One morning, the Elder (Geron)
Epiphanios Theodoropoulos was in a conversation with 2-3 visitors at
his home. One of them was an ideological atheist and a communist.
Suddenly, someone from outside came rushing in, and informed them that
the city of Athens had been flooded with photographs of Mao Tse Tung,
with the inscription “Glory to the great Mao”. It was the day that the
Chinese dictator had died.
Geron:
That’s the way things are, my child. Atheists do not
exist. Only idolaters exist, who take down Christ from His
throne and in His place they enthrone their own idols. We say:
“Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. They
say: “Glory to the great Mao”. You pick and choose which one you
prefer.
Atheist:
You
also choose your drug, grandpa. The only difference is, that
you call it Christ, others call it Allah, or Buddha, etc. etc…
Geron:
My
child, Christ is not a drug. Christ is the Creator of the
entire universe. He is the one Who governs everything wisely, from
the multitudes of infinite galaxies, down to the minutest
particles of the microcosm. He has given life to all of us. He is
the One Who brought you into this world and has bestowed you with
so much freedom, that you can actually doubt Him, and even deny
Him.
Atheist:
Grandpa, its your right to believe in all of those things.
But that doesn’t mean they are true. Do you have any proofs?
Geron:
You think all of this is just a fairy tale, don’t you?
Atheist:
Naturally.
Geron:
Do you have any proof that it is a fairy tale? Can you prove that what I believe is false?
Atheist:
……………....
Geron:
You didn’t reply, because you don’t have any proof either. Which means, you believe they are fairy tales. I spoke to you of believing, when I referred to God; you, however, although rejecting my belief, essentially believe
in your faithlessness, since you cannot back it up with proofs
either. However, I must tell you that my belief is not something
“out of the blue”; There are certain supernatural events, upon which it is founded.
Atheist:
Just a minute! Since we are talking about believing, what
would you say to Muslims or Buddhists for example? Because they
also talk about believing. And they too have high moral
standards. Why is your belief better than theirs?
Geron:
So! The criterion of the truth is supposedly judged by this question of yours? Because the truth is most certainly one; truths cannot be many in number. The thing is, who is the possessor of the truth? That is the major question. Hence, it is not a matter of a better or worse belief! It is a matter of the only true belief!
I
agree, that other beliefs also have moral teachings.
Naturally, Christianity’s moral teachings are incomparably
superior. But, we do not believe in Christ because of His moral
teachings. Or for His prompting to “Love one another”, or for His
sermons on peace and justice, freedom and equality. We believe in
Christ, because His presence on earth was accompanied by
supernatural events, which was a sign that He is God.
Atheist:
Look, I also admit that Christ was an important philosopher
and a great revolutionary, but let’s not make Him a God now……
Geron:
My
dear child! All the great disbelievers in history were
snagged by that detail. The fishbone that stuck in their throat,
which they just couldn’t swallow, was exactly that: That Christ
is also God.
Many of them were willing to say to God: “Don’t
tell anyone that You are God incarnate; Just say that You’re an
ordinary human, and we shall be more than ready to deify you.
Why do You want to be an incarnate God, and not a deified human?
We are willing to glorify You, to proclaim You as the greatest
among men, the holiest, the most ethical, the noblest, the
unsurpassable, the one and only, the unprecedented… Isn’t that
enough for You ?
Ernest Renan –he was the head of the chorus of deniers- thunders out the following, with regard to Christ: “For tens of thousands of years, the world shall be uplifted through You”, and “You
are the cornerstone of mankind; if one were to wrench Your name
away from this world, it would be like shattering its foundations” and “the aeons shall proclaim that amongst the sons of men, never was there born anyone that could surpass You”. But this is where Renan and his likes stop. Their very next phrase is: “But a God, You are not!”
And
those poor wretches cannot perceive that all of these things
constitute an indescribable tragedy! Their dilemma is
inevitably relentless: Either Christ is an incarnate
God, in which case, He is indeed, only then, the most ethical,
the holiest and noblest personage of mankind, or, He is not an incarnate God, in which case, He cannot possibly be any of these. In fact,
if Christ is not God, then we are talking about the most
horrible, the most atrocious and the most despicable existence in
the history of mankind.
Atheist:
What did you just say ?
Geron:
Exactly what you heard! It may be a weighty statement, but it is absolutely true. And I will tell you why.
Let me ask: What did all the truly great men say about themselves, or what opinion did they have of themselves ?
The “wisest of all men”, Socrates, proclaimed that “I came to know one thing: that I know nothing”.
All
the important men in the Old and New Testament, from Abraham
and Moses, through to John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul,
characterized themselves as “earth and ashes”, “wretches”,
“monstrosities”, etc…. [1]
But, strangely enough, Jesus’ attitude is quite the opposite! And I say strangely enough,
because it would have been natural and logical for Him to have a
similar attitude. In fact, being far superior and surpassing
all others, He should have had an even lower and humbler opinion
of Himself [2].
Ethically more perfect than any other, He should have surpassed
everyone and anyone in self-reproach and humility, from the
moment of the world’s Creation to the end of Time.
But, the exact opposite is observed!
First of all, He proclaims that He is sinless: “Who among
you shall check Me for sin?” (John, 8:46). “The lord of this world
is coming, and he can find nothing in Me.” (John, 14: 30)
He
also pronounces very high ideas of Himself: “I am the light
of the world” (John, 8, 12); “I am the path and the truth and
the life” (John, 14: 6)
But, apart from these, He also projects demands of absolute
dedication to His Person. He even penetrates the holiest of man’s
relationships, and says: “Whomsoever loves their father or mother
more than Me, is not worthy of Me. and whomsoever loves their son
or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”. (Matthew, 10:
37). “I came to turn man away, against his father, and the
daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law” (Matthew, 10: 35). He even demands a life and a
death of martyrdom from His disciples: “They shall deliver you to
councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you shall be
dragged before leaders and kings for My sake…. And brother
shall deliver his brother to death and the father his son, and the
children shall revolt against their parents and shall put
them to death…. And you shall be hated by everyone, for my namesake….
And he that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved…. Do not
fear those who destroy the body….. Whomsoever shall deny Me before
mankind, I too shall deny him…. Whomsoever has forfeited his soul
for My sake, shall recover it.” (Matthew, 10: 17 onward)
And now I ask you: Has anyone ever dared to demand for himself the love of mankind, forsaking their very life? Has anyone ever dared to proclaim his absolute sinlessness? Has anyone
ever dared to utter the words: “I am the truth”? (John, 14: 6)
No-one, and nowhere! Only a God can do that. Can you imagine your
Marx uttering things like that? They would take him for a
lunatic and nobody would be willing to follow him!
Now, just consider, how many people sacrificed everything
for Christ’s sake, even their very life, having believed in the
veracity of His words regarding Himself! If His proclamations
about Himself were false, Jesus would have been the most
despicable character in history, for having led so many people to
such a huge sacrifice! What ordinary man – no matter how great,
how important, how wise he may be – would deserve such a
tremendous offer and sacrifice? Well? No-one! Not unless he
were God!
In other words: Any ordinary man that would demand such a sacrifice from his followers would have been the most loathsome person in history. Christ, however, both demanded it, and achieved it. Yet,
despite this ‘achievement’, He was proclaimed by the very deniers
of His divinity as the noblest and holiest figure in history. So, either the deniers are being illogical when they proclaim this most loathsome figure as “holiest”, or,
in order to avoid any illogicality, and to rationalize the
co-existence of Christ’s demands and His holiness, they must
concede to accepting that Christ continues to remain the noblest
and holiest figure in mankind, but, only under the condition that He is also
God! Otherwise, as we said, He would be, not the holiest, but
the most loathsome figure in history, being the cause of the
greatest sacrifice of all ages, and in the name of a lie! Thus,
Christ’s divinity is proved by His very deniers, on the basis
of those very characterizations of His person!
Atheist:
What you just said is really very impressive, but it is
nothing but speculation. Do you have any historical facts that
would confirm His Divinity?
Geron:
I
told you at the beginning, that the proofs of His Divinity
are the supernatural events that took place while He was here on
earth. Christ did not rest on the proclamation of the above
truths alone; He certified His statements with miracles as well.
He made blind people see and cripples walk; He satisfied the
hunger of five thousand men and manifold numbers of women and
children with only two fish and five loaves of bread; He commanded
the elements of nature and they obeyed; He resurrected the dead,
amongst which was Lazarus, four days after his death. But the most
astounding of all his miracles was His own Resurrection.
The
entire edifice of Christianity is supported on the event of
the Resurrection. This is not my speculation. The Apostle Paul
said it: “If Christ had not risen (from the dead), our faith would
be futile”. (Corinthians I, 15: 17). If Christ is not
resurrected, then everything collapses. But Christ was resurrected, which means He is the Lord of life and death, therefore God.
Atheist:
Did you see all of this? How can you believe it?
Geron:
No, I didn’t see any of it, but others did: the Apostles.
They in turn made this known to others, and they actually
“signed” their testimony with their own blood. And, as everyone
acknowledges, a testimony of one’s life is the supreme form of
testimony.
Why
don’t you likewise bring me someone, who will tell me that
Marx died and was resurrected, and that he is willing to sacrifice
his life in order to testify it? I, as an honest man, will
believe him.
Atheist:
I
will tell you. Thousands of communists were tortured and
died for their ideology. Why don’t you embrace communism in the
same way?
Geron:
You said it yourself. Communists died for their ideology.
They didn’t die for real events. In an ideology, it is very
easy for deception to seep through; and because it is a
characteristic of the human soul to sacrifice itself for something
it believes in, this explains why so many communists died for
their ideology. But that doesn’t compel us to accept this ideology
as something true.
It
is one thing to die for ideas, and another to die for
events. The Apostles didn’t die for any ideas. Not even for the
“Love one another”, or any of the other moral teachings of
Christianity. The Apostles died for their testimony of supernatural events. And when we say ‘event’, we mean that which is captured by our physical senses, and is comprehended through them.
The
Apostles suffered martyrdom for “that which they heard”,
“that which they saw with their own eyes”, “that which they
observed and their hands touched” (John I, 1) [3]
Just like the clever speculation by Pascal, we say that one
of the three following things happened to the Apostles: either
they were deceived, or, they deceived us, or, they told us the
truth.
Let’s take the first case. It is not possible for the
Apostles to have been deceived, because everything that they
reported, was not reported to them by others. They themselves were eye and ear witnesses of all those things.
Besides, none of them were imaginative characters, nor did
they have any psychological inclination that made them accept the
event of the Resurrection. Quite the contrary - they were
terribly distrustful. The Gospels are extremely revealing, in
their narrations of their spiritual dispositions: they even
disbelieved the reassurances that some people had actually seen
Him, resurrected. [4].
And
one other thing. What were the Apostles, before Christ
called them? Were they perhaps ambitious politicians or
visionaries of philosophical and social systems, who were longing
to conquer mankind and thus satisfy their fantasies? Not at all.
They were illiterate fishermen. The only thing that interested
them was to catch a few fish to feed their families. That is why,
even after the Lord’s Crucifixion, and despite everything that
they had heard and seen, they returned to their fishing boats and
their nets. In other words, there was not a single trace of
disposition in these men for the things that were to follow. It
was only after the day of the Pentecost, “when they received
strength from on high”, that they became the teachers of the
universe.
The second case: Did they deceive us? Did they lie to us? But then, why would they deceive us? What would they gain by lying? Was it money? Was it status? Was it glory? For someone to tell a lie, he must be expecting some sort of gain. The Apostles though, by preaching Christ - and in fact Christ crucified and
resurrected – the only things that they secured for
themselves were: hardships, labours, lashings, stonings,
shipwrecks, hunger, thirst, nakedness, attacks from robbers,
beatings, incarcerations and finally, death. And all this, for a
lie? It would be undoubtedly foolish for anyone to even consider
it.
Consequently, the Apostles were neither deceived, nor did
they deceive us. This leaves us with the third choice: that they told us the truth.
I
should also stress something else here: The Evangelists are
the only ones who recorded true historical events. They describe
the events, and only the events. They do not resort to any
personal judgments. They praise no-one, and they criticize
no-one. They make no attempt to exaggerate an event, nor
eliminate or underestimate another. They let the events speak for
themselves.
Atheist:
Are
you excluding the possibility that in Christ’s case, it was
just an incident of apparent death? The other day, the
newspapers had written about someone in India whom they buried and
three days later they exhumed him and he was still alive.
Geron:
My poor child! I will recall the words of the blessed Augustine again: “O faithless ones, you are not
actually mistrustful; indeed, you are the most gullible of
all. You accept the most improbable things, and the most
irrational, the most contradictory, in order to deny a miracle!”
No,
my child. It was not a case of apparent death with Christ.
First of all, we have the testimony of the Roman centurion, who
reassured Pilate that Christ’s death was a certainty.
Then, our Gospel informs us that on the same day of His
Resurrection, the Lord was seen talking with two of His disciples,
walking towards Emmaus, which was more than ten kilometers away
from Jerusalem.
Can
you imagine someone, who could go through all the tortures
that Christ underwent, and three days after His “apparent death”,
spring back again? If anything, he would have to be fed chicken
soup for forty days, in order to be able to open his eyes, let
alone walk and talk as though nothing had happened!
As
for the Hindu, bring him here to be flogged with a scourge –
do you know what a scourge is? It is a whip, whose lashes each
have a lead chunk or a piece of broken bone or sharp nails
attached to their end – bring him here, so we can flog him, then
force a crown of thorns on his head, crucify him, give him bile
and vinegar to drink, then pierce his side with a spear, put him
in a tomb, and then, if he comes back from the dead, then we can
talk.
Atheist:
Even so, but all the testimonies that you have invoked
belong to Christ’s Disciples. Is there any testimony on this
matter, that doesn’t come from the circle of His Disciples? Are
there any historians for example, who can certify Christ’s Resurrection? If so, then I will also believe what you say.
Geron:
You poor child! You don’t know what you’re saying now! If there had been such historians who
had witnessed Christ resurrected, they would have been compelled
to believe in His Resurrection and would have recorded it as
believers, in which case, you would again have rejected their
testimony, just like you rejected Peter’s testimony, John’s
testimony, etc. How can it be possible, for someone to
actually witness the Resurrection and yet, NOT become a
Christian? You are asking for a roasted fowl, on a waxen skewer,
that also sings! It just can’t be done !
I will remind you though – because you are asking for historians – of what I said earlier: that the only true historians are the Apostles.
Nevertheless, we do have testimony of the kind that you want; and it is
by someone who didn’t belong to the circle of His Disciples: it
was Paul. Paul not only wasn’t a Disciple of Christ, he actually
persecuted Christ’s Church relentlessly.
Atheist:
They say that Paul suffered from sunstroke and that it was the cause of his hallucination.
Geron:
My
child, if Paul was hallucinating, the thing that would have
come to the surface, would have been his subconscious. And in
Paul’s subconscious, the Patriarchs and the Prophets would have
been top ranking. He would have hallucinated about Abraham, and
Jacob and Moses, and not Jesus, whom he considered a rabble-rouser
and a fraud!
Can
you imagine a faithful old granny seeing Buddha or Jupiter
in her dream or delirium? She would most probably see Saint
Nicholas or Saint Barbara, because she believes in them.
One
more thing. With Paul, we have –as Papini notes- the
following miraculous phenomena: First of all, the abruptness of
his conversion. Straight from faithlessness to faith. With no
intermediate preparatory stage. Secondly, the steadfastness of
his faith. No wavering, no doubts. And thirdly, his faith lasted
for a whole lifetime. Do you believe that all these things can occur after a case of sunstroke? They can in no way be attributed to such a cause. If you
can explain how, then explain it. If you can’t, then you must
admit the miracle. And you must know that for a man of his time,
Paul was exceptionally well-educated. He was not your average
little person, who was totally clueless.
I
will also add something else. We today, my child, are
living in an exceptional era. We are living the miracle of
Christ’s Church.
When Christ said of His Church that “the gates of Hades
shall not overpower Her” (Matthew 16:18), His followers were very
few in number. Almost two thousand years have passed, since that
day. Empires vanished, philosophical systems were forgotten, world
theories collapsed. But Christ’s Church remains indestructible,
despite the continuous and dramatic persecutions it has undergone.
Isn’t that a miracle?
And
one final thing. In Luke’s Gospel it says that when the
Holy Mother visited Elizabeth (the Baptist’s mother) after the
Annunciation, she was greeted with the words: “blessed are you
amongst women”. And the Holy Mother replied as follows: “My heart
magnifies the Lord. Behold, from this moment on, all generations shall call me blessed” (a’ 48).
What
was the Holy Mother at that time? She was just an obscure
daughter of Nazareth. How many knew her? And yet, since that day,
empresses have been forgotten, distinguished women’s names have
been extinguished, the mothers and wives of great generals went
into oblivion. Who remembers, or even knows, Napoleon’s mother
or Alexander the Great’s mother? Almost no-one. But, millions of
lips across every length and breadth of the world, throughout the
ages, venerate that humble daughter of Nazareth, the “more
precious than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the
Seraphim”. Are we, or aren’t we –the people of the twentieth
century– living in this day and age the verification of those
words of the Holy Mother?
The
exact same things are observed in a “secondary” prophecy of
Christ: While He was staying at the house of Simon the leper, a
woman came to Him and poured her expensive fragrant oil over His
head. Christ commented: “Amen, verily I say to you, that wherever
this gospel will be preached in the world, it will also mention
what this woman did, in her memory” (Matthew, 26: 13). Now, how
large was His circle of followers at the time, so that one could
say that they outdid themselves in order that their Master’s
prophecy be fulfilled? Especially a prophecy such as this one,
which, by today’s world standards, is of no importance to most
people.
Are they or aren’t they miracles? If you can, explain them. But if you can’t, then admit them as such.
Atheist:
I
have to admit that your arguments are pretty solid. But I
would like to ask you one more thing: Don’t you think that Christ
left His work unfinished? That is, unless He deserted us. I
can’t imagine a God that would remain indifferent to mankind’s
suffering. We are down here toiling, while He, up there, remains
apathetic.
Geron:
No, my child. You aren’t right. Christ did not
leave His work unfinished. On the contrary, He is the one unique
case in history where a person has the certainty that His mission
was accomplished, and had nothing further to do or to say.
Even the greatest of philosophers, Socrates, who discussed
and taught during his whole lifetime, and towards the end composed
an intricate “Apology”, would have even more to say, if he had
lived.
Only Christ – in the time bracket of three years – taught
what He had to teach, did what He had to do, and finally said (on
the Cross): “It is finished”. Another sample of His divine
perfection and authority.
As
for the abandonment that you mentioned, I can understand
your concern. Without Christ, the world would be a theatre of
insanity. Without Christ, you cannot explain anything: why are
there sorrows, why injustices, why failures, why sicknesses, why,
why, why…. Thousands of monumental “why”s.
Try to understand! Man cannot
approach all of these “why”s with his finite logic. It is only
through Christ that everything can be explained. All these trials
merely precondition us for eternity. Perhaps then, we might be
honored by the Lord with a reply to some of those “why”s.
It might be worthwhile, if I read you a beautiful poem (*) from Constantine Kallinikos’ collection “Laurels and Myrtles”, with the title “Questions”:
I asked a desert father of seventy years,
whose silver strands were blown by the wind:
Tell me o father, why, on this earth,
do the light and the dark inseparably move ?
And why must they - like twins - together sprout:
the thorn and the rose, the tear and the smile?
Why, in the loveliest part of the woodland green
have scorpions and vipers concealed their nests?
Why must it be, that the tender bud,
before unfolding its fragrant bloom,
be struck by a worm in the heart of its stem,
And left to die, like a shrivelled rag ?
Why are the plow, the seed and the hands
a must for the wheat, to become our bread?
Why must everything useful, noble, divine
always be purchased with tears and our blood,
while selfishness ever rampantly reigns,
and lewdness is swallowing up the world?
And why, amongst such harmony around,
must tumult and disorder find their way?
The hermit replied, with his somber voice
and right arm pointing to the sky,
that there, beyond those clouds of gold,
the Almighty weaves a tapestry divine.
But since we are wanderers of the lower plane
We see nothing but the knots and strings below,
It is no wonder, why the mind sees wrong,
when it should always be thankful and give praise:
for the day will come, when Christians all,
with souls that ride the skies with wings,
will gaze atop God’s tapestry and see
how careful and orderly everything was!
My
child, Christ never abandoned us. He is forever with us, as
a helper and a supporter, until the end of time. But you will
realize this, only when you become a conscientious member of His
Church and be joined by Her Sacraments.
[Re-published,
from the book of the Holy Recluse Monastery of the Theotokos
“FROM THE LIFE AND THE TEACHING OF FATHER EPIPHANIOS”]
(*) The poem has been loosely translated, for its message only.
R E F E R E N C E S
[1] From
within sacred history, we observe how Abraham considers himself
“earth and ashes” (Genesis 18: 27). Similarly Job (42: 6). The
great Moses hesitates to undertake the mission of liberating the
Israelites from Egypt, believing himself to be too small and
inadequate for such a job: “And Moses said to God : ‘Who am I,
that can go to the Pharaoh, king of Egypt,…… I am not capable…….
weak voiced and stuttering, I am.” (Exodus 3: 11, 4: 10). The same
is said at a later date by the Judge Gideon: “My Lord, how can I
save Israel?…. for I am the youngest of my father’s house…”
(Judges 6: 15). David calls himself “a dead dog, and a louse”
(Kings I, 24: 15), a worm and not a man, the disgrace of mankind
and the derogation of the people” (Psalms 21:27). Isaiah cries
out: “woe is me, the wretched one, for I am deeply troubled,
because, being a man and having impure lips, I reside amongst the
people with impure lips, and yet I have looked upon the king, Lord
Shabuoth with my very eyes” (Isaiah 6:5). Jeremiah
laments: “O Sovereign Lord, behold, I cannot speak, for I am the
younger…. Cure me my Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I
shall be saved. For You are my boasting.” (Jeremiah 1:6, 17:14).
The three Young Men utter a confession about themselves and all
of the population: “….for we have sinned and broken the law, by
distancing ourselves from You, and we are sinners in everything
and we did not obey Your commandments….. with a crushed soul and a
humbled mind, may we be received by You…” (Daniel, Azarias’
prayer, 56 and 16).
John
the Baptist, the “greatest amongst those born of woman”,
confessed : “I am not the Christ. And they asked him: Who then are
you? Are you Elijah? I am not. Are you the Prophet? And he
replied: No. …… I am just a voice in the wilderness, crying out
“straighten the path of the Lord……. I am not worthy enough, to
even loosen the strap of His (Christ’s) sandal…” (John I, 20).
Finally, the one and only and unprecedented Paul, considers
himself a “monstrosity” and unworthy “to be called an apostle”, a
“wretched person”, and “the first amongst all sinners” (
Corinthians I, 15:89, Romans 7:24, Timothy I, 1:15). But, we
won’t take up any more time here…
[2] by applying the standard of: “the greater you are, the more you should humble yourself”. (Sirah, 3:18)
[3]
This is precisely what is stressed in John’s Gospel: “the one
who witnessed, testified” (19: 35); In other words, the one who
wrote those things was the one who actually saw the soldier
pierce Christ’s side with the spear, and he saw blood and water
coming out of the wound.
[4]
“They hesitated to prostrate themselves to Him” (Matthew 28:17).
“And they (=the apostles), upon hearing that He was alive and was
seen by her (=Mary Magdalene), disbelieved”. (Mark 16:13). “He
derided them for their disbelief and their hard-heartedness,
because they did not believe those who had seen Him risen” (Mark
16:14). “It
appeared to them (=the Apostles) that their (=the
myrrh-bearers’) words were like ravings (=foolishness, delirium),
and they disbelieved them” (Luke 24:11). “We had hoped that
He was the one who was destined to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21).
“If I do not see the imprint of the nails on His hands and place
my finger on the imprint of the nails, and place my hand on (the
wound of) His side, I shall not believe." (=words of Doubting
Thomas, John 20:25), etc.
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