1 John 4:16 - And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:8 - He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love
“Let us all love one another, that with one accord, we
may confess---- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity one in essence and
undivided…”
These great and mysterious words are intoned in the liturgy
right before we proclaim that “Christ is in our midst… and before the communal
confession of the Nicene Creed.
And here lies the most basic, yet sublime, understanding
of what the true nature of God is and what one must become in order to begin
real communion with Him; GOD IS LOVE!
It is not by chance or coincidence that the Deacon
exclaims this very fact---- before you can begin to confess the Holy name of
God as trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and approach HIM in true
Spiritual Worship and Communion, we must first love one another in word and in
deed; a truthful and genuine love.; a love without excuses or
reservations. That love that is not predicated
upon anything else; we love pure and simple, for God first has loved us!
We cannot say that we love God, and have no real love for
one another; this is hypocrisy which breeds phariseeistical religiosity at its
worse.
Actions
Speak louder than Words
The fact of the matter is that if our faith is in reality
not Love in Action, then we are only
pretending or playing make believe. This
will not be a faith that is capable of coming into contact with His Divine
presence, hence no transformation, no healing, no forgiveness of sins and no
peace from above.
If our love for one another is not: real, practical, thoughtful, sacrificial,
honest, joyful, and without pretention, then we have only entered into a superficial
and exterior religion and not into The WAY OF SALVATION. This would only be a faith that, for all
practical purposes, we do not truly believe, is devoid of any transformative
power, as we are only putting on a facade;
for actions definitely speak louder than words.
We know that in the epistle of St James, the brother of
the Lord states “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the
demons believe---and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that
faith without works is dead?” (James2:19-20)
Do we really
Love one another?
Let us take a moment and face this pressing question head
on and with all seriousness. For if our lives, in no way or resemblance, bears honest witness
to the fact that the God of LOVE has
indeed made His home in our heart and soul , that by His indwelling He has
shown us LOVE from the inside out and has given birth to a new creation that is
now capable of: loving with a love not
of this world, of caring with a care that this earth knows not, of being a true
child of the most High, bearing witness to the True Light that has come to
enlighten all men---- then we are living a lie.
Let us take a moment and assess how we interact with one
another, how we respond to one another, how we treat one another, how we talk
to one another and how we look at one another.
Are we Christ-like to one another; loving pure and forgiving quickly? Are
we Godly to one another; sacrificing our own wants and desires for the love and
welfare of my brother and my neighbor?
Are we heavenly and spiritual to one another; allowing peace and joy to
flow freely between us? Are we angelic
to one another; bearing good tidings and blessings?
So what must
I do?
If the answer to the above is more often than not, in the
negative, then we have some work to do. For if what we say and proclaim is
incongruent with how we behave and act, then we become destroyers of the
kingdom and not builders--- heaven forbid. So how do we begin to love so that
we can begin to know God? The old idiom
that practice makes perfect is totally relevant here. We first need to be honest with where we are
in living out our faith. Then we need to
begin practicing Christian love: pray for one another, forgive one another, be
gentle to one another, check up on one another, say a kind word to each other,
smile to each other, be a good listener, a caring friend, attune to the needs
of other…… and the list never ends for the Love of God is without limit and
knows no bounds, carrying us all into eternity.
So let us all love one another that with one accord we
may truly confess---- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and then and only then shall
Christ be among us, and so shall He be, and so shall He ever be!!!
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God
the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!
Your Servant in the God of Love,
Ft. Spyridon
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