Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feastday of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the feastday of Sts. Kosmas and Damian!

Today, in the Epistle reading from the Letter to the Galatians, we heard how the Apostle Paul defends the Orthodox teaching that man is saved through faith in Christ and not through the literal fulfillment of the Jewish law.

At the beginning of today’s reading, the Holy Apostle Paul several times repeats this main idea. Then he notes that a person who comes to believe that salvation is through Christ, but then once again begins to follow the law is as if declaring that he sinned in leaving the law. In such a situation, it follows that Christian faith is not capable of saving without the old law, and what is even worse than this, lead people away from the law, i. e. made them sinners. Paul quite explicitly expresses this idea with the following words: “But if we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin?” Of course, none of us and no Christian will agree that Christ and faith in Christ have lead people into sin. The following thought of the Apostle is that a person who rebuilds that which he himself has disassembled, is a transgressor, a madman. At the end of today’s reading, Paul explains with what resolve the law has to be abandoned and with what zeal faith in Christ must be adopted. One must be dead to the law, but also must be crucified with Christ so that Christ begins to live inside us and not we ourselves, that is we must fully give ourselves up to Christ.

Someone might come to the conclusion that our contemporary Orthodox Christian life in no ways corresponds to the ideas expressed today by the Holy Apostle Paul. We have a strict moral law: live chastely, honour your parents, be obedient to your superiors, don’t cheat, etc. We also have rules that apply to our church ritualistic life: keep the fast, come to church weekly, confess, receive Communion, bury your dead in the ground, etc. Could it be that we, while striving to live according to the traditions of the Orthodox Church, violate the teaching of the Apostle Paul?

St. Theophan the recluse notes that all the ancient exegetes make a division between moral laws and the Old Testament ritualistic rules. Although the Jewish law naturally contains injunctions of a moral character, they are not unique to the Jewish nation, but are, on the contrary, common to all. Even in our morally corrupt times, few people will argue that the Ten Commandments are not commendable. Therefore we must emphasize that we Christians, although free from the rituals of the Jewish law, are compelled – not by the law, but by our own conscience – to live a morally upright life. This in no way tramples our freedom in Christ.

Our Orthodox rituals also are not a violation of that teaching about which we heard today, for we in no way hold that any ritual will save us. No, we firmly trust that our rituals are a visible sign of that which is happening in our souls. A candle is a visible sign of our flaming prayer. Prayer in church is a sign of our unity, membership in one Christian family. The Mystery of Confession is a visible act that confirms that the Lord has forgiven our sins after our heartfelt repentance. The communing of the Holy Mysteries is the most real union with God, in both the spiritual and physical sense, as well as a foretaste of that which we hope to inherit after death. The burial of the dead in the ground is an image of our firm faith that man will resurrect at the end of time and that his soul will return into his body. Therefore we could say that our rituals don’t enslave us, but on the contrary, reflect our real and living faith that we are saved solely by Christ. Of course if we participate in our mysteries and rituals only in a formal manner, hoping that these ritual motions, or our participation in certain ceremony will save us, without a corresponding change in our spiritual state, we are no better that the first century Judaizing heretics.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, let’s remember that we should strive to free ourselves from our old habits, passions, and sins that enslave us like a heavy burden. Let’s take possession of that freedom about which we read today. Let’s embellish our freedom with an upright life and make our Christian ceremonies, rubrics, rituals, and mysteries serve as reflections of our souls, pure, enlightened, and free in Christ.

priest Alexis