The following akathist (hymn devoted to a saint or theological theme), which my church has been saying on weeknights this fall, was found in the belongings of Protopresbyter Gregory Petrov after his death in a Soviet prison camp in 1940, but is attributed to Metropolitan Tryphon of Turkestan (died 1934). It is titled after the last words of Saint John Chrysostom before his death in exile. Liturgical text from Saint Jonah Orthodox Church in Texas.
Theologically, the akathist is a beautiful offering of thanksgiving to God for His glory as shone forth through the grandeur, the beauty, and the terror of the created world, the prayers and worship of the Church, the creative works of man, and the eternal life-through-death to come. Fr. Alexander Schmemann writes in For the Life of the World that "Eucharist (thanksgiving) is the state of perfect man... Eucharist is the only full and real response of man to God's creation, redemption, and gift of heaven." Fr. Stephen Freeman, on his blog (also named after St. Chrysostom's last words), adds:
Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in the last sermon of his life, said, “Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.” I would expand that and say as well, that everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of becoming human – for the fullness of our humanity is found primarily in communion. And the communion of thanksgiving is perhaps communion at its deepest level.
The mental image of Fr. Petrov leading bedraggled prisoners in a Soviet camp in this beautiful, joyous hymn of thanksgiving has the kind of paradoxical, "upside down", not-of-this-world quality I've come to associate with authentic Orthodox theology–not simply thinking about God, but knowing Him firsthand. Thanksgiving, it seems, is not only for when everything is just swell in your life. It is also (maybe even especially) for when all is not good in this fallen world.
