12. Как научиться любить Господа

Last time the holy wives of the Myrrh-Bearer taught us love. Now St. John the Theologian, who loved the Lord more than all others and was beloved by Him more than others, teaches the same thing. Let us write this example of love in our minds, and begin to adjust our feelings and dispositions in relation to the Lord according to it. Like St. Did John the Theologian reach such a high level of love for the Lord that he became a model for everyone in this love? “In the same way, I think, people begin to love each other.” – They see the beauty and kindness of another, and are drawn to him with ardent love. So is St. John the Theologian, saw the beauty of the Lord and was drawn to Him, felt His special love for himself, and he himself was warmed by love for Him, saw the great, wondrous and beneficial deeds of the Lord, and was inflamed with the fire of reverent and complete devotion to Him, tasted the sweetness of love for Him, and, immersed in it with all his heart, rested in it. – This is the path of ascension into love for the Lord. Let us step into it and, of course, we will achieve what we want. Firstly, St. matured. John admired the beauty of the Lord and was disposed towards Him. This is how human love is born: They see spiritual or physical beauty and begin to love each other. Let us also raise our minds to the contemplation of the beauty of the Lord, and surely we will not remain cold and indifferent to Him. The beauty of the Lord is the totality of His perfections. “Look at what the Lord does not have,” says St. Tikhon. Whatever you desire, He has it all, and exists in indescribable and inexhaustible fullness (Part 7, p. 270). Do you wish for bliss? True and eternal bliss is with Him. Are you looking for beauty? He is the most beautiful person in kindness above all (Ps. 44:3). Do you want nobility - who is more noble than the Son of God? – Are you looking for honor, who is more honest and higher than the King of Heaven? Are you looking for wisdom? He is God’s fasting wisdom! Whether you love joy—the joy and gladness of the blessed spirits and God’s chosen—He is. Do you need consolation? Who will console you except Jesus? Are you looking for peace? He is eternal rest for the souls who love Him. Do you want a belly? With Him is the source of life. Are you afraid of getting lost? He is the way. Whether you are afraid of delusion, He is the truth. Are you afraid of death - He is life, as He Himself certified: “I am the way, the truth and life.” - In a word, He has every perfection, and every beauty and kindness that the human soul cannot help but love. Force your mind to comprehend this, and you cannot help but love the Lord, like Catherine the Great Martyr, who in the one whom she promised to love, wanted to see the same beauty that she had - the same wealth that she herself possessed, and the same wisdom that she herself boasted of, believing that in the whole world there would not be such a face. And when she came to know the Lord, in comparison with His beauty, wisdom and wealth, she considered everything of hers insignificant and contemptible, and clinging completely to Him, she offered her everything, and herself, as a sacrifice to Him. Secondly, the saint felt. John the Theologian loved the Lord for himself, and he himself warmed with love for Him. As fire comes from fire, so love comes from love. – Sincere and selfless love – felt – always arouses compliance. Let us enter into the feeling of the Lord’s love, and let us be inflamed with love for Him. “What did the Son of God not do for us? - says the saint. Tikhon (Tam., pp. 268. 269), - what didn’t he invent? What did you not endure and suffer for the sake of our wretched and poor soul? What labors and illnesses did He not endure in order to bring us, who had fallen away, to His Heavenly Father? For our sake he came down from heaven, so that we, expelled from paradise, could be raised to heaven. For our sake, he was born in the flesh, so that he might appropriate us, born in spirit, to himself. For our sake he humbled himself in order to exalt us. For our sake he became poor, in order to enrich us poor ones. For our sake, He endured dishonor and wounds in order to heal and glorify us. He died for our sake, so that we, the dead, could be revived. This is the level of condescension and humility brought to us by His supreme love and compassionate mercy for us.” —Hasn’t each of us experienced the spirit of God’s love? How many times have we run away from Him through sins? And every time, for one word: I’m guilty, I won’t, we were again accepted into His mercy. How many times did they anger Him when they indulged in the good things of the world? - But when they converted, they were again allowed to eat the Lord’s table, eat His body and drink His blood. Isn’t this the embrace of His merciful love!! – Christ is among us in everyday life. - Who has not experienced His protective closeness - in deliverance from troubles, illnesses, sorrows, difficult circumstances and every need of soul and body?! Is it possible not to respond to such great love, and not to turn with all your heart to such an unrelenting lover? It is possible, of course, through absent-mindedness and inattention, to forget about the Lord’s love for us. But, having known and brought to memory, one cannot help but feel in oneself movements of love for the Lord, no matter how rough one’s heart may be. Whoever constantly walks in the feeling of the Lord’s love will constantly burn with love for Him. Such is the nature of love! Thirdly, St. tasted. John the sweetness of love for the Lord, and rested in perfect peace in her bosom. Love, in itself, is an advantage with which no other can be compared - it itself brings a benefit, greater than which there is no one in heaven or on earth. “He who loves Me,” says the Lord, “will be loved by My Father; and again: if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love Him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:21, 23). Oh, how comforting is this word! How great and high promises the Son of God offers and gives to His lover, so that a true lover of Christ He has friendship with the Father and His Son! - The human mind does not comprehend this goodness of God. The great, infinite God wants to have friendship with His created man and His servant, and He has it when one does not separate himself from him. “Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3), says St. John! excommunicated. See what the lover of Christ is vouchsafed to be the home and dwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinitarian God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - deigns to graciously dwell in him. “God is loved, and abides in love; He abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). Blessed indeed is such a heart! It still here feels the joy that will be poured out abundantly into the hearts of the elect in eternal life - it tastes in the very thing how much good the Lord is - and has what is said: “This kingdom of God is within you.” For where God Himself is, there are all His things with Him. If God is in you for your love, then you will have His justification against your sins, deliverance against your captivity, peace against your evil conscience, consolation against your sorrow, consolation against your sorrow, justification against God’s judgment, help against your enemies, reason and wisdom against your ignorance and bewilderment, strengthening in your weakness (St. Tikhon, ibid.). If the Lord, for the sake of your love, is in you, then who is against you, and what calamity will befall you? If He, your peace, is in you, then who and what will disturb you? If He is your joy and consolation in you, then who and what can offend and sadden you? If He - Your strength - is in you, then who can overcome you? If He, your king, is in you, then who can enslave you? “If God is for us, then who is against us,” Ap. boldly calls out. Paul is with those who love the Lord (Rom. 8:31). This is love, and this is what it brings with it! He who enters into the love of the Lord feels that he is becoming more and more complete and perfected. For “love is the bond of perfection” ( Col. 3:14 ). So, if you want to love the Lord, strain to contemplate His beauty or the fullness of His perfections with your mind, feel the warmth of His love with your desire and taste the sweetness of love itself with your heart. Love cannot be taught: it is accomplished through the intimate consultation of the heart with itself - it is seeded secretly and ripens unknown how, like a seed thrown into the ground, which, unknown to the sower, vegetates on its own, produces a stalk, an ear and grain in the ear. Love is secretly seeded, however, always from the effect on the heart of the beloved object. Bring with your mind before your heart the bright face of the Lord, the loving and most merciful, and a spark from His eyes will fall into your heart, and will inflame it with love for Him. Whoever stands before the fire warms up, and whoever turns his mind and heart to the Lord, Who is spiritual fire, receives the warmth of His love from Him, and begins to emit a warm disposition towards Him. “The love of God is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5), teaches the Apostle. She is a gift, but a gift ready for anyone who seeks: just desire and ask, and you will immediately receive. As the Lord embraces everyone, it would be impossible not to love Him; but just as not everyone turns to Him and seeks Him, then not everyone loves Him. He loved us first, and we should love Him, although after His love. But before Him we love something else—something not pleasing to Him and not blessed by Him—and we no longer have more than to love Him; for we have one heart, and not two, which is why we cannot work together with God and mammon. Remember, brethren, that “the love of the world is enmity to God” (James 4:4). "Enmity with God!" - Isn't it scary? But there is an even more terrible word: “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed, Maran-atha” (1 Cor. 16:22). This is how Apostle Paul expressed his zealous love for the Lord. Having thought all this, brethren, let us labor to love the Lord with all our soul, with all our heart, with all our strength, or better yet, to awaken the love for Him that is sleeping in us, and to bring it into manifestation and action, visible to us and to others. Amen. On St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. You might be interested in: