There was a lot of discussion recently on Greek Facebook about a famous and popular priest who decided to stop being a priest. A choice that divided and provoked either positive or negative comments. I will not dwell on this discussion and on whether a priest who does such a thing is doing the right thing or not. Instinctively, I believe that such an act involves more the element of cowardice, as a friend of mine mentioned, than an element that could arouse admiration. Anyway, I did not know the man so my judgment is superfluous and may also be wrong.
This small event though made me think about another much more important issue: What effect does the fall of a person who is nothing more than an idol have on the people who followed him and believed in him as their guide in life? It may sound funny, but many people are looking for such guidance. Many times I have heard people talk about a priest in terms like “He is good, come and listen to him” or “He is an enlightened man” etc. What do the same people say when this priest gives up? Does their system collapse? Do they just… go to the next priest available? And regardless of that, the views these people had and which they based on their… previous idol, have they remained intact? If so, what role did this idol play in their lives? If not, then what role did these views play in these people’s lives?
These questions may seem funny or a little serious – especially to those who follow such idols – but they can be made even more serious by choosing another example: Christ.
Many Christians say they believe because they believe in Christ. What does this really mean? That their faith is based on His Resurrection, which they have believed beyond any doubt? So if they somehow go back in time and discover (hypothetically speaking) that the Resurrection was a complicated lie, then they would cease to be Christians? Or that if Christ suddenly started saying nonsense (again, hypothetically speaking), would they follow that nonsense literally because He says it? What does it mean to have a faith based on your faith in someone, even if that person is God?
To me, a lot of faith is a sign of little faith.
To yourself.
If you believe in the teaching which says “Love each other” (Gr. Αγαπάτε αλλήλους) you should do it not because someone else said it, but because you heard it, processed it and decided that you agree with it and incorporated it into your life. And the interesting thing is that if you did all of the above, it no longer matters who you heard it from or who said it! The seed that Christ sowed, if it eventually sprouts, belongs to each one of us. It no longer belongs to Christ, in the sense that a fool who follows someone else ‘belongs’ to the latter without mind and knowledge. If you believe in the teachings of Christ, then it does not matter if He even existed! Let alone if He was crucified, if He did what they say he did, etc. Because now this love is your own and you are now its self-luminous bearer. By your choice. And even if you took a time machine to go back in time and see that Christ did not even exist (the permanent dream of all hardcore atheists), your Christian values will not and should not be affected. If that happened then we would all be in big trouble and these values would not be actual values to be honest.
So let’s leave all the fake idols. Let’s stop following them. Let us ask ourselves simply and honestly.
Would we follow… us?
On the other hand, I may just say nonsense. Who told you to follow me?
We have a lot of discussion today about the “persecution” of Christians. Modern “Christians” feel persecuted because the churches are closed, because they do not open together with the… other businesses, because there are no religious events while other events perhaps are allowed, because they will put a chip in us and the Antichrist will come, etc. All this – at least some – are legitimate questions that need to be addressed. However, there is a fine line between what concerns us as Christians and what is really important. And equally important is the way we express our concerns. A post? Two posts? Crying out loud (online) about upcoming doom? Because anxiety is good to have in moderation if needed, but a lot of anxiety eventually becomes funny.
Christianity will not die because COVID-19 has come. Not even because of the lockdown. Christianity has survived – to be more precise, it had FLOURISHED – in times of great persecution. If today’s concerned “Christians” were living in the times of the great persecutions, they would probably have died on the spot from a stroke before they had time to worry (or they would have changed their minds and denounce Christianity). Because, unfortunately, hypocrisy, like stupidity, seems to have no limits. From the time when some people went to church, we have now reached to a time when online hordes of Christians protest because the churches were closed. Not because they are anxious about Christianity per se. But because they are anxious that they do NOT appear to be Christians. And in today’s era phenomena are not just important, they are all we have left.
Hey you. You, who are protesting …
How many times do you pray at home? How honestly do you believe in God? How much do you need others to know that you believe?
I’m sorry to say it, but the comparison with Muslims is heartbreaking. No, I am not in favor of Islam as you (might) know. I am a Christian. But let’s be honest. While we are anxious and afraid that Christianity may be destroyed by “persecution” on Earth because due to a sudden WORLD VIRUS OUTBREAK and in the middle of GENERAL LOCKDOWN the churches are closed, the Muslims simply continues to believe and pray wherever they can.
No, Christianity is not going to die because of quarantine. It has already died inside you a long time ago…
Johannes Kepler, famed German
astronomer and mathematician, first suggested in 1619 that pressure from
sunlight could be responsible for a comet’s tail always pointing away from the
Sun, says study co-author and UBC Okanagan engineering professor Kenneth Chau.
It wasn’t until 1873 that James Clerk Maxwell predicted that this radiation
pressure was due to the momentum residing within the electromagnetic fields of
light itself.
“Until now, we hadn’t determined
how this momentum is converted into force or movement,” says Chau.
“Because the amount of momentum carried by light is very small, we haven’t
had equipment sensitive enough to solve this.”
Now, technology has caught up and
Chau, with his international research team from Slovenia and Brazil, are
shedding light on this mystery. (1)
We always admire how science “proves”
or “measures” things today. But what is really astounding is how some people
came up with a theory or an explanation which is now “proved” (too heavy word,
but that is another discussion) correct, without having – back then – the tools
to ‘prove’ it or measure anything.
Science moves on in leaps.
Leaps made by giants.
Then the rest of the people just try
to catch up.
And slowly try to “prove” things.
When they do, the giants will be
another step forward.
Don’t spend too much time proving that
there is a cliff.
Just have faith.
You don’t have to pass over the cliff.
You are already on the other side.
Make that leap…
There was a man who once said there is
nothing to prove…
Do you really need to prove it in order to believe it?
Christ came to Earth 2,000 years ago. He said he would come again.
Some wait for that to happen. Others laugh at a promise that they see it will not be fulfilled.
But could it be that this is already happening?
Christ was a pariah. Ahomelessperson. Adirtyperson. Withoutclothes. Without food. Without property. And he has warned us that every time we see such a person and pass him by, we pass by Him. Imagine you lived at the time of Christ. Would you listen to a homeless person? Or would you pass by him with no second thought? The past has not passed. We live it every moment.
Pass by the homeless person. Without looking. Christ came to Earth 2,000 years ago. And he will not come again…
