Sunday of the Commemoration of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

 By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

(Homily Delivered in c. 1980)

1. Today our Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod (787). As in the past, a heresy also caused this synod, the Iconoclast heresy. Apart from its undeniable Christological content, Iconoclasm had a clear ecclesiastical character. It was an overt attack by the State, which was no longer acting as "God's minister for good" (Rom. 13:3), against the Church. The two ministries of the citizens, the "Priesthood" and the "Kingdom", the priestly and the state ministry, stood opposite each other. The State sought to subjugate the Church, in an unprecedented explosion of politicism. Heresy was the spiritual background of the problem.

The Challenge of the Enlightenment and the "Kollyvades" Fathers

By Protopresbyter George D. Metallinos

In the 18th century, a new adventurous meeting of the Orthodox East and the West took place, which in its basic points is a repetition of the similar process of the 14th century. The successors of the Hesychasts of the declining Byzantium were the Kollyvades Fathers of Mount Athos, while in the place of the "Latin-Greek" Barlaam the Calabrian, that is, the bearer and exponent of the "European" consciousness, stood the most official representatives of the Greek Enlightenment, mainly clergy and monks as before. This was a new phase of our long-standing national division, of the long-running "spiritual dualism" which permanently devours our national flesh. This spiritual crisis is understood - correctly to a point - as a crisis of national identity. It is important, however, that again Mount Athos, a place more sensitive to issues of tradition, becomes the focus of the new conflict, since it has now been accepted (eg. Demetrios Apostolopoulos) that Mount Athos, in the figures of the Kollyvades, not only influenced, but also directed the struggle of the National Center in those truly crucial historical choices.

What Is Orthodoxy? (Protopresbyter George Metallinos)

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos,
Professor Emeritus, School of Theology, University of Athens

In speaking about Orthodoxy, we must not repeat the mistake of Pilate when he asked Christ, “What is truth?”1 The correct question is: “Who is Truth?” For the truth is not an idea, a theory, or a system, but a Person, the All-Holy Person of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ. This is how we should ask about Orthodoxy, too, since it is identical with the Theanthropic Person of God the Word. He, as God-Man is Orthodoxy; He is the All-Truth.

1. If we wanted to define Christianity, qua Orthodoxy, in conventional terms, we would say that it is the experience of the presence of the Uncreated (God)2 in history and the potential for the created (man) to become God “by Grace.” Given the continuous presence of God in Christ in historical reality, Christianity offers man the possibility of deification (θέωσις = theosis), just as medical science provides him with the possibility of maintaining or restoring his health, though in both cases through a definite therapeutic process and a specific way of life.

 

The Kollyvades Fathers: The Renaissance of Greek Orthodoxy

By Protopresbyter Fr. George D. Metallinos

I dedicate this summary to the Venerable Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Kollyva (+ 07/14/1809).

The appearance of the Kollyvades in the 18th century on the Holy Mountain, and more broadly throughout Greece, marks a dynamic return to the roots of Orthodox tradition and to Orthodox spirituality.

Their "movement", as it is called, was a renaissance, both traditional and progressive; it was patristic and thus genuinely Orthodox.

Father George Metallinos Resource Page

 

Fr. George Metallinos Has Reposed

 

What Is Orthodoxy? (Protopresbyter George Metallinos)

 

Orthodoxy as Therapy (Fr. George Metallinos)  

 

The Truth About Christmas and the Myth-Making of Christmas 

 

The Resurrection of Christ and the Death of Death: The Greatest Event in Human History 

 

The Resurrection of Christ is the Annihilation of Death 

 

Paradise and Hell In the Orthodox Tradition 

 

Meatfare Sunday: Love, Yes, But What Kind of Love? 

 

Cheesefare Sunday: The Weapons of a Christian (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

The Victory of the True Faith 

 

Heretics: Unhealed Healers (Fr. George Metallinos) 

 

Constantine the Great and Historical Truth   

Sunday of the Commemoration of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

The Message of the Teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas for our Times 

 

Saint Gregory Palamas, Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod (1 of 3) 

 

Saint Gregory Palamas, Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod (2 of 3) 

 

Saint Gregory Palamas, Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod (3 of 3) 

 

Historical Introduction to the Fall of Constantinople (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

The "Kollyvades" Fathers of the Holy Mountain 

 

The Challenge of the Enlightenment and the "Kollyvades" Fathers

 

Life of Kosmas the Aitolos (Fr. George Metallinos) 

 

The Example of the Centurion (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

Homily on the Seventh Sunday of Matthew - On Pharisaism (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

Faith And Science In Orthodox Gnosiology and Methodology 

 

Orthodox Faith and the Natural Sciences 

 

The Transplantation of the Western Conflict with Science in the Orthodox East 

 

The Orthodox Scientist Today (Fr. George Metallinos) 

 

Burial or Burning? An Orthodox Evaluation of Cremation 

 

The Wives of Priests as Heroic Women 

 

The Lessons I Learned From My Acquaintance With the Athonite Father Paisios 

 

Interview with Father George Metallinos About Saint Porphyrios 

 

Obituary For Protopresbyter John Romanides (+ 11/1/2001) 

 

Judas in Orthodox Hymnography (Fr. George Metallinos) - 1 of 3

 

The Judases of the Church (Fr. George Metallinos)

 

(1) Orthodoxy's Worship: Christian Worship 

 

(2) Orthodoxy's Worship: Liturgical Order and Historical Evolution 

 

(3) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Worshiping Community 

 

(4) Orthodoxy's Worship: “Churchifying” the Agents 

 

(5) Orthodoxy's Worship: Liturgical Theology 

 

(6) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Liturgy 

 

(7) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Sanctification of the Entire World 

 

(8) Orthodoxy's Worship: Worship and Spiritual Life 

 

(9) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Liturgy After the Liturgy

 

Orthodoxy as Therapy (Fr. George Metallinos)

Orthodoxy as Therapy

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

If we wanted to give a conventional definition of Christianity, as Orthodoxy, we would say it is the experience of the presence of the Uncreated (God) within history and the possibility of those who are created (people) becoming God "according to grace".

Given the perpetual presence of God in historical reality in Christ, Christianity offers mankind the possibility of theosis, just as Medical Science offers mankind the possibility of preserving or restoring his health through a specific therapeutic procedure and a specific way of life.

Fr. George Metallinos Has Reposed

Today, 19 December 2019, at the age of 79, Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos reposed in the Lord. He left behind his wife Barbara, his three children and ten grandchildren.

Fr. George was a great and important theologian of the Church of Greece and the author of dozens of significant books and articles. He was distinguished by his faithfulness to the patristic Orthodox tradition, uncovering the authentic history of the Church especially in the modern era, and teaching theology as something that is primarily empirical.

Interview with Father George Metallinos About Saint Porphyrios

K.I.: Father George, it is with great pleasure, that we'll hear you speak about, first, the personality of Elder Porphyrios, and then place that holy man, theologically and ecclesiastically.

Fr.G.M.: I would like to thank both you, Mr. Ioannides and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, for giving me this opportunity to speak to your fellow Cypriots about this great man.

I will share some personal experiences with you that I can say were completely spontaneous. I must confess that although you informed me in plenty of time about this discussion, I avoided making any preparation, so that I could allow my heart to speak at this sacred moment.

The Lessons I Learned From My Acquaintance With the Athonite Father Paisios

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

On July 12th is honored the newly-appeared star of Orthodoxy, Saint Paisios the Athonite, or "Father Paisios", as we used to call him.

I have often been asked to give an opinion on Father Paisios, but I have avoided it. Not by indifference or devaluation of the person - away with the blasphemy! My hesitation is due to the fact that I do not consider myself worthy of such a thing. The Apostle Paul taught us that "he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" (1 Cor. 2:15) (The bearer of spiritual gifts sees and understands everything, but he is not understood by anyone who is not illuminated by the Holy Spirit.) And according to Saint Makarios of Egypt: "He knows each man, from whence he speaks, and where he stands, and what measures he is in; but not a man of those that have the spirit of the world is able to know and judge him, but only he that has the like heavenly Spirit of the Godhead knows his like."

The Message of the Teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas for our Times

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

(May 2010)

Hesychasm1 is the quintessence of the Orthodox tradition, identified with what it encompasses and expresses, the term ORTHODOXY. Outside of the hesychast tradition Orthodoxy is non-existent and inconceivable. The practice of hesychasm, moreover, is the "touchstone" for the recognition of authentic Christianity. Through "fasting, vigils, prayer" - with the practice of hesychasm, the heavenly gifts are acquired, according to the Orthodox patristic tradition. It should be made clear from the outset that Hesychasm means mainly the path to theosis and the experience of theosis, and secondarily examining and recording this path and experience, which is the academic meaning of the term "theology".

Heretics: Unhealed Healers (Fr. George Metallinos)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

Heresy is not just an error of the reasoning faculty, nor are heretics simply misplaced in finding the truth. In their case something happens deeper and more substantial. They know the Bible to the letter, often in amazing ways. But they lack something essential, and this lack radically distinguishes them from the Fathers. They lack the experience of the Holy Spirit of the Fathers, the interior illumination of the Spirit. This is because they have not gone through the therapeutic process of the Church.

The Victory of the True Faith

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

On 11 March 843, which then was the first Sunday of Great Lent, a synod in Constantinople "restored" once again onto the pillars of the churches the holy icons, thus bringing to an end the political and religious upheavals of Iconoclasm (726-843). This was pioneered by one woman, the Empress Theodora, confirming the fact that women, as a permanent institution of culture, save faith! Theodora had a venerable ending to her life in the Monastery of Gastria, and perhaps some may not know that her incorrupt and imperishable relic can be found in Kerkyra.

Saint Gregory Palamas, Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod (3 of 3)

...continued from part two.

The Theology of Theosis

Saint Gregory Palamas, on this point, continues the work of Photios the Great. The first to become aware of the alienation of western Christendom - that it is something else, beside the Christianity of the Fathers - was Saint Photios, in his famous work "On the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit", which until today is a source for the teachings and writings of all the Theologians on the Holy Spirit. Saint Gregory Palamas opened the road even further. With the challenges of Barlaam the Calabrian, he captured the complete alienation of western Theology. What is the essence of the teaching of Saint Gregory, who continued in the tradition of the Holy Fathers? Saint Gregory Palamas recapitulates the Holy Fathers of all ages, and he restates and re-expresses this faith with the means given to him by his era. Saint Gregory Palamas expresses the same Orthodoxy, in his own language, in his own way, yet remained faithful to the theological confession of the Fathers of the previous centuries. First he makes the distinction between the essence and energies of God, which he calls the "distinction of the divine-befitting and the unspeakable", which is the condition of theosis.

Saint Gregory Palamas, Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod (2 of 3)

...continued from part one.

The Institution of the Ecumenical Synods

In the title we spoke of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod. What is the Ninth Ecumenical Synod that connects us with Saint Gregory Palamas? It is known from history that we officially have Seven Ecumenical Synods. The Ecumenical Synod is the supreme criterion of ecclesiasticity. For us Orthodox, the highest form of ecclesiastical polity is the Ecumenical Synod. Our pinnacle is not a man, such as the Pope - which is our core dispute with the papacy. Protestants abolished everything, because they did not want to keep anything from the tradition of the Church and they distort it. The papacy replaced the Ecumenical Synod with the Pope and made Ecumenical Synods an institution of the papacy, a handmaid of papal plans.

In Orthodoxy there exists and will exist until the end of history, the Ecumenical Synod as the supreme institution in its life. By "ecumenical" is meant a synod of the entire state. According to Xenophon and Greek Byzantium, or Greek Romania, the term "ecumenical" essentially meant the state (ecumenical teacher, ecumenical father, etc.). An Ecumenical Synod, therefore, is a Synod of the entire state, and it addresses major problems of faith and order within the Church. Ecumenical Synods require a crisis in the Body of the Church, which means that salvation is threatened. Then the mouth of the Church, the Ecumenical Synod, proclaims, in every instance, salvific Truth, in accord with the Fathers, the Apostles, the Prophets and the Mothers of all ages. As an example we have the First and Second Ecumenical Synods of 325 and 381, which dealt with the problem, or rather the scourge, of Arianism and the Trinitarian problem. In 381 we thus have the confession of faith, known as the "Creed", which we recite during the Divine Liturgy and in many other services. The Creed is a confession of faith that saves, that leads to theosis, based on the heresies arising from Arianism. It is not the entire faith of the Church.

Saint Gregory Palamas, Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod (1 of 3)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

Revered fathers, beloved brethren! The commemoration of Saint Gregory Palamas is concurrent with the 14th of November. The Synod of 1368, however, which proclaimed the holiness of Saint Gregory Palamas to the world due to the miracles he performed, and not because of his education nor his writings, which were of the highest standard of his time and in accordance with the holy patristic theological tradition, moved the commemoration of Saint Gregory Palamas to the Second Sunday of Great Lent. It is a symbolic and decisive act, because in our day he is honored by Orthodox throughout the world as an extension and continuation of the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The victory of the Church as the Body of Christ and a society of Christ against error continues. It is not a victory of one person against other persons, nor the victory of one faction against another faction, but it is the victory of Faith. The triumph of Faith as a way of thinking, a way of life and a holy spiritual experience, that can lead man to theosis. It is thus a victory of salvation, which was introduced into history by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was fleshless in the Old Testament and incarnate in the New Testament.

To understand the importance of Saint Gregory Palamas, who in tonight's speech we call a Father of the Ninth Ecumenical Synod, I wanted to delineate the components of this title.

A Homily for Meatfare Sunday: The Love the Lord Seeks on Judgement Day (Fr. George Metallinos)

Meatfare Sunday: Love, Yes, But What Kind of Love?

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

1. In today's Gospel reading we are reminded of a great truth. Last Sunday, the sacred Gospel spoke to us about the goodness of God the Father, who awaits the return of that which He fashioned. But this should not lead us to forget His justice. God is not only a loving Father, but also a just Judge.

"Neither is His mercy without judgement, nor His judgement without mercy," says Basil the Great. The Gospels tell us that He will judge the world, and not arbitrarily, but according to our works. Today's reading, therefore, brings us before the event of the Judgement. And we say "event" because this global Judgement is for our Faith an eschatological certainty and reality, which is acknowledged by our Creed as part of our ecclesiastical Faith: "And He will come again to judge the living and the dead...."

We are called, therefore, today to realize three things:

The Truth About Christmas and the Myth-Making of Christmas

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

The purpose of the incarnation is the deification of man. "God becomes man to make Adam god" (Christmas hymn). "He became man, that we may become god" (Athanasius the Great). "God became a man and man became a god" (John Chrysostom). To the rationale of a moralist, the term "became god", as it is used by the Fathers, such as Athanasius the Great, is a scandal. This is why they talk about a "moral deification". They are afraid to accept that deification alters "by grace" to what the Triune God is "by nature" (uncreated, without beginning, immortal). Christmas is, therefore, directly connected with the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and the Ascension and Pentecost.

The Wives of Priests as Heroic Women

On March 8th, which is International Women's Day in the United Nations, Presvytera Barbara Metallinos spoke about the role of women and especially the role of the wife of a priest in contemporary society. Presvytera Barbara, a theologian and scholar in her own right, is the wife of the distinguished scholar Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos, and is President of the Association of the Unborn Child "The Embrace" in Athens. For half a century she has stood by the side of her husband and has much wise advice for women today who decide to become heroic women as wives of priests.

The Resurrection of Christ and the Death of Death: The Greatest Event in Human History

The Resurrection of Christ and the Death of Death

The Greatest Event in Human History

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest event in the course of History. It is the event that differentiates Christianity from any other religion. The other religions have leaders who are mortal, whereas the head of the Church is the Risen Christ. “Resurrection of Christ” means deification (theosis), the resurrection of human nature, and the hope for the deification and resurrection of our own person. Since the medicine was found, there is hope of life.

Through the Resurrection of Christ life and death acquire another meaning. Life means communion with God. Death is no longer the end of the present life, but is now man’s turning away from Christ. The separation of the soul from the body is not death, but an interim sleep.

The Resurrection of Christ justifies Christ’s uniqueness and exclusivity as Savior, who is truly able to create life, to transfuse His death-destroying Life into our corruptible life. One is the Christ, one is the Resurrection, one also is the possibility of salvation - deification. This is why it is on Him that we focus the expectation of getting over the impasses that choke our life. This is the Christ of the Saints, the Christ of History.

The “diluted Christ” of the heresies, or the “relativized Christ” of religious syncretism, the inclusive-religion of the new age, constitute a rejection of the true Christ and of the Salvation which is offered by Him.

The Christ of our Saints is the Christ of History, who excludes every confusion of Himself with any saving substitutes which are invented in order to deceive the masses. Because only in this way can fallacy maintain deception, facilitating the domination of antichrists (which may have intruded even inside the Church) who spread death, although they appear as “angels of light” and “ministers of justice.”

It is from the experience of our Saints that we realize that the most tragic beings are those “that have no hope” – hope of resurrection – but see biological death as the destruction and end of their existence. Unfortunately, even science bows to this tragic condition as it desperately searches to find methods of prolonging life and thereby transmits the delusion of overcoming natural death. However, equally tragic are those – even Christians – who are trapped into hermetically sealed compartments of chiliastic visions of universal prosperity and secular eschatology, and thereby lose the true meaning of the Resurrection, and sacrifice the supernatural to the natural and the eternal to the temporal.

The Resurrection of Christ as the resurrection of man and of the entire creation acquires its meaning only in the context of the Patristic doctrine of salvation. That is, only in sharing in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. This is the way that Hellenism appropriates the Resurrection in the course of its history. Orthodoxy, remaining faithful to the Resurrection of Christ, has been characterized as “the Church of the Resurrection,” because it builds up its entire historic presence on this faith, inoculating with the hope of the Resurrection the consciousness of its Peoples, and by this means reveals its cultural continuation. Among these Peoples of Orthodoxy the Greek People learned to dispel the dark nights of their enslavement with the Light of the Resurrection, as in the period of Tourkocratia (Turkish-occupation), when they joined to the salutation “Christ is Risen” the other one “and Greece is risen!” And they did this for 400 years.

It is within this context of perception that that hopeful invitation moves: “Come and receive the Light!” It is the invitation to the uncreated Light of the Resurrection, which is received by those who have cleansed their heart from vices and passions. Without the purification of the heart, i.e., without repentance (metanoia = change of mind), no one can partake of the Light of the Resurrection. Repentance is the transcendence of sin and of the cause of every one of our deaths. This is what they are constantly reminded of in their ears those who are uninitiated by the curious monastic saying: “So, if you die before you die, you will not die when you die!”

From The Forerunner, April–May–June 2013. Translated by Fr. George Dragas. Edited by John Sanidopoulos.

(9) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Liturgy After the Liturgy

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos

9. The Liturgy After the Liturgy

Ecclesiastical worship is the “Time-Space” in which the Christian ethos is shaped. During worship, the faithful rediscovers the proper meaning of a moral lifestyle, which cannot be shaped on the basis of a certain juridical relationship with God, but through the metamorphosis and the renovation of Creation and Man, in Christ. The Christian ethos is a liturgical one and it springs from one’s personal relationship with the Lord of the Church, Who offers Himself voluntarily “for the nourishment of the entire world”. This relationship, with its triple reference (Man-God-World) is realized during worship, according to the words of the Apostle Paul: “For, if you have also risen in Christ […] make dead your members on earth […] divesting yourselves of the old self […] and putting on the new …” (i.e.: So, if you have been resurrected along with Christ, then deaden everything earthen that is inside you, rejecting the old persona and donning the new one) (Colossians 3:1). This is the continuous “baptism” of the faithful within the new life of the mystery of faith.

In the Church’s worship, a person’s entire life is re-defined, now becoming Christ-centered. “Now everything is filled with light.” The faithful, having been flooded by this light, are invited to become a spiritual river – one that flows from the Holy Altar to irrigate the world salvifically. Ecclesiastical worship thus substantiates that which constitutes the Church’s offer in History. It does not provide any code of moral behavior or a system of moral rules; only a life and a society that can function as “yeast” that will leaven the world with its sanctifying presence, beginning from the micro-society. Participation in worship – if it is genuine – is a participation in the death of self-seeking and individualistic demands and a resurrection into the “in-Christ” reality, which is the purpose of the Church. The eschatological conscience that is inspired by Orthodox worship is oriented towards eschatological behaviors, by transcending the danger of secularization and any other compromises and configurations.

It is therefore understood that any alienation from the liturgical experience will, beyond other things, alter one’s beliefs and decompose one’s life, by transforming the ecclesiastical BEING into various anti-Christian substitutes (moralism, pietism, ritualism, etc.). Besides, we must not forget that the community ethos of Hellenism’s Orthodoxy and the free-spirited stance during the oppressive period of slavery had been shaped within Church worship: the only assembling of the population that never fell into decline. And this is a real blessing, thanks to which, by the Grace of God, in our difficult times, both our People and our Youth are once again finding the path that leads to the Church and Her worship.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy (this was its ancient ending), the Officiator would say to the laity: “Let us depart in peace”. This was not merely a formal announcement of the ending of a “religious duty”, but a motivational expression to relay the light of divine peace into the darkness of our world. The Church and Her Worship exist for the world – for its salvation. The Liturgy of the Church prepares the exit of the faithful into the world, both for testimony of the “Grandeurs of God”, as well as for the missionary calling for salvation in Christ. Christ’s sacrifice and His Resurrection, mysteries that are perpetually ever-present and experienced during worship, perpetually irrigate the world in a salvific manner. The faithful are those channels of Divine Grace that lead to the parched land of our societies – through which channels the “Light of Christ” can “shine on everyone” – shed its light on everything!

Bibliographical Notes:

Fr. G. D. Metallinos, The Theological Witness of Ecclesiastical Worship, Athens 1996.

Chr. Yannaras, The Freedom of Morality, Athens 1979.

Fr. John Zizioulas (Metropolitan of Pergamus), Creation as Thanksgiving: A Theological Approach to the Problem of Ecology, Athens 1992.

Fr. John Zizioulas (Metropolitan of Pergamus), "Eucharist and Kingdom of God", Synaxis, vol.49 (1994) – 51 (1994).

Evangelos G. Theodorou, Liturgical Lessons, Athens, 1986.

Fr. Al. Schmemann, Liturgical Rebirth and the Orthodox Church (Greek transl. by N. Christodoulou), Larnaca, Cyprus, 1989.

Fr. Al. Schmemann, The Church in Prayer – An Introduction to Liturgical Theology (Greek transl. by D. Tzerpos), Athens 1991.

P. N. Trembelas, The Principles and the Character of Christian Worship, Athens 19932.

Fr. Vlassis Feidas, see “Ecclesiastic History”, vol. Α’ – Β’ Athens 1992 and 1994.

Hans-Joachim Schultz, The Byzantine Liturgy – A Testimony of Faith and Symbolic Expression (Η Βυζαντινή Λειτουργία–Μαρτυρίa πίστεως και συμβολική έκφραση) (Greek transl. by D. Tzerpos), Athens 1998.

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