by Protopresbyter Dr Georgios Lekkas*
Christ overcame evil by enduring it. He could have called upon hosts of angels to resist his crucifiers, but in that case he would not have defeated evil. Evil is not defeated by violent resistance to evil, because violent resistance to evil only increases evil in the world.
However, when one freely chooses to suffer evil, one becomes so transparent that evil finds nothing to harm. And furthermore, each time that evil finds nothing that harms us, it turns against itself, and thus evil is reduced in the world.
Our passions nourish the demons and increase evil. However our free choice to follow the example of Christ, in not resisting the evil that is done to us, burns up the demons and lessens the evil in the world.
God does not prevent us from abusing our freedom: otherwise He would already have destroyed the world many thousands of years ago.
In fact, the Mystery of the Cross, which is inextricably linked to the Mystery of Life in the Trinity, acts to sustain the world spiritually, so that neither the forces of Evil nor the abuse of our freedom are able to cause it irreparable harm.
The Fall did not cancel God’s work, for in that case the world would have come to an end with the Fall. It seems that evil can only touch the outer skin of the world and not its spiritual core, which always remains what God wished it to be.
At the spiritual level, it appears that two movements take place in parallel until they finally meet. Evil moves towards the spiritual core of the world, which, however, it cannot reach, while in a contrary movement the spiritual core of the world grows and expands until, at a time and under conditions known only to God, evil is finally obliterated from within.
God coordinates the world using frequencies that the world in its fallen state is unable to perceive, because of the coarsening that the Fall has brought about. The world receives the beneficial energies of Divine Providence but is unable to identify them with the Threefold Person of his Creator.
The restoration of the world’s relationship with its Creator began with the Crucifixion of the Son of God and continues with the crucifixion of the passions of every human being on the Cross of Christ.
Though the Fall of man could never cancel God’s plan for mankind, it has made the process of Deification painful for man, because the swelling of his fallen state must be reduced so he can find again the way to grow spiritually in God.
In other words, where the swelling of man’s fallen state has caused his spirit to shrink, the Cross of Christ makes possible man’s infinite spiritual growth in Jesus Christ, through the shrinking of his swollen fallenness until it disappears entirely.
God is open to the world that He created but He transmits at frequencies that the world does not perceive, which is why it does not believe that God exists. In particular, the Mystery of the Cross transmits at such low frequencies that the radars of Malice cannot pick them up.
When God through His Son tried to explain to the world the frequencies at which He transmits, the world crucified His Son. Thus, in order for man now to receive the frequencies at which God transmits, he must acknowledge his own passions in the nails of Christ and mourn until he is completely reborn. Only then will he once again be able to perceive the frequencies at which God speaks.
*Protopresbyter Dr. 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 PhD 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) has been published by To Koinon ton Oraion Technon (Athens, 2021, pp.79).
