Bishop of Corfu, Mr. Nektarios: “We should accept God’s love and become students of the Saints”
On Friday morning, December 27, 2019, his Eminence, the Bishop of Corfu, Paxoi and Diapontian Islands, Mr. Nektarios did the Divine Liturgy in the celebrating Holy Church of Saint Stefanos in Skripero. In his sermon to the faithful, the Bishop of Corfu pointed out that the martyr Stefanos fell into the frenzy of those who did not want to hear that God is the One who gives meaning to the life of the world and we all belong to him. They have chosen to be the rulers of the people and have rejected the truth of faith. But the blood of the saint bleeds before the throne of God and invites us to follow his faith so that we will not continue to live in the darkness of ignorance, atheism, deception. The martyr Stefanos imitated the martyrdom and attitude of the first martyr of this world that is Christ himself and like our Lord on the cross, so he forgave those who killed them. Speaking from the gospel of the day about the bad farmers and the vineyard, Mr. Nektarios emphasized that the vineyard as a farm of God exists in our day. He is the inner man. God invites us to be sanctified, to work wholeheartedly in our relationship with Him. But when we are autonomous, when we think everything is in our own will, that we ourselves can regulate our lives, when we drive God out of our way, we deviate from the essence of things. When we reject God’s word “My Son, look at my heart,” then we depart from the truth and cease to be God’s rich people. We need the faith and confession of St. Stephen in our times. At the same time, we need to accept the love of God, to stop locking ourselves in, to not let God out the door of our hearts so that we can become disciples of the saints and the truth.
