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Join Archbishop Christophoros from Jordan as he explores the essence of our spiritual journey towards eternal life. Discover why our motivation should stem from love rather than fear, leading us to seek purification, repentance, and prayer. Learn how our love for Christ drives us to meet Him, see Him, and ultimately inherit eternal life. Find inspiration for the upcoming fasting period as a time of spiritual preparation and pursuit of holiness. This is a sermon recorded in the Sunday of Last Judgment, February 27, 2022, by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese – Amman – Jordan.
English translation by Waad Rabahie
Video source (watch the full video here): Greek Orthodox Archdiocese – Amman – Jordan
Archbishop Christophoros:
Our motivation for eternal life should not be fear of punishment of hellfire and eternal torment. In our spiritual life, fear is there to lead us to repentance, but we shouldn’t stop at fear; we should go beyond it to reach love.
Love to meet Jesus, to see His face, to see Him. This love is our motivation to pray, get purified, and that’s why we come to the Church, because we love Jesus, we want to meet Him and see Him. We long for Him. We adore Him.
That’s why through the Jesus prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!” we try to get purified in mind and heart. And our life is pleasing to God through keeping the divine commandments and the teaching of the Gospel and doing good deeds out of love for Christ.
The Christian should do good deeds for the sake of Christ, because He loves Christ, and not for the sake of goodness or because of morals of society or culture. This is an earthly thing. Because each society has its ethics and morals.
But through our spiritual struggle we receive the spirit of Christ. We become clothed with Christ. So everything we do is from Christ and for Christ: with love for Christ, with love for neighbor and for ourselves.
What is self-love? It can become a vice through selfishness, when we only see ourselves and ignore others. Self-love is our ability to become the image of God. It is seeking to purify the image of God in us, to inherit the eternal life.
So that we are ready to enter when the door of eternal life opens. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” [John 17:3] How do we inherit eternal life? It happens the more we get purified, repent, and pray.
Repentance and prayer lead to purity in the heart and the mind, and thus man is able to see God. That’s why our motivation for eternal life is our love to meet God; it’s very essential! So the coming fasting period and all fasting periods in the Church should be a spiritual preparation, so that through purity, repentance, and prayers we could see God and struggle to achieve holiness.
Because this is the purpose of our life.
