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Is it the priest or Christ who is serving the liturgy?

We have a number of miraculous examples of this, including in our iconography, but even in, let's say, the life of St Silouan the Athonite, which is one of the most beautiful, where he talks about being in the confession, and the elder priest, I can't remember his name now, who was a hieromonk. He said his face was transformed, became young, and it was Christ's face hearing confession. There are numerous examples, obviously, even in iconography, of Christ serving the divine liturgy. It is not the priest. When I turn my back, everybody thinks that's Father Moses serving the divine liturgy. That is not the theology of the church. The theology of the church, when we often talk about this theological concept of synergy, is God's energy and man's energy knit together. So when you see me serving the liturgy, is it Father Moses serving the liturgy? Well, yes, of course. And yet mystically, who is present serving the liturgy? It's actually Christ, because the priest is carrying within him the priesthood of Christ. That is what is handed on to him. That is why, technically speaking, when we look at this from the church fathers, when we talk about what is the height of all of creation, and I'm not saying this because I'm a priest, I'm saying this because this is very important that we understand this, that the height of basically all of creation is the priesthood, because in the priesthood Christ is mystically present. This is why also the holy fathers say, listen, this is why there is so much condemnation linked to the priesthood, because those who take on the priesthood have to live according to the standard of the priesthood, which is incredibly difficult, and will be judged according to the high calling that they have been given. But mystically Christ is present in every priest.

Edited from his answer on camera. The clip has the full thing.

Watch him answer it (08:16)

From “Holy Thursday! The Mystical Supper, Which Only Orthodox Possess!

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