1st Sunday of the fast. Sunday of Orthodoxy

[Mary Naeem]

1st Sunday of the fast. Sunday of Orthodoxy

(John. 1, 44-52)

Orthodoxy is Christ

Orthodoxy isn’t a philosophic system or religion that forces us to suffer hardships, to be disciplined, or that has a list of requirements. Orthodoxy is Christ, and Christ is everything. And the point is to find that which is Christ, to be united with Christ—with the true Christ—for Christ to live in you and you to live in Christ, for you to find true life and to become a true human being. This is Orthodoxy. Through this thing called Orthodoxy, this thing called the Orthodox Church, the true Christ is revealed, who fills a human being, heals him, gladdens him, and makes a human being human.

An Orthodox person is someone who humbly, innocently, guilelessly, without insolence and being wise,bows the knee before God, and within the Church. He encounters Christ, and Christ is revealed to him, speaks to his soul. Such a person will spontaneously confess: “My Christ, you are my God; you are my Lord; you are everything. This is what I have been seeking my whole life, this is the truth, this is what every human being seeks: and I thank you that I found it”.

May God help us and make us worthy to become Orthodox in this sense. Then we will realize that what humanity lacks today is Orthodoxy in this sense of the word.

If things go badly in all the world, this happens so as to manifest to what degree everything has and will fail, because everything is a lie. The only thing that will remain is orthodox truth, that is, Christ, who did not make the world to be destroyed. The world moved toward destruction, but Christ became man and was revealed to men through His Church in order to save the world. And Christ will save the world by saving His Church.