“Let love be without dissimulation,” writes St. Paul in today’s Epistle. True, perfect love cannot be anything other than without dissimulation, but since we are only able to experience love when it is expressed either in words or actions, it is not uncommon for what appears to be love to be selfishness or even malicious cunning.

The Gospel for the first Sunday after Epiphany tells of how the twelve-year-old Jesus stayed in the temple in Jerusalem and there manifested His divine authority: “All that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers." It was the same astonishment as twenty years later, when all the people “were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

The Gospel for the Second Sunday after Christmas Day is related to the Gospel of the Epiphany, which tells of the visit of the Wise Men from the Orient to Jesus and the subsequent story of the slaughter of the Holy Innocent of Bethlehem. The heartless King Herod, having heard from the Wise Men about the birth of the Messiah, decided to eliminate his supposed rival. Those who paid with their lives for his ambitions were innocent children, as almost always happens when a tyrant, fearing the loss of his power, goes on a rampage. Collateral damage, as it is called…

“The foolishness of God,” says St. Paul, “is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” This “foolishness” and “weakness” of God is His self-giving love, the pouring out of His soul unto death, even the death of the cross.

Amirhon, who is originally from Tajikistan, is a vestry member of a little Estonian country church. He moved to Estonia a few decades ago, having previously lived in his homeland. Originally a Muslim, he became a Christian during his university years. The reason was the same as that of the Apostle Paul: he hated Christians and, to better fight them, he decided to get to know this “false religion” as well as possible. And so, at one point, he realized that his life and way of thinking had to change completely.