[Published in The Greek Australian Vema, December 2008, 9]

ECCLESIAL LITURGY AS REITERATED EMBODIMENT

Revd Dr Doru Costache

One of the heroic witnesses of Orthodoxy in the last century and true prophet of
theandricity, St Justin Popovic, sees in Christ, the Logos incarnate, the foundational
truth and vivifying factor of all creation, visible and invisible. In the sky and on earth,
states St Justin in his book Man and the Godman (from the original Greek, Άνθρωπος
καί Θεάνθρωπος), there is no higher measure than the embodiment of the Word; no
other content and aim of ecclesial experience. Now, in the eve of the festal season,
Christian reflection should strenuously address the ecclesial significance of the
crucial event of God’s incarnation (see John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16). Thus considered,
Christmas amounts to a true memorial of the Church’s authenticity and the symbolic
map of its sacred task in the contemporary world.

St Justin discerns within the event of the Logos’ embodiment the framework of the
Church’s life: the theandricity/Godmanhood principle. The goal of divine revelation
indeed (and this applies also to the Logos’ incarnation as its climax) was never
merely to inform God’s people. Therefore, the purpose of divine revelation is not
transmitting bare information, but the communication – through the teachings from
above – of a series of foundational criteria that shape the ecclesial mindset and life.
Only these criteria render possible the miracle of humankind’s transfiguration into
the new creation, outlined by St Paul (see Galatians 6:15).

Thus, it cannot suffice to simply believe in the event of the Word’s incarnation – no
matter how important believing is to grasp (through faith) the contours of the
paradigm that regulates ecclesial life. Or, since the Logos has become flesh (see John
1:14), and since the Church is by all means Christ’s body (see Ephesians 4:12), the
Church’s vocation to realise Orthodoxy – the right opinion and the true life – cannot
be achieved outside the incarnation model. Nothing therefore can be taken as
properly ecclesial if it does not correspond to the principle, or criterion, of
theandricity, which was revealed through the coming down of God to us.

What does this principle look like? To answer this question we have to contemplate
the complexity of Christ’s life. Thus, in the one living being of Christ’s person, divine
life and human life intertwine without division and confusion, embracing each other
paradoxically in the inauguration of a new life, the only common denominator for
created and uncreated. It is not without reason that St Maximus the Confessor
considers Christ as above/beyond divinity and humanity… The Church fathers
designate the mystery of this paradoxical life through a wide range of concepts,
meant to circumscribe it reverently: self-emptying (κένωσις), incarnation
(ἐνσάρκωσις) and humanisation (ἐνανθρώπησις), the Godman (Ὁ Θεάνθρωπος),
composite hypostasis (ὑπόστασις σύνθετος) and mixture (σύγκρασις), hypostatic
union (ἓνωσις ὑποστατική) and one incarnate life of God the Logos (μία φύσις Θεοῦ
Λόγου σεσαρκωμένη), theandric energy (θεανδρική ἐνέγεια) and common breathing
(σύμπνοια) of divinity and humanity.

All these concepts, whilst attempting to articulate Christ’s mystery, point ultimately
to the mystery of our life in Christ (cf. Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:26; Colossians 3:3
etc). This is the fundamental truth revealed to God’s people and this is Ariadne’s
thread for any ecclesial endeavour yesterday, today and forever more. Nothing in the
structure, teaching and life of Christ’s Church is constituted on criteria other than
that of Godmanhood (theandricity). This represents therefore the ultimate test for
any aspect pertaining to ecclesial experience, including the oldest idiosyncrasies of
the Church.

Since the incarnation of the Logos represents – along with the foundational event of
the Church – the very framework of ecclesial experience, one might wonder how this
experience can practically take place. It is not difficult to discern ‘embodiments’ of
this model in almost all aspects of the Church’s living tradition. In fact, springing
unceasingly from the unbreakable communion of the Church with Christ in the Holy
Spirit, our living tradition reiterates the theandric principle, diversely, through all its
witnesses and manifestations. For instance, inspired from above and written by
saints, the Church’s Scripture is in itself a theandric accomplishment and, since Christ
is the ‘hidden treasure’ within all its semantic layers, it proclaims theandric life as the
fullness of life. Perhaps not so obviously a theandric work (although inspiration is not
missing in its case also) the icon witnesses the realisation of the same theandric
principle by depicting the visible image of God in Christ and the transfigured faces of
the saints. Synodal decisions, liturgical poetry and the writings of the Fathers – all
these represent, more or less intensely, outcomes of the intersection and synergy
between God’s people and the light from above. Ecclesial experience embodies and
proclaims the one and the same principle of Godmanhood, yet tradition is not
exhausted in these manifestations.

Our living tradition is the new life, the theandric life, the dynamic experience of God’s
people with Christ, within the historical pilgrimage of the Church. This is why any
attempt at reducing tradition to its past witnesses shows lack of faith in the power of
the living reality of the Church, here and now. Christ’s Church, ‘the pillar and bulwark
of the truth’ (1 Timothy 3:15), is today and forever the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our
Christian experience therefore is as fruitful as ever; our entire life in Christ is a
continuous interaction of divine (grace) and human (faith, intentions, deeds). Beyond
our current issues, even today saints grow in the Church; even today God’s people is
creative; even today we give witness to the new life inaugurated through the descent
of God to us. In the mysteries (sacraments) we experience what all previous
generations have experienced: we are washed in water yet clothed in Christ; we are
anointed yet receive the Holy Spirit; we eat bread and drink wine but partake of the
body and blood of Christ; we talk to a confessor yet receive forgiveness from above;
we see a couple but they are one; we see a man yet he is the vessel of sanctification;
we receive bodily unction but are restored by the mercy of our Healer Christ. All
these represent practical ramifications of the mystery contemplated in Christmas.

This picture of Christmas as a celebration of Church’s life would not be complete,

however, without its central setting: living tradition as consecration of the
embodiment paradigm is deeply rooted in the liturgical soil. Within the liturgy,
Godmanhood is at home since – proclaiming from the outset the kingdom of the Holy
Trinity – we confess that God ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, has made his tent with, in and
amongst us (cf. John 1: 14; Revelation 21:3). Liturgy is the ‘place’ par excellence of
theandricity, reiterating again and again the tremendous mystery of the Logos
incarnate. Reiterates, here, means not it merely commemorates the salvific
economy; rather, it means that through and beyond anamnesis/memorial the liturgy
is salvation, making us partakers of the new life (see John 20:31), of the divine way of
being (see 2 Peter 1:4). Far from simply reminding us of salvation, liturgy rather
reveals and performs today our salvation. Ἡ Παρθένος σήμερον, τὸν ὑπερούσιον
τίκτει: ‘the Virgin gives today (my emphasis) birth to the transcendent one’. Χριστὸς
γεννᾶται, δοξάσατε: ‘Christ is born, glorify him’. Not yesterday; today. And, within the
liturgy and beyond it, we witness to, participate in and proclaim the incarnate God’s
love for mankind (cf. Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8).
Liturgy is indeed the living tradition, the ‘place’ of theandricity, celebrating neither
past nor future but today as a kairotic interface for past and future. Today we
remember and therefore we participate in the entire economy – past and future – of
the Logos incarnate. Liturgy is a memorial-participation in the mystery of the Word’s
embodiment. This truth pervades the entire liturgical movement and becomes
manifest in the two processions: the first is centred on the Gospel and celebrates
therefore the word of Christ; the second is centred on the Gifts of bread and wine,
celebrating Christ’s body. Therefore, in the liturgy first we partake of the Word’s word,
as a prerequisite for more intense familiarity, and then we taste the Word’s flesh, as
fulfilled conviviality (see Luke 15:21-24) that echoes the supreme one, at the
sempiternal Supper (see Matthew 8:11; Luke 22:30) or the eschatological realisation
of the common breathing of God and his people (see Revelation 22:1-5). Liturgy is
salvation since it reiterates the mystery of the Logos made flesh; more precisely,
mystically, truly and really liturgy is the Word made flesh.

Focused on liturgy, the Church’s life is called to reflect consistently in all aspects the
mystery of the Logos incarnate, thus to live theandrically. This entails that, beyond
any other nuances, the task of God’s people today and ever is to realise the body of
the Word, to bring to concreteness the foundational paradigm of our very existence
as God’s people. We are not supposed, therefore, to remain complacent about the
past generations’ mighty achievements: instead, we are supposed to do the same
today, in celebration of the incarnate Lord, our Christmas.