This Masterclass is dedicated to the Gifts of Christmas.
At first I will make a special dedication to the Ukrainians, because as you know this year the Ukrainians celebrate on the 25th of the month.
It is the first time in their history, because they want to also escape from the barbarism caused by the Russian invasion.
Of course it’s not the Russians, but it’s more like, you know whom. It’s as Harry Potter says, it’s he whose name we don’t mention, that’s who.
And I want to tell you that I am thinking about this, I also heard Zelensky, not only in Congress, but in general during this period, and he says that we ought to think of them, because they are experiencing something very difficult and it is indeed very difficult, but know that because in Christmas and we ought to tell the truth, it’s okay, they’ll get through it, they’ll get over it, we’ll be happy and we will get rid of the others.
I am saying it like this in order to be synoptic, as stated in the Gospels.
Gifts of Christmas in fact, for me, is a pleonasm.
Because Christmas are already gifts.
I hope you received presents and associated stuff, because now you’re saying “I hope our parents don’t act in superfluity and don’t give us presents, etc.” Anyway.
Today we are celebrating the birth of Christ.
There are some of those who are celebrating, who do the sign of the cross in front of each church, without knowing what the church says, because they have never read the Gospels, there are others who say that they struggle to read the Gospels and until they agree to do the sign of the cross, God knows when it will happen, and we have the others who don’t do the sign of the cross, because they don’t really believe that He was crucified, we have them as well, what can we do? Then we have the others who believe that He is merely a prophet, and here I say, if he is even only a prophet, that is already good.
How can I put it now with humor?
Somebody is a European champion, and they say: but he is not the world champion. Okay, European champion, that’s already good
I am saying this for those who do sports like Adriana.
The other point is that even those who believe much less in Christ they actually call him Righteous. Therefore, it’s interesting to think that a man, who some don’t believe exists, others believe he’s merely Righteous, others believe he’s only a prophet, others believe he’s the Christ, so he has the chrism and is also the chosen one and also obtains the characteristics of the Messiah, however we can say, in whichever category you belong, that after 2,000 years we are still talking about Him.
This is already impressive in itself, because even when we study things that have occurred in the year 1000, just as we do at this point of time and in relation to the Saga of the Icelanders and more generally, we are reading texts that are dated the 10th century A.D. and it is interesting to observe that within they state, that when they are going from Iceland to Greenland and then to Vinland, that they are already Christians, that they are already baptized. And as you are reading this, as we reading it a thousand years later, you see that what you are reading seems old, whereas its reference to Christ seems new. Therefore, what is most modern, is this. When they talk about something else, about the ships, the fjords, the drakkars, etc., you will say that this is of some epoch.
The other thing mentioned as if it’s completely modern, it’s exactly what we are celebrating now with Christmas. So I want to say that this constitutes already a miracle for me.
The other thing I want to explain to everyone, just as I feel it, is that this birth is a gift. And we are celebrating this gift. Because there are some who do not understand and they celebrate that they will get gifts. The first gift we have is this. So when we are celebrating on other days, other periodic frames, other dates, this is our own issue, purely a social one. For me we celebrate the day of His Birth. All the rest we do, are the doctrines, they are the religions, each to his own, their systems.
We don’t mind them, as long as they don’t bother us.
Understand well what I said. We don’t mind them, as long as they don’t bother us.
Therefore, I’m just saying that if we look at it in this manner, we understand that things that were written 2,000 years ago, and you remember the crisis that we had at some point of time with the issue of the Dead Sea Scrolls, where the Church was wondering whether they would say the same things or not, in the end they do state the same.
And this is a beautiful miracle if you think about it, because imagine that something happens, some people record it, and then others don’t know that it has been recorded, there is a verbal tradition, we continue with this for two millennia and finally we have been saying the same. I think that when you were little, you all have played this game, where you tell each other something, and you remember what happens, after ten times nothing is left.
You don’t even understand what the original item was.
Now imagine, count how many generations within 2,000 years and here we are.
We are here for a reason.
Firstly, because there are some who remember, but there are others, rare ones that do not forget, there are others, even rarer, who write what they do not forget and consequently we read them.
Of course we read them some times, when we find them or when we at least make the move to pick up the book, to open it up and move our eyes through different pages, in order to read it at least once. When we study it later on, it’s even better. Because it’s deeper. So I know you’re going to tell me, because you’re usually influenced by society, that this is Christmas, it’s something commercial, it’s made up by some people who were selling some liquids that are a little blacker and have foam within them, etc. and they sold it to us that way. In actual fact they didn’t sell us anything, they used what we bought. We’ve been living with it for 2,000 years, it’s not something we do now. I don’t have any problem and some know it, neither with Black Friday, nor for whatever else. It’s a way for people to do their thing. What matters is the substance. And the substance is a mere one. The bottom line is that we are talking about the Light of the World. We write about this issue, most of you here are Greek, not necessarily all of you were born in Greece, but you see things a certain way. It is interesting to think how Humanity sees them.
So, I remind you, for those who don’t know, that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world. If you take a look at the population of the world which believes in Christ, I think you will be surprised, because you probably don’t know that this is regarding a primary position. Then you will think that there are other things that are of the same importance. They are, however of secondary worth to what you believe in, and I am saying that this is a miracle in itself.
I don’t know if you got what I mean. I’m explaining myself.
At some stage we can say that they are World Heritage sites.
So we say that Humanity decides that these monuments are too important that they ought to remain.
So there are many from antiquity, there are many that are religious, ecclesiastical, of the Middle Ages, etc.
It will be interesting to see out of the 1,100 or so how many are related to a context, which is well known to you, and how many are not related to that context. You might be surprised about that as well. The other thing I want to say is this.
When we have a human, I say human, God-man, but I say human in order to reach everyone so they can understand the following.
So when you have a human, thanks to whom churches have been built, monuments that are around for over a millennium, then that is a work created for Humanity, regardless of whether you believe in all of his characteristics.
This is an enormous issue in itself.
If you believe merely in this, for me you are on a good path, because in due time you will believe in others.
Those who say that they believe, very often they say they believe and are not believers, because they don’t really read what He says. They don’t really read what He teaches.
So you have Corpus and Opus. There is the Being and Works.
It is interesting because this idea exists in other religions as well, you see it in Buddhism and in fact there is also the idea that the teaching of the texts has the same value as the Being.
We are, whether we like it or not, people of the Book.
Therefore for us it is very important. Even the word book comes from the Bible. In reality it’s a little more weird, it’s the books that made up the Bible and then the Bible remained and we’re left with the books as we call them.
In Greek, we belong to a language which describes the books with that name.
Incidentally we say books in relation to the Bible and forget that it is the Bible and call it the Holy Scripture for various reasons.
So, it will be interesting to confuse notebooks with books, e.g. or you can call small books hagiographical, I imagine, since the thick one is supposed to be the Holy Scripture.
If you see them in this way you will understand that an environment in which you live, which is completely normal for you, is a miracle.
I explain again, with an analogy, not to say a parable.
Those who live within the oasis and look outside they see only desert and consider the oasis to be normal.
Those who are in the desert and observe the oasis, they understand what a miracle is.
Know that it is the latter who are correct, even though the others are experiencing it. So sometimes you can experience the miracle, without realizing it.
You will tell me, does it matter? The truth is no.
But quite simply you’re just not participating in the miracle.
And that can be a problem, when you realize it.
When you understand this and actively participate in the miracle, then it touches you more deeply.
Because I have several musicians here, it’s the same. You might be listening to music. It’s already good.
You might be going to concerts, I mean to hear it live, to see the instrumentalists.
And that’s good. It’s yet another stage to be among the instrumentalists.
It’s another stage you are playing for yourself and you are playing for others. All these are stages within the world of music.
This is clearly an analogy. So imagine that there is the same in the matter of intellect.
What’s the orchestra now? Humanity.
In this orchestra of Humanity we actively participate or we are just passively there.
Even a supporting actor in the theater plays a role that is more important than just the person in the audience.
I want to tell you the following.
What the Christmas context explains to us is that it gives you three options. It tells you: Do you want to play? Do you want to be in the game? Or do you want to be outside? And know that most of us choose to be outside to avoid being exposed, but we are watching the game as a spectacle, we don’t play in it.
There are people who say, I’d at least like to be a supporting actor. I remember that I once told someone, because at some point of time we were going to play chess with Kasparov, which of course I would like.
They asked me, Master, won’t you lose to Kasparov? I said, of course I will lose.
As if that could be. The person should’ve been sick, that is, to have some kind of heart attack, or not be present, let’s say something like that, there is no other reason.
But they then said to me, then what is the benefit of losing, if it is to play with Kasparov?
It’s just that you played with him.
It’s like Einstein writing on a blackboard and they ask you if you want to be in while he’s writing and you say to say, no mate, what would I understand?
I would say come and sit in and what do you care about what you’ll understand? You will find something. He will find something to tell you, to explain to you.
It’s what I call osmotic knowledge. It will come to you through your skin and you will get something, it can’t otherwise.
It’s the same when someone listens to a piece of music, e.g. you’re in the audience listening, because it’s pulsating, it touches you. Even your body feels it.
Sometimes we have parents who say, why should I bring the child, what will he understand, he is small, etc.. Of course, some children really shouldn’t be brought, because unfortunately they actively participate in the orchestra, without it being written inside the music score, I hope you all understood.
The only conductor who can stand this is the priest in the church who says, let the children do what they want. So I return to the topic of music, the fact is that it touches you.
When he touches you, know that you, whether you like it or not, this is nice, your body is coordinated. That alone is enough. Then, until your brain tunes in, it could take years, we don’t mind.
But what is the point? If we were there, as Kokotas used to say, I was there too, if you are there, you can say years later that you now understand what happened. Only just.
I didn’t understand then. Now I do. If you’re not there, what can you say? If I was there; So when they say something like that, like Christmas says to us, “do you want to be there?”, because you know, there is a thing that we get confused about.
There are many of us, at Easter, because we are a little afraid, there are also strange days, etc., so you go and light your candle during the Resurrection, and you say I wish mine would be lit too, and you have forgotten one thing.
If He hadn’t been born at Christmas, how would you light the candle at Easter? This means that we don’t see them like that, we don’t combine them, as if they are a bridge from two banks..
When we talk about the tears of Christ, we immediately reflexively think of the tears that surely occurred at the time of the Crucifixion. Why don’t we think of Christ at the time of the Birth?
Have you never seen infants being born crying? Why should there not be tears here?
When we observe it in this manner, we see that this bridge exists.
What touches us is that this bridge exists and returns. I give an example here that may surprise you.
When we say the tetramorph, it is something encrypted. But know that in Greek, we can also use this for simple things, we can say that the sea is a tetramorph, implying the four seasons.
You will ask me, is it the same word? It’s the same word, but it’s not the same code.
So I’m simply saying that when you understand that the 3 is connected to the sacred and the 4 with the divine, it’s interesting to see that it does happen.
Now, since we’re on the 25th of the month and it just so happens that the Masterclass falls upon a Sunday and on the 25th of the month, we’ve done it all here and now.
I hope you do understand.
We have had a Masterclass, it is on the day of the Lord, on the day that the Lord is born, what other day?
Then, if you remember well, Hagios Augustinos said, if you really believe, every day is a Sunday.
In this case even us have achieved it, even if we are being tepid in believing.
I just want to tell you that it is very easy to be pro religion, but that does not mean that you believe.
It’s very hard to believe, but it’s the only thing worth doing.