ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Seek
first the Kingdom of God
“But
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you.” [Matthew 6:33].
To ask for the Kingdom means to ask that God reins inside me, He
shall be my Lord.
However,
we must believe that; there lies the difficulty and stress. People
say “Why
should it start with it, anyways? Why should I do it”.
If you don’t believe, you have no motive, obviously. You have to be
convinced that your spiritual eyes must open, here and now, because
if they do not open here (in this life), it will be impossible
afterwards … “there
is no repentance in Hades”.
This is a basic belief in Orthodoxy: “In
Hades there is no repentance”.
If your spiritual eyes do not open in this life on earth, it will be
impossible after our physical death.
Our
spiritual eyes won’t open by accident; we have to act, with God’s
help, of course. By the Grace of God, we achieve it, not by
ourselves! But we have to want to achieve it in this life. Watch out!
The
Church primarily ministers for the life here on earth
The
Church is primarily serving for our life here on earth. However, many
people -unfortunately also among many orthodox- believe that the
Church only prepares us for life after death.
Wrong!
She does not prepare us for the other life. She gets us fixed during
and not only for this life, but also for the other (the eternal), in
order to get our spiritual eyes open during this life, so we can
enter the Kingdom of God, God’s Paradise, here and now! And, if we
do not find Paradise here and now, we will not find Him after our
physical death. Because in the other life we will not be able to
repent.
“In
Hades there is no repentance”.
This is a commonly used expression by most Orthodox Church Fathers
taken from Psalm 6:5
“For
in death there
is no
remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
f. Savvas Agioreitis
To be continued...
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου