THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH 

AND THE BODY OF CHRIST

“And gave Him to be the Head of the Church 

which is His Body; 

the fulness of Him that fills all” (Eph. 1:22-23)

     The above verse from Holy Scripture completely crashes down all papal claims right onto the heads of the papists who falsely claim that their popes are heads of the church and that they own the church. For the Father gave Christ to be the Head of the Church which is His Body. There is only one Body of Christ and only one Head of the Church.  The papacy is fraudulent for it denies the truth spoken by Scripture that Christ is the one and only Head of the one Church. Instead of following Scripture they distort the words of Christ. For example, when Christ asked His disciples, Who do men say that I am? After various answers, Peter spoke and said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Christ replied and said, that Peter’s reply was from the Father in heaven and then said: “Upon this rock I will build my Church.” The Papacy then goes on twist the words saying that the Church would be built upon Peter and that Peter is the rock and head of salvation. But this contradicts the words of Scripture. The Papacy is not a Church for they broke away and established a pseudo-church and intrduced many heresies.

     The true Church is alive and is filled with holiness and truth having been in existence for almost 2,000 years. There is one Body of Christ and one Head of the Body. The Church remains the same through the years and Christ our Head is the only Godman, the only sinless one and He is uniquely above and beyond all men that ever lived.

     The holy Orthodox Church headed by Christ is guided by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. Not all men are part of His Body, but only those who respond to Christ’s call: “Come unto me . . . ”, for he welcomes all who hear His words and desire to enter His Holy Church. God highly exalts His Church just as He exalts Christ. In the future life the whole Church will be standing next to the Holy Trinity, for as Christ  its head is highly exalted so is His Body the Church to be highly exalted. Such glory and greatness will repentant sinners attain in the holy Church.

     Christ the Godman changed many things and does not condemn sinners but calls them to repentance and into the glory of His Church. It is most difficult to properly exalt Him, but let us just say, Glory to Jesus Christ our Savior and God, who gave himself to be crucified out of His perfect love for each of one of us. His judgments and generosity exalts and will exalt the human race for all eternity and His light shines brilliantly in the glory of the All-Holy Trinity.

     Knowing our blessed and noble destination which has been prepared by the Lord, we must respond to it quickly and fervently. Our hearts must respond to His love, for no one can ever love us as does Jesus Christ, no one could ever accomplish what He did on the Cross with His terrible suffering and death. We know that following His terrible suffering and death, He arose on the third day and will never die again.

     We the Church and His Body, are most blessed having such a Head as the Godman, who keeps us on course and on the road to everlasting life. Christ is  the “fulness of Him that fills all”, for Christ is everything and the God who brought everything into existence. All heaven and earth will glorify His holy name for ever and unto the ages.

     Christ being the Head cares much for His Body, the Church, and keeps it is under His care and protection. There are always evil minded men who try to change the truths of the Church but they will certainly fail though they could possibly harm weaker brethren. But the history of the Church triumphantly declares itself to all, for it has been kept pure and incorrupt for almost 2,000 years. But we must be vigilant and protect ourselves from attacks will come, and we must respond to these attacks for ourselves and for our families.

      For example, it is forbidden by both the Bible and the Church to intermarry Orthodox with those outside of the Church but unruly hierarchs allow this. They will have to answer but if it happens to us and our friends we have a responsibility to speak up. Again, there is no baptism possible outside the Church; but  the same type of hierarch accepts the heretical and ineffective baptisms which the Church forbids and our Creed declares, saying:“I believe in one baptism for the remission of sins.” Entrance to the Church is correctly done through baptism with three immersions.The great blessing of triune baptism is denied to converts coming into the Church. These things need to be corrected as soon as possible.

CALLED TO BE SAINTS

     All Orthodox Christians are called to become holy, that is, (“saints” in Greek), for they partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion in the Eucharist. In Holy Scripture, the Apostle Paul addresses the Christians in the city of Ephesus saying: “To the saints which are at Ephesus” confirming their calling was to become  saints. In order to partake of Holy Communion we first must first rid ourselves from all sins and violations of the divine law and thus do away with vices and then we can adorn ourselves with virtues. For the Holy Mysteries are offered to us in the Divine Liturgy with these words: “The holy things to the holy (saints.” For there is no other way to become holy but to partake of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. For we cannot take Communion unworthily which is a sin.

     To become saints is not for a few or small group,  but for all who will to partake for they bear the name of Christ are Christians, called to holiness and sanctity. The heavenly kingdom of God is filled with saints and those who were martyred for Christ. We certainly can clean our mouths and speak only good things and we can cleanse our minds so that they will contain only clean and good thoughts. Our bodies will humbly follow our minds and hearts..

     We pray to God repeatedly with this prayer: “Heavenly King and Comforter, Spirit of truth, who are everywhere present and fills all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell within us, cleanse us from every impurity and save our souls, O Good One. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy upon us. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy upon us. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy upon us. 

Lord cleanse us from our sins; Master pardon our iniquities. Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for your name’s sake.” Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy. Glory to the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and unto the ages of ages, Amen. 

These words indicate a holy attitude which is the only way to address our Lord, with praise and doxology. In the churches looking at the Holy Doors leading into the altar, we always see in the left side the icon of the Theotokos and Christ, and on the right side an icon of Christ. The Priest celebrates and intercedes for us and we realize that only through Christ and His Mother can we elevate our souls to the kingdom of God

    Instead of preaching the wicked nonsense and heresy of ecumenism, the Orthodox clergy ought to be teaching the faithful how to live their lives as saints, for this is possible for all those who make the effort. The early Church was made up of such sinless and sanctified saints This caused the Church to increase continually in members as it spread Christianity throughout the world.  In the early holy Church Saints were the norm and the unholy were the exception.

     If some would consider this objective to be out of reach, there are methods to return to such a beautiful heritage through the doors of repentance. We live in sins and iniquties because we sin and do not repent We ask God to give us a clean heart containing good feelings, and this will  inspire the mind to do the same, then the body will follow and such action, and this will  fills such souls with great happiness for they are doing the will of God Each and every one of us  are called to become saints!

     In our daily prayers we continually call God holy, also the Theotokos and the angels. We seek them as our companions and solicit their help in all things. We are called “sons and daughters of God” and we call God the Father in heaven addressing him as Christ taught: “Our Father”! We call the Kingdom of heaven holy, for who else but the holy ones can occupy heaven but the saints. Heaven is the dwelling place of all the saints and martyrs and hopefully we will all reach that perfect and eternal joy!

     Help for accomplishing our goal of becoming saints is readily provided by the Lord for He delights in those who seek to do His will and strive to become saints. Saints have become the minority in modern times, but more help than ever will be supplied to those who at least try.

     Living without God and being disinterested is without excuse, for if we don’t pray and give God glory and are not faithful, why do we tell people that we are followers of Christ with the name Christians. If we take the name Christian in place of atheism or paganism we should at least struggle to live a holy life. A vile and evil life is a sure ticket to eternal torment which we should bear in mind as we seek the mercy of God.

     Can married men and women become saints? Many early saints were unmarried and today’s married have just as good an opportunity to become saints if they make the effort. Our lives become good or bad as we choose them to be.  Let us consider a person who uses bad language. Surely with effort he can change and fight against it using only good language. Another may commit dishonest acts, but he can decide to change and perform only honest actions, accomplished through repentance by our choice.

     We all have the ability to go from worse to better or better to worse, to improve ourselves is naturally possible for men, otherwise the Lord would not have given us such ability and the law. If we choose to improve our lives we will find that every improvement gives us more self respect and causes happiness to begin to raise up  our souls. For the first one who will greatly rejoice in our future good behavior is ourselves. 

     We are certainly going to depart from this world andentering the next world we will be judged according to our deeds and faith in Christ and the keeping of His commandments. If we ignore Him and turn our faces away, we can expect Him to do the same to us, for as we sow so shall we reap.

“TRULY THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD”

“Now when the centurion and they who were 

with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake, and 

those things that were done, they feared greatly.  

saying, truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54).

     As Christ expired on the Cross, one of those who were gazing at Him was the centurion who spoke out saying, “truly this was the Son of God”. He was head of the some Roman soldiers and had been an idolater, but he saw everything and hence his faithful outcry before all. He was able to grasp what the chief priests and Pharisees could not understand, that this wicked group was had cried out to Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh. Those who crucified Christ were blinded by the evil one and were rendered unable to see what was really taking place, but the centurion, doing his duty, began to receive spiritual sight.

     The Jewish elders saw the sun as it darkened, felt the earth tremble and quake, observed the rent rocks, and they saw the curtain of the temple as it divided in two. They saw all this but were blinded and their hearts were hardened, for they viciously called for the crucifixion of the Godman.

     The centurion, whose name was Longinus, spoke from his heart which led him to believe in Jesus Christ and sfter fasting and prayer he underwent martyrdom and became a witness with deep  love for Christ. The Jews bribed many soldiers and unsuccessfully attempted to bribe Longinus to prevent him from giving his testimony of what He saw and heard.

     We cry out with Longinus. truly Christ is the Son of God!  This testimony can never leave mankind for it is truth and truth remains for ever. How few people in our days believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? How many follow His commandments and do His will? There is no other way of life but in Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God who became incarnate of the Theotokos. How manyare there who love Him above father or mother, wife or children as He demands? He is meant to be the all important one and He entered our lives, for He is the God who created us! How do those who know Him not express their gratification and love? 

     We have all sinned against God    And broken his commandments. Therefore all of us without exception or question deserve punishment and  death – that is eternal death which the unworthy will experience following this temporary life. God himself chose the way of delivering all of us from this terrible eternal suffering which was by sacrificing himself on the Cross Then after much suffering and  by His death He made it possible for every human being to escape eternal death and acquire everlasting life. There is no other way to escape eternal death and suffering except through Jesus Christ. He did this out of His great love for man so how is it possible for us not love Him in return glorifying His suffering for our deliverance? How is it possible for us to ignore such great love and sacrifice?

     God is love and we have learned how to love through Him who is the source of love and who loves us first and foremost. We show our love for our own beloved ones here on earth, how can we not show our love to the all-good and all-merciful Lord Jesus Christ?  God is life and goodness so how can we not realize that all the goodness we experience in our lives comes from Him alone, God is merciful and forgives us our sins as soon as we turn to Him with sincere repentance. To live this life without knowing and loving God is the greatest of all tragedies.

     Sadly there is a self-centered selfishness which we harbor within us that fails to give thanks to the one who gives us life, gives us food and well being. This selfishness in men causes them to dismiss God as either non existant or just not worth the effort. Woe to them! It would have been better if they had never been born.

     Let us join the centurion Longinus and with him cry out: “Truly this was the Son of God. Let every day of our lives be filled with thanksgiving and relentless prayer to our most glorious Creator and God. Then in this world which quickly passes and comes to an unknowable end with our death. Let us love and cherish our Lord and thus enter into eternal life while we are still here  on earth, Then we will in a constant state of joy and delight in His extreme beauty and great mercy for ever and ever. Amen.