Sin: An Existential, Not a Legal Issue

 

By Fr. Kyrillos Kostopoulos

 "Herein lies the essence of sin: in our lack of trust in and the absolute love for God the Creator; and in our total attachment to the ego."

In society today, in particular, the notion of sin has been deliberately distorted. This is because we dwell on the superficial meaning of the word ("failure", "missing the mark") and miss the more profound meaning.

For the Orthodox Church and its theology, sin is not a legal issue. It is not merely a transgression, but is rather disobedience to the eternal will of God.

The Answer of the Three Hierarchs to Western European Education

 

 

By Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

 

Greek and foreign scholars often hear that the European Renaissance and the European Enlightenment are the most brilliant continuation of Ancient Greek Education.

But is this claim true? With the voice of Stentor we answer: No!

Our negative answer is based on the fact that none of the European philosophers were able to contribute with their humanistic teachings to the spiritual completion of man, who has now rushed onto the stage of the European theater of the absurd.

The Orthodox Truth About Asceticism

Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

We all know that to the question "to whom belongs the work of asceticism?" the response is as follows: "To ascetics." However, can such an answer be justified by Orthodox Theology?

To answer the above question truthfully, we need to consider the fall of the first man, the grief of the fall, and the endless existential joy of the Resurrection. Asceticism is essentially experiencing and overcoming this grief with the light of the hope of the Resurrection.

Fasting, affliction, prayer, participating in the sacramental life of our Church, and generally all deprivations and tribulations in the life of a pious member of our Church is asceticism with an eschatological meaning.

The Place of Thought in the Acceptance of the God-Man

Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

Man is a thinking being. By thinking he on the one hand confirms his existence, and on the other hand he captures the essence of things.

The Cartesian dictum is well known: "Cogito ergo sum" or "I think, therefore I am."

Thought is interposed between the internal activation of ourselves and external stimuli. So we have expressive, fantastic, logical, subjective, emotional and objective thinking.

Whatever I think, exists, because by thinking I realize my existence, the existence of which is directly related to the object, which exists.

However, the Triune God is not an object, which simply enters into a relationship with my thought. He is God, Who has manifested Himself in the flesh: "God has appeared in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16).

The Theotokos: The First Divinized Human Being

Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

The first fifteen days of August are dedicated to the All Holy Mother of God, having the day of her Dormition as its pinnacle.

Saint John of Damascus accurately and realistically confessed that: "Rightly and truly we call Holy Mary the Theotokos (God-bearer); for this name constitutes the whole mystery of the divine economy" (EPE, vol. 1, p. 334, Thessaloniki 1976).

With the term "Theotokos", all the Christological cacodoxies are refuted, not only those which deny the divinity of God the Word, but also those which do not accept the wholeness, the integrity and the very hypostasis of the human nature of Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Christ as an Historical and Existential Event

By Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

These days the Orthodox clergy and people celebrate the Resurrection of the God-man Christ.

Saint Epiphanios exclaims: "Christ is risen, and is the resurrection of the fallen... Christ is risen, and joy has been bestowed upon all of creation" (PG 43, 465).

This event of the Resurrection is the strongest blow against the little faith that is produced by questionings, doubts and frustrations.

The Resurrection of the God-man Christ is confirmed by:

a) The empty tomb (Jn. 20:6-7).

b) The appearances of Christ to His Mother, to the Myrrhbearers, to Mary Magdalene, to the Apostle Peter, to Luke and Cleopa, in the Upper Room, to Doubting Thomas, to the five hundred people outside of His environment (1 Cor. 15), to James the Brother of God, to all of His Disciples on the Mount of Olives, and to the persecutor of Christians Saul who later became the fervent preacher of the Resurrection and the Apostle to the Nations Paul.

The Cross of Christ and His "Mad Love" for Humanity

By Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

"You were crucified for us, to be the source of our forgiveness."

(Hymn from the Service of the Holy Passion)

The Cross of the Son and Word of God the Father is the culmination of the "mad love" of God for humanity, who, by our sinful life, stand in hostility against God our Creator.

The Cross is, we could say, the path God chose to come and redeem humanity and by which humanity can encounter God.

In the theological teaching of the West there appeared from the early centuries and gradually gained dominance a great perversion of ecclesiastical truth concerning the abolition of death and the redemption of humanity by the Cross of Christ. This perversion was finally proclaimed an official teaching in the West at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). This teaching, unfortunately, impacted the theology of the Orthodox East, among some groups of theologians and pious Christians.

Anti-Orthodox Pietism

By Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos

Pietism (pietismus) is a phenomenon of Protestant religious life, which first appeared in the 17th century in the circles of Lutheranism that sought to renew the spiritual life within Protestantism with the intention of stimulating religious sentiment. In Greece pietism appeared in the broader context of the "Europeanization" of the country.

Elder Gervasios Paraskevopoulos and the Miracle of the Cross

Elder Gervasios of Patras, who reposed on June 30, 1964

Inside the katholikon of the Convent of the Prophet Elias in Patras is a relic of a miracle associated with Elder Gervasios. Here is an account of what took place:

During the days of Meatfare, Father [Gervasios] used to take the catechetical school children and they would go up to the Hermitage, which is now the Convent of the Prophet Elias. On February 17, 1929, Father and his spiritual children devoted themselves to planting a few trees in the area near the aforementioned Hermitage. Father himself with a few of the children also planted a pine tree after reading a special prayer. From that time 31 years went by. In August of 1960, this pine tree was cut down together with other trees to serve as firewood at the children's camp of Sychainon. The woodcutter was amazed when he noticed that at the root of the tree a beautiful Cross had miraculously been formed with different colors. He immediately reported this to the Metropolitan of the time, Constantine (Platis), who hastened to the scene of the occurrence bringing a few chemists to confirm this phenomenon. The chemists used a few liquids to eradicate the Cross from the tree, but not only did they not achieve this, but the Cross became more and more distinctive. By means of the microscope they confirmed, as it is said, that at its four ends icons of the Nativity, the Baptism, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection were miraculously inscribed. After all these certifications they confessed that it was a supernatural phenomenon. The Metropolitan of Patras, convinced now that it was a miracle, gathered the people at the Church of Saint Paraskevi, Sychainon, where the children's camps were, and after he finished Vespers and a supplication of thanksgiving he addressed the people and made known to them the facts of the miracle. Father Gervasios, who was there, took the microphone and said, crying and thanking God: 'My brethren, this miracle did not happen for my sake, because I am a sinner. It happened for the sake of the good and sinless children, who also planted this tree.' What a height of humility! When the people heard the Elder himself confirming the miracle, they shed tears as they glorified God, who knows how 'to glorify those who glorify Him'. Such Crosses exist today in the Monastery of Gerokomeiou, at the Metropolis of Patras, at the Convent of Prophet Elias and at Saint Paraskevi, Sychainon.

The Cross that appeared in the tree Elder Gervasios planted, placed with other relics of Saints.

 

The spot on which the tree with the miraculous Cross was planted.

From the book by Hierodeacon Kyrillos Kostopoulos, Elder Gervasios (Paraskevopoulos) of Patras: His Life and Pastoral Work, Orthodoxos Kypseli, 1995.