The sense that God is everywhere present is a bridle which holds us back from evil, but it is also hope, consolation and strength. Do you know what it means for us that God is close at hand?
My brothers, in antiquity there were idolaters who worshiped false gods. Would that we today believed in the true God as these people believed in their false idols! While these men never uttered blasphemies against their gods, today’s Christians blaspheme holy things ceaselessly. Can we even be called Christians? It is my fear that someday the Parthenon and the rocks from the Acropolis will come crashing down and bury us, for blasphemies resound and no one sorrows, no one cares. Some of these idolaters worshiped the Sun as god, and thus all day long they avoided sin because during the day they said that the Sun saw them. They waited for the Sun to set to commit their sins. We, however, who believe that the true God is everywhere present, day and night, let us flee from sin since he sees us! There is an all-seeing eye, there is an all-hearing ear, there is a hand which records everything. This is what we believe. Let us pray that God plants this belief that he is everywhere present in us!
Close to God, then…if man departs from God he will become a demon or a beast. Pray to God that he will have mercy on everyone, young and old, labour, repent, believe in Christ. Let us fall prostrate and like Nathaniel say, ‘Christ you are the ruler of the world, Christ you are the Son of God. It is you we worship, it is in you that we believe, and it is you that we will love until the ages of ages.’ Amen.
Metropolitan Avgoustinos (Kantiotes) of Florina
Translated by fr John Palmer
