In Honor Preferring One Another

By: Mother Nina of St. Barbara Orthodox Monastery | April 5th, 2021

 

“The saving rule that the Apostle Paul recommends to all the faithful: ‘in honour preferring one another’ (Romans 12:10), is realized in its perfection among the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Each Person strives to give greater honour to the other two than to Himself, as each desires, through obedience, to make Himself lesser than the other two. And were there not this sweet and holy endeavour by each of the divine Persons to give honour to the other two and to make Himself the lesser by obedience, springing from the boundless love that each has for the others, the triune Divinity would become one undifferentiated Person.” (St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Homilies, Vol. 1. p. 307).

“In honor preferring one another”: the One God in Trinity has set the tone for our relationships with each other. And not only in the relationship the Trinity has within itself, but also in how God relates to us. The Lord gave Himself up for us, completely, unstintingly. “He delivered Himself for the Church, and He no longer belongs to Himself, but to His Church” (Patriarch Ignatius IV, The Resurrection and Modern Man, p. 38).

This humbling of ourselves before each other is predicated on our willingness to humble ourselves before God. And we can only do that in sincerity if we truly come to believe in God’s humbling of Himself. We can speed our journey in humility by taking time to consider God’s humility. We can think about how the Trinity lives this humility out within the interactions of its three Persons. We can let how God “goes lower” – by coming to us in the flesh, by living among us, and finally dying for us – sink deep into our minds and hearts to stir our souls into responsiveness and yearning for Him. We can pray to God to make these realities real to us.

As St. Paul says, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). It is His humbling Himself in His relationship to us that can, as we meditate on His love for us, begin to silence the loud, though sometimes subtle, egotistical pride that blocks our way to giving ourselves to God. Meditating on His humility and utter self-giving can also give us the courage to “go lower” in relating to each other, and can melt the enmity that can exist between us and our neighbors.

If we live according to this world’s standards, we often strive “in honor” to prefer ourselves. We can see in the world around us what that approach produces. We can see it on an international and national scale. We can see it entrenching itself in our own hearts, digging in its self-preferential heels into the rock of stubbornness, grabbing for power to maintain one’s personal kingdom. We can see it in the radicalization of society.

Recently, I ran across a quote pasted on someone’s computer: “Refusing to harden your heart is a radical act”. Let us resist the pride and self-aggrandizement by which we are so often tempted. Let us deeply meditate on the nature of the Persons of the Holy Trinity in their humility with each other, and in the Lord’s reaching out to us. May we let our hearts be melted by that holy power of self-emptying and that holy love. May God give us the willingness, courage and strength to work on keeping our hearts soft towards Him and each other. May God grant us this radical act!