We are facing events of ‘apocalyptic’ significance for us all. That is why the measures announced 1 must be accepted as a ‘2e punishment for lawlessness’ for us all; in other words, as a philanthropic educational means permitted by our Long-sufferingand Most Merciful God has permitted, through His loving providence, so that we may all—clergy and laity alike—be led to saving repentance, which means turning our minds back to God.
Let us receive this ‘rebuke’ humbly, with gratitude, and endure it with a spirit of deep repentance, as if it were a bitter yet purifying medicine for our healing. In this way, our repentance will become the Holy Spirit’s pre-emptive shield within us. It will be the unseen umbrella that shields us from evil, ensuring our safety.
The sorrow we are going through keeps our natural inclinations in check. In other words, we realise that our will is inclined either towards God or towards the world.
Let us accept, with a spirit of self-restraint, the bitter yet saving medicine of our salvation. ‘Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation ([our] in repentance)’3 All of God’s ‘reproaches’ and ‘punishments’ are withdrawn through sincere repentance, when this, of course, is followed by mourning and fasting for God.
Repentance is the spiritual key to restoring man’s bond of love with God. This is confirmed by the letter and spirit of the Old and New Testaments and by the spiritual experience recorded 4, diachronically, by the recently recognised Saints of our Church.
Our profound, lived repentance, coupled with the mercy shown towards our suffering neighbour, will be decisive in our deliverance from the bitter punishment. Let no one believe that they are excluded from what has been set out above.
Had we lived in accordance with the way of life and thinking of the tax collector or the repentant prodigal son from the Gospel, or with that of the grateful thief on the Cross, we would not now be deprived of the Divine Eucharist.
If we bear in mind that, for the first time in the history of our Church, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy has been suspended, this means that we are no longer worthy to take part in it, and fundamentally, Christ has permitted this painful trial as a rebuke, because we all partake unworthily.
Only through our fervent prayer, through our self-examination in the Holy Spirit, through the revealing self-diagnosis from on high and through the sincere self-knowledge that follows, shall we see the ‘plank’ in our own spiritual eye as the primary and most significant cause of our shared sorrow.
Only through repentance lived out deeply with Christ and following the forgiveness of our sins, will we be able to experience, in a charismatic way, our pure communion with God in the depths of our hearts. And once this ‘wound’ has been healed, we shall experience [this communion] mystically and in its fullness, in the house of God, in assembly and in fellowship, and with the other members of the mystical Body of Christ.
Until then, we shall observe the divine commandments as diligently as possible, so as to express, in this way, our ‘5’ repentance and love for Christ, in such a way that the Kingdom of God may be activated within us.
The sorrowful brokenness of our hearts will bring about the presence of the Holy Spirit, Who has withdrawn from us, and will make us capable of receiving His active presence. He will comfort us, as the Comforter, granting us the life-giving ‘fruit’ of His already active presence, namely ‘love, joy, peace…’, which will be experienced within us ‘in all understanding’6 This experience also constitutes the indisputable criterion for the authenticity of our repentance. For if the things mentioned above are not experienced within us, it means that sin and, above all, its cause, that is, the evil desire of our premeditation, remain within us clandestinely 7 and voluptuously, unrepentant and unconfessed.
Let the words of God, spoken through the mouth of the Prophet and King David, ring out disturbingly in our ears: ‘God from heaven has looked down upon the children of men, to see if there is anyone who understands, or anyone who seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; there is none who does good, not even one’8”.
Finally, we conclude on a realistic yet optimistic note, recalling the deliverance of Nineveh, following the gracious response of all its inhabitants (from the king and officials right down to the animals) to the Prophet Jonah’s sermon of repentance, as recorded in the pages of Holy Scripture: ‘And God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil ways. And God relented from the harm which He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it’9.
And Saint John Chrysostom, marvelling at the repentance of the people of Nineveh, exclaims: ‘I have seen God Who goes back on His word out of love for mankind… The people of Nineveh repented, and God repented too. Repentance in the face of destruction broke the decree… O, how powerful repentance always is! It is accomplished on earth and overturns the things of heaven”10.
- 1
The author refers to the measures taken in Greece regarding Orthodox Church services. Whilst at the start of the coronavirus pandemic the measures were somewhat lenient, in the sense that the Divine Liturgy was permitted to be celebrated on Sundays and feast days (for example, on 25 March, which is the Feast of the Annunciation, but also Greece’s national day), following a restricted timetable—that is, for just one hour, between 7 and 8 am—the government intervened a few days later, in light of the declaration of the coronavirus pandemic, and imposes a ban on any service attended by the faithful, permitting churches to remain open only for personal prayer [for further details, see Decisions Nos. 2867/Υ1 in the Government Gazette of the Hellenic Republic, second issue/sheet no. 872 (16 March 2020)]. On the evening of 21 March 2020, similar measures were also taken in Romania (for details, see Military Ordinance No. 2/21.03.2020), with effect from Monday, 23 March 2020, services were to be conducted only by clergy and choristers inside churches, and therefore without the presence of worshippers, and at events such as baptisms, weddings and funerals, attendance is to be limited to just 8 people (translator’s note).
- 2
In other words, as a ‘penance (ἐπιτίμιον)’ for the believers’ transgressions (translator’s note).
- 3
See 2 Corinthians 6:2 (translator’s note).
- 4
Or left as a testimony (translator’s note).
- 5
In other words, through action (translator’s note).
- 6
Philippians 1:9 (translator’s note).
- 7
In other words, like a mistress or lover (translator’s note).
- 8
Psalm LII, 3–4.
- 9
Jonah 3:10 (translation based on the original Greek text).
- 10
St John Chrysostom, Homily II on the Repentance of the Ninevites, in PG 64, 424–433, and ΕΠΕ 8Α, 510–520.