This English translation of the sermon of Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol (Cyprus) was recorded for otelders (Orthodox Teaching of the Elders) by Peter Eliades.
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Metropolitan Athanasios:
We are not called to believe in God. This is just the introductory step, we are called to love God. To love someone, I need to see him and not just see him, to talk to Him, to touch Him, to unify with him and become one. So, what Church invites us to do… to love God and unite with God, would be a deceit, a mockery unless we could see God. We can see God! [...]
Who is that naïve, to receive medicines or undergo an operation in order to be healed after death? The same would apply to Church, my brothers and sisters, if she provided us with all that ascetic treatment and instructed us to do everything the Gospel commands only to see that after you die, everything is real. Naivety at the greatest extent! [...]