There are certain people who have made
"censure-seeking" among the laborers of the
Gospel their purpose in life, and who -
opportunely and inopportunely - judge and
censure the words, the works and in general
every action by pastors.
That prejudiced "Inquisitors" most certainly
exist in every age and will naturally not
cease to exist until the end, is made
evident in the most characteristic incident
with the Apostle Paul, when examining the
Apostolic excerpt that is to be read in our
Sacred Temples on Sunday.
Exactly what had taken place? The
sworn enemies of the Apostle of Nations had
accused him (to the faithful, whom he had
catechized and made members of the Church!)
that he supposedly wasn't a genuine Apostle.
In other words, he was faced with a
immensely serious slander, which could
have easily ruined his entire
apostolic opus, if he hadn't given a
convincing reply and a dynamic rebuttal of
that falsity.
Instead of any other supporting argument to
counter that slander, the Apostle clearly
stated, with complete spiritual
outspokenness, the following view:
"The stamp of my mission is you all, in
Christ" (1 Cor.9:2) - in other words,
here is the stamp of my apostolic opus:
the faithful Christians; these souls, which
have been cultivated and are living their
lives in the Lord Jesus, as organic members of
His Body - His Church.
Of course with this "catapult" of a response
by the Apostle, the slander that his enemies
attempted to impose on him - and the
responsibility thereof - now also weigh upon
the shoulders of the faithful: the faithful
who must likewise prove to the enemies of the Church,
through their attention and their labours,
that they are truly genuine and authentic
and that they duly observe the suggestions
and the divinely-inspired teaching of the
great Apostle.
Should we now perhaps underline that the
same responsibility lies on our shoulders
also, when someone either naively or
intentionally "slings mud" against our
spiritual Fathers and Teachers?
That, my beloved, is a certainty; however,
let us pause for a moment on this point,
which directly concerns us...
All of us, on a daily basis, are witnesses
to this capricious tactic - not to mention
that we ourselves also get carried away, in the
vortex of hatred and slandering.... But, what
causes chagrin to spiritual people - and in
fact to a serious degree - is that we are so
ready to accept the various accusations that
are spewed by the "machine-guns of Hades",
mostly against the conscientious workers of
the Gospel.
How many lies, how many forged accusations,
how many poisons are launched, in order to
slur those who labour selflessly and with
all their strength and their charismas
within the Lord's vineyard! People who live
for the Church, not off the Church...
In fact, there are certain news reporters
whose objective is to "inform the public"
(or, rather, to tear down all societal
structures and completely scandalize all
unsupported souls), who, before putting pen
to paper, seem to first dip it into "a
serpent's throat"....
There is no doubt that there are cases who have wandered away from their
mission, however, this should in no way make
us reject the entirety of our pastors - just
as the first Christians did not reject the
Apostles, just because one individual -
Judas - ended up in betrayal and committed the crime
of all centuries.
When a doctor or an educator prove to be
below par in their missions, we do not
reject medical science altogether or all
educators; likewise, we should not be
scandalized by the mistakes - big or small -
of a few clergymen and allow them to become
the cause for others to be shaken in their
faith.
Now, let us in turn pose a question, to all
those who - like dung beetles - dig around
trying to find the mistakes and the "crimes"
of the pastors: "Gentlemen, why
don't you organize a campaign and present
the multi-faceted opus of our Church?
Why don't you do your research and find
those authentic pastors who labour in a
multitude of ways, and who in fact are more
numerous than you have
imagined?"
If you really want to be objective, you
must also present the issues that will duly
satisfy the community sentiment. That way,
no-one will dare accuse you of behaving
unethically.
My brethren, we are certain that this
proposition of ours will not be accepted by
the Mass Media, because behind the smear
campaign against our Orthodox clergy, there
is no desire to present the truth; rather,
it is a case of systematic
implementation of the plans by
the dark forces
whose objective is to attack the Priesthood and
our Church.
We can do nothing more except uphold our
struggle, all together, both clergy and
laity, and with a clear conscience and
outspokenness reply to the instruments of
darkness and contemporary slanderers as
follows: "My apology to those who
question me is this" : the truth, and the
conscientious way of orthodox living.
Amen.