"But love for enemies is so rare that it cannot be called natural," others object. Well, if so, then pearls are unnatural, and diamond, and gold too. After all, they are rare, but who can call them unnatural? Indeed, the Church of Christ alone knows numerous examples of this love. Just as there are herbs that grow only in one place of the earth, so this unusual plant, this extraordinary love, grows and flourishes only within the fence of the Church of Christ. Anyone who wants to be convinced of the existence of numerous specimens of this plant and of its beauty should read the lives of the Apostles of Christ, the holy fathers and confessors of the faith in Christ, the 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 it strength and nourishment. How can we not love those whom God loves? God does not love us any more than he loves our enemies, especially if we ourselves are enemies of other people. And who among us can say that no one in the world calls him his enemy? If the sun of God shone and the rain fell only for those whom no one considers his enemy, it would really be difficult for a ray of sunlight to fall on the ground and a drop of rain on the dust of the earth. What a scarecrow people make out of hostility towards themselves! Sin has infected people with fear, and out of 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 through no fault of our own, we must trust that He knows about it and allows it to happen for our good. Let us be fair and say that our enemies are our great helpers in spiritual perfection. If it were not for the 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 tells us that, having revealed to him many mysteries, God allowed the demon to be near him and annoy him. And so that I should not be exalted by the exceedingly high of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to afflict me, that I should not be exalted (2 Corinthians 12:7). And if even a demon against his will benefits a person, then how can people who are incomparably less dangerous enemies than demons not benefit him? It could be safely said that often a man's friends do much more harm to his soul than his enemies. And the Lord Himself said: "And a man's enemies are his own household" (Matt. 10:36; Micah 7:6). Often those who live with us under the same roof, and who are so busy caring for our bodies and pleasing us, are the fiercest enemies of our salvation. For their love and care do not belong to our soul, but to our body. How many parents have destroyed the soul of their son, how many brothers have destroyed the soul of their brother, how many sisters have destroyed the soul of their sister, how many wives have destroyed the souls of their husbands! And all this is out of love for them! This understanding, which is daily confirmed, is another weighty argument in favor of not giving oneself up too much to love one's relatives and friends, as well as to refuse love to enemies. Need I emphasize again that often, very often, our enemies are our true friends? The troubles they cause are for our benefit; their rebukes contribute to our salvation; and the fact that they oppress us in the external, carnal life helps us to go deeper into ourselves, to find our soul and to cry out to the Living God for its salvation. Truly, our enemies often save us from the destruction that our relatives prepare for us, unwittingly 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 man, 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 even less. Do good also to those who do not demand or expect good from you, and lend to everyone who asks, but give as if you were giving, as if you were giving back someone else's and not giving your own. ("Merciful is he who has mercy on his neighbor with what he himself has received from God: either with money, or food, or power, or instruction, or prayer - considering himself a debtor, because he has received more than he needs. Through his brother God asks him for 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. Did not the Lord say: "Pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44)? Therefore, pray for your enemies and thus do good to them. If your enemy does not accept any alms 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. He 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 should turn to you through the good done to him and become your friend, the most important thing is that he should not destroy his soul because of hatred for you. For this last one must pray to God, and not for the former. For your salvation it does not matter at all whether you have more friends or enemies in this life, but it is very, very important that you should not be an enemy to anyone, but all friends in your hearts, in your prayers, and in your thoughts.

If you do this, you will have a great reward. From whom? Perhaps partly from people, but most importantly - from God. What is the reward? You will be sons of the Most High, and you will be able to call God your Father. And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly" (Matt. 6). If not today, then tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then at the end of time, before all angels and men. But what greater reward could we expect than the right to be called sons of the Most High, and to call the Most High our Father? Behold, the Only-begotten Son of the Most High is the One Lord Jesus Christ, and He alone has hitherto called God His Father. And now we, lost and sinners, are promised the same honor! What does this honor mean? It 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. It means that the love of God the Father constantly accompanies us in all the troubles and sufferings of this life and turns everything around and arranges it for our ultimate good. This means that when we die, we will not remain in the tomb, but will be resurrected, just as He was resurrected. Ah, this means that we are only temporarily on this earth, as on the 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 blessings that await an orphan when he is adopted by an earthly king? It is enough simply to say: so-and-so 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 through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26; John 1:12). Christ accepts us as His brothers, and therefore God the Father receives us as His children.

In fact, we can in no way deserve the right to be called sons of the Living God. It would be ridiculous to think that by any deed, even with the greatest love for our enemies, we can deserve and pay for what our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His faithful servants.

There is no mercy on earth, and there is no love in mortal man that could make mortal man a son of God and an immortal citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. But the love of Christ makes up for what is impossible for man: let none of us boast that by his love he will be able to be saved and open the gates of paradise to himself by his own merits.

That is why the commandment to love our enemies, no matter how great and difficult it may seem, is only a mite that God requires of us in order to let us into Himself, into His luxurious royal abodes. He does not require us to deserve His kingdom and sonship through the fulfillment of this commandment, but only that we desire this kingdom and sonship more than anything else in the world. He requires of us only faith in His word and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. How did Adam deserve paradise? Nothing; but he was given paradise through the love of God. How did Adam hold on in Paradise before his fall? Obedience to God, only obedience. When he and his wife doubted the commandment of God, they violated the commandment of God by this very doubt and fell into the mortal sin of disobedience. In the new creation, our Lord Jesus Christ demands of us the same thing that He demanded of Adam and Eve in Paradise, namely: faith and obedience, faith that every commandment of His is salvific for us, and unconditional obedience to every commandment of His. He also gave all His commandments, including this one, about love for enemies, so that we might have faith and obedience to His word. And if at least one of His commandments were not good and salvific for us, would He give it to us? He knew better than anyone whether this commandment was natural or unnatural, realizable or unrealizable; 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 accepts medicine from the hands of a physician – whether it is sweet or bitter – so must we, paralyzed and darkened by sin, with faith and obedience fulfill all that the humane Physician of our souls and the Lord of our life, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, has commanded us. To Him is due honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the Trinity, One-in-Essence and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Lord the Resurrection

Many people were called the saviors of mankind, but when and which of them came up with the idea of saving people from death?

There were many winners in history, but which of them defeated death?

There were many kings on earth who called millions of people their subjects, but which of them and when included the dead as well as the living among their subjects?

No one - except the One and incomparable our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not just a new Man, He is a new world, He is the Creator of a new world. He ploughed the field of the living and the field of the dead alike, and sowed a new seed of life. The dead were like the living to Him, the living like the dead. Death was not the boundary of His Kingdom. He trampled on this border and extended His kingdom back to Adam and Eve and onward to the last man born on earth. He looked at both human life and death differently than any mortal man had ever seen. He looked and saw that life does not end with the death of the body, but that real death kills some people even before their bodily death. He saw many living in tombs and many dead in living bodies. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, - He said to His apostles (Matt. 10:28) This means that with the death of the body does not come the death of the soul; the latter can occur from and because of mortal sins, before or after, regardless of the occurrence of bodily death.

With His spiritual gaze, our Lord Jesus Christ tore through time like the lightning of a cloud, and before Him appeared the living souls of both those who died long ago and those who had not yet been born. The prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision a field full of dead bones, and it was impossible to know, until God revealed it to him, whether these bones would live. Son of man! Will these bones live? - the Lord asked him. I said, Lord God! Thou knowest this (Ezekiel 37:3). Christ did not look at dead bones, but at living souls who dwelt and will dwell in these bones. The human body and human bones are only the clothing and instruments of the soul. These garments wear out and disintegrate, like a worn-out garment. But God will renew it and put it back on the souls of those who have fallen asleep.

Christ came to dispel the ancient fear of people, but also to bring a new fear to those who sin. The old fear of men is the fear of bodily death; the new fear must be the fear of spiritual death; and this fear Christ renewed and strengthened. Full of fear of bodily death, people call on the whole world for help; they strengthen their positions in this world, spread in this world; they rob this world in order to ensure the longest possible existence of their body, as long as possible and as little as painful. Insane! - God will say to a materially rich, but spiritually poor person, - this night your soul will be taken from you; Who will get what you have prepared? (Luke 12:20) Thus, the Lord calls the one who fears for his body, but does not fear for his soul, a fool. And again the Lord said: "A man's life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). What does it depend on? From God, Who by His word quickens the soul, and by the soul the body. By His word, our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected and resurrects sinful souls, souls that died before the body. And one more thing. He promised to resurrect the dead bodies of dead people. By the forgiveness of sins, by His life-giving teaching, and by His Most Pure Body and Blood, He resurrected and resurrects dead souls. And that at the end of time dead bodies will also be resurrected, He confirmed both by His words and by the deed of the resurrection of some dead people during His sojourn on earth, and by His own resurrection. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The time is coming, and it is now, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they have heard, they shall live" (John 5:25). Many inveterate sinners and sinners heard the voice of the Son of God and came to life in their souls. But many of the bodily dead also heard the voice of the Son of God and rose again to life. One of such cases is described in today's Gospel reading.