[ORTHODOX subforum!] Questions from Sunday School

[Andrei D]

I believe that questions of little children are quite thought provoking, or at least useful to understand how things we (think we) know are seen from a completely different perspective.

I'll start with today's questions I heard about from class and from a child after class. You could please help answer for age, or just muse on them. This group was ~6-11 so keep that in mind too. I know it sounds silly, but I see some very enlightening issues of "cultural contamination". It would also be very useful if you had other interesting questions you heard from kids...

Please, absolutely no non-Orthodox input.

1. Isn't it like a betrayal to celebrate the Cross on which He suffered so bad and then died? (Also: "it's kinda gross")

2. What's the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit? Some people say it is supposed to be Holy Ghost not Holy Spirit. (which lead to another: is the Holy Ghost the ghost of Christ? then many cross talks about ghosts and spirits); they had no question about the word in Romanian ("Duh", taken straight from Slavonic) , though, but very interested about the English version.

3. Why don't we take the Cross to a lab and inject it in everyone like the vaccine so no one has to die or gets sick?

 

[Not David]

I believe that questions of little children are quite thought provoking, or at least useful to understand how things we (think we) know are seen from a completely different perspective.

I'll start with today's questions I heard about from class and from a child after class. You could please help answer for age, or just muse on them. This group was ~6-11 so keep that in mind too. I know it sounds silly, but I see some very enlightening issues of "cultural contamination". It would also be very useful if you had other interesting questions you heard from kids...

Please, absolutely no non-Orthodox input.

1. Isn't it like a betrayal to celebrate the Cross on which He suffered so bad and then died? (Also: "it's kinda gross")

2. What's the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit? Some people say it is supposed to be Holy Ghost not Holy Spirit. (which lead to another: is the Holy Ghost the ghost of Christ? then many cross talks about ghosts and spirits); they had no question about the word in Romanian ("Duh", taken straight from Slavonic) , though, but very interested about the English version.

3. Why don't we take the Cross to a lab and inject it in everyone like the vaccine so no one has to die or gets sick?

1. I don't think it is really a celebration since it is still a fast day but it was something necessary for the salvation of men.
2. I believe Holy Ghost is an old way of saying Holy Spirit, with "Ghost" being the Germanic term and "Spirit" the Latin one.
3. I try not to talk about vaccines, but what I know is that miracles and healings can vary according to God's will.

 

[ArmyMatt]

1. no, because Christ also calls it his glory.
2. just language.
3. because that would make it magic.

great questions, I must say.

 

[SeraphimSarov]

1. Isn't it like a betrayal to celebrate the Cross on which He suffered so bad and then died? (Also: "it's kinda gross")

St. Paul wrote, "We preach Christ crucified." His Crucifixion is central to our faith. This is the type of suffering we are to endure for our brothers and sisters, and even Christ Himself, should the situation call for it. We are to deny ourselves, pick up our individual crosses, and follow Christ everyday. That's why we wear a Cross around our necks -- to remind us that we must crucify ourselves daily.

2. What's the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit? Some people say it is supposed to be Holy Ghost not Holy Spirit. (which lead to another: is the Holy Ghost the ghost of Christ? then many cross talks about ghosts and spirits); they had no question about the word in Romanian ("Duh", taken straight from Slavonic) , though, but very interested about the English version.

I gotta say, as a native English speaker, I don't understand the fascination, and even I myself switch between Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit at random. Might be a regional thing for English speakers? Holy Ghost sounds more Anglican to me, honestly...

3. Why don't we take the Cross to a lab and inject it in everyone like the vaccine so no one has to die or gets sick?

Because that's not how God administers grace. We aren't magicians. The act of venerating the Cross and the love we show for Christ thereby is how God transmits His grace. Just like you don't shower in holy water to try to get "more" grace; a little sip or sprinkle is more than enough for God to bless you for your faith. Ultimately, it is our faith in these things that attracts the Holy Spirit; it's not the things in and of themselves that abound in grace.

 

[Chesterton]

1. Isn't it like a betrayal to celebrate the Cross on which He suffered so bad and then died? (Also: "it's kinda gross")

Fixing things is almost always an unpleasant experience. Repairing a car engine or kitchen sink is work which isn't fun. Same with medicine to heal the body. Medicine, at least in the old days, always tasted bad, and surgery is an unpleasant experience. But if a human doctor developed a mechanism to heal our bodies and souls permanently and thereby grant us the opportunity to enter paradise, wouldn't we have to celebrate that?

 

[All4Christ]

For the first question:

God took on human flesh - mortal flesh, and redeemed our humanity through that. Likewise, God transformed an instrument of torture into an instrument of healing and triumph over sin. He took what was flawed and evil (in the context of torture used by the Romans) - and made the word of the cross literally be the power of God. That’s what God is in the business of doing: reconciling all things to Himself; redemption; making the corrupt incorruptible; transforming that which is flawed and redeeming the world, despite sin and corruption.

Colossians 1:19-20
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

1 Corinthians 1:18
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God

[Emphasis mine]

 

[E.C.]

1. Isn't it like a betrayal to celebrate the Cross on which He suffered so bad and then died? (Also: "it's kinda gross")

2. What's the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit? Some people say it is supposed to be Holy Ghost not Holy Spirit. (which lead to another: is the Holy Ghost the ghost of Christ? then many cross talks about ghosts and spirits); they had no question about the word in Romanian ("Duh", taken straight from Slavonic) , though, but very interested about the English version.

3. Why don't we take the Cross to a lab and inject it in everyone like the vaccine so no one has to die or gets sick?

1) The above posters answered well enough, but I'd like to add that in comparison to Western Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy tends to emphasis the Resurrection more than Christ's Crucifixion whereas in Western Christianity there tends to be an overemphasis on Christ's Crucifixion at the expense of the Resurrection; i.e. the Spanish style "blood and guts" crucifixes we see.

2) Linguistics. Older English translations will say Holy Ghost vice Holy Spirit.

3) Miracle happen by God's will. If you've ever read some of the stories on the Hawaiian Iveron Myrrh-Streaming Icon, than you'll know that miracles indeed do happen. However, they do happen purely as a result of God's will. Using the myrrh as an example, yes, we can take the myrrh and bless ourselves with it, but the myrrh is not magic. Thousands of faithful bless themselves with the myrrh who do have ailments, but are all of them miraculously cured of their ailments? No. Miracles happen, but only because of God's will and we don't know His will.

 

[Andrei D]

Brand new questions that are linked together in a cycle:
1. Everyone who is not Orthodox will go to hell?
2. Why do we need the Holy Mysteries?
3. If the Holy Spirit is "present everywhere and fills all things" how could He "descend" on Pentecost, what can that even mean? Why do we need all this apostolic succession thing?

 

[ArmyMatt]

1. yes and no.
2. because we are called to be like Christ, and they make us like Christ.
3. Christ is everywhere present, and yet He still became Incarnate. we need Apostolic succession because that's what we see in Scripture and in history.

 

[SeraphimSarov]

1. Everyone who is not Orthodox will go to hell?

This is presumption. God will have mercy upon whom He wills. But it is certainly God's will that we all belong to His Church!

2. Why do we need the Holy Mysteries?

The soul needs the Holy Mysteries like the body needs air. God gives us His grace through the Holy Mysteries.

3. If the Holy Spirit is "present everywhere and fills all things" how could He "descend" on Pentecost, what can that even mean? Why do we need all this apostolic succession thing?

Our God is a God of paradoxes. We ask these questions and get confused because God can do anything. You could very well ask, how can God become incarnate of a virgin? Humans can't answer these quesions.

So far as apostolic succession, it is the means God established by which we can know the true Church.