The cities become more and more desolate and they wil continue in this direction, while the deserts wil become inhabited and wil again blossom. No one who remains unrepentant wil be able to block the repentance of the wil ing, the prayer of the faithful, the supplication of the poor. No one can prevent the mystery of the living God. This miracle is experienced in martyrdom and in humility, where the Orthodox way of life always blossoms – in quietude, in silence, in anticipation. We are cal ed to experience the transcendence of Christianity, which is not so much the abolishment of evil as it is the honorable acceptance of ourselves and of others, living the wealth of poverty, the health of il ness, the blessing of tribulation, the power of weakness, the joy of patience, the victory of defeat, the honor of dishonor, the freedom of seclusion, the majesty of meekness, the resistance to death, the incarnation of God, the deification of man. And we should expect al these spiritual realities, not from the authority of the leaders of this world, but from the authority we exercise over ourselves, and from the creation of healthy and bright spiritual hearths which we cal parish, family, cel , workshop, office, auditorium, room.
In this way, though the desolation and loneliness of the cities wil continue to exist, it wil not penetrate into our hearts. In this way the world can be changed, not from without, but from within and from above.
Do not consider great the missionary to Africa or the significant inventor. Great is the little person who forbears the madness, the injustice, the persecution, the pain of his neighbor and of his own life. According to Abba Isaac, the person who recognizes and overcomes his passions is greater than the person who raises the dead.
Al who seek redemption from pathological anxiety, from sorrow and sadness, from emptiness and loneliness are invited to a rendezvous – with themselves and with God. And when you do meet, remember the humble person who has offered these thoughts.
Jesus Christ: The Life of the World
WHO IS CHRIST?
Two thousand years have passed since the coming of Christ, yet Christ stil remains unknown to the world because the world has a false understanding of Him. This regrettable fact has serious impact on the Christian communities themselves. The impression prevails that Christ is simply a god among the gods, who now dwel s in heaven, very far away from us – that the religion He founded is a beautiful religion, perhaps the best ever – and that His moral teaching, although impeccable, may be a bit austere.
Christ is of course an historical person, but He is much more than this. He is a great, beneficent and significant teacher, whose message has enriched the world, and whose presence marked a turning point in the flow of history. But, again, He is not only this. Jesus Christ – our Lord and God, the Redeemer and Savior, the God-Man ( Theanthropos), the Second Person of the Al -Holy Trinity, the One “above every name,” the Son
“without mother from the Father and without father from the mother,” of one essence and co-unoriginate with the Father, the revealed God Word of the Father, the Incarnate, Crucified, Resurrected and Ascended – is the Way, the Life of the world, the Light, the truth and the Resurrection. He is not the traditional, customary, historical and religious god, but my Father, my Life, the Life of al mankind. He is the one who renewed life and rejuvenated mortal man. He is the one who created man and who constantly watches over him paternal y, as Creator, Provider and Al -Wise.