04 November 2020

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh on Love

"So often when we say 'I love you' we say it with a huge 'I' and a small 'you.'  We use love as a conjunction instead it being a verb implying action.  It's no good just gazing out into open space hoping to see the Lord; instead we have to look closely at our neighbour, someone who God has willed into existence, someone whom God has died for.  Everyone we meet has a right to exist, because he has value in himself, and we are not used to this.  The acceptance of otherness is a danger to us, it threatens us.  To recognise the other's right to be himself might mean recognising his right to kill me.  But if we set a limit to his right to exist, it's no right at all.  Love is difficult.  Christ was crucified because he taught a kind of love which is a terror for men, a love which demands total surrender:  it spells death."

Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom), Beginning to Pray

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