Love as I have Loved
Have you ever played the blame game? "Yes, well sure I was the person to actually do it but it was because Johnny over there led me to believe it was the best course of action., Christ asked us and continually invites us to flip this upside-down. Not only are we called to avoid morally wrong acts, but primarily to act toward the greatest good possible. Love is the greatest possible good. Like any moral act, love has 3 aspects Knowledge (means), Good-Will (intent), and the Good (outcome). We shall first discuss how Christ loved then different expressions of love and discernment of how we can love. In the case of Christ, He is all-knowing and yet beckons us to share with Him the events of our life. It seems this is to make our encounter dialogical for us, rather than being an absentee Father who just shows up in our need. This is a lesson in knowledge in our hearts and according to our dignity, we are not only a book to be read but a person to be engaged in willful discussion. This is the only possible source of knowing a person according to their perspective. For them to be able to receive your love they must be able to recognize it. According to the relationship, the knowledge gained from without ought to be mentioned. This knowledge provides the one who wills to love with knowledge of how best to do so personally and prudently albeit imperfectly. Knowledge of the person through the eyes of God is the only way our will to love can find a means and be aware of the good in mind. This requires a relationship with Christ and the reception of His love to know what must be given.
Next, let us consider the will to love. If you are to love at all you must be willing to do so. For certain relationships in our lives, it would be difficult to think other than loving, but for some, it does not come quite as easy. In our minds lies the battle here even amid petty antagonism, are we willing to look past evil and see a person i.e. another Christ? Christ certainly revealed the extent to which he loves us in the assumption of our nature, the life of dedication to revealing the meaning of what was to take place and bring it to completion. St. Paul describes the will of Christ to love even unto death for each one of us, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8; John 15:13).[1] This is what we see when we look at a crucifix, but this is not the beginning. If we look at the event of the first sin, we notice from the moment the truth was revealed to man, God intended to save man and waited for the time to take His action. This was first of all the Incarnation, wherein the King of the Universe took on human flesh as all He created, beginning with conception. He endured all the monotony of status quo human growth, the slow learning/hardness of the heart of corrupt man, and then suffered man's murderous hatred and torturous for Him. It was in doing so that He showed the fullest extent of His love and the firm disposition to not give up on us despite any evil we committed.
Lastly, we consider the good itself. Clearly, the good God wants for us is life and light, which being lost to man in his sin, is only experienced now through the Holy Spirit and the grace His salvific act made available (John 10:10, John 1:4). The best good we can offer our neighbor is not anything we can over them, but rather invite them into. If we truly love another person, we necessarily desire them to both not be condemned to eternal suffering even by their own wish and attain the gift of heaven already now and finally after death. This macroscopic perspective should inform every interaction we have with others, according to prudence and openness. The desires of the human heart, the needs of fallen human nature, the hurts of the individual, what is holding the said person back from fully receiving God's love.
In conclusion, to receive God's love intentionally is to desire for others to do the same. Often the expression of this love is miscalculated by those who are consumed with the ambition to love with this love and try to take the task fully into their own hands. Rather, this love is best accomplished through the prayerful openness and patient understanding of loving God in the presence of others and demonstration of the best possible love offered to man. This love for God, if actually real, flows over into every action of our life. Having the same priorities as God himself, it is no more intense anywhere else in one's life than in our relationship. All of our relationships ought to be lesser expressions of our relationship with God, even the best of marriages. This same dynamic can be applied to the love we apply to ourselves. This kind of love is the only thing that can make the world a better place and it has been doing that ever since Christ did it first.
FN:
- "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." Augustine
Lyrics of "The Summons" written by: David Peacock, Graham Maule, John L. Bell
Supporting Scripture: Matthew 19:21; Genesis 48:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:12; John 17:23; John 14:20; Job 39:11; Isaiah 10:3; Psalm 146:7;
Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind
If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare?
Should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer?
In you and you in me?
Will you let the blinded see
If I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free?
And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean
In you and you in me?
Written by Carter Carruthers
