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An Oblation of Peace, A Sacrifice of Praise

November 17, 2024
Reflections
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This post is adapted from a recent talk I gave at an annual retreat for side-B folks.

I grew up in the Eastern Orthodox Church. We’re a highly liturgical tradition and our Sunday worship follows the same liturgy each week. The Orthodox like many other traditions, celebrate the Eucharist or communion at every Sunday service. The hymns and prayers we pray each Sunday can sometimes feel easily familiar and apathy can easily creep in. From time to time though a certain phrase or passage will jump out and resonate with me in a new way. I’ll chew on it throughout the day and a line or passage will pop into my consciousness randomly when I’m least expecting it. For the last few months it’s been oblation. 

Each Sunday in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, immediately following the affirmation of the Nicene Creed, we begin a section that culminates with the consecration of the Eucharist. This section called The Anaphora, begins with the priest, or deacon, proclaiming: 

Let us stand aright; let us stand with fear; let us attend, that we may offer the Holy Oblation in peace. 

Other translations might use the word “offering” or “sacrifice” but I like the term oblation. In the context of the Anaphora prayers, the Holy Oblation is the offering of the Eucharistic elements. It is the work of the people centered in the Eucharist. The Anaphora ends with the consecration and changing of the elements into the body and blood of Christ. 

Fr. Thomas Hopko of blessed memory was a well known Orthodox theologian wrote about this offering in the Liturgy:

In addition to being the perfect peace offering, Jesus is also the only adequate sacrifice of praise which men can offer to God. There is nothing comparable in men to the graciousness of God. There is nothing with which men can worthily thank and praise the Creator. This is so even if men would not be sinners. Thus God himself provides men with their own most perfect sacrifice of praise. The Son of God becomes genuinely human so that human persons could have one of their own nature sufficiently adequate to the holiness and graciousness of God. Again this is Christ, the sacrifice of praise.

Thus, in Christ, all is fulfilled and accomplished. In Him the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament, which is itself the image of the universal striving of men to be worthy of God, is fulfilled. All possible offerings are embodied and perfected in the offering of Christ on the Cross. He is the offering for peace and reconciliation and forgiveness. He is the sacrifice for supplication, thanksgiving and praise. In Him all of men’s sins and impurities are forgiven. In Him all of men’s positive aspirations are fulfilled. In Him, and in him alone, are all of men’s ways to God, and God’s ways to men, brought into one Holy Communion. Through Him alone do men have access to the Father in one Holy Spirit (Eph 2.18; Also Jn 14, 2 Cor 5, Col 1). 

This Holy Oblation offered in the Eucharist reminds me of my own meager sacrifice, my small oblation. My oblation or sacrifice is my life to God. Like all Christians we’re called to give our lives to Christ, but my personal oblation takes on a unique aspect as a gay Christian pursuing celibacy. For me, that oblation is that which my heart and flesh long for most deeply, a loving intimate relationship with another man.

After the priest or deacon says, 

Let us stand aright; let us stand with fear; let us attend, that we may offer the Holy Oblation in peace.

The people then respond to the deacon by singing:

An oblation of peace, a sacrifice of praise.

I don’t know what this means. 

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How Should We Then Live?

May 23, 2017
Homosexuality, Reflections
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The recent debate surrounding an essay by Giacomo Sanfilippo has yet again reminded me of a the importance of dialogue surrounding sexual minorities in the Orthodox Church. I’m not an expert in the theology of Florensky so I will leave the theological particulars to Sanfilippo and other theologians. I do have experience though in how the Church discusses sexual minorities and interacts with the LGBT community. I have read a few critiques and seen several posts by Orthodox writers and clergy reacting to the post on “Conjugal Friendship.” Most seem to be reading into his essay or assuming the worst about it and lamenting what they see as just another attack on the Church’s steadfast commitment to the traditional sacrament of marriage. I would like to take this opportunity to offer a few reflections on how we as a Church can better discuss the various paths available to sexual minorities within the Church rather than Sanfilippo’s specific content or that of his critics.

   ©️ 2017 Gregg Webb

 

What I took away from Sanfilippo’s essay was less the specific arguments or case he makes for developing an Orthodox theology of Same-Sex love, and more the fact that he is attempting to find paths of living for sexual minorities within the church. As both a gay man and an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I wrestle daily to try and figure out what I am called by my church to surrender and to give up. I am constantly reminded of all that I am asked to forsake at the Church’s request of fidelity to its, and my own, understanding of same-sex sexual expressions. I don’t need to be reminded that the path my heart most naturally is inclined towards, that of pursuing a husband and a family in a same-sex partnership, is not available to me. I don’t need to be reminded that I am called daily towards chastity and celibacy and to remain steadfast in following all that the Church teaches related to sexual intimacy. I know these things all too well and those battles within my heart rage continually. I need no reminders of these battles or allegiances. Read More

Reflections on Suffering, Pt. 4

April 9, 2015
Reflections
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This is the continuation, and final post, in the series Reflections on Suffering. The whole series is available here.

As Christians we must bring our suffering into the midst of community. “Suffering is wasted if we suffer entirely alone. Those who do not know Christ, suffer alone.”[1] Our suffering “breaks the bonds of our selfishness and isolation from one another, so that we may truly love one another in compassion. We co-suffer with those who are suffering, that their suffering might not lead them into despair and death.”[2] We must heed the words of Nicholas Wolterstorff when he says,

But please: Don’t say it’s not really so bad. Because it is. Death [suffering] is awful, demonic. If you think your task as comforter is to tell me that really, all things considered, it’s not so bad, you do not sit with me in my grief but place yourself off in the distance away from me. Over there, you are of no help. What I need to hear from you is that you recognize how painful it is. I need to hear from you that you are with me in my desperation. To comfort me, you have to come close. Come sit beside me on my mourning bench.[3]

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Reflections on Suffering, Pt. 3

April 8, 2015
Reflections
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This is the continuation of a four part series: Reflections on Suffering, Pt. 2, & Pt. 1. The whole series is available here.

Crucifixion Our participation in the sufferings of Christ is not passive nor is it stoic. As Thomas Merton imparts,

Merely accepted, suffering does nothing for our souls except, perhaps, to harden them. Endurance alone is no consecration. True asceticism is not a mere cult of fortitude. We can deny ourselves rigorously for the wrong reason and end up by pleasing ourselves mightily with our self-denial.

Suffering is consecrated to God by faith—not by faith in suffering, but by faith in God. To accept suffering stoically, to receive the burden of fatal, unavoidable, and incomprehensible necessity and to bear it strongly, is no consecration.

Some men believe in the power and the value of suffering. But their belief is an illusion. Suffering has no power and no value of its own.

It is valuable only as a test of faith. What if our faith fails in the test? Is it good to suffer, then? What if we enter into suffering with a strong faith in suffering, and then discover that suffering destroys us?

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Reflections on Suffering, Pt. 2

April 7, 2015
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This is the continuation of a previous post, Reflections on Suffering, Pt 1. The whole series is available here.

As a celibate gay man I will constantly wrestle with the intersection of my desires and my convictions. By following my desire to become like Christ through the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church, I must always be willing to give up anything that runs contrary to that life. For me, I’ve experienced this sacrifice most profoundly as I grieve the real cost of my celibacy: saying no to a romantic and sexual relationship with another man. Knowing this has forced me to come to terms with my own vocation as a celibate gay man. As I’ve worked through these feelings, particularly those of falling in love, I’ve been grappling with feelings of sadness, sadness that comes from slowly grieving all that I am called to give up for God’s call for my life.

Copyright Gregg Webb 2012

Copyright Gregg Webb 2012

It’s good to grieve, and as a future counselor I understand that grief and sadness have a real place in our lives. Grief gives us an appreciation for what we’ve lost as well as a renewed connection with our heart. It is easy to discount and discredit our emotions and to simply become numb, but grief and the process of grieving allow us to come to terms and acknowledge the depth of our real feeling. However, grief has its season and may eventually run its course. It is something we must go through, but we know that in time, the depth of pain and loss will slowly fade. My self-denial and pursuit of celibacy in accordance with my theological convictions will have its cost but I must remember that it is for a larger purpose.

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Reflections on Suffering, Pt. 1

April 6, 2015
Reflections
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This is part one in a four part series on suffering. I will be posting the remaining parts on Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, and Holy Thursday. The whole series is published here.

            My own very limited experience of suffering and grief is in part born from my unique and perpetual singleness as a celibate gay man. The loss of a future husband and the physical erotic expression of my love and affection have led me to find consolation in reflections on suffering and grief in general. Like me, a number of celibate gay Christians have found some outlet for their pain in the theology of suffering, Wes Hill being a good example. Other celibate gay Christians like Eve Tushnet have never resonated as deeply with a theology of suffering in the midst of their celibacy. In the pages that follow I will attempt to share some of my own experience and reflections on suffering, as well as the numerous contributions of other far greater thinkers who have wrestled with grief, suffering, and the goodness of God.

So what even is suffering? Where does it come from? Can we explain its existence with the existence of an all-loving, good God?

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