True Brotherhood

St. Matthew 5:42-48 (6/21) The Gospel for Saturday of the Week of the Holy Spirit The Sermon on the Mount V ~ The Challenge: St. Matthew 5:43-48, especially vs. 48: "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." As it should be noted throughout the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus' aim is to free the Faithful from the dark ways of mankind, illumine us with His Light, and assist us to attain the Kingdom of heaven. The logic of fallen mankind is to love one's own neighbors, friends, and family, and to ignore or despise those who differ from and oppose us (vs. 43). Our Lord reveals a new logic, a true logic, a theo-logic: to love all men in the manner in which God loves every one of us (vss. 44, 45). St. Theophylact of Ochrid states God's new way succinctly, "To love some men, that is, one's own friends, and to hate others, is imperfection. Perfection is to love everyone." Here is The journey which the Lord invites us to take. It is an ascent to the land of peace and joy known as the Kingdom of God. The journey is long and arduous, requiring us to redefine love itself. Our Lord invites us to accept His awesome definition of love, take His challenge to learn it, and succeed by relying on Him as our Guide to show us how, where, and when to love (vss. 43-48). Christ our God's definition of love is to bless those who curse us, to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us or use us out of sheer spite (vs. 44). Being weak and corrupt, I beg to ask, "How can I attain to such a lofty peak? Who is capable of meeting His challenge?" Brethren, thank God for He discloses the path, provides grace to follow it, and gives us the witness of "a great cloud" of saints to go upwards with us (Heb. 12:1). In the Lord Jesus' Saints we have the testimony of many - ascetics and monastics, fools for Christ, ordinary people who combined the impossibility and the necessity of God's way of loving. Remember, the Lord's initial instruction is: "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you" (Lk. 8:39). Then, as many demons are cast out, you and I may return to "uncivilized" society as those being healed. The Faithful in Christ have a vital message to be lived among our neighbors - a life-saving effort: to deliver love as a visible, unqualified, and pure gift to our neighbors, our families, our friends, and our enemies. The parched, infertile and wasted fields of men and women around us beg even for the seeds of love, thirst for the waters of the Spirit of love, languish for the food of the loving God. The evil and the good, the just and the unjust, our friends and the scoundrels of the world wait for such love. Begin today to act like our Father and shed some warmth of love on all, but not on the basis of their worthiness. Deliberately choose to pour out a drop of the water of blessings, sow some genuine good deed, and let God nurture our neighbors' unproductive lives by our inadequate prayers (vs. 45). Can we not be like children and imitate our Father in Heaven? Disdain the fear of clumsiness, being called a hypocrite, or being rebuffed and disliked! Brethren, the Lord calls us to extend love beyond those we prefer. As children of our Father, let us love the just and the unjust, the spiteful, and abusive, as well as those we like. St. Nikolai of Zica adds his voice to the Lord Jesus' guidance: "Be like this, brother: Reckon all men as your brothers, and sick brothers at that. And if you come to feel that God has given something healthier to you than to them, know that is given through mercy, that, as a healthy man, you may serve your frailer brethren. Who could take pride in that - as if health were all your own doing rather than God's? As if a stagnant pool could clear of itself and not be cleared by some spring, deeper and purer." By the power of Thy blessing, O Lord, enable me at all times to speak and act to Thy glory with a pure spirit, with humility, patience, love, and wisdom: aware always of Thy Life-giving presence.