The Holy Apostles – Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.” (Matthew 16, 13-19).
Peter addresses the Lord as the first among equals by honour, who at that moment expresses and testifies the faith and experience of all the Apostles, not just his own faith and experience. The Lord Jesus asked all the Apostles, but according to the established order, which is valid still to this day, in the Orthodox Church, the first among equals by honour announced the opinion of all, and spoke on behalf of all. Or, does anyone think that the rest of the Apostles merely happened by chance to follow the God-Man Christ and had nothing to say; those people even draw wrong conclusions from the opinion they hold. The false understanding of this key evangelical event causes its wrong ecclesiological interpretation and many misunderstandings afterwards.
The solid foundation on which the Lord Jesus builds His Church cannot be any man at random, but the man with the proper (Orthodox) faith in Him and the Apostolic Succession (lineage) – as an uninterrupted gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, (Who) through this gift, in the Holy Liturgy, attains the congregation of the faithful as the Risen and Ascended Body of Christ. Apostolic Successors – The Episcopes of the Orthodox Church are both witnesses of the sin and of the repentance of the people, and therefore have the power to tie and untie situations, on earth and in heaven. But they also have the obligation to lead the Church by personal example.
The Mystery of the Apostolic Succession is simultaneously the teaching and tradition (handing over) of the true faith (of the Truth), as well as sacramental tradition, which means the completion of the Divine Eucharist and the rest of the Holy Mysteries, i.e. dispensing of grace. The truth of the Church, not in the sense of the Persona of Christ, but in the sense of true faith, is above all uncreated and divine grace and God’s gift (charisma), the Revelation of God, and is essentially inseparable from the sacramental (charismatic) life of the Church, it is inseparable from the grace of the Holy Mysteries. So, where there is no Truth there are no Holy Mysteries; and conversely, where there are no Holy Mysteries, there is no Truth.
Again, Apostolic succession, is not acquired automatically, and therefore it cannot indeed be active nor effective if the one who receives it does not have an internal spiritual preparation for it. In respect of the order of Deacons, it is a serious undertaking for those who walk on the path of purifying the heart from passions; for the Presbyterian rank it is the level of enlightenment of the mind, with the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart; and for the Episcopal rank it is the level of deification of the whole person. We also call the inner spiritual cover (aptitude), the Royal or Eschatological Priesthood – a Priesthood that will adorn us in the Kingdom of Heaven and does not depend on whether someone is a bearer of the Priesthood as a Holy Mystery on earth. The mystery of this Royal and Eschatological Priesthood is understood only by the one who has it.
The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are order and regulation in the Church, as well as appointing someone who will guard and maintain it, and based on that order and regulation creating an atmosphere for the healing of our fallen (that is; proud, distracted and darkened) mind. This order, regulation and hierarchy must be observed if one wants to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and there is no other way nor some kind of fake key other than the right key, because God Himself oversees the entrance. This order and regulation must be respected by those to whom He gives externally, first of all, ranks, rights and authority, but also by those to whom He gives externally only a position of hierarchical subordination and obedience. The keys of the Kingdom to those who hold them are a double-edged sword. With that sword they can cut for the good of the Church, and they can also kill themselves spiritually. This is the simplest explanation.
The Episcope, by his position and office, is the supreme leader in the Church. However, due to a deviation from the Tradition of the Holy Fathers for the election and appointment of Episcopes, that is, due to the lack of internal spiritual cover (aptitude) among the holders of this high rank – deification, today in the Orthodox Church there is a crisis of effective spiritual and institutional leadership. The crisis in the leadership, in addition to the crises in the other spheres of the church life, on one hand manifests itself mainly as a mistakes (in any way) in the actions of the high ranking clergy of the Church, and on the other hand, as distrust of the people in the clergy in general, and in the Church perceived as an institution. All of these irregularities have their social and many other unforeseeable, deleterious consequences. You will read some of them below…
Thus, in regards to the theological and canonical firmly established position of the Episcope in the Church, we still cannot talk about the essence of some of the (supposed) leadership of him. When we talk about his position in the Church, we usually perceive formal leadership. One aspect is the authority of the Episcope arising only from the significance of the institution he represents, and another aspect is the authority of the Episcope occurring from the inner spiritual cover (deification) of his rank by which he represents the institution.
A true leader is one who attracts and whom one wants to follow, not the one that a person must follow because of the office he holds. Thus, it can be concluded that: the acquisition of the highest position in the Church does not in itself provide the authority of leadership, nor does the lack of having a formal rank and position of authority in the Church, in itself, imply the impossibility of spiritual leadership with authority. On the contrary, in the history of the Church when those two positions did not coincide, the charismatic always had greater authority than the institutional leadership.
The position of the First by Honour among the Episcopes is also interesting. It is clear to every sane person that such a position cannot be attained without God’s Providence, and it is clear to every sane person that such a position must not be undermined or destroyed, but rather supported and protected as much as possible. Thus, it would be enough for the First by Honour to insist on electing at least normal people for Episcopes, and by doing so, his position as primate would be safe from the evil influence of the human factor. In the history of the Church, we have had more than enough examples of bad selections to learn from. That is why the Church of God, under normal conditions, determined that the selection of Episcopes should be carried out from the order of proven monks, and not under the influence of other, subjective interests or conflicts of interest.
Towards the First by Honour among equals, Episcopes should cultivate a sense of fraternal obedience, although the Holy Canons do not regulate this aspect. It would be ideal if the First by Honour would be at the stage of his spiritual development which is as close as possible to the inner spiritual cover of his high order (rank) – deification, so that the Episcopes distinctive obedience would correspond to his spiritual authority, and not so much to his office. That which I have written is understood only by those Episcopes who, in their spiritual development, have seen the crucial importance of obedience in the overall God’s Dispensation of Salvation, in God’s Providence. It is now becoming clear to you why the choice of Episcopes was established by the Church to be made exclusively from the monastic order.
Here is the testimony of the most holy Apostle Paul about the good deeds and good fruits of the New Testament Priesthood, that is, Eschatological Priesthood – in all its dimensions, which, as we said, is an irreplaceable inner spiritual cover (aptitude) for the visible Priestly orders, which through the Mystery of the Apostolic Succession today, being unworthy, we hold:
“Brothers, God has placed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; We are weak, but you are strong; You are distinguished, but we are dishonoured!
To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, beaten, and homeless. And we labour, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things until now.
I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me, as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 4, 9-16).
And here is the testimony of the God-Man Jesus Christ about the bad deeds and the bad fruit of the Old Testament Priesthood – in all its dimensions, being abandoned by the Spirit of the Old Testament. These are the same distortions and deviations from the Truth that we see among today’s clergy (before all I write about myself), those that do not have the inner spiritual cover for the visible Priestly orders, which through the Mystery of the Apostolic Succession they are yet unworthy to hold their position and office.
“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’'” (Matthew 23, 1-7)
“How can you believe, when you receive honour from one another, and you do not seek the honour that comes the Only God?” (John 5, 44).
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who want to enter to go in” (Matthew 23, 13).
One simply has to ask himself: If the departure of the Old Testament Priesthood from God foreshadowed the birth of the Son of God from the Theotokos and the Ever-Virgin Mary, and the Holy Spirit – in the flesh, then is the departure of the New Testament Priesthood from the grace of the Holy Spirit not a foreshadow of Christ’s second coming in glory and for the general resurrection of the dead?
And now, we can summarise: The Church needs pastors who will restore the spiritual Orthodox life; who in practice and theoretically, with personal authority and example, will actualise the true Tradition of the Church; Pastors who will strive to preserve unity, as well as “leadership by honour” (First by Honour among equals) between the Leaders of the Churches; which will preserve the dignity (and ecclesiastical fullness) of the local Episcopal Church, as well as the pastoral authority and credibility of the local Church. Pastors who will not only deal with daily politics, cheap populism, false patriotism, but pastors in whom people with good intentions will recognise Christ. In a word, we need holy people.
Most-Holy Theotokos, through the prayers of the Holy Apostles, save us all!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
(11.07.2022 16:18)
