Man of God is the true story of Bishop Nektarios, a man who is slandered and persecuted by Synods of the Church who fear his asceticism and “pure and undivded deotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13). As a result he has to flee Egypt, his Slanderers having convinced the Patriarch, Nektarios’ own mentor and friend that he is a Judas. Rather than try to fight back, Nektarios bears with these false accusations and prayers for those, in vein of Jesus’ teaching, “pray for those who despiterfully use you.” (Matthew 5:44). Once he is in Greece he finds that his priviledges as a Priest are limitited to burials and praying for the sick, so bad is the slander from Egypt, that he finds himself not able to sustain a stable income or food, and sitting next to homeless man he says, “When the Lord is your only hope, it is then that you can feel his presence. I have been blessed lately to share in your sufferings.” These words are powerful, “when God is your only hope,” I have been pressed to that in my life when I was homeless, living out of a car for four years, and I can concur that you do feel his profound presences, for Jesus Our Lord was homeless, “foxes have dens, birds have nest, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20).
The persecutions continue to follow Bishop Nektarios, and his response in prayer is “Have metcy on those who hate me.” I confess that this is a hard aspect of “bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you,” (Luke 6:28) that our Lord taught, the normal response is to cuse them and ask for the Lord to avenge us. And yet what you see with each persecution is that Father Nektarios is being pressed to places he needs to go, including a Ecclesiastical School where he trains the next generation of priests, and gets pubished by a friend of his steward Kostas. Rather than be behind closed doors as Partiarch, in Church politics, Nektar is at a school that is ecclesiastical and a regular high school where he is effecting hearts with the love of God, something he even says, “They dont seem ro care about me either, the good news is God loves us.” That is a mantra he passes to everyone he meets, “God loves us.”
Prior to his elevation to Director and Teacher at the school, he is seeking counsel with another Bishop who believes he is innocent, who says of the slanders,
“Because they keep slandering you in Egypt, they keep sending letters. Most of them are anonymous.”
Indeed, is this not how it is now? People go on blogs, go on YouTube, Reddit, and so forth to slander people and accuse them with anonymous names & aliases. I always say it is perfectly fine to debate someone’s error and teaching, and if they truly are bad like Alexander the Coppersmith Paul warns about, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds, You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message,” (2 Timothy 4:14-15) then you can say so.; but to go after soemone with spurous allegations just to tear them down is not in the spirit of correction. We are suppose to do as Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” (Matthew 18:15).
One of the sorrows Bishop Nektarios must endure is losing his citizenship do the changing geography of the times,
“You are not a Greek cirizen, you were born in Selyvria (Thrace), it is no longer part of Greece, it is Turkey now.”
How jarring is it to have the place in which you were born changed, I imagine people who have lived with India and Pakistan split, and other nations have gone through this, what do you do when you face losing your nations? The Scriptures remind us, “For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven,” (Hebrews 13:14) and “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:10.
In the throes of his persecution, Father Nektarios is told,
“You seem ro be the real deal, no wonder they do not like you.”
Indeed if you have a genuine desire to obey Jesus you will be
persecuted, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” (2 Timothy 3:12) and the spirit of envy wirks in the church as much as the sorld, “But if you are bitterly jealous (envious) and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find” (James 3:14-16). People will respond to people trying to live pure lives not with praise but a desire to persecute them. It is a spirit that cannot tolerate people who have holy inclinations and seek to truly live by Jesus’ commands.
When the Secular Adminstrator comes to Bishop Nekaphorios, he rebukes over authority, that him punishing himself rather than his students is a lapse of authority, but Nektarios responds,
“A heatthy balance between kindness and authority is best.” That knowing when to be gentle with people and when to show tough love is important, and I wholeheartedly agree. Some people bemoaning their tribulations are truly suffering and deserve compassion, others are playing at being victim and need prophet’s touch to tell them they are “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Galatians 6:7-8).
When a student name Nicolas falls gravely ill, and the doctors are unable to help the young and diligient student, Father Nektarios announces, “Inform students we are going to hold an all night prayer for the healing of Nicholas.” I have participated in these pray vigils and the person was healed! Prayer vigils are a real thing, and should be done! For when, “two or more gather in my name, I there in thier midst,” (Matthew 18:20), and “when two or more gather and agree on anything it shall be done,” (Matthew 18:19).
Later when Bishop Nektarios finds persecution has ebbed, and he is being considered to be Patriach again, his frriend Kostas reading a review in a religious almanac says,
“If anyone else was chosen for patriarchal throne, he would be nost pleased. ‘I wish to stay most pleased.” Nektar is content to be a preacher and teacher. He does not want the Patriacharical Throne and instead would be content to teacher the school.
When Neka is much older, Kostas goes on about him be Patriarch, to which he says,
“There is a danger in what you want me to become Kostas. When you become a Patriarch you become a man of power, and power is like a cancer eating away at you slowly... Many great men have fallen because of the power they've been given. I'd rather not fall into that trap.” Indeed, Rodney Stark shares,
“There is the Church of Power, and the Church of Piety.” (The Case for the Crusades). The Church of Power is political and seeks authority and power and becomes corrupt, while the Church of Piety is humble and seeks God and Him alone as Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness, “Away with you Satan! As it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” (Matthew 4:10).
The Persections and slanders do not cease as Father Nektarios gets older and establishes a Convent for some oprhan women in Aegina, Greece. The Bishop who agreed to make it an official convent in the Synod goes back on his word and says Nektar has established it illegally. Then a mother of one of purported orphans accuses Father Nektarios who is old and frail of being a whoremonger and is doing lewd things with the nuns, and all the Nuns have to be examined first the Ecclesiastical examiner and later the State, all of them being confirmed to be virgins, but the humilation to those women is a blow and the Nektarios continues to be abused by these slanderers in word and deed.
In the end Father Nekaphorious after his death is acquitted of all his accusations in a formal Apology from the Synod, and made a Saint. The Covent got recognized as offical, and all his labors bore fruit, though he never got to see them. His persecutions make vidivd the words of St Paul, “if you seek to live a godly life in Christ, you shall be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12). This was his experience, and the experience of all of us Christians if we seek to take up our cross and follow Christ and resist the flesh, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:4).
I recommend Man of God, though I do not recommend the Greek Orthodox Church. I believe that within the walls of the Greek and Roman Churches there were people who are worthy to examine, in The Roman Tradition, it is Joan of Arc, and in the Greek Tradition this Father Nektarios. His life and this film is instructive, it gives inspiration to “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” (Matthew 5:11). To see that slander, persecution, and enmity from people is not a thorn, but how God can lead you to where you belong, much like Jesus said, “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 10:23). Father Nektarios did this and everywhnere he went he helped people in their faith know God loves them from homeless on the street to students in school halls and to an isolated Greek Island. He was behaving as Christ always, something we all should aspire to, to as C.S. Lewis said, “every Christian is to become a little christ.” (Mere Christianity). Amen.
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