FIRST, IT IS OUR DUTY TO LOVE our God because He has given us such a large earth here to live on temporarily: so many thousands of plants, springs, rivers, seas, air, day, night, sky, sun, etc. For whom did He create all of these if not for us? What did He owe us? Nothing. They are all gifts. He made us human beings; He didn’t make us animals. He made us pious Orthodox Christians and not impious heretics. Although we sin thousands of times an hour He has compassion for us like a father, and He doesn’t put us to death and place us in hell. But He waits for our repentance with open arms, for the time when we shall repent, when we shall stop committing evil and do good, to go to confession, to be restored so that He will embrace us to put us in paradise to rejoice forever. Now, shouldn’t we too love this sweetest God and master? And if there is need, shouldn’t we shed our blood a thousand times for his love as He shed his for our love?

A man invites you to his home and wants to treat you to a glass of wine. For the rest of your life you will respect him and honor him. Shouldn’t you honor and respect God who gave you so many good things and who was crucified for your love? What father was ever crucified for his children? But our sweetest Jesus Christ shed his blood and ransomed us from the hands of the devil. Now shouldn’t we too love our Christ? But we not only don’t love him, we insult him every day with the sins that we commit.

But whom do you want us to love, my brethren? Should we love the devil who put us out of paradise and brought us to this accursed world where we suffer so much evil? More-over, the devil is so disposed that if he could this very minute cause our death and put us into hell, he would do it. Now I ask you, my brethren, to tell me what we should do: to love the devil, our enemy, or to love God, our author and creator?

"[God] of course, O saint of God; you speak well."

May your blessings be upon me. I agree too, but God also needs a couch to rest upon. What is that couch? Love. Let us, therefore, also have love for God and our brethren and then God will come and gladden us, and plant in our hearts eternal life. We then shall live well here on earth and we will go to paradise to rejoice forever.

But we not only don’t have love but have hatred and malice in our hearts and we hate our brethren. The cunning devil comes and makes us bitter and plants death in our soul, and we live badly here on earth and go to hell and burn forever.

IT IS NATURAL FOR US TO LOVE our brethren because we are of one nature, we have one baptism, one faith, we receive the same holy sacraments, and we hope to enjoy the same paradise. He who has been found worthy and has received these two loves in his heart, love of God and love for his brethren, is fortunate indeed. Because whoever has God in his heart possesses all that is good and can’t bear to commit sin. And whoever doesn’t have God in his heart has the devil and always commits evil and every kind of sin.

EVEN IF WE PERFORM THOUSANDS upon thousands of good works, my brethren: fasts, prayers, almsgiving; even if we shed our blood for our Christ and we don’t have these two loves, but on the contrary have hatred and malice toward our brethren, all the good we have done is of the devil and we go to hell.

But, you say, we go to hell despite all the good we do because of that little hatred? Yes, my brethren, because that hatred is the devil’s poison, and just as when we put a little yeast in a hundred pounds of flour it has such power that it causes all the dough to rise, so it is with hatred. It transforms all the good we have done into the devil’s poison.

HOW ARE YOU GETTING ALONG HERE, my brethren? Is there love among you? If by chance you want to be saved, don’t ask for anything else in this world except for love. If there is anyone here among your nobility who has this love for his brethren, let him stand up and tell me so that I may pray for him also and ask all the Christians to forgive him. He’ll receive such forgiveness that he couldn’t buy it for thousands gold coins.

"I, O saint of God, love God and my brethren."

"Good, my child, you have my blessing. What is your

name?"

"Kostas."

"What is your trade?"

"I tend sheep."

"Do you weigh the cheese you sell?"

"Yes, I do."

"You, my child, have learned to weigh cheese, and I to

weigh love. Is the scale ashamed of its master?"

"No."

"Now I’ll weigh your love and if it is true and not false,

then I’ll pray for you too and I’ll ask all the Christians here to forgive you. How can I determine, my son, whether or not you love your brethren?"

Now I who walk about and teach in the world can say that I love Mr Kostas as dearly as I love my own eyes. But you don’t believe it. You want to test me first and then you’ll believe. I have bread to eat and you don’t. Now if I were to give you some since you have none, this shows that I love you. But if I were to eat all of the bread and you went about hungry, what does that show? It shows that this love I have for you is false.

I have two glasses of wine to drink; you have none. If I were to give you some to drink, then I show that I love you. But if I don’t give you any, then the love is false.

You are sad. Your mother and father have died. If I were to come to console you, then my love is true. But if while you cried and mourned I ate, drank, and danced, my love would be false.

"Do you love that poor boy?"

"1 do."

"If you loved him, you would buy him a shirt because he is naked so that he too will pray for your soul. Then your love will be true, but now it is false."

"Isn’t that right, my Christians? We can’t go to paradise with false love. Now if you want to make your love true as gold, take and clothe the poor children, and then I’ll ask that you be forgiven. Will you do it?"

"Yes."

"Fellow Christians, Kostas has learned that the love he had up to now was false and he wants to make it true as gold. He will clothe the poor children. And because we have taught him, I beg you to say for Mr. Kostas three times: ‘May God forgive him and have mercy upon him."