Page 153 - Prayer Book

Ι Heard You…
153
one does something evil to us, they do “so-called” evil to
us. And if we are sinners, we are “so-called” sinners! We are
not inherently sinners; we act in sinful ways, but we are not
ontologically sinners. Evil is not an ontological category—
it is non-being!
Therefore, we should not only forgive those who harm
us or wish to harm us, but we should love them! Because
they, too, are our brothers and sisters, and it makes no
sense to hate them; instead, we should pity and love them,
for they suffer from ignorance. They are in danger, in their
ignorance, of reaching non-being, the void of personal
non-existence. The “evil” person is, in fact, pitiable, as they
are enslaved to nothingness and heading toward it. Their
conscience cries out to them, and they suffer, tormented by
this loud, painful, and terrifying voice of conscience! They
shrink inwardly, tormented by the stings of guilt. Often,
they condemn themselves to live in tragic loneliness.
Ecological Love
Our “personal” existence is not owed only to God but
also to all His creations! This is God’s will. We owe it to
other people, to animals, to reptiles, to insects, to fish, to
plants, to rocks, to the soil, to the waters, to the earth, to
the sun, to the planets, to the stars, to the galaxies, to the
clusters and superclusters of galaxies! Everything is inter-
connected, everything is in communion and relationship
with each other, and everything influences the existence of
everything else. All things constitute the existence of all
things! “If a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon,” it can
have consequences for the balance of the Universe!