"...Holy Scripture commands us to love our friends in Him, and our enemies because of Him. [...] For there are those who love their neighbours, but because of the bond of kinship or blood; and the Sacred Scriptures do not forbid them this love. But one is the love to which nature spontaneously inclines us, and another the love to which we are obliged in obedience to the Lord's commands. The former truly love their neighbour; nevertheless they do not attain to the sublime rewards of love because the love they bestow is not spiritual but carnal. So when our Lord said: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another,' He at once adds: 'As I have loved you.'"
Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
"The Lord had come to die even for His enemies, and yet He said that He was about to lay down His life for His friends; to show us clearly that since we can draw profit from our enemies by loving them, even those who persecute us are also our friends."
"But there is a certain thing that is far more serious, namely, that someone should ask for the death of an enemy; striving to obtain by prayer what he cannot secure by the sword! [...] Whosoever prays in this manner, even in his very prayers is at war with his Creator. [...] And so He Who is Truth tells us: 'And when you shall stand to pray, forgive, if you have aught against any Man.' (Mk. xi. 25)"
"But say that an enemy has done us grave injury, has caused us loss, done harm to those who help us, persecuted those who love us? These things might be remembered, if our sins had not to be forgiven. For our need our Advocate has composed a prayer; and He Who is our Advocate is also Judge in the same case. And in the prayer He made, He inserted this condition: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us.' And because He is our Judge, Who before was our Advocate, He listens to the prayer He made. [...] We either say: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us,' and by saying this bind ourselves the more; or else we leave out this condition in prayer, and then our Advocate will not recognize the prayer He made, and will at once say within Himself: 'I know what I taught them; this is not the prayer I made.'"
"We shall show you this virtue of pardon more clearly if we put before you one example from the Old Testament. When Judea had sinned against the justice of her Maker by her deliberate offences, the Lord, forbidding His prophet to pray for them, says: 'Do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee praise and supplication for them (Jer. vii. 16). If Moses and Samuel shall stand before me, my soul is not towards this people (Jer. xv. 1).' [...] Why then are Moses and Samuel more powerful in prayer than the other fathers, if not that in the whole of the Old Testament only these two are said to have also prayed for their enemies? One was stoned by the people (Ex. xvii. 4), yet he prayed to the Lord for those who stoned him. The other was removed from his leadership, yet when asked to pray for the people he declares: 'Far from me be this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pay for you' (I Kings xii. 23)."
"The true power of prayer therefore depends on the depth of your charity. And so each one will receive what he rightly prays for so long as his soul is not darkened by hatred of an enemy. [...] And when our lips move in prayer for them, God grant that love may also have its place in our heart. For often we pray for our enemies, but do so more from precept than from love. For we pray even for the life of our enemies, and yet fear lest our prayer be heard. But since our Eternal Judge looks rather to the mind than to our words, he asks nothing for his enemy, who does not pray for him from charity."
"...why does He say of Charity, as if it were some singular commandment: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another?' if not for the reason that every commandment is a commandment solely of love, and that all of them are one single precept; because, whatever is commanded, is based solely on love. For as the many branches of a tree derive from one root, so the multitude of virtues derived from one charity. And a branch of good work has no freshness, unless it remains rooted in charity."
CALL TO ACTION: Let no malice remain in our hearts. Forgive that we may be forgiven of our own debt to God.
Source: Quote from "The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers" (St. Gregory's Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, "This is My Commandment: That you love one another"), Volume IV, pages 170-176; Henry Regnery Company (copyright 1963); Imprimatur: E. Morrogh Bernard, Vic. Gen., Westmonasterii; Nihil Obstat: Carolus Davis, S.T.L., Censor Deputatus
Photo by Luke Richardson