Holy Relics, Tombs and Martyrdom sites of Saints

What is our Church???

When we talk about our church what do we do? we either talk about our denomination, or congregation or about the church building. When someone asks us about the Church, the first though that comes to the mind of each one of us is the image of our church building. We think of the church as the building, We describe the building, the size and beauty of our church, about it being small or big, or about the absence of a proper church or a place to worship. We are so accustomed to it that we refer to the building as 'The Church'.

Yes, A Church is the place where we believers congregate to Worship in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we forget that Jesus is our Church, we forget that each one of us is a Church, each one of us is a temple of God. St. Paul refers to the church as a Religious organization, A  Living Body, composed of living organisms just like individual cells making up a living body with each having its own purpose yet are one in essence. Each cell corresponds to living people having individual purposes yet sharing a common motive and direction.
An analogy of this would be The Holy Bible which is a collection of several books written over a period of several centuries and generations yet we consider The Holy Bible as one single book, because though it is a collection of books, these books are inspired by God and written in Holy Spirit so the Bible is actually God speaking (2 Timothy 3:16). Most authors of the different books of the Bible did not know each other, yet the accuracy and consistency is miraculous, thereby connecting each other in a common motive and direction by the Word of God.

Let us have a better look:

The Church is the People of God

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St.Paul uses the word Church 60 times in describing the community of faith planned by the Father, founded by Christ and manifested and sustained by the Holy Spirit. He was well aware of the Jewish meaning of the term church and how it applied to the faith of Israel. 'ekklesia' in Greek - is a translation of the Hebrew 'qahal' which means an assembly of people called into existence by God. It indicates the fact that Church is the assembly of those who responded to the call from God or to the good news. In other words it is a community called out by God from the world for a purpose. The early Christians thought of themselves as sinners, as humble servants yet also as the children of God and specially chosen ones for the work of God.

The Church is The Bride of Christ
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St. Paul uses the image of the marital bond between husband and wife to portray the mystery of the deep communion between Christ and his bride the church. This image gives us a vision of the ultimate oneness between Christ and his Church. Christ is preparing the bride for the final presentation at the wedding.
In the New Testament, Christ, the Bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen the church to be His bride (Ephesians 5:25-27). Just as there was a betrothal period in biblical times during which the bride and groom were separated until the wedding, so is the bride of Christ separate from her Bridegroom during the church age. Her responsibility during the betrothal period is to be faithful to Him (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:24). At the Second Coming of Christ, the church will be united with the Bridegroom, the official "wedding ceremony" will take place and, with it, the eternal union of Christ and His bride will be actualized (Revelation 19:7-9; 21:1-2).

Church is The Body of Christ, Church is Christ Himself

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The head Christ and the members of the body belong together. We may not say, I love Christ but I do not need the Church. St. Paul would respond immediately, "We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually parts of one another." (Romans 12:5).
Those who want a Christ spirituality or personally without the Church miss the purpose of Jesus.  "God gave Christ as head over all things to the church, which is his body." (Ephesians 1:22-23)  To want the head without the body is to contradict Christ’s purpose for us.  Nowhere in the Bible is it said that we can be saved or attain salvation by accepting Jesus into our hearts, but by being baptized and reborn in Holy Spirit, by being incorporated into Christ through the Church. We are being incorporated into Christ through the Holy Sacraments, by institutionally, socially and locally professing Christ, by visibly and audibly confessing his lordship.

The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit
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Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:9-22)
The image of temple is fulfilled by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Church: the Church is the "House of God", the place of his presence, where we can find and meet the Lord. The Church is the Temple where the Holy Spirit dwells, who animates, guides and sustains it. If we ask ourselves: where can we meet God? Where we can enter into communion with him through Christ? Where can we find the light of the holy spirit that lights up our lives? The answer is: in the People of God, among us, who are the Church. Here we will find Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father.

Similarly there are many more poetic images and metaphors associated with the church through out the Bible and the liturgical texts.

In Ephesians 2:19-22 St.Paul mentions "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;  in whom you (the living stones) also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God." 

I do not wish to get into Ecclesiology, but I wish to assert again that we are all part of the body of Christ. Hence, we all have to persevere for the same, i.e., to be a part of The One Holy Universal Church of Christ, which is the only  Church recognized in the New Testament; Holy, Indivisible & Apostolic; both the visible and the invisible being in one body that is nourished from one Head, Jesus Christ. As for the minor imperfections that some might see, we attribute it to the human condition: the imperfections of mankind. The Church is lead by humanity in all its imperfection; yet, that in no way imbues the reality of The Church’s Divine nature, regardless of its human leadership. As for the religious organizations outside The Church, they have ‘no’ foundation; just a smattering of truth. If someone is outside The Church, we welcome them to investigate the Way to the fullness of the Faith.

The Church will have its problems and shortcomings which needs to be addressed, just like the ones mentioned in the Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians. Without any doubt the mystery of our religion is great (1 Timothy 2:16) which even the Apostles of our Lord endeavored with love and pain through out their life to understand and yet couldn't apprehend completely, so who are we to claim the understanding of the divine and create fissures claiming to know the same...?

“For it is really better for us not to know a thing, because [God] has not revealed it to us, than to know it according to man’s wisdom, because he has been bold enough to assume it.”

― Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul

 

“We seek and we pray for our return to that time when, being united, we spoke the same things and there was no schism between us.”

– St. Mark of Ephesus

"NO GOD NO PEACE
KNOW GOD KNOW PEACE"

Christ is peace, he came as messenger of peace so that we may have peace (John 14:27, 16:33,1 Corinthians 14:33),  since we don't have Christ amongst us, we don't have peace amongst today. So in that sense those who create feuds, fissures, disruptions, spread anguish and hatred amongst men in the name of God or for the 'sake of the Church' surely cannot be men of God, for Christ taught us only to love sincerely and serve diligently renouncing worldly things, distancing ourselves from the materialistic, he called us to suffer like him, to carry our crosses and not to create suffering or pain for others. Hence we must beseech and seek earnestly for Christ's peace among us. Beseech that we, the church, may be incorporated with him and with each other in all its true essence.
 

We, the church, are God's Temple, Christ's bride and body, and the Holy Spirit's temple. We are His because God made Himself ours. These images picture that glorious mystery of God's love for His people and the opportunity He has given for us to live and function in intimate fellowship with Him and with each other, now and for ever more. Amen.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.  (Colossians 3:15)

Simon Of Cyrene, Cross Bearer - The Chosen one.

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'" (Matthew 16:24)


1. (Matthew 27:31-32) - "And after they had mocked Him, they took His robe off and put His garments on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. 32And as they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross."
2. (Mark 15:20-21) - "And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on Him. And they *led Him out to crucify Him. 21And they pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross."
   
3. (Luke 23:26) - "And when they led Him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus."

This incident of Simon carrying Jesus’ cross to Golgotha is described with only one verse each in all three Gospels that mention it (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). It is briefly and almost incidentally related, but how full of pathos and essence it is!

Simon carrying this cross reminds us anew that Jesus gives His glory to

A Skeptic's lookout of Atheism

The Definition  :Atheism - The Religious Belief in a Spontaneous, Causeless, Sourceless, Purposeless, Meaningless, Existence.

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“Try imagine nothing exists. There is no sun, no moon, no stars, and no galaxies. There are no elements such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, or oxygen. There are no such things as time, space, matter or energy. There is no universe, no God, nothing.  

“If there ever was a time when nothing existed, then nothing would exist now. Therefore something must be eternal.  You only have two choices: either God is eternal and uncreated, or matter is eternal and uncreated. There is no third option. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provided a basis for proof that time; space and matter had a definite beginning. That leaves us with our only other option.”

— ' Where Did God Come From?' By Philip DelRe

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Persecution For The Sake of Christ

Reality of Over a 100 Million Christians Martyred for Faith

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution
[2 Timothy 3:12]

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
[Gospel According to St. John 15:20]


Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
[2 Corinthians 4:9]

Jesus Christ was persecuted and so were the Apostles persecuted and martyred (except St.John, tradition relates that he was by order of Emperor Dometian cast into boiling oil but came forth unhurt and was banished to the island of Pathmos for a year. He died at an extreme old age, at Ephesus around 100 AD). The persecution of Christians was mentioned in the Holy Bible and it has continued to even this day and will be continuing till the last days. It is more so in the case of earnest Christians, persecution and martyrdom are inseparable from Orthodox experience.