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“Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς”1
– Fr. Dumitru Staniloae and the Rediscovering and
Reinterpreting St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Teaching About
the State of Perpetual Sacrice of Jesus Christ
Ciprian ioan Streza*
Father Dumitru Staniloae’s complex and integral vision on the Holy Liturgy comprises
all the dimensions of life in the church; it constitutes the object of this study, which intends to
re-interpret, systematize, and evaluate the teaching of St. Cyril of Alexandria concerning the
importance of the Eucharistic Synaxis in the life of the Church. e Eucharistic celebration
is only the visible dimension of the eternal Liturgy of love within the Holy Trinity, whose
Altar, Oblation and High Priest is Jesus Christ, the slain Lamb, who lives in a state of
permanent sacrice, who was incarnate, who died and arose again, and sent His Holy Spirit
in the Church, so as to radiate among those who open up to Him in faith, and thus saturate
them with the dynamism of His own surrender to the Father.
Keywords: Liturgy, Sacrice, Patristics, Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, St. Cyril of Alexandria
Many pages have been written on Father Dumitru Stăniloae, yet not
one person can truly state that they have exhausted all the dening aspects of
the personality and work of this amazing Romanian theologian. His original
creative genius, his whole discourse covering an unique mix of all the aspects
of theological research – Dogmatic and Moral eology, Spirituality, Church
History, Biblical and Liturgical eology –, his charism of a tireless translator
and commentator of patristic literature, the way he built his entire rhetoric
around the mystery of experiencing God; all of these impregnated his work
with a value that has profoundly impressed the theological and philosophical
realms of the time. 2 e uniqueness and originality of his broad and complex
theological enterprise3 lies, rst of all, in that he knew how to break the rigid
* Ciprian Ioan Streza, Professor of Liturgics at the “Andrei Șaguna” Faculty of Orthodox
eology, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania. Address: Str. Mitropoliei 31, 550179
Sibiu, Romania; e-mail: ciprian_streza@yahoo.com.
1 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, De adoratione et cultu in spiritu et veritate, PG 68, 708C.
2 Antonie Plămădeală, “În loc de introducere: Generaia Stăniloae” in: Mircea Păcurariu,
Ioan I. Ică jr. (eds.), Persoană şi Comuniune. Prinos de cinstire Părintelui Profesor Academician
Dumitru Stăniloae la împlinirea vârstei de 90 de ani, Sibiu, 1993, p. XI-XXI.
3 On the dening aspects of Father Dumitru Stăniloae‘s work, see: I. I. Ică jr., “De ce
Persoană şi comuniune?– Cuvânt prevenitor la un Festschrift întârziat” in: M. Păcurariu, I. I.
Ică jr. (eds.), Persoană şi Comuniune, p. XXIV-XXVII.
Further articles / Weitere Aufsätze
RES 8 (1/2016), p. 100-122 DOI: 10.1515/ress-2016-0007
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
underlying structures of scholastic schemes and then to promote a reinvig-
orating return to the patristic theological discourse by advancing a spiritual
and ascetically mystical approach to orthodox dogmas. In this context, Fr.
Dumitru Stăniloae has providentially focused primarily on what he thought
was a rst rank priority: the theological and spiritual rediscovery and revalua-
tion (or restoration?) of hesychasm, and in particular, of the writings of Saint
Gregory Palamas. is was the starting point for the profound philokalic and
neopatristic renaissance that this great theologian wanted to assert in Ro-
manian theology as a counterpoint to the negative inuences borne by the
Scholasticism and Pietism of his age.
What ensued was an enormous and steady ow of labour on his part,
designed to bring into the Romanian spirituality the 12 volumes of the
Philokalia, as well as translations with comments of almost all the fundamen-
tal works of Greek Patristics. e writings of Saint Maximos the Confessor,
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Athanasius the Great, Saint Cyril of Alexandria,
and those of Saint Dionysus the Areopagite were gradually becoming more
and more accessible to the Romanian theological world in this Father’s novel
attempt to creatively restore the patterns of Patristic thinking .4
Father Stăniloae’s theological maturity would, however, come to light in
his theological synthesis between Dogmatics, Spirituality and Liturgy, which
he had long thought out and prepared through the profound studies pub-
lished between the 1950s and the 1970s. is unique trilogy was initiated by
the issuance of the Course in Orthodox Asceticism and Mysticism, published
in 1946-1947, which was seen at that time as an attempt to tackle a “theolog-
ical mysticism”, or as a “theology of the spiritual life”; one that was meant to
“ll the void between Dogmatic and Moral eology” and have them culmi-
nate in their praxis.5 e second part in Father Stăniloae’s theological trilogy is
represented by the printing of the three volumes of his Dogmatic eology6,
wherein the great theologian programmatically set his mind to leave aside
“the scholastic method of treating dogmas as abstract statements of a purely
theological interest”, as he embarked on a quest “to discover the spiritual
signicance of dogmatic teachings, and to highlight their truth in relation to
4 Kallistos Ware, “Eastern Orthodox eology” in: e Oxford Companion to Christian
ought, Oxford 2000, p.185.
5 Dumitru Stăniloae, Spiritualitatea Ortodoxă. Ascetica şi Mistica, Bucureşti, 1992, p. 5-7.
is book is a reprint of the 1946-47 Course in Orthodox Asceticism and Mysticism, which had
previously been republished in 1981, under the generic title Orthodox Spirituality, as the third
volume of the course in Orthodox Moral eology.
6 Idem, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, 3 volumes, Bucharest, 1978, vol. I, p. 504, vol. II, p.
380, vol. II, p 466.
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the thorough needs of a soul in search of salvation.”7 e book Spirituality
and Communion in the Orthodox Liturgy, published in 1986, was intended
to crown Father Stăniloae’s work, as the nal part in his theological triptych8,
which - as the man himself stated - would merge doctrine, spirituality and
the liturgical experience into one unique and personal theological discourse. 9
His complex and integral vision on the Holy Liturgy comprises all the
dimensions of life in the church; it constitutes the object of this study, which
intends to re-interpret, systematizes, and evaluate the main themes related
to the importance of the Eucharistic Synaxis in the life of the Church, as it
is depicted in Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s works. e programmatic urge to
evaluate the writings of this great theologian - an action launched by Archdea-
con Prof. Ioan I. Ică jr., PhD in 1993 in the preface to the memorial volume
dedicated to the one who had not long before fallen asleep in the Lord - is
still ongoing, for even today Romanian theology lacks an “authentic, solid,
systematic reception...” of Father Stăniloae’s practical and theoretical work, a
work that is now, just as it was 20 years ago, “more often cited than read and
actually analysed”, according to father Ioan Ică jr.. 10
Without any doubt, the writings of Father Dumitru Stăniloae on the
Holy Liturgy11 are an inestimable treasure still waiting to be discovered, sys-
tematized and evaluated. Yet, such an endeavour is a slow process due to the
complexity, pluripotentiality and depth of the themes he addressed. In this
respect, any attempt to perform a preliminary evaluation of Father Dumitru
Stăniloae’s pursuits in the eld of Liturgical eology must start from the
premise that this great man was not a liturgist in the classical sense of the
word, but a complex and profound theologian who managed to grasp and ex-
perience the unity between dogma and spirituality as a spiritual reality in the
liturgical life of the Church. His view of the liturgy is fascinating and com-
plete in its depth: the Eucharistic celebration is, in Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s
7 Idem, Teologia Dogmatică, vol. 1, p. 5.
8 Jürgen Henkel, Îndumnezeire şi etică a iubirii în opera părintelui Dumitru Stăniloae, Si-
biu, 2006, p. 336.
9 Karl Christian Felmy, Die orthodoxe eologie der Gegenwart. Eine Einführung, Darmstadt,
1990, p. 6. See the Romanian translation by Ioan Ică: Karl Chr. Felmy, Dogmatica experienei
eclesiale. Înnoirea teologiei ortodoxe contemporane, Sibiu, 1999.
10 I. I. Ică jr., De ce „Persoană şi comuniune?, p. XXIV.
11 See: D. Stăniloae, Spiritualitate si Comuniune în Liturghia Ortodoxa, Craiova, 1986; idem,
Liturgie, participation au sacrice du Christ, spiritualité, dans Liturgie, Spiritualité, Cultures,
Conférences Saint-Serge, 29e semaine d’études liturgiques. Conferences at Saint-Serge, Paris,
29 juin-2 juillet 1982, ed. by Achille M. Triacca and Alessandro Pistoia, Roma, BELS 29, 1983,
p. 277-297; idem, “Teologia Euharistiei” in: Ortodoxia 21, 1969, p. 343-364; idem, “Dumne-
zeiasca Euharistie în cele trei confesiuni” in: Ortodoxia 5, 1953, p. 46-115.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
opinion, only the visible dimension of the eternal liturgy of love within the
Holy Trinity, whose Altar, Oblation and High Priest is Jesus Christ the slain
Lamb, who lives in a state of permanent sacrice, who was incarnate, who
died and arose again and sent His Holy Spirit to the church so as to radiate
among those who open up to Him in faith, and thus saturate them with the
dynamism of His own surrender to the Father. rough this dynamism of
expiatory love He wants to gather all in Himself, to imbue them with His
sacricial love and then bring them all before the Father. Bound to the esh in
this world, churchgoers can take part in Christ’s perpetual Self-giving to the
Father, their own sacrice joining that of the heavenly Lamb in the observed
rituals of the Holy Liturgy, through which Christ descends and substantiates
Himself, and then extends His expiatory Body and Blood to the faithful, so as
to bring all those who believe in Him before the Father, in a state of pure sac-
rice. e dynamism of His altruistic love, available to all the faithful through
the Holy Mysteries, reaches its eciency only in the extension and applica-
tion of the said sacricial love among people, through a life of asceticism and
self-restraint that generates acts of kindness and alms-giving. us, the entire
human life becomes an exchange of gifts between people and God: the Cre-
ator and Maker of all gives Himself to people as a love oblation through the
crucied and resurrected Jesus Christ, and thus empowers the human person
to give himself to the Father with and in Christ, and to extend this love dia-
logue to all of his neighbours.
e denitions that Father Stăniloae gives to the Holy Liturgy il-
lustrate this profound, complete, and complex vision on the reality of the
eternal life that is manifest in this world through the rituals of the church.
e Eucharistic Synaxis is thus dened as: “e Kingdom of the Holy Trin-
ity, the intimate godly home that comprises all”12; and “the movement of a
community in the sacricial spirit of Christ and its advancement into the
love realm shared by the Holy Trinity”13; “the ascent of creation en route
to perfection and towards the glorication of the Holy Trinity, through the
sacrice of the incarnate Son, and through its partaking of this sacrice”14;
“the celebration that generates the union and communion between us and
God”15….wherein the Holy Trinity is present “as the consummate structure
and source of love that lies at the foundation of the Son’s incarnation, sac-
rice and resurrection for our salvation, our adoption and eventually, our
12 D. Stăniloae, Spiritualitate și comuniune, p. 375.
13 Ibidem, p. 5.
14 Ibidem, p. 299.
15 Ibidem, p. 327.
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own resurrection”16; “our act of sacrice that is synchronous with Christ’s, or
His act of union with the community which is done in a state of sacrice and
in order to bring the latter along as a living oblation to the Father, so that the
Kingdom of the Holy Trinity would be manifest and mature within all...”17
With these synthetic denitions of the Holy Liturgy, the current article
proceeds to present, analyse and systematize the main themes that make up
the foundation of this complex and profound view on the Eucharistic Synaxis.
1. e Holy Trinity, structure of supreme love, and the Liturgy of
consummate love.
e Greek term λειτουργία signies the common ministration of the
people, and it is a compound of two nouns, namely: ἔργον, meaning deed,
act, work, profession, and λήϊτος, which derives from ληός – or λαός, in the
Attic dialect –, which denes any public service or work done for the state
or the people. e verb λειτουργεῖν translates as ‘doing something for the
people’, while λειτουργία was known to signify an action, or a work done for
the benet of the people.18 It is this meaning of the word that was utilised in
the Old and the New Testaments19, only they employed it in analogy with the
signicance that the noun used to have in Antiquity. e Early Christianity
used the term “Liturgy” in order to give a blanket name to the sum of all those
rituals that men of faith employed so as to express either their gratefulness or
gratitude towards God, or God’s sanctifying work for the people.20 In time
tough, this notion came to signify exclusively the consecration of the Eucha-
ristic sacrice.21
As a universally renowned theologian of the Holy Trinity, Fr. Stăniloae
had a broader and deeper understanding of the λειτουργία notion. He viewed
16 Ibidem, p. 257.
17 Ibidem, p. 137.
18 Petre Vintilescu, Liturghierul explicat, București, 1972, p. 140.
19 In the Septuagint, the verb “λειτουργεῖν” is used 42 times and with the exclusive meaning
of rituals belonging the church service brought before God. King Josiah tells the Levites:
“Now serve (λειτουργεῖν) the Lord your God and His people Israel.” 2 Chronicles 35,3. is
very meaning of service brought to God is employed when this verb is used in the New Te-
stament: Luke 1,8-10; Acts 13,2; Hebrews 9,21. e term λειτουργία appears in the Pauline
Epistles in connection with the Saviour‘s sacerdotal oce, such as mentioned in Hebrews
8,2; 5, 1,4. See also: P. Vintilescu, Liturghierul explicat, p. 140.
20 Gregory Dix, e Shape of Liturgy, Londra, 1945, p. IX; Daniel Ciobotea, “Liturghie
Euharistică şi Filantropie creştină - necesitatea unităii dintre ele” in: Candela Moldovei XII
(10/2003), p. 4.
21 Robert Taft (ed.), “Liturgy” in: e Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford 1991, p.
1240-1241.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
the Liturgy as the communion of eternal love between the Persons of the Holy
Trinity, which all creatures are called to immerse into through grace, a com-
munion that had been granted to the rst people in Heaven and then made
available to all Christians through the Saviour’s Crucixion and Resurrection,
and through the Holy Spirit’s descent and activity inside the Church.22
e consummate love between the Persons of the Holy Trinity, as a
perfect communion between three ‘I’s’ who are co-inherent to one another,
is in fact a love essentially linked to God, just like its manifestation is, which
means that “God has always been a shared act of love, as large as His abso-
luteness and His unblemished subjectivity. In perfect love, the persons do not
merely engage in a reciprocal self-giving; they also arm themselves recipro-
cally and personally, and establish themselves in existence through giving and
receiving. But the divine love is all ecacious... e acts, via which the divine
Persons arm one another reciprocally in existence through perfect love, are
eternal acts with an utterly personal character, although they are acts wherein
the divine Persons are co-active.”23
e love between the Persons of the Holy Trinity is perfect and based
on the complete self-giving of a divine ‘I’ to another divine ‘I’, a self-giving
where the ‘I’ does not oer a part of Himself or of His possessions, but where
the ‘I’ oers His own complete Self. is giving and receiving exchange hap-
pening within the Holy Trinity, by which the reciprocal accommodation of
the divine ‘I’s’ is done, epitomizes the consummate communion, the ultimate
unity. In this completely seless love, the divine Persons not only give them-
selves to and accept one another reciprocally, but they also arm one another
in a mutual and personal manner, kindle each other into existence through
acts of giving and receiving, in a perpetual and eternal Liturgy.24
Father Stăniloae’s greatest merit is that of having highlighted the fact
that only a Trinity of divine Persons can experience complete communion
of love, as not one of the three divine Subjects sees anything as object in the
Persons of the others, nor in himself, but rather experiences the other two
within himself as pure Subjects.25 ese are the consciousness’s of three sub-
jects perfectly interior to one another, and God’s divine love and happiness is
rooted in the reality that, “within the Holy Trinity, each ‘I’ who is the all con-
tains the other ‘I’s’ who are themselves also the all, each being the all in this
22 D. Stăniloae, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, vol II, Bucureşti 1978, p. 221. See also: René
Bornert, Les commentaires byzantins de la divine Liturgie du Vll-e siècle, Paris 1966, p. 36.
23 Idem, “Sfânta Treime. Structura supremei iubiri” in: Studii Teologice 5-6 (1970), p. 336.
24 Idem, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, vol. 1, p. 296.
25 Ibidem, p. 300.
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reciprocal act of containing.”26 Full communion comes about only between
Persons who are and make themselves transparent as pure subjects, who
mutually give themselves to one another. e completeness of divine love
and its unique character make it impossible to have within the Holy Trinity
an ’I‘asserting himself over against another ‘I’; instead, each divine Person
sees himself only in relation to the other two Persons, because neither one
wants to disclose his own ’I,’ but two together reveal the other; nor does
each pair of Persons disclose their own ‘I’s’, but they always place the ird
‘I’ in the forefront. us, “the Character of the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit
is to love by eclipsing Himself, as the Father forgetting Himself loves the
Son in Whom He has placed all His joy, and as the Son is beloved because
He puts o his own ‘I’ in order that the Father may be made manifest and
the Spirit shine forth.”27
us, to Father Stăniloae, the Holy Trinity is “the culmination of the
humility and sacrice of love”, for “it represents the continual mortication
of each ‘I’, for it is the self-assertion of these ‘I’s’ that would make the ab-
solute unity of love impossible, and thus give birth to individualism” 28. To
understand and experience this love, an ascetic eort has to be made, for
“it is the sin of individualism that hinders us from understanding fully that
the Holy Trinity is a complete identication of ‘I’s’ without their disappear-
ance or destruction.”29
e love of the Holy Trinity is one that excludes any form of ego-
centric armation, for only because a third divine ‘I’ exists can the oth-
er two ‘I’s’ become one, not merely through the reciprocity of their love
alone, but also through their common self-forgetfulness in favour of the
third.30 It is only through the third that the love between the two proves
itself generous and capable of extending itself to subjects outside them-
selves, and only the existence of a third in God explains the creation of
a world of many ‘I’s’ and the fact that these ‘I’s’ have been elevated to the
level of partners with God.31
It is only through the Holy Spirit, that the generous divine love ra-
diates to other creatures, as well. In this respect, father Dumitru Stăniloae
states that, “the name of the Holy Spirit is so closely associated with love,
26 Idem, “Sfânta Treime», p. 342.
27 Eugraph Kovalevsky, “Sainte Trinité” in: Cahiers de Saint Irénée 44 (1964), p. 3.
28 D. Stăniloae, “Sfânta Treime”, p. 343.
29 Ibidem.
30 Ibidem, p. 346.
31 Ibidem.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
inasmuch as that name is the sign of perfect love in God. Only the third im-
plies complete deliverance of love from selshness. rough the Holy Spirit,
the love of the Trinity proves itself as genuinely holy. ...e Holy Spirit rep-
resents the possibility of extending the love between Father and Son to other
subjects, and at the same time, He also represents the right which a third has
to take part in the loving dialogue of the two, a right with which the Spirit
endows all created subjects.”32
us God created the world and all rational beings out of, and for this
innite and self-forgetful love, as He wanted to extend the communion of
love existent between the divine Persons to all those conscious creatures that
would be able to respond to it in kind.
To father Dumitru Stăniloae, the sacricial, seless, generous, and
disinterested love of the Holy Trinity, which the Godhead wanted to plant
in and communicate to all rational created beings is the principle, the foun-
dation, and the purpose of the entire economy of salvation. “As a work of
raising up believers to intimate communion with God, salvation and dei-
cation is nothing other than the extension to conscious creatures of the
relations that obtain (n.t. ‘are’) between the divine Persons…Only because
a triune God exists does one of the divine Persons — namely the One who
stands in relationship as Son vis-à-vis the Other and, as man too, can remain
within this aectionate relationship as Son — become incarnate, placing all
His human brothers within this relationship as sons to the heavenly Father,
or indeed placing His Father within a paternal relationship to all men.”33
Having been created in the image of God and meant to attain perfec-
tion as a son of His by grace, through his sampling of the eternal self-sacric-
ing love of the Holy Trinity, the man has been given the mission to gather the
whole cosmos around himself and return it to its Creator, thus becoming a
mediator between created and uncreated, heaven and earth, paradise and the
world he lives in, and between man and woman. 34
However, the fall into sin has brought about a deviation of the man
from this synthesizing mission, and he is now bereft of the Heavenly Liturgy,
and of the communion with the Holy Trinity. Man’s return to the joy of this
communion was accomplished through the Incarnation, Sacrice and Resur-
rection of Jesus Christ, Who brought upon the earth all celestial riches, the
whole divine truth, and the entire heavenly joy that the initial disobedience
32 D. Stăniloae, Teologia Dogmatică Ortodoxă, vol 1, p. 309.
33 Ibidem, p. 286.
34 St. Maximos the Confessor, Answers to alassios 1, 20, 22, 42, 49, Philokalia vol III, p. 16-20;
p. 59-62; p. 69-76; p. 146-149; p. 179-195
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had lost.35 Only a Sacrice could restore the man to the communion of love
within the Holy Trinity, and that is why the Son of God became the Son of
man and by dying on the Cross, He emerged as the eternal High Priest, the
perpetual Oblation, and the utmost and eternal Altar. He then entered the
Heavenly Tabernacle, and went “behind the veil” (Hebrews 6,19), where He
brought Himself as a pure, sweet incensed Sacrice to the Father, and there
He remains forever, celebrating a never-ceasing liturgy.
is state of continual sacrice is considered by Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae
as the heavenly foundation of the Holy Liturgy that is performed through
sensible means within the Church, for “the entire Liturgy that is celebrated
in the Church is Christ’s sacrice intermingled with our own oblation, en-
livened by the power of His Sacrice. Our oer culminates in the Eucharist,
representing Christ’s giving of Himself to the Father and to us, which is not
done without our prayers that also nourish on the Saviour’s heavenly Sacri-
ce”, states the great theologian.36
Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s entire work is built on a central leitmotif -
the self-sacricing love of the Holy Trinity, which was uncovered and made
accessible to men via the state of perpetual sacrice that our Saviour Jesus
Christ is in. is love is the most important aspect of the sacramental life of
the Church - whether or not it is properly understood determines the way
the liturgical ritual is received and experienced as “Christ’s sacrice for us and
our participation in it”, as father Dumitru Stăniloae noted.37 e fundamen-
tal premise on which he bases his attempt to understand and experience the
depths of the Holy Liturgy is that “we cannot bring ourselves as sacrices to
the Father outside Christ, the High Priest who is the original Sacrice, neither
does Christ give Himself as a sacrice in separation from us, for He has placed
Himself in a state of sacrice solely for our sake.”38
Starting from his translation of the works by Saint Cyril of Alexandria,
and delving deep into this great saint’s Christology, father Dumitru Stăniloae
highlights throughout almost all of his own work the “positive consequence
of self-sacricing, the state of sacrice our Saviour is in, without which the
man cannot put himself before God, for this state completely excludes self-
ishness. But only a pure sacrice, devoid of any egotism, can empower us to
35 Saint Gregory the eologian, Omilia 44, PG 36, 612B; idem, Cuvânt la Arătarea Dom-
nului 13, PG 36, 325 AD.
36 D. Stăniloae, “Jertfa lui Hristos şi spiritualizarea noastră prin împărtăşirea de ea în Sfânta
Liturghie” in: Ortodoxia 1 (1983), p. 108.
37 Idem, “Legătura dintre Euharistie şi iubirea creştină” in: Studii Teologice 1-2 (1965), p. 3.
38 Ibidem.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
come before God, and such a pure sacrice could not be rendered except by
the Son of God incarnate. And it is only in union with Him that we can bring
ourselves as pure sacrices to the Lord.”39
2. Entering the communion of love within the Holy Trinity through the
Sacrice of the Saviour.
e depths of the theological concept of “state of pure sacrice”, which
is so often employed by father Stăniloae, requires a detailed analysis. Hence the
following chapter shall focus on a series of theological themes that are contained
in this concept: the necessity of the sacrice in order to reconcile men with God,
the object of the sacrice, the very act of sacrice, the person being sacriced, the
dynamism of the sacricial state pointed both toward God and toward the hu-
man nature and the humankind, the sampling of the state of sacrice that Christ’s
human nature experiences in the Eucharistic Synaxis, and man’s appropriation
and synchronous sacrice with Christ in the Liturgy after the Liturgy, through a
life of ascesis and observance of the holy commandments.
2.1 e substance of the oering: the need for a living, pure and untarnished
Sacrice in order to enter before the Father.
e idea of sacrice is an essential element of any religion, and it has
been understood as the eort men make so as to enter a communion with
God, their act of self-giving in response to the Creator’s gift to them, the path
towards a freely granted communion with God, and also the expiation and
removal of sin, as well as men’s reconciliation with God. 40
In the Old Testament, the faithful used to oer God animals, and fruits
of the earth and of their own labour, by putting before Him as sacrice the
divine gift that yielded in their own gift. e gifts were not mere expiatory
substitutes for those who would bring them, but they were a visible sign of the
persons’ self-giving and self-sacricing, which was still imperfect and incom-
plete, for people could not completely overcome egotism through them alone.41
e consummate sacrice would later be brought by Christ, whose
complete oering was His very own Person. Father Dumitru Stăniloae
writes that His Sacrice “is a human person of an innite value, for this
human person is also a divine Person”42 , and it is only His sacrice that is
39 Idem, “Închinarea şi slujirea în Duh şi Adevăr” in: Părini şi scriitori bisericeşti 38, Bucureşti
1991, p. 9.
40 Constantin Galeriu, Jertfă şi răscumpărare, Bucureşti 1973, p.11.
41 D. Stăniloae, “Legătura dintre Euharistie”, p. 4.
42 Ibidem, p. 9.
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pleasant in the eyes of the Father, because it is holy, pure, unblemished and
without sin.
Christ is the true Sacrice, man’s only gateway back into the vast life
of love communion within the Holy Trinity. He entered the Holy of Holies
from above, and not with a sacrice that is detached from Him, shedding
not the blood of bulls or calves, but His Own precious blood, an oering far
more worthy than any other sacrice ever brought by man. e animal does
not consciously experience the pain of shedding its blood like the incarnate
Son does. “It was not the blood itself that washed men’s sins away, but what
Christ experienced while shedding it - says father Dumitru Stăniloae - and
that stirred Father’s boundless mercy. And it also stirred the love for His Son,
Who gave Himself to the Father as a human sacrice that culminated in His
shedding His blood for us and on our behalf. is should lead us to under-
stand the great value the Father assigned to the Son, Who suered death on
the Cross so that we might be granted mercy. Since even the common man
experiences the pain of sacrice in his own blood, when he sheds it for anoth-
er, even more so does Christ feel this pain in a perpetual manner.”43
Father Dumitru Stăniloae insists very much on the fact that the Sub-
stance of the sacrice brought for the forgiveness of sins of all humankind
is the forever living Oering, which was not burnt or destroyed by the re
of death, but rather sanctied and rendered worthy to be welcomed by the
Father, as a sweet incensed oblation. His sacrice is unique and of maximum
eciency, for Christ also presented Himself as a complete man to the Father,
bringing neither impersonal gifts, nor other people as oering (like the pagans
did), but rather He gave Himself for others. Hence, He became the supreme
Priest or the High Priest par excellence, one who could graft the vastness of
the divine love onto His feeling of solidarity with His fellow men, thus dy-
ing only to sanctify Himself and elevate all who believe in Him before the
Father.44 “Surrendering one’s own self to God means innitely more than
surrendering one’s possessions - the same great theologian notes in one of his
comments to Saint Cyril of Alexandria’s Adoration in Spirit and in Truth. By
sacricing one’s possessions, one preserves oneself through a selsh care or
act that is too poorly learned. Only Christ brought Himself as a complete
sacrice. It is only by attaching ourselves to Him Who brought such a sac-
rice, that we can also bring ourselves as living sacrices, by renouncing the
false pleasures of egoistic passions. is is a dierent way of annihilating our
43 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, “Închinarea şi slujirea în Duh şi Adevăr” in: Părini şi scriitori
bisericeşti 38, Bucureşti 1991, note 338, p. 309
44 Ibidem, note 126, p. 107.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
selshness or our own selves, for we cease living for ourselves and starts living
for God, by fullling His will that sancties us.”45
What Christ brings is a living sacrice, full of life because it is not
something one brings as an exchange gift, but rather it is “Someone” who is a
price and an oering in and of Himself, who has an inherent supreme value
in that He becomes the source of the sweet incense of sacrice which pene-
trates all those who abide in Him and engages them toward a personal state of
sacrice: “e burnt oerings of animals were completely consumed by the
holy and unextinguished re, not an organ was spared, but each little part and
limb would ascend to God, as a sweet incensed aroma. And those who were
slain in order to be brought as a sacrice for salvation would go through a
partial sanctication... It was thus meet that only Christ should bring Himself
as a complete burnt oering. For He is truly whole and holy, completely sweet
incensed and sanctied. In the meantime, the lack of a thorough holiness and
overall cleanness is inevitable in us, for we are also somewhat corrupted by
sin”, as Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes.46
God could welcome only a pure and unfaltering sacrice like Christ’s,
but the act of bringing it also had to be complete and most pure.
2.2. Christ’s act of sacrice and the entrance of His humanity into the state of
sacrice.
e bringing of any sacrice involves the ideas of death and sanctica-
tion.47 In the Old Testament, to oer God animals, fruits of the earth, objects
or even people, meant to have them consecrated by God and separated from
their habitual usage; they died and were destroyed for this world, yet they be-
came consecrated and sanctied once they were brought to God. Symbolically,
each act of bringing a sacrice pointed to a desire of transitioning from a mate-
rial existence to a spiritual one, from an old life of sin to a new and sanctifying
life of communion with God. In other words, it indicated that the holiness
that results from the relationship between the oering and God is possible only
after an inferior lifestyle was terminated. In this respect, Saint Cyril of Alexan-
dria calls the object oered to God either a victim (θῦμα), or a sacred object
(ἱερεῖον), and the act of bringing it either oering (θύειν), or consecrating
45 Ibidem, note 458, p. 400.
46 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, De adoratione et cultu in spiritu et veritate, PG 68, Paris: Migne,
1857-1866, col. 709B. See also: Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Adoration in Spirit and in Truth,
book X, translation, introduction and notes by D. Stăniloae, Părini şi scriitori bisericeşti 38,
p. 362.
47 D. Stăniloae, “Legătura dintre Euharistie”, p. 4
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(ἱερουργεῖν): “It is just like in an icon, we consecrate our souls to God through
victims, and thus we move into a life that is holy and untarnished.”48
However, the sacrices of the Old Testament were mere ante types and
symbols foreshadowing the true sacrice that would be Christ’s. rough
these, men could not entirely get over their inferior and selsh modes of
being, and their bringing of oerings to God rather showed their wish to be
delivered from the debt of a sacrice they understood as death, or as a com-
plete surrender to God.
In His desire to grant men the possibility to bring a pristine sacrice
and thus put themselves before the Father, the Saviour Jesus Christ became
incarnate and assumed into His Hypostasis the whole human nature, which
He impregnated with complete availability towards God. is assumed hu-
man nature would eventually end in death, the utmost sign of His ineable
obedience. Only in Him could the human nature die out of its obedience and
love, and in the faith that God would ultimately resurrect it, thus reviving and
moving the love of the Father.
e state of complete self-renunciation and His consummate surrender
as a human before God, which He had constantly been under throughout
His whole earthly life, ended up in His death on the cross. is was a visible
sign of His desire to keep and conclude within His assumed humanity the
determination to be completely and freely given to the Father as a man as
well, and to be in an eternal communion with all who follow Him in a state
of sacricial love.49
Christ, the new Man, experienced His own crucixion as a visible to-
ken of the truthfulness of His death to egoism, as its culmination, and as its
absolute manifestation. “It was t for Christ to go through this total test of
authenticity and to accept the consummate form of sacrice. And the circum-
stances had Him go through that ordeal.”50
His act of sacrice is eternal and has redemptive eciency. e Saviour en-
tered before the Father through His precious Blood, and there He remains, in a
state of perpetual sacrice, thus gaining an eternal redemption, as Saint Apostle
Paul states in his Epistle to the Hebrews (9, 12). Father Dumitru Stăniloae sees
in this Pauline epistle a clear armation of the permanence and uniqueness of
Christ’s sacrice, and by commenting upon verses 12-14, chapter 10: “But this
Man, after He had oered one sacrice for sins forever (εἰς τὸ διηνεκές), sat
48 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, De adoratione, PG 68, col 769B, cited Romanian transl. p. 405.
49 D. Stăniloae, “Jertfa lui Hristos şi spiritualizarea noastră prin împărtăşirea de ea în Sfânta
Liturghie” in: Ortodoxia 1 (1983), p. 106.
50 Idem, “Legătura dintre Euharistie”, p. 11
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
down at the right hand of God... For by one oering He has perfected forever
(εἰς τὸ διηνεκές) those who are being sanctied.”, he notices that the expres-
sion εἰς τὸ διηνεκές “does not merely mean that Christ’s sacrice on Golgotha
is so valuable that in its name all those who sin will be forgiven, or all those
who believe in it will be sanctied, but that it contains and originates a power
that can sanctify and therefore grant forgiveness to all those who receive it.
e expression εἰς τὸ διηνεκές shows a continuity of eciency, of irradiating
power, and not of a simple judicial equivalence with all future sins.”51
e Son of God is being perpetually surrendered to the Father out of
love, and this love - a ceaseless Self-oering - has shown itself as an ensan-
guined sacrice, due to the conditions man created by falling into sin. By
dying on the Cross, the Saviour gives Himself as a Man to the Father in a
consummate manner, and through this, He impregnates His human nature
with the intensity of oering Himself to God. is state of perpetual sacrice
that the humanity of Christ is in is no longer connected to death in His eter-
nally living Person. Rather, it is a state of resurrection and holiness of the new
deied life, the spring and source “for all the degrees of the state of sacrice
the faithful are in, degrees that would include both the death to egoism, and
the holiness of a new life, a life of resurrection.”52
“He who does not give himself entirely and forever, does not give him-
self completely, writes Father Dumitru Stăniloae, for it is only in this perpe-
tuity that Christ’s sacrice shows completeness and the power to make others
perfect”53 Only Jesus Christ made it possible for man to enter before the
Father in a state of pure sacrice and to remain in it forever, for the eternal
power to overcome any human egoism comes solely through Him. 54
2.3 e person who brings the oering - Christ, High Priest, perpetual Sacrice
and Altar above the heavens
Another dening element for the uniqueness of Christ’s sacrice is His
Person, the One Who oers Himself also as a man to the Father. e Saviour
is the High Priest, Who does not bring impersonal gifts or other people as
oering (like the pagans do), but One Who gives Himself to God for the sake
of others, as He is a priest, a sacrice, and an altar, all at the same time.
Father Dumitru Stăniloae insists that the uniqueness and sublimeness
of Christ’s priesthood is given by His perpetual oering of Himself to the
51 Idem, “Iisus Hristos, Arhiereu în veac” in: Ortodoxia 2 (1979), p.218.
52 Idem, “Legătura dintre Euharistie”, p. 11.
53 Idem, “Jertfa lui Hristos”, p. 108.
54 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Închinarea şi slujirea, note 567, p. 512.
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Father, and particularly by the fact that His sacrice is personal, profound,
mystical, and abundant in sacricial love and delicate sensitivity. e Saviour
did not want to bring to the Father some lifeless and senseless object, but He
brought Himself, with His human sensitivity intact and untempered with
and by transgressions, whereby He was able to experience the human sin as
His own and then open-heartedly receive death for it, in a way nobody else
could. “By this, a wave of love has sprung from Him, a love that unites all to
Christ Who tramples death by dying, says Father Stăniloae. For in loving us
so, He received death for us and destroyed it inside of Him and then in all
those who were attached to Him... rough such a love as His, stronger than
death, He overcame the care for Himself, as there was no shadow of sinful
egoism in Him. In the complete and voluntary acceptance of death for others
lies the power to defeat death. He conquered death not because it had invaded
Him without His permission, but He welcomed it, for His death was an act
of perfect love for all humankind.”55
His pure sensibility and sensitive delicacy gives Him the power to expe-
rience Himself simultaneously as a consummate sacrice and an eternal High
Priest, and also as the highest place where the sacrice is suered, i.e. the Altar
above the heavens, for He could not raise His sacrice closer to God than in
His own Self. He has been and still is experiencing Himself completely as
oering and oerer, and as the highest place wherein the sacrice is brought.
He was and is the closest to God, always in a state of sacrice, always willing
to radiate in those who open up to Him in love the dynamism of His Self-of-
fering to the Father.56
In Christ, the status of High Priest is inseparable from that of sacrice.
Yet He is the eternal altar before the Father, the place that is most spiritually
charged, closest to God and to His holiness. He is the sempiternal Altar and
the enduring sacrice that needs not be repeated. He is the Altar of the whole
creation par excellence. He enters the Holy of Holies not upon certain occa-
sions, but only once [ἀφάπαξ] (Hebrews 8,1) and there He remains forever,
celebrating a perpetual Liturgy as the eternal High Priest.
He is the One and Only High Priest, the eternal sacrice and the abso-
lute Altar, Who is able to lead His human brethren to the state of perfection.
He does not enter before the Father in any random state, but He brings to
Him the most pure oering, that is Himself. In this respect, Saint Cyril of
Alexandria states in his comment on the setting of the golden altar in front
of the One Who stands above the Cherubim: “Christ placed the one who
55 Ibidem, note 125, p. 106.
56 Ibidem, note 312, p. 292.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
had turned away from God and had upset Him through disobedience and
sinful acts, before the Father just as [he is] in Him, and just as [he was] in
the former man [ὡς ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ πρώτῳ]. For He has entered heaven as our
forerunner, so that He may now present Himself before God for us, just as
wise Paul wrote (Cor. 9, 24). He who is forever with His Father reveals Him-
self now, and presents the human nature – as [it] is in Him, [and] as [it] was
in the former man [ὡς ἐν ἑαυτῷ γε καὶ πρώτῳ] –, along with all our aects
before the Father, thus changing the old lapse.”57 Also, the act of placing the
manna that was kept in the golden chalice into the Holy of Holies is, for the
great Alexandrian saint, a symbol of the way in which humanity was placed in
and with Christ before God, “for Christ is and shall always remain incorrupt,
always universally known, Saint Cyril writes. And He sits before the Lord,
thus in the sight of the Father. For when He became First-Born and donned
the human esh like us, He also trod into the Holy of Holies through the
great and consummate Tabernacle, that is, He entered Heaven, so as now to
appear in the presence of God for us, as it is written (Hebrews 9, 24). For it
is not Himself that He brings before the Father, but us, just as [we are] in
Him [ὡς ἐν ἑαυτῷ], people who have fallen from His sight, since we have
let disobedience and sinfulness rule our lives.”58 Likewise, the waving of the
sheaf before the Lord is for Saint Cyril a symbolic sign of the way Christ is
brought before the Father, because, “After Emmanuel, the new incorruptible
fruit of humanity had risen from the dead, He ascended into heaven so as to
appear in the presence of God the Father on our behalf. And it was not Him-
self that He brought before God, for He is always together with the Father
and is never separated from Him as God, but He brought us in the sight of
the Father, just as we are in Himself [ὡς ἐν ἑαυτῷ], humans who were away
from His face and banished by His wrath, due to Adam’s disobedience and to
the sin that coerced us into unrighteousness. erefore, in Christ we gain the
power to come before God. For He deems us worthy of His sight, as we are
now sanctied.”59
It is remarkable how Saint Cyril viewed the uniqueness of Christ’s High
Priesthood. e only man who came closest to God as a loving Father was His
Son. No man can get nearer to God than His incarnate Son. Still, He did not
go there randomly, but He entered before the Father not as the simple man
nor as the one and only God, but rather He brought Himself as a sacrice to
57 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, De adoratione et cultu, PG 68, 620C-621A. Romanian transl.
quoted p. 337.
58 Ibidem, PG 68, 671B. Romanian transl. quoted p. 305.
59 Ibidem, 1096B. Romanian transl. quoted p. 593.
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Ciprian Ioan Streza
the Father, and oered His sheer humanity just as it was manifest in Him and
as it was destined to be from the very beginning - completely available to the
divine love, which is most pure, delicate and full of sacricial compassion for
all mankind. And it is only in this manner, ὡς ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ πρώτῳ, in the
way He is and always was within Himself, as Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes,
that the human nature was granted admission into the innite vastness of the
supreme existence, for it is perpetually presented in Christ, the eternal High
Priest, as a sweet incense fragranced sacrice before the Father. “Solely Christ,
the wholly pure God made man, was worthy of bringing such a sacrice - fa-
ther Dumitru Stăniloae notes - for as He was completely surrendered as a man
to the Father, His sensitivity ran so deep, that His perceptive faculties became
equal to the absolute godly sensitivity and purity. Along these lines, He was
able to make that very paternal sensitivity vibrate to the sacricial love of the
human nature, now saved from the unfeeling thickness of sinful egoism.”60
2.4. e dynamism of Christ’s state of sacrice and its movement towards God the
Father, the human nature, and towards all men
To Father Dumitru Stăniloae, the state of perpetual sacrice that Christ’s
human nature abides in is the heavenly foundation to any sacramental act of
the Church, and thus he insists that “the most complete understanding of
Christ’s sacrice is that which sees its movement both toward God and to-
ward the human nature that was embraced by Christ and, through it, toward
all human beings.”61 erefore, the Saviour’s state of conscious and perpetual
sacrice envelops both His state of complete surrender before the Father, and
His state of human compassion that he has for all of those who open up to
Him in faith. “He remains in this state of sacrice permanently united with
the Father and always ready to unite Himself with a constantly refreshing
string of people through commiseration and by extending His sacricial state
towards them, so as to draw them to the Father.”62
a. e Saviour’s sacerdotal oce- a state directed to the Father before all else
In the Patristic tradition, the two aspects of the Saviour’s sacrice are
inseparable. e death on the Cross that the Son of God incarnate suered
is not perceived as a mere satisfaction made to atone for the debt incurred by
men through sin and owed to God’s honour, such as the Western theologians
state, but it is primarily an act of restoration of the human nature through sac-
60 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Închinarea şi slujirea, note 390, p. 346.
61 D. Stăniloae, Teologia Dogmatică, vol 2, p. 131.
62 Idem, “Jertfa lui Hristos”, p. 113.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
rice, which was rst carried out in Christ and then extended through Him in
all of those who believe in Him. Furthermore, father Dumitru Stăniloae for-
mulates an Orthodox point of view on the satisfaction theory of atonement,
which rests on the idea that, through the Saviour’s sacrice, God takes the in-
itiative and reconciles the man with Himself, thus restoring and deifying the
human nature that He assumed in His divine-human Person, for “God could
not love man’s state of sin, which is his state of enmity toward God. Christ as
man earns God’s love for the human nature by rectifying through sacrice its
state of enmity toward God. Or vice versa: by manifesting through sacrice
the will to be totally dedicated to God, the human nature is thus restored
from its unhealthy state. ese are the two undivided aspects of the sacrice.
A parent rejoices in the child who goes back to respecting him not because he
sees in this his honour re-established, but because through this respect that
the child gives him again he sees the moral and even ontological resources as
being restored in the child’s being.”63
erefore, the Saviour’s sacrice is understood by the Patristic tradition
as “a ransom” paid by Christ for men to God the Father, yet only in the sense
that it was a necessary compensation for men, and not for God. at ran-
som did resolve the human nature’s liberation from under the tyranny of the
opaqueness that the egoism of passions engendered, and thus allowed the sac-
ricial love of the Holy Trinity to permeate it and endow it with all of its gifts
and graces. Christ is the “Oblation” brought to the Father, and the means by
which the reconciliation between man and God was eected. By entering the
heavenly Holy of Holies, or before the Father, in a state of sacrice, Christ did
not only secure a juridical ransom for us, but He reaped a holy ransom, one that
sancties and cleanses us (Heb. 9, 12 - 13), states Father Dumitru Stăniloae.
e juridical satisfaction theory of atonement shared by Anselm of Canterbury
and Luther is inconsistent with this «holy ransom» that «sancties». is lls
the humanity of Christ with the entire loving and sanctifying presence of God,
for His sacrice is not a simple juridical settlement to account for the oences
men have given God, but rather it is the Father’s way of opening Himself up
in love. e love of the Father permeates this sacriced humanity and thus
transforms and sancties it, prompting it to extend this loving and sanctifying
presence of God into all who abide in Christ through faith.64
God rejoices in the human nature that has become a sacrice able to
sense the delicate presence and sensitivity borne by His sacricial love and that
urges the Creator of all to feel a certain “satisfaction”. By giving Himself to the
63 Idem, Teologia Dogmatică, p. 131.
64 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Adoration in Spirit, note 570, p. 516.
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Ciprian Ioan Streza
Father as a man as well, thereby dying to the worldly life, Christ is, as Saint
Cyril of Alexandria writes, “our rst and all-transcending oering, for He has
brought Himself as a sacrice before God the Father not for Himself, as the
awless Law required, but for us, His people who were under the oppression
and disgrace of sin. And in the measure that we bear His likeness, we too are
consecrated sacrices, for we are those who have died to sin, insofar as sin has
been put to death within us, and we live for God a life of holiness and piety.”65
Christ is the most precious gift that could have ever been brought to
the Father, because He oers Himself as ransom for all, and therefore the Son
secures the love of the Father for all of His brothers in humanity. “His sacri-
ce is both gift and ransom. It is a ransom presented as a gift - states Father
Dumitru Stăniloae - and a gift is the sign of love. He is the complete gift or
perfect sacrice, who brings Himself to the Father for us and with us, and not
as an object, but as a Subject.66 His sacrice is consciously made, because it is
the self-oering of a Person; therefore this self-bringing has nothing passive in
it, but rather it possesses an irradiating dynamism that is capable of drawing
others into acts of self-oering, for “its most intense subjectivity coincides
with its fullest value for others.” 67 Christ’s sacrice is dynamic and completely
spontaneous, and that makes it rise to the Father as a sweet-smelling fragrance,
and cluster around itself the sacrices of all the faithful. Its vertical dynamism
is able to attract and unite all in its advancement towards the Father, so that
“the union with Christ in the state of sacrice is not the union with a passive
Christ, but with the Christ who is fuelled by an immense love for the Father
and for all human beings as well.”68
is idea is beautifully expressed by Saint Cyril of Alexandria when
he writes about the sweet-smelling aroma of sacrices that he sees as the
antetype of Christ’s sacrice: “e sweet fragrance of the Holy Tabernacle
is abundant, the sweet-incensed aroma of the churches and of the saints in
them unfathomable. For the church is whence Emmanuel ascends to heaven
as a sweet fragrance, where the mystery of Christ is celebrated and where
God is oered the bloodless sacrice. erefore, from the beginning and
through to the very end, the sweet-incensed fragrance dwells in the churches
through Christ the Lamb.”69
65 Idem, De adoratione et cultu. PG 68, 708BC. Romanian transl. quoted, p. 362.
66 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Adoration in Spirit, note 415, p. 361.
67 D. Stăniloae, “Legătura dintre Euharistie”, p. 14.
68 Ibidem, p. 15.
69 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, De adoratione et cultu, PG 68, 1092B, Romanian transl. quoted
p. 590.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
b. e Saviour’s sacrice restores the human nature and fashions the communion
between people
God decided that only a man bearing a sacrice of the most pleas-
ant kind was to come near Him, and the most pleasant man could be no
other than His incarnate Son, and the most pleasant sacrice could only be
the Son’s life and generous Self-sacrice. erefore, by dying on the Cross,
the Saviour sanctied the human nature He had assumed, He deied it and
lled it with all of His gifts and with His undivided sacricial love. As Father
Dumitru Stăniloae notes, Christ’s human nature was not “individualistically
conscated by an ordinary person, for it was assumed by a divine Hypostasis
and thus it became the core whereby the divine energies irradiate and are
communicated to all. rough it, Christ intends and is able to saturate all
people and nurture them into His likeness, and eventually bring all who be-
lieve in Him to unity.”70 “He was born as a man and He sacriced Himself for
our sake, and it is again for us that He remains in this state of sacrice. e
vertical intention manifested through sacrice is combined with the horizon-
tal intention, which is marked by communion... His sacrice ascends to the
Father with the determination to open the gates of heaven for everybody, and
to draw all people in there with Him.”71
e sacrices in the Old Testament did not have the power to attract
and incite people to self-sacricing, such as the sacrice of Christ now does.
Father Dumitru Stăniloae writes about the spontaneity and dynamism of the
oblation brought by the Saviour, which has the power to attract the personal
sacrices of the faithful in a community. His live, spontaneous and perpetual
Self-oering to the Father “is the only one that can draw all of His believers
into the act of spontaneous sacrice, thus having them unite with it and with
one another. erefore, all the faithful are replenished with the sensibility and
disposition of the universal High Priest, who sacrices Himself for all.”72
is double horizontal and vertical dynamism of the Saviour’s sacrice
represents the power of the consummate love by which Christ, the new Adam
gathers all within Himself and pierces them with the generosity of His oer-
ing, only to be able to present them in Himself as gifts and sacrices to the
Father, in an act of total obedience and self-sacrice. “Being as He is - God
the Word, He wants and is able to be all in all, only to oer all to the Father,
writes Father Dumitru Stăniloae. Yet, in order to do this He has to imprint
70 D. Stăniloae, “Legătura dintre Euharistie”, p. 13.
71 Ibidem, p. 14.
72 Ibidem, p. 15.
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the state of sacrice in them. And that is why He donned the human esh,
so that He would not have to require this state from persons outside of Him,
who would be unable to anchor themselves in it, but that He might irradiate
this state in others from within His own Self.”73
e sweet fragrance of His sacrice is a state of continual Self-giving
to the Father and of unending commiseration with all people. Christ wants
to identify Himself with His fellow human brothers through the intensity of
His Self-oering to God the Father, He wants to go through all of their inner
strife, to assume the irreproachable eects of their nature, and ultimately to
suer death out of love for them, and out of the desire to liberate them from
under the tyranny of sin and Satan. As He wanted to bring Himself before
the Father in the form of a compassion-lled sacrice for all people, He chose
to die for them and so He was able to gain their love, which He then turned
into a love that was directed to the Father as well as to the rest of the people,
thus uniting all in the communion of perfect love.
Christ’s sacrice is the bonding agent that works through men to bring
together the entire creation, and that places it within the sacricial love of the
Holy Trinity, in the never-ending Liturgy of love between the divine Persons.
e Saviour has elevated the human nature to the highest place before the
Father and, by imbuing it with the sensitivity and delicacy of His complete
surrender and self-renunciation; He converted it into the quintessential Ob-
lation. is humanity, sanctied by sacrice, is full of compassion for all peo-
ple, and that prompts the vastness and generosity of the divine love to morph
into the feeling of sacricial solidarity with those who share the same human
nature with Christ, a kind of solidarity that is plenary experienced in His vis-
ible oering of His Body and Blood during the Holy Liturgy.
To Father Dumitru Stăniloae, the mystery of salvation is the Mystery
of Person and communion. ere is no communion in the absence of per-
sons, and the person is genuinely asserted only through sacrice and self-giv-
ing.74 In his opinion, everything in the relationship between man and God
is personal, and full of sensibility and delicacy. e Creator of all took the
initiative to sensitize the human nature and raise it to the capacity to sense
His complete and most pure love, and gave it the chance to sample the life of
communion that is in the bosom of the Holy Trinity. Only Christ could ac-
73 Ibidem, p. 16.
74 “I have emphasized the idea of person, yet only in connection with communion”... “Per-
son and communion. at is not only the communion, but also the person”, Father Dumitru
Stăniloae declared in the dialogues conducted by Sorin Dumitrescu in 1992, and published
in: Şapte diminei cu Părintele Stăniloae, Bucureşti 1992, p. 22 and 151.
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Ὁ Χριστὸς, μυστικῶς ἱερουργούμενος ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις σκηναῖς
complish that through His consummate sacrice, for He infused the human
nature He had assumed with a piercing sensitivity and with the sentiment of
total Self-giving, by which He allowed it to experience its meeting with God
and with its fellow people in a plenary or unconditional way. e Saviour’s
Self-sacrice lifted the human nature to a level of sensitivity where it was able
to sense the delicate presence and sensitivity of the divine, and lled it with
compassion for people, and thus He transformed all people into sons of the
Father and brothers of His by humanity.
e material symbols utilized in the rituals of the Church make the
entire mystery of salvation accessible to all people while they are still in the
esh. At the Holy Liturgy, Christ, the High Priest remains in a permanent
state of sacrice while He amasses the sacrices of all the faithful in order to
put them together with His own before the Father, and makes this mystical
reality visible via the liturgical acts celebrated by the hierarchy of the Church
who serve as intercessors, through which He oers His sacrice before the
eyes of the congregation, a sacrice that is bloodless and delicately vested in
the robe of the liturgical symbol.
Conclusions:
1. In father Dumitru Stăniloae’s theological universe the doctrine, spirit-
uality and liturgical experience are synthetically intertwined in a per-
sonal and unique theological discourse. His view of the Eucharistic
Synaxis is simultaneously undiluted, all-encompassing and complex:
there is but one Liturgy, the Liturgy of consummate love within the
Holy Trinity, of which all creation is called to partake.
2. To father Dumitru Stăniloae, the sacricial, seless, generous, and
disinterested love of the Holy Trinity, which the Godhead wanted to
plant in and communicate to all rational created beings, is the celes-
tial Liturgy itself, the eternal Banquet of divine love, which the man
cannot partake of unless in a state of pure sacrice, and by reiterating
Christ’s whole life both sacramentally and ethically in the Church.
3. e concept of ‘state of sacrice’ is essential and pivotal in father Du-
mitru Stăniloae’s theological discourse. Its primary goal is to dene the
economical revelation and manifestation in the world of the seless
love that is within the Holy Trinity. Christ the Saviour was incarnate
so as to become the slain Lamb,who remains in a state of permanent
sacrice; Who died and arose again, and sent His Holy Spirit in the
Church, so as to radiate among those who open up to Him in faith
and ascesis, and thus saturate them with the dynamism of His own
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surrender to the Father. rough this dynamism of expiatory love, He
wants to gather all in Himself, to impregnate them with His sacricial
love, and then bring them all before the Father.
4. Bound to the esh in this world, the churchgoers can take part in
Christ’s perpetual self-giving to the Father with their own sacrice
joining that of the heavenly Lamb by way of the visible rituals of the
Holy Liturgy through which Christ descends and substantiates Him-
self and then extends His expiatory Body and Blood to the faithful
so as to bring all those who believe in Him in front of the Father in a
state of pure sacrice. e energy of His altruistic love, made available
by the Holy Mysteries to all the faithful, reaches its eciency only in
the extension and application of the said sacricial love among people,
through a life of ascesis and self-restraint that moves them towards acts
of kindness and charity.
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