The events of the last few days, with successive waves of immigrants, that hit the – and on- shores of our sandy islands, but also the………
coasts of Mediterranean European countries, they cause varied and often contradictory reactions, often ideologically charged and politically biased, which prevents us from seeing and dealing with the matter coolly and effectively.
First things first, we must realize that the history of mankind, essentially, it is the history of the migrations of peoples. Even Greek history and culture were regulated and shaped under a trend of constant migration of Greek races, from the so-called Descent of the Dorians and the Greek colonizations, until the migrations in the period of the Turkish occupation and, lately, after the 2nd world war!
Let us not escape the great migration of peoples, in the 4th and 5th AD. century, which decisively influenced and shaped the current image and culture of Europe…
Everything, Well, peoples and people migrated, either to conquer new lands, either because their own lands were conquered and they will always migrate, as long as there will be inequalities in the world, hunger, injustice, oppression, exploitation, fanaticisms, rigid dictators and politicians without morals...
Under today's, Nevertheless, conditions, of globalization the phenomenon of immigration threatens to disrupt the social fabric and cause xenophobic phenomena, attitudes and choices, which negate the essence, not only of our humanity, but also of our Christian status…
However strange or dangerous it may seem, the way we treat strangers is the litmus test for the authenticity and authenticity of our Christian faith and experience!
Besides, we are all immigrants in this valley of tears, banished from our heavenly homeland, to which we are trying to return…
"We don't have nor did they live in a city, but they were looking for her", the Apostle Paul emphasizes to his fellow Jews.
"He's not a citizen, but he is a traveler and a hiker. Don't say: I have the city, and I have it. No one has a city. The city is above", advises Saint Chrysostom.
All, Well, strangers in this land, with Jesus as the first Stranger!
On Good Friday we sing a stirring trope, in which Saint Joseph of Arimathea pleads with Pilate: "Give me this Stranger, being homosexuals hating to die as Xenon", “Give me that Stranger, that His compatriots, hating Him, They kill him like a Foreigner"!
God, as a human being, was born in a city, where His Holy Mother and Joseph's Suitor were strangers, they didn't even find a room to stay and he was born in a stable…
Subsequently, became an immigrant and went with His family to Egypt, so as not to be killed by Herod there as well, certainly, Joseph would look for a job, as a foreign worker.
Growing up he wandered around the country as a Stranger, not having "where to lay His head" and His countrymen killed Him as if He were a Foreigner, even handing Him over to Strangers, to the Romans.
Thus Jesus became many times the great Stranger, which was never understood to be "ours", but only by a few, where always (and now) society treats them as "poor in spirit"…
Subsequently, This great Stranger sent His disciples into "all nations" and they wandered and taught people in foreign lands, and most were put to death by foreigners as foreigners and buried in foreign land.
Abraham the immigrant, the immigrant Christ, the Prophets immigrants, the immigrant Apostles, the Christian migratory spirit…
And us, today;
Today, unfortunately, more "atheists" are interested in foreigners, rather than "Christians"…
Even though we all know that when Jesus wanted to make it clear how man can gain the Kingdom of Heaven, he used the parable of the Good Samaritan, clearly implying that embracing and caring for a stranger can open the gates of Heaven for us, according to "I was a stranger and bring me in"….
It is a fact that we are in a new era of great mixing of peoples and cultures, which can turn out to be a deadly "meat grinder", as the unforgettable Archbishop Christodoulos feared.
This fact intensifies our insecurity as a people, added, in fact, to great difficulties and intractable problems, that we face, and instills in us fear and concern for the future of Hellenism, which many see as directly endangered by immigrants of the opposite sex and other religions!
But, even if there is such a risk, the solution is not to lose our humanity and our Christian identity, stalking, exploiting or even exterminating foreigners, but maintaining, strengthening, cultivating and experiencing our culture in all its fullness, our faith and our language, our unadulterated Greek Education, our honesty and our collective solidarity!
† Dorotheos II of Syros and Mykonos
("DEMOKRATIA" newspaper, Saturday, 25 April 2015)
NewsRoom Mykonos Ticker