Love: The Greatest Good
Mar 15th, 2007 by michelle
I have been reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and came across something tonight that really made me think of the great need for all to love and cherish children. Not only our own, but all the children of this world.
“Have no fear of men’s sin. Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth… Love children especially, for they are sinless like the angels; they live to soften and purify our hearts and as it were to guide us. Woe to him who offends a child! ..Every day and every hour, every minute, walk around yourself and watch yourself, and see that your image is a proper one. You pass by a little child, you pass by spiteful, with ugly words, with angry heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenseless heart. You don’t know it, but you may have sown an evil seed in him and it may grow, and all because you were not careful before the child, because you did not foster yourself a careful, actively benevolent love. Love is a teacher; but one must know how to acquire it, for it is hard to acquire, it is dearly bought, it is won slowly by long labor. For we must love not only occasionally, for a moment, but forever.”
Every child deserves our love more than we can comprehend, and that makes it all the more important to show each one God’s love. For through our love, the child will see God.
God is in all good things, and love is the greatest good of all.
Easier said that done, but so true. I just checked that book out from the library, but haven’t started it yet.
Ahhh, good words.. I tackled BK last year.
Enjoy!
wow, I love that quote. thanks for sharing
I’ve still never read that book….I suppose I need to.
On an entirely different note…In an attempt to avoid cyber-stalkers as much as possible, any chance of getting my last name taken off your blogroll(s)? Though you can link to me as Laura H. if you want to avoid confusion between me and the Other Laura at church
I think I need to read that book. I read online some of the section from which your quote comes.
I hear that some people become Orthodox because of Bratya Karamazovy.
(One reviewer of the book at Barnes & Noble online says he read it to strengthen his Orthodox faith, and it had the opposite effect - he lost any faith in the church he had. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?isbn=0679729259 Yikes!)
I’ve read it twice - once in college and once last year.
Enjoy!
isn’t it wonderful how you can keep reading dostoyevsky and keep pulling nuggets of wisdom out of it? it’s so densely packed.
That’s amazing. Makes me want to reread the book. It’s been years since I read it and I don’t remember that bit at all.
Thanks!