"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)

 Many Christians in this name – neighbor – are deceived. Therefore, first, let us consider who our neighbor is, in order to know what love for one's neighbor is. We are all neighbors to one another: the authorities are for the ruled, and the ruled are neighbors for the authorities; shepherds are to men, and men are neighbors to pastors; parents for children, and children for parents are neighbors; masters are for slaves and peasants, and slaves and peasants are neighbors for masters; husbands are to wives, and wives are neighbors to husbands; those who sell and buy among themselves are neighbors; masters and mercenaries are neighbors to each other; judges and defendants are neighbors to each other. In a word, all people, relatives and non-relatives, acquaintances and strangers, fellow countrymen and foreigners are close to each other. And especially Christians, who are bound together by one faith, one Baptism, one word of God, the confession and invocation of one God, one hope in the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. Especially, I say, Christians are one another's neighbors and brothers. For they pray to the one Heavenly Father, and, as brethren among themselves, say to Him: "Our Father, Who art in heaven," and so on. Thus, we are talking here about Christian love, which encloses and supports not only its relatives, brothers, friends, acquaintances, but also all people, and especially those who are faithful in the faith and brothers in spirit, Christians, in its embrace. Two fruits of such love are expressed here: the first is to do no harm to anyone; the second is to show mercy and mercy to one's neighbor in need. The first mercy and fruit of love is to offend no one and do no harm to anyone. Evil is also an offense to parents when children do not obey them, evil is also an offense to the authorities, when those who are subject to them do not show worthy reverence, submission and obedience. "Love does not do" such "evil." He who loves his parents and authorities obeys them and honors them. It is evil to disobey pastors and instructors. He who loves this evil does not do this, but obeys them and submits to them. It is evil to be angry and angry with one's neighbor, and in any way to harm his health or possessions. He who loves does not do this evil. Evil is fornication and adultery, and to defile oneself and one's neighbor. He who loves does not do this evil. Evil is either overtly or secretly, or it is insidious and flattering to steal and appropriate the good of one's neighbor. He who loves does not do this evil. It is evil to bear false witness in judgment against one's neighbor. He who loves does not do this evil. It is evil to slander one's neighbor, and to darken the honor of his name. He who loves does not do this evil. It is evil to reproach one's neighbor, to scold, and thus to insult him. He who loves does not do this evil. It is evil to deceive and deceive one's neighbor. He who loves does not do this evil. Evil is treacherous and flattering to treat one's neighbor. He who loves his neighbor does not do this evil. Evil is also the offense caused to children when their parents neglect their good upbringing and Christian instruction. He who loves his neighbor does not do this evil. Evil is also an offense to people when pastors neglect their salvation. A good shepherd, who loves his neighbor, does not do this evil. Evil is also an offense to those who come to court, when judges look at bribes or at persons, and do not judge righteously. A judge who loves his neighbor does not do this evil. Evil is also an insult to the peasants, when their masters aggravate them either with excessive rents or with work. A master who loves his neighbor does not do this evil. Evil is both resentment to the husband when the wife does not preserve his marital fidelity, and resentment to the wife when the husband does not preserve her marital fidelity. He who loves his neighbor does not do this evil. Evil is also an offense to the master, when a mercenary lazily and hypocritically works for him. He who loves his neighbor does not do this evil. Evil is also an offense to a mercenary when the owner withholds his payment, or does not give him in full. He who loves his neighbor does not do this. Evil is also an offense to the buyer when the seller deceives him in the product. He who loves his neighbor does not do this. Thus, "love does no harm to one's neighbor." This is the first fruit of love, that is, not to wish or do harm to one's neighbor. The second fruit of love is to pity one's neighbor in distress and help him in distress. He who truly loves his neighbor, seeing him in poverty, cannot but sympathize with him, and have compassion on him, and give him a helping hand, because "love is merciful." He sees him who hungers, and feeds him; He sees him who is thirsty, and gives him to drink; He sees the naked, and clothes him; He sees a stranger, and brings him into his house; He sees the sick, or sitting in prison, and visits him (cf. Matt. 25:33-36). In a word, He will help him in every calamity: He will sympathize with the suffering, He will sympathize with the sick, He will console the sorrowful, for "love is merciful." A lover's heart is troubled over his beloved when he sees him in distress, and therefore he cannot help but sympathize with him, and, if he can, he cannot help him in that calamity. Thus the Loving God, seeing the man He loves in great distress and destruction, had compassion on him and sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, "to save it, and to seek him that was lost" (Matt. 18:11). And from this we see that they do not have love for their neighbor: 1) those people who do or want to do some evil to their neighbor; 2) who do not care about their neighbor in distress. Such are the rich who spend their wealth on whims, and do not help poor people in distress. They love their own whims, and not their neighbor, and having no love for their neighbor, they do not have love for God. For whoever does not love his neighbor does not love God Himself, as is noted in the above-mentioned word. Beloved Christians! Let us try to have Christian love in our hearts. It will not allow us to do any harm to our neighbor, neither to desire nor to create. It will persuade us to spend our wealth not on our whims, but on the shortcomings of our neighbors, and to give them a helping hand in every calamity. Let us sincerely love our neighbors, and let us be true, and not false Christians. For by this the true Christian is known, as the Lord teaches: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Amen.

Homily 28: On Eternal Punishment and Eternal Life

 "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen"

 Just as eternal bliss comes from temporal misfortune, so eternal misfortune from temporal misfortune is somewhat cognizable and felt. There is no calamity so great in this world that does not have some consolation and cooling. Poverty is grievous, but it receives consolation from the name of Christ and the mercy of good people. A cruel illness is excruciating, but it is cooled by treatment or something else. It is considered a great calamity and misfortune not only to lose one's honor, property, wife, and children, but also to be thrown into prison. However, the poor are not without consolation: they enjoy light and air, common to all, although they are not equal to those who are free; he cools himself with food and drink, forgets the burden of sleep in his sleep, is comforted by visiting good people, and is nourished by the hope of liberation. Maybe he can't stand wounds and beatings. When he suffers unrighteously, he rejoices in the hope of heavenly reward; but when righteous, he humbles himself before God and acknowledges his sin, repents, and so is refreshed by the hope of God's mercy, saying: "It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, that I may learn Thy statutes" (Psalm 118:71). Moreover, death will end all this. But how hard, how unbearable it is to lose that glory before which all the glory of this world is like pus! To lose the view of that beautiful Person, Whose beauty, courtesy, and grace transform the whole heart and the whole spirit into desire and love; Whom the blessed spirits cannot be satisfied from the beginning, and will be satisfied forever without satiety! To be rejected from the King of glory Christ, Whose beauty surpasses the radiance of the sun, Whose sweetness St. Peter tasted a little on the mountain, cried out: "It is good for us to be here" (Matt. 17:4)! To depart from the city of that beautiful, heavenly Jerusalem, which "has no need of the sun or the moon to shine for its light, for the glory of God has shone upon it, and the Lamb is its lamp" (Rev. 21:23). To be expelled from that glorious and sweet supper, at which, from the beginning of the world to the end, "the invited and elect of God shall sing, rejoice, and shout for joy" (Isaiah 65:14)! To remove from the amiable friendship of the blessed spirits and all the saints, moreover, to be numbered among the dark and evil spirits; to be imprisoned, not to see the light; to suffer without weakening in the fire of hell, which burns but does not burn, torments but does not kill! Temporary calamity and suffering, as it has been said, whatever it may be, is not without consolation, and no matter how long it lasts, it ends in death, but this calamity and misfortune is endless.. There will be no return to the glory of God, there will be no deliverance from the bonds of hell and fiery suffering, in a word: eternal despair of God's mercy, eternal feeling of God's righteous wrath. There will be the answer: "Remember that you have already received good things in your life" (Luke 16:25). Here people flee from death, and there they desire it, and it flees from them; they will wish to turn into nothing, but they will not be able, and so they will always die, but they will never die: and "this is the second death" (Rev. 20:40). Intense suffering is multiplied by the fact that the sufferer never has any hope of regaining the good that he has lost through negligence, and of being freed from that terrible evil into which he has fallen of his own free will. From this will follow great anguish, great fear and horror; conscience will arise, which throughout all eternity will denounce and gnaw at the sinner that he has rejected such a lofty grace of God, and so willfully deprived himself of God's highest mercy forever, and has come to such a tormenting state. God, the Creator of heaven and earth, did not spare His Son for your sake, and delivered Him up to death and cruel sufferings, as the Gospel declared to you and the teachers of the Church preached. And God did this in order to deliver you from that misfortune. But you despised this ineffable love of God, forsook God for the sake of a temporary, small pleasure, fulfilled your whims, and not the will of God, which wanted to save you, served and pleased Satan, and not Christ. Other people like you are now comforted, rejoice, and are filled with eternal blessings, because they believed and followed Christ their Savior by faith, and you rejected God's counsel and thus perished! How much God has called you to repentance! How much the preachers exhorted! You despised all this. You did not want to listen to God in your life, and God will not hear you now. Expect nothing more than this calamity in which you find yourself. You will always drink this cup of sorrow, but you will never drink it all. Repent now, but it is too late and useless, if you did not want to repent profitably in peace. Groan, sigh, weep, weep, but it is useless if you did not want to weep where tears were useful! There the condemned will be tormented endlessly, and like a worm will gnaw at his conscience, and illness will be added to illness, and torment to torment.

Oh, eternity, eternity, ill-fated eternity! How much your very remembrance terrifies our spirit! To the extent that the spirit of the meditator is amused and delighted by blessed eternity, so much does unfortunate eternity lead to sorrow and fear. It is impossible to think about this latter without sighing and horror.