PART ONE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRECIOUS
GREAT TRUTHS
The FIRST
forgotten GREAT
TRUTH is that
humans, these leading creatures on our earth, are not only the kilos
of flesh that they weigh, but they alone of all creatures on earth,
also have a spiritual
personality, namely
the human psyche – which is the main part of man – and is
immaterial, namely it has no material substance and this is why it is
invisible to the human eye. This spiritual personality creates an
unbridgeable gap separating man from other beings. It is this
spiritual personality that directs the body, thinks and gives life to
the admirable synthesis of the bodily, internal and external organs,
and this is proven by the fact that when this personality leaves the
body, the body is lifeless and dead. However, the spiritual
existence, as it is immaterial, remains immortal,
because the laws of
deterioration do not apply to it,
although
they do apply to the human body. Even if we know that when a person
dies, all that awaits him is two cubic metres of space, to be covered
by soil, and that he will not take with him anything that he may have
inherited or acquired in any way during his life, and that he will
account for his actions to the Creator of All.
(*)
Professor Alexandros Tsirintanis also excelled at the Law School of
the University of Hamburg, Germany from which he graduated “Cum
Laudae”. He kept his diploma framed on the wall of his apartment on
the 4th floor of 29 Lykavetou Street in Athens.
(**)
Such as his great book dedicated to world view issues “ Knowing
where we are going” .
This
personality also bears the awe-inspiring element of human conscience,
which controls our
actions, because out of all things affecting this personality, some
are good and some are bad. This is why man is responsible for his
actions and omissions. Indeed humans have a conscience, and this is
why they are the only creatures that can and must do their own
self-criticism. Because it is only natural that they shall present
their
actions and omissions to the Creator, God All Mighty.
Furthermore, this conscience
also proves the existence of the spirit, because humans may and do
restrict their instincts when their conscience so requires. Yet, the
most typical display of conscience that proves the existence of the
spirit, is that even materialists-ideologists, although being so,
will sacrifice their lives for their ideas, when the leaders of their
ideologies demand it.
However humans, this masterpiece
of the Creator of All, with their priceless immortal spiritual
personality, is independent of age, sex, colour, religion, education,
of whether they are toddlers or old, rich or poor, free or
imprisoned, saint or criminal. And this is why the education and
guidance of the human personality must be performed with great
responsibility and start at childhood, so that they may reach the
highest level befitting them.
The SECOND
GREAT TRUTH is
that this personality is now experiencing a great
moral crisis and decadence. Everyone
talks only about the financial crisis. Yet the financial crisis is a
consequence of the moral crisis. And this moral crisis is the result
of the materialistic lifestyle that commenced before the 19th
century, with the materialistic theory of Hainkel and his associates.
Despite the fact that the great scientist Hans Driesch – whom
Hainkel intended for his successor – proved his materialistic
theory wrong, Europeans continued to follow active materialism,
accepting no spiritual value, which resulted in the existence of many
unscrupulous speculators in the present day, who aim only to profit
and are not in the slightest interested in whether they exhaust other
states as well as Greece, which is the birthplace of Philosophy,
Plato’s and Aristotle’s Virtue of Education, and Civilisation.
Therefore, the reason for the
great moral crisis is the materialistic perception and the
materialistic lifestyle, that accept neither the existence of
spiritual personality, nor of conscience, God or spiritual values,
but only money, which became the new recourse of man. Money is indeed
necessary, but only as a servant of man, in order to meet certain
needs, and not as their own master. Because, when money is master, it
leads to the animalistic satisfaction of the stomach and the
instincts, resulting in the daily police press releases filled with
incidents of burglaries, robberies, thefts and all sorts of crimes.
And it is not only that, but the attempt of the legalization of the
same race. Fortunately, this atempt of the legilization failed
after the protests of some reptresentatives of government and
some Bishops.
But besides, there is another
manifestation of this great moral degradation,which
is the trafficking of infants and young children. There are organised
gangs, trained to artfully grab infants and young children and sell
them at a high price to wealthy and rich childless families. So the
mothers that take their children to playgrounds must be very careful;
at least two escorts or close relatives should be present and, in
kindergartens, they should prefer those fenced with high iron
railings with controlled entry and exit points.
And
this moral deterioration, with its very painful consequences must now
stop.
But how?
At this point, we will find the
sayings of the late distinguished Professor of Law of the University
of Athens A.N. Tsirintanis very useful. He said that a scrupulous
human has four characteristics, which indeed he used to call
“axioms”, as they were non-negotiable. These “axioms” were
freedom, honesty, spiritual uplifting and struggle.
Therefore, in order to deal with
the great moral crisis, which is spiritual decadence, what we need is
a constant struggle for the spiritual uplifting of both ourselves and
our fellowmen. This means leaving an irresponsible lifestyle behind
and start dealing with life with more soberness and responsibility.
And this again means struggling for an honest life, without
hypocrisy, with justice, due diligence of our duties against the laws
of the state and the best of our Country. Furthermore, it means the
interest for our fellowmen with solidarity and compassion. Moreover,
even a phone call of interest and support to a sick relative or
friend. However, in our time, solidarity towards other fellowmen must
be expressed in a very careful and reasonable manner, as
unfortunately, our society is full of hypocrisy and a constant
tendency for fraud.
Yet the spiritual uplifting, also
requires a brave and regular self-criticism, in order to find in
ourselves any guilty actions and omissions referring to negligence
for fellowmen, hypocrisy, to a super-sized “ego” and find out any
deterioration within us and consider how the required amends will be
made. Besides, self-criticism shall contribute to our interest being
expanded not only on our petty little self and interest, but to the
entire humanity and other states of Europe. Moreover, there is also
criminal indifference for society, which has very painful
consequences. Furthermore, self-criticism is the means that protects
man from the moral deterioration around them; provided that they are
conscientious, honest and fair.
Yet this struggle requires mental
strength, even superhuman mental strength we might say. And the
question is: where shall we find this strength?
And yet this strength exists and
is freely provided. And this statement, leads us to the THIRD
GREAT
forgotten
TRUTH,
that this strength is
our very Creator, God
All Mighty.
Yet, some express their
reservations on the existence of God – Creator, claiming that if
there was God, we would see Him. This is a mistaken argument, since
God is Spirit and invisible to the human material eyes. The argument
also claims that only what man controls in any way exists, and this
too is mistaken. Because, for instance, microbes existed for
thousands of years without man knowing it, until Pasteur discovered
them in 1880. And we should also know that even a negation of the
existence of God is faith too, since there is no proof that God does
not exist. For man this is a self-explanatory truth, that like every
design has its designer, so every existence and everything existing
have their Creator, since there is no such thing as automatic
genesis. Man knows only an infinitesimal of all reality. Let us think
that, apart from microbes, there is also the Sky with the star, the
millions of stars, many of
which
are much bigger that the earth and are kept together by the laws of
universal gravitation law. The size of the Universe is inconceivable
for the human mind, since when astronomers refer to a size of many
billions of light years, when light, as we all know, moves with a
speed of 300,000km per second! Since the material universe is
inconceivable to the human mind, imagine how difficult it is to grasp
the Creator of
this
Universe!
Yet we should know, that the
Creator of All, is a heavenly Father, who provides for His creatures
and loves them with his weakness and his faults. As to God’s
Providence, to the question how does natural and moral evil exist,
the answer is, first, that the fact that I do not know the cause does
not constitute an argument against Divine Providence. But even the
person questioning Divine Providence seeing the morally evil, should
answer the question: how is it possible to have order in nature, if
they do not believe in the existence of God-Creator?
The love of God is a reality.
This love of God for us, does not mean that the conditions of our
life shall be the way we want them to be. Just like no father
succumbs to all the demands of his young child. The right faith is
the belief, that God will make things happen, not in the way I want
them to happen, but I will want them the way God makes them. Thus, we
should trust
in the “Lord of the powers” in the difficult events of our lives
and we should pray to God to give us trust in Him because,
unfortunately, there is no trust and we see people saying that there
is no God because, while they prayed, God did not relieve them of the
pains they felt and their grief leads to tears because they never
ceased to ache, even after prayer. But God knows when to relieve the
pain or grant any other urgent wish, especially given that our
earthly life is a criterion for eternity after death.
This faith is a difficult faith,
but also a very beneficial one. We must train ourselves on that motto
and see happiness in our life. However, this requires training and is
not something that happens from one day to the other. Besides, this
Father, understands us even when we are sinful and in doubt about our
faith. We should have constant control on ourselves if we are to be
true to what we believe. This control we should perform without
stress and courageously address ourselves to the Heavenly Father, who
has such grand understanding.
As I have already mentioned, each
one of us has an immortal spiritual personality. Our Creator has
prepared an eternity, a happy eternal living for the men that do good
deeds. Evangelist Matthew says about this eternity that the Lord
shall address men with good deeds and tell them: “Come,
you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave
me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and
you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you
visited me,I was in prison and you came to me” Then the righteous
will answer to him “ Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirtsty and give you drink?And when did we see you a stranger and
welcome you, or naked and cloth you? And when did we see you sick or
in prison and visit you? And the Lord will answer them, “ Truly, I
say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren,
you did it to me”. (Matthew,
25:31-46). This is what Matthew writes in his Gospel on eternity.
Let
us now briefly examine the reliability of Gospels.
- Good faith requires that we consider that the Gospels were written by people acting in good faith and there is no reason to not display the same trust that we would to honest and fair men.
- The Evangelists that wrote the Gospels, did not have any gain from them, but on the contrary suffered persecutions and martyrdoms. The honesty of Gospels is displayed in the very texts and their details. The few differences that appear in the texts of the Gospels, are due to the fact that each Evangelist wrote their Gospels alone.
- Gospels present many difficulties, not apparent in narratives of great men, such as e.g. the death of Socrates by Plato, which is a nice narrative, since Plato’s writings are intentional, as they serve in the defence of Socrates.
The opposite happens in the
description of the death of Jesus Christ. There were reasonable
questions for an adverse phrase told to Peter by Jesus. Yet all these
are described in honesty and detail, because the Evangelists wrote
what they saw and heard in all honesty, without any intention.
- To the question, why subsequent writers mention nothing of Jesus, the answer is, first, that this question is posed by us who, 2000 years later realize what a unique fact Christianity has been in history. While those writers perhaps thought of it as a temporary event that will be forgotten. And Jews deemed Jesus and the Apostles, as an insignificant matter that was not serious enough for historians to deal with.
Particularly on the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ, see further on the reasons why the Resurrection of
Theanthropos (God-Man) our Lord is a fact.
And, as we said, God as
Spirit is invisible to the human material eyes, but with His
infinite love, came to earth as Theanthropos
Jesus Christ and
visible to the human eyes. And this is the FOURTH
forgotten GREAT
TRUTH.
And though He lived teaching. Furthermore, Christ performed miracles and he always
connected these with his teachings, such as for example The miracle
of changing water into wonderful wine (Jn. B 1-11), or the treatment
of a man paralysed for 38 years, waiting at the pool of Siloam for
the Lord to throw him when the water was disturbed and Christ cured
him at once and taught him that his sickness was deriving from his
sins. He then resurrected the child of the widow at the gateway of
city Nein and then resurrected Lazarus from the dead. They, thus,
prepared a dinner to honour Him, and Martha was serving, while
Lazarus was one of the guests attending the dinner along with Jesus.
Then Mary, in gratitude, anointed the feet of the Lord in precious
perfume. And as for those claiming that the perfume ought to be sold
and the money be given to the poor, Lazarus should have normally
stood up and tell them that it is not only the poor, but also the
gratitude to the Lord who raised him from the dead and should also,
indeed, heed to Pilate to complain for the ultimate sentence of the
Lord, while it was Him who resurrected him. However, none of the
benefited persons spoke out, because as it seems, gratitude was a
rare phenomenon at that time. This is why the Lord said that “you
will remember the name of Mary in the ages for acting out a work of
gratitude”. And as nobody among the benefited spoke, the Lord
Himself was urged to talk and tell them: "Let her alone: against
the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have
with you; but me ye have not always."But Lazarus was silent and
did not protest (John 12, 1-8)
And, as we said, Theanthropos
Jesus Christ lived at a time that there was a great moral crisis and
decadence and while one
would expect that men would surround Him with deep respect and
gratitude for the unexpected and priceless Divine gift of Heavens to
men, the leaders of the people where He then lived and some men, full
of hypocrisy and malice, treated Him in a foul and criminal manner
and lead Him to death by Crucifixion!
Moreover there was not any reaction from people who benefited and
especially from those who raised from dead!
At Crucifixion He disclosed a
great truth. Because when the one thief said to the other that “we
were justly punished for what we did, but the Lord did nothing wrong”
and added: "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingly
power." And the Lord on the Cross told him: "truly, I say
to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."(Luke 23,
41-43). Therefore the great truth is that heaven exists and that only
the Lord knows everything that
is related to Heaven.
And the
Crucifixion was followed by the Resurrection of Theanthropos Jesus
Christ. However for the truth of this Resurrection, we should say the
following: The fact of Resurrection is primary to the Evangelists.
This is why all four Evangelists write about the Resurrection, while
not all of them mention other facts in the life of Christ, such as
e.g. the Birth of the Lord, which is not mentioned by either Mark or
John. However, they all mention the Resurrection as the great event
that the Gospels were worth writing about.
Nevertheless, there have been
deniers who claimed that the Evangelists thought that saw the Lord
Resurrected, namely to them it was a fantasy. Yet, this fantasy is
out of the question for anyone who reads the Gospels. Because they
will find that the Evangelists write in full certainty on the
Resurrection, since they saw the Resurrected Lord constantly for 40
days, talked, ate and walked with Him.
Other deniers also said that the
Gospels, in their original form, did not contain the Resurrection.
But this is contradicted by the fact, that Apostle Paul in his 1st
Letter to Corinthians, Ch.15, makes extended reference to the
Resurrection, as well as in other parts of his Letters, and in his
great oration in the Areopagus in Athens. Even the argument of other
deniers, that the Evangelists lied about the resurrection of Christ,
is not serious, because the preaching of the Resurrection was
followed by persecutions and Martyrdoms. And indeed, none risks his
life for a lie that he invented himself!
The conclusion is, that the fact
of the Resurrection is true and justifies the golden chain of Martyrs
who for 300 years were persecuted and sacrificed their lives because
they believed in the Resurrection of the Lord. I shall mention the
Roman Coliseum, where many Christian Martyrs sacrificed their lives
to not succumb to the absurd demands of emperors that were insulting
their faith. I shall also mention the brave Christian aristocrat
Perpetua, who denied burning incense for the icon of the emperor and
preferred to be devoured by tigers rather than betraying her faith!
The same made and other
Christian Martyrs.In other words, this Resurrection means that Lord
will be with us as Spirit and ready to help us in every difficult
circumstances in our lives.
And He must cease to be the great forgotten of history as soon as
possible, and be – as He wants to be – the everyday – invisible
as Spirit, but true – Divine Fellow
Traveller of modern man,
who shall inspire him in deeds of honesty and duty, in accordance to
the requirements of conscience and compassion.
This will happen with
daily prayer to the ever-present Theanthropos the Lord, “A ll
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mat. 28,
16).
As FIFTH
GREAT TRUTH
we shall mention the following: just like the source of all good
exists and its Jesus Christ our Lord, so does the source of all evil,
which has three names: cunning,
satan and devil. What
the Lord says is typical: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from
heaven." (Luke. 10:18) and indeed without any sense of remorse.
As soon as he came to earth he started his destructive work, first by
tempting Adam and Eve in disobeying the will of God, then by tempting
their children, as Cain killed his brother Abel, and then with a
series of events with the sins of King David and his grand repentance
and the heritage of the psalms of repentance of David “have mercy
upon me, oh God...” and the other psalms that accompanied the lives
of Christians and that are written in the books of our Church. Then,
with the Scribes and Pharisees, who with their despicable behaviour
to the Lord (“spitting, slapping and whipping”) who finally lead
him to the very painful death on the cross and after His
Resurrection, Satan made him the great forgotten of human history for
2,000 years, with all the heavy implications of this fact. And he did
not hesitate to tempt Jesus Christ, indeed using the texts of the
Holy Bible and received the incredible answer all three times they
are cited in the Gospel by Jesus Christ, using texts again (Matthew
4: 6-11). And he continues his work to this day, tireless and
undaunted by any failures.
We must keep in mind that Satan
is a spirit and invisible to human material eyes and that he performs
his work in the certainty that humans do not see him. He many times
twists reality. Other times he alters facts or uses facts to another
direction and humans think that they follow the right direction,
while in the end they will see that it is the wrong line that they
are following and very harmful for them indeed. At other times he
uses secrecy as a means for his cunning ways and we must have a wise
and
holy
man by our side to tell us what is the will of God on specific key
issues in our lives. Because, Satan watches men at every step of
their lives and leads them to the wrong path, which may at first seem
harmless, but it finally leads to failure and sorrow. This is why we
must always take into account the presence of Satan, who tries with
alluring thoughts to annul any good attempt we may have done for
ourselves, for our families, for our society, for our state and for
the other nations of the world. This is why we must be always alert
and pray on a daily basis, so that God may protect us from the daily
destructive interventions of Satan!
What the cunning spirits told to
the Lord, after He removed them from a man, "art you come hither
to torment us" (Matthew 8. 29) leads us to think that God has
prepared a set of great tortures for Satan and the multiple cunning
spirits accompanying him as their punishment for the destructive work
they have done to humanity. Those that, affected by Satan,
emphatically refuse to repent in their lifetime, they too shall be
punished by the Lord. While, those that will repent and acknowledge
their sins and will seek the Holy Mercy, those will receive the grand
and rich Mercy of the Lord.
The SIXTH
GREAT TRUTH
, refers to the
Christian love(*), as Apostole Paul notices in his 1st
Letter to Corinthians,( Ch 13, 1-8).
“ If I speak in the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a
clianging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries and all Knowledge, and if I have all
faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I gave away all I have, and
if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love
is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not
instist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
It does not rejoice at wrong,
but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never ends’.
To this end, a lot of effort and
everyday struggle is required, but this effort and struggle require a
moral uplifting. Furthermore, prayers are required many times every
day for this effort. In addition, we need to apply love in our lives,
and this requires honesty and integrity in dealing with the many
problems of life. Because, as we said earlier, man also has his
spiritual personality which is intended for eternity. For this
eternity, every struggle and every attempt is worth it, given that
our prayers cost nothing and as we said, are a honourable act; indeed
it is a great sin to show contempt for the holy embrace that is
always open to receive us, all modern repenting sinners.
(*)
Of course there is the love passion but it is an expression of
shelfishness, it lasts a little and leads to unpleasant results when
we don’t have Christian love.
However, we must decide to get
serious and spiritually return to our Lord Jesus Christ. The great
motto "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me."
(Matthew. 28 verse 16) as said by the Lord in His farewell to his
disciples and which is included in the last paragraph of Matthew's
Gospel, remained forgotten and
unexploited
for 2,000 years.
This is why the phrase “All
power is given to me in heaven and on earth” becomes the SEVENTH
GREAT TRUTH.
This phrase of the Lord, of unparalleled grandeur is, to my
understanding, the reward of the Holy Father to His Son, who suffered
tortures and taunting etc. and finally a very painful death on the
Cross for the salvation of man and the Holy Father as reward to His
Son, for this very great and excellent offer for the salvation of
men, gave him, I think, from his own jurisdiction as reward that "all
power is given to me in heaven and on earth".
Indeed, we may not be competent
to comment on the power “in heaven”, as we do not know what
heaven means, but it is certain that He will judge us for our
actions. As regards the fact that He has “all power...and in earth”
this, I think, is explained as follows: Namely, His power on wars
between nations and international events, such as natural disasters,
namely floods, earthquakes.
But also specifically, “all
power ....on earth” refers to man as entity or as family man and
refers to health issues, family issues, and to men's thoughts and
desires and general perspective of life. Furthermore, financial
issues, matters of entertainment, of sex and marriage relations, on
children upbringing, matters of social status and political opinion
to the benefit of the Nation and generally matters affecting our
entire personal and social life. This also makes prayer a
requirement, which unfortunately today is not esteemed as it is not
used as a means of moral uplifting nor as a means for the salvation
of man. This too, is a sign of the great moral decline of our time.
Moreover, it is of particular importance, because with prayer we ask
the help of God in the various issues we mentioned above and prayer
is the best moral uplifting for man.
But great care is required here,
because the human mind wants immediate satisfaction to the issues
mentioned in the prayer. Yet, this is a great mistake, as we cannot
oblige God to comply with the demands of human mind. On the contrary,
we must have full trust
in the wisdom and love of God.
Let us not forget that prayer is
an honourable act for the human because he,
this insignificant creature, can communicate, with his everyday
prayer, to the Creator, God All Mighty, as we have already said. And
it shall be a crime against ourselves, if we too, the modern prodigal
sons do not return to the Father, Theantropos our Lord and we scorn
the Divine Embrace of our Lord, which always awaits us modern
repented prodigal sons.
At this point, I should remind
you of the priceless parable of the Prodigal son, which displays the
deeper meaning of Christianity. This deeper meaning of Christianity,
which is the great Love of God to man, was what the late Professor
A.N. Tsirintanis wanted to stress when he said: “What did
Christianity offer us? It offered
us
the Parable of the Prodigal son”. According to the Gospel, the
Prodigal son, after
living
in sin, decided to return to his father. Thus, if we too follow his
example and decide to return to the Father, Theanthropos the Lord,
the same moving scene shall be repeated for us, with the Father, Who,
when saw his prodigal son from afar, according to the Gospel: “while
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and
kissed him”! (Luke 15:20). We must follow the decision of the
prodigal son to return to his Father.
We all, to some extent, are
prodigal, and must return to our Heavenly Father, Theanthropos our
Lord. Indeed, through our everyday warm prayer and our elementary
compliance to His salvific will, as we already mentioned above. And
let us not hesitate to ask of Him, apart from our personal matters,
the salvation of Europe and all other states.
But we also need the assistance
of other Christians and the prayer to the Lord must deliver a “heart
that is contrite and humble” for our great sins, as King David
said.
Also,
the prayer is a
communication of man with the ever-present God. “With it we live
and move and are one”, as Apostole Paul said in his great oration
in the Areopagus in Athens. Besides, the prayer is a noble act that
also helps in the spiritual uplifting of man. And we have already
seen above the significance of spiritual uplifting in the dealing of
the great moral crisis that we are experiencing
. Naturally, prayer is the
privilege of man alone of all creatures on earth, due to his
spiritual personality that only man possesses. Prayer is what
breathing is to man. Man can neither live without breathing, nor by
breathing alone. In other words, we also need good actions.
However, modern man,
does not pray. And this happens because he was neither enlightened
nor guided on the issue, by Parents, Teachers and Professors, or by
the competent persons for this enlightenment, the representatives of
the Church. They are all quiet! And this is the result of the
decadence that is brought about by the great moral crisis we
experience.
This results in the spiritual
decadence that we have already mentioned. For all the busybodies I
shall say that even one minute of prayer is enough, even one thought
for God will suffice, because it is a spiritual uplifting. And we are
well aware that whoever scorns prayers lives an empty, unworthy of
man, life. For, a life without prayer is limited to the satisfaction
of the stomach and the instincts that can sometimes be of dangerous
implications for us and for others.
However there are other aids too,
such as the daily study of the New Testament, which should begin with
the Acts of the Apostles.
Then there is another aid, for
which the Professor of Philosophy and Psychology in the University of
London C.E.M. JOAD, who was a great known rationalist and laughed at
religion, along with Wells, Bernard and Aldus Huxley. After the 2nd
World War, he reconsidered and returned to Christianity. He wrote an
article under the title “My belief”, which was published in 1949,
in Greek translation, in the Greek magazine “Aktines”, instrument
of the “Christian Union of Scientists”. This article narrates his
ideological history, and ended in something of particular interest to
us: “However, one must not only want, but also be worthy of the
Abovementioned claim, namely to live in accordance to the manner set
by Christ.
Given
that it is impossible for one to live a Christian life on his own, to
worship God
on
his own, my next step was to unite with the organised body of
Christian Worship, namely to return to the Church and enter the rough
and difficult path leading to Heavens”. Namely he tells us, that
man also needs the spiritual help and support of the Church.
Let us leave prejudices and
sloppiness aside and follow the examples of great scientists and
founders of sciences, who believed in God and prayed.
Just to name a few: first, the
great French Biologist L.
Pasteur, who made the
huge discovery of the existence of microbes and found the cure to
rabies.
Furthermore, G.D.
Birkhoff, top
mathematician and professor of the University of Harvard and honorary
Doctorate in twelve Universities, G.
Claude, member of the
Sciences Academy of Paris, Faraday,
Pascal,
W. Ramsay
(Nobel Prize), R.
Millikan (Physics
Nobel Prize), Max
Planck , founder to
modern Physics (Physics Nobel Prize), P.
Sabatier (Nobel
Prize), J. Thomson
(Physics Nobel Prize),
W. Heisenberg
(Nobel Prize), H.Compton
(Nobel Prize), etc.
However, I shall not omit the
name of top space scientist Werner von Braun, who made the grand and
unique achievement in human History, with the “Apollo” project,
to send two astronauts to
the Moon and bring them safe back on earth. This top scientist
confessed his faith to God, in a relevant interview to “Sunday
Telegraph” in 1967. His
confess is published in the internet on the address:
http://hopefulmessages.blogspot.com
At this point I will refer to
some distinguished Greek scientists who believed in God and prayed.
The late, distinguished professor of the Law School of the University
of Athens, A.N. Tsirintanis, who held a Phd in Law by the University
of Hamburg from which he graduated “Magna Cum Laude” was an
objective researcher of these great issues and was a man of faith and
prayer. Furthermore, the professor of Astronomy of the University of
Athens, and director of the Astronomy Institute of the National
Observatory of Athens, Stavros Plakidis. He also made many
observations on various astronomy phenomena and interpreted many
anomalies in their movement. I will also refer to Marinos Geroulanos,
Medicine professor and Academic. He was a special surgeon for
delicate operations of the brain.
And to those mentioned above it
comes true what the late
wise Professor A.N. Tsirintanis used to say: “we need a serious
faith, which will be taken seriously by serious people”. And a
serious faith is a simple faith, without theological investigations,
but with consistence to life. Moreover, such a life with simple faith
and consistence, is the only right and normal life for modern man.
Moreover, I must note that the
modern Christian only goes to church. But, modern Christians must not
only go to church, they must have prayer and mission as their daily
serious work, namely they must convey the message of Christianity to
modern society and mainly, to promote the Lord Jesus Christ, from the
position of the forgotten to the position of the daily companion and
have the Lord as their daily refuge for the various personal and
other problems and they must do all these in full confidence in His
wisdom and the priceless love. Indeed, this paper is an excellent
means for this mission. And, since we previously referred to prayer,
we must also say that prayer has a great width and depth and those
that have time in their hands, such as some categories of the
disabled and the retired, must use most of their time for prayer.
But they must know that
repentance must precede the repetition of the repentance psalm of
David:
A Prayer of Repentance
"Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to your loving kindness and according to the multitude of
your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity, and clean me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my
transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, only you, have I
sinned, and done evil in your sight: that you will be justified to
your foresights for my transgressions and will judge me clearly.
Because Lord, you desire
truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden you shall make me to
know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I
shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and
gladness; that my unmoved bones which may rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and
blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your
presence; and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore into me the joy of your
salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors
your ways; and sinners shall be converted into you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, you God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of
your righteousness.
O Lord, you will open my
lips; and my mouth shall shew forth your praise.
I would give whatever sacrifice
you desire, but you are not delighted in burnt offering.
But the only sacrifice to God
is a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart. This is the kind
of sacrifice that God will not reject, but He will accept it.
And this is the kind of
contrition we pray for to God. I thus beg the Lord to accept my
honest repentance for my great sins and beg the Lord to forgive my
sins as good and benevolent and merciful God.
And this prayer applies to all
nations of the world (European states, Central, North and South
America states, Australia, many states of Africa, of Asia, including
Japan and Great modern Russia.
Some of the issues referred to
in the prayer can be: Those suffering from painful diseases, and
those suffering from incurable diseases, those in mourning, cancer
patients, mental patients, children with divorced parents and
orphans, children in hospitals, egomaniacs, hypocrites, hardened
people (“for the hardening of their hearts”). For all the above,
we must pray to God to give them the great gift of honest and
enlightened Christian faith and the interest in their fellow men,
which starts from the more aged parents. Furthermore, we pray to the
Lord for granting patience to those in prison and after their release
that they are cleansed by repentance and that He grants them the
great gift of honest and enlightened Christian faith and the interest
in their fellow men, which starts from the more aged parents. For
gamblers, we pray to the Lord that they are free from the passion of
gambling and after they are cleansed by repentance that they become
men with Christian interest in their fellow-men.
However there are sinners for
whom we must pray to the Lord that He removes their sin and leads
them to the path of moral uplifting and that He makes them Christian
missionaries. Moreover, we pray to the Lord for repenting communists,
that He may grant them the great gift of faith and after they are
cleansed by repentance and are morally uplifted that they become
Christian missionaries of this faith with the zest and activity they
had in the past for their communist work. Furthermore, we pray to the
Lord for those single in life, that after they are cleansed by
repentance and are morally uplifted that they become missionaries of
the enlightened and honest Christian faith with an interest in their
fellow men, which starts from the more aged parents.
For all the above, we must pray
to God that He gives them an interest in the problems of their
fellow-men, starting from the more aged parents, their children and
their close family. These apply to those that have plenty of time in
their hands, but also to those that have little time; the latter
should limit themselves to one or two of the above, depending on the
time they have available.
Now, it is time to talk about
some applications of the Great Truths we mentioned and which are
included in the second section of this study.
PART
TWO
SOME APPLICATIONS OF THE GREAT
TRUTHS IN OUR LIVES
1)
The institution of
family has been
recognised as the cornerstone of civilisation.
Yet, the family has suffered the
very bad effect of the current great moral crisis we mentioned above.
Naturally, love is the key
element for a marriage between a man and a woman. But in this
marriage, after a few years, disagreements, problems and divorce
threats start to show. However, we must know that divorce is a
disaster
for families, much more so when there are children involved. This is
why in our time, apart from the mutual attraction, man and woman must
also have the will to make the effort for moral uplifting, based and
powered by the simple Christian faith. Hence, when problems arise in
the family, with socialising, co-explaining and apologising,
conflicts are resolved and harmony is regained in the couple, which
is, according to specialists, the best behaviour for children and for
the happiness of the family.
But another matter must be also
noted: Women must always be attractive to their husbands, so that men
completely avoid seeking sexual satisfaction away from his spouse,
with very dangerous consequences (STDs, HIV etc.) both for himself
and for his family, and of course for his children. This will happen
not only as a duty of the man to his family, but also by the couple
having a great aim in their lives and this aim is no other than the
faith to our Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of Mission, so that the
Lord, the great forgotten of human history, is constantly
acknowledged as associate and companion to modern families. This
faith and great mission must also accompany our young since their
teenage years, so that their great mission dominates their lives.
Another matter are large
families, that must have the support of the whole, of the state.
Because, large families provide their offspring to the benefit of the
whole, but they must also have material support and help from the
whole.
Another issue is, for families
with children, that they provide them with proper education and
gradually, since their infancy,
that they teach them to pray and live an honest Christian life, with
the parents setting the right example. In this education, the
protection of children from drugs is crucial.
Children must, from a very young
age, have the following virtues: first, they must take praying very
seriously. For this reason, children must kneel with their father and
mother and pray without giggling that shows that they do not take
praying seriously. The prayer must also contain thanks and request
and it must be brief. Second, the child must learn to tell the truth.
If parents find out that their children are lying and they must make
them confess they are lying so that they do not repeat it and third,
if a child has two buns in their pockets and a very poor child stands
near them, they must give the second bun. This is how they get used
to solidarity. Third, respect to older people is also required and
younger people must address older people in plural. Furthermore, they
must use the phrase “Allow me to say” etc. When they are about to
enter a door they must allow to older people to enter first.
Furthermore they must offer their seat to the elderly or to ladies
with little children, whether in the bus or other means of transport.
Another important issue to be
considered and which has gained publicity through television, is
infants and young children trafficking, a result of the great moral
decline in our country.
This is why children must be
under the constant care and the watchful eye of their parents; even
when playing, parents must be near their children and not discuss
with others and never take their eyes off their children, as the
persons they are talking to may be there as a distraction by others
who want to kidnap their kids. This is why, I repeat, children must
be under the constant watchful eye of their parents, whether at home,
or at play or anywhere else.
2)
As regards School,
in all its grades, from Primary school until High school, its role is
very important, as it comes to compliment the work of the students'
parents. The work of School is not only the education of children,
which no matter how good it is, is still insufficient; culture is
required too, in the sense of moral uplifting of children, which, as
we saw above, is very crucial for dealing with the great moral crisis
we currently experience. Indeed, to this end, the basis and the
support come from Christian faith. Yet, as modern Schools also
include students of other religions, Christian teaching must be
performed, respecting other religions.
I fully understand the requests
of Teachers for increase in their small salaries they receive and I
respect their honest struggles. However, along with their struggles,
they must know that their work is much higher and very useful for our
Country. And this work will be carried out only in a spirit of
sacrifice. Let us not forget the fights of our Nation. This is why,
without any sense of heroism, nothing superior happens today.
Teachers must be the paragons of the spirit of sacrifice, for
executing their high and dignified work. In this manner, they will
give to their students, apart from their precious teaching, a
material proof of what they say and this is why they are worthy
examples. Furthermore, teachers must inspire children to prayer, as a
significant demonstration of constant and enlightened Christian
faith. The work of teachers is to inspire solidarity among students
and the need for prayer, but they too must be role models in prayer
and this will happen only when Bishops devote a great part of their
lives to inspire faith in the live of teachers, as the work of
Bishops is very significant and they are the only ones who can
inspire Christian faith. This study too offers a great help and I
think that Bishops should carefully read it, as they will need it in
the great work they will undertake.
Indeed, this is what is more
important, as solidarity, love among students is what uplifts them
nowadays and what is mostly needed in this era is the moral uplifting
of students. However, to achieve the moral uplifting of students, we
must first achieve the moral uplifting of teachers. Yet this is very
difficult and it requires constant struggle and as we said, without a
spirit of sacrifice, nothing noteworthy can happen.
Furthermore, the School must
enlighten the young on the danger of drugs.
3) Drugs
are poisons of a special type, since in the beginning they seem
harmless and even pleasant, but they soon create an addiction,
impossible to escape.
This is why a serious
enlightenment must occur, from very early on, by parents and teachers
alike. Parents and Guardians Associations in schools must arrange so
that during breaks there is no communication between students and
non-school parties, by placing partitions and rails around the yard
of the school. Furthermore a teacher must be present in the area
during breaks in order to control the non-communication of students
with persons outside the school. Moreover, a police officer should
also be present, in order the check suspicious moves outside the
school for the restriction of drug dealing.
4) The sexual problem:
From his book: “Moving ahead at a turning point - A message”,
professor Alexandros Tsirintanis had said: “Avoiding the sexual
problem cannot be they way to deal with it. The humanitarianism
required by our times cannot escape this problem because it simply
overcome men and is humanitarianism no more.
Besides, it is about time we
were free of two deceptions that torment humanity on this subject.
The first deception is that
sexual instincts are something inferior. Sexual urges are considered
roughly as a sin and certainly a defeat for spiritual men. Anything
related to this subjects become “taboo”, prohibited. It is known
where this deception lead us: a sexually orientated morality that can
reach inhuman demonstrations, while at the same time it preoccupies
the soul from the other aspirations of morality. It finally leads to
a diverse and destructive imbalance: hypocrisy. Namely, to the death
of any hope to acquire a spiritual civilisation.
The second deception, which is
the exact opposite, views sexual instincts, “sex” as we now call
it, as the happiness of man. The ultimate, sole happiness. The
conclusion of this perception is that sex transforms to the meaning
of life, the purpose of life. It is beyond obvious where this
sexually orientated life perception leads to. Allow us to name it
bluntly: This sexually orientated perception of life is, simply, the
brutalisation of man. A civilisation that has “sex” as its model,
is a civilisation on the verge of collapse. It is a matter of time
and perhaps a kick by external facts, for this sexually orientated
“civilisation” to crumble.
Our conclusion is that sex is
neither bad nor is it a vulgar act, unfit for a spiritual man, yet,
nor is it happiness and even less so a purpose and meaning in life.
It is a mental and biological human function, and as such, it is
respected and a value in the framework of its intended purpose.
It is not, however, the ultimate
value. It is a value, provided that is has been hierarchically placed
on the rank of values. Yet, while sex per se, as we said, in not a
source of happiness, it can help man to find happiness and even help
in their moral uplifting. However, this is why this matter must be
studied with all respect, and become the object of scientific
research and with honesty and integrity, place its value on the
position that it truly deserves on the hierarchy of values. It
requires a lot of respect, a lot of honesty and truly objective
research to find the solution to this problem called sex in a
spiritual civilisation. Yet, before all these can happen we must
acknowledge that the problem does exist.
.........................Furthermore,
this value has marriage as its home. Marriage must be honoured. And
in true education, it must be honoured on two accounts. First, it
[marriage] is the only home of sexual instincts. Second, it is a
respectable and beloved home. Which means, seriously and honestly and
therefore, marriage must be respected, loved, cherished and admired.
Indeed, not only marriage, but also what leads to marriage, even
sexual education must also receive the attention required. But, to
receive attention it must first be appreciated. Nowadays, there are
series of books available on said subjects and hence I say no more.
But I must also note this: Do
not think that I say all these, ignoring the need of Christianity for
celibate people too. On the contrary, I believe that in the same
manner that there could be no freedom if it weren't for the heroes
who sacrificed themselves and that there is no civilisation without
men who neglect their health, so no spiritual civilisation can exist
without men who have spiritual creation as their sole bride. Yet,
this is one matter and it is a whole different matter the silly zest
and foolish aspiration of some to pretend celibacy and others to
suffer due to their temper, as these people are clearly not cut-out
to be celibate. These people also contempt Apostle Paul, who says
that if one is not cut out to be celibate, they should marry, because
it is better to get married than to “be on fire”.
The conclusion is that if we
want to master this factor too, we must acknowledge it as existing
and indeed, from God.
I shall only state what I said
earlier. The dialectics of the sexual matter is as follows: The idol
called happiness must be removed from the picture. This instinct is a
biological function. It does not provide happiness. When demonstrated
in the proper manner, it is divine creation. When worshipped, it is
death. When held in contempt, it is death. Because the worship of sex
and the contempt of sec, are two forms of deviating from the path of
God and this is where the effect of Satan is also obvious.
Namely, sex exists in all living
creatures for the perpetuation of the species, but in humans, sex is
particularly important, since men can control it to the direction
they want, and even in some rare cases, completely numb it for some
great spiritual purposes.
5) Television
is a great means of affecting public opinion. Yet, unfortunately,
modern Television has suffered the bad effect of the moral crisis and
decline. Hence, TV shows are morally harmful and unacceptable as they
present images from the modern life of moral decline and they also
present crimes, indeed in such detail, that they can only be
interesting to judges. Therefore, television is harmful for young
people and children and tv network directors and owners must realise
their huge responsibility, mainly for the education of young people
because television is an excellent means for the moral uplifting of
the young.
6)
And now, for the
Church: The ministry
of Priests must stop being a profession. As a profession they should
have a decent employment, which must be arranged for by the state so
that it ensures them a descent living, and ministry at Church should
be a ministry of superior quality, given that their work is to
prepare the faithful for a superior life, a life worthy of eternity
that awaits them. Furthermore, a committee of respectable bishops
should be the body that would examine whether candidate priests are
apt for their work. Moreover, priest should not accept tips for the
various spiritual works they perform (weddings, funerals, memorials).
Finally, all priests and bishops should be married. We must note that
bishops too, should leave celibacy and create model families. Apostle
Paul in his Epistle to Timothy (ch. 3, verse 1-15) says: "A
bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife..." and
create a model family, because if he cannot create a model family ...
"how shall he take care of the church of God?" However,
celibacy too is important for those who are centrally responsible for
the leadership and guiding of the Church and this is why they cannot
also undertake the duties of creating their own personal families. It
is in the work of Bishops to enlighten teachers on the work of prayer
that they shall teach to their students. This also applies to Junior
High school and High school teachers. Finally, they should have as
main work in their mission to promote the Lord from the forgotten of
human history to a daily companion of men and their sole refuge and
make men show their full trust to the Lord.
7)
The Lord taught ONE
and only Christianity.
However, the faithful need help and support by other Christians to
ascend the difficult and full of troubles path leading to eternity.
This is why only ONE Church is needed, and no more Churches should be
created with the additions of petty dogmatic differences, invented by
men. We should know that Satan penetrates even the Church. Thus the
Lord taught ONE Christianity and only ONE Church should exist for the
help of the faithful.
8) The rebirth
of our country will not happen by our politicians, but it will start
by teachers, who must be conscious Christians. And this will happen
if the Ministers of Education - who should also be conscious
Christians - called all teachers of the State in a great room and
stress to them that the salvation of the State depends on them, in
that they teach, first, the need of solidarity and elementary love
between students to Primary School children and, second, the need to
pray for every problem of their lives and for the problems of other
students. Teachers must focus their efforts on the issue of prayer,
which has nowadays lost its status, and should start from Primary
School. This is why teachers should be conscious Christians, namely
praying Christians. This situation should continue during junior high
and high school. This is the only way to made a new society which
will know to appreciate what is worth appreciating. Television shall
play a significant role in this, as will the Bishops too, who shall
work on the reinforcement of the faith of teachers.
9) For Eternity
We shall now return to the
beginning of this study. Men are not only the physical body they
carry but also have a spiritual personality that has nothing to do
with mater and is not visible to our eyes. It is in our body, it
operates on the various organs, but it is immortal. And this
personality is created for eternity and deserves all efforts of
preparation of man for eternity and this study is an excellent means
to this end.
PART THREE
THE CONCLUSION
THE CONCLUSION
Because, as we said, our nation
experiences a great moral crisis - as is the entire modern world -
and a great moral decline, what it needs is the constant fight for
the moral uplifting of man. This moral uplifting will happen under
specific conditions: These conditions are: repeated self-criticism,
consciousness of sins and repentance. Furthermore, men must be honest
and consistent to the state and country, to their service and to
their families, to their relatives and friends and to society in
general.
Moral uplifting will happen by
two parallel and necessary struggles.
The first, is the struggle for
daily prayer, which must be made many times during the day. As for
those who are very busy and working in tough professions, we must say
that prayers need not be lengthy, even two words are enough for
inviting God in our lives. At this point, we should note that we
should not expect the immediate satisfaction of our requests in our
prayer to God and we should certainly not be distressed when what we
ask does not happen. Indeed, sometimes, distress can even bring tears
to the eyes, especially when our request refers to the end of pains
or other ailments. Others, indeed, question the existence of God,
since they claim that if there was God, people would not suffer.
However, this is a huge mistake, because God, our Creator is not
intended to hear the human mind, but quite the opposite: it is men
who must trust in God. Of course, God understands the doubts of men
because of His vast love, but then again this is no excuse for men,
namely to doubt the existence of God. After all, all these tests of
the short life we live are nothing compared to the eternity of the
spiritual personality granted to us by Holy Love. But, man is an
existence that wants to be constantly happy and this request is
granted by God in eternity, for the sake of which it is worth it to
go through any test in this brief life of ours.
The second is the struggle to
acquire Christian love demonstrated by good deed to our fellow-men
and which we must not think that are limited to helping the hungry,
although even this help is something that those who can afford it
should provide. But even an encouraging word, a word of comfort, even
a nice joke giving smile and mirth to the atmosphere are enough, as
long as these happen in the framework of decency. These are good
deeds too. Even partying and dancing have their place, when these too
happen in the framework of decency.
However, the tactic of the two
parallel and necessary spiritual demonstrations of man must start
from a very age in childhood, noting along with the need of prayer
also the struggle for demonstrations of love to others and the need
for good deeds such as e.g. If a child sees one of his fellow
students sad, he should ask him why he is sad and comfort him by
telling him that he will pray for this matter and that God loves all
children and knows the needs of each one and that we must have full
trust in Him. This too is a good deed. Education is the work of the
child's parents and teachers, who must first apply all the above and
set the example for their children. Yet, the guidance of Bishops is
required; they -using this study - must inspire Christian faith to
teachers. This should be the main work of Bishops.
Finally, the most significant
conclusion is the absolute necessity that our Lord Jesus Christ, the
one with “all power in heaven and in earth”, is promoted from the
forgotten of human history to the holy Companion of modern faithful
Christians, and that He becomes the refuge of the faithful in full
trust in His wisdom and His unsurpassed Holy Love.
Let us not forget that eternity
awaits and that we will be judged for our actions before the Lord.
