2014 April the 18th. Sermon on the Epitaph - Good Friday. The work of Christ on the Cross.

(Sermon in Greek: Μεγάλη Παρασκευή, 18-4-2014. Λόγος στήν Περιφορά τῶν Ἐπιταφίων στήν Ναύπακτο )

Good Friday, in conjunction with the Resurrection of Christ, is a day of a spiritual explosion, is a spiritual Big-Bang, which did not create a built universe neither became the principle of organic life, but created a situation which is inspired by the new creation and the new birth.

The hymns which we sang these days, especially tonight, have a combination of humiliation and glory, majesty and emptying, power and tenderness. All these appear to be contradictory, but create a harmony that moves everyone in whatever group he belongs to.

A hymn of Christ's laments, and one of the most characteristics referring to Christ, proclaims:
"Like a pelican, wounded in your side, o Lord, you gave life to your dying sons, dropping vital drops to them."

According to tradition, when deadly poisonous snakes drip venom in neonates of the pelican and die, then the pelican pecks his side, from which runs blood, and drips it to its neonates animating them, while he dies.

This picture shows the work of Christ on the cross. People were dead from the venom of death, sin and the devil and Christ donated His own blood to us, to fight death, sin and the devil and be enlivened. Thus, His death became life for us.

This is the work of the Church. It embraces the whole world, regardless of race, ethnicity, color, language, gender and occupation, and gives them the blood of Christ and all the life of the Resurrection of Christ, to eliminate the poison offered to them by the old and modern forces of evil.

Man today is poisoned continuously from new formulations, which mislead him externally, from illusions of life, from a deadly "virtual reality", which is a modern hell. This is rationalism, sensationalism, the illusions, which are camouflaged externally by a sweet coating, creating a sense of pleasure, but referring to the suffering, pain, void, the blank despair. Man lives in a fake world in a "virtual reality".

The power supply that feeds this virtual reality is self-love, egoism, pride, selfishness, and when this plug is shut down, man enters into a tragedy, the tragedy of the void.

Our society is cruel, sick, dangerous, in which are hidden pretentious poisonous snakes that cause death to humans. So we need a blood transfusion from Christ, who dies for us in order that we live.

At the same time, our poisoned society needs people with vision, with perspective, with a capacity to address those poisonous snakes lurking everywhere and spreading spiritual and psychological death, and to give people hope, strength, courage, meaning of life, and the most important, to protect people from the dangerous "virtual reality", which is a fatal illusion.

Many Wishes
Happy Easter .