“And [the devil] said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve.’ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” (Matthew 4:9)
We are blessed with many icons of angels in our temple: All nine ranks of angels, guardian angels, angels surrounding the holy Mother of God, angels among the figures in the feast day icons—but the most dangerous angel has no icon, nor does he want one. He prefers darkness and obscurity to do his nefarious work. He “left Him,” but not for long. He was not able to influence our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, but he can still hurt Him. He does it by a steady unending attack on all whom Christ loves. To tear them from the loving arms of Jesus is his great delight.
When we honor the cross of Christ, surrounding it with flowers, making the cross sign many times each day, placing the cross on our walls and dashboards, it is more than a mere symbol. The cross is proof that we need not succumb to Satan. The cross is evidence that victory over all the sins, temptations and wiles of the crafty sleepless one has already been won. The triumph achieved by our Lord and Master on Calvary was the ultimate D-Day. The war is over, but many individual battles have yet to be won. Each baptized Christian is another adversary for the devil. We are fair game, and those who make the church their second home and refuge are more challenging than those who abandon or ignore the faith. Any parent suffers more from the agony of a child than from personal distress.
“Let us love one another,” we proclaim at each Divine Liturgy. Satan hears and sees that it does not happen. He creates hostility, animosity and factionalism among the faithful to demonstrate to the Shepherd that His rational flock is producing wolves from within. The heavenly Father made man “in the image of God.” Is a mere creature on earth worth the exorbitant cost of crucifixion of the Unique Son of God? Satan’s persistent intent is to show the Father why it may not have been worth the effort.
Why the command to “love one another”? The answer: “That we may confess Father, Son and Holy Trinity, the Trinity One in essence and undivided.” How do we do that if not by under-standing the meaning of Oneness? God is three Persons in One. Their bond is love. United in love, God loves all creation beginning with us. And we love God, or so we say. But how can we profess love of God when we cannot or do not love one another? That was the challenge of Jesus. For each person, there are others whom we are commanded to love. Some are easy to love, others not so easy; nevertheless, we are ordered not only to love those we like but those whom we may not like. The only method of defeating Satan in his relentless intentions is with the weapon of love. Really, nothing else matters. We will be judged in the end by the measure of our love.
Soon we shall be entering into the blessed journey of Great Lent. We emulate life itself as we sort out what we shall take in our invisible soul’s portfolio into the Kingdom of heaven. Prayer, fasting, meditation, separation from all “things of the earth,” along with good deeds to others—all of this is worthless unless we reach out with love to those we have offended or whom we feel have harmed us in any way.