The Lord often gives us images that make heavenly things clearer, even through the simple realities of daily life. One such thought came to me in an ordinary way, through food. We call many things food, from quick meals grabbed on the run to a slow feast at a family table. Both give fuel, both keep a person alive. Yet there is a difference between survival and health, between being filled and being nourished.
Fast food can keep the body moving, but it is thin in certain nutrients. Over time, something is missing. The body may carry on, but it does not flourish. When we begin to eat with more care, with whole foods, balanced meals, and the right supplements, the body begins to change. It grows strong, vibrant, resilient. It has what it needs, not only to survive but to thrive. And when the body lacks these essential nourishments it begins to atrophy. Slowly, weakness shows itself, and what was once able to carry weight and endure no longer can. In the same way, we see this reality presenting itself in some denominations that are crumbling, not because Christ is absent, but because what sustains the soul in fullness has been thinned out.
For the past month and a half I have been attending an Orthodox church, and the experience has brought this image into sharper focus. It has highlighted how anemic many other denominations are in their representation of the Gospel. In Orthodoxy, the Gospel is not reduced to a message of survival but is lived as a full and abundant life in Christ. The liturgy, the sacraments, the icons, the fasting seasons—all of it speaks the Gospel in a way that surrounds and nourishes the whole person.
This picture, in a way, reflects the mystery of the Church. Many Christian traditions hand on true faith in Christ, they give the bread of life, and souls are sustained. But Orthodoxy has preserved the fullness of the ancient table, the complete medicine of Christ’s Body. The Holy Spirit has safeguarded not only the essentials of faith but the fullness of spiritual nourishment: the sacraments, the prayers, the icons, the ascetic path, the communion of the saints, and the continuity of life in the Church since the apostles.
Saint Irenaeus once wrote that “where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every grace.” This is not said to diminish others but to show that the Orthodox life is not merely about keeping the soul alive until heaven. It is about healing, restoration, and transfiguration. It is the medicine that cures the sickness of sin at its roots and trains the soul to breathe eternity even now.
The fast food of faith can keep a man alive, he may love Christ sincerely, and Christ receives him with love. Yet in Orthodoxy the soul finds the whole table spread before it. Fasting, confession, holy mysteries, ancient prayers, all of these work together to supply what the soul needs for its true health. They lead a person into communion with God that is not only survival, but abundant life.
To embrace Orthodoxy is to sit at the banquet where Christ Himself is the Host. Here the human being learns not simply to live by faith, but to become fire with God’s own life, to taste already in this world the joy of the Kingdom.
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