On Orthodoxy

Two days ago, a friend of mine shared with me words she had taken from a homily by Metropolitan Athanasios Fahd of Latakia. One of them was: "The only thing Orthodoxy rejects is sin". The word captivated me. Is it the time, filled with voices of demonization, that made me a captive of what I should see as normal? I will not put on another's tongue what I insist on rebuking. We all know that among us are those who insist on presenting Orthodoxy as a haven for all hatred and arrogance, hatred of the different other and rejection of him as if he were himself the disease. In seven words, Metropolitan Athanasios leads me back to my path of salvation. He says to me in his own way: "You, my son, are in the homeland of love that knows no bounds; so do not let yourself stray from renouncing your sins that hinder you from excelling of being a citizen in it". I would have liked to publish these lines on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The Feast of the Annunciation and the commemoration of Father George Massouh delayed me. I hope you will read these words as a third article on Orthodoxy.