Archives for March 2017

Everyone writes their own story every day and play their own role in society. From the moment of our birth and especially from our adulthood, everyone is in the stage of the struggles of society and plays a role with the world all around them as viewers.

And as the world around us is not only our neighbors, but it is also the edges of the world through modern technology, it is obvious that the role should not only be what I want, but I also need to learn to practice it effectively and produce good results, since my purpose is not only the livelihood but also the recognition, the applause of the spectators for the lesson that they take from my own role.

Much more the people of living faith are called not only to work for livelihood, but also to show the virtues of faith they receive from the one who calls them in another struggle, not as tired and burdened but as protagonists, heads and leading personalities, who demonstrate in practice their belief that the living God enlivens mortal bodies with his own renewing Spirit of Truth and Life.

My willingness for something, my good desire and intention is not enough. It’s a good start, a good sign. Because everyone wants the willingness, the good intention, to be confirmed with corresponding actions that will prove that we did not stay in the idea and the intentions, but we paid the cost in time, fatigue and money and finally did the work we had the desire to do.

My good inclination to become a doctor when I was a young person does not mean that I became a doctor if willingness did not complete the twenty years of studies to learn science and then practice the profession and finish the cycle wish-studies-results.

But when we come to the issues of living faith in the living God, we usually live in kindergarten, intentions and willingness, emotions and not the exact knowledge and practical application of the Word. We may learn to spell, but we are far from understanding the meanings that transform our lives.

We stay children in mind and mature in fraud, children in religious feelings but professionals in greed and perversion. And then we blame everyone else but us for the misery and poverty of our lives.

There is no contemporary Greek who does not understand the concept of profit and loss, regardless of the profession they are practicing. Profit is a measurable parameter and we mean, as a rule, the economic profit translated into euros.

Correspondingly goes the concept of loss, meaning the loss of existing profits. But it is not just the existing profits and goods that are being damaged. There is also the expected profit, what I could get and I did not get. Then the loss is not only of money but it is a loss of courage, since my attempt failed.

We all know that this last element, the loss of courage and trust, is a detrimental factor because it leads to frustration, condemns us to inaction, gradually removes optimism from our lives, sluggishness replaces activity, and ultimately not only there are no profits, but the soil is also cultivated for long-term desolation and disaster.

In the life of faith, these parameters not only apply as they do in the case of commercial gains or losses, but because stakes are not only ephemeral but also eternal and irreplaceable goods, their deprivation provides the next generations with a negative sign and a low starting point . And what our people live today is the X-ray of this truth.

Familiarization is a double-edged knife. On the one hand it can ease, and on the other it can ruin. It makes things easier if we want to get to know something deeper, it ruins if we consider intimacy as a means of getting acquainted enough and we do not want to go deeper.

In matters of faith this is of great importance, because acquaintance, familiarity with something, must be accompanied by deeper interest and quest. Otherwise the acquaintance stays on the surface, there is no interest in cultivation, and while the right course is from good to better and from mega to major, we become satisfied with the existing acquaintance and soon any progress, any challenge for new steps, falls in the vacuum with the satisfaction that comes from the mentality of “I know and do not need to know anything new”.

The Greeks know Christ as a name and as a form from the depictions of the Church. But we do not know the teaching of Christ adequately, and more importantly we do not care to educate ourselves in hearing and applying the teaching, so, as a result, we lose a lot of capital from the gifts of God. In the latter case, we are not only losing, but gradually immersing ourselves in the pool of unbelief and ultimately infidelity along with individual deprivation and loss of not only material but also indestructible goods.

The arrow was always an aggressive weapon and had the advantage of distance between the two opponents. While the sword required the physical contact of opponents, the archer with the arrow had the comfort of watching the opponent’s moves and striking from a safe place.

This difference between the sword and the arrow also gives a meaning to our struggle in everyday life because there are attacks where the opponent is visible and known, but there are also attacks where the opponent is invisible and unknown.

And it is obvious that the adversary on issues of living faith is generally neither visible nor known, since they use arrows that reach us from unknown sources and directions.

So the man who is interested in keeping the faith alive and the Word active is called upon to train in this unorthodox battle, not only to repel the arrows but also to treat the injured members, so that the adversary’s insult will not have permanent and devastating results, but will act as an educational part of our everyday life.