Life Line March 10, 2004 Volume 1: Issue 2


Dear Reader:

Thanks to you, the first issue of Light & Life Publishing's Life Line newsletter has been a great success. Your feedback was overwhelmingly positive, encouraging this newsletter to continue as a forum featuring current and relevant topics facing Orthodox Christians today. We wish we were able to answer all of the questions submitted by our readers. However, only one question will be selected each quarter to be featured in this publication. This question will be selected based on its broad appeal and answerability within the constraints of the newsletter.  We welcome your feedback and questions, which can be e-mailed to us at info@light-n-life.com. If you would like to be removed from our mailing list please click here or click the unsubscribe button below.

Sincerely in Christ,
The Staff at Light & Life Publishing

 

               
by Fr. Angelo Artemas, Saints Peter and Paul Church, Glenview, IL

Perhaps the first point to make about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (Rated R for extreme violence, 2 hour 7 minutes, English subtitles) is that it is not for children. Yet neither was footage from 9-11-01, but parents and teachers watched with kids, comforted them, consoled them, and even taught them about good and evil. The decision to allow children under 12 to see this movie must be made after viewing it first, and after considering one's ability to teach, comfort and edify children in light of the film.
       Secondly, the criticism that the movie is one-sided (focuses mainly on the beating and crucifixion) is true, yet hundreds of movies that have mocked and blasphemed Jesus Christ and Christianity in a one-sided fashion have not received nearly as much criticism as this one movie.
       This movie does not pretend to present Jesus Christ the teacher, miracle worker, preacher, healer or friend, and does not present a sanitized version of Jesus as have so many other movies and plays. This movie presents Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, sacrificed for the remission of our sins and for the life of the world. Jesus Christ's sacrifice is the most important element of His life on earth.
       Protestant worship services primarily center on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and perhaps that is why so many find the crucifixion scene excessively violent and shocking. But Orthodox liturgy is centered on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the altar table is specifically for His body and blood. For those who regularly attend the Divine Liturgy and receive Holy Communion, this movie will not be as shocking. For Orthodox Christians who have consistently attended Holy Week services, especially the Holy Thursday evening service referred to as The Passion and the 12 Gospels, subtitles are not even necessary. This movie focuses like a laser beam on Christianity's central message that Jesus, the Christ, died voluntarily for all human beings in order to free us from Hell and to restore us to paradise. No one is responsible for His death while everyone is responsible for His death.
       The first definition for lethal in Webster's New International Dictionary is archaic for spiritual death. Perhaps the most compelling thing about this movie is that the viewer profoundly experiences the death of the Son of God. No other movie has come close to capturing the impact of this death. The sincere viewers spirit will be crushed by this film, as it should be.
       In Orthodox Christianity we are baptized into Christ's death, so that we may live in Him. One cannot fully comprehend living a new life in Christ without understanding His death. This movie goes further than any other work of art in allowing viewers to experience His death. Teaching people how to live a new life in Christ is not the movie's job, it is the viewer's responsibility; perhaps newly motivated by the powerful experience of the movie.
       One cannot leave the film without thinking that Jesus Christ died for anyone who is weak, sinful, broken, hurt, fallen or flawed. Christ died voluntarily for all. If there is going to be a "blame game" it starts with one's self. Human beings can continue to kill Jesus Christ by hurting themselves and others, or they can embrace Jesus Christ and reach out to others. The violence in the movie does not compare to the violence in the world. Jesus Christ died 1975 years ago. What has humanity and Christianity done since then?


When You Fast
by Bishop Kallistos Ware

Recommended by: 
Anthony M. Coniaris

       Two of the finest books to read to prepare for Lent, next to the Holy Bible, are Great Lent by the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann and, in my humble estimation, When You Fast by Bishop Kallistos Ware.  Now available as a 19-page booklet, the text was originally written as the Introduction for the English edition of the classic Lenten Triodion .
       Bishop Ware expands the meaning of the Lenten fast to cover so many areas of Christian living that reading and re-reading just this one booklet can set the tone for a truly meaningful Lenten experience-one that can lead to a personal Paschal transformation and resurrection.
       This is a booklet to share with your loved ones-high schoolers included-around the dinner table.  It deserves the widest circulation.  It serves to revive an ancient discipline of the Church that served as one of the pillars of Lent.  Reading it will show you why.  In the words of St. John Chrysostom, "The fast should be kept not by the mouth alone but also the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands, and all the members of the body."


God Speaks From the Cross
by Anthony M. Coniaris

Recommended by:
Marianna Priest

       It's always such a help to have a beautiful book of Lenten meditations to encourage our minds and hearts to get into the mood of  the suffering and self-revelation of the Lenten period as well as the victorious celebration of the Resurrection.
       Father Anthony Coniaris' God Speaks From The Cross is such a book.  It narrows our focus toward the last seven thoughts Jesus shared with us in his lifetime, the words he spoke from the Cross.  These thoughts are known as His Seven Last Words.
       Fr. Anthony dives deeply into each of Jesus' last Words and tenderly brings forward the profound meaning these words hold for us.  He helps us to understand that Jesus' suffering is just like our own and that even He felt abandoned by God as He hung on the Cross. He was human too. 
       But He is also Divine and His ability to love is beyond our wildest imagination.  Fr. Anthony convinces us that there is no sin that we could ever commit that would put us beyond Jesus' ability to love and  forgive us.  "…but we have to do more than believe in forgiveness as a theological statement in a creed, we have to accept it as a gift."  It nudges us toward humble vulnerability to be able to accept such a divine gift.
Dear Light & life,

       My fiance is Jewish and I am Orthodox. We want to get married but he does not want to convert out of respect for his relatives who died in the Holocaust. Can we be married in the Church?

Tampa, Florida

       The Orthodox Church does not perform marriages between Orthodox and non-Christians. If an Orthodox Christian goes ahead and marries outside the Church s/he is no longer in full communion with the Church. The logical, follow-up question is, "why"?
       Marriage, according to the Orthodox theology, is not just a contract or union between a man and a woman, but is a union between a man and a woman within Christ. And it is Christ Himself who unites the couple. That is why the Orthodox formulae in the betrothal and marriage services are in the passive voice. The priest says: "The servant of God (name of the groom) is betrothed…"; "The servant of God (name of the bride) is crowned…" Christ makes the two "become one flesh." How can one who does not believe in Christ be united with his/her spouse and Christ? Or, why would a non-believer want to be united in a deity in whom they don't believe?
       This is why St. Paul instructs, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever" (2 Corinthians 6:14). Without Christ there can only be an unequal human "yolking" or union. Two human beings can effect a psychological, sociological (civil) or physical union, but the spiritual/mystical union that completes and sustains Christian marriage requires Christ's power and abiding presence.
       St. Paul also calls upon Christian spouses to create the "church in the home" (Romans 16:5), and raise the children "in the Lord". Something impossible when one of the couple does not have a Christian church tradition or subscribes to a different "lord."
       Being a Christian, sometimes, involves difficult choices. Choosing Christ as our Lord and Master makes it impossible for us to be totally united with someone who has a different "lord and master." The best solution is to make sure that Orthodox Christian young people are well aware of the church's rules and rationale and date believing and practicing Christians. It might take time to find a believing Christian spouse, but the union that Christ will effect in the two believing spouses is well worth the wait.
       If you proceed with your marriage plans, the prayer of the Church is that your Christian example and faith will lead your fiancé to want to know Christ and have Him complete your union. It is not a matter of honoring the memories of those who tragically died, but a commitment to build your marriage on Christ who is the cornerstone and the One who brings true life.

by Dan Christopulos

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