The Greatest Love

It was still very early on that Tuesday. The sun which seemed to be crawling with rather sleepy eyes now seemed to be walking faster than I thought it would, and was now smiling at us with so much radiance, so much magnificence. King’s Avenue was very busy and congested; it was always congested, of course. Sometimes, I thought that the black sheet of coal that covered the entire stretch of the road would revolt for being so violently trodden. The large clock that peeked out of the walls of the ancient St. Thomas Church said it was about 9:18 a.m. This antique had now grown so old that I thought I saw some gray hair fall from it. Helen sat a few centimetres away, hands on the steering, eyes on the road, head nodding back and forth rhythmically to the music playing on the car stereo system. In the middle of all these, my head felt like a beehive.

“It doesn’t make any sense, not even a little”, I heard myself say after some seconds, maybe minutes, of silence, “I don’t see the sense in it, actually”. There was really no sense in what we argued about. It made no sense to think that one would love another person so much that he would give up his life. “Wouldn’t you suffer, or even die, for me?” Helen asked. Then, as if I was waiting or her to ask, I retorted, “You and I… well, we’re different. We’re in love, we’re married. For better, for worse, remember?”

“Then what’s the difference?”

“Think of it this way, Helen. Someone just decides to love another person. Even when it is obvious that the person does not even love him back, he goes ahead to get hurt and to die for that person. Isn’t that crazy?”

“No, honey. It is called Love!”

I was silent again for some minutes after heaving a distressed sigh, and a bit immersed in the thought of this new name that was given to what I considered as craziness, until I jolted back to consciousness when the dark-skinned woman behind the wheels stepped on the brakes. All I could hear myself say was, She said it’s called Love.

Helen spoke again, “Look Chris, it is simple! He loved us first, and still loves us. That’s fine. We do not understand everything about him, but we know that he loves us. But we have a part to play; we must also love him above everything else, and love everybody just like we love ourselves. No big deal”. Unsatisfied, I asked, “What’s in this for us?” “Love”, she answered simply, “Love is what we get, the fullness of which is a share in eternal heavenly bliss with him who first loved us. We shall see him as he is and we shall love him without any reservation”. That sounded promising enough, so I asked no more questions.

LESSON

It actually sounds crazy that one chooses to love another person even to the point of dying for him. The author of the First Letter of St. John tells us that “we know love by this, that he [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us” (1 Jn. 3:16a). That is how much God loves us. He loves us so much that he gives us a means to be saved. What does this mean to us? The same author goes on to say that “we ought to lay down our lives for one another (1 Jn. 3:16b). This simply means that we must love each other just as God has loved us.

As recorded in the book of Exodus, God frowns at acts that oppose the love we should have for humanity. We must deal mercifully with everyone as with ourselves. A special place is given to people whom we are very likely to treat with contempt and indifference – the widow, the orphan, the stranger, one who lends and the helpless (cf. Ex. 22: 21-27). We are to imitate God is this virtue of love the greatest gift he has given to us is love. Therefore, we must make ourselves open to this love. Openness to receive this divine love disposes us to respond to this love by loving and obeying God our maker, our strength and our rock, our refuge and our stronghold, and by loving other people like ourselves.

PRAYER

God of love, make us open and ready to receive your love for us, and help us to love others just as you have loved us, that the fruit of your love in our hearts may be seen in our lives. Amen.