A Time for Fear and Paranoia or a Time for Repentance ( 16.09.2007 )
Today, on the feast-day of the Holy Hieromartyr Anthimus, in the chapel of Saint Gregory Palamas and the Holy Elder Joseph the Cave-dweller, in Vodoča monastery, Metropolitan Nahum of Strumica celebrated Hierarchical Divine Liturgy.
With respect to today’s Gospel reading, His Eminence said:
“He who does not have and from whom will be taken away even what he (thinks he) has is the one who does not give thanks to God for all and lives selfishly. Whereas, he who has and to whom more good will be given and he will have in abundance is the one who gives thanks to God for all, regardless of whether what is happening or what he is given at the moment seems good or bad; the one who offers to God, for the life of the world, all he has, even his soul and body and being. They who do not have and from whom will be taken away even what they think they have are the ones who live according to their passions (vainglory, avarice, and pleasure-indulgence). The passions for power, for money, and for bodily pleasures are they who make man, their captive, use all he has only for his own needs (self-love) and feel he has only a little. For, such is the very nature of passions: they always demand new and greater satisfaction; and, whenever they are satisfied, they leave yet greater need and yet greater emptiness. Certainly, the Lord gives everyone a time for repentance and then all is taken away, eventually the very time granted for repentance (change of mind). Lord have mercy…!”
(as recorded by the monastery sisterhood)
