LOVE: REMEDY FOR HATRED & BIGOTRY
Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
My dear encountered couples:
Today Jesus tells us to love one another as He loved us. Wow! That is quite a mandate! Is Jesus telling us to “give our all” as He did? Jesus loved us so deeply that He was willing to die for us! What a tremendous gift He gave us. The question for us is: are we willing to “die” for one another?
Jesus asks us to “die” for one another. Jesus does not literally mean we are to “die.” Yet, when we give fully and freely of ourselves to the people in our lives, in a sense, we are dying to ourselves. We are putting others first, rather than ourselves. We freely give of our time, attention, care and love. Is there a better gift we can give to the people we love and cherish? What better gift can we give to our world?
Take a moment and ask yourself: who are the people who “die” for you? What are the gifts you receive from them: love, attention, care, a phone call, interest or help when you need it? Could there be any better gifts to receive? Yet, we often take these seemingly “small” gifts for granted.
I invite you to take a few moments and consciously remember the “gifts” you received today. Then remember the people who gifted you! Give thanks to God (and perhaps to them) for their presence in your life!
Today, if all of us who believe in and follow Jesus really demonstrate our love, our giftedness, our “dying” for one another, we can have a very powerful influence on the world around us. And the more the words of Jesus about love are known and lived, the greater the possibility of a true and just peace for our world.
Jesus also has appointed each of us to “go and bear fruit.” Today and every day, may we follow in Jesus’ footsteps!
