Written by: Catechist Branislav Ilić, Editor of the “Kinonia” Portal
On the Feast of the Annunciation in 1894, in the city of Vranje, Blagoje Popović was born—later known as Archimandrite Justin. On the very same feast day, in 1979, he reposed in the Lord. On this occasion, marking both the birth and repose of Saint Justin of Ćelije, we dedicate this editorial in remembrance of the great father and teacher of the Church to his theology of the Holy Mysteries.
The Holy Mysteries are the manifestation of the one Great Mystery—the Church—in which the Lord Himself bestows divine life upon humanity, delivering it from sin, death, and the devil. This blessed truth is affirmed by the great father of the Church, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas, who wrote that “the Church is revealed in the holy Mysteries.” All the holy Mysteries are mysteriously accomplished by the good pleasure of the Heavenly Father, through the presence of the Son (Christ)—who alone is the true High Priest, both offering and being offered, receiving and being distributed, as the prayer of the Cherubic Hymn reminds us—and by the gracious action of the Holy Spirit. The life of grace in the Church, revealed through the Mysteries, is seen in the fulfillment of communion with Christ. The saint from our own nation and one of the foremost theologians of the twentieth century, Saint Justin of Ćelije, made a great contribution to sacramental theology in his theological thought, especially to the correct understanding and interpretation of the Divine Liturgy, which is the foundation and summit of all sacramental life in the Church of Christ. According to Saint Justin, the Divine Liturgy is the centre of all; it gives meaning to the Mysteries, for it contains within itself the entire mystery of salvation. The Christian ethos and participation in the Eucharist represent, in history, here and now, the fullness of both freedom and love, which are abundantly granted to us by the perfect Giver of all good things, our Merciful Lord. Hence Saint Theodore the Studite reminds us that the Divine Liturgy is a repetition of the entire God-man dispensation of salvation.
In the third volume of his Dogmatics, in the chapter entitled “The Church—A Community of Grace,” Saint Justin sets forth his theological reflection on the Holy Mysteries, offering a clear interpretation of the significance of sacramental life in the Church, which, according to his words, can be perceived only through the lens of the Divine Liturgy. The saint of Ćelije, a preacher of love, following the patristic tradition, begins his exposition of the Mysteries with the Church’s teaching on grace, emphasizing that grace in both its essence and manifestations is wholly Trinitarian—even though it has been given to us most fully through the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. The Saint repeatedly stresses that grace is granted to each person according to his or her faith, for steadfast and true faith is the foundation of every virtue. He formulates his teaching on grace in accordance with the instruction of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, who says regarding the mystery of grace: “The goal of the entire God-man dispensation of salvation, for which the Son of God, the Logos, became incarnate and became man, is this: that those who believe in Him as the God-man may receive the grace of the Holy Spirit into their souls as a soul—and thus be reborn, re-created, and renewed, sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit in their mind, in their conscience, and in all their senses.” We must not lose sight of the fact that Saint Justin of Ćelije, in many of his works and homilies, often speaks of the life of virtue and the sacramental life as the twofold path along which Christians journey.
In articulating the Church’s teaching on the holy Mysteries, the Saint never confines himself to a fixed number of Sacraments, but instead places his theological reflection within a broader context, indicating that all of God’s mysteries are holy—indeed, that all which has come into being was created through the All-Holy Logos of God. Everything that proceeds from the Logos is thus imbued with logos and sanctity. The holy Mysteries are sacred rites through which divine grace is invisibly conferred upon the faithful in a visible manner. Since man is a psychosomatic being—visible in body and invisible in soul—each Mystery possesses both a visible and an invisible dimension. In his Dogmatics in the Light of Ecclesiology, Saint Justin emphasizes that the grace-filled or sacramental life is, in his words, possible and truly operative only within the Church of Christ. The Mysteries are located in the Church and are indispensable to its members. This is expressed in the tenth article of the Creed: “I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.” Although this article mentions only the Mystery of Baptism, all other Mysteries are implicitly affirmed therein. According to the Theophan of Ćelije, the Creed names only Baptism because it is through this Mystery that one enters into the Church and becomes a member of the body which safeguards and celebrates the other holy Mysteries. Upon being baptized, a person is granted the right to partake of all other Mysteries. In accordance with this theological principle, the Saint asserts that there are no “greater” or “lesser” Mysteries within the Church; rather, everything constitutes a great Mystery through which man becomes a partaker of divine grace. He even affirms that the rites of Lesser and Great Blessing of Water are on par with a sacrament, since the grace of God descends upon the water for the sanctification of humanity and all creation. Saint Justin goes even further, reminding us that every sincere prayerful cry addressed to the Lord is akin to a Mystery and a miracle.
In the third volume of the aforementioned work, Saint Justin offers an exposition of each of the holy Mysteries individually, and, as an organic continuation, he concludes the chapter with a reflection on sacred hierarchy, that is, the ministry of bishops and/or presbyters, who, through the grace of the priesthood, have been entrusted with the celebration of the Mysteries. The Saint clearly states that Christ Himself, as the only true High Priest, is the one who fundamentally performs the Mysteries, while members of the clergy serve alongside Him, co-celebrants with the eternal High Priest.
The sacramental theology in the teaching of Saint Justin of Ćelije also raises the question of the Saint’s contribution in the field of liturgical translation, and by extension, its interpretation. Saint Justin’s translation work is well known; among his numerous published translations, special attention is given to his renderings of the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, traditionally attributed to Saint Gregory the Dialogist. This is not surprising, as we have already noted in our initial remarks, since the Divine Liturgy lies at the very centre of the theological vision of the Archimandrite of Ćelije, who once wrote that “he who does not understand the Liturgy cannot understand Orthodoxy.” In addition to these anaphoras, the Saint also translated the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Holy Fathers, hagiographies, the Mysteries, prayer books, liturgical services, Akathists, Canons, and Prayers. In the spirit of our topic, we shall now briefly examine his translations of the texts of the Divine Liturgy.
Emphasizing the necessity of translating the text of the Divine Liturgy into the vernacular in an appropriate and meaningful way, the Saint states in the afterword of his translation: “Just as the life of the Church as a whole always overflows the boundaries of every individual epoch, organically uniting and integrating them, so too does her language of prayer: it is truly popular only when it is the expression of the continuity and richness of the Orthodox-formed national soul and national language. Just as the purpose of the Church is to receive every nation into herself and enrich it with her Fullness, so too she receives the language of that nation as her own language of address to God; she inspires and enriches it with her own catholic treasures and cultivates its God-given potential… Hence, the liturgical language is always Gospel-centered, psalmic, a language of prayer in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a language of divine service and glorification, by which the vernacular is sanctified and consecrated. Thus, the living vernacular is itself sanctified through its liturgical and Eucharistic usage.”
Saint Justin prepared and published his first translation of the Divine Liturgy at the age of twenty-eight (in 1922), and his second at the age of eighty-four (in 1978). According to the testimony of Protopresbyter-Stavrophor Prof. Dr. Vladimir Vukašinović, these represent two distinct approaches to the source texts. In the first case, the young Justin offers a translation that largely adopts the existing text without substantial critical reevaluation. In the second case, now a mature theologian, he does not hesitate to intervene, interpret, and articulate his position through the act of translation itself.
When discussing the liturgical contribution of the Venerable Father Justin, most tangibly manifested through his translations of the Divine Liturgy, it is worth recalling that the saint, as the spiritual father of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Ćelije, celebrated the Divine Liturgy daily in the early morning hours. This is also attested in his hagiography, where it is noted that Archimandrite Justin sought a monastery in which he could serve the Divine Liturgy every day (except on the weekdays of Great Lent – the Holy Forty Days), a testament to his liturgical consciousness. The importance of his translations of the Liturgy is further affirmed by his liturgical experience, which became, in the example of the Ćelije archimandrite, the foundation of his monastic ethos and theological thought. The scope of this text does not permit us to explore in detail the particularities of Father Justin’s translations of the Liturgy; nevertheless, it must not be overlooked that, as a compiler of liturgical translations, he was guided by lived liturgical experience. Adhering to liturgical tradition and numerous authentic sources, he introduced certain textual changes, evident in several places. By way of example, let us mention just one from the text of the Proskomide: instead of commemorating Saint John the Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist of the Lord with the first particle of the third prosphora, he dedicates it in honor and memory of the great commanders Michael and Gabriel and all the heavenly bodiless powers. Moreover, in the rite of the Proskomide, he expands the list of Saints commemorated during the removal of the fourth and sixth particles of the prosphora.
The words of Saint Nicholas Cabasilas that “the Church is revealed in the holy Mysteries” permeate the entire theological corpus of Venerable Justin of Ćelije – the saint and teacher who, according to the sticheron sung on the day of his holy commemoration, appeared “as an angel among liturgists” (second troparion of the fourth ode of the canon). We shall fittingly conclude this reflection with a sticheron from the service of this newly revealed saint of Ćelije:
“Venerable Father, God-bearing Justin, Christ-loving, you gathered all that is mysterious from the theologians: from Paul, the fiery love for Christ; from Basil, the clarity of word and deed; from Gregory, the joy and poetic spirit of theology; from Chrysostom, tireless concern for the Church; from Maximus, philosophical confession; from John of Damascus, the rational exposition of dogma; from Saint Sava, the pastoral love for his people; from Palamas, the depth of Taboric hesychastic prayer; from Seraphim, the constant invocation of the Comforter—thus showing yourself in the latter times as a pillar and fortress of Orthodoxy; and for the pious Serbian people your spiritual children, a beloved and irreplaceable spiritual father and guide, whom you strengthened by speech and word, and whom now from heaven you secretly fortify. Pray, we beseech you, with your like-minded hierarch Nicholas, for all of us to the God-man Christ, that we may become your imitators, honouring with love your holy memory!”