The testimony is holiness itself. The commandments contained in the law of God are a testimony precisely because He is all-holy. The tablets of the law were kept in the ark of revelation, or testimony (Exodus 27:21), and the tabernacle was called the tabernacle of revelation (Exodus 38:21). The prophets bore witness to God when He accused His people (Jeremiah 29:23) because He wanted to convert them to the kingdom of priests, which became in the New Testament "the royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). In verse 5 of the same chapter, the priesthood is called holy, predestined "to offer spiritual sacrifices" to the holiness of one's life. The Apostle Peter thus places the idea of witness in connection with the dedication of the congregation to God: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people taken as an inheritance, that you may proclaim the perfection of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

If the prophets of ancient Israel were called witnesses, it was because the Word they carried was the very presence of God. The Spirit that spoke through them bore witness of Himself. When the Orthodox Church dedicates a feast day to the memory of each prophet – Isaiah, Daniel – she thereby recognizes his personality transfigured through the Word. Some theologians say that all the prophets were deified.

But the faithful witness is Jesus par excellence, for He Himself is the Word of God. He says that He knows what He Himself has seen (John 3:I). He makes the Father known, for He Himself is "He who is in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18). It is the perfect intimacy between Him and God, who made Him a witness: "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; and the Father knoweth no man but the Son, and to whom the Son willeth to reveal" (Matt. 11:27). Testimony is unity, and this is because the witness himself lives in communion with God—in the communion of love and obedience. That is why Jesus became a constant witness of God, who "perfected him through suffering" (Heb. 2:10), and will remain so until the end of history. When Jesus appeared in His death as the "Lamb of God," He became the High Priest of our souls.

There is no other testimony than the testimony of the Cross. This explains why, after the Ascension, Peter demanded in the following words that someone take the place of Judas, who had fallen away: "It is necessary, therefore, that one of those who were with us all the time that the Lord Jesus dwelt and spoke to us, from the baptism of John until the day in which he ascended from us, should be a witness with us of his resurrection" (Acts 1:21-22). Being with Jesus is a source of testimony of His victory. That is why the Christian East calls the contemplation of Jesus bios apostolikos (the apostolic life). Only the one who has seen Christ is a "messenger."

Finally, the witness is the martyr. In Greek, it is the same word. Whoever is for Christ will overcome the devil "with the blood of the Lamb and with the word of his testimony" (Rev. 12:11). For love conquers nature, "the lover and the beloved are united in death," as the Church sings on the feast of St. George.

Nevertheless, the Church is obliged to teach and preach. The priesthood itself is defined as the ministry of the Word. Indeed, the word of the teacher of the Gospel will reach the hearts only if his own heart is wounded by the Word. Only fiery people have a fiery word. Teaching can enlighten the mind, but it does not lead to the glory of God. This can only be done by a spiritual father, that is, a person who is able to give birth to another in Christ. Such a person may not belong to the clergy.

Such a pattern of testimony is equally true for a society marked by religious pluralism or secularized. An indifferent, cold, disappointed or hateful heart will still respond to someone who loves unselfishly. The light of the witness becomes the radiance of Revelation if those who live near a person know that his power comes to him from Christ.

Love makes you wiser. It does not neglect this or that cultural tool, for example, a deep knowledge of other religions in a pluralistic society. After all, it is a question of getting to know another person in his otherness, to understand and accept him along with his difference. The openness of hearts dictates the behavior or even the content of the dialogue. It is necessary to respect the originality of the messages. A witness does not have to engage in comparative theology, much less polemics. He is sensitive to spiritual beauty, even if it comes from non-Christians. He accepts it as a gift of the Spirit.

This sensitivity is possible only when a person is free from fear, from the complex of a representative of a minority, from the self-perception of a prisoner of a historical ghetto. Yes, in any human environment, where there is no suffocation of unfreedom, a Christian is called to creativity. And even when the witness is forced to remain silent, his face radiates joy and peace.

An open heart can be combined with a lack of education: a witness is taught only the Scriptures and the Liturgy, and he brings light. What is most important in a testimony is to identify with the poor. To be free from what you have; not to oppress anyone; to share with everyone even to the point of ruin; to look at others as the Lord looked — this is the best inner state for witnessing to the Gospel. The spirit of poverty, monastic asceticism, prayer and humility are Christian virtues to which, for example, Islam has always been sensitive.

In a hierarchical society, in developing countries, witness such as we have described is essentially the same as witness in a secularized world. Conservatism, religious formalism, and integrism reveal the same absence of a living God as a completely godless society.

Traditionalist society and secularized society may believe in different mythologies. But a group that claims to be guided by God is really based on the idolatrous notion of an avenging God who keeps man in a humiliated state or freezes him in the mentality of a clan—a clan led by God. A group may also, in striving for the technique it lacks, participate in the mythologization of technology and in scientism, which is somewhat more primitive than modern neopositivism.

The history of societies does not convey any message, and the religion of the media brings everywhere empty talk and just emptiness, and both belong to death. If you are also afraid of an environmental cataclysm, a nuclear catastrophe, see the collapse of empires or small countries that no one is interested in protecting, you can fall into a state of constant anxiety. Such a consciousness is ready to deify its own mind, believe in reincarnation, or begin to drown out the fear of death with drugs and sex. Of course, there is a lot to be developed: new apologetics, new prolegomena of faith associated with modern sciences. After the recognition of the "big bang" theory, it is no longer possible to drag a philosophy based on outdated knowledge. Undoubtedly, a new language needs to be developed; We need to restart the conversation about how to understand faith. It is also necessary to protect real culture with its treasury of feelings and reason; it is necessary to defend freedom or fight for it where it is lost, since freedom is the most favorable environment for the normal development of man and for the perception of faith based not on credulity, prejudice or fear of God.

A secularized society that does not call on God should not frighten us. From a certain point of view, it is healthier than the pagan world that worships false gods. "Let Christians, rejecting authority and violence, become poor and peaceful servants of the Crucified God, who affirms the freedom of the individual. Let them fight in peace on the side of those who seek the meaning of this world. Let them vouch for the faith of others. Let them also vouch for those who do not have faith, but create, even if very modestly, beauty and goodness" [3].