Bishop of Corfu, Mr. Nektarios: “We should not fear difficulties”
On Saturday morning, October 26, 2019, his Eminence, the Bishop of Corfu, Paxoi and Diapontian Islands, Mr. Nektarios did the Divine Liturgy in the celebrating Holy Church of Saint Demetrios in Agioi Douloi.
Speaking to the people and to the pilgrims of the monastery, Mr. Nektarios pointed out that the witnesses of our faith were and are numerous, as a cloud! The Witnesses were not just ideologues, they had love and love for the true God, Christ was the evil nymph of their hearts. So does Saint Demetrius. There was a great witness, who apart from the witness’s own fact, was distinguished for three characteristics:
He kept the apostle Paul’s word: “What you have heard and learned from me, give me and tell other people those who can base God’s word, so that the faith in the Resurrection will grow.” Saint Demetrius took this command and made it his life because he was a teacher. He did not stay in the great military post, but his love of God was more captivated by it. He gathered young people of all ages around him to teach them faith, love and confession to God. He was brave in both body and heart. He taught resistance to the enemies of faith, and especially to idolatry of the time. His disciples, such as Saints Nestor and Lupus, also testified of Christ’s love.
There was a soldier, Jesus Christ, who was tortured until the end, as a martyr. Saint Gregory Palamas likened St. Demetrios to our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was blessed with the cross. Even so, the saint reached the martyrdom of hell. His blood was united with the blood of the martyrs of all the saints, thus securing our own hearts! And he invites us to resist the temptations of our times with malice. We are besieged by temptations of atheism, temptations of poverty and material and spiritual. Our fathers gave us rich tradition, holy faith, patriotism. Let’s find her again. We are besieged by the temptations of illness, the temptations of fear. Let us rediscover our love for God, let us put aside the greed that has borne the pollution and the deterioration of the environment and many diseases. Sickness is, after all, the result of sin. Let’s overcome the temptations, like the witnesses!
He was a proponent of the house because he kept Paul’s word: “I always wait for the fine fiber and the salvation I get”. The saint teaches us the overflow of love, which is always patient. To use everything as elements that lead us astray into the path of life and holiness.
We are therefore indebted to our faith. Let us imitate the saint too!
Concluding, Mr. Nektarios wished the elder Agatokistis and her companion, as well as the other nuns involved in the service, many years to keep the martyrdom of the lonely conscience alive in the temptations of life!
