[eocavrWM]

Dear brother in Christ, Andreas,

This thread is not unsimilar to the very relevant thread on 'Hatred'.

Despite the very clear, obvious position of our Holy Church on this, which echos the Commandment, 'Thou shall not kill' tragically I have become aware of the disregard of this loving commandment in the very countries where the majority of the population is Orthodox.

As our Lord said 'my Kingdom is not of this world' we have, in the most perverted way, proven his words true by our disobedience and selfishness and disrespect.

Why is it that in the countries where the majority of the population are of the Orthodox faith, we witness; rampant alcoholism, AIDS, divorce, spousal abuse, corruption every where you turn...it is more than enough to make you rip the hair from your head?

There are several answers to this, all of which fall short of the words of our Saviour and are poor excuses at the least. But I have heard them, so here they are:

i) Orthodoxy is the True Faith, therefore the Devil attacks this Church especially (this can be interpreted in a variety of ways).

ii) Orthodoxy has suffered continual persecution, under the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, the dominance of the Ottoman Empire, the disarray after the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, the personality of the Tzar, the rise of the Bolsheviks, the betrayal of the Royal Family and their subsequent execution (was there ever a Third Rome?), Stalin, the Second World War, the 'utilisation of the Church' to thwart the advance of the Nazis

iii) I could go on with number ii, but now the big Devil is the EU. Especially the women who stand up in Brussels and demand that women be allowed on the Holy Mountain (I am not saying this is my position, rather this is what I have heard).

To this, allow me a few reflections: I do not agree with women being allowed entrance on the Holy Mountain - this is not out of disrespect for women, rather it is the continuation of fidelity to our traditon in monasticism - women do not wander around mens' monasteries, and men do not wander around womens' monasteries, also Mount Athos, Agion Oros, is the 'Perivoli tis Panagias', the Garden of the Virgin Mary.

One only has to spend some time there praying to understand this whether faintly or in its fullness.

To not belabour this post, I have to say this: We have brought it upon ourselves.

If we had ever been obedient and receptive to the words of our Lord, we would be humble, patient, forgiving, turn the other cheek, of the attitude to pray for our enemies, for those who despise us...why?

Because, in my opinion, if we turn our being towards our Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary, we would bow our heads in shame and consider ourselves unworthy of the calling to which our Lord so desires: 'Be ye perfect as my Father in Heaven'.

We Orthodox find every possible excuse (except our own sin) for the tragedy that has befallen us.

When I first visited Greece in 1970, it was like Romania is today. Relatively agricultural, poor, very traditonal (like India was which I visited sometime later) that is to say, in the villages of Macedonia, they dressed differently and their accent was different than that found further south. Even Athens was a bus stop. One could breathe without chocking. Walking from Omonia to any other region in Athenai did not require an oxygen tank.

Then Greece 'discovered' tourism, one of the many distractions of our modern world.

After this Greece embraced the European Union. Monastics protested. Priests and laity alike were to be seen in Thessaloniki and Athenai protesting.

The 'nature' of money, the enormous influx of currency into Greece after reception into the European Union, proved itself to be an enormous temptation.

I remember the tremendous debates on the Holy Mountain. It almost came close to the question of the change in the Calendar of the Church.

Yet, what happened...after the fire of 1991, even though the Fathers had processed with Miracle-working Icons and the fire stopped on the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, fallen human nature took over.

The donkeys were replaced by jeeps, the hand-made paths were bull-dozed to make roads, the Monasteries, in the majority voted in favour of receiving the influx of dracmas, and suddenly every where you turned there was noise.

Hesychia had to find shelter elsewhere.

Is Russia an Orthodox country, is Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia?...our Lord said His Kingdom is not of this world.

Was there ever truly, fully, an Orthodox Byzantium, after the schism between Rome and Constantinople, was there a 2nd Rome, and after the fall of Constantinople to Islam, was Kiev, then Moscow, the 3rd Rome?

Have we Orthodox ever really attempted to understand the clear, concise, simple words of our Lord?

Today, we live in incredible circumstances. If one can not weep for our own sin, then at least we can weep for the situations in Africa, and the former Soviet Bloc.

Why stop there...what about the wealth of Western Europe and North America? How will we stand before the Judgement when we got 'stressed' over the prices at Marks & Spencers, or at WalMart, to which we drove in a car owned by the bank, from our house owned by the bank.

Finally, it comes to me - was I faithful to Christ? By our hypostatic nature, is not my disregard for faithfulness to Christ, tantamount to betrayal of Christ and turning my back on humankind?

If abortion is so rampant, so legalized by our governments, exactly where did this all originate?

Fallen Adam (humankind) spurned each Covenant and cast Christ from his own village.

For this reason our Lord said: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26) - (italics, mine)

Herein, lies the key to our repentance and salvation and to become in the image and likeness to which we have been re-called.

'The Staretz was a man of a single idea, but this idea is the most profound, the most beautiful, the most ontologically perfect there is, and - most importantly of all - he realised it in his own life. In certain passages he is indeed in spirit like to St. John the Divine. Indeed, the Holy Spirit made him like unto Christ Himself, Whom he was deemed worthy to behold, and of the resemblanceto Whom he so often spoke, quoting the words of the Great Apostle: 'We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.' (1 John 3:2) - (Saint Silouan the Athonite, pp. 266-267)