But the Lord wants us to attain love for any neighbor, so that our love does not depend on whether this person is close to us or far away, whether he is good or bad, whether he loves us or, on the contrary, he is our enemy, plotting evil against us. And the Lord gives an image of such love. Here are the disciples before Him, and He knows them thoroughly: this is the most loving and most beloved; this one is the hottest; this very judicious, always doubting everything; But this evil, greedy, loves money and decided to betray it. And the Lord makes no difference between them, He washes everyone's feet, He sits everyone down with Him at the table, everyone takes communion, He rejects no one - He gives an image of Christian love.

That's how we should learn it. Regardless of whether a person irritates us or not, whether he understands us or does not understand us, whether we feel love for him or not, we still need to show love to this person. You need to reach a state of heart where every person, even if he does evil to you, and you know about it, and you know that he is such and such and only harms you, you still have to learn to love him. And this is very difficult, and it takes a long time, you have to put your whole life into it.

The Lord created Adam so that he would multiply on earth and all people would live as one family, all would love each other; so that every mother loves all children, so that all children love their mother; so that there is no enmity between us. But that is why the Lord came to earth, that we are all separated, and everyone has his own life, and everyone lives on his own, everyone is digging into his own sins, and everyone is rowing under himself, and no one cares about anyone. The devil has sown discord between us, so even in church: here we are all huddled together, we all stand, as if we are one family, we have one Father – the Lord, we have one Mother – the Holy Church – but if we look into everyone's hearts, we will see alienation from each other. Everyone who stands here does not think about his neighbor, he is not interested in this neighbor at all, this neighbor even interferes with him, this neighbor pushes him, this neighbor squeezes him, it is hot from him: I am already standing in my coat, it is stuffy in the church, and he is piled up here, it is heavy, and it would be better if this neighbor went somewhere far away. Because here I am, here is God, here is my life, in my head I have my children, my son-in-law, my vanity, my concern - and then there are some other people who interfere with me. It would be better if there were fewer of them.

That is, if you look into our hearts, you can see that we do not have any commonality. We have all come together - but nothing is happening inside of us. And although in such a state of our soul, in such an unloving attitude towards each other, we, of course, are unworthy either to be in church or to receive Communion, the Lord nevertheless does not reject us. For the Lord said, Where two or three shall gather together in my name... And the name of God is love. And we gather in church not to commemorate health or repose, but to learn love - at least in something, even while we are standing here, at least a little. I'm not even talking at home or on the bus - but at least in church, while we stand before God Himself, well, at least in something we will yield to our neighbor. Okay, not in the store - at least in the church, do not go ahead, because the Lord said: whoever wants to be the first, will be the last. Well, yes, you will be the first to break through, but in the Kingdom of Heaven you will be the last. Because if the Lord Himself washed the disciples' feet, it means that He gave us an image of how we should do it, and we do just the opposite, and it turns out that we are either not Christ's disciples, or traitors.

There is, however, a third option that suits us best: we are still just unreasonable children. It's like a mother says: "Vasya, don't get into a puddle, you'll catch a cold," but Vasya doesn't understand, he likes to clap in puddles. And then he caught a cold, lay with a fever, did not go outside, he wanted to walk, but he was not allowed. But how simple: walk past a puddle or, if you really want to go through puddles, put on rubber boots, and that's it, and you will walk every day. But he does not understand, and still climbs, and because of this he gets sick. That's how we are. We do not understand that if we rush forward, we will not get anything here, and if we do not rush forward, then, on the contrary, the grace of God will visit us. Because without humility it is impossible to learn love.

Love is when one person sacrifices something for the sake of another. Here I am sitting comfortably, I feel good, and next to me sits a person who is uncomfortable and not so good. What is love? Love is when I stand up and say: "Sit down, it will be comfortable for you here, and I will sit in your place, let it be uncomfortable for me." Or, let's say, I came to church, saw an icon and wanted to light a candle, but I couldn't go to the candle box because of the people. And I thought: I need to hand over the ruble, and they will pass me a candle here. To light a candle is good, and the income of the church, and my sacrifice to God. But on the other hand, I will distract ninety people from prayer. Is it good or bad? No, it is better for me not to light this candle, that is, I will think first of all not about myself, but about others: people are standing, people are praying, they should not care about my inner worries, it is better for me to come another day to light it.

If a person thinks like this, gives up his own for the sake of others, this is love. And if we do this in life, humble ourselves before our neighbor, renounce ourselves, our own for the sake of love for another, then gradually we will learn to love. That's the only way. And if we stand, sulk, be offended, wish a person evil in our thoughts, get upset, then, of course, we will not achieve love. And the whole Gospel is about that. The Lord tells us that we must forgive. They offended you, insulted you, did not understand - so what? Forgive me. And the Lord also suffered with His disciples: He told them one thing, and they another. He calls them to one thing, and they do the exact opposite. Peter said, "I will never deny you in my life, let them kill me." And the Lord sighed and said, "Tonight the rooster will not crow three times when you deny it." He knows in advance what will happen. The Lord also knows what we are like, but He wants us to be different. Therefore, we come to church in order to save our souls from sin, because sin divides us, and grace, on the contrary, unites us. And today we will partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ in order to receive the grace of God, so that it may unite us all.

Of course, we are sinful people, we are unreasonable, ill-mannered people. We do not know the Gospel and do not know Orthodox worship, we do not know Orthodox canons, Orthodox dogmas, we do not know the Orthodox faith at all, we do not understand, we do not feel. But let's try, while we are in church for another hour and a half, to be, well, if not Christians, then at least just well-mannered people. Even if we cannot remain in love throughout our lives, we cannot stay in love all day without being irritated with anyone, not getting embittered, not reprimanding someone, not pushing someone, not turning over to our own, not persisting - but let's try, while we stand in church, for an hour and a half, to be as if we have already achieved this. Next time we come, we will try again, and so gradually from time to time we will practice this good deeds. Let us be angry, accursed, irritable, but let us pretend, for a while, that we really want the Kingdom of Heaven, we really want to learn to humble ourselves, to learn to love, so that the Lord, seeing us at least in church, would rejoice.

The Lord sees us everywhere, wherever we are, but in church, when we are all gathered together, the Lord is especially pleased that we are trying to do something at least outwardly. Let's imagine: a father has many daughters and sons. And of course, he knows that this one has a problem with his wife, that one has an illness, the third has a son who went to prison. But now all the children have gathered at their father's table, and he, of course, wants everyone to forget their worldly cares and rejoice in love: that at last we have all met together. He wants it to end not in a fight, not in a stabbing, not in a jostling, so that everyone does not get drunk to death, but so that everything is dignified, noble, so that they themselves are pleasant, and the neighbors rejoice, what a friendly family.

So today we have gathered for the feast of the Lord. We will all partake of the Divine Table at the banquet of our Heavenly Father. And we all descended from Adam and Eve, we all descended from Slavic tribes, all brothers and sisters, we all have the same blood in our veins, we all have the same faith, we all have an Orthodox cross on our chests, we all cross in the same way, each of us has at least one icon at home - that is, we have a lot in common. And our Father the Lord is one, and our Mother Church, who baptized us, who is trying to teach us something – you see how much we have in common.

And the Lord wants us to be truly like one friendly, loving family, because only in the Church, at the Divine Liturgy, can we learn love. After all, we commune from the same Chalice. It was only earlier, in the old days, that it happened in close-knit families: a large bowl was placed on the table, and everyone ate slowly, in order, each in turn partaking of it. From one - all. Such a wonderful image. And today the Chalice will be brought out, and everyone will partake of the same Bread and the same Chalice, again in an orderly and noble manner. But if in the old days someone did not climb in turn, what did the owner of the family do? He took a spoon and hit him on the forehead. Maybe this measure is harsh, but you can't teach otherwise, and once you get it in the forehead, a person is already learning.

Therefore, if we want to receive grace from today's service, then we must try to think about our lives, think about where we stand, to Whom we pray, and then gradually we will somehow come to our senses. Of course, the devil constantly tempts us: he himself tempts us through thoughts and through people. But we must try to hold on. The Lord looks at us and wants us to attain love, this longed-for Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,

April 7, 1988