The role of the Priest of the parish is more than celebrant, and then even not celebrant; for the sole celebrant, the sole Priest, is Jesus Christ. All those who minister in the Sanctuary are presenting Him who is there. Only the High Priest of the New Covenant is performing, continuing and accomplishing His eternal pastoral and priestly office. He is the only true minister of the Church. When the Priest is celebrating as priest, he does nothing by himself; he is presenting Christ who is always there. It is always Christ who is the leader of our worship, the one true mediator. [1]
The ministry of the laity (people) belongs to all members of the body of Christ; Shepherding (the Priest) refers to the specific function of ordained clergy, which is to lead and pastor the community. Priesthood is a theological service of God, offered to God and in behalf of God through His Church. Lay people can perform ministries of theological service too and on behalf of God with the Church because they are “ordained” through the baptismal commission; they have “put on Christ”. The Holy Spirit declares, brings to remembrance, and guides all that is Christ’s own ministry.[2] Jesus promised the outpouring of the Holy Spirit by all who minister in His name and this was seen at Pentecost. It applies to all who minister in Christ’s name, both clergy and laity. In the case of the Clergy, at a Priest’s ordination the laying on of hands by the Bishops confers the gifts of the Holy Spirit for his ministry of leadership. God imparts to the new Shepherd a charisma for the ministry.[3] The ordained pastor can lead the laity to accomplish what the Church is seeking to accomplish in herself and for the world.[4] As ministers, there is a calling of the heart. The Priest’s role is that of theological praxis, that is, the practice of theology and the practice of ministry are undivided. The Priest is also involved in Pastoral Theology, which deals with, but is not limited to, counseling of individuals; counseling that must be firmly grounded in faith and surrounded by uncompromising trust between the minister and the individual, the individual and God and the minister and God.[5]
Problems of the world entrench the Christian’s daily life; problems within marriage, interpersonal dynamics among family, friends and co-workers, children and their spiritual, emotional and physical growth. Learning to help others understand and deal with their life issues in a theological manner is the challenge of the good shepherd, the Pastoral Minister. General psychologists, sociologists, doctors, social workers, etc. cannot help the person on the same level as a Pastor. They cannot deal with life’s issues in the fullness of the Faith. Only a person of theology, a person of the Church, can do that. There is a theological instinct that a Pastor needs to develop which is deeply rooted in the wisdom of the Holy Fathers, enhanced with an uncompromising truthful presence that is conditioned by responsibility and commitment to God and to the person who is being counseled. The Pastor must transform the human situation into a theological task.[6] There is no relationship between human persons that is insignificant. The pastor’s relationship with the persons of his community can be diffuse in such a way that it creates an atmosphere of mutuality within it. This means that when the leader is a “teacher”, he is teaching persons with sensitivity and concern; when he is “Priest” he is offering up the gifts on behalf of persons (for a priest is nothing else than one “who offers”); when he is “prophet”, he is challenging persons who, although gone astray, he believes are “worth it”; when he is confessor and spiritual director he is guiding, encouraging and disciplining persons to help them make certain choices (which truly must be their own and not his). In short, in these ways, the pastor is leading the people.[7]
All of the people of the church have a synergistic experience through the work of the Holy Spirit for all the faithful, clergy and laity alike, with the goal of helping each other toward Theosis. St. Paul said, “we are laborers together with God; you are God’s field. You are God’s building.” (1 Cor 2:9). The Church is an organic whole: it is planted, it is a building, it is a temple with fellow workers synergistically working together with God in carrying out the ministry. We, as God’s fellow workers, cooperate with Him to do His Will; not as equals with God, rather He is the Lord and we His servants called to participate obediently in His work[8]. This is a communal experience that begins when we forsake total reliance upon ourselves. A Christian community is God’s gift, created through His spirit. Our part is to open ourselves up to the Spirit so that in whatever we are able to accomplish, it will clearly remain in our minds as a “response” to the activity of the Spirit. As it applies to communal life, this gives to us the true meaning of “cooperation” (synergia) in which everything we have and can do comes from our human “will” responding to His initiative.[9]
There is a logical progression from the counseling aspect of Pastoral Theology, which involves the personal realization of God’s concern for His creature’s daily life to leading His creature to personal wholeness, again after some personal trial they are facing. Healing, like guiding through counseling and reconciling the individual with God, is a very important dimension of pastoral theology. It restores the person to wholeness, to an integral unity. In order to be restored to wholeness, the problem that was causing problems must be overcome. Without wholeness we have “disease” or “dis-ease”[10] with one’s life.
There are numerous examples throughout Scripture, both Old and New Testament which cite a linkage between faith and healing. These examples are the basis for Pastoral Theology as it should exist in man’s relationship with his Pastor and with God. At every point, the trial the person is experiencing and healing of that person is transmuted into a question of faith and salvation.[11] The healing of every suffering is related throughout Scripture to the deliverance by, and presence of, God in Christ, and the healing of all the life through the restoration of the cosmos. It is related to the ultimate meaning of life. Healings in the world by Jesus manifested the Kingdom of God in our midst. All healings can be casually and symbolically linked with the act of God even though happening through human resources and elements (which God created). It is God who heals. God’s Grace at work.[12]
It is important in Pastoral Theology that an incorrect conclusion is not reached. That incorrect conclusion is that the suffering of a person is caused by the fact that he had sin. Even Scripture tells us when Jesus was asked of a man born blind, “who did sin…this man or his parents?” and Jesus replied that neither did (John 9:2-3). Disease should not be seen in this sense, but in the sense that sin and disease entered the world at the fall of Adam. Suffering should be viewed in a broader sense as well, in that all who suffered as martyrs were made perfect in faith.
The fundamental task for the Pastor is one of faith, which meets and interprets the events of life.[13] Essentially “healing” means to reconcile. While the persons are struggling with their problem, they may well discover the meaning of their existence, the introduction of a person’s relationship with God. God wants to be in our lives and it is up to us to expand our awareness of Him. God not only lives “above”, but also in our “depths”, and our attempt must be to contact, penetrate these depths[14]. It is God’s wish, from the moment He created man from nothingness, that man might constantly bring this presence and grace into both his conscious and active lives, as well as individual and communal lives, working always toward union and deification. This is a never-ending process in our lifetime and is not only important for our own personal salvation but for the salvation of the entire world.[15]
To penetrate and express the activity of one’s depths is to try to express the “inward parts” (Psalm 50). In these depths is where Christ Himself dwells. We must search the depths to grasp this connectedness to the God-within to understand our lives. Searching is our part of the process toward Theosis.[16] In order to search our depths, we have to also surrender ourselves completely which we could subconsciously and also consciously resist. We can even fool ourselves into thinking we are surrendering our will, when in fact we are not. Jesus used parables to help the people understand this weakness. A person can quite simply be afraid of such complete surrender because in this surrender, one is also letting the other person to enter into your most personal self. In order to be free of this fear, one must look to the freeing words of the Angel when the Angel came to the shepherds at the birth of our Savior, “Do not be afraid….”; and, when the Lord was Resurrected He appeared to the disciples and said “Do not be afraid!…” Do not be afraid of that which is there.[17] Do not be afraid of letting God to come into our depths by surrendering. Loosing sense of self and discovering the true self in God, is when one knows his “completion”, his “wholeness” (which can only be had when he is completed by the “other”). With such completion one is reborn into a newness of life where that person is most natural, being connected to the living God within.[18] At this point, one is capable of disclosure, emptying.
To disclose oneself to God (and sometimes that can only be accomplished through a trusted Spiritual Father), means to die, that is, to separate the secret and hidden parts and discovering, as did St. Isaac the Syrian, “I am nothing.” This surrendering and emptying makes room for God. It is the only way, the gateway to the living God Himself.[19] It is the only way, the way of crucifixion before renewal and new life: “Renew a right spirit in my inward parts.” (Psalm 50).[20] At this point one fully understands that he lives from the breath of God within; and, that person comes to recognize that the same breath sinks into the depths of every human being and we all draw our life from the same source. We recognize our unity with our fellowman, the fear of the “other” disappears and because we recognize this unity in its fullest, we are also capable of true compassion. We become capable of giving and receiving.
The Eucharist is here at this reality; and it is the oneness of giving and accepting the “other”.[21] A person is a Christian person only when he can accept the gift from the “other” for which he can give nothing of equal value in return. This is what happens in the communal life of the Orthodox Liturgy where one discovers that the gift of life itself can be reciprocated only with itself, the gift of that person’s own life (through those life giving elements without which man cannot live). It is a communal dynamic. Accepting the gift of Life cannot be reciprocated with any comparable gift, but only with itself: “Thine own of thine own, we offer unto Thee…”.[22]
Spiritual growth and working toward Theosis does not happen except through patient struggle. Through waiting. Waiting patiently while struggling, continuing to “fight the good fight” is essential. We still have our free will; this is not taken away. We still must choose to grow and choose which path to grow on. In choosing the path leading to Theosis, we choose to wait and struggle to gain transformation, to renew our being into the original image in which it was created. The watchful await His coming. To wait means our hope has meaning and substance. There is a direction in one’s life. Spiritual growth is possible. Through waiting and expectation we declare and proclaim our intent for spiritual growth and we offer ourselves for that which is yet to come. Jesus was recognized as the Christ only because someone remembered the prophecy and beheld a star. He was known by those who waited in expectation and hope that the time for deliverance was finally present. Jesus said, “Remember me”, “Do this in remembrance of me!”. Jesus asked us not to forget him and he called us his friends. Out of the depths are the elements in which we are the most alive and free: alive because God is always there. [23] Herein lies our work until the Lord’s Second Coming and herein also lies the important role of the Pastor.
The Pastor must be someone who is trusted when someone discloses their most personal “self” with all their sins. The Pastor represents God and the Church. The Pastor’s role in counseling and confession is to help the individual interpret and identify the “idols” he has created in his life so he may work at correcting them to have synergy with God.[24] The work of the Pastor is his acceptance (not to be confused with approval) of the person’s trial and his own willingness to enter with the person on his journey and to stand between the person and God as one who makes God personal and available. It is a Christ-event being lived in the present experience. The healing in a new life in Christ, the discovery of a new self. Spiritual growth leading toward Theosis only happens with patient struggle.[25]
Return to the Table of Contents for this Study Unit
[1] The Ministry of the Church, Image of Pastoral Care, Joseph J. Allen, p. 24
[2] Ibid., p. 57
[3] Ibid., p.60
[4] Ibid., p. 15
[5] Orthodox Synthesis, the Unity of Theological Thought, Joseph J. Allen, pp. 98-99
[6] Ibid., p. 101
[7] Op. Cit., Orthodox Perspective on Pastoral Praxis, p.51
[8] And He Leads Them, The Mind and Heart of Philip Saliba, Joseph J. Allen, Editor, pp. 32-33
[9] Op. Cit., Orthodox Perspective on Pastoral Praxis , p.55
[10] Op.Cit., Orthodox Synthesis, The Unity of Theological Thought, p. 214
[11] Ibid., p. 215
[12] Ibid., pp. 216-220
[13] Ibid., Orthodox Synthesis, p. 218
[14] Out of the Depths Have I Cried, Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba and Fr. Joseph Allen p.6
[15] Ibid., p.19
[16] Ibid., p.29
[17] Ibid., p.38
[18] Ibid., p.45
[19] Ibid., p..59
[20] Ibid., p.49
[21] Ibid., p.63
[22] Ibid., p.67
[23] Ibid., p.95
[24] Op.Cit., Orthodox Synthesis, The Unity of Theological Thought, p. 222
[25] Op.Cit., Out of the Depths Have I Cried, , p.97
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