Acceptance of otherness

So often when we say "I love you" we say it with a huge "I" and a small "you". We use love as a conjunction instead of it being a verb implying action. It's no good just gazing out into the open space hoping to see the Lord; instead we have to look closely at our neighbour, someone whom God has willed into existence, someone whom God has died for. Everyone we meet has right to exist, because he has value in himself, and we are not used to this. The acceptance of otherness is a danger to us, it threatens us. To recognise the other's right to be himself might mean recognising his right to kill me. But if we set a limit to his right to exist, it's no right at all. Love is difficult. Christ was crucified because he taught the kind of love which is a terror for men, a love which demands total surrender: it spells death.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, School for Prayer. Daybreak, London, 1989, p xvi.