The Way of Love and Humility

(Luke 2:1-20) (January 7, 2004)

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say. Of course, it is important for us to be knowledgeable about the Orthodox faith; about what we believe, and why we believe it; about how we are to live, and why we live as we do - a life of prayer, and fasting, and alms-giving, and of spiritual struggle against our sins, so that we can show forth the life of Christ given to us in our baptism. We should know the rules of prayer, and keep them; we should know the rules of fasting, and keep them; and so on.

But we would do well to remember that our Orthodox life is meant to be so much more than just a strict adherence to rules. “But, Father,” I can hear someone ask, “how can that be true?” It must be true. Consider this, which we have revealed to us, among others, in today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke, about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: When the angels in heaven sang of His birth, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will towards men?” It wasn’t to those who were the most knowledgeable about the faith at that time; it wasn’t to the priests, or the scribes, or the Pharisees. No, the angels sang of Christ’s birth to the shepherds; to men who lived a much simpler life, who were probably not nearly as educated, not at all as informed, about the day-to-day rules and regulations of the faith. God did not choose to reveal the birth of His Son to those who were considered to be wise, but to those who were simple, and without guile. The heavenly vision was not given to those who thought they knew the right way - the “orthodox” way - of life; but to those who were simple, honest, and, the fathers tell us, without guile.

What, then, about us? How do we balance the necessity of living carefully according to the rules and guidelines, which we acknowledge to be good, and important, and yet not seek to do so to the degree that we become the scribes and Pharisees of today? This is especially important for those of us who are converts to the Orthodox faith, for we were (for the most part) raised in a culture that does not grasp well this tension in the life of the Orthodox faithful; and for whom the temptation, then, is to “prove” ourselves in our newly-embraced faith by keeping all of its outward requirements. I believe that the answer to this dilemma is by the way of love and humility.

If we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling our Lord’s instruction to us to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength, we will find developing within our being a desire to live rightly; a desire to keep the commandments of God, and the rules of the Church and faith, as an offering of ourselves to God. This is an act of love, and it is, I believe, empowered by our realization of the incredible love that God has for us. Love draws forth love; and the more we know the richness of God’s love, we find ourselves responding to Him with love. Our desire to please the one we love changes us; and so we are less inclined to keep the rules in order to be right, and more inclined to live rightly so as to please God as an offering of love to Him.

As we dedicate ourselves to the second part of the Great Commandment, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, it is possible for us to overcome the temptation to judge ourselves against how well we think others are keeping the rules. “He broke the fast, and I didn’t,” or, “She doesn’t pray as much as I do”; when we take our eyes off the rules as the way of living, and seek instead to love, we remember again God’s love for us, which has led to the forgiveness of our sins, because of love. Love seeks to forgive; love covers a multitude of sins. Love responds to wrongs done to us by saying to ourselves, “My own sins are worse”; and to the one who has offended us, “Please forgive me, a sinner.” Love, then, leads us to humility - considering everyone else as better than ourselves, more worthy, more honorable, and more pleasing to God.

Brothers and sisters: As we prepare ourselves to celebrate the glorious Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us pray that God will bless us to live rightly the Orthodox faith and way of life. Let us ask God to be born in our hearts, so that His love and His truth will dwell in us, and shine forth from us. Let us seek, in humility and in simplicity, to bear Christ in our hearts and lives, so that, above all, He may be seen in and through us; to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, including our own.