Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge): Christians should live with joy
Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge). Photo: Natalia Goroshkova/Orthodox Life
Christians should live in a spirit of joy and optimism, always ready to meet with the Lord. The famous Swiss theologian and patrologist Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge) spoke about how believers can be saved in this difficult time on the YouTube channel "Stained Glass: About Faith in Colours".
The theologian is absolutely convinced that today it is much easier to believe, because modern Christians have a huge legacy of saints.
“At the initial stage of the development of Christianity, there was only a small group of believers who were persecuted from everywhere,” recalled Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel. “How difficult it was for these people to realize that Christ is Lord. In addition, most Jews rejected Christianity. These were extreme difficulties! And now, thousands of years later, there are a lot of believers in Christ, a great cloud of witnesses. And what a huge spiritual heritage we have, how many Christian martyrs, monks, hermits, pious people, amazing miraculous power of the relics! The number of Christ's witnesses is growing every day."
He underscored that a true Christian should live in a spirit of joy, no matter what.
“I always say that a believer is not a gloomy type, waiting for the end of the world, the apocalypse, but a rejoicing one. He is optimistic about life, the world, people, no matter what. Everyone realizes that today may be the last day. A Christian is one who is always ready to meet with the Lord. Nobody knows when their last day will come. No science can calculate it mathematically, only the Heavenly Father determines it. Of course, a lot depends on us. Christ reminds that the last days will be very difficult, that even the righteous will doubt, "but when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18: 8). Therefore, we must live in a spirit of joy and not worry about difficult times,” upheld Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge).
Earlier, Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge) called the situation with the formation of the OCU in Ukraine "pure politics."
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