One may be an
expert in his profession, in science, sport, philosophy, housekeeping, earning
money…
He also may
have a strong instinct of self-preservation, but not be aware of the most
important thing – that without God, a human being is not a human being.
He may not
know that the most important job of a human being is to find the source of
life.
Often, a
person knows nothing about Christianity... this includes confessors and
communicants - we cannot see God.
St. Symeon
the New Theologian teaches us that if a person does not experience and see God
with his heart, then he is not a Christian.
This is
exactly what the eternal life means– it means to know God.
There is an
expression which says that: “if you do not know, you do not sin”
but this is a
corrupted paraphrase of the words of Christ.
In reality,
not knowing is a crime. When you don’t
know Christianity, when you don’t know the Gospel, when you don’t know what
Apostle Paul teaches us and what the Holy Fathers teach us… and you don’t know
what you believe, you don’t know who is the Holy Trinity, you don’t know what
the incarnation of God means, you don’t know what is the Church…and when a
person does not know all this – he is guilty.
Before whom
is he guilty?
He is guilty
before the Lord because he hurts Christ.
In addition,
he is guilty before himself because he is destroying himself...
He is guilty
before other human beings who are around him, because he is called a Christian
and is not a light to them, even though this is his obligation, to be the light
of this world and the salt of this world...
This means
that he cannot be a missionary, he is not able to show others the way to
Christ. He is not realized as an image and likeness of God, meaning that he
does not love the people around him, his family, his friends, as Christ loves
them.
He does not
look at them with the eyes of Christ.
Therefore, an
ignorant person is guilty.
Archpriest Theodore Gignadze
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