Page 151 - Prayer Book

Ι Heard You…
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our fellow humans, and in the Mystery of our Love for our
fellow humans, which is simultaneously Love for Christ!
“For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and
you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me;
I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you vis-
ited me; I was in prison, and you came to me… Truly I say
to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,
you did it to me.” (Mt 25:35-40)
Evil
Another point that Metropolitan John of Pergamon
emphasizes is the existence of evil! Drawing on the theol-
ogy of Saint Maximus the Confessor, Pergamon states that
evil, in reality, does not exist; it has no being, no substance!
As Saint Maximus the Confessor says, “Evil neither was,
nor is, nor will be subsisting in its own nature; for it has
neither substance, nor nature, nor hypostasis, nor power,
nor energy in what exists!” Everything that exists is the will
of God! Only God’s will brings existence into being. What-
ever is not the will of God simply does not exist. Evil is not
God’s will, and thus, it cannot exist.
However, our experience tells us that evil does exist.
How does it exist? Saint Maximus provides the answer:
“Evil is not considered in the essence of beings, but in their
erroneous and irrational movement.” He adds, “Evil is the
lack of the energy of natural powers toward their intended
purpose, and nothing else at all.” In other words, evil is an
absence, a failure of the natural forces of beings to reach
their proper end.