Libelous Writings at the Suggestion of the Adversary

George D. Dimakopoulos | August 20, 2019

 

The religious frenzy and ecclesiological paroxysm
—at the suggestion of the primordial evil serpent—
offend, reproach, and even scorn the departed,
so that the one whose mind is unhinged may "self-justify" through the "blow"
that will be provoked by his insatiable, gluttonous aversion.

 

On a certain blog-wander-log, belonging to one of known diagnosis, of mild to even advanced ideologically obsessive monomania, we also read the apophatic substantiation of the writer concerning the repose of our ever-memorable spiritual father, Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili. This individual—like other loiterers and immoderate wanderers of Synods, blogs, but above all, of ideas and opinions—pronounced, the wretched man, concerning the appearance of the countenance of our reposed father during the funeral service, which took place on June 2, 2013, at the katholikon of the Holy Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Fili, Attica.

 

 

 

Similarly indecent and improper, "epic" libelous writings we had read from time to time also from those afflicted by the deadly virus of "Matthewism"—Matthewite "automatists" or even lost nullifiers of sacraments—where the immeasurable rationalization of everything has imposed upon them a personal theology, a personality-driven ecclesiology, and an individual theocratic medievalism.

Now to the point. Our spiritual father—as early as 2007—had suffered multiple strokes due to chronic diabetes, which had afflicted him since his youth, and, as a result, he remained bedridden in his cell until the year 2013, when he departed in the Lord. As time passed, both the upper and lower jaw became completely inactive. The doctors at Hygeia Hospital, who cared for him without charge, determined the usual outcome often accompanying a stroke, specifically an ischemic episode: namely, impairment of the face, resulting in the involuntary drooping of the corner of the mouth.

 

 

He remained in this condition for at least five to six years. He was nourished only through a feeding tube that contained blended food, prepared by his tireless and round-the-clock personal nurse and current abbot of the Monastery, Fr. Theodosius. He fully retained his mental capacity, communicating through his eyes or the squeezing of his hand. All of us—his dozens of spiritual children who regularly visited him in his cell—can testify not only to his mental clarity but also to miracles that occurred within that small space!

Fr. Theodosius—at an unsuspecting moment—spoke to us generally about the grace of God that accompanied to the very end the relentless struggle of our spiritual father, noting as well an event of astonishing magnitude that occurred throughout all those years of Job-like patience demonstrated by our Most Reverend father. Due to the ischemic stroke, the patient's tongue was entirely inactive, without even sensation. Yet, despite this, the following astonishing thing would occur: if one or two drops of water were to fall on the tongue, the ailing Metropolitan would not perceive it, nor was he able to move it.

 

 

However, whenever the fathers placed a little Holy Communion on his tongue with the holy spoon, he would suddenly curve his tongue and consume it, even though just moments before his tongue had been completely inactive! This miracle continued up until his repose. The fathers—especially Fr. Theodosius—were often witnesses of miracles that occurred in the Most Reverend Fr. Cyprian, about which they never spoke. They await only God to reveal, through signs, His grace of the Holy Spirit upon His servant. When the moment came for his departure from the vanity of this temporary world into the eternal Kingdom of our God, the fathers deliberated on what to do with his mouth, which of course had been inactive for years and therefore remained open.

There was the easy option of entrusting the matter to a funeral home, which—as is done with all the departed—applies glue to the lips so that no fluids may later emerge from them. This is a practice known to all. However, the fathers preferred to leave him as he was, not resorting to any usual practice to close the jaws. And so it was done. The funeral service was held publicly in the large katholikon of the Monastery, and thousands of faithful visited during the three-day public veneration prior to the burial, while hundreds of our brethren from all over Greece came to say their final farewell to a universally acknowledged holy, spiritual, and merciful ecclesiastical figure.

 

 

From that point on, certain untheological, semi-educated, but above all, malicious corrupters—led by an ideologically fixated, "Matthewite" pseudo-bishop from America, a representative of a fictitious ROCOR with a flock of fifty people—reviled and blasphemed the person of the departed, insinuating that his expression resembled fear and terror "before the dread judgment seat of Christ"... These are, of course, the tragic results—marked by uncontrollable, “medieval” verbosity—of the “Matthewite” mindset, which over the years has become synonymous with spiritual authoritarianism, ecclesiological obsession, veiled ecclesiological arrogance; in short, what is rightly called the “heresy of Matthewism.”

To this group naturally belong Matthewite, egotistical, and spiritually fragmented ecclesiological “caricatures,” who change Synods like they change their shoes, and ecclesiological identities like their shirts. Alongside them are other epic “water-carriers,” who find no spiritual rest—how could they?—anywhere, simply because the little devil of ingrained conceit, spiritual sloth, and prayerful aversion lives and reigns within them.

 

 

In conclusion—and let him who understands, understand: the correctness of faith is "revealed" only through tireless, prayerful, merciful, and sacramental struggle, to “receivers” who, with humility and above all good will, are ready to receive it. It is not pronounced through online all-nighters in front of a screen, nor through “confessional” vigils before a black keyboard. It does not deviate, does not transgress, and does not replace the Fathers, the spiritual guides, the Synod. Otherwise, the dissenting protesters, who with such shameless ease and at the slightest pretext have debased even the use of the 15th canon of the First-Second Council, may henceforth cry out the slogan: “Cleomeneses of the world, unite”!...

 

Greek source: https://353agios.blogspot.com/2019/08/blog-post_90.html