More than what we deserve

IF we truly love one another as Christ commanded us, that

is, in the way he himself has loved us, (cfr. Jn 13,34) then we have

to love everyone in such a way that we love and serve them more than

what we think they deserve. That is the attitude to have.

  

            This is how Christ himself loved each one of us. He gave

himself completely to us, offering his life on the cross. And do you

think we deserve that kind of love? Definitely not. In fact, we

deserve the opposite—extreme punishment. But, no. Christ  instead, out

of love for us, bore all our sins in order to reconcile us to God from

whom we came and to whom we belong.

  

            This is the kind of love that we should aim at having. We

have to stop calculating and just learn to give ourselves completely

to God and to others gratuitously, without counting the cost and

without expecting any return.

  

            And that’s because we first of all received the greatest

gift from God freely, and that is God himself in Christ through the

Holy Spirit. We have to give ourselves to God and to others as well.

We need to be a gift also to God and to the others. “Freely you have

received, freely you have to give,” Christ told the apostles. (Mt

10,8)

   

            We have to train ourselves in this direction, and teach

our heart and mind to give ourselves completely gratuitously, more

than what in our calculation others deserve. This, of course, is not

going to be an easy task. But we can always count on God’s grace. All

that is needed is the effort to do our part.

  

            Yes, we have to give due consideration to the requirements

of justice and prudence. But let us never forget that no matter how

smart we are, we can never fathom the full requirements of these

ideals with our human powers alone. Only God’s grace can do that for

us.

  

            And this grace will show us that at the end of the day, we

have to give ourselves gratuitously to God and others, regardless of

the consequences insofar as justice and prudence are concerned.

  

            Thus, we have to be ready to suffer, just like Christ had

to suffer to save us. Imagine, Christ who is already God. He had to

suffer and die just to save us. He could not solve in a human way the

problems created by our sin and malice. He just bore all our sins by

dying on the cross.

   

            We have to have the same attitude of Christ with respect

to loving. We have to love one another beyond what we think they

deserve. Yes, we will try to look for solutions and correspond to the

requirements of justice. And we will do this with the best of our

efforts. But we also know that all these efforts will never give us

perfect solutions to our problems and answers to our questions. We

just have to learn to suffer.

  

            Thus, Christ told us very clearly. “If you want to follow

me, deny yourself and carry the cross…” (Mt 16,24) Christ has shown us

the way. We just have to bear the burden with him, so that our

suffering and eventual death will lead us to the resurrection with

Christ also. As St. Paul assured us, “if we died withs  Christ, we

believe that we will also live with him.” (Rom 6,8)

  

            Everyday, let us do acts of love in our usual dealings

with others. We may appear to be taken advantage of, but let us not

mind it. Our concern should simply be to love by serving and giving

ourselves to others without counting the cost and without expecting

any return.