THAT’S the heart of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s also the heart we
should try to cultivate, since he himself gave us the new commandment
that summarizes and perfects all the previous commandments that “you
love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
(Jn 13,34)
It’s a love that covers everyone, including our enemies, the
unlovable, the sinners, offenders, those who are wrong in a human
issue and all others who for one reason or another we may have some
reason not to love or like.
In fact, one sure sign our loving is authentic is when we include
these people in our loving. Otherwise, our love is fake, no matter how
fervently we profess it. Our love gets spoiled and deteriorates into
self-rigtheousness.
Remember what our Lord said about this point. “If you love them that
love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do
this?” (Mt 5,46)
Thus, our Lord explicitly said that we have to love our enemies, to do
good to them that hate us and pray for those who persecute and
calumniate us. This is how we are going to be identified as children
of God who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, the rain on
the just and the unjust.
Love by definition involves all and is given without measure or
calculation. This essence of love is what breaks us loose from our
limited human condition to make our world universal, not entangled in
some parochial, partisan or isolationist grip.
Love matures and perfects us. It checks on our tendency to be
self-seeking and self-absorbed so as to be “all things to all men.” (1
Cor 9,22) It brings us not only to others, but rather to God himself,
identifying us with him, for “God is love” and is the source of love.
This love is what properly measures out our true dignity and value as
persons and children of God. It’s not just some wisdom or knowledge or
talents and any human power. It’s love, dude!
It’s high time that we understand the need for true love, the love of
Christ, to give ourselves a universal heart. It’s not the sciences,
the philosophies and the ideologies, no matter how good and useful
they are, that can accomplish this.
We have to disabuse ourselves from this mentality that, sadly, is
constantly nourished and reinforced by some secularist and pagan
thinking that’s dominating our world today.
We have to go beyond them. That’s why there’s a need to develop the
appropriate attitudes and virtues, all done in the context of God’s
grace, for nothing succeeds without God’s grace.
We have to learn to be patient, and to be “rich in mercy and slow to
anger.” We have to know how to take on different and even conflicting
positions in human issues without undermining our love for one
another. Let’s always be sport with one another.
This surely means we have to learn how to discipline our feelings and
passions, knowing when to talk and when not. We have to learn how to
convert difficult, humiliating moments into moments of graciousness
and magnanimity. Humiliations deepen our humility that is so necessary
in life.
We have to avoid bearing grudges or worse, nurturing animosities.
Let’s remember that whatever happens, we are all men and women,
children of God, who are obliged to love one another. Our differences
and conflicts play some strategic role in our spiritual life.
We have to learn how to be positive, encouraging and optimistic in our
tack to problems instead of sinking into pessimism and hostility. We
can never overdo in our efforts to learn the finer details of tact and
diplomacy.
We have to increasingly polish and refine our manners so as to keep
the bonds of unity amid unavoidable differences among ourselves. We
will always be human as to always need affection, and it should be
generously given. Let’s never forget that we can choose to make these
differences to enrich us rather than destroy us. It’s always a matter
of choice.
We have to learn how to drown evil with an abundance of good, dispel
darkness with light. We have to understand that ignorance, confusion
and error are not corrected by truth alone, but by truth given in
charity always. This, even if we have to make corrections that need to
be given clearly and vigorously.
Given the present world’s plunge to specialized knowledge and
ego-trip-prone technologies that inevitably generates divisions, we
have to double up our efforts to cultivate this universal heart.
should try to cultivate, since he himself gave us the new commandment
that summarizes and perfects all the previous commandments that “you
love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
(Jn 13,34)
It’s a love that covers everyone, including our enemies, the
unlovable, the sinners, offenders, those who are wrong in a human
issue and all others who for one reason or another we may have some
reason not to love or like.
In fact, one sure sign our loving is authentic is when we include
these people in our loving. Otherwise, our love is fake, no matter how
fervently we profess it. Our love gets spoiled and deteriorates into
self-rigtheousness.
Remember what our Lord said about this point. “If you love them that
love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do
this?” (Mt 5,46)
Thus, our Lord explicitly said that we have to love our enemies, to do
good to them that hate us and pray for those who persecute and
calumniate us. This is how we are going to be identified as children
of God who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, the rain on
the just and the unjust.
Love by definition involves all and is given without measure or
calculation. This essence of love is what breaks us loose from our
limited human condition to make our world universal, not entangled in
some parochial, partisan or isolationist grip.
Love matures and perfects us. It checks on our tendency to be
self-seeking and self-absorbed so as to be “all things to all men.” (1
Cor 9,22) It brings us not only to others, but rather to God himself,
identifying us with him, for “God is love” and is the source of love.
This love is what properly measures out our true dignity and value as
persons and children of God. It’s not just some wisdom or knowledge or
talents and any human power. It’s love, dude!
It’s high time that we understand the need for true love, the love of
Christ, to give ourselves a universal heart. It’s not the sciences,
the philosophies and the ideologies, no matter how good and useful
they are, that can accomplish this.
We have to disabuse ourselves from this mentality that, sadly, is
constantly nourished and reinforced by some secularist and pagan
thinking that’s dominating our world today.
We have to go beyond them. That’s why there’s a need to develop the
appropriate attitudes and virtues, all done in the context of God’s
grace, for nothing succeeds without God’s grace.
We have to learn to be patient, and to be “rich in mercy and slow to
anger.” We have to know how to take on different and even conflicting
positions in human issues without undermining our love for one
another. Let’s always be sport with one another.
This surely means we have to learn how to discipline our feelings and
passions, knowing when to talk and when not. We have to learn how to
convert difficult, humiliating moments into moments of graciousness
and magnanimity. Humiliations deepen our humility that is so necessary
in life.
We have to avoid bearing grudges or worse, nurturing animosities.
Let’s remember that whatever happens, we are all men and women,
children of God, who are obliged to love one another. Our differences
and conflicts play some strategic role in our spiritual life.
We have to learn how to be positive, encouraging and optimistic in our
tack to problems instead of sinking into pessimism and hostility. We
can never overdo in our efforts to learn the finer details of tact and
diplomacy.
We have to increasingly polish and refine our manners so as to keep
the bonds of unity amid unavoidable differences among ourselves. We
will always be human as to always need affection, and it should be
generously given. Let’s never forget that we can choose to make these
differences to enrich us rather than destroy us. It’s always a matter
of choice.
We have to learn how to drown evil with an abundance of good, dispel
darkness with light. We have to understand that ignorance, confusion
and error are not corrected by truth alone, but by truth given in
charity always. This, even if we have to make corrections that need to
be given clearly and vigorously.
Given the present world’s plunge to specialized knowledge and
ego-trip-prone technologies that inevitably generates divisions, we
have to double up our efforts to cultivate this universal heart.
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