Loving God is loving others

LET’S be clear about this. We cannot love God truly if we

don’t love our neighbor, whoever he may be. St. John said it directly:

“If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For

he that loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom

he has not seen?” (1 Jn 4,20)

            We are reminded of this truth of our faith in Pope

Francis’s latest Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate. He urges

us that to truly love God or to be truly holy, we have to serve the

others by living especially the beatitudes and by doing works of

mercy.

            Paragraph 98 of that document says it very well: “If I

encounter a person outdoors on a cold night, I can view him or her as

an annoyance, an idler, an obstacle in my path, a troubling sight, a

problem for politicians to sort out, or even a piece of refuse of

cluttering a public space.

            “Or I can respond with faith and charity, and see in this

person a human being with a dignity identical to my own, a creature

infinitely loved by the Father, an image of God, a brother or sister

redeemed by Jesus Christ. That is what it is to be a Christian! Can

holiness somehow be understood apart from this lively recognition of

the dignity of each human being?”

            Always asking for God’s grace, we need to learn how to put

ourselves in the place of the others, regardless of how they are,

since this is what Christ, our way, our truth and life, is showing us

in his life here on earth.

            He, in fact, identified himself more solicitously with the

poor and the sinner as can be gleaned from the many episodes in the

gospel. He precisely was turned off with those who were

self-righteous, those who exuded an obnoxious holier-than-thou

attitude.

            We need to understand then that our path toward our human

and Christian perfection is traced by the way we identify ourselves

with everyone else in the same manner that Christ identified himself

with each one of us.

            We all know that this is not easy to do, and that is why

we need to be asking for God’s grace always, because only in that

condition would we be able to approximate this ideal that is proper to

us.

            Let us remember that, as the document also reminds us, it

is always God who takes the initiative before we can correspond to his

will and ways. “The Church has repeatedly taught,” it says, “that we

are justified not by our own works or efforts, but by the grace of the

Lord, who always takes the initiative.” (52)

            We should therefore be always mindful of what God in the

Holy Spirit is trying to prompt us in a given situation. We should not

forget that God always intervenes in our life and he is also giving us

the means for us to correspond to this will in that particular

situation.

            The important thing to remember is that God wants us to

love everyone, including enemies and those whom we may consider for

one reason or another as unlovable. We have to train ourselves to

conform ourselves to this basic will of God for us.

            Here is what Christ said in this regard: “Love your

enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children

of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and

the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you

love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the

tax collectors doing that?...Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly

Father is perfect.” (Mt 5, 44-48)