Love, that’s all there is!
At the start of a counseling session, a couple introduced themselves by saying: “Father, I’m Francis, and this is my wife Betty, my calvary.” The wife hastened to say: ‘’Yes Father, this is my husband Francis, my purgatory!”
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In today’s Gospel (Matthew 22:34-40), Jesus sums up all the commandments into two: Love of God, and love of neighbor as oneself. Love is the vision. Love is the mission. Love is the key, the answer to all our problems and questions. With love, we can overcome all our calvaries and purgatories.
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Fr. Jun Ocampo, SVD, our former Filipino missionary assigned in Germany, once wrote that the love Jesus speaks of is not the romantic kind of love that is fleeting and conditional, but a commitment—the steady, disciplined will to seek the good of another. He further notes that the verb “to love” is used 62 times, whereas the noun “love” is used only nine times in the Gospels. In other words, more than a feeling or an emotion, love is an action that expresses itself in deeds. More love. Less selfishness. That’s what the world needs now.
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Forget the big things, the great tomorrows when you intend to do your loving. The time and the place to love is in your present reality, in your here and now. Whatever you do, just remember what Mother Teresa once said: “It’s not what you do in life, but how much love you put into it that matters.”
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The two commandments—to love God to the max and to love one’s neighbor as oneself should not be seen from the legalistic point of view. Rather, the decision to love God and neighbor should be seen as a personal response to God’s love. Unless and until your loving goes beyond that of the Pharisees, then you are missing the point. It is not enough to fulfill these two greatest commandments. They must be fulfilled with a contrite, humble, and grateful heart. God does not want a cold, functional, and calculating heart. He wants a grateful heart, responding to His loving, generous heart.
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We all have our comfort zones which we want to keep, preserve, and maintain, and even prolong and broaden. When love comes knocking at our doors, our tendency is to often shut it off. And we are good at making alibis for doing this. Love has reasons which reason itself does not know. When will you go beyond your rationalizations and endless computations, and just simply start loving without limits and conditions? Stupid? Crazy? Well, one must be really a little stupid and crazy when it comes to love.
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Going through the deserts of Egypt on our way to the Holy Land some years ago, this question cropped up in my mind: Why did God make deserts? What’s the use of those vast tracts of arid land? In the same way, we must have often asked God why He lets us pass through harsh deserts in this life. I really have no answers except that, perhaps, in the desert, one becomes more trusting and more in tune with God. Deprived of comfort zones, one can’t help but reach out, and hold on to the One who disturbs and challenges comfort zones. As we journey on, may our love for the Lord and His people become more personal, and more real.
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Sharing with you this inspiring poem I read some years ago:
“Let Me Give”
I do not know how long I’ll live. / But while I live, Lord, / let me give some comfort to someone in need, / by smile or nod—kind words or deed. / And let me do whate’er I can / To ease things for my fellow man. / I want naught but to do my part, / to ‘’lift” a tired or weary heart, / to change folks’ frowns to smiles again, / and then I will not have lived in vain. / And I’ll not care how long I’ll live / if I can give—and give—and give.
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There are so much fear and anxiety on what’s happening to our country and the world these days. Let’s continue to hold on to the Lord. Sharing with you this poem I came across:
“What will happen tomorrow”
Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow! / The same Everlasting Father who cares for you today / will take care of you tomorrow. / Either He will shield you from suffering, / or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. / Be at peace then and put aside / all anxious thought and imaginations.
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A moment with the Lord:
Lord, help us to love, and just keep on loving till the end. Amen.
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