In the Eve of Lord’s Birth/ În ajunul nașterii Domnului

The eve is fasting. A fasting braided with prayer and with waiting. The carollers come as to sing ancient carols. But of all the carols, the Star talks about the magi who have found on the Lord Bebe. And in the firs adorned of feast, His star is an emphasis of the fact that all must seek Him and find Him on Christ.

Ajunul este ajunare. Un post împletit cu rugăciune și cu așteptare. Colindătorii vin ca să cânte colinde străvechi. Dar dintre toate colindele, Steaua vorbește despre magii care L-au găsit pe Domnul Prunc. Și în brazii împodobiți de praznic, steaua Lui este o subliniere a faptului că toți trebuie să Îl căutăm și să Îl găsim pe Hristos.

Now, after 2.000 years, some believe that the world has not changed because of Christ. That His coming meant nothing significant. But His incarnation meant the most important event of world history, for that God became man and redeemed us of sin, of death and of devil.

Acum, după 2.000 de ani, unii cred că lumea nu s-a schimbat datorită lui Hristos. Că venirea Lui nu a însemnat nimic semnificativ. Însă întruparea Lui a însemnat cel mai important eveniment al istoriei lumii, pentru că Dumnezeu S-a făcut om și ne-a izbăvit de păcat, de moarte și de diavol.

The world is no longer the same after His birth! For that He irradiates His glory from His Church. Ant the end of history happened one time with His coming, for that has begun to widen His Kingdom on earth. And we await His second coming just for as He to reign, into His glory, in all creation.

Lumea nu mai e la fel după nașterea Lui! Pentru că El iradiază slava Lui din Biserica Sa. Și sfârșitul istoriei s-a produs odată cu venirea Lui, pentru că a început să se lățească Împărăția Lui pe pământ. Iar noi așteptăm a doua Lui venire tocmai pentru ca El să împărățească, întru slava Sa, în toată creația.

The harsh fasting of today is for as to live the joy of the feast at high parameters. We tip ourselves of the bodily food for to fill us of the ghostual, ie of the impartation with Him. And if we have understood the fasting of until now as on a depletion of the material, we have understood that the table of feast must be decent and not a manifestation of opulence.

Postul aspru de azi e pentru ca să trăim bucuria praznicului la parametri înalți. Ne deșertăm de mâncarea trupească pentru a ne umple de cea duhovnicească, adică de împărtășirea cu El. Și dacă am fi înțeles postul de până acum ca pe o deșertare de cele materiale, am fi înțeles că masa praznicului trebuie să fie decentă și nu o manifestare a opulenței.

For that He came to us not to live little on earth and then to leave, to close in His transcendence, but for as He dwells into us. Christ was incarnate for as He to be always in us, through His glory, together with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. For the Church is just the indwelling in each of us of the Trinity through His grace.

Pentru că El a venit la noi nu pentru ca să trăiască puțin pe pământ și apoi să plece, să Se închidă în transcendența Sa, ci pentru ca El să Se sălășluiască întru noi. Hristos S-a întrupat pentru ca El să fie mereu în noi, prin slava Sa, dimpreună cu Tatăl și cu Duhul Sfânt. Căci Biserica e tocmai sălășluirea în fiecare dintre noi a Treimii prin harul Său.

Therefore, the man of the Church is new man, which transfigures continuously and not a parasitical being, passionate, self-enclosed. If the Church is a new world, holy, and the world is sanctified through Church. The cosmos is filled by the light of Church, which is the light of the Trinity, for that at its base sits the glory of the Trinity. And when we enjoy the birth of a child we see it as birth who awaits the birth from above, from water and from Ghost, which is the birth on which the Church gives us.

De aceea, omul Bisericii e om nou, care se transfigurează continuu și nu o ființă parazitară, pătimașă, închisă în sine. Dacă Biserica e o lume nouă, sfântă, și lumea se sfințește prin Biserică. Cosmosul se umple de lumina Bisericii, care este lumina Treimii, pentru că la baza ei stă slava Treimii. Și când ne bucurăm de nașterea unui copil o vedem ca naștere care așteaptă nașterea de sus, din apă și din Duh, care e nașterea pe care Biserica ne-o dă.

But the birth of the Lord, paradoxically, is not an urge only at procreation but and at maidenhood, for that He has not broken the seals of maidenhood of His Mother. And therefore the Mother of the Lord, in the Tradition of the Church, is an example to follow and for mothers but and for nuns. And the Church in entirety – hierarchy and people, laymen and monks –, celebrates the birth of the Lord with joy, for that Christ is the supreme model for every believer in part.

Însă nașterea Domnului, în mod paradoxal, nu este un îndemn numai la procreare ci și la feciorie, pentru că El nu a stricat pecețile fecioriei Maicii Sale. Și de aceea Maica Domnului, în Tradiția Bisericii, este exemplu de urmat și pentru mame dar și pentru monahii. Iar Biserica în întregime – ierarhie și popor, mireni și monahi –, sărbătorește nașterea Domnului cu bucurie, pentru că Hristos este modelul suprem pentru fiecare credincios în parte.

The children enjoy more of this feast for that they understand its delicacy in clean mode. We, the elderly, we must make condiserabile efforts as return us at the beautiful mode, clean, delicate of living the feast. But if we manage to go down the mind in heart and to meet the Lord in purity of heart, we have part of the real feast, full.

Copiii se bucură mult de acest praznic pentru că înțeleg delicatețea lui în mod curat. Noi, cei în vârstă, trebuie să facem eforturi condiserabile ca să ne întoarcem la modul frumos, curat, delicat de a trăi sărbătoarea. Însă dacă reușim să coborâm mintea în inimă și să ne întâlnim cu Domnul în curăția inimii, avem parte de sărbătoarea reală, deplină.

The fir is green for as we to be living in faith. The star tells us that we always need of the knowledge of Him. His Mother teaches us to love Him on Who what is the desiring of the integer creation. The ox and the ass who stood near the manger in which was born the Lord teach us to be careful and responsible for every creature. And the One born calls on each at His joy, which is eternal joy.

Bradul e verde pentru ca noi să fim vii în credință. Steaua ne spune că avem nevoie întotdeauna de cunoașterea Lui. Maica Sa ne învață să Îl iubim pe Cel ce e dorirea întregii creații. Boul și asinul care au stat lângă ieslea în care S-a născut Domnul ne învață să fim atenți și responsabili pentru orice făptură. Iar Cel născut ne cheamă pe fiecare la bucuria Lui, care e bucurie veșnică.

At many years and to have part of much health and divine joy!

La mulți ani și să aveți parte de multă sănătate și bucurie dumnezeiască!

The Theology of the Sight of God [14]

Rev. D.Th. Dorin Octavian Picioruş

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The Theology of the Sight of God 

Studies and translations

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Here are the parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

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The New Testament

1. 2. 13. The Shepherds and the Sight of God’s Glory

We begin the newtestamentary exemplifications concerning the problematic of the scriptural ecstatic with Lk. 2, 8-14. To us seemed natural to do this thing, for not to enter directly in Mt. 17, ie into a classic example of sight of the divine glory.

But, on the other hand, we held to present the ecstatic events of the Evangels in tandem with the historical life of the Lord and not in rapport with the toponymy of the textual fragments which have ecstatic evidences.

pastorii si slava lui DumnezeuThe shepherds, which, at first sight, seemed some poor mortals which were grazing the flocks in the middle of night, become, in the context of 2, 9, some veritable seers of the divine glory and of an extraordinary angelophany. If they could see the glory of God, then their sleeplessness must be regarded as state of wakefulness, of clean waiting of God’s presence in their life.

The glory of the Lord, on which had seen it the Saints of the Old Testament is revealed now and to the shepherds. This divine reality bears the same name as in the LXX and it is shown in different contexts, but to some people Saints, with a clean life.

The holiness, notwithstanding of any hierarchical or social rank, dwells in people who do the will of God, so and in the common people and unheeded as and these shepherds. The retail that the glory of the Lord appeared on field and not in the temple from Jerusalem, leads us at the conclusion that the glory of the Lord does not hold of the place in which it is seen but of the state of the persons who experience it.

A look of ensemble on v. 9 highlights us something very important for us. From the topical of this verse does not appear that God’s glory was seen by shepherds, for that it held, necessarily, of the sight of this Angel of the Lord.

The glory of the Lord is an independent reality of angelophany. But, although the Angel of the Lord is distinct of the glory of God, however he subsists in it and reveals itself to the people as being full of the glory of God.

The shepherds see in ecstatic mode both on Angel, as well as the glory of God. The glory is not a fog or a breeze which encloses on shepherds, but a divine reality, seen ghostually, which fills them and frightens them, cf. Ibidem.

fovonThe transformation of this fear, through a dangerous hermeneutic of experimentation of the terrible and of the terrifying, into an anguishing fear of God, who panics you, who makes you be delirious, into a true interior frighteness who hunchs you at proper, does not lead than at a demonic interpretation of the ecstasy.

In this hermeneutical key, the ecstasy would not be followed of joy and of holy trembling, ie of beneficial things for human, but of a maladive state of fear, as a monopolizing agitation without interior substrate.

haran megalinTheir vision acquires new proportions. We highlight the fact that in the case of the shepherds we are dealing with a collective ecstasy, in comparison with the personal ecstasies described so far. All the shepherds (does not say how many) saw on the Angel of the Lord, who spoke to them and the glory of God covered everything around them.

Lc. 2, 13-14All the Angels were in the glory of God and they praised on the living God as some living beings, awakened, deep theological. As unexpected was the appearance of the Angel on field still on so unexpected was and the appearance of this heavenly doxological host[1].

The Angels appear praising on God and desiring the peace of the world, the good understanding of people, the communion of humanity in its integrality. The unity of the heavenly host, the dynamism and its awake doxological sense must be cultivated also by people. The humanity one, created with a dynamic interior and with the doxological sense of the relation with God must revitalized.

In the angelic doxology from Lk. 2, 14 the humanity is not eliminated from calculation, but is constitutive part of the doxological community of God’s creation. The people are together with the Angels a single Church, a single doxological unity created by God.

These things must be known by shepherds. They had to understand that Christ came from the top ones and that the people must be all the same of united, as and Angels, in their liturgical community and in society.

According to Lk. 2, 15, the Angels have gone in heaven and the shepherds remained alone, motivated into a total mode as to get at Bethlehem. The vision has ended suddenly. They have not seen anything, but they were one in their mind, for that they forgot of flock and spoke only of the place where Christ was born.

The glory of God has not been put at doubt by shepherds and nor the words of the Angel. The shepherds have trusted in God’s revelation and did not consider it a hallucination or a demonic illusion. They went and had seen on the Lord, and after they saw Him they returned doxologing at their homes (Lk. 2, 15-20).


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