Brothers of Christ

By Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas

“Another person is our own secret self and even more so the hidden Christ.”

— Fr. Georgios Dormparakis*

The Lord Jesus Christ hungered for us, suffered for us, endured pain for us, and was crucified for us so that He might give us the possibility of sharing His resurrection. The pain suffered by the God-Man cannot be compared  to that of any human being because it had cosmic dimensions—for the Lord suffered as much as all people have ever suffered or will suffer until His Second Coming. However, there is a further reason why His suffering is also unequalled by any other human being: He alone, of all humanity, was fully aware that He was the Son of God and God Himself precisely at the moment when He was suffering for us all.

The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world as a man, suffered, and was crucified for each of us and for all of us together, because to Him none of us is a stranger. In truth God became man and suffered as no other human ever did, in order to remove all barriers between God and mankind, barriers that are ultimately the cause of all human misery. And because He suffered for each of us and for all of us together, the more deeply we ourselves suffer, the deeper our intimacy with Him becomes. Ultimately, it is our own pain that makes us, in practice, brothers of Christ.

The suffering each of us experiences makes us brothers of Christ not only because when we suffer, we share in a small part of His suffering for us, but also because in suffering together with Christ, we are mystically united with all those who have ever suffered or will suffer until the end of the world. By suffering with Christ, the barriers that divide us from one another are removed, for we can now see in each other what each of us truly is—a cry filled with pain and the hope of Resurrection.

We often enter relationships and try to maintain them either out of selfishness or out of vanity, ignoring both who we truly are and who the other person truly is. In reality, our relationships with others frequently fail because we attempt to connect with them not through what genuinely unites us but primarily through what divides us—our passions.

Through His life, death, and, above all, His Resurrection, Christ demolished the barriers that separate us both from God and from one another. This is why the deeper our union with Christ, the deeper our union with each other. The royal path to our union with Christ is the personal suffering of each of us. The moment when we suffer—for whatever reason known only to us—is the great opportunity of our lives to turn with all the strength of our souls toward Him who has already suffered for us and to ask Him to free us completely from everything that separates us from Him and from one another, so that we may see Christ in all people and desire to care for everyone as we would for our own selves. This is the most convincing proof of all that we are living members of His Church.

Sunday of the Last Judgment, February 23, 2025

*Fr Georgios Dormparakis, Light as a Garment, Athens, “Akoulouthein” Publications, 2024, p. 114 (in Greek).

 

 

The Pharisee, who imagined himself saved

By Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas

Our Lord directed his harshest words against the Pharisees, who, though they observed the Law, were far from God in their hearts.

A Pharisee is someone who has such a high opinion of himself that he fails to recognise how greatly he is in need of God. The Pharisee believes he has faith in God, but the reality is that he acknowledges no god outside himself. He follows God's Law not in order to please God, but only to appease his own conscience. And because he is so satisfied with himself, his heart is as closed to God as it is to his neighbour.

Sermon by Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm at the funeral of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania

Sermon by the World Council of Churches (WCC) moderator Bishop Prof. Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm at the funeral of His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ, who is “the resurrection and the life”.  We gather today in sorrow, and at the same time in deep gratitude, as we commend the soul of His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania into the eternal embrace of our risen Lord.

The Tax Collector who wished to see Christ

by Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas

If we share Zacchaeus’s longing to see Christ and, like him, we do everything in our power to achieve it, we can be certain that, sooner or later, we will see Christ looking back at us. He will call us by name, just as He called Zacchaeus, and He will remain with us, just as He did with His disciples at Emmaus immediately after His Resurrection.

Address By His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew – Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Monday, January 27, 2025)

Your Excellency Theodoros Roussopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,

Congratulations for your unanimous re-election this morning. We wish you a fruitful tenure, as it was your first one as President of this auspicious body. Moy God strengthen you in your responsible ministry.

Your Excellencies, 

Your Eminences, 

Esteemed dignitaries and beloved friends,

It is a unique privilege and special joy to address you, especially in such a significant day, on which we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We are deeply honored that we are here once again, after 2007, at this prestigious meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, an international organization committed to upholding and promoting the fundamental principles of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law—namely, all that defines the culture of integrity, freedom, and justice. Moreover, it is a particular honor to be here with so many eminent members of this assembly, along with other dignitaries and foreign diplomats. 

Repentance that unites us with Christ

By Fr Georgios Lekkas

Jesus Christ begins His work in the world precisely where John the Baptist left off, as evidenced by the fact that He starts His teaching ministry with the exact words of John: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).