👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾(#Anqetse #Bitsuan )#Blessed are the #peacemakers, for they shall be called #sons of #God (Matthew 5:9)
(Part 42)
Dear followers of the Orthodox teachings on John's Repentance website .we greet you with the peace of the Lord. Today, based on the topic mentioned above, we present to you the following important lesson. We encourage everyone to read it carefully and learn from it.
✍🏾 Peacemaking in Our Time
Peacemaking reflects the heart of God. The noble prophet David teaches us, saying:
“Seek peace and pursue it.”
(Psalm 34:14)
Even in our time, there are faithful fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters who pray for peace and strive to live in peace. For this, we give thanks to God. However, it is deeply painful to witness the rise of criticism, bullying, and insults, especially on social media. These behaviors, born of selfishness and lack of love for others, have widened the divisions among us.
Instead of working to live together in peace, many have come to believe that “it is better to separate than to remain united.” More troubling still is that some who claim to represent the Church, and who speak in the name of the Church, have themselves become sources of division, thereby harming the peace of the Church.
In the religious sphere especially, we now argue over minor and unnecessary matters to the point that people say, “Going to church removes peace, but staying away gives peace.” By our lack of peace, we have caused many to distance themselves from the Church of God.
✍🏾The prophet Jeremiah rebuked such behavior when he said:
“They say, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”
We proclaim peace with our lips, yet our hearts are not at peace. Worse still, the Church, which prays for peace for the whole world, is increasingly seen seeking justice from secular courts, peace from police and security forces, and resolution through lawsuits. This reality is especially evident in disputes over church buildings and land, particularly in Western countries.
After the Church was built as a house of worship for Christ and all Christians, we began to argue over it as “mine” and “yours,” treating it as mere property. How can God accept our prayers when we force brothers and sisters, born of the same Father, to leave the Church in order to pray?
Our Lord clearly commanded us:
“First be reconciled to your brother.”(Matthew 5:24)
✍🏾Division Among Brothers
Throughout history, heretics and false teachers caused suffering within the Church. But in our time, something even more painful has appeared: brother labeling brother, persecuting one another, and praising those who destroy peace as heroes or patriots.
How can peace grow when division is celebrated? How can it be considered a victory when brothers leave the Church? Let us remember how the early Fathers mourned when Arius departed from the Church, saying with tears:
“It is like cutting off a part of the body.”
The Fathers also taught that those of other denominations can only return to the Mother Church through love, patience, and teaching, not through hostility. How then can we preach peace while delivering sermons that make others see us as enemies and push them further away?
Continues 👇🏾