WHEN THE CHURCH IS PERSECUTED, SHE IS THEN GLORIFIED
BY ARCHIM. FR. SAVVAS HAGIOREITES
22/12/2020
May our hierarchs reject all these antichrist laws, the so called KYA. All these decisions taken hastily on account of the so called pandemic- which is not a pandemic, it is supposedly a pandemic- essentially violate the constitution.
According to the statistics that they themselves provide to us, the statistical service of Greece states that in the first half of the year 2020, the total number of deaths we had in Greece is about a thousand less , compared to the total number of deaths in approximately the first half of the year 2019. So, this alone proves that there is no pandemic. Pandemic means people dying en masse. Therefore, under the pretext of a supposed pandemic and of a state of emergency, these people closed the churches, unfortunately we must say, with the tolerance of the bishops, which is unacceptable.
They should act dynamically and take legal action. As Church authorities, they should let the faithful free to worship God. On the contrary, through their representative, they recently imposed on us the use of masks, and also to comply with the measures, which are blasphemies that turn worship into a carnival. Unfortunately, they have now begun to imply and to talk about the Holy Communion, too.
A spokesman said that the use of disposable spoons in the Holy Communion is not a dogmatic issue. How can this be possible! How can an Orthodox Bishop open such a discussion, that is, to change our worship and introduce the idea that there is fear of infection from our Most Holy Lord? Isn’t this a dogmatic issue? Isn’t it a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, against our Lord?
Of course it is a dogmatic issue. It is a blasphemy against Christ, such as the blasphemy that Christ did not become man or is not a man or that Christ is only man and is not God. Therefore, according to all this, and also according to what they say, Christ can infect us in His own house, inside the church. How can this be possible!
Hearing this from irrelevant people and enemies of the Faith, such as Masons, Zionists, etc., one could say that they might as well be justified. This is how they do their job, which is the work of satan. But hearing this from Bishops’ lips, we would say it is beyond imagination. The late Augoustinos Kantiotis used to say that all this can certainly be explained. Unfortunately before they become Bishops, they go to the Lodge, and then consequently they are bound. Of course, this is not for everyone, does not apply to everyone. Good Bishops do exist but we think that they are very few.
Unfortunately, this is what’s happening. The Lord said it Himself: “Will I find faith when I return to Earth”? This is a very melancholic question, posed by the Lord. Of course, He Himself has answered that He will find faith, for the Church will exist. But how many will keep this faith alive? This is the question: how many of us will remain in the end? You see, true Christians who remain faithful to the Holy Teaching of Christ are becoming fewer and fewer.
Now we have His opponents, the pseudo-Christians, who have no hesitation in going to church with masks. Who knows later what they will go with. With gloves maybe? What else will they be asked? Not to kiss the icons? Or to kiss them with the masks on? That is, kissing the mask instead of kissing the icon. Or to go to Communion with masks on and remove them at the last minute, and then wear them again; that is, the blood of Christ soaking in the mask. How can this be possible? How can this be called reverence and piety?
But they are the ones who become persecutors of the people who want to obey the Law of God, and take them out of the churches, of course to our great joy; for when the Christian is persecuted, he then shines. When the Church is persecuted, She is then glorified. That is why the years we live in are the most beautiful years; for they are years when the true Christian can be glorified and shine, and be crowned with the crown of confession, and perhaps later with that of martyrdom. For the way things are, it is not ruled out that the persecution may become more brutal and bloody, as it was in Russia a few years ago.
The Church has been persecuted from the first moment. Since Pentecost we immediately had persecutions of the Church. The devil has not stopped persecuting the faithful for 2.000 years. Nonetheless, the faithful continue to exist, and they will continue to exist, and the Church shall exist, too. The point is for each one of us to be vigilant, hasty, praying, and with a firm, steadfast and unwavering mind, faithful to our promise to the Lord, to remain until the end in the Church and in salvation.