Having relived the saving experiences of the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, the Church now bids us to celebrate the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council and recall their contribution to our understanding of the actual identity of the Son of God. It is an important reflection for us as Christians and one that culminates our preparation for the Feast of Pentecost at the end of the 50 days following the Empty Tomb . . .

The people of Israel in the time of Christ were certainly looking forward to the coming of the Anointed One, the Messiah, Who would fulfill the prophetic promises announced by God in the Scriptures.

The Messiah would be recognized by what He would do in terms of restoring the relationship between God and His people, broken by the disobedience of Adam and the subsequent sins they committed. He would be a liberator, a reconciler and someone who would inaugurate a special covenant with God from here on end.

Miracles and other special signs would herald His appearance and confirm His teaching. The Jews of the time of Jesus knew that only God could raise the dead, give sight to the blind and perform other similar works. For someone to be able to perform such miracles would involve God's special seal of approval on His teaching and example.

"Who do men say that I am?" Christ asked His disciples. The answers given reflected the views of the people at the time. They also reflect the views of the people of OUR time as well.

Christ is seen as a prophet, a good man, a social reformer, a revolutionary, and an opponent of the status quo.

"But Who do YOU say I am?" is the question that has always followed the above. It is still asked of us today.

"You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," was the answer given long ago. Christians have modeled their answers after this pattern ever since.

Ultimately, however, what does this mean? What are we affirming when we say this, believe this?

Early interpretations of this statement of basic Christian faith divided the early Church and occasioned the call for an Ecumenical Council, a council of Christian bishops and laity from the entire Church, to consider and define it more precisely.

It was an Egyptian priest by the name of Arius who promoted his understanding of Christ's identity.

For him and his followers, Christ was more than man, but less than God. His miracles attested to His being more than all the prophets combined. But His suffering, His very real humanity and other aspects of His relationship with His Father seemed to indicate less than full equality with God.

Some Arians, like Ulfilas the Goth, believed Christ to be a "great God" and still less than the Father. In effect, by affirming a separate "Divinity" for Christ, separate from that of the Father, this view was confirming polytheism.

The Arians worshipped Christ and even had their own Gothic Church replete with rites etc. The Mozarabic Rite of Spain is the descendant of this liturgical tradition today.

The Arians also had their own saints and martyrs, a number of which continued in the Orthodox Calendar following their condemnation.

St Nicetas and St Sabas the Goths, so highly venerated in the Ukrainian Church, were Arian Martyrs. The Church tended to overlook any defects in terms of the faith of particular Martyrs and under certain circumstances. St Artemius the "Dux Augustalis" of Egypt was an Arian Christian who was killed while he was destroying pagan temples in Egypt.

The Arian heresy was quite powerful in its hey-day, having taken about two-thirds of the entire Church under its wing!

St Athanasius of Alexandria then wrote his famous and ingenious "On the Incarnation" and defence of the full Divinity of Christ.

The Council Fathers gathered together in Nicea in AD 325 and summarily condemned Arius.

Among these Fathers were also St John of the Goths in Crimea, an early representative of the Church that would become that of Kyiv.

Another famous participant was none other than St Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.

Not satisfied with the Council's "mere" condemnation of Arius, the bold Hierarch approached the heretic and punched him in the mouth, in full view of everyone . . .

Censured for behaviour unbecoming a bishop, the Fathers experienced a vision in which they saw Christ and His Mother appear on either side of Nicholas, restoring to him his Gospel and Bishop's Mantle that they had just removed from him. This became the most famous iconographic representation of the great Saint for all time.

The Fathers laid down most of the Creed used at every Divine Liturgy in our Church. Together with them, we too affirm the theological answer to the question, "Who do you say I am?" We affirm that we believe in:

"One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made, Who for us people and for our salvation came down from the heavens, and was Incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man, And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; and ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father; and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end."

Christ is fully and truly God, equal to the Father, Who is eternally and only Begotten of Him. Just as a son born to a human father shares in exactly the same human nature with his father, so too Christ has the same Divine Nature as His Father.

Christ assumed our human nature without ceasing to be the Word of God and One with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

His real human nature allowed Him to suffer and die for our salvation as He could not do this as God.

He arose and ascended and so saved and transfigured our humanity with Himself. He "sits" on the right hand of the Father, a quote taken directly from St Paul, to underline Christ's equality with God the Father for only an equal may sit in the presence of the King.

Then there is affirmed the eschatological hope of Christ's coming future kingdom following the Final Judgement.

The coming of the Messiah two thousand years ago did not cancel the experience of expectant waiting for His coming. He will come again and we await His coming daily, not knowing the day or the hour of His coming.

We can meet Him right now in faith. We meet Him at so many junctures of our lives lived in Him, the Mysteries, Holy Communion, prayer etc.

Our happiness will be complete when we finally see Him "as He is," when the veils are finally removed and when faith is supplanted by joyous and direct Communion with Him!

But by Whose power and inspiration did the Fathers of that Council define all this? And by Whose power and inspiration are we to live the life in Christ so as to become partakers of the life that is to come?

The answer to this question comes with the Feast of Pentecost!