Even Christianity, if I may say that, does not help us. I would dare to say that Christianity too gets tangled within us and becomes an entanglement itself. Instead of disentangling us, it gets tangled inside us.
Therefore, today you see people who believe in God, who are studying, who want to be considered to be good Christians, who are intested in others and want to help them, but you cannot find cloudless skies, purity and innocence in their soul, and their soul is not as simple as it was when it came out of the hands of God and when it comes out of the font after the baptism. And baptism, of course, has power because the Lord was crucified and resurrected.
So, this good condition is missing. And although those who are considered to be good Christians do this and that, act this way and that way, the sky in their souls is misty and dark.
Not only there is no moon, there are not even stars, not even white clouds, but dark clouds instead that create this bad condition.
Of course, not because this is Christianity’s fault – I said earlier that even Christianity cannot help modern people, but because -somehow we did it!- we corrupted Christianity too.
Somehow, we managed to transform Christianity too into a man-made object and we are trying in a human way to get rid of all these entanglements that exist within us. But that’s not how it works. To be more specific.
Christianity of the West began in the first place by Augustine of Hippo. But then it got entangled in the meticulous theology of Thomas Aquinas, it increased -as great prestigious theologians say-, spread, was cultivated in such a way, and reached such a point that instead of liberating man, now enslaves and blocks him more.
And eventually, although man is a Christian, although he believes in the Gospel, although he believes in Jesus Christ, although he confesses and communes, he is blocked.
So, as many great orthodox theologians, who study matters based on the Church Fathers, say today, we are more strongly influenced by the spirit of Western Christianity, which we call Christian culture, rather than the Christianity of the Gospel and the Fathers; the christianity that truly redeems, purifies and frees man from all these parasites and schemes and makes him innocent and pure.
And I think maybe all of us should help one another to do a little something, so that we can escape from the influence of Western Christianity, which, in the final analysis, is man-made and not a Gospel; a revelation and grace of God.
(From the book “Do You Know Yourself?” by f. Symeon Kragiopoulos Publications: Women’s Sanctuary “The Birth of the Virgin Mary” Panorama of Thessaloniki)
