And Who Is My Neighbor?
Mercy and Love Transcend Race, Nationality, and Religious Affiliation
Metropolitan Cyprian, President of the Holy Synod*
Editors Note: The following article, while it addresses the phenomenon
of resistance to burgeoning foreign immigration in contemporary Greece, is
certainly apropos of America, a country which—though built on the labor and toil
of immigrants—has also seen, in recent times, the unfortunate emergence of a
spirit of inhospitality towards more recent immigrations.
Ideologizing a disdain for foreigners. The recent mass influx of
refugees into our country, particularly from Afghanistan, has occasioned great
confusion and has also demonstrated that those "Greek Orthodox who are opposed
to the new identity cards [which do not indicate ones religious affiliation and
are, for this reason, viewed by a vocal faction in Greece as an attempt by the
state to undermine the Orthodox identity of the country—Trans.] and who
have organized public protests over the matter, with certain laudable exceptions
(such as the residents of Zakynthos), do not evidence a Christian heart and have
failed to keep in mind what it means to be a Christian.
We are not merely addressing, of course, the issue of the legal obligation
of the government, which—on the basis of international conventions—is
prevented from expelling any refugee who declares that he has been persecuted
and that his life is likely to be in danger if he returns to his homeland.
Nor, in addition, are we only distressed by the shamelessness of the police
authorities [in violation of the foregoing international conventions—Trans.],
one agency of which even went so far as to issue a deportation order to a new
mother with her twenty-day-old baby...! (To go where...?)
What is, in our view, by far more alarming is the fact that a disdain for
foreigners is being turned into an ideology—in the name of Orthodox tradition,
no less!—, to the unbelievable extent that a well-known clergyman has been
vehemently condemned for providing free relief to hundreds of children of
illegal immigrants, very few of whom are Orthodox (the majority of them being
Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants), and that the following truly shocking
question has been posed: "Are we going to allow a few clergy who are ignorant
of our Orthodox Tradition to save their souls while they destroy Greece?
Love is Christocentric. The ethos of the Orthodox Church is
Christocentric. It is the teaching of the Fathers, proclaimed in deed and
word, "always, everywhere, and by all, that
the members of the Orthodox Church are called to function as the active
hands of Christ. As the eyes of Christ, which are filled with understanding.
As the attentive ears of Christ. As the heart of Christ, which is filled with
love for all mankind, in all of its needs and all of its concerns,
demonstrating, by their deeds, that they are members of the Body of Christ.
They are called to show this love and understanding towards mankind, not only
theoretically, but also in concrete terms and in practice. For, it is
precisely their bodies, through which love towards humanity is manifested in
specific and practical ways, that have become members of Christ. Love should
be extended towards other people in a corporeal way, since it is in their
bodies that Orthodox Christians have become, or can become, members of Christ.1
The "neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan is embodied in the person
of our fellow man, regardless of race, nationality, or religion.2
The aim of our Lords astonishing reply to the question
posed by the lawyer in that parable was precisely to demolish the exclusive
"boundaries of love established by the Hebrews, who regarded as their
"neighbor only those who were of the same nation and religion as themselves.
Our Lord and God Jesus Christ, Whose Divine heart becomes our own heart
through the Holy Mysteries of our Church, was, and lived as, a "refugee: He
descended from Heaven to earth, took refuge in Egypt, lived as a "stranger, and
has continued, throughout the centuries, to knock on our doors as a "stranger,
in the person of our "neighbor.
Now, in view of this, what racial, national, or religious "walls are capable
of preventing exuberant waves of love from pouring out of our hearts—the very
heart of Christ—in all directions?
St. Akakios and the Persians. On April 9, we celebrate the memory of
St. Akakios, who was Bishop of the Armenian city of Amida at the beginning of
the fifth century.
During the war between the Romans and the Persians (421-422), the Byzantines
had captured seven thousand prisoners, whom they refused to feed or to release.
So, St. Akakios summoned his clergy and addressed the following words to
them, among others:
Our God needs neither dishes nor cups, for He neither eats nor drinks....
Since our Church possesses many gold and silver vessels, which derive from the
generosity of the Faithful, it is our duty to ransom the prisoners with these
and to feed them.
And that is what happened: the treasures were melted down, the prisoners were
ransomed, given food, and sent back to their king with the necessary provisions
for the return journey.
King Baranos V of Persia was so amazed by this magnanimous act of St. Akakios
that he asked to meet the most holy Hierarch in person.
St. Gregory Palamas and the Turks. The very splendor of Christian love
and "mercy—over and above race, nationality, and religious
affiliation—expresses, in addition, the "conomy of God, as St. Gregory Palamas
wrote to his Church flock with regard to his captivity under the Turks (March
1354-Spring 1355):
It seems to me that, because God has ordained things in such a way that
Christians and Turks are intermingled, and that I am a prisoner of the Turks,
that Gods Providence and the works of our Lord Jesus Christ...are being made
manifest to them (the Turks) as well..., such as to be without excuse before
His future and most dread Tribunal.4
+ + +
Woe to us, if our "national identity should continue to adulterate the
Christocentrism of our Orthodox ecclesiastical ethos, which rises above
nationality!
Woe to us, if the dust of the "statistical triumph (!) of "signatures [on
petitions submitted to the Greek government by those protesting against the new
identity cards—Trans.] continues to prevent the inscription, in the
hearts of Christians, of the "New Name,5
which is unceasingly inscribed by the Holy Spirit and which
renews our identity through the "New Commandment6
of love for our neighbor without conditions, limits, or
boundaries!
+ + +
Woe to us, if our national identity should continue to adulterate the
Christocentrism of our Orthodox ecclesiastical ethos, which rises above
nationality!
Woe to us, if the dust of the statistical triumph (!) of signatures [on
petitions submitted to the Greek government by those protesting against the new
identity cardsTrans.] continues to prevent the inscription, in the
hearts of Christians, of the New Name,5
which is unceasingly inscribed by the Holy Spirit and which
renews our identity through the New Commandment6
of love for our neighbor without conditions, limits, or
boundaries!
Endnotes
* Of the True (Old Calendar) Orthodox Church of Greece.
1. Dumitru Staniloae, Gia ena Orthodoxo Oikoumenismo [Towards an Orthodox
Ecumenism] (Pirus: 1976), p. 103.
2. St. Luke 10:25-37.
3. Socrates Scholastikos, Ecclesiastical History, Vol. VII, ch. 21 (Patrologia
Græca, Vol. LXVII, cols. 782B-784A); see also the
Threskeutike kai Ethiki Egkyklopaideia, Vol. I, col. 1169. Unfortunately, the memory of St. Akakios is
passed over by the standard Synaxaristai and calendars of Saints.
4. St. Gregory Palamas, Epistle to His Church, 3, in
Syggrmmata
[Writings], Vol. IV, p. 121.
5. Cf. Revelation 3:12.
6. St. John 13:34.
This article is reprinted from Orthodox Tradition, Volume
XIX (2002), No. 2, pp. 7-9. The title article is taken from St. Luke 10:29. It
originally appeared in Greek in Hagios Kyprianos, No. 304 (September-October 2001), pp. 65-67.
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