Your Beatitude Archbishop of
Athens and All Greece Mr. Kallinikos.
Your Eminences, Holy Hierarchs,
Most Reverend and Most Venerable Fathers, God-beloved Deacons. Most Venerable
Monks and Nuns.
Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen,
Representatives of the State, of the Municipal, Regional,
Military, Police, and Port Authorities.
Chosen people of the Lord, the
guardian of Orthodoxy.
“Today the waters of the
Jordan are transformed into healings, and all creation is mystically
sprinkled.” (Sticheron of Vespers of Theophany)
The holy and great feast of
Theophany, the feast of the manifestation of the Triune God,
reveals today before us the great mystery of the Divine Economy. The Son and
Word of God condescends to descend into the waters of the Jordan, not in order to
be cleansed – He, the Immaculate One – but in order to cleanse, to sanctify,
and to illumine the whole creation.
Today the Father bears witness
from the heavens, the Son is baptized in the Jordan, and the Holy
Spirit descends in the form of a dove. The Holy Trinity is manifested, and the
truth shines forth without reserve, overthrowing falsehood and delusion.
The ceremony of the immersion of
the Precious and Life-giving Cross, which we perform today, does not constitute
a custom or a quaint tradition; it is a confession of faith. The Cross of
Christ is immersed into the waters, just as Christ descended into the Jordan,
in order to sanctify the whole world and to crush the power of the enemy.
However, my brethren, the feast
of Theophany also sets before us a great criterion: the criterion of truth. For
if today God is manifested, the devil attempts to conceal the truth with pseudo‑illuminations,
with interreligious amalgamations, and with anti‑canonical innovations, which
wound the Body of the Church.
We cannot remain silent when we
become witnesses of actions that offend Orthodox ecclesiology. The recent visit
of the Pope to Nicaea and the Phanar, and the anti‑canonical commemoration of
him there as an Orthodox Hierarch, does not constitute a testimony of truth,
but confusion.
The Church of Christ has no need
of diplomatic equalizations, nor of unity without repentance and a return to
the patristic faith.
The unity of the Church is a
fruit of truth and not a compromise at the expense of it. Just as the waters of
the Jordan were sanctified only because they received the True God, so also the
Church remains holy only when it preserves whole the dogma and the tradition of
the Holy Fathers.
We, as Genuine Orthodox
Christians, have nothing to boast of in terms of numbers, nor
in terms of worldly power. We boast only in the faith once delivered “unto the
Saints.” We boast because we stand in the truth, even if we are few, even if we
are despised, yet unshaken.
And today, while the Precious
Cross is immersed into the waters, Christ calls us also to immerse our own will
into His will. To reject the ease of compromises and to hold fast to the narrow
and afflicted path of tradition.
Let us keep, my brethren, the
faith pure, like the sanctified waters of Theophany. Let us preserve the
ancestral traditions, not as a museum relic, but as a living testimony of
salvation. Let us remain faithful to the Church of the Fathers, so that we too
may be deemed worthy to be illumined by the True Light, the Light which enlightens
and sanctifies every man.
Many years, good illumination,
and steadfastness in the patristic traditions.
Greek
source: https://www.facebook.com/impcgr
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.