On the Holy Church, the Holy Icons, overcrowding and the Holy Communion.
In the glory of our Most Holy Triune God, our “source of sanctification”.
By Archim. Savvas Hagiorite
1. The Holy Communion is our Christ. How can it be possible for our All-good Lord to allow that we get sick through His Most Holy body and blood? The Holy Communion enables the faithful to become like God and they become entirely fire and light.
2. In the Office of the Holy Communion we say: “The Body of God both deifies and nourishes me: It deifies the Spirit and wondrously nourishes the mind”.
3. Also, according to St. Symeon the New Theologian’s attestation, our body parts become Christ. In his 15th Hymn he writes: “We become parts of Christ, our body parts become Christ, and my hand is Christ, and my foot is Christ, of wretched me …not fully perceiving our body ugliness, we all resemble Christ in all our body parts”. How can it be possible for he who becomes god by grace to transmit disease?
4. Additionally, the Antidoron which is given on sufferance in place of the “Gift”, that is the Holy Communion, and also Kollyva, Artoklasia, the Holy Oil and the Holy Water, all these are sources of sanctification and not of infection; for they have the Divine Grace which dwells in them through the blessings that are being read.
5. The Holy Icons are also a source of sanctification. By venerating them, we worship the Divine Grace, that is, the Holy Spirit that exists in those portrayed in them. In accordance with the VII Ecumenical Council, he who does not venerate the Icons becomes excommunicated, that is, he becomes separated from God. We clean the Icons regularly out of reverence and not out of fear of transmitting germs.