One day, on the second largest island of Fiji, Vanua Levi, the missionary in charge of the island, Father Barnabas, together with the priest Savvas, visited the hospital in the town of Labasa to comfort a sick man. As they were talking to the sick man, at the other end of the corridor they heard loud unnatural screams, and, bewildered by the hideousness of the sound, they moved to help.
In an adjoining room, there was a girl lying on the bed, covering her ears with her hands, shaking her head left and right and screaming in a creepy way. The nurses, frightened, stood there, unable to understand what had happened.
Father Savas approached a nurse and said to her: “We are from the Greek Orthodox Church. Can we just crucify her?” Then he took out the cross, which had Holy Wood inside, and began to crucify her on her face. The more he crucified her, the more she screamed. Finally, the priest put the cross in the girl’s mouth and immediately she calmed down. She was clearly demon possessed and by the power of the Holy Wood the demon was gone.
This incident reminds us of the words of the troparion of the Paraclete, “Great is the power of your Cross, O Lord, for it has come to pass in the place and is working in the world” (sound C, Thursday Evening, Apocrypha – martyrdom).
Christ came to earth and was crucified for the salvation of the whole world. Therefore, the power of the Holy Cross is not limited to Christians alone, but to every person who is under the power of Satan.
The healing of this Fijian daughter by the touch of the Holy Wood and the faith of the fathers who thought of crucifying her with it was the best sermon for her, her family and all those who witnessed this miracle.
When Christ told His disciples that He would be with them as they preached His Gospel, that is exactly what He meant: His living presence witnessed by the signs and wonders that followed.
Therefore, the mission is done by Christ Himself using as His instruments simple men like the Fitzian Father Barnabas and the simple-minded monk Sabbas.
Mission is not a matter of worldly wisdom, but of faith “acted out in love”.
† New Zealand Amphilochius
