With the Greek Community of Melbourne, Archbishop Makarios of Australia celebrated the “metropolis of the Feasts” of our Church, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
On Saturday morning, on the day of the great Despotic Feast, Archbishop Makarios presided over the Orthros and the Divine Liturgy of Christmas at the Church of Saint Efstathios.
The Archbishop concelebrated with Metropolitan Ezekiel of Derby, who was celebrating his birthday and received the wishes and a bouquet of flowers from the Archbishop, as well as Bishops Kyriakos of Sozopolis and Eumenios of Kerasounta.
The Consul General of Greece in Melbourne, Emmanuel Kakavelakis, and many representatives of Greek organizations from Victoria attended the service.
During the Divine Liturgy, the Archbishop ordained Deacon Nikolaos Katsantonis as a presbyter, who will serve at the Church of the Annunciation in Mildura, located on the northwestern border of Victorian State.
The Archbishop in his speech described how the incarnation of the Son and Word of God overturned the usual conception of immortality in the history of religions and enabled man to live in eternity.
“We are not talking about immortality anymore, which was a familiar concept to all peoples,” the Archbishop stressed, reminding that immortality was the basic promise of many gods from time to time, who with their supernatural powers hogtied human thought and perspective.
On the contrary, as the Archbishop explained, “Christ came into the world to overturn this common and generally accepted promise of religion. Christ did not offer immortality, did not distribute magical elixirs of life, did not promise superpowers and supremacy to anyone. Christ gave us all the possibility of eternal life. We are talking about two completely different things.
Immortality is related to the present and has limits. Eternity is related to the future and has no limits. Immortality is the privilege of the few, eternity becomes possible for all. Immortality refers to an imperturbable situation, eternity is determined by a dynamic because it is related to the daily transformation and the constant struggle.”
Moreover, the Archbishop stressed that while in other religions the human gods with their coming demonstrated their supernatural powers, Christ sanctified weakness with his birth. “The transcendence of God, that is, His affability to becoming human, proves in the most eloquent way that we must experience a reversal,” he explained.
“After all, the birth of Christ as a fact in itself is a turning point of the world and history,” he said, “and therefore a call for change for all of us.”
Emphasizing the central message that emerges from the above, that “it is a success of man to finally accept weakness as a way of life,” the Archbishop said to the ordained presbyter, noting that “if this is true for every layman, consider how much more it can be true for the clergy.”
He called Fr. Nicholas, upon his entry into the second degree of the priesthood, to enter at the same time into a new life, a new way of dealing with everyday things, “in a different experience which is based, according to the model of Christ, on weakness, in love, in freedom and in humility.”
Finally, he urged the new presbyter to serve his neighbor with all his love and sacrificial spirit, “not for your own glory and your own praise, but for the glory of Christ and of our Holy Church.”
Earlier, in his address to the Archbishop, the new presbyter described how, from his initial doubt as to whether he could meet the highest ministry of the priesthood, he was finally left to the will of God.
He then thanked Archbishop Makarios, as well as the Bishop of Kerasounta, and all the clergy who provided him with support, guidance and love. He promised to return the love and support to all and especially to the people of the Parish in Mildura.