“Love the One so that all will love you”.
(Elder Amphilochios of Patmos)
Speak to
almost anyone today and they will tell you that our love for one another is
getting colder. Why should this be? As pious and Orthodox Christians we have
been brought up to know that the first virtue is love for one another. How,
then, is it possible that this love we should be demonstrating every day is
getting colder?
Perhaps
many of us need to re-examine our Christian lives, go back to basics, and
realize once more that the most important virtue is to love one another
(members of the Family of God) and our neighbor (who maybe doesn’t know Him at
all), and to pray for one another, even for those that hate us. In the service
of Great Compline in the Orthodox Church the priest offers this prayer: “For
all those who love us and hate us.” The response is “Lord, have mercy.”
All of us
desire and need the mercy of our Lord, and to receive this great mercy we need
to have sincere, heartfelt love for Him, and one another, every day. Surely we
cannot expect the great love of our Savior Jesus Christ to fill us to
overflowing when we have let our hearts become cold towards one another? Our
Gracious Lord God turns His Face away from us when we do not show love and
kindness towards one another. He turns His face away, and we are left with a
terrible sense of loneliness and suffering, for to be without God is the
saddest time in our lives. Our hearts have become cold and we do not love as He
has commanded us to do – “Love one another” (St John 13:34). Such love is a
command of our Lord, and is the sign of our discipleship. So let us pray that
the Holy Spirit of our God will warm our cold hearts and return us to obedience
to Him.
Just
because others have become cold in their hearts it does not mean that we should
copy them, becoming unkind and not showing love towards each other. We need to
sense the true peace of God within our soul, the peace that only comes when we
are in union with Him in love. The divine love that He pours into of hearts
radiates out to those around us, even to those who do not appear to love us in
return. Many people seem today to live in the situation where they cannot count
on the fingers of one hand the number of their friends, yet their perceived
enemies are multitude! Strange, but not beyond the healing, loving power of our
Lord!
Our
purpose on this earth as Christians is to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of
our God, and in doing so we seek to walk in the light of Christ with our
neighbor on the same path - not only seeking Paradise, but also becoming
friends with our neighbor and our Lord God. He is the truest friend we can
have, Almighty God, who loves the mankind He has created. The Greek word
philanthropia means our Lord God is the friend of mankind. So our Gracious Lord
loves us, our friends, neighbors, and even those who hate us! With both hands
we can now pray and give Him glory and honor.
As we
continue to worship and pray within our local parishes and in our homes, let us
realize that when we walk outside of those churches and homes, we must face the
world around us. We do not live insulated from contact with the world: our
loving God has placed us in His world so that love can flow through us into the
world. So do not let your heart become cold, but always show the same
friendship our Lord God has for us towards every soul we meet. Finally, we can
find true peace within our souls, as where there is love for God, and for one
another, Christ dwells within us. What a blessing for us all! Now coldness towards
one another has turned to love towards everyone!
Let us
love one another, so that with one mind and heart we may confess: the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in essence and undivided. Amen.
Humbly In The Love Of Christ Our Lord,
Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Source: http://www.serfes.org/spiritual/october2004.htm
CONVERSATION