by Archbishop Averky (Taushev) –
When a gentle word of persuasion has no effect, when people are so steeped in evil that they do not yield to any admonishment and continue doing evil, a Christian cannot and should not take refuge in this teaching of the forgiveness of all, sit indifferently with his arms crossed, and apathetically watch as evil abuses good, as it increases and destroys people, his close ones.
To indifferently watch the ruin of a close one by one who has lost his senses and become a bearer of evil is nothing other than the breaking of the commandment of love for one’s neighbor. Every type of evil should be immediately thwarted with the most decisive measures, even including the sacrifice of oneself in an unequal struggle.
The following words express particularly this idea: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. These are words which our Church has long applies to those Christ-loving soldiers who heroically died for the salvation of their neighbors.
– Archbishop Averky (Taushev)
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Excerpts from: The Struggle for Virtue: Asceticism in a Modern Secular Society.
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