By Elder Vasilios Gontikakis,
former Abbot of the Monastery of Iveron
Nicholas Cabasilas assures us that “the Church is expressed in the Mysteries.” And with Cabasilas himself – as a true and holy believer – the whole Church is expressed and revealed, because within the Church he has become Christ by grace and all his ethos, namely his speech and behavior, have the grace and character of the Divine Liturgy and the God-man Lord.
We can see this in the interpretation he makes of the Divine Liturgy and in the fourth discourse of “The Life in Christ,” which he dedicates to the mystery of the Divine Eucharist.
A
He begins the presentation of the Divine Liturgy simply and humbly. He speaks of what the liturgist does and says in it. He mentions the formalities. He speaks of the Holy Prothesis. He shows it as symbolizing the cave of the Nativity. He speaks of the asterisk that is placed on top of the holy diskarion, covers the Lamb and symbolizes the star, which came and stood above where the Child was.
He explains that the Small Entrance with the Gospel symbolizes the appearance of the Lord as a preacher. Thus, through all that the priest says and does, he reveals the entire mystery of the Divine Economy.
However, with the way he describes them simply, as if in a catechism school, for a moment you wonder: Why does the well-known great theologian have to tell us this? You find this in an ordinary introduction to the Liturgy.
However, as you continue reading further, your curiosity is gradually resolved. It elevates you naturally, as if on an imaginary ladder. From the simple and comprehensible, it reaches the supernatural and sensorial. To the deification of man. To the gathering of all around Christ.
The believer does not receive something from Christ in the Divine Liturgy, but the whole of Christ. He is united with Him. He reaches the "much-praised marriage". He becomes Christ by grace.
Divine Communion is not merely a blessed food that man assimilates; it is Christ Himself who transforms into Himself those who partake worthily (Disc. 4, 17). We arrive at a grace-filled identification.
This is not one thing, and another is the sacrifice of the Lord. The holy bread and wine is not one thing, and the body and blood of Him who was born of the Virgin and ascended into heaven another thing. The believer does not receive a little light from the source of uncreated radiance, but the entire disc of the invisible sun within him.
It is as if you are standing in front of a sunrise. The darkness slowly disappears. Creation is silently illuminated. Details are discernible. Everything is illuminated by floods of light.
Darkness and ugliness are transformed into the cosmos and beauty.
So here too. After being raised to heaven, where the liturgical guide elevates you, you see all the previous, simple and ordinary things (liturgical acts, gestures, formalities and words) to be full of light and profound meaning. Through them you are illuminated and are brought to the super natural and meaningful.
And when he simply recounts and interprets the formalities of the Divine Liturgy for us, he radiates and infuses maturity and sanctification. And when he reaches ineffable grace, he again preserves the same modesty and calm. Thus, neither when he is at the top of the blaze does he burn us, nor when he introduces us to the elementary and essential does he leave us without the grace that animates us.
If he began his interpretation from the top, the end, from theosis, he would give us nothing, because we would not follow him, we would not be on the same page with him. If he remained only in the simple and in the formalities, he would still leave us thirsty, because he would not give us what we deeply desire as humans.
Now he sanctifies us and calms our soul and body. Through His condescension to our weakness and the gradual initiation into the mystery of our salvation, He provides what we desire and that which we could never achieve on our own.
He elevates us progressively from the low to the higher realms, "until it has brought us to heaven" – as the Divine Liturgy does. He follows the same upward journey that is found throughout the spiritual life: "The life in Christ is indeed nurtured in this life and derives its beginnings from hence, but it is perfected in what is to come" (Disc. 1, 1).
At this point, he acts as the Lord Himself, who, if He remained solely God, if He did not unite as He has, would not be able to offer Himself to us as food. And if He were only as we are, He would not be able to act in this way. “Now it is both together” (Disc. 4, 13).
B
Everything that he gives us reveals Christ as the center of the cosmos and life. They unite us all and each of us is given the opportunity to fulfill his own destiny, to find himself, to move and express himself personally.
Reading him, you feel that there is no essential difference between a secular person and a monk, a person who lives in the city or in the desert, living or deceased. What matters is that you come into communion with Christ. Then you are in the grace of eternity from today. And when you fall asleep in the Lord, you will be more clearly partakers of His body and blood.
He says: let us not think it an advantage of the living that they can go forward, open their mouths and receive within themselves the body and blood of the Lord. Christ is the sanctification of our souls first and then of our bodies. And the preparation for Divine Communion is the purity of the soul, the desire to receive Christ.
And while we can all approach the Beautiful Gate to receive communion; and while the priest gives communion to all who come, the Lord through the priest gives communion only to the worthy. In the same way, he gives communion to all souls who have been purified, have the prerequisites, desire the mystery.
Thus you feel that the real life in this and the other life is only Christ and not our biological endurance and vitality. And what is needed for the communion of life with Him is repentance and purity of soul, because while the Lord took “all that is human, that we all may be united,” “it is unbecoming and unholy to sin, because this (sin) alone is common to us and nothing to Him” (Disc. 6, 12).
Cabasilas always presents himself as discreet and measured, strict and lenient. He neither says: All of you proceed as you please to Divine Communion and spiritual theoria; nor does he say: It is not possible for you to become partakers of this mystery, because you are unworthy and sinful.
He does not present things easier than they are, provoking false hopes. Nor does he lead man astray, bringing him to despair and death.
He expresses himself boldly and philanthropically. He has the character of the divine mysteries that are terrible and life-giving, the ethos of the Lord who is known in the Divine Liturgy as awesome and philanthropic.
Thus, for all and in all he acts as Christ according to grace.
C
We also see this in an interjection of symbolic theology that he makes in the "Interpretation of the Divine Liturgy". He speaks of the differences we have with the Latins regarding the epiklesis and consecration of the precious gifts. And while he maintains the climate of unwavering liturgical peace, he courageously confronts and ultimately solves a problem that so disturbed his time.
He does not say that the differences are insignificant, so let us unite. Nor that they are insurmountable, so let us not come into any contact. He speaks clearly and very strictly, because he speaks with love and as one who has authority. He says that the innovations of the Latins are capable of separating us from Christianity (30, 12). But he does not stop there.
He knows the unified tradition of the Church. He lives within the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, which is why he understands the Latin and interprets it correctly. He sees that the same spirit created this Liturgy and operates with the same logic.
The descent of the Holy Spirit and the sanctification of the precious gifts, which is sought in the Orthodox Liturgy with the epiklesis, is expressed in Latin in the other way of the inverse supplication; that the gifts may be raised by the hand of an angel to the heavenly altar and there in this way be sanctified (31, 2).
Therefore, in the true and one tradition of the indivisible Church there is no contradiction, regardless of whether there is a different way of expression.
And he concludes: “It is clear that they dishonor the prayer on behalf of the gifts… it is not simply the case of the Latin Church, but of a few and more recent persons, who have also ravaged it in other ways..." (31, 12) because "they propose ideas alien to the patristic traditions and the security inherent in them" (30, 2).
Thus, Cabasilas reveals that, just as the Divine Liturgy is offered “on behalf of the world,” similarly the duty of the Orthodox theologian extends to the heterodox. For only the truly Orthodox can understand and correctly interpret the theology of the heterodox. To save the truth that exists in them. And to free them from the error that torments them.
Just as the Son of God became what He was not for us and for our salvation, so too does Cabasilas become what he was not (a Latin theologian) in order to save those who have ears to hear and a disposition to salvation.
By being truly Orthodox, Catholic, he summarizes the whole. He loves and saves everyone. He defends himself for his opponents. He has no enemies. He does not create opposing camps. He reveals the one truth and life that saves those who have a good disposition.
That is why he knows the Latin Divine Liturgy well and defends himself like a true Latin theologian.
Thus, the well-disposed Roman Catholic listens to the correct Orthodox theologian not as someone who throws words of condemnation at him, but as a philanthropic and capable surgeon who diagnoses the disease and has the ability and willingness to intervene and rid the patient of the cancer and grant him the desired health.
D
While he lived in a turbulent era and while he actively participated in the political, cultural and ecclesiastical affairs of his time, he always preserves the unwavering serenity and peace of the Divine Liturgy.
He is modest and original, a great theologian and classical writer. He does not usually quote patristic passages verbatim. He rarely refers to older saints by name.
However, he is nourished by tradition. He knows the earlier fathers. He has assimilated their theology and can now transmit it vividly and faithfully, expressing himself freely and personally.
Respect for Orthodox tradition leads to personal maturity. And only a freely moving person can appropriate the grace of the Mystery and speak aptly about it.
It is characteristic that while he lives in the period of the great hesychast disputes, when the great day of the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas was determined and the chapters against Barlamites and those in favor of the preacher of grace are added to the Synodikon of Orthodoxy; while he lives in the region and in the era that sealed once and for all the catholic and ecumenical Orthodox Church, Nicholas Cabasilas is not influenced by the external phraseology of the formulation of the Orthodox experience.
He lives in the same climate. He is in the same deified grace.
He is a partaker of the same mystery of theosis.
And he can comfortably (lawfully for Orthodoxy) express himself freely in his own way.
A tangible manifestation, how divine grace, the uncreated light of the Lord, as in another paradise, the Church, enables each of its fragrant flowers to develop in myriad ways their own shape, size, color and fragrance, so that for all the one multifaceted wisdom and wealth of the Church is revealed, which at the same time liberates and unifies us.
It brings us together and provides us with the space and possibility of our personal appreciation and development.
E
In our turbulent era, Nicholas Cabasilas can become a teacher in our life and theology. By approaching him, we will understand and love him, because he understands and loves man.
We see that we must respect what he says. What he advocates is important.
He teaches us in the way he formulates. It is worth the effort to walk the humble and uphill path that shows us the moment that leads to the extreme of the latter.
What a theologian and spiritual father he is!
How precise and poetic he is!
How faithful to tradition, modest and quiet in his life!
And at the same time a pioneering theologian, personal and groundbreaking!
The example of this holy father shows us that the renewal of our theology and spiritual life is achieved and celebrated by obeying and submitting to the tradition of our Church.
And it reveals to us that we can always be alive and contemporary, understand and love our brethren, feel the problems and pains of every era by being within the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church, where the awesome and philanthropic are consummated.
Source: From the magazine "Synaxi", a tribute to Saint Nicholas Cabasilas, issue 6, Spring 1983. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
