+ B A R T H O L O M E W
BY GOD’S MERCY
ARCHBISHOP OF
CONSTANTINOPLE – NEW ROME
AND ECUMENICAL
PATRIARCH
TO THE PLENITUDE OF
THE CHURCH,
MAY THE GRACE AND
PEACE
OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR
JESUS CHRIST,
TOGETHER WITH OUR
PRAYER, BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS
BE WITH YOU ALL
***
We offer hymns
of thanks to the God of love as once again we enter Holy and Great Lent, the
arena of ascetic struggle, fasting and abstinence, of vigilance and spiritual
awareness, of guarding our senses and prayer, of humility and self-knowledge.
We are commencing a new and blessed pilgrimage toward Holy Pascha, which has
“opened for us the gates of paradise.” In Church and as Church, as we behold
the Risen Lord of glory, we all journey together along the way of deification
by grace that leads to the heavenly goods “prepared by God for those who love
Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).
In the Church,
where “the eternal mystery” of divine Economy is realized, all things have
their unwavering theological foundation and pure soteriological reference. The
incarnation of God and the deification of man are the pillars of the Orthodox
faith. We move toward our eternal destination in the love of Christ. Our God,
Who is “always for us,” can never be reduced to some “higher power” enclosed in
transcendence and the grandeur of almightiness or its holiness. Instead, He is
the pre-eternal Word of God, Who “assumed our form” in order to invite
humankind to the communion of His holiness, of the genuine freedom. Man, who
from the beginning “has been honored with freedom,” is invited to freely accept
this divine gift. In the divine-human mystery of salvation, our synergy also
functions as a witness in the world of the blessing that we have
experienced—“what do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7)—through
the love for the ‘brother.”
Holy and Great
Lent is par excellence a period of experiencing this freedom bestowed by
Christ. Fasting and ascesis do not comprise a discipline imposed externally,
but a voluntary respect of ecclesiastical practice, obedience to Church
Tradition that is not a sterile letter but a living and life-giving presence, a
permanent expression of the unity, sanctity, catholicity and apostolicity of
the Church. The language of theology and hymnography speaks of “joyful sorrow”
and “the spring of fasting.” This is because authentic asceticism is always
joyful, springful and bright. It knows no dualism or division; it does not
undermine life or the world. “Depressive ascesis” that leads to an “aridity of
human nature” has nothing to do with the spirit of Orthodoxy, where the ascetic
life and spirituality are nurtured by resurrectional joy. In this sense,
fasting and ascesis contain an alternative proposal for life before the
promised false paradise of eudemonism and nihilistic pessimism.
Another
essential element of Orthodox ascetic spirituality is its social character. The
God of our faith is “the most social God,” “a God of relations.” It has rightly
been said that the Holy Trinity is “the negation of loneliness.” The
individualization of salvation and piety, the transformation of ascesis into an
individual achievement, overlook the Trinity-centered essence of the ecclesial
event. When we fast for ourselves and according to our whim, then fasting does
not express the spirit of the Orthodox tradition. Spirituality is the
life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit, Which is always “a spirit of
communion.” The genuine Orthodox spiritual life always refers to the ecclesial
dimension of our existence and not to some “spiritual self-realization.”
In adhering to
the dedication of this year by the Holy Great Church of Christ to “the pastoral
renewal and due concern for our youth,” we call upon our Orthodox young men and
women to participate in the spiritual struggle of Great Lent in order to
experience its anthropological depth and liberating spirit, to understand that
Orthodox asceticism is a way of freedom and existential fulfilment in the
context of the blessed life in the Church, whose core is to “speak the truth in
love.” Our Orthodox youth is called to discover the holistic character of
fasting, which is praised in the Triodion as “the commencement of spiritual
struggles,” as “food for the soul,” as “mother of all good things and all
virtues.” It is not simply an abstinence from certain foods, but a struggle
against self-love and self-sufficiency, a sensitivity toward our suffering
neighbor, and a tangible response of support. It is a Eucharistic use of
creation, existential fulfilment, communion of life and solidarity. Ascesis,
fasting, prayer and humility convey the fragrance and light of the
Resurrection, from which they receive meaning and direction. As the
quintessence of ecclesial life and its eschatological orientation, the
Resurrection inseparably links the ascetic life with the Divine Eucharist, the
sacrament of foretaste of the ineffable joy of the Kingdom of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The fact that the Divine Eucharist is
preserved as the center of the life in the Orthodox Church is associated with
the fact that the Resurrection is the foundation of our faith and the bright
horizon of our ascetic spirituality as well as of our good witness in the
world.
With these
thoughts, we humbly invoke upon all of you the mercy and blessing of the God of
love, so that we may pursue the race of Holy and Great Lent with devout heart,
reach the saving Passion of Christ our God and, glorifying His ineffable
forbearance, shine brightly for the feast of His splendid Resurrection that
leads us from death to endless life.
Holy and Great Lent 2020
✠ BARTHOLOMEW
of Constantinople
Fervent supplicant for
all before God
