The Journey towards Love

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From the writings of St. Symeon the New Theologian:


We should look upon all the faithful as one person and consider that Christ is in each one of them. We should have such love for them that we are ready to sacrifice our very lives for them. For it is incumbent upon us neither to say, nor think of any person as evil, but we must look upon everyone as good. If you see a brother afflicted with a passion, do not hate him. Hate the passion that makes war upon him. And if you see him being terrorized by the habits and desires of previous sins, have compassion on him. Maybe you too will be afflicted by temptation, since you are also made from matter that easily turns from good to evil. Love towards your brother prepares you to love God even more. The secret, therefore, of love towards God is love towards your brother. For if you don’t love your brother whom you see, how is it possible to love God whom you do not see?

"For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God Whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

[Corydoras]

That is an excellent and classic passage. Glad you posted it!!!

However, it's important to note that if your spouse or romantic friend is slapping, hitting, or beating you, you should get away - running away from someone who is trying to harm you doesn't prevent you from loving them or having compassion on them... it is NOT holy martyrdom to stay with an abuser. Rather, fleeing saves your life so you can do good on earth another day. This is particularly critical if children are involved, for the sake of their spiritual and physical well-being.

Orthodox 24-Hour Domestic Violence Crisis Line: (251) 342-8994

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

bump

[BuddyRey]

That was excellent. Mind if I share that with the folks at the Dudeism.com forum?

[TER]

That was excellent. Mind if I share that with the folks at the Dudeism.com forum?

Please do!

[dannno]

From the writings of St. Symeon the New Theologian:


We should look upon all the faithful as one person and consider that Christ is in each one of them. We should have such love for them that we are ready to sacrifice our very lives for them. For it is incumbent upon us neither to say, nor think of any person as evil, but we must look upon everyone as good. If you see a brother afflicted with a passion, do not hate him. Hate the passion that makes war upon him. And if you see him being terrorized by the habits and desires of previous sins, have compassion on him. Maybe you too will be afflicted by temptation, since you are also made from matter that easily turns from good to evil. Love towards your brother prepares you to love God even more. The secret, therefore, of love towards God is love towards your brother. For if you don’t love your brother whom you see, how is it possible to love God whom you do not see?

"For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God Whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

Except Muslims. Amen!!

[dannno]

That was excellent. Mind if I share that with the folks at the Dudeism.com forum?

Why, cause it ends with 1 John 4:20 ?

[BuddyRey]

Why, cause it ends with 1 John 4:20 ?

LOL! No, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice that.

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5:13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (Epistle of St. John the Theologian).

Commentary by St. Justin Popovich:

The most important thing is to know that believing in Christ means to have eternal life. This is the central and preeminent realization of every Christian. I believe and that is why I have eternal life. I have eternal life because I believe. From this realization, fearlessness and confession of faith are born; and readiness, as well, for every sacrifice for Christ, patience and joyous suffering for Christ. This realization becomes not just a guide, but also a supreme, guiding, and moral principle for a Christian. He then normalizes and regulates everything according to it. He then feels and knows that his highest concern is to achieve eternal life through every feeling, every thought, every act, and every deed. Then, this begins for us an unceasing struggle, and unceasing experience of the evangelic virtues, unceasing rebirth of oneself into something newer and newer, into a better and better man; always looking unto the Founder and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus and His labourers and followers (cf. Heb. 12: 1-2). Then, man always keeps in mind the evangelic batter call and rule: Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called (I Tim. 6:12). You are a Christian; your calling is to achieve eternal life, to fight day and night for eternal life; and for the safe of it, you must bear every torment, every hardship, every struggle with joy. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (II Cor. 4:17), to us who look at the eternal and search for that which is eternal; for our main purpose is eternal life (cf. II Cor. 4:18).

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Continue your lessons and don’t look at what this or that person is doing- just pay attention to yourself (Deut. 15:9). If many of your fellow-students are lewd, impious, blasphemous, and unruly, don’t you imitate them. When the Lord sent His disciples into the world to preach the Gospel, He told them: “I am sending you as sheep amid wolves: become wise like serpents and innocent like doves” (Matt. 10:16). And you, my child, are like a sheep amid wolves: become wise, and do not let the wickedness of the depraved, lewd, and impious influence you. Imitate the honey bee, which knows many impure, foul-smelling, and filthy places, but does not stop at these. He selects the fragrant and choice blossoms of the bushes and tress, and he gathers up the honey and the fragrant, aromatic wax. If you see anyone who is good, wise, pious and virtuous, imitate and keep company with him. Anyone you see that is lewd, filthy, impious, blasphemous, proud, envious and vindictive, do not approach him and do not keep company with him; but do not find fault with him, for Christ said: “Do no judge, so that you may not be judged, and do not condemn, so that you may not be condemned” (Luke 6:37).

Love, respect and take care of your parents, and your brothers as well. If they don’t listen to you, and scorn you, then don’t tell them anything. Just pray that the Lord may enlighten them to be at peace with one another. Also pray that the Lord may grant peace to the whole world and that we may all be deemed worthy of the heavenly and unending life and kingdom. Amen.

Excerpt taken from the book:
Father Philotheos Zervakos: Paternal Counsels, Vol.1

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"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

This I command you, to love one another."

—John 15:9-17

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"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way;
It is not irritable or resentful; It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

—1 Cor 13:4-8

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"No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us."

—1 John 4:12-19

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"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

—Matt 22:36-40

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"Love does not depend on time, and the power of love continues always. There are some who believe that the Lord suffered death for love of man but because they do not attain to this love in their own souls it seems to them that it is an old story of bygone days. But when the soul knows the love of God by the Holy Spirit she feels without a shadow of doubt that the Lord is our Father, the closest, the best and dearest of fathers, and there is no greater happiness than to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds, according to the Lord’s commandment, and our neighbor as ourself. And when this love is in the soul, everything rejoices her; but when it is lost sight of man cannot find peace, and is troubled, and blames others as if they had done him an injury, and does not realize that he himself is at fault – he has lost his love for God and has accused or conceived a hatred for his brother.

Grace proceeds from brotherly love, and by brotherly love grace is preserved; but if we do not love our brother the grace of God will not come into our souls."

-St. Silouan the Athonite

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"Let us not render evil for evil, and we shall not receive our due for our sins. For we find the forgiveness of our trespasses in the forgiving of our brothers; and the mercy of God is hidden in mercifulness to our neighbor. Therefore the Lord said, “Forgive, and you shall be forgiven,” and, “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” See how the Lord bestowed on us the method of salvation and has given us eternal power to become sons of God!"

-St. Maximus the Confessor

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The Holy Spirit teaches us to love our enemies, so that the soul pities them as if they were her own children. There are people who desire the destruction, the torment in hell-fire of their enemies, or the enemies of the Church. They think like this because they have not learned divine love from the Holy Spirit, for he who has learned the love of God will shed tears for the whole world.

You say that So-and-so is an evil-doer and may he burn in hell fire. But I ask you — supposing God were to give you a fair place in paradise, and you saw burning in the fire the man on whom you had wished the tortures of hell, even then would you really not feel pity for him, whoever he might be, an enemy of the Church even? Or is it that you have a heart of steel? But there is no place for steel in paradise. Paradise has need of humility and the love of Christ, which pities all men. The grace of God is not in the man who does not love his enemies.

O merciful Lord, by Thy Holy Spirit teach us
to love our enemies, and to pray for them with tears.
O Lord, send down Thy Holy Spirit on earth
that all nations may know Thee, and learn Thy love.

O Lord, as Thou Thyself didst pray for Thine enemies,
so teach us, too by Thy Holy Spirit, to love our enemies.
O Lord, all peoples are the work of Thy hands;
turn them from enmity and malice to repentance,
that all my know Thy love.

O Lord, Thou didst command us to love our enemies,
but it is hard for us sinners, if Thy grace be not with us.
O Lord, pour down Thy grace upon the earth.
Let all the nations of the earth come to know Thy love;
to know that Thou lovest us with a mother’s love,
and more than a mother’s love
for even a mother may be forgetful of her children,
but Thou forgettest never,
because Thy love for Thy creation is boundless,
and love cannot forget.

O merciful Lord, by the riches of Thy mercy
save all peoples.

-St. Silouan the Athonite

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"If we detect any trace of hatred in our hearts against any man whatsoever for committing any fault, we are utterly estranged from love for God, since love for God absolutely precludes us from hating any man."

-St. Maximos the Confessor

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The Way of Life is this: Thou shalt love first the Lord thy Creator, and secondly thy neighbor as thyself; and thou shalt do nothing to any man that thou wouldst not wish to be done to thyself.

What you may learn from these words is to bless them that curse you, to pray for your enemies, and to fast for your persecutors. For where is the merit in loving only those who return your love? Even the heathens do as much as that. But if you love those who hate you, you will have nobody to be your enemy.

- The Didache

[Maximus]

The Way of Life is this: Thou shalt love first the Lord thy Creator, and secondly thy neighbor as thyself; and thou shalt do nothing to any man that thou wouldst not wish to be done to thyself.

What you may learn from these words is to bless them that curse you, to pray for your enemies, and to fast for your persecutors. For where is the merit in loving only those who return your love? Even the heathens do as much as that. But if you love those who hate you, you will have nobody to be your enemy.

- The Didache

I love the Didache

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"God is Love. And if we call upon God in our life as the Holy Fathers teach us, then we are calling upon Love. If we know and believe that He is present everywhere at all times and if we are united with Him in our hearts, He will teach us how to love our neighbor. For we do not know how to love either the Lord or our neighbor. The evil spirits often so interfere with the Divine love given us by God that they often lure us away from the path of real and true love. Their suggestions are full of the physical and emotional aspects of this world: enjoyment and lust, which is nothing but enslavement.

It often happens that a person, either young or old, falls in love with another person or even an object. Some people fall in love with gold and cannot bear to be separated from it or from their wealth, house, and possessions, and they become enslaved. If someone were to take this from them, they would become desperate. Many times the powers of evil bring such people to the brink of self-destruction.

Is this love? The spirits of evil often come and meddle with the Divine love that God has planted in us. That kind of love (corrupted by the evil spirits) is without discernment. But the love of God is boundless…Love is perfection, says the Apostle (Rom. 13:10). God is perfect, He is faultless. And so, when Divine love becomes manifest in us in the fullness of Grace, we radiate this love not only on the earth, but throughout the entire universe as well. So God is in us, and He is present everywhere. It is God’s all-encompassing love that manifests itself in us. When this happens we see no difference between people – everyone is good, everyone is our brother, and we consider ourselves to be the worst of men, servants of every created thing.

In this kind of love we are humbled; our soul is at peace and in humility. And humility is the perfection of the Christian life. It is not in the raising of the dead or in working miracles that Christian perfection lies, but in extreme humility. When we are illumined by the Grace of the Holy Spirit in the fullness of Divine love, then we want to serve everyone and help everyone. Even when we see a little ant struggling, we want to help him.

So, love is sacrifice. Love sacrifices itself for its neighbor."

-Elder Thaddeus

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“If you have something on your conscience that bothers you, then go directly and make a prostration to show your repentance: “Please, forgive me, my brother, for I was wrong”. This action corrects your mistake. Do not disregard your conscience. We may wrong one another for we are human. Whether someone said something bad to you or he did not carry out what you asked him to do, your conscience might be troubled. Without exception, humble yourself before your brother and say “forgive me”.

~Elder Ephraim of Katounakia

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Let your soul devote itself to the prayer 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me' in all your worries, for everything and for everyone. Don't look at what's happening to you, look at the light, at Christ, just as the child looks to its mother when something happens to it. See everything without anxiety, without depression, without strain and without stress. There is no need to exert yourselves and strain yourselves. Let all your effort be directed toward the light and toward acquiring the light, so that instead of devoting yourselves to thoughts of despair, which do not come from the Spirit of God, you devote yourselves to the praise of God.

All unpleasant things which are within your soul and cause you anxiety can become occasions for the glorification of God and cease to torment you. Have trust in God. Then you will forget the worries and become His instruments. Distress shows that we are not entrusting our life to Christ. Doesn't St. Paul say, We are afflicted on every side, but not distressed?

Deal with everything with love, kindness, meekness, patience and humility. Be rocks. Let all the waves break over you and turn back leaving you untroubled. You'll say, 'That sounds fine, but is it possible?' The answer is 'Yes, always - with the grace of God.' If we look at things in human terms, of course, it is impossible. But instead of affecting you adversely, all these things can be of benefit to you, increasing your patience and your faith. Because all the difficulties that surround us represent a kind of gymnastics for us. We exercise ourselves in patience and endurance. Listen and I'll give you an example.

A man once came to me and started to recount all his grievances with his wife. When he had finished I said to him:
'Are you really so stupid?'
'What's so stupid about what I've been saying?' he asked.
'Everything,' I replied. 'This wife of yours loves you deeply.'
'I know,' he said, 'but look at all the things that she does to me...'
'She does all these things to you to sanctify you, but you're too dim-witted to realize it. Instead of being sanctified, you are infuriated and you make your life hell.'
If only he had had patience and humility, he wouldn't have missed those opportunities for sanctification.

- from Wounded By Love, The Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios

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To believe in Christ's words and deeds is easy, for it only involves believing in our hearts and confessing with our tongues. But the test of the truth of our faith is by our deeds and behavior. After faith comes the "narrow gate" and the hard way, which everyone who has believed in Christ must go through. The narrow gate is the critical point at which one crosses from the wide way, which leads to destruction, to the hard way, which leads to life. It is where the heart and conscience are examined in the light of the cross.

The worst enemies hidden within a believer are hatred, feuding, anger, judgment—including judging others without judging oneself—defaming others, and trying to remove the speck out of their eyes while ignoring the log fixed in the pupil of one's own eye (cf. Matthew 7:3).

Unfortunately, there are those who find these sins insignificant and are oblivious to them. They are unaware that these sins have become part of their nature. They practice them shamelessly as if Scripture and the Day of Judgment did not exist—as if there were no narrow gate in front of them.

Faith to them will be of no use, because those who behave in such a way have trampled on love, despising and abusing it.

Love is God. It is the testimony to the true Faith and its effectiveness. Christ's teachings will always remain on a higher plane than that which the human race will ever attain to, even by its utmost efforts, in order that humanity may ever remain penitent before God and Christ, and therefore, hold fast to Divine Grace.

— Matthew the Poor

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If someone, who sees Christ's sacrifice and love, does not believe that He is our God...
…and in order to believe asks for miracles, he will neither be able to truly love, nor to truly believe in Him.

Christ was incarnated, mocked, whipped, crucified, out of His extreme love for humankind; He shed His blood for us. All these facts explicitly indicate to everyone that He is true love. Impelled by the fact that “God is love,” we should love Him in return and believe that He is our God, for “we know no good apart from Him”.

-Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos, +1994

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…”A house is not built by beginning at the top and working down. You must begin with the foundations in order to reach the top.” They said to him, “What does this saying mean?” He said, “The foundation is our neighbor, whom we must win, and that is the place to begin. For all the commandments of Christ depend on this alone.”

-Abba John the Dwarf

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If a man builds a house and leaves it without a roof, this house can’t be used at all. In the same way, if a man acquires all the virtues but not love, the house remains roofless and is of no benefit at all.

-Elder Philotheos of Paros, +1980

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It is a fearful thing to hate whom God has loved. To look upon another- his weaknesses, his sins, his faults, his defects- is to look upon one who is suffering. He is suffering from negative passions, from the same sinful human corruption from which you yourself suffer. This is very important: do not look upon him with judgemental eyes of comparison, noting the sins you assume you'd never commit. Rather, see him as a fellow sufferer, a fellow human being who is in need of the very healing of which you are in need. Help him, love him, pray for him, do unto him as you would have hime do unto you.

- St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

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"Our life and our death are with our neighbor. If we do good to our neighbor, we do good to God; if we cause our neighbor to stumble, we sin against Christ."

-St. Anthony the Great

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"Man becomes fearful of judging others and looks upon every other person as better than himself. And if he sees other people, be they adulterers or unrighteous, he considers them as better than himself ~ a fact that he truly feels in his hidden conscience and not something just claimed in his outward speech. This he does from a heart free of all impurities. He looks upon everything as good, for he looks and thinks with God's mind."

-St. Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Nineveh