NR. 4 – 2020

From the outset, it should be pointed out that the Italian physician regards old age as an essentialized phase of life, the one most open to transfiguration, when the person has the intelligence to positively process (metabolize) the events of the past; secondly, through his works, the physician aims to “debunk” the negative stereotype that considers old age as an unproductive stage of life, since it possesses an enormous, distilled creative potential. 

His research also proves that we don’t age at similar speed or intensity, so we all have the ageing we deserve as a result of the specific way we live our lives. As a method of coping with old age, the physician proposes that we “exercise” friendship with our own age, through acceptance, making the emotional content prevail over physical performance in any evaluation of oneself; moreover, the physician is convinced that happiness is now acquired through the awareness that, although some abilities have been lost, others have been perfected. In conclusion, the doctor emphasizes the role of Transcendence in the life of the elderly and suggests recognizing spirituality and affectivity as complex multifaceted structures and fostering them through spiritualization adequate for old age.

Din aceste considerente cercetarea noastră s-a limitat doar la un corpus omiliar redus al teologului-pedagog, cum foarte bine poate fi numit Ioan Gură de Aur, și anume: omilia I, II și V din cele cinci cuvântări despre Ana și Samuel, Omilia XXI din Comentariul la epistola către Efeseni și Omilia IX din Comentariul la epistola către Coloseni. Luate într-un mod plenar aceste cinci omilii portretizează într-un mod extrem de reușit valoarea tatălui în cadrul familial și social. În fond, gândirea hrisostomiană nu este preocupată de a fi un „rețetar” la nivel de societate, ci un îndreptar duhovnicesc pe baza căruia se poate înțelege valoarea părinților în formarea celor ce pe viitor vor lupta pe drumul virtuții.

Studiul de față a urmat pentru fiecare segment în parte următoarea schemă: schițarea pentru fiecare dintre cele cinci omilii indicate ideile principale care se raportează la valoarea și rolul tatălui în societate și în familia creștină, dublate, desigur, de conținutul lor teologic, iar în final a comparat opiniile arhiepiscopului de Constantinopol cuprinse în fiecare omilie în parte pentru a identifica anumite repere ermineutice hrisostomiene în legătură cu subiectul de față, care se pot armoniza, desigur, cu aspectele contemporane.

Sfântul Ioan Gură de Aur este un fin analist al rolului și valorii pe care tatăl le deține, pe de o parte, ca și membru marcant  al familiei și cel care poartă întreaga responsabilitate pentru buna funcționare a familiei, iar pe de altă parte, ca model pentru instruirea și formarea copilului. El croșetează portretul „tatălui”, fundamentându-se pe textul biblic și pe paradigmele hermeneutice pe care acesta i le oferă. Prima impresie pe care o lasă teologul antiohian este că nu vorbește de la sine, ci în permanență se lasă condus de „cheia” hermeneuticii biblice; deși cuvintele frumos articulate sunt ale sale, fundamentul lor este desigur biblic in toto. Teologul antiohian nu vede „tatăl” (πατήρ) ca un simplu exponent al casei, care trebuie să asigure familiei condițiile de trai material. Dimpotrivă, viziunea hrisostomiană asupra tatălui este multiplă: el este capul familiei și principiu în cadrul educației; valoarea sa este egală cu cea a mamei, iar rolul său se desfășoară și la nivel pnevmatic.

În acest context, avem responsabilitatea de a reafirma și de a mărturisi în mod constant și autentic faptul că Iisus Hristos este Mesia, Fiul lui Dumnezeu, Care ne cheamă să ne împăcăm și să fim în comuniune cu Dumnezeu, în Biserica Sa. În acest fel, Îl vom propovădui „pe Hristos cel răstignit: pentru iudei, sminteală; pentru neamuri, nebunie. Dar pentru cei chemați, și iudei și elini: pe Hristos, puterea lui Dumnezeu și înțelepciunea lui Dumnezeu” (1 Co 1, 23-24). Părintele Dumitru Stăniloae abordează Hristologia într-o perspectivă interpersonală, evidențiind rolul și importanța Persoanei divino-umane a Mântuitorului Iisus Hristos, în perspectiva comunicării și comuniunii cu oamenii. Prezentând viziunea Părintelui Stăniloae cu privire la relația dintre Antropologie și Hristologie, putem înțelege că teologia sa este cu adevărat o teologie existențială. În Dumnezeu-Cuvântul, ca Persoană supremă (Pantocrator), își află sensul toată creația, dar și persoana umană, în interdependență și relație cu El. Cuvântul lui Dumnezeu are o intenționalitate spre comunicarea cu noi și spre realizarea comuniunii cu noi, în mediul eclesial. Logosul dumnezeiesc este Comunicatorul comuniunii treimice. Întruparea Sa reprezintă darul supremei comunicări și realizarea desăvârșitei comuniuni dintre Dumnezeu și oameni. Astfel, Întruparea Fiului și Cuvântului lui Dumnezeu întemeiază dialogul iubitor dintre Dumnezeu și om. Dialogul intim și deplin dintre Dumnezeu și om s-a realizat în persoana Sfintei Fecioare Maria, comunicatoarea umanității Fiului lui Dumnezeu. Totodată, prin Întruparea Sa, Cuvântul lui Dumnezeu restabilește funcția cuvântului omenesc: de a uni pe oameni între ei și cu Dumnezeu. Persoana divino-umană a lui Hristos este taina comunicării și comuniunii dintre Dumnezeu și om, Cuvântul întrupat realizând unirea lui Dumnezeu și a omului, în Iisus Hristos. În concluzie, Biserica are responsabilitatea de a-i chema pe oameni la dialog și de a-i ajuta să se integreze în comuniunea cu Dumnezeu. Conștientizând această taină interpersonală și eclezială, Îl vom putea mărturisi, cu bucurie și curaj, pe Mântuitorul Hristos, Care „ieri și azi și în veci este același” (Evr 13, 8), Fiul lui Dumnezeu, Care pentru noi oamenii și pentru a noastră mântuire S-a întrupat, pentru ca noi să devenim dumnezei, după har, în Trupul Său – Biserica (1 Co 12, 27).

The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is the paramount idea around which his homilies are centered, Saint Macarius the Great showing the path that man must follow in order to achieve this goal. Receiving grace is the reward, the laurels for those who choose virtue, rejecting sin. Virtues cannot be separated from prayer, because virtues can be attained only through the grace gained by praying. This union opens for man the way to an incessant dialogue with God, but also the possibility to foretaste eternal bliss, even in this life. Through prayer, man advances in the knowledge of God, and also acquires, proportionally, the key to deciphering the mystery of his origin. Through Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice and Resurrection, man becomes Adam who, standing firm before Satan’s temptation, takes on his cross (Matt 16:24), desiring to enjoy not only the beauty of paradise, but also the sight of God. Strengthened by his faith, the Christian will tread the path of prayer, supported by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the act through which man joins the state of Adam, as it was before experiencing sin, but existing under a continuous strain, always expecting temptation to appear. In order to overcome it, man has to devote himself to prayer, avoiding that pride which transformed Adam from master of creation to a slave of the devil. In Saint Macarius’ view, the foundation of prayer is humbleness, detachment from any selfish tendency, so as to make room for the grace and work of God. The humble man is the one that prays continuously to God, so that God may dwell within him, and for this, his thoughts must be purified. Union with God through prayer can happen once man, having given up his sinful thoughts, has purified his mind and heart. The heart is depicted as the home of thoughts, good and bad alike, and thus, for the prayer to be acceptable to God, it is necessary to acquire purity by guarding thought against the insidious desires and nurturing it with spiri­tual things. The appropriate environment to raise prayer to God is the soul purified of sin and nurtured with the divine virtues, in union with sanctifying and purifying grace. Virtues cannot be separated from prayer, since prayer is the first among virtues, because man cannot address God in any other state except the purified one. By attaining the other virtues, man creates the environment that becomes favorable to prayer, thus cleansing the temple of his heart in order to bring a pure offering to God. Between prayer and virtue there is a mysterious union, resulting from the way virtue ought to be perceived: as joint work, man’s effort being crowned with God’s grace. Man’s efforts will bear spiritual fruit only if man, aware of his limitation, opens himself humbly to the work of God, to receive His grace. Prayer, in the absence of grace, is incomplete, because it does not bring man close to God, but rather gives man a false impression about his spiritual advancement, predisposing him to pride. For he who prays, the receiving of grace consecrates his work as one completed in union with God. But grace works in the souls who seek God through prayer, as well as through actions, requiring an environment in which to yield fruit. Once he has received grace, man is also given the mission to preserve grace, to make it grow in his soul, and this can occur, as stated before, only through humbleness. By being bestowed with grace, man, like Adam, must prove himself worthy of keeping the grace, because with this he has not reached the end of his spiritual perfection, but rather has just climbed one more step. By cherishing grace, man is no longer alone on his way to perfection, the Holy Spirit is there to guide and support him, as promised by Jesus Christ to his followers: „But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, which Father shall send in My Name, shall teach you all and shall remind you of all that I have told you” (Jn 14:26). The work of the Holy Spirit is felt by the Christian especially in prayer, man thus benefitting from the comforting grace that opens his heart to God and makes God receive and listen to his good asks. Through prayer, a mystical union with grace takes place, the thought and will of the Christian being devoted to the Holy Spirit to such extent as to fully identify with Him. All acts of prayer spring from the work of the Holy Spirit because man lets himself be borne by the graceful work. With the receiving of the Holy Spirit, man is Christified (Jn 13:20), but the presence of the Jesus Christ the Redeemer does not preclude man’s freedom, but rather manifests itself in proportion to his will and freedom. Union with the grace of the Holy Spirit through prayer does not cancel man’s freedom, but rather makes it perfect because „God is Spirit and where the Spirit of God is, freedom is” (2 Cor 3:17). By receiving the grace, man’s prayer and all his work are accomplished naturally, as were those of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Prayer is the work through which man freely gives himself to God to be pervaded by His grace, and with this union, he shall advance towards the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Homilies prayer is depicted as the path leading to the inner Kingdom, because with it comes union with God and His eternity. By uniting with the Holy Spirit through prayer, the soul wishes to grow in this relation and understand the mysteries of the Kingdom within. But such advancement cannot be possible solely through natural forces because, while God’s Kingdom may be inside us, it is at the crossroad between immanence and transcendence, between time and eternity, between free will and grace. The Holy Spirit is the One who leads the way, once man has opened to Him and has encountered Him in prayer. Union with the Holy Spirit in prayer is at the same time offering and taking, sacrifice and burnt offering, because the soul, with all its faculties, lets itself be enveloped by grace, aspiring to know perfection. Discovering the inward Kingdom is a theandric act, grace residing in the soul for as long as the soul desires it and does not reject it; however, grace does not manifest itself equally but rather according to the work of every man. Saint Macarius the Egyptian presents the work of grace as incessant, but the intensity of its light is manifest in proportion with the man’s powers, condition and purpose that needs to be attained. Though a bearer of God’s image, man is a creature living on earth and having a mission which includes communion with God – not by himself, but in communion with his fellow people. Redemption cannot be obtained if man is separated from his brothers, even if he gives himself completely to God. The contemplation of heavenly things, as mentioned above, is both a gift and a mission, because it reveals to man the eternal joy that he will be granted in heaven if he persists, during his short life, in faith and if he carries out the commandments of God. Merciful love is the premise of the encounter with God and the criterion by which His Judgement will be carried out, but it is the fruit of prayer and grace.

What we call secularization today does not prohibit the Church from acting in public, but even protects it by law (Law No 489/2006 on the freedom of religion and the general system of religious denominations), but encourages it to move out of the public into the private sphere, under the pretext of modernizing human behaviour, for which religious practice is no longer considered a necessity.

Religion is, however, the ethnic and national identity of a state, and in this sense, for the Romanian people, which was gradually and deeply Christianized, religion is now part of everyday life. Whereas during communism the Romanian Orthodox Church underwent a long period of secularization and atheism, being removed from the public space at that time, which was followed by a series of political and technological changes that influenced the relationship between man and religion, today this institution has carved its own way back into the public space through its own press agency, but also through Christian journalists who work and carry out the Church mission in the Romanian audiovisual media. From this perspective, the homiletic discourse, present in the media and accessible to all believers, is a model of revival from secularization.

The Church is aware of the phenomenon of secularization, analyzing this phenomenon in sermons and broadcasts, which shows that through its activity it does not isolate itself, but is present where it is needed. Thus, we can say that the homiletic discourse present in the media channels of the Romanian Orthodox Church brings about a phenomenon of “desecularization”, or a revival of religion, more precisely, revival from secularization. In this way, the seeds of a spiritual rebirth are sown and a process of stagnation or even reversal of the phenomenon of secularization occurs. There is a secularization of the way in which the Gospel is proclaimed, in the sense that modern means of proclaiming this age (saeculum) are used in the Church, but not a secularization of the message, which means that there is no victory of the world over the word of God which is “living and working” (Hebrews 4:12).

Since the homiletic discourse communicates the Light, the Gospel and the Spirit of Christ, the reception of the message implies more than simply hearing and listening to the sermon, since it does not communicate an ideology, but it entails the living truth of the Gospel, which gives rise to and presupposes a desire to understand the teachings of the faith and to practice them.

Through the homiletic discourse in the media, the Church does not enforce its influence, but explanations of the symbolism of certain feasts, theological terms and liturgical practices do not remain within the church walls, and instead enter the homes of the faithful, who can find answers to certain questions. The Christian is constantly urged through sermons and various other means to remain anchored in the living experience of the Church, to attend the Holy Liturgy in the place of worship, the new media channels only aiding his spiritual journey.

Consequently, in a world of modernity, the Romanian Orthodox Church strives to better conduct its mission in the public sphere, showing that modernization does not automatically lead to secularization, and the sermon presented in the media fulfills its working and formative role in the community, having special discursive values of preaching the Truth prompting the faithful towards good deeds and the acquisition of salvation.