Elder Sofian: Thoughts on the Sunday of Orthodoxy
Until the great day of the Lord’s Resurrection, we move through a special spiritual atmosphere, in which each Sunday of Lent shines like a bright star.
[Extracts from missing pages of a manuscript of incomplete homilies on the Sunday of Orthodoxy.]
He who observes and experiences how the life of the Church unfolds during this period realizes that we have entered a special order; we breathe a different spiritual air. Great Lent is like a time from another world, richer in meaning and spiritual fruit. It is like the secret heart of the liturgical year and a spring of holiness for all the days of the year.
Today, with the help of God, we finish the first week of the Resurrection Fast. The sanctity of this Lenten period is great and unmistakable. Whether we realize it or not, it penetrates us, with or without our will. Until the great day of the Lord’s Resurrection, we move through a special spiritual atmosphere, in which each Sunday of Lent shines like a bright star. We ascend these Sundays like steps leading to the great height of meeting the Resurrected Jesus Christ. These Sundays of Great Lent speak to our mind and heart with the power of spiritual discovery, reminding us that our life here in the world is founded on a secret [heavenly] order, and that our life here on earth is imbued with heavenly news.
Today, the first Sunday of Lent, named the Sunday of Orthodoxy, is especially one such day that is full of spiritual meaning. It is the doorway to the other feasts of Lent until the great feast of Holy Pascha. And the content of these days of Lent, between the first and last Sunday, that is, between the Sunday of Orthodoxy and that of the Lord’s Resurrection, is not random. All of the path of our salvation is contained within these two Sundays, and we cannot see the light of the Resurrection in the age to come if we do not orient ourselves to it by going through the door of Orthodoxy.
But what does the Sunday of Orthodoxy mean for us, Orthodox Christians, and what spiritual memories do we celebrate today?
Beloved, I can say it concisely: Today, our Church celebrates the fullness of its faith.
Eight-and-a-half centuries after the Incarnation of Christ the Savior, after it had won all its dogmas and right worship of God by blood and grace, on a Sunday like today, the Holy Church permanently established its treasure of spiritual teaching, fully established and clearly articulated, such that through it the world could be made worthy of union with God and eternal life with Him.
The Sunday of Orthodoxy was established by an ordinance from above, and it commemorates the triumph of the Church over its adversaries: those who fought against icons.
For, in the eighth century, a heresy was born in the Christian world, spread by certain emperors, seeking the complete destruction of holy icons. Yet, the word Orthodoxy means, as we know, “right worship.”
Right worship of God could not be complete so long as the images of God and His saints, present in icons, were not glorified. Therefore, the day in which the Church reacquired its icons—and, together with them, its right worship—was called the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
The Sunday of Orthodoxy is not only a simple recollection of a past historical event, but it is the day in which Orthodoxy, with holy power, affirms its faith for all ages. Year after year, the Sunday of Orthodoxy has something to tell those of us today, to whom it addresses a calling. Year after year, we, too, must ask ourselves what Orthodoxy means for each Christian soul and what our duty is to our holy faith.
Orthodoxy means correct and unshakeable faith in the true God. The essence of Orthodoxy is Christ the Savior Himself, alive and present in our midst. In the heart of Orthodoxy, just as on her holy altars, the Savior is forever present, alive, and continually acting upon us. Although He is invisible, He is present in our life, as He Himself said: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!” (Matt 28:20)
But who can speak of the power that God gives us during prayer, which is the soul of Orthodoxy? Who can speak of the consolation that Orthodoxy gives us in the services for our dearly departed? Who can speak of God’s parental care for us in our illnesses, trials, and all kinds of needs? Who can speak of the fullness and nimbleness that God gives us in the Sacrament of Holy Communion? Who can speak of the special joy that we feel on feast days?
Someone once said: if you want to know what is in the center of the earth, look at the top of a volcano! If you want to know what is in the center of Orthodoxy, go to an Orthodox church for the Paschal vigil—the empress of our Christian feasts. Only then will you understand the immense force of resurrection that the Savior brings into the world through the holy establishment of Orthodoxy. Truly, no one word in the human language can concisely capture what Orthodoxy is.
Above all, the Sunday of Orthodoxy is a celebration of the triumph of right Christian glory. A holy remembrance dominates this day; for the Church’s history, it signified the end of many centuries of turmoil and battling for the right faith, the victorious end that crowned the asceticism and self-sacrifice of the confessors of the Living God.
Just like its divine Founder, that is, like the Savior of the world, Who reached the Resurrection only after passing through torture, the Cross, and suffering, so too did His Church, from the beginning, not gain any of Its holy and salvific truths without first passing through trials, battles, and difficulties, out of which, however, it always emerged brighter and stronger. The battle against holy icons was a great trial through which the right-worshiping faith passed. It was a period of nearly a century and a half in which one of the Church’s most precious truths, namely the veneration of the image of God, was struck. A persecution similar to that unleashed by the Roman pagan emperors at the beginning of Christianity was commanded in the 8th-9th centuries by the self-proclaimed Christian emperors, who were wicked and pagan at heart. The Church bled, suffered, and underwent pain from these blows, but it also fought and, in the end, triumphed in a distinguished manner.
The devotion of those of you who choose this Holy Sunday of Orthodoxy to draw near and unite yourselves with our Savior through the Holy Sacraments is living proof of living out the right worship of God. This is the cornerstone of Orthodoxy: the God-Man Jesus Christ Himself gave the world, even in this age, a guarantee for eternal life with Him in the age to come, in heavenly right worship, where God will make us worthy of seeing Him face to face and partaking of Him more fully to the endless ages. Amen!
Today, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the name day of our holy faith; it is the name day of Holy Orthodoxy’s divine glory.
The word orthodox is of Greek origin and means right glory or right faith. Orthodoxy is the Church of God as it was established by our Lord Jesus Christ, as it was understood and experienced by the Holy Apostles, Holy Martyrs, Holy Fathers, and our fathers and forefathers who neither strayed to the right nor the left, but kept the right path, the right and steadfast faith, as Holy Scripture exhorts us: “be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2:10), as well as, “to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Rev 2:7).
Source:
Părintele Sofian Boghiu, “Gânduri la Duminica Ortodoxiei” [Thoughts on the Sunday of Orthodoxy”] in Smerenia și dragostea: însemnele trăirii ortodoxe ed. 4 (Iași: Doxologia, 2022), p. 150-155.