Love (Toughness of Love)
- Michael Haldas
- Jul 22
- 7 min read
“One of my students came to seminary when he was already middle-aged, after considerable success in the world. This student was later ordained and served as an assistant to a priest who was much younger and who asked of him an almost monastic obedience…There was a beggar…who was constantly hanging around the church where the two priests served. He was always asking for help, creating tales about why he needed help and where the money they had already given him had gone, and so forth. The successful and responsible person–my student–naturally balked at submitting to this transparent manipulation and sought the younger priest’s blessing to send the beggar elsewhere. But the younger, senior-in-rank priest kept insisting that the bad behavior of the beggar was a result of the fact that no one had ever loved him in a truly Christ-like, selfless way. Many had given charity, but no one had loved him. Again and again, the presiding priest corrected his older protégé, until he practically had him washing the feet of the poverty-stricken man. And what happened was that this poor but manipulative man was indeed transfigured through the experience of unconditional love and divine grace that he received from the newly ordained priest. Seeing a successful person serve him with such genuine love, changed him. He joined the Church. He took a simple job and found a place to live. He himself began to help the poor. What had happened is simply that the newly ordained priest learned and practiced philotimo, and this spirit was contagious; the poor man learned it, too. As the priest recovered his healthy shame, so did the beggar.” (Timothy G. Patitsas)
“A difficulty with the world in its juridical imagination is that love is seen as but an emotion, sometimes an action – but not as the stuff of reality. We have everything backwards. It is Love (God) Who created all that is and sustains it. Communion with the true God is to live in Love. When we are told to “love your neighbor as yourself,” we too often hear little more than a commandment to be nice to those around us. St. Silouan heard it rightly and declared, “My brother is my life.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“A very important point in love is to see the value of every person, because there’s something good in everyone—you just have to change your often biased attitude. Only by cultivating love for our neighbor in our heart, changing our attitude toward him, learning to see the good sides in him, will we gradually conquer pride and arrogance within ourselves. Love conquers pride, for pride is a lack of love for God and men.” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)
“God’s name is Love. We gather in church not just to pray for the living or the departed, but to learn love—at least in some small way, while we are still here, even just a little bit. Love is when one person sacrifices something for another. How does a dry and selfish person become kind and compassionate? By striving to show love to their neighbor, to anyone and everyone, all the time. In this way, we constantly exercise and soften our hearts. A disciple of Christ must dedicate his entire life to serving God and neighbor—from beginning to end. To be a disciple of Christ is to acquire love. And love, as the Apostle Paul says, seeketh not her own—no personal benefit, no gain, no dreams for oneself, but only to serve Christ.” (Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov)
“…man’s vocation in life is one. It is love: an exodus, a departure from the narrow prison of self-love for the promised land, the land of the Other, of ‘my brother, my God. For it is only in a loving communion with God that a person can become “capable of loving all humankind and all things.” (Archimandrite Vasileios, Dr. Mary S. Ford)
“…questions, of how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the prisoner, the stranger, the sick among our fellow man, are all taken as referring to Christ God. If you love your fellow man (the least of these my brethren), then you have loved Christ (who is fully human), and thus you have loved God (for Christ is God). Your reward for this will be eternal life with God. However, if we don’t love our fellow man, then we have not loved Christ, and therefore we have neglected God. So, there again we see the convergence within Christ’s own person of the commands to love God and love neighbor.” (Timothy G. Patitsas)
“Love for God is manifested in the constant struggle between good and evil, purity and impurity in a man’s heart, and that he tries to set truth and grace against lies and every impurity and thereby defeat them. The same struggle between grace and sin is playing out in the world, and only those who take the side of the former and are at enmity with the latter truly love God. Love for the Lord is also manifested through love for others…if a man can’t love his neighbor…even less will he be able to love God… Holy Scripture teaches that the main name for God is love, and he who has no love will never be able to know Him. Holy Scripture therefore calls us to love the Lord, because it’s necessary and useful first of all for us, not for the Lord. If the thought of God constantly lives in the heart, then a man can hope for the Lord’s love for him. These thoughts, aspirations, and efforts purify, enrich, and elevate a man.” (St. Gabriel of Imereti)
“The criterion by which God will judge each and every person is… Did we love? Love is not a feeling. Love is an action …Love is when you go out of your way to help those who cannot help themselves. Love is making sacrifices to serve others. In short, love looks a lot like the life that Our Lord Jesus lived on a daily basis. In fact, Christ is love incarnate. Love become flesh and blood. Love become man for the salvation of the whole universe.” (Fr. James Guirguis)
“We should look upon…the faithful… and consider that Christ is in each one of them. We should have such love for them…we are ready to sacrifice our very lives for them…it is incumbent upon us…tolook upon everyone as good. If you see a brother afflicted with a passion, do not hate him. Hate the passion that makes war upon him…if you see him being terrorized by the habits and desires of previous sins, have compassion on him. Maybe you too will be afflicted by temptation, since you are also made from matter that easily turns from good to evil. Love towards your brother prepares you to love God…The secret…of love towards God is love towards your brother…if you don’t love your brother whom you see, how is it possible to love God whom you do not see?” (St. Symeon the New Theologian)
“We are supposed to be one body, yet each of us lives our own life, with our own concerns and ambitions, caring only for ourselves. It is a blessing if even a resemblance of something like love happens between two or three people, but try to speak honestly, or rub someone the wrong way, and you will see what kind of love is shown you. Why do we have such poverty and lack of understanding of what is most important? What are we living for? To satisfy our own ambitions? To insist on something? To make a point or prove ourselves? Well, go ahead! But what awaits you afterward? A coffin made of rough, unfinished boards... What will we leave behind? Whom have we inspired with our love? Whom have we led to faith? Where are our children? Where are our grandchildren? What is radiating from us? What have they become? Where is the love? Where is the continuity between generations? We will die, and what will happen to them? Have we shown them love? Have we taught them what life means, what nobility, holiness, the Gospel, beauty, and the Kingdom of God mean?… there is still time.” (Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov)
“It [love] is tough because it means dependency on God for that which we cannot do by ourselves. It is tough because the objects of our love often act in unlovable ways or they reject our love when we give it. It is tough because we have to keep coming back with more love, even when it is rejected.” (Foundation Study Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
“Love is to listen with pain to the worries of the other. Love is also a concerned, pained glance; and a word spoken with pain for - and to - the other, when he is facing hardships. Love is to participate in his sorrow, to comfort him in his trouble. Love is to bear the onerous thing another may say to you. All these things help far more than many words and any outward displays.” (Papa Demetri)
“Despite, or because of, all the incredible technology our society has at its fingertips, human beings are becoming more and more isolated. Suicide, drug abuse, and depression continue to increase. To make up for our inability to love one another in totality, society elevates social causes to ease our consciences. Human beings are losing the ability to actually love each other, even as they are heroically taking on huge social problems throughout the world. The words of St. Paul the Apostle come to mind: “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3).” (Jonathan Jackson)
“…the people in your life are icons of God. With the Holy Spirit supplying internal grace and fortitude, we can pass through difficult circumstances with love rather than desperate self-interest.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
“God structures the world so that love for others is the true foundation of every flourishing human interaction.” (OCPM 3/29/2017)
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