Homily One on the Second Sunday of Luke (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily One on the Second Sunday of Luke 

19th Sunday after Pentecost

On Love for Enemies

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered on October 3, 1960)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ, concerned for our salvation, that feelings of love for one another may be constantly preserved among us and that proper and right relations may be maintained, gives us today in the Holy Gospel that has been read His wondrous divine teaching, which should serve as a guiding rule in our daily Christian life. The Lord says: “And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

It is natural for a person to have a feeling of self-preservation, a constant striving to support and preserve his life and to place it in the best possible condition. This feeling prompts us, as human beings, to avoid dangers and everything harmful to our life, health, honor, and well-being, and, on the contrary, to desire and seek everything beneficial both for our life and for our moral well-being. Under the influence of this feeling, we not only strive ourselves to do what is beneficial for our lives, but we also desire that others do good to us, assist in carrying out our aims and plans, and contribute to the increase of our happiness and well-being. This desire of ours, the desire that people do good to us, extends to everyone, without excluding even our most hardened enemies. We desire that they also do good to us. Indeed, if we penetrate into the depths of our soul, into our innermost thoughts and desires, we must admit that even from our enemies we desire good, and only good, and that our mind always strives to find grounds for justifying this desire, for lessening our guilt before our enemies and for justifying ourselves before them. And so, guided by this feeling of self-preservation in a reasonable manner and remembering that our personal good is closely connected with the good of our neighbor, amid our concern for our own well-being we strive to support the well-being of our neighbor, who in turn helps us in what is necessary and useful for us. Through such interaction, through such mutual and friendly assistance among people, the happiness of people is naturally established and elevated, and the feeling of self-preservation becomes a beneficial force, an architect of human happiness.

But often, under the influence of this feeling of self-preservation when it is wrongly directed, we go beyond the bounds of justice and, by caring excessively for ourselves, give place to self-love; therefore, we trample upon the rights of our neighbor and, for the sake of our own interests, harm his well-being and honor. Naturally offended by such treatment, our neighbor is resentful and often repays evil with evil, striving to defend his rights; hatred and vengeance arise, and all this eventually leads to very destructive consequences — to murder and disgrace for those who are at enmity with one another. And so, in order to destroy this evil and restore good relations, the Lord points us to that same feeling of self-preservation, the abuse of which has such a destructive influence upon the fate of people. “Therefore, whatever you want people to do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12), says the Lord, thereby inspiring us to love our neighbors, even our enemies. Who among us does not wish that even our enemies would treat us kindly, that they would not only refrain from harming us, but would also do us good? We must act toward our enemies in exactly the same way, knowing that they too desire and expect only good from us; and our peaceful and benevolent conduct toward them will serve as the first and surest step toward reconciliation with them. Friendly and peace-making conduct toward enemies is the best means of restraining, dulling, and disarming even the most bitter hostility and extinguishing every hatred.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil,” says the Holy Apostle Paul, “but take thought for what is good before all people. If it is possible on your part, live at peace with all people… Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head” (Romans 12:17–18, 20). Our love and beneficence toward our enemies will be for them as painful as the torment of burning coals, and it will extinguish the hostility and hatred toward us in their hearts. The first manifestations of our love and goodwill toward our enemies will soften their hatred and irritation and place them in peaceful relations with us; and if we persistently and continually show them love and goodwill, they too, for their part, will not be slow to respond to us with the same feelings. Only morally deformed people can persist in hostility and hatred toward those who seek reconciliation, responding to love with hostility. But such a state of soul is morally sick, abnormal, and contrary to nature; it is not characteristic of people who are morally healthy, although it does still occur. For the most part, people are inclined toward peace, and therefore, when they notice a peaceful and friendly disposition, they gradually begin to calm down, drive hostile feelings from their souls, and repay their former enemies for good with good and friendship with friendship.

The strongest encouragement to love our enemies is found in the Lord’s teaching concerning the superiority of Christians over other people. If, for the pagans, the highest limit of moral excellence was to love their friends, then Christians have been shown a higher path of moral perfection: to love their enemies, because God Himself “is kind to the ungrateful and evil” (Luke 6:35). “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Christians, too, must be perfect, as their heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). They must be merciful, just as their Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). And if we turn our attention to the work of our redemption, here we encounter even stronger examples of love toward enemies. Here the love shown to us, sinners, is revealed in all its astounding greatness. “God,” says the Holy Apostle Paul, “demonstrates His love for us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners… while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:8, 10). And the Son of God, upon the Cross, prays to His heavenly Father for those who crucified and blasphemed Him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Such is the love of God for His enemies, for sinners. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Thus did the Son of God love sinners. Should not a Christian, following the example of the Savior, imitate Him in love toward enemies? In urging us to love our enemies, the Lord points to the great reward that Christians will receive for loving their enemies. “And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (Luke 6:35), says the Lord. In this world we must live for eternity. Here we sow in order to reap in eternity; here we labor in order to receive in eternity the reward for our labor. And our labor will be fruitless if it bears no fruit worthy of praise in eternity. Yet precisely that labor of life which consists in loving and doing good only to friends and those close to us, in maintaining friendly relations with them, is regarded as fruitless labor. The Lord Jesus Christ promises neither praise nor reward to Christians for such love and beneficence. “If you love those who love you,” says the Lord, “what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much” (Luke 6:32–34). The Lord promises no reward in heaven to Christians whose love does not rise above the love of sinful people, tax collectors and pagans. “He who sows to his flesh,” that is, he who sows only under the influence of his self-love, calculating how to arrange his temporary well-being as advantageously as possible, “from the flesh will reap corruption.” He will appear in eternity without good works. Only “he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:8). This reward, eternal life, will belong only to those people who, rising to the love of enemies, sow “to the Spirit,” who in their relations with one another are guided not by fleshly, earthly interests or calculations, but by the demands of the law and teaching of Christ, by the demands of godlike perfection. Eternal life will be their reward. They will be sons of the Most High because they imitated God in loving their enemies, rooted out the spirit of hostility and hatred from their hearts, and did good to all without seeking their own advantage. Therefore the Lord will also glorify them in His Kingdom: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

What a great honor it is to be called a son of God! And therefore, for the sake of such a great honor, it is worth laboring and entering into a decisive struggle with our self-love in order to uproot hostility and enmity, so that we may acquire a spirit of love and goodwill toward our enemies and be deemed worthy of the name of son of God. This right to be called a son of God makes the Christian an heir of God and brings him near to the heavenly Father. And what the blessedness of the heirs of God is like, the Holy Apostle Paul helps us understand in the apostolic reading heard today. The Apostle Paul says: “It is not profitable for me to boast, for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I do not know; whether outside the body, I do not know: God knows, was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or outside the body, I do not know: God knows, how he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for man to utter. Of such a man I will boast; but of myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses” (2 Corinthians 12:1–5). And again the Apostle Paul says that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

These, then, are the motives that dispose us to love our enemies. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, remembering these commandments of the Lord, let us strive to understand them and imprint them upon our hearts. Love all people from a sincere heart; love your enemies as well. Restrain your self-love, which draws us toward hostility and vengeance; do not allow yourselves to be carried away by anger, hatred, and revenge. Whoever takes revenge on an enemy pours oil on the fire; he intensifies discord and hatred and thus becomes himself the cause of great disorder, both for himself and for others. Whoever takes revenge on an enemy proves that he is a Christian only in name and not in essence, that he is not a son of the Most High, and that in the life to come he should expect not rewards, but punishment. Let us pray to the Lord that by His grace He may grant us this gift of all - forgiving love. And let us remember the words of the Lord: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:44). Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.