The Most Difficult Commandment

Whom do we see when we look into the face of another?

Our world is polarized in ways not seen in many generations. This polarization is bought closer to home because we now live in a nation that is far more cosmopolitan than in the past. Even small towns across our country are now home to people from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Africa, India, Pakistan, Mexico and China, to name but a few. We have communities of Sikhs with their colorful turbans, and Muslim women wearing their hijab, living among us. Our children attend schools with students who are members of religions that are relatively new to American shores, and the racial makeup of our country is changing.

This is certainly not the first wave of immigrants coming to make a new life for themselves on American shores. Past generations of Italians, Germans, Norwegians, Irish and Welsh, made America their home, and in doing so infused a wonderful blend of diversity, culture, food, and religion into society that greatly enhanced our nation, and contributed to making America the great nation that she is today.

That we sometimes resisted the influx of peoples from foreign shores can not be denied, and discrimination suffered by these “foreigners” is a disgraceful part of our common history. Now that we are witnessing increased conflict in the Middle East, attacks in Western cities, and attacks on our troops coming from within the ranks of supposed allies, we are tempted to look toward many of the new immigrants with suspicion, or even fear. As Christians we must make sure the present strife in our world does not become the vehicle for the virus of hate to enter our hearts.

We can not let our revulsion of Islamic violence in the Middle East become the corner stone for internment camps in the United States. The mass expulsion of Japanese Americans from our farming communities, towns and cities on the West Coast, into such internment camps, must never be repeated again.

Nowhere in our Christian Scriptures does it suggest we must avenge our God against anyone who would insult the Holy Trinity. Nowhere does it say that anyone who has defiled our Bible, or insulted the Holy Name of Jesus, should be murdered. Nowhere in our Bible are we, as Christians, given a directive to mass in our streets with anger, and murder innocent people for any perceived insult to our Saviour, Jesus Christ. That peoples of another faith are told by their religious leaders that they must do such things, in no way can be seen as a directive for our behavior.

The most difficult commandment Christ gave to His disciples was surely the one that we must love our enemies. If we translate that directive into the simple task of being nice to the crabby old man next door, we will have missed the point. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).” Easy? No. Possible? Yes! “And Jesus looking upon them said, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).”

Whom do we see when we look into the face of another? It is Christ! It is either Christ glorified, or Christ crucified. That we have all been created in the image and likeness of God, means that we are all His children, and therefore brothers and sisters to one another. That some of our brothers and sisters have chosen to be our enemies does in no way lessen the truth that we are all the children of Eve, charged by Christ to love each other. If we be of Christ, we must follow His commandments.

All said, I don’t always feel safe in my monastery, for I’ve been threatened numerous times with death following essays I’ve written about islam. I do not believe we should simply open our gates for Islamic Jihadists posing as refugees, bent on destroying Western Civilization and whatever is left of Christianity in this country. I do, however, believe that we are called by Christ to love our enemies, even those who wish to kill us. I therefore pray for the conversion of those who have entered our land, that they come to know Jesus Christ, just as I pray for the conversion to Christ of our own people, who have increasingly turned their backs on faith in God, embracing atheism, secularism, materialism, and all other godless pursuits.

The answer to all that troubles this world is not to be found in armed conflict or division, but in a common return to Christ. We as nations of the Western World need to reclaim the Christianity that made our civilization great and led our ancestors to spread the gospel of peace and love to the far ends of the world. We need to love everyone we meet with the love of the Saviour Who first loved us, and has invited us to be one with each other, in His Kingdom, which is found in the heart.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photos: One of our “Dinner Plate” Dahlia, displayed in our library.

Tuesday August 30, 2016 / August 17, 2016
11th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.

Afterfeast of the Dormition.
Martyr Myron of Cyzicus (250).
Venerable Pimen, archimandrite of Ugresh (1880)
New Hieromartyr Alexis priest (1918).
New Hieromartyr Demetrius priest (1937).
Venerable Alypius the Iconographer of the Kiev Caves (1114).
Martyrs Paul and his sister Juliana of Syria (273).
Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius, and Coronatus, with others at Caesarea in Bithynia (250).
Martyr Patroclus of Troyes (3rd c.) (Gaul).
Martyrs Straton, Philip, Eutychian, and Cyprian of Nicomedia (303).
“Svensk” (“of the Kiev Caves”) (1288) Icon of the Mother of God.
The Armatian Icon of the Mother of God.
Venerable Leucius, abbot of Volokolamsk (1492).
Venerable Philip, monk of Sukhonsk, Yankovsk (Vologda) (1662).
Blessed Theodoretus, enlightener of the Laps (Solovki) (1571).
Venerable Ellas of Calabria (903).
St. Jeroen, hieromartyr of Noordwijk (857) (Neth.).
New Martyr Demetrius of Samarina in Epirus (1808) (Greek).
New Hieromartyr Archilleus Sirotin.
St. Tbeli Abuseridze of Khikhuni, Adjara (13th c.) (Georgia).

Scripture Readings

2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3

14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

Christ’s Epistle

3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Matthew 23:23-28

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.