I will try in a few words to outline the spiritual image of the Romanian people growing out of tradition, history and the whole of nature.
The first and fundamental characteristic is this feeling of solidarity with the cosmos, of one great solidarity. Every act resounds through the whole community. Each gesture propagates the music of all. His existence cannot be isolated, closed off in an individuality broken off from the community. The Romanian people have suffered from centuries of war and oppression. Pounded by historical circumstances the genius of our people found itself joined with a living reality whose history cannot be destroyed : the cosmos and the cosmic order. This Romanian sympathy with the cosmos does not present itself as a pagan feeling but as a form of Christian liturgy. For as a nations Romenia was called into being as a Christian country. The Romanian is Christian from his birth.
This is so because the original belief of Christianity has been preserved, retaining a balance between the awareness of the God of creation and His presence in creation. ( In the West this balance was often lost since God was thought to be more separate from the world, wich gave rise to a pantheistic reaction where His presence was confused with the dark essence of the world ( Ekhart and Bohme) or with a sentimentality towards a God crucified in the past ( as in catholic feminist mysticism ) but not living in His works present in us).
This Romanian liturgical spirit belongs in fact to the first Christian century in wich nature is not excluded from the Christian process of resurrection, ( St. Paul said :" The whole creation longs for the future restoration". Rom.8.18-22). In this way of growing union with God man does not reject creation, but, in his love gathers together the whole cosmos wich was ripped apart by sin and is to be transformed by grace. The whole universe is called to enter in the Church, to become the Church of Christ and to be transformed at the end into the kingdom of God. Its fulfilment is found only in the Church. This understanding is set forth not only by Romanian tradition and church hymnography. Nature participates in the christological mystery of the crucifiction, death and resurrection of our Saviour. We can observe the spiritual solidarity of the Romanian people with the cosmic liturgy when we analyze the conception of dead in two great masterpieces of Romanian oral poetry - the Miorita ( the Ewe lamb )
and the Ballad of the Master Manole.
Bothof these present the event of death as of supreme value, as the most noble fulfilment wich can provide a hope for the Romanian existence. The Ballad of Master Manole concentrates on the mystery of sacrifice. When Master Manole was engaged on building the famous Arghes monastery he found it needed the sacrifice of a human being to make it truly strong. Thus he sacrificed his own wife, walling her into the fondations of the monastery. ( This is evidently a legend without historical correspondence. It is interesting for its symbolism with the act of creation and for the way in wich it understands death not as destruction but as a passing into another existential dimension.)The building took " life" and "breath" through a mystery which made possible the translation of the life of Manole's wife into a new body- the building of the new monastery. In this way a supreme sense of life is joined with an earthly reality which man feels the need to overcome and to transcend.
Bothof these present the event of death as of supreme value, as the most noble fulfilment wich can provide a hope for the Romanian existence. The Ballad of Master Manole concentrates on the mystery of sacrifice. When Master Manole was engaged on building the famous Arghes monastery he found it needed the sacrifice of a human being to make it truly strong. Thus he sacrificed his own wife, walling her into the fondations of the monastery. ( This is evidently a legend without historical correspondence. It is interesting for its symbolism with the act of creation and for the way in wich it understands death not as destruction but as a passing into another existential dimension.)The building took " life" and "breath" through a mystery which made possible the translation of the life of Manole's wife into a new body- the building of the new monastery. In this way a supreme sense of life is joined with an earthly reality which man feels the need to overcome and to transcend.
In another tale - the Balada Miorita - we see the significance of the creative sacrifice in the transcendent spiritual world. Here a shepherd speaks with a ewe lamb ( this is a world where men and animals communicate ) , which tells him that his fellow shepherds want to kill him. He accepts death as a willing sacrifice of self but he gives it the appearance of a cosmic wedding. He tells the lamb:
" Tell my mother that I have married a beautiful bride, a princess. The sun and the moon gave me a crown. The great mountains were the priests. The birds were the choir and fiddlers - thousands of birds - and the stars were my candles."
That is he gives a supreme value to the acceptance of destiny and to his own reintegration into a nature which is no longer a pagan nature but a sacred cosmic liturgy. In this way we discover the meaning of death which is seen as a new existence transposed to a level nearer God. Death is not the end of existence but as the Church Fathers say, it is a passover from death into life, through the earth to the heaven, with Christ with whom we have been clothed through taking part in the sacramental ministry of the Church.
The second essential characteristic, related to the first, is the idea that everything has a meaning; that the whole world is a book of signs. The world is not neutral without meaning, without connections, but one full of blessed power and evil power; a world of calling and silence, of the seen and the hidden. So, all the things of this world have being and so have something to tell those who know to listen. It is an image which has been lost by the "modern" world which is deprived of religious sensibility. So the cosmos becomes opaque, silent, dumb. It cannot pass on the message, or be a bearer of mystery. But Romanian popular spirituality sees in the living world a great procession of stars, an ascent which cannot be stopped.
As we look now with eyes that perceive our participation in the life of the cosmos we turn to our third characteristic of Romanian Orthodox life - celebration - and find it appears with a new dimension. Celebration is a communion with the transcendent, a communion with cosmic nature, a communion with society, a communion with the animal and vegetable world and a communion with ourselves, melting the contradiction within ourselves, our deceptions and our demands. In this way in celebration every object, every fragment has a meaning. Nothing is dark. What Romanian people realise through celebration cannot be measured. This can be seen if we look at the concept of time. It has been said that the main category of philosophical though is time rather than space. The passing of time excites questions in philosophical thought. Our people realised this through celebration. They have applied a method which proved valid in other circumstances - that when you want to conquer a reality , instead of fighting it, received it, but give it another value, deeper and more vital. In this way the Romanian peasants have accepted the passing of time, but mark it with celebrations wich are moments of absolute. A Romanian knows that everything is passing. He knows the wisdom of Ecclesiastes - that vanity of vanities, all is vanity - but he transfigures the dimension of time and space. His life is transformed; time itself becomes a bridge which helps him enter into eternity.
The urban man, by contrast, often seeks to forget time, to kill time and when he does he loses the meaning of celebration. He is isolated from the divine factor, from cosmic reality and from community of life. This leads to a loneliness where he finds he is abandoned by the universe and this universe itself appears a delusion, a thing without meaning.
In truth, we cannot speak of celebration in Romanian life and spirituality without seeing it as a part of the sacramental life of the liturgy.
In the special time of the Holy Liturgy human time and divine eternity come together; space and time itself is renewed ( " Behold I make all things new" - Rev.21.5). This means that everything becomes possible. Men and women are not trapped in a materialistic world order , or an historical order. They overcome it. History itself, through the Church, is restored to its true calling to restore time and space, sensible nature and intelligible nature in a new order, the order of the Kingdom of God. Now the miracle is possible because in the meeting of time and eternity in the celebrated moment, the Kingdom of God is present. Its fulfilment may be in the future but we already share in this life.
Thus, with its awareness of mankind as a part of the universe which God has created and is restoring, Orthodoxy sees the meaning which all things have in life and through its gift of celebration in life and in liturgy it provides a rich way through to the Kingdom of Heaven.
by Pr. Petru Munteanu
Then the words of the prophet Joel will be realized. " I pour out my spirit on every flesh and our sons and daughters and our lads that will bear witness to the sighting and prophecy".May many souls be touched...
