(15th Sunday after Pentecost)
What made it possible for our Lord Jesus Christ to take up His Cross, and die for us? Love. It is the love between God the Father and God the Son that enabled our Lord, in His hour of struggle, to say, “Not my will, but thine, be done,” and for the Son to be obedient to the Father to accomplish our deliverance from sin and death. It is the love of God for us, the work of His hands, that caused Him id not depart from us, but rather to come and dwell in our midst, identifying Himself with us completely by joining our nature to His own. His coming and His Cross are empowered by love.
What made it possible for the martyrs to endure suffering and death rather than denying that Jesus Christ is Lord? It was their love for God that led the holy martyrs Trophimus and Sabbatius to reject their high positions in this world and to be faithful to our Lord during a time of persecution. It was the love for those to whom we are joined in the faith that led the martyr Dorymedon to tend to the wounds of Trophimus and Sabbatius during their time of torture, which led to his own martyrdom. Faithfulness and tenderness are empowered by love.
In the two Gospel readings appointed for today, we hear how it is necessary for us to fulfill the Summary of the Law; and to take up our cross and follow the Lord. You know the Summary: “Love the Lord your God will all your heart and soul and mind and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Our Lord fulfills both these teachings by taking His Cross, an act of love for God and for us, whom God has made His neighbors by living among us. The martyrs fulfill these teachings, loving God more than they loved life in this world, and caring for each other, even at the risk of death. Without love for God, it is impossible for us to take up our cross and follow Him; without love for God, it is impossible for us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
What about us? Can we honestly say that we love God? Perhaps your answer will be like mine: I love God, but not with all my heart and soul and mind and strength; I love God, but I also love myself, and I am still attached to many pleasures of this life and world, and must struggle when the time comes to give them up, and I often fail in the time of trial. Perhaps your answer might be like mine: I love my neighbor, but I love myself more.
Every time we choose the ways of this world instead of the way of God – every time we sin – we show that our love for God is incomplete. Wealth, comfort, power, fame – these lead us to greed, and laziness, and pride; and, ultimately loving ourselves more than we love God. Every time we allow ourselves to become angry, such as when we get cut off in traffic; every time we become impatient or irritated, or we don’t get our own way; in all these things, we show that we do not love our neighbors as well as we love ourselves. What about us? Can we honestly say that we love God? Without love for God, it is impossible for us to take up our cross and follow Him; without love for God, it is impossible for us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
We show our love for God when we take up our cross: when we dedicate ourselves to serving God by laboring to be transformed increasingly in His likeness through the way of life of the Orthodox Church – through prayer and fasting and giving and struggle. We show our love for God when we take up the cross of humbling ourselves, setting ourselves aside, and considering others as more important, and more worthy of love and respect, than we think we are, ourselves. It is not easy; but when we recognize that we are loved by God, and truly believe in the power of His love for us, then the task becomes one that is worth the effort – and you are truly, deeply loved by God.
Brothers and sisters, beloved of God: let us show our love for God by caring for each other, and considering others more worthy than ourselves. Let us show our love for God by taking up our cross, and following faithfully the way of life given to us in His Church. With us, in our strength alone, this is impossible; but we will succeed through the power of His love.
1 comment:
Having grown up in the Catholic Church, I got to hear the stories of the martyrs on a regular basis - in gory detail. The thought of martyrdom, consequently, absolutely terrifies me, and I find myself wondering if I would have the courage of a Peter the Aleut, or a St. Marina. I don't know. I only know that I hope that time never comes -- but, if it does come, that I remember it's not a question of my endurance, but of relying on God's love to sustain me temporarily, for His love is permanent, and so is life with Him.
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