Our Venerable Father Athanasius of Athos (c. 1003).
Polyeleos Feast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
Galatians 5:22-6:2. Luke 6:17-23.
Read Galatians 5:22-6:2
The Holy Apostle Paul in today’s epistle reminds us that the Church is a community. Life in a community means that we have responsibilities because we live together with others. After all, a community is not just a random collection of individuals. No, it is a body of persons who are bound together by holding something in common. This commonality is true of all communities. A nation is a community bound together by a shared history, a shared culture in some respects, perhaps a shared language. A hockey league is a community bound together by those who like and play the sport. A family is a strong, natural community bound together by blood and, please God, by love for one another.
The Church is a community on many levels: it is one of shared belief, shared forms of worship, shared Holy Scriptures, and a shared system of morals. But, at its most fundamental level, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. We are bound together “through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father” as the Roman Mass affirms. The Holy Mysteries that we partake of at every Divine Liturgy, the Body and Blood of Our Lord, are what strengthens us and continually renews and sustains the life of the Church. The Holy Spirit is present in them. The Holy Spirit is also present in us through our baptism and chrismation.
The liturgy that we celebrate is not to be left in the church on Sundays and feast days. It is the liturgy after the liturgy that St. Paul speaks of today. As we leave the church we have a responsibility to live rightly which is “to walk by the Spirit.” We are told that we should have “no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.” Indeed, we have a responsibility to help one another as brothers and sisters in Christ to live fully the fruits of the Spirit. This lies at the very heart of what is Christian community.