Do you not know that the Lord has always taught mercy, pity, compassion, love, do you not know that at the Last Judgment He will judge by one sign: whether they did works of mercy and love or not. This is the only yardstick by which the All-Righteous Judge will be guided.

And the Christians of apostolic times received the teaching of Christ in this way. They were full of sorrow for the misfortunes experienced by their needy brethren, full of sorrow for social inequality. And these ancient Christians took care with all their might so that there was no inequality, there was no poverty. They sold their possessions and brought the proceeds to the feet of the apostles to be distributed among the needy. They were all of one soul and one heart, and there were no needy among them. Isn't this a cure for social injustice?

Yes, of course, healing, the only radical, radical healing, for only when people are imbued with pity and mercy for their brothers in need, when all people are united by Divine love, only then will the calamities of social injustice and social inequality be cured. Only then will the life of people be grace-filled, when in all their aspirations all people will be guided by the law of love, the law of truth.

You know from the newspapers what the Americans are doing in unfortunate Korea, striving to acquire world power, imposing their own laws, ready to enforce them with atomic bombs. And do they not consider their own state system to be perfect and just, better than that of all other states?

If they commit such monstrous untruths everywhere, what shall we say of their social system? Let us say that he is wicked, unrighteous, unjust, that their hearts are full of malice and unrighteousness.

It is precisely evil and untruth that Christ wanted to eradicate from human hearts. By His call to love and mercy, to compassion for the unfortunate, He wanted to heal social ailments.

You see, the opinion of some that Christ was indifferent to the unrighteousness of social relations is unjust. No one felt this unrighteousness with such great depth as Him, no one wanted to eradicate it so ardently. But He knew that there was only one way for this – the correction of the human heart.

This is the task of our life – to correct our hearts and purify them, so that no unrighteousness comes out of them. And only then will the holy truth reign in relations between people, when the hearts of all of them become sources of love, and not malice, selfishness and envy.

In this great work of purifying our hearts, may the One Knowing of the heart help us.

Amen.

January 27, 1952

Week 34. On the Whole Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.