“That you love one
another as I have loved you….By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples,” is so familiar to us in John 13:31-35, that we are inclined to
wonder what else we can say about this passage that has not already been said.
Yet, this simple commandment is at the very core of who we are as Christians.
Jesus was referring to living that love in everything we do. Sure, loving those
with whom we agree or have an affinity is easy. Loving the rest of the folks is
a much harder proposition. It is a part of the human condition to love and want
to be loved.
The love that Jesus speaks of is hard because it required
that we put the good of others before our own, even when it is inconvenient and
when it “hurts.” It is the hallmark of God and the Christian Church. We see it
played out when we overlook the slight of a friend, or put aside our goals to
help someone achieve his or hers. Whether it’s a large act of love or a small “gesture,”
it requires sublimating our ego to benefit another, not out of any sense of
obligation or desire to incur favor or reward, but because we are inspired to
do so. Sometimes that love requires putting aside a hurt or moving beyond
disappointment caused by a friend or family member, even when it is incredibly hard.
Today, we are faced with the stark reality of two Chechen
immigrants who have committed horrible crimes against families and the spirit
of a wonderful city and grieving nation. How do we make room in our hearts for those
who caused much pain? How in the context of these atrocities do we live the love
that Christ lived?
God has not promised
to take away our trials, but to help us change our attitude toward them…this is
what holiness really is. (Keating,
The Human Condition)
"...as I have loved you." We have the example of Jesus to help us understand how to love one another. He also said, Greater love has no one than to lay down his [her] life for the beloved. The Creed tells us very little about Jesus: he was born...,he suffered and died, he rose. What seems to be taken for granted is his ministry, when he walked away from everything in his life to show his love through association with outcasts, feeding the hungry, healing the sick and proclaiming the good news. Then, of course, there is his sacrificial death. All of this would lead us to believe that loving one another is all or nothing. Today we will probably not be in a situation where we will show our love through one great sacrificial giving of our life, but we have the opportunity to give bits of our life in love for others-- minutes or hours of our life that are given away in love, time that we will never get back.
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