Metropolitan Kyrillos of Kifisia appeals to the reasonof the faithful with a circular and arguments from the Gospel to counter the spread of coronavirus.
The Metropolitan of Kifissia, Maroussi and Oropos points out that “we cannot expose ourselves to the risk of not taking protection measures for the spread of the virus, in order to test whether God protects us.”
In addition, he clarifies that “the Holy Communion is a Mystery, Body, and Blood of Christ and gives only health and life”, while also calling on believers who have symptoms of illness or belong to vulnerable groups not to go to temples. In this regard, he emphasizes that “respecting the lives of others and their physical health is a Christian duty, derived from the love of fellow human beings taught by the Lord Himself.”
Finally, Metropolitan Kyrillos invokes “collective faith”, which he says is needed to overcome this difficulty, and makes use of yet another example of the life of Jesus Christ, and in particular the miracle of healing the paralytic at Capernaum, where Christ referred to the faith not only of the paralytic, but also of the faith of those who carried him.
“Here is a collective faith that requires cooperation, joint planning, common action. This is what we need today, too, to overcome this difficulty.”
