Sacraments

Mysteries

In recent centuries, the Orthodox Church has recognized seven mysteries for sacraments: baptism; chrismation; the Eucharist; confession; marriage; anointing of the sick and the priesthood.

The Apostolic Church received people through baptism and chrismation (confirmation); celebrated the Eucharist at least weekly on the Lords day; readmitted penitents through confession; sanctified the union of husband and wife; extended the healing ministry of Christ to those who were sick and selected and ordained her ministers. It is evident, therefore, that the Church gave special attention to these acts from the beginning. The mysteries are founded upon the words and actions of the Lord in Scripture and are, in a particular way, a continuation and an extension of his saving ministry. Among them, baptism and the Eucharist hold a preeminent position. While emphasizing the importance of the holy mysteries, Orthodox theology is careful not to separate or isolate them from the Churches many other rites of blessing, consecration and passage. "Between the wider and narrower sense of the term 'sacrament' (mystery) there is no rigid division: the whole Christian life must be seen as a unity, as a single mystery or one great sacrament, whose different aspects are expressed in a great variety of acts, some performed but once in a man's life, others perhaps daily."

Baptism

The mystery of Chrismation (Confirmation) is anchored in the events of Jesus' baptism and the outpouring of the Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost, yet, in the Lord's declaration "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God" (John 3:5). There is both an intrinsic unity and a distinction between the mysteries of baptism and chrismation. They are intimately related theologically and liturgically. Chrismation is not so much the second mystery as it is the very fulfillment of baptism. While baptism incorporates us into Christ's new risen existence, chrismation makes us partakers of his Spirit, the very source of this new life and of total illumination.

Chrismation is called the seal (rushmo). The candidate receives the Holy Spirit as the source, the pledge and the seal of unending life. Anointed with Chrism, we are marked forever as the sheep and soldiers of Christ. We belong to him and to his holy Church. Thus chrismation, once canonically performed, cannot be repeated. Chrismation is also a sacrament of reconciliation. People who come to Orthodoxy out of certain heretical confessions and schismatic churches are received through the mystery of chrismation. The ritual anointing "validates" through "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" a Christian baptism performed in irregular circumstances - i.e., outside the canonical boundaries of the Church."

Holy Confession

The sacrament of confession introduces us to the life-long process of grasping accepting and choosing to follow the values of the Christian life. Christians, are expected to govern their lives by the power of God. They are to undertake the noblest deeds and hold fast to both faith and virtue, and grow into the blessed likeness of Christ". The Church, however, has never considered Baptism to be an automatic guarantor of continuous salvation. It is only the beginning of the life in Christ. Its full effects are derived when the baptized are disposed to persevere and preserve the treasure to the end. The process of healing and restoring our damaged, wounded and fallen nature is on-going.

Through the mystery of repentance God embraces a repentant lapsed Christian with his love, in order to forgive him and reconcile him to the Church. But, for this to occur, the sinful Christian must first have a sense of his unfaithfulness to God, contrition of heart, and determination to amend. This must be followed by the confession of his sins before the authorized clergy of the Church. Both the interior repentance and the verbal acknowledgment of concrete sins are indispensable conditions for true forgiveness and reconciliation. Confession is the opening of one's conscience before God and the witness of the Church. Our Lord ordained this sacrament in the form of a law, giving power and authority to His ordained ministers to declare and pronounce absolution to the faithful who confess and repent of sins willingly committed after baptism. The faithful should consider the many sins he or she has committed and must truly and earnestly repent. One should then confess them to the priest without concealing them and, consequently, accept the canonical penalty.

Confession is essentially a healing ministry, since sin is viewed primarily as a disease that needs to be healed, rather than a crime that needs to be punished. And since everyone is susceptible to the wiles of the devil, a regular examination of the conscience deepens self-awareness and quickens the sensitivity of the heart. For this reason many persons as a matter of course have a father confessor who shares their concerns in the on-going process of spiritual development and growth.

HOLY EUCHARIST

The Eucharist or Divine Liturgy is the central mystery of the Church. It is at once the source and the summit of the life of the Church. In it, the Church is continuously changed from a human community into the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and the People of God. The Eucharist is the final and greatest of the mysteries "since it is not possible to go beyond it or add anything to it. After the Eucharist there is nowhere further to go. There all must stand, and try to examine the means by which we may preserve the treasure to the end. For in it we obtain God Himself, and God is united with us in the most perfect union."

In the Divine Liturgy we do not commemorate one or another isolated event of sacred history. We celebrate, in joy and thanksgiving, the whole mystery of the divine economy from creation to incarnation, especially "the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the enthronement at the right hand of the Father and the second glorious coming." Thus, in experiencing the reigning Christ in the Divine Liturgy, the past, present, and future of the history of salvation are lived as one reality in the mystery of the Kingdom of God.

Christ instituted the Eucharist at the supper on Holy Thursday in remembrance (anamnesis) of his redemptive work and to establish a continuous intimate communion between himself and those who believe in Him. The actions and words of the Lord concerning the bread and wine formed the basis for the Eucharist, the chief recurrent liturgical rite of the Church. The nucleus of every Eucharistic rite consists in four actions: the offering and the placing of bread and wine on the holy Table; the anaphora or great Eucharistic prayer, which includes the words of institution and the invocation of the Holy Spirit to change the gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ; the breaking of the consecrated Bread (i.e., the fraction); and the communion of the consecrated elements by the people of God.

Anointing of the Sick

"Is there any sick man among you? Let him send for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him. The prayer offered in faith will save the sick man and the Lord will raise him from his bed, and he will be forgiven any sins he has committed" (James 5:14-15).

St. James describes the anointing of the sick, providing the apostolic foundations for the sacrament of unction, or more properly, the anointing of the sick. In keeping with the biblical injunction, the Orthodox order for the celebration of this sacrament calls for a group of presbyters to be present at it but this requirement is only of secondary importance. Nor is it required that the person receiving the sacrament be seriously ill as some have supposed. Bodily healing as well as the forgiveness of sins are the primary purposes of this sacrament and only in cases of immanent death can it be considered a preparation for it.

Orthodox theology has always stressed the unity of body and soul and this means that there can be no sharp dichotomy between physical and spiritual; the readings and prayers used in the rite of anointing of the sick certainly do not assume that physical healing is assured framework of repentance. The anointing symbolizes ultimate pardon in the face of sickness and even death, physical results of the spiritual disease of sinfulness. Anointing of sick itself has frequently been associated with penance as a single action and in some instances it has even superseded penance. The popular public celebrations of unction on Holy Wednesday in the practice in many Orthodox churches. Anointing is meaningless without true contrition

Priesthood

The priestly ministry of Christ is perpetuated in the Church by the ministerial priesthood, existing in the three essential ministries of bishop, priest and deacon. These are set apart by the grace of ordination to serve the Church; to preach, teach and shepherd the people of God; to celebrate the sacred mysteries; to preserve correct doctrine; and to keep the body united in the love of Christ. The ministerial priesthood belongs to the very essence and structure of the Church, having been established by the Lord Himself. The gifts and functions once given to the Apostles are transmitted to the ordained ministers through the mystery of the priesthood in the rites of ordination.

The Bishops are the successors to the Apostles, the chief shepherds and administrators of the Church and the guardians and teachers of the true faith. They are the celebrants and ministers of the mystery of the priesthood. While the right to choose the ministers of the Church belongs to all the clergy and the people, the bishop alone has the authority to ordain and appoint priests and to consecrate churches. As a sign of the collegiality of the episcopacy, three bishops (or at least two with the consent of a third) ordain a bishop. In all other ordinations, one bishop will suffice. Since the sixth century bishops have been selected from the celibate clergy. Presbyters (priests) and deacons, however, are permitted to marry but only before ordination.

The ordination of the major orders is held during the course of the Divine Liturgy. In theory Bishops are supposed to be ordained before the scripture readings and Anaphora. This is to indicate that a bishop is the primary expounder of the faith and celebrant of the mysteries. A priest is ordained right before the Anaphora, because he too is a celebrant of the mysteries. A deacon is ordained after the consecration of the Gifts and before Holy Communions, because he assists at the liturgical services and administers Holy Communion. Nowadays all the ordinations in our Church are done right after the elevation of the mysteries, during the intercessions songs - after the second quqliyon The righteous shall flourish like palm trees. The primary signs of all ordination rites are the prayers and the laying on of the hands upon the heads of the candidate by the bishop. There is a distinction between the rites of ordination for the major and minor orders.

Marriage

Our entertainment-saturated society helps feed all sorts of illusions about reality. The fantasy of the perfect romantic and sexual relationship, the perfect lifestyle, and the perfect body all prove unattainable because the reality never lives up to the expectation. The worst fallout comes in the marriage relationship. When two people cannot live up to each other's expectations, they will look for their fantasized satisfaction in the next relationship, the next experience, the next excitement. But that path leads only to self-destruction and emptiness.

Marriage is the capstone of the family, the building block of human civilization. A society that does not honor and protect marriage undermines its very existence. Why? Because one of God's designs for marriage is to show the next generation how a husband and wife demonstrate reciprocal, sacrificial love toward each other. But when husbands and wives forsake that love, their marriage fails to be what God intended. When marriage fails, the whole family falls apart; when the family fails, the whole society suffers. And stories of societal suffering fill the headlines every day. Marriage as it was meant to be is implied in the creation of man as male and female in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Husbands and wives need to mirror their relationship the way the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to each other in the Godhead - man is created in the image of the Holy Trinity. There has to be a perichoresis - a relationship of intimacy and pure reciprocity that does not result in abuse, confusion or loss of identity.

Marriage for a Christian is a testimony to the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. Marriage will either tell the truth about that relationship, or it will tell a lie. One has to ask the questions - What is my marriage saying to the watching world? If a man's/women's walk is in the power of the Spirit, yield to His Word, and be mutually submissive, they can know that God will bless them abundantly and glorify His Son through their marriage.