Serres, Greece, July 29, 2024
Met. Theologos of Serres. Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr
A number of Orthodox hierarchs from various Local Churches have responded to the blasphemous display at the opening of the Olympics ceremony on Friday.
The organizers, who decided to show a drag queen Last Supper, offered a disingenuous apology after the fact. Spokeswoman Anne Descamps told reporters: “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
Among the hierarchs who have condemned the blasphemy that was on display for the entire world to see, is Metropolitan Theologos of Serres of the Greek Orthodox Church. Preaching at the Holy Monastery of St. Paraskevi on Sunday, he said:
Unfortunately, we see that for some decades now in supposedly Christian Europe, conditions are being created that promote a model of life without God, without values, without rules and principles, without respect, without measure, without the fragrance of life, without beauty—principles and values that Greece taught to the world.
Unfortunately, a way of life is systematically promoted today, where the self-referential and passionate human becomes self-worth, an idol, a poor imitation of himself. Lawlessness is called freedom and disrespect is termed a right of expression. Today, from the dark abyss of human passions, a world emerges where moral decline, stark self-interest, materialism, trampling of the Divine and even the laws of nature, delinquency, amoralism, nihilism, the leveling of everything, and lack of basic respect dominate. All these create and consolidate in contemporary reality a deep decadence that exudes decay and death. What happened the day before yesterday, during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, in a specific performance, was deeply provocative, disrespectful, tasteless, offensive to the faith of millions of people around the world, to aesthetics, and to the very spirit of the Olympic Games.
I wonder, would these specific “artists” and the host country dare to behave in this unacceptable way towards the Jewish or Muslim, or any other religion? Unfortunately, Europe, for decades now, has been ostentatiously and with excessive ingratitude, turning its back on Christ. Behold the modern “Gadarenes”...
Today, however, the world needs so much, primarily integral and balanced role models, who will be illuminated by the light of Christ, who will be inspired by quality and respectful ethos, by pure soul and word, by a disposition of sincere repentance, empathy, and mutual understanding. Humanity needs such healthy role models, especially today. From the highest principles of love for God and love for humanity.
Met. Pimen of Europe. Photo: Facebook
A sharp response was also offered by His Eminence Metropolitan Pimen of Europe of the Macedonian Orthodox Church-Ohrid Archbishopric:
You mock Christ, and you’re proud, as if you've done some heroic deed.
But what new have you done, man? When Christ spread His arms on the Cross to embrace the whole world, even you, the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; Himself he cannot save (Mt. 27:41).
And for centuries after, weren’t Christians thrown to lions in arenas for mockery and entertainment, yet they didn’t return evil for evil? They won’t today, nor ever.
Perhaps you dare to take this step because you know that just before this, Christ, when they came out against Him as against a robber, said: Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? (Mt. 26:53) Yet He didn’t ask for legions of angels, but sought forgiveness for all of them.
You know that we, His disciples, are commanded by God to turn the other cheek, so you’re comfortable in your thoughtlessness when you mock my faith and offend my religious sensibilities.
But then you probably know this too: All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword (Mt. 26:52).
But don’t fear the sword; fear that you’ll end up mocked, despised, and abandoned on the world’s garbage heap in the meaninglessness of your existence. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
O man, is it so hard for you not to do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you? And even worse, to sell what you’re doing, mocking my right to faith, as promotion and fight for your rights?
Or are only your rights left to be addressed in this world?
Freedom isn’t anarchy, and democracy isn’t enslavement to the freedom of minority groups, but an attempt to establish mutual respect in society by being careful not to cross the line from use to abuse of that freedom, given equally as a gift to all of us.
And no, I won’t share that parody picture from Paris. Because your goal was probably exactly that—for the world to be flooded with that ugly and offensive image in condemnation of what was done.
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