Measuring the greatness of our love

IF we truly are in love, we would like to know how much

love we are giving and whether the love we have is true love or is

just an appearance of it. We know very well that we are fond of saying

we love God and others, and yet on closer scrutiny, it’s really not

love that we are giving.

            We already are told that true love is a love without

measure. It means that we just have to give ourselves without ever

saying enough. True love goes all the way to the extent of giving our

very own life to the beloved. As Christ himself said: “Greater love

has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.”

(Jn15,13)

            That is the subjective side of love which is already very

commendable. But we have to realize that even if we give ourselves

completely to our beloved, we may still end up not truly loving. We

need to realize that love has its objective nature. And that nature is

what Christ told us about it.

            He told us that the main object of our love should be God

himself. And because of him, we ought to love everybody else, since it

is in the very nature of God to love all his creation, to man

especially.

  

            The objective nature of love is for us to love God by

following his commandments. Christ himself said as much: “If you love

Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14,15) St. John the apostle

and evangelist, in his second letter, put it more bluntly when he

said: “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.”

(1,6)

            So, if we comply with both the subjective and objective

nature of love, then we can say that we are truly loving. Now the next

question is to find out how great that love is in us.

            For this, all we have to do is to see how Christ loves

both the Father and us, since he is the pattern of our humanity, the

savior of our damaged humanity. In fact, he summarized all the

commandments of God by telling us the new commandment, which is to

love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34)

            And how did Christ love us and how does he continue to

love us? We all know that being God, he became man just to identify

himself with all of us, and went all the way to empty himself by dying

on the cross. He did all that because it was and continues to be the

will of the Father. All the pain and suffering involved has been

overcome out of love.

            This is the ultimate of love that we have to aim at. This

we can only do if we truly identify ourselves with Christ. There’s no

way we can have that kind of love unless we are vitally identified

with Christ. It’s a love that is full of compassion and mercy, and is

fully given even if not reciprocated.

            More than that, the love Christ is showing us and is

commanding us to have is one where Christ himself continues to be with

us in the Holy Spirit through the Church, through the sacraments, etc.

That is the greatness of love meant for us!