In the previous two lectures, we spoke about the reasons that cause a believing person to abandon his first love. We add to these reasons that sometimes he becomes concerned with religious practices rather than with divine love. Practices devoid of love lead him to lukewarmness…

Many misunderstand religion. And in doing so, they lose the first flame that the Holy Spirit ignited in their hearts when they came to know God in a proper way. So what, then, is religion?

Some think that religion is a kind of activity, movement, and work within the Church. You find them in the Church as a flame of activity, moving  and working , and persevering in service, yet God is not in their hearts.

Religion is love: it is love for God, love for goodness, and love for others.

If you love God and love virtue, you cannot turn backward or fail.

Our problem is that we enter into religion as a kind of reconciliation with God—perhaps a formal reconciliation—not for the sake of loving God.

Sometimes we enter into religion out of fear of God’s , and perhaps because of this fear, virtue has taken on the meaning of piety, so it is said: “So-and-so fears God…”

We do good so that God will not be angry with us, not out of love for goodness. Sin leads to hell, so in order not to go to hell we do good, while perhaps our hearts do not love it… and because of this, we may turn backward…

We continue in religion in an unstable way, rising and falling, going and coming, and we will not be settled except when we reach love.

As long as you are outside the scope of divine love, you have not yet reached the ideal state of religiosity.

Some think that religion is merely spiritual practices such as prayer, fasting, reading the Scripture, going to church and meetings, confession, communion, self-examination, etc.

But religion is not merely practices; rather, it is the love of the heart for God.

Repentance also is not merely practices. One of the spiritual fathers defined it with a beautiful phrase, saying:

Repentance is the replacement of a desire with another desire: that you desire God instead of the desire for the world, the flesh, material things, and the desires in the world…

In the life of repentance, you begin to desire living with God, abiding in Him, speaking with Him, and contemplating His sweet attributes. You begin to desire everything related to God: His Church, His books, His holy sacraments…

When you leave the love of the world through repentance, you do not leave yourself in an emotional void; rather, you fill it with the love of God. Or rather, the love of God is what makes you separate from the love of the world and the things in it.

And the opposite is true: if you do not love God, your heart will not remain empty. It will cling to another desire besides God and fall into sin…

Religion, then, is a holy desire, a divine love…

It is a burning spiritual desire within the heart that drives it to walk in the path of God.

And spiritual practices are nothing but an expression of this divine love. Outside of this expression, we do not consider these practices spiritual at all.

With this holy desire, David said to the Lord: “Your dwellings are beloved, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the Lord.” “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’” “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.”

Thus, going to the house of God—in this manner—is not merely spiritual practices or duties, but love and desire.

Prayer also is like this. It is not merely practices or spiritual duties; rather, it is love. In it, David says: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.” “My soul follows close behind You.” “In Your name I will lift up my hands; my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.” “When shall I come and appear before God?”

Prayer, then, is love for God. And because of love, we speak with Him. If it is devoid of love, the Lord rebukes us, saying:

“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”

Therefore, prayer is not the virtue; rather, the love within it is the virtue.

Many prayed, yet God did not accept their prayers because they were not prayers of love—like the prayers of the hypocrites, like the prayer of the Pharisee who stood boasting in the temple and said, “I thank You, Lord, that I am not like others…”—those to whom the Lord said: “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:15).

Because of love in worship, the Lord said: “My son, give Me your heart.”

Some may say that the Lord then said, “And let your eyes observe My ways.” We say that the one who loves the Lord and gives Him his heart will naturally have his eyes observe the ways of the Lord. But obedience to the commandment in this case will not be obedience of the law or of slaves; rather, it will be obedience arising from love for God, as He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Naturally, he will keep His commandments because he loves Him.

The person who loves God, when he stands to pray, finds the words sweet in his mouth. Whenever the words of prayer end, he continues, wishing that his standing with God would be prolonged and that his conversation with Him would not end. But the one who does not love finds prayer heavy upon him; it is a duty he forces himself to perform, and he rejoices when he finishes it!

The person who loves God desires life with Him. He feels that religion satisfies his life, fills his emotions and heart; therefore, he finds delight in his spiritual life and lives it with joy, without compulsion.

There is a difference between one who fasts out of love so that his spirit may be elevated and united with God, and one who fasts as merely a spiritual practice and becomes preoccupied with fasting foods until he satisfies his body as he desires, without reaching the love of God…

This we may call a vegetarian person, not a fasting one!

Many practice the outward forms of religion, while religion has no presence in their lives. The love of God has no presence in their lives.

If you reach the love of God, you are walking in His path. But if you have not reached love, you are lost, far from the Lord.

A person may read the Holy Bible and become a scholar of religion without the Bible touching his life. But the one who reads it with love finds in it satisfaction and nourishment, and says to the Lord: “I found Your words like honey, and I ate them.” “I have seen the consummation of all perfection, but Your commandment is exceedingly broad.” “The word of the Lord is enlightening, giving light to the eyes.”

In the same way, we view service as a relationship of love with God. People love God and want every person to love Him, leading all to His love. Service does not become merely activity or routine…

The routine servant invites people only to practices and stops at that point—calling them to fasting, prayer, reading, and church attendance. But the one who loves God begins by saying to those he serves: Have you known God? Have you loved Him? Have you tasted Him? Have you lived with Him? Has He dwelt in your heart? Have you felt Him in your life?

The approach, without doubt, is different between the two in service.

The spiritual servant makes those he serves feel that true life lies in God, and without Him a person is in loss. In Him we live and move and have our being.

As the Apostle Paul said: “For me, to live is Christ”… “I have lost all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him”…

Christ reproached the Jews because they cared about outward forms in religion. And His disciple John says: “God is love. He who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” “He who does not love does not know God.”

So pray and say: “I want, O Lord, to love You, to taste You, to live with You, to dwell with You, and to know You. I want to open my heart to You and dwell in Your heart”… This is religion.

This does not mean neglecting spiritual practices and being content with love alone; rather, these practices are the result of love and a source of it.

When you love God, you pray, and prayer with Him deepens your love for Him.

Your love for God makes you read the Scripture, and through reading, your love for Him increases.

Therefore, Augustine said: “Love, and then do what you will.”

On your way to God, say to Him: I have no prayer, O Lord, except one—I ask for nothing else. I repeat it day and night, from the depths of my heart and mind: “Grant me, O Lord, to love You.” And if we die in this prayer, you will say: “Grant me, O Lord, to love You, and to see all people loving You.”

I do not want to numb my conscience with mere spiritual practices. I do not want to console myself with fulfilling a spiritual schedule of prayer, fasting, reading, and contemplation without love. I want to ask myself:

Do you feel the love of God filling your heart or not? Do you feel that He is inside your heart? That there is a connection between you and Him?

Practices are not enough, even if they reach gifts and miracles!

Many will say to the Lord on the last day: “Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And He will say to them: “Depart from Me, I never knew you!”—because they had no love…

Try to begin with God in a right beginning and make the foundation of your life love; otherwise, you will lose your spirituality.

The Pharisees were very literal in carrying out the commandments, extremely precise, to the point that they placed heavy burdens on people, yet they did not reach God because they lacked love. Thus, they found the commandments difficult.

But the one who loves God says with John: “His commandments are not burdensome.” Through love, he finds the commandment easy, carries it out without compulsion, and finds the greatest difficulty in breaking it.

That is why the Apostle John said: “Whoever is born of God does not sin”… “he cannot sin”… “and the wicked one does not touch him,” because His seed abides in him—and the secret of this steadfastness is love.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – published in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Forty-Six), 18-11-1977.
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