Australian and New Zealand Diocese (ROCOR)

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic games in Paris was a vivid and most emphatic manifestation of what spirit has descended among men. Many people from across the world were left shocked, scandalised, and in disbelief watching what was unravelling before their eyes. This global event that gathers all nations from across the globe, this ‘opening’ – expressed in an unequivocal way the inauguration or affirmation of a ‘new world order’ which is antithetical to God’s order, an open declaration of who it serves, i.e, who its ‘master’ is, and who it battles against. This ‘ceremony’ was nothing less than a satanic assembly, very dark and very telling of the spiritual state the world is cataclysmically spiralling into. This worldly ‘state of affairs’ is nothing new for Orthodox Christians. The only difference is the level of brazenness with which this satanic ball was executed, all of which point to things rapidly escalating and in apocalyptic proportions.

Let us look at what St. Nilus of Mount Athos, a great ascetic and neptic father who lived many centuries ago had to say about the days preceding the arrival of the Antichrist. “As the time approaches for the arrival of the Antichrist, human reason will be darkened by carnal passions and disrespect, and lawlessness will greatly multiply. The world will then begin to become unrecognisable. Human figures will be changed, and men will not be distinguished from women because of their shameful clothing and hair on their heads. Antichrist will deceive people, and they will be worse than wild beasts. There will be no respect for parents and elders. Love will disappear, and Christian pastors, archbishops and priests will become glory-loving (with a few exceptions) and will not distinguish the right path from the left at all, and the customs and traditions of Christians and the Church will change”. Are these words of St. Nilus indicative of our times? I believe very much so. Eurovision, which was nothing less occultic and satanistic, just had its sequel – the Paris Olympics Opening ceremony. Just a coincidence? Absolutely not.

My dear faithful, what we are observing are the fruits of the apostasy of a once Christian Europe (and West) that has gradually abandoned Christ, that has rejected His Gospel and has chosen to return back to ‘Egypt’, back to the captivity of the ‘spiritual Pharaoh’, to bow down before the ‘golden calf’ (which was also present at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony). The end result of this apostasy is darkness, wickedness, satanism and the degradation of humankind, which finds its reflection in today’s anarchical society, in the spiritual degeneracy of many institutions, not excluding, alas! those who proclaim to be the followers of Christ but conform to the ways of the world. Those who have converted the House of God into an abomination of ‘woke’ madness and the same spiritual degeneracy. This is the end result of the initial or first ‘humanism’ enacted by Adam and all subsequent ‘humanisms’ which desired to be in lieu of God. This is the same apostasy manifested in all forms of humanism, including its more subtle forms, such as papism, in which mortal man pretends to assume the place or vicarage of Christ on earth, in ecumenism that desires to bring about unity among Christians through ecclesiastical “high end diplomacy” or better said, demagogy and hypocrisy, bypassing the presence and ‘Source of unity’ who is Christ Himself as the Way, Truth and Life! This is the same relativistic humanistic spirit that has been slowly manifesting itself among some hierarchs and ‘theologians’ of the Holy Orthodox Church. An example of this is the recent ordination of the first ‘female deacon’ in the Alexandrian Patriarchate, conveniently labelled as an ordination of a ‘deaconess’.

Further examples of this same erroneous spirituality that desires to push or remove the Boundaries that the Holy Fathers established, devoid of the phronema of the Church Fathers and Holy Tradition manifests itself in following the trends of the fallen world. Scratching the ears of its adherents rather than reminding the faithful of the Truth of the Holy Gospel. They turn the sacred space of the church temple into theatres with music, trumpets, opera singers etc., they Baptise children of same-sex couples, have mutual prayer with the heterodox and many other innovations scandalising the Orthodox faithful. This is not the way of the Holy Fathers. This is apostasy, and to this spirit, we say, Anathema! The spirit of humanism, in all its editions, is a spirit that desires to achieve goals (knowingly or unknowingly) by human means alone. It is a spirit divorced from the uncreated energies of God, from God’s grace and the source of wisdom and truth – God. That is why St Justin Popovic, the great Serbian Orthodox Theologian of the 20th century, prophetically reminded Europe that there can be no true man and no true humanity without the God-man Christ. His slogan was: “We are for the God-man Christ, because we are for man!” St Justin would point out that the only true humanism was, in fact, Theohumanism. This is when man in synergy, in communion with God, begins to perceive his fellow neighbours and creation through a grace-filled and transformed Theanthropic lense (Matthew 22:39). To see fellow man as created in the image and likeness of God. The spirit behind the ‘opening ceremony’s’ contempt for Christ and attempt to mock Him is the same spirit that led the first rebellion against God’s order and was cast down from Heaven.

The bible openly states that Christ will be a sign which shall be spoken against (Luke 2:34). This has been the case from the very beginning. Man cannot avoid Christ, He is central, He is inescapable. Because He is the Way, the Truth and Life (John 14,6). He is the Light that shines brightly in the darkness (John 1,5); He is the Bread that descends to us from Heaven and without which there is no life (John 6: 51-59). To those who mocked Christ claiming ‘expression of liberty’ know that you are not free. This opening ceremony is anything but an expression of your liberty. It is a manifestation of your spiritual captivity! You are in possession of a spirit that is waging war against God, His natural order in creation, and especially against the crown of creation – humanity. The following words of Holy Scripture are truly befitting of this generation, its ‘opening ceremonies’ and ‘visions’ (Euro or other), “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).

 +Metropolitan Siluan of Australia and New Zealand