ΑΦΙΕΡΩΜΕΝΟ ΣΤΟΝ ΚΥΡΙΟ ΜΑΣ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΥΠΕΡΑΓΙΑ ΘΕΟΤΟΚΟ
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Πέμπτη 18 Δεκεμβρίου 2014
On the only Peace and the Peacemaker. Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
HOMILY on the only Peace and the Peacemaker
For He is our peace, Who hath made both one (Ephesians 2:14).
Between the Israelites and the pagans there lay a wide abyss that no mortal could bridge, or fill in and level off. The Lord Jesus Christ alone was the one who could do that, and He did it.
That which had been estranged, He brought closer and joined. By what?
By His Blood. By His sacrifice, He replaced all other sacrifices. By
this, He redeemed all of nature and by Himself replaced that which men
brought and offered to God (or, to the gods) as sacrifice. One sacrifice
is sufficient both for the Israelites and for the pagans: the sacrifice
of Christ. Furthermore, the blood of animals separated the Israelites
and the pagans-by the places where they were offered, by the divinity to
whom they were offered, by the kind of animal that was offered and the
manner in which it was offered. Now, Christ’s Most-pure Blood has come
in place of all that blood, and His Blood unites and makes brothers of
the Israelites and the pagans. They became blood brothers, even as all
of us faithful are blood-brothers-because of the Blood of Christ, by
which we are redeemed from the curse, and by which we are now fed.He destroyed the middle wall of partition (Ephesians 2:14)
that divided and separated, and He joined the hands and the hearts of
the Israelites and the pagans. By what? By His Body. That is, by the
living truth, by the truth incarnate in Himself. The shadow of the Law
had replaced truth for the Israelites, and fables had replaced truth for
the pagans. He removed both of them and revealed the living truth in
His Body, and the world saw and rejoiced.
O Lord Jesus Christ, our most blessed Redeemer, unite the hearts of us, Thy faithful.
To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič for Old Calendar date November 10, and New Calendar date November 23.
Between the Israelites and the pagans there lay a wide abyss that no mortal could bridge, or fill in and level off. The Lord Jesus Christ alone was the one who could do that, and He did it.
That which had been estranged, He brought closer and joined. By what?
By His Blood. By His sacrifice, He replaced all other sacrifices. By
this, He redeemed all of nature and by Himself replaced that which men
brought and offered to God (or, to the gods) as sacrifice. One sacrifice
is sufficient both for the Israelites and for the pagans: the sacrifice
of Christ. Furthermore, the blood of animals separated the Israelites
and the pagans-by the places where they were offered, by the divinity to
whom they were offered, by the kind of animal that was offered and the
manner in which it was offered. Now, Christ’s Most-pure Blood has come
in place of all that blood, and His Blood unites and makes brothers of
the Israelites and the pagans. They became blood brothers, even as all
of us faithful are blood-brothers-because of the Blood of Christ, by
which we are redeemed from the curse, and by which we are now fed. He destroyed the middle wall of partition (Ephesians 2:14)
that divided and separated, and He joined the hands and the hearts of
the Israelites and the pagans. By what? By His Body. That is, by the
living truth, by the truth incarnate in Himself. The shadow of the Law
had replaced truth for the Israelites, and fables had replaced truth for
the pagans. He removed both of them and revealed the living truth in
His Body, and the world saw and rejoiced.
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