Elder Ephraim speaks about the pandemic from Mount Athos

This pandemic is not a random event permitted by God, but is part of the signs of the times. It is the fruit of divine indignation because man does not do what is normal, not what is logical, but what is irrational and supernatural. And imagine how sorry the Holy Spirit is and how God as Father comes again with his paternal capacity, because we must never forget that whatever trial God permits, he does not permit it as an executioner and as an avenger, but he permits it as a pedagogy motivated by love, precisely to bring the man who has strayed, the one who has been darkened, to bring him through the illness, through the trial, through this education, to come to Him and understand not only by studying books, but practically to see that he is nothing.

Because as our Christ said, "without me you can do nothing." Today we are truly afraid to shake hands with a person lest they transmit the coronavirus to us. And indeed, these fears are reasonable, so that we can try as much as we can to stay free from this scourge. But our Virgin Mary and especially the Holy Belt that we have here and which we have also included in the hymnody of the vigil as the first rule, because we know very well both from our own experience of over 30 years here at the Vatopedi Monastery but also from the archives that our colleagues, our predecessors, the Agiazonite fathers, kept and preserved for us in order to hand them down to us and for us to also have knowledge of the deeds, the miraculous deeds of the past, so that the Holy Belt was always present with its miraculous presence in the plague, in the cholera, in various diseases that were always pandemics, because many times such pandemics occurred, that truly the whole world was, as we said, in despair and did not know what to do, how to face it.

But the older world had more faith. Today the devil has made a great success. What? He has wounded the faith of people and because modern people today follow nosiarchy, meditation, they have put them there to study, study, study – which is not a bad thing of course, study – but yet they acquire a anthropocentric character and a anthropocentric view of all things and events.

That is why today I hear different people speaking and giving courage to the world, whether scientists or other kinds of people, but I see in their orders, in their speeches, a anthropocentricity. They forget the presence of God. They forget that the center of our lives is Christ. And we must face everything and consider them with a Christ-centeredness. Because, as Saint Paisios used to say, together with Christ, the impasse is lifted and we are given the way out of a temptation that we have. Without Christ, everything is always closed, everything is dim. That is why they groan and lament and yearn and despair. Because our hope, our strength, our light is Christ.

That is why they told me that Saint Nikophoros the Leper appeared and said that “call upon me and I will help you”. And he even said something that he said to the church. He said “do not be afraid, you will not catch the virus from the church. That is why you should receive communion”, said the Saint, “and do not be afraid of Holy Communion”. Because Holy Communion is never contaminated, my brothers. And unfortunately today, various people – of course out of ignorance – behave in a way that is disrespectful towards the Divine, towards Holy Communion. I am not saying that people should not recognize the law of the state which – if one reads a little history – even Ioannis Kapodistrias, who was a very pious president of Greece at the time, closed the churches for a while because there was an epidemic of plague and it was a contagious disease. And despite all the extreme piety he had, he was forced to close the churches for a period of time. It is not that the state closes the churches because it despises the faith or tramples on it. No. But just as we who are faithful Christians will find ways, both through private prayer and through supplications and through secret prayer, the monologue prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," to try to have a communion with our Christ.
For there are many keys that one can press to turn on the light of Grace. One who wants to love Christ, one who feels that the center of his life is Christ, does not forget Christ because the Church has closed for a period of time. But he must move forward, he must have spiritual boldness, he must hope, his faith must increase since he asks Christ “Lord, grant us faith,” so that we may move forward and trample on temptations. And always in peace may we walk for the salvation of our immortal soul.

Amen.