THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
"Which is His Body." When you hear the word Head, do not take it only in the sense of authority. Do not regard Him merely as ruler. See in Him, as it were, the bodily and actual Head. Therefore the Apostle adds: "the fullness of Him who fills all in all." He considers the name Head almost insufficient to show the kinship and nearness of the Church to Christ. What does he mean? The Church is the fullness of Christ, just as the body completes the head and the body is completed by the head.
Do you see what weapons the Apostle uses? Do you see how he stops at no turn of speech in order to present God's glory? "Fullness," he says, means that the head is completed by the body, because the body is composed of all its members, and each member is necessary for another. Do you see how he shows that all the members are necessary for Christ as Head? If many of us were not, one a hand, another a foot, and a third some other member, His Body would not be complete. Therefore His Body is composed of all the members. This means that the Head will be fulfilled only then, and the perfect Body will be formed, when all of us are united and bound together in the firmest way.
Do you see "the riches of the glory of His inheritance"? Do you see "the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe"? Do you see "the hope of His calling"? Let us honor our Head. Let us consider what sort of Head we are the body of, the Head to whom all things are subjected. According to this pattern, we ought to be better than the angels themselves and higher than the archangels, as those who have been deemed worthy of greater honor than all of them.
God did not assume the nature of angels, as the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but "the seed of Abraham" (Heb 2:16). He did not assume authorities, principalities, dominions, or any other power. He assumed our nature and seated it above. And why do I say seated it? He made it His own garment. Nor only this, but He also "put all things under His feet" (Heb 2:8).
However many times you yourself may die, even if you lay down your soul thousands of times or more, you cannot say that you have done anything equal to what Christ has done. He accomplished two great things. He Himself descended to the lowest degree of humiliation, and He raised man to a great height. The Apostle spoke earlier of His humiliation. Here he speaks of a deed still higher, truly great and chief. Even if we had not been exalted through His humiliation, what He did for us would have been enough. Or if we had been deemed worthy of such high honor without His sacrifice, that too would have been enough. But since He accomplished both, even the richest word remains insufficient and powerless to describe it all.
The resurrection itself appears not so great when I think of this. He says, "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ," not of God the Word, but of Him, Christ in His humiliation.
Let us honor the nearness of our kinship. Let us fear lest anyone be cut off from this Body, lest anyone fall away, lest anyone prove unworthy. If someone placed a diadem, a golden crown, upon our head, tell me, what would we not do to show ourselves worthy of those lifeless stones? But here no diadem covers our head. Christ Himself has become our Head, which is far higher, yet we assign no value to this. Angels, archangels, and all the heavenly powers stand in reverence before our Head. Shall we, who are His Body, not honor Him, either for His humiliation or for our exaltation? What hope for salvation remains to us after this?
Impress this royal throne upon your mind. Always remember the excess of honor. This, one may say, should frighten us more than Gehenna. If there were no Gehenna, what punishment and what torment would it be for us to be deprived of this honor, after being deemed worthy of such greatness and then proving unworthy and evil? Consider beside whom your Head sits. This alone is entirely sufficient for everything. At whose right hand is He? He sits above every principality, authority, and power. And shall demons trample His Body? May it not be! If that were so, it would no longer be a body.
The most honorable of servants withdraw in reverence from your Head. Will you hand the Body over to mockery? What punishment would you not deserve in that case? If someone bound a king's feet in chains and put fetters on them, would he not be liable to the most severe punishment? Yet you hand over His whole Body to fierce beasts and do not tremble.
Since we have begun to speak of the Lord's Body, let us also remember that Body which was crucified, nailed, and offered in sacrifice. If you are the Body of Christ, then bear the Cross, because He bore it. Endure spitting, blows, and the piercing of nails. Such was His Body, though it was without sin. "He committed no sin," it is said, "and no deceit was found in His mouth" (Is 53:9). His hands acted only to benefit those in need. His mouth uttered nothing improper. They said to Him, "Do You not have a demon?" and even then He said nothing contrary (Jn 7:20).
Since we speak of His Body, let those who partake of the Body and drink His Blood remember this. We partake of a Body in no way different from that Body which sits above, which angels worship, and which is near the incorruptible Power. This very Body we taste. O how many paths to salvation have been opened to us! He made us His Body and gave us His Body. And all this does not draw us away from evil? O darkness! O great humiliation! O shamelessness! "Seek the things above," it is said, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1). Yet some care for wealth, and others are captivated by passions.
Do you not see that when unnecessary and useless growths appear on our body, we cut them off and remove them? Growths that are ugly, dead, or rotten are especially useless to the body, for the whole body may be infected by them. Yet we would not dare assert that our being consists of the body alone. If the body, although material, is nevertheless subject to cutting away, what horrors must we undergo if our spiritual side does not remain healthy?
When our body does not receive food, and when the passages are closed, it dies. When the channels are blocked, it is harmed. The same happens to the soul. When we close our ears to hearing the word of God, it is harmed. When we do not receive spiritual food, and when certain evil inclinations fill us like corrupt fluids and begin to injure us, all this produces disease. It is a severe disease, ending in complete exhaustion. In this case, to be saved one must resort either to cautery or to cutting away. For Christ will allow no one with such a corrupted body to enter His bridal chamber.
If He led out and drove away those clothed in unclean garments, what will He not do, and what measures will He not take, against one who has allowed uncleanness in the body? I observe that many partake of the Body of Christ simply as it happens, more by custom and established order than with discernment and conscious awareness. They say, The time of holy Forty Days has come, or the day of Theophany; everyone, whatever his inward disposition may be, must partake of the Mysteries. But the time does not give one the right to approach the Mystery. Neither the feast of Theophany nor the Forty Days makes those who approach worthy. Rather, the brightness and purity of the soul do so. With these qualities, approach always. Without them, never.
"For as often," the Apostle says, "as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death" (1 Cor 11:26). That is, you make remembrance of your salvation and of My benefit. Recall with what fear they approached participation in the ancient sacrifices. What did they not do, and what did they not perform beforehand? They always purified themselves in advance. Yet you, approaching a sacrifice at which the angels tremble, determine the performance of this act by a certain time?
How will you then stand before the judgment seat of Christ, you who dare receive His Body with unclean lips and hands? You would not dare kiss even a king when your mouth has a bad odor. How then do you dare kiss the King of heaven with a foul-smelling soul? Such an act is an insult to Him. Tell me, would you dare approach the sacrifice with unwashed hands? I do not think so. Rather, you would choose not to approach at all rather than approach with unclean hands. Yet while showing such caution in a small matter, you approach and dare touch the great sacrifice with an unclean soul. In the hands it remains only briefly, but it wholly penetrates the soul.
Do you not see how cleanly the sacred vessels are washed and how brightly they shine? Our souls must be still cleaner, holier, and brighter. Why so? Because the vessels are washed and cleansed for our sake. They do not absorb what is placed in them and do not feel it. We, however, do. How then do you, who certainly would not wish to use an unclean vessel at the service, approach the Mystery with an unclean soul? I see a great inconsistency here. At other times, when you are cleaner in soul, you do not partake. At Pascha, even if guilt lies upon you, you partake. O custom! O prejudice!
The daily sacrifice is offered in vain. In vain do we stand before the Lord's altar, for no one partakes. I do not say this so that you should merely partake. I say it so that you prepare yourselves for worthy Communion. If you are not worthy of Communion, then you are not worthy to take part in the Liturgy of the Faithful, and therefore not in the prayers. You hear how the deacon, keryx, proclaims: Let all who are in repentance, hosoi en metanoia, depart. Those who do not partake are in repentance. If you too are in repentance, you must not partake, for one who does not partake belongs to the number of penitents. Why then does he say, Depart, you who cannot pray, while you continue shamelessly to stand? But you are not among them, among the penitents, but among those able to partake? Yet you pay no attention to this and treat the matter as though it were nothing.
Look, I beseech you. The royal table stands here. Angels serve at the table. The King Himself is present. And you stand carelessly, with no thought, and moreover in unclean garments. But are your garments clean? Then approach and partake. The King Himself comes each time to see those present. He speaks with all. Even now, in your conscience, He says to you: Friends, how do you stand here without a wedding garment? He did not say to the man without the wedding garment (Mt 22:12), Why did you recline? He said that he was not worthy of the invitation and therefore of entrance. He did not say, Why were you invited? but, Why did you enter?
He says the same now, addressing all of us who stand shamelessly and boldly. Everyone who does not partake of the holy Mysteries stands shamelessly and boldly. For this reason, first of all, those who are in sins, the penitents, are driven out. When a master is present at a meal, lower servants are not allowed to share in it and are sent away. So must it be here also.
When the sacrifice is brought forth and Christ is offered in sacrifice, this Lamb of the Master, when you hear, Let us all pray together, when you see the veil raised, imagine that the heavens are opened and angels descend from above. As no one among the unillumined may be present, so too no one unclean may be present, even if he is illumined. If a beast touches the mountain, the Lord once said, it shall be stoned (Ex 19:13). The Israelites were not deemed worthy even to ascend the mountain, though afterward they did ascend and saw where the Lord had stood. Afterward they could come and see. You also must withdraw when God is present here. It is even less permissible for you to be here than for a catechumen.
It is not the same thing never to partake of the Mysteries and, after being deemed worthy of them, to despise them, insult them, and make oneself unworthy of them. More and more terrible things could be said. But so as not to burden your mind, this is enough. If this does not bring you to your senses, neither will more.