Landmarks of the Spiritual Path Christ came bearing a message of love
Landmarks of the Spiritual Path
Christ came bearing a message of love.¹
My beloved brothers, Muslims and Christians, I am pleased to congratulate you from the depth of my heart on the glorious Feast of the Nativity, wishing for you its blessing and effectiveness. Thanking you for all your kind sentiments, which I cherish, I would like to say to you on this occasion:
The Lord Christ came into the world bearing for it a message of love. And His love was a practical love, of which it was said that He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). Yes, Christ was in the world a love incarnate. He “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people” (Matt. 4:23). He satisfied everyone with His love and tenderness, fulfilling the needs of all—body, mind, and spirit.
Christ was a constant fountain of giving. He gave to all. Everyone who came into contact with Him received something from Him—received from His love knowledge, or healing, or a solution to their problems, or a remedy for their sins, or a special grace… It was also said of His love that “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). And the Lord Christ focused in His commandments on love and made it the sign that distinguishes His disciples from the people of the world… He said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35), and He also said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34).
The Lord Christ taught us that love is the greatest commandment among the commandments of God. When someone asked Him, “What is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He answered that it is love. The first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And the second is like it: to love your neighbor (Matt. 22:36–40). What is meant by “neighbor” is every brother to you in humanity. Then He said, “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets,” that is, all the commandments of God mentioned in the Law and in all the sayings of the prophets are centered in love.
So what are these two essential components of this great commandment—namely, love?
God’s love for us…
The first commandment is that you love God. And we love God because He loved us first (1 John 4:19). God loved us before we existed, and by this love He brought us into existence. Perhaps someone may ask: How did God love us before we existed, and before we existed we were nothing? Did God love nothingness?
No. But before we existed as a living entity, we were in the mind of God as an idea, and in His heart as joy. Nothing is hidden from God. Everything is clear before Him—the future as the past… Our image was before God from eternity before we were. It was in His thought and in His will and in His heart until He brought it forth according to His good pleasure at the time He chose.
Thus creation was an act of God’s love and generosity. God was alone from eternity. He was eternal love, for it is said that “God is love” (1 John 4:8)… And God was self-sufficient. He had absolutely no need of our existence. But He created us as an act of generosity and love. Before creating us, He created the angels, and the angels lived in love… Love was the language of the angels and the language of heaven… The angels never differ at all, because love binds them. And true is the saying of the saint who said that if ten thousand angels were gathered, they would all have one opinion. But if a small number of humans gather, they might differ. But this was not so in the beginning…
For when God created man, he lived in love. Adam and Eve lived together in love, and love united them even with the beasts. Adam lived with the beasts, and he did not fear them; they did not attack him, nor did he attack them. Rather, he cared for them and tended them and called them by names. Familiarity and shared life gathered them together. In the same condition and love, our father Noah lived in the ark…
He lived with the beasts in love. He was the one who brought them with him into the ark. He lived with them, caring for them and tending them until he released them to the earth. If this happened with our first parents Adam and Noah, how then should the relationship of human beings to one another be… all being children of Adam and Eve, and children of Noah?!
Love, then, is the original condition in the world, and everything that opposes it is something foreign that the world did not know before sin. All hatred, all enmity, all harm, wars, and divisions—these are all alien matters to the world. God did not create the world like this… And just as love is the beginning, it is also the end… For when this world ends and we go to heaven, to eternal bliss, to the kingdom of God, there will be nothing there except love. No hatred at all exists in the kingdom of heaven.
Thus, if love prevails on earth, earth becomes heaven. And love will be the measure of judgment in heaven. God will look at all our works and extract what is in them of love and reward us for it. As for the rest of our works, He will cast them aside as worthless. Whatever opposes love for God and people will be a cause of judgment.
God showed His love in the act of creation, and God’s love also appears in His care for this entire universe.
He satisfies every living thing with His goodness—even the worm that crawls on the earth or under a stone. God provides it its sustenance. He also gives food to the birds of the sky, which neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet God in His love feeds them (Matt. 6:26). And likewise the lilies of the field—God clothes them in beautiful, adorned garments, “and even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matt. 6:29).
How much more, then, is God’s love for humans and His care for them—even for those who deny Him. God sends sustenance even to atheists who deny His existence. He grants life even to those who blaspheme His holy name… He gives everyone an opportunity for repentance… perhaps His love may shame their ingratitude! This is the love of God. So with what spirit have we met God’s love?
Our love for God
Perhaps here I ask every person: Have you loved God as He loved you? Indeed, have you known God so that you may love Him? Have you lived with God? Have you tasted Him? Have you tasted the sweetness of communion with Him and abiding in Him?
As an example, I would like to ask: In your prayer, in your conversation with God, do you feel this love? Or is your prayer merely words or mere recitations?
Look at David the prophet who says in his psalms, “How sweet is Your name, O Lord; it is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119). He also says, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You as a dry and thirsty land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1).
Do you have this love in your prayer?
Your prayer may be long, but without love it does not reach God. I give you the example of an electric lamp… It may be well-made and very strong in wattage, yet if it is not connected to electricity, it does not give light nor benefit anything. Likewise, prayer is merely a connection with God as its name suggests… Without a connection of love it is not counted as prayer… Religion is not merely practices, nor is it intellectual debates. Rather, it is love toward God and people. Religion is a journey to the heart of God, passing on its way through the hearts of people. Religion is a sense of God’s love for you and your reciprocating that love.
Love is the sacred bond that binds people to God. It is the essence of religion. And God wants to teach us love so that we may love Him and love everyone.
Our love for people
We cannot reach the love of God if we do not practice our love for people. For Scripture says: If you do not love your brother whom you see, how can you love God whom you do not see?! (1 John 4:20). Thus, we must pass through the love of people on our way to acquiring the love of God.
And every person progresses in love: He first loves his mother who nurses him, then loves his father and all his relatives, then his neighbors and acquaintances and friends and kin, until he reaches the love of the tribe and the homeland. Then a person progresses to the love of all humanity, then the love of God and His heaven and His angels and His commandments and His kingdom… In love, he goes out from the realm of literalness to the spirit—to love.
Love gives birth in the heart to many virtues: trust, cooperation, giving, sacrifice, redemption, friendship, peace with all. Love is the exit from the self toward the other, such that you forget yourself and remember others. You leave the “ego” and do not live inside yourself, but rather inside the hearts of people. You live for others and see their good as your good. You love goodness and you love others.
As Scripture says, “Love does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5). It is the love that loves all without exception—even enemies. As the Lord Christ taught us: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Matt. 5:44). He also said: “If you love those who love you, what reward have you? … And if you greet your brethren only, what more do you do?” (Matt. 5:46–47)… Even sinners do the same. But the perfect person is the one who loves all—even the one who hates him. It is love without return… love for all—even sinners. For if you do not love sinners, how can you lead them to repentance?
But perhaps some ask: How can I love a person whose friendship does not suit me?
To this question, St. John Chrysostom answers: “He whose friendship does not suit you, do not make him your enemy.”
A loving person prefers others to himself, as Scripture says, “In honor giving preference to one another” (Rom. 12:10). Thus do not crowd people on the path of life… And if someone crowds you:
Say to the one who runs and races ahead:
“O my friend, stop a little and wait.
We are two branches living together.
I am in your bosom—come also into mine.”
The one who loves knows that all humanity is one body—if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. The one who loves seeks the blessing of everyone and the prayers of everyone. As St. Anthony the Great said, “Make everyone bless you.” And the one who loves does not quarrel with anyone… And if someone quarrels with him, he does all he can to make peace with him. On this the Lord Christ said: “Whoever wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two” (Matt. 5:40–41).
The Lord Christ came for this reconciliation—to reconcile man with God. Love requires humility of heart, by which a person can prefer others over himself and forget his rights in order to fulfill what others ask. He prefers the honor of others to his own honor. But the proud person cannot make love with others.
The palm tree—every time it rises upward, its fruit becomes farther from you…
Love requires wisdom. Scripture says, “He who wins souls is wise” (Prov. 11:30). Love has as one of its qualities that it sacrifices and gives. And the greatest form of sacrifice is for a person to give his own self for others. As Scripture says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
Love that gives…
Look at the tree. It expends all its energies to produce fruit—all for you. It is a symbol of the one who lives for others… Its entire work is to give you: it gives you its fruit, and gives you its shade, and transfers its life to you. It has no aim in all its growth except your happiness. Even when you cut it and it becomes dry, it offers its dry wood for your benefit as you wish.
It is strange that we eat the fruit of the tree and forget what is in it of symbol—the symbol of constant giving, the symbol of one who toils to comfort others, who works so that others may benefit from his work and production.
It is a symbol of one who lives for others, not for himself. Unfortunately, we look at the tree with eyes that do not see—eyes that do not see the spiritual symbol because they are preoccupied with material benefit.
Likewise the bee has the same pattern in what it offers you of honey. All its work and activity and wise organization and production is for your sake. It toils, and you come to eat from the fruit of its labor. It prepares food for you that you take ready-made with ease—you take from it all that it has.
The same situation applies to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars. They are examples of continual giving presented to us by nature, which gives us warmth and light without our asking, without payment, and for everyone—without asking whether someone deserves its giving or not. It gives without effort, and it gives without feeling that it is giving—giving is its nature, without burden or exertion. And even when its light disappears from you, it disappears only to give you rest and sleep.
Thus, my brothers, let us learn lessons from nature—lessons of love. This love God has placed for us in many examples: in nature, which is a hymn of love… in motherhood and fatherhood… in sonship… in marriage… in friendship… and in all social work.
So let us live by love. Let love be our life, our slogan, and our way of dealing with everyone…
On this feast, I would like to express on your behalf our love for our Muslim brothers and sisters. I salute them on this day. They are our brothers—they are our flesh and blood and bones. Our hearts are open to them all; they live in us, and we live in them. Our hands are extended to them all.
I congratulate them and congratulate you on the beginning of this new year, wishing for you all a blessed, happy year full of love and cooperation.
And I thank President Hosni Mubarak, who arranged for you the joy of this day…
May you all be well. Amen.
¹ An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III published in Watani newspaper on 13–1–1985.
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