TRAGEDY OF HOLY ORTHODOXY
Recently published statistics by Pew Research has established that around 50 % of Young Orthodox leave the Church. Many of us see in our own communities the truth of these statistics as the churches are practically empty on Feast Days, and very diminished on Sundays. Few are the younger people who remain in the Church Why is this so and what can be done about it.
This should send out alarms to our hierarchs involved in ecumenism and the papacy to abandon these fruitless endeavors and return to preaching the Gospel in their churches. This is what their function ought to be. The Bishop should directly represent Christ and be like Him, humble and meek, filled with love and peaceful. Every one of us clergy and laity will one day be judged for what we have done or failed to do during this present life.
Our Lord reminds us:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise; as some men count slackness, but is fore-bearing toward us; He is not willing that any should perish; but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9).
The tragedy of our days is the lack of fear or love of God, the lack of preparing for the great day of His appearance. Our unbelief will never cancel God’s firm promise which is sure to come, for God is “not slack concerning His promise” As certain as we are of death which is to come, so we should be just as certain of the judgment that is to come
The good news of the Gospel is hardly being preached and it is the only good news that mankind has ever received since Adam and Eve. Neither is the stern warning of the last judgment by which every man ever born must be judged is certain to come. Repentance is the clarion call of Christ and John the Baptist when they began to preach the Good News. But unbelievers do not come to repentance, as first they must come to belief in Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is filled with beauty, serene peace and the promise of royal crowns to those who becomes a believers in Jesus Christ and keepers of His commandments.
Christ is the divine and only solution to human happiness and eternal life, which is our destination if we heed the Gospel. The Gospel teaches us not only faith and hope but the only behavior that we should practice as Orthodox Christians. We all, hierarchs and ordinary people need to change before it is too late. We must rid ourselves of pride and arrogance and acquire blessed humility; rid ourselves of unreasonable anger and acquire meekness; replace dishonesty with honesty and live in truth without lies. Christ teaches these things and much more in His holy Gospel. God speaks to us through the Bible and the Divine services. Do we pay attention to Him. When we pray we are talking to our Creator and God. Do we do this sincerely?
Parents, you will certainly be condemned not only for your own negligence but for failing to teach your children the truth and causing them to grow like weeds in the families of men. God has commanded, therefore it is your sacred duty to teach your children and bring them to church whenever possible, but at least on Sundays, Note: In Greek the word for Sunday is important for it is Kyriaki and means the Lord’s Day.
Concerning the union-seeking ecumenists who talk about union with the Pope, and union with Protestants, they mistake our enemies to be friends, and accept their lies and heresies as truth: It is urgent that they stop this foolishness and start the return of those astray and halt the exodus of Orthodox Christians from the holy church. How foolish it is to seek uniting with those who do not have Orthodox truth, and then ignore the Orthodox going astray and who are leaving in droves. Everyone should speak up on this issue as it directly concerns the future of our Church
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