Quotes of the Day for April 25, 2025 – Thoughts on living a worthy life
- Michael Haldas
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
“A story is told of the final temptation of Christ. Satan had been trying to tempt Jesus to sin, to compromise, to abandon His divine mission (see Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13), and according to this story, Satan tried one last time to deflect Jesus from His goal. Jesus had been arrested, interrogated, condemned by the Sanhedrin, brought before Pilate, again condemned, mocked and flogged. He carried His cross along the way from the Roman praetorium to the place of execution and was nailed to the cross. His adversaries continued to mock Him, even unto the end: “He saved others, He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel; let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him!” (Matthew 27:42). And it was then, the story goes, that Satan whispered into His ear the words of the final temptation, intended to convince Jesus to give it all up and indeed come down from the cross. Satan said to Him, “They’re not worth it, Lord”. “They’re not worth it, Lord”. The temptation was powerful, because the words were true. We were and are not worth it. Yet Christ remained on the cross, bearing away the sins of the unworthy world, cleansing the cosmos with His precious Blood, and overthrowing the demonic powers of darkness, breaking their ancient hold on the human race.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley)
“Is life worth living? This question was posed by one of the modern philosophers. Now, neither a kangaroo nor a butterfly would ever ask such a question. No living thing would try to comprehend its existence by instinct alone. Yet man has something in him that sets him apart from ordinary things and beings, something that overpoweringly requires him to understand his life. Yet most people are weak, which is why they go through life without knowing its meaning. Many philosophers in antiquity, having arrived at the notion that their life was not rooted in eternity, willfully chose to end it. Fortunately, they were always in a minority. Most people are born and live to old age, instinctively shying away from pressing eternal questions. However, the whole drama of Christian life consists in awakening us from slumber. Not in order to lead us to a dead end and suicide, but for a breakthrough into eternal life.” (Archpriest Andrei Tkachev)
“And when do we live in a convincing manner? When we love Christ more than anything in this world, and then everything else. When we don’t love our own lives, when we disregard death, only then can we remain faithful to Christ to the end. Our problem today and always is that we’re inconsistent people; we don’t live by the Blood of the Lamb, we don’t live every day in unity with the Lord because of our negligence, our unworthiness, our carelessness and indifference, and therefore our word doesn’t bear witness to Christ. Our word isn’t convincing, it isn’t confirmed by our life. Quite often, we say one thing and do another. And our love for Christ is secondary. If we were to choose between life and Christ, we’d probably choose our life, and not Christ and death. The martyrs and saints put Christ first, and only then all the rest. And they didn’t fear death.” (Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol)
“While we are living improperly, we fear all kinds of things. When we recognize God, there occurs a fear of His judgment. But when we start to love God, all fears vanish.” May all of our fears also vanish as we run to Christ and focus all of our efforts on Him for He alone is worthy of our focus and worship.” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Fr. James Guirguis)
“There is a “personal” Pascha within each of us, just as there is a personal hell. The hell seeks to tell us that it is our destiny. No matter its face, no matter its torment, hell is not the last word. Christ tramples down that false destiny and welcomes us to His new life.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
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