The warped logic of the miracle seeker
So the fact that the corpse of deceased monk Vissarion Korkoliakos has failed to decompose (it is currently on public display at a small church in Fthiotida, central Greece) is apparently a «sign from above» or «a message for our people and our era.» At least this is the conclusion drawn by the Holy Synod, which was evidently fearful of opposing the verdict drawn by our television channels, which rushed to adopt the role of clergy, exploiting the Church’s long silence on the matter. For weeks, the Church leadership had opted to stay in the background despite the appearance of several clerics on television debates. But as Church officials sat and pondered what to do, leaving exposed those bishops who had feared the commercialization of religious worship and the birth of a new form of idolatry, other clerics raved about miracles on late-night talk shows, threatening to destroy the faith of those who are not impressed by sensationalism. One of the most ridiculous assertions made by a cleric in support of the miracle argument was this: Although the 2001 attacks on New York’s Twin Towers also struck the nearby Aghios Nikolaos Church, «the icon of the saint remained unscathed.» Now, what kind of mind does it take to imagine that God would allow thousands of people to die but – in order to «send a divine sign» – ensure that a religious icon remained undestroyed? Even miracles have some sort of logic, the kind of logic that would have applied had Vissarion’s face not required blotting out during TV coverage.
