WE WERE CREATED TO LOVE

WE WERE CREATED TO LOVE*

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples." (John 13:34-35)

... If love gives birth to the courage that serves God, through which the nous is flooded with light (as the Father gives birth to the Son, through whom the Holy Spirit reveals His mysteries), love forms the secret of every success. Emphasizing the necessity for young people to have ideals and hold fast to them, the God-bearing Confessor of Sinai [Elder Pavlos] served Saint Catherine for five decades by turning education and gifts to the glory of God on the model of the Saint’s own life. Following in her footsteps by applying the energies of desire, anger, and intellect toward union with God, the hesychast elder needed a very few words to convey all of the above: “We were created to love.”

What comes first, then: the love that begins in God (then reaches ourselves, then goes out to all others, as described by the elder)? Or the desire that draws us to Him? Before ever stepping onto the stage of martyrdom and history, Saint Catherine proves the answer to be neither. Love for God consists of desire for Him. Love for self, of the anger repelling attempts to separate us from Him. Love for others, of the purified intellect whose luminous faith draws them to Christ.

Disabled by the rhetorical skills of the courageous martyr’s light-filled nous, the empire’s academic elite are brought to the feet of the Saint to confess the deceit of idol worship. Seeking baptism into Christ, they are assured by His Bride that the fire of martyrdom will itself become their baptism. It will be the ladder leading them to the kingdom of heaven as its luminous stars, and to its King as His beloved friends – which it proceeds to do without singeing so much as a hair on their heads. Besides the intellectuals, hundreds of soldiers choose the martyrs’ crown, together with their commander Porphyrios and the emperor’s wife Faustina.

In the face of threats and tortures, how does Saint Catherine remain the unshakeable inspiration to so many? Insight is offered through the eyes of her disciple, Faustina. Moved by the vision of the Saint’s face shining so brightly that no one could look on it, the empress secretly visits her in prison. There she decides to exchange her earthly reign for the heavenly one, but confesses her fear of martyrdom. Promising Faustina that she will have Christ “within her heart” to help her, Catherine reveals the dwelling of Christ in the heart of her own soul, reconciling its forces with His own. But this is not all.

Faustina’s decision to throw away a visible, earthly kingdom in favor of an invisible, merely promised one – throwing “reason” to the winds – signifies that she not only senses the divine energies supporting the struggle of Saint Catherine over the several days of her martyrdom – but that Faustina herself has become a participant in this synergy. Souls communicate in God on a level that deductive logic will never understand, and Saint Catherine’s genius is to lead those around her to their own mystical union with Christ. Divine love is fulfilled not only in her own soul, but in the souls of those who come into contact with it …

It was at this point that Geronta Pavlos discerned the boundary forever dividing philosophy from Christianity, whose truth, he emphasized, remains inseparable from love, and therefore, from life. As the elder put it, you can love philosophy without becoming an idol worshipper; but you cannot love Christ without becoming a Christian.

To the glory of God, the All-Pure, All-Wise, Great Martyr and Bride of Christ, Saint Catherine the Great of Alexandria has shown us how, to the ages of endless ages …

For the complete Article 'Standing Sentry over Love' by Sr. Joanna, please go to the FMSM News Blog: https://www.mountsinaimonastery.org/news-blog/standing-sentry-over-love