Commentary
In the ideal world of the Psalms, he who dwelleth in the Lord hath the protection of Heaven. In our world, however, a world much more pervaded by material needs, we love other songs more than we love the Psalms, we long for different types of divine service, and in our dreams we imagine a different type of protection rather than the heavenly one. We are not, anyway, winged beings, therefore we require our own little shelter. And it would be even better if this were a villa on the much-desired island of Myconos which hosts half of Greece’s elite. You can then invite, without any stress, ministers and their close aides, media barons and other noblemen so that you can talk with them about the country’s future. Of course, you wouldn’t invite them in order to relax (the nation’s hard-working pillars of strength are never entitled to relaxation) but rather in order to humbly pray in the nice chapel you have built between the third and the fourth swimming pool, a chapel that is meant to protect the house and the country. Besides, it was precisely thanks to that little chapel that you managed to erect the temple of your vanity. How else would the magnanimous church-building department grant you a permit, substituting for our lethargic state? Of course, we were aware of this unbelievable Greco-Christian patent which has also shattered the State’s already eroded shield, which is supposed to protect the environment against the cement mixer. This time, however, the charges are not coming from some naive environmentalists but rather from the responsible lips of the metropolitan of Piraeus. Seventy super-luxurious villas with swimming pools have been built with the permission of the church-building department on Myconos, said the archbishop’s critic, Kallinikos – and we, the Christian flock, can only cross ourselves and praise the admirable works of the bishops and their even more admirable faith. True, you brothers in Christ and partners in business, were it not for your humble faith, could a humble church really have turned into a shiny mansion?
