by Protopresbyter Dr Georgios Lekkas, a priest of the Holy Metropolis of Belgium
The request of the sons of Zebedee to occupy the first place in Christ’s Glory was rejected by the Lord, because it was a request for the first place in His Glory without any corresponding sacrifice.
The temptation of the sons of Zebedee is a model of the temptation of all Christ’s disciples in the history of His Church until the end of time.
In the East and the West, the sacrifice of the God-man is dishonoured and Christianity retreats everywhere in its visible manifestations, because every one of us, the disciples of Christ, yields to the temptation of the sons of Zebedee.
It certainly requires poetic insight, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to seek and find the great in the small, the glorious in the humble, beauty in ugliness, joy in sadness and strength in absolute exhaustion. Christ was the first to act (and He continues to act) within us in the Holy Spirit to bring about this absolute poetic reversal.
The problem, however, is that we disciples of Jesus, both clergy and laity, for the most part determinedly resist the invitation that the Lord offers us. Instead of competing to be last, we compete with each other to be, if not first, then among the first! And thus we act, though usually unwittingly, to restore the worldly order that Christ overthrew with His sacrifice on the cross.
Christ has been greatly wronged, not only because He suffered an unjust death at the hands of His own creation, but because He continues to see His sacrifice dishonoured by His own disciples when we fail to minister to one another in the spirit of self-sacrifice.
The spirit of self-sacrificial love that Christ brought into the world works within us inasmuch as we offer ourselves up, unselfishly, without complaint, without holding back. Christ acts within us to first recreate our spiritual circulatory system, before sending new spiritual blood into it.
In order to be spiritually reborn, His infinite love accepts for us even self-renunciation which is imposed on us from the outside (as in the case of an illness, a bereavement or even failure in our career). However, this only begins to contribute actively to our salvation from the moment we begin to receive it eucharistically, as an absolutely willing choice.
Thus a true disciple of Christ is anyone who genuinely desires the ultimate opening up of his existence so that the life of Christ becomes his only life. Christ often sweetens us to feel that there is no greater love than His love, no greater worship than His worship, no greater joy than the joy of encountering Him at the hour of our sincere repentance.
However our greatest possible opening to Him depends on our perfect self-renunciation, so that we are worthy to worship Him even in the least of His creatures – let alone in all our brothers and sisters, without exception. If the genuine disciple of Christ chooses to place himself last then he is able to worship Christ in everyone. Because if we fail to worship Christ in even one person, we have wronged him throughout the world!
30.3.2023.
Source : antifono.gr
Fr Georgios Lekkas is a priest of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium. He studied Law, Philosophy, and Theology at the University of Athens. He has a Ph.D. in Greek Studies from the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Research Agency (2000-2005). He taught Greek philosophy in Greek Higher Education (2005-2017). His latest poetry collection, PROSECHOS ANAGENNISI (IMMINENT REBIRTH) was published by To Koinon ton Oraion Technon (Athens, 2021, 79 pages), while his essay THE SECOND WORLD. ODYSSEAS ELYTIS AND GIORGOS SARANTARIS was published recently by Ekati publications (Athens, 2022, 171 pages).