December 11, 2025, man is endowed with the innate need to learn and to discover new means of acquiring knowledge. In his fallen state, however, he tends to confuse this need for novelty with the gratification of the passions and that is why, when we abandon God and turn towards the material world, we are enslaved and it becomes impossible to enter the Lord’s presence and to follow Him.
In the Parable of the Great Supper, we see that the man who has bought five yoke of oxen turns down the invitation of the Master for no other reason than his apparently urgent need to attend to his newly acquired beasts. This attitude is so typical of our generation with its insatiable appetite for the latest information and technology. The prince of this world so burdens the heart and darkens the mind that it finally becomes impossible for man to stand before God face to face. As we have said it is normal that man should wish to grow and develop. But he should see to do so primarily in the realm of the Spirit, for it is there that God grants us newness of life, the only ‘novelty’ that has eternal value.
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou, Remember Thy Frist Love
