The Otherness of Love

The Lord attracts man by revealing to him the otherness of His Person, His mystical and humble way in which He appears among men. He never constrains but only attracts, transmitting to all the word of the Heavenly Father and leaving it up to their free will whether or not to follow His way. It is the indescribable humility of Christ that attracts their hearts and convinces them of His greater love which no man hath, as His words confirm: ‘When I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me’ (John 12:32). Nothing attracts the heart and opens the mind to His divine Person more than the wonder of His kenosis, of His dwelling among men.

— Excerpt from: The Otherness of Love • The Ethos of Christ (p. 31-32)

The ethos of Christ is the example and ‘the kind’ of the incarnate Son of God, His divine otherness, His Spirit, His love to the end and His indescribable humility. It is that which can be known of God: not His divine essence itself, but the energy that flows from His essence, the incorruptible grace of the Holy Spirit.

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The way of the Lord is a way of incomprehensible descent, a way of utter humility. This becomes apparent before our eyes through all the events that took place at His divine Passion. All those who seek the Face of the Lord and the imperishable wealth of His presence, are inspired to place themselves on this narrow but wondrous way wherein sorrows are interwoven with ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’ (1 Peter 1:8). They proceed downwards in humility, knowing that the way of the Lord is not grievous, for when they enter His presence, this way becomes a dynamic increase, according to the words of the Saviour, ‘He who has been faithful in little will be lord over much?’ (Matthew 25:23).

— Excerpt from: The Otherness of Love • The Otherness and Ethos of the Lamb of God (p. 23, 28)

When Saint Parthenios, the ascetic of Kiev, sought to know the true meaning of the monastic culture, the Mother of God answered him: ‘The monk who wears the schema is a man who prays for the whole world.’ The Fathers therefore define the monk as an intercessor for the world. How does the monk become an intercessor for the world? By assuming the descent of Christ. He humbles himself to the end, even to the bottom of hell, where he meets Christ. There he unites with Him and receives His state: the very desire for the salvation for the whole word.

Indeed, a monk fulfils his vocation when he obtains perfect likeness to Christ; when he becomes another Adam, and acquires the universal enlargement of the New Adam-Christ, whereby he intercedes for the salvation of the world.

A monk once asked in his prayer, ‘Lord, what is a monk?’ In exhaustion he looked at an icon of the crucified Christ, and a strong thought sounded in his heart: ‘I am the Monk!’ The crucified Lord of glory replied as the true Monk. Thus, the monk becomes an imitation of the crucified Lord when his life of voluntary crucifixion leads him to the enlargement of love for God.

— Excerpt from: The Otherness of Love (p. 303-304)