One morning, the Elder (Geronda) 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.
Geronda Epiphanios: 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…
Geronda Epiphanios: 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?
Geronda Epiphanios: You think all of this is just a fairy tale, don’t you?
Atheist: Naturally.
Geronda Epiphanios: Do you have any proof that it is a fairy tale? Can you prove that what I believe is false?
Atheist: ……………….
Geronda Epiphanios: 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?
Geronda Epiphanios: 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……
Geronda Epiphanios: 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?
Geronda Epiphanios: 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?
Geronda Epiphanios: 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?
Geronda Epiphanios: 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?
Geronda Epiphanios: 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.
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.
Geronda Epiphanios: 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.
Geronda Epiphanios: 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.
Geronda Epiphanios: 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.
Geronda Epiphanios: 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.
