovers of lies. The way of Truth is the way of Golgotha, the narrow,
thorny path which is taken by the minority, just as in ancient times a minority
of people recognized and venerated the Divine Child Who was born in Bethlehem.
More than that, for Him, there was no room in people’s homes, and when the
shepherds who heard the singing of angels came to see the One Who was glorified
by Heaven, they found a child lying in a manger, just as the divinely-inspired
Prophet Habbakuk prophesied long ago: “O Lord, I have heard Thy word and was
afraid; between two living creatures will I recognize Thee.” Between two
animals lay the Heavenly King Who had come to save the world, for people had
abandoned Him completely. As the One born of the Most-Blameless was persecuted,
so in the same way His blameless Bride, the Holy Church, is persecuted.
The battle which
began in Bethlehem between the One Who brings heavenly peace to earth and the
terrestrial and sub-terrestrial forces of evil has been conducted without
ceasing and grows ever fiercer. Today we
especially feel this division which was proclaimed by the One Whose glory today
angels sing – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among
men.” As then it pleased the Incarnate Almighty to lie in a manger, so today
the Lamb of God lies on the modest altars in the little nest of the Serbian
True Orthodox Church. He is not in the sumptuous basilicas, sky-high
sanctuaries, cathedrals, in ancient, glorious memorials and churches adorned
with precious artistic treasures, gold, wealth, and ancient relics, which are
ruled by apostates from Holy Tradition and the Orthodox Faith, whether from the
East or West, because God does not abide where there is no truth, or where
truth is mixed with lies. Let us go, faithful children of St. Sava, to the cave
of Bethlehem hidden from this world, which our sanctuaries represent, for the
God-Child Christ, born of the Virgin, does not lie there in appearance only,
but in truth. Let us worship Him, removing ourselves from evil and doing good.
Let us offer Him as a gift repentance for our sins, confessing them, and taste
His Most Pure Body and Blood. Let us fall before Him in fear, humility, and
joy, for the radiant star of Bethlehem has shown forth! “Glory to God in the
highest, and on the earth, peace, good will among men.”
May the peace of
God be with you! Christ is born!
A very happy and
blessed year of 2012!
+Bishop Akakije
Nativity 2011
Нема коментара:
Постави коментар