There are people of the Law, and there are people of God. People of the Law love the Law more than they love others, while people of God live out the Law of Love through their deep love for God and for others. In truth, people of the Law do not truly love anyone, not even themselves; they merely follow the Law to quieten their own conscience. Fundamentally divided, their adherence to the ‘letter’ of the Law simply allows them to endure their own inner division.
The purpose of the Law is to open a person to God and to their neighbour. Yet people of the Law transform it into a field of study, so that instead of being freed from their passions through the Law, they become even more enslaved to them. They are hard-hearted and do not live the Law of Love; instead, they engage with the Law intellectually, seeking only to reinforce their own sense of superiority over those whom the Law calls them to love.
People of the Law are also people of power. They suppress some of their passions by indulging others that are even worse than those they control. They do not seek friends, but subjects, and deep down they believe they know what others need better than the Creator Himself does.
In contrast, people of God are always ready to sacrifice themselves so that others may live. They find joy in bringing joy and sharing others' sorrows. Thus it is through others that they are continually enriched, and as a result, God’s presence grows in everyone. The people of God desire nothing material for themselves, wishing instead that all they have be given to others, so that others may thank God for His gifts, just as they themselves thank God for His love that grows continually within them.
The people of God wish to serve everyone. They see everyone as greater than themselves, seek to worship God in every person, and make no distinction between people they know and strangers. They see that God’s love intends to unite everyone, and their greatest fear is to hinder, even to the slightest degree, the work of God’s Love for all. They desire to decrease so that God may increase in everyone.
The people of God live in the image of the Holy Trinity, for they strive to live through others and for others. They understand turning inward as the ultimate fall and are even willing to die physically in order to remain fully open spiritually to God and His creation. This is the way of our Saints, who pray to God for us all to follow this path.
Sunday of the Good Samaritan, 10.11.24.
Fr Georgios Lekkas, PhD is a priest of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Belgium.
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