☦️ Christ is in our neighbor ☦️

Tell me who your friend is and I will tell you who you are.

Philip's friend was Nathanael. And when Philip found Christ, he went and found Nathanael and said to him: “Come, we have found the Messiah.”

Unhealthiness in friendship is betrayal, indifference, loneliness. Philip, this true [friend], goes to Nathanael and confesses to him about the authentic and true Found. But he objected, because he doubted. Philip wasn’t embarrassed, wasn’t disappointed [wasn’t upset]—he didn’t develop a complex.

When Nathanael told Philip whether there could be any good thing from Nazareth, Philip did not flinch, but, confident in the One he had found, in the One he had seen, in the One he had believed, he replied: “Come and you will see, come and see.” " And Nathanael went. The Lord is not some idea, some museum, [He] is not someone who needs us. King David, realizing this, admitted: “You are my Lord, because you have no need of what is mine.” Because You are my God, because You do not need me. And when Nathanael approached, Christ, like all the false teachers of the world, did not expect to be aware in order to behave accordingly, but He first turns to Nathanael and says to him, pointing to him to the others: “Behold the true Israelite, in whom there is no guile.” Before this, Nathanael cursed all of Nazareth and Christ along with him. But Christ, delicate and true, seeing the depths of man, recognizes him as good and non-evil. Although, on another occasion, he admonished the young man who called Christ himself good, and said to him: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” And now God, Christ, tells the others about his blasphemer: “Behold the true Israelite, in whom there is neither cunning nor guile.”

Who can boast that he has a pure heart? But Christ is not afraid to praise us. And Nathanael said to Him in horror: “How do You know me?” And Christ answered [him]: “Before Philip called you, and you talked among yourself, and [before] you cursed me, then, when you were under the fig tree, [I] saw you.” The fig tree was more than distant from the place where Nathanael later saw Christ. And in horror he confessed: “Rabbi, You are the Teacher, the Son of God, You are the Messiah, You are the Lord, You are my God.”

Joy to those people who had this meeting with Christ, with whom all the best that could ever happen happens in their lives - are they preferred? Each of us has this opportunity through everyday human relationships, if we are attentive, and just as fire is kindled from the chair, so through the everydayness of our relationships Christ shines. Otherwise, if we are not perfect with ourselves and with others, Christ will be before us, but we will not see Him, we will never meet Him, and at the Second Coming we will contradict Him. If we are perfect with each of our neighbors, we will immediately see and hear Christ speaking to us what only we know, or what we have not yet understood.

So, Christ, whom [we] are looking for and [whom] the world is looking for, is next to us, in our neighbor.

- Archimandrite Dionysios https://image.nostr.build/00d8bcb17d7f1b1d56431181c8770ea4402d8c1bde6e4b67aff1a09e872476d0.jpg