The Gadarenes of our Days

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By His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Attica and Boeotia

Created on Monday, 16 November 2020 21:47

It is obvious that we are living in unprecedented situations with rapidly changing developments worldwide, with the occasion given by the deadly pandemic – as they call it – of coronavirus.

From the moment they imposed measures for the protection of the citizens, many things have been said, particularly by internet channels, creating in the minds of ordinary citizens only confusion because of the opposing views of the people of the so-called scientific community. I will not analyze any of the diametrically opposed views among scientists on the subject of the virus. Anyone interested can refer to the internet for a variety of information and be properly informed.

With this absolute fear-mongering, which the media conveys to him who struggles just to earn a living, without leaving him a margin of thought, they direct him to roads where the objectives are fulfilled of people who have not tasted of LIFE Itself (that is, Christ).

It goes without saying that we have understood that the coronavirus, especially in Greece, is completely allergic. Allergic to Pascha, allergic to August 15, allergic to December in anticipation of Christ’s Nativity.

In the last few days, relative government Ministries have announced to the Greek territory that common prayer of the faithful inside the Holy Temples is not allowed. Specifically, only four people are allowed at the Divine Liturgy, in which the Liturgist and the Chanter are included. And in fact, if there are more inside the Temple, the responsible Liturgist will pay a fine of 1,500 euros. Not only that, but the Christian is not allowed to enter the Temple to pray even outside the Liturgy. These are measures which neither the Ottoman-Turks who had enslaved us for over four hundred years nor the Germans during their Occupation (1941-1944) imposed on us.

These unfortunate ones do not know that whenever there were deadly pandemics, everyone united, clergy and laity, they made common vigils and prayers with processions that the evil might flee, which evil always fled if they had faith of heart. Where is that faith today? It has been replaced by the so-called rationalism of the Gadarenes, who, although they knew of Christ’s power to heal their souls and bodies, did not keep Him in their lives; they did not submit to Him the problems of their society to solve them as the only Able One. But rather… they expelled Him!

I want to clarify and make it clear that we definitely want to have our health and in no case do we want the coronavirus in our life, nor to become a cause of its transmission. It is very funny, if not provocative when they come out and speak in the media with such passion, malice, and anger against Christians who want to be in common prayer inside the Holy Temples. We assure them that we are committed to the service of the spiritual and physical health of our fellow man because we believe in the love that is called Jesus Christ. By no means do we allow all these who have not tasted LIFE to teach lessons of humanity to true people of love; to conscientious Christians; to those people who are consumed with struggling sacrificially to alleviate the pain and suffering of our fellow man.

Have all the problems in our pillaged Greece have been solved: the cannibalistic predators who have reduced it to being handicapped and bloodied; the 350,000 annual abortions of defenseless children; the poisonous fruits and vegetables we buy for our dinner tables; the polluted air we breathe in Western Attica from the refineries, which causes misery in several area hospitals full of patients who have suffered strokes lying on cots; the absence of police against the thieves who loot the hard-earned acquisitions of those who struggle just to earn a living; and so many, so many more?

On the other hand, those in charge of our health ensure our protection by consuming the law enforcement agencies in the “policing of the country” with fines and penalties on ordinary citizens who struggle just to earn a living, who were suddenly banned from simple movement. We thank them for the protection they provide, but I have to say that we are now suffocating from such protection. Honestly, we can do without it. And I say this because I feel imprisoned and trapped as a Christian and a Liturgist.

On the one hand to tell us “no crowds in the Church, no pilgrimage to the Temples”, and on the other hand popular places, supermarkets, and the means of public transportation are crowded with people. Two measures and two weights. This is not democracy; it is a mockery of democracy, it is also racism against Christians in a 2,000 year-old Orthodox country which has spread Christianity around the world. Is this why the heroes fought whom next year, in 2021, we will honor as champions of the struggle for freedom during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Revolution? Of course not. They fought for the Holy Faith of Christ, and for the Freedom of the Homeland. If these heroes lived and saw how they treat the Mother of the Nation: the Orthodox Church today, I believe they would be expelled from the country. And let no one say that we do not respect the laws. On the contrary, so far we are law-abiding as we should be. But those who treat the Orthodox Christians so disparagingly, with so much irony and unjust behavior, should know that they will eventually write their own unfavorable history in the conscience of the Greek people and the Christians, just like every Nightmare and Judas who for some silver betrayed their Nation and their God.

Translated from the Greek