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St. Nikolaj Velimirović: The Trinitarian Reason for Loving God Wholly
4:46
St. Nikolaj Velimirović, in a homily for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost on Matthew 22:35-46, explains why Christ commands love for God with all heart, soul, and mind. He gives two reasons: first, to impress the commandment deeply and to show that love for God excludes every competing love or attempt to serve two masters; second, a mystical reason rooted in the Trinity.
God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in unity, and man is also a trinity of heart, soul, and mind. Since the whole God loves man, the whole man must love the whole God; divided love is not love at all. Loving only one Person of the Trinity or only one faculty of the soul is not true love.
True love proceeds from wholeness toward wholeness, requiring the destruction of every internal division and the gathering of the whole man directed wholly toward God. The homily cites Simon the New Theologian (St. Symeon the New Theologian) who illustrates perfect love through examples: a man who wept for sinners, struck himself for their salvation, confessed their sins as his own, and prayed for them with abundant tears; another who rejoiced in the ascetic labors of others as if he would receive their reward, and grieved over sinners so intensely he believed he alone would answer for them; a third who desired his brethren's salvation so fervently he asked God either to save them or to deliver him to torment with them, having no desire to be saved without them, united by the bond of holy love in the Holy Spirit.
This teaching refutes heresies against the Trinity and exposes the shallowness of psychologies that fragment the inner man.
Key moments
- The Lord commands love for God with all heart, soul, and mind for two reasons: to reinforce the commandment deeply and to show that love for God excludes every competing love and every attempt to serve two masters, God and Mammon.
- A mystical reason: God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in unity, and man is also a trinity of heart, soul, and mind; the whole God loves man, so the whole man must love the whole God.
- When one part of man loves one part of God, love is not complete; a divided man is not man and a divided God is not God.
- Loving only the Father, only the Son, or only the Holy Spirit is not love for God; likewise, loving only with heart, only with soul, or only with mind is not love for God.
- True love proceeds from wholeness toward wholeness; destroy every division within yourself and gather the whole man directed wholly toward God.
- Simon the New Theologian gives an example: a man who wept over sinners, struck himself for their salvation, put himself in the sinner's place, confessed the brother's sin as his own, and prayed for forgiveness with abundant tears.
- Another man rejoiced over those laboring in asceticism as though he would receive their reward, and grieved over sinners so intensely he did not doubt he alone would answer for them and be cast into hell.
- Another man desired his brethren's salvation so fervently he implored God either to save them or to deliver him to torment with them, having no desire to be saved without them, united by the bond of holy love in the Holy Spirit.