ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

172Carmen PopescuWe risk hardening our hearts so that we will not understand Christ’s healingdiscourse. The longer we keep away from church (the place where God`s livingand eternal word resides), the more we risk ignoring the light that the Wordbrings into this world. Once believed, and truly received in our hearts, thescriptural message gives shape and coherence to our life. For the true believer,the Gospel makes sense like no other system, philosophy or ideology does.“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living andabiding word of God. Because all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flowerof grass. The grass has withered and its flower has fallen; but the word of theLord abides for eternity. But this is the word which in the glad tidings ispreached to you.”(1 Peter 1, 23-25).The very core of our being is changed by the divine discourse: throughit, we are brought back to our authentic nature; it works inside us theresemblance that The Book of Genesis speaks of, it is the way towards theosis.John Breck studied the complex impact of the sacramental word. 24The judgment by the Logos himself turns Christianity (and especiallyOrthodoxy) into a very original ontology of the word. This eschatological vision isbeyond ethics, it is, so to speak, metaphysics. “I am come into the world as light,that every one that believes on me may not abide in darkness; and if any one hearmy words and do not keep them, I judge him not, for I am not come that I mightjudge the world, but I might save the world. He that rejects me and does notreceive my words has him who judges him: the word which I have spoken, thatshall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken from myself, but the Fatherwho sent me has Himself given me commandment what I should say and what Ishould speak; and I know that His commandment is life eternal. What therefore Ispeak, as the Father has said to me, so I speak.” (John 12, 46-50).There is nothing gratuitous and decorative in this redemptive message ofwhich we are the receivers. It makes everything transparent; it reveals the secretthought of our heart. God`s word is, according to Saint Paul, “living and operative,and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul andspirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of theheart. And there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are nakedand laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4, 12-13).Christ is in his commandments, and the most important of all is love(towards God but also your neighbor). The orthodox liturgy contains a part thatis called the liturgy of the word (or of the catechumens) and a second one, theliturgy of the Eucharist (or of the believers). Of course, this dichotomy issomewhat artificial. The climax of the liturgy is the Eucharistic moment, but wemust not forget that the whole liturgy is Eucharistic. In the Holy Communion,we “eat” the “the flesh and blood” of our Savior, who is in fact the Word, so thatwe actually “eat” the Logos and His power, we assimilate the Spirit, the Holy1986.24 John Breck, The Power of the Word in the Worshipping Church, St. Vladimir’s Press,