Why Christ First Accepted Defeat Before Conquering Death | Metropolitan Neophytos

My Fathers and brethren, this year, in our condition as refugees and amid the great agony across the whole planet, with many battlefields and echoes of wars, pestilences, earthquakes, natural disasters, cyclones, and with the many problems in the Cypriot society, we come to this refugee chapel of Saint Nikitas the Great Martyr. The inspiration of Mr. George Kaisis, his colleagues and the refugee people of St. Nikitas of Morphou [helped] build [the chapel] here in the welcoming grounds of Latsia.

Glory to the Holy God that we have this chapel in refugee conditions to remind us of our homeland, our place of origin, our destination, because Cyprus will not remain enslaved. It will be liberated! [Although] not through the processes of [international] talks, but through other processes of “a great reordering” which has already started in Syria and now increases in all the places of our Near East. “Inside these secret winds,” Cyprus has its own share too. It seems that its share, this time, will be positive. As a man of God told me, “From 1974 [the year of Turkish invasion of Cyprus] until today, [you] Cypriots have almost finished your penance.”

We, the refugees, [now] come [back to occupied Cyprus], under many restrictions and threats, to celebrate St. Nikitas, St. Nikitas, who is “the namesake of victory,” as it says in the Doxastikon of Aposticha. The name St. Nikitas [«Νικήτας» in Greek] is derived from the Greek word for victory [«νίκη»]. St. Nikitas lived in the ancient land of Dacia, where Hungary is located today; he was an idolater and a Goth by birth. The [ancient] Greeks named these people “barbarians.” And yet this barbarian taught us letters. We love him, we feel him as our own, we feel him as a Cypriot, even though he is not one.

What “naturalized” him as a Cypriot? The love of the Cypriots, including both the older and current generations. When you love someone, you don’t stop to check whether they are one of us or a stranger, white or black, tall or short, rich or poor. You love them for free! Because our God loves us freely. Whoever loves his neighbor freely is made worthy of the great gift by the Triune God to be loved as well. Whoever demands love won’t find love. Whoever offers love sacrificially will find much love both on earth and in heaven.

St. Nikitas had one great love. He loved the Victor over death, Jesus Christ, He who conquered for us, our sin, our temptations, our death. He who gifted us eternal life. When our body dies, our soul does not, as it is immortal. As a matter of fact, if we struggle a bit in this life and show repentance, forgiveness, love and follow the commandments of Christ inside our Church, then God gives us justice, catharsis [purification], enlightenment and to some, [even] sainthood. To St. Nikitas, He gave sainthood. He gave him the greatest gift. The premier gift.

This premier gift of sainthood, St. Nikitas obtained through two processes, two praxes [actions]. First, when the tough times arrived, his compatriots were separated into two groups. St. Nikitas followed the non-heretical group, i.e. the Orthodox one. This was the first cause for Christ to love him so much. That is the confession [of faith]. He did not go where his earthly interest was, but where the eternal interest of his eternal, immortal soul [lies]. When Christ saw that, He gave him a second chance. As a result of a fight between these two groups, the saint was martyred. When they told him to become an idolater like he used to be, he told them, “No! Now that I have come to meet Christ, I won’t betray Him.” Not only did he not betray Him, but he was made worthy of a martyrdom.

At the end, in order to prevent the Christians from being able to venerate Saint [Nikitas] after his death, they burnt his relic. Yet, the Grace of Christ preserved it, and a friend of his named Marianos, from Cilicia, — as we‘ve said in the past, Cilicia is opposite to Kyrenia, opposite the gulf of Morphou — [his friend Marianos] transferred the relics from remote “Hungary” to the Asia Minor area of Cilicia. A piece of his relics reached the blessed places of Morphou. We have testimonies that since the 13th century, there was a Church of St. Nikitas in the village of St. Nikitas, as those who search history tell us. Thus, your village was not [named] Nikitas, but St. Nikitas. When, God willing, we are liberated [from the Turkish occupation], we will ask to correct this historical mistake.

Just like there is St. Marina of Xyliatou, you too have the privileged position to be named after a saint, a great saint no less, who honors us with his relic. And thanks to the abbot of the Monastery of Kykkou, every year with his permission, we are allowed to borrow his relic where it is now preserved. With the blessing of His Beatitude, we are found here among you, refugees and non-refugees, so that we are able to celebrate him who loved the Victor of Death, as I said. Still, our Church this morning had another feast you know well and love, The Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.

If we think why we love the Holy Cross that much… As soon as we hear the words “Holy Cross,” we sign ourselves with the sign of the Holy Cross, because on this Wood, as they say in Ancient Greek, the Precious, the Holy, the tri-composite Wood of pine, cypress and cedar, the God-man Jesus Christ raised His palms. He condescended to be sacrificed for us, for our sins, for our death, in order to give us eternal life. And He does give us [eternal life] now. He condescended to die for us, was resurrected for us, ascended for us, sits on the right of the Father and “He shall come again to judge the living and the dead” in His Second Coming. Our body will be resurrected as well, meaning nothing will remain inside the graves. The soul will be in heaven, and this body of ours, which will be inside a grave, will be resurrected and reunited with our immortal soul. What a God we have! Who loves us so much. Who offers us His life so that we have life. Eternal life, which never ends, that we do not die again.

This God, in each Divine Liturgy, this Body that He borrowed from our Panagia, He returns it back to us. And offers it to us. Our deacon comes out [of the Altar] and says, “Take, eat.” “Drink ye all of it” [from the Divine Liturgy of St. John the Chrysostom]. This is why the Divine Liturgy takes place. Not to look at the holy icons. Not to hear our good chanters. But to receive this Body and this Blood that defeated our death, that defeated our sin, that give us eternal life. The life of the Crucified and Resurrected Jesus. This Body, this Blood was loved by the martyrs, by the saints, by all righteous people and St. Nikitas. In case we do not receive the Holy Communion, because we have not repented, we have not confessed, we do not have a spiritual order, then we are right to not receive the Holy Communion, until we go to a spiritual father to direct us.

If, however, we can receive Holy Communion, especially if we have learnt [how] to forgive, to show mercy and to love, then our first concern, above our husband, children and our wealth and our poverty and our life as a refugee, should be: “When am I going to commune, my Christ?” This Body and Blood that defeated death. This is Who Nikitas loved, the Victor over death, our Christ. But, I want to emphasize something. This Victor over death, before He was resurrected, He ascended on the Cross and died. Who? God [Himself] who created the universe, condescended to die for us, the wretched ones. That is the Victor, before He became the Victor over death, He condescended to the greatest defeat of all history.

We forget that. We only emphasize the Victory, the Resurrection, the Pascha. No, my dear ones! The God-man, Jesus, Himself, condescended to be defeated. He was willing to be defeated. When the priest finishes the services during the Holy and Great Week, he says, “May He who is coming to His voluntary Passion for our salvation, Christ our true God, […]” What does this mean in simple words? He wanted to suffer the Passion. But He wanted it with His heart, with His whole existence. This “I want to die for you,” requires great love. Today, couples cannot sacrifice for one coffee and are led to divorce. Imagine this sacrificial stance of our God towards us. And [the stance] of St. Nikitas and all righteous people!

Was it difficult for St. Nikitas to say, “I am young, I am beautiful, I am an officer of the army. I can have a career. I can have a family. I can make money.” Nothing [of the sort]! When [St. Nikitas] realized what his eternal interest was, he said, “I am with Christ, [even if] you burn me and kill me.” Where are those who burnt him? Where are those who killed him? They are all forgotten… [Whereas] his relic is here and elsewhere wherever there is a small piece of the relic. Why? Because it is a relic full of the Holy Spirit. They brought it to us two days ago from Kykkos. For two days now, the whole time it has been fragrant. I said to myself, “The saint will go to his villagers and already he is happy.”

“How can you tell that a relic is happy?” St. Porphyrios [of Kavsokalyvia] asked me once. [St. Porphyrios]: “By being fragrant. Sometimes by streaming myrrh.” This is why, my dear fathers and brethren, from everything we’ve said [today], let us remember this: If we want to be victors in our personal Christian life, we first have to condescend to being defeated. The life as a refugee is a form of prolonged defeat that we have been experiencing from 1974 to this day. But if we chose something more than the defeat of 1974 and the life as a refugee, what would that be?

A Russian Saint, St. John of Kronstadt says, “Do you want to be a victor with Christ?” “Watch your heart every day.” Our heart is filled with evil desires and thoughts. Let’s face it. The Gospel says so. From the heart ascend desires, murders, thefts, hatreds, malice, filthy carnal desires, complaints, many complaints that lead to anger, malice, envy, divorces, to pain and sorrow, both our own and others’. Often, we magnify small issues into larger ones. If people chose everyday repentance, which is only seemingly “a form of defeat” … As soon as I see inside me that I have envy towards someone, … As soon as I realize that inside my heart I have envy, antagonism, hatred, malice, Right away I ask [myself], “Who do I have this problem with?” [Let’s say] with Cyprianos [for instance]. “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on Cyprianos and have mercy on me.” See? Not just on me, but also on the one I am thinking against.

In this way, the heart is healed. Before the tree matures fully, when it is still [only] a blade of grass, you can pull it out easily and it fades away. The same goes with [evil] desires and thoughts. If we let the malice with Cypros, the envy with John, the aggressiveness with Spyros, the lustful thought with some woman,… What does our heart turn into then? A filthy place, full of malices, [evil] desires and thoughts and it won’t be cleansed easily. It will take a great doctor, a great “cardiologist” to cleanse it. This person will be a very considerate spiritual father. St. Paisios used to say, “Everyday repentance is an ‘on-call hospital'” Meaning, since we have a quick nous and we watch our heart, as soon as we notice something evil within, we uproot it, right away! In this way, we do not let a molehill turn into a mountain and crush our soul.

Just like our body needs nourishment, the soul needs nourishment too. The Cypriots tend to forget this. We are concerned about what we will eat and what we will drink — all for the body. But doesn’t the soul need nourishment too? The nourishment of the soul is everyday repentance. To admit my defeat before my God and my spiritual father. This is why St. Isaac the Syrian says, “What is repentance?” “A broken and humbled heart” [Psalm 50]. A God humbled Himself for us and He became “the Extreme Humiliation.” And yet, we refuse to be defeated for a bit for the sake of our eternal interest and to tell Him, “I have sinned, my Christ. I was wrong to think that way. Forgive me.” “Most Holy Theotokos, protect us.”

St. Paisios used to say, “For the tough ones that do not leave easily,” “which may be attributed often to a bad heredity,” “to a grandfather, to a grandmother who had a great passion and did not repent.” “These are inherited by the children, the grandchildren, the great grandchildren.” “Just as the good is inherited, the bad is inherited too.” But when we realize it, we won’t start doing psychoanalysis and assigning blame. My mother told me once, “Are the good welcome, but the bad not?” I shut my mouth. And this came from a woman who never went to school. I have two university degrees. What should we do? We pray for our ancestors as well.

In this way, not only are we cured little by little, but also they are cured in the other life where they are, wherever that is, either high or low. “In My Father’s house are many mansions” [John 14:2]. There are many places of glory, “for one star differs from another star in glory.” [1 Corinthians 15:41] Wherever they are, when we repent, they become happy. The greatest memorial [service] for our reposed ones is our repentance. Afterwards, it’s the commemoration [of names] during the Divine Liturgy. We have only kept the Trisagion services over the graves. For this, I entreat you, if we want to really celebrate our saints, St. Nikitas today, let’s do this: Let us love regular Holy Communion, the everyday, diligent repentance and we will be victors just like St. Nikitas.

Otherwise, what St. Paisios — the great prophet of our people — said will take place. What is it that he said? The Cypriots went and visited him while he was still alive. St. Paisios fell asleep in 1994. The Cypriots went and confessed to him their pain. “Geronda, won’t Cyprus be liberated?” What do you think the saintly man answered? He who could see the freedom of Cyprus as well as many other regions. He said, “If the Greek-Cypriots repent soon, freedom will come soon.” If they delay in their repentance, freedom will come later as well. “Come what may, they will [eventually] enjoy freedom.” Think that he said this before 1994 and now it’s 2017. Thus, we, Cypriots, have delayed in our repentance. God [is not late] in His gifts. The gifts of God are “unregretful.” He will provide our freedom.

There were people of God who saw even before 1974 that half of Cyprus will become enslaved for our sins and dissensions. You all know what we did back then. And they [the people of God] said, “You will become refugees, my children.” “And you will be liberated when a state is founded in Turkey whose name will be Kurdia [i.e. Kurdish state].” Who knew the Kurds back then? How many times have I told you not to wait [for progress] from [international] talks? The freedom of Cyprus will come from the peripheral developments, and watch what the Kurds, the Turks, and the Israelis do. On the 24th of this month [24th of September 2017], the Kurds will hold a referendum to create their own state in northern Iraq and Turkey is furious. Say a prayer inside you for the Kurds. They “work” for us. But we do nothing for them.

They are a people of 40 million and they have no state. We are half a million and, thanks to God, thanks to the struggle of 1955-1959 and the mastery of Makarios, we have a state, a truncated one, but we do have one. Let’s have this in mind. But if we want to help our land, we should not be hooked on the prophecies of St. Paisios and the other [saints], and count years and times [until the realization of the prophecies]. These things are not Orthodox! We say these things, and in particular I [say them], so that our people know that our prospect is freedom. But for freedom to come and for our generation to witness it, personal repentance is needed by us. Otherwise, we will be “a temperamental people,” sometimes high, sometimes low.

For this, I entreat you, “Let the honoring of the saints be [for you] the imitation of the [same] saints.” St. Nikitas imitated the Crucified Jesus and he is with the victors. Let us do this too. Everyday repentance, regular Holy Communion and trust in the providence of God the Father. Many blessed and free years!

Doxastikon of the Aposticha for the Sept. 15 service for Saint Nikitas the Great Martyr.

Thou didst show thyself to be the namesake of victory, O most honored martyr Nicetas; O proclaiming Christ our God amid thy struggle, thou didst confess Him before kings and tormentors. Wherefore, cease thou never in thy prayers to Him who alone is the Lover of mankind on behalf of the world, for Christ-loving kings, and for all who faithfully keep thy memory, that He deliver them from all wrath.