Saint Andrews Theological College – Theology and Prayer

5th March, 2020

This is a talk on Theology and Prayer by His Grace Bishop Emilianos of Meloa with students at Saint Andrew’s Theological College in Sydney, NSW during an orientation program, and opens a forum for questions and answers. The following excerpts address the question, “How can you follow Christ all your life and have Christ say to you at the Last Judgement, ‘I don’t know you’?.”

‘[..] To take up our cross we need to deny ourselves and to follow Christ. If you follow Christ without denying yourself, you're dangerous for the Church. This is what Judas did. He followed Christ without denying himself first. So, first we have to empty ourselves, we have to deny ourselves, we have to totally give ourselves to God and His will. Then, we get filled up with God and then we follow God and then this is what it is. But if someone was trying to follow Christ without previously denying himself, he is dangerous for the Church; he might look like the most humble person on earth, but he is dangerous for the Church and he is dangerous to himself and he might lose his soul.

And that's when Christ said to the ones on his left at the Last Judgement gospel: I don't know you. They were following him all their lives but he said I don't know you because they never got to know God and never got to know themselves, deny themselves and get to know Christ, and they were following Christ all of their lives but he will tell them, “I don't know you.”

It's good to have the desire to go closer to God, it's just that this sacrifice is not a walk in the park. And of course, it will end up being a walk in the park, meaning that you have the eternity after that and it's all and everything you could ever imagine, the reason why you were created. But to get there you have to deny yourself and follow Christ the right way.

Without self-emptiness, these things don't happen. They don't happen because we are handsome, they don't happen because we are rich and don't happen because we simply like to do something like that. They happen because we give ourself to God in such a way that God can never say no to us after. If you have given him everything you've got, if you don't care if they just spit on you or whatever. If you don't care for yourself, God will give you himself, that's why you were created. There is no way God will not reveal himself to you.’

English