The Church of Christ is not
founded on agreements, consensuses, and negotiations. Saint Nikodemos the
Hagiorite, with incomparable patristic clarity, emphasizes that faith is not
offered for compromises, is not altered for the sake of human peace, nor is it
adapted to the demands of the world. The only diplomacy of the Church is the
Cross of the Lord. There, man, nature, the passions, and truth are united. Not
by negotiation, but by sacrifice. Christ made no joint statement with Pilate.
He did not smile diplomatically at authority. He was silent, He endured, He was
sacrificed. This is what we too are called to confess, when the Church is
struck by compromises that wound the truth.
Saint Nikodemos teaches us that
the greatest danger for the Church is not always external. Often, the wounds
come from its own members, when they lose their spiritual vigilance and
contaminate the truth with human diplomacy. When a bishop, presbyter, or monk
signs agreements with heresy or alters the faith in order to preserve unity, he
does not make peace; he abandons the Cross. Judas kissed Christ; he did not
scourge Him. The spiritual betrayals to which the Saint indirectly refers are
not only situations of violence or blatant heresies. They are the smiling
theological retreats under the pretext of love and mutual understanding.
Orthodoxy is not an ideology or a
cultural tradition. It is life, cruciform and resurrectional. The believer is
not called to express anger or fanaticism, but steadfastness. As Saint
Nikodemos the Hagiorite teaches, faith is tested in the temptation to remain
silent, to adapt, to smooth things over so as not to displease. Endurance is a
spiritual achievement. It is the exercise of the heart that stands praying and
discerning. It does not mean to attack with anger, but not to compromise even
in the slightest, neither with ourselves nor with the smallest alteration of
doctrine. If the Church ceases to bear witness to the truth, it ceases to be
the Church, and this responsibility weighs upon each one of us.
One of the strongest criteria of
our time is the invocation of love without spiritual discernment: not to
divide, not to be strict, to embrace everyone. Yet Saint Nikodemos cries out to
us: love without truth is not love; it is a lie. The devil does not always
fight with persecutions; many times, he fights with false peace. If the Saints
had remained silent about the faith in order not to displease heretics or
politicians, there would be no Church today. They chose the Cross, not
diplomacy.
When the believer sees spiritual
leaders going astray, remaining silent, or agreeing with heretical practices
and false unities, his soul is in pain. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite
does not teach us either revolution or isolation, but spiritual awakening. Do
not be scandalized, but pray with tears, as though you were praying for your
father who has fallen. Keep your own faith pure, without judging with malice,
but without pretending that you do not see. Find support in true spiritual
fathers, who do not alter the Gospel, even if they are few. Strengthen your
brothers with discernment and meekness, not with fanaticism, but with
confession. Saint Nikodemos lived in times of spiritual darkness and worldly
delusion. He did not make revolutions, nor did he dissolve institutions, but he
wrote, fasted, prayed, and raised up a spiritual stature that cannot be
measured by worldly criteria.
The power of true faith is not
shown in agreements, but in patient witness that remains in the truth, without
concessions. When the Church becomes an organism of political management, it
loses its voice. But when it lives the Cross and sacrifice, then the truth
shines without shouting. This is the path of Christ, and this is the path of
every believer who loves the Church, not because it expresses him, but because
it saves him. Christ did not propose alternative solutions to the Pharisees,
nor did He offer them common points; He revealed the light to them, even if
they did not accept it. Thus, the Church is called not to agree with the
darkness, but to shine within it. When we compromise in order not to displease,
we lose divine blessing. And when we lose this, then every success is hollow.
Faith is not diplomacy; it is the
Cross. It is not a technique of survival within the world; it is the
manifestation of Christ in the world. The believer who sees scandals and
remains steadfast in the faith does not remain silent out of fear, but speaks with
humility. And with this silent voice of Christ within him, he endures and is
saved.
Greek source:
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