“Let us choose life.  Let us choose to love our brethren whom we can see, that we may learn to love our God whom we have not seen (John 4.20).”

-  Mother Raphaela, Growing in Christ, pg 20. 

Reflection: 

Christ tells us, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”(1)

St Paisios reminds us similarly, “Concealed within our love for our neighbor, is our great love for God”.(2)  

What are our reactions in thoughts, words, and deeds online or in person when we witness something we are not fond of?  

Our relationships with our neighbor (friend and foe) affect our relationship with God, and vice versa, simultaneously. 

When we humble ourselves before our neighbor, putting our ego aside, reaching them on their level - we acknowledge that they are created in the Image and Likeness of God Himself.  We acknowledge the image of Christ stamped on their heart.  

Let us strive to recognize the Image of God in everyone, meeting them where they are in their development, and choose to be a vehicle of the Holy Spirit, to lift them up. 

In this way, we choose the way to think and act that is truly life-giving, allowing others to grow in our midst (instead of limiting them to their faults, since through Christ, all can be transformed). As Mother Raphaela said, let us choose life. 

Resources:

1) Matthew 22:36-40

2) St Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Volume V. pg 201.