10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak of Myself; The Father who is in Me, He does the works. Christ, saying that he who saw Him, saw the Father, of course, understood faith by seeing. Seeing the Father in Christ is the same as believing that the Son

282 Be strong Be strong in spirit and pray - The last day is coming. Strengthen yourself in faith with the power of God - Soon our Lord will come. close to

Be aware Once the Buddha said: - Nothing will help you: there is nowhere to hide from two things - from the result of your actions and from death. - What to do? they asked him. He replied: - Be aware! The Buddha was asked to explain: "How is it to be aware?" He told

Father Dimitry and Father Vasily The priests who served with us in Grebnev seemed to consider it their duty to visit our house. And they changed often. Father Vladimir kept a list of both rectors and "second" priests, and deacons. There were only two times in forty years when the priests

Priests Fr. Ivan Zaitsev, Fr. Arkady When Fr. Dimitry Dudko was arrested, priests in Grebnev continued to be replaced quite often anyway. Father Ivan Zaitsev was the rector for six years, who was diligently engaged in the restoration of the burnt-out winter church. His

About perfect love (“Whatever you want to be treated…”). 20th Week of Pentecost

And as you want people to do to you, so do you to them.

And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? for even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? for even sinners lend to sinners in order to get back the same amount.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and you will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and evil.

Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:31-36).

Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria

That one should not argue with one's neighbor, nor condemn one's neighbor

("Commentary on the Holy Gospel")

The apostles had to be sent to preach, and therefore they expected many persecutors and accusers. And so, if the apostles, weighed down by persecution, then wishing to take revenge on the offenders, would have been silent and ceased to teach, then the sun of the Gospel would have been extinguished. Therefore, the Lord first convinces the apostles not to take revenge on their enemies, but to endure everything that happens courageously, whether someone offends them or unrighteously plots against them. So He himself did on the cross, saying: “Father! forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing"(Luke 23:34). Then, so that the apostles would not say that such a commandment - to love enemies is impossible, He says: what you wish for yourself, then do to others, and be in relation to others what you wish others to have in relation to you. If you wish your enemies to be harsh, uncompassionate, and wrathful to you, then so be you. If, on the contrary, you want them to be kind and compassionate, and unmemorable of malice, then do not consider it an impossible thing to be one yourself. Do you see the innate law written in our hearts? So the Lord said: "I will put My law in their inward parts, and I will write it on their hearts"(Jeremiah 31, 33). Then he offers them another impulse, namely: if you love those who love you, then you are like sinners and pagans; but if you love those who are evil against you, then you are like God, who is kind to the ungrateful and evil. So what do you want: to be like sinners, or like God? Do you see the divine teaching? At first He convinced you by a natural law: what you wish for yourself, do to others; then he convinces both by death and by reward, for as a reward he promises you that you will be like God.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

"Be like having nothing"

("Thoughts for every day of the year")

The Lord blesses the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the reproached, under the condition that all this is for the sake of the Son of Man; it means that life, surrounded by all sorts of needs and deprivations, is gratified. Joy, contentment, honor, according to this word, do not represent good; yes it is. But as long as a person rests in them, he does not realize it. Only when he is released from their charm does he see that they are not representatives of the good, but only its ghosts. The soul cannot do without consolations, but they are not in the sensible; cannot do without treasures, but they are not in gold and silver, not in magnificent houses and clothes, not in this external fullness; can not do without honor, but it is not in the servile bows of people. There are other joys, other contentment, other honor, - spiritual, akin to the soul. Whoever finds them will not want external ones; Yes, not only will not want, but will despise and hate them for the sake of the fact that they block the spiritual, do not allow them to be seen, keep the soul in darkness, intoxication, in ghosts. That is why such people whole-heartedly prefer poverty, sadness and obscurity, feeling good among them, as if in some kind of safe fence from the charm of the charms of the world. What about those to whom all this goes by itself? To be in relation to all that, according to St. apostle, as having nothing.

Saint Philaret of Moscow

Word Week 19 of Pentecost

("Words and Speeches, Volume 1")

1806–1808

. Onion. VI. 35

What the highest of the angels of light futilely sought, what the immortal man was seduced in the paradise of sweetness, then, happy mortals, he promises you, God's love commands you now. I will be like the Most High(Isaiah XIV. 14), says the day dreamer; but the God of truth answered with his thunder: go to hell(Isaiah XIV. 15). You will be like Bosi(Gen. III. 5), caressed the insidious serpent of the forefathers; but the God of truth said: die the death(Gen. II.17). This same God promises to adopt us to Himself and wants and requires us to be like Him. And how little such a great gift costs us! Its price is love for our enemies: love your enemies and do good ... and you will be the sons of the Most High: for that there is good for the ungracious and evil(Luke VI. 35 and 36), therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect(Mat. v. 48).

So you who have the good fortune to be hated! by the glory of the children of God, I implore you to stop the movements of anger and indignation, tearing you apart, in order to survey the path of perfection opened for you by merciful Providence: love your enemies and do good .

To hold back a vengeful blow, but not to stretch out hands for help, to shed sweet flattery from the tongue and carry bile in the inside of the heart, does not mean loving enemies. Love is a living and active participation in the well-being of another. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink.(Rom. XII.20). This is the image of true love! Do not call yourself in vain ready for the services of your rival - be so in fact. Speak to him with your heart and back up your assurances with deeds.. Creep insensibly into his soul, use this pious cunning in order to take away from him the desire to do evil, in order to restore innocence and peace to the heart perturbed by malice. Love your enemies and do good!

The wisdom of the world finds difficulty here, presenting such love as unnatural; for it must be based on the representation of the visible or imaginary perfections of its subject: but how can one love those in whom we see nothing but deceit and malice? Of course, we cannot love evil, and who demands this? Feel all the disgust for vices that they deserve - this is not forbidden, but still required; only do not confuse them with the people themselves in whom you notice them: by separating them, you will still find in them that which is worthy of your love. No matter how unnatural it may seem to love an enemy, is it less contrary to nature to hate a person?

Human! what a name, what a charming word for disarming the most furious vengeance! Didn't nature bind you to him with a thousand needs of life? Doesn't she speak for him in your heart? God Himself loves him, takes care of him, keeps him, and you are not afraid, hating the weak, to arm the Almighty against you? Or do you think that the All-Seeing will not stand up for His acquisition? To want to punish the enemy is to impudently enter into the rights of the Almighty - this is a kind of indignation against His will and sacred power. Having appropriated a person to Himself by immeasurable blessings, He wants with the same hand with which he gives him bliss, to carry out punishment with it: Revenge is mine, I will repay, says the Lord (Rom. XII.19).

But why does the God of goodness and mercy accept such a formidable title - the God of vengeance? Is it not because of the lack of His love? - Not! He will become our enemy from an excess of love to secure our freedom and tranquility ...

What a pitiful condition - to pay hatred for hatred, insult for insult! What if the enemy is stronger than you?.. What will your vindictiveness serve then? Is it to hasten your death? And with equal forces, what can we expect, if not mutual fall and disaster? Finally, even though he was not able to resist you, are secret covenants less terrible than an open attack? And tormenting worries, but tricks, but plans, and enterprises that turn to their own harm, and painful thoughts even about one’s own impossible luck, and even more painful thoughts about the enemy’s luck, and finally the very luck, accompanied by the greatest pangs of conscience, and sometimes universal contempt ? Oh, how much torment for the hating heart - it is hell on earth, the flames of Gehenna!

What remains for us to avert these spontaneous torments? Surrender to God and respond to hatred with love, to deceit with simplicity, to evil intentions with benevolence, to reproach. useful tips, on insults with good deeds, on a curse with prayers. Here are the true weapons against the enemy! For doing this, according to the expression of the great Apostle, coals of fire you gather upon his head(Rom. XII.20). No matter how cruel and petrified he may be, your meekness will strike an insensitive heart, make you repent of the insults inflicted on you. She turns his wrath on himself, shame burns him. Thus, love for the enemy is not only a means to your peace, but also a strong instruction for him; you then enter into a kind of apostolate and become the weapon of his conversion to virtue!

For this reason, the merciful God, for one love for enemies, as if imputing to us those virtues to which we excite others, for this virtue alone promises the forgiveness of our sins: if you forgive a man their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you(Matt. vi. 14).

Surprisingly, in a word, the action of grace! Just as the ancient people of Israel, gnawed by snakes, looking at the copper image of the serpent, were instantly healed of their deadly ulcers: so a person, wounded by the serpent of Eden and infected with the poison of sin, with a single look of love on his imitator, his enemy, restores health to his soul. Ubo in our will is - to have enemies and benefactors. If we are generous and meek, then they can do nothing but give an opportunity to make amends before God for our crimes. They sow tares, and we reap wheat: their grievances are our merits.

Why do we lose sight of such a great advantage that we can have over our enemies? We look through a magnifying glass at the slightest disadvantages we suffer from them. Does not prudence require us to look at everything from the side that is more useful to us, and less distressing? Backbiting? Thank your indiscreet enemy: you will learn a way to correct errors that best friends would not show you. Disgrace, deprive of a good name? Keep calm; - what harm is there to the sun if some madman says that it is gloomy? So, if the ill-intentioned find stains in your virtue that it does not have, it is theirs, and not your dishonor. Dispossessed of property? There is no need if you did not consider it your own, but if you thought otherwise, then you have a chance to learn the truth. Deprive children, friends? Save virtue and you will be united in eternity; otherwise you are lost to yourself. Oppressed, persecuted? the land of the Lord, and the fulfillment of it(Psalm XXIII. 1). Human persecution only brings us closer to the Kingdom of God. Blessed are the exiles for the sake of righteousness, for those are the kingdom of heaven(Mat. v. 10). Threatened with death? Do not be afraid! life and death in one hand; but whoever lives for Christ, for him death is gain(Phil. I. 21).

If these reflections do not convince you to look at your enemies without confusion and anger, look at Calvary, where heavenly wisdom from ignorance, innocence from a hellish crime, the Creator from the creature, the Lord Savior from the enemies of the lost suffers and dies. Therefore, abhor the enemies of God, defeat the enemies of the fatherland, love your enemies. Amen.

Saint Nicholas of Serbia (Velimirovich)

Nineteenth week after Pentecost. Gospel of Perfect Mercy

(“Conversations. M .: Lodya, 2001, pp. 279-293”)

If people every day remembered God's mercy to them, they themselves would be merciful to each other..

Nothing makes a man so unmerciful as the belief that no one is merciful to him. None? Where is God? Does not God reward us every day and every night with His mercy for the unmercifulness of people? And is not the favor of the king himself more important for us at the royal court than his slaves? What is the use if all the king's servants shower us with favors, but the king is angry with us?

People become unmerciful, expecting others to show them mercy first.. But look, exactly the same is expected of them by others! And in this mutual expectation of mercy from each other, all people, to a greater or lesser extent, become unmerciful. And mercy is not a waiting virtue, but a virtue striving to manifest itself.. For how would people ever know about mercy, if God did not first show His mercy? The mercy of God caused mercy in people; and if God had not shown His mercy first, the world would not have known even the very word mercy.

For the one who realizes mercy as an active virtue, and not a waiting one, and so begins to fulfill it, both heaven and earth will soon be painted in a different color. For this man will quickly come to know both God's and human mercy. Mercy is a blow that inevitably strikes a spark. And the one who strikes this blissful blow, and the one who receives it - both feel the presence of God. At this moment, the merciful hand of God is felt on both hearts. That is why the Lord said: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Mercy is greater than pity, which the sages in India preached as the greatest virtue. A person may take pity on a beggar and pass him by, but a merciful person will take pity on a beggar and help him. Mercy to the poor is not the most difficult and most important thing in the law of Christ - in comparison with mercy to the enemy.

Mercy is greater than forgiveness. For to forgive an offense is half the way to God, and to do a work of mercy is the other half of this way.

Needless to say, mercy is greater than earthly justice? If there were no mercy, then all people would perish according to this earthly, legal justice. Law without mercy cannot even maintain the existing, while mercy creates in the world something new and great. Mercy created this whole world. Therefore, it is better for people to practice from childhood in the knowledge of the sweetness of mercy than in the knowledge of the astringency of the law. For the law can always be learned, but if the heart hardens, it is difficult to turn and become merciful. For merciful people will not sin in the law, but those who have fulfilled the whole law may be completely deprived of mercy and lose the crown of glory prepared by God for the merciful.

Today's Gospel reading tells us about the highest level of mercy - about love for enemies.. Our Lord Jesus Christ gives a commandment - not advice, but a commandment - to love your enemies too. And this commandment of His is not incidental and sporadic, as it was before Him in some rare places of the law, where on the whole this commandment - more in the form of advice than commandments - flashed; but this commandment about love for enemies is placed in the Gospel in the most prominent place.

Rivers Lord: And as you want people to do to you, so you do to them.. These are the opening words in today's gospel of love for enemies. First of all, if you want people not to be enemies to you, don't be enemies to people either.. For if it is true that every person in this world has enemies, it means that you yourself are someone's enemies. How then can you demand that the person to whom you are an enemy become your friend? That's why first pull out the root of enmity from your heart, and then just count how many enemies you have in the world. How much better you shoot out this evil root from your heart and pull out shoots constantly sprouting from it, so much less will you be able to count your enemies. So, if you want people to be your friends, you yourself must first stop being their enemies, and then become their friends. If you become friends with people, then the number of your enemies will either decrease significantly, or they will not exist at all. But this is not the main thing. The main thing is that in this case God will become your friend. The main thing for your salvation is not to be an enemy to anyone, and not to not have a single enemy yourself. For if you are an enemy to people, then you yourself and your enemies hinder your salvation; if you are a friend to people, then your enemies unconsciously help to build up your salvation. Oh, if each person thought only about how many people he is an enemy, instead of thinking about how many enemies he himself has! In one day the gloomy face of this world would shine like the sun.

The commandment of Christ to treat people the way we want them to treat us is so natural and so obviously good - it is amazing and shameful that it has not become a daily habit for people for a long time.

Nobody wants people to do him harm - that means, let no one do harm to people. Everyone wants people to do him good - that means, let everyone do good to people.

Everyone wants people to forgive him sins - so let him forgive people's sins.

Everyone wants people to sympathize with his grief and rejoice in his joy - let him also sympathize with the grief of other people and rejoice in their joy.

Everyone wants people to say kind words about him, treat him with respect, feed him if he is hungry, visit him if he is sick, protect him if he is persecuted - let him do the same with people.

This applies not only to individuals, but also to groups of people, neighboring tribes, peoples and states. If all classes, peoples and states would assimilate this rule, malice and class struggle would disappear, the mutual hatred of peoples would disappear, wars between states would cease. This is the cure for all these diseases, and there is no other cure.

The Lord further says: And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? for even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? for sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? for sinners also lend to sinners in order to get back the same. This means: if you wait for someone to do good to you, so that later you will pay for it with good, then you are not doing anything good. Does God wait for people to deserve the warmth of the sun, and only after that commands the sun to warm? Or is He the first to show His mercy and His love? Mercy is an active virtue, not a waiting one. God clearly shows this from the creation of the world. From day to day, since the creation of the world, God with his generous hand scatters rich gifts to all His creatures. For if He had waited for His first creatures to give Him something, there would be no world, no creature in the world. If we love those who love us, then we are traders who make an exchange. If we do good only to our benefactors, then we are debtors repaying our debt. And charity is not a virtue that only repays debts, but a virtue that constantly lends. And love is a virtue that constantly lends and does not expect a return. If we lend to those from whom we hope to receive back, what do we do? We move our money from one cash register to another. For what we have lent we consider our property, just as when it was in our hands.

But it would be foolish to think that by the above words the Lord teaches us not to love those who love us and not to do good to those who do good to us. God forbid! By this he only wants to say that this is a lower level of virtue, to which even sinners easily rise. This is the smallest measure of good that makes this world poor, and people - slavishly constrained and callous. The Lord wants to raise people to the highest level of virtue, from which all the riches of God and all the worlds of God are visible, and on which the constrained and frightened heart of a slave becomes the broad and free heart of a son and heir. Love for those who love us is but the first lesson on the infinite object of love; and doing good to those who do good to us is only Primary School in a long series of exercises in doing good; and lending to someone who gives us is not evil, but good, but this is only the first and tiny step towards the majestic good that gives and does not expect a return.

Whom does the Lord call sinners here? First, the pagans, to whom the mystery of the truth and love of God is not fully revealed. They are sinners because they departed from the original truth and love of God and instead of God made this world their legislator, which taught them to love only those who love them, and to do good only to those who do good to them. The great mystery of God's truth and love is now revealed again through our Lord Jesus Christ - and even more radiantly than at the beginning of creation - it is revealed first through the Jewish people - but not only for the Jewish people, but for all peoples on earth. And since God has been preparing the Jews for thousands of years through the law and the prophets to understand and accept the fullest revelation of the mystery, the Lord calls other peoples, mired in paganism, sinners. But by sinners - and even worse than the pagans - He means all those to whom the secret of truth and love is revealed, but who did not keep it, returning like a dog to his vomit, to the lower step of good. Among these are many and many of us: Christians by name, but by deeds - the most primitive pagans.

For what gratitude can we have if we love those who love us and do good to our benefactors? Are we not thereby returning what we have taken to its place? Indeed, we have received our reward! Only that deed deserves gratitude, which is at least somewhat similar to the deed of God's love..

But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. So be merciful, as your Father is merciful. Here highest altitude to which Christ wants to raise a man! Here is a doctrine unheard of before Him! And here is the radiance of human dignity, never dreamed of by the greatest sages in history! And here is the love of God, which melts the whole human heart into one great tear!

Love your enemies. It is not said: do not repay evil for evil, for this is not enough; this is just patience. And it is not said: love those who love you, for this is the expectation of love; but it is said: "Love your enemies"; do not only tolerate them, and do not wait, but love them. Love is a toiling, active virtue; virtue offensive.

But isn't love for enemies unnatural? This is the objection raised by non-Christians. Do we not see that nowhere in nature are there examples of love for enemies, but only for friends? So they object to us. What can we say? First of all, that our faith knows about two natures: about one, not damaged, not darkened and not embittered by sin, which Adam knew in paradise; and about the other, damaged by sin, darkened and embittered, which we constantly see in this world. In the circle of the first nature, love for enemies is completely natural, for in that nature love is like the air by which all creatures breathe and live. This is the true nature created by God. From that nature, Divine love shines into this nature of ours, like sunlight through clouds. And all true love that is on earth comes from that nature. In the circle of another, earthly nature, love for enemies could, because of its rarity, be called unnatural. But still it is not unnatural, but - in relation to earthly nature - supernatural, or, better, above-natural, for love generally comes into this sinful nature from another, primordial, sinless and immortal nature, which is higher than this ours.

“But love for enemies is so rare that it cannot be called natural,” others object. Well, if so, then the pearl is unnatural, and the diamond, and gold too. After all, they are rare, but who would call them unnatural? Really, only the Church of Christ knows numerous examples of this love. As there are herbs that grow only in one place on the earth, so this unusual plant, this extraordinary love grows and flourishes only in the fence of the Church of Christ. Anyone who wants to be convinced of the existence of numerous specimens of this plant and its beauty should read the lives of the apostles of Christ, the holy fathers and confessors of the faith of Christ, champions and martyrs of the great truth and love of Christ.

“If this love is not impossible, it is at least extraordinarily difficult,” is the third objection. Truly, it is not easy, especially for the student of this love far away, and not near God, Who alone gives her strength and food. How can we not love those whom God loves? God loves us no more than our enemies, especially if we ourselves are enemies to other people. And who among us can say that no one in the world calls him their enemy? If the sun of God shone and rain fell only for those whom no one considers their enemy, it would really be difficult for a ray of sunshine to fall on the ground and a drop of rain on earthly dust. What a scarecrow people make out of a hostile attitude towards themselves! Sin has infected people with fear, and from fear they see enemies in all the creatures around them. And God is sinless and fearless, and therefore He does not suspect anyone, but loves everyone. He loves us so much that even when we are surrounded by enemies without much fault of ours, we must trust that He knows about it and allows it for our good. Let's be fair and say that the enemies are our great helpers in spiritual perfection. If it were not for enmity on the part of people, many, many saints of God would not have become God's friends. Even the enmity of Satan himself is useful to those who are zealous for the holiness of God and for the salvation of their souls. Who was a greater zealot for the holiness of God and who loved Christ more than the Apostle Paul? And yet this holy apostle narrates that, having revealed many mysteries to him, God allowed the demon to be near him and annoy him. And so that I would not be exalted by the extravagance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, the angel of Satan, to oppress me, so that I would not be exalted(2 Corinthians 12:7). And if even a demon against his will benefits a person, then how can people not benefit him, incomparably less dangerous enemies than demons? One could safely say that often a person's friends do much more harm to his soul than his enemies. And the Lord Himself said: And the enemies of man are his household(Mt. 10:36; Mic. 7:6). Often those who live under the same roof with us, and who are so busy caring for our body and pleasing us, are the most bitter enemies of our salvation. For their love and care is not for our soul, but for the body. How many parents have destroyed the soul of their son, how many brothers - the soul of their brother, how many sisters - the soul of their sister, how many wives - the souls of their husbands! And all this - out of love for them! The understanding of this, daily confirmed, is another strong argument in favor of the fact that one should not indulge too much in love for one's relatives and friends, as well as withhold love from enemies. Is it necessary to emphasize once again that often, very often our enemies are our true friends? The trouble they cause is to our advantage; their reproofs contribute to our salvation; and the fact that they oppress us in the external, carnal life helps us to go deep into ourselves, find our soul and cry out to the Living God for its salvation. Indeed, our enemies often save us from the doom that our relatives are preparing for us, involuntarily weakening our character and nourishing our body at the expense of our soul.

Do good and lend without expecting anything, says the Lord. That is: do good to every person, regardless of whether he loves you or not; follow the example of God, who does good to everyone, both openly and secretly. If your good deeds do not cure your enemy of his hostility, your evil deeds will heal him still less. Do good also to those who do not demand and do not expect good from you, and lend to everyone who asks, but give as if you were giving, as if you were returning someone else's, and not giving your own. (“Merciful is the one who has mercy on his neighbor with what he himself received from God: either money, or food, or power, or instruction, or prayer - considering himself a debtor, for he received more than he needs. God asks him through his brother mercy and makes Himself a debtor.” Peter of Damascus). If your enemy does not accept any good from you, you can still do him a lot of good. Didn't the Lord say: pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you(Matthew 5:44)? So, pray for your enemies and thus do them good. If your enemy does not accept any charity or service from you, God will accept your prayer for him. And God will soften his heart and turn him to a good disposition towards you. It is not at all so difficult to make an enemy a friend, as it seems to people. If this is impossible for people, then it is possible for God. The one who turns the icy earth into a warm meadow on which flowers grow can melt the ice of enmity in the human heart and grow in it the fragrant flower of friendship. But, of course, the most important thing is not that your enemy, through the good done to him, turns and becomes your friend, the most important thing is that he does not destroy his soul because of hatred for you. It is for this latter that one must pray to God, and not for the former. For your salvation, it does not matter at all whether you will have more friends or enemies in this life, but it is very, very important that you are not an enemy to anyone, but a friend to everyone in your heart, in your prayers and in your thoughts.

If you do this, you will have a great reward. From whom? Maybe partly from people, but most importantly - from God. What reward? You be sons of the Most High and you can name God father his. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly(Matthew 6). If not today, then tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then at the end of time, before all angels and people. But what greater reward could we expect than the right to be called sons of Almighty and call the Most High Father yours? Behold, the Only Begotten Son of the Most High is the One Lord Jesus Christ, and only He has until now called God His Father. And now we, lost and sinners, are promised the same honor! What does this honor mean? This means that we will be in eternity where He is (John 14:3), in the glory in which He will be, in joy that has no end. This means that the love of God the Father incessantly accompanies us in all the troubles and sufferings of this life and turns everything around and arranges for our ultimate good. This means that when we die, we will not remain in the tomb, but we will be resurrected, just as He was resurrected. Ah, this means that we are only temporarily on this earth, as if on an island of the dead, but honor and glory and immortal beauty await us in the house of the Heavenly Father. However, is it necessary to enumerate all the benefits that an orphan expects when he is adopted by an earthly king? It is enough to simply say: such and such an orphan was adopted by the king, and everyone can immediately guess what treasures await this orphan. And our adoption is not human, but God's, for we will be the sons of the Most High, whose Son is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the sons of the Immortal King, the King of kings. God adopts us not for our merits, but for the merits of His Only Begotten Son, as the apostle says: For you are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus(Gal. 3:26; John 1:12). Christ accepts us as His brothers, and therefore God the Father accepts us as His children.

In fact, we can do nothing to deserve the right to be called the sons of the Living God. It would be ridiculous to think that we can do anything, even if greatest love to enemies, to deserve and pay for what our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His faithful servants. If we distribute all our possessions to the poor; if we fast all the days of our belly and stand day and night like a candle in prayer until the end of time; if in spirit we separate ourselves from the body as if from a cold stone and become passionless and insensible to this material world with our soul; if we give ourselves over to the whole world for spitting and trampling, and if we give ourselves up as food for hungry beasts, this is still an absolutely insignificant price for that good, that glory and that unspeakable mercy that the adoption of God brings with it. There is no mercy on earth and no love in a mortal man that could make a mortal man a son of God and an immortal citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. But the love of Christ makes up for that which is impossible for man: let none of us boast that by his love he can be saved and by his merits open the gates of paradise for himself.

Therefore, the commandment to love enemies, no matter how great and difficult it may seem, is only a mite that God requires from us in order to let us into Himself, into His luxurious royal abodes. He does not require of us that through the fulfillment of this commandment we deserve His kingdom and sonship, but only that we desire this kingdom and sonship more than anything else. He requires from us only faith in His word and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. What did Adam do to deserve heaven? nothing; but paradise was given to him through the love of God. What kept Adam in Paradise before his fall? Obedience to God, only obedience. When he and his wife doubted the commandment of God, by this very doubt they violated the commandment of God and fell into the mortal sin of disobedience. With the new creation, our Lord Jesus Christ requires from us the same thing that he demanded from Adam and Eve in paradise, namely: faith and obedience - faith that every commandment of His is saving for us, and unconditional obedience to every commandment of His. He gave all His commandments, including this one, about love for enemies, so that we would have faith and obedience to His word. And if at least one of His commandments were not good and saving for us, would He give it to us? He knew better than anyone whether this commandment was natural or not natural, feasible or not feasible; the main thing for us is that He gave this commandment, and we - if we want good for ourselves - are obliged to fulfill it. As a sick person with faith and obedience takes medicine from the hands of a doctor - whether it is sweet or bitter - so we, weakened and darkened by sin, must with faith and obedience fulfill everything that the philanthropic Physician of our souls and the Lord of our stomach, our Lord Jesus, has commanded us. Christ, the Son of the Living God. Honor and glory befits him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity of Consubstantial and Indivisible, now and forever, at all times and forever and ever. Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh

19th week after Pentecost. On Christian Love

("Sunday Sermons")

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In today's Gospel reading, Christ speaks of Christian love not in general terms, but specifically and very simply and accessible. Love becomes Christian, Divine, when a person, in loving, forgets himself. To forget oneself to the end is given to the saints, but to love without seeking a reward, without asking, without demanding, without extorting love for love, without extorting gratitude for its manifestation - the beginning of Christian love. It blossoms into the love of Christ, when the free gift of love reaches not only the loved ones (everyone knows how to do this), but also the unloved, those who hate us, who consider us enemies, who are considered strangers to us. If we do not know how to extend our love to those who are enemies to us, this means that we still remember only ourselves and that all our actions, all our feelings come from a still untransformed human consciousness, which is outside the mystery of Christ. We are called to love with a generous heart, and generosity, even natural, lies in the fact that a person is eager to give, rejoices when he can give not only what he does not need, but what is most precious to him, in the end - his heart, his thought, his life. We do not know how to love, but all life is a school of love, or vice versa, a terrible time of dark, cold alienation.

And so Christ opens the way for us to learn how to love: every time on the path of love I remember myself, every time I stand as an obstacle between my living, true movement of the heart and action, I must turn to myself and say: Get away from me Satan(Mk. 8, 33): you think about the earthly, not about the heavenly... Every time, when showing love, I will demand reciprocal love, gratitude for good deeds, I must turn to God and say: Forgive me, Lord, I have defiled the secret of Divine love... Every time when, in response to someone else's hatred, slander, rejection, alienation, I shut myself up and say: This person is a stranger to me, he is my enemy, I must know what is not for me. only in me, but for me the mystery of love has been closed, I am outside of God, I am outside the mystery of human brotherhood, I am not a disciple of Christ.

Here is the way; It is not in vain that Christ says that the path to the Kingdom of Heaven is narrow, that the gates are narrow: this path is very narrow, the commandment of Christ is very demanding, mercilessly demanding, because it belongs to the realm of love, and not of law. The law determines the rules of life for us, but it always ends somewhere, and beyond this limit we are free from it. Love knows no limit; she demands US to the end, all the way. We can't just some part warm souls; if we allow it, we will go out, cool down. We must burn with all our heart, and will, and body, and become burning bush, into that bush that Moses saw in the wilderness - which burned with all its being and did not burn up. Human love, when it is not sanctified by the Divine mystery, eats the substance on which it feeds. Divine love burns, turns everything into a living flame, but does not feed on what burns; in this Divine love everything that cannot live forever burns; there remains a pure and bright flame that turns a person into God, as the Old Testament says, as Christ repeats. We will learn at the cost of a burn of love, at the cost of rejection from ourselves, at the cost of sacrifice - let's learn this love. And only then can we say that we have become disciples of Christ. Amen.

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

19th Week after Pentecost

("Gospel of the Day")

Today Christ tells us in the Gospel about love for enemies - that this is the main and only sign that we are Christ's. We understand how great this commandment is, how dangerous it is to distort it.

There are two dangers in the world. There is only one danger - dislike, not only for enemies, but also for your loved ones - because of the multiplication of lawlessness in the world, love is becoming more and more cold. And another danger is to misunderstand Christ's commandment about love. The Holy Fathers say that as many false teachings about the truth of Christ exist in the world, so many false teachings about love exist, because love and truth are inseparable.

We very often repeat in our day, and not without reason, the words of St. Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow that we must love our personal enemies, abhor the enemies of God and defeat the enemies of the Fatherland. Here, too, there is danger for us. Making a slightly exaggerated emphasis on what St. Philaret is talking about in relation to the enemies of our Orthodox Church and to the enemies of our Fatherland - how would we not forget the commandment of love for personal enemies. While both are completely inseparable. The Lord, in the end, speaks precisely of love for enemies, and this determines that we do not wear a cross around our neck in vain, that we know the mystery of the Cross of Christ.

When the Grand Duchess the Martyr Elizabeth was thrown into the Alapaevsk mine by brutal executioners, she repeated with more than one mouth the highest prayer of the Savior Himself when He was on the Cross: “God, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” We all remember the words of the holy Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich, transmitted through his daughter Grand Duchess Olga shortly before his martyrdom, that the evil that is now in the world - that is, the rampant communist revolution - will be even stronger - a prophecy that we are witnessing today, when sin is more and more established as the norm in human life. And then the Sovereign says, calling on everyone on whom he can have influence, so that they do not avenge him, that it is not evil that will win in the end, but love.

These words, which we often hear now, may they be imprinted more deeply, not only in our memory, but also in our souls, in our whole life. When we achieve this, it is the only sign that we are Christians. Until then, we are not yet Christians, we are still pagans. We ordinary people who understand only what Christ says before revealing His supreme commandment: "As you want people to do to you, so you do to them". There is no such person in the world, if he is mentally developed and mentally normal, not to understand that this is absolute unconditional justice. No one can reject these words of the Lord. All the sages of the world, even without Christ, affirmed this principle of life: Socrates, Plato, and Confucius. To whom we turn, everyone said that justice requires that we do not do to another what we do not want for ourselves.

Christ, asserting, as it were, the same principle, goes much further, because it is one thing not to do bad to another, and another to do good to him. And this "good" is a person's ability to aspire to true perfection.

Today in the Gospel the Lord says: “Be perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect. And be merciful, as your Heavenly Father is merciful." What does it mean? This means: love those who hate you, and do good to those who do you harm. And give to other people without expecting anything from them. This is our Lord always. On the cross, He revealed this in full, so that we all see the perfection of man, so that we all learn to become perfect people, Christians.

As long as a person does not still reject the natural law of conscience and reason, there always remains the hope that he can come to Christ God. But until he comes to Him, he will never truly do what he is supposed to do in his human nature. On the contrary, he will increasingly lose his human dignity. And we see today that hatred, enmity are becoming the same sins that do not surprise anyone, like depravity and corruption. Man more and more often becomes cattle, according to the word of the psalm (Psalm 48:21), and because of his enmity, because of his hatred, he is already almost "a spirit of malice in high places."

There is only one way that can save us from complete destruction - and the personality of each of us, and all of life - is to follow the unattainable and incomprehensible commandment of love for enemies.

The Holy Fathers say that we must firmly accept this path, as the truth of Christ, as the mystery of the Cross of the Lord. When we overshadow ourselves with the sign of the cross, we must imprint this truth both in our minds and in our hearts. Our mind should be firm, and our heart should be soft towards other people. While more often it happens the other way around: the mind is softened, and the heart is hard stone. It happens that the mind is hard, there are such Christians, but the heart, alas, remains as hard as that of all other people. But most often - as if detachment from life: both the mind is softened, and the heart is softened.

We must understand that the unfathomable height that Christ offers us is our only salvation.. “We have passed from death to life because we love our brothers”(1 John 3:14). This is the Pascha of the Lord, communion with the victory of the Cross of Christ. Only by Christ, only by His Cross can we achieve this. And when we touch it, we realize that if, by the gift of Christ, we have love for enemies, then our enemies become our true friends. And they are our gain, although it is impossible to comprehend it, just as it is impossible to comprehend that death is our gain(Phil. 1, 21), the highest acquisition that a person can have. But whoever knows the Pascha of Christ, whoever knows that Christ has risen, will also understand the word of the Lord about love for enemies, about His Cross.

Therefore, let us try today to think about how many of us neglect the very essence of the Christian faith. We are called to learn this throughout our lives and from day to day. How can we learn this, how can we achieve what was accomplished by the venerable martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth? And so that throughout her life she, just like St. Sergius the Confessor and other sisters of her monastery, such as the nun Lyubov, studied one and only thing - love. About the nun Lyubov, about her amazing feat of love in the Martha and Mary Convent, it is known that she had such an amazing property: when someone began to treat her badly, when she felt hostility, enmity from someone, she made every effort the best way to treat that person. She surrounded him with special tenderness and attention. It was sincere and Christ was behind it, so there was power and authenticity behind it. And so it gradually ascended, and so did all the saints—that is, those who learned this commandment of Christ—from strength to strength.

Before the time of our last test comes, we are given time to prepare for it. The Holy Apostle of Love John the Theologian says: “If you see your brother in need and close your heart from him, how can the love of God abide in you?”(1 John 3:17). And St. John the Baptist, the greatest of all those born of women, says: “If anyone among you has two garments and sees one who has none, let him give him whatever he has in excess.”(Luke 3:11). St. Gregory the Dialogist argues on this subject: “If in times of prosperity you cannot give another person extra clothes, then how will you give your life for another person when times of trial come?”

That's what incremental growth is. Therefore, we are given not one year, but many years of life, so that through our efforts to learn this, through our defeats, we see that there is no love in us. Not only to enemies, but we are often unable to love those who love us. So that, ascending to this unattainable commandment, they understand why Blessed Augustine says: “Yes, it is impossible for us, but to love our enemies means to pray for them with all our heart.” Because only by the love of Christ, only by His grace, which is given to us in prayer, can we acquire this ability.

The Holy Fathers often give us such advice when we are at enmity with someone, when our soul is in despondency, when we do not have grace and we cannot break through this state of dullness in our life. Let us learn, they say, to pray before all our prayers for our personal offenders, for our enemies. If you are in a quarrel with someone, then include in your daily rule such a prayer: “Through the prayers of this Anna, who hates me, or to whom I feel hostility, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” And so repeat this prayer until by prayer, the gift of Christ's love for everyone, and for you, and for this Anna, and for all people, you recognize a change in your heart.

You will never, by any means, achieve this on your own. How you will never conquer death, which Christ conquered for each of us, and gives it to us. So, let us with all our efforts, the fulfillment of everything that is natural for us to observe according to the residual light that is in us, try to achieve the grace-filled light of Christ's love, so that we may be Christians.

Christ is the first on earth who proclaimed this commandment to love enemies. No one before Him had ever come close to even think about it. What was the highest wisdom, the highest holiness of the Old Testament? “Love your neighbors, your friends, and hate your enemies. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." They put out a tooth for you - that means you have to put out a tooth for him, in fairness. They put an eye out for you - and an eye for him too.

No, says the new mysterious law of life for which man was created. You must act differently, you must protect your enemy, when he speaks evil of you, from all slander. You must, when he is hungry, feed him. And when it freezes, dress it up. You must treat him like your own to the best friend and brother. Everything in you protests against it. It is impossible to agree with this in any way, but the Lord says on the Cross: love your enemies. And he gives the cross, Paschal strength of new life, so that we live just like that, and do the same towards our enemies, as He did towards His own.

And how merciful is the Heavenly Father to us? He so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). He is so good and so many-merciful that He commands His sun to rise over the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45), gives us everything even before our petition (cf.: Matt. 6:8), and even those who do not lead or honor Him, does not cease to bear witness to Himself with good deeds, giving us rains from heaven and fruitful times, and filling our hearts with food and gladness (cf. Acts 14:17). He is so long-suffering and merciful to us that he not only does not strike, but spares and has mercy on us even when we sin against Him, boldly transgress His holy will, senselessly offend His highest holiness and His righteousness, not fearing His impregnable glory and majesty, not dreading the terrible rebuke of His wrath. He is so merciful and unmemorable to us that he forgives all our sins, does not remember our iniquities for only repentance and confession of our sins before Him.

How merciful is the only begotten Son of God to us? He, our Lord and Creator, having glory and blessedness from His Father before the foundation of the world, for the sake of us sinners, left this glory, humbled and humbled Himself to a servant of the eye, to a den and a manger, to the poor life of a wanderer who has no where to bow head (Matthew 8:20). But this is not enough.
He, the most merciful, took upon Himself all the sins and types of human calamities, patiently and meekly endured all reproaches, sufferings and torments from those very His servants whom He came to bless and save from eternal death.

Having all the power and authority to exterminate and destroy His enemies with a single word, He did not cease to do good to them, to spare and have mercy on them, to grieve over the petrification of their hearts, weep over the death that threatened them, and, nailed to the cross, prayed for His crucifiers. He is so merciful and merciful to us that, having offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He gave us all the treasures of His grace, sent down to us His All-Holy Spirit, nourishes us with His Flesh and Blood, shares with His followers, whom He calls friends and brothers, all His glory that He had with His Father before the foundation of the world, and then even when we oppose His holy word, do not obey His commandments, we are rejected by Him by our criminal deeds. He, who is most merciful and gentle, does not deprive us of His grace, does not take away His Cross and the Gospel, does not tear us away from His life-giving Sacraments, longsufferingly awaits and graciously accepts our repentance.

Read also: Christmas and Mercy #The word of the abbot

You see, beloved, what mercy and what love our Lord requires and expects from us, who laid down His life for us! As a reflection of the highest love of the Son of God for us, it should be just as selfless, humble and gentle: not to seek its own benefit and advantage, not to neglect any kind of poverty and human humiliation, not to be embarrassed by any ingratitude, nor human malice or hatred, not to seek and expect neither praise nor reward in this world, but, on the contrary, love both the evil-wishers themselves and your enemies and be ready to lay down your life for your brethren.

If you love those who love you, says the Lord, what thanks do you have? for even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? for sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? for even sinners lend to sinners in order to get back the same amount. But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High (Luke 6:32-35).

As a reflection of the long-suffering and merciful love of God, our love should also be indulgent towards the shortcomings of our neighbor, patient with his weaknesses, merciful to his infirmities, cover his very sins, forgive from the bottom of our hearts any insult and offense.

Love, says the Apostle, is long-suffering, merciful, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not behave violently, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; covers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all (1 Cor. 13:4-7). Each of us must please our neighbor for good, for edification (Rom. 15:2), not repay evil for evil to anyone; but always seek the good both for each other and for everyone (cf. 1 Thess. 5:15). Bless your persecutors; bless, not curse. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:14, 21).

Read also: Love Tatiana Grimblit

Like a reflection of the inevitable light of the all-embracing, merciful and beneficent love of God, and our love for our neighbor must be merciful, compassionate, long-suffering, all-generous, ready to share with those in need everything to the last garment and to the last bread, to render him every possible and useful for us a service for him, to do for him everything that his need requires and that is available to our forces.
We do not need to know why our neighbor is unhappy and whether he himself was the cause of his own unhappiness. It is enough that he is unhappy, that he needs our help - material or spiritual; and we are obliged to give him a helping hand, to console his sorrowful soul with a word of love and compassion and a deed of mercy and good deeds, to alleviate the sorrow of his soul with warm sympathy for him, to strengthen his faith and hope with brotherly advice and prayer, to save and protect his soul from the temptations of the world and from the overpowering force of his own passions.

With such an all-merciful, most merciful, generous, long-suffering love, the Lord loved us!

And so He tells us: “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12); be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). This is for Me the best gratitude for all My good deeds, the best recompense for all the labors and sufferings that I endured for your salvation. This is the best good that I wish for yourselves; this is your true happiness both in the present and in the future life. Love one another with the same purity, sincerity, and willingness to do good to all with which I have loved you. Then only you will be worthy of Me and will truly be My disciples, by this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). Only then will you be worthy to be called sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, who is merciful and kind to the ungrateful and evil (Luke 6:35). Only then will you be legitimate heirs to the eternal Kingdom of God, in which only love, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit dwell. Then only your happiness and bliss is true and unshakable forever - in eternal life in God and with God. Whoever loves me will keep my word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him (John 14:23).