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Saint John Chrysostom
(Speech on 1 Corinthians 26,11, ΕΠΕ 18 Α,176 - ΜG 61,223-224 η’)

   If your wife makes a mistake, console her and do not add to her grief. For even if you remove all her faults that cause trouble in the house, you will gain nothing by your abrupt behaviour, for the saddest thing of all will remain that you do not have good relations with the woman who lives with you. Whatever fault of hers you claim as justification, none should be considered more painful than to be at war with her. So let your love for her be more precious than anything else. For if you must bear one another’s burdens, how much more must you bear your wife’s burdens. And even if she is poor, do not blame her; and if she is foolish, do not despise and criticise her, but rather guide her, for she is a member of your body and you have become one flesh.
   But what if she is talkative and drunk and angry? Well, you must not be angry with her, but take care of her and pray to God and exhort her and counsel her and do everything to break her passion. But if you beat her, you make her situation worse. For insolence is not cured by insolence, but by forbearance and yielding. Besides the above, think of the reward God has in store for your patience. For though you have the power to send her away, and do not do so because you fear God, but put up with so many faults because you fear the law, which prevents you from expelling the woman whatever her fault may be, you shall receive a very great reward.
   But even before the reward that God will give you, you will have a very great benefit, because you will also make her more disciplined, and because of her you will become more lenient. It is even said that one of the pagan philosophers, who had a wife who was vicious and talkative and drunk, when asked why he tolerated the behaviour of such a woman, he replied: I tolerate her so that I may have a gymnasium and a fighting ring in my house, so that they may train me in the patient life. For in this way, he said, I shall also be gentler to others, for I shall practise meekness daily in the house.

Saint John Chrysostom
(Speech on Genesis 55, 3, ΕΠΕ 4, 134 – MG 54, 416-417)

   This is a true marriage, when there is a great deal of agreement between the two spouses, when there is a close connection, when they are very tightly bound in love. That is, just as the body can never rebel against itself, nor the soul against itself, so the man and the woman must not be separated and in conflict, but must be united. For only then it is possible for them to accumulate innumerable goods.

Saint John Chrysostom
(Speech on Genesis 55, 2, ΕΠΕ 4, 388 – MG 54, 481)

   Jacob worked for Rachel for seven years, and it felt like a few days because he loved her. The seven years seemed like a few days to him because of the excessive love he had for the girl. When one is wounded by the craving of love, they see none of the difficulties, but they bear easily all dangers and many sufferings because they aim at one thing only: satisfying their desires.

Translation from the book:

Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Ὁ Σταυρός στό φῶς τῆς Ἀνάστασης, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2019, σσ. 43-49.

   Among the banners, flags and symbols raised by the world to proclaim its slogans, our Church exalts the Holy Cross and invites us to accept its message. The history of God and man, in all its dimensions, is written on its simple shape. The greatest misery and the greatest joy meet in its heart: the despair of a dying world and the hope of a world being raised.
   Historically and theologically the Cross has in fact, two aspects: what it appears to be and what it is. It appears to be dipped in blood, tears and pain. But if we bend over its bloody stains, we will again discern two opposites: on the one hand, crime in its most terrible form, guilt in its most dreadful hour; and on the other, the greatest love and infinite tolerance. The cross of ancient times, was an instrument of torture, the most terrible means that Satan had discovered to torment man, after he had driven him to the lowest point of degradation. But since the Crucifixion of the sinless Christ, the Cross has also become the symbol of the highest love and devotion for those who love Christ and follow in His footsteps.
   There are three crosses on Golgotha which help us to understand historically the aspect of the cross represented in its two dimensions. On two of the crosses hang two criminals who are receiving “the due reward of their deeds”; on the other Cross hangs Jesus, who “has done nothing wrong” (Lk 23:41). At the same time, the first criminal cursed the Innocent, while the other repented and became a martyr; he bore his cross with patience, denied his shameful past and believed in a glorious future. And how? With the strength that he drew from the Cross of Jesus Christ. This is the second aspect of the Cross that all those who repent and believe can experience.   
   The Cross of our Lord has a rich inner content which can be infused into the cross of the thief and into every cross, if we so wish. This secret content, its indescribable richness, is the love of God, which becomes blood, and the blood becomes redemption and purification, but also a power of transformation and change. Here is the “essence” of the Cross, here is the hope of the world! A hope not like the “false hopes” of the poets, which lead to despair, nor like the fleeting hopes of our narrow horizons which leave behind them disappointment. It is the hope for which the soul of man thirsts, that he is not just a piece of earth and flesh, not a number or something destined to nothing but a being of eternal value and destiny. This hope which warms the heart and enlightens the mind, which steels the nerves and sustains the will, the hope which gives meaning to struggles, joyful endurance to sorrows, profound happiness to joys, is found only in the Cross. What honour man has when, for his sake, the precious blood of God is shed! What glory awaits him since the God-man, in a human body, fights and conquers death. What hope springs from Golgotha!
   Unfortunately, the world can only see the visible aspect of the cross and rejects it. Like the Jews who saw its weakness and were tempted, like the Gentiles who saw it as folly and mocked it. The world ignores the “essence” of the Cross and doesn’t even bother to learn it, so it can never understand it. That is why today the Church, the Gospel and christians are despised, mocked, hated and fought against. But it is also the reason why today the world has lost hope and is dying of despair. It is because man has cut himself off from the Cross and relies on his own strength. He cannot even think that what he wants might be hidden in the Cross. In no way do people admit that the Cross, which they consider trivial, can embrace those who are divided, give peace to the soul, make amends between man and his God.
   So man struggles all alone. He sends out rockets, literally throws his money into the air, without earning anything, not a breath of life, not a drop of relief from his stress. He raises his antennas, his science and his art, and channels mainly elements of corruption and decay into his own house, his mind and his blood. He hangs horseshoes on his door as a symbol of good luck, you see, this is neither foolish nor scandalous!  He reconciles fetishism with his culture because he suffocates without hope. But hope is nowhere to be found! Modern man stands disappointed before an empty Pandora’s box; his last hopes have flown away. He believes nothing, he hopes for nothing, he is lost. He puts “Hope Wanted” in the “Classifieds” in vain. He will only find hope in the Cross.
   Because hope is not in “bread and spectacle”, it is not in the refrigerator or in culture. Hope is not in shop windows, shops, chimneys, oil tanks and bombs. Hope is peace and life. A full stomach and a comfortable career are not hope, hope is a pure and light heart. The saturation of the senses and the deception of our secret desires with their substitutes are not hope. Hope is the power that guarantees joy up to eternity, the power that makes us see the other person not as a target for our vice or as an object to profit from, but as a brother, as a creature of the same Father.
   If we see the Cross as a simple symbol, we do injustice to the Cross and, fatally, to ourselves. If we recognise in the Cross the blood of an Innocent Man who shed His blood on it for our sake, we have taken an important step. But if we discover in the Cross, beyond the agony of death, the triumph of life that springs from the “empty tomb” of the Crucified and Risen One, then we have found our great, true, eternal hope.
   Our Church, through the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, invites us to rest under its wings. Tell me, dear faithful, if a person wants something different or something more!

Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association

«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Translation from the book:

Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Μηνύματα ζωῆς Β΄, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2015, σσ. 192-194.

Sleep or Death

  August is the crown of summer and the jewel in this crown is the celebration of our Most Holy Theotokos. It is a little Easter in summer. It is celebrated as gloriously and triumphantly as the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. This is not an arbitrary choice; in the minds of pious people, this feast associates the word “sleep” with the event of death. Could there be a more desirable message for the miserable man who longs to enjoy his life but he lives every day under the shadow of death?
  The power of death is, of course, defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ. This victory is experienced and celebrated by the Church when it is realised in the lives of the saints. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ “has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24) and has a first experience of the abolition of death. Death cannot hold them captive, nor can their Lord and God. For this reason, the commemoration of the day on which the saints died is not a mournful event, but a celebration. St. John Chrysostom notes that “because the saints loved their Lord, they were willing to suffer sorrows and torments in His name, which made them all the more joyful”.
  Christ’s victory over death is primarily declared by the Dormition of the woman who gave Lord her human flesh so that He could resurrect it and make it non-perishable. She is the saint above all saints and is therefore named “Panagia” in Greek (pano[above] – agia [saint]). There is a clear theological explanation for this. The Orthodox Church proclaims that the Virgin Mary is the symbol of the entire Church and of each pious soul. Every Christian sees themselves as a member of the Church and in the Assumption of God’s Mother, they see their own death as a dormition, a sleep in God’s hands. Therefore, a Christian is freed from the fear of death and renews the hope that their beloved people are sleeping and will resurrect one day. Every Christian can proclaim the confession of our faith, “I am looking forward to the resurrection of the dead” (Symbol of Faith).

Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association

«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Translation from the book:

Στεργίου Ν. Σάκκου, Μηνύματα ζωῆς Β΄, ἐκδ. «ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ, Θεσ/νίκη 2015, σσ. 195-197.

The Spiritual Champion

  The saints of our faith, like a great cloud, watch from heaven and help us in our struggles here on earth. The first and most glorified among them is the Virgin Mary. Her venerable person is a unique and distinct criterion in Orthodoxy. She attracts our thoughts and inspires our lives. In particular, August, the month of the Virgin Mary, with the daily Parakleses in her honour, her Assumption and the celebration of her “Apodosis”, brings her closer to us. This month draws our attention to her in order to listen to her message.
  There has never been a more worthy athlete or a more glorious Olympic champion in the history of the world than the Virgin Mary. What achievement and what record can be compared to her high jump which united the earth with heaven? She is the one who opened the way for God to come down into the world and become her Son, the God-Man. He raised His Virgin Mother to His own glory and made her the christified person, the first man-God!
  The ancient Olympians were honoured for life in their cities, but even today’s winners enjoy some special privileges in their home countries. But the honour and glory of the Virgin Mary is universal and eternal. She is blessed throughout “all generations” (Lk 1:48), as she herself prophesied. And no one can praise her as she deserves, for she is “the praise and glory of the human race”, as St Basil of Seleucia writes.
  There may be people who have honoured an Olympic champion by naming their child after him or her. Others are proud to display a photograph of an athlete in their home. Not only countless people, but also towns and villages, churches and chapels, monasteries and associations, are named after the Virgin Mary. There are many honourable surnames that characterise her. And her miraculous icons make her presence alive among us.
  From the glory of heaven, as a woman “clothed with the sun” (Rev 12:1) and crowned with the twelve-starred crown, the Virgin Mary nods to us all. As a type of the Church and of every redeemed soul, she is presented as a model and prototype, but also as a counsellor and coach for all those who desire the great victory of life, the victory that will be rewarded with the conquest of heaven.

Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association

«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Translation from the Book

Ὁ Θεός στήν Καινή Διαθήκη, Βοήθημα Κατωτέρου Κατηχητικοῦ Β΄,

ἐκδ. «Χριστιανική Ἐλπίς» Ὀρθόδοξη Ἀδελφότητα, Θεσσαλονίκη 2015, σσ. 56-60

Lk 5:17-26

(For our better understanding it is necessary to mention the way people built their houses
at that time. The houses had a flat roof which was made by heavy tiles and it was supported
by wooden beams. There was an indoor or outdoor ladder in order to have access on the
roof.)

  Christ was preaching in a crowded house in Capernaum. Suddenly the silence was
interrupted by a strange noise. Everyone’s eyes turned to the roof where the noise was
coming from. Some people were removing tiles until they made a big hole. Then they started
lowering a bed through the hole by using ropes. On the bed there was a paralyzed man
who couldn’t walk. He had heard that Christ would be in that house and he really wanted
to meet Him. He believed wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ had the power to cure him
from his terrible illness.
  The man’s relatives had been carrying him on the bed but they couldn’t enter the house
because there were a lot of people. How could they reach Christ whom they were so eager
to see? Should they leave without achieving their goal? Impossible! They believed that Christ
had the power to cure their sick relative.
  Their strong faith prevented them from leaving in disappointment. They were
determined to overcome every obstacle, so they found a solution; to enter the house
through the roof.
  They climbed on the roof; they removed the tiles and they lowered the paralyzed man’s
bed through the hole. At last, he was in front of Christ!
  Christ looked at him compassionately, not only because of his illness but also because of
his sins. Before his body was paralyzed, his soul had been paralyzed by the number of his
sins. It’s even probable that his sins had caused this serious illness. Christ is omniscient.
His eyes can pierce the depths of the heart. He could see the repentance and the faith of
the man in front of Him.
  “My child, your sins are forgiven”, He said affectionately.
  Some Pharisees were in house in order to find a reason to make an accusation against
Christ. They thought; “What a blasphemy! Who does he think he is? Who can forgive sins
except for God?”
  But Christ is the one and only God. Not only He can forgive sins but He can also
read the thoughts of everyone.
  So, He turned to them and said; “Why are you having these thoughts? What is easier,
to tell the man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to stand up and walk?”
  Imagine how the Pharisees must have felt! They were certainly speechless when they
realized that Christ knew their thoughts.
  “In order to see that the Son of man - this is how Christ referred to himself – has the
authority to forgive sins on the earth” He turned to the paralyzed man and said; “I tell you
to get up, take your bed and go home”.
  To everyone’s astonishment the paralyzed man, who had been carried by four men,
stood up! He lifted his bed and took his way home just as our Lord instructed him! The
amazed people, who had witnessed the event, were discussing; “What extraordinary and
wondrous things our eyes saw today!”
  The Sacrament of Confession
  Indeed, it is an extraordinary and wondrous event that a paralyzed man stood up walked
home carrying his bed. However, it is not the only thing which should impress us.
  Christ read the Pharisees’ minds. He revealed them their thoughts as a proof of His
divinity and as an assurance that He has the authority to forgive sins.
  Christ gave this authority also to His disciples after His Resurrection. During His first
appearance among them he said; “Receive the Holy Spirit: Whose soever sins you
remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins you retain, they are
retained.” (Jn 20:23). This is a great gift to the Church, the Sacrament of Confession.
We can humbly confess our sins to the priest and we can hear the same sweet comforting
words; “My child, your sins are forgiven”. At that moment a miracle happens; the Holy
Spirit erases our sins and our soul is cleansed! How great is God’s love for us!
  On the contrary, there is someone who hates us and wants to destroy us: the enemy of
God and the enemy of everything good is the devil. He encourages us to sin and he tries to
prevent us from confessing because he doesn’t want us to become free from our sins.
  Let’s see some of the obstacles he puts in our way:
  a. Shame. He minimizes the feeling of shame when he motivates us to sin, but he
magnifies it when we want to confess. In other words, we don’t feel any shame when we
speak or behave in a bad way but we feel ashamed to confess it. However, Christ knows
everything, even our thoughts. He knows what we did, even in secret and he is waiting for
us to confess it so that He can cleanse us. Then, why should we feel ashamed? During
Confession we see Christ in the face of the priest. Would we be ashamed to tell the doctor
about our illness? The Confession is the remedy for our soul. We show truthfully the illness
of our soul to the priest so that he can give us the appropriate medicine with his enlightened
advice. He doesn’t expect us to talk about our achievements or virtues. He expects to hear
our sins and he feels happy when he sees our honest repentance.
  b. Postponement. If we overcome the obstacle of shame, the devil presents us with
another one; postponement. “You can go to confess. But not right now, another time” he
whispers. But why should we wait? If we fall in the mud, won’t we go and change clothes
immediately? If we get sick, will we delay making a doctor’s appointment? So why should
we postpone our confession which will cleanse our soul from its muddy sins and heal it from
all wickedness?
  We should rush happily to confess every time we get the chance. It’s the Sacrament
given to us by the love of God so that we can hear His sweet voice; “My child, your sins are
forgiven”.

I overcome every obstacle
Shame and procrastination.
Only when I go to confess
I enjoy my soul’s purification.

Copyright © 2021 by Orthodox Christian Association
«ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΕΛΠΙΣ» ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΗ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΤΗΤΑ. All rights reserved