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The Receiving of the Divine Communion - Spiritual Need, Habit Or Personal Choice

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The Receiving of the Divine Communion - Spiritual Need, Habit Or Personal Choice International Journal of Orthodox Theology 5:3 (2014) 81 urn:nbn:de:0276-2014-3068 Marian Vîlciu Ion I. Croitoru The Receiving of the Divine Communion - Spiritual Need, Habit or Personal Choice Abstract One can notice that in the early life of the Church, the believer received the Body and Blood of Christ not only based on his having a moral life but also on his being perma-nently living a life of awareness of God in Jesus Christ’s Church. Thus, the recei- ving of the Divine Commu- nion represents a spiritual need Ion I. Croitoru is and a personal Rev. Marian Vîlciu is Assoc. Prof. and Dean of Lecturer at the Fa- choice to the the Faculty of Orthodox culty of Orthodox extent to which Theology and Education Theology and Edu- man has become Sciences, Valahia Universi- cation Sciences, a servant of ty of Târgovişte, Romania Valahia University 82 Marian Vîlciu / Ion I. Croitoru Christ, state through which he can live true freedom and can express his free will. Reducing the Divine Communion to a simple ritual practice leads to habit, and self-examination is replaced by habit. Here intervenes the difference between the state with worthiness (ἀξίως) and with unworthiness (ἀναξίως), as it is known that the Divine Communion works according to man’s spiritual condition: in other words, it cleans those who clean themselves and brings light to the souls of those looking for the Light and the living in Jesus Christ, but it also burns the unworthy ones. Consequently, partaking of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is not the commemoration of a divine commandment; it is living the mystery of the Divine Eucharist by experiencing God through the Divine Communion, which means reality and accomplishment of the aim of the Divine Liturgy, which is to deify the believers, as it is shown by the prayers of the Order of Holy Communion. Keywords Church, Divine Communion, Jesus Christ, Eucharist, Deification 1 The Divine Eucharist – the Food of Eternal Life The condition of member of Christ’s Body means the believer’s participation not just to the prayers and the divine services of the Church, but especially his partaking of Christ’s Body and Blood1. The Holy Fathers state that through the participation to 1 Ἱεροθέου, Μητροπολίτου Ναυπάκτου καὶ Ἁγίου Βλασίου, Ἐμπειρικὴ Δογματικὴ τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας κατὰ τὶς προφορικὲς παραδόσεις τοῦ π. Ἰωάννου Ρωμανίδη, τόμος Β΄ (henceforth: Ἱεροθέου, Ἐμπειρικὴ Δογματική, Β΄), Ἐκδόσεις Ἱερὰ Μονὴ Γενεθλίου τῆς Θεοτόκου (Πελαγίας), 2011, p. 379. The Receiving of the Divine Communion Spiritual – 83 Need, Habit or Personal Choice the Divine Liturgy, the believer offers a worship by the reason (λογικὴ λατρεία), in order for God to offer him the worship by the mind (νοερὰ λατρεία)2. Yet, this worship by the mind is lived to the extent to which man works on the exercise of his noetic energy, as man must not pray only using his reason and thinking but also using his mind and heart. For this reason, man ought to have the prayer of the Holy Spirit in his heart, turned into an uninterrupted prayer3 by the work of the divine grace and characterized as being the prayer of the mind or of the heart. Consequently, this worship by the mind is the gift of God made to man and a sign with a double significance: 1) that the respective believer has the joy of the examination of the Holy Spirit; 2) that the respective believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a state conferring him, according to the Holy Fathers of the Church, the quality of member of the Church4. This state is experienced especially through the communion with the Body and Blood of Christ, fact which represents the heart and the aim of the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, but also of the other Holy Mysteries, because Christ has said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6: 53)5. Thus, man receives the Holy Mystery of Baptism and that of Chrismation so that, as a member of the Church and a limb of Christ’s body, he may partake6 - through the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist - of the Body and Blood of Christ, which represent “the aim of our 2 On the sense of the living of these two states that the believer has or at least should live during the participation to the Divine Liturgy see Ioan Romanidis, Teologia patristică (Father John Romanidis, Patristic Theology), translation from Greek into Romanian, notes, bibliographic extras and afterword by Ion Marian Croitoru (henceforth: Romanidis, Teologia patristică), (Târgovişte: Editura Bibliotheca, 2012), pp. 29-30, 33-35, notes 15 and 28. 3 Ἱεροθέου, Ἐμπειρικὴ Δογματική, Β΄, p. 380. 4 Ibidem. 5 Idem, p. 379. 6 Ibidem. 84 Marian Vîlciu / Ion I. Croitoru whole life and hope”7, because the receiving of the Most Venerable and Divine Mysteries is “unto the forgiveness of sins and eternal life”8. Consequently, the Divine Eucharist “becomes the gift of the New Life”. Just as there is “no life without food”, similarly “there is no new life without new food and this new life being the life of Christ, Christ Himself is the One who becomes the gift of food”9. Referring to Himself, Christ calls this food “the true bread”, “the bread of God”, “the bread which comes down from heaven”, “the bread of life”, “the living bread” (John 6: 32, 33, 35, 41, 51). Moreover, Christ says that “he who eats” this bread, namely His Body and Blood, “has eternal life” (John 6: 51, 54), in other words, he inherits the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal life, which are given through the Divine Eucharist, called by the Holy Fathers “immortal food”10. Saint Symeon of Thessalonica teaches that the lack of participation to the Divine Eucharist means “death”, “because this is for you life, health, power and food for eternal life”. By partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, the believer receives Him “as earnest” for eternal life, as “He will be there your life, your food, your light and your rest; and if you partake of Him here, you will receive mercy and will have even from here the first fruits of His life, and you will be with Him forever, and the enemies will run away from you because they will not be able to do anything against you, as you have taken 7 As it is highlighted in the Preparatory Prayer of the Order of the Holy Communion, included both in the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and in that of Saint Basil the Great. See Alexander Schmemann, Liturghie şi viaţă. Desăvârşire creştină prin intermediul experienţei liturgice (Liturgy and Life. Christian Accomplishment by means of the Liturgical Experience) (henceforth: Schmemann, Liturghie şi viaţă), Bucureşti, Editura Basilica, 2014, p. 105. 8 Alexander Schmemann, Liturghie şi viaţă, p. 111. 9 Idem, p. 96. 10 Tomáš Špidlik, Euharistia. Leac pentru nemurire (The Eucharist. Remedy for Immortality), translated from Italian by Dominica Gotea, (Târgu Lăpuş: Editura Galaxia Gutenberg, 2006), p. 77. The Receiving of the Divine Communion Spiritual – 85 Need, Habit or Personal Choice with you the inextinguishable Fire”11. But this reality is not lived without the accomplishment of certain premises, as he who receives the Holy Communion receives not just a part of Christ, but Christ in His entirety. This fact represents the mystery of Christ’s presence in man12. Speaking about the Mystery of the Divine Communion, the Holy Apostle Paul also shows one of the necessary premises for the receiving of the Most Pure and Divine Mysteries: “self-examination” (I Cor. 11: 28). Yet, by this spiritual state one should not understand just a simple moral living, but the examination of the extent to which the respective Christian is truly a member of the Church, in other words, the extent to which he lives the state of member of the mysterious body of Christ, namely of the Church, or at least he is endeavoring to acquire the state of purification13. In the patristic literature were mentioned the three states of man’s spiritual life, namely purification, illumination and deification, representing the axis that “has nourished the Orthodoxy and has preserved its coherence”. These states have been and continue to be experienced by the Saints of the Church, in other words by all those who live a spiritual life, 11 Sfântul Simeon al Tesalonicului, Despre faptul că toţi trebuie să se împărtăşească încontinuu cu înfricoşătoarele Taine, întrucât e lucru folositor mai presus de toate (Saint Symeon of Thessalonica, On the fact that all should continually receive the awe-inspiring Holy Communion, since this is the most useful thing of all things), in Împărtăşirea continuă cu Sfintele Taine. Dosarul unei controverse – mărturiile Tradiţiei (The Continual Receiving of the Holy Communion. File of a Controversy – Tradition’s Testimonies), introductory study and translation by deacon Ioan I. Ică jr., (Sibiu: Editura Deisis, 2006), pp. 446-447. 12 Ἱεροθέου, Ἐμπειρικὴ Δογματική, Β΄, p. 381; Romanidis, Teologia patristică, p. 145; Protopresbyter John Romanides, An Outline of Orthodox Patristic Dogmatics. Ἐπίτομος Ὀρθόδοξος Πατερικὴ Δογματική, edited and translated with an Introduction and Bibliography by Protopresbyter George Dion. Dragas (henceforth: Ioan Romanides, Orthodox Patristic Dogmatics), Orthodox Theological Library 1, Rollinsford, 2004, pp. 120-121. 13 Ἱεροθέου, Ἐμπειρικὴ Δογματική, Β΄, p. 382. 86 Marian Vîlciu / Ion I. Croitoru namely all those who have been healed noetico-spiritually. This is why, the Holy Fathers draw the attention on what man should become even since this life, showing that after the moment of the separation of the soul from the body, it is no longer possible for man to obtain his noetico-spiritual healing, namely the healing of his mind and the working of his virtues, “because there is no repentance in hell”14.
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