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Redemption - An Eastern Christian Perspective
by John Sianchuk, C.Ss.R.
? The theme of this sexennium "Called to give our lives for Plentiful Redemption" has stirred much excitement in our confreres who belong to the Eastern Byzantine churches. These churches in recent years have given our Redemptorist Congregation its first beatified martyrs. These confreres literally gave the lives for the Good News. The truth of "plentiful Redemption" so permeated their minds that it filled them with profound hope even in the face of the great suffering they were to endure. This Good News was stronger than any threat on their lives. Knowing the "plentiful Redemption" that is found in Christ, was the foundation of their lives and their faith. It was the Good News which they preached and which they lived. In this brief paper I would like to reflect on the meaning of "Plentiful Redemption" from an Eastern Christian perspective.

The term �redemption' as a buying back or paying the price is not at all a common theme in the writings of the Eastern Fathers of the Church. Some might even argue that the theology of redemption, although found in St. Paul's writings, has been developed by the western church and is therefore foreign to the eastern Christian mind. Since redemption was such a central theme in the preaching of St. Alphonsus, if the former were totally true, it would put Redemptorists of the Eastern Churches in an awkward situation - that is, as Redemptorists, how could they preach on this theme so close to St. Alphonsus and yet be true to their spiritual Tradition. However, rather than be in contradiction, I believe the eastern vision of �redemption', that is, salvation, complements and even embellishes and enriches the �western' notion of this term.

One of the fundamental differences between the eastern and western approaches to redemption would be which salvific event is emphasized. While in the Western Church the central event of redemption/salvation is the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, the Eastern Church will give more emphasis on the salvific effect of the Incarnation of our Lord. All the salvific events - the Incarnation, the Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Decent of the Holy Spirit - proclaim and reveal the Good News of the redemption of humanity.

The feast of the Incarnation (Annunciation) or in the Greek and Slavonic - the feast of Evangelization or the Proclamation of the Good News - is so central to the kerygma that even Good Friday (as it happened in 2005) does not have the liturgical power to transfer it to another day. Rather on the day of Good Friday the feast of Annunciation breaks forth and causes the Church to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, mixing the joyful tones of the feast day with the sombre tones of Good Friday. In the troparion (a festal hymn) of the Annunciation we hear the words: "Today is the source of our salvation and the revelation of an eternal mystery..." The radical salvific event is the Incarnation, the Son of God becoming a Virgin's son, divinity and humanity finding their fullness in the person of Jesus.

The Eastern Church Fathers see the fundamental goodness and dignity of each person having its first foundation in the very act of creation. The human being was created in the image and likeness of God. In his very roots the human person is connected to God. He/she is the image of God, the icon of God. From the moment of creation we find this essential relationship between God and humanity. We are not just another creature, but rather in our very roots we are defined by our relationship with God, that of being created in the image of the Almighty.

This image, the Fathers would say, can never be erased from the human person. It can never be destroyed. It is permanent. It is in the very definition of who the human being is. We are irrevocably related to God. The very core of our personhood is found in this relationship with the Holy Trinity. Various Fathers often tried to identify the image with certain faculties of the human being, such as our intelligence, our will, our soul, or our spirit. I prefer to think of it that we were created in The Image of God, that is, The Icon of God, Jesus. He is our archetype, the perfect human being. In other words, from the very act of creation, God already intended that all human beings share fully in His very own life. Jesus is the complete expression and revelation of the fullness of divinity and the fullness of humanity in one person - united yet unmixed, unseparated yet unconfused. We are created in the image of Jesus.

Although it cannot be destroyed, the image of God in the human being can become dim or unclear. Sin can cause the image to become marred, but it is always present, even in the greatest of sinners. Our fundamental relationship with God, being his image, is the foundation of the basic dignity of each human being and the foundation of all human rights. However the likeness of God in the human being can be destroyed, that is, we can become very much unlike God. The whole mission or work of the human being is to have their likeness approach their image, become like their image. One of the terms for a saint in the Eastern Church, instead of the word �holy', is the term �most-like', that is �most like' his image, or most like Jesus. This work is both the work of God's grace, that is, of the Holy Spirit, and that of the human being - a synergy.

The most radical event in the history of humanity was the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, the Creator becoming creation, the Spaceless one taking space in the womb of Mary, the immeasurable one becoming a human being in time and space. This radical event of history has had enormous consequences for humanity. It defined who the human being is, their potential and vocation. The human being is called to share in the very nature of God. In Jesus the union is made complete. He is truly God and truly man. In his person we have the union of heaven and earth. St. Athanasius says that God became man so that man can become God, that is, become partakers of the divine nature of God (2 Pt. 1:4) We are not simply called to make it to heaven, but rather to share fully in the divine life. "Of His fullness we have all received" (Jn 1:16) "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." ( Jn 10:10 )This fullness of life is not only something that is hoped for in some future time, but rather it is already experienced and received in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries (the Sacraments), especially in the Eucharist.

The fundamental response of the human being to this mystery of incarnation is wonder and thanksgiving. How is it possible for the fullness of divinity to be present integrally in a human being? How can the energy and power that created the whole universe reside in the womb of Mary at the moment of the incarnation? Some Fathers expressed it in as radical way by saying: how is it possible the Mary was not destroyed when the fire of the Godhead entered her womb? Yet the undreamed of has happened! God has become human flesh. Human flesh now contains the fullness of divinity in Jesus! All one can do is wonder at this mystery and be filled with thanksgiving before the Almighty God that he has so exalted the human race. (Hebrews Ch. 1&2) The Father's plan from all eternity was to share with us humans his eternal and divine life - that we partake in the dynamic life and love of the Holy Trinity. This gift had nothing to do with our work but rather it is a pure gift, God's choice, given freely to us, there for us to receive it.
his mystery of the unity of divinity and humanity is achieved in Jesus, the Son of God and the son of Mary. In his person all of creation is united. He is a microcosm of the whole universe. Let us consider the Aristotelian categories: substance, animate, sensate, human, and spirit. Jesus is a substance having unity with all substances. He is animate, united with all living things. He is sensate, united with all creatures that have senses (animals, etc.). He is a spirit united with all spiritual beings, and of course, he is human, sharing humanity with all human beings. Thus when God became a man, he touched all of creation with his divinity. The whole cosmos was affected. All creation is blessed and sanctified by the divinity of Jesus, the new Adam. The Incarnation becomes the theological foundation of a theology on ecology and the environmental concerns. Creation is holy and precious and needs our respect, because the Holy One impregnated it with His divinity. (Rm 8: 19-22) Creation shares in the glory given to each one of us through the Incarnation of the Son of God.

We see the revelation of this mystery of Incarnation in the events of Jesus' life. At his baptism the Holy Trinity is revealed. The feast of Theophany reveals to the people that indeed Jesus is the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. The feast thus declares that we too then are the adopted sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus in whom the Father is also well pleased.

The reality of Jesus' divinity is further revealed in the Transfiguration, when his disciples, Peter, James and John saw Jesus transfigured before them. It is not so much that Jesus had changed, for he did not change, as much as the disciples' eyes were opened and they saw the reality of Jesus, fully God and fully man. That same transfigured reality is the fundamental truth of each person although like the disciples usually we are unable to perceive it. In Christ and through Christ, through union with Him in baptism and the Eucharist we are already transfigured human beings.

The truth of who Jesus is and the truth of our potential through grace are further seen in the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the full revelation of the Incarnation. Death cannot have any hold on the God-man. Because Jesus entered death, God entered death and annihilated it. The church sings out on Holy Saturday: "Hades rejoiced that it had swallowed one more man, only to find God in its midst. Then it knew it could not hold this One and with Him it would have to vomit up all of those it held since the beginning of time." The resurrection reveals to us Jesus' glorified body, his transformed body, proclaiming to humanity its destiny that can be found in union with Him.

Finally in the Ascension the church celebrates Jesus ascending to his Father. In the Creed or Symbol of faith we sing "and he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." The hymns of the Byzantine Church announce the wonder of the angels to see a human being rise to where they dare not look, taking his place at the right hand of the Father. The wonder is not from the fact that the Son of God �returned' to the Father, but rather that a human being is now at the Father's right hand. In Christ we too will take our place at God the Father's right hand. It is another way of saying that we shall share fully in his divine nature.

Not only is all accomplished in the person of Jesus, but Jesus has also given humanity all the means to guarantee this participation in the divine nature by sending upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are sanctified and made holy. We are filled with the glory of God and become heirs of the eternal inheritance. We shine with divine light. We become aware of the indwelling of God in all persons. We are filled with love and compassion for all human beings and for all creation.

When describing participation in divine life, the eastern church would not use the catergories of natural verses supernatural life. Rather it would use the terms natural and unnatural.Therefore, our participation in God's divine nature is simply natural. All people are called to this glorious participation. Our life of sin or any life apart from God, or ignoring God, was seen as the unnatural life, the disfigured life. As with the image and likeness in the human being, Jesus has come to restore us to our natural way of being, that of being in communion with God.

When an Eastern Christian first hears the words "plentiful redemption", he understands it as the unfolding of God's glorious plan for humanity, that we are called to the share in the very glory of God. This plan has been achieved when God became incarnate, uniting in a glorious way humanity and divinity yet keeping both fully intact. The humanity is in no way diminished or �influenced' by the divine indwelling. Free will does not lose its meaning. On the other hand the divinity is not diminished of its eternal glory and majesty by the incarnation.

However this term "plentiful redemption " acquires even more meaning when we consider that Son of God became incarnate when humanity had fallen and was in sin. "It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rm 5:8) Some of the Fathers say that Christ would have become incarnate even if man did not sin, for deification can only come through the God-man, but since man had sinned, the incarnation now becomes restorative. Humanity is brought back to its original destiny - a recaptulation. Jesus unites himself with fallen humanity. "Therefore he had to become like his brothers in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God on their behalf, to expiate the sins of the people." (Heb. 2:17) "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned." (Heb. 4:15)

According to the Eastern Church Fathers, the effect of the fall of Adam is that death entered the human reality. The idea of original sin entering the human condition with the fall of Adam is not a prevalent theme in the Eastern Fathers. Rather humanity was now subject to death, would enter Hades, and would be separated from the life of God. Jesus, the incarnate God, not only united humanity with divinity, but the humanity that he received is one subject to death. He freely chooses this death and enters it. Jesus embraced this greatest of enemies of humanity, death, and by his death he conquers the power of death. "Death where is your sting?" (1Cor 15:55) The Easter troparion repeats over and over this theme of victory. "Christ is risen from the dead, by his death he trampled death and to those in the tombs, he granted life."

"Plentiful redemption" implies the healing of this original wound of Adam. One can say in Christ, humanity is re-created. Jesus entered death and with death he entered into the depths of Hades, of nothingness. There again (ex nihil) out of this nothingness, Jesus, the new creation, the new Adam, completed the journey of humanity, completed it by bringing humanity to the right hand of God the Father. In Him all creation is made new. We are now this new creation. "May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, grant you a spirit of wisdom and insight to know him clearly. May he enlighten your innermost vision that you may know the great hope to which he has called you, the wealth of his glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the church, the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe. It is like the strength he showed in raising Christ from the dead and seating him at the right hand in heaven." (Eph 1:17-20) This great hope, glorious heritage and immeasurable scope of power is the good news of the full consequences of the incarnation of our God.

His death was not just an ordinary death, but rather, it was a death on the cross, a death filled with suffering, rejection, condemnation and rebellion. The Eastern Church stands in awe of the Cross, ever holding in mind that it is God who is suffering and dying this terrible death. The church hymns of Good Friday do not emphasize shock at the human suffering or empathy for Jesus because he is suffering for sins of the world, as much as they emphasize the awe and the wonder at seeing God so self-empty himself. They emphasize the profound love the God shows humanity in allowing evil to attack him and destroy him. But all the while the worshipper never loses sight that this is God eternal who is suffering and who is crucified. Creation reacts to the Creator being crucified. The sun covers its face, and the earth trembles. All the worshipper can do is bow profoundly before this mystery of God's self-abasement, before the mystery of Life in the tomb. The Passion of Christ evokes in the worshipper profound faith and thanksgiving for the great redemption/love that is poured out upon the world through the Cross. The Cross is called a life-giving Cross, the sign of victory, the armour in battle, for through it evil and the power of evil has been completely destroyed and humanity thus receives plentiful redemption.

�Plentiful redemption' in an eastern understanding would refer to the deification of humanity, the theosis. This deification was achieved in the Incarnation and its full consequences were revealed through the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord. It is a free gift to all those willing to receive it. It is received through repentance and a life of kenosis, a life of self-emptying until we are filled with the utter fullness of God.

I hope these few reflections are useful for our overall reflection on the meaning of Redemption for our whole Congregation. Two books that treat this subject more systematically and theologically are: Deification in Christ - The Nature of the Human Person by Panayiotis Nellas published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 10707, 1997 & The Deification of Man by Georgios I. Mantzaridis by the same publisher in 1984.

From an article in Redemptorist Spirituality by Father Daniel Lowery, C.Ss.R.:

One of the main emphases in the spiritual direction of Saint Alphonsus might be labeled "growth through virtue." In his characteristic fashion, Saint Alphonsus proposed a practical plan that could help the ordinary person shape his conscious behavior according to the law of God. He recommended the practice of giving special attention by reading, reflection, prayer and in daily living, to a single virtue each month.

The important point, frequently emphasized by Saint Alphonsus, is that the Christian virtues are not theoretical constructs to be admired, but practical gifts to be used in living the Christian life.

There are Twelve Rules laid down concerning twelve most principal virtues of Christian life. In a special way, Redemptorists are to strive each month to advance in that virtue which has been assigned to that month, and for this purpose upon them they shall make their conferences, meditations, readings and resolutions. -- Primitive Redemptorist Rule

� During January, you might set aside time to enlarge your knowledge of God's revelation. This could include reading of the Scriptures and opening yourself in prayer to the Holy Spirit.

� During February, focus on hope in your prayers, and make a conscious effort to let go of fears and worries that beset you, and place your trust in God.

� During March, ask yourself.- What is the will of God for me today?

� During April, focus on how much God loves us, and become conscious of your comments about others.

� During May, "clean out your closets" and find ways to bring help or joy to someone.

� During June, take time to reflect on the occasions of sin in your life and pray for the courage to avoid them.

� During July, adults who think of obedience as a child's virtue should reflect on the specific ways in which this virtue can be manifested in the many components of their lives: God, family, job, neighborhood.

� During August, you might ask: Does my relationship with God as Creator and Giver of all gifts have a real impact on my behavior?

� During September concentrate on the resentments or negative attachments in your life and pray for the grace to overcome them.

� During October, seek new ways to develop the awareness of God's presence.

� During November, try to make the Eucharist the center of your life, and set aside at least fifteen minutes each day for meditation, opening your mind and heart to God.

� During December, pray for the grace and courage to accept suffering.