Today, Christ is inviting us to be part of his new empire
where all things are made new by the power of love. It is a new civilization
where old things, old life and thinking are no longer fashionable. In the first
reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see the disciples committed in
building this kingdom. The second reading from the book of Revelation depicts a
blueprint of this empire—a state of lasting love, joy and peace. In the gospel,
Jesus reveals the identity of the inhabitants of this kingdom and the visa for entrance.
He said to his disciples in the gospel, “I give you a new commandment, that you
love one another.”
What is new about love since it is already in existence
before Christ?. In Leviticus 19:18, it is written, “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself”. More so, the Greco-Roman civilization of Jesus’ time is filled
up with different notions of love en vogue at the time. However, Christ’s
commandment of love is new because it is sacrificial. Christ raised love from
the level of parasitism and symbiosis to the level of self sacrifice —“No one
has greater love than this, to lay down his life for one’s friends” (Jn.
15:13).
Every country, organization and occupation has a badge or emblem for
identification. Christian identity is not in badges or in uniforms. We cannot
be identified as Christians by just saying we are Christians. Love is the only evidential
identity that makes us belong to Christ: “By this everyone will know that you
are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35).
One day an American journalist, watching Mother Teresa as she
cared for a dying, dirty man in a street of Calcutta, commented: “I wouldn’t do
that for a million dollars.” Mother Teresa sharply responded: “Neither would I.
I am doing it for the love of Christ.” This is Christ’s civilization of love—a
love that expects nothing in return from the beloved but hurts the lover. But
as Mother Teresa once said, if we love until it hurts, there can be no more
hurt.
My dear friends, in our society today where love is almost
synonymous with selfishness and lust, Christ is calling us to have a rethink on
the meaning of love. St. Paul summarizes the meaning of love in few words: “Love
is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or
rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it
does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends”
(1Cor. 13:4.8).These days, we hear a lot of people talking about their “ex-”.
Why do we have many “ex-boy friends’, “ex-friends”, “ex-wives” and “ex-husbands”?
It is because a lot of people have wrong understanding of love. Many
relationships are parasitic; money and sex are the driving force. Everyone is looking for what to gain from
his/her partner and not what to sacrifice. Consequently, there are so many
broken homes, broken hearts and broken destinies. If money and sex are what
keeps your relationship now, you are a potential “ex-” and a candidate of
brokenness. Without sacrifice there can be no love, and without love the world
is equal to hell!
Love can be compared to flowing river which enriches
everything it comes across and makes them ever new. This river can be polluted
and even dried up by hatred, envy, prejudice, selfishness, inordinate desire,
indifference to the sufferings of others, etc. When this water is polluted and
dried, everything around it suffers. The worst of these is being indifferent at
the sufferings of others. Mother Teresa once remarked that the greatest disease
in the world is not tuberculosis, leprosy or even AIDS.; it is being unwanted,
uncared for and unloved. ASK YOURSELF TODAY, “WHAT HAVE I DONE FOR LOVE?” May
Christ help us to love one another as he has loved us so that the world will be
a better place to live and a foretaste of the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation
21:1-5. Amen.
