He also said that all power in heaven and on earth was given to Him by the Father, so that no one can do any good without Him and apart from Him, much less in spite of Him, either to himself or to others; and that only one name under the sun is given to people for salvation, and this is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour.

O Theodoulos, here is the mighty Helmsman, at the helm of the ship of human life that has gone astray! Here is the Captain, Who knows well the whole abyss of time and space and knows where the ship and the weary travelers lead. Rejoice and be glad!

Unbelievers ask themselves, "Who will bear witness to us about Him?" Such are the questions of those who walk the path of perdition and seek their salvation on this path.

Indeed, His works bear witness to Him. And even the murderers of Jerusalem themselves could not keep silent about this, but said: "What shall we do? This Man works many miracles. And they confirmed His words: I have done works among them that no one else has done.

But, in addition to His terrible and unprecedented miracles, He also turned to the testimony of His Heavenly Father. And the Father did not leave Him alone. He bore witness of Him with His voice from heaven.

Three times the voice of the Heavenly Father was heard. The first time was at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was the case at the beginning of Christ's ministry.

The second time was on Tabor, when the Lord was transfigured, and when His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as snow. Then again the Father testified with His voice about His Son: "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; Listen to him.

And the third time - before the very suffering of the Cross, when Jesus exclaimed: Father! glorify Thy name, then came the voice of the Father from heaven: And I have glorified, and I will glorify again. It must have been a loud and terrible voice, for the people standing near Jesus said, "This is thunder."

But don't the angelic voices also come from God? Undoubtedly, from God. The Archangel Gabriel, sent from God to Nazareth to the Virgin Mary, testified of Him, as it is written: He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High... The Son of God... and he will reign... and His kingdom shall have no end.

And when He was born in Bethlehem, an angel of God said to the shepherds and testified of Him: "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: for this day there is born unto you in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord; and this is a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. After this proclamation and the testimony of one angel, suddenly there appeared a multitude of the heavenly host, glorifying God and crying out: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!

Thus the heavenly messengers, sent from the Father, testified with their voices first to His conception in Nazareth, then to His birth in Bethlehem, and, finally, to His glorious resurrection in Jerusalem.

Silence

There is power in the voice, Theodoulos. But power is also in silence.

There is unequal power in both voice and silence. It depends on who is talking and what they are talking about, and who is silent and what they are silent about. The voice of the evildoer and the voice of the holy man of God have different power. And the silence of a thief who plots evil is not the same as the silence of a well-wisher who cares for good.