Homily 25: On the Love of God

 "Whoever has My commandments and keeps them loves Me"

(John 14:21)

 Beloved Christians! All Christians say: "How can we not love God!" or: "Whom should we love if not God?" God is the highest, uncreated, beginningless, infinite, natural, and unchangeable Good. As the sun always shines, as fire always warms, so God is naturally good and always beneficial, so that "no one is good but God alone" (Matt. 19:17). God also does good to us when He punishes us, for He punishes us in order to correct us; He beats us in order to have mercy on us; grieves us in order to truly comfort us. "The Lord chastens whom He loves; but he smites every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6). So, how can such a Good – God – not be loved? God is our Creator, He created us out of nothing. We were not, and now "we live, move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). His almighty hands created and created us. He created us, O men, not like the rest of creation, senseless and dumb, but created us by His special Divine Council: "Let us make man" (Gen. 1:26). Of other creatures it is said: "He spoke, and it was, commanded, and they were created" (Psalm 32:9). But it is different about a person. What then? "Let us make," he said, "man." O most holy, O most gracious counsel! The Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit said of man: "Let us make man." What kind of person? "In the image," he said, "in our likeness, and in the likeness." O wondrous goodness of God to man! O highest human honor! Man was created in the image of God and in the likeness of God. What creature has been vouchsafed such an honor from God? We do not see it. The man was vouchsafed this, and was honored by the image of God from God. O most amiable and most beautiful creature of God – man! The image of God, like the royal seal, has in itself. Glorious is the Tsar, and so is his portrait. God, the King of Heaven, is worthy of all honor, and His image, man, is worthy of honor. Such goodness, O Christians, has God poured out upon us in our creation. So, how can we not love Him? We have fallen and perished, which we cannot mourn enough. "Man, being in honor, did not understand, was made equal to senseless beasts, and became like unto them" (Psalm 48:13). But even then the Loving God did not abandon us: He invented a wonderful image of salvation for us. He sent His Only-begotten Son to us to save us and bring us to Himself. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:16-17). How can we not love God, Who loves us so much? God is the Lover of Mankind, as we all call Him, and man must also be a lover of God. For love cannot be repaid in any other way than love and gratitude. God is our Providence, He cares for us and cares for us. He gives us food, clothing, and a house. His sun, moon and stars illuminate us. By its fire we warm ourselves and cook our food. We wash and cool down with its water. His cattle serve us; His air enlivens us and preserves our life. In a word, we are contained in His blessings and love, and we cannot live without them even for a minute. How can we not love Him who loved us so much, such a Benefactor, God? We love a man as a benefactor, much less should we love God as a benefactor. For all creatures, including man himself, are God's riches: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulfillment thereof" (Psalm 23:1). God is our Father. To Him we pray and say: "Our Father, Who art in heaven," and so on. How can we not love God the Father? Good children certainly love their father. If we, too, wish to be sincere children of God, and to call Him Father without hypocrisy, then we must love Him as a Father. So, everyone is right: how can one not love God? Like any virtue, love must be in the heart. When the heart does not have it, then it is not really there. God does not say to our lips: love, humble, be merciful, pray, ask, call upon Me, and so on, but to our hearts. Thus, we must have love, humility, mercy, prayer, and so on in our hearts. And if it is in the heart, then it will certainly turn out to be outside, like belching from the stomach. For the hidden fire shows itself by its warmth, and the fragrant balm by its good smell. Thus St. David showed the love that he had for God in his sweet songs to God: "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength! The Lord is my strength, and my refuge, and my Deliverer, my God, my Helper, and I trust in Him, my Defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my Advocate" (Psalm 17:2-3). Love, although it is hidden in the heart, cannot be hidden, and shows its signs from the outside. But let us see what are the signs of love for God, so that instead of love we do not have a false dream of love. For in nothing is a man deceived so much as in love. The signs of love are as follows. 1) The Lord Himself points out, saying: "Whoever has My commandments and keeps them loves Me" (John 14:21). For he who truly loves God shuns everything that is repugnant to God, and tries to fulfill everything that pleases Him, and therefore he keeps His holy commandments. And from this it follows that those Christians do not have God's love who neglect His commandments. These include those who are wicked and otherwise harmful, fornicators, adulterers, and all defilers; thieves, robbers, robbers, and all in some way unjustly appropriating the goods of others; slanderers and scoffers; cunning and cunning, deceiving others, deceivers and hypocrites; sorcerers and those who call them to themselves, and all transgressors of the law. All of them, both the law of God and God Himself, do not love. They love themselves and their whims, not God and His holy law. 2) A clear sign of love for God is heartfelt joy in God. For what we love, we rejoice in. In the same way, God's love cannot exist without joy. And as many times as a person feels the sweetness of God's love in his heart, so many times does he rejoice in God. For love, as a sweet virtue, cannot be felt without joy. As honey delights our throat when we taste it, so does the love of God rejoice our heart when we taste and see "how good the Lord is" (Psalm 33:9). Such joy in God is depicted in many places of the Holy Scriptures, and especially in the holy psalms. This joy is spiritual, heavenly, it is a foretaste of the sweetness of eternal life. 3) He who truly loves God despises the world and everything that exists in the world, and strives for his only beloved God. Honor, glory, riches, and all the pleasures of this world, which the sons of this world seek, are counted as nothing. He needs only God, an uncreated and all-loving good. In Him alone he finds perfect honor, glory, riches, and consolation. For him, God alone is precious beads, and therefore everything else is something small. Such a person desires nothing in heaven or on earth except God. Such love is depicted in the words of the Psalms: "What have I to do in heaven? And without You, what can I desire on earth? My heart and my flesh are faint, O God of my heart, and my portion is God for ever" (Psalm 72:25-26). Such a person uses food, drink, clothing, etc., only for the sake of need, and not for the sake of voluptuousness. And from this it follows that he does not love God who loves the world, according to the testimony of the Apostle: "He who loves the world has not the love of the Father in him" (1 John 2:15). Such are those who want to live in the pride and splendor of this world, to live in rich houses, to ride in rich carriages, to dress in rich clothes, to be glorified and honored by everyone, and so on. Such are "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16), that is, everything that is contrary to God, they love, and not God. 4) He who truly loves God keeps God, His love for us and His blessings in unforgettable memory. We also see this in human love. For whom we love, we often remember. Thus, he who loves God often remembers Him, meditates on Him, and is comforted by Him, and admires Him: "For where his treasure is, there will his heart also be" (Matt. 6:21). For him, God is an invaluable and most beloved treasure, and therefore his heart is always with Him. That is why He often commemorates His holy name with love. For the heart, filled with God's love, also manifests outward signs of love. And from this we see that those who forget Him do not love God, for forgetfulness is a clear sign of dislike for God. He who loves his beloved cannot forget. 5) The lover wants to be inseparable from the beloved. Many Christians wish to be glorified with Christ the Lord, but to be with Him in dishonor and reproach and do not want to bear the cross. They pray to Him to be in His kingdom, but they do not want to suffer in peace with Him, and thus they show that their hearts are wrong and that they truly do not love Christ, and, if they tell the truth, they love themselves more than Christ. That is why the Lord says: "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me" (Matthew 10:38). A true friend in misfortune is known. He is our true friend and the one who truly loves us, who does not leave us in misfortune. Thus truly loves Christ is he who dwells with Christ here in this world, clings to Him with his heart, and endures suffering or the cross with Him without complaint, and desires to be with Him inseparably in the age to come. Such a one says to Christ in his heart: "It is good for me to be united with God" (Psalm 72:28). 6) A sign of love for God is love for one's neighbor. Whoever truly loves God loves his neighbor as well. The source of love for one's neighbor is love for God, but the love of God is known through love for one's neighbor. And from this it follows that he who does not love his neighbor does not love God either, as the Apostle teaches: "He who says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? We have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also" (1 John 4:20-21). Such are the signs of love for God that are hidden in the human heart. Beloved Christians! Let us repent and turn away from the vanity of the world, and purify our hearts with repentance and contrition, so that the love of God may dwell in us. "God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). Amen.

Homily 26: On Love of Neighbor

 "Beloved! Let us love one another," and so on.

(1 John 4:7)

 The root and beginning of love for one's neighbor is love for God. Whoever truly loves God certainly loves his neighbor as well. Without a doubt, God loves every person. Thus, whoever truly loves a loving God must also love the person he loves. "Let us love one another," as God loved us. All of us, O Christians, recognize one forefather Adam, we have all our kindred nature, we are all called men, and we are all men. "Let us love one another." All are created by one God, created in the image and likeness of God: "Let us love one another." All of us, the fallen, are redeemed by the Blood of Christ, the Son of God, Who loved us and gave Himself for us: "Let us also love one another." God loved us all so much that "He gave also His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "Let us also love one another," as God loved us. God gave us all His holy word, like a lamp shining in a dark place, which teaches us to love one another and to do good to one another out of love: "Let us love one another." We all hear this word of God: "Let us love one another." We are all called into one holy faith, and we believe in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the One Triune God, Who loves us: "Let us also love one another." We all call upon one God, pray, worship Him, sing and praise Him: "Let us love one another," as He loves us. We are all called Christians from Christ: let us love one another," as He loves us. We all have one Baptism, we have all been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: "Let us love to love one another." At Baptism, we all renounced Satan and all his evil deeds: pride, hatred, and other evils, and promised to love Christ and one another. "Let us love one another." We are all called to eternal life, and we say in the Holy Symbol: "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come": "Let us love one another." We all approach one holy Table, and partake of the Body and Blood of Christ. Oh, a great thing! Oh, the incomprehensible love of God! "Let us love one another." Christians! We are all brothers, we have one Father – God, to Whom we pray and say: "Our Father, Who art in heaven!" – and so on. "Let us love" "one another" as brothers. The Heavenly Father, out of His love, gives us all food, clothing, a house, and other blessings: "Let us also love one another." Thus, a Christian has enough reasons for the sake of which he must love his neighbor. The main reason is that God loves man. What then, a Christian? Do you want to hate God's beloved creature – man? Do you want to hate someone who is the same person as you? Will you want to hate him who is created in the image of God and in the likeness of you? Do you want to hate someone whom God loves? Wilt thou hate him who was redeemed by the blood of Christ, as thou hast also? Do you want to hate him for whom Christ suffered and died? Do you want to hate him who is washed by the bath of holy Baptism, as you are? Wilt thou hate him who is called to eternal life as thou hast been? Do you want to hate the one whom God commands you to love "as yourself" (Matthew 22:39)? Do you want to hate him who approaches the most holy Eucharist, as you do? Wilt thou do evil to him whom God does good out of love alone? Do you want to dishonor and abuse him whom God has honored? Will you want to curse the one whom God blesses? Christians! It is terrible, and very frightening, to hate the one whom God loved, for whom Christ died and suffered. It is dangerous, and very dangerous, to do evil to him whom God does good, to dishonor him whom God has honored, to curse him whom God has blessed. Thus, "let us love one another," Christian, as God has loved us all. Amen.

Homily 27: On the Two Fruits of Love for Neighbor

 "Love does no harm to one's neighbor. Love is merciful"

(Romans 13:10; 1 Corinthians 13:4)