Brothers and sisters

May the Lord peace you!

I am really happy to be here and celebrate the Eucharist with you. Immediately after the Ordination I wanted to come and celebrate here in Larnaca. And today I am here, to tell you that I care about this community, that I love you all…. And we want to walk together… I am bishop for you…

Brothers and sisters, the mission, the responsibility of the bishop is not easy. Why? Because the bishop is responsible for your salvation… yes, the salvation of his flock. And the signs that the bishop bears recall precisely this. The cross… because I must love the Church, my flock, my people until death on the cross. The crosier (stick) has the hook (anchor), because he has to take the sheep by the neck, so as not to lose any sheep. Then the colors recall blood… loving to the point of giving your own blood… so it won’t be easy, that’s why I ask: pray for me!

On this journey of Lent, on this Sunday of Lent, Saint John transports us to the Temple of Jerusalem. And to really have a good Lenten journey we must understand that as Christians we must always have two dimensions in our journey: the physical and the spiritual. The evangelical scene takes place in the Temple of Jerusalem, considered by the Jews as the place of God’s presence. For the Jews, God lives in the sky, and in the Temple. There were various courtyards in the temple of Jerusalem: everyone entered the first portico (Jews, pagans, women, children). The second porch is the Jews. The third portico only the men… and then in the “Holy of Holies” only the priests… and before arriving in the first portico they sold the animals for sacrifices. And even before that, the money changers, because they could not use the Roman money, which was impure… there was a temple’s own currency. And Jesus became very angry. Why? Because there was hypocrisy… commerce… falsehood…

And Jesus tells us in this Gospel something even deeper: There is also another Temple on which it is important to pay our attention: the Temple of his Body… But Jesus tells us that our body is also the Temple of the Holy Spirit ! He says the Scripture: «You are the building of God… Brothers and sisters if we really understand this… everything changes… the husbands, the wives who are here. Your spouse is the body of Christ to you. Your wife is the body of Christ to you…how do we treat the body of Christ? Your children are the body of Christ for you… do we make the body of our brother or sister a market?

Yes, we cannot separate our life of faith: the spiritual from the physical… from life.

Jesus enters the Temple and finds some merchants; and when he enters our heart, what does he find? Does he find in us a house of prayer or a place of confusion? Do you find a temple of the Holy Spirit or a temple of sin? Who is the master of our heart: the Lord or the evil one?

Because if our heart is not inhabited by the Lord our life will be a market where the only purpose will be our profit! Interest… when this is the case, a father is capable of abounding his children… why?

Brothers and sisters: Jesus wants to enter our lives once again, as he entered the temple, and chase away the “stalls” of our petty interests, reaffirming the absolute primacy of God… This is the true path of Lent… And it is the path that we want for our Church in Cyprus.

We want to put Jesus at the center of everything… Yes, brothers and sisters we are the minority in Cyprus. Our pastoral actions are small steps… we have started work with young people, adolescents, families… pastoral care with refugees… But the secret is that Jesus is at the centre… the protagonist is Him… In our Church of Cyprus , we want to put the Word at the center. It is the lemma that I chose for the Episcopate: “Sucumdum Verbum Tuum”, “According to Your Word….

As Blessed Carlos Acutis said: Not me but God…. Yes brothers and sisters, this is the secret to the solutions to many of our pastoral difficulties. Putting God, his Word, at the center. Not our groups, our personal projects, not even our resentments and the things that happened in the past… situations that lead us to pessimism, to closure. And not wanting to do anything new.

Finally, I would like to conclude with the same words of my thanks on the day of my Episcopal ordination: Thank you… “Beloved brothers and sisters, let us begin to serve the Lord, seeking together the face of the Father, to be authentic witnesses of the joy of belonging to his Son Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for us. Of belonging to his Church, and for me the joy of serving the Church of Cyprus…. Amen!