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ON MUTUAL LOVE
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A couple of weeks ago in my sermon I said that many find it difficult to use the prayer of the Prayer books, that they are beyond them, that they are the prayers of Saints and we are sinners, that there are so many words that we don’t understand and cannot pronounce from all our heart — what shall we do? And I suggested something which I was given by my spiritual Father: if you can’t pray, if you can pray only partly the words of the Saints — pray what you can; but then, if you feel that you are dried out, dead inwardly, make a sign of the cross, kneel down and say, Lord, at the prayers of those who love me, save me — and go to bed; and begin to think: who are those who love me in such a way that I can count on my salvation only on their love for me?..
After this sermon some people came to me and said: How easy you have made things for me; I can now count on other’s people love, indeed secure in their love, in my future, in my salvation! And I said, Yes, this is true; but the people who surround you, those on whose love you count, and those who are around you, around us, including me indeed! — they also count on their neighbor’s love for their salvation; sit down and ask yourself: who have been part of your life? Who have crossed your path in the course of many years, or the few years that you have lived, and ask yourself: when they turn to God and say, Lord, at the prayers of those who love me save me! — am I one of those? How strange that this question must be asked, and how frightening it is that the answer may be, No — he, or she cannot count on me; they passed through my life, and I have forgotten them long since; they passed through my life and I never loved them when we were neighbors, when we were so-called friends; they can no longer count on my love to open the gates of Paradise for them. And if that is what we feel, we must sit down and ask ourselves: who are those who have passed through my life, whom I have forgotten because I didn’t care much for them? whom I have allegedly loved, been friends with, but also forgotten the minute we were no longer side by side? Who are those with whom I was friend, whom I loved, and whom I stopped loving, because they offended me in a minute way — and I turned away? I closed my heart to them, I excluded them from my prayers, I excluded them from my love — and resurrect them in your heart; resurrect them, think of everyone who have ever passed through your life, and ask yourself: where do I stand now regarding this person? Let us kneel before this person and ask for forgiveness that I have forgotten or that I have rejected, that I have renounced, or that I have turned in anger and hatred against this person? Can this person ask God to save him or her at the prayers of those who love them? Think of me — and discover that there is nothing but rejection and hatred.
But what will also God’s reaction be: I have given My life for this person, and you are rejecting this person, you don’t want ever to meet in time or eternity – and who will be excluded? Is it the person that has been rejected, or is it the one who rejects this person? Think of it, because we all, all need one another’s love, compassion, charity, support, memory. Try to remember all the people who have passed through your life, and re-think your relationship, and restore, even if they are dead, if you don’t meet them anymore — restore a relationship of mutual love! And then — then the Gates of Paradise will open both for you and for them. Amen!
Protecting Veil of the Mother of God
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Time and again we ask ourselves what is the aim of the Christian life: what can we do to be true Christians? A simple, but very realistic reply is to say "Fulfil all the commandments, and you will be a Christian".
And yet, we may fulfil all the commandments, we may feel that we are right before God, but if our heart is not in what we do, we have not done what a Christian is called to do, to be, because the commandments which Christ left us are not drilling orders. In the commandments He reveals to us what we should do if our heart were pure, if we communed with God, if we were true to ourselves. These are the things — He says — that should become natural to you, and therefore, you can judge yourselves by comparing not your deeds to the commandments, but your heart to the inspiration that would make them natural. And so it is not simply by doing things that this is achieved, but by becoming the kind of person for whom these things are their true nature; in other words, by willing to be the true, undistorted image of Christ.
But where do we begin then? It is easy to be doers — how can we change our hearts, how can we find inspiration indeed to do it? It we think of God, if we think that God has so loved us that, to use the words of Saint Paul, He came to save us while we were still His enemies, that He gave his life that we may live free from evil; then what should be our first reaction, our first response? I think, at that level we should say, "Let my whole life be evidence to God that I have understood: understood that He believed in me and felt it was worth giving His own life for me, that He hoped that I would respond, and He loved me unto life and unto death."
If we have understood this, not only the love of God, but the faith He has in us, the hope He has placed upon us, then our first step should be to build our life in such a way as to be a joy for God; if we only could think of our lives as a way of giving God a little joy — not the exulting joy of perfect victory, but a joy which a mother, a father, a guide has when a child, a youth, a grown up man or woman says, "I do understand, I have understood, and now all my life I will strive to show my understanding". And showing our understanding of God's love, of God's faith and hope does not consist in singing praises to Him; it consists in making all our life a hymn of gratitude, so that seeing what we do, how gradually we become new people, how our hearts, full of gratitude and of joy, make us shine with an inner light, then we will have begun on our spiritual life.
There is a passage in the Gospel, in which we are told, "Let your light so shine before men that seeing this light they may give glory to the Father Who is in Heaven...". What is this light which we must reveal, unveil, let freely shine around us? It is not our own light, it is not manifesting our intelligence, our human warmth, our talents; it is becoming so filled with what is God's, so transparent to His light, that His light may shine freely, and not be kept, as it were, in the darkness of our soul. Again, — it is the only way we can cast light, share light with others, because our talents, our intelligence, our hearts, may well be below those of others, while this light is life, this light is enlightenment, this light can help others to become new.
So let us begin with simply being actively grateful to God, — actively grateful: not emotionally, but in deed, to the core of our being, in every thought, in heart, in our will and action.
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