Jn. 13:31-33A, 34-35
“By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”
What is the uniqueness of Christianity? Is it our magnificent churches or international pilgrim centers or well established educational institutions or structured hierarchy or wealth? We all know the answer is none of the above mentioned factors, but when we introspect the way in which we live Christianity we may be held guilty for living as if one of the above factors is the uniqueness of Christianity.
Christianity is a way of love. The love that radiates from our lives should be our identifying mark. Most of us are interested in doing lots of activities in the name of the church but how is our relationship with our fellow brethren? Or do we really love? Paul in his song of love to the Corinthians emphasizes this fact: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
The watchword of every Christian should be his/her openness to love and forgetting one’s own personal gain and love the other for the sake of loving him/her. When St. Theresa of Child Jesus says that my vocation is to love, it summarizes the entire Christian way of living. It is a way of love rather a vocation to live in love.
When we analyze our social scenario – incidents in the recent past like mother killing her own child or step-father brutally attacking the children, young man setting fire and killing his lover, terrorists attacking the faithful – we realize that love is drying up in human hearts. As we meditate on this we may think we are not engaged in such acts and we are better off but there is a danger slowly creeping into our lives unnoticed- the danger of utilitarian mentality in our relationships. Use someone for one’s personal gain then, throw him/her away. It is a saddening fact that we are forgetting to love. I remember one phrase that I heard when we made our first commitment: ‘You will be judged by the love with which you lived this way of life.’ I think it is open to all. Love will decide our destiny. But, it would be good to know that the path to love is not easy. We need to accept other’s vulnerabilities and need to reconcile with one’s own vulnerability in order to love. Let the words of Khalil Gibran inspire us in our journey of love:
“To melt and be a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the Pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.”
May the risen Christ who gave a new definition to love, by dying for his loved ones, bless us to live in love like Him…