It is about Truth

Ever since the creation of humanity, we have been at war with the devil. Since the first conversation with Eve, the devil has been trying to turn our attention away from God. Unfortunately, the devil has had many successes throughout the millennia, beginning with Adam and Eve up to this very day. One of the great lies we have been told over and again, is that God doesn’t care what Church we attend, or what doctrine we believe, so long as we are good people. We are told God doesn’t even care IF we go to Church, so long as we believe in Him. If these things were true, then God would not have come to be with us. He would not have established His Church, and He most definitely would not have promised the Holy Spirit would guide the Holy Apostles “into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (John 16.13)

The promise given to the Holy Apostles is the same promise we celebrate today, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Everything we believe, everything we teach, everything we do, has its roots and truth in teachings of the Holy Apostles, who were guided into all truth. We can trust them. If the Holy Apostles said we should fast, then we should fast, etc. It is not just about icons and fasting, it is about truth.

Synodikon From the proceedings of the Seventh Ecumenical Council read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

As the prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the teachers have dogmatized, as the universe has agreed, as grace has illumined, as truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dispelled, as wisdom has presented, as Christ has triumphed; this we believe, this we declare, this we preach: Christ our true God, and His saints we honor in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in temples, in icons, on the one hand bowing down and worshipping Christ as God and Master, on the other hand honoring the saints as true servants of the Master of all, and offering to them due veneration.

This is the faith of the Apostles!

This is the faith of the Fathers!

This is the faith of the Orthodox!

This is the faith which has established the Universe!

Therefore with fraternal and filial love we praise the heralds of the faith, those who with glory and honor have struggled for the faith, and we say: for the champions of Orthodoxy, faithful emperors, most-holy patriarchs, hierarchs, teachers, martyrs and confessors: may their memory be eternal.

(Sing) Eternal be their memory; • Eternal be their memory; • Eternal be their memory.

Let us beseech God that we may be instructed and strengthened by the trials and struggles of these saints, which they endured for the Faith even unto death, and by their teachings, entreating that we may to the end imitate their godly life. May we be deemed worthy of obtaining our requests through the mercy and grace of the great and First Hierarch, Christ our God, through the intercessions of our glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, the divine Angels and all the saints. Amen.