Greek priest: The saints would ask God to live in our days

Fr. Arsenios Vliagkoftis. Photo: UOJ

In an interview with the UOJ, Greek priest Arsenios Vliagkoftis spoke about the role of the Church in the modern world and the spiritual challenges of our time.

Responding to a question about the inner anxiety felt by contemporary Christians, Fr. Arsenios cited the words of St. Paisios of the Holy Mountain: “Many saints of the past would ask God to live in our days, which are indeed difficult, but they would wish to live now in order to labor with the help of God’s grace.”

According to the priest, the present age is a call to more intense spiritual struggle. “We must see our current situation as an opportunity given us by the grace of God to struggle more earnestly,” he stressed.

He explained the difference between human fear and the fear of God. “When we speak of the ‘fear of God,’ it has nothing to do with human fear. To ‘fear God’ means to honor God, to love God, to stand in awe before Him,” Fr. Arsenios clarified.

Speaking of spiritual sobriety, the priest defined it as the ability to maintain “inner vigilance, sobriety, calmness, peace” amid all that is happening around us. He gave the example of a holy elder who, during a fire near his monastery, remained in complete serenity, “because he had placed all his hope in God.”

When asked whether the Church should remain silent, the priest answered with the words of Ecclesiastes: “A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” He recalled examples of St. Anthony the Great, who led a demonstration in Alexandria against the Arian heresy, and St. Paisios, who in 1988 protested against the showing of a blasphemous film in Greece.

“When faith is endangered, when the face of Christ and the Church is insulted, then the saints, alongside the weapon of prayer, also take up the weapon of presence,” concluded Fr. Arsenios.

He offered particular words of encouragement to “those who live under the difficult conditions of war, persecution, and temptations,” urging them not to lose courage and to remember that “the victory of Christ is the victory of Christ Himself.”

As a reminder, in an earlier interview with the UOJ, Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou said that the present persecutions are necessary for new saints to shine forth in the UOC.

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