tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6280628704843419636.post7408149899982665633..comments2023-05-26T03:24:12.140-07:00Comments on Ex occidente ad orientem: Commemoration of our Father among the saints, the Hieromartyr EleutheriosChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200319733737651773noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6280628704843419636.post-23796470350296280182009-12-15T11:29:11.021-08:002009-12-15T11:29:11.021-08:00Well said Chris.
When I have these discussions ab...Well said Chris.<br /><br />When I have these discussions about the Saints, I like to say that to pray to the Saints is not different than to pray to God. Whether you understand the fact of the matter or not, you can't pray to God without praying to His Saints, and you can't pray to His Saints without praying to God. <br /><br />Christianity is about love, and love is about communion. God Himself is a communion of love, a communion of multiple Persons whose love is perfect and utterly transcends Their multiplicity, so that they are in fact One God. This is not polytheism, because none of the Persons of the Trinity would be a god apart from the Trinitarian communion; it is only by virtue of the divine love that the Persons of the Trinity can be God, and they can only be God together. Not even God can exist without love, which is why St. John says, "God is love."<br /><br />When I was first Orthodox and trying to understand this, I used to say that when we are saved, we become additional members of the Trinity. This is not in fact true, because it would mean we actually become God, in essence and not just by participation in His grace. But still, participation in the Trinitarian communion means something just as radical as becoming an additional member, especially when contrasted to Western notions of salvation that define it as a legalistic acquittal from sin and have no grasp of deification at all, no understanding that God became man that men might become gods.<br /><br />So that's how I try to explain that there is no dichotomy between prayer to the Saints and prayer to Christ. Chris, you're right to emphasize the Incarnation. To refuse to pray to the Saints, or to be unaware of them as members of the divine Communion, deprives one of an awareness of the miracle of the Incarnation of God that becomes possible in all men. As Fr. Don says in his catechism course, this is also the reason for the special veneration given to Mary, the Theotokos. "Theotokos" means "God-bearer," and we are to be God-bearers just as she is. In her case, God the Son became Incarnate in her, and what this Incarnation made possible is that in our case, we are to grow in the spiritual life so that God the Spirit can become Incarnate in us. This is what it means to be and to become a Saint---to be saved is to become a Saint.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com