For modern western Christians (who typically have very little exposure to Orthodox Christianity), it’s often difficult to grasp the nature of the divide between east and west. In my experience, most reflexively tend to reduce the differences in their mind to being relatively superficial or inessential. But the divide runs much deeper than most tend to realize.

One way to help westerners glimpse the nature of the divide is by shedding light on the paradigmatic battle between the heretic Barlaam and St. Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century. Because this event took place in the post-schism east, it is especially absent from western Christian consciousness, yet it highlights some of the most significant and fundamental issues that divide east from west and—I would say, along with the Orthodox Church—truth from error.

Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos succinctly lays out the issue at the heart of the controversy:
Barlaam maintained that one could reach God through philosophy and conjecture, while St. Gregory Palamas, having experienced the actual road that leads to the knowledge of God, upheld the Orthodox view that it is only through purity that one can see God. (St. Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite, p. 46)

Those who live purified lives—through a life of asceticism and noetic prayer, sustained and sanctified by the sacraments, in obedience to Christ through his Church—and are thereby granted to see the Uncreated Light of God (Matt. 5:8), in turn nourish the Church with the truth that has been revealed to them, and this wisdom is transmitted within the living tradition of the Orthodox Church. Contrast this approach with the scholasticism that dominates Roman Catholic theology—especially since Aquinas—and which formed the very foundations of the Reformation (e.g. Sola Scriptura), and you begin to see how deep the divide is. This divergence is manifested in the west today in the supremacy of the historical-critical method in Biblical exegesis, along with the submitting of all theological validity to the realm of discursive reason and “scientific” or quasi-scientific methods of inquiry.

Some might point to certain Roman Catholic saints, or holiness movements within Protestantism—spurred by the likes of John Wesley or Jonathan Edwards—which perhaps acknowledge the primacy of purifying the heart—of holiness—in knowing God. While I would applaud such insight from western theologians and western saints where it occurs, separated from the wellspring of the life of the Church, and with epistemological and doctrinal foundations that are still rooted in scholasticism, this truth has only ever been fleetingly and dimly glimpsed in the post-schism west. The precise method for success is handed down by those who have attained the light, and it can’t be stumbled upon in its fullness apart from that living tradition.

Met. Hierotheos also notes, writing about St. Gregory’s thought in distinction from Barlaam’s:
The witness of the saints is not intellectual and conjectural, but empirical… Because they have freed their nous from reasoning, passions and environmental conditions, the nous has been illuminated by divine Grace and guided to the vision of God. (St. Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite, pg. 29)
With such being the conditions for seeing God—and therefore for true knowledge about God—these are the means by which all the great Orthodox Saints obtained deification.
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Founded on principles foreign to the apostolic, patristic, living tradition of the Church, Barlaam’s approach to theology necessarily ends in agnosticism. Founded on Christ, the Apostles, and the undivided witness of the Orthodox Church, the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas provides the only way to come into direct, living contact with the “energies” of God—which are God himself.

NEW YORK – Archbishop Demetrios offered ten suggestions for each Orthodox Christian to strive for during the Lenten season, during his homily at the annual Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology Clean Monday Retreat, March 14, at the Holy Cross Chapel in Brookline, Mass. Below is an edited excerpt of these ten suggestions.


Ten Suggestions for Lent
By His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Geron of America


1. Meditate on the History of Salvation

Think of the Lenten period as a time of meditating on the history of salvation.  Think about the creation of the universe and of Adam and Eve as the beginning of human life on earth.  Think about the fall of Adam and the entrance of sin in humanity.  We see in the hymnology of the liturgical book of Lent, the Triodion, constant references to the tragedy of the fall of the first human beings.  For example, in the Oikos of the Matins on yesterday’s Cheesefare Sunday, we read: “Adam sat and cried in those days across from the delights of Paradise; beat his hands upon his face, and said: Merciful One, have mercy on me who have fallen.”

The memory of what happened through the fall of Adam and Eve continues on in us to this day.  Think of the current condition of the world with its chaotic situation, confusion, violence, poverty, injustices, oppression, sickness and death, and remember it all started way back with Adam and Eve as a consequence of their sin and fall.  But then contemplate the course of history and how the amazing, unimaginable, and unpredictable act of God Himself to become a human being radically changed everything.  So in the course of Lent remember the history of salvation: From the fall of humankind, to the promise of redemption, the Incarnation of God as the new Adam, His Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension into Heaven, and the Second Coming.  Take time to reflect on God’s divine actions through history.

2. Review the understanding of fasting

Take fasting seriously as a very important aspect of Lent.  Think of fasting not simply as an item of diet, but as something related to the fall of humankind, and at the same time as a victory through Christ.  We fast for forty days in Lent before Holy Week not merely as an exercise, an ascesis, but also because there is an important Christological significance attached to fasting.  We have forty-day fasting models from both the Old and New Testaments.  In the Old Testament, Moses fasted for forty days on Mount Sinai before receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28, Deut. 9:9, 9:18) and Prophet Elijah fasted for forty days on Mount Horeb (3 Kingdoms 19:8).  Both of these instances are connected with an encounter with God at the end of their fasting.  In the New Testament, we have the forty-day fasting in the desert by our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13).  At the end of the forty-day fasting by Christ in the desert, there are the well-known “Temptations” of Christ, the first of which is related to eating: And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he [Christ] answered, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:3-4).  Is this event in the life of Christ in any way connected to the Fall of Adam?  Indeed, the Fall of Adam was caused by an eating situation, yet the victory of Christ also happened through an eating situation.  While Adam said “yes” to the temptation and ate (Genesis 3:1-6), Christ said “no” to the temptation and did not eat.  This is why the fasting of the forty-days during Lent is not simply a matter of abstention or an issue of diet, but is a major Christological and soteriological situation; the fall of humankind, and then the restoration through the victory of Christ.  So let us take fasting seriously and prepare ourselves for a blessed encounter with God.

3. Reconsider our life of prayer

Great Lent is a special time to pray.  But what is the content of our prayer?  What is our praying language?  For several people, their prayer is still on the same level of that when they were ten or fifteen years old; it has stayed undeveloped.  Why when speaking to God are we using a poor language?  What efforts are we making to improve and enhance our prayer in terms of content and expression?  Looking at the Triodion, we see many examples of different types of prayer language and content.  Try to pray and study the prayers that the Church has given us which are superb examples of conversing with God and try especially to prayerfully read the Psalms, the standard and universal book of prayer.

During Lent we find an increased number of opportunities for community prayer and worship.  The Church invites us each week to pray the services of the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, the Presanctified Liturgy, the Salutations to the Theotokos, the Great Compline, and others.  So try to pray more frequently this Lent and develop through constant praying a more refined language of prayer.

4. Be conscious of the gravity of sin

Sometimes we don’t take sin seriously.  Yet Scripture offers a very strong and unequivocal picture of the gravity of sin.  The hymnology of the Triodion is replete with occurrences of the word “sin” or variations of it.  Sin is a very serious issue.  In the Hebrew Old Testament, there are fourteen different words to describe sin, but chiefly four: sin as a matter of human weakness, sin as a distortion or perversion, sin as a rebellion (borrowed from the political realm), and sin as an error or mistake related to ignorance.

If we believe in God becoming a human being and willingly being crucified on the Cross for the sins of the world, then we must understand the seriousness of sin.  Let’s reflect on how sin has control in our lives, and how it has distorted the divine image within each of us.  Let us deal seriously with our sins with an understanding that they are part of the huge amount of sins and evil that led Christ to the Cross.  But then remember that God has given forgiveness as the perfect antidote through the very same Cross.  Forgiveness, however, is inseparably connected to repentance.

5. Make Lent a season for repentance

Along with sin, we are called to reflect upon repentance. Repentance is a very important aspect in our lives and is a dominant theme throughout the Triodion.  We should not forget that Jesus Christ our Lord began His public ministry with the words, “Μετανοεῖτε· ἤγγικε γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.”“Repent [change your mind], for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17).  The whole Sermon on the Mount is a commentary on this fundamental declaration on repentance.  The writings of St. Paul and the other New Testament writings are permeated by calls to repentance.  Repentance is not merely a shallow or superficial act, but a radical change of mind, soul, will and mentality.  It is a central issue and an essential component of the Lenten period.  God is always ready to forgive, but first we must repent.

6. Reflect on our reading the Bible

Lent is a time to reflect on our relationship with the Holy Scriptures, because the Bible is central in the texts of the Triodion.  We must always keep the biblical element at the forefront in our worship and in our life.  How close are we to the Bible?  Most people think about the Bible only at the reading of the Epistle and Gospel on Sunday at the Divine Liturgy.  It is unthinkable that we as Christians do not have the Word of God as a central guide in everything we do.  The Lenten period assists us to come closer and more frequently to the Bible and encourages us to reflect upon the Scripture.  We should try to make reading from the Holy Bible a daily practice during this Lenten season and beyond.

7. Be aware of the Christocentric focus

Of course, the greatest focus of Lent should be on Jesus Christ Himself.  Sometimes we can get caught up in fasting, in saying prayers, in going to Church, on our sins, or in all the rituals of this holy season; yet in the midst of all we do, we forget about Jesus Christ Himself.  Lent is above all else a time to draw closer to Christ!  Christ is the center of this Lenten period and should be the center of our lives.  As we go through Lent and arrive at Holy Week with the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Christ must be at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of all things.  This Lenten period is a tremendous opportunity to come closer to Christ, and to be Christocentric in all that we think, say, or do.

We remember that the fall of Adam and Eve occurred through eating in disobedience to the commandment of God (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-24), and that the restoration and victory in Christ was realized through His overcoming the temptation of eating (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13).  But what does our incarnate God offer to us as the ultimate possibility of union with Him?  He gave us His Body and His Blood to be eaten.  He said to us, “Ὁ τρώγων μου τὴν σάρκα καὶ πίνων μου τὸ αἷμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μένει, κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ.” ”He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (John 6:56).  Here is the ultimate paradox: During Lent, abstinence from food, i.e. fasting, is accompanied by partaking of the imperishable food, i.e. the Body and Blood of Christ.  Adam and Eve fell away from paradise and from their connection to God through eating, and we are restored and united to God in the highest way through the Holy Communion by eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ.  This is much more than being Christocentric.  This is having Christ dwelling in us in a palpable way.

8. Cultivate human relationships

The season of Lent is also an opportunity to cultivate our human relationships in more authentic ways.  Looking again at the hymnology of the Triodion, we clearly ascertain that there is an emphasis on loving and caring for each other, on moving away from evil and wrong things, on forgiving one another, and on being reconnected with our fellow human beings.  The Book of Isaiah, read in its entirety during Lent, begins with a condemnation of the people of Israel because they had abandoned God, and then continues with an admonition to the Israelites to return to God and to be fair and to establish proper relationships with their fellow human beings.  So we are called to think of any relationships that are not in the proper condition and make every effort to remedy them.  This is a very integral part of living our lives during Lent.

9. Practice almsgiving

Almsgiving is a vital aspect of the Lenten period.  On one of the multiple occasions speaking about the need to be a person who takes care of others, St. John Chrysostom said that we are all called to give alms.  He continued to say that even those who claim to be poor are not free from offering alms.  Poverty is a poor excuse not to give.  Indeed there are poor people who give the half of what they have (see Mark 12:41-44).  It could be said that almsgiving is a requirement for living our life as Christians.  Christ said, “when you give alms” (Matt. 6:3), not if you give alms.  Almsgiving is especially emphasized during this Lenten period, evidenced again by the hymnology of our Church.

10. Make this Lent a time for transformation

Ultimately, our Lenten season is a time of having a transformative experience.  We are challenged to resolve that at the end of the Lenten period, when we celebrate Pascha, we are different from what we are today.  The transformative aspect of Lent is an absolute necessity for spiritually enjoying this season.  We are in the process of transformation if we steadily become Christocentric in all things, through the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This Lenten season provides us with a tremendous possibility to prepare spiritually, to be constantly transformed, and to be with Christ in His Passion and Resurrection.

ENCYCLICAL FOR GREAT LENT 2016
 
Dearly Beloved,

Saint Paul, in his First Letter to the Thessalonians, writes, “Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” (I Thessalonians 5:19 – 22)
These are good words to begin the Great Fast of our Church. Great Lent is our time to prepare to celebrate the glorious and life-giving Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. During these days, we will participate in ascetic disciplines of our Church: abstaining from certain foods, increasing our philanthropic acts, intensifying our rule of prayer, participation in the divine services, and attending to study of our faith. One purpose of these disciplines is to draw our focus inward, in acts of reflection and discernment, on the quality of our lives in all its dimensions.

In the Gospel lessons preparing us for Great Lent, we heard about the desire for God in the story of how Zacchaeus wished to see Jesus. We heard about the  judgmentalism of the Pharisee. We learned about how God, our heavenly Father, waits for us to “come to our senses” and return to Him. We heard about how the King of Glory will judge right from wrong. And we heard that our Father does not forgive unless we first forgive others. Through all these lessons, the Church had told us continually that our loving and almighty God always does what is best for His people.

Our discernment during Great Lent is to consider how we are meant to live as God lives, to live as God always intended for us. Saint Paul said, “test everything” including ourselves. Through our reflection, we may see that we are striving to do what God expects and we can rejoice in that. Do we act enough on the promise God has ask us to respond?  Saint Paul said, “hold fast to what is good”.  But there is the more difficult but honest task of recognizing that we may also not be living up to His commandments and expectations and we “have work to do” on our lives.
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“Abstaining from evil” may, at first seem strong, but we must admit that the Evil One continually strives to pull us away from God and His righteousness, His goodness, and His love, usually through the false promises of vainglory, power, riches, and greatness.

Throughout this Lenten period, the hymns of our Church will regularly remind us that the purpose of our discipline is not to be able to boast about the food we deprive ourselves but the ability to control our tongues, the ability to accept our faults and to repent for them, and the ability to soften our hearts and attitudes towards our neighbors, so that our Lord will accept us in the kingdom that He has inaugurated through His Resurrection. What is the benefit of giving up a few morsels of meat or cheese if we continue in our pride and boastfulness or our indifference to our neighbor?

The purpose of Great Lent is to open us to the invitation to follow the Lord, as He will invite us to do in the gospel lesson of the first Sunday, when he called Philip and Nathaniel (John 1:43). The purpose of the Great Lent is to intensify our training as Christians so that we may commemorate the Resurrection and remember the joy of our baptism through which we “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27), when we were “buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:4 – 5)

For these reasons my beloved, “do not quench the Spirit”, that you have already received in baptism, but nurture it, renew it, and expand the power that it has over you by observing this Great Fast to your fullest capability.
May our Compassionate Lord grant you and your loved ones a blessed, joyful, and rewarding Great Lent.

With Love in Christ,
+ G E R A S I M O S
Metropolitan of San Francisco

March 14, 2016
Holy and Great Lent
 
It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more….
Philippians 1:9
 
To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America
 
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
As we begin our solemn journey through this holy time of Great Lent, we are guided by the beautiful services and traditions of our Orthodox faith to dedicate ourselves to prayer and fasting, to gather more frequently in worship, to contemplate the direction of our lives in repentance, and to strengthen our faith in the hope of the light and life to come.
 
The spiritual impact of this sacred time of year is tremendous if we dedicate our full being—heart, body, soul and mind—to God.  This transformation in our lives and the witness of life and faith we offer others through Great Lent is affirmed in the opening of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  In giving thanks to God for the Christians in Philippi and their partnership in the Gospel, Paul writes, It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with all knowledge and discernment (Phil. 1:9).  From their faith in and experience of the love of God and their love for one another, they were growing in spiritual wisdom.
 
When we come before God in repentance, we too experience His great love for us.  His abundant and saving grace is revealed and acknowledged throughout this season of Lent as we are guided to the complete and ultimate act of love in the Passion of our Lord.  As we receive His love and our lives are renewed in it, we are blessed with a deeper knowledge of truth and His will.  Blessed by His grace and presence, we gain a higher level of discernment to see what is pure and holy.
 
This is affirmed by the Apostle Paul as he continues his letter:  So that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ (Phil. 1:10).  In these words we can see how Great Lent is a preparation to receive the Risen Lord; but we also see how this sacred time should influence our lives in our preparation for eternity.  Through repentance and the forgiveness of God we are able to see the way to salvation.  Through grace and faith we become a new person in Christ, knowing and seeking the abundant blessings that He offers to us.
 
The Apostle Paul refers to these blessings as the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:11).  During Great Lent and through our prayer, worship and fasting we experience these blessings, and we see the great spiritual fruit that comes.  We see how this journey is the journey of our entire life, culminating in the blessings of eternal life and communion with God.  We see the blessings through our witness and ministry to others during this holy season, as we prayerfully anticipate the light and joy of Pascha.
 
As we look to the days and weeks ahead, I prayerfully ask that you commit your time to the spiritual opportunities offered in Great Lent.  Be faithful in prayer and worship.  Keep the fast.  Offer your time and resources to help those in need.  Above all, seek the grace of God that your love may abound for Him and each other, and from the abundant blessings and spiritual fruit we receive, we will offer thanksgiving, glory, and praise to Him!
 
With paternal love in Christ,
 
†DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America