The Catalog of Good Deeds

Some key features:

– Christ’s cape/robe is flowing upward, this symbolizes his radical descent into Hades to save those who have died in the flesh.

– The golden bars by his feet are the gates of Hades, which he has broken and torn apart. There are keys floating in the abyss below, which symbolizes that he has entered and conquered both death and Hades.

– You may also note the skeletal figure who is chained up: that is Death and/or Satan. He has been bound and killed by Christ, which is why all throughout Pascha we sing “Christ has trampled down death by death.” The icon depicts Hebrews 2:14, “that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” The power of the devil and death have been destroyed through the life-giving death of our Savior.

– The two figures whom Christ has grasped and is pulling from tombs are Adam and Eve, symbolizing that his victory redeems all mankind, even back to the beginning. It also foreshadows the general resurrection of the body before the Final Judgment.

– To the left, we see three characters: David and Solomon, two of his ancestors according to his fleshly nature. We also see, closest to him, John the Baptizer, who was his forerunner in both life and death.

– The figures on the right vary from icon to icon. Initially, I was told that they generic representatives for those who are presently alive, but after further research I have discovered that all of the characters (on the left and right) are Old Testament prophets and saints. Moses is usually depicted on the right as well as other prophets. Additionally, there are the three youth who went into the fiery furnace and a shepherd, the latter of which may depict the ones who first venerated our Lord at His birth.

– The blue shape around Christ is called the Mandorla (which is Italian for almond, which describes its shape). The Mandorla is the uncreated, eternal light of Christ. In the writings of the Eastern Orthodox mystics, God is often prayerfully experienced as light. This is not simply a pretty bright light. It is the same light which filled the apostles with wonder when they witnessed His Transfiguration. It is the light which Christ Himself described as the power of the Kingdom of God (Mark 9:1 Matt 16:28 Luke 9:27). It is the light that filled the once perpetual darkness of Hades when Christ descended and brought life into the realm of death. It is also the light that is seen when one purifies their heart and mind (Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.)

– The Mandorla becomes progressively darker as it moves toward its center, which is Christ. If God is represented by light, the Mandorla may seem confusing. However, those who seek God will find that the more they know Him, the less they comprehend Him. To know God, to experience Him, is to walk in the darkness of His light, to enter into the mystery of His presence.

– One of the key things to remember is that icons are not meant to be “photo recordings” of what happened. These are symbolic tools that assists us in comprehension of the gospel truth through our sense of sight.

Source: http://www.orthodoxroad.com/christs-descent-into-hell-icon-explanation/

By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok

There is no death! You see?! And we need to live with this because life on the brink of a grave turns into hell. When people live hiding from themselves, their existence becomes just unbearable. When a person is lying to himself and is getting confused in simple things, then his whole life turns into torture and suffering. We cannot avoid sufferings, but still they can be different: some of them lead a person to eternal life, while the others bring him to his death.

Today we have entered the joy of the Lord. However, we cannon feel joy all the time. We can be in pain, we can lose other people, something can vanish or ruin in our lives – these things are unavoidable. People love each other and cannot stop thinking that they will bury each other sooner or later and that there will be nothing more than that… It is important for us to understand that we will not split up, we will be together forever because the Kingdom of Heaven is the victory over loneliness, over the life, in which a person is trapped in his shell but keeps thinking that his life is wonderful.

A person may have money, fame, respect, a position in this world, but all these achievements of his life are temporary, they will go eventually. With what is the soul of a person left then? This is why we need to gather God’s gifts and become rich in God (Ref. Luke 12:21). Today’s night is our small contribution to our heavenly life. We did not sleep, we got tired – and this is good! We made that for God. How often we got tired because of our own foolishness, how often we work without any reason, without understanding what we do this for and without getting anything! But here we have worked for God. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11).

Today we need to share this small drop of love, this particle of God's grace, with everyone who is around us, to give to everyone – then we will not be alone. How many people there are around us! We all are like small torches, which will spread all over the city and will bing light to the homes where we go and to the people to whom we will say, “Crist is risen!”

April 8, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Christ revealed to us that He will come at His Second Coming to judge the living and the dead. There is a well-known passage in Holy Scripture about the future Judgment, in which He will separate human beings, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and after an exchange of words, the righteous will go "into eternal life" and the sinners "into everlasting punishment" (St. Matthew 25:46). In the Creed (Symbol of faith) we confess, "And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead."

Before the Second Judgment the bodies of human beings will be resurrected. The first and second resurrections were mentioned earlier. The first resurrection is experienced through Baptism and Holy Communion, and the second resurrection is after Christ's Second Coming, so that the whole human being may live 'eternal well-being' or 'eternal distress.'

The iconography of the Second Coming of Christ shows what Paradise is and what Hell is.

"Please go and find the icon of the Second Coming, and you will see that around Christ are those who are in Paradise. They are in a golden light; the light surrounding them is golden. This same golden light, as it gets further away from Christ, begins to change color, and gradually, the further away it goes, it turns from gold to red; and in the red light are the damned. The saved see Christ in a golden color, and the damned also see Christ from a distance, but they see the Light of Christ as red, because for the former it is the glory of God and for the latter it is the eternal fire, outer darkness and 'the consuming fire.'"

From this point of view, therefore, we Orthodox Christians agree with the most liberal people in the world. No message can be more liberal than that of the Holy Fathers of the Church, who not only stress that, 'Son, we'll all go to the same place', as an old lady told me, but also emphasize that God loves everyone equally: the damned and the saved, the glorified and the saints, Angels and devils, good and bad, prostitutes and chaste...God loves all human beings equally, He loves everyone without distinction. From God's point of view, God saves everyone. He wants the salvation of all human beings, and he has preordained salvation for all.

How do we know this? Because even Hell is salvation (the human being is preserved) and Hell is a way of making perfect, but it is Hell and not Paradise. Because the one who is damned is incapable of progress, he is unable to accept progress towards perfection. Why? Because his conscience has been hardened, his heart has grown hard. He remains so egoistic and self-centered that his personality cannot develop from selfishness to unselfishness. Since he cannot develop anymore, he is perfected in his selfishness. Even Hell is evil for him. Although it is not punishment from God's point of view, it is punishment from the human point of view.

In other words, the man has remained uncured. Why? Because his heart needed to be cured, his heart or his nous (soul) was sick, and they did not receive treatment. But where does this treatment begin, how does it take place and how a human being secure it? In the Orthodox Christian experience, treatment begins here in this world."

In the Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) tradition about Paradise and Hell, we see view that differ from the Orthodox Christian teaching.

"Augustine's teachings about absolute predestination Hell and Paradise were based on those perceptions that he had, his legalistic views about the Fall of man and sin, combined with his neoplatonic perception of Paradise. He introduced into Christianity the idea that Hell is the subterranean regions underneath the earth, where people go to be punished. Paradise is outer space.

In those days they believed that things that were immutable were beyond the heavenly bodies, where there is no movement and no development, and that here on earth is the place of testing. So if we are good boys and girls we shall go to Paradise above the stars and the sky; and if we are bad we shall go under the earth to be punished in the subterranean regions."

Paradise in the Western (Latin or Roman Catholic) tradition was connected with the soul's happiness and the satisfaction of its desires.

"In the Orthodox Christian Tradition there is nothing like this. Why? Because man's destiny is not happiness; it is not satisfaction of his desires. The Holy Fathers do not teach that God will become man's possession or that man can use God--let alone his fellow human being--for his own happiness.

The capitalistic foundations that exist within the philosophy of medieval feudalism originate from Augustine, but mainly from the ancient Greeks. The teaching about the pursuit of happiness (eudemonism) started from the ancient Greeks, from Plato and Aristotle, with some opposition from the Stoics and the Epicureans. In the Christian tradition of the West, however, Aristotle and Plato prevailed. These elements do not exist in patristic theology."

In our own Holy Tradition, the human being is eternally advancing to higher stages of perfection. For us history never stops There is the history of the saints and there is also the eternal history of man. The fact that Christ was Resurrected with His Body and that Christ is fully human until now and for ever and ever means that Christ, His Body and His human nature, is part of history. Has His Body not acted continually until this day? There has been a succession of actions; the energies of the Body of Christ have not ceased. So the Body of Christ is an inseparable part of history, which is a guarantee that history is eternal. History will not come to a halt; although a number of theologians who believe in Plato say nowadays that history will cease. No, history will not come to a halt. Why will history not cease? Because the Body with which Christ was resurrected will exist for ever, and we shall be resurrected with bodies. We shall not be merely souls in paradise. We shall be complete human beings.

Then Westerners speak about Paradise and Hell from the standpoint of justice. This is sociological interpretation of eternal life...

"...Holy Scripture uses the words 'light' and 'dark cloud' to describe the state of the just, and the words 'fire' and 'darkness' to describe the state of sinners. We know, however, that the light is different from the dark cloud that covers the light. And fire is the opposite of darkness, because fire chases away darkness and illuminates the surroundings.

This shows that there are not created words to express uncreated reality absolutely. The Eternal Divine Light and the Eternal Life are uncreated. They are the energy of God that is experienced by human beings as illuminating or burning energy, depending on their spiritual state.

"All human beings will see the glory of God, and from this point of view they have the same end. Everyone will certainly see the glory of God, the difference being that, whereas the saved will see the glory of God as sweetest light without evening, the damned will see the same glory of God as consuming fire, as fire that will burn them. It is a true and predictable fact that we shall all see the glory of God. Seeing God, that is to say, His glory and His Light, is something that will happen whether we want it or not. The experience of this Light, however, will be different for the two categories.

The work of the Church and the priests is not to help us to see this glory, because that will happen in any case. The work of the Church centers on how each one will see God. Not on whether he will see God. In other words, the task of the Church is to preach to people that the true God exists, that God is revealed either as light or as consuming fire, and that at the Second Coming of Christ all of us will see God. And it must prepare its members so that they see God not as fire but as light."

The Church does not send anyone to Paradise or to Hell, but it prepares the faithful for the vision of Christ in glory, which everyone will have. God loves the damned as much as the Saints. He wants all to be cured, but not all accept the cure that He offers.

Paradise and Hell do not exist from the point of view of God, but from the point of view of human beings. God will love everyone equally. He will send His grace to all, in the same way as He will send His grace to all, in the same way as He "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Saint Matthew 5:45). But everyone will not accept God's grace in the same way. Some will see God as Light and other as fire. The same will happen as with Holy Communion. For those who prepare themselves appropriately, Holy Communion is "for eternal life", but for those who have "not been purified, Holy Communion is for judgment and condemnation…"

"...When someone reaches the point of seeing the glory of God after having gone through purification of the heart and reaching illumination, this illuminated human being sees the glory of God as light. But when someone who has not reached this Light, he sees it as consuming fire. Instead of seeing God as Light, he sees God as consuming fire."

"We know that if an Orthodox Christian who does not prepare himself correctly and reaches the point that his heart is hardened, he will see God as a consuming fire."

"Contrary to Augustine's ideas about Paradise and Hell, according to the other Fathers of the Church in both East and West, Hell and Paradise are the same thing. There is no difference at all. When someone sees God's glory with unselfish love, he sees God as paradise, and this is paradise…"

"The uncreated glory, which Christ has by nature from the Father, is paradise for those who self-centered and selfish love has been cured and transformed into unselfish love. However, the same glory is uncreated eternal fire and hell for those who have chosen to remain uncured in their selfishness."

By Father John Romanides

Source: http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2015/4/17/paradise-and-hell-according-to-the-orthodox-church

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent, answers various questions of the parishioners.

Why did Jesus have to die in order to save man?

The hardest, most painful and responsible phenomenon in our life is death. The world wasn’t created for dying and for people to bury their dead (Cf. Matthew 8: 22), but for people and other living creatures to live and rejoice. When sin entered this world and the man became mortal, only God was able to correct that mistake and defeat death. The man could not do it because his nature was corrupted by sin. That was why God became incarnated as a man and died for all of us.

In fact, God cannot die. The person who obeys God and fulfils his will by enduring suffering till the end, will overcome death. That’s why the mystery of our salvation is fulfilled on the Cross. The Cross was the most terrible and deadly tool used for execution of criminals. So Jesus bore our transgressions and liberated us from the curse of sin. This is why we say, I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. (Ps. 118: 17).

What do you mean by saying that Jesus took our sins upon himself?

The Lord’s human nature was without sin. He died for us on the Cross. He knew that He had to offer a sacrifice. The prototypes of the sacrifice at the Calvary in the Old Testament Church were lambs and doves, killed on the altar. The Lord took the guilt of the entire humankind because He could do so as our Creator, and He had the right to do so. He nailed the sins of the entire world to the Cross.

Things like these sometimes happen in our everyday lives, too: if someone is guilty and the other person takes his guilt upon himself, then the guilty person is released and the other person is punished instead. We know that Nun Maria (Skobtsova) went to a gas chamber during the war instead of a woman who had children. She died for the woman and her kids to remain alive. We know such cases from history. However, only Jesus Christ—only God—could redeem everyone and allow to choose between life and death. That’s what He did by dying on the Cross.

How can a person who is unable to fully appreciate church worship and joy during his earthly life be able to appreciate it after he dies?

St Justin Martyr quoted God as saying, “In whatsoever things I shall take you, in these I shall judge you.” (Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 47, cf. Matthew 24: 42). Right now, we see things as if through a dim glass. We can’t experience the depth and fullness of the spiritual realm but the small pieces that we can grasp really change our lives. Although we lose God’s grace time and time again, some grace is left inside our souls. It makes us hope that our souls, which have already tasted the grace and seen the love of God, will be able to contain everything the Lord has to reveal to them when they enter the eternal bliss.

There is a battle going on right now. Sin desensitises us and separates us from the most essential things. We keep losing that battle. We don’t know, we don’t see, we don’t hear… Notwithstanding this fact, if our souls move forward and do not want to stay in the darkness of sin; if we yearn for God, come to church and participate in worship; if we partake of the Blood and the Body of Christ — that’s when we may hope that we will ultimately be able to taste the delight of love, which the Lord has prepared for those who love him (See 1 Cor. 2: 9).

April 4, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

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Understanding Orthodox Icons: Descent into Hades

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"There Is no Death!": a Short Paschal Sermon

Orthodox Christian Tradition: Paradise and Hell

3 Answers from Father Andrew: Why Did Jesus Have to Die in Order to Save Man?

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