How Can We Possibly Love Everyone, Including Our Enemies?
We are instructed by Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even to love our enemies. There are always individuals who come into our lives that we find difficult to like, let alone love. Given this, how do we follow the commandment of Christ to love everyone?
As Christians we venerate icons of Christ, among them those showing Christ suffering on the cross. When the priest or deacon censes the church during the services he also censes the people, recognizing the image of God in everyone.
If we see everyone as Christ, those who are unlovable, unkind, hurtful, or even evil, can still be loved if we look upon them as Christ crucified. They, like ourselves, are created in the image and likeness of God, yet their sin obscures the image. They, by their fallen nature and unrepentant lives, are Christ crucified. They are loved by God and we are commanded to do the same.
But how? This is where grace comes in! Like Saint Paul, we can say that anything good we do is Christ in us. Loving one’s enemies is perhaps one of the most difficult of Christ’s commandments to keep, but with Christ all things are possible.
As we struggle to love others we must do so with a prayerful heart, asking that the Lord give us the grace needed to truly love others. It is the same grace from God that is needed to forgive those who offend or hurt us. God forgives us, loves us, so we can also forgive and love others. It is all about grace, for if we seek out the aid of the Holy Spirit, all things good can be ours, including holiness.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Thursday January 13, 2022 / December 31, 2021
30th Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Fast-free
Apodosis of the Nativity of Christ.
Venerable Melania the Younger, nun, of Rome (439).
Venerable Paisius of Mount Athos (Glorification 2015).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1937).
Martyr Peter (1938).
Holy Confessor Dositheus, metropolitan of Zagreb (1945).
St. Peter Mogila, metropolitan of Kiev (1646).
Venerable Gelasius, monk, of Palestine.
Venerable Gaius, monk.
Venerable Theophylactus of Ochrid (1126).
Ten Virgin-martyrs of Nicomedia (Greek).
Venerable Zoticus of Constantinople, feeder of orphans (4th c.) (Greek).
St. Anysius, bishop of Thessalonica (406).
Venerable Sabiana, Abbess of the Samtskhe Monastery (11th c.).
Martyrs Busiris, Gaudentius and Nemo (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
Hebrews 10:35-11:7
35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 “For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
By Faith We Understand
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Faith at the Dawn of History
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Mark 11:27-33
Jesus’ Authority Questioned
27 Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. 28 And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”
29 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”
31 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. 33 So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”