On Sunday, during the Divine Liturgy at the “Holy Cross and Saints Joachim and Anne” Parish in Aberdeen, Scotland, Bishop Ignatie of the Husi explained that the only way to observe the love of the Saviour, “who loves us even when we do not deserve it,” is through the affection of a mother.

His Grace explained on April 7: ” We Christians particularly comprehend the love of the God-Man Jesus Christ for us through the Cross.”

Love has sacrifice as its content

Through His crucifixion on the Cross, the bishop noted, “Christ has truly assured us that He loves us as no one has ever loved us, and will never love us again. The God-Man Jesus Christ loved us on the Cross, especially when we did not deserve this.”

“The God-Man, in His perfect love, loves us most wonderfully on the Cross when we did not deserve it. This is the Cross of Christ – His love for us, a love that loves us when we do not deserve it. That’s how God loves us, even if we don’t deserve it.”

God’s love, mirrored in mothers’ love

According to the Bishop of Husi, such selfless devotion can be found only in mothers’ affection for their children.

“You will probably say that we hardly find such love in our world, embodied in the human soul. I want to disappoint you and tell you that you are not right because we find this love of God, who loves us even when we don’t deserve it, in the love of mothers.”

“Mothers love their children like God. However much a child may wander, however disobedient he may be, or however much he may indulge in passions that cause much pain, a mother never forsakes her child; she never abandons—she prays for him and has the same love, regardless of how morally decadent one of her children might be.”

“This is how God loves us. There is nothing mercantile or conditional about our relationship with God. We humans have transferred such a mentality of God’s love as the one waiting for us to love Him so that He may love us, too. Such a mentality is false.”

The second patronal feast of the congregation was observed on the third Sunday of Lent. The service was conducted in both Romanian and English, with participants from Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Italy in attendance, in addition to Romanian members of the parish.

Photography courtesy of the Diocese of Huși