Christian Polity the Salt of Society

With a deep sense of respect and awe, our sacred Dependency, the Convent of the Annunciation of the Theotokos (Ormylia, Greece) proceeds with the publication of another English translation of one of the many homilies given by our revered Elder, Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra. This homily was delivered on 16 March 1988, at the Centre of the Epirotic Society in Ioannina, Greece.
In it, the reader will come to understand how the redemptive teaching of the Elder was both pertinent and eschatological for his Greek listeners. Today his voice becomes even more stentorian as we circulate his homily to our anglophone brothers and sisters around the world. The Elder’s message is powerful, indeed: “The Church remains victorious and will never lose the slightest thing.”
In our experience, it is true that the Church defeats the world, even though the world does not stop persecuting her. One of the greatest paradoxes of our day is that the world is unaware that it is a hiding place for God to work mysteriously and ‘snatch away’ countless people. We witness this reality every day on Mount Athos. The return of so many people to the Paternal bosom confirms that the Church remains the theanthropic producer of saints: citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
Due to the modern phenomenon of globalisation, societies live according to a more secular spirit. Despite this problem, the Elder stresses that the Christian way of life cannot be abolished—quite the contrary! Through the heroism of the Church’s members and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the institutions of this fallen world and the lifestyle of its society are transfigured.
Simultaneously, the Elder goes on to remind us that our mission as Christians in the world does not allow us to be complacent or defensive—nor to be alarmed by what goes on around us—but to become, through our own personal struggle, the good yeast that leavens the whole world (see 1Co 5:6).
Being the inheritors of such a teaching, we cannot “hide it under a bushel” (Mt 5:15). We offer it to everyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see (see Pr 20:15) for their own spiritual edification and inspired guidance.

Archimandrite Elisaios

Abbot of the Holy Monastery
of Simonos Petras.