Where Does Our Love Go? - Deacon Steven Kaznica

Brothers and Sisters, when we read God's second commandment against the creation and worship of graven images, our reaction is often one of disengagement. This commandment, we reason, does not apply to us: we do not participate in pagan practices. Indeed, we would probably not even be reading this if such were the case. Perhaps we don't worship idols in the same sense as a pagan would, but yet we have created idols of a different kind. Whatever draws our attention away from God is in a sense an idol; because it redirects the love we should have for God to another path. It is not enough for us just to believe that there is one true God, if we only demonstrate our love for Him at our convenience.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tells us in the Gospel of St. Matthew: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind". (22:37). This is what Christ called the greatest commandment, and yet so much of our lives are dedicated to everything else but God. In the world we have many distractions to say the least. Everything, it seems, competes to draw our attention away from God. We desire nice homes, nice cars, and nice clothing and deny ourselves little. We have made idols of movie stars, rock stars, sports celebrities, and quite often, even ourselves. In this age of information, we are bombarded daily with a multi-media smorgasbord of news and entertainment. With the development of interactive technologies, we are now able to request any type of diversion via cable TV or Internet at any hour of the day or night. Technology has made possible all sorts of mechanical and electronic gadgets that did not even exist a few years ago, yet today we can no longer live without them.

These are the graven images, the golden calves of the modern age. We have let these idols stand in the way of our relationship with God, interfering with our life of prayer. St. Theophan the Recluse tells us that " Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong". But we complain that we are so busy that we do not have the time to follow a rule of prayer, or sometimes, to even pray at all. Somehow, though, we never fail to miss a football game on a Sunday afternoon, or to catch that ever-important episode of General Hospital. Our lives are not God-centered but self-centered. St. John of Kronstadt lived in a time far simpler than ours, yet the temptations were there. He wrote: "When you pray 'Hallowed be Thy Name' do you really desire that God's name should be hallowed by the good works of others and by your own? When you say 'Thy Kingdom Come' do you indeed desire the coming of God's Kingdom? But when you say 'Thy Will be done' do you not seek your own will rather than the will of God?

A recent survey in Russia revealed an interesting tendency: it seems that while many of those surveyed confessed the Orthodox Christian faith, still a significant number of those identifying themselves as non-Christians say they regularly attend the services of the Orthodox Church simply because they are impressed by the beauty of the services. To them the Church, at least for now, is simply a cultural institution worth hanging onto. This is understandable if we consider the relatively recent resurgence of religious freedom in Russia, but what if the same survey were taken here in America? Most Americans who were asked the importance of religious faith in their lives claim that it is at least fairly important. Yet, how many of those people would honestly admit to an attachment to the Church simply as a cultural institution in which membership makes for good resume material?

What in fact is our motivation for going to church? Is it a desire to be with God, to be drawn closer to God through worship of Him, to be intimately united with Him through partaking of His most precious Body and Blood? Simply put, do we love God?

This incident from the life of St. Herman of Alaska puts it well:

One day the captain and officers of a Russian man-of-war invited Father Herman on board to dine with them. In the course of conversation he put this question to them. "What do you gentlemen, regard is most worthy of love and what do you most wish for your happiness?" One man said he desired riches, a second glory, a third a beautiful wife, a fourth the command of a fine ship. The others expressed themselves in some similar manner.

"Is it not true." said Father Herman, "that all your wishes can be summarized in this short sentence: each of you desires that which he thinks is most worthy of love?" The men agreed. "If this is true," he continued, "Is there any higher, nobler, and more worthy of love than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth and Author of all living beings, Who provides for all, Who loves all, and Who is the incarnation of love? Should we not above all love God, seek Him and desire Him?" The officers were quite confused and agreed with what the saint had said. He then asked them if they loved God. "To be sure," said they, "we Love God. How could anyone not love Him!" Hearing these words the old man bowed his had and said: 'I, a poor sinner, for forty years have tried to love God and I cannot say that I love Him, as I should. To love God is to think of Him always, to serve Him day and night, and to do His will. Do you, gentlemen, love God in this manner, do you often pray to Him, do you always do His wi11?" With shame they acknowledged their shortcomings.

St. Paul tells us to "pray without ceasing"(1 Thes. 5:17)and this, according to St. Maximus the Confessor, means to have the mind always turned to God with great love, holding alive our hope in him, having confidence in him whatever we are doing and whatever happens to us. But this will not happen until we let go of the idols that we have surrounded ourselves with. Only then can we echo the words of St. Herman: "From this time forth, from this hour, from this minute, let us love God above all."