Matthew 5:13
The Holy Gospel says that our Lord calls us, the Christians, the light of the world. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Matthew 5:13,14) And the Lord invites us to shine light with our deeds before people; so they see our good deeds and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16
We should ask ourselves what is happening to us, Christians, or, better yet, to Christianity as a whole. You can see all the oddities and offences, you see this swollen river of sin flooding the West. Things that are the most holy such as personality, marriage, natural and normal relations among people, and so on – everything is belittled, desecrated, violated; the man is degraded, reduced to a number; oppressed so he/she could work intensely, so he is consumed and drained, so he/she could spend childishly; and give back every penny of his/her pittance to those who paid him/her, but now it’s with interest rate, and his blood and his life
Nobody cares how an average family man lives, how he makes ends meet, what troubles he goes through to pay all the bills, to keep the roof over his head, to put his children through school… Nobody, I repeat, cares for that ordinary, normal man. Nobody will give him space in the newspaper. Those that bomb us with their nonsense and eccentricities on television, won’t invite such a man to share his troubles, his happiness and his sadness; or to say a few wise words. He is not “attractive” so there isn’t much noise or avail of him. If he goes crazy, God forbid, rapes his own child, or does something bawdy, then they scramble for him, they give him space, doctors contemplate at great lengths about him, the lawyers condone him- and people, dehumanized and dazed absorb everything
And then, we turn around while walking on the street, and we wonder where we happened to be: in India, or Pakistan, or Oman, who knows. Turbans, pantaloons, hijabs. Look closely, you’ll see many white faces behind those hijabs. It is not uncommon to see those European know-it-alls, best-selling artists, actors, musicians who satiated and drowsy give all of their scooped-up fortune to aid the spread of Islam; those who intensely and with passion, in the name of some more open freedom, destroyed everything that was holy, and having destroyed and ruined their own sanctities, having killed God in themselves and in others, now, when they are drained and unblessed, they go on a search for new gods. And here’s the absurdity, from the most open freedom, denying any authority above them, they came to obey and submit to imams and muftis
And the women who exposed and degraded womenkind, who also rejected any authority above them, those women have put on long chadors, veils and hijabs. They don’t need any freedom now. I am not saying, nor it is for me to say that we should go to crusade wars, draw the swords and go into battle. Absolutely not, far from it! I am only repeating what Christ invited us to do: to come out of our hideouts; to not be ashamed and to reveal our values, and what’s most important to attest with our deeds the truth, our faith, our God and our Lord. We are not asked to wear turban-chalma in the heat of the summer, or to cover our faces, or to stand at the corner of the street in the freezing cold to give out pieces of paper, to go door to door and annoy others. We, Christians, especially we, the Orthodox Christians, are asked to be the salt of the earth. (Matthew 5:13) because it is so bland, it is so deteriorated, that it will be ruined
If we do not know- and we do not know- what we have, let’s read about it, ask about it, learn about it. Let’s return to our faith, to our traditions, to everything that makes us Orthodox Christians, that makes us christened people. If that man in turban, can fast all they long, and do that for a month, live without a crumb of food and a drop of water, I can also give up roast lamb or pig for my God, and I can reserve a day, Sunday and Holidays of all days, to come with my family and join my brothers and sisters, to pray to God, to hear the word of God, to inhale the incense, and to show to myself and to everyone else that I have faith too, and that I am not “a no-account person
If we do not return to our true roots, we will disappear, just as many of us have already disappeared.