ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Concerning the holy blessing of all creation by the Church
Question
from the audience:
“Father, we noticed that the blessing of the harvest, the fruits,
the seeds, the farms, the grapes and the first produce, is a common
practice in the Orthodox Church, isn’t it?”
Answer
(by Fr. Savvas):
Well, we have to be careful. We should know WHY we do this. Yes, we
(the Church, here meaning the clergy) bless them all, indeed, but WHY
do we do that? Please, go ahead and read the words of the prayers of
these blessings, and you will understand.
For
example, on Holy Easter, when we read the prayer to bless (we
actually beg God to bless) “the cheese and eggs”, we do it
because on this special day it is the first time we eat cheese and
eggs after 50 days of fasting, and the priest blesses them. (This
counts only for those who fasted; the ones who didn’t were eating
cheese and eggs all the time through anyway). So, why does the priest
bless them? He does not bless them in a magical way (somehow ordering
God to obey, God forbid!), but actually offers
them to God as a thanksgiving and a glory to Him for all His
blessings to us. God blesses them all, and we get blessed and
sanctified by consuming them.
In
everything we do in Church there’s always a theology behind. And
this theology is the purification, the illumination and the
deification of man. Of course, we do not aim at appeasing God or
acting religious, to have a good crop, for example etc., but every
act within the Church is an act of communion with God. Everything
done within the Church is a manifestation of Christ.
However,
when we act as aforementioned, and we go to the priest to order him,
in a way, to read (bless) our Fanouropita, and the priest asks, “Why
do you do this, my child?” and we reply to him that we do it for
the good of it… can you please tell me where Christ is in all these
cases? Sadly, nowhere!
It
is, for instance, like when somebody goes to his Buddhist “priest”,
handing him out their produce (fruits etc.) and asks him to read them
words of blessing (so they think), in order to get a successful
harvest. They do not approach the whole matter out of love towards
God,
but towards themselves.
In their pursuit of happiness and joy, they do not hesitate to “use”
even God. This is not right. In all our deeds Christ must be
manifested and our love for God has to be our number one priority.
f. Savvas Agioreitis
To be continued...
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