By Father John Papademetrios
Tonight and tomorrow we commemorate Saint Phanourios.... A particularly popular Saint.... Of course, I am worried that the honor is more for the Phanouropita and less for our Saint.... This is evidenced by the care and concern given to the preparation of the relevant sweet....
What is the Phanouropita?
A "please" (for something we need) or a "thank you" (for what we received).... That's why we don't make a Phanouropita at a vigil, for example, instead of some other sweet....
You know what we forget? That all these responses of the love of our Saints to our requests (even for the most trivial ones) have ONLY ONE purpose, to help us cultivate our RELATIONSHIP with God.... We asked the Saint for something.... he came and helped us and out of gratitude we made the Phanouropita. And then what? Nothing.... We continued to live as before the difficulty arose, we continued to live "before Christ"....
The Saint is not a grocery store employee.... "give and take"....
The Saint is also not too voracious to rub his hands when he sees so many cakes....
He does not await the portion of sweet, rather the sweetness of all the parts of our heart is aimed at by his help....
It is not a particular object that we have lost but the One that we have forgotten....
In the meantime, coming to the church gathering to get the first blessing, does not mean that what is left over is trampled in the trash (irrational nature helps in this), and secondly, we don't distribute by choice (to our "own", or even worse, we take it home without permission)....
Our Saint Phanourios, reveal to us the awfulness of sin and the beauty of the Grace of our sweetest God!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.