In Christ, our consciousness expands, our life becomes unlimited. In the commandment ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself, we must understand the words ‘as thyself in this way: every man, the ‘whole Adam’, is my being.
The kingdom of Christ, writes Saint Silouan, is to bear in our heart the whole universe and God the Creator Himself.
When you pray, pray for each and every one. And add: ‘By their prayers, by his/her prayer, have mercy also upon me’. In this way, gradually, your consciousness will broaden.
‘Love your enemies’. Yes, it is difficult. Yes, it is painful. But the moral beauty of Christ attracts us to such a degree that we are ready to bear all trials, as long as we are being raised up into His Spirit. There is no other choice.
Christ has given His divine life to those who are created in His image, but the only response He received was hatred. Today, after two thousand years of Christianity, what do we see? The contemporary world is losing Christ, losing eternal life, more and more. The deep darkness of sinful passions, hatred, domination, wars of all kinds, are what make up our earthly existence. In this situation, Christ has given this commandment to those who decide to follow Him: ‘Love your enemies’. Why is the world afraid of such a God? Can one find a better principle than this: bless those who curse you, love your enemies?
One cannot love without suffering. The greatest pain is that of loving to the utmost. Christ loved so much that he gave Himself up to a terrible death. The saints too. Paradise always costs this price. Prayer for the world is the fruit of extremely deep and acute suffering.
We must follow Christ going up to Golgotha. This ascension is none other than the struggle waged by Christ in His love for the whole world. When contests are fought only on the level of the world and the passions, people exhaust themselves and age very quickly. But when, on the other hand, sufferings come from striving against the passions in the Spirit of Christ, people are born anew.
Nothing is more painful than to have the love of Christ in this world. It is a struggle of cosmic dimensions.
How can we go towards God? When one stretches out towards this unique goal, everything else becomes a source of suffering, of pain. But we bear this cross in silence.
Such is the paradox of Christian life: it is in choosing the suffering of Christ for the world that we have the feeling of being nearer to Him and to eternal life.
When we decide to follow Christ, every day of our life becomes a day of suffering, of weeping, of pain. Sometimes this question arises in us: ‘Lord, why hast Thou created us thus, that we must go through so much suffering?’ We do not manage to understand that this negative experience is the way of salvation.
~Adapted from Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), Words of Life, translated from the French by Sister Magdalen (Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex)
