G. Meopoulou: Mother,
let me say something that preoccupies me. You tell us: "This
is Christ... Follow Him... Love Him... Accept Him in your
life..." However, others have taken from Christ whatever
they want... whatever they can... while they do not want to
take anything essential. Some speak of Ritualism or accuse
the Clergy...
Gerondissa Gavrilia: Ah!
Those thinking like that are wrong! This is only an excuse.
They want to find fault in the other one, while actually
they themselves are to blame.
- You think so?
- Absolutely! Yes! Because we have the Holy Scriptures, the
Gospels which speak to us. The more you read it, the more
you understand, the more you advance, the more His Mysteries
are revealed to you and you become a person of God. People
who find false reasons against the Church and the Clergy,
are people who refuse to admit that there are also saintly
men among this Clergy and see only those who are not saintly.
In the Church of God is the Holy Spirit, Who comes and
enlightens us during the Divine Liturgy. If we stay on,
after the congregation has left, and remain seated in a
corner with our eyes closed, we shall "see" God with the
eyes of our soul. We shall understand what the Angels are.
We shall comprehend the meaning of the prayer: "Encompass
us with your Holy Angels, so that guided and guarded by
their Host, we may attain the Unity of the Faith"
- instead of doubting one another - "and
the comprehension of Your ineffable glory...."
We cannot see the ineffable glory of God with these earthly
eyes, but we can behold it when the Holy Spirit fills our
mind and soul, our entire being. Then we can understand what
is said in the Holy Bible: "Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." That is: Totally.
Our entire being loves Him. And then, what happens?
Automatically you "love your neighbor as yourself". You
cannot distinguish yourself from the others. Quite often
they ask me: "Why do you associate with Hindus, Muslims,
Jews? With persons of other religions?"
- Because you have love in your heart. That's why!
- Because "God is love". How can you be a Christian unless
you love non-Christians too?
If you love only Christians, well... "even the sinners do as
much"!
- Still, every now and then, articles against the Church are
published in the newspapers...
- Why does that surprise you? Poor reporters... they can
only see what is bad, they cannot see what is good. They
don't write about all these persons who serve in so many
churches, who hear confessions, who organize works of love...
They don't mention them. They search for a fault, to project
it, to generalize it, to say that all Church people are like
that. We see it. We saw it in the Parable of the Pharisee
last Sunday. He began by saying: "I thank Thee, O God" -
which is very good and which we should all be saying from
morning till night. And then, suddenly, he turned and said "that
I am not like that one who is so and so..." Yet, all those
who judge others, wouldn't they be wise to begin with
themselves? If they could discover what is inside them, they
would realize that they are a hundred times worse than those
they criticize. For this is what is wrong. People are always
ready to criticize others.