You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment! The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself!

Today we join our voices with the young lawyer in the Gospel and ask Christ, our true God: Teacher, which commandment is the greatest? And while I know that all probably already know His response, we again hear His words:

I wonder what these words really mean to us who say that we are followers of Jesus Christ? I wonder what they suggest to us about how we should live this present life?

In our present world, which seems to be filled with such hatred and violence, I wonder whether Jesus would give the very same answer? Of course I have to immediately say, yes He would give the very same answer. Why? Because His world was also filled with great hatred and violence. He taught that the only godlike way that hatred and violence can be countered is with love. Naive? I’m sure that many would like to think that this approach is naïve. Why? Because it probably means that they have to change the way that they live and think. God forbid that God would like humans to be more godlike!

The Eastern Church tells us that we have been created in God’s image and given the potential to become like Him as He manifested Himself in Jesus.

We know how Jesus lived through the New Testament and Holy Tradition. Jesus responded to hatred and violence with love. He did not allow the hatred, which was so rampant in His society, to influence Him. He did not allow the hatred of others to cause Him to hate others. This is why we can say that He, as a man, was godlike. He lived what He believed. He truly believed that in order to be God’s son He had to love others as Himself – He had to see others, despite the way they treated Him, as temples of God’s own Spirit.

This, I believe, is the true challenge of Christianity – to love those who hate us and to forgive those who hurt us. This is the godlike way to live.

I am sure that some may be tempted to reject the notion that God expects us to live in this manner. Some may even be tempted to reject the notion that the plan life gives us is an opportunity to transform ourselves into the persons that God intended when He created us.

Consider this teaching of Christ! It raises a very important question: What exactly is the meaning and purpose of life? Think about this question and then try to honestly answer it.