Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
- Isaiah 5:20
 

The absence of moral integrity that has been apparent among the leaders and representatives of our nation during recent years has now affected a very fragile region of the world. The killing of innocent children, women, and men has now begun with the use of bombs paid for by our tax dollars. Our leaders have made a very strong statement with their recent actions that "might makes right." They have conveniently forgotten that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. In this regard they now imitate the immoral dictators of our generation in how to rule and how to control. And the peace that they insist upon is false and fabricated.

For the greatest super power in the world to dictate to the leader of a small, sovereign nation, which has been suffering from internal restrictions and lengthy external boycotts, "Sign my peace treaty or I will make your land desolate and subject your people to abject misery and poverty," is the epitome of moral corruption and evil intent.

In the face of this moral decay among our leaders, we Americans have been comfortably basking in the spirit of apathy and indifference. So long as the stock market and our economy are healthy, we cannot be bothered by what is going on in another part of the world, even during this time of Great Lent!

Yet those of us who hurt when others hurt will have compassion on all innocent people who unjustly suffer. He knows who we are, everyone of us. He came and lived among us and experienced more than anyone else the evil in the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to us to do away with the evil degradation in this world and we crucified Him! But He conquered death by His death and everything that denotes sin and death. "Be of good courage," He said, "I have overcome the world."

As this millennium comes to an end, the war that has broken out in the Balkans will intensify as enlightened monastics of recent years have prophesied. The slaughter of many people in a brief time span will be horrific.

What can we do? What must we do? It is our Christian responsibility to pray for all the victims of this unfolding tragedy. Strangely once again in less than sixty years the same people, their children and now their grandchildren will be shedding their blood on the same soil that has been saturated by human blood for the past eight hundred years. We must pray for the survivors that they will call upon the name of God for His intervention.

Truly, how terribly ironic it is that the first American bombs fell on the Feast of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary by the Archangel Gabriel and her acceptance to give birth to the Savior of the world! Can this be her way of telling us to offer fervent prayers to her for her intercessions to her divine Son? She knows that in this region of the Balkans the earth has received the blood of over one million human souls since 1940, most of them Serbian Orthodox Christians.

Reflecting upon this and after deep prayer I ask all my priests together with our people to rise up as we approach Great and Holy Week and to participate in a Paraklesis Service to the holy Theotokos on Friday, April 2, 1999 and to ask her to protect all the people of the Balkans from the evil that now comes upon them.

With Paternal Blessings,

+ Metropolitan Isaiah
Presiding Hierarch of the Diocese of Denver
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

"That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4)