If we move out from our self-focus and self-love, whom do we meet?
, asks St. Theophan the Recluse
The answer is: God and our neighbor.
And who is God and our neighbor? CHRIST. He is both God and man. He takes on our human nature to deify human nature. Through Christ we come to truly KNOW God and participate in His life.
If we want to find our way to the Kingdom of Heaven we must come to Christ and be united with Him.
To love Christ is both to love God and our neighbor. And this truth is at the heart of our Lenten spiritual training and the Gospel.
It is for this reason that Christ says, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” (Matt. 25: 35-36).
The righteous then ask when they have seen Him so and have ministered to Him. The response is that “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Matt. 25:40).
So we learn why it is that the Church is so eager to have us live out our Faith, starting in Lent, to share the love of Christ with others.
By loving our neighbor, we love God because Christ is both to us.
Fr. Dimitru Staniloae puts it this way: the believer who wants to gain perfection must become a praktikos (a doer) before he can become a gnostikos (a knower of God).
If we want to know God and be with God, we must do what is indicative of knowing God.
I personally have a long way to go in this respect. Lent is like spiritual ‘boot camp’ for us—we have the opportunity to focus on the Kingdom of Heaven with renewed vigor for a season. We learn to deny ourselves more than we want to or even thought possible.
We deny our pride, our selfishness, and serve God and come to know Him by loving our neighbor and putting others, God foremost, before ourselves.
How do we do this in practice (become a praktikos):
- We help those around us in need; we give to the needy, we minister to those in need;
- We take the time to prioritize our time to put God, His worship, service to Him first; we avail ourselves as much as possible of the services of the Church;
- When we counsel or teach, or are an example to others of the Faith, we are loving Christ.
- We “take every thought captive”; we subject everything we do and say to God.
St. Isaac the Syrian says, “Support with the word the grieving and the right hand that bears all things will support you.”
