THE MIND OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH   1  ·   2  ·   3  ·   4  ·   5     6     7  ·   8  ·   9   © Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos The catholic way of life The fall and restoration of man Making salvation one's own The catholic way of life Theologians and non-theologians Neptic and social theology Action (praxis) and theoria (vision of God) Mystical and ascetic life Apophatic (negative) and cataphatic (positive) theology Monks and married people Monasteries and Parishes Monks and missionaries Clergy and laymen     [ BACK ] VI. The catholic way of life

One of the characteristics of the Church, as is confessed in the Creed, is catholicity. We confess that the Church is "catholic".

The catholicity of the Church has three particular meanings. One is that it extends over the whole world. St. Kyril of Jerusalem confesses: "It is called catholic because it exists diffused throughout world". The second is that the Church has the fullness of truth and helps the person who is its member to share in the whole fullness of the truth, to experience the whole truth. The Church has lived the truth since the day of Pentecost. Since Pentecost the Church has not increased in truth, but the faithful participate and progress personally in Pentecost and in the experience of the Revelation. Pentecost is the highest degree of divine Revelation. Through the ages we have the expression of the truth in various terms in order to confront the heretics. Thus a catholic man is one who recognises the truth (Orthodox) and lives the truth (righteous). And the third meaning is that the Church is called Catholic because it has a life which is common to all its members. In the Church there are no privileged and unprivileged members. The ministries and gifts differ, but all are able to apply Christ's commandments and all have the ability to attain the experience of Pentecost. The Apostle Paul declares: "as many of you as were baptised in Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3, 27-28).

In what follows we shall study chiefly this third case. We shall look into the fact that the life which exists in the Church can be experienced by all its members, that there is one catholic way of life, there are no splittings in the Church, nor various categories of people who have different tasks and obligations. Moreover, each person is created by God in His image and likeness. And if we think that the likeness in the theology of the holy Fathers is essentially identical with deification, then we can infer that every person, and especially every member of the Church, has the possibility of attaining deification.

I think that it is well for us to begin the subject by studying the fall of man and his resurrection which took place in Christ. This is very important, because in this way we shall be able to look more broadly at our subject, the catholic way of life. It is important also because the subject of the fall and resurrection is the basis of soteriology. If we do not examine it scientifically, we shall never be able to understand and live the life which the Church has. I ought to mention that the question of what is the fall of man has been analysed in other books of mine, and I do not want to repeat it. I shall merely emphasise a few points. The reader can find an extensive analysis in my book "Orthodox Psychotherapy", and in "Time to act", in the chapter "Traditional Catechism".

We usually think of the fall in juridical terms, in meaning which have been taken from the law courts. We consider that Adam's sin was simply a transgression of a law, an external one, and that this transgression created great guilt in man, with the result that this guilt has been inherited in Adam's descendants.

But this view of sin is not orthodox. In Orthodoxy we regard sin as an illness of man. Man fell ill and this illness had an effect on the whole human race. St. Kyril of Alexandria uses the image of the plant. When the root of the plant has become ill, then the branches also fall ill. We can interpret Adam's sin in this way as well.

St. Maximos, speaking of the fall of man and his restoration, puts them on a theological basis. He says that at the creation of the world and of man there were five divisions. The division between uncreated and created, noetic and tangible, Heaven and earth, Paradise and world, male and female. Adam, by the grace of God, but also by his personal struggle, an expression of his freedom, would have to overcome these divisions and reach communion and unity with the uncreated. To be sure, this last division, that between created and uncreated, could not be abolished, but the created would attain unity with the uncreated. Moreover, in the Church we say that there is no division between physical and metaphysical things, as philosophy claimed, but between created and uncreated. And further, we accept that the uncreated enters into the created, and thus man himself, as St. Maximos the Confessor says, also becomes uncreated by grace. Adam failed to transcend these divisions. And not only did he fail to transcend the division which we mentioned, but he also lost the purity which existed between the two sexes, with the result that decay and mortality entered into nature, that he wore the coats of skin of decay and mortality. Therefore now man's way of conception, gestation, birth, etc. , is a result of the fall, it is what the Fathers called coats of skin, which he wore after the fall.

The transcending of the five divisions took place in Christ. By His incarnation, by His birth from a Virgin, by the union of divine and human nature, he united the uncreated with the created, the heavenly with the earth, the noetic with the sensible, Paradise with the world, and he even transcended the division between male and female. Thus man's restoration was successful and every person was given the possibility that in Christ he too could transcend all the divisions and achieve his salvation.

If we want to look more concretely at the matter of the fall we will say that, as St. John of Damaskos teaches, the fall in reality is darkness of the image, loss of the divine life and putting on the coats of skin. The darkness of the image is nothing else but the darkening of the nous. The nous was darkened and could not have communion and unity with God. Of course it must be said that according to the anthropology of the Fathers, man's soul is rational and noetic. This means that man has two centres of functioning. One is the reasoning mind, which is connected with his nervous system, and the other his nous, which is connected with his heart. Adam's fall, then, is the darkening of his nous, the loss of its noetic function, confusion of the nous with the functions of reason and its enslavement to the passions and to the environment. Instead of moving according to nature and above nature, instead of moving towards God and being mindful of God, man's nous is turned towards the created things and the passions. That is why in the Church we speak of repentance, which is not simply a change in the head, as some theologians say, but a change of the nous. The nous must break away from the created and the passions and turn towards God.

A result of the darkening of his noetic energy is that man's relationship with God and his fellow man is upset. Because of his darkened nous, man does not find meaning in life, he turns his attention to the external things, with the result that he comes to blows with men, he has no inner peace. This is analysed in a wonderful way by St. Gregory Palamas. Fallen man uses God to safeguard his individual security and regards his neighbour as an object for predatory exploitation. He cannot have selfless love, because all his expressions and all his love contain the element of self-seeking, which is to say that man is characterised by self-seeking love. So the darkening of the nous has drastic social consequences. Sociology cannot be regarded as independent of theology.

In this sense we can speak of inheritance of sin and of the ancestral sin, which man inherits at birth. In this sense too we can speak of the catholicity of the fall of man.

What Adam failed to do, Christ, who is called the new Adam, succeeded in doing. By His incarnation Christ deified human nature and became the strongest medicine for men, in the sense that He gave every man the possibility of achieving his deification. In this light we can interpret the phrase from the troparion that Christ raised up "Adam with the whole human race".

At this point I would like to look at two passages in St. John of Damaskos which will help us to understand in some way the mystery of the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. It must of course be emphasised that this too is a subject not of rational understanding but of spiritual experience, yet we can say something about the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son and Word of God.

St. John of Damaskos, repeating a passage from St. Gregory the Theologian whom he calls his spiritual father, says that Christ took on the whole human nature, because what is not assumed is not cured. St. John of Damaskos goes on to say that the ruling centre of the soul and the flesh is the nous, which is the purest part of the soul, but also that the ruling centre of the nous is God Himself. When God acts, then the nous manifests its own authority, and then "it is under the control of the stronger and follows it, doing those things which the divine will desires". The Son and Word of God has united with the flesh "by means of the nous", which is midway between the purity of God and the grossness of the flesh. So the nous became the place of its personal union with divinity. The saint writes characteristically: "The nous becomes the seat of the Divinity which has been hypostatically united to it". This has great importance, because it shows that man's salvation begins and works in the nous and then extends to the whole body. Thus we understand the great importance of the neptic tradition of our Church.

The other point from the teaching of St. John of Damaskos which is useful to us here is that by His incarnation the Word of God did not assume the human nature "that is understood in pure theory", that is to say, he did not assume a simple nature, that which is seen externally, because then it would not have been incarnation, but an illusion and fiction of incarnation. Also He did not assume this nature "regarded as a species", but that which is seen in the individual, which at the same time belongs also to the species, because Christ assumed the whole mixture of what was our own from the beginning. This is important because, as St. John of Damaskos again says, human nature rose from the dead and sat at the right hand of the Father "not implying that all human persons arose and sat at the right hand of the Father, but that our entire nature did so in the Person of Christ". That is to say that human nature has been deified in the person of the Logos. So human nature has been deified in the hypostasis of the Logos, but our own human hypostases must be deified as well.

Therefore the catholicity of Adam's fall has the meaning of the illness of human nature and the catholicity of the resurrection through the New Adam, Christ, it again has the meaning of the cure. Christ cured human nature, He Himself became the strongest medicine towards the cure, and he gives every man the possibility of being cured. Thus we can maintain that Christ is both the physician and the medicine, man's cure and his health.

From what we have said it is seen that all men have the possibility of being deified. There are no privileged categories that can travel towards deification. The cure and deification of man is achieved, on the one hand, by the sacramental life, and on the other hand, by the ascetic life which we live in the Church.

I would like to emphasise this fact particularly. All the holy Fathers teach that man's salvation is a combination of sacraments and asceticism. We cannot understand the sacraments without asceticism in Christ, and we cannot live a real ascetic life without the sacraments of the Church. Moreover, the whole life in the Church is an experience of a great mystery. Asceticism is in reality experience of the commandments of Christ which is attained by partaking in the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God. Insofar as anyone experiences the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God, he is experiencing rightly the sacramental life.

I say this because in our time a great deal is being said about the sacramental life, the eucharistiological life is being much emphasised. This is very good. But, unfortunately, the ascetic tradition of the Church is being overlooked. St. Gregory Palamas, as well as all the other Fathers, was a catholic theologian, and therefore he made a parallel struggle against the Massalians who overemphasised the hesychastic life at the expense of the sacraments, and against Barlaam, who overemphasised the sacramental life at the expense of the hesychastic life. This is essential to be emphasised.

The beginning of our experience of salvation is achieved by holy Baptism, which is also called an introductory sacrament, because it introduces us to the life of the Church, which is life in Christ at the same time. But in the early Church Baptism was preceded by purification. The exorcisms also have this meaning.

Apart from others who refer to other books on this subject, here I must emphasise that the Fathers of the Local Synod in Antioch specify that the country bishops should not ordain Priests and Deacons without the permission of the Bishop of the city, but only to appoint "Readers, Subdeacons and Exorcists". And St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, interpreting what the exorcists are, says that they are the catechists. He writes characteristically: "The name of exorcists is given to the catechists of those faithless or heretics who are coming into the faith, because in catechising them, they exorcise the evil spirits dwelling in them, in the name of the Lord, that they should leave them, and this is evident, sometimes from those sons of the Evil spirit who called the name of the Lord into the demonised, saying to the demons, we exorcise you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul proclaimed (Acts 19,12); sometimes also from the exorcisms where the Priest reads to those who are about to be baptised".

So it seems that the Catechumens go through the stage of purification and the Catechists were the exorcists who had the special blessing of the Church to do this work. Through catechesis the catechumens passed the stage of purification, when by holy Baptisms and by Chrismation they experienced the illuminating energy of God, discovered their nous, their noetic energy moved naturally and supranaturally, and for this reason Baptism is called illumination.

If we study the New Testament carefully, especially the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, we shall we convinced that really it is speaking about purification, illumination and deification. Some passages refer to the stage of purification, some to the stage of illumination and others to the stage of deification. I do not choose to make an analysis of this point here. I only wish to underline that the things said about purification, illumination and deification are not an influence from ancient Greek philosophy, but an experience of the Christians, which can be discovered also in the texts of Holy Scripture.

At all events it is a fact that all people have the possibility of attaining deification, provided that all are catechised members of the Church and then baptised and anointed and have the possibility of Holy Communion. Hence, in the Church there is one common way of life, relatively speaking, of course.

With Baptism and Chrismation a new life begins. But this life must be continued and increased. This new life is expressed and energised by three basic factors: by applying the commandments of Christ, by divine Communion and by prayer.

The commandments of Christ are mentioned at all the points on man's journey towards deification. We have been accustomed to regarding the commandments as legalistic orders, to which we must adapt our life. Without excluding even one such means of adapting, we emphasise that God's commandments are medicines to help us to be cured in our souls. St. Dionysios the Areopagite says that our union with God is achieved "only by love and holy work". And of course Christ's commandments refer to many topics, such as to the divine Liturgy. The celebration of the Divine Liturgy is an application of Christ's commandment: "this do in remembrance of me. . . ".

Still, the divine Communion leads a person to deification. Of course we must add that divine Communion deifies man when he is in this state. Otherwise it illuminates him, purifies him, while if he has not repented and has not entered the stage of purification, it burns him up, condemns him. This is why Nikolas Kavasilas, interpreting the Apostle Paul's "if someone does not want to work, let him not eat", says that this is true not only for material bread, but also for the spiritual bread. He who does not wish to work and to practise asceticism spiritually should not approach the Holy Table and receive Holy Communion.

But also prayer, especially that which is called noetic prayer, is that which expresses the new life which man attains through Baptism and helps him to increase it, because according to the teaching of the holy Fathers, there is no limit and boundary to perfection and virtue. The passage of the Apostle Paul "be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5, 18-19) refers to noetic prayer, which goes on in the heart with hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, by the energy of the Holy Spirit. The connection of prayer with the Holy Spirit and with the heart indicates the existence of noetic prayer which goes on unceasingly, and therefore we have the commandment to pray without ceasing.

All that has been said indicates that the Christian who is baptised in the Name of the Trinitarian God should live the new life as a result, and this is achieved through applying the commandments of Christ, through holy Communion and through prayer. But these things refer to all people. All people should be directed towards this aim. There are no people who by nature cannot do the will of God, by nature cannot pray. If there were, God would not be so hard as to demand the same things from all. St. John Chrysostom, speaking of the raising of children, and having in mind parents who did not advise their children to do the whole will of God, on the excuse that this applies to monks, said characteristically: From the very first "Bring him up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord". And immediately he added: "Never say, this is the business of monks. Am I making a monk of him? No. There is no need for him to become a monk. Why be so afraid of a thing so replete with so much advantage? Make him a Christian". The keeping of Christ's commandments does not refer only to monks, but to the Christian in general. Our Christian quality, if we can express it that way, entails the keeping of Christ's commandments.

Thus the Christian's way of life is catholic. All the Christians must have a common ethos. The aim of Christ's commandments and the holy Canons of the Church is for Christians to attain this common ethos, this uniform life.

To be sure, I must also emphasise for us to keep in view about the things said further on, that while all of us can keep the commandments of God and have the aim of deification, there are different degrees, but also different ways. The path is the same, but the way varies according to the way in which each person lives. We can understand this from the Parable of the talents. Some received five talents, some two, some one. But all can prove to be proportionally good administrators and good stewards of divine grace, and all can hear the "Well done, thou good and faithful servant". The quantity of talents differs, but the same word of blessing will be heard. So there is a variety of gifts, proportional to people's way of life and spiritual maturity. The fact is that there is a common life and all have to tread the same path of salvation.

But unfortunately, since we are fragmentary and, what is worse, since we want to remain fragmentary and on low levels of spiritual life because they suit us, we create fragments and divisions in the spiritual life.

In what follows I would like us to look at a few such divisions which we create in our thought and life.

We divide people into theologians and non-theologians. We consider that theologians are those who possess some intellectual knowledge, and we think that theology is a speciality of some people who are studying scientifically the history of the Church. Without excluding the possibility that this too may be one distinction between students and teachers, we must say that theology is chiefly life, experience, and that theologians, according to the teaching of the Church, are essentially those who see God.

St. Gregory the Theologian says that theologians are "those who have been examined and are passed masters in the vision of God", which is to say those who have been tested and purified and, as a result, reached deification. Likewise, according to St. Neilos, a theologian is one who prays. Therefore theologians are those who experience the purifying, especially the illuminating and deifying energy of God.

Thus one person can have completed theological school, taught theology, and yet not know experientially what theology is. And another person can be mentally illiterate, but have developed his noetic energy to the extreme, and be a real theologian. On the Holy Mountain one can meet such people, who are aale to interpret and analyse the teaching of the holy Fathers of the Church.

We divide theology into neptic and social, and we regard some Fathers as belonging to the first and others as belonging to the second category. But in the teaching of the holy Fathers this division is not seen. To be sure, outwaradly, from the way in which each one has worked, a division can be seen between the neptics and socials, because some Fathers had a particular flock and did their work there, and others were in the desert, praying constantly. Even from this aspect, however, there cannot be a perfect division, because even the Fathers who worked pastorally lived neptically, and the hermits worked in a missionary way, in the sense that they were magnets for many men who approached them to learn ""words" of salvation. Thus the hermits indirectly did pastoral work.

Beyond this, the teaching of the saints is not divided into social and neptic. When the Fathers speak of social topics, they look at them within the true theology of the Church, which is ascetic. And when they speak of neptic topics, they do it in order for people to be able to be purified and then to attain real communion with God and men. Besides, we know very well that in the Church the theologians do shepherding and the pastors do their work theologically.

We are accustomed to seeing the Three Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Chrysostom as social Fathers. But this does not correspond with reality, because the Three Hierarchs in their writings also explain the whole neptic teaching of the Church.

The fact that there is a close link between nepsis and communion, between neptic and social Fathers, and that the holy Fathers shepherd their flocks theologically is seen from the homilies written by St. Gregory Palamas to his flock in Thessaloniki. Anyone who reads these homilies will discover that shepherding is theology and theology is truly a fruit of the knowledge of God, but also a path for man to reach deification.

A result of the foregoing is that we usually make a distinction between action and theoria, as well as between practical and theoretical people. This distinction is made because the western distinction of action and contemplation has influenced us.

In the West according to Mesaiona, they speak of theory and practice, the latter meaning mission, action, while the former is intellectual occupation with God and the truths of the Church. In the Orthodox Tradition, however, action is chiefly purification of the heart, and theoria is noetic prayer and the vision of the uncreated Light, the deification of man.

Likewise, in the Orthodox Church we say that action and theoria of God are not opposites, but one follows the other. Ilias the Presbyter says that the courageous man is like a woman who keeps two lamps burning, "mastering both action and theoria". St. Maximos the Confessor says that there is no safe action without theoria, nor true theoria without action. "For action needs to be learned and theoria put into practice". And he points out that in some the theoria is preceded by action and in others action is preceded by theoria, but finally both have to end in one thing".

Yet many of us separate the mystical from the ascetic life. We think that the Sacraments are chiefly for those who live in the world, while asceticism is for the monks. But there is no such distinction in the Patristic teaching, for as we have previously analysed, the Sacraments are not independent of the experience of God’s purifying, illuminating and deifying energy. As Father John Romanides points out, medical science cannot be separated from diagnosis and therapy. And the diagnosis and the therapy cannot in any way degenerate into several external ceremonial acts. In the same way the divine Liturgy and prayer cannot be separated from purification of the heart and illumination of the nous.

We make a further watertight distinction between apophatic and cataphatic theology. We insist that apophatic theology is more perfect, while cataphatic is imperfect. Still the worst is when we see apophatic theology only in the existence of a few terms and expressions.

True, in the patristic teaching we encounter such a division. The expression of St. John of Damaskos is characteristic: "The Divinity, then, is limitless and incomprehensible, and His limitlessness and incomprehensibility is all that can be understood about Him. All that we state affirmatively about God does not show His nature, but only what relates to His nature". But then again St. John of Damaskos says: "Moreover, there are things that are stated affirmatively of God, but which have the force of extreme negation".

There is an interpenetration between apophatic and cataphatic theology. Theology is one, and it is experience, revelation. The saints attained deification and saw God. They saw that God is Light, they saw God's energy. Thus God is participated in with regard to His energy, but He is altogether unshared by man with regard to His essence. But when the saints wish to express this experience, they use negative figures. They say, for instance, that God is Light, but at the same time add, "because of His surpassing brightness" also in relation to the created light of knowledge. it is "darkness". Moreover, even the so-called affirmative expressions, such as that God is love, in reality are impossible for human reason to understand, in the terms of human thought and employing representations.

We can say that the knowledge of God is experience. The way to knowledge of God is apophatic, which means that we concentrate our nous in our heart, following, according to St. Dionysios the Areopagite, the uniform concentration of the nous. The experience of God, of God's energy, is positive. But the expression of this experience is formulated also by negative expressions ("invisible", "incomprehensible", "indescribable" etc. ), because of man's inability to express this experience.

We divide people further into monks and married people, and life into monastic and married, with the result that we praise the monastic life, which we regard as better and more suited to keeping God's commandments, while we disparage married life as not suitable for the practice of God's will.

Indeed we know very well that the Church praises both ways of life, both the monastic life and the married life. But this does not mean that one is praised at the expense of the other. And at this point we must say that the interpretation of the Parable of the talents applies, which we mentioned before.

It can be maintained that in the Church the people are not divided simply into unmarried and married, but into people who live in Christ and people who do not live in Christ. Thus on the one hand we have people who have the Holy Spirit and on the other hand people who do not have the Holy Spirit. Moreover, in the first Church, as it seems in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, all the Christians, unmarried and married, lived like monks, because even marriage has its asceticism. Therefore, if some monk criticises marriage in Christ, he shows that he has a problem with the monastic life, and if a married person criticises and looks askance at the monastic life, it means that he has a problem with the way in which he is living his life. A good monk never criticises what God praises and a good married person never criticises anything that God praises, such as the monastic life. It is characteristic that the best homily about Virginity is said to have been composed by St. Gregory of Nyssa, who was married: and a man who was unmarried, St. Amphilochios of Ikonio, wrote excellent things about the married life. Moreover let us not forget that St. Paphnoutios defended marriage for the Clergy in the First Ecumenical Council.

In his homily St. Amphilochios of Ikonio shows that the Christian is a catholic man, in other words, whole. He praises virginity and marriage. In speaking about virginity he says of marriage: "the worthy marriage towers above every earthly gift, such as a tree in fruit. . . as a root of virginity, as a cultivator of the rational and living branches". Then he says: "remove the worthy marriage and you do not find the flower of virginity". Moreover, the comparison is between two worthy things, because St. Amphilochios says: "Saying these things, we are not introducing a fight between virginity and marriage; we admire both as mutually indebted". To conclude, he says characteristically: "For without devout knowledge of divine things neither is virginity modest nor marriage worthy".

And the holy Chrysostom teaches many things about this subject. He says: "For our married people have everything in common with the monks except marriage". All people should adapt themselves to Christ's commandments. Therefore the holy Father says characteristically: "If we are temperate neither marriage nor nourishment nor anything else will prevent us from being able to be well-pleasing to God". If marriage and raising children was going to hinder us on the path of virtue, the creator of all things would not have brought marriage into our life".

What Basil the Great says is also characteristic: "We people, monks and married, are all required to obey the Gospel.

Therefore we cannot justify our indolence by the particular way of life which we have chosen, nor can we criticise and dismiss another way of life which is not like our own. To be sure, there are degrees and spiritual ages.

This is also connected with the distinction which we create between the Monasteries and the Parishes. Usually we create conflicts and splits between these two centres of life.

But in Orthodoxy we say that there is a relationship between the Parishes and the Monasteries. St. John Chrysostom urges his listeners to visit the Monasteries to see the earthly angels, as he calls the monks, so that then they can live a sound community and family life.

The Monastery and the Parish are the two centres of Christian life. The Monasteries are nourished by the Parishes, and then they help the Parishes in their way. St. Kosmas the Aitolian grew spiritually mature on the Holy Mountain and then became a great missionary. Bishop Nektarios of Pentapolis created a Monastery, and through this Monastery he helped the people. To honour St. Nektarios and criticise monasticism, in which he lived, does not constitute an orthodox ethos, it is a splitting of the catholicity of the Church and a spiritual schizophrenia.

A result of the preceding is that, unfortunately, we make a split between the charismatics, between monks and missionaries. Some think that the monks by their praying do not achieve any work in society, and others undervalue the missionary effort which other Christians make.

However, things are not so simple. Many are the gifts which the Holy Spirit gives for the building up of the Body of Christ. We must value and accept the gifts which are given by the Holy Spirit. To undervalue one gift is blasphemy, according to St. Symeon the New Theologian.

At another point in his teaching St. Symeon the New Theologian says that many people regarded the desert life as happy, some the coenobitic life, and for others happiness was to govern the people, to legislate, teach and establish Churches: "But I would not wish to give preference to any of these states or exalt one type of life and discredit another. In all walks of life, whatever our work and activities, blessed is the life lived for God and according to God".

It is not a matter of the work we do in the Church, but of whether we do it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whether we perform it in the fear of God and whether we are aiming at the glory of God. Then, whatever this work is, it is blessed and will have eternal results. Otherwise our work will be burned (1 Cor. 3, 12-15).

Another distinction which we make is between Clergy and laymen. That there is such a distinction and it belongs to the whole Tradition of the Church, no one can deny. But on this point too we cannot overvalue one category at the expense of the other. Nothing of the sort constitutes the orthodox mind. Nor can we consider that only the Clergy are obligated to keep all the Laws and Traditions of the Church, while the laymen have some mitigations. It is a fact that the Clergy have more duties and obligations in relation to salvation and other things, but all have the duty to keep God's Law.

We can say that the Church's system of government is synodal. This should not be interpreted in the sense of democracy. Some people say that the Church's system of government is democratic. This is not so, because there is a distinction of gifts and ministries. The Church's system of government is synodical, in the sense of hierarchy; that is to say, it is hierarchical. This is seen in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians. The Apostle says: "And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues" (1 Cor. 12,28). Thus there is a hierarchy in the Church. Each person knows his gift, fulfills the service which God assigned, and all work together for the edifice of the Body of Christ. The image of the Body of Christ is very characteristic!

The Clergy are ordained to serve and minister to the people. It is a gift from God for someone to shepherd, it is a gift to be shepherded towards one's salvation. Moreover, the base of the sacramental priesthood is what is called spiritual priesthood, which laymen too can have. Everyone can have spiritual priesthood, because it is connected with the whole spiritual life, which is experienced through both the Sacraments and asceticism. According to the Fathers, the person has spiritual priesthood who has developed his noetic energy, and of course, who prays for the whole world. And we know that this spiritual priesthood will make a man worthy of enjoying the Kingdom of God.

Thus there should be no quarrel between Clergy and laymen. The Clergy receive the priesthood as a ministry and a sacrifice on the cross and the laymen accept the Clergy as fathers in order to be reborn into a new life.

I shall not go on to mention further distinctions which, unfortunately, we make in our spiritual and ecclesiastical life. The malevolent man, who is split, splits up the united life of the Church. As far as a man is impure, so far he is also in pieces, as far as he is purified of passion so far he is catholic. He is made catholic when he knows and experiences the whole truth. The whole way of life, which we see in the Holy Scripture and the tradition of the Church, is valid for all men. We can all attain deification.

We must make a constant effort to reach the catholic way of life, to experience the catholicity of the Church.

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