On love and sacrifice

In the Gospel, Christ's answer to the lawyers about the most important commandment is love. Love towards God and love towards our neighbour. 
The cross is the way towards love and the way of acquiring love. 
Christ told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." 
We have to tear away from the way of the "old man" which is steeped in passion, sin and chaos; a process akin to an Olympic athlete preparing - it's painful but heroic. In Slavic languages the word for ascetic struggle is podvig and it also implies heroism. 
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