A - The saving unity of believers
Before Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, he raised a fervent prayer for all who would believe in his name, asking his Father to keep them in divine unity: “That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so may they be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory that you gave me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that their unity may be perfect, and that the world may know that you sent me, and that I loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:21-23).
These words of Christ are not a call to external unity, but to an absolute internal unity, similar to the unity of the three persons in the Holy Trinity, that is, to the unity that man lost due to the fall. They are based on the three persons and are represented by them, and mean the salvation and perfection of man: “I in them and you in me, that our unity may be perfect” (John 17:23). Therefore, the unity that Christ speaks of is not a path to salvation, but rather salvation itself.
B - The mystery of divine thanksgiving achieves unity in Christ
There is no doubt that the fullness of unity is linked to the victory of the Church in the last times, when the Lord comes to judge the living and the dead. But believers taste in this life the coming unity, by participating in the mystery of divine thanksgiving. This is what the Apostle Paul explains when he says: “For we, who are many, are one body, for we partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). As for the Lord Jesus, he referred to the mystery of divine thanksgiving, stating that it is salvation and life, and that separation from it is spiritual death: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54-55).
The fall caused humanity to lose its unity based on God’s love, and so became internally alienated and dispersed. But Christ, through his incarnation, restored all humanity, as it died with his death and rose with him to a new life, united once again with God’s love, and regained its first unity with him.
When believers come together for divine service and the celebration of the sacrament of thanksgiving, they are united into one body, the risen and deified body of Christ. Thus “the church is gathered together” (1 Cor. 12:18), and the body of the Lord is formed from it, thus completing the mission of the incarnation and the fundamental sacrifice of Christ, through which the Lord wanted to “gather together the children of God” (John 11:52).
The liturgical texts of our Church have beautifully expressed the gathering of God’s children. One of the hymns dating back to the early Christians says: “As the grains were scattered across the mountains and gathered together in one loaf, so I will gather the church to you from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.” What is meant, of course, is the church gathered to celebrate the mystery of divine thanksgiving.
In the service of Saint Basil, the priest prays: “As for us who share in the one bread and the one cup, make us all united with one another in the communion of one Holy Spirit. And do not grant the communion of the holy body and precious blood of your Christ to any of us for condemnation or judgment, but to find mercy and grace with all the saints who have pleased you since the beginning of time.”
Participation in the mystery of thanksgiving gathers the scattered members of Christ, forming the whole body and realizing its organic unity with its head, which is Christ himself. Therefore, we can say without hesitation that the Church is formed in the gathering of believers during the mystery of divine thanksgiving, and in receiving the body and blood of the Lord. No one can be a Christian outside the mystery of thanksgiving, because no one can unite with God alone. Christ said that whoever does not eat His flesh and drink His blood has no life in him (John 6:53).
Outside of the Eucharist, a person can read the Bible, listen to the Good News, pray, and live a good life. But he will not receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, which give salvation and true life. Every person should know this, because some people have a false belief that they can be Christians without participating in the Eucharistic gathering of the faithful, that is, the Divine Liturgy.
We must also emphasize that believers are not merely spectators in the mystery of thanksgiving, but are truly participants in this holy mystery. But this does not mean that a person should come to this mystery without preparation (1 Cor. 11:27-29), but rather he must carry out the commandment of Saint Ambrose: “Receive every day what is useful for that day. You must live in this way, so that you may become worthy of this mystery.”
C - Blessed is the kingdom of the Father...
The word liturgy in Greek means the work of the people. What we have said above clearly illustrates the divine work that takes place in the Eucharistic gatherings of the faithful. In the Divine Liturgy the Church is formed by the faithful, who show the world the Body of Christ, and declare that through the death and resurrection of Christ the dispersed have been reunited, and that they share in this gathering as children of God (John 11:52; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:26).
The priest begins the divine service by declaring: “Blessed is the kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” because the kingdom is not an event that is only related to the future, but one can foresee it in advance. The kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit begins in this life, and specifically in the Divine Liturgy (Mt 12:28, Lk 17:21, Mk 9:1, Lk 9:27). Here a person participates in the life of the Triune God by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord, and thus the unity of all the children of the kingdom is realized in the one Body of the Lord.
D - External features of the Orthodox Eucharist
The fundamental importance of the Divine Liturgy for our salvation requires us to emphasize the features that distinguish the true Eucharist from the gatherings of heretics who do not work for unity but for the division of the Body of the Lord, threatening our salvation (see 1 Cor 1:13; 1:11; 18:34). This is very important, especially for those who travel to a foreign country without fully knowing the life of the Christian community there.
We mentioned earlier that the bishop is the image of Christ and the guarantor of the unity of the faithful in the one body of the Church. In the early Church, the bishop performed the Eucharist, but the priest did not perform it unless the bishop permitted him to do so. Thus, the bishop continues to be the guarantor of the presence of Christ, that is, of the essential element in the Eucharist. Christ is “both the offerer and the one who is offered” (see Hebrews 7:23-28).
“Where Christ is,” says St. Ignatius, “there is the Church. Where the bishop is, there is the Church.” By this he does not mean a part of the Church, but the universal Church, that is, the entire Orthodox Church. Therefore, the presence of the bishop is the guarantee of the validity of the Orthodox liturgy. The bishop is not an independent person, but his priesthood goes back to the apostles and to Christ himself. A bishop who is not linked to this apostolic succession is not a true and canonical bishop, because he does not possess the priesthood established by Christ.
The true bishop transmits the priesthood of Christ to all the clergy he ordains, and they in turn depend on the bishop as the center of the unity of the faithful, which is realized in the mystery of divine thanksgiving.
We know, of course, that the bishop does not now celebrate the divine service in all the parishes, but rather the priests celebrate it with the assistance of the deacons. But these priests belong to the bishop’s diocese, so they inevitably mention him in every divine service they celebrate. And in the event that a priest moves from one diocese to another, he does not mention the bishop who ordained him, but the bishop of the diocese in which the sacrament of thanksgiving is celebrated.
There can be no canonical priest in the Orthodox Church who is not subordinate to a canonical Orthodox bishop and to a specific diocese. No Orthodox divine service can be held without mentioning the name of the bishop. It is very important to pay attention to the name of the bishop mentioned in the divine service in which we participate, and to make sure that he is the canonical bishop of the diocese.
Just as every priest necessarily follows the bishop of the diocese, so every canonical bishop must follow the college of bishops in the Orthodox Church. But how do we know that a bishop is canonical and follows the Orthodox Church? For a bishop to be Orthodox, he must be in communion with the other bishops in the same region. For an autocephalous church to be Orthodox, it must be in communion with all the other Orthodox churches in the world. Thus, all bishops, wherever their dioceses are, are “of one mind,” because they are all “of the mind of Jesus Christ” (Ignatius). Consequently, the episcopal work is one, no matter how many parishes there are and wherever divine services are held.
There are places where there are many parishes but they form only one Church. There are many independent Churches but they are all one Orthodox Church because they are united in faith and in the mystery of thanksgiving, and they all have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16; Acts 15:28). This Church spread throughout the world gathers sacramentally to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, just as grains of wheat gather to form the one loaf offered in the mystery of thanksgiving and transformed into the Body of Christ.
We must therefore be careful not to participate in meetings or liturgical services that are not Orthodox. We must know the bishop who authorized the priest to perform the service, and the church to which that bishop belongs. If it is united with the Orthodox Church to which we belong by holy baptism, we will be assured that the Divine Liturgy celebrated there is the true Orthodox Eucharist, without which we have no salvation.
St. Cyril stressed the importance of this issue, and addressed travelers and immigrants, telling them that they should be careful not to belong to any group, or participate in any service, before making sure that it is not affiliated with heretics or schismatics from the canonical bishop: “If you migrate once, do not just ask about the location of the temple, because heretics also dare to call their wretched meeting places temples. And do not just ask about the church, but ask about the Orthodox Church.”
Those who abandon the Orthodox Church and its true worship are misguided people. They sacrifice the salvation of their souls for which Christ was sacrificed. There is no salvation except in union with the Church, that is, in participation in the Eucharistic Church meeting. The measure of this meeting is unity with the canonical Orthodox bishop.
It is necessary to stay away from meetings that are not related to our Church, and are not held with the knowledge and approval of our bishop, because he is the one who guarantees our unity with Christ and His presence in us.
Footnote related to the title “Reunion”: See (Introduction to the Divine Tract) by Kosti Bandali, Al-Nour Publications. (Publisher)