Acts 14:21-27; Ps 144; Rev 21:1-5; Jn 13:31-35
The teaching of Jesus concerning love for fellow human beings takes different forms.
In one occasion, the Lord says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39). Ordinarily, Jewish people would consider “neighbor” only their fellow Jews. But Jesus widens the concept of neighbor so as to include any individual who is in need of help. This is what we understand in the Parable of the Good Samaritan: Every person in need, whether he lives next door or a town away, whether she is Black or White, is a neighbor.
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Jesus asks his disciples to use as measure in loving people the love they have for themselves. They are to treat another person as their own flesh and bone. This is not easy to do. As a matter of fact, we normally have different standards for ourselves and for others. The natural tendency is to give ourselves first priority or utmost care and to provide others with lesser or no attention. By asking us to love a neighbor as our own self, the Lord simply is helping us overcome narcissistic tendencies. We all belong to the one Body of Christ and we need to behave like we really are part of one another.
In today’s gospel, Jesus presents a more demanding version of the commandment of love. He says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 13:34-35). The Lord instructs his followers to use as their standard for loving not only their love for themselves but his love for them. He knows that our way of loving can easily be tainted with selfish motivations. Hence, he challenges us to love one another according to the way he has loved us.
But what does it mean to love as Jesus loves?
It is significant that every time the Bible speaks about the love of Jesus, it uses the Greek word agape. His love is agapaic, meaning self-sacrificing, unselfish and unselective. Interestingly, every time Jesus says something about love, he also uses agape. For instance, when Jesus invites his disciples to love one another, he is asking them to love in an agapaic way, that is, in a life-giving, disinterested manner.
The love of Jesus is not conditional love, which only is given to those who meet certain conditions laid down by the lover. It does not say: “I will love you if you can make it to the dean’s list” or “I will love you if you can afford to buy me a big house.” The love of Jesus also is not merited love, which only is bestowed upon those who possess adorable qualities. It never says: “I love you because you are considerate” or “I love you because you are faithful.”
Rather, Jesus’ love is one that initiates and offers freely. Jesus called his disciples prior to any good showing or merit on their part. He loved them in spite of their lack of understanding and lack of faith. He continued to love them even after they have abandoned, denied, or betrayed him. Jesus loved them not because they were lovable but because he possessed within himself the love of the Father who loves the unlovable and takes the first move in loving us. And so he says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you” (Jn. 15:9). Jesus, like his Father, loves every person without any exception.
We are called by Jesus to do the same thing: To love individuals not because they are lovable but in spite of the fact that they may not be lovable. We are to love even the enemy, the sinner, or the despised. The true disciple of Jesus loves with a “love in spite of”, not with “a love if” or “a love because.”
The love commanded by Jesus in various ways for disciples to practice seems very difficult. If we are to depend only on our own strength, we would not be able to love the way Jesus loves. Somebody explains that the newness of Jesus’ commandment of love consists not only in the sublimity of love’s demands, but in the grace that accompanies the command. If we sincerely intend to love, God will provide the grace that will transform our hearts and make them like the heart of his Son.
TECH SUPPORT: “Yes, how can I help you?”
CUSTOMER: “Well, after much consideration, I’ve decided to install Love. Can you guide me though the process?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?”
CUSTOMER: “Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I’m ready. What do I do first?”
TECH SUPPORT: “The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?”
CUSTOMER: “Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?”
TECH SUPPORT: “What programs are running?”
CUSTOMER: “Let’s see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.”
TECH SUPPORT: “No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you haven’t completely turned off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?”
CUSTOMER: “I don’t know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?”
TECH SUPPORT: “With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.”
CUSTOMER: “Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.”
CUSTOMER: “Oops! I have an error message already. It says, ‘Error – Program not run on external components.’ What should I do?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Don’t worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.”
CUSTOMER: “So, what should I do?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.”Customer: “Okay, done.”
TECH SUPPORT: “Now, copy them to the ‘My Heart’ directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.”
CUSTOMER: “Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.”
CUSTOMER: “Thank you, God.”
(The anecdote is from an unknown author)
The teaching of Jesus concerning love for fellow human beings takes different forms.
In one occasion, the Lord says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39). Ordinarily, Jewish people would consider “neighbor” only their fellow Jews. But Jesus widens the concept of neighbor so as to include any individual who is in need of help. This is what we understand in the Parable of the Good Samaritan: Every person in need, whether he lives next door or a town away, whether she is Black or White, is a neighbor.
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Jesus asks his disciples to use as measure in loving people the love they have for themselves. They are to treat another person as their own flesh and bone. This is not easy to do. As a matter of fact, we normally have different standards for ourselves and for others. The natural tendency is to give ourselves first priority or utmost care and to provide others with lesser or no attention. By asking us to love a neighbor as our own self, the Lord simply is helping us overcome narcissistic tendencies. We all belong to the one Body of Christ and we need to behave like we really are part of one another.
In today’s gospel, Jesus presents a more demanding version of the commandment of love. He says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 13:34-35). The Lord instructs his followers to use as their standard for loving not only their love for themselves but his love for them. He knows that our way of loving can easily be tainted with selfish motivations. Hence, he challenges us to love one another according to the way he has loved us.
But what does it mean to love as Jesus loves?
It is significant that every time the Bible speaks about the love of Jesus, it uses the Greek word agape. His love is agapaic, meaning self-sacrificing, unselfish and unselective. Interestingly, every time Jesus says something about love, he also uses agape. For instance, when Jesus invites his disciples to love one another, he is asking them to love in an agapaic way, that is, in a life-giving, disinterested manner.
The love of Jesus is not conditional love, which only is given to those who meet certain conditions laid down by the lover. It does not say: “I will love you if you can make it to the dean’s list” or “I will love you if you can afford to buy me a big house.” The love of Jesus also is not merited love, which only is bestowed upon those who possess adorable qualities. It never says: “I love you because you are considerate” or “I love you because you are faithful.”
Rather, Jesus’ love is one that initiates and offers freely. Jesus called his disciples prior to any good showing or merit on their part. He loved them in spite of their lack of understanding and lack of faith. He continued to love them even after they have abandoned, denied, or betrayed him. Jesus loved them not because they were lovable but because he possessed within himself the love of the Father who loves the unlovable and takes the first move in loving us. And so he says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you” (Jn. 15:9). Jesus, like his Father, loves every person without any exception.
We are called by Jesus to do the same thing: To love individuals not because they are lovable but in spite of the fact that they may not be lovable. We are to love even the enemy, the sinner, or the despised. The true disciple of Jesus loves with a “love in spite of”, not with “a love if” or “a love because.”
The love commanded by Jesus in various ways for disciples to practice seems very difficult. If we are to depend only on our own strength, we would not be able to love the way Jesus loves. Somebody explains that the newness of Jesus’ commandment of love consists not only in the sublimity of love’s demands, but in the grace that accompanies the command. If we sincerely intend to love, God will provide the grace that will transform our hearts and make them like the heart of his Son.
TECH SUPPORT: “Yes, how can I help you?”
CUSTOMER: “Well, after much consideration, I’ve decided to install Love. Can you guide me though the process?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?”
CUSTOMER: “Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I’m ready. What do I do first?”
TECH SUPPORT: “The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?”
CUSTOMER: “Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?”
TECH SUPPORT: “What programs are running?”
CUSTOMER: “Let’s see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.”
TECH SUPPORT: “No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you haven’t completely turned off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?”
CUSTOMER: “I don’t know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?”
TECH SUPPORT: “With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.”
CUSTOMER: “Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.”
CUSTOMER: “Oops! I have an error message already. It says, ‘Error – Program not run on external components.’ What should I do?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Don’t worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.”
CUSTOMER: “So, what should I do?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.”Customer: “Okay, done.”
TECH SUPPORT: “Now, copy them to the ‘My Heart’ directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.”
CUSTOMER: “Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?”
TECH SUPPORT: “Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.”
CUSTOMER: “Thank you, God.”
(The anecdote is from an unknown author)
1 comment:
Pads, lamat kaayo sa ani nga pamalandong. Nakatabang kaayo sa wali.
Padayon!
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