ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Well,
it is not enough to be baptized; we have to undergo what we call
kátharsis
(purification).
Why?
might somebody ask. Is not the Mystery of Baptism enough by itself to
enable someone to be purified?
Yes,
indeed! However, right after this sacrament, we voluntarily
repeat Adam's act of disobedience, and not once, but many times,
again and again.
Someone
could easily wonder "How does sin enter our very being? We were
only
infants when we were baptized."
Look,
in the beginning, the ones that inflate the sinful passions in us are
our very parents and our closest relatives! They are initially the
ones who inspire in us vanity, sensuality, greediness, and pride.
From then on, we cooperate, and thus we allow for the debris of the
sins and the sinful passions to get into us. A wrong education leads
to the production of sick human beings. The ignorance of the parents
regarding the upbringing of their children bears painful results,
indeed, to all of us, to their children, to the parents themselves
and our
society.
With
all of
these
repeated "bravo"
(to
the children), the instant satisfaction of all of our weird desires,
the many mollycoddlings and the beautifications from our "good"
parents, they actually vaccine us with and nurture the two biggest
giants of sinful passions: vanity and egoism (pride, egotism).
This
is how our nous gets gradually contaminated, because of all the
passions that grow in us, and, as a result of that, we lose or,
better said, we "deactivate" the Holy Spirit we had
received with our Baptism (by the Holy Mysteries of Holy Baptism and
Holy Chrismation). So, it is necessary for us to repeat this
cleansing... but this time through our sincere
repentance,
our tears, and our confession.
f. Savvas Agioreitis
To be continued...
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