GREAT CHRISTIAN FEASTS: History & Theology



Even the “Angels desire to look into” (1 Pet. 1:12), they want to deeply delve, theologize upon the salvation work of our Lord: His Birth, Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, etc. These divine events are so great, unprecedented and unresearched!
And this is precisely the “objective” of this book.
May this become cause for us to glorify the Lord and exclaim from the depths of our hearts: “Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders” (Ps. 77:13-14).


CONTENTS

PART I
CHRISTMAS
1. Why was Jesus born a Jew?
2. When was He born?
3. Pagans in the service of the Lord
4. Prophecies About Christ
5. The Pre-eternal Plan of Salvation
6. The Two Births of the Son
7. Birth: Humility of Christ
8. The Theotokos and the Birth of Jesus

PART II
THEOPHANY
1. John the Baptist
2. Ηis Preaching
3.The Jordan River
4. The Baptism of Christ
5. “And it Remained on Him”
6. “Theophany”
7. The 6 th of January
8. “Τhe Water of Theophany”

PART III
CROSS & CRUCIFIXION
1. Prefigurations of the Cross
2. Prefigurations of the Crucifixion
3. Chris’s Crucifixion
4. Christ’s Suffering on the Cross
5. The Cross of Christ
6. Use and Veneration of the Cross
7. Finding of the Cross
8. The Feasts of the Cross
9. The Devil & the Cross

PART IV
PASCHA
1. Prefigurations
2. Τhe Document of the Godhead
3. "By Death Trampling Upon Death"
4. The Celebration of Pascha
6. From Saturday to Sunday
5. Resurrection and Prayer
6. From Pascha to Pentecost
7. His Human Nature

PART V
PENTECOST
1. Jesus prepares His disciples
2. “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”
3. Pentecost
4. The Early Baptisms
5. The Transfiguration of the Apostles
6. Explanations
7. Τhe work of Holy Spirit
8. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity



PART I
5. The Preeternal Plan of Salvation (pg. 34-39)


(...) God may have known that Adam would sin, but He had already made provision for his salvation, even before he (Adam) sinned, and this included the manner by which He would save him! The tree of life that He planted in the middle of Paradise (Gen. 2:9) was a foreshadowing of the Life-giving Cross. Yes! Our salvation through the crucifictory death of God's Son, had been pre-decided “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20). The pleasure of sin brought the pain of the Cross.

(...) Definitely Jesus as God He could have saved man “in a myriad of ways” (St. Cyril of Alexandria, “that Christ is one”. P.G. 75:1321). However He would not save him to a perfect degree (...)

He had to be incarnated and become a man “without a man’s sperm”. This implies that He could be free from sin, as a man, and from the desire for sin. So for this reason, He was incarnated through the Holy Spirit. And therefore “in Christ the whole Godhead resides physically” (Col. 2:9). Otherwise Christ would simply be a deified man, not a perfect Godman, therefore our salvation would be impossible. St Gregory Palamas says:

“If Christ were incarnated by a male sperm He would not be able to accept in Him the fullness of the incorrupt God- head, so that He could become an inexhaustible source of sanctification. In which case, He would not have the ease to cleanse the first-created humans from the defilement of sin. How much more so, their offspring?

It is like having a bucket of water for an entire city. But this water is not able to constantly quench the citizens because it would end, and so the city would easily be delivered to the enemy.

The city requires a source that would constantly run with water to constantly quench the city’s thirst, and for it not to be in danger from its enemies.

And creation needed a constant and inexhaustible source of sanctification, to not be conquered by the enemies. So for this reason, it wasn’t an angel or a man that came, but the Lord Himself came and saved us” (Homily 58th on the “Saving Birth in the flesh of the Lord”).

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