Loan Shinetranslated

By Bishop Melitini Maximos

Speech on the Gospel passage Matt. (5:14-19)

There were no chandeliers in the catacombs. A single oil lamp, inserted in a niche dug in the pomerite, and faces around smelling of moisture, bread, death. That was all. And yet, no one knows how, that faint light rose to the surface of the empire and disturbed its sleep. The persecutors looked for it with torches, but they did not find it, because it was burning among the people. This paradox endured for three centuries, years of blood, and then, under the sandals of the Gentiles, without a church, without a title, in the soil, the Church was fixed, as never since.

Then we got out of the holes. We opened our eyes to the sun and the first thing we thought of was to build brilliant churches and mosaics and domes that rivaled the sky, and next to them courtyards, offices, protocols. We became, of course, almost god-given, tight-fisted with power. She wore purple for us, we lent her peace. Like a silken blanket, heavy, Byzantine magnificence spread over the Christian communities, while below the worldly poisoning worked quietly, without haste. And today they haven't changed...