In the Gospel Jesus offers us profound advice, which if heeded would make this a better world. His advice? “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” And how has he loved us? Just look at any crucifix. That is how much he has loved us, urging us to do the same. Yet Jesus isn’t imposing an impossible mission on us.
For love to happen, God gives us free will. He did not make us puppets pre-programed on how to live. He gave us the freedom to choose love. Jesus chose to lay down his life for us. This was not an easy choice for him to make, but love motivated Jesus to make the choices he did. He kept his Father’s commandments and remained in his love.
We continually have the power to choose. We choose what to wear, what to eat, how to spend our day, such as praying at Mass. We choose whom to spend time with. Many see friendship as the highest form of love. We choose to remain in love or for whatever reason, we choose not to love and end a marriage or a relationship. We choose how we will respond to every living thing that crosses our path. We have the free will to love one another or not.
Jesus also advised, “Remain in my love.” We remain in His love if we keep His commandments. But unlike Moses who gave us the Ten Commandments, Jesus doesn’t provide a litany of commandments. Instead he gives us one: Love one another. Are we choosing to heed this commandment or not? To be a follower of Christ, that really matters. Love is more than a matter of affection. Love is also doing and giving. We are being urged to demonstrate our love in countless ways. Pay your love forward, befriending others in the way Jesus has loved you. When we act in love, we make God present to others.
In his letter, John pleads, “Brethren, let us love one another because love is of God.” If we truly love each other with the sacrificial love of the Lord, everything else falls into place. Consider how some have made their choices.
A young boy was sitting at his desk when he became aware that he had wet his pants. The poor guy was embarrassed; he wanted to die. This had never happened to him. He knew that he would never hear the end of their tease when the guys find out. “Please, God,” he prayed. “I’m in big trouble. I need help now.”
Looking up, he sees a classmate named Susie carrying a gold fish bowl filled with water. As she passed his desk, she dropped the bowl right into his lap. Instead of becoming the object of ridicule, he became the recipient of sympathy. The teacher rushed him to the gym to get him a pair of shorts to wear while his pants dried out.
Poor Susie became the center of scorn. “You klutz!” her classmates said, “What a dumb thing to do!” For the rest of the day, she was shunned. After school, he sees her standing alone waiting for the bus and goes up to her and whispers, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Susie whispered back, “I wet my pants once too.”
The gospel is about love, our love for one another and our love for God. It is one thing to talk about love, its quite another to put love into action. In her own way, Susie models the great love and compassion of God.
This being mother’s day, I am mindful of how so many mothers do just as Susie did, literally or figuratively, laying down their lives for others. One such mother was Princess Alice, whose mother was Queen Victoria. She had a young son who was ill with a dreaded contagious disease known as “black diphtheria.” It was the Covid-19 of that era. Alice loved her son very much but was advised not to even enter the child’s bedroom. At one point, without counting the cost, she went to his bedside and kissed him lovingly. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Alas, this turned out to be the “kiss of death.” Both mother and son were buried four months later.
Some might say she was foolish, but love is not always logical. To love as deeply as the cross, who said that would be sensible?
And so it goes. A mother responds to her child’s cry. A nurse gently bathes a patient’s bedsores. A youth listens to a friend coping with depression. A retired person helps out at a local thrift store. A mechanic fixes a traveler’s car after hours. Volunteers prepare and deliver meals to the homebound.
Ordinary things happen every day prompted by our choice to love. You could say these good people laid down their lives. They loved as Jesus did giving of their time and talent to make this a better world for someone. Real love is costly yet done freely. We have the choice to love as Jesus loved.
Unfortunately, we can also choose not to love. Many who claim to be followers of Christ live with disregard for others, spewing out hatred instead of love. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds and unites; hate tears down and destroys.” Jesus chose us “to go and bear fruit that will remain.” May the choices we make with loving words and deeds enable others to see that God is very much present in our midst.