Friday, March 22, 2024

Panteleimon P. Lampadarios on the Atonement Being the Source of the Efficacy of Sacraments in Eastern Orthodox Theology

  

The Holy Sacraments Receive their Power from Christ’s Sacrifice

 

It was necessary to present the Sacrifice offered for us by the Lamb of God and then to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Before Christ was Crucified and Ascended into Heaven “the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:39) It was to be poured forth from on high after the Cross because before then, we were enemies, (Rom. 5:10) having sinned and consequently, were deprived of the Gift of God. When the Sacrifice was offered for us, not only did we receive the Enlightenment of the Holy Spirit as did the Prophets of the Old Testament, but He now dwells and abides within us causing us to become temples of God contrary to the Prophets, of whom none ever became a temple of God. (St. John Chrysostom, in Migne, P.G., 59, 84. St Cyril of Alexandria, To John, in Migne, P.G., 73, 757)

 

Consequently the Source from which the Divine Sacraments of the New Testament receive their supernatural Power, which is distributed to those who partake of them, is the Sacrifice on the Cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who reconciled us to God the Father (Rom. 5:10. 2 Corinth. 5:18-20) and Who became the reason for sending the Holy Spirit into the world by Whom we were “anointed” and “sealed” giving “us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinth. 1:21, 22)

 

This truth was proclaimed by St. Irenaeus who observed that if Christ did not truly suffer, He would have no Grace, due to that lack of suffering. (St Irenaeus, Heresies, book III, ch. 18, § 6, in Migne, P.G. 7, 936)

 

St. John Chrysostom, interpreting the supernatural Event of the piercing of the Lord’s “side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out,” (John 19:34) observed that “not only these fountains accidentally came out, but because from these two the Church was composed, and those who participate in the Mystagogia are healed being Regenerated through water, and being fed through (His) Blood and Flesh. Hence the Sacraments receive their beginning.” (St John Chrysostom, To John, Homily 85, in Migne, P.G., 59, 463)

 

Earlier than this, the great Father of the Orthodox Church, Methodius of Olympus referred to the Church as the Lord’s “Wife.” He presents her as being created from His Side, just as Eve was once created from the side of Adam, (Gen. 2:21-22) and receiving from His side some kind of Power enabling the growth of all those who are formed in her. (Methodius, Symposium, III, 8, in Migne, P.G., 18, 73)

 

St. Augustine speaking of Baptism, observed that this is the Saving Water because it is Sanctified through the Name of Christ Who shed His Blood for us from this and through His Cross, the Water is Sealed. (St Augustine, Sermo 352, § 3, in Migne, P.L., 39, 1551)

 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem accepts that the outpouring of the Blood and Water from the Side of Christ are symbols of the Saving Baptism and from which the Church was born. “As Eve was made from the side of Adam, likewise we are from the Side of Christ.” (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis, XII, § 11, in Migne, P.G., 33, 788) (Panteleimon P. Lampadarios, The Holy Sacraments of the Eastern Orthodox Church [London: Akakia, 2022], 16-17)