The Foolishness of the Cross - Love your Enemies!

Icon of Christ carrying His cross, Church of Panagia Dexia,
Thessaloniki, Greece

"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18
NASB BibleGateway.com

I have always read the following passage from the Gospel according to St Luke,  with a sense of astonishment;
"“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your
coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what
credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the
same.If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father
is merciful."Luke 6:27-36 NASB Source-BibleGateway.com 
The commandment has a sense of absoluteness. It demands total and unconditional surrender of oneself. And I have to confess that I did not understand it. What Christ is asking seems inhumane!

Does He mean this literally?, I continually asked myself. What kind of a person behaves in this way and is able to survive? And I thought, "there is no way I can fulfill this commandment!"

I read St Silouan, "Blessed is the soul that loves her brother, for our brother is our life. Blessed is the soul that loves her brother: the Spirit of the Lord lives manifest within her, affording peace and gladness, and she weeps for the whole world." From 'St Silouan the Athonite' by Archimandrite Sophrony p.371, St Vladimir Seminary Press 1991

Such words sound so simple but it takes a heart full of the Holy Spirit to understand. I thought, "Alright, maybe finding out what St Silouan means by 'love' will help, and immediately recalled 
1 Corinthians 13, where it reads,

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek it's own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” NASB 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 And I despaired of ever been
able to live and experience this love.

Then I read this passage from St Silouan;
"The soul cannot know peace unless she prays for her enemies...The Lord taught me to love my enemies. Without the grace of God we cannot love our enemies. Only the Holy Spirit teaches love,..."
And I realized that my feelings of impotence are warranted, that is, if I  think I am called to have this love in the power of my human strength. The beloved Elder knows this and he has words of
encouragement for us, "To begin with, constrain your heart to love enemies, and the Lord,
seeing your good will, will help you in all things, and experience itself will show you the way. But the man who thinks with malice of his enemies has not God's love within him, and does not know God."

"If you cannot love, then at least do not revile or curse your enemies, and things will already be better; but if a man curses and abuses his
enemies, it is plain that an evil spirit lives in him, and if he does not repent, when he dies he will go to the place where evil spirits dwell.

May the Lord preserve every soul from such adversity!"  
From, 'St Silouan the Athonite', p377 to p.378


The words are comforting but also bring fear, hopefully the fear of God. It is this fear that moves me to constrain myself and struggle towards God and not away from Him. God loves us so much, that His Providence makes a plan for us. How, you may ask? 

The beloved Bishop of Zicha knows very well how, as revealed by his prayer,

"LORD, BLESS MY ENEMIES, A Prayer by St. Nikolai of Ochrid

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.
Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from Earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world. Enemies have
made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter
than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your
tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.
They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.
They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.
They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf. Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background. Whenever I have rushed
to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand. 

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep. Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out. Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, Ο Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitter against me: so that my fleeing to You may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; so that my heart may
become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger; so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; ah, so that I may for
once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life. Enemies have taught me to know what
hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize
that they are not enemies, but cruel friends. It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, Ο Lord, both
my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands. For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them."
From 'Prayer LXXV, Prayers by the Lake p.142-144, Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, Trans. by Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Todor Mitka, 1999 ORTHODOX HERITAGE. APRIL 2005. BROTHERHOOD OF ST. POIMEN Source

Immediately two things seem very clear, I must pray to God with perseverance to be able to learn to love my enemies, and I must trust in, and submit to God's Providence as revealed in the 
circumstances of my life.

Father Zacharias Zacharou explains, "God's commandments are beyond man's conception and power to fulfill. We are humbled from the moment we come in contact with them. The commandments of God have the specific effect of crushing the arrogance of our darkened minds and hearts as to clear the way for grace to dwell 
within us. They shed light on our imperfection, on our spiritual poverty and weakness, so that we cry out to God from the heart, asking Him to come and fulfill His own commandments in us. This
is the only way, as He Himself said, "Without Me ye can do nothing." John 15:5
From 'Remember Thy First Love' p.318, by Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou, Stravopegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, Essex, England, 2010

"The very greatness of loving our enemies is obvious from this simple example: if we have a misunderstanding with someone and we ourselves are to blame, how difficult we find it to humble ourselves and say, 'Forgive me, I made a mistake' But how much greater the crucifixion of ourselves if we are to love someone who has provoked us, even as our conscience tells us that we are blameless. This, however is the way of Christ, Who loved us unto the end even while
we were His enemies. ..

Love for one's enemies, then, is the 'madness' of our faith, 'the foolishness of the cross'. And woe unto him who does not accept this foolishness! His is foolishness of a different kind: 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God' Psalm 14:1. There is indeed no God for him, for he is unmoved at seeing Christ-God with arms outstretched
upon the cross in love for His enemies. Such a fool is so  hardened that the word of life, the word of the cross, no longer penetrates his heart.
And this word is the one that speaks most eloquently to us of what love for our enemies truly is." Ibid p.320-321

I am speechless! With pain of heart I acknowledge that I do not yet possess this love. But I can pray, I can ask, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Transform my heart of stone. I believe, help my unbelief!"

And while I pray, there is also something else I can do, I can start to act as if I had this love...