4th Sunday of Lent 4-4-1965 Athens
Speech in full, by Fr. Augoustinos Kantiotes,
translated into English by I.M. Agiou Augoustinou Florina

• Introduction: This is an English translation of a prophetic speech, in full, given in Greek by Fr. Augoustinos Kantiotes in Athens 4-4-1965 when he was a priest-preacher (ἱεροκήρυκας). The abridged version of the speech in Greek can be found in the “Kyriaki” pamphlet no. 1940 and the speech can also be heard on the “Foni Voöntos” CD series, in Greek, CD no. 114. Although Fr. Augoustinos was speaking to Greeks and had the Greek nation in mind, it can easily be adapted and applicable to every country. (Note that in Greece army duty is compulsory.) We see in our days that his prophecy has been fulfilled.

The responsibility of raising children
“from childhood” (Mark 9:21)

My beloved Christians, did you hear the Gospel reading? Today, Mark the Evangelist narrates a miracle to us. One of the innumerable miracles that our Lord Jesus Christ did, does and will do until the end of the ages.
The Evangelist narrates how the Lord healed a youth, a youth who had suffered —may God protect us— a terrible illness. He suffered from a demon, he was possessed. The Gospel says that this youth was in a miserable state, because he had ears, but Satan had blocked his ears so he couldn’t hear any conversations. He had a tongue, but the devil had tied it in a knot and he couldn’t utter a word. And when he had one of his crisis’ he fell sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water, he foamed at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and writhed like a fish out of water. So therefore this youth was in a miserable state. But his father was even more miserable. And where nobody could heal this youth, Christ healed him.
I am not going to take this Gospel reading word by word to analyze it and present all its rich teachings, my beloved. But if you will allow me, I will give a short homily and I plead with you to pay attention to only one point. What is this point? It is a question that our Lord Jesus Christ directed to the father, and the answer that the father gave Christ. The question is, Christ asks the father: How long has this been going on? When did this start? When did the youth get sick?
It’s a strange question – why? Because all of us ask each other questions. Even the doctor asks different questions. Because the doctor doesn’t know, and we don’t know, and we ask so we can learn. But we all know that Christ isn’t a mere mortal. He is not a doctor who asks the patient so he can learn under what conditions the patient got sick. The Lord is God, and as God, he doesn’t have a need to ask, he knows everything. He knows the past of even the least person on earth. He knows everything, and therefore it seems at first glance an unnecessary question.
So, the Lord as God, knew the hour and moment which the demon entered the open door, because if the door is closed – just as when the doors and windows are closed the thief cannot enter, when a person has their soul guarded, it is not possible for the evil spirit to enter. So Christ knew the hour and moment that the demon found the door of the soul open and entered into the heart of the youth, and evil nested within him. And when evil nests in someone’s heart, when the vices and passions nest, then it is difficult for a person to uproot them. Christ knew that. So if he knew, why did he ask the father how long the youth had been like this?
Christ deliberately asked this question. He asked, to give the father a chance to give the answer that he gave. Because the father answered and said “from childhood.” “He was like this from his childhood days, when he was a small child.” And what did Christ want to teach with this? He wanted to teach that, if the father had cared for the child, it wouldn’t have reached the situation that it was now in, to writhe, to fall into the water, into the fire. If he had paid attention, the child wouldn’t have reached this miserable state.
All of us, my beloved, all of us who live in these times easily criticize the youth. It’s a fact that the youth have gone off the rails. They have deviated from the straight path. And everyone has a complaint against the youth of our generation, that the children and the youth are not at the level that the community wants them to be. It’s a fact that we all complain, and we all take up stones to throw at them, that is, we accuse them. But, my brethren, instead of taking up stones, that is, instead of accusing our children, the youth, it would be better to take a boulder to whack our heads with. (see John 8:7).
Why, my brethren? Take what Christ said, exactly. Just as Christ reminded the father that the reason for his tragedy was played in the home, was himself, who didn’t take precautions so that his child wouldn’t end up in this possessed state, in like manner the Lord today reminds all of us that we have a great responsibility. Everyone who is concerned with children, that is the father, mother, the teacher, the army general, the employee, the boss, the factory owner, everyone who comes into contact with children has a great responsibility, a huge responsibility, for the sorry state of today’s youth which appears to be diabolical, which even Dostoyevsky wouldn’t be able to describe today. Because today it isn’t one or two or three or four, but many youth whose evil appears to surpass even that of the demons. The children of Greece have reached the stage of becoming crazy, possessed.
Why? If, in the home, the child doesn’t see a good example – when the child in the home sees its parents fighting from the morning until night and even at midnight; when it sees the father leave to roam the streets and return at midnight drunk, and blasphemes and swears; when it sees its mother lock the children in and run to the shops and entertainments and have many friends; when it sees the father gambling, and whatever he earns all week disappears, when it sees all this, then how will the child be responsible for the road it takes in life? And when the child goes to school and the teachers don’t give the example of a praiseworthy life, a holy and exemplary life; and when the child serves its army duty and hears the sergeants blaspheming God; and when eventually the child enters the community and in that big school – because the community is the biggest school. And when the child enters the community and sees the real qualifications – not intelligence, not ability, not virtue, not holiness, not those qualifications, but those people who have strong protectors, the hustlers, manage to reach the echelons in the community and become rich and obtain different high positions. When the child sees these things within the community and even worse, how is it possible then, what will become of the child? So, therefore, when we examine how the parents live in the home, what the teachers do in the schools… when we turn our gaze to the churches and see what the priests are doing and the bishops, and everyone who has responsibility, when we look at all of that, then we will understand, we will see why the responsibility for going off the rails, for the unethical state which exists today, falls for the most part on all those so called elements of the upbringing of the child and youth.
The responsibility is huge, my beloved. But unfortunately, who feels it? Who feels it? We have become what we are today. The children who live in our days didn’t come from the moon, they didn’t come from the stars. They were born here in Greece, they were born in our country, in our homes, they went to our greek schools. They didn’t go to schools in Bulgaria or Serbia or Japan, or go to foreign military corps. Here in Greece – they are products of the Greek nation and therefore we have a huge liability for this generation. And we have reached the stage, a tragic stage, which unfortunately there should be, my beloved, a conference, a government department, I don’t know what should happen, because our children are being lost. And when we lose our children and youth, our country won’t be able to exist any more. Something has to be done, something has to be done. We need to think of all those children, all those youth, who have fallen apart because of sports, the movies, nightclubs, gambling, all those things which a young person sees and hears every day. We have become a corrupt generation, as the Gospel says. (see Luke 11:29)
You will read, you will hear freaky things. Every day when you open the newspaper, it drips of mud, it drips of refuse. The newspaper drips of blood from the crimes that are committed, mainly by our youth. Down at the port of Piraeus, some children who were in the navy cadets abducted a lame beggar girl, they put her in a taxi and went to a deserted beach and contaminated it. God will destroy us. And there at night, they had orgies over her dead body and they threw her off a high cliff into the water and drowned her, and the only witnesses were her crutches. Only the crutches remained of this poor young woman. And they stole her money and returned to Piraeus and went to restaurants and nightclubs and amused themselves with this poor woman’s money. And they took leave and went to their villages as if they hadn’t done anything wrong. What beasts are they? What demons are they? My Christians, we have reached a terrible stage. There will come a day when in the greek children we won’t see anything greek or anything christian or anything human. Yes, that’s why I emphasize and repeat that when the father said “from childhood” it is very important, and I bring to attention the responsibility of all those who come into contact with children and the youth.
There was a situation, I don’t know how long ago, there was a court case. The accused was a youth who had committed many crimes. Once the witnesses had finished speaking, the prosecutor got up and sentenced the youth to death. The youth was trembling like a leaf when the wind blows in the forest. The poor kid was trembling. But a christian advocate came to the bar and said: do you see this youth? Here in the courtroom is the Bible. Above the head of the judge is the crucified Christ. Ask the child, it’s the first time the kid has seen a Bible and the first time he’s seen an icon of the Crucifixion. If someone had existed who had opened the Bible for him and explained the words of the Gospel, if someone had explained to him what “human” meant and what worth Christianity has, if someone had taken him to church and to a spiritual father and shown him the crucified Christ, then things would have been very different. Therefore I suggest, Mr. Prosecutor, I suggest, ladies and gentlemen, that this child get up from this seat, we should acquit him, and in his place should sit his mother, his teacher, his priest, his bishop, the managers of the cinemas – all those people should sit in the accused seat. They are the ethical perpetrators of the crimes of this youth.
If children had mothers like the mothers in the olden days, who were illiterate [but pious], if they had teachers with faith in Christ, if they had priests who believed in the Crucified; if, if, if – then I tell you that our children would be angels, they would be angels. Because we have good leaven, but the leaven is not enough. The leaven, the dough, is good. The fields of their souls are fertile, but a field, no matter how good it is, if we leave it, will fill with prickles and weeds, and a tractor will need to come to clear it. And the field was a good field. And the dough was good, but it needed yeast, and the yeast is Christianity, our faith. That field has now filled with prickles. Come now mother, come now father, come now teacher, come now government to uproot them. Now you need a big tractor in the field to clear it. Otherwise my beloved we will lament many victims and much disaster. That’s why on this holy day when our Church presents us with the icon of a youth who displays demonic symptoms, we should remember at this time, all the children of Greece who could have contributed to the prosperity and glory of our nation today. Let us remember the children who went astray and let’s not throw stones at them, but let’s throw the stones at ourselves, because we were indifferent to whatever was special and holy in our nation.
And lets pay attention, my brethren, because the Lord said, and he repeated it – he said a fearsome thing. What did our Lord say? Let the mothers pay attention, let the teachers pay attention, let the older ones pay attention, and all of us. The Lord said a fearsome thing: That whoever scandalizes a small child – and someone can scandalize a child with their behaviour. You with the white hair, and you oldie, you can’t do whatever you want and live however you like. Whichever man or woman or older person scandalizes a small child, God says, it is preferable to take a boulder and tie it to your neck and go and throw yourself into the ocean and disappear. (see Matt. 18:6)
Woe to him who scandalizes the children. Woe to those who promote corruption in our youth. The responsibility is huge. Yes, mother, you will go to hell. Yes, father, you will go to hell. Yes, teacher, you will go to hell. Yes, sergeant, you will be charged. Yes, community, you will go to hell. Yes, priests, you will go to hell. For all those children, who were good children, who had fertile souls, who could have raised up our nation and created a glorious nation, and we left those children to be destroyed, and they became demonized, and have orgies day and night. Oh homeland! Oh Greece! When will you wake up and look after your children? If we don’t look after our children, you should know that there will come a time when, as the Gospel says, our children won’t listen to anything. Nor will they be able to speak. They will have a spirit of muteness and deafness, they won’t know anything any more. Let us take care, therefore, all of us, and wake up, all of us without exception, so that we don’t lament in the future, the “from childhood” which the father said. It condemns all of us. Let us ask God to give us contrite hearts, so that all of us, young and old, can approach Christ, who we should hymn and glorify until the end of the ages, Amen.