Initial Summary
In the fullness of his resurrection prior to his ascension, and prior to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ was preparing the men who will become the apostles of the Church for their mission to be witness for him in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
The words of our Lord that conclude the gospel lesson on Holy Saturday (Mt 28:1-20), and that are also included in the readings of our yearly matins cycle (Mt 28:16-20) contains within it the “Great Commission” to the eleven apostles to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to all nations.
This is not to say that this was the first time Christ had commanded his disciples to reveal the news of the kingdom. The synoptic gospels inform us that he had given similar instructions to the twelve disciples, and later to the seventy-two in order to share His news with the people of Israel in Jerusalem. We also know that prior to his death on the cross that our Lord foretold that the “good news of the kingdom would be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Yannoulatos 1967, 297; Mt 24:14; Mt19,20)
However, As the recipients of the efforts of the apostles who went forth proclaiming the good news to the nations, these words of Christ are an essential commandment for all of Orthodox Christians to cooperate with God in His plan for the salvation and glorification of all peoples and the world in which we live. Furthermore, this commanding invitation implies for us, as it did for the apostles that the aim of making disciples for Christ is to be an ongoing process of inviting all peoples to be initiated into the fullness of God for the purpose of conveying the goodness of the gospel while they are transformed by the experience of God in their lives. (Yannoulatos 1967, 19; Rom 8; Mt 28:20)
Finally, the immediate expectation of the Great Commission is then pointed towards the final goal where our vocation of cooperating with God in His plan for bringing all people under His loving embrace is brought into an eschatological perspective. But this end is one of hope in the sense that the presence of Christ is assured to be in the midst of His people throughout this constant missionary endeavor while we invite all of God’s creation that has been groaning for redemption to join in the praise and glorification of God to the end of the ages.
Reflections
Our Tradition has witnessed the missionary endeavor take place as a “profound inner necessity” in a way that has conveyed the key elements of God’s love and glory. This has taken place through a mobilization of mankind, as we have at times united our mission to God’s in a way that has allowed us to cooperate with God as he has moved the Church towards the salvation and glorification of mankind and the world “‘in the Holy Spirit’ for the sanctification of all things, their recapitulation in Christ, and their access to the Father (Eph 2:18). This “universal mobilization for a catholic glorification of the universe” (Yannoulatos, The Doxological Understanding of Life and Mission 1984, 5) is a multi-faceted effort that calls all Christians to use their gifts as members of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27-31). It takes place as we are sent by our Lord in the Holy Spirit just as Christ was sent by the Father with such an immense love for the world that our heart’s desire and prayer to God is driven by the salvation of others (Rom 10:1).
Yet, as far back as the first century, even St. Paul, the first and greatest missionary of the apostolic age, when he proclaimed to the Romans that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" still presents us with a very important challenge when he posed the following questions: “How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” (Rom 10:14-15)
These words of Paul have a way of helping us focus on our own vocation as missionaries in relation to the Great Commission. Moving beyond the usual criticisms as to why missions have had variable peaks and valleys throughout the history of the Church, my thoughts bring me back to an encounter that I once had with His Eminence Metropolitan John of Korca.
The very first thing that the Metropolitan mentioned after we were properly introduced was that the primary obstacle to the missionary effort is fear: “People do not come to Albania, or leave the comfort of their homes [to respond to the commandment of the Great Commission] because they are afraid to do so.” These words spoke truth to the Balkan saying that he would later tell us: “Never seek out a prophet, God, or Abba, and don’t ask him anything because you might not like what they have to say!”
As with everything else that I encountered in Albania the Metropolitan’s words touched me in a way that I never would have anticipated. It revealed my own reservations that I carried with me to Albania. Certainly I was aware of both the positive and the negative sides of Albania’s history along with their present day circumstances. However, after having grown up in a family where fighting communists came as natural as breathing, and after witnessing the devastation left behind by the Soviets throughout southwest Asia during my two tours of combat in Afghanistan along with eight years of trying to forget about it, and even having relatives on my wife’s side of our family who had come from Albania both before and after the communist years by means of everything from escape to immigration, going into a country that has a Muslim majority and a history of communism was not at all appealing to me. As a matter of fact, even though I had always had a strong desire for making evangelism a part of my ministry, I had never envisioned my work in evangelism to take me beyond the United States. Maybe the Metropolitan was right? I thought to myself “Did the fact that I did come to Albania with all of these reservations made me a fool?”
Something changed when I found myself in Albania – particularly after I began interacting with people. I found a gentle power gradually washing over me, and a most loving sensation drawing me to everyone and everything. It was as if I had been waiting to come here all my life and the people who I had constantly encountered had been waiting for the same thing. It seems they were equally being drawn to me. This love grew to the point where everything became brighter, everything smelled sweeter, and everything sounded like a hymn to me, whether it was chanted in church or it was coming from the streets.
The impact of this presence of God was intoxicating! The thought of the same God whose voice alone once caused the Israelites to fear for their own lives, and the same God who cannot be seen but experienced in this love that I had been confronted with as something that “lives in us and is being made complete in us.” (Ex:20:19; 1Jn 5:12) This brings to mind what His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios had told me a few days earlier when in echoing the words of St. John, he reminded me that “God is love,” and that it is our responsibility to re-direct the freedom that God has given us; out of his love for us back to Him for our own salvation and for the greater glory of the world that we live in.
As a result of my conversation of the initial words of the Metropolitan, I decided to disregard the advice of the previously mentioned proverb that concerns one’s need avoid council. I asked Abba! I asked him: “What are your thoughts concerning what the scriptures tell us about the ‘perfect love’ that casts out all fear?” (1 Jn 4:18) He simply looked at me and said: “The love that casts our fears away can only come from God, and that this perfecting love is God himself working in us. People do not respond to the needs of others because they are not receptive to this perfecting love – hence they are afraid to come to places like Albania. This is why we must repent and begin with the fear of God which is the beginning of all wisdom as Solomon once said in the proverbs (1:7) ; only then can we begin to cast out our fears with love because it is God himself who is love.”
I quietly wept as I hid the tears that poured down my face from the rest of our group. This was to be the first of several conversations with the metropolitan that took place before we left Tirana and ultimately, for home. I have since then been occupied with thoughts of what it means to join one’s self to the momentum of the Great Commission in light of our need to do so in love. Of course, I have no doubt that our Lord desires that we all take part in the effort of mission. But, how do we truly reveal the commandments of God to the nations as our Lord commands us to when we ourselves are still in the process of fearing God, and how do we seek the perfecting love that guides us while we work with God while he acts upon the world?
“Let all that you do be done in love…” (1 Cor 16:14)
As St. Kosmas tells us that “God has many names ... but his principle name is love ... All Christians must have two loves, one for God and one for our fellow human beings. Without [these two loves], it is impossible to be saved.” (Vaporis 1977, 90-91)
Our own Orthodoxy depends on whether or not we preach Christ crucified with a sense of mission in our lives. (1 Cor 9:16; Yannoulatos 1967, 293) From God’s creating man from the dust of earth, to His commandment to the first couple to fill the earth and subdue it, to His calling of Abraham to get out of his soil that had been corrupted by the fall, and to leave his father’s house for the land in which his descendants would be a blessing to the nations; (Gen 12) it’s apparent that in the age of Pentecost that our vocation as men and women who have been made by God and for God is intended for the endeavor of mission. This is why our history from the time of the Great Commission, has such a broad witness of people who have manifested this Orthodoxy changing the course of their lives towards the glory of God. (Yannoulatos, 1967)
The Church’s calling of mission has been modeled by such figures as St. Paul a zealous persecutor of Christians who himself became a martyr, St. Patrick, one who escaped slavery only to evangelize the land of his captors, and the martyr St. Kosmas Aitolos who left the serenity of Mount Athos believing that he did so at the risk of his own salvation in order to re-evangelize the people of the Balkan Peninsula at the time of the Turkish occupation. Witnesses such as these command us to recognize that a failure to act upon the Great Commission is a denial of what God intends for us to become as Christians. It is a denial of what should be our own hope in the salvation of the world in its entirety.
Could it be that all of the fear, loneliness, and nightmares that arise out of what Archbishop Anastasios refers to as the exaltation of the human will – the will that remains free from the will of God is in part, what prevents us from fulfilling the forgotten commandment? It is one thing to affirm that the Church must make disciples of the nations. To truly teach people His Commandments and to convey His love in a way that changes those who are sent in order to show people the way that leads to new life.
The reality of the Great Commission is that going out to the nations is still frightening even when we feel we are seriously compelled to do so. Twenty centuries of retrospection confirms this. We know that like many witnesses after them – all but John died a martyr’s death. We also know of Paul’s various hardships that ultimately led him to his own martyrdom in Rome. For the rest of us who will never likely endure these hardships, we must also compete with other problems such as cultural immersion, the difficulties of language, being separated from our loved ones, and maintaining the spiritual, emotional, and financial welfare of our families.
Despite this, perhaps it is not a coincidence why the Great Commission is proclaimed on Holy Saturday while we anticipate the resurrection of Christ. Father Alkiavidis Kalivas reminds us that “It is the day of watchful expectation, in which mourning is being transformed into joy,” and that it is this expectation that “embodies in the fullest possible sense the meaning of xarmolipi - joyful-sadness.” (Calivas, 1992
) More importantly, we must remember that Holy Saturday was once reserved for the baptism of catechumens! If we pray as we do in the anticipation of our own celebration of Pascha: “that the Lord may reveal to them the Gospel of righteousness, and unite them to His holy catholic and apostolic Church…it is necessary to engage in mission.”(Yannoulatos 1967, 296) It is for this reason that the promise of Christ to be with us “to the end of the ages” is an invitation to orient the rhythm of our lives into that of Christ’s, bringing our mission in harmony with His resurrection in order to be his witness to the nations. In the spirit of St. Seraphim of Sarov, to do so will not only bring thousands around us to salvation, but it will bring thousands more. Amen.
Sources:
The purpose and motive of mission: From an Orthodox theological point of view
Missionaries, Monks & Martyre: Making Disciples of All Nations
No comments:
Post a Comment