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by Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Geevarghese Kunnath, MD Cor Episcopa, Malankara World Board
Member
When we look at the Holy week beginning with Feast of the Entry into
Jerusalem ( Hosanna Perunal) and ending with the Feast of Feasts, The Feast
of the Holy & Glorious Resurrection Of Our Lord, it is obvious that it is
all about Jesus Christ, our Lord God Savior and Redeemer. Of course the Lord
does not exist without the holy glorious consubstantial and life giving
trinity. And we always have the Mother of God and All the community of our
saints to pray for us and intercede on our behalf. But during the Holy week,
Monday through Saturday, we focus on the life giving passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Christological controversies and disputes and quarrels in the early
centuries centered around the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) have created
endless and yet to be settled disputes and divisions in the Church which we
call the body of Christ. The Incarnation is difficult for the average person
to understand and that is why it is called an inexplicable birth or a
mystery of mysteries. But, as orthodox Christians of the Syriac tradition, we
believe in the mystery of the Incarnation and it is given to us to
understand it through our faith. One of many rewards of such/this faith is
that it makes us eligible to praise, bless and worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we offer thanks to Him who is the Incarnate God.
The Incarnate Lord ( Word, Logos ) is 100% God and at same time 100% man (
Divine and Human.) He was and is the only God-Man who walked the face of
this earth, the planet of His creation, taught man, healed man's illnesses,
fed the hungry and above all saved the entire human race from the bondage
they were under from their disobedience & sins. This Jesus Christ being true
God and true man, revealed God, His Being & Nature to us, His creation. Only
through God can God be known. But then if He was not true man, then God had
not yet been revealed to man. In CHRIST, God and Man was a ( one ) unified
personality ( person )The ONE INCARNATION OF CHRIST, the God-man from two
natures namely Divine & Human respectively though the union was without
confusion and without change. He is JESUS CHRIST, not just Jesus or just
Christ. He is The Messiah, The Logos, The very Image of the invisible God,
The cause of all things visible and invisible, The head of the Church, The
redeemer of the world and we spell God on earth as JESUS CHRIST.
The relationship of the Incarnate God Jesus Christ to the Godhead is
incomplete without a note on the interrelationship or the interworking's of
THE HOLY TRINITY. God is Triune. God is Love as Jesus Christ has revealed
Himself to be by His actions especially the ones we commemorate this week in
our Holy Week Services, His voluntary & life giving passion and death on the
Cross. Our church, as it believes, express its faith in the HOLY Glorious
Consubstantial and Undivided TRINITY of The Father, The Son and The Holy
Spirit, ONE in ESSENSE; Father, the ruler and creator, source of all
authority and power; Son, the only-begotten of the Father, the savior and
redeemer ; the All Holy Spirit, the sanctifier and the inspirer and the
perfecter. These truths are proclaimed in the last benediction and the
subsequent exaltation of the Holy Mysteries during our Divine Liturgy. And
our Divine Liturgy is unique in all the liturgies in this regard. The
mystery of the TRINITY again is not that simple to grasp. One God in three
Persons in the communion of the LOVE of GOD. It is this LOVE we say is GOD
which was there before eternity. THE PREETERNAL AND PREEXISTING GOD. THE
SAME, THE ONE and ONLY GOD FOR US BELIEVERS.
If we believe in this LOVE of GOD and then only we are able to understand
why this preexisting, self-sufficient and complete in every conceivable aspect
God wanted to create man to share HIS LOVE. Because that is the nature of
love, the DNA of LOVE! And that is the same reason or rationale why
Incarnation was necessary to bring the lost sheep back to the fold; not that
God did not have the fire power of the army of angels & archangels, but it
is not the way of LOVE. That is why He came down from heaven and was
incarnate of the Virgin Mary, The Mother of God & The Theotokos, and became
man....... etc.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us " Romans 5:8. The Cross of Calvary is the
demonstration of the supreme revelation of the overflowing and infinite love
of God for us. There no greater proclamation of God's Love than what we see
on the Cross; it is death defeating and it is The Sign of VICTORY over sin
and everything evil. It is the all-conquering love.
Let us have look at the story of THIS LONELY PERSON in a nutshell:
Born in an unheard of village of peasants; mom, a peasant girl; grew up
and worked in another village as a carpenter till 30; then he was an
itinerant preacher in the countryside; never travelled as much as even 200
miles from home, never having visited any metropolis; never had a curriculum
vitae or a college degree, He was 33 or so when the power of the people &
public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away in fear and one of
his friends ransomed him for some petty cash. He went through the mockery of
a kangaroo court trial; he was mocked, whipped flogged, tortured and skinned
alive, starved, dehydrated and bled to extreme exhaustion and finally nailed
to the cross in between two robbers as the ultimate insult & punishment.
While dying on the cross in agony, exhaustion and pain, his tormentors
gambled for his only world procession, his garment. When dead, he was put in
a borrowed cave grave courtesy of a friend. More than 20 centuries have
come gone since and today He is the central figure of the human race and all
the might of the earthly powers have not affected Him. This HE accomplished
through His most humble life, his extreme humility and his forbearance which
originated in His GODLY LOVE. Above all the mighty surprise: He did beat all
his enemies and all the evils of all times by defying death in HIS GLORIOUS
THIRD DAY RESURRECTION.
That is what we are celebrating.
With my prayers TO JESUS CHRIST that HE will hear our prayer and be merciful
to us all.
Very Rev.Fr. Dr. Geevarghese Kunnath, MD
See Also:
Good Friday Services - A Commentary on the Orthodox Liturgy
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