Orthodox Parables and Stories: "How can your forget your friends?"

 

"How can you forget your friends?"

As soon as I hear this phrase, I immediately want to laugh with Uncle Niko, a retired worker at a factory in Piraeus. Uncle Niko, bald, glasses, which he has been wearing for 20 years after cataract surgery, in his prayers calls St. John the Russian his friend.The Saints are truly our friends. “I came again, father, to my friend,” he says every time he comes to our church.

"I can't help but put a candle by my friend. We have been friends for many years! Whatever I ask, he does everything."

And then one day Uncle Niko arrived upset. He did not greet anyone, he went straight to his friend St. John. Venerating the relics, he comes up to us dejected. “Since yesterday I have been worried,” he says. "Yesterday morning I bought a lamb liver, gave it to my wife, and I took a jug and went to fetch some wine. I was waiting at a traffic light when suddenly I heard a voice in my car: “How can you forget your friends, huh?" I looked around and saw no one. I go into the store and hear church chants on the radio. “Here,” says the store clerk, “they are broadcasting the liturgy from the Church of St. John the Russian.”

I came to my senses, grabbed my empty jug and rushed back. I didn't eat anything. Is it a joke when the Saint himself tells you that you have forgotten him. "

No, Uncle Niko, you have been and will remain a friend of the Saint. We would comprehend your simplicity. You have surpassed us and you can be such a friend as the Lord commanded us to be. (April II, 1985)