The Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Filotheos spoke to ERT3 and the program “Mera me Chromava” about timeless and universal issues as well as the contribution of Byzantine Thessaloniki to Christianity.
“Technology must not exceed the power we want to give it, we cannot stop technological development but we must not exceed the limit that should exist”, he pointed out and added: “If we humans must have limits, much less the technology. Anger exists because there is frustration, perhaps because we close ourselves off. Technology, while it should help us in communication, shakes us more, because when a person cannot communicate with another, he suffocates. We have to find ways to better approach and communicate with young people, each of us within the limits of our capabilities and within the limits of our parish is trying to make this a reality.”
His Holiness the Metropolitan, speaking of Thessaloniki, said that “it is the center of the Balkans and unites us with the historical center of our homeland, Athens, but also with our religious center, the mother church of Constantinople”.
“If I am what I am, it is precisely because there is the community, the people”, he said, while remembering the day of his enthronement he spoke of the unprecedented feelings of emotion and overwhelm, feeling, as he said, who others before him had sat on this throne, had officiated at this Holy Table, and he felt his smallness before them.
Regarding which is his most favorite church, he said that he cannot single out anyone, because “in every church a surprise awaits you either from the people or from the priests, a fact that emphasizes the active presence of God’s grace .” “‘All the temples are inside my heart,'” he commented.
Metropolitan Philotheos also spoke about the kind cooperation of the Metropolis of Thessaloniki with the Ephorate of Antiquities of the city, while regarding the pilgrimages, the sacred observances of the faith, he said that “it is an opportunity for hope, as they stimulate the inner disposition of the people to be caught from somewhere”.
“From the doctrinal teaching of our church we know that the worship of these sacred respects of faith is permitted and does not constitute any form of idolatry at all… God works out our salvation by taking on human matter (Saint John of Damascus). There is a power that surpasses us, the miracles somehow refer to Christ and the new life he brings us”, he concluded.
“Seeing God becoming a man and going up to the Cross, we realize that we do not have a God who stands far from us and reveals himself to us through his Majesty but participates in all human things even death”, said the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, and continued: “He is a God of love who accepts you exactly as you are and accepts to live all yours even death… he does not look like a powerful God who does not want you to let him down but a God of love… in the face of it the greatness, man has nothing else to do but to walk with Christ…Holy Week is a journey of intersection with Christ, we are about to meet with him, worshiping his Resurrection. “
To those whose faith is shaken, Metropolitan Philotheos answers and objects: “All of our faith is shaken at some point, we go through temptations, difficulties, God is not the cause of evil according to Basil the Great. Evil arises in human life, because of the free choices of man, when we misuse our freedom then evil enters our life…. What we see as evil is the perversion of good, when we change our choices and the way we live, evil can become good again.”
See his statements:
Source: ertnews.Gr
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