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In this video recording, Archbishop Christophoros from Jordan talks about Theotokos as the supreme model for women, a model of spiritual health and wholeness. He also talks about the role of Christian family as a ‘little church’. This is a sermon recorded in April 3rd, 2022 by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese – Amman – Jordan.
English translation by Waad Rabahie
Video source (watch the full video here): Greek Orthodox Archdiocese – Amman – Jordan
Met. Christophoros:
They attempt to destroy the family and make it disappear, because each family is a small church where the husband is a Spiritual Father and the wife is a Spiritual Mother.
In a time where all ideals are destroyed, the Church, through our Theotokos, gives an ideal and a model to each one of us. Gives a real model of a woman in times where many talk about the rights of women and the woman and her position.
Our Rum [Byzantine, pre-Islmic] Christian culture knows the dignity of the woman through our Most Holy Mother, and it is engrafted in our faith, hearts, and culture. A woman is not a piece of cheap goods that is sold, but she sanctifies her family through her holiness. A woman is not as they want her to be in our days, as a consumable object…
And she is not as they want her to be in our masculine society, where they have a lower view of the woman. No my children! We should not be affected by these two positions. We should go back to our roots and faith and the value of women through our Most Holy Mother in our life. And this is how we should treat our mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and our land too. Because a woman joins all these things together. So her dignity is always preserved in the Church, as the dignity of the man, and the children in the family.
Today, the Church’s message is “praying for the Christian family for the family in society, in a time where the foundations and pillars of the family are being destroyed.”
This is their plan, to not have real families. The role of the family is very important in the Church, as a small church. We should not forget this spiritual characteristic of the father and mother. Thus, listen to each other and your children as spiritual fathers and mothers, then you will learn how to feel others’ pain and understand others, and humble yourselves and respect others and love others.
And how the father and the mother be a model and an example for the children so that they grow up in a home of a single mind, which is the mind of Christ, i.e the will of God.
The home should not be a battlefield for different opinions, beliefs, and wills of the parents. Do not let your homes be a battlefield! Because then your children will turn away from home, as they can not find the real embrace.
Our Holy Mother teaches us how: through praying, humility, mutual respect, and true love.
This is the model and example in our life. As I said, we are in a time where all examples are destroyed, so let us be careful not to destroy the position of our sweet Jesus – the incarnated God, nor the Church which is an integral part of Him.
Many people talk about Jesus as one matter and the Church as another matter. No, my children, the church, and Christ are one. Do not deform the human element present in the Church. There is a human element in the Church, and it makes mistakes and sins, but Christ is the head and the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
So, do not doubt and do not let the human element cause you to stumble. God sanctifies the human element in the Church because we are all present in the Church to be treated and healed by the healer of our souls and bodies, Jesus.
And we are all present to ride the one ark which is the Church, that will take us to the harbor of salvation and the Kingdom.
There is no other ark that can take us to the harbor of eternity and salvation except this ark of our Orthodox Church, which is One, Holy, and Catholic [Universal] Church.
